JERUSALEM MEDIA REACTION (11/23): Progress on Prisoner

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JERUSALEM 002099 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 (11/23): Progress on Prisoner Exchange; Negotiations Resumption Offer Rejected, and Settlements Prominently Covered -------------- Main Stories: -------------- Dailies lead with news that progress has been achieved on the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas through German mediation. Reports expect the deal to be concluded by Al-Adha Eid. Ma'an and dailies report that President Mahmoud Abbas refused a US proposal to resume negotiations with Israel including the following offers: Q Weapons for Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces Q Release of 400 Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails before the Muslim holiday of Eid Q Extending the PA's West Bank jurisdiction in Area B to full control and Area C to partial control Dailies and Ma'an report on PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's statement yesterday at a police training graduation ceremony in Al-Fari'a in the Jordan Valley that the "PA will not accept a fragmented state". PA official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reports on Qassam brigades (Hamas' military wing) reaching an agreement with other Palestinian factions to stop rocket attacks against Israel in order to protect Palestinian national interests from Israeli retaliation. Dailies report on Egyptian President Mubarak's statements on Sunday during a joint press conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Cairo that construction on Palestinian lands occupied since 1967 must stop. Peres was quoted as saying that the expansion of settlements in the West Bank is a "marginal" topic that obstructs the peace talks. Independent daily Al-Quds front pages news that Israeli authorities distributed 25 evacuation orders to Palestinian families residing in housing units in Samiramis near Qalandia area, claiming that the units were built on land that is owned by Jewish settlers. The evacuation orders will leave 200 people homeless. Dailies and Ma'an report on a Syrian delegation entering Gaza through Rafah border crossing yesterday on a solidarity visit. The delegation was composed of several well-known Syrian television stars, including Dureid Lahham and Jamal Sulaiman. -------------- Weekend stories: -------------- Sunday, November 22: All three dailies lead with statements by Egyptian President Mubarak to a joint meeting of Egypt's Parliament that Israelis are "undermining chances for a just peace by asking for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, asking to negotiate over temporary borders for the Palestinian state, and excluding Jerusalem from the peace negotiations." Mubarak is also quoted as saying that Egypt will not accept further procrastination regarding internal Palestinian unity. Independent daily Al Ayyam quotes Mubarak saying that foreign pressures are seeking to undermine Palestinian reconciliation. JERUSALEM 00002099 002 OF 003 All three dailies front page excerpts from an Israeli TV interview with an Israeli international law expert, Moshe Hersh, in which he stated that a majority of UN general assembly members would recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. According to Hersh, 130 states would likely recognize such a state. He noted that even "timid" EU support for such a state would embarrass the United States, which intends to oppose a unilateral declaration of Palestinian Statehood. Al Hayat Al Jadida runs a front page story, quoting Ma'an News Network that Israeli sources revealed that Jewish rabbis have paid an Israeli soldier, imprisoned for refusing to evacuate Israeli settlers from settlement outposts in the West Bank, 1000 shekels for each of the 56 days he spent in prison for refusing to carry out the evacuation order. Al Quds runs a front page interview with the Fatah Parliament Block leader Azam Al Ahmad, who expressed astonishment at claims by the United States of its inability to exert pressure on Israel to stop settlement construction. He stated that all U.S. presidents, including President Obama, have considered Israel part of U.S. national security, and if that is the case, then if President Obama were to issue an order for Israel to stop building settlements it [Israel] would obey. Al Ahmad expressed the "deep frustration and disappointment over the U.S. blind biasness towards Israel" as felt by Palestinians, the PA and Fattah. He also expressed concerns that if the political environment does not change, PA President Abbas might quit political life, and consequently the PA might collapse, however Al Ahmad does not believe that will occur. Saturday November 21: All three dailies front-page reports that progress has been achieved on the Hamas-Israeli prisoner exchange deal. The reports reveal that the German mediator passed a new list, from Hamas to Israel, containing 70 names of Palestinian prisoners, after Israel rejected releasing some prisoners from a previous list. According to the reports, Israeli PM Netanyahu has already given his consent to go ahead with the deal, making it possible to move to phase two of the deal, in which Shalit is to be transferred to Egypt. Once Shalit is examined by Israeli doctors and found to be in good health, Israel will release the 450 Palestinian prisoners. The dailies further report that Hamas hopes to wrap up the deal by November 27 in time for the Eid Al Adha holiday despite official statements by Israeli and Palestinian officials that a deal by Friday is "too early." The reports add that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmad Saadat are said to be among those that will be released. All three dailies run lead stories about President Abbas' visit to Brazil, his call for Brazil to play a more active role in the stalemated Mideast peace talks, and his statements accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Jerusalem. He also accused Israel of "all forms of oppression and cruelty against the Palestinians." PA official daily Al Hayat Al Jadida quotes Abbas as saying "The Palestinian people want a peace in which our sons and the sons of the Israelis can live free of fear, a peace that returns to the land of peace its mission of peace...as our people look forward to the liberation day because occupation is an ugly form of slavery." The three papers quote Brazilian President Da Silva's demands that "settlement expansion in the West Bank must be JERUSALEM 00002099 003 OF 003 frozen...the borders of the future Palestinian state must be protected and the access of movement within the occupied territories must be ensured." Al Quds front page runs several articles on Israeli settlement activity in Jerusalem. The below-the fold center item headlines "An Israeli expert: - 'Any Palestinian land owner - in Jerusalem- will need 10 to 15 years of Israeli construction permit procedures, to be able to build a house in Jerusalem, even if he is able to prove land ownership.'" The statements were published Friday in The Jerusalem Post in response to Israeli official reports that "one day" Palestinians would benefit from Israeli plans to build housing units in Jerusalem. In another front page article, Al Quds reports on Fatah official for Jerusalem Affairs, Hatem Abdul Qader, noting that GOI plans to confiscate hundreds of dunums of Palestinian lands in the Walajeh area near Jerusalem to construct the new settlement of Givat Yael which will house 50,000 Israeli settlers. In a third front page article, Al Quds, reporting on Friday prayer in Jerusalem, notes that hundreds of Palestinians performed prayers in a protest tent in the Bustan area in Silwan, to protest Israeli settlement activity in the neighbourhood. The paper quotes Sheikh Raed Salah of the Islamic Movement in Israel calling on the Palestinians to stay in Jerusalem and stick to their land and houses. Al Quds runs a center front-page story entitled "Prominent US journalist commends PA PM Fayyad's plan." The paper quotes Washington Post columnist David Ignatius' recent article, "Ramallah's Road Map to Statehood," which praised PA PM Salam Fayyad's plan for establishing a Palestinian state within two years. Ignatius quotes Martin Indyk, who heads the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, as saying, "Fayyad is the only game in town, but his plan isn't sustainable without a political process." Ignatius' article calls for U.S. approval and support of Fayyad's plan. -------------- BLOCK QUOTES: -------------- Independent daily Al-Quds runs an editorial under the title: "Mubarak Rectifies Facts in Peres' Misleading Statements" (11/23): "We all know that Peres' statements, that settlements are a 'marginal' issue obstructing the resumption of negotiations, are misleading...expansion of settlements is the major obstacle obstructing the resumption of negotiations as well as to achieving peace... Peres has no right to determine the future territory of the Palestinian state, be it Jerusalem, West Bank or Gaza." Al Quds characterizes Mubarak's courageous statements as a unified Arab Muslim position supporting the Palestinian cause before the international community. RUBINSTEIN EIN