APN's daily news review from Israel

Tuesday March 04, 2014

Quote of the day:

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Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Netanyahu to Obama: We did our part, the Palestinians are to blame
• 2013 made decade record in settlement construction
• Russia centering forces on Ukraine border; Dispute in West over sanctions against Putin
• Government to fund plan to increase influence of synagogues in community
• Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice committee approved raising threshold (to enter Knesset) to 3.25%
• Tel-Aviv municipality to allow opening of mini-grocery stores on Shabbat
• "12 years of slavery" won the Oscar for the best film

• Obama: This is the time for difficult decisions
• The last tango in Washington // Shimon Shiffer
• Meeting, half meeting // Orly Azulay
• War of nerves in Ukraine
• The 'selfie' photo of the Oscars
• Israelis took off to India and landed in Iran

• Obama threatens: We will isolate Russia
• Last night: 20 Israelis on Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to India landed in Teheran and took off after a long time (Hebrew)
• Netanyahu in White House: "The Israelis want peace - not a piece of paper" (Hebrew)
• Security establishment: For a year, the US has not provided visas to 100 IDF officers and Mossad and Shin Bet agents

• "We want peace, not a piece of paper"; Obama: Both sides will have to make compromises. PM: The Palestinians are not doing enough
• Putin sending tanks, the West responds with talk
• Race against the clock for plea bargain with Zaken: "My heart has broken over the last few days"
• Another turn about in the (comedian) Yaron Berlad affair: The complainant is now suspected of blackmail
• Threshold for elections to Knesset raised to 3.25%
• Recommendation to narrow authorities of welfare workers
• Oscar ceremonies: The winners, the losers and Ellen Degenris' historic selfie

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Peace Talk Highlights:
The few sentences said by US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before the start of their meeting together was today's top story in most of the Hebrew papers alongside the data revealed that settlement housing construction more than doubled in 2013 compared to the previous year. Finance Minister and Yesh Atid party Chairman Yair Lapid sent a message of support for a framework agreement to Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Meretz Chairwoman MK Zahava Gal-On and told her he would be willing to extend peace talks under certain conditions. Meanwhile, a US poll found that Americans would favor a one-state solution if the two-state solution fails.
 
Breaking with convention, the US and Israeli leaders presented their joint statements before the start of their meeting yesterday instead of at its end, noted Maariv/NRG Hebrew's Eli Bardenstein. Obama spoke first saying that "difficult decisions must be made" before the deadline of the peace talks and that a two-state solution is still possible." After him, Netanyahu spoke, blaming the Palestinians saying, “Israel has been doing its part and, I regret to say, the Palestinians have not.” He also repeated his call that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state and said, "Israeli citizens expect me to withstand the pressure and take care of state security." Ynet's Washington correspondent Yitzhak Benhorin wrote that an Israeli official said that Obama's interview with Bloomberg journalist Jeffrey Goldberg heightened tensions between the two.
 
Lapid expressed words of support for a peace agreement, addressing Netanyahu at his weekly faction meeting, NRG Hebrew reported. "The goal of the talks between Israel and the Palestinians is not to return home safely. Just because there are three or four rogue coalition MKs does not mean we should not go for a (peace) agreement. For that there are 19 ministers and Knesset members from the Yesh Atid party. We wish to say to the Prime Minister: You have political backing. A diplomatic agreement will ensure the existence of Israel as a Jewish state."

****One wonders who at the Central Bureau of Statistics made the decision to release the statistics on settlement construction just before the Obama-Netanyahu meeting. The number of settlement housing units that construction began on them in 2013 made a 10-year record high at a time when real estate prices inside Israel are soaring due to the lack of housing. Labor party Chairman MK Isaac Herzog said "Netanyahu can win the Oscar for lying to the public" because although he could bring real estate prices in Israel down, he chooses to fund settlements. "While Netanyahu meets with Obama, the truth behind his government is revealed in all its glory – a spike of more than twice in settlement construction.

Meanwhile, in Ramallah, Abbas hosted Meretz leader MK Zahava Gal-On, telling her that he was pessimistic about achieving a framework agreement because the latest draft US Secretary of State John Kerry showed him in Paris was unacceptable. However, he said, talks could continue if Israel made conciliatory gestures such as releasing more Palestinian prisoners beyond the 104 pre-Oslo prisoners or by freezing settlement construction. But "If the [U.S. drafted] framework agreement does not provide solutions to the core issues, I will not extend negotiations. I will lay my keys on the table and turn to international organizations," he said. Abbas stressed that he too faces strong opposition to continuing the peace talks from the Palestinian leadership. “I also have an opposition, not just Netanyahu,” he told Gal-On. On the issue of refugees, Gal-On quoted him saying, “I don’t want to destroy Israel and no refugee will return to Israel without Israel’s consent. But I expect Israel to provide a quota of refugees it will absorb each year."
  
A US survey found that American public support for a two-state solution is lukewarm: only 39% of respondents preferred a solution to the conflict that includes an Israeli and a Palestinian state side-by-side. Only 10% preferred Israel maintaining "occupation indefinitely" as a solution to the conflict. And were peace talks to collapse, most Americans would opt for a one-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More here.
 
Quick Hits:

Features:

Do Israelis love peppers more than they hate the occupation?
As the vegan movement in Israel grows, the dilemma of purchasing succulent West Bank produce grows with it. (Haaretz+)
Israeli corporations don't give to charity
Most NGOs in Israel rely on the government, or overseas donors. The report, based on a sample of such organizations, shows the Israeli philanthropic sphere is not very well developed, and organizations and charities base themselves mostly on funds from government ministries and local authorities to pay for their activities. (Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:

Obama's perfectly-timed ambush of Netanyahu (Barak Ravid, Haaretz+) Washington visit starts on sour note for PM, wrong-footed by Bloomberg interview in which Obama said it's Israel's responsibility to advance peace talks with Palestinians.
The last tango in Washington (Shimon Shiffer, Yedioth/Ynet) As long as settlement construction increases, one can understand why Palestinians are refusing to join Mideast peace dance and why Obama's remarks had a strong scent of despair.
Drop the force-feeding law (Haaretz Editorial) The government is trying to find roundabout ways to quell a protest. 
Obama the realist? (Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom) The U.S. president's policies have weakened America's sway in the world, as our Arab and Israeli friends in the Middle East -- and more, recently, the Russians -- are all saying quite publicly.
Faced with the sum of all fears in Ukraine, Obama softens tone toward Netanyahu (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) Despite harsh Bloomberg interview, Obama can’t afford to set Netanyahu on a warpath now, because 'life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,' as John Lennon noted.
This isn't a new Netanyahu (Henry Siegman, Haaretz+) Yet again the experts have been proven wrong: There's no newly pragmatic Bibi, so perhaps the time for a UN Security Council-brokered peace has come.
Push for an interim deal (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) In a choice between Obama and Bennett, Netanyahu would be wise to pick Obama. 
Obama giving Netanyahu one last chance (Orly Azoulay, Yedioth/Ynet) White House has failed to find any signs indicating that Israel's prime minister really intends to make a move towards peace.
How close are Moscow, Kiev, and Jerusalem? (Seth Lipsky, Haaretz+) Will John Kerry's language in Ukraine echo U.S. Mideast approach? "Last chance the little nation has for peace, time is running out?" 
Fear and loathing in Neot Tzahala (Aner Shalev, Haaretz+) The fact that no one shot at the group home in Tel Aviv doesn’t erase the widespread prejudice in Israel against the weak and the different.’
Why hypocritical Israel has stayed silent on homophobic Uganda (Yonatan Berman, Haaretz) Although most Western countries have condemned the African state for its new, virulently anti-gay law, Israel has preferred to look the other way - at the asylum seekers it wants to send to Uganda.
Israel is neither good nor bad, it just is (Mira Sucharov, Haaretz+) Can Israeli-Palestinian conflict stakeholders move beyond hardened binaries to come up with creative solutions that respect the needs, fears and dreams of both sides?

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