SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001671 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: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell/NSA James Jones to Israel, July 2009 -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- The Jerusalem Post quoted U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell as saying yesterday, before meeting with President Shimon Peres: QIsrael has taken meaningful steps in the West Bank.Q Mitchell was alluding to the dismantling of 25 checkpoints, allowing the Palestinians greater freedom of movement and easier access. The Jerusalem Post quoted Mitchell as saying that, during his visits with other leaders of the region, he had conveyed the message that steps must now be taken by Arab states to fulfill the promise of the Arab peace initiative. The media quoted Mitchell as saying: QThe American commitment to Israel is firm, unshakeable, and will not change. Any disagreements were in the nature of Qdiscussions among friends and not disputes among adversaries.Q Major media reported that Mitchell emphasized that the U.S. and Israel had a common purpose in their desire for comprehensive peace in the Middle East with full normalization of relations between Israel and all the states in the region. (Yediot Aharonot and Israel Radio reported that President Obama has sent letters to seven Middle East Arab leaders, demanding that they take confidence-building measures.) Peres was quoted as saying that PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs declaration in his Bar-Ilan University speech last month supporting a two-state solution was a Qleap forward.Q Peres also welcomed MitchellQs positive report of his talks in Damascus but said that Syria should engage in direct talks with Israel. Peres also expressed cautious optimism regarding developments among the Palestinians, in Iran, and in Saudi Arabia. He praised the positions of Egypt and Jordan, and warned against preconditions or linkage, Qbecause linkage means giving a veto to one of the parties.Q Peres suggested that President Obama exercise patience in the peace process. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted as saying in an interview with Israel Radio that Special Envoy Mitchell told PA President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel and the U.S. have not yet resolved their disagreement regarding the settlement construction issue. In its lead story, The Jerusalem Post reported that recent talks with U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell have left Israeli officials with the impression that Q contrary to expectations in some circles -- President Obama is not going to unfurl his own regional peace plan. Rather, according to these officials, the U.S. administration is aiming to create a positive dynamic that will lead to the relaunching of a Palestinian-Israeli diplomatic process, but this time with more regional players on board. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made a short visit to Israel yesterday. The media detected a toughening of his stance on Iran. The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli official as saying, after a meeting with Gates, that there is a greater awareness in the U.S. today about the threat of a nuclear Iran and a greater willingness to ensure that Tehran does not get the bomb than there was before the Iranian elections and their bloody aftermath. The official, who characterized Gates's talks with PM Netanyahu as "very good," said the "commonalities far outweighed" the differences during the minute meeting. The official dismissed speculation that the purpose of Gates's brief visit here was to "rein Israel" in and ensure that it did not take any unilateral military action against the Islamic republic. All media quoted Gates as saying at a press conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the U.S. was aware that Iran might try to Qrun out the clock,Q and that Obama wanted an answer from the Iranians before the UN General Assembly session, scheduled for the end of September. Barak was quoted as saying that Israel is Qin no position to tell the administration, whether to run an engagement with Iran or not, but if there is an engagement, we believe is should be short in time. Barak advocated tougher sanctions on Iran and thanked the Qcurrent and previous administrationsQ for their assistance to Israel and their commitment to the nationQs security. Leading media reported that 1,000 to 1,500 people rallied outside PM NetanyahuQs official residence in Jerusalem, calling on Israel to say QnoQ to U.S. pressure to freeze settlement activity and divide Jerusalem. HaQaretz reported that the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories organized the protest. HaQaretz reported that Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, the head of the Nir Yeshiva in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, told the crowd: "Obama is a racist. If he continues with his actions, he will bring about the disintegration of the American superpower." Israel Radio reported that right-wing militants are attempting to establish 11 outposts in the West Bank. Israel Radio reported that yesterday Special Envoy Mitchell confirmed that President Obama has approved exports of technological goods to Syria. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe also reported on the partial lifting of sanctions on Syria. Leading media reported that Israel has warned Beirut through the UN that it would be held responsible for any hostile action launched from Lebanese territory. HaQaretz reported that yesterday DM Barak met U.S. told Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Israel was concerned by the developments on the Lebanon border and various Hezbollah statements and moves. Israel Radio reported that yesterday Hizbullah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned that his group would attack Israel with missiles should the latter bomb the organizationQs south Beirut stronghold. Maariv reported that yesterday Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal visited Egypt. The newspaper reported that senior officials from both countries will hold meetings every two months. HaQaretz reported that NetanyahuQs bureau has received a letter by six U.S. Congress members, who protest against the siege of Gaza. All media reported that yesterday succeeded in passing the QMofaz lawQ in a first reading in the Knesset, 62-47. The bill will make it easier for the PM to split Kadima in the future. HaQaretz reported that yesterday, for the first time in several years, a small group of Palestinian youth visited Yad Vashem. This was the first Palestinian educational group to visit the museum in its history. The newspaper also reported that three 19-year-old Palestinians took part in an art workshop in Israel, which was also attended by Israeli Arab and Jewish youth. HaQaretz and Yediot Aharonot reported that the Jerusalem District Court will rule today whether two Israeli crime kingpins, the Abergil brothers, will be extradited to the U.S. Maariv reported that California authorities agreed not to sentence them to death. -------------- Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell/NSA James Jones to Israel, July 2009: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. QThe Myth of a Settlement Freeze Settlement policy expert David Newman, a professor of political geography at Ben-Gurion University and editor of the International Journal of Geography, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/28): QFreeze has always been applied, in Israeli terminology, to the establishment of new settlements, never to the expansion of existing communities. The fact that the Obama administration has finally cottoned on to this is the main reason behind the current political tension. The myth has been exposed. Another myth is the concept of Qillegal outpostsQ. These are Qillegal,Q while the existing permanent communities are QlegalQ. The settler movement has not realized its dream of Jewish sovereignty as far as the Jordan River, and it has not prevented the world -- or for that matter the majority of the Israeli public -- from accepting the inevitability of a Palestinian state. But it has succeeded in making the implementation of the two-state solution as difficult as it has ever been. Obama's is the first [in] the U.S. administration to see it for what it is, rather than be blinkered by the QfreezeQ terminology sold to it by Israeli officialdom. II. QA Matter We Must Solve Ourselves Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in Ha'aretz (7/28): QThe policy of settlements in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] is an internal Israeli matter, and should not be a subject for negotiations with the United States. Whether settlements and outposts in Judea and Samaria are legal or illegal must be judged by the degree of their conformity with Israeli law. And from that point of view there is little doubt that some of those established in recent years were not established legally. Those young people who have established settlements and outposts illegally in Judea and Samaria, and who warn that they will resist the removal of any of those settlements, may be under the illusion that they are performing a great service for the Zionist cause. Actually they are causing it great harm, by creating the impression in the public mind that all settlements in Judea and Samaria have been established illegally. II. QThere Is a Solution Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon's top diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/28): QThe dispute between Israel and the U.S. regarding the development of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] will intensify if Israel continues to ignore an understanding that was reached on the principle of future border determination between it and the prospective Palestinian state. Sowing Israeli neighborhoods or settlements in areas where Palestinians clearly represent a demographic majority is counterproductive. A few dozens or hundreds of apartments wonQt succeed in turning majority-minority relations. Neither will they modify the chances of final composition of the population. They will only make a possible final status agreement more difficult and jeopardize its prospect. III. QIran First Giora Eiland, former Director of the National Security Council, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/28): QThe visit of the four senior U.S. officials represents an opportunity -- perhaps the last one -- to reduce disagreements [with Iran]. If the U.S. accepts IranQs uranium enrichment, it should at least be guaranteed that the U.S. demonstrate toughness concerning all technical conditions, for instance that material enriched at a 5% level be immediately converted, under international supervision, into fuel bars (it later becomes difficult to continue to enrich the material until a bomb is produced). Even if it is important to reach understandings on the Palestinian issue, the urgency of the Iranian issue requires that it be prioritized. IV. QBilateral Talks -- a Condition for Any Agreement Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in the editorial of the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (7/28): QUnfortunately, we have not seen any sign of good will on the other side [the Palestinians]. As in the past, we are facing an enemy who has not abandoned its hostility toward the people of Israel and the Jewish state. The time has come for U.S. President Barack Obama and his emissaries to understand this and conduct their policy accordingly. Of course, in this spirit, we also have to steer the course of our policy -- Middle East peace policy.QCUNNINGHAM AM