APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday July 27, 2014

Number of the day:

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Israeli journalist reported from inside Gaza with Israeli troops, more Israeli soldiers were buried and Israel rejected US Secretary of State John Kerry's complete ceasefire proposal, but agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire on Saturday making top stories in today's Hebrew newspapers. Also in the news were the 150 bodies discovered under the rubble in Gaza and the escalating West Bank and E. Jerusalem demonstrations that killed eight Palestinians over the weekend.

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz told soldiers who came out of Gaza for a refresher, "The price was painful, but the achievement is enormous," wrote Yedioth's Yossi Yehoshua from the field. Gantz also said: "When the civilians in Gaza understand the extent of the damage that Hamas has caused them, they will ask the difficult questions exactly as happened in Lebanon." [The statement appears to be an acknowledgement that harm to the Palestinians is a way to pressure them to pressure Hamas. - OH]

On Friday, the Israeli cabinet rejected Kerry's proposal for a seven-day ceasefire, during which the two sides' demands will be negotiated with other foreign nations, in an attempt to hammer out a permanent truce. Israel wanted to keep its forces in Gaza and continue to destroy tunnels and Hamas opposed. The proposal said Israel would have to remove its forces. Haaretz+ has the details of Kerry's proposal. After Israel rejected Kerry's proposal, Kerry traveled to France for an international meeting on a Gaza cease-fire. On Saturday morning, Israel and Hamas agreed to a 12-hour humanitarian truce, which was extended to midnight. During the ceasefire, Palestinians returned to their destroyed homes where they found some 150 bodies under the rubble.

In the West Bank, the situation was escalating and there were questions whether it could erupt into a Third Intifada. After two demonstrators were shot dead Thursday, Fatah and other Palestinian factions declared a day of rage in support of bleeding, besieged Gaza.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not express a view about the continuing protests, wrote Haaretz+, but he did urge Palestinians to turn out en masse to donate blood to help the wounded in both Gaza and the West Bank. 
 
On Friday, five more Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in shootings involving both Israeli forces and a civilian who appeared to be a Jewish settler. The victims were walking along a main street used by both Palestinian and settlers when someone appearing to be a settler shot one Palestinian man dead and injured three others in Huwarra town, near Nablus, Ynet reported. Two more Palestinians were killed overnight in clashes: a 16-year-old in Beit Fajjar, just south of Bethlehem, and an18-year-old at the Jalama checkpoint near Jenin.

Haaretz has an excellent review of live updates from Day 18 and Day 19 of Operation Protective Edge.

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Quick Hits:

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Features:

Heroes on the mend
"I realized that if I didn't move, I would die, and that if they came to me, I would be putting other troops in danger. I pulled myself together somehow and crawled 20 meters backward, and the paramedics swooped down on me," recounts Capt. Ran Ben-Attia. (Israel Hayom) 
Children scarred by Gaza violence as entire families lost 
Children are suffering from the devastating consequences of escalating Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip, with entire families lost in single airstrikes and severe physical injuries likely to require long-term medical treatment. (Charlie Hoyle, Maan)
'This is war and we are winning'
Israel Hayom reporter Lilach Shoval enters Gaza for a rare account from inside the Strip • "The Palestinians need to realize that terrorism doesn't pay," says Givati Brigade commander, adding that the homefront needs to know that "we are protecting it." (Lilach Shoval in Gaza, Israel Hayom) 
 
Rocking the boat: The modern French refugees
It was supposed to be an escapist, educational experience -- 800 Jewish youngsters from France came to Israel to recreate the journey of the Exodus in 1947. But then war broke out in Gaza and plans changed. "J'adore Israel" is the general sentiment. (Israel Hayom)

Commentary/Analysis:

Let's meet at six, before the war (Yossi Sarid, Haaretz+) After eight years in office, it’s clear: We won’t go far, or even near, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For a moment it seemed we’d get as far as Tehran, but we were delayed in Shujaiyeh. 
Love your enemy as yourself? (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) All the IDF's efforts to avoid civilian casualties won't help -- the path is being paved for another Goldstone report. 
Gazans blame Israel, not Hamas (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Are Israeli analysts viewing the moves by Hamas and the Palestinian public according to their own logic, not the logic of those they are analyzing?
Israel has much to show (Dan Margalit, Israel Hayom) A cease-fire may take effect, but that is not going to stop Israel from destroying the tunnels in the area it has temporarily seized.
Now is the time for diplomacy (Haaretz Editorial) To reach an effective cease-fire Israel will have to ease its blockade on Gaza.
No hope for the weak (Ben Caspit, Maariv) "How to get out of this" is the question that Hamas should ask, not us, and they needed to ask for a cease-fire, not us. It is unacceptable that an organization that shoots on Tel-Aviv, on Ben-Gurion Airport and the (nuclear) reactor continues to growl at the whole world and force us to ask for a ceasefire. Until Hamas understands that Israel is serious and willing to sacrifice in order to destroy it - it will not lay down its arms.
Kerry's latest cease-fire plan: What was he thinking?
(Barak Ravid, Haaretz+) Kerry isn’t anti-Israeli; on the contrary, he's a true friend to Israel. But his conduct in recent days over the Gaza cease-fire raises serious doubts over his judgment and perception of regional events.
Israeli atrocities and Egyptian madness (Sarah Eltantawi, Maan) As patient as I have tried to be with Egypt's various transitions, as much as I refuse to ever give up on Egypt, and as much as I am totally intolerant of anyone who simply attacks Egypt without appreciating the complexities it faces, I can find no reason not to let in the Palestinian injured and to block medical supplies to dying children for the sake of some school yard nose thumbing to Hamas. In addition, an aspect of the outcome of Sisi's negotiation with Hamas -- which was simply to hand Hamas terms of cessation of hostility approved by Israel -- is simply to position Egypt as a client state of Israel. 
Gaza op exposing radical left's disgrace (Oz Almog, Yedioth/Ynet) The picture of 'good' and 'evil' in this war is so clear, that the left's radical margins are forced to create an artificial symmetry between Israeli soldiers and Hamas and Jihad fighters. 
The shaming of John Kerry and the downturn in the battle for Israel’s image (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The Secretary of State has fallen prey to an ongoing series of mishaps, faux pas and other unfortunate events, begging the critical question: has he become a nebbish?

The first Gaza war (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom) Any final reckoning will have to deal with the psychological aspects: What each side will take from this conflict, and to what extent each side will be deterred from seeking another round of fighting in the future.
A real war is underway in Gaza (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The humanitarian cease-fire is giving Gaza residents a chance to stock up on food and pull out bodies from the rubble, but it also allows Hamas to prepare for further combat. 
For the sake of deterrence: Israel must strive to end this from a position of military advantage (Amos Yadlin, Maariv) A political solution will always be better, but it will not succeed without advantageous positions for the military. From Israel's point of view, ending in a draw against Hamas will show weakness on other fronts.
UN inquiry could lead to war crime charges for Israel, Hamas (Aeyal Gross, Haaretz+) Both parties in Operation Protective Edge are open to accusations of illegal attacks on civilians. 
Playing with fire (Dr. Reuven Berko, Israel Hayom) The Qataris have essentially acknowledged their role as the bank for global Islamic terrorism, as practiced by the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Hamas, ISIS, and the other Islamic terror movements active in our region.
When the guns are roaring, Israelis must speak out (Haaretz Friday Editorial) Freedom of speech has been a notable victim, and fears about criticizing and protesting could spread.
A letter to a friend in Gaza (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) Our demand to demilitarize the Strip is not only for Israelis; it's also for you, Fathi. We prefer to have happy neighbors rather than suffering neighbors. We want to be partners, not enemies.
A Third Intifada? Perhaps, but not quite yet (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) Over the last ten years, the periodic outbreaks of clashes have not developed into more than a few days of violent confrontation. There is little to indicate that this time around will be different.
Removing tunnel threat not a matter of days (Yossi Yehoshua, Yedioth/Ynet) IDF commanders returning from Gaza's underground front believe it could take forces two more weeks to complete their mission.
With the airlines back flying, Netanyahu praises himself (Amir Oren, Haaretz+) Israeli diplomats assuaged the concerns of the Americans and others, but Bibi is thinking more about internal party politics.
Israel’s war of deception 2014 (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) How can a preventable war be justified? And how can one wrap oneself in its rightness in the presence of the horror-show images from Gaza? 
Terror tunnels, embargoes and human rights (Josh Bacon, Ynet) Hundreds of rockets fired into Israel and discovery of dozens of underground Gaza tunnels have completely undercut NGOs' narrative, yet they continue to ignore these inconvenient facts.
Amid Gaza’s horrors, it’s not enough for Israelis to ask: So what do you propose? (David Enoch, Haaretz+) The Israelis could conduct true negotiations to solve Gaza’s problems, while the Palestinians could opt for a nonviolent struggle. 
Twitter, Gaza, gender, power: Language and the steel of bulldozers (Heike Schotten, Maan) Every minute, another person in Gaza tweets an expression of sheer terror, keeping followers like myself, half a world away, sleepless, panicked, and heartsick. The advent of Twitter as people's primary news source is causing Israel to lose the social media war in Gaza (if not the actual war).
In Gaza, Israel's Facebook generation fights well (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Units are raiding orchards and houses and finding launchers, mortars and rockets, all the while looking for tunnels.
Hamas has been looking for allies, so far in vain (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Hamas seeks return to 'Shi’ite bosom' of Iran and Hezbollah, but times have changed.
Four comments on the current situation in Gaza (Yoel Marcus, Haaretz+) For the first time, Netanyahu has evinced signs of leadership maturity and is behaving in a serious and measured way, like somebody one could trust. 
What Netanyahu and Hamas stand to lose from a cease-fire (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Two aspects complicate the prospects of a truce - one has to do with the prime minister's political hurdles, the other with the mind-set of Hamas' military leader, Mohammed Deif.
Our strength lies in unity (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) A great spirit envelops Israeli society these days.
Avigdor Lieberman, the Internet commenter (Gidi Weitz, Haaretz+) The foreign minister has returned to his familiar set point: inflaming passions, spreading hatred and methodically inspiring brief, violent and baseless headlines
The UN Human Wrongs Council (Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom) Until the U.N. Human Rights Council stops its biased and one-sided actions, and stops throwing fuel on the flames in the Middle East, America should disengage. 
Defense Ministry scales new heights of cynicism (Nechemia Shtrasler, Haaretz+) The ministry has shamelessly exploited a tragic error in the battlefield to try and make budgetary gain. It mustn’t be allowed to get away with it.

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