ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001564 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: -------------- Major media (lead story in HaQaretz) reported that yesterday, in a policy address to the Council of Foreign Relations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave Iran an ultimatum to accept the administration's offer for engagement and join the international community or to "continue down a path of further isolation." She urged Arab states to take immediate steps to improve their ties with Israel in order to bolster Mideast peace hopes. "We remain ready to engage with Iran, but the time for action is now. The opportunity will not remain open indefinitely,Q she was quoted as saying. Clinton pledged that the U.S. will "not hesitate to defend our friends, our interests, and above all, our people vigorously and when necessary with the world's strongest military." "Our willingness to talk is not a sign of weakness to be exploited," she was quoted as saying. "This is not an option we seek nor is it a threat; it is a promise to all Americans." Clinton said the U.S. administration was appalled by Iran's post-election crackdown on protesters. Clinton did not set a deadline for penalties, but President Obama said last week that the U.S. wants to see a positive response by the fall or it will press for additional bilateral and UN sanctions. Clinton also called on Arab states to live up to their stated support of a Saudi proposal for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace by supporting the weak Palestinian Authority and taking steps to improve relations with Israel. Israel Radio quoted the Secretary as saying: QWe know that progress toward peace cannot be the responsibility of the United States -- or Israel -- alone. The Jerusalem Post commented that Clinton Qcarefully recalibrated the U.S. administrationQs statements on Israel, stressing the need for greater Palestinian and Arab action on the peace process. On an inside page, HaQaretz reported that President Obama is expected to announce a diplomatic plan soon for renewal of the Middle East peace process. A central feature of the plan, which will be presented to PM Benjamin Netanyahu and to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, will be a binding timetable for negotiations on the core issues involved in a final resolution of the conflict. It may also be precluded by an easing of pressure for a building freeze in the settlements on the part of the U.S. HaQaretz noted that a senior Western diplomat closely involved in current contacts involving the U.S., Israel, the PA, and moderate Arab states indicated that the U.S. administration is currently developing the diplomatic plan but that it is only interested in pursuing it after the settlement issue and the matter of pro-Israel gestures from the Arab states are resolved. The American plan will essentially restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians which have been deadlocked for over six months. The plan will not deal with all of the specific details of the negotiations and will not provide parameters for the resolution of core issues. Rather it will provide a framework for negotiations, how they will be conducted, follow-up mechanisms and especially the timetable for negotiations. The senior diplomat was quoted as saying that Obama is interested in bringing talks to a conclusion "on time" as a way of obligating the parties to make progress. Yediot and other media quoted President Obama as saying during his meeting on Monday with American Jewish leaders that he is disappointed in the leadership of the PA and other Arab states, given their lack of support for the peace process that he is trying to promote as he expected of them. Quartet envoy Tony Blair was quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that the PAQs security upgrade has led to IsraelQs easing of restrictions on the Palestinians. Israel Radio cited a report in LondonQs Times that quoted an Israeli defense source as saying that the passage of Israeli warships through the Suez Canal was part of preparations ahead of a possible attack on Iran. The Israeli official was quoted as saying that the Israel NavyQs moves were a notice to Iran that Israel will carry out its warnings. The radio reported that a senior British official told The Times that Western diplomats have offered support for an attack in Iran in exchange for concessions on the settlement issue. The British official was quoted as saying that, were an agreement be reached on the matter, an Israeli attack might become a reality within a few months. The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio cited the German weekly Stern that quoted an unidentified agent at the German intelligence agency BND as saying that Iran has the ability to build and test a nuclear weapon within six months. Israel Radio quoted Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman as saying in an interview with the London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat that there is no agreement with Israel on the settlement issue. Israel Radio reported that the main task of U.S. envoy Frederick Hoff in Damascus will be to convince Syria to stamp out infiltration of militants into Iraq. Yediot quoted senior sources in NetanyahuQs government coalition as saying that, contrary to media reports, the PM is exerting Qmassive pressureQ on Likud Knesset members to delay the passage of laws meant to make it harder for Israel to withdraw from the Golan. The newspaper quoted a source cognizant of the issue as saying that the GOI needs time to study the matter. Yediot reported that Netanyahu weighs speaking before the UN General Assembly in the fall. President Obama and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will deliver addresses to the assembly. Leading media quoted an Israeli defense official as saying that QIron Dome,Q an interceptor system developed to shoot down the short-range rockets favored by Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas, passed its first live trial yesterday. Reuters wrote that the systemQs success could improve the prospects of Israel eventually ceding West Bank land to the Palestinians, as Israeli officials have said that any withdrawals should be conditional on the deployment of a reliable defense against rocket attacks. Designed by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Iron Dome uses small guided missiles to blow up Katyusha-style rockets. Israel plans to station the first working unit outside Gaza next year. Major media cited estimates in the IDFQs Northern Command that Hizbullah has turned hundreds of homes in southern Lebanese villages into warehouses to store short- and medium-range Katyusha rockets. Yesterday, the IDF released video footage taken from an Israeli aircraft, showing a home that had exploded a day earlier in the village of Hirbet Selm -- located some 20 km north of the Israeli border. HaQaretz reported that a senior Israeli military source told the newspaper yesterday that residents of southern Lebanon must realize that renewed conflict between Israel and Hizbullah is likely to cause much more extensive damage to their communities than they incurred in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Yediot reported that a drug developed by Jewish American scientists in cooperation with the Pentagon, which is being manufactured with swift FDA approval, will make it possible for Israelis to be protected from radiation in case of a nuclear attack. HaQaretz and Maariv reported that a serious dispute has broken out between Foreign Ministry staff and FM Avigdor Lieberman in the wake of a series of articles published on IzRus, an Israeli, Russian-language Internet site. A number of ministry deputy directors general asked Director-General Yossi Gal to come out publicly in support of his staff. Several very negative reports about the ministry appeared on IzRus, considered one of Israel's five leading Russian-language Web sites, in the past few days. HaQaretz and Maariv reported that diplomats' anger reached its peak yesterday morning, after the publication of an uncredited article, with the headline: "Orgies, bribery and fights in the Foreign Ministry: The Liebermans would not be accepted there." The editor of the site is Michael Falkov, who was Lieberman's media advisor between 2003 and 2004. Yediot and Israel Radio reported that former Shas leader Aryeh Deri told confidants that he considers running for PM in the future, possibly in the next general elections. Deri reportedly stated his disappointment with Qnarrow-mindedQ Shas. The media reported that Deri intends to form a new political movement -- QNeshamaQ (Soul) -- aiming to reach the heart of the consensus and act in the domains of social welfare, the narrowing of social gaps, and unity among Israelis. Leading media reported that Farouk Qaddoumi, a Fatah founder currently living in Tunis and the Secretary-General of the Fatah Central Committee, accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan of collaborating with Israel and the U.S. to assassinate former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. The remarks by Qaddoumi at a press conference he convened in Amman on Tuesday provoked furious responses from Fatah officials allied with Mahmoud Abbas. Qaddoumi said he was in possession of the minutes of a secret meeting held in 2004 among PM Ariel Sharon, DM Shaul Mofaz, U.S. envoy William J. Burns, Abbas, and Dahlan, at which the officials spoke of assassinating the Palestinian figures. Kaddoumi became one of Arafat's fiercest critics after the Palestinian leader signed the 1993 Oslo Accords with Israel. He was subsequently distanced from the central decision-making apparatus, and in recent years his influence in the movement has waned. Leading media reported that yesterday the PA government suspended the West Bank operations of Al Jazeera-TV, a day after Qaddoumi aired his accusations as a guest on the station. HaQaretz cited a report by the German press agency DPA that Abdul Wahab Zughailat, the Chairman of the Jordanian Press Association (JPA),told the Jordanian daily Ad-Dustour yesterday that the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has endorsed a move by the JPA to exclude Israel from attending the IFJ meeting scheduled to be held in Amman in October. The Jerusalem Post quoted Deputy FM Danny Ayalon as saying yesterday that a State Department report lumping Israel together with states like Afghanistan, Jordan, and Botswana regarding its relative success in combating human trafficking has troubling political implications for Israel. Maariv reported that newly-elected Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky will try to enlist Jewish oligarchs -- principally Roman Abramovich -- in raising funds for the organization. All media reported that yesterday Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat froze all municipal services to the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Geula and Mea Shearim following violent protests by extremists following the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox mother, who the media said suffers from the QMunchausen SyndromeQ -- a type of factitious disorder, or mental illness, in which a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when, in truth, they have caused the symptoms. The woman, whom security cameras at JerusalemQs Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital caught disconnecting her son from a feeding tube, reportedly starved her three-year-old son over the course of two years. She is suspected of starving at least one more of her five children. The media noted a tendency towards inflation, as the June C-O-L index increased by 0.9% over the previous month. Israel Radio reported that the U.S. dollar subsequently slightly weakened on the Tel Aviv financial market this morning. The media reported that yesterday the Knesset approved the state budget for 2009-2010, 58 to ¶36. Maariv commented that this was a victory for Netanyahu. Leading media reported on the passing yesterday of Avraham Ahituv (born Avraham Gottfried),who served as head of the Shin Bet from 1974 to 1980. He was 79 years old. -------------- ¶1. Iran: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- "AradQs Summer" Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/16): QIsrael's real task earlier in the decade was to make Washington, Brussels, Moscow and Beijing understand [the need for tough diplomacy vis-a-vis Iran]. True, it wasn't an easy task, but it was an essential task, and one which the Israeli governments did not meet. But the question now is not what the mistakes and failures of former prime ministers were, but rather what can be done at this late hour to turn the situation around. In this respect, the Netanyahu government has a distinct advantage: It understands the problem in depth. Behind closed doors, it is conducting impressive deliberations. It is working seriously, responsibly and in an orderly fashion. The Netanyahu administration also has a distinct disadvantage: It is perceived in the West as suspect. It only gets limited attention. Netanyahu therefore has no choice. To achieve a strategic breakthrough on the Iranian front, he will have to make a creative and daring diplomatic proposal on the Palestinian front. The proposal will have to be developed -- this summer even -- by his trusted strategic adviser, Uzi Arad. -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Now Is the Time to Disengage" Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/16): QIsrael's power of deterrence has been restored. Fatah, Hamas, and Hizbullah have no interest in a new war with the IDF. Israel is no longer perceived as a submissive pushover. All of the hot air has been let out of the balloons that were inflated here over the past 20 years. Hamas, Hizbullah and Fatah have all shrunken back to their natural proportion: organizations of no great import that were inflated thanks to their struggle against Israel.... Now we're facing that dilemma all over again. Political negotiations cast us as weak and submissive, as if inviting a blow, since in the Middle East one attacks the weak. But then we stand strong and are victorious, and then the Arab world says: Okay, let's negotiate with them. So we negotiate and are perceived, once again, as weak and submissive. So how do we break free of that satanic cycle? The solution is to steer clear of extremes. Not to go near either negotiations or war and strife. We have no interest in either. The only way that is going to work is by means of disengagement. It worked in Lebanon, it is working in Gaza and it has to work in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank]. Negotiations are going to fail because then the Palestinians are going to drown us with questions about Jerusalem, the refugees and what not, and will tie us and the future of our children to their existential dilemmas. Only disengagement will save us from them and from their agonized world. Now is the time for a dramatic initiative by the Israeli government. II. "The Case against Obama" Columnist and conservative international Jewish leader Isi Leibler wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/16): QPresident Obama is adept at warming the cockles of the hearts of his Jewish constituents, many of whom seem as mesmerized by him as their forebears were by Franklin D Roosevelt. He repeatedly articulates his commitment to the welfare of Israel and admiration for American Jewry. Yet if one probes beneath the veneer of bonhomie and analyzes the substance of his policies, they reflect an unprecedented downturn in relations towards Israel with hints of worse to come. This was reaffirmed by Obama in the course of his recent meeting with Jewish leaders (which included representatives of extremist fringe groups like Peace Now and J Street but excluded those likely to be critical of his approach). In an extraordinary patronizing manner with his Jewish aides beaming at him he told Israelis to Qengage in self reflectionQ and made it clear that he believed he had a better understanding of what is best for them than their democratically elected government. Alas, with the exception of Malcolm Hoenlein and Abe Foxman, it appears that the majority of the others endorsed his position or remained silent. Yet only a few days earlier even a passionate Democrat like Alan Dershowitz had expressed concern Qthat the coming changes in the Obama administration's policies could weaken the security of the Jewish stateQ.... Not surprisingly, the Palestinians and Arabs are delighted with ObamaQs humiliation of Israel.... Israel is not a superpower and needs to retain the support of the United States.... Netanyahu is doing his utmost to achieve a compromise and has already offered to totally freeze all settlement activity beyond Jerusalem and the major settlement blocs, which the vast majority of Israelis agree must be retained. But if the Americans remain bloody-minded and refuse to compromise, Netanyahu will stand firm on this issue and will be overwhelmingly supported by the people who are outraged by the double standards applied against them. III. "Our Sons Are Lying Again" Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in The Jerusalem Post (7/16): QQHow do you know it's true?Q an IDF spokesman told me over the phone [referring to the report on Operation Cast Lead issued this week by Breaking the Silence, an organization of IDF reservists]. The soldiers' identities are hidden, there's no way the army can check their stories.... Breaking the Silence has an Qagenda,Q said the spokesman. I asked him if the IDF considered these fighters' accounts of the war to have any meaning, any value. The spokesman couldn't think of any; instead, he just repeated what he'd said about how the stories couldn't be checked, how Breaking the Silence was Qhiding behind the anonymityQ of the soldiers, how it has an agenda. He's right. Breaking the Silence has an agenda -- to tell the truth about what the IDF is doing to the Palestinians, worst of all during Operation Cast Lead. The IDF has an agenda, too -- to hide it.... In a few weeks we'll be denying another report, that one by a UN committee headed by South Africa's Judge Richard Goldstone, one of the bravest, finest Jewish fighters for justice in modern times. It doesn't matter who tells us the truth about what we did in Gaza -- we'll deny it. If the entire IDF General Staff called a news conference and admitted that the evidence were true, we'd say they're leftists, they're kissing up to Obama, they're lying. Even if our own sons tell us it's true, we'll tell them they're lying. CUNNINGHAM