Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09TELAVIV613
2009-03-13 10:11:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

Tags:  OPRC KMDR IS 
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STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD

WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM
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SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS

SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Mideast

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Key stories in the media:
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Media reported that yesterday IDF Chief-of-Staff Gabi Ashkenazi left
for an official visit to the U.S. HaQaretz said he is expected to
warn American military officials about Iranian efforts to develop
nuclear weapons. During his five-day visit, Ashkenazi is scheduled
to meet National Security Advisor James Jones, Chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, and Dennis Ross, Secretary of
State Hillary ClintonQs Special Advisor for the Gulf and Southwest
Asia. YediotQs Washington and Rome correspondents reported on
meetings that took place last week in Europe, in which Dennis Ross
and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns met
with European officials dealing with Iran. Yediot reported that,
during these meetings, U.S. officials assessed that, should Iran
proceed to the next stage of uranium enrichment, Israel would
respond in a complex military operation, in which it might use
land-based commando forces.

All media reported on the speech delivered yesterday by former
president Moshe Katsav, which lasted over two and a half hours. The
speech covered numerous targets: Attorney General Moshe Mazuz, the
State Prosecutor's Office, the police, the women who filed the
complaints against him, and the media. In particular, however, he
assailed Mazuz's integrity (He said: QMy Noose Is MazuzQs LifelineQ)
and presented himself as a victim of law enforcement agencies. The
large-circulation media depicted the event in very harsh terms:
Yediot bannered its senior columnist Nahum BarneaQs op-ed piece:
QKatsavQs Circus,Q and Maariv its columnistQs Rino TsrorQs
commentary: QThe Shame.

Israel Radio reported that a rocket landed in southern Israel this
morning.

HaQaretz quoted Palestinian sources in Cairo as saying yesterday
that Israel has agreed to free all 450 of the prisoners demanded by
Hamas in exchange for Gilad Shalit, and that the dispute now

revolves around Israel's demand that some of these prisoners be
deported rather than returned home. Senior Hamas leader Dr.
Mahmoud al-Zahar was quoted as saying in an interview with the
Arabic-language Kull Al-Arab that no progress has been made on the
prisoner-exchange issue and that the information that Israel
publishes on the matter is false.

Former U.S. diplomat Fred Hof, who is Qtapped to be a top adviser to
Middle East special envoy George Mitchell,Q suggested yesterday in
an interview with The Jerusalem Post that demanding Syria formally
break with Iran, Hizbullah, and Hamas as a precondition to a peace
treaty with Israel could be counterproductive. Hof sees Syria
receiving sovereignty over Golan territory up to the Sea of Galilee
and Israelis being able to visit the area without visas.

Israel Radio reported that Fatah demanded of Hamas at their Cairo
talks that it recognize in Israel. Hamas reportedly demanded that
the right to fight Israel be agreed upon. The Jerusalem Post quoted
negotiators on both sides as sayng that they are having difficulty
reaching an agreement over the makeup and political program of a
Palestinian unity government.

Leading commentators called Prof. Yaakov NeQeman, who is slated for
the justice ministerQs post, a sophisticated version of incumbent
minister Daniel Friedmann,

In a FRC story from Quantico, The Jerusalem Post features Hannah
Feuerstein, granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, who found
acceptance and equality with the U.S. Marines.

Former German MP Jamal Assi was quoted as saying in an interview
with the Arabic-language Assennara that Iran is ready to support and
establish an Islamic party that would run in the European
ParliamentQs elections.

Citing the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Jerusalem Post reported
that Steven Rosen, the former policy chief of AIPAC charged with
receiving classified information, is suing the lobbying group for
defamation, seeking $21 million.

The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli rabbinic delegation as saying
that the latest crisis with the Vatican is over. Its members spoke
after a papal audience.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Jewish National Fund is looking
to revive a plan to import water from Turkey.

HaQaretz reported that the recent GOI decision to introduce
biometric identity cars is stirring a debate over privacy.

HaQaretz reported that, for minorities, military service is an entry
ticket into Israeli society.

HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that, while foreign diplomats find a
variety of ways to join in local Purim celebrations, the U.S.
Embassy did not plan special events.

The Jerusalem Post bannered the Bernard Madoff story and made it the
topic of its editorial.

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Mideast:
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Summary:
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Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QThis is a last-minute appeal
from a worried citizen to Tzipi Livni: Give Bibi a call and tell him
you are ready to join a unity government under him.

Dr. Ron Breiman, former chairman of the conservative group
Professors for a Strong Israel, wrote in HaQaretz: QThe Qtwo-state
visionQ has to be thrown into the garbage bin of history. It will
never give rise to peace.

Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular,
pluralist Maariv: QIf the Construction MinistryQs plans are
completed, the anti-Zionist vision will be implemented by
ultra-Zionists. The binational state will become a fact.

Block Quotes:
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I. "Last-Minute Appeal to Livni"

Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/13): QThis is a last-minute
appeal from a worried citizen to Tzipi Livni: Give Bibi a call and
tell him you are ready to join a unity government under him.... The
skeleton of the Bibi government, which is now taking on flesh and
form, recalls a central character in a horror movie. A faction of
15 members, most of them unknowns, will shape the character of
Israel's next government. The thought that the central figure here,
Avigdor Lieberman, tried to dictate who Israel's next justice
minister will be, while he himself faces a hefty indictment, is
intolerable.... When Begin, who throughout his life talked about
Greater Israel, came to power, he appointed Moshe Dayan foreign
minister. When asked why he gave the coveted post to someone from
Mapai [the precursor of the Labor Party], of all people, he replied:
QI want someone for whom the world's greats will rise in respect
when our foreign minister enters their officeQ.... However one looks
at the situation, Tzipi Livni, Bibi's government in this format is
not the answer to the grave problems the country faces at this
time.

II. "No Room for Two States"

Dr. Ron Breiman, former chairman of the conservative group
Professors for a Strong Israel, wrote in HaQaretz (3/13): QWe do not
know what Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu will say to
U.S. President Barack Obama during their first meeting, but let us
hope that it will be something along the following lines.... QSince
Oslo, Israel has been ruled by suicidal tendencies and has been
brainwashed into believing that peace can be achieved by means of
suicide: the lie of the establishment of a Palestinian state. The
truth is that the Israeli and American interest obliges
disengagement from the lies that have plunged Israel and its
neighbors into a downward spiral ever since. The "two-state vision"
has to be thrown into the garbage bin of history. It will never
give rise to peace.

III. "The End in Sight"

Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular,
pluralist Maariv (3/13): QWe are at the last moment. The Zionist
vision is dying.... With the advent of the narrow right-wing
government, which depends on the kindness of supporters of Greater
Israel, plans to build 73,000 housing units beyond the Green Line
might materialize.... [In another development,] 900 mostly American
academics wrote an open letter to the President of the U.S. They in
effect asked him to dismantle Israel as a Jewish state and replace
with a single state. We are asleep. If the Construction MinistryQs
plans are completed, the anti-Zionist vision will be implemented by
ultra-Zionists. The binational state will become a fact.... This is
not all. The second-largest Spanish daily, El Mundo, recently
published a totally anti-Semitic article, which does not distinguish
between Jews and Israel. The item says that the Jews are to blame
for all the trouble in history.... Will Israel have a majority to
withstand the impending disaster? Will Israeli democracy stop the
creation of the binational state, which wonQt actually be
binational, but yet another entity that will amount to a
bloodbath?.... If we donQt stop this process, it will be the end of
the Zionist vision.

CUNNINGHAM