APN's daily news review from Israel

Friday February 28, 2014

Number of the day:

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Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Haaretz poll: Majority of public thinks that new draft law won't bring equality
• Alertness on Ukrainian border Yanukovych escaped to Russia. His supporters conquered the parliament in Crimea
• Obama will challenge Netanyahu and Abbas: What will you do if the talks break up?
• Netanyahu as (AIPAC's) cheerleader // Chemi Shalev
• Unlike Assad, it's doubtful that Hezbollah will hold itself back // Amos Harel
• Prosecution refuses to sign state witness agreement with Zaken (against Olmert)
• Careful, marathon - Roads in Tel-Aviv will be blocked this morning and will cause disruptions
• Not everything is honey - In wake of lack of bees: hives without touch of humans

• Ultra-Orthodox test of wills against the draft law - Thousands of police will secure the ultra-Orthodox protest demonstration Sunday in Jerusalem
• The outstanding soldier in the combat officer's course: From the ultra-Orthodox Nahal brigade
• Dead end in negotiations between Shula Zaken and the prosecution
• Netanyahu travelling to US with oversized delegation
• Today: Tel-Aviv marathon

• Attrition in Washington - Behind the scenes of the negotiations (Hebrew)
• Shula Zaken: If I open my mouth, Olmert will go to jail (Hebrew)
• The new college of Yaffa Deri fuels the tension in Shas party's leadership
• The elections in Beit Shemesh and judicial activism // Kalman Libskind (Hebrew)
• High tension between Russia and Ukraine
• MK Gafni: "Bennett will pay for the draft law. We will dryin out the 'hesder' yeshivas and the settlements" (Hebrew)
• (Interior Minister) Saar: 1,705 asylum seekers left Israel in February, this is a an unprecedented number (Hebrew)
• Flu complications: Three youth are hospitalized in serious condition after contracting the virus
• Betrayed - "In retrospect, I understood that my husband was a little Avishay Raviv (embedded right-wing Shin Bet agent)" - The personal crisis of the wives of the agents of the Jewish (terror) unit of the Shin Bet
• Prisoner X - Rafi Epstein, the scouts counselor of Ben Zygier in his Jewish youth group in Melbourne, wrote a book about his death and denies any conspiracy theories

• The world to Putin: No to a Cold War II
• Jerusalem under siege: Enormous ultra-Orthodox demonstration (against draft) on Sunday
• Zaken: "If I open my mouth, Olmert will sit in jail"
• Flu epidemic: 7-year-old hospitalized in critical condition
• (Comedian) Berlad expected to remain under house arrest

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Peace Talk Highlights:
Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday, polls find that more 'soft right-wing' Israelis support a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The Israeli Foreign Ministry says the Palestinians are preparing for the 'Blame Game' after the peace talks fail. US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke of extending peace talks, which the top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said no can do. And Jordan said it may review its peace agreement with Israel in light of the Knesset debate about implementing Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Meanwhile, Israeli forces made an extra-judicial killing of a young wanted Palestinian and none of the Israeli papers questioned the manner he was killed.
 
**Haaretz reported that according to a poll released Thursday, more right-wing Israelis support a peace agreement with the Palestinians. A survey of Hebrew-speaking Israelis commissioned by the Israeli Peace Initiative Group also found:
- 56% would vote for the prime minister if he were to establish a new party.- 63% are likely to support a regional peace agreement in principle, even without knowing the full details of the agreement.
- 73% would likely support a regional peace agreement if they were briefed on the likely details, based on the assumed components of Kerry's framework document and an interpretation of the Arab League Peace Initiative, which promises Israel “full diplomatic and normal relations” with 57 Arab and Muslim states, in exchange for a “comprehensive peace agreement” with the Palestinians.
- 73% of the respondents said they would support Netanyahu if he were to present the public with an agreement that entailed ending the conflict with the Palestinians on the basis of the details provided.
-  56% of respondents would vote for Netanyahu if he were to establish a new party. 
The latest "Globes" poll shows the public would support Netanyahu if he were to split from Likud hardliners.

Netanyahu will leave Israel for Washington on Sunday and meet Obama at the White House Monday, March 2nd. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set to meet Obama in Washington on March 17 to discuss the deadlocked peace talks with Israel. According to Haaretz's+ Barak Ravid, Obama will tell the two man that they can cooperate with the US initiative and make progress, or go it alone after the talks fail, which will not be pleasant going. Maariv/NRG Hebrew writes that a classified documents prepared by the research department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry - the Ministry's Intel arm - says that the Palestinian Authority is setting the stage to blame the failure of negotiations on Israel. On the other hand, the question of the fate of Gaza, if achieved outlines a framework between the parties, against the backdrop of a slump in the process of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. It also writes that although the Palestinians want to continue the talks until the end of the official date set for the 29th of April, the Palestinian emphasis is placed now on preparation for the Day After, in particular being ready for the "Blame Game" that will take place between the two sides.  

There are numerous issues in the new draft of Kerry's framework agreement that the Palestinians say they won't accept (see yesterday's News Nosh) and it remains to be seen if there will be time left to iron them out. Kerry said peace talks will go beyond April, which is, incidentally, what Israel would like. But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat rebuffed the move to extend the April deadline for another nine months of talks with Israel, saying it was useless as long as Israel "continues to disregard international law." Earlier this month, Erekat said that if US-brokered peace talks failed to result in an accord, the Palestinians would call for an economic boycott of Israel.

Jordan warned Israel Thursday that it may review the Jordan-Israel peace treaty over the Knesset debate of sovereignty over the Temple Mount.  “If Israel wants to violate the peace treaty in this issue, the entire treaty, its articles, details and wording will be put on the table,” Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur told Qatar’s Al-Watan newspaper in an interview.
 
The extra-judicial killing:
A day after an Amnesty International report slams ‘trigger-happy’ Israeli security forces and accuses Israel of 'callous disregard for human life' in the West Bank, Israeli forces surround the house of a young Palestinian wanted man in the middle of the night between Wednesday and Thursday, bulldozing part it and set it on fire, before entering and shooting dead 24-year-old Muatazz Washaha, who had barricaded himself inside for hours, but never fired a shot. Some of the Israeli articles called him a terrorist, others called him a suspected terrorist, but with the exception of Maariv/NRG Hebrew, there was no information about what "terrorist act" he was suspected of.  Maariv wrote in a short caption that he was wanted for attacks against the IDF." In the online NRG Hebrew, it reported that he was suspected of shooting at Israeli soldiers. Ynet reported that on average 220 Palestinians are detained every month for offenses, which the Shin Bet now calls 'terror,' such as stone-throwing and Molotov cocktail throwing, carrying weapons and placing of explosives. Ynet also revealed that the members of the force that raided Bir Zeit village and killed Washaha, was disguised as Arabs. None of the papers questioned the decision to enter the home and shoot dead a man who did not fire on them, but was suspected of possessing a weapon. Oddly, Israel Hayom wrote there was a "firefight" - and only in its English version, not in the Hebrew paper. The other papers reported that the troops were the ones who used force, opening fire with an M72 LAW and an anti-tank missile setting fire to the home, knocking part of it down with a bulldozer and deciding to enter and shoot the suspect dead, because he was believed to be in possession of a weapon and he refused to leave the home after a standoff of hours. Maan wrote that "an AK47 assault rifle was found in the house, but no shots were fired at any point towards Israeli forces." It also wrote that Israeli forces were reportedly trying to arrest Washaha for being an activist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). While Maariv ran a large photo of the burned out demolished house on page 2 with a small caption titled, "The raid, the siege and the extermination of the terrorist," Yedioth did not even report on the event. On Thursday, Israeli forces injured three Palestinians in a protest near Hebron of Washaha's killing. The Palestinian Authority condemned the 'assassination' and said the killing was "deliberate," highlighting that Israeli forces had surrounded the house, evacuated residents, and then shelled the house, knowing Washaha was inside. The statement said that such actions "undermine peace efforts" and confirm that "the Israeli government is constantly seeking to foil these efforts." The PFLP vowed revenge.

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Quick Hits:

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