ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002462 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: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Electronic media reported that last night President Obama met with PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for over ONE hour and forty minutes. The media cited a White House statement that the U.S. is committed to IsraelQs security, and that the two leaders discussed security issues, Iran, and the peace process. The White House spokesman also said that the U.S. has not changed its position on the settlements. Israel Radio quoted IsraelQs Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren as saying that the Iranian issue has reached a crucial point. DM Ehud Barak took part in the first part of the meeting. There was no joint press conference and the President did not escort Netanyahu out of the White House. Yediot cited The Wall Street Journal as saying that NetanyahuQs public pledge to establish a Palestinian state was a precondition to his meeting with Obama. Yediot reported that in preparatory talks with Israeli officials between the meeting, U.S. officials clarified that the U.S. expects Israeli steps to strengthen PA President Mahmoud Abbas, including the release of Fatah prisoners and the lifting of further roadblocks in the West Bank. Yediot remarks that AbbasQ threats of resignation have influenced Obama. Media reported that Netanyahu told the Jewish Federations of North AmericaQs General Assembly last night that he wanted to resume negotiations with the Palestinians immediately, and rejected the charge that he was not interested in reaching an agreement. The PM was quoted as saying: QMy goal is not negotiations for the sake of negotiations; my goal is to achieve a permanent treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, and soon. I cannot be more emphatic on this point.Q Netanyahu added: Qbut to get to a peace agreement, we need to start negotiating. LetQs get on with it. LetQs move. Netanyahu urged PA President Mahmoud Abbas: QLet us seize the opportunity to reach a historic agreement.Q Netanyahu also referred to Israeli steps, mentioning the agreement Israel was working out with the U.S. to control settlement activity. Netanyahu also spoke of the important role the U.S. should play in such an effort. Leading media reported that Obama met with Jewish leaders before his meeting with Netanyahu. They reportedly discussed domestic U.S. matters, in particular the HEALTH reform. Yediot and Israel Radio quoted President Abbas as saying yesterday that the PA was close to an agreement with the Olmert government, but that the results of the Israeli elections returned the negotiations to the starting point. HaQaretz (Akiva Eldar) reported that Secretary of State Hillary ClintonQs praise of Israeli restraint in settlement building Qmissed all the new construction.Q Israel TV reported that a cable received at the Israeli Foreign Ministry from the U.S. claims that Clinton is considering resigning over her dissatisfaction with her status in the U.S. government, and vying for the position of senator or governor in New York State. Speaking on Israel Radio yesterday, PM NetanyahuQs media adviser, Nir Hefetz, said that an analysis by New York Times pundit Thomas Friedman, who wrote that reaching a diplomatic agreement interested the U.S. administration more than the Israelis or Palestinians, is wrong. Hefetz said that nobody wants peace more than the people of Israel and that the Palestinian side took two steps backwards. HaQaretz reported that Kadima Knesset members are demanding a serious discussion of MK Shaul MofazQs peace proposal. MofazQs spokeswoman told Channel 10-TV that he intends to meet in the near future with senior Hamas leaders. Maariv reported on contacts betwen Kadima and the Labor Party rebels -- the latter ight join Tzipi LivniQs party. Major media reorted that, less than two weeks after declaring his desire for peace talks with Israel, Syrian Presient Bashar Assad warned that if negotiations fai, it will result in "resistance" as an alternatie option. Assad spoke at an economic summit of th Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul yesterday. Assad accused of Israel of seeking to damage the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, reminding fellow Muslim leaders that "40 years ago we set up the OIC in response to an attack on the Al-Aqsa mosque." The Syrian leader added that the Palestinians were being evicted from their homes so that settlers can live there instead. "Israeli occupation must be resisted with all available means," Assad said. Commenting on the settlements, Assad warned that Muslims "must not be tricked regarding the freezing of settlements as a basis for negotiation, as if the problem centers only on settlements. This is not the goal, but a small step in the process." Assad then asked: "Why are they not talking about dismantling the settlements or ending the occupation?" The media cited Jordanian King Abdullah IIQs warning yesterday in an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat against an Israeli attack on Iran, saying the repercussions for such action would likely be catastrophic. The King also said: "Jerusalem is considered a red line and Israel needs to understand this and not play with fire." Still, Yediot reported that yesterday the armies of Israel and Jordan conducted a joint exercise that simulated JordanQs response to an earthquake in Israel. The newspaper quoted an IDF source as saying that cooperation between the two armies was excellent. Yediot reported that yesterday the U.S. Army and the IDF successfully completed the Juniper Cobra 10 exercise with the firing of a live Patriot missile. HaQaretz cited the Israeli defense industriesQ displeasure over the snub by the U.S. of the introduction of Israeli technology in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Israel has ordered. The newspaper reported that the U.S. has eased its stance on this point. HaQaretz reported that members of the defense industries talks of a Qsecret pactQ governing the deal and complain that Israel is about to commit all the U.S. military funds for the coming decade into a deal for the fighter. The daily says that the defense industry employees are even bitterer bout the loss of income from locally produced technology. Maariv reported that yesterday Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to check whether the inciting rabbi from the settlement of Yitzhar can be prosecuted, HaQaretz reported that the U.S. has demanded clarifications of Israel regarding the deportation of Berlanty Azzam, a female student, from the West Bank to Gaza a few days ago. HaQaretz cited IsraelQs response that Azzam had stayed illegally in the West Bank for four years. The newspaper reported that the Israeli Embassy in Washington is actively involved in the affair, following protests by pro-Palestinian organizations in the U.S. The Jerusalem Post reported that HizbullahQs AL-Manar TV recently condemned the distribution of a textbook in a Lebanese English-language school because it contained excerpts from the QDiary of Anne Frank,Q which the TV station says is an Israeli product. -------------- Mideast: -------------- ¶I. QAn Obama Time-Out? Unthinkable Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote on page ONE of the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/11): Q[New York Times pundit Thomas FriedmanQs] central suggestion, that Nobel Peace laureate Obama actually disengage from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is thoroughly improbable -- however the president may assess the two sides' readiness for progress. This, after all, is an administration whose officials -- in stark contrast to the initial approach of the Bush administration -- lay repeated stress on the centrality of Israeli-Palestinian progress to stability in the Middle East and beyond. QIf there is a linkage between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,Q Obama mused [when he hosted Netanyahu in May], QI personally believe it actually runs the other way. To the extent that we can make peace with the Palestinians - between the Palestinians and the Israelis -- then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with the potential Iranian threat.Q It is exceedingly difficult to square that presidential conviction with Friedman's new call for a time-out on the peace process. Unless, that is, we should be reading Friedman's column as inadvertent recognition that, when gauging how to prioritize between Israeli-Palestinian peace and thwarting the Iranian nuclear bid, Netanyahu had the equation the right way round. II. QGood for the (American) Jews Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented on page ONE of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/11): QDemanding that Palestinians Qreturn to negotiations with no preconditionsQ might wring applause from a Jewish audience, but Obama has learned that it's merely code for QYou can forget about my government freezing any settlementsQ.... When Netanyahu asks what the President intends to do to save Israel from the nuclear demon, Obama will likely answer: what do you intend to do to save Israel from the binational demon? The Americans understand that if Netanyahu doesn't offer Abbas concrete actions instead of hollow words, the entire Palestinian leadership will go home with him and reiterate the demand made by Martin Luther King Jr., Obama's hero: ONE man, ONE vote. If this speech is all Netanyahu has to say to Obama, it remains for Obama to decide, and quickly, on the next step -- whether to give the Prime Minister his peace plan, or the White House telephone number with the suggestion that he give him a call when he knows what he really wants. III. QA Nobel too Early Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in Ha'aretz (10/11): QApart from his rhetorical skills, Obama has failed to keep a single promise or solve ONE major problem during his time in office. In this situation he cannot afford to lose the support of the Jews, who are behind 40 percent of the contributions to the Democrats' elections. Meanwhile, the cold shoulder Obama is giving us and the hazing he's put Bibi through have achieved nothing but Abbas' announcement that he would not be running for the next Palestinian Authority elections. Perhaps he will and perhaps he won't. While Israel is seriously talking about the peace process, Obama has problems at home. His list of disappointments now includes his failure to create a mechanism to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama received the Nobel Peace prize too early. I wonder if they have a mechanism in Oslo to take it back. IV. QTo Keep the Bond Strong Historian and liberal columnist Alexander Yakobson wrote in Ha'aretz (10/11): QThere is no real gap between the Obama administration's positions on the settlements and those of the Bush administration. The only difference is that Obama has decided to focus public and diplomatic attention on this issue. From the moment this happened it became clear -- beyond any ideological or political dispute -- that it is an essential Israeli interest to find a way to reach an agreement with the Americans on a formula for a settlement freeze. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent statements reflect progress toward such a formulation, but the public disagreement, in which the Americans state that Israel is not keeping its commitments as set out in the Roadmap, is not over. Such a prolonged and public dispute with the United States over the settlements harms Israel. It is a battle where even victory would be a serious defeat. Netanyahu understands America well enough to know that. The question is whether such a critical national interest is a good enough reason in his eyes to confront the extremists within his coalition and party. ¶V. QThe Death of the QProcess Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/11): QIn the absence of American pressure to renew the talks, ONE of two things is going to happen: either a new Intifada will erupt (with a 51% probability) or the two parties will begin to create and look for new solutions (with a 49% probability). The former Chief of Staff, Knesset Member Shaul Mofaz, already began to do so when he presented this week a revolutionary political plan -- revolutionary in terms of the accepted Israeli and Palestinian views. The conservatives both here and there quickly rejected that plan because it repudiated a fundamental tenet: the Mofaz plan obliges them to act, to move, to agree, to implement. To act? To move? To change? Us? The Polish-Jewish science fiction novelist, Stanislaw Lem, described in one of his stories two astronauts who land on a planet that is entirely frozen. They hold their breath: their slightest movement was liable to cause the frozen material to melt. Nevertheless, ONE of them begins to notice signs of melting around them. What are you doing? He asks his partner. I told you not to move. IQm not moving, answers his fellow astronaut, IQm lying in ONE spot quietly and am thinking. Then donQt think, cried the first astronaut. Thinking produces heat, and heat is melting the ice! Your thinking is going to end up getting us killed here! The important thing, my friend, is not to think! The important thing is not to think, because thinking dissolves the ice of deadlock. LemQs story made it past the Communist censors. They didnQt realize he was talking about them. We donQt realize that either. VI. QBeware, Qas ifQ Peace in Front of You! Kadima Knesset Member Avi Dichter, a former Internal Security Minister and former head of Shin Bet, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (10/11): Q[Mahmoud] Abbas knows that he can put into practice his commitment to the peace process only in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] Q if at all. The Palestinian AuthorityQs leadership recognizes the opportunity to move forwards in the peace process in Judea and Samaria without mentioning its commitment to the solution of the Gaza quandary. It is trying to pull into this trap the Israeli leadership, as well as the American and the European ones. Special awareness is required of the Israeli leadership. We must not enter the trap that the PAQs leadership has prepared for us. Confronting the PA, Israel must measure performance, not Qas ifQ performances. CUNNINGHAM