ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001305 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: -------------- Block Quotes Only: -------------- ¶1. PM Netanyahu's Speech ¶2. Iran ¶I. "Walking Between the Raindrops" Yossi Alper, a member of the Peace and Security Council and a regular contributor to the conservative independent Jerusalem Post wrote6/16): "At the end of the day, another right-wing leader, steeped in Revisionist ideology, had agreed to partition the land into two states. This cannot have been easy for Netanyahu. Yet his was not an unequivocal acceptance of the peace process with all it entails. Accordingly, his coalition will hold; Washington will keep up the pressure; and PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas will refuse to renew negotiations. Netanyahu "walked between the raindrops" and thinks he never got wet." II. "Orphaning the Arab Initiative" Zvi Bar'el, senior Arab affairs commentator, wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (6/16): "The harbinger of Arab reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuls speech was Saeb Erekat, head of negotiations with Israel for the Palestinian Authority. Speaking on Al Jazeera TV Sunday night, he enumerated the faults of Netanyahu's speech. Without a mention of an acceptable Israeli position on Jerusalem, refugees, water or a settlement freeze, the editors of the important newspapers in the Middle East could not help but adopt the Palestinian line and attack Netanyahu's address .... No one in the Middle East was impressed that Netanyahu had uttered the words "Palestinian state." It seems to the Arabs that Israel has taken on the role of the Arab League conference that coined the "three nosn in 1967 with respect to Israel, and that Israel has lost the Arab peace initiative." III. "A positive Step Nonetheless" Independent, left-leaning Ha'arez editorialized (6/16): "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration during his Bar-Ilan address on Sunday that he would accept the principle of the creation of a "demilitarized Palestinian state beside the Jewish state" was a small step in the right direction.... Netanyahu's test will be to translate the speech into a practical policy.... . Netanyahu demands that the Palestinians renounce the fundamentals of their national ethos in return for a small state with limited sovereignty. Such a stance may be well received by the Israeli public and Israel's supporters in the U.S., but not by Palestinians, Arabs or international partners. If Netanyhu insists on maintaining such a position, he will gain support at home for a limited period, but he will not solve Israel's diplomatic problems." IV: "The Ball in Obama's Court Senior Commentator Yoel Marcus wrote in the independent, leftleaning Ha'aretz (6/16): "The moment Obama declared he was satisfied with Netanyahu's statements, the prime minister managed to dribble the hot potato into the Palestinian court.... Obama and the Europeans see the speech as a good beginning, mainly because of the level of expectations that accompanied it. Clearly the speech might be transitory, like many speeches have been, if Bibi does not show leadership the way Sharon did. Until we get there, the Palestinians, as usual, instead of catching Bibi on every good word or gesture, have begun another round of missing an opportunity. They have already called him a liar and a charlatan. It remains to be seen whether Barack Hussein Obama can save the Palestinians from themselves." ¶2. Iran I."Popular Uprising" Menashe Amir, director of Israel Radio's service and an expert on Iranian affairs' wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (6/16): "Something new has been happening in Iran in the past two days,.. This is the first time that figures who were an integral part of the leadership stand by the side of those who are participating in the uprising. Former president Mohamd Khatami, contender and former prime minister Mir- Hossein Mousavi, and contender Mehdi Karroubi were the living spirit and leaders of the mass demonstration yesterday in Tehran.... All the uprisings that have broken out until today in Iran have been cruelly suppressed and failed, mainly due to lack of leadership. The fate of this uprising, of which we are now in the middle, depends on one thing-the continued cooperation of these three figures with the protest." II. "Israeli Intelligence: Regime in Iran Won't Fall in Near Future" Ronen Bergman, investigative journalist, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yedioth Ahronoth (6/16) "Senior Israeli intelligence sources assess that the ayatollah regime in Tehran is stable as of now, and is not expected to fall in the wake of the elections.... According to assessments in Israel, the regime headed by spiritual leader Ali Khamenei made two severe errors recently: The first error was the permission given to Ahmadinejad to come out against very strong figures in the regime, headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani, and the severe damage to his reputation and his family's reputation. The second error was forging the results of the elections, or at least acting in a way that gave many citizens the impression that they were forged. The combination of these two errors... along with the fact that Ahmadinejad did not lead to a serious improvement in the economic situation in recent years and the fact that freedom of speech in Iran became increasingly restricted during his term of office, caused the current outburst... . However, in light of the harsh and quick measures that the regime has taken against the protest, and in light of the fact that the spiritual leader's bureau fully controls the security and intelligence services, Israeli officials now assess that the regime is still stable, and that it faces no danger in the near future. CUNNINGHAM