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P 251040Z JUL 07
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STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1. Tony Blairs' Mission 
 
¶2. Syria 
 
------------------------- 
Key Stories in the Media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a new offer 
to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas:  both parties would 
negotiate an "agreement of principles" for the establishment of a 
Palestinian state on most of the territory of the West Bank and Gaza 
(90%). Two other major points of the proposal are an exchange of 
territory so that the large settlements blocks stay in Israel and 
construction of a tunnel connecting Gaza and the West Bank. The PM 
believes there is no point in discussing yet the critical issues of 
final borders, Jerusalem, and refugees. 
 
Israel Radio quoted a statement released by the State Department 
that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the region 
next week and that she is expected to visit Israel and the PA. 
 
The media reported that PM Olmert met Quartet Special Envoy Tony 
Blair on Wednesday. Olmert told Blair that Israel will ease 
restrictions in the West Bank in order to allow Palestinians greater 
freedom of movement. 
 
Leading media reported that Blair also met with Palestinian figures 
on Tuesday. PA President Abbas was reported to have told Blair that 
it is time to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve a 
two-state solution. 
 
All media noted that Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib 
and Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit arrived in Israel on 
Wednesday. Israel Radio reported that in their meeting with 
President Shimon Peres the two said that they are reaching out for 
peace in the name of all the countries in the region. They were also 
reported as saying that they hope Israel will respond positively to 
the Arab peace initiative. 
 
Ha'aretz cited IDF intelligence officers as saying to the 
Ministerial Forum on the Northern Front that Syria has no intentions 
to attack Israel. 
 
Leading media reported that an Israeli attempt to kill a senior 
Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza failed on Tuesday. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that right-wing settlers will try to build a new 
outpost on the Eitam Hill near Efrat in Gush Etzion. The police and 
IDF forces will try to prevent this. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that dozens of students from a-Najah 
University in Nablus were injured yesterday in clashes between Hamas 
and Fatah supporters at the university. One sustained critical 
injuries. 
 
Leading media reported that the Winograd Committee intends to 
examine suspicions raised a few months ago by International Amnesty 
that the IDF used cluster bombs during the Second Lebanon War. 
 
All media reported that after the Histadrut labor union and Finance 
Ministry representatives failed yesterday to reach a breakthrough in 
negotiations, the Histadrut declared a general strike on Wednesday. 
The airport is not yet on strike but could shut down on Thursday. 
 
------------------------ 
¶1. Tony Blairs' Mission: 
------------------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The popular, pluralist Maariv published a letter written by Former 
IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon to the Quartet special envoy to the 
Middle East, Tony Blair: "Your defined task is to deal with the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but make no mistake, it is not the 
most important conflict at present.  The most important conflict is 
between Jihadist Islam and the West.  Jihadist Islam cannot be 
defeated without defeating the regimes and organizations that 
support and feed it, and their ideology." 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel must 
not miss the offered opportunity: the appointment of a friendly 
leader who has proven his support for Israel during difficult times, 
as the representative of the international community in the 
region.... Now is an opportune moment for diplomacy following years 
of confrontation and impasse" 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I. "A Letter to Tony Blair" 
 
The popular, pluralist Maariv published a letter written by Former 
IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon to the Quartet special envoy to the 
Middle East, Tony Blair (07/25): "I deeply appreciate your 
willingness to enlist to help solve the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict, which is more than 100 years old.... As someone who read 
and listened to the statements you made as the prime minister of 
Britain, I am afraid that you too are going to fail unless you are 
capable of shedding the accepted but completely irrelevant 
perceptions about this conflict.  I heard you say on numerous 
occasions that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 
was a condition for stabilizing the Middle East.... Many people in 
Israel too (including in the political echelon) do not understand 
that the governing conflict in the region is not territorial but 
ideological in nature, and one does not defeat an ideology by means 
of concessions.... What, then, would I suggest be done? I would 
suggest forgetting about pressuring Israel, which would look, on the 
face of things, to be a short-range achievement, and to try to help 
and to persuade the Palestinians to adopt a long-term strategy that 
principally involves an educational, political and economic reform 
that might facilitate the creation of a civil society that 
sanctifies life rather than death, that holds dear human rights and 
liberties, that develops a middle class and not a corrupt and 
wealthy elite.... Your defined task is to deal with the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but make no mistake, it is not the 
most important conflict at present.  The most important conflict is 
between Jihadist Islam and the West.  Jihadist Islam cannot be 
defeated without defeating the regimes and organizations that 
support and feed it, and their ideology.... With your status, with 
your experience and with your liberation from politics and mainly 
from political correctness, you can contribute to all that." 
 
II. "Help Blair Help Us" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (07/25): "Tony 
Blair, who began his mission to the area this week, has 
international standing and extensive political experience.  But he 
will also require the goodwill of his Quartet bosses -- U.S. 
President George W. Bush first and foremost -- and of the Israeli 
government and Palestinian Authority to succeed in his mission to 
ready the Palestinians for independent statehood.  Israel must not 
miss the offered opportunity: the appointment of a friendly leader 
who has proven his support for Israel during difficult times, as the 
representative of the international community in the region.... Now 
is an opportune moment for diplomacy following years of 
confrontation and impasse ... President Bush wants to help, and so 
do the leaders of Egypt and Jordan; and diplomatic progress will 
bolster Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political position and 
stabilize his hold on power.  Blair's mission is a reflection of the 
international community's interest in solving the conflict.  In such 
promising circumstances, Israel must take the initiative and stand 
at the head of efforts to bolster the Fatah government in the West 
Bank and renew negotiations for a final-status agreement.... During 
the past year and a half, the international Quartet has stood firm 
on Israel's side versus the Hamas government.... Contrary to all 
earlier expectations, the international community maintained its 
internal unity and did not falter in its stance.  Now that the 
Abbas-Fayad government has been stabilized in the West Bank, and 
Blair's mission has begun, it is Israel's turn to contribute its 
part." 
 
--------- 
¶2. Syria: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Defense commentator Amir Oren wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: "To weaken the front against him, Bush aspires to release 
Syrian President Bashar Assad from Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's embrace.  A signal from Assad about a less 
anti-American policy will find an ear in Washington, in the spirit 
of the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton report last fall." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Free Assad" 
 
Defense commentator Amir Oren wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (07/25): "To weaken the front against him, Bush aspires to 
release Syrian President Bashar Assad from Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's embrace.  A signal from Assad about a less 
anti-American policy will find an ear in Washington, in the spirit 
of the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton report last fall.  It 
could be that a real renewal of a Jerusalem-Washington-Damascus 
dialogue will come only after the stabilization of new 
 
administrations in Israel and America. An  especially intriguing 
possibility would be a Clinton-Assad-Barak trio, with Hillary 
instead of Bill, Bashar instead of Hafez and the new Ehud, an 
embodiment of the old Ehud.  But even during the period the Bush 
administration has left, it is worth relating to the messages being 
exchanged in the American-Syrian channel not as expressions of rigid 
hostility, but as bargaining positions." 
CRETZ