ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002196 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. Mideast ¶2. Iran -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media emphasized the continued violence around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Clashes continued yesterday between Palestinian demonstrators and security forces. One Israeli soldier was stabbed and the number of people detained since the start of the latest disturbances reached 50. HaQaretz reported that sources close to the situation told the newspaper that the U.S. and Jordan are trying to ease the tensions surrounding the Temple Mount area, with Jordan asking Israel to prevent the entry of Jews and tourists to the site until the situation calms down. HaQaretz reported that Israel, the PA, and the Waqf Muslim authority will hold talks on rules for visiting the site until the crisis eases. Yediot cited a Shin Bet warning that the PA has embarked on a takeover of East Jerusalem for the past few months. Yediot and other media reported the PA has injected millions of dollars to strengthen East JerusalemQs economic infrastructure with effective Palestinian supervision. Speaking on Israel Radio this morning, Vice PM Silvan Shalom called on the government to outlaw the Islamic Movement and arrest the leader of its northern branch Sheikh Raed Salah and his deputy, Kamal Khatib. The media reported that thousands of people demonstrated against Israel in Istanbul in support of the Palestinians at the Temple Mount. Israel Hayom reported that official spokesmen at the Prime MinisterQs Office and at the Foreign Ministry have clarified that the postponement of the vote at the U.N Human Rights Council that would have endorsed the Goldstone Report was the result of massive diplomatic pressure on the U.S., Russia, France, Germany, the U.S., and others by Israel. HaQaretz and other media reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is facing unusually harsh criticism from within Fatah and other Palestinian groups for his decision last week to withdraw the draft document. HaQaretz reported that a few hundred protesters demonstrated in Ramallah yesterday against the PAQs decision to delay endorsing the Goldstone report. The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that the Obama administration has cautiously welcomed the Iranian gestures coming out of the talks over its nuclear program last week, saying they are a "constructive beginning" even if much more work is needed and progress cannot be taken for granted. However, The Jerusalem Post said that many Washington hands are warning that the key factor behind IranQs more cooperative approach has been a shift in America's posture rather than in Tehran's. The Jerusalem Post quoted Ilan Mizrachi, a former head of IsraelQs National Security Council and deputy head of the Mossad, as saying that Israel would not be able to oppose a deal under which IranQs uranium is enriched in Russia. Yediot reported that the notion of Russian enrichment of uranium for Iran was an Israeli idea raised by Shaul MofazQs team in its strategic dialogue at the end of President BushQs term, and cited concern that Iran will breach the agreement. MaarivQs Web site NRG reported that ahead of the large-scale IDF-U.S. Army aerial defense exercise that will simulate a missile attack from Iran, 15 missile boats, cargo planes, and aerial defense systems have arrived in Israel. A senior Israeli defense source was quoted as saying: QSoon an American officer of the rank of general will arrive, attesting to the importance of the drill. This is a clear message to Iran. Maariv reported that the Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu parties are cooperating to change the Israeli political system through the mediation of politician Haim Ramon: they will reportedly draft an initiative to strengthen the status of the prime minister and they intend to have a bill to this effect passed with the support of Likud and Labor Knesset members. The newspaper cited LikudQs anger over the move and Avigdor LiebermanQs cooperation with the opposition. The Jerusalem Post reported that an archeological project funded by a Jewish-Ukrainian philanthropist made possible the rehabilitation of a Second Jewish Temple-era hall that was recently unearthed in the Western Wall tunnels. All media cited the newly uncovered areas. HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post cited a Peace Now investigation reporting that 800 housing units in 34 West Bank settlements are in early development stages and 100 are already under construction. According to the organization, settlement movement leaders are rushing to begin construction in as many places as possible, so that when a construction freeze as ordered these locations are not affected. Peace Now said that merely not issuing new permits wasn't enough and that a direct order banning all new construction was needed. Media quoted right-wing figures as saying that Peace Now is a QtreacherousQ group or a "foreign agent." The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian schoolchildren in U.N.-run schools may soon learn about the Holocaust as part of a new curriculum on human rights that is being developed by the U.N Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The newspaper reported that UNRWA is pushing forward with the curriculum despite Palestinian opposition. Leading media reported that yesterday a court in Azerbaijan sentenced a group of militant Islamists, including two Lebanese men, to between 12 and 15 years in jail for plotting attacks on the Israeli and U.S. embassies in Baku. A spokesman for the court said the group was linked to Hizbullah, al-Qaida, and the Iranian security services. All media reported that on Sunday unknown people vandalized the southern archaeological park of Avdat. Yesterday police arrested two Negev Bedouin in relation with this act. Leading media reported that they are suspected of destroying the site as revenge for the recent demolition of homes in the area. The media reported that the perpetrators may have causedwhat one high-ranking preservation official called "unparalleled damage" to the site. Avdat's archaeological section was recognized by UNESCO as a Heritage Site four years ago. HaQaretz reported that FM Avigdor Lieberman has withdrawn his nominee for the position of Israel's ambassador to Cairo. Lieberman had planned to appoint his close Yisrael Beiteinu associate, Col. Shaul Kamisa. The idea was criticized across the board both inside and outside the Foreign Ministry and a few days ago the candidacy was shelved. The Jerusalem Post reported that some Foreign Ministry diplomats are upset at FM Avigdor LiebermanQs decision to appoint former Mossad man Reuven Dinal as ambassador to Turkmenistan. The media pin hopes on Israeli candidates for Nobel Prizes: Yakir Aharonov (Physics) and Amos Oz (Literature). -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Obama Is No Sucker" Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/6): QA report of the planned presence [of Netanyahu] at the volatile site of Silwan in East Jerusalem] reached Washington, and the order came to cancel the event with lightning speed.... A senior person from the National Security Council at the White House recently told Jewish leaders that Obama had mustered all his charm to convince Arab leaders to offer Netanyahu a series of gestures. It all ended, said the official, when the Prime Minister decided to approve construction of 450 housing units in the West Bank. The President, to put it mildly, was not amused. II. "Third Intifada?" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/6): QIsraeli authorities foster coexistence and maintain free access to the holy sites. Palestinian factions, by contrast, want just the opposite. Jews do not deny the religious significance of the Muslim sites on the Temple Mount. Yet Palestinians can't abide the fact that the Jewish presence in Jerusalem anteceded the Muslim arrival in 636 CE by well over [two?] millennia.... Sadly, not one Palestinian leader is willing to tell his people that, ofcourse, there was a Jewish temple where the Aqsa osque stands today. To admit a Jewish civilizational connection would demand that Palestinians agree to share the area and to treat Jewish holy places with respect. It would turn upside down a Palestinian political culture that has socialized generations to think of Jews as interlopers. And this neither Fatah's Abbas, nor Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh nor the Islamic Movement's Sheikh Raed Salah will ever do. Since the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967, the Jews have been magnanimous in victory. Not only have they permitted Muslims to retain administrative control over their holy places, Israeli authorities have forbidden Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.... So while Israel's QThird TempleQ fanatics are carefully policed and marginalized by mainstream society, the Palestinian leadership continues to mainstream fanatical ideas about Jews -- making reconciliation unreachable. III. "The Temple Mount Is the Heart of the Conflict" Columnist Assaf Golan wrote in the editorial of the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (p. 6) (10/6): QOne of the most complex problems that Israel will have to face in the next few years is the issue of the Temple Mount.... It is impossible to produce historic reconciliations between national entities only based on instant politics when both sidesQ deep foundations lean on profound spiritual and emotional worlds. This simple truth teaches us that not only might fleeing the challenge of the Temple Mount blow up in IsraelQs face but it might as well drag the entire Middle East into a terrible bloodshed despite itself. -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- "No Cause for Celebration" Intelligence affairs writer Ronen Bergman opined in the mass-circulation pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/6): QThe supposedly dramatic agreement produced by the talks between Iran and the [world] powers will not lead to the disappearance of the nuclear peril from the regime of the ayatollahs. Anyway this a nice achievement for the Iranians -- an agreement that will only slightly delay their race to the bomb, provide them a bonus in public opinion, provide Russia and China with an alibi for the continuation of their excellent economic ties with Iran.... The positive side of this arrangement is that the quantity to be transferred to Russia -- as long as it stays in Russia -- will be supervised.... But there are drawbacks. First of all, the agreement doesnQt prevent Iran from continuing to enrich ... uranium on its territory. It will be able to produce a bomb.... Those who stand to earn most from this agreement, should it materialize, are the Russians. Not only will they receive a lot of money for this process, but they will succeed in creating for themselves an alibi for continuing their vast economic, military, and civilian ties with Iran. CUNNINGHAM