ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS RPORT:
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1. Mieast


2. U.S.-Israel Relations


3. Iran

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Key stories in the media
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HaQaretz reported that Washington issued another diplomatic protest
over Israeli conduct in East Jerusalem on Monday, its second in as
many weeks. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
Jeffrey Feltman summoned Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to
Washington, to tell him that the U.S. views Sunday's eviction of two
Palestinian families from homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah
neighborhood as a "provocative" and "unacceptable" act that violates
Israel's obligations under the Roadmap. Oren allegedly responded by
saying that the buildings in question have been Jewish-owned since
before Israel's founding, and that a court ordered the families'
evictions because they had violated the terms of their leases.

Leading media quoted PA President Mahmoud Abbas as saying yesterday,
at the opening of FatahQs sixth convention, that Palestinians have a
legitimate right to engage in QresistanceQ against Israel, but that
Qwe must not stain our legitimate struggle with terror.Q Media
reported that Israeli Arab Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi made strong
statements at the conference. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted DM Ehud
Barak that FatahQs decisions will bear witness to its maturity. One
of the participants in the conference, Khaled Abu Asba, one of only
two perpetrators still alive of the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, in
which 35 Israelis were killed and 71 wounded, is not willing to
express remorse or to apologize for what he did. However, he said:
QWe have to reach a solution of peace, and thatQs what is important
now.Q Abu Asba made the remarks in an interview with HaQaretz.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Israel Qis preparingQ ahead of
the presentation of President ObamaQs peace plan. Major media
quoted DM Barak as saying yesterday that the President will soon
prepare his plan. Barak was speaking to the KnessetQs Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee.

All media reported that the Labor Party may split tonight in the
wake of party chairman Ehud BarakQs insistence on revising the
partyQs constitution.

The Jerusalem Post quoted settler leaders as saying that Netanyahu
has already frozen new construction.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordanian FM Nasser Judeh strongly
backed the Obama administration efforts to garner
confidence-building measures toward Israel toward Israel from Arab
states.

Israel Radio reported that PM Benjamin Netanyahu and FM Avigdor
Lieberman have agreed to a pullout from the northern the village of
Ghajar. HaQaretz reported that Lieberman wants a fence to run
through Ghajar. The radio cited Ghajar residentsQ opposition to the
move, as they say that Israel conquered the village from Syria in
the Six-Day War.

Leading media reported that yesterday PM Netanyahu visited the Negev
Nuclear Research Center in Dimona. Media reported that he praised
the employees there for Qstrengthening IsraelQs security.

HaQaretz reported that the IDF is gradually reducing its use of
pillboxes -- a British invention dating back to the British Mandate
-- in the West Bank, given the decline in the number of terror
attacks and the consequent reduction in the number of troops
stationed there. One of the pillboxes' main functions was to give a
sense of security to settlers, who suffered frequent shooting
attacks on the roads in the early years of the intifada.

HaQaretz reported that yesterday the High Court of Justice issued an
interim order barring the IDFQs Civil Administration in the West
Bank from destroying a building constructed of tires and mud that is
to serve as a school and kindergarten for the Jahalin tribe in the
area of Khan al-Ahmar northeast of Jerusalem. The eco-friendly
school, built of inexpensive materials, was the initiative of
members of the Italian non-governmental organization Vento di Terra
(Wind of the Earth).

HaQaretz reported that there was a sharp increase in safety-related
aviation incidents of varying seriousness last year that involved
foreign air carriers in Israel, according to the Transportation
Ministry's annual civil aviation safety report, a copy of which was
obtained by HaQaretz. There were 112 such incidents involving
foreign airlines in 2008, compared to 36 in 2007 and 50 in 2006,
according to the report, which was prepared by the ministry's chief
aviation safety investigator, Yitzhak Raz. Raz noted that the
recent downgrade of Israel by the FAAQs reflected the U.S. agencyQs
desire to warn of Israel's limited capacity, in the view of the FAA,
to comply with international standards, but not that Israeli civil
aviation is unsafe. Raz did express concern, however, regarding
oversight of the private plane sport aviation sector.

Saying that the QAmericans are quite fair in distributing their
custom,Q The Jerusalem PostQs social column reported on Special
Envoy George MitchellQs stay at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem.

QTzikiQ Sela, the head of the Immigration Authority's Oz unit that
implements expulsions of foreign workers and their families, was
quoted as saying in an interview with Maariv that organizations
assisting foreign workers are interested in the Qobliteration of
Israel.

The media reported that Amos Keinan, a columnist, painter, sculptor,

playwright, novelist, and one of IsraelQs earliest satirists, passed
away yesterday at the age of 82. In 1970, he co-founded the
Israeli-Palestinian Council, and later joined Ariel SharonQs
Shlomzion Party. One of KeinanQs daughters told Israel Radio that
he did not view the facets of his political activity as
contradictory.

HaQaretz (Hebrew Ed.) led with the success of former U.S. President
Bill ClintonQs personal mission to rescue two female American
journalists from imprisonment in North Korea.

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1. Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "Obama and the Three Noes"

Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent,
left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/5): QPresident Barack Obama's first
encounter with Middle Eastern realities ended in great
disappointment. His effort to restart the peace process.... Instead
of Obama's suggestions being received with cries of joy, they were
answered with three noes: Israel will not freeze the settlements,
the Palestinians will not resume negotiations, and the Arab states
will not take any steps toward normalization with Israel. The final
blow to Obama's initiative was dealt by the Saudi Foreign Minister,
Saud al-Faisal, who announced in Washington last week that first,
Israel must quit all the territories and a Palestinian state must
arise; only then will the Saudis talk about normalization. In other
words, don't bother them now with ideas for meetings with Israelis
and opening Saudi airspace to El Al planes. Call them after you
have gotten Israel out of the territories. These three noes painted
Obama as extremely weak.... But if the President does present
detailed principles for a final-status agreement, that in itself
will not solve the conflict. It is more important that Obama
convince the skeptical public on both sides that a) peace is
possible and b) their lives will improve if it is achieved. No less
important, his positions must be backed by both sticks and carrots,
as well as a willingness to get into confrontations and pay a
political price. Nice words will not suffice. And he must find
solutions to problems such as what to do with Gaza and how to ease
the internal rift in Israel if settlements are evacuated. But above
all, Obama must demonstrate total commitment to the job. If he
evinces doubts, or despairs in the face of the parties' stubbornness
and rejectionism, his presidency will end up being just another
episode in the lengthening series called QThe Missed Peace.

II. "FatahQs Goals"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/5):
QThere's nothing all Israelis -- no matter what their political
inclinations -- would like better than to receive a genuine message
of reconciliation and accommodation from Fatah's sixth General
Assembly, which opened in Bethlehem yesterday.... But thus far, the
signals from Bethlehem are not the sort to bolster hope....
Unfortunately Fatah's make-or-break rivalry with Hamas is
underpinning the more radical elements within it rather than
inspiring ideals of coexistence. In the competition for the hearts
and minds of ordinary Palestinians -- already indoctrinated by
hostile, anti-Israeli propaganda in the classrooms, media and
mosques -- readiness for compromise isn't regarded as an attractive
selling point.... Israel's government and the new American
administration are seeking to create a climate for substantive
progress in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Fatah conference
represents an opportunity for Abbas and his colleagues to assure the
watching world, and emphasize to their own constituency, that their
goal is real peace -- that they are committed to the path of viable
reconciliation with Israel. Sadly and counterproductively for all
sides, the indications thus far are quite different.

III. "Injustice in Sheikh Jarrah"

Ha'aretz editorialized (8/5): QThe eviction of two Palestinian
families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of
Sheikh Jarrah, in order to replace them with Jewish families,
predictably sparked harsh condemnations. U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton urged the government to refrain from such actions,
which she described as QprovocativeQ.... The sight of the evicted
Palestinian families, who had lived in these houses for decades,
paints Israel in the world's eyes as a country that maintains a
cruel regime of occupation, oppresses the weak and strives to create
political facts in the disputed city under the guise of the Qrule of
lawQ. The government must immediately return the Palestinian
residents to their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and cancel the eviction
orders that have been issued against additional houses. And the
neighborhood's fate must be determined via diplomatic
negotiations.

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2. U.S.-Israel Relations:
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Block Quotes:
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"Idolatry by Any Other Name"

Avraham Feder, a Masorti (Conservative) Rabbi in Jerusalem and the
author of Torah through a Zionist Vision, wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (8/5): QThat American Jews have
contributed to Obama's rise is not surprising. Most American Jews
vote Democrat, even if the presidential candidate is a Carter or a
McGovern. Israeli Jews may not vote for the U.S. president, but
they suffer from a neurotic side-effect of this
Qadoration-bordering-on-idolatryQ syndrome. They display a neurotic
anxiety at every manifestation of presidential approval or
disapproval. How many presidents have been described
sycophantically by Israeli representatives as Qthe best friend
Israel has ever had?Q Or conversely, how many Israeli prime
ministers have been lamented as having Qgotten off on the wrong
footQ with this or that president? Such manic-depressive reactions
are inappropriate for a nation -- no matter how small -- that is
truly free. This is not to underestimate the power of the American
president -- whether a Truman, a Nixon or an Obama.... National
self-respect should never mean arrogance. The State of Israel
recognizes that the United States is its principle ally. Israeli
political, military, diplomatic and cultural leadership should
always be mobilized toward cultivating maximal cooperation between
the two countries. At the same time, the determination of policies
and strategies, while soliciting U.S. approval, must never be
exclusively dependent upon that approval. The single overriding
proposition that must guide our struggle for survival and growth is
that our national freedom should never condition itself upon the
worship of any human leader, no matter how powerful. By any other
name, that is still idolatry.




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3. Iran:
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Block Quotes:
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"Increasingly Worrisome Signals"

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Dr. Dore Gold wrote in the
independent Israel Hayom (8/5): QWe are now witnessing a trend among
senior commentators in the United States to minimize the dimension
of the Iranian threat, despite solid information to the contrary.
Their aim is to influence the Obama administration to be content
with a diplomatic dialogue with Tehran without conducting a tough
policy to stop its nuclear program. It appears that, following the
Iraq War, many commentators are increasingly tired of any
confrontation with the challenge posed by Tehran. This bias
constitutes a means of escaping tough decisions that the West will
have to take following the failure of the nuclear negotiations with
Iran over the past six years.

MORENO