APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday November 11, 2019
 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Top News Summary:
Accusations, labels, and lashing out at politicians and by politicians, at memorials for Yitzhak Rabin, in the street, in the court and in the Knesset, were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers.

*It started at a memorial for Rabin at Mt. Herzl, where Rabin's grandson called on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to resign, by saying politicians should “take responsibility…If you are stained, move aside, leave office.” Netanyahu blasted the “shameful political lashing-out.” Netanyahu said he did not condone calling Rabin a traitor and no one said anything when he was called one. At the ceremony, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned about the hatred and incitement in Israeli society. “We mustn’t forget the slippery slope from incitement and hate to bloodshed," Rivlin said, imploring all political camps not to "fuel hate. It is not the way of the Israeli nation,” he said. In Ashkelon, right-wingers verbally attacked Kahol-Lavan MK Gabi Ashkenazi, a former chief of staff, shouting "Leftist, get out of here. You go with the Arabs. (We want) only Bibi." (Yedioth Hebrew) At a Rabin memorial session at the Knesset, Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz, who has nine days left to form a government, said: "Let's not tell ourselves stories. If today at noon Gabi Ashkenazi walks in Ashkelon and people shout at him harsh derogatory words, it is coming from and led from somewhere, and we must all fight against this phenomenon uncompromisingly. I urge you to understand that this is happening right before our eyes." Gantz warned that paralysis of the government exposed more danger: "The paralysis that we're currently in is fertile ground for deepening divisions and controversies. The looming danger for Israeli society is the greatest since the days before the murder.”

In a courtroom, Netanyahu's former media adviser who became a state witness, Nir Hefetz, insisted his “testimony is pure truth” and that he stands by it - this despite the pressure from Likud officials to get him to retract his testimony. But Hefetz left the courtroom angrily after the judge decided that the hearing would be held with open doors. “You are letting my blood be spilled,” he said. After he returned, he apologized and said: “I’m paying an inconceivable price for the truth." (Also Yedioth Hebrew)

Elections 2019 Quickees:
In election news, Netanyahu accused Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman of coordinating with Kahol-Lavan and with the Joint List against the Likud. According to Netanyahu, Lieberman’s ultimatum that the Likud needs to break up its bloc by abandoning the ultra-Orthodox (Shas, United Torah Judaism and Yamina), was actually meant to allow Lieberman and Kahol-Lavan form a minority government with the backing of the Joint List. (Also Maariv) But the Joint List said it was not interested in toppling Netanyahu if it meant a government with Lieberman, whom it calls a racist. Yedioth and Haaretz+ suggested possible scenarios, the most likely of which was third round of elections.

 

Quick Hits:

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Commentary/Analysis:
**The hate speech in the center (Ben Caspit, Maariv) These are terrible days, like the name of the film currently being screened around the country and dealing with the murder of Yitzhak Rabin from the perspective of the murderer (who, incidentally, is Yigal Amir). Terrible, but the upside down: Then an incited, brainwashed and fanatic Israeli assassinated a Prime Minister. Today, the prime minister is leading an assassination in the institutions of the state he heads. With pitchforks and torches, they trample on the last signs of the rule of law, followed by the masses who are incited and filled with hatred. These are days of governmental chaos, where the honest (or crooked) man in his own eyes does as he wishes, of a fading immune system and a body attacking itself. Days when the Minister of Justice invests all his talent in destroying the justice system (fortunately, talent is not his strong side). Days when the prime minister's son claims that a senior member of his party is a dangerous rapist, that the police are a combination of Gestapo and Stazi and that before his father came to power "all that was here were oranges." Days when experienced, intelligent, and sobering elected officials are shaking in their corners, fearing a donor will emerge and publicly support the delusions of that holy trinity that is dragging Israel downward. When called to the flag, they submissively stand up, answer obediently and read in a choked voice the pages of slogans that until a few months ago no one would have believed could be written in this country. Gideon Meir, former Foreign Ministry director-general, esteemed diplomat and honest man, Tweeted (last) week that "in Italy the government is trying to fight the mafia. In Israel, the government and its head are the mafia's emissaries." Meir was educated on the knees of religious Zionism. His grandfather came to Jerusalem in 1908 and founded the legendary bookstore ‘Ludwig Meyer.’ What is more relevant to us is the fact that Meyer was an esteemed ambassador to Italy. He understands the mafia and crime families. And he also worked closely with Netanyahu. But even those who were not ambassadors in Cosa Nostra can understand the situation we are in. Fifteen minutes of exposure to these good guys' texts is enough. The body language, the disgusting Tweets, the scorn, the rebuke, the slander, the systematic crushing of the system, the rewriting of history and the creation of the new truth, are enough to understand this principle. It is enough to listen again, and again, to the speech "their children and our children" by the mutation called "Erez Tadmor," spokesman for the Likud campaign and a close associate of Netanyahu, to realize that the real threat to the Zionist vision established here 71 years ago is what grew here, within us. We're in a bad gangster movie. It's not even the “Godfather.” There, at least, they had style and they played by rules of the game. What we saw on Wednesday was a well-coordinated and well-planned move. The person holding the title of "Minister of Justice" was not swept away by the passion or debate of his language. The failure is deeper and more fundamental. The man read his words from a paper. Someone had dictated them to him beforehand. We have already become accustomed to the attacks of the ‘minister’ on the judicial system he is in charge of. It's not new anymore. Wednesday’s escalation was the jaw-dropping fact that the ‘Justice Minister’ gave details that were under a gag order a court in Israel. He violated an explicit publicizing ban and did so from the diving board, that is, from the speaker’s podium of the Israeli legislative house. But let's take a look at the full half cup (poisoned): The man said, shortly after being put into office, that "not every court judgment should be upheld." So here we have a politician keeping promises. In perfect timing, while these hate remarks echoed in the Knesset plenum, the heir to throne, Yair Netanyahu, tweeted his own pair of terrorizing tweets, which also included a link to the Justice Minister's fresh words, adding personal details about the identity of the same woman close to the state witness, who was summoned for questioning. Shortly thereafter, the Tweeter deleted his Tweets (but there were those who photographed them in time). In Stazi and the Gestapo, that is, the Israeli police, [reference to what Yair Netanyahu called the police - OH] a decision has not yet been made whether to detain him for questioning. The last act came shortly afterwards, when the great Don, the Capo di Tutti, issued a flimsy notice against the breach of the gag order by his (supporter, Justice Minister Ohana). "Court orders must be respected," the Israeli Prime Minister muttered. Cut. You can move on. The horse's bleeding severed head was placed on the bed of the threatened state witness…
Instead of Quelling Violence in East Jerusalem, Israel Police Just Inflamed It (Nir Hasson, Haaretz+) Small changes in the use of force, being attentive to Isawiyah's leadership, involving the municipality and a bit of common sense could have brought a quick reduction in violence.
Israeli Provocations in East Jerusalem's Isawiyah (Haaretz Editorial) Half a year has passed since the police intensified their presence in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyah, aimed at improving security and strengthening Israeli sovereignty there. Today it can be firmly established that the operation has failed. After one death, dozens wounded, thousands of fines, hundreds of detentions and thousands of sponge-tipped bullets and tear gas and stun grenades, it seems that violence in Isawiyah is only increasing and sovereignty has turned into nothing more than a show of force. Every evening large, armed patrol units go into the neighborhood, disrupting the children’s studies and the residents’ routines as a form of collective punishment...
Israel's Fast Lanes to Apartheid (Dmitry Shumsky, Haaretz+) Haaretz’s Naama Riba heaped praise on Bezalel Smotrich, the caretaker government’s transportation minister, for his efforts to find a solution for this country’s heavy traffic congestion. Admitting that as a leftist writing in Haaretz she never thought a settler like Smotrich would get her excited, she enthusiastically backed his initiatives for promoting public transportation, which in her eyes, justifiably, are the only solution for this crisis. But remember that Smotrich’s vision isn't one of improved transportation, but a horrific political one. The gist of this vision is the subjugation of the Palestinian nation and the annexation of the West Bank while flooding it with hundreds of thousands more settlers (a “settlement” resolution, as he calls it).
Unity is required in the face of our enemies, but especially between us (Brig. Gen. (res.) Shimon Hefetz, Maariv) The memory of Rabin orders us to root out of our lives any violent bigotry that is transmitted to people’s minds. Unity is needed not only for the outside but also towards the inside.
Israel Is Forcing the Palestinians to Love Iran (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) To paraphrase the self-righteous comment by Golda Meir, one could say that the “Palestinians will never forgive Israel for forcing them to love Iran.” After all, Iran is controlled by a benighted dictatorship that oppresses its people and cuts them off from the world, and under anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans is trying to seize control of the entire region, for which it’s prepared to support other bloody regimes. Nevertheless, the Palestinians are on the Iranian side, because faced with the Arab and international failure to stop Israel’s brutal treatment of them, only Iran is perceived as posing a challenge to Jerusalem. And then Israel is surprised that the Palestinians so hate the Jewish state and hasten to describe this with the worn-out mantra of “anti-Semitism.”..
A hate group gets a college hall pass (Jonathan S. Tobin, Israel Hayom) A new report documents the anti-Semitic fervor of Students for Justice in Palestine. Still, both college administrations and student groups fail to brand it as hate group.
Bennett's multifacted defense challenges (Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth/Ynet) Although Naftali Bennet has a military background and know-how, he's set to face threats so large and terrible during his time as defense minister that he will have no opportunity to leave his mark on Israeli history as he wishes.
Iraq Protests' Sectarian Character Could Be Their Saving Grace (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) In 2012–2013, the stormy protests against the government were mainly by Sunnis, a minority that constitutes about a third of Iraq’s population. But this bout is different.

Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
It is Gantz's hour to decide whether to conquer the target or disappear from the map (Ben Caspit, Maariv) If the Kahol-Lavan chairman wants to be prime minister, he has to announce yesterday that he is accepting the president's proposal for a unity government. And also: This is how the promising duet, Bennett-Shaked, the mistake that could cost them their political careers. Today it is already possible to establish to a reasonable degree of certainty that this promising and talented duo has worked their way very resolutely into the dustbin of politics. Bennett's creep into the dubious status of defense minister for fifteen minutes in a transition government lacking any legitimacy turned him what he promised he would not be. When he entered politics, Bennett dreamed of present a clean, stately, ideological and pure alternative to Netanyahu. What turns out now is that he has become the ridiculous replica of that same Netanyahu, only without Sarah.
Poker-faced Lieberman Reshuffles the Political Deck, if Only for the Thrills (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The wily kingmaker’s ultimatums stymie Gantz and Netanyahu – but could also inflame Jewish-Arab tensions.
Israeli citizens experience separation and separation instead of sharing and uniting (Anat Nehemiah Lavie, Maariv) The citizens of the state look up to their leaders and do not see a model focused on the common good. The next generation that will lead us is absorbing now completely different values.
 

Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.