ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

Please note: The Israel Media Reaction report will not appear on
Friday, May 29, 2009, due to the Israeli holiday of Shavuot.

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Mideast

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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Radio quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying
yesterday that President Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements
-- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth
exceptions." Leading media reported that, at their meetings with
PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs envoys in London this week, U.S. officials
stated that the U.S. will not renounce its opposition to Israeli
construction in the territories and outposts. The Jerusalem Post
and other media reported that yesterday leading religious Zionist
rabbis called on IDF soldiers to disobey orders to dismantle and
evacuate outposts and settlements in the West Bank. However, the
daily reported that a major insubordination is unlikely. Leading
media reported that Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer
called on Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to launch an investigation
against those religious leaders. "The rabbis are using their
religious authority to sabotage democracy and turn the IDF into a
political tool to be used by the settlers," Oppenheimer was quoted
as saying.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu told the Knesset
yesterday that he is committed to agreements signed by previous
government -- Qthe closest he has come in public to adopting the
two-state solution formula.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Secretary Clinton as saying yesterday that
the U.S. would present detailed plans on the peace process to the
parties as part of its efforts to jumpstart negotiations.

The media reported that PA President Mahmoud Abbas Is due to meet
with President Obama in the White House today. HaQaretz wrote:
QObama considers his role as one in which he provides Abbas with the
necessary support, in part by pressing Netanyahu and taking a tough
stance on settlements.Q Maariv predicts that the President will
pressure Abbas to remove the three conditions he set to a meeting
with Netanyahu. Israel Radio quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting
yesterday that he "will not demand the return of five million"
Palestinian refugees to Israel -- saying "we will not destroy
Israel." HaQaretz notes that the U.S. media has questioned AbbasQs
effectiveness ahead of the visit.

The media reported that yesterday the Knesset plenum gave initial
approval to a bill that would make it a crime to publicly deny
Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, punishable by a sentence
of up to a year in prison. The bill would outlaw the publication of
any "call to negate Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic
state, where the content of such publication would have a reasonable
possibility of causing an act of hatred, disdain or disloyalty" to
Israel. Forty-seven Knesset members voted in favor of the bill and
34 voted against, with Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud)
abstaining from the vote. The measure would have to pass three
additional votes in parliament and a committee review before
becoming law. HaQaretz reported that on Sunday MK David Rotem
(Yisrael Beiteinu) will introduce a bill that would force candidates
for Israeli citizenship to take an oath of allegiance to the state.
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the Foreign Ministry has
dissociated itself from MK Arieh EldadQs (National Union) QJordan is
PalestineQ idea. The Jerusalem Post and other media noted that
several such new legislative initiatives from right-wing parties are
causing discomfort among mainstream U.S. Jewish advocacy
organizations that worry that efforts to forbid anti-Israel activism
in the country may be tinged with racist intentions and lead to
infringements on freedom of speech.

The Jerusalem Post reported that visiting Sen. Frank Lautenberg
(D-NJ) told the newspaper yesterday that President Obama Qcan never
dictate to Israel to follow a path that would lead to harming
itself.Q Lautenberg was referring to the possibility of Israel
bombing IranQs nuclear facilities.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk was quoted as saying
in an interview with Yediot that Syria will agree to discuss the
possibility of leaving Israeli settlements in place in the Golan
under its sovereignty.

Israel Radio reported that 70 representatives of foreign governments
and armies will arrive in Israel to watch the nationwide drill it
will conduct next week.
The Jerusalem Post reported that, Qin a move liable to reignite
controversy over QWhoQs a Jew?,QQ Shas and United Torah Judaism are
preparing a bill that would give the Chief Rabbinate sole
jurisdiction over conversions in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Israeli defense officials as saying
yesterday that the IDF is drafting operational plans to evacuate
several West Bank outposts by the end of June.

Maariv reported that a ministerial committee on economic peace with
the Palestinians held its first meeting yesterday. Major media
quoted DM Ehud Barak as saying yesterday that Israel intends to
build a Palestinian city near Ramallah, the idea of which was put
forward by Barak and Quartet envoy Tony Blair a long time ago.

Maariv and The Jerusalem Post cited IsraelQs concern that assault
helicopters and tanks that the U.S. promised the Lebanese Army will
fall into HizbullahQs hands. Maariv quoted an Israeli defense
source as saying that a statement by Vice President Joe Biden
regarding U.S. military aid to Lebanon is evidence that the U.S.
lacks understanding about what is happening in that country.

Israel Radio and The Jerusalem Post reported that Amnesty
InternationalQs annual report denounces actions by Israel, the PA,
and Hamas .. The report states that Gaza is on the brink of
disaster. HaQaretz reported that according to an inspection by the
Palestinian human rights organization Mizan, which was commissioned
by the newspaper, 1085 of the 1400 Palestinian casualties in
Operation Cast Lead were killed in Israeli air raids. Mizan said
that around 7% of Palestinians killed during the operation were shot
at point-blank range.

Maariv reported that the rift between Jews and Arabs in the city of
Acre has deepened since last yearQs riots.

HaQaretz and other media reported that police investigators are
increasingly confident that they will be able to press charges
within the next few weeks against FM Avigdor Lieberman, over a
series of violations for which he is being questioned.

Yediot reported that next week former PM Ehud Olmert will undergo
surgery in a New York hospital to remove a tumor from his prostate.

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Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "A Worthy Agenda"

The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (5/28): QIn his
speech next week directed at the Muslim and Arab world, U.S.
President Barack Obama is expected to launch a new era in AmericaQs
relations with Islam.... The U.S. is striving, not only with the
PresidentQs speech, to restore its political legitimacy in the
Middle East. This legitimacy has badly eroded both because of the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as AmericaQs special relations
with Israel. Due to the wars and the United StatesQ tendency to
support IsraelQs positions absolutely, the U.S. has lost its statuts
as a honest broker and a power that can and wants to impartially
examine the needs of Israel, the Palestinians and the Arabs.
[wbs1]Israel is used to zero-sum games in which every American
leaning toward the Arabs does so at IsraelQs expense, and every
expression in IsraelQs favor is an achievement at the Arabs
expense. So it awaits the speech suspiciously, not to say
apprehensively. So far Israel has QbenefitedQ from the balance in
which Muslim hostility toward the U.S. has turned Israel into
AmericaQs only apparent strategic partner in the region. Now
Washington may find new friends. IsraelQs exclusivity is about to
crack, if not to crash.... [Nonetheless,] an American-Arab and
Muslim friendship could prove to be s strategic asset. Washington
is now expected, as a continuation to ObamaQs speech in Cairo and
his meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, to present a viable peace plan
that would launch the practical stage of the American vision.

II. "Is Obama truly Looking for a Fight with Israel over QNatural
GrowthQ?"

Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (5/28): QIsraeli officials
are confident -- perhaps overly confident -- that if they Qline up
with the U.S. administration on the Qright side of the fenceQ on
most settlement issues, they could find a formula to work regarding
natural growth. This means that if, as the Olmert government
declared, the Netanyahu government says it will uproot illegal
outposts, not set up new settlements, not give incentives to move to
the settlements, and not expropriate any additional Palestinian
lands, then the conventional wisdom in the current government is
that the U.S. would permit -- as it has in the past -- natural
growth construction as long as it does not go beyond the existing
construction lines. But what if Obama, as some maintain, is
actually looking for a public fight with Israel on this issue in
order to win credit with the Arab world, and legitimacy among the
Europeans as a leader who is willing to take Israel on when
necessary? That could be a tricky tactic, because if the U.S.
President picks a fight with Israel over the natural growth issue at
a time when Israel has declared it won't build new settlements,
expropriate land or give incentives to move there, then it could be
perceived among some Obama supporters in Congress as being unfairly
tough on Israel, especially since various verbal understandings were
made over the years that Israel interpreted as a green light for
natural growth.

III. "Only the Outposts Interest Them"

Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in HaQaretz (5/28): QDarfur can
wait. Our outposts interest [President Obama] more, as does
removing the roadblocks. They are not pleasant, but what are they
compared to the atrocities in vast parts of Africa and Asia? But
they are more important than his other humanitarian concerns. ItQs
not merely a humanitarian problem. The outposts, according to the
AmericansQ political beliefs, are obstacles to peace.... Anyone who
equates [outposts] with IranQs nuclearization betrays an extreme
lack of sense of proportion. How can one rely on him for matters
that are a thousand times more serious?





IV. "When Rahm Emanuel Curses"

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Lord wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor
Rishon-Hatzofe (5/28): QThe fact that senior former and current U.S.
administration officials allow themselves to frown and harm the
respect due to the Prime Minister is a grave phenomenon in
itself.... But those attitudes betray something -- Obama and his
peopleQs tactic in handling Netanyahu, such as what was and what was
not achieved during the Obama-Netanyahu meeting.


V. QSave Yourselves from Yourselves

In the popular, pluralist Maariv, conservative Op-Ed Page Editor
Ben-Dror Yemini imagined an QalternativeQ speech by President Obama
in Cairo (5/28): QThose who relieve the Muslim world from
responsibility for the culture of fear and oppression that has taken
it over harm Muslims and strengthen Islamists who slaughter them.
They told you that the West is to blame. In their incitement they
proclaimed: Zionism is guilty. There is no bigger lie than that.
There is no worse racism than that. As the son of a Muslim father,
I do not believe that I am different from others. The first
condition required to get out of this misery is the recognition that
a choice must be made between self-delusion and outer delusion, on
one side, and responsibility for oneself on the other. Stop blaming
all others.

CUNNINGHAM
[wbs1]THIS SENTENCE DOESNQT MAKE SENSE. A word must be missing.