Best-laid plans

After a week of political bickering over the “Jewish state” bill, Friday’s papers switch gears and look at the other plans politicians have brewing for the upcoming week.

Yedioth Ahronoth gets its hands on Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s new regional peace plan, which the paper says is also now the platform for his Yisrael Beytenu party. Liberman’s plan would give up territory as well as arrange population swaps of Israeli Arabs to a future Palestinian state. “The nation of Israel is more important than the land of Israel,” the paper quotes Liberman on why he’s willing to give up land.

The paper labels the plan as an election platform, but that doesn’t stop it from quoting extensively from it, mainly to explain why Liberman focuses on regional peace and not just peace with the Palestinians: “The conflict Israel faces is not just a territorial conflict with the Palestinians; rather it is a combined three-dimensional conflict: Arab countries, Palestinians, and Israeli-Arabs. Therefore any agreement with the Palestinians has to include peace agreements with the Arab states and population and territory exchanges with Israeli-Arabs.”

The plan itself may be designed for elections, but that’s not stopping Liberman from spreading it around the world. He is expected to present the plan next week at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Basel, Switzerland. After that, Liberman will travel to America and present the plan at the annual Saban Forum.

While Liberman plans to travel the world discussing his plan, Haaretz reports that Knesset members are in a race against time to update legislation regarding the Holot detention facility. Back in September, the High Court of Justice struck down the “Anti-Infiltration Law” and gave the Knesset 90 days to create a new law. Lawmakers are cramming six sessions on the new law into three days next week, trying to pass it before the 90 days expire.

Ideas that may be included in the new legislation include a 20-month limit on holding African migrants (previously it was indefinite) and requiring migrants to be present at only one nightly headcount (previously it was three times per day). The paper points out that there isn’t a fundamental change in Israel’s policy but lawmakers are hoping that this updated law will appease the High Court.

Israel Hayom looks in horror at the newly revealed plans for terror attacks in Jerusalem by Hamas. Over 30 members of Hamas were arrested in September under suspicion of planning terror attacks against Israeli targets, including Teddy Stadium, the home of the soccer team Beitar Jerusalem. According to the IDF and Shin Bet, revealing the details on Thursday, the terror cell was commanded out of Turkey and had trained in Syria, Jordan, Turkey, and Gaza. Curiously, the paper writes, the strategic goal of the attacks was not to harm Israel, but to provoke Israel into a such strong reaction that it would cause the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

And the next IDF chief is…

The IDF’s top brass has been playing a waiting game for the past three weeks wondering who will be the next chief of staff. With just over two months until current IDF chief Benny Gantz’s term ends, Israel Hayom writes, “there are more than a few eyebrows raised at the delay in the appointment.” I

n order to ensure a smooth handoff, the appointment is usually made three months before the sitting chief leaves the post. However this time around, instead of just the defense minister making the appointment, Netanyahu became involved and interviewed candidates multiple times. While the process is taking longer, the paper believes the result will be the one everyone expected from the beginning: the next IDF chief of staff will be Major-General Gadi Eizenkot.

Yedioth also thinks Eizenkot will be named to the top spot, but reports that sources from within the IDF worry the delay has damaged the army. Eizenkot was considered by many to be defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s first choice and the fact that Netanyahu stepped in and interviewed other candidates gives the appearance that Netanyahu doesn’t trust Ya’alon or his choice. Additionally, an appointment is needed for the deputy chief of staff (the post which Eizenkot currently occupies), and both posts need more than two months to train their replacements to ensure a smooth transition.

In other army news, Haaretz reports on a speech that IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz gave at a yeshiva earlier in November in which he belittles Muslims’ connection to the Temple Mount. “When Muslims pray, they turn their backside to the Temple Mount,” he told to the audience. He also said, “90% of Arabs don’t know what is written in the Quran. I tell you this with full authority: we know more than many of them.”

The IDF issued a response to the speech, saying, “Things were taken out of context and do not reflect the opinion of the IDF Rabbinate. The rabbi regrets if his words offended the Arab population.”

Hit and runs

Friday’s papers also have two stories about hit and runs in Israel. Israel Hayom reports on the first day of the trial of two Frenchmen who are accused of killing Lee Zeitouni in a 2011 hit and run in Tel Aviv. The two French citizens are accused of running into Zeitouni, leaving the scene and then fleeing the country just hours later to avoid prosecution. Since France doesn’t extradite its citizens outside the EU, the trial is being held in France. However, the process is off to a rocky start and has already been delayed until Wednesday after an unidentified assailant punched the defense attorney for one of the men in the face.

Meanwhile in Bat Yam, police officer Noy Zeitoun is in moderate condition after being struck by a car driven by a top soccer official trying to flee arrest. Yedioth gives the play-by-play of the incident starting with unnamed official (since identified as Hapoel Petah Tikva manager Ofer Tzabari) being spotted partially naked in a car with a 17-year-old boy by Zeitoun and her partner. The police removed the boy from the car, then the driver asked if Zeitoun could give him a little room so he could get dressed. When she did, he floored it and struck her, leaving her injured in the street while he tried to flee. He led police on a two-hour chase until he was finally arrested in Petah Tikva. No word on the list of charges against the soccer official, but apparently he has already met with his lawyer.