ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002580 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: -------------- Major media quoted PM Benjamin Netanyahu as saying yesterday at an economic conference that the 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in the West Bank is a one-time, temporary deal, and that building will begin anew once this period ends. Meanwhile, IDF Civil Administration inspectors spread across the West Bank for the second row to enforce the building freeze declared last week. Since Monday, the inspectors have visited 90 settlements and handed out 64 stop-work orders. Media reported that settlers have blocked inspectors. Yediot bannered: QThe Battle over the Freeze. HaQaretz cited a classified report drafted by European consuls in East Jerusalem and Ramallah that slams Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and recommends that the European Union take steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's status in the city. It also advises taking various measures to protest Israeli policy in the city as well as sanctions against people and groups involved in "settlement activity" in and around it. Due to the sensitivity of the annual document, the E.U. has never before published it and in previous years Israel pressed the E.U. hard not to do so, for fear the publication would further undermine the European public's already negative view of Israel. HaQaretz quoted senior Israeli Foreign Ministry officials as saying that this year's report "left a harsh impression" in Brussels and helped Sweden promote its plan to have the E.U. formally recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. The report accuses both the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality of working deliberately to alter the city's demographic balance and sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank. It says that both bodies assist right-wing organizations, such as Ateret Cohanim and Elad, in their efforts to implement this "strategic vision," especially around the Holy Basin area. These organizations buy houses in Arab neighborhoods and make "attempts to implant further Jewish settlements into the heart of the Muslim Quarter." The municipality, the report continues, discriminates against the city's Arab residents with regard to building permits, health services, education, sanitation, and more. Israel Radio reported that diplomatic officials in Jerusalem have accused a number of E.U. states, in particular Sweden, of attempts to create facts on the ground and thwart U.S. mediation efforts through the reported initiative to make Jerusalem the capital of two states. HaQaretz reported that yesterday opposition head and Kadima chair Knesset Member Tzipi Livni wrote Swedish FM Carl Bildt, asking him to cancel his initiative to change the status of East Jerusalem, which he is reportedly bringing to the E.U. institutions for approval. HaQaretz reported that last year set an all-time record for the number of Arab residents of East Jerusalem who were stripped of residency rights by the Interior Ministry. Altogether, the ministry revoked the residency of 4,577 East Jerusalemites in 2008 -- 21 times the average of the previous 40 years. In the first 40 years of Israeli rule over East Jerusalem combined, from 1967 to 2007, the ministry deprived only 8,558 Arabs of their residency rights -- less than double the number who lost their permits last year alone. Thus of all the East Jerusalem Arabs who have lost their residency rights since 1967, about 35 percent did so in 2008. Leading media reported that yesterday clashes erupted in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators, after a group of Jews announced their intention to move into a house in the neighborhood. The entry of the Jews into the home follows a court order ruling that the Arab al-Kurd family, which lives in a portion of the house, had no right to occupy an addition that they had built onto the house. Israel Radio quoted the London-based Al-Hayat as saying that Israel has agreed to release Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti as part of the QShalit dealQ -- provided Barghouti is not allowed back into the PA. Various media reported that PM Netanyahu may have thwarted the nomination of former Consul-General in New York Alon Pinkas to the position of ambassador to the U.N. Maariv reported that Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset Member David Rotem, the Chairman of the KnessetQs Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, intends to have a basic law passed that would define Israel as a Jewish state. HaQaretz reported that the Israel Air Force has been debating the need to procure the V-22, a Boeing-made transport aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing. The V-22 flew for the first time in 1989 but technological development was slow and only in the last three years was it placed in operational squadrons. On combat missions, the V-22 was included for the first time in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The drawn out development process and technological difficulties with the tilt-rotor system made the aircraft considerably more expensive than originally planned; its current price stands at $65 million. Maariv reported on a massive departure of Israeli Defense Ministry officials from the service. The newspaper quoted a defense source as saying that the tension inside the ministry is due to the State ComptrollerQs Report that criticized defense officialsQ spending behavior during this yearQs Paris air show. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Jonathan Pollard told visiting Likud activists that he is enraged by the Shalit deal and that Hamas prisoners should be killed, not released. The Jerusalem Post reported that senior LAPD official Michael P. Downing told the newspaper this week in Tel Aviv that Israeli organized crime in Los Angeles is on the rise. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. QThis Time It's Final Senior diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/2): QIn the coming months, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank is supposed to start an election campaign, in which the PLO and Hamas will compete head to head. Each side will adopt increasingly extreme positions and will pledge allegiance to Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and to the principle of the return of the 1948 refugees. The Americans, for their part, will argue that the only chance of restarting the negotiations lies in continuing the construction freeze. The question at hand is: will Netanyahu decide to confront the Americans? I believe that he will continue to try to maneuver between all the bad options, his voters from the right wing will continue to take potshots at him, and the Americans will hint that if he renews construction they will enable the Europeans to pass sweeping resolutions in the Security Council that signify recognition of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Israel may find itself isolated and all the horrific scenarios about which Netanyahu has written at least four books will come true. II. QObamaQs Not the Problem Washington correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/2): QMaking out that Obama is Qbad for IsraelQ may have helped Netanyahu mobilize some support, but in the long term a responsible Israeli leadership should try to keep the President's status from eroding and take advantage of his efforts to improve relations with the Islamic world, instead of jealously measuring who is getting more attention. There's no sense in trying to extort declarations of love from an administration that speaks in terms of interests. It makes sense to try to speak its language. But it would be even more helpful to admit that Obama is neither the problem nor the solution, not until at least one of the sides takes responsibility for establishing a dialogue with the other, not with Washington. III. QFear Scale Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in HaQaretz (12/2): QNetanyahu estimates [IsraelQs] security requirements will cost tens of billions of dollars and for Israel not to collapse economically, it will need to retain annual growth of 4-5 percent. He thinks the money can be found in bureaucratic efficiency, privatization of state lands, and incentives for high-tech industries and entrepreneurs. But economic reforms will not be enough. Netanyahu's security model relies on broadening Israel's dependency on the United States. The Prime Minister wants America to neutralize Iran, back it up in its effort to curb the smuggling of rockets, assist in the development of missile defense, and take action to shelve the Goldstone report. It is worthwhile paying attention to what is missing here: Netanyahu does not consider the settlements a component in the security of Israel.... Like Menachem Begin, who went from Qnot a single inchQ to Qno more war,Q and like Yitzhak Rabin, who was shocked by the pathetic show of resolve among Tel Aviv residents during the Gulf War and opted for a compromise with the Palestinians, Netanyahu, too, understands that the majority of the Israeli public wants quiet and considers the settlers a nuisance. And this means the decision to freeze settlement construction for 10 months is just the first taste of domestic confrontation. IV. QLet the Man Go Former Mossad Director Ephraim Halevy wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/2): QAbu Mazen's initiative to drag Israel, its leaders, and its officers to international courts gave rise to the Goldstone commission, the severe and mistaken conclusions of which continue to be marketed by the Palestinian President at every opportunity. It is all the more difficult to understand why Abu Mazen chose Caracas as a location to attack the United States, since without its support for him, his government would long since have disappeared.... In the past weeks, there have been increasing voices calling to QstrengthenQ Abu Mazen, so that he can be a partner for peace talks with Israel. Some wish to Qsave him -- his stature is bowed so low and he needs Israeli salvation that badly. Among other arguments, we hear that these are the wishes of the U.S. In light of the performance of the Palestinian leader in the past week, it might not be considered an impudent presumption if we were to propose to our friends in Washington to reconsider the value of their support for the PA President, in light of the quality of the judgment he displayed in Caracas. Abu Mazen has recently hinted that he would not run for another presidential term. Perhaps the time has come to relieve him of our repeated urging to do us a favor and remain in office? In short, let the man go. There is no person or leader who cannot be replaced. And if the Palestinian movement is an exception to the rule, and no other leader can be found for it, then what point is there in making an agreement with a person who has no successor? ¶V. QWhatQs the Haste ? Liberal columnist Gideon Samet, who was Consul-General in Philadelphia, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (12/2): QThe apparently determined Obama is assisting [IsraelQs] decision failures. The demand for a [construction] freeze in the West Bank was a mistake. Crafty as it may be in other domains, the White House team should have been aware of the longstanding Israeli thwarting of all previous efforts to restrain construction in the West Bank. And how useful will a temporary freeze be when WashingtonQs unvarying test is that the settlements themselves constitute an obstacle? Housing units and other building plans that have already been approved and are not included in the freeze will provide for the coming ten months. Time will again play in the hands of a government that does not intend to abide by its two-state promise. The Gilad Shalit festivities will be forgotten. There will be no negotiations with the Palestinians; with the passing of time, it is frightening to reflect that this [political] system will decide how to act against the Iranian nuclear program. VI. QThe Justified Fear of a Diplomatic Avalanche The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (12/2): QThe fear that the Netanyahu government is tumbling into an all-out diplomatic avalanche is justified -- it will slowly abandon its stances one by one, as it will delude itself at every stage that it is maneuvering in the Qart of the possibleQ and that it is minimizing damage. The only decisive test now is in actions, not in words, in the very margins the Prime Minister has declared he wouldnQt give up: construction of public buildings in the settlements, massive construction in Jerusalem, and the non-extension of the freeze penalty at the conclusion of these ten months. -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Block Quotes: -------------- QElBaradeiQs Failure The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/2): Q[Outgoing International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General] Mohamed ElBaradei, stepped down after 12 years with what, by his deplorable standards, amounted to a bang rather than a whimper. In the last few days, ElBaradei declared bitterly that the IAEA's probe of allegations that Iran has been trying to make nuclear arms is at a Qdead endQ because Tehran is not cooperating.... There, in a few words, is the essence of ElBaradei's failure -- his incapacity or disinclination to distinguish between the dangers posed, on the one hand, by a tiny country that, over several decades during which its very existence has frequently been under threat, has not resorted to the use of a reported nuclear capacity, and, on the other, by a regional bully that has brazenly lied to the international community about its nuclear program, oppressed its own people, relentlessly incited the elimination of a sovereign state, and vowed to remake the entire world order. The IAEA is charged with preventing the proliferation of nuclear technology, to ensure that the most devastating, last-resort weaponry remain out of reach to those who cannot be trusted with it. Given the accelerating ease of technology-transfer, the task is complex enough. Under ElBaradei, a man incapable of recognizing where the most potent dangers were sited, it became a lost cause. MORENO