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P 201052Z OCT 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002360 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
Please note: There will be no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report on 
Tuesday, October 21, 2008, due to the Simchat Torah holiday. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The media continued to report on PM-designate Tzipi LivniQs arduous 
coalition-forming efforts.  HaQaretz reported that yesterday Shas 
spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef instructed party chairman Eli 
Yishai not to compromise on child allowance payments, as Kadima and 
Shas party negotiators ended their latest coalition talks Sunday 
evening without reaching an agreement.  Shas is insisting on 
allowances for "family payments" in 2009, at a cost of more than a 
billion shekels (around $267.45 million).  Yediot quoted Livni 
associates as saying that Livni plans to establish a government next 
week, even without Shas. 
 
Maariv reported that outgoing PM Ehud Olmert is pushing to reach an 
agreement with Syria before he leaves office.  On Sunday HaQaretz 
reported that Jerusalem sources denied over the weekend any 
knowledge of a U.S. proposal to Syria, to the effect that Israel 
would pull of the Golan if Syria severs its ties with Iran, as 
reported in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida on Friday. 
 
On Sunday HaQaretz quoted a senior GOI source as saying that Israel 
expects the U.S. to initiate direct talks with Tehran if Senator 
Barack Obama is elected president, in which case a critical Israeli 
interest would be to condition any talks between the West and Iran 
on IranQs halting uranium enrichment. 
 
Over the weekend leading media reported on increased tension between 
Israeli/Jewish notables and the Vatican around the proposed 
beatification of the late Pope Pius XII, who reigned during the 
Holocaust, and who many believe did not do enough to combat it. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the Foreign Ministry is examining an 
initiative aimed at reaching a long-term non-belligerence pact with 
Lebanon to prevent renewed fighting along the northern border. 
Given the close relationship with Livni of officials who 
participated in the discussion of the issue two weeks ago, the 
evaluation's recommendations are likely could be influential should 
she succeed in forming a government.  Eran Etzion, the head of the 
Foreign Ministry's political planning section, was quoted as saying 
that a full peace agreement with Lebanon can only come in the wake 
of a similar deal with Syria.  Still, he said, Israel can try to 
advance on a separate political track with Lebanon, the end result 
of which could be a long-term non-belligerence pact.  The agreement 
would be signed by both governments, and its focus would be a 
reciprocal agreement on the route of the border between the two 
countries.  The deal would include a solution to the dispute over 
the Sheba Farms border area and the divided village of Ghajar, as 
well as a number of small border adjustments demanded by Lebanon. 
The recommendation would provide for a coordination apparatus 
between the IDF and the Lebanese army, as well as the United Nations 
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) over border patrols and other 
monitoring activities.  Israel would be expected to ask Lebanon to 
significantly reduce Hizbullah's weapons stores and extend the 
Lebanese army's authority across the entire country, with a special 
emphasis on the area south of the Litani River.  In return, an 
agreement would have to be reached regarding Israeli overflights of 
Lebanon.  On Sunday The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel welcomed 
a call from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Hizbullah to be 
dismantled. 
 
Israel Radio reported that yesterday Republican presidential 
candidate Sen. John McCain reiterated his wish to move the U.S. 
Embassy to Jerusalem as soon as he is elected.  The radio said that 
McCainQs comment is likely meant to appeal to the Jewish 
electorate. 
 
Yediot reported that graffiti in Tel Aviv threatened the life of 
Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer.  Police believe that 
the banned extreme-right group Kach is behind the threats. 
 
On Sunday HaQaretz reported that President Bush announced a decision 
over the weekend to extend the U.S. Visa Waiver Program to seven 
more countries; Israel was not one of them. 
 
Leading media reported that about 3,000 people rallied yesterday at 
the Kerem Shalom crossing, blocking goods from entering Gaza as they 
called for Gilad Shalit's return.  After Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
said on IDF Radio yesterday that the protest could lead Hamas to 
raise its price for Shalit, his Labor colleague, Minister Ami 
Ayalon, responded that such action could also lead the militant 
group to soften its position. 
 
Citing AP, HaQaretz quoted DM Barak as saying yesterday that Israeli 
leaders are seriously considering a dormant Saudi plan offering a 
comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world in exchange 
for lands captured during the 1967 war.  Barak said it may be time 
to pursue an overall peace deal for the region, since individual 
negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians have made little 
progress.  HaQaretz reported that yesterday Turki al-Faisal, the 
former Saudi intelligence director and a member of the royal family, 
presented a new proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace at a 
conference in Britain.  Arab, Palestinian, and Israeli political 
figures attended the conference, organized by the Oxford Research 
Group, which seeks to promote the Saudi Peace Initiative of 2002. 
Al-Faisal, who heads the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic 
Studies, expressed the kingdom's support for a comprehensive peace 
and the rights of the Palestinian people.  On Sunday Maariv reported 
that on Friday President Shimon Peres told Rabbi Ovadia Yosef QItQs 
a mistake to conduct separate negotiations with the Syrians and 
separate negotiations with the Palestinians.  Israel needs to stop 
holding separate negotiations and to go for a regional peace 
agreement with the Arab states and the Arab League. 
 
Over the weekend the media reported that on Saturday, settlers from 
the Jewish community in Hebron clashed with Palestinian farmers who 
came to harvest an olive grove near the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. 
Three left-wing activists were arrested following the incident for 
allegedly violating an order that declared the Tel Rumeida area a 
closed military zone. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Zohair Hamdan, the mukhtar (mayor) of the 
East Jerusalem village of Sur Bahr, who last month canceled plans to 
run for mayor of Jerusalem, as saying on Sunday that he intends to 
endorse the candidacy of secular Jewish Nir Barkat, and that he 
could bring thousands of East Jerusalem Arab voters with him. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Yediot refrained from publishing over the 
weekend the whole story of an Arab who was executed during the War 
of Independence.  HaQaretz said that members of the Israeli defense 
establishment were among those who warned that such publication 
would set the Arab world ablaze. 
 
HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that former Israeli 
ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon announced yesterday that he 
would resign from his post as co-chairman of the pro-immigration 
group Nefesh B'Nefesh at the end of this year, in order "to pursue 
an independent political career opportunity." 
 
HaQaretz reported that a list compiled by Newsweek of 11 prominent 
women leaders from around the world includes Knesset Speaker Dalia 
Itzik. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QThe demand by Shas Chairman Eli Yishai ... 
to receive a public promise from Livni ... that she Qdoes not intend 
to bring up the subject of Jerusalem in negotiations with the 
Palestinians,Q is not even worth negotiating. 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QIt is 
essential that those who campaign for Shalit's freedom hone their 
message, directing it at Hamas and not at Israel. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "We Must Not Give in on Jerusalem" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/20): QThe demand by Shas Chairman Eli 
Yishai, as he told the media, to receive a public promise from 
Livni, preferably signed, that she Qdoes not intend to bring up the 
subject of Jerusalem in negotiations with the Palestinians,Q is not 
even worth negotiating. Livni -- and Yishai himself -- are still 
members of a government that less than a year ago gave its blessing 
to the joint declaration read by U.S. President George W. Bush at 
the Annapolis conference, which proclaimed there that QIn 
furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living 
side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch 
good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace 
treaty, resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues, 
without exception, as specified in previous agreements....Q Yishai 
is asking Livni to mislead the Israeli public as well.... Livni can 
adopt Ehud Olmert's manipulative methods; she can promise Yishai 
that Jerusalem will not be on the negotiating table and conduct the 
negotiations under the table.  But she was not elected in order to 
carry on the Olmert legacy. 
 
II.  "The Wrong Target" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/20): 
QThe biggest mistake the Free Gilad Shalit movement could make would 
be to continue directing its energies against the government.  Our 
democratic society has responsibilities that go beyond the welfare 
of a single Israeli hostage.  We cannot allow either emotional 
blackmail -- no matter how understandable its source -- or media 
frenzy amid a political leadership vacuum to stampede the country 
into a bad bargain.  The demonstrations could play a positive role 
if they called attention to the fact that the terrorists on Hamas's 
ransom list are allowed visitors, while Shalit is denied all contact 
with the outside world. Any appearance of further weakness and 
indecisiveness on the part of the Israeli leadership will magnify 
the enemy's incentive to carry out more abductions.  So it is 
essential that those who campaign for Shalit's freedom hone their 
message, directing it at Hamas and not at Israel. 
 
CUNNINGHAM