News Nosh 11.30.14

APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday November 30, 2014

Quote of the day:


Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • Chief of Staff Eisenkot
  • Disassembles mines // Alex Fishman
  • The right man // Yossi Yehoshua
  • Sorry we won // Amnon Abramovich
  • Our Golani (Brigade) // Eitan Haber
  • The political crisis - Deri: We won't commit to anything until after elections
  • Not functioning // Nahum Barnea
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
Israel Hayom

News Summary:
new chief of staff was finally announced, a Jewish-Arab school [my son's! - OH] was set on fire and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid are in a tiff making top stories in the Hebrew papers. Meanwhile, the latest on Palestinian statehood, a protest outside Netanyahu's residence last night and the police commissioner says he won't allow certain Jewish MKs to visit the Temple Mount.
 
France has suggested a two-year deadline for reaching a peace deal through negotiations, saying it would recognize a Palestinian state if those talks failed. The European Parliament will vote on Palestinian statehood recognition later this month. The Arab League has agreed to present a draft resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal within two years. But Abbas has said the Palestinian Authority will consider cutting security coordination with Israel if its UN resolution fails. He accused Israel of 'entrenching apartheid.'
 
Meanwhile, the 'peace plan' presented by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has wooed centrists, but angered his own party members. Yedioth ran an 'exclusive' Friday reporting that Lieberman is willing to allow a Palestinian state in the context of a regional peace agreement with other Arab countries. But the plan is actually not new. He has long suggested transferring the Israeli Arab cities and villages along with their residents into a Palestinian state. Now he suggests that Arabs living in Jaffa and Acre, two mixed cities inside Israel, should be encouraged with money to move if they want to. Lieberman said Arab Israelis need to choose whether they want to be Palestinian or Israeli [which is like telling Jewish Americans they need to decide whether they want to be Jewish or American and if they choose American they must leave their homes and move to Israel. - OH].
 
Last night, left-wingers held an anti-hatred, anti-racism, pro-co-existence rally outside the Prime Minister's Residence. Former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gillon called Netanyahu an 'ego-maniac' and said he was leading the country to a war of Armageddon. Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer and Meretz party leader Zehava Gal-On also spoke at the event titled, "We won't let you destroy the country." Maariv wrote that thousands attended, Ynet reported more than 800 attended, including people from the Labor party as well. 
 
Around the time the rally was taking place, right-wing Jews attacked the Jewish-Arab school a few kilometers away. The Max Reiner Hand-in-Hand Bi-lingual School was set on fire Saturday evening, burning the first graders' classroom. All the papers put it on their front page, but only Israel Hayom made it seem uncertain that it was an arson. However, with graffiti on the outside walls reading, 'Death to Arabs,' 'There is no co-existence with cancer,' 'Kahane was right' and 'No to assimilation,' there really was no question about whether it were an intentional attack or an electricity short circuit.
 
The debate over the question of (Jews) going up to the Temple Mount came up again following the remarks by Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who called the Police Commissioner Yochanan Danino a "civil servant" after Danino was quoted asking members MKs not to visit the Temple Mount. But Danino said that Edelstein does not understand the commissioner's job and he is not simply a civil servant. Danino also clarified what he said about MKs not being allowed to vist the Temple Mount. "I did not say that MKs cannot visit the Temple Mount," said Danino. "I (spoke about) MKs who presented an agenda to change the status quo, MKs who said they would not rest until the status quo was change...Before they go up to the Temple Mount they make posts on Facebook, calling on people, 'Come save the Temple Mount.' About them I said that they could not go up to the Temple Mount," concluded the police commissioner.  (Maariv)


Quick Hits:
  • AG: No indictments over illegal West Bank construction - Legal watchdog group Yesh Din petitions High Court, demands builders in Ofra settlement be brought to justice. According to Attorney General, because the state has not brought criminal charges against illegal construction over the years in the W. Bank, even the few individuals who have been investigated cannot be charged because that would be unfairly discriminating against them in relation to others who have not been charged. (Haaretz+) 
  • Lapid: Important issues are stuck - and Netanyahu's standing by - Finance minister says he won't quit coalition as he doesn't want to concede control of the government to Likud; 'I'm not afraid of elections, but the state of Israel doesn't need elections right now.' (Ynet)
  • Prominent U.S. Jewish organization calls for nation-state rethink - Israel should be both the Jewish ethnic homeland and a democracy, says the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. (Haaretz)
  • N.J. synagogue taking steps to rein in rabbi who called Israeli Arabs 'savages' - In controversial blog post, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky said Arabs in Israel ‘must be vanquished.’ From now on his posts will be submitted for scrutiny ahead of publication. (JTA, Haaretz)  
  • Haaretz poll: Netanyahu popularity falling, but he's unlikely to be unseated - Moshe Kahlon’s newly formed party would earn between seven and 12 seats in an election, but the center-left is struggling without a credible leader. (Haaretz+) 
  • Australian woman returns home after month in IDF jail for draft dodging - Natalie Gershoig, who left Israel at 17 to be with sick father, was arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport for draft evasion and jailed for 35 days. (Haaretz+)
  •  alestinian approaching Gaza border fence shot by IDF - IDF fires at 16-year-old after he approached fence near Beit Lahiya, ignored warning shots; Gaza medical sources say boy was seriously wounded, rushed to hospital (Ynet)
  • Israeli police arrest Palestinian teen in Hebron for planning stabbing attack - Police say girl, 17, refused to undergo security check at Tomb of the Patriarchs, then tossed knife on the floor. (Haaretz)
  • Italian citizen seriously injured at West Bank protest, hospital official says - Israeli forces reportedly fire at 30-year-old man marching in Kufr Qadum near Nablus in support of Palestinians. (Agencies, Haaretz)


Features:
The Temple Mount and the end of Zionism
Zionism is one of the success stories of the 20th century, but it has not properly addressed its religious core – 
specifically the Temple Mount, which can no longer be ignored. (Tomer Persico, Haaretz+)

Commentary/Analysis:
The 'nation-state' bill: Jews should know exactly where it leads (Daniel Blatman, Haaretz+) One need not be a historian to see the resemblance between the controversial bill and nationality laws of in 1930s Europe.
Stop being shocked by anti-Arab singer Amir Benayoun (Rogel Alpher, Haaretz+) A racist society composes racist songs. 'Ahmed loves Israel' is completely legitimate in the context of Israeli society.
Living side by side in Jerusalem (Adnan Oktar, Yedioth/Ynet) Committing a sin and evil in the name of God, defending or glorifying it and rejoicing in the death of a Jew is the diametric opposite of the true spirit of Islam, writes Muslim author Adnan Oktar.
Temple Mount inciters have done one good thing (Eyal Megged, Haaretz+) Without meaning to, Israeli right-wingers calling for access to the Temple Mount are awakening some long-dormant sentiments among the Israeli public.
Israelis suffering from battered child syndrome (Tami Arad, Yedioth/Ynet) Knowing that Israelis are mostly concerned about their personal safety, Netanyahu is taking advantage of this high sensitivity for the sake of his political survival.
Netanyahu is turning Jerusalem into the new Tehran (Salman Masalha, Haaretz+) The racist downpours that have fallen on Israel lately are only the first rains of a long winter of racism, one that will flood Israel for years to come. 
Hannibal procedure: The State of Israel was kidnapped in favor of a pointless dance of demons (Ben Caspit, Maariv) The budget, housing, security, the economy - everything has stopped for the benefit festival of unnecessary laws that won't benefit anyone. Only one person is responsible for this scandal: the Prime Minister.
The Israeli media’s bite is as weak as its bark (Yossi Sarid, Haaretz+) When will they understand: A journalist who is not ‘anti’ in his consciousness and temperament is an anti-journalist, and a government mouthpiece is not a newspaper. 
What about the Jewish Nakba? (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) For decades, the Palestinians have nurtured the ethos of the Nakba while Israel chose to downplay the persecutions and expulsion of the Arab Jews. It is time to set the record straight.
Israel's internal brain drain: Arab talent going to waste (Jihad El-Sana and David Zonsheine, Haaretz+) The problem isn't only Israelis leaving the country, it's that talented people are shut outside the academic establishment.
Israel's real top dog (Eitan Haber, Yedioth/Ynet) The IDF chief is fully responsible for the lives of all of Israel's citizens – not the prime minister and not the defense minister; he's the one who defines the national mood, in particular the national fortitude on which the state exists.
Hysterical Knesset legislation is the harbinger of total chaos (Carolina Landsmann, Haaretz+) It’s frightening to see a society that removes the masks from itself and exposes its ugliness. Now's the time to start a genuine struggle over our image.
New IDF chief: Cool and calculated, will strike hard and fast - but only if he must (Yoav Zitun and Michal Margalit, Ynet) Gadi Eizenkot, the second Golani-bred army chief, is credited with rehabilitating the Northern Command following the Second Lebanon War and is described as a level-headed and modest commander.
East Jerusalem's Palestinians were born to a reality of occupation (Oudeh Basharat, Haaretz+) East Jerusalem isn’t cut off from the rest of the city; its residents see very well how city hall grants all the benefits to their Jewish neighbors.
Empty racism (Emily Amrousi, Israel Hayom) The hypocritical efforts to prove that the Jews are to blame for the attacks against them creates an infuriating artificial symmetry.
Fearing elections, Netanyahu returns to his roots: The hard right (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) In periods of distress, the PM always returns to his 'base.' He's looking for a flag to hoist in the next election, and there can be only one: Me and them – I’m here, they're there.
The majority also has rights (Prof. Asher Cohen, Israel Hayom) If enacted, the Jewish state bill would strike a balance between Israel's two core identities. 
Them and us: Where one should really look for the incitement and racism in Israel (Kalman Libskind, Maariv) What exactly is the difference between leftists who divide and act belligerently against the right-wing and the settlers and between Amir Benayoun? If we count all the extremist texts that incite to violence that were written here over the years - not by commenters, but by intellectuals, leaders and public stature - the Left beats the Right-wing. If a criminal investigation were opened, as man have recommended be opened against the singer Amir Benayoun, half of the Meretz party would be voting from the prison polling station. And, it's time to say honestly: Jews have had and will have an inherent advantage in the state, even before the nation-state law and regardless of it.
Welcome, Diaspora Jews, to the Israel you’ve been avoiding (Asher Schechter, Haaretz+) For too long, Diaspora Jews have been defending an imaginary Israel. The real one looks much more like the one described in the controversial nation-state bill.
The home of the Jews (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, and the Jewish people only.
Abbas is Arafat in a suit (Moshe Elad, Yedioth/Ynet) The Palestinian president is doing everything to avoid signing an agreement with Israel and has contributed greatly to the Israelis' lack of trust in the Palestinians. So why does the Israeli left remain so loyal to him?
**Conditions of hatred - evil wind from the government (Jawdat Ibrahim, Yedioth) Like in a centrifuge, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is pushing us out of the state, us the citizens and residents. By force, with violence, using democratic tools, the Prime Minister is acting to expel us, the Arab-Israelis, from the political game, from life in the country, from the basic rights of a citizen. Through his government and its satellites, like Habayit Hayehudi and its partners, the government policy is becoming hostile, abusive, alienating anyone who is not Jewish. As an Arab-Israeli who lives and was born here, as an Arab-Israeli who has devoted his life to create a bridge between Jews and Arabs, and as an Arab-Israeli who in his work does everything to preserve the different traditions - I find myself helpless, offended, and especially scared in the face of the violent attack directed at us, the Arab-Israelis. Amir Benayoun wrote a terrible horrible song, the President refused to allow him to enter his Residence, but from the Prime Minister and ministers and rabbis and so many other political and intellectual people - we heard nothing. Au contraire. And it's no surprise that Benayoun wrote the song now  - the atmosphere here that the government allows it. It began at the Temple Mount. Suddenly, they turned all the Arabs into enemies of the ultimate Jewish symbol. How did it happen suddenly, why - it doesn't matter. The fact that suddenly a bad wind from the government, a unilateral message to every Arab, according to which, the place of prayer holy to us does not belong to us. Then came the Mayor of Ashkelon, who rejected every Arab, whoever he is - and he, too, would not have dared to do that if it were not for the wind among the people to hate the Other. Never, even in the most terribly tense moments, do I remember that the government took an active part and actually drove the hatred. Always there was an attempt to compromise, to calm, to build bridges. That is not the situation today. Instead of calming, Netanyahu wants to pass the nation-state bill. He does not care about the atmosphere in the State, he does not care about the feelings of the public, he does not care about the level of hatred. He, in his arrogance, will pass the bill whatever comes, and that could cost us all in despair, a sense of loss, distance and loss of this state. We, the residents of Abu Ghosh, are working for years to bring hearts closer. Our businesses are integrated with Jewish businesses, and Jews come here on Sabbath and regular days and they never felt threatened. That is how we were educated and that is how we educate our children. Nevertheless, we are not a flock of bleating sheep. We believe dialogue can change, and that it takes time, but the present reality causes us to lose hope. If the Prime Minister believes that we are not equal people only because we were not born to a Jewish mother, he's wrong. If the Prime Minister things that through undemocratic laws it is possible to distance and oppress us and our rights, he is wrong. And if the Prime Minister things that through uniforms, guns, tanks and planes he can oppress the human spirit that demands equality, he is wrong. I am sorry for us: The Arab majority that wants to live in peace and the Jewish majority that also wants to live in peace. We deserve a different prime minister, a prime minister who broadcasts hope, peace and joy, and not someone who deals with wars, intimidations, threats and accusations. We deserve more.
Jordan, the legal guardian (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) Israel's efforts to lower Temple Mount friction could include an upgrade of Jordan's status, as Jordan views itself as the guardian and legal custodian of the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem. But the price Israel has to pay keeps going up.
Interviews: 
'It's hard to build peace; but living without peace is an absolute nightmare'
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview, his first to the Israeli media, Pope Francis expresses his sadness at the Jerusalem synagogue attack and the lack of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, voices his hatred for anti-Semitism and talks of his fears for the Christian communities persecuted by the Islamic State. (Interviewed by Henrique Cymerman in Yedioth/Ynet)
 


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