ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002362 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: -------------- Israel Radio and other media reported that yesterday President Obama marked the fifteenth anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. He was quoted as saying: QAs we honor this historic event, we remember that peace is always possible despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. HaQaretz quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying that efforts should center on bolstering the position of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Her comments were in a report to President Barack Obama last week on attempts to renew negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. HaQaretz reported that a senior diplomatic source who was privy to the State Department report noted that in it Clinton had stressed the significant setback to Abbas in Palestinian public opinion because of the initial decision not to press ahead with bringing the Goldstone report on Gaza to the Human Rights Council of the U.N. Last night Channel 10-TV reported that Abbas has told the White House that he is considering stepping down because of the lack of progress in the peace process. Israel Hayom says that he is Qthreatening the U.S.Q by doing this. Israel Radio reported that Abbas denied the report. Some media quoted Abbas as saying that Israel and Netanyahu are to blame for his alleged intention to resign. Major media reported that the U.N. General Assembly will debate the Goldstone report next week at the behest of the Arab League. Yediot says that the assembly is already expected to condemn Israel. Israel Hayom reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has distributed to all ambassadors posted in Israel a report containing an internal IDF critique of its action during Operation Cast Lead. Maariv bannered a letter written by Dr. David Tsangan, who served in the Jenin district during Operation Defensive Shield. The doctor, citing the Jenin massacre hype, suggests on the basis of that precedent that Goldstone was deceived in Gaza by similar means. Leading media reported that yesterday IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi warned, during a speech at a Holocaust memorial in Berlin that contained a veiled reference to Iran that Israel will not entrust its security to the hands of "strangers" and will do "everything needed" to protect its citizens if war is forced upon it. HaQaretz and Israel Hayom wrote that Ashkenazi told reporters that he refuses to rule out an Israeli probe into Operation Cast Lead. The Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. will continue pressing for a deal to get Israel and the PA back to the negotiating table, despite concerns in Jerusalem that Friday's announcement of PA elections in January makes the likelihood of starting negotiations now even more remote. The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that the human-rights group Amnesty International (AI) has issued a critical report charging that Israel prevents Palestinians from receiving adequate water supplies. The radio media cited the Israel Water AuthorityQs response that AIQs data is inaccurate. The radio cited the authority as saying that Israel has even helped the Palestinians in this domain. Leading media quoted Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying yesterday that FM Avigdor Lieberman threatened to make use of nuclear weapons during Operation Cast Lead. However, Erdogan said that the strategic alliance with Israel still exists. Yediot reported that a Turkish Navy ship arrived in Israel a few days ago for a joint exercise with the Israel Navy. Israel Radio reported that the U.K. is placing an obstacle to IsraelQs admission to the OECD: it wants Israel to report statistics within the Green Line only. Each member state of the OECD has a power of veto on the admission of new members. HaQaretz reported that human rights lawyers and pro-Palestinian activists in a number of European countries hold lists with names of IDF soldiers allegedly linked to war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. Existing legislation enables arrest warrants to be issued against these officers if they enter those countries. Major media quoted French FM Bernard Kouchner saying in an interview with the British daily The Daily Telegraph that Israel is likely to take military action against Iran if the latter acquires nuclear weapons, making it urgent for world powers to break the nuclear deadlock. Leading media reported that yesterday France decided to postpone a conference of the foreign ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean, after Egypt said it would not participate if FM Lieberman was among the delegates. France and Egypt have shared presidency of the union since 2008. France has been pressuring the Egyptians to attend the conference regardless, but to no avail. HaQaretz cited a proposed suggestion to elevate the rank of conference participants to the prime-ministerial level. This would resolve the conflict, as Egypt does not boycott PM Benjamin Netanyahu. However, the proposal is not yet complete and has not been officially presented to the member states. Israel Hayom quoted DM Ehud Barak as saying yesterday at a meeting of the Labor PartyQs Knesset faction that the QLeft behaves like a small childQ that treats peace as a toy to be had here and now. The newspaper quoted Meretz Party Chairman Haim Oron as saying that Barak has turned the Labor Party into QNetanyahuQs blind chorus. Yediot reported that the Labor Party QrebelsQ will form a political movement next week. Leading media reported on the friendship between an Israeli boy who was hit by a Palestinian missile and a Palestinian girl who was injured by an Israeli missile. Maariv reported that Israel is considering purchasing F-35B warplanes from the U.S. The aircraft employs a short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) capability, which the daily says will be useful if runways are paralyzed by missile attacks. Maariv reported that the IDF and the Defense Ministry are considering eliminating duplications in the areas of construction and purchasing. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Venezuelan Government has made it difficult for Israeli tourists to procure entry visas. The Jerusalem Post reported that newly elected UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova will attend a memorial ceremony for the assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in Tel AvivQs Rabin Square on November 4. HaQaretz quoted Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) Chairman Natan Sharansky as saying yesterday that JAFI plans to send more than 100 well-trained emissaries to North American college campuses within the next two years. Currently, about 20 JAFI emissaries work on American university campuses. The new JAFI representatives will be tasked with explaining to students the "realities of the Middle East and to show what HAMAS and Hezbollah are doing and what Israel is doing to bring some justice and democracy to Palestinians." The plan is mentioned in a proposed resolution of JAFI's task force on anti-Semitism, which is expected to pass. The Jerusalem Post cited the results of an Anti-Defamation League poll conducted among Americans and released on Monday: -67% see Israel as a country to be counted on as a strong, loyal U.S. ally; -By a 3-1 ratio, the American people express more sympathy with Israel than with the Palestinians; -64% of Americans continue to believe that Israel is serious about reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians; -Americans are skeptical about "peace dividends" that would result from a freeze on settlements; 53% believe leaders of the Arab world will continue to refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, even if Israel stops all further construction settlements; only 25% believe the Palestinians would be prepared to achieve a final resolution of the conflict if Israel stopped further construction of settlements; -While Americans support the creation of a Palestinian state, 56% believe it must not be established until the Palestinians end the violence and accept Israel's legitimacy; -A majority places the onus for peace on Palestinians because of the division between the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and other Arab states and because of their refusal to accept Israel's right to exist; 51% believe Palestinian division stands in the way of peace. -There has also been significant gain in those who would support either Israel or the U.S. using military action to stop Iran from making a nuclear weapon, with 57% of Americans supporting an Israeli response, up from 42% in 2007and 54% supporting U.S. action, up from 47% in 2007. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "On Goldstone, the U.S. Is on IsraelQs Side" Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/27): QObama will not call Bibi to account for the Goldstone report. The administration has accepted Operation Cast Lead with understanding. If only for the reason that the American armed forces themselves are killing civilians in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and anywhere else they come into contact with civilians. With all the changes in warfare methods, the day will come when the Geneva Conventions will have to be adjusted to regular armies' wars against terror groups, which mostly target civilians. But until we get there, the subject and victim of the Goldstone Commission is Israel, which has been tarnished as responsible for war crimes, and perhaps even crimes against humanity. II. "The QThird TemplarsQ" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/27): QIt's a dilemma for mainstream Israelis.... Step back from the Temple Mount and Arab intimidation wins. Assert Jewish rights and risk heartening a band of Jewish extremists high on a toxic potion of piety and politics. That even a QmoderateQ Palestinian leader like Mahmoud Abbas does not accept the Temple Mount as sacred to Jews further complicates the predicament. One possible approach is for the government to explicitly remind the Waqf that its administrative role on the Mount derives from the authority vested in it by the Jewish state.... In parallel, we want to clearly hear Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denounce as folly the actions of those agitating for a Third Temple built on the ashes of the Muslim shrines. He should disabuse anyone who imagines that the antics of these QThird TemplarsQ have support on the sane Right. Given the Palestinians' endemic intransigence and quick resort to violence -- including, it should be stressed, via malevolent inflation of tensions on the Mount -- it is easy to be dismissive of all their grievances over Jerusalem. But sometimes, more sensitivity could be applied. The Palestinians are not always wrong to complain that municipal authorities are placing unreasonable demands on them in seeking building permits while facilitating scatter-site Jewish housing (with no security value) in densely populated Arab neighborhoods. In the final analysis, Israeli sovereignty is best manifested by providing the same level of municipal services to all taxpaying Jerusalemites -- and by insisting on the same adherence to the law from all. III. "George MitchellQs Mission Impossible" Efraim Inbar, Professor of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University and Director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, wrote in The Jerusalem Post (10/27): QAmerican diplomacy can hardly make a dent in the schism within Palestinian society that is the main stumbling block for progress in peace-making. As long as Islamist HAMAS has a powerful grip on the Palestinian ethos and Palestinian aspirations and as long as its ruthless rule over Gaza continues, Palestinian politics are hostage to the extremists and are unable to move toward an historic compromise with the Jewish-Zionist national movement. Mitchell cannot even prevent a draft of a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation document that does not conform to Quartet demands (renounce violence, recognize Israel and respect past agreements). The final obstacle for Mitchell is the nature of his mandate -- the pursuit of an outdated paradigm, the two-state solution. Unfortunately, the desired outcome of the Oslo process, partition of the Land of Israel [i.e. Israel, including the territories] into two states -- Jewish and Palestinian -- was not achieved and this predicament is unlikely to change any time soon. The Palestinians failed the main test of statehood: monopoly over the use of force.... Therefore, what is needed is a new policy paradigm. It is high-time to consider a return to the status quo ante of pre-1967. Jordan and Egypt are responsible states at peace with Israel that successfully ruled over the Palestinians. They should be induced to share responsibility for regional stability. The Palestinian potential for regional mischief is not only Israel's problem. IV. "Abbas Is a Partner for Peace. Is Netanyahu?" Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, wrote in The Jerusalem Post (10/27): Q[Mahmoud] Abbas has implemented almost all the Palestinian obligations under the Roadmap (Israel has not implemented any of its obligations).... He has dismantled the infrastructure of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad throughout the West Bank.... He has refused to give in to public pressure pushing him toward reconciliation with HAMAS under almost any terms. He has demonstrated leadership time and time again. It is time to stop saying Abbas is weak. Abbas is perhaps the best Palestinian partner we could ever hope for. No, he is not a Zionist, and no, he will not adopt Israel's positions in negotiations. He will stand by his decision to bring the Goldstone report to the United Nations, against fierce Israeli pressure. He is a Palestinian leader, not an agent of Israel. He will demand Palestinian rights in Jerusalem and he will demand that the refugee issue be negotiated and not conceded prior to negotiations. Abbas is a partner for peace. Is Benjamin Netanyahu? -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "An Iranian Dictate" Columnist Shmuel Rosner, who was HaQaretzQs correspondent in Washington, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (10/27): Q[At the upcoming Jewish-American convention in Washington], Benjamin Netanyahu] will have to talk about the peace process in order not to appear as a man who is again trying to divert the topic to his favorite subject. But, in the closed White House room, the order of priorities will be more obvious: Iran first, Palestine later. The outline of the conversation will be determined by the developments over the few weeks before [NetanyahuQs] trip -- that is to say by the Iranians. II. "Hope or Illusion?" Avraham Ben-Zvi, visiting Professor of Political Science at Haifa University and an expert in U.S.-Israel relations, wrote in the independent Israel Hayom (10/27): QDespite question-marks inherent in the agreement [with Iran], the [Obama] administrationQs eagerness to adopt it as a successful expression of its comprehensive diplomatic approach might produce an atmosphere of conciliatory forgiveness vis-a-vis an extremist regime.... It can only be hoped that the Israeli nightmare of facing an indifferent administration (which prefers to deny scenarios contradicting its world view) will not happen. It must be hoped that the current American optimism will eventually be mitigated with an alert, sober American behavior attentive to the doings in Iran. CUNNINGHAM