ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002720 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. Hebron Violence ¶2. Obama Administration ¶3. Global Economy -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media reported that the IDF and police are preparing for a wave of violence by extremist West Bank settlers against Palestinians after yesterdayQs evacuation of 200 settlers from Hebron's QHouse of Contention.Q Settlers erupted in violence yesterday in protest of the eviction. Settlers torched fields, olive groves, and yards in a wadi (dell) between Hebron and the settlement of Kiryat Arba. They also opened fire on Palestinians, wounding three. Settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles on a number of roads in the areas of Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron. In Bitin, north of Ramallah, settlers broke into a home and vandalized Palestinian property, and in several other West Bank villages, anti-Muslim graffiti was sprayed on mosque walls. Protests spread to major Israeli highways and communities. The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that the PLOQs Executive Committee demanded that Israel evacuate the Hebron settlers immediately. Leading media reported Minister Isaac Herzog and Knesset members Ophir Pines-Paz, Avishay Braverman, and Shelly Yacimovich took the top four spots in Labor's primaries after Chairman Ehud Barak, whose position is secured. The polling stations reported 58% voter turnout. HaQaretz and Yediot reported that Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn up a list of preferred candidate for the party primaries, which will take place on Thursday, with MK Yuli Edelstein as No. 1. All media reported that State Prosecutor Moshe Lador told PM Ehud Olmert's attorneys yesterday that the state would close the investigation into the 2005 privatization of Bank Leumi, in which Olmert was suspected of wrongdoing while serving as finance minister. The Jerusalem Post quoted Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, as saying that a new Israeli government and the U.S. administration must continue the Annapolis peace process. The Jerusalem Post quoted Turkish sources as saying yesterday that Israel and Syria may hold a fifth round of indirect talks before the general election on February 10. The newspaper also reported that the Syrian ambassador to Egypt has left Cairo in what some observers note is an indication of tension in Syrian-Egyptian relations. Leading media reported that, in a clear sign of EgyptQs increasing frustration with the Hamas leadership, Mustafa el-Fiqi, a top Egyptian parliamentarian, warned this week that his country would not allow Hamas to establish an Islamic state in Gaza. Leading media reported that yesterday the public council of the new right-wing party Habayit Hayehudi (the Jewish Home) decided that the three MKs who had applied for candidacy on the partyQs list will not be on it. Maariv reported that a poll commissioned by Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox found that a new political grouping that would potential merge Shas, United Torah Judaism, and the Jewish Home could be expected to garner 30 Knesset seats and become the largest party in the Knesset. Maariv reported that Orthodox millionaires in the U.S. are funding this initiative. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quoted as saying yesterday in an interview with Yediot that he views Hizbullah as a purely terrorist organization. Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University Professor of Modern Arab Studies, was quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz that he does not think that President-elected Barack Obama can make a fundamental change in U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that last week a new right-wing Evangelical organization pledged to help fund the military academy in Dalyat al-Carmel, following a first official visit by a Christian Zionist delegation to the Israeli Druze city last month. The project, if completed, would be the first such contribution by Evangelicals to the Druze community. Prominent Druze figures praised the nascent relationship, but anti-conscription activists argue that in courting donors, the Druze leadership needs to divert charity to more pressing needs. -------------- ¶1. Hebron Violence: -------------- Summary: -------------- The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: QEvery law-abiding citizen must say loudly and clearly: I am sick and tired of these self-declared messiahs.... This is the time for the rule of law to exercise its full power against its destroyers. Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of the popular, pluralist Maariv: QThe incited, deranged youth, which understands that a majority of the Israeli public has accepted the fact that at some point we will have to part from territories in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], and has decided to prevent this at all costs. So here it is: If we want to survive here, we will have to stop them, at all costs. Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QThe continuation will not be in this house, but elsewhere, and it will be harsh and cruel. Arabs will attack Jews. Jews will attack Arabs. Jews will attack Jews. The hatred is great, and too many elements have an interest in fueling it. The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QThe contemptible behavior of settler radicals does not negate [the Jews historical] right [to Hebron]. Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Mayhem in Hebron" The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (12/5): QThe evacuation of the House of Contention in Hebron yesterday brought a cautious measure of optimism that, in spite of everything, the government has decided to enforce the rule of law and not surrender to lawbreakers and their Yesha Council settler lobbyists. But the evacuation is only one step in the necessary campaign against the settlers, whose opposition threatens to spread throughout the territories.... The feigned innocence of some of the settler leaders and their distinction between the thugs and the Qhilltop youthQ are no more than a rhetorical sleight of hand. The failed negotiations between the QresponsibleQ leadership and the Defense Minister prove that the difference between the leadership and the thugs is semantic. In view of these events, every law-abiding citizen must say loudly and clearly: I am sick and tired of these self-declared messiahs.... The Israeli cabinet, which examines every act and statement in the light of electoral repercussions, is not permitted to let the IDF and the law become a mockery. The IDF must stop the hooliganism and violence from spilling over onto the Palestinian street, which yesterday appeared to be the main victim in the struggle between the troops and the settlers. The settler thugs must know that what they call the Qprice tagQ -- a euphemism used to intimidate the defense forces -- is a double-edged sword. This is the time for the rule of law to exercise its full power against its destroyers. II. "After Them the Deluge" Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of the popular, pluralist Maariv (12/5): QThe evacuation of the disputed house was done with perfection.... Contrary to disengagement, it was not determination and sensitivity, just determination. The general feeling in the [security] establishment is that Qwe cannot put up with them any longerQ -- that it cannot continue this way, that this errant organ needs to be chopped off. The rebels, let's call them that here, treat the State of Israel as a hostile entity. They were evacuated? They will exact a price. They will open fire at Palestinians, lay siege to houses, block roads, set fire to whatever is flammable, in the hope that everything will blow up. Yesterday, at long last, the security establishment removed the gloves.... Contrary to disengagement, contrary to [the evacuation of the unauthorized outpost of] Amona, this time a dramatic escalation was noted. No longer an orderly, serious, sane settler leadership. There is no longer such a thing. Now we are talking about the hard core. The incited, deranged youth, which understands that a majority of the Israeli public has accepted the fact that at some point we will have to part from territories in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], and has decided to prevent this at all costs. So here it is: If we want to survive here, we will have to stop them, at all costs. III. "Battle for the Home" Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the E mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/5): QThe continuation will not be in this house, but elsewhere, and it will be harsh and cruel. Arabs will attack Jews. Jews will attack Arabs. Jews will attack Jews. The hatred is great, and too many elements have an interest in fueling it.... The events of the past few days, after the High Court of Justice gave its ruling, made the evacuation necessary. Those who opened a front against the Arab population and smeared the walls in the Jaabari neighborhood of Hebron with slogans such as "Mohammed the pig," should have understood that the affair of the house could lead to a dangerous escalation between Arabs and Jews, perhaps even to a renewed wave of terror attacks from religious motives. This is not a game. We are left with these young men and women, the youth of the house, the hilltop youth, a group that accepts no authority, neither the authority of people within the settler community nor the authority of their parents. QWe are no longer the most extreme elements in the State of Israel,Q radical right winger Itamar Ben Gvir said to me in Hebron on Wednesday. QThe state has earned this honestly. Even if one disagrees with his analysis, it is difficult to dispute his conclusion. There is a problem here. It will take more than a squad of Border Police or patrolmen to evacuate it. IV. "Playing with Fire" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/5): QTo their credit, the leaders of the Likud, Israel Beiteinu, Kadima and Labor had united in calling on Hebron's Jewish residents not to employ physical or verbal violence. Let history record that no other Knesset party joined in this proclamation. There's an irreconcilable disconnect between those who would engage in or rationalize settler violence and mainstream Israel; between those who have disengaged from our- - admittedly imperfect -- Zionist enterprise, its army and polity, and the majority who want the rule of law upheld even when, to borrow from Dickens, the Qlaw is an ass.Q Our overriding opposition is to anarchy and mob rule. Citizens are obligated to respect lawful decisions, such as those of the Supreme Court, even when they vehemently disagree with them. Let's not, meanwhile, lose sight of two other fundamentals. First, the vast majority of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] are law-abiding patriots. Secondly, in any and all circumstances, Jews must be guaranteed access to the Cave of the Patriarchs. The contemptible behavior of settler radicals does not negate this right. For long before Christianity and Islam came on the scene, Hebron was already a cornerstone of Jewish civilization. -------------- ¶2. Obama Administration: -------------- Summary: -------------- Columnist Ron Maiberg wrote from Maine in the popular, pluralist Maariv: QFollowing an acerbic campaign and a harsh rivalry between them, America will be ruled by the Democratic PartyQs dream team, Obama-[Hillary] Clinton. Block Quotes: -------------- "This Is the Way to Announce Change" Columnist Ron Maiberg wrote from Maine in the popular, pluralist Maariv (12/5): QWith all due honor to Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who certainly plans to become more that an ordinary vice-president, the Secretary of StateQs rule is the second most important after the president. This means that, following an acerbic campaign and a harsh rivalry between them, America will be ruled by the Democratic PartyQs dream team, Obama-[Hillary] Clinton. This will not be done through the impotent technique of a president and his vice-president, but though the powerful combination of a president and the secretary of state. -------------- ¶3. Global Economy: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior editor and business correspondent Nehemia Strassler wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QThe United States can perhaps continue to carry out a mistaken economic policy. We must not follow in its footsteps. We cannot gamble. We must not copy the Americans' lack of responsibility. Block Quotes: -------------- "Even Uncle Sam Can Make a Mistake" Senior editor and business correspondent Nehemia Strassler wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/5): QAs Obama promises more expenditures and the central-bank governor promises more liquidity, the economy takes another step back and the recession deepens further. This is because the United States is fighting its previous war. It is using old-fashioned tools. It has not even learned the lesson from the prolonged Japanese recession that started in the 1990s and has continued to this day. The notion that you have to increase government spending and lower interest rates to encourage economic activity is based on the Keynesian model developed 75 years ago, a naive model suited to the closed world of those days of low international trade and negligible movement of capital. It is not suited to today's open world. In the Keynesian model, for example, no attention is paid to the size of the public debt. But when America's public debt reaches 80 percent of gross domestic product, as it does today, this changes the entire economic reality and has a strong influence on the public's behavior.... The United States can perhaps continue to carry out a mistaken economic policy. We must not follow in its footsteps. We cannot gamble. We must not copy the Americans' lack of responsibility. MORENO