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DE RUEHTV #2582/01 3261339
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P 211339Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002582 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA 
HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
DA WASHDC FOR SASA 
JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA 
CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
 
SIPDIS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Ehud Olmert will leave for 
Washington on Saturday for meetings with President Bush. 
 
Leading media reported that the security forces are gearing up for 
trouble this weekend when 20,000 -25,000 Jews are expected to 
descend upon Hebron for an annual pilgrimage.  Officials fear the 
combination of the crowd and tensions over the planned evacuation of 
the so-called House of Contention could prove to be an explosive 
mix.  The media reported that yesterday angry setters attacked IDF 
soldiers, vandalized Palestinian property, and scrawled QMohammed is 
a pigQ on a local mosque. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordanian sources told the 
newspaper yesterday that PM Olmert assured JordanQs King Abdullah 
this week that Israel does not intend to launch a major offensive to 
bring down the Hamas regime in Gaza in the near future.  The two 
Israeli leaders did not rule out a range of less dramatic military 
operations against Hamas and other operatives in Gaza.  HaQaretz 
reported: QFor now, both Israel and Hamas seek to maintain quiet in 
the region. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Prime MinisterQs Office 
declared  that Israel is willing to talk with Qall of its Arab 
neighborsQ on the basis of the 2002 Arab peace initiative, and that 
it welcomes PA President Mahmoud AbbasQs appeals to the Israeli 
public to support the plan by publishing a copy of the initiative in 
four Israeli dailies.  However, the newspaper reported that FM Tzipi 
Livni slammed the Qall or nothingQ ultimatum of the initiativeQs 
proponents. 
 
HaQaretz reported that 250 million shekels (around $62,990,000) have 
been wasted on uncompleted West Bank roads. 
 
Maariv reported that Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit plans to revoke 
the citizenship of self-exiled Arab politician Azmi Bishara. 
 
Yediot reported that Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has hired the 
services of two of President-elect Barack ObamaQs consultants Q Bill 
Knapp and Josh Icey (phon.). 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Ephraim Asculai, a former 
top official in the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, told the 
newspaper that Iran will have enough highly enriched uranium by the 
end of 2009 to produce its first nuclear weapon.  Asculai was 
refuting a New York Times article that claimed that Iran already had 
sufficient nuclear material to create a weapon. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the human rights 
organization Gisha charged that the refusal of the army to allow 
fuel, cooking gas, and other commodities into Gaza constituted 
collective punishment of 1.5 million civilians.  Yediot quoted 
intelligence sources as saying that Shin Bet torture procedures are 
still being applied, in contravention of a High Court ruling. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the Jerusalem 
Municipality announced that it demolished a tent set up by an 
elderly Arab couple in East Jerusalem whose illegally built home had 
been razed earlier this month.  The newspaper reported that a 
Bedouin army reservist is waiting for the state to raze a mosque he 
built in an unrecognized village. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Yael Dayan has proposed 
the establishment of a municipal human rights commission. 
 
All media reported that yesterday the stock market tumbled as the 
economic growth outlook is worsening.  The media reported on 
political pressure on the treasury to spread a safety net for 
pension funds and mutual funds. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Intel Israel and Numonyx 
dedicated an 80-millon shekel (about $20,156,000) membrane bio 
reactor (MBR) waste treatment facility, the largest and most 
advanced in Israel, which will serve their factories in Kiryat Gat. 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Strauss Group Ltd., IsraelQs biggest food 
company, as saying yesterday that its U.S. unit Sabra will send as 
much as much as $68 million to open a factory in the state of 
Virginia scheduled to start production in 2010. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/20): 
QThe Muslim and Arab world -- presumably excluding Iran, Hamas and 
Hizbullah -- have just made an unprecedented overture to the people 
of Israel.... We implore the Arab and Muslim world: Let us not make 
propaganda.  Let us not wait another 60 years.  Let us make peace. 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: Q[The 
government] must, once and for all, make it clear to the public in 
Israel -- not the settlements -- that there is one law for all, and 
no one is above it. 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote in Ha'aretz: QIn 
private conversations, Netanyahu expresses his concern about Labor 
and BarakQs electoral fate in unambiguous terms. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Yes to QSalamQ" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/20): 
QThe Muslim and Arab world -- presumably excluding Iran, Hamas and 
Hizbullah -- have just made an unprecedented overture to the people 
of Israel.   By coincidence, it comes just as al-Qaida reached out 
to the American people with their reaction to the election of Barack 
Obama.... In contrast, the Arab world's effort to appeal directly to 
the Israeli people is welcome and arguably constructive.   The PA 
purchased space in this and other Israeli newspapers ... seeking 
support for the 2002 Saudi-inspired Arab League peace initiative. 
The ad also ran, in Arabic, in several Palestinian papers.... 
Neither the ad nor the Saudi plan itself acknowledge the inalienable 
right of the Jewish people to a national homeland within agreed 
borders.  So Israelis -- across the political spectrum -- will find 
the Arab Peace Initiative deficient.  Still, most of us, though 
disappointed that an offer which falls so short of Israel's minimal 
needs comes so late, will find themselves agreeing with President 
Shimon Peres: This is an overture worth exploring.  After so much 
bloodshed and suffering on both sides, we implore the Arab and 
Muslim world: Let us not make propaganda.  Let us not wait another 
60 years.  Let us make peace. 
 
II.  "No More Tolerance" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (11/20): QBoth 
the assaults by Hebron's Jewish thugs on Israel Defense Forces 
soldiers, which included throwing turpentine at a soldier's face, 
and the graffiti proclaiming QMohammed is a pigQ follow directly 
from rabbis' words.  Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, for instance, told a 
conference in Hebron this week that the QState of Israel in its 
current format is the enemy of the Jewish people.... We will defeat 
the domestic enemy, which at the moment is the State of Israel. 
All this was in response to a High Court of Justice ruling requiring 
the settlers to vacate the so-called House of Contention in Hebron 
until a district court decides who really owns it.  This criminal 
aggression by settlers in Hebron and elsewhere has long been a 
tolerated routine. Ostensibly, Israel currently lacks a government 
capable of dealing with these lawbreakers.... This situation cannot 
be tolerated because a government that weakly allows the settlers to 
scoff at High Court decisions grants the rest of the country's 
citizens license to do the same.  If you can spit in a soldier's 
face in Hebron, you can squat in houses in Jaffa [inside the Green 
Line].  The government must remove the settlers from the House of 
Contention immediately, indict everyone who attacked soldiers, and 
investigate everyone who threatened action against the state. It 
must, once and for all, make it clear to the public in Israel -- not 
the settlements -- that there is one law for all, and no one is 
above it. 
 
III.  "Vote for Barak, Because Israel Needs a Strong Likud" 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote in Ha'aretz 
(11/20): QNo less than Ehud Barak, maybe more than Amir Peretz, 
Benjamin Netanyahu wishes for the Labor Party to maintain its 
strength in the elections.  Yes, yes, Netanyahu needs a Labor Party 
with 17-18 Knesset seats.  If he could, he would have made an 
emotional appeal to the citizens: Vote Labor Party and Barak!  Barak 
and the Labor Party!  Netanyahu wants Barak as defense minister in 
his government.  He values him, counts on him, and he knows that he 
will need him and his chilly spirit during the harsh, tense days 
ahead.... In private conversations, Netanyahu expresses his concern 
about Labor and BarakQs electoral fate in unambiguous terms.  In his 
speech at the commencement of the KnessetQs winter term, he declared 
that he would call on Tzipi Livni and Barak to serve in a broad 
unity government he would head.  But NetanyahuQs close entourage 
describes a different scenario according to which if the Likud-Right 
wing-ultra-Orthodox gains a majority, Netanyahu will prefer to form 
a coalition will Labor, the ultra-Orthodox, and Yisrael Beiteinu, 
and to leave Kadima in the opposition, assuming that around half of 
that faction -Q mostly Likud renegades -Q will hasten to splinter 
from it and join his coalition. 
 
CUNNINGHAM