SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002036 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: -------------- Visit of U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, PA -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- The media reported that yesterday U.S. Special Envoy Senator George Mitchell was unable to bridge the gaps between the U.S., Israel, and the PA in a way that would allow a three-party summit to be held at the U.N. General Assembly next week. HaQaretz reported that Mitchell asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show flexibility on the issue of freezing settlements, in order to allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to attend the meeting with Netanyahu and President Obama. Media reported that last night the forum of senior ministers in Netanyahu's inner circle met to discuss whether they believe Israel has additional room to maneuver within the administration's red lines. Israel Radio quoted Netanyahu associates as saying that the PM is willing to resume negotiations with the Palestinians but not at all cost. The radio quoted ministers as saying that the Palestinians are playing a game of brinkmanship. Media quoted Mitchell as saying before meeting with Netanyahu that he hoped he would be able to reach an agreement with the PM that would allow the three-way summit to take place. After yesterday's meeting the Prime Minister's Office issued a laconic statement that the meeting had been "good." HaQaretz quoted an official as saying later that the two sides are continuing efforts to narrow the differences between them. Following yesterday's fruitless talks, Netanyahu is scheduled this morning to meet with Mitchell again, after the envoy extended his stay in Israel by an additional day. Today Mitchell and Netanyahu will try to reach a compromise on a settlement freeze that would allow the renewal of diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote: QThe fact that Mitchell met with Netanyahu on Tuesday morning, went to Abbas in Ramallah in the afternoon and will meet again on Wednesday morning with Netanyahu in Jerusalem left the impression that he was shuffling questions and answers back and forth.Q HaQaretz noted that one of the outstanding issues between Washington and Jerusalem is the length of the proposed freeze -- the U.S. is demanding that settlement construction be suspended for a year, while Israel is offering to do so for only six months. The timetable for talks is also under dispute, as Washington is seeking to reach an Israeli-Palestinian agreement within two years, a target the Netanyahu government has rejected. In today's meeting, Mitchell is expected to update Netanyahu on his meeting yesterday with Abbas, during which he dined with the Palestinian leader to break the day's Ramadan fast. Media quoted Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying after the meeting that Mitchell and Abbas did not even discuss the possibility of a tripartite meeting. Erekat said all settlement construction must completely stop, including in East Jerusalem, before such a meeting could be arranged. Yediot cites assessments in Israel, following the Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting, that the three-way summit will take place next week. PM Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a Jewish New Year interview with Maariv that Mahmoud Abbas must declare that the conflict has ended. Netanyahu was quoted as saying that Abbas would then put him to a test. Major news reports are about yesterdayQs release of the report from the U.N. Human Rights Council-appointed fact-finding mission, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to Operation Cast Lead, Although the document accuses both Israelis and the Palestinians of actions amounting to war crimes, the media reported that Israel began fighting the diplomatic battle yesterday to prevent the report from being brought before the U.N. Security Council and from there to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where charges could be brought against Israeli officials involved in the military campaign. Major media quoted Israeli sources as saying that the commission has Qdeclared war on Israel. HaQaretz reported that on the diplomatic front, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will telephone many of their counterparts around the world. They will stress that the Goldstone report is one-sided, that it rewards terrorism, and that it sets a precedent which will make it difficult for any country in the world to defend itself against terror. Israel's diplomatic efforts will focus on the five permanent members of the UN Security Council but that they will also give priority to members of the EU, because of their influence in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The senior Israeli leaders will ask their counterparts to express disagreement with the report and to oppose any use of it as the basis for anti-Israel resolutions at other international institutions. HaQaretz quoted a senior Israeli staffer handling the Goldstone report as saying: "It will be a long diplomatic and legal campaign. We will involve our friends around the world, especially the United States, to prevent Israel's isolation." Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev was quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz yesterday: "Exactly what we feared occurred. The mandate of the Goldstone Commission," she said, "was one-sided from the beginning and the initiative to establish the commission came from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is known for regularly and routinely condemning Israel." QWe anticipated that the contents of the report would be slanted and one-sided, but we didn't imagine that it would be so harsh and blunt," she added. The Jerusalem Post quoted Avi Bell, an expert in international law and laws of war at Bar-Ilan University, as saying that the report will cause Israel serious political damage, but that it is unlikely to lead to any tangible consequences. HaQaretz reported that yesterday Hamas ejected the report. A representative of the organization, Ismail Radwan, told HaQaretz last night that the report was unbalanced and completely misrepresented reality. Media quoted Israeli human rights groups as saying that Israel cannot ignore the report. The Jerusalem Post reported that a report issued yesterday by epidemiologist Elihu Richter and Dr. Yael Stein charged that a recent document released by the Israeli human rights group BQTselem on the number of Palestinian combatants and non-combatants killed in Operation Cast Lead Qis flawed by major errors of commission and omission and possibly major misclassification biases. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted DM Barak as saying yesterday that Israel took too big a risk by removing roadblocks in the West Bank. The Jerusalem Post quoted Geneva Initiative co-sponsor Yossi Beilin as saying yesterday that talk about a settlement freeze distracts negotiators from real issues -- such as Jerusalem and refugees -- that truly block the path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel Radio reported on Syrian President Bashar AssadQs visit to Turkey and the likely discussion there of the Israeli-Syrian negotiation track. Leading media reported that U.S. astronauts came to Israel to comfort the family of IAF Capt. Assaf Ramon, who was killed on Sunday during a routine training flight. The media cited the close friendship between the astronauts and the Ramon family. HaQaretz reported that Israel has arrested Mohammed Harwish, a HAMAS militant wanted since 2004 for involvement in the suicide bombing that killed 30 people at a Passover Seder in the Park Hotel in ¶2002. HaQaretz reported that settler Rabbi Mordechai Geniram will go on trial today for obstructing justice by refusing to give police the names of students suspected of attacking and beating Palestinian shepherds in March 2008. On what it described as unprecedented settler violence, Israel TV reported that yesterday masked Jews attacked border policemen Q notably with firebombs -- at the West Bank outpost of Havat Gilad. HaQaretz quoted the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi as saying that Syria plans to block Internet users from accessing Facebook, because the site now allows residents of the Golan to identify Israel as their country of origin. The Jerusalem Post reported that Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz met with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in Washington on Monday in an effort to intensify ties and strengthen cooperation with the U.S. The newspaper also reported that Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer is scheduled to meet with New York Governor David Paterson to sign an R&D cooperation agreement between Israel and New York State. Ben-Eliezer is also scheduled to meet with leading companies in Atlanta and Boston, including GE Technology, AT&T, Coca Cola, and waste management firms to encourage closer cooperation. HaQaretz and Yediot reported that major Hollywood actors Q including Jerry Seinfeld, Sasha Baron Cohen, Natalie Portman, Jason Alexander, and Lisa Kudrow -- have voiced their opposition to a petition calling for the boycott of Israeli movies at the Toronto Film Festival. Yediot reported that Julie Christie, Danny Glover, and Viggo Mortensen support the petition, while Jane Fonda is hesitant. Leading media reported that American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who is in Israel to promote his latest film, Inglourious Basterds, faced tough questions from some critics regarding his treatment of the Holocaust in the movie. -------------- --- Visit of U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, PA -------------- --- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. QIsraelQs Mistakes Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning HaQaretz (9/16): QBut the ultimate adjudicator on the fate of the report by [the U.N. Human Rights Council- appointed commission on the Gaza war] will be Barack Obama, who now has another whip with which to flay Benjamin Netanyahu -- if you don't freeze the settlements and agree to concessions, legal proceedings will commence against those responsible for Operation Cast Lead. It is doubtful that Obama wishes to make such a threat, which would set a precedent against other militaries fighting terror in civilian areas, as is the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.... Perhaps most important, the Goldstone report reinforces the most serious strategic threat Israel brought upon itself with the Gaza offensive, in that it saps international legitimacy for a similar operation in the future. A country considering attacking the nuclear reactor in Iran, and then endangering itself to rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza in response, will have to take into account whether the world will give Israel another opportunity for a severe, crushing response. II. QHypocrisy and War Defense commentator Amir Oren wrote on page one of Ha'aretz (9/16): QIn the end, it is not about the law, but about power, military and political. [Judge Richard] Goldstone is now free to go to Kunduz [Afghanistan], but American might means there is no chance that he will. When the smoke of Goldstone's report clears, the IDF and the Government can emerge from the bunker to find that little damage has been done. Israel's cooperation is needed in the diplomatic arena. After Operation Defensive Shield, Israel succumbed to external pressure and agreed to establish a committee of inquiry headed by U.S. General William Nash on the massacre-that-never-was in Jenin. Only after Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland and UN Envoy Terje Roed Larsen intervened was the committee called off. Then-U.S. President George ¶W. Bush preferred to push his diplomatic initiative to establish a Palestinian state. And that is what President Barack Obama will probably do: He will curb the propagandistic trend of slamming Israel for war crimes in order to extract tangible concessions from it as a peace partner. III. QFundamentally Flawed, or a Step toward Sanctions? Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor and member of the political science faculty of Bar-Ilan University, wrote on page one of the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (9/16): Q[Judge Richard] Goldstone told his audience [yesterday] that they should Qrejoice that we are living in a world today in which there is accountability for war crimes.Q Sadly, the rejoicing will come from exactly those quarters that fear true accountability. The HAMAS leadership and its supporters, including the Iranian regime, will gladly accept the result, but few Israelis or fair-minded individuals will view this mission, its report, or its recommendations, as having provided accountability or restored the morality of the United Nations. IV. QWage War Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (9/16): QThe [IsraelisQ] immediate, natural, almost instinctive response to the Goldstone report on the IDFQs war crimes is -- more or less -- Qlet them go to hellQ.... It would be very unwise to ignore the report. It would be very wise to come out unscathed from this trouble. Israel would be well advised -- starting today -- to wage a diplomatic and public relations campaign throughout the world. All good available forces in Israel should be recruited. ¶V. QDonQt Disturb the Diplomats HaQaretz editorialized (9/16): QIsrael has an interest in the success of [the international communityQs] talks [with Iran] -- namely, in curbing the Iranian threat through diplomacy rather than the use of force, which could drag the region into prolonged war and severely harm both Israel's home front and its economy. It must continue preparations for a rainy day. But at the same time, it must not impair Obama's attempts to exhaust the diplomatic process. CUNNINGHAM