School of hard knocks

Teenage boys in black uniforms are seen grappling in the sand, learning combat skills to fight against Israeli security forces, and how to foil interrogation by the Shin Bet, all under the headline “Summer camp of incitement.”

The participants, between the ages of 14 and 22, are ostensibly taking part in a pre-army training program. They’re filmed practicing Krav Maga, doing push-ups and sit-ups, and leaping over obstacles.

Sounds like yet another Israeli expose on the horrible indoctrination of Palestinian children by Hamas to perpetrate violence against the Jews, right?

Wrong. It’s the front page scoop in Yedioth Ahronoth on Tuesday about the extreme right-wing Jewish group Lehava’s training camp in the southern West Bank.

The paper reports that the summer camp is in its second year, and among the lessons taught by instructors is how to intimidate an Arab speaker in his own language. “They teach us how to address an Arab who’s going out with a Jewess,” the youths tell the paper. “I know how to tell him in Arabic: ‘Give me your sister’s number,’ and then to tell him to stop being in touch with the Jewish girl.”

The images and substance of the report are so similar to the Hamas summer camps in the Gaza Strip so roundly condemned by the Israeli press that the side-by-side comparison of the videos can’t be missed. (One major difference: Hamas videos have way better music.)

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s comments behind closed doors that the remains of two IDF soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip won’t be returned to Israel grabs Haaretz’s attention. It quotes a Channel 10 report citing Liberman saying that he doesn’t plan to strike a deal with Hamas to bring the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul home.

As one might expect, the paper’s editorial rips into Liberman, this time for criticizing the media over the Hebron shooter case, saying he’s “unworthy” of holding the defense portfolio. It says the Yisrael Beytenu party leader is “disingenuous” in lambasting the media for covering the case of Elor Azaria. “The essence of his argument is that ‘people who fight terrorism every day can’t pursue their mission with a lawyer at their side,'” it says. “He should know: During 20 years of police questioning Liberman needed more than one lawyer at his side.”

“Liberman wraps himself in the pretensions of the minister responsible for the army, but he is in fact encouraging gang-like behavior,” it says.

With the school year set to start in a matter of days (remind me again why the school year starts on a Thursday?), education is a key issue in the Hebrew press. The papers break down an Education Ministry report on high school matriculation exam results. Haaretz picks up on the fact that Arab and ultra-Orthodox communities have significantly lower matriculation rates than the national average.

Israel Hayom plays up the number of students who are tested as if they have learning disabilities (in some towns over 60%), the percentages of which are far higher than the real percentage of students with learning disabilities, which it says is around 3%.

The paper quotes a psychologist specializing in learning disabilities saying it’s “a way to run away from their difficulties.” Another expert says that parents in wealthier towns pay to have their kids tested with the handicaps for those with learning disabilities to increase their odds of a better score.

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that the Education Ministry released statistics on matriculation exams not only by city, but also by city of residence. Most of the statistics remain consistent, but it points out that the affluent town of Kfar Shmaryahu north of Tel Aviv has no school of its own, but students residing there have 97% completion rates, making the second-highest in the nation. Like Haaretz, it points out that the towns with above-average matriculation results are in the center of the country, while those below average are communities with lower socioeconomic standing (Yedioth Ahronoth just doesn’t mention that those towns are overwhelmingly either ultra-Orthodox or Arab).

Israel Hayom’s Dan Margalit writes an impassioned op-ed criticizing the mentality among most parents in Israel who “see school as a government babysitting operation” or want “their children to be satisfied and for the teacher not to assign too much homework before the weekend so it’ll be calm at home.”

“But the education system needs a breakthrough, a storm, some excitement, a feeling that ‘calm is mire,'” he says. “Excellence is the target word,” he says. “We don’t need teachers who are absent from school in the morning because of a cold or headache, but rather those who want their classes to have more graduates with five units — not just in math but in literature and English and Arabic (that’s essential).” He calls for a return of ugly terms like competition and excellence.