Israel: 7 Things To Know For August 1

Tensions? What tensions? 7 things to know for August 1

By JOSHUA DAVIDOVICH

1. This is fine: A firefight broke out between Israeli troops and a Gazan gunman in the middle of the night, after three soldiers deployed to check on a suspicious figure approaching the border fence were shot by the gunman, who by then had managed to steal across the border.

• According to the army, the gunman was wearing Hamas garb, but it stresses that he was a maverick. Doing so may be designed to relieve expected public pressure to hit back at Hamas hard, which could end up leading to another round of fighting.

• On the Palestinian side as well, there is little reporting — at least initially — on the incident, the fate of the gunman, and the Israeli retaliatory strike on a Hamas post, which could also be designed to allow Hamas to save face without having to avenge the death of the gunman.

• The Shehab news agency, for instance, closely linked to Hamas, made do with a short story about the incident. On Twitter, where it normally posts minute to minute details about any Palestinian or IDF move, it had little information about the incident. The one tweet it posted about it was quickly followed by one about an unrelated car crash.

2. Brothers in arms: Several Hebrew media reports identify the gunman as Hani Abu Salah, who ironically was part of the Hamas force that was tasked with clamping down on rocket fire or border flareups to keep things calm along the frontier.

• According to the reports, Abu Salah’s brother is Fadi Abu Salah, a double amputee who was killed by Israeli soldiers during the massive May 14 border protest last year.
• Abu Salah became a bit of a cause celebre when a picture of another legless man at a protest days earlier, Saber al-Ashqar, went viral being falsely identified as him.
• The paper speculates Abu Salah carried out the attack for revenge.

3. Waiting for the other shoe to drop? On the Israeli side, there is some concern about possible fallout from the incident.

• “There are plenty of questions, but the central one this morning is whether the incident is behind us,” writes Channel 10’s Or Heller.

• Those tactical questions relate to the fact that Palestinians regularly sneak across the border into Israel, but few of them intend to do anything more than set a fire or get themselves arrested, which is perhaps why the soldiers sent to check out the suspicious figure were caught off guard when he turned out to be heavily armed and ready to kill.
• “At night, the forces in the field need to go off the assumption that [anyone crossing the border] is a terrorist and act accordingly, especially when the spotters identify him even before forces reach him,” writes Maariv’s Tal Lev Ram.

4. Hands down, don’t shoot: Walla’s Amir Bohbot wonders how the incident will play into expected border protests, especially as Israel has made a point of being extra careful around members of the Hamas border restraint force.

• “I’d be interested to know what the live fire orders will be tomorrow on the border with Gaza during violent protests when Palestinians/terrorists/protesters sneak into Israel,” he writes.

• Army Radio reports that soldiers from the Golani Brigade deployed to the Gaza border say they are afraid to open fire over fears of being hauled before a tribunal.

• “Three weeks ago, they got mad at us when we shot a Hamas operative who came near the border fence. How do they expect us to open fire? Soldiers prefer to not serve on the Gaza border so they won’t be blamed and have an investigation opened into them,” one soldier is quoted telling the station.

5. Ready for a (quick) rumble: The border incident seemingly happened out of the blue, after weeks of relative calm along the border.

• Just hours earlier, though, Israel wrapped up a four-day drill meant to prepare for a possible war with Gaza.

• The exercise was the biggest in the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division since Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 Gaza war fought five years ago and was designed to try out a new doctrine from new IDF chief Aviv Kohavi, which is meant to diversify the military’s courses of actions in order to give the government more options and flexibility, and to limit the scope and duration of fighting.
• Haaretz reports, “Since assuming office in January, Kohavi has made preparing forces for Gaza fighting a top priority, with an emphasis on amping up the IDF’s ‘lethal’ force. New battle orders call for a high-intensity campaign, which would be concluded much quicker than previous operations and wars in Gaza.”
• Channel 13 says that Wednesday was Kohavi’s deadline for completing preparations for a possible battle with Gaza, both in terms of planning and requisitioning equipment.

6. Right of refusal: Thursday, though, is the deadline for parties to submit their official Knesset slates, meaning it’s also the deadline for any possible mergers to take place.

• Israel Hayom, which has unsuccessfully pushed a merger of Otzma Yehudit and United Right on behalf of Likud, appears to be in panic mode with the seconds ticking away.

• “Get it together or the left loses,” Mati Tuchfeld frets. “Otzma Yehudit is a radical party, making for a bitter pill to swallow … [but] the Right’s leaders have to decide whether they are willing to hold their noses and take it, or watch the Left rise to power in little over a month.”

7. A peace offer you can’t refuse: Yedioth Ahronoth’s report on an Arab summit at Camp David meant to roll out White House’s peace plan made a lot of waves, but ultimately earned a flat-out denial from the White House.

• Following up, the paper doubles down and says the summit is being planned as a way to release part of the plan, despite opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who wants it pushed off at least until after elections, underlining tensions between Jerusalem and Washington.
• “Trump is so determined to push his ‘deal of the century’ at any price out of the belief that it will win him a Nobel prize ahead of the 2020 elections,” a source in Jerusalem is quoted saying (in comments reminiscent of Moshe Ya’alon’s criticism of former US secretary of state John Kerry’s “Messianic” belief in his own peace plan.)

• The tabloid reports that ministers think Netanyahu is “very worried that the settlers won’t accept the deal, even though Israel won’t get a better one. Those close to Netanyahu say Israel will have to say ‘yes’ to the plan, even if parts are problematic, since the Trump administration is the most friendly toward Israel and any other administration would offer a less comfortable deal.”

• “They might call it more of an economic peace with the granting of more rights to Palestinians, but the idea is the same.”