SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002225 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: -------------- U.S. Special Envoy Senator Mitchell to Israel, West Bank October 7-11, 2009 High level of alert and tension ahead of Friday prayers in Jerusalem -------------- Key stories in the media -------------- All newspapers reported on Sen. Mitchell meetings with President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, noting that the visiting American official will meet with Netanyahu on Friday and will travel to Ramallah for talks with Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad over the weekend. Haaretz quoted Special Envoy Mitchell as saying at the start of his meeting with Peres, that the United States was making efforts to restart the negotiations between Israel and the PA in the near future. The Jerusalem Post wrote that hopes among Israeli and American officials are dim ahead of U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell's meeting on Friday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the talks will yield a resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. However, Yediot quoted senior diplomatic sources as saying that some progress was achieved during the latest round of talks, but a scheme to enable the re-launching of talks has not yet been found. Ha'aretz reported this morning that last month's summit in New York between Obama, Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas also reduced Washington's expectations of a speedy resumption of final-status talks between Israel and the PA. While U.S. envoy George Mitchell will meet Netanyahu again Friday, the meeting is not expected to resolve the crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations. According to Ha'aretz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering goodwill gestures that would bolster the Palestinian Authority and would help PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been suffering harsh criticism following a Palestinian decision not to press for the UN Human Rights Council's adoption of the Goldstone report on last winter's Gaza offensive. Netanyahu is considering announcing a goodwill package during his meeting Friday with the special U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. According to a senior political source in Jerusalem a number of ideas were raised on goodwill gestures that would boost Abbas. The Prime Minister's Bureau did not deny the existence of such proposals. Measures being considered include authorization for setting up a second cellular telephone network in the West Bank and releasing the necessary frequency for use by the PA. Another idea is to stop opposing a Palestinian request for building a new city near Ramallah. It is also possible that more roadblocks will be lifted and other measures will be put in place to help improve the Palestinian economy, a key goal of Netanyahu. All newspapers reported on the high level of security alertness in Jerusalem following days of tension at the Temple Mount compound as Palestinian protesters sporadically clashed with Israeli police. The fear that clashes would break out during Friday's Muslim prayers brought additional security and police forces to Jerusalem's Old City. There is fear that violence will expand beyond Jerusalem, into the West Bank and even within Israel's borders, into towns with mixed populations of Jews and Arabs. Still, a senior police commissioner said early Friday that he believes that violence and disturbances will be under control in Jerusalem. On Thursday, the Hamas declared Friday a "day of rage" and called on its supporters to come out and demonstrate at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Temple Mount. Ha'aretz quoted Democratic congressmen close to Obama, as saying to an Israeli source who returned from a visit to Washington this week,that the U.S. administration is furious over Israeli incitement against President Barack Obama, also hinting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been personally involved. The source also said that he was stunned by the level of anger over attempts to portray Obama to the American public as an enemy of Israel because of his efforts to restart peace talks and freeze settlement construction. The source was quoted as saying that, "There are people here who are playing with fire by damaging our relationship with the U.S." Ha'aretz reported that King Abdullah of Jordan warned Washington recently that Israel's settlement policy in East Jerusalem is undermining the stability of Israeli-Jordanian relations. He also ordered the Jordanian embassy in Israel to submit an official protest to the Foreign Ministry over a plan to build a new Jewish neighborhood on lands belonging to the East Jerusalem village of Walaja. Ha'aretz reported that the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta told TIME magazine that Israel was involved in uncovering Iran's nuclear facility near Qom. According to the TIME article, Israeli intelligence was involved in editing and creating the sanitized version of information about Iran's recently revealed secret uranium enrichment facility. -------------- Block Quotes -------------- "Artificially Respirating Abbas Senior Analyst Gil Hoffman wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/9): "When American envoy George Mitchell meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Friday, don't be surprised if the two get a little closer than they normally would. The Americans believe that Abbas requires urgent resuscitation, and Mitchell's separate meetings with Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are intended for that purpose. Don't be surprised if Netanyahu, in his meeting with Mitchell, is asked for some kind of confidence-building measure to boost Abbas. The American envoy already sent an associate to tell the media on Wednesday that US President Barack Obama will still crack down on settlement construction. But if Mitchell really wanted to boost Abbas, perhaps he should get on a plane and go back to the United States, because his mere presence in Ramallah harms Abbas at a sensitive time for him... Obama raised expectations in the Arab world when he insisted on the unrealistic demand of a complete freeze in Israeli construction east of the 1949 armistice lines. Abbas, who couldn't appear less anti-Israel than the president of the Unites States, made this a new precondition for talks with Israel. Then Obama forced Abbas to come to Washington to meet with Netanyahu, despite his demand not being met. This humiliated Abbas, who was so noticeably upset in his meeting with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Barak had to butter him up by telling him that his popularity on the Palestinian street surpassed that of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, at his peak. Finally, in his speech at that summit, Obama set a mid-October deadline for significant progress on the peace process. This deadline, immediately after three weeks of Israeli governmental officials barely working due to the holidays, cannot and will not be met, which will harm Abbas even more. If Abbas falls and Hamas wins the election, no American envoy could succeed in reviving the peace process. That's why it's so important for America that it acts smartly in its renewed efforts to revive Abbas. CUNNINGHAM