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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  U.S. Elections 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported this morning that Shas spiritual leader Rabbi 
Ovadia Yosef held a telephone consultation with the Council of Torah 
Sages and nixed the partyQs entrance into a coalition led by 
PM-designate Tzipi Livni.  All media had quoted Livni as saying 
yesterday that Kadima has made its final offer to Shas.  She added 
that she would tell President Shimon Peres on Sunday whether she 
would bring a government to the Knesset for approval or give up on 
her coalition talks and send the country toward general elections. 
However, Maariv reported that Kadima and Shas have expressed 
willingness to compromise. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak dismissed a claim that Egypt is responsible 
for the failure of efforts to release Gilad Shalit.  At a press 
conference with President Peres, Mubarak said hat if there is a 
failure, it is the Qother sideQs.Q  He did not elaborate.  HaQaretz 
reported that the French authorities told Noam Shalit this week that 
his son Gilad has received his letter. 
 
HaQaretz reported that two wooden houses were erected Wednesday 
night on the ruins of Homesh, one of four northern West Bank 
settlements evacuated during the August 2005 disengagement.  The 
newspaper reported that the IDF promptly pulled them down. 
 
All media reported that an 86-year-old Jerusalem man died yesterday 
from wounds sustained from a stabbing by a Palestinian man in the 
Gilo neighborhood. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Vatican officials are furious over Minister 
Isaac HerzogQs statement in yesterdayQs HaQaretz that the planned 
beatification of Pope Pius XII, who headed the Catholic Church at 
the time of the Holocaust, is Qunacceptable. 
The Jerusalem Post cited a World Bank report published on Thursday, 
according to which the price of property in the West Bank is 
skyrocketing beyond the reach of most local business and 
home-seekers, pushed up by a weak dollar and Israeli control of 
large chunks of the territory. 
 
Yediot reported that an Israeli businessman was kidnapped in Ghana a 
few days ago.  His abductors are demanding hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in ransom. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that tomorrow IDF Radio is expected to 
broadcast an interview with draft evasion leader Yishai Menuchin, in 
contrast to the view of IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. 
 
Oslo Agreement architect Uri Savir told HaQaretz that Benjamin 
Netanyahu had sent him on peace missions with the Palestinians. 
 
In an interview with HaQaretz, former U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross 
commented about U.S. contacts with Iran: QThereQs no guarantee that 
if you talk youQll succeed, but if you donQt talk you will fail. 
 
Leading media reported that a Swedish-based locksmith company that 
operates a factory in the West BankQs Barkan Industrial Park 
announced this week that it was relocating to the Israeli side of 
the Green Line for political reasons.  The company is the major 
producer of locks in Israel. 
 
Prominent American intellectuals, such as Naomi Wolfe, Francis 
Fukuyama, Fareed Zakaria, and Noam Chomsky, were quoted by HaQaretz 
on the eve of the elections and recount the Qend of the empire. 
All mainstream media reported that a family of four was found dead 
in their Hod Hasharon apartment on Thursday morning, apparently 
after the father shot his wife and two small children and then 
turned the gun on himself.  The parents were long-time police 
officers. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QLast 
week's Economist wondered: QWill the settlers stymie a two-state 
solution?Q  Of course it is Palestinian intransigence that is 
torpedoing such a solution.  But with everyone focused on settlers 
behaving badly, the Palestinians are getting a free ride. 
 
Former ambassador to Egypt and Sweden, columnist Zvi Mazel, wrote in 
the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe: QIt is impossible to 
ignore the fact that IsraelQs leaders appear to  be considering a 
significant change in IsraelQs peace strategy, which would spell 
disaster unless it turns out that it involves weighty reasons. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Herzl vs. Hobbes" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/24): 
QMove over, Peace Now.  You've met your match.  No group could 
better undermine the case for Jewish rights in the West Bank than 
settler radicals. In a world predisposed to see all of Judea and 
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], and East Jerusalem, as Palestinian; at 
a time when our government, such as it is, remains incapable of 
articulating where our boundaries should be drawn -- Israel can ill 
afford settlers behaving badly. Settler leaders recently launched 
an advertising campaign to tell Israelis why we should feel 
connected to Judea and Samaria.  But radicals running wild in the 
hills of Judea and Samaria achieve the opposite. How sad that a 
relatively small group of fanatics has been able to divert the 
spotlight onto their misbehavior.  As he helped pick olives north of 
Ramallah on Wednesday, reporters in tow, Palestinian Authority Prime 
Minister Salam Fayyad declared, in a sly juxtaposition: QThe 
settlers being here [in the West Bank] is in itself illegitimate. 
And, on top of that, they engage in acts of violence...Q  Meanwhile, 
in its long tradition of loaded questions, last week's Economist 
wondered:  QWill the settlers stymie a two-state solution?Q  Of 
course it is Palestinian intransigence that is torpedoing such a 
solution.  But with everyone focused on settlers behaving badly, the 
Palestinians are getting a free ride. 
 
II.  "Has the Saudi Initiative Come Alive?" 
 
Former ambassador to Egypt and Sweden, columnist Zvi Mazel, wrote in 
the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (10/24): QAre we 
about to face a significant change in IsraelQs negotiating with the 
Palestinians and the Arab states?  Israeli President Shimon Peres 
left for Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday to present to President Mubarak 
IsraelQs willingness to check whether it is possible to push the 
Saudi/Arab peace initiative with Israel forward and to hear is 
view. Where does this haste to lay the burden of this mission on 
President Peres come from?  He has no decision-making authority. 
And actually at this time?  In this interim period this is not 
clear.  Is it an admission of failure of the Annapolis process, and 
of indirect negotiations with Syria?.... It is impossible to ignore 
the fact that IsraelQs leaders appear to  be considering a 
significant change in IsraelQs peace strategy, which would spell 
disaster unless it turns out that it involves weighty reasons. 
 
------------------- 
¶2.  U.S. Elections: 
------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QObama's charisma alone is not sufficient to 
resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict, and McCain will be extremely wary 
of opening a third front in the Middle East, after Afghanistan and 
Iraq. 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: QThe prospect 
of an Obama-Livni partnership in policy failure is enough to keep 
men and women of good faith up at night.  Certainly it should 
suffice to convince some Obama supporters to reconsider their 
options. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Election Limbo" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/24): QObama has become the peace messiah 
of the Israeli left, just as the Jewish right in the U.S. is hoping 
that McCain will attack Iran and foil a second Holocaust.  Both the 
left and the right sides are in for a disappointment, however: 
Obama's charisma alone is not sufficient to resolve the Israeli-Arab 
conflict, and McCain will be extremely wary of opening a third front 
in the Middle East, after Afghanistan and Iraq....  Presidents 
behave differently than candidates.  Obama or McCain will work to 
advance America's interests, and the Israeli leadership's job will 
be not to stand in their way, and to take advantage of opportunities 
that will benefit Israel. 
 
II.  "Testing ObamaQs MettleQ" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/24): QLike 
Obama and Olmert, Livni is perceived as weak and incompetent by 
IsraelQs enemies.  Unlike Obama, Livni is judged not only by her 
words, but by her deeds.  As foreign minister, Livni was an 
architect of the cease-fire with Hizbullah under which Hizbullah has 
taken control of Lebanon and rearmed.  She is an architect of 
IsraelQs current policy of expanding the Hamas terror state to 
Judea, Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], and Jerusalem.  She is an 
architect of IsraelQs policy of doing nothing to prevent Iran from 
acquiring nuclear weapons.  The prospect of an Obama-Livni 
partnership in policy failure is enough to keep men and women of 
good faith up at night.  Certainly it should suffice to convince 
some Obama supporters to reconsider their options. 
 
CUNNINGHAM