SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000084 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: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- President Bush to Israel, West Bank, January 9-11, 2008 -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media led with the first day of President Bush's visit to Israel. They reported that the President met this morning with opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and former prime minister Ariel Sharon's sons Omri and Gilad. The Jerusalem Post expected Netanyahu to press the President on Iran and the status of Jerusalem. Bush visited Ramallah and will also travel to Bethlehem. Major media (lead story in Ha'aretz (Hebrew Ed.)) expect Bush to tell PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he must choose between a state and chaos. The Jerusalem Post bannered: "Bush: This Is a Historic Opportunity for Peace." The Shas Party-affiliated weekly Yom Leyom bannered the President's comment that he was hopeful he could achieve an agreement. All media emphasized that President Bush told his Israeli hosts that unauthorized West Bank settler outposts "ought to go." Israel Hayom bannered: "Bush: You Will Also Need to Talk about the Right of Return." Yediot bannered: "Olmert to Bush: [Israel] Bracing for Large-Scale Operation in Gaza." The media quoted Olmert as saying that there will not be peace until terror stops, and that Israel has made clear to the Palestinians that Gaza must be part of the package. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe underscored President Bush's comment that he does not expect Israelis to accept a terrorist state. Leading media reported that President Shimon Peres and PM Ehud Olmert presented Iran's secret nuclear program to the President. Maariv bannered: "Israel to the President: You Are Being Cheated." The media quoted Bush as saying: "Iran was a threat, Iran is a threat, and Iran will be a threat if the international community does not come together and prevent that nation from the development of the know-how to build a nuclear weapon." At a press conference following his meeting with Olmert, Bush said that the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program did not alter his stance. "I interpreted it [the NIE] to mean you better take the Iranian's threat seriously," he added. "Our unequivocal conclusion," Olmert said, referring to the Israeli report, "is that they [the Iranians] are busy developing nuclear weapons." Bush agreed, saying that his understanding of the NIE report is that the Iranians could resume their weapons program with the same ease that they froze it in 2003. The media linked a volley of Qassam rockets that landed on Sderot to the President's visit. Leading media reported that on Wednesday an IDF strike in the northern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians. The media reported on protests against President Bush's visit in the PA. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that during the arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport, the President asked Industry, Trade, and Employment Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) not to quit the government. Several newspaper quoted Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as saying that "no one is authorized to discuss concessions on Jerusalem." Ha'aretz reported that Israeli Arab political activists joined left-wing protests around the country on Wednesday to demonstrate against President Bush's visit to Israel and the West Bank. Several hundred Hadash (Communist) activists participated in an anti-Bush demonstration in front of the American Consulate in West Jerusalem. "Bush totally and blindly adopts Israel's most extreme positions and prevents progress toward a final-status agreement," Hadash Chairman Mohammed Barakei said during the demonstration. Meanwhile, Balad party members protested at universities in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, and in Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm. Major media reported that In Lebanon, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah called Bush's visit a "black day in Arab history" and said that he had come to visit on its 60th anniversary a state that has no right to exist. The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday Israeli defense officials raised concerns that information being providing to UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces was also reaching Hizbullah. Leading media reported that fifty-seven Knesset members have come out against a plan to compensate settlers for leaving their homes east of the separation fence. A Mina Zemach/Dahaf poll for Yediot asked: "Do you believe that Bush's visit will succeed in moving forward the negotiations with the Palestinians?" No: 77%; Yes: 21%. The poll also asked: "How does the Bush visit influence PM Ehud Olmert's status?" No influence: 59%; it strengthens Olmert: 38%; it weakens him: 3%. Ha'aretz published the results of a Dialog poll that found that 61% of Labor Party voters favor remaining in the government after the publication of the Winograd report. In Yediot's poll, that percentage was 56%. -------------- President Bush to Israel, West Bank, January 9-11, 2008: -------------- Summary: -------------- Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "It would be easier to market concession to the Palestinians, if the U.S. decidedly removes the Iranian threat by striking in Iran." Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon top diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "[Progress in the negotiations] can be made through 'small' arrangements that are not arrangements of 'principle' as each one individually has no future political significance, but over time, they would aggregate into a significant step." The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The most important thing Bush can do in Ramallah is to say to the Palestinians that if they want a state they must stop spewing hatred and glorifying terrorism." Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz: "In [the present] state of affairs [in the Middle East], the United States does not have the safety margins for another mistake such as the one that brought Hamas to power." Conservative contributor Menachem Ben wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "The Palestinian refugee problem is the Arab League's problem, not a Zionist one. The world must be told this basic truth -- Bush's visit is the first opportunity for this." The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "The fact that the issue of Har Homa is increasingly clouding [U.S.-Israel] relations is cause for concern." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Starting Off on the Right Foot" Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (1/10): "Olmert sees the Iranian and Palestinian issues as interlinked. It would be easier to market concession to the Palestinians, if the U.S. decidedly removes the Iranian threat by striking in Iran. Bush would have an easier time selling that strike, if he can point to progress in negotiations with the Palestinians. Except it would take more than a handshake between the two leaders to realize such a far-reaching deal." II. "Not Political, Not in Principle" Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon top diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (1/9): "The security] reality is not expected to improve for the foreseeable future, and in fact, it will most likely get worse. Therefore, the chances of reaching a permanent status arrangement, even meeting minimum Israeli conditions, does not exist, and certainly not in the space of one year, as declared at Annapolis.... Now is the time to again reflect on more practical, and less 'festive' steps.... A precondition for this is completing the security fence, following the route that was agreed upon with the U.S.... One of the steps that Israel should take is to evacuate immediately all unauthorized outposts.... [Among] other steps: ... withdrawing the IDF from Palestinian population centers and shifting troops, as far as possible, west toward the fence area in such a way as to safeguard central Israel from Palestinian rocket fire ... Areas that are vacated of an Israeli presence would be given to the PA to administer while keeping Israeli security measures and intelligence as far as necessary. In parallel, Israel would work together with the world's nations to develop the Palestinian economy, to raise the standard of living, and create a real motive for the Palestinians to want quiet and stability. All of this can happen through 'small' arrangements that are not arrangements of 'principle' as each one individually has no future political significance, but over time, they would aggregate into a significant step." III. "Tell Abbas to Stop Educating for War" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (1/10): "No one expects [Mahmoud] Abbas to start teaching his people to be good Zionists. But he cannot make peace when he is readying them for war. On the contrary, just as it took Israelis years to reverse the inculcated rejection of a Palestinian state, it will take Palestinians years to reverse their rejection of the rights and history of a Jewish state. It is a long process, but for a peace agreement to happen, it must be begin and be fast-tracked. Accordingly, the most important thing Bush can do in Ramallah is to say to the Palestinians that if they want a state they must stop spewing hatred and glorifying terrorism. Rather than constantly using the 'right of return' as code for Israel's destruction, Abbas must tell his people the truth: a Palestinian state requires giving up the dream of Greater Palestine, making peace with the Jewish democracy of Israel, and building a state alongside it in most of the West Bank and Gaza." IV. "On a Divine Mission" Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz (1/10): "This was the essence of [President Bush's June 24, 2002] statement: The solution to the 100-year-old conflict is a two-state solution, but before the two-state solution is implemented a Palestinian conversion must take place. Only after the Palestinian people undergo a conceptual, ideological and institutional conversion will it be possible to establish a Palestinian state that will exist alongside Israel in peace and prosperity.... In [the present] state of affairs [in the Middle East], the United States does not have the safety margins for another mistake such as the one that brought Hamas to power. A mistake of that kind will not only endanger Israel's future, it will endanger the ability of Western civilization to confront the forces of September 11, 2001." ¶V. "Right vs. Right" Conservative contributor Menachem Ben wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (1/10): "[According to studies recently published in Ha'aretz and Maariv], the number of Jews who were expelled -- or were forced to leave following persecutions -- from the Arab countries is greater that of Arab refugees who fled, or were expelled from, Israel in 1948. Moreover, the property confiscated from Jews in the Arab countries is incomparably more important that the property and land abandoned by Arab refugees. Here are the exact figures, as officially recorded in the Arab states: Around 850,000 Jews left them from 1948 through the early 1970s. Around 600,000 of them were absorbed in Israel. According to the UN, the original Palestinian refugee population numbered 600,000.... The Palestinian refugee problem is the Arab League's problem, not a Zionist one. The world must be told this basic truth -- Bush's visit is the first opportunity for this." VI. A Cold, Alienated Visit" The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (1/10): "There is a feeling that the President's visit is a kind of tourist excursion for someone who really loves Jerusalem and Israel, but that hardly contributes to U.S.-Israel relations.... The fact that the issue of Har Homa is increasingly clouding those relations is cause for concern. Once again, this proves that personal friendly relations between the U.S. President and the Prime Minister of Israel are meaningless -- if a crisis can be created around such a topic. The only positive point in the visit would be if President Peres succeeds in moving something in intelligence about Iran."