ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Block Quotes Only:
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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