IZRAELI PRESS REVIEW OF 28.01.2013

Major Headlines

Monday, January 28, 2013

First Ethiopian-Israeli woman enters Knesset
In the mass wave of seats that propelled Yesh Atid to second place in elections last week, the first Israeli-Ethiopian woman was elected to the Knesset.

Yediot Aharonot runs a feature on Pnina Tamano-Shata who emigrated from Ethiopia at the age of three.

„I realize the weight of the responsibility I hold,” she told the paper. “An entire community of some 150,000 people looks up to me as their hope. They expect me to bring about change and fight racism and discrimination, which both unfortunately still exist in Israeli society.”

Orthodox parties push for place in coalition
Religious parties in Israel are looking to be included in the next coaliti9on government formed by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The Shas party is already looking to reach common ground with Yesh Atid despitre the parties differences over the draft of hareidi students into the army.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will have no choice but to include Shas and United Torah Judaism in his coalition, despite Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid’s preference for a haredi-free government, sources in the two-haredi parties said over the weekend.

A source in Shas said messages were being relayed between Lapid and Shas’s Arye Deri, in an effort to reach common ground on key issues to enable the two parties to work together in the next government.

UTJ MK-elect Meir Porush told the haredi website Kikar Shabbat on Friday that his party’s red line would be enabling every yeshiva student who wants to study Torah to defer army service. He advised Netanyahu to bring haredi parties into his coalition first and only then turn to Yesh Atid and The Tzipi Livni Party, in order to lower the asking price of the parties on the Center-Left.

Police arrest racist fans at football match
Three soccer fans were arrested at a match on Saturday in Jerusalem for calling out racist chants, the Times of Israel reports.

The chants were apparently aimed by fans from Beitar Jerusalem at two Chechen players who are slated to become the first Muslim players to join the team: Dzhabrail Kadiyev and Zaur Sadaev.

Last year, several dozen Beitar fans rampaged through a Jerusalem mall chanting anti-Arab slogans and reportedly beating up Arab workers.

The two Chechen players are expected to arrive in the country this week, according to Israel Radio.