APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday May 21, 2014
Quote of the day:
"The stupidest response to seeing the video of the two Palestinian boys being shot without constituting
a threat to the IDF forces is to argue that in Syria more Arabs are being killed (than here) and that no one
opens their mouth about that."
--Senior Maariv commentator Ben Caspit says Israel must immediately investigate the killings of the two Palestinian boys.**
--Senior Maariv commentator Ben Caspit says Israel must immediately investigate the killings of the two Palestinian boys.**
Front Page News:
Haaretz
- IDF admits: Training in live-fire zones in the West Bank is used to expel Palestinian population
- Battle in Washington stopped a bill to strengthen ties with Israel
- Rabbis in US: Israel's attitude (towards Conservative Judaism) will cause a rift among Jews
- Video: The two Palestinian youth shot dead in West Bank were not clashing with soldiers
- Suspicion: Public company laundered tens of millions for Aberjil mobsters
- Protest at Holot detention facility: Hundreds of asylum seekers abandoned their rooms
- Military rule declared in Thailand: The generals prohibited demonstrations
- UN: 350 new synthetic drugs spreading in the world
- 1/4 page ad: WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO HIDE INSIDE? Why did the Interior Ministry banish the representatives of the public from the Knesset Planning and Construction Committee? Invitation to emergency meeting 25.5.14 at offices of Society for Protection of Nature
Yedioth Ahronoth
- New law will rule: Who is a disabled IDF veteran
- The architects of the (Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball) victory: The union - Yedioth held a meeting between the 1977 basketball stars and the two new champions, Captain Guy Panini and star player Tyris Rice
- Picking up the children from school, continuing to work at home - Young parents who are civil servants will be allowed to leave early and work from home computer
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links)
- US to Israel: Investigate the deaths of the Palestinian youth
- Investigate, fast // Ben Caspit
- Suspicion: Real estate company owners laundered 60 million shekel for (crime mobster) Yitzhak Aberjil
- Shortening procedures - Lapid wants to advance the 0% VAT law through shortened legislation process
- Peres' prize - Congress will award the President the highest civilian medal in the US
Israel Hayom
- "It's not a trick and not a schtik" - Chief of Staff Benny Gantz on the battle over the security budget
- Only a trained army wins in wars
- Suspicion: Contractors laundered money for mobster
- This is the list: 42 communities where the Education Ministry will hold summer camps
- Military regime in Thailand: Travel warning to Israelis
- Eyal Golan detained in New York: The plane waited for him
- Race for the Presidency: (Minister) Shalom will run only with Netanyahu's "green light"
- Following Maccabi Tel-Aviv's victory: Anti-Semitic attack on Twitter in Spain
News Summary:
Today's top stories were the US' call on Israel to investigate the IDF killings of two Palestinian teens and the suspicion that a publicly traded real estate company laundered money for a mobster. The papers also reported on the deaths of two illegal Palestinian workers, but none asked the obvious question. Lastly, Haaretz+ reported that an IDF commander revealed at a Knesset committee that the IDF uses live-fire zones to expel Palestinian Bedouin from their homes. The report also revealed the racist remarks against Arabs.
The IDF killings last Friday of two teenage Palestinians during Nakba Day stone-throwing protests made the front pages of Israeli papers today when the US and the UN called on Israel to investigate their deaths after video released by a children's rights group showed the 15-year-old and 17-year-old boys were simply standing at the time they were shot - one of them in the back. (For some reason, the video posted in both the Haaretz and Ynet articles does not work. - OH) Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of a 'deliberate execution.' The government-supporting Israel Hayom newspaper titled its article on the subject "IDF: Video of Palestinians being shot was tendentiously edited." But the previously right-wing Maariv, which is now owned by Eli Azur, took a decidedly different stance. It's front page article, which continued for two more pages inside, showed photos from the video of the two boys before and after the shooting - rather than waving away the film's credibility. The top commentator, Ben Caspit, wrote that Israel must investigate and if it is found that "a soldier (or another Israeli) did shoot the two youth who were not engaged in life-threatening activities, and killed, them, just like that, in cold blood, he needs to be found, brought to trial and prosecuted. Such phenomena must be extracted." (See more in Commentary/Analysis below) Oppostion leader Labor MK Isaac Herzog said that the upsetting incident is the result of an unwanted situation in which the lack of a political agreement turns IDF soldiers into a policing agency over a civilian population. Meanwhile, the US urged restraint by both sides.
Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer writes that "In a time of hate crimes and of calls by rabbis not to rent apartments to Arabs, Lapid's plan to cancel VAT fees (only to those who served in the military) adds fuel to the fire..." (see Commentary/Analysis below). One could similarly ask the Israeli journalists, who reported in today's papers about the two Palestinian laborers who died in a fire that broke out in the warehouse they were sleeping in after dismantling stages for Lag B'Omer celebrations, and the Israeli police who are investigating the tragedy, why they did not ask whether the cause of the fire could have been another hate-nationalist attack. Instead, the focus was on the investigation of the legal status of the workers, who are from Nablus, and whether the fire-safety equipment was properly installed. Neither Haaretz+, Yedioth, Maariv or Israel Hayom raised the issue.
IDF Col. Einav Shalev, the operations officer of Central Command, told a subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that was discussing “illegal Palestinian construction in Area C” that the IDF uses live-fire zones to expel Palestinians from areas of the West Bank and reduce illegal construction in Area C, Haaretz+ reported. "In places where we significantly reduced the amount of training, weeds have grown," he said, referring to Palestinian communities. "This is something that should be taken into consideration." The only two committee members to attend were both from the far right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party, which discussed ways of expelling Palestinian residents from areas such as E1, the Jordan Valley and Susya, south of Hebron. Shalev also said it helped to confiscate the tents supplied to the homeless by the Red Cross [thereby possibly revealing that the IDF confiscation of Palestinian fishermen's boats and farmers' tractors is a method to deter them from doing there work in certain areas. - OH] It serves as "a punch in the right places. When you confiscate 10 large, white and expensive tents, it’s not easy. It’s not simple to recover.” Because of the confiscation policy, the Red Cross had decided to stop providing tents to shepherd communities whose huts and barns were destroyed by the Civil Administration, he noted. MKs Mordechai Yogev also spoke disparagingly about Arabs: “I have raised the issue of regulation (the concentration of Bedouin in several permanent locations against their will) to the top of the order of priorities, because there is a difference between an Arab who has a house in Yatta or Tubas and should be kicked back to there and an Arab who, if you throw him out, he will go to the closest wadi.”
Today's top stories were the US' call on Israel to investigate the IDF killings of two Palestinian teens and the suspicion that a publicly traded real estate company laundered money for a mobster. The papers also reported on the deaths of two illegal Palestinian workers, but none asked the obvious question. Lastly, Haaretz+ reported that an IDF commander revealed at a Knesset committee that the IDF uses live-fire zones to expel Palestinian Bedouin from their homes. The report also revealed the racist remarks against Arabs.
The IDF killings last Friday of two teenage Palestinians during Nakba Day stone-throwing protests made the front pages of Israeli papers today when the US and the UN called on Israel to investigate their deaths after video released by a children's rights group showed the 15-year-old and 17-year-old boys were simply standing at the time they were shot - one of them in the back. (For some reason, the video posted in both the Haaretz and Ynet articles does not work. - OH) Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of a 'deliberate execution.' The government-supporting Israel Hayom newspaper titled its article on the subject "IDF: Video of Palestinians being shot was tendentiously edited." But the previously right-wing Maariv, which is now owned by Eli Azur, took a decidedly different stance. It's front page article, which continued for two more pages inside, showed photos from the video of the two boys before and after the shooting - rather than waving away the film's credibility. The top commentator, Ben Caspit, wrote that Israel must investigate and if it is found that "a soldier (or another Israeli) did shoot the two youth who were not engaged in life-threatening activities, and killed, them, just like that, in cold blood, he needs to be found, brought to trial and prosecuted. Such phenomena must be extracted." (See more in Commentary/Analysis below) Oppostion leader Labor MK Isaac Herzog said that the upsetting incident is the result of an unwanted situation in which the lack of a political agreement turns IDF soldiers into a policing agency over a civilian population. Meanwhile, the US urged restraint by both sides.
Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer writes that "In a time of hate crimes and of calls by rabbis not to rent apartments to Arabs, Lapid's plan to cancel VAT fees (only to those who served in the military) adds fuel to the fire..." (see Commentary/Analysis below). One could similarly ask the Israeli journalists, who reported in today's papers about the two Palestinian laborers who died in a fire that broke out in the warehouse they were sleeping in after dismantling stages for Lag B'Omer celebrations, and the Israeli police who are investigating the tragedy, why they did not ask whether the cause of the fire could have been another hate-nationalist attack. Instead, the focus was on the investigation of the legal status of the workers, who are from Nablus, and whether the fire-safety equipment was properly installed. Neither Haaretz+, Yedioth, Maariv or Israel Hayom raised the issue.
IDF Col. Einav Shalev, the operations officer of Central Command, told a subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that was discussing “illegal Palestinian construction in Area C” that the IDF uses live-fire zones to expel Palestinians from areas of the West Bank and reduce illegal construction in Area C, Haaretz+ reported. "In places where we significantly reduced the amount of training, weeds have grown," he said, referring to Palestinian communities. "This is something that should be taken into consideration." The only two committee members to attend were both from the far right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party, which discussed ways of expelling Palestinian residents from areas such as E1, the Jordan Valley and Susya, south of Hebron. Shalev also said it helped to confiscate the tents supplied to the homeless by the Red Cross [thereby possibly revealing that the IDF confiscation of Palestinian fishermen's boats and farmers' tractors is a method to deter them from doing there work in certain areas. - OH] It serves as "a punch in the right places. When you confiscate 10 large, white and expensive tents, it’s not easy. It’s not simple to recover.” Because of the confiscation policy, the Red Cross had decided to stop providing tents to shepherd communities whose huts and barns were destroyed by the Civil Administration, he noted. MKs Mordechai Yogev also spoke disparagingly about Arabs: “I have raised the issue of regulation (the concentration of Bedouin in several permanent locations against their will) to the top of the order of priorities, because there is a difference between an Arab who has a house in Yatta or Tubas and should be kicked back to there and an Arab who, if you throw him out, he will go to the closest wadi.”
Quick Hits:
- Arrests over anti-Arab hate crimes in Jerusalem, Yokneam - Four suspected of spraying anti-Arab graffiti, other property damage in Yokneam; another four accused of attacking Arabs in Jerusalem, and coordinating attacks via WhatsApp. (Haaretz and Israel Hayom)
- Jewish youth pose as young women to bait Arabs - Jerusalem teens indicted for beating Arab clerk targeted by WhatsApp and Facebook group called 'Jews Against Assimilation' for 'good, clean work'. (Ynet)
- Israeli youths 'assault Palestinian' in Jerusalem - Sam al-Araj, 18, said he was attacked at 10 p.m. Monday after leaving the light rail at the Damascus Gate station near Jerusalem's Old City by a group of Israeli youth then arrested by them after a number showed Israeli police IDs. (Maan)
- Bedouin judge's car set on fire; motives unclear - Police launch investigation into torching; Israel's first Bedouin judge, Nasir Abu Taha, is a 'seriously determined man' undeterred by attack. (Haaretz and Ynet)
- Israeli forces fire at Gaza fishermen, injuring 2 - Israeli forces fired at Palestinian fishermen late Monday, injuring two off the coast of Rafah. (Maan)
- Palestinian teen injured by shooting of tear-gas canister in Yatta clashes - An Israeli military spokesman said a "violent riot" broke out following an arrest raid, with Israeli forces responding with riot dispersal means. Yatta municipality spokesman said Israeli soldiers showered the area with tear gas and stun grenades, causing a state of alarm among residents. (Maan)
- Judge orders return of suspended Haifa U. students - Lecturers from all over Israel protest the university’s suspension of two Arab students for holding an unauthorized demonstration protesting the university's refusal to allow an event marking Nakba Day on grounds that it could endanger the public. (Haaretz+)
- Court overturns conviction of Druze sheikhs who visited holy sites in Syria, Lebanon - In deal, 16 religious leaders agreed not to travel again next year, and to coordinate future visits with state. (Haaretz+)
- IDF nixes reservist training due to budget cuts - Chief of Staff Benny Gantz says unprecedented lack of resources may have 'dramatic impact on the Israeli military.' (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)
- Finance Ministry rebuffs Defense Ministry on budget - Source tells Ynet that military establishment's request for cash injection will be rejected, Finance Ministry will recommend further cuts in 2015. (Ynet)
- Public defender accuses state of vengefulness - Chief Public Defender chides State Prosecutor for trying to prevent the promotion of a forensic doctor who testified in 2010 in favor of Roman Zadorov. (Haaretz+)
- Barghouthi, Saadat to go on hunger strike - Jailed Palestinian leaders Marwan Barghouthi and Ahmad Saadat have announced that they will go on hunger strike for one day today along with over 120 other prisoners in support of administrative detainees who have been refusing meals for nearly four weeks. (Maan)
- Israeli court cancels sanctions imposed on hunger-striking prisoners - The court decided to repeal the ban on hunger strikers from taking their usual daily break in prison courtyards, to make lawyer visits easier, and to allow entry of new clothes to hunger strikers. (Maan)
- Magen David Adom (emergency services): "We will close the small stations in the West Bank and North" - Magen David Adom (MDA) threatened that in June it would close five dispatch points in small settlements in Judea and Samaria, and on Israel's northern border, after the Ministry of Health did not transfer a specific budget for operating them. Health Ministry said they won't close. (Israel Hayom, p. 3)
- Late night legend Jay Leno arrives in Israel - Leno is set to host the Genesis Prize awards in Jerusalem on May 22. (Haaretz and Ynet)
- Pope to lay wreath on Herzl's tomb, righting a historical wrong - Gesture signifies change in papacy's attitude toward Israel since Herzl's time, when support for a Jewish state was denied. Prime Minister's Office, Foreign Ministry say King David's Tomb on Mount Zion to remain in Israeli possession. (Israel Hayom)
- Beirut's only synagogue set to reopen, local Jews hope for rejuvenation - The Magen Avraham synagogue, located in the former Jewish quarter of the city, was opened in 1926 but partially destroyed at the beginning of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1975. (JTA, Haaretz)
- Hamas' Meshaal vows to continue fight against Israel - Meshaal said he would continue resistance against Israel: "We have turned the page on this division... Hamas has already made sacrifices and this was necessary to be closer with our brothers, but with the invader we will not make any compromises." (Agencies, Ynet)
- Dahlan sentenced to 2 years in jail for defamation - A high-ranking official told Ma’an that the Ramallah reconciliation court sentenced former Fatah leader Mohammad Dahlan to two years in prison for libel, slander, and defamation. Dahlan has been living outside Palestine since 2011 when he was ousted from Fatah. (Maan)
- Economy Ministry paid Yedioth Ahronoth to run favorable articles - Under then-minister Silvan Shalom, Economy Ministry paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer shekels to Yedioth's website Ynet to publish ministry-sponsored content disguised as news reports. (Israel Hayom)
- Israeli engineering students take 2nd place in Istanbul competition - Ben-Gurion University students' project was only one from Israel to be accepted into prestigious Turkish competition: 'What interests all of us is engineering, not politics.' (Ynet)
- Peres to be awarded Congressional Gold Medal - President Shimon Peres becomes one of only nine individuals ever to have been chosen to receive both the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom. (Israel Hayom)
- Nigeria's neglected Israeli drones won't help find girls - Initally purchased to combat Niger Delta insurgency, poor maintenance grounds Aerostar UAVs, preventing them from helping search for kidnapped girls. (Agencies, Ynet)
- Days after making anti-Israel slur, Erdogan thanks Israel - As country mourns the deaths of 301 people in mine disaster, Turkish prime minister thanks Israel during address to ruling party legislators for showing sensitivity by cancelling festive Independence Day events at Israeli embassy. (Agencies, Israel Hayom)
- Israel in danger without Egypt's army in Sinai, says al-Sisi - 'If the consequences of terror in Sinai necessitate changing the peace accord, then we will and Israel will not object to that because it is aware of the gravity of the situation,' Egyptian presidential candidate says. (Ynet)
- Israeli video warns of danger behind Iran nuclear deal - Two minute film distributed by Diaspora Affairs Ministry outlines why world must insist that Tehran dismantle enrichment program before deal signed. (Ynet)
- New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez pulls pro-Israel legislation due to Iran amendment - Including potential Iran deal in U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act would pit Democrats who support White House diplomacy on Iran against those critical of it. (Haaretz)
- Replacement of EU foreign policy chief could complicate Iran talks - Catherine Ashton's departure will create a temporary diplomatic gap; someone familiarity with the issues or rapport with the Iranians could have difficulty moving talks forward. (Agencies, Ynet)
- Time to embrace the Internet, Iran president says - In speech that distances Rouhani from conservative clerics, Iran President says country should 'see (the Internet) as an opportunity. We must recognise our citizens' right to connect to the World Wide Web'. (Agencies, Ynet)
Features:
The forgery at the heart of West Bank land transactions
Al-Watan, subsidiary of settlement organization Amana, has a history of using dubious documents to defend Jewish settlements in the West Bank from demolition. (Chaim Levinson, Haaretz+)
Under pressure, Israel's Palestinian Christians reach out to pope
On a lonely hill in northern Israel, a stone's throw from the Lebanese border, stands Iqrit church, one of the last vestiges of a village razed by Israeli troops in 1951. In a letter to the pontiff, the people of Iqrit and those of the neighboring village of Kufr Birim, all of them Catholics, beg him to "intensify" efforts to pressure Israel to end the injustice inflicted upon their community. (Agencies, Maan)
Commentary/Analysis:
Al-Watan, subsidiary of settlement organization Amana, has a history of using dubious documents to defend Jewish settlements in the West Bank from demolition. (Chaim Levinson, Haaretz+)
Under pressure, Israel's Palestinian Christians reach out to pope
On a lonely hill in northern Israel, a stone's throw from the Lebanese border, stands Iqrit church, one of the last vestiges of a village razed by Israeli troops in 1951. In a letter to the pontiff, the people of Iqrit and those of the neighboring village of Kufr Birim, all of them Catholics, beg him to "intensify" efforts to pressure Israel to end the injustice inflicted upon their community. (Agencies, Maan)
Commentary/Analysis:
An exemption from equality (Peace Now Director Yariv
Oppenheimer, Maariv) Finance Minister Yair Lapid knows that the term "military service" or (national
service) is a transparent code name for discriminating between populations, and for separation of Arabs and
ultra-Orthodox Jews from the rest of the public. In a time of hate crimes and calls by rabbis not to rent
apartments to Arabs, the Lapid's plan to cancel VAT fees (only to those who served in the military) adds fuel
to the fire and sends a dangerous message that discrimination is legitimate.
Occu-Partheid. By any name, it's ruining Israel. Can it be reversed? (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) We've yet to meet the Israeli leader who can dismantle Occupartheid. But we will. Nothing in the Mideast is permanent. Not even lack of leadership.
**Deaths of the Palestinians: Before taking responsibility, we must investigate - and quickly (Ben Caspit, Maariv) On the face it, the video released does not look good. But if it is not fictitious - a sovereign state such as Israel should be able to accept responsibility for its actions. It is important for Israel's image in the world, and even more important for us, as human beings. The stupidest response to seeing the video of the two Palestinian boys being shot without constituting a threat to the IDF forces is to argue that in Syria more Arabs are killed (than here) and that no one opens their mouth about that. Well, we're not in Syria. For better and for worse. And another thing: we live in a world infected with hypocrisy, double standards, changing values, and a flexible code of behavior. What is permitted to Bashar Assad is prohibited to us. That's the situation and that is the basic assumption. But it's not just because of "the world," but also because of us. And precisely because the IDF is putting in an effort to meet the standards and values that are completely foreign to the environment in which we live, we need to check this story seriously.
Justice prevails in the Negev (Haaretz Editorial) The unprecedented decision of a mayor in the south to share tax revenues with less prosperous neighboring councils should be an example to other local leaders.
Obama's not on our team (Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom) Israel must not drop the ball when it comes to confronting Iran.
Abbas' Holocaust condemnation commendable (Aviad Kleinberg, Yedioth/Ynet) Netanyahu didn't welcome Palestinian leader's statement because he sees Holocaust as a PR asset which only Israel will decide who can use.
When an army cries wolf (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Top defense officials will have difficulty persuading the public that the threats really are real.
Cancellation of reservist training a legitimate call for help (Ron Ben-Yishai, Ynet) IDF chief of staff announces end of all reservist training for 2014; Cash-strapped IDF has no other options to save the billions needed to maintain operational capability.
India: Modi's popular revolution (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) For Israel, the victory of Narendra Modi in the Indian elections is good news. He and Netanyahu will likely find common ground.
U.S. Israel Strategic Partnership sidelined by power struggles and partisan politics (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) Decision to pull law also reflects ongoing disagreements and distrust between Jerusalem and Washington over the administration’s nuclear talks with Iran.
Lebanese journalist takes on Hezbollah (Smadar Perry, Yedioth/Ynet) Hanin Ghaddar's attack on Nasrallah reflects battle between Lebanon's secular establishment and camp of Syria-Iran axis.
Bibi is all the president we need ( Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The president should be the face of Israel - maybe we should hold-off electing one until our country is in a more presentable state.
Modi and Begin (Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom) They are numerous interesting parallels between Indian PM-elect Narendra Modi and late former Israeli PM Menachem Begin.
After 47 years, U.S. Jews must get over their fear of talking about the occupation (Anat Saragusti, Haaretz+) As the Six-Day War’s anniversary approaches, mainstream American Jewry cannot only watch from the sidelines: Stand up and oppose the injustice and human rights violations of the occupation.
Occu-Partheid. By any name, it's ruining Israel. Can it be reversed? (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) We've yet to meet the Israeli leader who can dismantle Occupartheid. But we will. Nothing in the Mideast is permanent. Not even lack of leadership.
**Deaths of the Palestinians: Before taking responsibility, we must investigate - and quickly (Ben Caspit, Maariv) On the face it, the video released does not look good. But if it is not fictitious - a sovereign state such as Israel should be able to accept responsibility for its actions. It is important for Israel's image in the world, and even more important for us, as human beings. The stupidest response to seeing the video of the two Palestinian boys being shot without constituting a threat to the IDF forces is to argue that in Syria more Arabs are killed (than here) and that no one opens their mouth about that. Well, we're not in Syria. For better and for worse. And another thing: we live in a world infected with hypocrisy, double standards, changing values, and a flexible code of behavior. What is permitted to Bashar Assad is prohibited to us. That's the situation and that is the basic assumption. But it's not just because of "the world," but also because of us. And precisely because the IDF is putting in an effort to meet the standards and values that are completely foreign to the environment in which we live, we need to check this story seriously.
Justice prevails in the Negev (Haaretz Editorial) The unprecedented decision of a mayor in the south to share tax revenues with less prosperous neighboring councils should be an example to other local leaders.
Obama's not on our team (Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom) Israel must not drop the ball when it comes to confronting Iran.
Abbas' Holocaust condemnation commendable (Aviad Kleinberg, Yedioth/Ynet) Netanyahu didn't welcome Palestinian leader's statement because he sees Holocaust as a PR asset which only Israel will decide who can use.
When an army cries wolf (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Top defense officials will have difficulty persuading the public that the threats really are real.
Cancellation of reservist training a legitimate call for help (Ron Ben-Yishai, Ynet) IDF chief of staff announces end of all reservist training for 2014; Cash-strapped IDF has no other options to save the billions needed to maintain operational capability.
India: Modi's popular revolution (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) For Israel, the victory of Narendra Modi in the Indian elections is good news. He and Netanyahu will likely find common ground.
U.S. Israel Strategic Partnership sidelined by power struggles and partisan politics (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) Decision to pull law also reflects ongoing disagreements and distrust between Jerusalem and Washington over the administration’s nuclear talks with Iran.
Lebanese journalist takes on Hezbollah (Smadar Perry, Yedioth/Ynet) Hanin Ghaddar's attack on Nasrallah reflects battle between Lebanon's secular establishment and camp of Syria-Iran axis.
Bibi is all the president we need ( Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) The president should be the face of Israel - maybe we should hold-off electing one until our country is in a more presentable state.
Modi and Begin (Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom) They are numerous interesting parallels between Indian PM-elect Narendra Modi and late former Israeli PM Menachem Begin.
After 47 years, U.S. Jews must get over their fear of talking about the occupation (Anat Saragusti, Haaretz+) As the Six-Day War’s anniversary approaches, mainstream American Jewry cannot only watch from the sidelines: Stand up and oppose the injustice and human rights violations of the occupation.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.