ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002733 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 -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- The headlines of major media (lead story in HaQaretz) quoted President-elect Barack Obama as saying yesterday on NBCQs QMeet the PressQ program that the West must engage in "tough but direct diplomacy" with Iran, but emphasized that TehranQs vocalized threats against Israel stand "contrary to everything" the United States believes in. He also said that he was prepared to offer Iran economic incentives to stop its nuclear program, but warned that sanctions could be toughened if it refused. Yesterday Yediot quoted prospective Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying in a round of telephone conversations she held over the weekend with the senior Israeli political leadership -- PM Olmert, FM Tzipi Livni, and DM Ehud Barak -- that she will continue to act to bring peace and stability to the Middle East. All media highlighted todayQs Likud primaries, in which 99,000 registered party voters will cast their ballots and 144 candidates will vie for places in the Knesset. HaQaretz reported that several senior Likud officials urged yesterday that when Likud members cast their votes in Monday's primary they should ignore Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu's list of recommended candidates. The Jerusalem Post reported that the race could alter NetanyahuQs fate. HaQaretz reported that the pre-election political rivalry between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ratcheted up a notch yesterday, after the Kadima leader accused her Labor counterpart of harming the security of residents in the south and Barak rejected a Livni-brokered deal that would have allowed a Qatari ship to unload humanitarian aid for Gazans at the Ashdod port. (The ship also carried Arab Knesset members.) Meanwhile, as Palestinians repeatedly fired on the Negev yesterday, media reported that the cabinet approved Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's proposal to allocate NIS 600 million for the protection of communities located within 4.5 kilometers of the seurity fence surrounding the Gaza Strip. Yediot reported that the legal advisor to the defense establishment has ruled that the IDF can resume artillery fire Q but only into open spaces. The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that yesterday at the weekly cabinet meeting, PM Ehud Olmert called Hebron setter violence a Qpogrom.Q HaQaretz reported that a senior Israeli security source told the daily this weekend that recent confrontations between hard-line West Bank settlers and Palestinians, regarding the evacuation of Hebron's so-called House of Contention are likely to entangle Israel in a religious confrontation with Muslim communities the world over. The violence included the desecration of Muslim cemeteries in Hebron and anti-Muslim graffiti on mosque walls in the city, as well as around Qalqilya and Ramallah. The online news service Nana10 reported that DM Barak told Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad yesterday that Israel is considering allowing Palestinian police in Bethlehem. The Jerusalem Post reported that a local Indian policeman warned that the Indian resort of Goa, a major destination for Israeli backpackers and holidaymaker, is at risk of being struck by Al-Qaida. HaQaretz reported that green groups are accusing the Jewish National Fund of planting in the Negev to prevent Bedouin construction and grazing. Yesterday HaQaretz reported that Shin Bet has confirmed for the first time that it regularly interferes in the appointment in the appointment of Muslim clergymen to public office. Leading media reported that President Bush attended the Saban Forum ¶2008. HaQaretz reported that yesterday the ministerial committee overseeing the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails approved the release of 230 prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to the Palestinian Authority ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The cabinet approved a list of 250 prisoners last week. Some 20 names were removed from the list following objections by several ministers, who were opposed to releasing prisoners into the Gaza Strip. Yesterday HaQaretz quoted diplomats in Jerusalem as saying that Israel has provided NATO with substantial intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program and the long-range missiles used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. HaQaretz quoted senior Jerusalem sources as saying that Israel and Morocco are quietly discussing a visit by FM Tzipi Livni to the North African kingdom in the coming weeks. This would be the first visit to Morocco by an Israeli foreign minister since Silvan Shalom went in 2003. The media reported that a judge from the Jerusalem MagistrateQs Court ordered a Kiryat Arba resident who shot two Palestinians last week remanded for four days, but released another Kiryat Arba man whom police also wanted to keep in jail. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QThe Obama administration will try to correct what is now considered an error of the Clinton and Bush administrations: The administration's absolute support for the policies of Israeli governments. Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QLikud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be permitted to hide behind general condemnations of a handful of lawbreakers. Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "QYes, We Can (Speak with Iran)Q" Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/8): QAfter three days of fascinating discussions in the Saban Forum in Washington, the foreign policy guidelines of President-elect Obama and designated secretary of state Hillary Clinton are becoming clear.... Contrary to the Bush administration, the Obama administration intends to launch talks with Iran immediately after being inaugurated, in order to reach a deal in which Iran will willingly halt the nuclear program.... Several figures who will advise the Obama administration are convinced that the United States will have to provide guarantees for Israel's security and the security of the Palestinian state in order for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to be possible. The Obama administration will try to correct what is now considered an error of the Clinton and Bush administrations: The administration's absolute support for the policies of Israeli governments. The lesson that was learned is that absolute support for Israel must not be confused with absolute support for its government's policy. As for Syria, the chances of an agreement with Israel are greater due to the need for Israel and the U.S. to shift Syria from Iranian sponsorship to Western sponsorship. On this matter, the Obama administration will have to wait until the elections in Israel, but the assumption of the experts on Israel affairs in Washington is that a government headed by Netanyahu will display a willingness for a full withdrawal from the Golan as part of a peace agreement with Syria. In their view, negotiations with Syria must not delay the negotiations with the Palestinians. Everything will be done simultaneously. The assumption of the Obama administration is that the demographic consideration will cause Israel to be flexible in the negotiations with the Palestinians. II. "This ElectionQs Real Meaning" Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/8): QThe realization of a Jewish right of return to the area some refer to as Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], or to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Nahalat Shimon, invites a reopening of the 1948 file. There is no better recipe for an end to political negotiations based on the borders of June 4, ¶1967. Like the eviction of the al-Kurd family from its East Jerusalem home so Jewish settlers could live there, the real story of the House of Contention is not one of a private dispute concerning property rights; in both cases, the main test is not about the rule of law or even about law enforcement. This is a political-ideological conflict between segments of Israeli and Palestinian society.... Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will not meet her obligation simply by promising voters she won't allow any refugees to return to Israel. She has to explain how she thinks the Hebron settlers should be treated if she is elected prime minister.... Defense Minister Ehud Barak cannot allow himself to rest on the laurels of the commando operation in Hebron.... He must promise he will continue to evacuate all illegal outposts and completely halt settlement expansion. The lightning evacuation showed that a stated fear of civil war is nothing but a hollow excuse for cowardly politicians. Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be permitted to hide behind general condemnations of a handful of lawbreakers.... The Palestinian neighbors of right-winger Baruch Marzel in Hebron and the East Jerusalem neighbors of the widow al-Kurd can tell Netanyahu just what an Qeconomic peaceQ looks like. -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QWhat's left? Trusting the mullahs that if the international community goes along with their hegemonic demands and never mentions Qregime change," Teheran will stop -- just short of constructing a bomb? Cynics might think that Mr. ElBaradei and the Euro-libs want to paint Jerusalem into a corner. Block Quotes: -------------- "ElBaradeiQs QGrand BargainQ" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/8): QThe IAEA/Euro-liberal consensus is that Iran should certainly not acquire nuclear weapons. But at the same time, nothing tangible is recommended that would thwart Teheran's extremist Shi'ite ideology, Holocaust-denial or sponsorship of terror.... The EU has been negotiating with Iran for years to no avail, and even the Bush administration has held dozens of meetings with Teheran. Still, Euro-Liberals envision the mullahs swooning once they're Qengaged by the Obama administration.... So it's no to sanctions, no to force, and no to opposing dual-use centrifuge technology. What's left? Trusting the mullahs that if the international community goes along with their hegemonic demands and never mentions Qregime change,Q Teheran will stop -- just short of constructing a bomb? Cynics might think that Mr. ElBaradei and the Euro-libs want to paint Jerusalem into a corner. SIEVERS