APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday May 28, 2014

Quote of the day:

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Front Page News:

Haaretz

• Haaretz poll: Public supports Rivlin and Shachtman for the presidency
• Netanyahu is left with a white ballot // Yossi Verter
• Suspicion: (Former chief of staff) Ashkenazi's office leaked confidential information
• Alon Hasson detained on suspicion of bribery and blackmail for promoting his businesses at the (Ashdod) port
• Yaalon refuses to sign (UN) arms-control treaty out of fear it will hurt IDF
• Palestinian little girls ate cherries on a settlement and were interrogated
• Despite the losses, Putin's loyalists are not giving up
• A terminal at Jaffa Gate? Architects who are dividing Jerusalem

• The raid on the port - Labor union chief at Ashdod port arrested
• Jerusalem celebrates - Cabinet meeting at Ammunition Hill, state rallies, mass march and numerous events for families
• Justin (Timberlake)'s prayer (at the Wailing Wall) - Tonight performance
• "Not everyone liked it that you played with five colored men" - Oded Tira's racist remark to Maccabbi Tel-Aviv basketball chairman
• Rolling in fun - Yedioth reporter checked out the Rolling Stones' performance in Oslo and reports: Unique experience
• On the back of the cheese - Tnuva dairy company employees demand "sale bonus" (for sale of company to China) and threaten to disrupt dairy product supplies on Shavuot

• Corruption at the port
• Universal crime with an Israeli flavor // Amir Zohar
• The rabbi and the superintendent affair: Condition for the state witness agreement: Success passing the polygraph
• "You didn't deserve this" - Mira and Emmanuel (murdered at Jewish Museum in Brussels) laid to rest
• 1 from 6 - List of candidates closed

• Suspicion: Sea of corruption (at Ashdod Port)
• Classic organized crime // Dan Margalit
• Rabbi Pinto testified to police: "He can open everything"
• "Olmert paid Shula Zaken and convinced her not to testify"
• The list closed: From six will be the number one citizen
• "They flew on vacation and returned in coffins"
• 47 years to the unification of Jerusalem

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News Summary:
Local corruption stories dominated today's Hebrew newspapers, which also ran articles in honor of 'Jerusalem Day,' the day when the city was physically united after the conquering of the east side forty-seven years ago today.  While right-wing ministers declared the city would never be divided again, Finance Minister Yair Lapid slammed Habayit Hayehudi party for its plan that Israel unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank. Meanwhile, the Hamas-Fatah unity government has already decided on its members and will start work tomorrow. And in a letter to a Meretz MK, a Defense Ministry official reveals why Israel does not want to sign a UN treaty against arms proliferation.
 
Housing Minister Uri Ariel said on the eve of Jerusalem Day that there won't be any more freezes on construction in Jerusalem or the West Bank. Speaking at the pro-settlement Mercaz Harav Yeshiva on Tuesday night, he said, "Jerusalem will never again be divided. Between the Jordan River and the sea, there will be only one state – the State of Israel."
 
Indeed, the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Foundation said Israel plans to build a synagogue near the Al-Aqsa site, for which the Netanyahu government had provided a budget of 50 million shekels, Maan reported.

In the last few years, Jerusalem Day has become ugly, with religious nationalist youth marching into the Arab parts of the Old City and shouting racist slogans against Arabs and against Islam. The day is celebrated mainly by religious-nationalist Jews, many of whom will also march to the Temple Mount. The police said that hundreds of officers will be involved in security measures. The Waqf Foundation in charge of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound was concerned.

At a conference of the Israel Bar Association, Lapid blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for derailing peace talks, but slammed the proposal of his former political ally, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, to annex parts of the West Bank. "If there will be annexation, then there will be no government. There is no solution but the two state solution. Unilateral withdrawal and annexation will only lead to a bi-national nation. Which spells the end of Zionism and I will not have it."
Lapid also said: "You do not lead a struggle without dealing directly with the four million Palestinians connected to it."
  
Indeed, Israel will have the opportunity [although at present it rejects it - OH] starting tomorrow, when all four and a half million plus Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be under one technocratic government, seven years after fighting between the rival Hamas and Fatah parties led to separate governments. The two parties have now agreed on the members of the Palestinian national unity government, with the present Palestinian Authority Prime Minister (who once resigned), Rami Hamdullah, serving as PM for all of the occupied territories. Abbas will choose the religious affairs minister.
 
Israeli Defense Minster Moshe Yaalon said Israel could not sign an April 2013 UN arms-control treaty because it puts Israel at risk. Haaretz+ writes that "In a letter from Haim Blumenblatt, the defense minister’s chief of staff, to MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) this week, Blumenblatt writes, 'Most of the risks the treaty poses to Israel and the IDF will apply to Israel whether it joins the convention or not, because they are also connected to the implementation of the treaty by other countries, and not by Israel.' While Blumenblatt did not explain what the risks are, the letter hints the treaty could pose difficulties not just for Israeli arms exports, but also for its arms imports. Blumenblatt implied as much when he wrote that “signing the treaty is liable to influence various aspects connected to exports from the United States.” While the US has signed the treaty, several US senators and congressmen are pressuring US President Barack Obama not to ratify the treaty, or to try to implement it without actually ratifying it. These opponents say the treaty could 'impede our ability to sell arms to allies such as Israel and Taiwan.'"

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Capturing settlers: Palestinians on guard against Israeli extremism
Despite mentions in a recent US report on terrorism, Israeli extremist attacks against Palestinians and their property continue unabated, especially in the West Bank. With little to no protection from the Israeli army that occupies their territory, Palestinians have on several occasions in 2014 taken matters into their own hands, taking a kind of neighborhood-watch approach to prevent injuries and damage to their property. (Maan)

Commentary/Analysis:

Rivlin smiles for the extreme right (Sefi Rachlevsky, Haaretz+) The election of leading presidential candidate Reuven Rivlin would grant legitimacy to the occupation.
Netanyahu is Palestinian Authority's savior (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) Israeli PM speaks about the Palestinian Authority's crimes day and night while bolstering it at the same time. 
A Palestinian terror government (Zalman Shoval, Israel Hayom) Hamas is seeking to gain political legitimacy while maintaining the terror option. 
A political earthquake of hatred (Boaz Bismuth, Israel Hayom) A psychological roadblock has been breached in Europe, where voters no longer sense the need to conceal their preference for the extreme Right.
The racism playoffs (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Terrible thing that happened in the European elections, but not quite as disturbing as what is happening right here in Israel. 
Your home is not in Europe (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom)
Europe expelled its Jews and received instead tens of millions of Muslims. Come back home to Zion, before it is too late. This is the fitting response to anti-Semitism.
The lies industry - between criticism and incitement (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth) A considerable portion of terrorist attacks, including apparently the attack in Brussels, stem from brainwashing that turns rivals into representatives of Satan...When Peter Beinart, one of the stars of the Jewish Left in the US, tweeted a few days ago that Israelis had carried out a pogrom – this is a blood libel. Beinart is neither a racist skinhead, nor a jihadist, but he thus gave legitimacy to countless reports about 'war crimes' because he is a Jew and even pretends to be a Zionist. Beinart tweeted a correction, but there is something frightening in the insufferable ease with which Israel has been turned into a monster...What happened in Brussels – and not just there – stems from lies and incitement, and people like Beinart are also responsible.
No to European fascism (Yossi Beilin, Israel Hayom) The center-Left and center-Right in Europe must come together to stand tall against the extremists. 
IDF budget reveals Netanyahu's defense priorities (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Netanyahu is investing in strengthening intelligence and strategic deterrence. He ascribes less importance to the conventional needs of the long-standing army, and is using budget constraints to force it to streamline. In the premier's view, there is little chance that a ground war requiring a call-up of the reserves and deployment of large numbers of troops will break out.
The PR battle (Shlomo Cesana, Israel Hayom) The pope had planned a trip of a religious nature, but he deviated from protocol and wandered into the political arena. 
Propaganda war at pope's expense (Eitan Haber, Yedioth/Ynet) Both Israelis and Palestinians crossed nearly every line with tricks and shticks during papal visit.
Are you a foreign agent? Israel's 10 Most Unwanted Laws (Bradley Burston, Haaretz+) Pending bills: Declaring leftist NGOs Foreign Agents, dropping Arabic as an official language, annexing most of the West Bank ... maybe it's time to expand the list to 20. 
Today's Jerusalem is neither eternal, undivided nor holy (Emily L. Hauser, Haaretz+) The 21st century municipality is a political construct that is an affront to the Jerusalem to which Jewish hearts have turned for millennia.
Jewish prostitutes, Jewish thieves and Jewish supremacists (Joel Braunold, Haaretz+) Security measures barely make the grade in curbing 'price tag' attacks. To really make a difference (and prevent tags against Arabs), Israel must strike with education.
Diaspora Jews and Israel: between distance and despair (Samuel Heilman, Haaretz+) The JPPI report tell us much about the well-aired opinions of the Diaspora’s elite - but fails to engage with the expanding minority of Jews who care less and less about Israel.

JDC chief: Young Jews less willing to give to Israel
Arnon Mantver, who is stepping down as director of the Joint Israel after 19 years, talks about integrating immigrants and why young Diaspora Jews don’t want to donate to Israel. (Interviewed by Tali Heruti-Sover in Haaretz+)
“Large parts of the third generation view us [Israelis] as an occupying people,” he says. “In the 1970s we were the victim. After 2000 a different view started to emerge, and it is creating a distance [between Israel] and large groups, and in particular young ones. This worries me greatly. If there is no solution to the conflict [with the Palestinians], we will have a problem. We operate all over the world, we help people who've been hurt by a tsunami or earthquake. The Joint’s message is a strong humanitarian one, and when there is a problem with Palestinians, this message is put to the test,” notes Mantver.
 
Rabbi who accompanied Pope says Jews too focused on past tragedies
Rabbi Avraham Skorka, longtime friend of Pope Francis, says Jewish leaders should look beyond the past and accept offers of closer dialogue with the Church. The rabbi noted that since the 1960s the Church has made great strides in its attitude toward the Jewish people, culminating with Pope John Paul II's request for forgiveness for the suffering inflicted upon the Jews in past centuries.
"The pope would like to have some kind of reaction from the Jews to the deeds of the Catholic Church," he said. However, Skorka says Jewish leaders have responded coldly to Francis' desire for closer ties, remaining too focused on the tragedies of the past and fearing that a deeper, theological dialogue would just be a thinly veiled attempt to encourage conversion. "He and I cannot understand this fear," Skorka said. "If you are sure of your beliefs why fear to speak about ourselves to the other?" (Interviewed by Ariel David in Haaretz+)
 

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