News Nosh 8.18.20

by APN 08/18/20
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APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday August 18, 2020

Quote of the day:

“That land is land that right now Israel, quite frankly, controls.”
—Senior Trump administration advisor, Jared Kushner, ‘frankly’ reveals that he thinks that the West Bank is land that does not belong to Israel and, therefore, essentially, is occupied.*

You Must Be Kidding: 

The Israeli police released a video of the 30-year-old Palestinian man stabbing a Border Policeman in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday. The Israeli police did not release the video of the Israeli guards shooting a 60-year-old deaf Palestinian man at the Kalandia checkpoint in E. Jerusalem yesterday.* And it said that none of the 10 CCTV cameras that pointed to the place where a Border Policeman shot in cold blood an autistic Palestinian man in the Old City in June worked.*


Front Page:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

  • Behind the back of the security establishment: Enormous deal for selling F-35 stealth fighters and drones to the Emirates - New revelations from behind the scenes of the peace agreement with Israel
  • Rise in unemployment
  • In the skies of Dachau, in memory of grandpa and grandma - Deputy commander of air force fleet will sit in the cockpit today and lead an Israeli-German flyover over the concentration camp

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

  • Relations are warming up - Mossad chief landed in Dubai
  • Hello first grade, also with the parents - Education Ministry announced: Parents of children in first grade and pre-schools will be allowed to escort them on September 1st
  • Non-stop fire - Balloon terror continues
  • Postponing the crisis - Coalition cooperated to pass in a first reading the postponement of the state budget deadline
  • Likely: A closure during the High Holidays

Israel Hayom

  • Memorandum of sovereignty [annexation] - Will the ‘Deal of the Century’ remain even if the US administration is replaced? The administration is considering anchor in writing the commitment to Trump’s peace plan
  • Gamzu’s recommendation: Expansive restrictions during the High Holidays
  • History, in their memory - For the first time, Israel Air Force in Germany for a joint exercise
  • “It will be a warm peace”: Our correspondent with the excited Jewish community in Dubai
  • The terror returned: Border Policeman moderately injured in stabbing attack in Jerusalem
  • Trump narrows the gap in polls: Our correspondent reports from the Democratic Convention
  • Unemployment rising: Some half a million people without work


Top News Summary:
Will the US sell F-35 jets to the UAE as part of a secret clause in the deal and if and when will the US allow Israel to annex parts of the West Bank? These two aspects of the Israel-UAE agreement to normalize ties were the top stories in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Also, the latest on Hamas-Israel demands and violent exchangesn and a media critique.

Yedioth’s Nahum Barnea broke the story that there is a secret clause whereby the US will sell F-35 jets, drones and other aircraft that will be supplied by the US to the UAE as part of the normalization agreement with Israel. Barnea’s sources confirmed that Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed conditioned the agreement on the multi-billion-dollar arms sale. The problem is that the sale of F-35s would upset the balance of Israeli military superiority in the region. Haaretz+ reported that Israeli sources feared that Netanyahu and his confidants had this secret agreement up their sleeve, without consulting with Israeli security officials and and despite their opposition [which is probably why they weren’t informed. - OH]

Maariv/103FM had some interesting interviews on the subject with intel officials today. Gen. (res.) Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, former commander of the Air Force, said, "The Emirates have no border with us, so there is no drama that they have F-35s.” But, Intel Minister Eli Cohen said, “I don’t know about this clause. The State of Israel remains in its position against providing weapons that will upset the balance and Israel’s security strength. I will not agree to a situation where there is a change in the regional security superiority that Israel has.” And, former member of the Intel department of the Mossad, Haim Tomer, said that the sale of the F-35s "is not the story. Turkey also has an F35 and it is a much bigger threat. What’s worrying about the report of the cancelling of the American embargo as part of relations with the UAE is that the defense establishment did not know about the agreement." (On Tuesday, Netanyahu dismissed the report, calling it ‘fake news.’)

’Some time’:
*After previous confusion, senior Trump advisor Jared Kushner said that the U.S. government does not plan on giving Israel permission to annex parts of the West Bank "for some time," and that Israel will not follow through with annexation without U.S. approval. Asked how he was sure Israel would not apply sovereignty in the West Bank in the meantime, Kushner said, “That land is land that right now Israel, quite frankly, controls. Israelis that live there aren’t going anywhere. There shouldn’t be any urgency to applying Israeli law. We believe they will respect their agreement,” Kushner said. Kushner also dissed the Palestinians, saying, "We're not going to chase the Palestinian leadership…Their credibility is just really falling to an all-time low and even people who want to help the Palestinians, those people are just saying that you can't help people who don't want to help themselves." Kushner said, the world was "starting to block out the noise" coming from Palestinian officials, calling their responses "just so predictable and illogical." But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the Israel-UAE deal 'a killer' for the two-state solution and used some logic, saying that Netanyahu will have "less incentive" to compromise on a Palestinian state if he thinks Arab countries are "lining up to make peace.” (Ynet Hebrew) ‘Israel Hayom’ reported that Palestinians living in the UAE welcome the deal with Israel.
And, ‘Israel Hayom’s political correspondent, Ariel Kahana, reported that the US is exploring ways to make Trump’s peace plan binding, such as signing a memorandum about the plan that would obligate future administrations to abide by it. Interestingly, Netanyahu told the Sky News network broadcasting from Abu Dhabi that in regards to the Israel-UAE deal, "Israel's priority is peace - not annexation.” (Maariv) At the Knesset, a new pro-annexation lobby was launched, Maariv reported.  The new ‘Land of Israel’ lobby, headed by MKs Haim Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, calls for the application of Israeli law to the West Bank as soon as possible. Maariv reported that members of the lobby were careful not to attack Netanyahu and in the coming days, the lobby will promote several bills, including a bill to repeal the Civil Administration (Israeli administration that deals with civil affairs of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank), a ‘fabric of life’ law to ‘legalize young settlements,’ i.e. outposts, and a law to amend the Cooperative Communities Ordinance, which will allow localities (i.e. settlements) with admissions committees to increase from 400 to 700 residents. Knesset Speaker MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said at the conference that "sovereignty is an unquestionable right of the people of Israel, and its realization is our duty. It is not a matter of choice. As Speaker of the Knesset, I see my role as having to run the house in a state-like manner, but I am not from the UN and I will help advance the issue. "

Meanwhile, the different Israeli bodies are fighting over who will get to go to Abu Dhabi. Haaretz reported Monday that Netanyahu has been sidelining the Foreign Ministry, led by Gabi Ashkenazi, and instead sending his confidante, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, to do the talking. Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Ashkenazi (both Kahol-Lavan) were furious at being kept in the dark about the talks and the deal. Yedioth Hebrew reported that now the Mossad wants to transfer the responsibility to the Foreign Ministry. Interestingly, Haaretz’s Yossi Melman writes that actually, it’s not the Mossad chief, but an Israeli ‘consultant’ named Bruce Kashdan who is responsible for the success of this deal. Kashdan, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s roving ambassador in Arab countries, has been working on this deal behind the scenes for years. Most of Kashdan's work in the last three decades has been with countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations. (Read in Commentary/Analysis below.)

In other related news, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin formally invited the UAE Crown Prince to Jerusalem. Netanyahu tweeted that the UAE is an ‘advanced democracy’ and then deleted it. The UAE is a hereditary monarchy. A U.S.-based NGO gave it a 17/100 score in freedom – and 5/40 in political rights, Haaretz+ reported. Netanyahu said he’s working on direct flights to the UAE via Saudi skies. The Foreign Minister of Oman called his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi. He also called the Fatah central committee secretary-general, Jibril Rajoub, and emphasized the Gulf states' commitment to the Palestinian cause. And a UAE minister emphasized that the agreement with Israel was not directed at Iran. (Maariv)

**MEDIA CRITIQUE: Reports on two shootings
On the same day that an Israeli security guard at a West Bank checkpoint shot a deaf Palestinian man in his 60’s, moderately injuring him, a Palestinian young man stabbed and moderately injured a Border Policeman. ‘Israel Hayom’ reported on its front page that ‘terror’ has returned and on page 17 it dedicated two-thirds of the page and photos to the report about the stabbing of the Border Policeman. A small side item reported on the shooting of the innocent deaf man. In Yedioth, it was the same. The man who stabbed the Border Policeman was “neutralized,” usually a euphemism for shot dead. In Maariv, there was no separate article about the shooting of the Palestinian man, only the headline: “Terror in the Old City: Border Policeman moderately wounded in stabbing attack. The headline was misleading because most of the article was about the shooting of the deaf Palestinian man, giving details the other articles did not. The civilian security guard was put under house arrest for five days. The report also compared the shooting to the much criticized killing of the autistic Palestinian man, Iyad Alhallaq, by a Border Policeman two months ago. Maariv also quoted Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh, who demanded the immediate release of the videos from the Kalandia checkpoint where the deaf man was shot, “before they make them disappear into the drawer where they are hiding the video clips of the murder of Iyad Alhallaq.” In the case of Alhallak’s killing, the police said that none of the (10) CCTV cameras that point at the place where he was chased and killed by the Border Policeman worked. Interestingly, in the two incidents Monday, the police released the video of the stabbing of the Border Policeman, but not the video of the shooting of the deaf Palestinian man.

COALITION PROBLEMS:
Coalition partners Likud and Kahol-Lavan are still battling over the budget - one year or two, and the Knesset will be dissolved if they don't agree by August 25th, the state budget deadline. But they did agree to extend the budget deadline, and the bill to do so was passed in a stormy first reading yesterday. MK Zvi Hauzer (Derech Eretz party), who submitted the bill, accused the Opposition of wanting to “punish” the coalition by voting against the deferral. Following this, there was an exchange of shouts between him and MK Miki Levy (Yesh Atid), who told him: "Bring a budget, you bunch of zeros, what’s stopping you? You are driving the country crazy. Bring a budget and we will vote in favor." The Likud has been suspected of not wanting to pass the budget in order to cause the country to go to elections. But Yedioth writes that Likud will in the end vote for it. (Haaretz+, Yedioth Hebrew and Maariv)

Hamas-Israel-Gaza Strip

An Egyptian delegation arrived in Gaza Monday to mediate between Israel and Hamas, but the incendiary balloons continued, the Israeli air attacks continued and Israel has yet to respond to the Hamas humanitarian demands, some of which Israel had agreed on last year, but did not implement. The demands include increasing the fishing zone to 20 nautical miles, keeping the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing open all day, giving permission to export and import from the Gaza Strip, approving large-scale infrastructure-economic projects related to electricity and water, increasing the number of work permits for workers from Gaza to 100,000 permitting the UN to carry projects and doubling the size of the Qatari financial grant.

Quick Hits:

  • Israeli Guards Shoot Deaf Palestinian Who Also Has Hearing  Impairment at West Bank Checkpoint - 60-year-old said to be in light-to-moderate condition after being shot by private security contractor guards at Qalandiya checkpoint, hours after separate shooting incident in Bethlehem. (Haaretz+ and Ynet and Maariv)
  • 'He's a Soldier, the Court Will Act in His Favor': Family of Palestinian Killed by Israeli Slams Plea Deal - Soldier who 'mistakenly' shot and killed Ahmad Manasra will be convicted of negligent homicide and serve a three-month sentence of community service. (Haaretz+)
  • Israeli Border Police Officer Wounded in Suspected Stabbing Attack in Jerusalem's Old City - Israeli forces enter village of suspect and arrest his mother and two brothers; victim in stable condition. (Haaretz+ and Maariv and VIDEO)
  • Israel Releases Palestinian BDS Activist After Two-week Detention Without Charges - 'They cannot break us,' says Mahmoud Nawajaa, who was freed without charge after 20 Israeli soldiers raided his home two weeks ago. (Agencies, Haaretz and Ynet)
  • Without a Word, Israeli Army Turned an Old Olive Grove in North Into a Firing Zone - A Galilee family tended its plot for decades until the army started using live fire, forcing them to live with the devastating results. (Haaretz+)
  • Netanyahu's former chief of staff turned state's evidence in corruption cases charged with fraud - According to the indictment filed as part of deal with prosecution, Ari Harow, for his pocketing profits he received from 3H, a company he kept owning despite being ordered to sell it before beginning his job as Netanyahu’s chief of staff. NIP Global paid 3H, i.e. Harow, for arranging a meeting for the President of Madagascar with Netanyahu. Harow was also indicted for fictitiously selling 3H. (In 2016, the Israeli company NIP Global was found guilty of giving bribes to a foreign civil servant in the Kingdom of Lesotho, in Africa, in order to advance a deal.) (Haaretz+)
  • Trump Says Moved Embassy to Jerusalem 'For the Evangelicals' - President says 'the evangelicals are more excited' by controversial 2018 move 'than Jewish people.' (Haaretz+)
  • Hundreds demonstrate against the satire program "The Jews Are Coming": "Stop the Contempt of the Torah" - The protesters came to the offices of the Public Broadcasting Corporation to protest the broadcast of a comedy show. "Whoever harms our ancestors harms all the people of Israel," said one of the rabbis who claimed: “Corona came to make people aware against postmodernism." MK from United Torah Judaism party: "We will take away their budget and give it to the families, we will turn the High Court into a place of Judaism.” (Yedioth Hebrew)
  • Israeli, German jets fly over Dachau, site of Munich Games massacre - Israeli Air Force F-16s and German Eurofighters escort IAF's Gulfstream G-550 carrying commanders of two countries' air forces over the Nazi camp memorial, airfield where 11 Israeli athletes were brutally killed during 1972 Olympics. (Agencies, Ynet)
  • Coronavirus Israel Live: Palestinians Shun IDF Testing Station in Virus-stricken East Jerusalem - Confirmed cases top 95,000 ■ Passengers returning from 'green' countries no longer have to self-isolate ■ Israeli Arab panel reports 1,600 new cases in a week. (Haaretz)
  • As first Greece flight takes off, 15 Israelis banned over faulty virus tests - Aegean Airlines resumes activity to and from Israel for first time in months, but passengers were not allowed to board with incorrect forms or results of coronavirus tests conducted more than 72 hours before departure. (Ynet)
  • Israeli health officials praise Hamas' handling of coronavirus - Senior Health Ministry official says during coronavirus debate on reopening of Taba-Eilat border crossing that Egypt is still a country with a high infection rate, citing Hamas' practice of quarantining those returning from the country for 3 weeks. (Ynet)
  • 'Dream destination' cafés offer taste of paradise in Gaza - Several new seaside cafés, bearing the names of dream travel destinations such as Marbella, Dubai and Sharm el-Sheikh, offer a brief window onto a more exotic life to war-tired Gazans. (Agencies, Israel Hayom)
  • 'Terror tunnel' dating back to 1948 unearthed in Safed - Tunnel, which is described in a number of Israeli memoirs about the War of Independence, caved in before it could be used by local Arabs to annihilate the Jews of Safed. (Israel Hayom)
  • UN tribunal set to announce verdicts in Hariri case 15 years after Beirut assassination - Ruling expected on Tuesday in trial of four Hezbollah operatives allegedly involved in the killing of 22 people, including former Lebanese prime minister. (Agencies, Haaretz and Ynet)
  • Lebanon Needs Two-week Lockdown After 'Shocking' COVID-19 Rise, Minister Says - Health Ministry records 456 new infections on Monday, as Beirut reels from massive blast that killed at least 178 people. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • Two U.S. helicopters attacked a Syrian army checkpoint, reports state media - Separate blast hits Turkish-Russian joint patrol in Syria's Idlib. (Agencies, Haaretz)
  • China welcomes Putin's proposed summit on Iran - Russia and China opposed extending the weapons ban, which is due to expire in October under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. (Agencies, Haaretz)


Features:

Works in multi-arenas and adapted to the modern battlefield: Meet the new division of the IDF
A new division is currently being established in the IDF, which, unlike other divisions subordinated to regional commands, will be subordinated to the ground forces and will also integrate the multidimensional and advanced "ghost" unit. (Tal Lev Ram, Maariv)

Top Commentary/Analysis:
Israel's Disproportionate and Cynical ‘Coronavirus Lockdown’ on Gaza (Amir Rotem, Haaretz+) When her mother fell ill and was on her deathbed nine years ago, Niveen Zanoun couldn’t obtain a permit from Israel to leave the Gaza Strip for a visit to the West Bank. She only received a permit after the funeral. Now her father is dying of cancer in Nablus and Zanoun, 41, wants to make amends and see him, probably for the last time. But once again Israel is refusing her request, saying that the political leaders ruled in March that due to the coronavirus, the curse of a lockdown has been imposed on all Gazans. For five months Israel has been imposing this lockdown on Gaza, in addition to the usual, permanent closure.In effect, this is a sweeping, disproportionate and cynical decision because it’s exploiting a plethora of circumstances to exacerbate a long-term policy that has branded Gaza a tainted territory, a penal colony, an isolated enclave...
Israel’s Secret Envoy to the UAE and How Its Arms and Cyber Dealers Do Business There (Yossi Melman, Haaretz+) Bruce Kashdan doesn’t seek publicity. Netanyahu, who does, once withdrew at the last minute from a UAE-type plan with a Gulf state. great trust that has built up over the last 25 years between Kashdan, who is employed on a special contract and whose official title is “consultant,” and Gulf leaders. Kashdan is a modest person who doesn’t seek publicity and operates under the radar. Some people take advantage of this for the worse, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and don’t take Kashdan on the trips and meetings he works so hard for. Instead, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and to a certain extent National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat reap the credit.
Netanyahu has always been playing 3D chess (Daniel Seaman, Israel Hayom) An Israel-Sunni/Muslim axis has quietly and delicately been put together, and now the Iranians face the reality of an Israeli forward base of operations on their doorstep.
One day it will happen: maybe in a decade or two an agreement with the Palestinians will be signed (Dr. Orit Miller-Katab, Maariv) After the agreement with the United Arab Emirates, Netanyahu must turn to making peace inside the house. And also: an unforgettable meeting on a plane with the citizen of the Emirates, who foresaw the future and invited me to visit his palace.
Attention UAE Leaders: Israel Is Advancing De Facto Annexation (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) he United Arab Emirates is not normalizing its relations with the Israel of the relaxed Tel Aviv atmosphere, with its bars and startups, with the normalcy the average Israeli attributes to his or her life in their sovereign country. The UAE is upgrading its relations with a state that refuses to shed its settler-colonial character, that on the contrary is constantly honing its skills at staying the course. But why quibble about the UAE? This is what everyone else is doing. France, Britain, Germany, Norway, Canada, Australia, etc. etc. They denounce, they warn, they express their concern. That much is true. But every day their friendly relations, civilian and military trade with Israel, and scientific cooperation continue as usual, with no clear sanctions, with no steps taken to clarify to Israel that it’s abnormal to have under its boot a nation with no rights and with no end to this in sight. This is seen by Jerusalem as encouragement to continue unimpeded...
A revolutionary peace treaty (Fiamma Nirenstein, Israel Hayom) The new situation in the Middle East is set between two blocs – one of which has finally embraced the concept that Israel is far from being a detriment.
Don't Compare MBZ and Bibi to Sadat and Begin – the UAE-Israel Deal Is Much Bigger Than Peace (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) Unlike Israel’s treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the recent agreement with the UAE isn’t really a peace deal. But it has much greater potential for a geopolitical reshuffle
In the shadow of the peace agreement with the Emirates: Iran will remain a critical issue on the Israeli agenda (Zalman Shoval, Maariv) The peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates is not an isolated event but another important step in the overall peace strategy that Binyamin Netanyahu has been working on for years, long before Trump entered the White House.
The UAE needs Israel more than Israel needs the UAE (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) What the Emiratis can offer – oil, investment and arms deals – are worth less these days than the tech and tourism that Israel can provide.
Israel and the Arab states against Iran and Turkey (Dan Schueftan, Israel Hayom) The willingness of the Persian Gulf states to establish ties with Israel conveys the strength and reliability of the Jewish state in the eyes of the Arab nations. This is a dramatic regional achievement.
For Trump’s Jewish Supporters, ‘Four More Years’ Tops Annexation (Jonathan S. Tobin, Haaretz+) Near-universal cheers for the Israel-UAE agreement show that for right-wing American Jews, keeping Trump in the White House is more important than the settlements.
The Israeli Army Has Big, Ambitious Plans. But There's Only One Problem (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) The military's multiyear plan requires many resources, but Israel's economic crisis is forcing the IDF to reconcile itself to a new reality.
UNIFIL: An opportunity for change (Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Israel Hayom) It would serve Israel's strategic interests if UNIFIL's "temporary" mandate were cancelled or cut back.
Lebanon: The tragic story of the Arab world (Prof. Efraim Inbar, Israel Hayom) Lebanon is a failed state, and its misfortunes are characteristic of a broader regional malaise. The result is a plethora of sectarian and ethnic militias, each vying for control.

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

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