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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002475 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
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PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Election of Barack Obama to President 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Election of Barack Obama to President: 
-------------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "In an era 
when America became anathema in the world, and the Wall Street 
crisis dragged its people and many people all over the globe to the 
abyss of uncertainty and fear of the future, America chose the 
chance for peace and dialogue and socio-economic repair in the 
spirit of the New Deal." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The 
members of the new administration will see with their own eyes that 
no one wants peace more than Israel.  No one.  Congratulations 
President-elect Obama on a historic victory.  Godspeed. " 
 
Liberal columnist Yael Paz-Melamed wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "A new wind will blow from the White House -- not a hostile 
one, but a different one." 
 
Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Obama's electrifying election call, 'yes 
we can!' becomes, for president-elect Obama a tough personal 
question: 'can he?'  Can Obama? Billions of people believe that he 
can, and that is already an excellent start." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "As a 
whole we must turn to the ancient rule: 'If I am not for myself, who 
will be?'  This is the lesson to be learned from the aftermath of 
the U.S. elections." 
 
Yediot Aharonot printed a letter sent by Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
to president-elect Barack Obama: "We assure you that you will find 
us to be an ally, an active partner and sponsor of a regional peace 
plan in order to bring calm to this conflicted area and to 
contribute to stability around the world." 
 
Yediot Aharonot published a letter sent by Likud Chairman Benjamin 
Netanyahu to president-elect Barack Obama: "I am confident that we 
will be able to cooperate in order to promote peace, security and 
prosperity in our region." 
 
Commentator Valery Gertz wrote in the conservative Russian-language 
Vesty: "The urgency of solving his country's economic problems and 
overcoming the financial crisis will leave little time for Barack 
Obama to make efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Treading Carefully" 
 
Senior liberal columnist Akiva Eldar wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/6): "The shadow of the Muslim branch of 
Barack Hussein's family tree will force [Obama] to be particularly 
careful when it comes to the United States-Israel-Arab triangle.  In 
the past eight years Israel has become addicted to the heady 
fragrance of the White House and Congress, which have allowed it to 
do as it wanted in the territories.   However, George W. Bush has 
done Obama's work for him.  In the Oval Office, Obama will find 
Bush's two-state vision: the Roadmap that promised peace with all 
Arab countries by May 2005 and a complete freeze on settlements.  He 
will also find a copy of the letter Bush sent to Ariel Sharon, in 
which he promised that the United States would support an agreement 
based on withdrawal from all territories except the main settlement 
blocs and the return of refugees to a Palestinian state.  Obama will 
have to decide when he wants to redeem these debts.  The outcome of 
the Israeli elections will doubtless impact his decision.  If the 
Kadima-Labor coalition remains, the president will not have to work 
hard to get Israel going in a desirable direction for the United 
States. And since Obama's first year in office is PA President 
Mahmoud Abbas' last, the American president will not want to be 
blamed for the fall of the West Bank into Hamas hands.... The 
decision whether to risk re-enacting the confrontation between Bill 
Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu [if polls predicting a victory of the 
Right in Israel are borne out], and shake up relations with Israel 
and the Jewish community, will depend on two factors: One is how 
important Obama thinks an Arab-Israeli peace treaty is in defusing 
the crisis in Iraq and isolating Iran.  The second is Obama's 
willingness to force Israel into translating its songs of peace into 
action.... It seems that Israelis who called Bush the 'friendliest 
president to Israel' do have something to be concerned about.  In 
contrast, those who are concerned about Israel becoming an apartheid 
state living forever by the sword have new hope since yesterday.  In 
the meantime, it is only hope." 
 
II.  "The Dawn of a New Era" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (11/6): "The election of Barack Obama as 
president of the United States is a moving, historic event that 
inspires hope.... Obama was elected not only because of his good 
qualities, his personal charm and his verbal abilities.  He was 
chosen first and foremost because he represents, in the most acute 
and genuine way, the change for which the citizens of the United 
States so desperately yearn.... In an era when America became 
anathema in the world, and the Wall Street crisis dragged its people 
and many people all over the globe to the abyss of uncertainty and 
fear of the future, America chose the chance for peace and dialogue 
and socioeconomic repair in the spirit of the New Deal.... With his 
election, the deepest wound in American society, which was born with 
slavery but continued to bleed overtly and covertly in race riots 
and discrimination, has begun to heal.  With Barack Obama's entry 
into the White House, the U.S., and together with it the entire 
world, stands on the threshold of a new era.  If Obama succeeds in 
fulfilling the hope that is pinned on him, the day of his election 
will go down as the day that wrought a change in the entire world, 
and will grant those living there a reason to look forward to the 
future with hope." 
 
 
III.  "Mazal tov, Obama" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/6): 
"Just as the people of the United States were electing Barack 
Hussein Obama as their next president, Hamas was putting the 
finishing touches on a plot to abduct Israeli soldiers and break the 
relative cease-fire which has prevailed for the past five months.... 
Even as Hamas-controlled Gaza, fueled by religious fanaticism and 
mired in the culture of victimization, pursued its predictable 
violent trajectory -- 6,000 miles away, the splendor of peaceful 
change, representative democracy and political civility was on 
display for all to see.... Those in our part of the world dedicated 
to rejectionism, violence, and terror will soon discover anew that 
the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem is above 
partisanship.  And the members of the new administration will see 
with their own eyes that no one wants peace more than Israel.  No 
one.  Congratulations President-elect Obama on a historic victory. 
Godspeed. " 
 
IV.  "The Dawn of a New Middle East" 
 
Liberal columnist Yael Paz-Melamed wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (11/6): "When Israel pledged to vacate 26 unauthorized 
outposts and we did not even evacuate one of them, the friend from 
the White House [Bush] turned a blind eye.... A new wind will blow 
from the White House -- not a hostile one, but a different one.  If 
[Obama's] advisers for the region are indeed people like Dan 
Kurtzer, Dennis Ross, or Martin Indyk, one can anticipate more 
proportionality towards Israel and its policy.  Those advisers, 
together with the powerful pro-Israeli lobby, in addition to 
pressure from the Pentagon, will certainly moderate American policy 
as Obama might perhaps have wanted to see it.  But there will be 
change anyway.  Apart from our politics, everything is changing, and 
the hope blowing from Obama's election is necessary for Israel, 
too." 
 
¶V.  "Mr. World" 
 
Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (11/6): "Humankind is united today like 
never before. Democracy, in all its various and not always perfect 
forms, is more common today than in the past.  When people describe 
their problems in terms of dreams and not in terms of wars, Barack 
Obama is viewed as the right man in the right place.  He crosses 
borders, religions, and races.  All the world is Obama.  And yet, 
the hard part is still in front of him.  Obama has never yet managed 
anything except his own election campaign, and that is not much.  He 
is an American-style social democrat, who is getting America in a 
condition of fear and trepidation -- a strong nation, but confused 
and expectant.... To win in the elections you have to know how to 
make promises.  To lead after the elections you have to know how to 
keep them.  The test of decisions is very different from the test of 
speeches.  Obama's electrifying election call, 'yes we can!' 
becomes, for president-elect Obama a tough personal question: 'can 
he?'  Can Obama?  Billions of people believe that he can, and that 
is already an excellent start." 
 
VI.  "Why Not Here?" 
 
Columnist and former Consul-General in Philadelphia (INSERT NAME) 
wrote on page one of Maariv (11/6): "Only Menachem Begin and Yitzhak 
Rabin, each in his own way, knew how to achieve that kind of 
majority when broad support was created in the street for change. 
One could have added Arik Sharon to that short list had he survived 
to prove that he harbored a genuine desire to achieve a peace 
agreement with the Palestinians in order to turn over a new national 
leaf.  But how is it that the best of our elected officials who 
belong to the generation that was born into the State of Israel -- a 
war hero such as Ehud Barak, the educated and eloquent man such as 
Bibi Netanyahu, the experienced man such as Ehud Olmert -- collapsed 
like scarecrows?  And where are the men and women about whom we 
haven't heard any more than the Americans had heard about their 
future leader up until two years ago?.... An Israeli Obama is 
possible.  Nearly everything exists so that he might appear with a 
winning voice: That is cause for a smattering of optimism.  The fact 
that we still haven't heard of him is cause for sorrow and envy of 
America, a country in trouble that on Tuesday did a great deal to 
get onto a new track.  Please do not despair.  Perhaps he is being 
raised here by a determined grandmother who won't stop at the banal 
aspiration of rearing a prodigy pianist." 
 
VII.  "We Have a Friend in the White House" 
 
Yediot Aharonot printed a letter sent by Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
to president-elect Barack Obama (11/6): "The region in which we live 
is a focal point for many [economic and military] challenges. 
Herein lies the frontline of the struggle over global energy 
sources, and herein lies the frontline of the struggle between the 
radical axis that is headed by Iran, which aspires to obtain nuclear 
weapons and extends its patronage over jihadist and terrorist 
elements, and the pragmatic camp that contributes to the United 
States' interests in the region and supports the regional peace 
process.  The fate of that struggle will have a decisive impact on 
world peace.  It is this time of test that requires an active 
American role and a confident and responsible leadership.  We assure 
you that you will find us to be an ally, an active partner and 
sponsor of a regional peace plan in order to bring calm to this 
conflicted area and to contribute to stability around the world." 
 
VIII.  "We Will Work Together to Achieve Peace" 
 
Yediot Aharonot published a letter sent by Likud Chairman Benjamin 
Netanyahu to president-elect Barack Obama (11/6): "I am confident 
that we will be able to cooperate in order to promote peace, 
security and prosperity in our region.... From our first meeting in 
Washington more than a year ago I recall in particular our agreement 
on the Iranian danger.  You were attentive and to the point and you 
asked: How can I help?  I suggested that Congress intensify the 
economic pressure on the Iranian regime and, approximately a week 
later, you introduced a bill to step up the economic sanctions 
against Iran.  Regrettably, the danger of Iran obtaining nuclear 
weapons continues to threaten us all, and I have no doubt that that 
issue will be at the top of your priorities as president.   In our 
second meeting in Jerusalem a number of months ago we discussed ways 
of achieving peace with the Palestinians.  I was happy to see that 
you took an interest in my approach that the way to accelerate 
political peace first goes through promoting economic peace between 
us and our neighbors.  Parallel to political negotiations and to 
establishing security, I intend to propose to the Palestinian 
Authority to develop joint economic ventures with Israel, a course 
of action that has the ability to promote political peace.  It is 
self-evident that the support of the United States in this process 
would contribute greatly to its success." 
 
IX.  "Obama and Israel" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (11/6): 
"Like in the past, Israel adopted a neutral approach to both 
candidates.... At this time, the Mideast policy of the elected 
Democratic candidate is unclear.   As his latest statements 
demonstrate, he might take steps that will lead to a rapprochement 
between Washington and Tehran, not between the U.S. and Syria.... At 
present it is Israel's duty to prepare anew and set its policy 
according to its interests to protect its well-being and the 
security of the state.  As a whole we must turn to the ancient rule: 
'If I am not for myself, who will be?'  This is the lesson to be 
learned from the aftermath of the U.S. elections." 
 
¶X.  "November Revolution in the U.S. Changes and Hope" 
 
Commentator Valery Gertz wrote in the conservative Russian-language 
Vesty (11/6): "As far as foreign policy is concerned, ordeals that 
are no smaller than those faced by John F. Kennedy are awaiting the 
new U.S. President.... The urgency of solving his country's economic 
problems and overcoming the financial crisis will leave little time 
for Barack Obama to make efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict ... unless [Israeli] radical leftist circles that view the 
new American President as their ideological brother conceive a new 
idea of a 'peace experiment' and start an amplified lobbying effort 
in Washington.... [Obama's] promise to eradicate American dependence 
on Middle Eastern oil in the next ten years is more than welcome -- 
and most importantly, achieving this goal is quite realistic, taking 
into consideration the United States' infinite abilities, as well as 
the talent and the will of its people.... Barack Obama has a chance 
of triumphing, if he proves to the world that mankind's energy and 
ecological problems have a creative and peaceful solution." 
 
CUNNINGHAM