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P 201120Z NOV 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002576 
 
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 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that PM Ehud Olmert and DM Ehud 
Barak flew to Amman on Tuesday.  King Abdullah II reportedly asked 
them to prevent a large-scale operation in Gaza.  The media quoted 
the two senior Israelis as saying that Israel may eventually have to 
defend itself.  Israel Radio reported that diplomatic sources in 
London told the international Arabic daily Al-Hayat that Olmert 
updated Abdullah regarding the results of his most recent meeting 
with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.  Olmert was quoted as saying that 
he had presented Abbas with several ideas as a basis for a general 
agreement to be signed before he leaves office.  Abbas, however, is 
said to have turned down the offer and insisted that any general 
agreement include all the final status issues.  He further insisted 
that Olmert halt the deterioration in the Gaza Strip. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that defense officials expressed their 
satisfaction yesterday with the efforts of a U.S.-trained battalion 
of Palestinian policemen in Hebron. The battalion has arrested over 
250 terror suspects affiliated with Hamas. 
 
The media reported that the Histadrut Labor Federation intends to 
fight the governmentQs economic recovery plan and possibly declare a 
strike.  More media came out against the plan. 
 
HaQaretz cited a poll saying that Likud is to triple its seats in 
the Knesset in the next elections (see below). 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday President Shimon Peres told 
members of the British Parliament that Israel would have difficulty 
dismantling West Bank settlements without causing a civil war in 
Israel.  Peres attacked Hamas and Iran.  Some 150 students 
repeatedly interrupted his speech at the Sheldonian Theatre in 
Oxford. 
 
Today, for the first time, the PA is publishing advertisements in 
the Hebrew-language press that present the details of the Arab peace 
plan.  MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List Q TaQal) was instrumental in 
putting the project together. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning a Hamas militant was killed 
by an IDF shell. 
 
Maariv reported that, in order to counter Likud leader Benjamin 
NetanyahuQs Qstar recruits,Q Tzipi LivniQs election campaign will 
focus on personal attacks against him and try to wreck his 
credibility. 
 
Leading media reported that the new right-wing, Orthodox party has 
chosen the name QHabayit HayehudiQ (the Jewish Home). 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter as 
saying yesterday that Germany has banned HizbullahQs Al-Manar 
satellite television station. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that Prof. Arnold 
Munnich, a leading French geneticist and pediatrician, who is an 
adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is promoting a project 
that would bring Arab doctors and nurses and others from 
Mediterranean countries to Israel for advanced training. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Netanyahu as saying yesterday before the 
United Jewish Communities General Assembly (GA) that President-elect 
Barack Obama has pledged to consider a military option against Iran. 
 Retired U.S. General John Abizaid was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Maariv that Israel does not have the military 
capability to destroy the Iranian nuclear project.  However, Abizaid 
said that a nuclear Iran will be weaker and more vulnerable that 
todayQs Iran. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media quoted Netanyahu as saying at the 
GA that there will be a dramatic turnaround in the Palestinian 
economy if he is elected. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a coalition of NGOs and educators 
hope to improve Muslim-Jewish coexistence in Israel by teaching 
Islam to Jews and Judaism to Muslims in the nationQs public 
schools. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Mohammed al-Hindi, a leader of Islamic Jihad in 
Gaza, as saying that Hamas plans to appoint a new PA president in 
January at the end of Abbas's four-year term.  Hindi said that the 
Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Sheikh Aziz Dweik, 
will probably be named to the post.  Dweik is currently jailed in 
Israel. 
 
Leading media reported that the cabinet made a U-turn yesterday 
regarding anti-missile reinforcements for communities near the 
border with Gaza. 
 
HaQaretz quoted government legal aides as saying that the police and 
IDF have more than 30 days to comply with a High Court decision to 
remove settlers from a house in Hebron whose ownership is claimed by 
Palestinians.  Earlier this week the High Court ruled that settlers 
must leave the house within three days or be removed from it by the 
state.  Israel Radio reported that settlers rioted near the house 
overnight. 
 
Leading media quoted the IAEA as saying yesterday that a Syrian 
complex bombed by Israel bore features that would resemble those of 
an undeclared nuclear reactor and that Syria must cooperate more 
with UN inspectors to allow them to reach conclusions.  Maariv 
reported that Russia is slowing down the pace of its missile sales 
to Syria.  Maariv links this to IsraelQs messages that the deal 
would affect the subtle balance in the Middle East. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the state will pay American human 
rights activist Brian Avery 600,000 shekels (around $ 151,170) in 
damages in an out-of-court settlement reached yesterday with his 
Israeli lawyer, Shlomo Licker.  Lecker said that Avery did not have 
full medical insurance coverage in the U.S. and that the money would 
help defray some of the costs of the operations he must undergo. 
Avery was shot in Jenin in 2003 and suffered severe facial wounds. 
 
Major media reported that FM Tzipi Livni announced yesterday that 
Israel has made a final decision to boycott the United Nations 
"Durban II" conference on human rights this spring, fearing it would 
once again be used as a forum for anti-Israeli sentiment. 
Ironically, this year's conference is scheduled for Holocaust 
Memorial Day. 
 
HaQaretz reported that in recent years, and with the full knowledge 
and approval of the Defense Ministry, Israeli arms dealers have 
negotiated and sold military equipment to a number of countries 
defined by Israeli law as enemy states.  HaQaretz sources were 
quoted as saying that the ministry has approved negotiations and 
sales between Israeli dealers and several Arab states including 
Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. 
 
Yediot reported that during his visit to the U.S. next week, PM 
Olmert intends to ask President George Bush to pardon Jonathan 
Pollard. 
 
Major media reported that, the U.S. Department of Transportation's 
Federal Aviation Administration has decided that the safety ranking 
of Israel's airports will be downgraded after serious flaws were 
discovered during an inspection yesterday.  The decision is expected 
to harm the image of Israeli airlines abroad as well as incur 
considerable financial damage.  Israeli airlines will not be allowed 
to increase the number of destinations they fly to in the U.S. or 
use different planes from those currently approved on the existing 
destinations.  After the ranking is made formal, Israel will share 
its safety ranking with some 10 to 20 other countries, most of which 
are developing nations. 
 
HaQaretz published the results of a Dialogue poll: If elections were 
held today, Likud would get 34 Knesset seats; Kadima: 28; Labor: 10; 
and Meretz: 7.  The right-wing bloc, led by Likud, is also firming 
up in comparison to previous polls, with 64 MKs versus 56 for the 
center-left.  In effect, the right is much stronger than the center 
left, since the leftQs count also includes 11 MKs from the Arab 
parties: They will not be asked to join the governing coalition and 
in the current political climate their only use will be as part of a 
"preventive bloc" in the Knesset. 
 
Yediot printed the results of a Dahaf/Mina Zemach poll:  Likud would 
get 32 seats; Kadima: 26; Shas: 11; the Arab parties: 11; Yisrael 
Beiteinu: 9; Labor: 8; the ultra-Orthodox parties (apart from Shas): 
7; Meretz: 7; the Jewish Home: 6; and the Green Party: 3. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QObama will have to decide whether to take a 
clear stance [regarding Iran and the Arab peace initiative] before 
the Israeli elections and attempt to affect their results or to wait 
until he meets with the next prime minister and coordinate 
policies. 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot: Q[A military] possibility [for Israel] is the 
wisdom of deterrence.  This is the best way.  To create a big bang, 
a strong and symbolic blow, after which the other side will know 
that it does not pay for it to continue to fire.  This is also the 
accepted method in the Arab world. 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: QThe 
United NationsQ anti-Israeli face has once again been unmasked. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Waiting for Obama" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/20): QIf Obama adopts the Arab initiative, 
it will strengthen Tzipi Livni, who seeks a permanent arrangement 
and a deep withdrawal from the territories, and say that Netanyahu's 
positions are on a collision course with America.  If he talks up 
economic peace, that would back Netanyahu's claims that he can get 
along well with Obama. The attempt to revive the Arab peace plan 
and to sell it to Obama fits in with the argument over the order of 
priorities of the incoming administration: First Iran and then the 
Israeli-Arab conflict, as Netanyahu proposes; QPalestine firstQ to 
soften the Arab and Muslim hostility to the United States; or both 
at once, working on the assumption that dealing with the 
Palestinians will make it easier for the Arab states to support U.S. 
measures against Iran, and that dealing with Iran will make it 
easier for Israel to withdraw from territories in the Golan Heights 
and the West Bank.  Obama will have to decide whether to take a 
clear stance before the Israeli elections and attempt to affect 
their results or to wait until he meets with the next prime minister 
and coordinate policies. 
 
II.  QWhat Does Bashar Really Want?" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (11/20): QThe other side has understood that it has 
to move the war into IsraelQs territory.  This is how it operates, 
whether it is from Lebanon by means of missiles, from Gaza by means 
of rockets, or by means of human rockets in the form of suicide 
bombers and terror in IsraelQs cities.  Israel, conversely, is 
barred from operating in the enemyQs territory, which is crowded 
with a civilian population that serves as a human shield for terror. 
 This population is aided by Qhuman rightsQ organizations, the 
global media, organizations within Israel, and more.  The IDF is 
barred from acting, while nothing prevents the other side from 
penetrating IsraelQs territory by air or by land.  This situation 
causes Israel to be despondent, feeling that its mighty army is not 
so relevant.  There are three options for dealing with this 
situation and creating a new security doctrine.  First possibility: 
passivity and blocking.  This is the method Israel is employing 
today, in which we absorb and try to reduce the damage, or prevent 
it by achieving various truces.  Second possibility: pro-activeness 
and attack.  This method is not acceptable to Israel today, and it 
states that it is possible to attack despite the wall of civil 
defense on the other side, in the form of targeted killings, and 
many swift initiated actions, as well as surprising pinpointed 
military strikes.  The third possibility is the wisdom of 
deterrence.  This is the best way.  To create a big bang, a strong 
and symbolic blow, after which the other side will know that it does 
not pay for it to continue to fire.  This is also the accepted 
method in the Arab world. 
 
 
 
 
III.  "The UN, as Is its Custom" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized 
(11/20): QThe United NationsQ anti-Israeli face has once again been 
unmasked.  Instead of condemning the missile launching in the 
direction of Israeli communities in the south of the country, it has 
been quick to censure Israel over the harm done to the innocent 
Palestinian population.... The UNQs behavior utterly contradicts the 
UN Charter that places its mission in the respect of peaceful 
relations among nations in the international arena.... The silence 
of the Secretary-General of the UN can be interpreted as an assent 
with the decision made by the UN representation in Geneva.... Abu 
Mazen is the terroristsQ indirect spokesman.... He takes part in the 
slanderous attacks against the Jewish state in international 
politics, and the UN acts as his advocate. 
 
CUNNINGHAM