SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002334 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: -------------- Ambassador Susan Rice to Israel -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- HaQaretz reported that yesterday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reported to President Barack Obama that the U.S. has made little progress in its efforts to renew stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Clinton met with Obama to submit an interim report on the status of U.S. peacemaking efforts. U.S. Special Envoy to Middle East Peace George Mitchell also participated in the meeting. HaQaretz quoted an administration official as saying that during the meeting, Clinton advised the President that challenges remain before the negotiations could resume. The official was quoted as saying that the Palestinians have strengthened their security efforts, while the Israelis have expressed a willingness to curtail settlement activity. But the official said that both sides need to do more for the process to move forward. Following the meeting, the White House urged Israel and the Palestinians to do more to open the way to renewed peace negotiations. HaQaretz quoted the White House as saying that Mitchell will visit Israel next week, in his latest attempt to relaunch peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel Radio quoted Mitchell as saying yesterday in a lecture he delivered in Maine that it is too soon to brand his efforts to resume peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders a failure. The administration's current efforts in the Mideast are "as difficult and complex as everyone told me it would be," Mitchell was quoted as saying. "But we are determined to stay the course ... until the job is done." Meanwhile, PM Benjamin Netanyahu's representatives at talks in Washington, Mike Herzog and Yitzhak Molcho, returned to Israel on Wednesday after more than a week of discussions with Mitchell and his advisers. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was also in Washington for talks with American officials. Molcho briefed Netanyahu and other cabinet members on the discussions held in Washington. HaQaretz quoted a Jerusalem source as saying that gaps still exist between the Israeli and Palestinian positions and also between the American and Palestinian sides that are preventing peace talks from resuming. The source added that conditions are not ripe for renewed negotiations at this time. Yediot quoted a White House source as saying that the resumption of negotiations is not near. HaQaretz reported that yesterday the White House called on Israel to take significant steps to freeze settlements -- and on the Palestinians to take significant steps to cease incitement and stop terror. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Jurist Richard Goldstone challenged the U.S. to justify its claims that the findings in a U.N. report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity during Operation Cast Lead were flawed and biased. The Jerusalem Post also reported that yesterday the chairman of the International Institute for Criminal Investigation, William Schabas, warned that PM NetanyahuQs plan to change the laws of war was unrealistic. He was quoted as saying that the initiative was Qalmost an admissionQ Israel had violated international law during Operation Cast Lead. Major media reported that yesterday DM Ehud Barak broke IsraelQs official silence on a draft plan to ship one load of Iranian uranium abroad for enrichment, saying that there was a need to halt all uranium enrichment on Iranian soil. Barak said that the proposal will only delay the Iranian nuclear program by a year. HaQaretz reported that a senior European Union official told Israeli officials this week that Israel is not privy to the details of the exchanges between Iran and the Western countries regarding its nuclear program. "You do not understand the extent to which you are not in the picture. You do not know how much you do not know and what is happening in Iran," he was quoted as saying. Accordingly, HaQaretz reported that a number of senior Israeli officials backed the European official's statements by saying that the release of the draft of an agreement with Iran caught Israel by surprise. However, a senior official in the U.S. administration told HaQaretz yesterday that from the minute the talks began on a deal over the uranium enrichment program of Iran, Israel was updated on every detail by the U.S., and was given detailed reports on the talks with the Iranians and the ongoing dialogue on a nearly daily basis. The Prime Minister's Bureau refused to comment. HaQaretz reported that yesterday Iran denied the newspaperQs report about Israeli-Iranian nuclear talks. The Jerusalem Post quoted U.S. and Israeli military officials as saying during a press conference in Tel Aviv yesterday that the major Juniper Cobra exercise -- which is widely covered by many media -- bears no relation to current events. Channel 10-TV termed the exercise very successful. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Kadima chair and former FM Tzipi Livni denied warning the Palestinian Authority not to accept OlmertQs peace offer. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk had suggested this on Monday. Martin Indyk was also quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that Israel-Turkey relations could be headed for a breakup. The media reported on a possible first government coalition crisis: DM Barak opposes Justice Minister Yaakov NeQemanQs proposal to split the attorney generalQs functions into two positions. Yediot published the results of a Mina/Zemach/Dahaf poll showing IsraelisQ voting intentions Qwere elections held todayQ (in Knesset seats): Likud: 33; Kadima: 28; Yisrael Beiteinu: 12; Shas: 11; Labor: 7; Meretz: 6. -------------- Ambassador Susan Rice to Israel: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. QStand with Us Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/23): Q[The] underinformed world is asking why the Palestinians should have to pay for EuropeQs crimes by ceding territory to the Jews. However inadvertently, Obama gave weight to this misrepresentation in his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, by linking AmericaQs support with Israel with the persecution of the Jews in exile down the centuries, culminating in the Holocaust, and failing to mention our connection to this land. Now, more than at any time in recent years, Israel looks to what has starkly become its only mighty ally, and especially to Obama, to help correct the damage -- to highlight IsraelQs fundamental legitimacy. II. QThe Capitulation Agreement Former Deputy Defense Minister Dr. Ephraim Sneh (who spent most of his political life in the Labor Party) wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/23): QCrippling sanctions that Secretary of State Clinton talked about cannot be expected. Iran cheaply acquired the freedom to continue its actions -- in terror, violence, the oppression of its people, building its missile capability and its secretive development of nuclear weapons. We must quickly build the capability needed to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat when the deception plan is uncovered, sooner or later. CUNNINGHAM