JERUSALEM MEDIA REACTION (09/04): Negotiations Require a

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 001602 SIPDIS STATE PASS BBG STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM NSC CMC WASHINGTON DC FOR POLAD JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD LONDON FOR HKANONA AND POL - TSOU PARIS ALSO FOR POL ROME FOR MFO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KMDR KPAL KWBG KPAO IS SUBJECT: JERUSALEM MEDIA REACTION (09/04): Negotiations Require a Commitment to Action -------------- Main Stories: -------------- Al-Quds, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, and Al-Ayyam all report that Netanyahu has agreed on a partial halting of settlement activities for nine months -- excluding East Jerusalem. Al Quds newspaper reports that Washington permitted construction work to continue in 2500 settlement units. Additionally, reports state that the halting of settlement activities was made in exchange for Arab promises to resume work in Israeli interest offices in the Gulf and North Africa. In related news, Al-Ayyam also leads with a story that states an agreement between the U.S. and Israel "is close." However, Israel's suggestion for a State with temporary borders was denied. All three dailies highlighted the press conference between President Mahmoud Abbas and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, where both parties claim to be ready to resume negotiations for final status issues, if Israel halts its settlement activities. Al Hayat Al Jadida and Al Ayyam report that the group Salafi Jund Ansar Allah wal Sunnah (The Salafist Movement of Loyal Soldiers of Allah and Sunnah) is claiming responsibility for the recent bombings that have targeted Hamas centers. According to the report, the three bombings targeted Ansar Mall and an area near the home of President Mahmoud Abbas' in Gaza (100 meters away from the mall). The third bombing was in an undisclosed location. Al Hayat Al Jadida reports on its front page an interview with Arab-Americans condemning the Israel government's discrimination against Arab-Americans in Israel. According to the report, this group of Arab-Americans requested to meet Secretary Clinton in order to condemn what they consider racism, and the long-standing discrimination against Arab-Americans in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Al Quds and Al Hayat Al Jadida report on the opening ceremony of water wells in the South of the West Bank, Bethlehem and Hebron, claiming that the wells in the South of the West Bank now operate with a capacity of 41 thousand cubic meter daily. The stories also claim that these recent openings put an end to the issue of the stalled wells. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was quoted as saying that these projects are essential to end "the occupation." Fayyad is also quoted inviting the people to gather around the PA and its leaders and to protect the PLO. -------------- BLOCK QUOTES: -------------- Al-Ayyam independent, Rajab Abu Siryeh, "September Exposes the Faith of Solutions!" (09/04): "The days of the 23rd of September and the 25th of September will decide the destiny of both the negotiation process between the PA and the Israeli government, and the internal reconciliation folder. However, the PA is going forward in installing itself on the ground, as an independent state project... When the final status issue negotiations failed to deliver a solution that announced a Palestinian State, they talked about enforcing the state's sovereignty and announced it from one side. But what happened after that from US President Bill Clinton's interference extended the deadline until the end of his term in n 2000... resulting in the intractability in Camp David, and in the conflict between both sides (the second Intifada)." JERUSALEM 00001602 002 OF 002 Mohammad Yaghi, Al-Ayyam independent, "Fateh and Hamas in a Waiting State" (09/04): "Obama might have better intentions than Clinton towards the region, but Clinton acquired unusual diplomatic skill and a big political ambition... He could not get from Netanyahu more than the Wye River agreement, which was not executed anyway. Negotiations will create for Ramallah a state of movement that will fill the political vacuum that exists. But Ramallah knows too that a negotiation in the presence of Netanyahu on the top of the leadership pyramid in Israel is not more than a word that is a synonym to wait." MARCHESE