ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001459 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: -------------- ¶1. Iran ¶2. Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media highlighted remarks made yesterday by Vice President Joe Biden in Baghdad on ABC-TV's "This Week" program: "We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened." Some Israeli commentators interpreted Biden's work as a non-endorsement of an Israeli action. Ha'aretz reported: "Israel is urging the United States and other countries to start preparing now for the possibility that Washington's proposed dialogue with Iran will fail, by readying a 'Plan B' that includes 'paralyzing sanctions' and other measures against Tehran. The U.S. has resisted this idea so far." The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israel Air Force plans to participate in aerial exercises in the U.S. and Europe in the coming months with the aim of training its pilots for long-range flights. On July 5 major media quoted Mossad Director Meir Dagan as saying in an interview with London's Sunday Times that Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli warplanes to fly over its territory in order to attack Iran's nuclear installations. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted sources in PM Netanyahu's office as saying that the British newspaper's report is baseless. Israel Radio reported that a senior Iranian official warned against an Israeli attack on his country's nuclear installations. Maariv reported that today's meting in London between DM Ehud Barak and Special Envoy George Mitchell will be overshadowed by a new argument: While Israel claims that 23 unauthorized settler outposts remain, the American list based on UN statistics includes 100 outposts. Maariv reported that Barak will tell Mitchell that Israel will continue to build what it has already started, but will not put up new buildings. This refers to over 2,000 housing units in various settlements, including Kiryat Sefer and Beitar Ilit. Ha'aretz reported that, in his meetings with Mitchell, Barak encouraged the envoy to engage in "shuttle diplomacy" between Jerusalem and a number of Arab capitals to draft a regional peace plan. On July 5, The Jerusalem Post reported that President Obama urged Morocco to lead an Arab-Israeli rapprochement. Leading media reported that today in Geneva, Gilad Shalit's father Noam will testify before the Human Rights Council-appointed fact-finding mission to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip, which is headed by Judge Richard Goldstone. Maariv quoted Israeli sources as saying that the session will constitute a "show trial" on Israel's actions during Operation Cast Lead. Yediot quoted Noam Shalit as saying that his son's abduction constitutes a war crime. Israel Radio quoted him as saying that it is a violation of international treaties. Ha'aretz reported that PM Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of Likud Party ministers yesterday that no deal about settlement construction had been reached with Washington yet, "and all the reports saying we have agreed to freeze construction in the settlements are the sole responsibility of those who publish them." Leading media quoted Netanyahu as saying at a separate meeting of the full cabinet that his government had "brought about a national consensus on the idea of two states for two peoples." On July 3, Yediot bannered a supposed U.S. plan that would allow Israeli airliners to fly over Arab countries in exchange for a settlement freeze. On July 5, Ha'aretz reported that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are pressing Syria to demarcate its border with Lebanon, in order to allow for the beginning of an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed Sheba Farms, straddling the border between Lebanon and the Golan. Former PM Ariel Sharon's top diplomatic advisor Dov Weisglass was quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post (July 3) that Netanyahu must endorse the Roadmap or risk the U.S. imposing something worse. The Jerusalem Post cited the Construction and Housing Web site as saying that first-time home buyers can receive a bigger mortgage if they move to settlements such as Itamar and Elon Moreh as opposed to the city of Ashkelon. The Jerusalem Post quoted defense officials as saying on July 6 that DM Ehud Barak has approved the transfer of 1,000 automatic weapons to the PA. Following ballistic tests, the IDF will be able to know if one of the weapons is used in a terrorist attack. Ha'aretz quoted the Israeli Interior Ministry as saying that Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. congresswoman, are among eight people to be released today and expelled after having sailed on a protest ship heading to Gaza from Cyprus. Ha'aretz reported that IAF fighter jets and transport planes to "get a workout" at U.S. bases. The Jerusalem Post reported that, under pressure from the Pentagon, Israel Aerospace Industries has been forced out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role fighter jets to the Indian Air Force. Maariv reported that hundreds of Hamas activists are defecting to the ranks of Al Qaida-affiliated organizations. Maariv reported that the Israel Land Fund, directed by Jewish millionaire Aryeh King, is seeking tenants for a luxury house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, which belongs to King. The newspaper says that there is a clear goal behind the initiative -- to settle Jews in the Arab neighborhood. On July 5, Maariv reported that on Thursday the Jerusalem Municipality approved plans to build 20 housing units in the Shepherd's Hotel, on the slopes of Mount Scopus, in the heart of an Arab neighborhood. As Maariv reported some six months ago, this project was promoted by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. Maariv's report produced intense pressure on Barkat to suspend the plans, mainly from the direction of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Yediot reported that Doron Eilat, a 17-year-old Israeli from Rishon Lezion, met President Obama in the White House during a convention of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. -------------- ¶1. Iran: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Back on the Agenda" Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/6): "Biden's words should not be understood as American permission for Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Rather, they were a veiled warning to Iran that if it does not embark on a serious dialogue with President Barack Obama's administration, it is liable to be attacked. An Israeli government source said Biden's statement was not coordinated with Israel. But it clearly serves Netanyahu, who sees halting Iran's nuclear program as a historic mission.... Israeli officials argue that Iran's apparently fraudulent election and its brutal suppression of the subsequent demonstrations reveal the pointlessness of talking with Tehran and the need for stiffer sanctions. The statements of the last few days are meant to bolster this message with hints of possible military action." II. "No One Is a Sucker" In the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot, senior columnist Nahum Barnea imagined a speech by President Obama(7/3): "'The United States will block the Iranian nuclear program. If we do not succeed in thwarting the project by means of sanctions, we will thwart it by force. A nuclear Iran poses a clear and present danger not only to the countries of the region but also to the security of the United States. But they too will have to do their share.... Israel will commit itself to immediately launch negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, with the basis for discussion being the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.... I know that this requires tough decisions for all parties, including us, the Americans.... But leaders are measured by tough decisions'.... How would Netanyahu respond to such a proposal? I think I know. He would say, let's see: 'Show me the money,' he would say to the U.S. envoys. 'Show me what you have received from the Arabs in the area of normalization, show me what you have received from Abu Mazen, show me what guarantees I will receive from America, and you will be surprised to find how generous, bold and creative I can be. They will meet with similar reactions in Saudi Arabia....' [By the way,] Netanyahu does not know yet what the Obama administration really wants." -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Netanyahu's Consensuses" Ha'aretz editorialized (7/6): "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who until last month opposed the solution of two states for two peoples, has suddenly adopted this premise as his policy.... Netanyahu's repeated statements were designed to ease the Mitchell-Barak talks, especially given the dispute over whether to freeze construction in the settlements.... Netanyahu must aspire to achieve not only national consensus within Israel, but also international consensus between two nations - Israelis and Palestinians. To this end, he must stop setting conditions and return without delay to negotiations on a final-status agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, either directly or with the mediation of Obama and his envoys." II. "Conditions to Avoid a Bantustan" Shlomo Avineri, Hebrew University Professor of Political Science and former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, wrote in Ha'aretz (7/6): "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to be praised for saying, albeit unenthusiastically, that Israel would agree to the establishment of a 'demilitarized' Palestinian state. His statements seem reasonable until one looks at the details: a demilitarized state with no army, no right to sign accords with other countries and no control over border crossings and airspace. As Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country is currently chairing the European Union, rightly asked, with all these limitations, what's left of Palestinian sovereignty? Indeed, it's too similar to Bantustan. It should come as no surprise that the Palestinians rejected Netanyahu's position outright.... Nowhere in the world is a country entirely demilitarized with no control over its borders.... [Yet,] it is impossible to ignore that even if Netanyahu's proposal is completely bizarre, it reflects Israel's real security problem.... Arrangements for demilitarization under these circumstances [involving Egyptian and Jordanian custodianships of the Palestinians for a transitional period, while a peace treaty is being forged], even extending to the crossings, could be easier. This is not a return to the 'Jordanian option.' The Palestinians are embroiled in a de facto civil war, which requires a search for creative, unusual ways to reach the desired solution of two states for two peoples. Sometimes the long road is the short one, especially since the short road has so far been an utter failure." III. "The Secret of Failure" Minister without Portfolio and Likud Knesset Member Ze'ev Benjamin (Benny) Begin wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot; "What is accepted as the 'two-state solution,' as a mechanism of making a permanent peace, is not in reality a solution. As far as the Moderate Palestinian Liberation Organization is concerned, this is still a 'two-stage solution:' in the first stage the establishment of an Arab state alongside Israel, and in the second stage, after the refugees enter deep into Israel, the establishment of one Arab state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. In an effort to verify this conjecture conclusively or in an attempt to refute it, the Israeli governments have already conducted all possible political experiments, and the excuses have now run out. In other words, there will be no end to the one hundred year conflict so long as the Arab position does not fundamentally change." CUNNINGHAM