News Nosh 02.14.14

APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday February 14, 2014

Quote of the day:
"For peace I'm ready to wear even a streimel."
--Justice Minister Tzipi Livni calls on Prime Minister to replace Habayit Hayehudi party with the ultra-Orthodox.**


Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • The IDF brain drain - Within two years the number of technological officers who left the army doubled because of the salaries and conditions in the civilian hi-tech world
  • The Iranian deal -  French bank, among biggest in world, fined a billion dollars for commerce with Iran
  • Kerry is a brother - Special to Yedioth - Cameron Kerry, the Jewish brother of the US Secretary of State, writes about his family's commitment to Israel's security
  • European hypocrisy - After the horror show of the killing of giraffes: Denmark prohibits kosher slaughtering "because it's brutal"
Maariv
Israel Hayom
  • 72% of public: The people need to choose the President of the country
  • Show of power in E-1 - Some 10,000 demonstrators, including ministers, deputy ministers, MKs, rabbis and right-wing activists marched yesterday to the E-1 area between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem in protest against the construction freeze in the area and in order to tell Netanyahu not to accept the Kerry document. The first speaker, Minister of Housing Uri Ariel, emphasized: "Between the Jordan and the sea there will be one state - and that is the State of Israel"
  • The heat before the rain - February has been like spring, but this weekend the rain will return - big time
  • The crisis at Hadassah: Fear the nurses will leave
  • The damage: 100,000 shekels a minute - Nationwide malfunction caused visa cards not to work
  • Denmark prohibits kosher slaughtering: "Rights of animals ahead of religion"
  • Blow to real estate developer Inbal Or: Lost the land in Bavli neighborhood of Tel-Aviv
  • Former national soccer team coach, Richard Nielsen, passed away

Peace Talk Highlights:
The collapsing of Hadassah Hospitals continued to be a top story in today's Hebrew papers, but the papers also reported on the anti-peace declarations by right-wing ministers at a demonstration against settlement construction freezes and against a framework agreement, which drew thousands of young right-wing Israelis yesterday. Maariv reported that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni asked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to replace the right-wing pro-settler Habayit Hayehudi party with the Labor and ultra-Orthodox parties. Maan reported that a senior Fatah official said it's obvious the Israelis simply don't want peace.
 
In a show of force, Israeli ministers, deputy ministers and MKS from the right, both Likud and Habayit Hayehudi parties, led a ten-thousand person march from Jerusalem to the controversial E-1 area in the West Bank to tell Netanyahu he should not divide the land or Jerusalem and he should not worry about boycotts. They called on Netanyahu to renew settlement construction in that area. Housing Miniser Uri Ariel said that "Between the Jordan River and the (Mediterranean) sea there will be only one state."
 
Ahead of the mass demo, dozens of Palestinian popular resistance activists also held a demonstration in E-1 to protest potential Israeli settlement construction there. Unlike the protest of right-wing Jews that took place a few hours later, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian taking him to an unknown destination.
 
**Maariv/NRG Hebrew reported that during the dispute between Netanyahu and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett two weeks ago, Livni suggested to Netanyahu to bring the Labor or the ultra-Orthodox parties into the coalition instead of the anti-peace agreement Habayit Hayehudi party.
 
Member of Fatah Central Committee Tawfiq Tirawi told a Ma'an reporter in Ramallah Thursday that "negotiations can reveal to the world that the Palestinians are seeking peace, but that the occupation (regime) doesn't want it." The Israelis can reach a peace agreement, Tirawi said, "but they do not want to because according to their religious beliefs, this land belongs to them, which is neither real nor true." 


Quick Hits:
  • Israeli soldiers shoot and kill Gazan, wound another, Palestinians say - Witnesses say the men were collecting gravel close to the border fence separating the coastal enclave from Israel. (Haaretz and Maan)
  • Palestinian man detained, woman beaten as Israeli forces raid Ramallah village - Israeli forces on Thursday raided the village of Deir Nidham, during which they detained Obeid Naseruddin al-Tamimi, 22, and beat  Muna Mahmoud al-Tamimi, 45. (Maan)
  • IDF presents: cameras against stone throwers - Settlers installed cameras in their cars from which they record stone-throwing in the West Bank. They succeeded in capturing the cell from Qalqilya. (Maariv Thursday/NRG Hebrew
  • Israel admits Gaza patients after dispute over 'Palestine' logo - Palestinians say Israel relented and allowed 'State of Palestine' on letterhead; Israel says letterhead had been changed to 'Palestinian Authority.' (Haaretz)
  • Why did police close settler vandalism case? Hebron-area family suing police for failure to act effectively on evidence of tree vandalism. (Haaretz+) 
  • Israel court orders demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem - Omar al-Maslamani said the court rejected his family's appeal and told him and his father they must demolish the structures in 60 days or the municipality will do the job and the family will have to pay the costs. (Maan)
  • Sit-in at EU Jerusalem office to protest home demolitions - Activists organized sit-in on Thursday in front of European Union's office in Sheikh Jarrah in E. Jerusalem in protest of Israeli policy of house demolitions. (Maan
  • Who inspects the senior West Bank building inspector? - Veteran inspector expanded his house in the settlement of Ofra without a permit; and while most of the other nearby houses have been served with demolition orders, his hasn’t. (Haaretz+)
  • Did Civil Administration officials deceive Defense Minister Yaalon? It is difficult to determine whether the demolition of the Kaisler home (in a West Bank outpost) is a 'price tag' by the Civil Administration against the right-wing political activist that annoyed the Administration or a prelude to the demolition of more (settler outpost) homes. (NRG Hebrew)
  • European parliament chief slams Israeli critics in Knesset as 'extremists' - Martin Schulz: My speech was pro-Israel; John Kerry was similarly attacked. (Haaretz+ and Ynet)
  • Fired Druze teacher’s suit reveals seemingly discriminatory practice - Rawda Shakour was dismissed despite court rulings that protect all teachers from dismissal before the end of the school year. (Haaretz+) 
  • Palestinian prisoner group: Israel launches campaign against Fatah in jails - The Israeli prison administration and Shin Bet had launched a campaign against Fatah leaders in Rimon prison, whom they accuse of coordinating with President Mahmoud Abbas and acting upon his advice. (Maan
  • New rail freight link could become 'Israel’s Suez Canal’ - Project on tap to connect Eilat on Red Sea with Ashdod on Mediterranean. Whether or not it competes with Egypt, it’s likely to boost ties with China. (Haaretz+) 
  • Drastic decrease in the number of infiltrators in Samaria - IDF figures reveal: 100% drop in the number of infiltration attempts in the Trans-Samaria area, the same area where the murderer of the late soldier Tomer Chazan entered. (Maariv/NRG Hebrew)
  • Palestinians renew call for UN World Heritage status for West Bank village - Battir, on whose land the separation barrier is being built, hopes to attain the coveted UNESCO designation; the move suggests dwindling hopes for a peace deal by late April. (Haaretz+)
  • Palestinian Authority to remove religion from ID cards - President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree to remove religious affiliation from identity cards beginning on Feb. 11, 2014 to ensure the equality of all Palestinians, regardless of their religion. (Maan
  • IDF to bar use of cellphones during training courses - "Soldiers enlisting today are connected to their phones 24 hours a day. A soldier cannot be on their phone at a firing range, while on guard duty or during a lesson. People did not know what was and was not allowed," IDF official says. (Israel Hayom)
  • Israel Police find gun gifted by Saddam Hussein - Confiscated pistol engraved with the words 'a gift from the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, for defending his homeland.' (Haaretz
  • Hamas rejects UN human right books in schools - Half a year after adding 'Israeli resistance' to Gaza's public school curriculum, Hamas rejects UN text books as 'ideologically and philosophically' unfit for Gazans, claiming books focus too heavily on 'peaceful' conflict resolution. (Agencies, Ynet)
  • UN Mideast envoy: Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas eroding - Only reunification of Gaza and the West Bank under the PA can pave way for progress towards peace, Robert Sherry says. (Ynet)
  • PMO set to kick off international 'jam session' on Jewish future - The online, 3-day discussion is meant to extend the scope of the conversation, giving each individual, community and organization a voice in shaping the collective future of international Jewry. Government yet to vote on the proposal. (Israel Hayom)
  • Ariel Sharon Park to be inaugurated next week - Visitors invited to helicopter tours of Ariel Sharon Park, the landfill turned eco-friendly park formerly known as the Hiriya landfill. "When completed, the entire mountain will be open for the public," park overseer Moshe Borochov says. (Israel Hayom)

 

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