ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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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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HaQaretz and other media reported that, in an interview with CNN,
President Obama hinted that the Iranian elections and the ensuing
violent demonstrations could adversely affect the negotiations over
Iran's nuclear program. HaQaretz also reported that American Jewish
leaders who met with Obama on Tuesday expressed great satisfaction
with their discussion. Conversely, The Jerusalem Post quoted
several Jewish leaders -- from the Orthodox Union and mainstream
groups -- who participated in the meeting as saying yesterday that
the PresidentQs efforts to reassure them on U.S. policy towards
Israel had not assuaged their concerns. The Post quoted an official
from one such organization, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as
saying: QI am concerned that the Obama administration is falling
into the trap of blaming all the problems with the peace process and
region generally on Israel.

The media reported that police are nearing the end of their
investigation into FM Avigdor Lieberman and that they are
considering charging him with several offenses, including bribery.
Officials were quoted as saying yesterday that they have completed
their investigation into accusations of money laundering, fraud, and
breach of trust, and have also collected evidence of obstruction of
justice. If the probe is completed in the coming days as planned,
the team will hand their recommendations to Attorney General
Menachem Mazuz next week, including recommended indictments. The
indictment taking shape suggests Lieberman managed a well-oiled
business machine through front men even after taking public office,
and made millions of dollars.

Maariv and Israel Radio reported that Haggai Hadas, PM NetanyahuQs
point man on the issue of Gilad ShalitQs release, met with Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo yesterday.

Media reported that yesterday, for the second time in as many weeks,
two Israel Navy gunboats openly sailed through the Suez Canal into
the Red Sea. The media said that the move, which was apparently
coordinated with Egypt, is seen as a warning message to Middle
Eastern radicals, first and foremost Iran. Media reported that
Egyptian FM Ahmed Abu al-Gheit, when asked Tuesday about the boats'
passage through Suez, confirmed the report and said that Egypt's
agreements with Israel permit Israeli military ships to transit the
canal. He declined to speculate on whether the voyage was meant as
a warning to Iran or anyone else. Israel Radio reported that the
London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi harshly condemned EgyptQs approval of
the boats' passage.

Major media quoted a Golani Brigade soldier as saying that the IDF
used Palestinians as human shields during Operation Cast Lead last
January despite a 2005 High Court ruling outlawing the practice. He
was quoted as saying that he did not see Palestinians being used as
human shields but was told by his commanders that this occurred.
The soldier was quoted as saying that his unit employed a variation
of the practice, the so-called "neighbor procedure," when it checked
homes for Palestinian militants. The soldier's testimony appears in
a collection of accounts being published this week by Breaking the
Silence, an organization that collects IDF soldiers' testimony on
human rights abuses by the military. HaQaretz reported that the
soldier gave similar testimony in an interview with the newspaper.
Israel Radio cited the report as saying that soldiers opened fire in
order to hit innocent Palestinians in order to avoid being harmed.
One of the soldiers was quoted as saying that it is better to harm
innocent people than to hesitate to fire at the enemy. The media
quoted the IDF as saying that the report lacked details and
reliability, and that the IDF was not given the opportunity to
respond to the allegations before publication. The Jerusalem Post
quoted the IDF as saying that it was committed to investigating
every complaint based on information that allows a thorough probe.

The Jerusalem Post quoted sources in the IDFQs Central Command as
saying yesterday that the army has started using undercover elite
border policemen to quell anti-fence demonstrations in the West
Bank. In an unrelated matter, leading media quoted the State
Prosecutor as saying yesterday that it was dropping charges against
Ze'ev Braude, a resident of the settlement of Kiryat Arba who was
caught on film shooting at two Palestinians in Hebron last December.
The prosecution said it made the decision not to try Braude because
such a move could expose classified information that might harm
state security.

The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday, under the slogan, QNot
ObamaQs. Not the worldQs. Settlement activity is an Israeli
problem,Q Peace Now launched a new campaign designed to show how the
settlements are a stumbling block to peace. Peace Now
Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer was quoted as saying that the
group plans to take out billboard and newspaper ads against the
settlements, presenting them as a financial, diplomatic, and
security problem. Such a paid ad already appeared in HaQaretz
today.

Maariv reported that the Netanyahu government is giving a green
light to hold a referendum on the future of the Golan. A special
Knesset committee will convene tomorrow to revive the issue. The
newspaper notes that the move is a signal to Obama, as
Washington-Damascus relations are warming up.

HaQaretz reported that the Foreign Ministry is furious over news
that Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official based in Gaza, recently
headed a Hamas delegation to Switzerland for talks with Swiss
diplomats. A senior Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying
that the visit will further destabilize already shaky relations
between Jerusalem and Bern, after Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad visited Switzerland in April for the "Durban II" UN
anti-racism conference.

The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Israel accused Lebanon of
violating UN SECURITY COUNCIL Resolution 1701 after a Hizbullah arms
cache hidden inside a southern Lebanese town accidentally exploded.

The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday, Qin the opening shot of
a battle Jerusalem has decided to wage with NGOs it deems biased
against Israel,Q the Prime Minister's Office slammed a recent Human
Rights Watch (HRW) fundraising delegation to Saudi Arabia as
evidence the organization has lost its "moral compass." PM
Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev was quoted as saying on Monday: "A
human rights organization raising money in Saudi Arabia is like a
women's rights group asking the Taliban for a donation. If you can
fundraise in Saudi Arabia, why not move on to Somalia, Libya and
North Korea? For an organization that claims to offer moral
direction, it appears that Human Rights Watch has seriously lost its
moral compass." Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW's Middle East
and North Africa Division, responded by telling The Jerusalem Post
that there was a need to distinguish between a government and its
people, and to conflate the two was "misguided at best."

Leading media cited a Pentagon announcement yesterday that Israel
will soon test an Arrow interceptor missile on a U.S. missile range
in the Pacific Ocean in a joint exercise that also will involve
three U.S. missile defense systems. HaQaretz and Maariv quoted U.S.
Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, director of the Pentagon's Missile
Defense Agency, as saying the test will allow Israel to measure its
advanced Arrow system against a target with a range of more than
1,000 km, too long for previous Arrow test sites in the eastern
Mediterranean. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Israel has given
up on placing electronic systems manufactured by the Israeli company
Elisra and other equipment in the F-35 stealth fighter planes it
will purchase from the U.S. The newspaper recalls that the U.S. has
allowed Israel limited access to the planesQ software systems.

The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the World Bank announced
plans to spend an additional $33.5 million on Palestinian
infrastructure initiatives, including $21.5 million for Gaza
projects.

Yediot cited the concern of International Atomic Energy Agency
inspectors that Iran is trying to conceal banned building at its
nuclear reactor of Arak, which is under construction. Citing
Reuters, The Jerusalem Post quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry source
as saying yesterday that Moscow would not impose tougher sanctions
against Iran over its nuclear program in exchange for a new nuclear
arms cuts deal with Washington.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that a senior source in the PMQs
Bureau told the newspaper that, contrary to media reports that
National SECURITY Adviser Uzi Arad might soon resign his position,
he will be retained.

Leading media reported that Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger
appealed to JordanQs King Abdullah II in a letter sent this week to
stop his countryQs policy of preventing Israeli tourists from
crossing the border with religious books and other artifacts.

The Jerusalem Post reported that, in a new study, Prof. Moshe Sharon
of the Hebrew University claims that the Islamic tradition of the
Prophet MuhammadQs night journey and ascension to heaven were
invented to legitimize Arab presence in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that former Shas leader
Aryeh Deri has hinted to confidants that he will soon form a new
socioeconomic movement that will work to bridge gaps between rich
and poor and among Jews of all levels of religious observance.
HaQaretz quoted police as saying that the Interpol request
concerning Micky Louis Mayon, Qone of the FBI's 100 most wanted
criminals,Q who was arrested in Tel Aviv on Sunday, does not include
charges of neo-Nazi crimes. The Jerusalem Post reported that
MayonQs pregnant girlfriend was the one who turned him in to
police.

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Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "Speak to Us, Mr. President"

The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (7/15) QIn
QclosedQ talks with associates and foreign visitors, Netanyahu has
blasted Obama, asserting that the President's pressure on Israel is
aimed at placating the Arabs at Israel's expense.... Netanyahu is
erring twice: by entering into an unnecessary and harmful conflict
with the U.S. administration, and by rejecting Obama's fundamental
desire to break through the stalemate in the peace process and
complete the process of Israel's acceptance into the Middle East.
The election of Obama and his popularity in the Arab world create a
unique opportunity for a breakthrough in the peace process, and it
would be a shame to miss it. Now the U.S. administration must
convince the Israeli public that it has a friend in the White House,
and that the administration's positions correspond with Israel's
national interests. The President promised the Jewish leaders that
he will speak to the Israelis candidly, Qas a true friend,Q so they
will understand where he is coming from. After talking to the
Arabs, the Muslims and the Iranians, in speeches and on television,
it is only right that Obama address the Israeli public and persuade
the people to support reviving the peace process with the
Palestinians and Syrians and halting the destructive settlement
enterprise in the West Bank.

II. QWhat He Needs to Hear

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (7/15):
QWe're not suggesting that Obama is substantively less pro-Israel
than most of his predecessors. But we are concerned over his
refusal to embrace the 1967-plus strategy enunciated by his
predecessor, at a time when his administration is demanding a freeze
even to Israeli construction in Jerusalem areas captured in 1967.
The furthest he seems willing to go is to hint that changes which
have occurred since 1967 will inevitably influence final-status
negotiations. If the administration feels it faces no
countervailing pressure, it will go on deepening the erroneous
perception that settlements are the obstacle to peace. This
alienates Israel's majority, which is willing to make painful
territorial concessions, yet believes that ill-tempered calls for an
unconditional freeze everywhere only encourage Palestinian
intransigence. Pro-Israel Americans should caution Obama not to
lose the Israeli QstreetQ as he seeks favor with the Arab one. They
need to say, loud and clear, that the principles enunciated by Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University -- essentially
supporting Palestinian statehood within parameters that do not
endanger Israel -- deserve the administration's strong backing.

III. "After OlmertQs Last Peace Proposal to the PA"

Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz (7/15):
QPolitical debate aside, the essential lesson from Olmert's [peace]
proposal [to Mahmoud Abbas] is that the parties' stances have hardly
changed since the failures of Camp David and Taba.... Apparently a
compromise can be reached on borders, but Israel does not want
Palestinians to return to its territory and the Palestinians want
the Temple Mount. Neither side is prepared to give up its NATIONAL
symbols and tell its people that the pledges of the past -- QWe will
return to our villages in PalestineQ and QUnited Jerusalem in
Israel's hands foreverQ -- were just illusions. The second lesson
is procedural. Left to their own devices, the parties cannot reach
an agreement. They need close oversight by an external mediator,
preferably American, to bridge the gaps and propose incentives in
exchange for painful concessions. That needs to be the role of U.S.
President Barack Obama and his emissary, Mitchell.

IV. "A NATIONAL Consensus?"

Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs,
and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in Ha'aretz (7/15):
QQWe have achieved a NATIONAL consensus on the concept of two states
for two peoples,Q announced our prime minister at the opening of
last week's cabinet meeting As a matter of fact, a NATIONAL
consensus is not in the nature of things in a democratic society,
except at a time of NATIONAL emergency and mortal danger.... As for
past commitments by American and Israeli governments, written or
unwritten, on settlements and Qsettlement blocsQ in Judea and
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], they do not carry the weight of
international agreements and are liable to change as new governments
take office following elections. This is the case in the United
States, where a Democratic candidate has won an election after
promising a change from the policies of his Republican predecessor,
and is equally true in Israel, where a Likud candidate has won an
election on a promise that he will not follow the policies of the
previous Kadima-led government. The fact of the matter is that
there is no NATIONAL agreement in Israel on the establishment of a
Palestinian state at this time.... [Palestinian statehood] may or
may not become a practical option in the future, and it would be
appropriate for the Israeli government to make clear that it does
not preclude the establishment of a Palestinian state if and when
this becomes possible. By the looks of it, a lot of water will flow
down the Jordan River before that happens.


V. QFor Our Own Good

Yossi Alpher, Co-Editor of the bitterlemons.org family of
Israeli-Palestinian Internet publications and former director of the
Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, wrote in
the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/15): QDespite
[Mahmoud] Abbas's avowed refusal, Israeli-Palestinian peace
negotiations will resume even without a settlement freeze if and
when Washington and Ramallah are convinced that Netanyahu is serious
about negotiating a final-status agreement with the Palestinians.
Thus far they are not convinced and for good reason. Perhaps of
greatest importance, precisely because the entire settlement
enterprise since 1968 constitutes a major strategic blunder on
Israel's part, Obama is justified in presenting the settlement
freeze idea to the Arab world in strategic terms. When a succession
of Israeli prime ministers who are negotiating peace allow
settlement expansion to go on, the message the Arab world is getting
is that Israel really seeks to swallow the territories and erase the
Palestinian issue from the Middle East agenda. True, that is not
the message Rabin, Barak or Olmert sought to project. But it is the
message the Arabs got. When Israeli leaders who purport to be
concerned with the demographic existential threat to Israel as a
Jewish state mindlessly allow the proliferation of hilltop
settlements that lock three million West Bank Palestinians in
Israel's embrace, our Arab neighbors can be forgiven if they get
confused regarding our true intentions.

VI. QObama: Unilateral Objectivity
Columnist A. Ben Aharon wrote in the ultra-Orthodox Yated NeQeman
(7/15): QIt is only with one country that Obama is demonstrating
extra obduracy. It is not Russia, as Obama has relinquished the
positioning of anti-ballistic defense devices in Eastern Europe. It
is not Iran, which brutally and blatantly anti-democratically
represses its protesters, and pursues nuclear development. It is
not Syria, which was declared a terror[-sponsoring] state and has
not changed since. American envoys constantly visit that country,
making new proposals. What happens with Hamas is unclear, but Obama
has already made clear that he will be willing, under certain
circumstances, to recognize it and bring it to the negotiations.
Obama views everybody as okay. The only country of which Obama and
his representatives are demanding unheard-of concessions is Israel,
of course.
CUNNINGHAM
M