ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002896 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM NSC FOR NEA STAFF SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA HQ USAF FOR XOXX DA WASHDC FOR SASA JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 JERUSALEM ALSO ICD LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL PARIS ALSO FOR POL ROME FOR MFO SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION Please note: There will not be a Tel Aviv Media Reaction report Thursday, October 4, 2007, due to the Simchat Torah holiday. -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- ¶1. Mideast ¶2. Myanmar -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Israel Radio reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the region in mid-October to work on the agenda for the Annapolis meeting. Maariv reported that during a meeting with PM Olmert on Tuesday, FM Tzipi Livni wished to set principles for a final-status agreement, while Barak called for minimizing the importance of the planned fall meeting. Israel Radio quoted Barak associates as saying that Barak and Livni concur on the goals of the Annapolis meeting and that both believe that the negotiations should be conducted cautiously and without high expectations. The Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday Israeli defense officials expressed skepticism Tuesday that PM Olmert's negotiating team could agree with the Palestinians on fundamental final-status issues ahead of the Annapolis meeting. The officials were quoted as saying that with Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu in his government coalition, Olmert had little leeway in negotiating with the Palestinians and would be forced to use vague language in the declaration of principles. One example had to do with the final borders of a future Palestinian state. The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli defense official as saying: "The declaration will not be able to say: 'The borders will be the pre-1967 lines,'" adding: "But instead, it will have to say something like: 'In accordance with' or 'based on' the pre-1967 border." The Jerusalem Post reported that Fatah leaders warned on Tuesday that a failure in the upcoming international meeting would have more dangerous repercussions than the botched Camp David summit in 2000. Ha'aretz reported that the Bush administration may delay the international meeting until late November, so that PM Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas will have more time to formulate a joint declaration. Olmert and Abbas will meet Wednesday at the PM's official residence in Jerusalem, and for the first time, their negotiating teams will also be present. The two leaders will meet privately and then brief the negotiating teams on the aims of the joint declaration. Ha'aretz reported that there are significant gaps between the two sides' starting positions, and a particularly bitter dispute revolves around the essence and substance of the joint declaration. Olmert is now rejecting titles such as "declaration of principles" or "agreement of principles." Instead, he is proposing a general "declaration of interests" -- a term that did not exist in previous negotiations -- that would serve as a starting point for detailed negotiations following the Annapolis meeting. He is also demanding that the declaration include a reference to two previous documents: President Bush's letter to former PM Ariel Sharon on April 14, 2004, and the Roadmap. The Jerusalem Post reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has appointed the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Military Bureau, Amos Gilad, as his representative at the talks with the Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post quoted officials close to Barak and Gilad said Tuesday it was unlikely anything concrete would come from the talks and that it was important to begin lowering expectations ahead of the international conference so it would not trigger a third Intifada if it failed. The Jerusalem Post reported that a defense official involved in the talks told the newspaper: "We need to be realistic and realize that Abbas will have extreme difficulty in delivering on any of his commitments." "There is also a real chance that the Palestinians will pull out of the [international] summit even before it takes place due to Israel's refusal to commit itself on final-status issues." All media reported that on Tuesday Sima Vaknin, Israel's military censor, allowed the local media to report that the IDF had raided an "unspecified target" deep inside Syrian territory, without attributing their reports to foreign sources. Media cited the Prime Minister's Office's "discomfort" over the censor's announcement. The IDF Spokesman's office was quoted as sayng that it did not authorize the disclosure of the strike. Israel Radio quoted Syrian FM Walid Mualem as saying that Israel's action arise suspicions. Electronic media reported that a Hamas militant was killed by IDF fire in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. Maariv reported that the Shin Bet leaves Palestinian patients seeking medical care in Israel the choice of collaborating or going back home without treatment. Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter was quoted as saying in interviews with IDF Radio and other media on Tuesday that his call to end probes of sitting prime ministers did not relate to Olmert but to future PMs. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was quoted as saying in an interview with Yediot that as a US president, she will not let Iran possess nuclear weapons and that the US will not renounce any options in the matter. The Jerusalem Post reported that Jewish organizations slammed presidential candidate John McCain for calling America a "Christian nation." The newspaper reported that his campaign told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the affair was an "unfortunate" misunderstanding. Leading media reported that a Reuters photographer was injured on Tuesday when IDF troops fired warring shots at Palestinians who were approaching the fence at the Erez Crossing. They were waiting for the arrival of relatives released from Israeli jail. The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that 79 Senators -- including all those running for president -- signed a letter to Secretary Rice calling for greater Arab support for the peace SIPDIS process ahead of the international fall meeting. The Senators demanded cooperation "from those Arab states with close relations to the US who have not signed agreements with Israel." Major media cited a policy paper prepared by former top US officials -- including former US ambassadors to Israel Samuel Lewis, Edward Walker, and Thomas Pickering -- saying that Saudi participation should not define the success of the Annapolis meeting. Leading media reported that on Tuesday hundreds of right-wing activists began marching toward the former West Bank settlement of Homesh, despite warnings from the army and police that terrorist groups were planning to attack Israelis in the area. Leading media reported that four Hamas police officers were killed and two wounded on Tuesday when a car exploded outside a Hamas security headquarters building in Gaza City. At first the Hamas-controlled Gaza Interior Ministry released a statement saying the car was hit by an Israeli naval vessel offshore. Israeli media reported that this was an internal conflict and cited the IDF as saying that it was not involved. Ha'aretz reported that leading American Jewish organizations are planning a PR campaign to urge Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for the perpetrators of a 1994 bombing attack against the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. Ha'aretz noted that during his address to the UN General Assembly last week, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner criticized Iran, saying that Tehran had failed to cooperate with Argentina's law enforcement agencies over the bombing. Maariv and The Jerusalem Post cited the British weekly The Sunday Telegraph as saying that the US and Persian Gulf states will jointly train ahead of a possible war with Iran. Yediot ran a feature on the Jews of Iran, who fear they might be exposed to the greatest perils if war breaks out between Iran and Israel. Yediot quoted The Washington Post as saying on Tuesday that the US Marine Corps purchased sniffing dogs from Israel, but that they failed to detect explosives in Iraq because they only understand orders in Hebrew. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "As opposed to what is commonly assumed, the real controversy before and after the summit will not be the right of return, Jerusalem, or borders.... The real gap between the sides [will be] the question of the timetable." Prof. Ruth Gavison, a member of the Winograd Commission and the founding president of Metzilah: Center for Humanistic, Liberal, Jewish, and Zionist Thought, wrote in Ha'aretz: "A two-state solution that does not recognize the right of both peoples to self-determination in a part of their homeland would be a dangerous and unstable solution for both peoples, and for the entire region." Military correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "The fact that Syria has in effect acknowledged an attack on its soil and that it has not reacted so far to the raid through military means has greatly reduced concerns about war breaking out because of Israeli idle talk." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Rice's Clock" Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/3): "As opposed to what is commonly assumed, the real controversy before and after the summit will not be the right of return, Jerusalem, or borders. These have all been discussed and clarified in endless forums, and a general outline for solving them has already been written in many versions. At most they will serve as an excuse, a stumbling block, to conceal the real gap between the sides: the question of the timetable. An official involved in the discussion recently offered an interpretation of the exchange of roles between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel once accepted the need to give now (evacuation, prisoners, checkpoints) to receive compensation in the future: an end to the conflict. Now the situation is reversed. The Palestinians are being asked to compromise now (Jerusalem, the right of return) to receive compensation in the future: a Palestinian state. All this, of course, on the assumption that the principles being signed now will be only a 'diplomatic horizon' for the future, as Rice promised, rather than a plan for immediate implementation. Between Rice's shortening time frame and her preliminary promises, senior political leaders are detecting with a certain disappointment that impatience is growing. The clock is likely to win." II. "The Right and the Return" Prof. Ruth Gavison, a member of the Winograd Commission and the founding president of Metzilah: Center for Humanistic, Liberal, Jewish, and Zionist Thought, wrote in Ha'aretz (10/3): "A just and stable peace between Jews and Palestinians is a critical interest for both peoples. The 'two states for two peoples' solution grants neither everything they desire, but does give each of them an essential part of it. A two-state solution that does not recognize the right of both peoples to self-determination in a part of their homeland would be a dangerous and unstable solution for both peoples, and for the entire region.... The Palestinians should not be required to give up the right of return, but Israel does not need to recognize it. The time has certainly come for the issue of the Palestinian refugees to be settled in a humane and proper way via comprehensive diplomatic talks, and the refugees are entitled to compensation for their lost property. But the realization of their 'right' must not be allowed to torpedo both peoples' chances for a life of independence, liberty and dignity." III. "More Is Still Hidden Than Overt" Military correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (10/3): "The [military] censorship's decision to allow Israeli media to publish the fact that the IDF attacked on Syria -- without quoting 'foreign sources' appears to be a technical matter. In fact it is very significant.... Beyond the very fact of the raid in Syria, authorization was not granted to publish any other details from Israeli sources. More is still hidden than overt.... The fact that Syria has in effect acknowledged an attack on its soil and that it has not reacted so far to the raid through military means has greatly reduced concerns about war breaking out because of Israeli idle talk. But, were all the details ... to be published ... pressure on Syria to carry out retaliatory action against Israel would increase." -------------- ¶2. Myanmar: -------------- Summary: -------------- Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "It's an ugly word we live in. My point is that Israel is part of the ugliness." Block Quotes: -------------- "Shalom, Myanmar" Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/3): "In Africa, Israel's best-know ... emissaries were kibbutz agricultural advisers. But then came the Six-Day War, and the Yom Kippur War, and the hardening of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and Israel's abandonment of its socialist, agrarian ideals in favor of becoming a little Jewish Texas, and this country's best-known emissaries in Africa became mercenaries and arms merchants. These are the chief emissaries we've sent to Myanmar, too.... I don't think Israel is unique or even unusual when it comes to war profiteering and propping up dictators, mass murderers, mass torturers, and the like. It's an ugly word we live in. My point is that Israel is part of the ugliness. If we're no worse than the rest of the world, we're not better, either. We also help our evildoers, real bad ones, when it's in our interest. But we don't admit this, we pretend not to know it, we wash it out of our minds. And from this phony pretext of moral superiority, we condemn Russia and China and Europe for doing business with Iran, for selling arms to Syria, to Saddam's Iraq, to any Arab or Muslim dictator aligned against us." JONES