ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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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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Major media quoted President Obama as saying yesterday at a town
hall meeting in Tampa, FL, "I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is
actually making some effort to try to move a little bit further than
his coalition wants him to go."; the President also acknowledged
that PA President Mahmoud Abbas finds it hard to advance on the
track because of his problems with Hamas.

Leading media reported that today Israel will convey to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon its response to the Goldstone Report.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF rebuttal to the report,
which will be published later, will spell out to Ban how the IDF
investigated allegations of misconduct during Operation Cast Lead
and will point out that IsraelQs system of military justice compares
with that in other democratic countries, that it is independent, and
that the IDFQs investigations are serious. Israel Hayom reported
that the Israeli report denies the existence of the 36 events
mentioned in the Goldstone Report as illegal actions by IDF
soldiers. Yediot reported that, following a demand by the U.N., PM
Netanyahu has decided (against the views of DM Ehud Barak and IDF
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi) to set up a commission of
inquiry into the Goldstone Report that would interrogate IDF
officers -- but not senior ones. Outgoing Attorney-General Menachem
Mazuz was quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz that it
would be a serious mistake not to set up such a commission of
inquiry, as the Goldstone Report is a serious threat to Israel that
will Qcontinue to haunt us and take away our legitimacy.

Fahmi Shabaneh, who was appointed by President Abbas four years ago
to root out corruption in the PA, was quoted as saying yesterday in
an interview with The Jerusalem Post that Abbas has surrounded
himself with many of the corrupt officials who used to work for his
predecessor, Yasser Arafat, and that is why Hamas will one day take
control of the West Bank.

Israel Radio and other media reported that Hamas accuses Israel of
assassinating its senior activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh during his stay
in Dubai on January 20. The media noted that Mabhouh was behind the
abduction and murder of soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon in
the first Intifada.

HaQaretz reported that PM Netanyahu agrees to the release of
hundreds of Fatah prisoners as part of efforts backed by the U.S.
and Europe to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Leading media reported that the German mediator in the Gilad Shalit
affair will resign because of IsraelQs position. Yediot cited the
Egyptian newspaper Al-Masriyun as saying that the negotiations over
the issue will resume next week with French mediation.

Israel Radio quoted Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying
that Ariel, MaQaleh Adumim, and the East Jerusalem neighborhood of
Har Homa will not remain in Israeli hands. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe
quoted Erekat as saying that the PA intends to ask the U.N. Security
Council soon to recognize the borders of the future Palestinians
along the June 4, 1967 lines. Leading media quoted President Abbas
as saying in Moscow yesterday that the Palestinians will not accept
Abu Dis, a town between Jerusalem and MaQaleh Adumim administered by
the PA, as the capital of their future state, and will insist on
receiving control over East Jerusalem.

HaQaretz reported that JordanQs King Abdullah II and President
Shimon Peres met in Davos yesterday to discuss the stalled Middle
East negotiations. Jordanian PM Samir al-Rifai was quoted as saying
in an interview with Maariv that peace with Israel is getting
colder. Jaafar Hassan, JordanQs Minister of Planning and
International Cooperation, told Israel Radio in Davos that
cooperation projects with Israel have been halted following the
standstill in the peace process. However, the involvement of
Israel, the PA, and Jordan in the Dead Sea-Red Red Sea canal
continues.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison
as saying that the U.S. has suspended its cooperation with Lebanon
because of HizbullahQs involvement in the Lebanese Government.

Leading media reported that yesterday State Prosecutor Moshe Lador
instructed Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to shut down QBeit Yonatan,Q a
controversial East Jerusalem building occupied by Jews . The
Jerusalem Post reported that, during a meeting last month at the
Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina, convicted spy
Jonathan Pollard asked Rabbi YaQcov Shapiro, head of the Merkaz
Harav Yeshiva, to do everything in his power to strengthen the
Jewish hold on the building (which is named after Pollard). In
another development, Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that a
cornerstone laying ceremony will take place on Sunday for a new
neighborhood in the settlement of Beit Hagai in the Hebron hills
area. Among those invited is one of the members of the security
cabinet who voted in favor of the settlement construction
Qmoratorium,Q Minister Benny Begin.

Maariv (Ben Caspit) details the ways in which the New Israel Fund
(NIF),one of the most prominent foundations in Israel, funds
organizations that stand behind the most serious allegations against
Israel in the Goldstone Report. The newspaper notes that the Ford
Foundation has granted NIF $20 million over the past five years.

Yediot reported that yesterday the Jerusalem MagistrateQs Court
ruled that demonstrations held every Friday against the Jewish
presence in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah are
legal and do not need a police permit, contrary to the policeQs
belief. The Jerusalem Post reported that rightists will hold a
counter-demonstration in the neighborhood today.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel will send a new spy
satellite into space in the coming months.

Yediot reported that while Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is expected
to receive a warm welcome in Israel on Monday, Italy is the biggest
European trader with Iran.

The Jerusalem Post cited a report released by a workerQs rights NGO
on Wednesday that the GOI has siphoned over a billion shekels
(around $250 million) in money taken from Palestinian laborers for
national insurance between 970-1994.

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Mideast:
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Blok Quotes:
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I. QCold Shoulder
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the inependent,
left-leaning HaQaretz (1/29): QThere is one little problem [with the
expected resumption of the peace talks]: the world isn't buying
Israel's explanations and it isn't prepared to condemn Palestinian
obduracy. Obama has split the blame for the stagnation between the
two sides and has also taken some of it upon himself (QWe raised
expectationsQ). American envoy George Mitchell's appeal to the
members of the Quartet that they urge Abbas to return to talks has
gone unanswered. This week he completed another frustrating visit
to the region, with zero results. Obama's approach -- to QparkQ the
diplomatic process for lack of achievements and to concentrate on
domestic issues -- has not surprised Netanyahu. Three months ago, a
senior Israeli official said the Obama administration would probably
put off the Israeli-Palestinian problem to his second term,
explaining: QNow they're weak, they have unemployment and the
economic crisis, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, and they aren't
emerging from that. They don't have the strength to complete an
agreement. In the meantime, the maintenance will continue.Q U.S.
officials are hoping talks will be renewed within six months. The
main thing is that there be some negotiations. They have no
expectations of more than that.

II. QDecoding NetanyahuQs (Rough) Parameters

Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (1/29): QIn his 10 months in office,
Netanyahu has broken with his past in expressing a desire to see a
Palestinian state -- albeit with a number of restrictions -- in
Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], has declared an
unprecedented moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements,
and has stated at nearly every opportunity that he is just dying to
start immediate negotiations with the Palestinians to talk about
everything, including Jerusalem. But still, when Bibi-skeptic
Europeans come to a conversation about the diplomatic process, the
first question is inevitably whether Netanyahu is sincere. The
question is not whether PA President Mahmoud Abbas Q who, by his own
admission in a Washington Post interview last year, turned down a
generous offer from then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and who is
adamantly refusing to restart negotiations until Netanyahu refuses
to accede to his demand for a total settlement construction halt --
wants peace, but rather whether Netanyahu does. Absent any device
that can read NetanyahuQs mind, all that we have to go by are his
recent words and actions and his recent words and actions indicate a
man who seems serious about the diplomatic process. Yet the
skepticism born of a deep distrust that many in the world harbor
toward [Netanyahu] - distrust left over from his first term -
remains.

III. QEgypt, Jordan Hold Firm to Moderate Credentials

Military correspondent Amos Harel and Palestinian affairs
correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in HaQaretz (1/29): QWhile Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is giving the international community
QweeksQ to halt Iran's nuclear program and the war of words is
intensifying on all fronts, Israel's neighbors are asking themselves
on which side of the conflict they would like to find themselves and
behaving accordingly. All Arab states pay lip service to the
hardship of the Palestinians, but while Syria is embracing Iran and
Hizbullah is more obedient than ever to instructions emanating from
Tehran, Egypt and Jordan are coordinating security matters with
Israel in an impressive way and in the case of Cairo they are even
adopting harsh measures against the extremists in the Palestinian
camp.... Senior sources in the [Israeli] defense establishment say
that the Egyptians are even willing to agree, albeit belatedly, with
the Israeli-American conclusion that nothing good will result from
Cairo's effort to mediate between Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority.

IV. QBearing Symbolic Fruit

Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in
Ha'aretz (1/29): QGiven the weight of the issue, even scholars from
the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based right-wing think tank, were
invited to brainstorm at the Prime Minister's Bureau. On the agenda
-- a tree. What species will the Prime Minister plant when he
treads through the land of the Jewish settlers? Only someone
entirely unfamiliar with the culture of government would allow him
to lay a hand on just any tree, particularly one which doesn't bear
symbolic fruit. After all, the entire world will be watching,
trying to figure out what the planter is trying to signal with his
planting.... What is the Prime Minister doing planting an olive tree
in a place where they are uprooting olive trees, cutting them down,
and burning them as a Qprice tag?


V. QUnited We Stand

Far-left columnist Meron Benvenisti, who was Deputy Mayor of
Jerusalem from 1971 to 1978, wrote in Ha'aretz (1/22; English
Edition: 1/29): QIt is useful to insert [in this region] the
principle of Qparity of esteem,Q which is a core concept in the
Northern Ireland peace agreement (the Good Friday Agreement of

1998). It reflects the principle of respect for the identity and
the ethos of both communities (Unionists and Republicans in Northern
Ireland) and underlies the effort to achieve coexistence in a common
physical space, despite the cultural differences.... The coexistence
of the two national communities is a destiny that cannot be avoided.
All attempts (theoretical and empirical) to separate them have
failed. This coexistence must be based upon communal equality and
ethical principles, human dignity, and freedom; otherwise it will
not endure and will perpetuate violence. It is clear that without
parity of esteem, mutual respect for the identity and equality of
the two communities, there will be no reconciliation and neither of
the two alternatives -- partition and power sharing -- can be
implemented. In any case, productive discussion of this topic will
be possible only when the people of this region have taken
psychological ownership of the binational condition that has been
thrust upon them and have begun to strive together to pave a road to
reconciliation.

VI. QA Binational State? Here?

Historian and liberal columnist Alexander Yakobson wrote in Ha'aretz
(1/29): QSince the division of the land into two viable states is no
longer possible, there is no choice -- for anyone who believes in
equality -- but to support a democratic binational state from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, claims Meron Benvenisti
(HaQaretz, January 22). In my opinion, exactly the opposite is
true.... The claim that the settlements have made the occupation
irreversible and that there is no escaping a binational state is
based entirely on the assumption that a Jewish minority cannot exist
in a Palestinian Arab state. After all, the Palestinians have no
demographic problem -- they are assured a large Arab majority in
their state, even if the settlers, or at least some of them, remain
under its sovereignty. Why doesn't Benvenisti suggest such a
solution? Apparently he does not have much confidence in the
chances of honorable coexistence between an Arab majority and a
Jewish minority in one state, although in the name of this ideal he
suggests abolishing the State of Israel. And, indeed, there is good
reason for skepticism on this issue, in view of the sad regional
experience. But if there is any chance for such coexistence, it is
conditional on a Jewish state existing alongside the site where this
experiment would take place. And this Jewish state must be willing
to absorb any Jew whose life on the outside becomes impossible (as
happened to Jews all over the Arab world). The solution is
therefore a division into two states, based on the principle that a
Jewish minority can exist in the Palestinian state -- a principle
that will do away with the landmine of the irreversibility of the
occupation, which the settlement enterprise wanted to plant before
both peoples.

CUNNINGHAM