ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001954 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 -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- ¶1. Mideast ¶2. Iran ¶2. Muslims in European Society -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Leading media quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying during a press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah yesterday: "The settlement activity is not conducive to creating an environment for negotiations. Yet negotiations go on." The Jerusalem Post reported that during a press conference with FM Tzipi Livni, Secretary Rice said about settlement activity: "Anything that undermines confidence between the parties ought to be avoided." Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted American sources in Rice's entourage as saying that from the standpoint of the U.S., there was no difference between massive and limited construction in the West Bank, and it made no distinction -- at least for now -- between the settlement blocs that the U.S. acknowledges will stay in Israel's hands, and the rest of the areas that in their estimation will be turned over to the Palestinians. These sources also took care to emphasize that in President Bush's letter from April 14, 2002 to prime minister Ariel Sharon, in which the U.S. recognized the Jewish population centers in the West Bank, they assert that leaving these population centers in Israel's possession required Palestinian consent, and could not be a unilateral step. Israel Radio cited the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat as saying that Abbas asked Secretary Rice to put the results of the negotiations with Israel in writing, and to submit the document to the next U.S. administration, so that the talks would not begin again from scratch. According to the report, the parties to the negotiations have reached agreement on certain issues, but the work was broken off due to the domestic political crisis in Israel. Israel Radio reported that senior Palestinian officials told the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the Palestinian side had reached the conclusion that the U.S. administration is not currently capable of obligating Israel to stop activity in the settlements and does not possess the levers to move Israel from its positions. The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Ehud Olmert and Secretary Rice discussed the situation in the Caucasus and its implications for the Middle East. Ha'aretz reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak told EgyptQQQ&QQQxst meeting, and that it would have representatives from five Arab countries. Khashaan was quoted as saying that the committee will gather information and prepare files against Israeli war criminals, and on the basis of these files, complaints would be submitted to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The Palestinian Minister declared that the committee would act in every possible way to bring the criminals to justice, including applications to courts in Israel. Israel Radio quoted Deputy DM Matan Vilnai as saying that all of Israel is being targeted by missiles -- from the North and from Iran -- but that measures are being taken to lessen the threat and that Israel is coordinating with the U.S. on the issue. The Jerusalem Post reported that a panel of parliamentarians plans to head to the abandoned Shedma army base in Gush Etzion (southern West Bank) today to weigh in on an IDF plan to hand portions of it over to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahur southeast of Bethlehem for a medical center and a park. The newspaper quoted right-wing MKs as saying that the site must not be handed over to the PA. Israel Radio and IDF Radio reported that two right-wing activists were ordered out of the West Bank for fear that they may interfere with the Palestinian olive harvest, which begins in about two weeks. The security forces tried to serve a third right-wing activist with a similar order, but he refused to open his door. In response to the orders, right-wing activists in the West Bank told IDF Radio that the ground would burn. The Jerusalem Post and other media cited studies according to which the Hebrew press's coverage of the Kadima leadership race has been biased in favor of FM Livni. The Jerusalem Post also reported that yesterday Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann ordered the party registrar, Alon Bachar, to use all legal means at his disposal to prevent Likud voters from voting in the September 17 Kadima primary. Ha'aretz reported that yesterday police detained Prof. Jeff Halper, an Israeli activist who had sailed to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade of the coastal region. They accused Halper, who also holds U.S. citizenship, of violating a ban on Israelis entering Gaza Ha'aretz cited figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics that in 2007, Chinese exports to Israel surpassed Germany's for the first time. The U.S. remained first in exports to Israel: $8.1 billion in 2007, compared with $6.2 billion the year before. In an unrelated development, leading media reported that the Histadrut Labor Federation has proclaimed a labor conflict: Israel's ports will come to a standstill in two weeks. Major media reported that Israeli crime kingpin Yitzhak Abergil faces charges of murder, drug dealing, and money laundering in the U.S. For the past few days, almost all extensive lead stories were about the disappearance of Rose Pizem, a four-and-a-half-year-old girl. Police now suspect that her stepfather, who is also her biological grandfather, was involved in her murder, and that her mother was an accomplice to the crime. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "According to a Peace Now report, settlement construction doubled in the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year. The Bush administration is not exempt of responsibility for this." Far-left columnist Kobi Niv wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "We repeatedly choose, like a broken automaton, the impossible, impractical, non-existent option.... Why do we behave so irrationally? What are we waiting for? To be beaten some more so that then we understand?" Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "The Faulty Pleasant Approach" Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/27): "The U.S. administration believes its role is to encourage Israel and the PA to reach an agreement and contribute to creating the conditions for the change to take place. But it does not believe in forcing its views on the two sides. This is an enlightened, pleasant approach, but in the Mideast jungle it is terribly out of place.... The Israeli-Palestinian process has held a secondary position on the President's daily agenda. Therein lies Bush's big failure: Eight years is enough time for the most powerful country in the world, even when it is busy on other fronts, to take steps to loosen the Israeli-Palestinian entanglement, which Washington considers a focal point for instability in the region, if not the world. This mission was not carried out: The United States allowed Israel and the Palestinians to engage in a bloody struggle, even though they sought its involvement (according to public opinion polls, at least on the Israeli side).... This was blatantly highlighted this week: According to a Peace Now report, settlement construction doubled in the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year. The Bush administration is not exempt of responsibility for this." II. "It Is We Who Understand Only Force" Far-left columnist Kobi Niv wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (8/27): "The very fact that [the] cease-fire [with Hamas] exists and is more or less honored, ought to teach us a few things.... It is certainly possible to reach agreements with this government and to maintain these agreements on a long-term basis of reciprocity, and strict compliance. Secondly, not only is there someone to talk to in Gaza, there is also something to talk about. The fact is, the current cease-fire in Gaza was proposed by the Gazan 'Hamas government' several months back already. And Israel, which turned it down for many months, eventually capitulated, as usual, under Palestinian force, in this case, because of the Qassam rocket fire that continued at Sderot and the Gaza periphery communities, and was forced to accept the cease-fire against its will. In other words, the Palestinian government headed by Hamas, in Gaza, not only has the ability that Fatah and its governments never had, to reach agreements and to keep them. It also has concrete and practical suggestions for arrangements between us and them, unlike the empty 'peace agreements' supposedly being forged between the Israeli government, which doesn't even want to implement them, and Palestinian wheeler-dealers who have no ability to implement them.... There are, in fact, two real options facing us. One, a real cease-fire, which can be reached and can be kept, for 20 years, between us and the elected Palestinian government. The second is a 'peace fantasy' between us and a Palestinian ghost team that represents no one and that is incapable of wielding its authority over a dog. And oddly enough, between the first and tangible option and the second non-existent one, we repeatedly choose, like a broken automaton, the impossible, impractical, non-existent option, the one that cannot be implemented under any circumstances. Why do we behave so irrationally? What are we waiting for? To be beaten some more so that then we understand?" -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The probability that ballistic rockets will be used against the Israeli civilian population is at this time almost a certainty, and the results would be devastating. That situation needs to be changed while there is still time." Block Quotes: -------------- "The Civilian Population Is in Danger" Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/27): "Our Prime Minister may be on his way out, but he does not miss a chance to make superfluous public statements. During his visit to an IDF installation last week he announced to the people of Israel that in the next war Israel's major cities will be subjected to rocket attacks. This is not foreordained, but unless the government does something to prevent this severe danger to Israel, his vision is most likely to become a reality. But what has the government been doing to prevent this danger?.... The Israeli leadership has been fully aware of the change in the region's strategic balance that the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran would entail. The probability that Iran would use a nuclear weapon against Israel is very low, but the results could be catastrophic. The probability that ballistic rockets will be used against the Israeli civilian population is at this time almost a certainty, and the results would be devastating. That situation needs to be changed while there is still time." -------------- ¶3. Muslims in European Society: -------------- Summary: -------------- Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Mohammed is buying Europe.... Today the Muslim population is 'squeezing' Europe, and Israel indirectly." Block Quotes: -------------- "The Tainted Continent" Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (8/27): "In expensive [European] department stores, wealthy Muslim shoppers demand that other customers move out; they buy half the store, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mohammed is buying Europe. Why should this interest us and why is it important for us? We have to grasp the idea that money buys (almost) everything, particularly Europe's conscience. How long will Israel play the chords of values, the moral of the Prophets, the Bible, and the Holocaust? Perhaps not during this generation, but certainly in the next one, urope might become a subsidiary of the African contries and the Middle East. Thus an assumingly arginal phenomenon that started with the beginningof the economic miracle in post-World War II Eurpe -- the steep decrease in birth rates and the hortage of workers -- became increasingly more problematical during the '80s. Today the Muslim popuation is 'squeezing' Europe, and Israel indirecty. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 'tainted' Euroe!" CUNNINGHAM