APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday September 12, 2014
Quote of the day:
"I remember the picture on the screen. The suspect inside an orchard, an explosion, smoke and a mother
running."
N. shares why she and 42 other officers and soldiers refuse to serve anymore in the IDF's elite military intel
unit 8200.**
Front Page News:
Haaretz
- Arabs states support US attack on Syria; Russia opposes
- Government vs. the coalition // Zvi Bar'el
- The escape ended // Chemi Shalev
- Syria also heard Obama // Jacky Khoury
- Black bullet - Haaretz probe reveals: Police began using new and dangerous sponge bullets. Meanwhile, Palestinian report found that the youth, Mohammed Abu Snokrut died from a sponge bullet shot to his head from close-range
- Attorney General ordered opening of investigation against President of Nazareth district court on suspicion of sex crimes
- (Police Commissioner) Danino told (Police commander) Stein: Resign or we will take steps against you
- Share or unite: The path to equality between Bat Yam and Tel-Aviv
- Separatists around the world are watching the national referendum in Scotland hopefully
- Haifa's homes are meters from an enormous oil reservoir, but no budge was found to move it
- Researcher Yuval Goren searches for shipwrecks and finds treasures of archaeological information
Yedioth Ahronoth
- Expose - The (Military Intel) refuseniks - 43 officers and soldiers of the IDF's secret eavesdropping unit, 8200, announced they would not serve reserve duty to carry out the invasive eavesdropping into the lives of Palestinians
- The unit that it is impossible without it // Ronen Bergman on Unit 8200's soldiers who thwart terror attacks
- The (President of the Nazareth district court) under investigation
- One of theirs // Tovah Tzimuki on how when it came to someone from the judicial system, the system was not quick to open an investigation
- To read and blush: The erotic poems of his honor the judge
Maariv Weekend (Hebrew links)
- (IDF chief of staff candidate) Galant's spin // Kalman Libskind reminds readers that the reason he wasn't appointed chief of staff last time was because he took over 35 dunams of municipal lands around his home for his own personal use and is still using them 'as if nothing happened'
- The target: Lapid // Ben Caspit on the growing dispute between the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister
- War in the air - President Obama announced that the US will act to isolate 'The Islamic State with an int'l coalition. Netanyahu: "Hamas (is part of) the same tree"
- The Military Intel refuseniks - 43 officers and soldiers from elite 8200 unit refuse to serve in positions that perpetuate the occupation
- Judge in the interrogation room - Attorney General orders investigation against President of Nazareth district court, Yitzhak Cohen
- The face of the boycott: A journey to the factories in Judea and Samaria
- This time you went too far: Liora goes to battle against Major Hearsay
Israel Hayom
- Criminal investigation against Judge Cohen
- War against ISIS: Cracks in the coalition
- Tragedy: 4-year-old fell to his death
- The father who shook his infant convicted of murder
- Yair Nitzani wore baggy pants and went to the Osho Festival. You won't believe how he returned
- Yael Bar-Zohar returned to the big city - and began to cook
- Off the field: Parenthood changed Dudi Sela
- Mama Nicole - Money isn't everything - Nicole Reidman does some soul-searching
- End of the hunt? Rabbi Berland (accused of sex crimes against women) was arrested in Amsterdam
- Excitement at climax: Saturday night - Lady Gaga at Yarkon Park
News Summary:
The refusal of reservists in the elite military intelligence unit, 8200, to listen in on Palestinians 'and perpetuate the occupation,' the investigation into the president of the Nazareth District Court on sex crimes and the battle against ISIS, which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fears will be at the expense of pressuring Iran to end its nuclear development were the top stories in the Friday Hebrew newspapers.
Haaretz+ also revealed that the Palestinian youth, who police said died from falling down, was killed by a dangerous new police bullet to the head - shot at close range. The paper also reported that an Israeli judge has ordered the IDF to reveal its protocol for arresting Jews who attack Palestinians, after a Palestinian sued the state for damages after Border Police did not arrest a masked man fleeing in front of them, who had just stabbed the Palestinian man.
Israel Hayom reported that the Palestinians have stalled their demand for the International Criminal Court at the Hague to open a crimes probe against Israel over Operation Protective Edge. Nonetheless, a Human Rights Watch investigation said that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and that there were no military targets apparent near UN-run schools that Israel struck and that some of the attacks were 'indiscriminate.' Meanwhile, Hamas has acknowledged that its forces fired rockets from civilian areas, saying they had little choice because Gaza is a narrow and tightly spaced urban area. [Former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton also said that during the war. - OH]
And in an interesting turn, Hamas opened the door to holding direct talks with Israel, making headlines in all the newspapers. senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzuk said there was no religious impediment to such negotiations. However, Minister Yaakov Perry said Israel won't talk to Hamas unless it accepts the MidEast Quartet demands. Fatah suggested that Hamas' announcement was because it seeks to position itself as alternative to the PLO, of which it is not a member.
**Quotes from the 43 reservists who wrote the Prime Minister and IDF Chief of Staff saying they refuse to do reserve duty any longer, as reported by Elior Levy in Yedioth. The members of Unit 8200 listen in to conversations of Palestinians and identify suspects for IDF pilots, tankists and others to kill.
For D., it happened after he was released from the military when he saw the movie, "The Lives of Others," about Stasi agents from communist East Germany, who eavesdrop on people and invade their personal lives. "I was horrified," he said. "On the one hand, I identified with the victims, with the oppressed side, whose basic rights were denied. On the other hand, I suddenly understood that in my military service, I was on the side of the oppressor, that we are doing the exact same thing, only in a much more efficient manner."
For N. it happened during her military service, when she was present during a targeted killing operation, during which there was a mistake in the identification of the target. "I remember the picture on the screen. The suspect inside an orchard, an explosion, smoke and a mother running. The body was a small, of a child. We understood we screwed up. It was uncomfortable, but we needed to continue in our work."
"The pilots are not responsible for the killing, because they are carrying out orders, and also those in Unit 8200 are not responsible, because they are only transferring information. So who is supposed to not sleep at night?"
"If you are a (Palestinian) homosexual, who knows someone who knows a wanted man - Israel will make your life wretched. If you need medical treatment in Israel, they will let you die before you give information on your wanted cousin."
"Dozens of people eavesdrop on a sex phone call and everyone cracks up laughing. It's part of the experience. We're not talking about conversations they listen into by accident. Soldiers knew who to listen to and when its best to find them."
Haaretz+ also interviewed officers and soldiers from the unit here. Maariv also reported on it in Hebrew here.
The refusal of reservists in the elite military intelligence unit, 8200, to listen in on Palestinians 'and perpetuate the occupation,' the investigation into the president of the Nazareth District Court on sex crimes and the battle against ISIS, which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fears will be at the expense of pressuring Iran to end its nuclear development were the top stories in the Friday Hebrew newspapers.
Haaretz+ also revealed that the Palestinian youth, who police said died from falling down, was killed by a dangerous new police bullet to the head - shot at close range. The paper also reported that an Israeli judge has ordered the IDF to reveal its protocol for arresting Jews who attack Palestinians, after a Palestinian sued the state for damages after Border Police did not arrest a masked man fleeing in front of them, who had just stabbed the Palestinian man.
Israel Hayom reported that the Palestinians have stalled their demand for the International Criminal Court at the Hague to open a crimes probe against Israel over Operation Protective Edge. Nonetheless, a Human Rights Watch investigation said that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and that there were no military targets apparent near UN-run schools that Israel struck and that some of the attacks were 'indiscriminate.' Meanwhile, Hamas has acknowledged that its forces fired rockets from civilian areas, saying they had little choice because Gaza is a narrow and tightly spaced urban area. [Former US secretary of state Hilary Clinton also said that during the war. - OH]
And in an interesting turn, Hamas opened the door to holding direct talks with Israel, making headlines in all the newspapers. senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzuk said there was no religious impediment to such negotiations. However, Minister Yaakov Perry said Israel won't talk to Hamas unless it accepts the MidEast Quartet demands. Fatah suggested that Hamas' announcement was because it seeks to position itself as alternative to the PLO, of which it is not a member.
**Quotes from the 43 reservists who wrote the Prime Minister and IDF Chief of Staff saying they refuse to do reserve duty any longer, as reported by Elior Levy in Yedioth. The members of Unit 8200 listen in to conversations of Palestinians and identify suspects for IDF pilots, tankists and others to kill.
For D., it happened after he was released from the military when he saw the movie, "The Lives of Others," about Stasi agents from communist East Germany, who eavesdrop on people and invade their personal lives. "I was horrified," he said. "On the one hand, I identified with the victims, with the oppressed side, whose basic rights were denied. On the other hand, I suddenly understood that in my military service, I was on the side of the oppressor, that we are doing the exact same thing, only in a much more efficient manner."
For N. it happened during her military service, when she was present during a targeted killing operation, during which there was a mistake in the identification of the target. "I remember the picture on the screen. The suspect inside an orchard, an explosion, smoke and a mother running. The body was a small, of a child. We understood we screwed up. It was uncomfortable, but we needed to continue in our work."
"The pilots are not responsible for the killing, because they are carrying out orders, and also those in Unit 8200 are not responsible, because they are only transferring information. So who is supposed to not sleep at night?"
"If you are a (Palestinian) homosexual, who knows someone who knows a wanted man - Israel will make your life wretched. If you need medical treatment in Israel, they will let you die before you give information on your wanted cousin."
"Dozens of people eavesdrop on a sex phone call and everyone cracks up laughing. It's part of the experience. We're not talking about conversations they listen into by accident. Soldiers knew who to listen to and when its best to find them."
Haaretz+ also interviewed officers and soldiers from the unit here. Maariv also reported on it in Hebrew here.
Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.