APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday December 14, 2014

Quote of the day:

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Front Page:

Haaretz

• Labor Party committee meets: Contacts to bring in Trajtenberg and Mofaz
• What did the MKs know? In Likud, they began collecting campaign donations a month ago
• Yishai expected to leave Shas party
• Palestinians in negotiations with Europeans over joint petition to UN Security Council
• Palestinian attacked Israelis with acid near Jerusalem
• Precedent: Military court ruled for compensation over terrorist
• Unknown persons opened fire on Israeli embassy in Athens, Greeks have no clues, but Lieberman already blamed Abbas
• Wrongful sanction (against Rabbis for Human Rights) // Haaretz Editorial

• Elections 2015: Lieberman vs. Netanyahu; Eli Yishai on way out (of Shas)
• Head to head in Habayit Hayehudi - effort to prevent division
• Netanyahu summoned to meeting with Kerry: "The veto at the UN is not a given"
• Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company to be dismantled? Treasury considering dismantling company
• Shula Zaken under the belt - Speaks about romance with Dachner in embarrasing recordings she tried to erase

• Lieberman: "I don't rule out Herzog nor Netanyahu" - Foreign Minister signaling to everyone
• No blocs // Ben Caspit
• Shula Zaken's secret tape recordings revealed (increase Olmert’s chance of acquittal)
• Division in Shas – Eli Yishai establishing new party

• Anger in right-wing: “Lieberman will bring a left-wing government”
• Drama in Shas: Eli Yishai on way out
• Yishai’s political future depends on Ariel // Dan Margalit
• Lieberman wants to be prime minister at any price // Mati Tuchfeld
• “The terrorist shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ and threw burning liquid on us”
• Today: Government expected to approve appointment of Gadi Eisenkott as chief of staff
• “Zaken’s recording – long before she became a state witness”
• Without hate – Facebook refuses to add a ‘don’t like’ button
  
  

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News Summary:
On the elections front, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman surprises when he slams Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but says he is willing to be in a coalition with him or with Labor party chief Isaac Herzog and Shas MK Eli Yishai leaves his party after 30 years and debates whether to unite with very far-right-wing MK Uri Ariel, who might break off from the far-right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party. On the diplomatic front, the US debates whether to veto two UN resolutions coming to the Security Council on Palestinian statehood and an end to the Israeli occupation and pressures the Palestinians not to break off security coordination with Israel following the death of the Palestinian Minister on Settlements Ziyad Abu Ein, making top stories in the Hebrew papers today. Meanwhile, Hamas condemned an attack near the French cultural center in Gaza City, revealing it appreciates the French offer for Palestinian statehood and a mentally unstable Palestinian threw acid on Israeli civilians in the West Bank, injuring seven.
 
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Netanyahu to meet him Monday in Rome in order to discuss the UN proposals to be voted on this month calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state within two years and whether the US will veto them or not. The papers stress that the US veto is not a given. Yedioth wrote that the US would like not to veto the proposals, but it’s afraid that Netanyahu will use that to help his election campaign by saying, ‘See, the whole world is against us.’ [It is unclear why the veto can’t also be used against him since it is a sign of the bad relations between him, his government and the US administration. – OH] Maariv writes that the US is considering accepting a ‘softened’ proposal recognizing a Palestinian state. Haaretz’s Jack Khoury writes that the Palestinians are working feverishly to formulate with the Europeans a single UN resolution instead of the separate French one and Jordanian one that the European and the Arab states can agree on.
  
An explosion went off near the French cultural center in Gaza City, which was not reported on in the Israeli media. A Hamas leader in Gaza, Ahmad Yousef, said Hamas condemned the attack. In his condemnation he revealed Hamas’ positive view towards the French UN proposal for two-states. “Why at this specific time at which France has a generous stand toward Palestine?” Yousef said. Meanwhile, Portugal’s parliament has called for recognition of a Palestinian state, the latest European parliament in a long list. 
 
The UN human rights chief called on Israel to probe Palestinian protesters' deaths. Zeid Raad al-Hussein said the death of the Palestinian Minister on Settlements Ziyad Abu Ein after a scuffle with Israeli Border Police, along with the serious wounding of a 14-year-old Palestinian boy reportedly shot by Israeli security forces the following day, should be properly investigated. He noted that in 2014 at least 50 Palestinians have died in incidents involving Israeli security forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, almost twice as many as the previous year.
  
Kerry offered condolences to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over Abu Ein’s death and also reportedly pressured him not to stop security coordination with Israel, despite Palestinian declarations it was doing so following Abu Ein’s death. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said that Israel did not need security coordination with the Palestinians anyway and said the Palestinian Authority threats to end it were 'idle talk.’ 
 
Indeed, on Friday, after a Palestinian man attacked and wounded six Israelis with acid in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, a high ranking Israeli officer said the security coordination with the Palestinians was ongoing, Haaretz reported. Maariv reported that the attacker was previously hospitalized in a mental hospital in Bethlehem for mental problems he had after being previously jailed several times by Israel. His three sons, ages 19-23, were arrested last night by the IDF in their home along with his brother, Issa.

Quick Hits:

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Features:

The Iron Woman of Jaffa
‘Hinnawi’ has long been a synonym for alcohol and good food. Behind the scenes of the (food store chain) empire of the Jaffa family, Rosette Hinawi pulls the strings: an Arab business woman who works in a hard male industry. “Co-existence begins in the kitchen,” she says ahead of a Christmas dinner being held today with the participation of influential Jewish and Arab women at her restaurant in Jaffa, ‘Rosette's Cafe Bistro.’ (Shir-Li Golan, Yedioth’s ’24 Hours’ supplement, pp. 8-9)


Commentary/Analysis:

Stop using the tax authority as a tool of the right (Haaretz Editorial) Decision of Israel Tax Authority to refuse third tax exemption application of Rabbis for Human Rights under Paragraph 48 smacks of politics, discrimination.
I'll vote, but who for? (Rafik Halabi, Yedioth/Ynet) The days of real political thought and debate are long gone, and all that is left are babbling celebrities and a worrying lack of knowledge.
The Israeli 'center,' aka the Israeli 'right' (Yossi Sarid, Haaretz+) The ‘consensus’ covers everyone like a warm blanket: Everyone goes together to an unnecessary war, everyone adds billions in spending for defense and the settlements.
Netanyahu's self-defeating matchmaking (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth/Ynet) Herzog and Livni, if the polls are to be believed, have created a force to be reckoned with; but their true tests are still ahead of them.
Time for the revolution (Yoel Marcus, Haaretz+) Booting Netanyahu from power is a national interest, and now it’s in the hands of Bougie and Tzipi.
The real extremists (Yoel Meltzer, Yedioth/Ynet) As so-called right-wing, nationalist, anti-democratic extremists are what majority of Israeli voters want, left's ongoing stinging attack is actually a scathing condemnation of voters themselves.
Israel, a make-believe democracy (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) The occupation and the defense budget are the elephants in the room that no candidate, not even Livni and Herzog, will touch.
Without white noise: It's time to talk about our real problems (Alon Mizrachi, Maariv) Only three issues need to stand in the center of the upcoming election: What Israel intends to do with the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem, will there be a free market here, and how will politics stop being as a tool for personal advancement?
A hypocritical and manipulative Left (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) The leftist media is conducting a re-education campaign, the likes of which was seen in the Soviet prison camps and Ceausescu's Romania. 
All eyes on the Palestinian street (Alex Fishman, Yedioth/Ynet) Palestinian minister's death during West Bank demonstration was particularly bad timing for both sides; the Palestinians have been enjoying global momentum, and Israel was hoping that attacks and demonstrations had wound down. Now everyone is anxiously watching Palestinian street, the deciding factor in whether area is again engulfed in flames.  
The nation that was erased and forgotten (Ehud Ein-Gil, Haaretz+) Is Israel a Jewish nation or a Hebrew nation? And what is the difference between the Jewish community and the Jewish people? A look at the Declaration of Independence offers clear and telling distinctions.
Pathological findings (Ruthie Blum, Israel Hayom) The endless cycle of Israeli capitulation for a negotiated settlement, alongside Palestinian aspirations for Western-sanctioned jihad, must be put to a halt. 
Israel-Palestinian security cooperation is crucial for Abbas' survival (Smadar Perry, Yedioth/Ynet) In the double game he is playing, the Palestinian president complains about Israel while owing the country a massive debt.
**Coexistence will actually come from the academia (Prof. Bertold Friedlander, Maariv) In the face of the wave of nationalist-inspired violence, a unique example of cooperation between Arab and Jewish students proves that there is another way...This week we present the results of  the "Bio-explore" research project that deals with the study of plants in the Mediterranean basin and is supported by the European Union. Project partners are our colleagues from a  research institution in Nablus, BERC, which is in the Palestinian Authority and also research institutions from Greece and Spain. Through a unique collaboration with researchers from the Palestinian Authority an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue was created in the world of research. Students from the Department of Biotechnology, Jews and Arabs together, researched day and night for a common goal. In contrast to the political reality in which there is a dispute over the territory of the country, during the joint study we investigated the potential medicinal properties of plants unique to this strip of land, each side with love, and its narrative and connection to the land that is the focus of the conflict... 
Sorry folks, Israel's Declaration of Independence made no mention of democracy (Yoram Shachar, Haaretz+) Records show that Israel was born as a Jewish state with some democratic traces. We can only hope that future generations make it a democratic state with Jewish traits.
Ignore the overheated rhetoric (David M. Weinberg, Israel Hayom) It must be said: Israel is stronger, more stable and saner than it may look over the next ‎‎100 days of campaigning.‎
Israel-Palestinian security cooperation is not in danger (Elior Levy, Ynet) Despite growing calls inside Palestinian Authority for an end to coordination after Ziad Abu Ein's death, arrangement at highest level is too advantageous to abandon.
Farewell ideology, it's election time (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom) The Left has nothing to sell on the diplomatic front, except fantasies • Also, the Right must be wary of Avigdor Lieberman.
A moment of intimacy exposes MKs' true colors (Carolina Landsmann, Haaretz+) If the situation is really as grave as they've been telling us, then how in the world can our political rivals be so merrily yukking it up together?
 

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