ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast


2. Iran

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Key stories in the media:
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The Jerusalem Post cited Israeli assessments that the U.S. and
Israel both believe that QIran could, but probably won't, build a
bomb within a year.Q According to these appraisals, there is not
much difference now between the U.S. and Israel regarding a timeline
for a "worst case scenario" on Iran's development of a bomb. At the
same time, both Jerusalem and Washington reportedly currently
believe that the "worst case scenario is not likely to materialize."
The newspaper quoted a senior GOI official who deals with the issue
as saying: "I would be careful about all the declarations on this
matter." The official added that a decision by Tehran to go full
throttle toward the building of a bomb would depend on numerous
different decisions the government would have to make, and which it
had simply not yet made. Major media quoted French President
Nicolas Sarkozy as saying at the G-8 meeting in Italy that an
Israeli attack on IranQs nuclear facilities would be an Qabsolute
catastrophe.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that President Shimon Peres presented
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak with an offer for land exchanges
between Israel and the Palestinians. HaQaretz and Yediot reported
that the G-8 leaders urged Hamas to free Gilad Shalit without delay.
Leading media reported that Mubarak blames Israel for the failure
of the talks to release Shalit, because it has set new conditions
for the deal. Yediot reported that Mubarak made the same remark in
an interview with the newspaper. Israel Radio quoted senior GOI
officials in Jerusalem as saying in response that Hamas is
responsible for the situation. The station reported that Israel
rejected 125 names in the list of 450 prisoners presented by Hamas
and asked Hamas to submit a new list, but Hamas has not done so.
The radio later quoted Egyptian sources involved in the talks as
saying that the negotiations over ShalitQs release will resume.

Maariv provides a review, based on reports by PA security officials,
of Hamas's future plans, both in regard to rebuilding its rocket
arsenal and military after Operation Cast Lead, as well as an
alleged decision by the Hamas leadership, both internal and
external, to renew terror attacks from the Gaza Strip very soon,
starting with attacks on IDF troops along the border, and graduating
to rocket fire against Israeli communities. These attacks, say the
PA officials, will be carried out by "independent" organizations
such as Jaljalat. They also described Hamas's new defenses, which
include landmines, explosives charges, and booby-trapped tunnels,
along with a massive rocket fire array with better firing capability
and longer range.

Yediot reported that President Obama will QexceptionallyQ convene
the leaders of the American-Jewish community on Monday and tell them
that he is determined to reach a permanent-status agreement between
Israel and the Palestinians during his term; he will reportedly urge
Israel to do its part, including freezing construction in the
settlements. The newspaper says that this is a means of pressuring
Netanyahu. Yediot quoted sources in Washington as saying that
National Security Adviser Uzi Arad, who said this week in interviews
with news agencies that there is a Qconflict of interestsQ between
the U.S. and Israel regarding the Iranian issue, might Qburn the
tiesQ with the U.S.

Leading media reported that last week PM Benjamin Netanyahu told
visiting German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier that QJudea and Samaria
[i.e. the West Bank] cannot be Judenrein.Q The term was employed by
Nazis to refer to areas that had had been Qcleansed of Jews.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF is considering allowing the
PA to establish a specially trained PA counter-terror squad -- a
scaled-down version of the IDFQs elite reconnaissance units --
qualified to carry out pinpoint operations against Hamas terrorist
cells in the West Bank.

The Jerusalem Post reported that, three years after the Second
Lebanon War, the army is preparing border communities for a new
scenario Q an infiltration and ensuing shootout.

Yediot ran a lengthy feature on U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East
Peace George Mitchell. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe hints that Mitchell may
have personal business interests in the PA via the Middle East
Investment Initiative.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Dani Dayan, Chairman of the Yesha
Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories, as saying that the
agreement with the U.S. on a construction freeze in the settlements
is an illusion. The daily said that the council fears new Israeli
concessions on the construction issue.

Maariv reported that yesterday Egyptian authorities arrested 25
people suspected of planning a terrorist attack on the Suez Canal.
Egyptian officials were quoted as saying that the group is linked to
elements in Gaza.

HaQaretz reported that the Judge Advocate General, Brig. Gen.
Avichai Mandelblit, told the human rights group B'Tselem yesterday
that the army does not classify .22 caliber bullets as suitable for
dispersing demonstrators. According to B'Tselem, the use of
.22-caliber bullets resulted in the death of at least two unarmed
Palestinians.

HaQaretz reported that four Jews -- members of the Jewish Defense
League -- were arrested in Paris on Wednesday on suspicion of
vandalizing a pro-Palestinian bookshop. The Jerusalem Post reported
that UK Jews and Muslims are increasingly concerned over possible
terror by neo-Nazis.

Yediot ran a feature about American Rabbi Sam Gordon, who supported
Barack Obama during the presidential campaign.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Police Cmdr. Uri Bar-Lev will
travel to the U.S. in August to take up his new position as the
Israel Police and Internal Security Attache in Washington. Bar-Lev
plans to use his office to further Israeli-American cooperation on
intelligence, terrorism, drug smuggling, and organized crime, and to
bolster IsraelQs image in the U.S. Yediot reported that yesterday
Yaniv Haziza, a senior member of Yitzhak AbergilQs criminal
organization, was extradited to the U.S. About five years ago, he
was indicted in a Californian court on Ecstasy-related charges.

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1. Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "Does He, or DoesnQt He?"
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent,
left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/10): QNetanyahu's rivals, and foremost
among them opposition head and Kadima Knesset Member Tzipi Livni,
are convinced that, although the Prime Minister is saying Qtwo
states,Q he doesn't mean it.... Nevertheless, Netanyahu cannot
retract his Qtwo states for two peoples.Q And he has a clear
political interest in following this path, which has taken him from
the position of extreme rightist during the election campaign to
that of a national leader at the heart of the consensus. QHe has
gone from being QBibi 50 percentQ to QBibi 70 percent,QQ an American
observer, who is savvy about Israeli politics, commented this week.
In the Bar-Ilan speech, Netanyahu talked about the security
guarantees he will request of the international community,
particularly from the United States. Then he explained that he
didn't mean the deployment of American soldiers in Nablus and Jenin,
but rather diplomatic guarantees. It has been clarified that the
Prime Minister has adopted the Qeight-point documentQ that his
predecessor Ehud Olmert presented to the Bush administration. The
points themselves are quite trivial: total demilitarization of the
Palestinian state, foreign observers on the border with Jordan, the
Rafah border crossing under European supervision, Israeli control of
the air space and the assignment of military radio frequencies.
Barak raised demands like those at Camp David nine years ago; Olmert
rephrased them and according to his people obtained American
agreement to them. Netanyahu wants to get those guarantees from
Barack Obama in writing, so as to ensure that Israel will enjoy
international legitimacy for its security concerns regarding the
establishment of the Palestinian state. If Netanyahu adopts the
security provisions in the permanent status agreements that Barak
and Olmert spoke about at Camp David and Annapolis respectively he
will not be able to shake off their other provisions -- first and
foremost the crucial maximum withdrawal from the West Bank and the
evacuation of most of the settlements. He, after all, invented the
slogan, QThe more they give, the more they'll get.Q Anyone who
wants to get security guarantees will have to give territory. A lot
of territory.

II. "Give Substance to the Vision"

Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote on page one of the
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/10): QLike it or not --
and opinion polls carried recently by The Jerusalem Post strongly
suggest the latter -- the worldQs only superpower appears to have
decided that IsraelQs best interests require it to freeze
construction beyond the Green Line.... For all that Netanyahu is
today veritably extolling the virtues of the two-state vision he had
so long resisted, for all the pressures he is now beginning to feel
from within his own party, from all the precariousness of the
current relative stability in the West Bank and the inconvenient
truth that a robust terrorist organization rules Gaza, the Obama
administration seems bent on what it sees as saving Israel from
itself.... It seems convinced it can create a climate via Israeli
concessions in which true Palestinian compromise and wider Arab
reconciliation will flourish. So if, as he now declares, the Prime
Minister has a vision, let him urgently transform its sketched
parameters into substance. If, as he now claims, he can drive a
better bargain than his predecessors, let him move beyond the
rhetoric.... For if we donQt make up our minds, if the Prime
Minister doesnQt make up his mind, the signs are multiplying that
others are bent on making our minds up for us. And while we may be
untenably confused and conflicted, they may be dangerously
ignorant.

III. "In the Footsteps of Sam LewisQs Suck-Ups"

Columnist Sarah Honig wrote in The Jerusalem Post (7/10): QItQs
doubtful any other state anywhere would be treated with similar
disrespect, not by inimical leaders like Obama, but even by
emissaries like George Mitchell. Ours is to do their bidding even
at our palpable peril. The more Netanyahu delays forthrightly
defying such international chutzpa, the more he invites it. There
are times when seemly circumspection is contraindicated. Begin by
now would have called the American ambassador to order and sent an
unequivocal message to said ambassadorQs boss, even at the risk of
local sycophants to brownnose the latter-day [U.S. ambassador]
Samuel Lewis.

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2. Iran:
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Block Quotes:
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"Buds of Sobering Up in Washington"

Columnist Uri Heitner wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor
Rishon-Hatzofe (7/10): QOne should hope that the latest events in
Iran and North Korea will drop a penny with Obama. He is perhaps
starting to understand that appeasement vis-a-vis evil will not

bring about peace in our time, the same way ChamberlainQs policy
towards Hitler did not do so, but led to the harshest war of all.
Obama is perhaps starting to sober up and to understand that in
order to create a better world, you must fight evil and defeat it.

CUNNINGHAM