ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001925

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:
--------------

Mideast

--------------
Key stories in the media:
--------------

YediotQs Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer reported that yesterday a
senior U.S. official told the newspaper that understandings are
shaping up between the Obama administration and the GOI: Israel will
pledge to a moratorium on a postponement of at least Qa few months
of new construction in settlements, in exchange for gestures on the
part of the Arab states; if the latter do not do so, Israel will be
able to resume construction in settlement blocs with American
approval. Electronic media cited the State Department as saying
that U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George MitchellQs New
York meeting with two emissaries of PM Benjamin Netanyahu had been a
good one. Quoting diplomatic sources in Jerusalem as saying that
the round of talks between the Americans and NetanyahuQs envoys is
expected to result in a compromise, Maariv speculated that a
three-way summit is on the way.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Silvan Shalom, Vice PM and Minister for
Regional Development and the Development of the Negev and the
Galilee, and the PAQs Economy Minister Bassem Khoury as saying that
their meeting this yesterday in Jerusalem focused solely on
day-to-day issues and did not constitute negotiations. However,
speaking on Israel Radio this morning, Shalom reported that his
meetings might lead to a diplomatic dialogue. The Web site
nana10.co.il wrote that yesterday the Palestinian Web site Quds-net
reported that a high-ranking source in the PA told Quds-net that
preparations were underway for a meeting between Palestinian PM
Salam Fayyad and Israeli DM Ehud Barak that would be held some time
in the course of the current month. The PA source was quoted as
saying that Fayyad would present Barak with the Palestinians'
requests for further relief measures, such as opening the border
crossings into the Gaza Strip. The two men are expected to discuss
a number of other issues as well.

HaQaretz quoted the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. As saying
that the Russian cargo ship that disappeared on its way from Finland
to Algeria came up in talks between Finnish PM Matti Vanhanen and
Russian PM Vladimir Putin, who met yesterday in the Polish city of
Gdansk to discuss energy and the environment. HaQaretz reported
that a spokeswoman for President Shimon PeresQs residence declined
to respond to TIME MagazineQs questions about a possible connection
between the affair and Peres's meeting with Putin. (Peres made a
sudden visit to Russia the day after the ship was found.) Ron
Ben-Yishai of the leading Web news site Ynet reported that Russia
staged the hijacking of the ship following a tip it received from an
unnamed country. Ben-Yishai said that that country revealed to
Russia that S-300 missiles were concealed in the ship. Speaking on
Channel 2-TV this morning, Ben-Yishai named the country in question
as Israel.

Israel Radio reported that this morning two mortar shells landed in
the Negev, near Gaza. The radio later said that the shells actually
landed in Gazan territory.

Israel Radio quoted the Kuwaiti newspaper Alseyassah as saying,
based on defense sources in Europe, that there were chemical weapons
in HizbullahQs weapons warehouse that blew up on southern Lebanon
around six weeks ago and that three members of the group were killed
by those materials, in addition to eight Hizbullah militants who
were killed in the explosion. According to Alseyassah, Hizbullah
started stockpiling chemical weapons in south Lebanon last
December.

HaQaretz reported that the State Prosecutor's representative twice
hinted that construction in West Bank settlements might be
retroactively legalized Wednesday, seemingly representing a major
policy turnaround. The two responses are a departure from the
state's usual response that the structures are illegal and are
expected to be demolished. HaQaretz says that the responses, coming
three weeks after Vice PM and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe
Ya'alon said that the State Prosecutor is not faithfully
representing the current government's view on settlements, seem to
signal a change in policy. The Jerusalem Post reported that
yesterday Peace Now charged that pressure exerted on the State
AttorneyQs Office by politicians, including Justice Minister Yaakov
NeQeman, had caused it to suddenly change its approach to illegal
construction by settlers in the West Bank. Leading media reported
that MaQaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel plans to lay a cornerstone
on the controversial West Bank hilltop of E-1 on Monday to protest
continued international pressure in that unbuilt area of his city.

IDF Radio cited a survey carried out by the Israeli GovernmentQs
Central Bureau of Statistics that in the first half of 2009, a 33%
drop was recorded in the start of new construction work in the West
Bank, in comparison with the equivalent period last year.
Construction in the territories is carried out on the basis of
permits issued in the terms of previous governments, prior to
Netanyahu's government.

Israel Radio cited the U.S. newspaper (?) Politico as saying, Qbased
on American sources,Q that President Obama will demand that Israel
not evacuate Palestinians from Jerusalem.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Israel has released nine Hamas
Parliament members at the end of their jail term.

Yediot: and Maariv reported on an exhibition starting today at Tel
AvivQs Journalists' House (Beit Sokolov) depicting seven female
suicide bombers who carried out attacks in Israel. The womenQs
faces are inserted in reproductions of famous paintings representing
the Virgin Mary and the Child. Yediot reported that bereaved
families protested. Yediot also cited one of the artists as saying
that the show actually condemns those womenQs actions.

The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the Supreme Arab
Committee declared tha the Israeli Arab sector will hold a one-day
weeknd general strike on October 1, marking the annivesary of the
October 2000 riots in which 13 Israei Arabs were killed.

The Jerusalem Post and othr media reported that yesterday Israel
AerospaceIndustries revealed a new missile system called JUMER
that can function as an autonomous artillery ystem for infantry
forces operating behind enemylines.

HaQaretz and Yediot reported that yesterday an organization that
works to strengthen ties between Israel and Diaspora Jews launched a
scare-tactic campaign that urges Israelis to combat assimilation in
North America by working to prevent the "loss" of their own Jewish
acquaintances there. The 10-day Hebrew-language campaign, to be
shown on television and online, was prepared by a leading
advertising firm at the behest of MASA, a partnership between the
Jewish Agency and the Israeli Government that helps finance and
market semester- and year-length Israel programs for Diaspora Jews.


Leading media reported that yesterday the IAF grounded its QSufa
F-16I fighter planes, after one of the aircraft made a forced
landing. The planes will be able to fly again today or tomorrow.

Leading media (lead stories in HaQaretz and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe)
reported that the rabbis of the Edah Haredit, a prominent
anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox communal organization, who have led the
Jerusalem protests throughout the summer, will today issue new
guidelines for their struggle against the opening of the municipal
Karta parking garage on the Sabbath. While not calling for an end
to the disputes, the rabbis are calling to avoid violence and damage
to property. An Arab taxi driver was lynched and badly injured in
JerusalemQs ultra-Orthodox quarter of Mea Shearim on Tuesday.

HaQaretz reported that extensive fortifications recently discovered
in the archaeological excavation in Silwan in East Jerusalem (in the
area known as the City of David) go back about 3,700 years, to the
biblical period of the Patriarchs, revealing that Jerusalem at that
time was significantly larger and stronger than previously
believed.

Maariv reported that the Bank of Israel's updated growth projection
for the Israeli economy, which brought anticipated growth for 2009
up to 0% and 2.5% for 2010, places Israel as the only country among
the developed countries not to have negative growth in 2009. Out of
a long list of 45 countries, Israel is ranked sixth in the global
economic growth chart. This result if achieved if one
cross-references the Bank of Israel's projections with the growth
projections for 45 other countries (Israel was not included) that
was provided by The Economist.

The Jerusalem Post cited a Tel Aviv University study made public
yesterday, according to which Israel is at the bottom of the chart
that records the relative amount of aid given by industrialized
nations to developing countries.

Maariv reported that South African President Jacob Zuma called on
Jews originating in his country to come back.

Yediot reviewed the results of a QsurprisingQ survey conducted by
American pollster Stanley Greenberg, which show an increase in
support of the American public for Israel -- especially among
supporters of the Democratic Party. According to Yediot, which does
not supply figures from the poll, Greenberg presented it to senior
officials in the State Department.

--------------
Mideast:
--------------

Block Quotes:
--------------


I. "Tell the Settlers the Truth"

The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (9/3):
QAccording to the minutes distributed by the Prime Minister's Office
after Netanyahu's meeting with the heads of the Yesha Council of
[Jewish] Settlements [in the Territories] last month, the Prime
Minister stated that QWe are all interested in the same thing,Q and
then added, QBut we must act wiselyQ.... There is no magic spell to
clear the way to an agreement with the Palestinians based on a
partition of the land that will also satisfy the ideological
leadership of the right. If Netanyahu is committed to a Qtwo states
for two peoplesQ solution, clearly he and the Yesha Council are not
Qinterested in the same thing.Q If the Prime Minister really wants
to resume talks with the Palestinians, he must tell the settlers
boldly that negotiations on the future of the occupied territories
are not reconcilable with creating facts in those territories. We
can only hope that when the Prime Minister spoke of the necessity to
Qact wiselyQ he was not hinting at an intention of abusing the
effort by the American President to find a compromise on the
settlement issue or of evading his commitments to freeze
construction over the Green Line and to remove the outposts.

II. "The Enemies Who Protect Us"

Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist
Yediot Aharonot (9/3): QAn odd thing is happening, something almost
unprecedented, and it has unfolded without official Israel having
paid it any attention whatsoever: the enormous Sunni-Shiite
conflict, as well as the rise of political Islam, have turned into
implements that serve Israel. The work of the righteous is done by
their enemies [a play on a Hebrew phrase], and Israel's enemies are
so busy trying to survive between themselves that they have become
Israel's best border guards, and they do a good job at that too --
better than us. Instead of Israel serving as an implement for them,
as usual, they have become an implement in Israel's hands. Hamas is
guarding Gaza closely, and mainly the rocket launching grounds and
the border areas with Israel. When the members of a militia more
radical than Hamas violated the arrangement and fired at Israel,
Hamas butchered them mercilessly.... Hizbullah is guarding southern
Lebanon closely, lest Sunni forces, such as Palestinians or
al-Qaida-affiliates, should penetrate it. Ironically, Hizbullah has
turned into the great stabilizing force of southern Lebanon and,
consequently, of the border with Israel as well.... Fatah has been
operating against Hamas in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] as
never before, knowing full well that if it fails to do this
constantly, Hamas will rise up and destroy it, as it did in Gaza.
In this case too, the most fundamental human rights are trampled
underfoot in the arrests and the random executions. Syria too has
kept the area closest to the border with Israel purged of any
hostile elements because it does not want to have the border erupt.
It also knows that its border with Israel could be its soft
underbelly, an implement in the hands of its enemies. Egypt and
Jordan are not enemies of Israel at all, but they too operate in the
same way.... Here is the paradox: ... the deeper we penetrated into
Arab territory in order to fight terrorism, the deeper we sank into
the Arab mud and the mud of our disagreement among ourselves, and
that only served to intensify terrorism. Once upon a time we used
to use internal Arab disputes as leverage; now Israel (unwittingly
so) is utilizing internal Arab differences as leverage for its own
benefit.

III. "Abu MazenQs Vision of a Freeze"

Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in the independent, left-leaning
HaQaretz (9/3): QJust now, however, when Netanyahu is pursuing a
total construction freeze, [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas has issued
an ultimatum to him via Al Jazeera-TV: Without a construction freeze
in the settlements, he won't meet with Netanyahu.... Abbas has
apparently come to the conclusion that as a result of the low point
to which Israel's status has sunk in the world and the
disintegration of Israeli solidarity, it is not worthwhile at this
point to renew talks with Israel. It is preferable in his view that
Israel be in a situation in which it is attacked from all directions
and continues to lose status, societal cohesion and self-confidence.
And when the siege tightens on all sides, and we see governments
and non-profit organizations dealing with this intensively all over
the world, it will be possible to begin to implement the real
vision: a Palestinian state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan
River.

CUNNINGHAM