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P 081153Z DEC 08
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The headlines of major media (lead story in HaQaretz) quoted 
President-elect Barack Obama as saying yesterday on NBCQs QMeet the 
PressQ program that the West must engage in "tough but direct 
diplomacy" with Iran, but emphasized that TehranQs vocalized threats 
against Israel stand "contrary to everything" the United States 
believes in.  He also said that he was prepared to offer Iran 
economic incentives to stop its nuclear program, but warned that 
sanctions could be toughened if it refused.  Yesterday Yediot quoted 
prospective Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying in a round 
of telephone conversations she held over the weekend with the senior 
Israeli political leadership -- PM Olmert, FM Tzipi Livni, and DM 
Ehud Barak -- that she will continue to act to bring peace and 
stability to the Middle East. 
 
All media highlighted todayQs Likud primaries, in which 99,000 
registered party voters will cast their ballots and 144 candidates 
will vie for places in the Knesset.  HaQaretz reported that several 
senior Likud officials urged yesterday that when Likud members cast 
their votes in Monday's primary they should ignore Chairman Benjamin 
Netanyahu's list of recommended candidates.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that the race could alter NetanyahuQs fate. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the pre-election political rivalry between 
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
ratcheted up a notch yesterday, after the Kadima leader accused her 
Labor counterpart of harming the security of residents in the south 
and Barak rejected a Livni-brokered deal that would have allowed a 
Qatari ship to unload humanitarian aid for Gazans at the Ashdod 
port.  (The ship also carried Arab Knesset members.)  Meanwhile, as 
Palestinians repeatedly fired on the Negev yesterday, media reported 
that the cabinet approved Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's proposal to 
allocate NIS 600 million for the protection of communities located 
within 4.5 kilometers of the seurity fence surrounding the Gaza 
Strip.  Yediot reported that the legal advisor to the defense 
establishment has ruled that the IDF can resume artillery fire Q but 
only into open spaces. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that yesterday at the 
weekly cabinet meeting, PM Ehud Olmert called Hebron setter violence 
a Qpogrom.Q  HaQaretz reported that a senior Israeli security source 
told the daily this weekend that recent confrontations between 
hard-line West Bank settlers and Palestinians, regarding the 
evacuation of Hebron's so-called House of Contention are likely to 
entangle Israel in a religious confrontation with Muslim communities 
the world over.  The violence included the desecration of Muslim 
cemeteries in Hebron and anti-Muslim graffiti on mosque walls in the 
city, as well as around Qalqilya and Ramallah. 
 
The online news service Nana10 reported that DM Barak told 
Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad yesterday that Israel is considering 
allowing Palestinian police in Bethlehem. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a local Indian policeman warned 
that the Indian resort of Goa, a major destination for Israeli 
backpackers and holidaymaker, is at risk of being struck by 
Al-Qaida. 
 
HaQaretz reported that green groups are accusing the Jewish National 
Fund of planting in the Negev to prevent Bedouin construction and 
grazing. 
 
Yesterday HaQaretz reported that Shin Bet has confirmed for the 
first time that it regularly interferes in the appointment in the 
appointment of Muslim clergymen to public office. 
 
Leading media reported that President Bush attended the Saban Forum 
¶2008. 
 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday the ministerial committee 
overseeing the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails 
approved the release of 230 prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to 
the Palestinian Authority ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid 
al-Adha. The cabinet approved a list of 250 prisoners last week. 
Some 20 names were removed from the list following objections by 
several ministers, who were opposed to releasing prisoners into the 
Gaza Strip. 
Yesterday HaQaretz quoted diplomats in Jerusalem as saying that 
Israel has provided NATO with substantial intelligence about the 
Iranian nuclear program and the long-range missiles used by the 
Iranian Revolutionary Guards. 
 
HaQaretz quoted senior Jerusalem sources as saying that Israel and 
Morocco are quietly discussing a visit by FM Tzipi Livni to the 
North African kingdom in the coming weeks.  This would be the first 
visit to Morocco by an Israeli foreign minister since Silvan Shalom 
went in 2003. 
 
The media reported that a judge from the Jerusalem MagistrateQs 
Court ordered a Kiryat Arba resident who shot two Palestinians last 
week remanded for four days, but released another Kiryat Arba man 
whom police also wanted to keep in jail. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QThe Obama administration will try to 
correct what is now considered an error of the Clinton and Bush 
administrations: The administration's absolute support for the 
policies of Israeli governments. 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QLikud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be 
permitted to hide behind general condemnations of a handful of 
lawbreakers. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "QYes, We Can (Speak with Iran)Q" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/8): QAfter three days of fascinating 
discussions in the Saban Forum in Washington, the foreign policy 
guidelines of President-elect Obama and designated secretary of 
state Hillary Clinton are becoming clear....  Contrary to the Bush 
administration, the Obama administration intends to launch talks 
 
with Iran immediately after being inaugurated, in order to reach a 
deal in which Iran will willingly halt the nuclear program.... 
Several figures who will advise the Obama administration are 
convinced that the United States will have to provide guarantees for 
Israel's security and the security of the Palestinian state in order 
for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to be possible. 
 The Obama administration will try to correct what is now considered 
an error of the Clinton and Bush administrations: The 
administration's absolute support for the policies of Israeli 
governments.  The lesson that was learned is that absolute support 
for Israel must not be confused with absolute support for its 
government's policy.  As for Syria, the chances of an agreement with 
Israel are greater due to the need for Israel and the U.S. to shift 
Syria from Iranian sponsorship to Western sponsorship.  On this 
matter, the Obama administration will have to wait until the 
elections in Israel, but the assumption of the experts on Israel 
affairs in Washington is that a government headed by Netanyahu will 
display a willingness for a full withdrawal from the Golan as part 
of a peace agreement with Syria.  In their view, negotiations with 
Syria must not delay the negotiations with the Palestinians. 
Everything will be done simultaneously.  The assumption of the Obama 
administration is that the demographic consideration will cause 
Israel to be flexible in the negotiations with the Palestinians. 
 
II.  "This ElectionQs Real Meaning" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/8): QThe realization of a Jewish right of 
return to the area some refer to as Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West 
Bank], or to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Nahalat Shimon, 
invites a reopening of the 1948 file. There is no better recipe for 
an end to political negotiations based on the borders of June 4, 
¶1967.  Like the eviction of the al-Kurd family from its East 
Jerusalem home so Jewish settlers could live there, the real story 
of the House of Contention is not one of a private dispute 
concerning property rights; in both cases, the main test is not 
about the rule of law or even about law enforcement. This is a 
political-ideological conflict between segments of Israeli and 
Palestinian society.... Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will not meet 
her obligation simply by promising voters she won't allow any 
refugees to return to Israel. She has to explain how she thinks the 
Hebron settlers should be treated if she is elected prime 
minister.... Defense Minister Ehud Barak cannot allow himself to 
rest on the laurels of the commando operation in Hebron.... He must 
promise he will continue to evacuate all illegal outposts and 
completely halt settlement expansion.  The lightning evacuation 
showed that a stated fear of civil war is nothing but a hollow 
excuse for cowardly politicians.  Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu 
cannot be permitted to hide behind general condemnations of a 
handful of lawbreakers.... The Palestinian neighbors of right-winger 
Baruch Marzel in Hebron and the East Jerusalem neighbors of the 
widow al-Kurd can tell Netanyahu just what an Qeconomic peaceQ looks 
like. 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QWhat's 
left?  Trusting the mullahs that if the international community goes 
along with their hegemonic demands and never mentions Qregime 
change," Teheran will stop -- just short of constructing a bomb? 
Cynics might think that Mr. ElBaradei and the Euro-libs want to 
paint Jerusalem into a corner. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"ElBaradeiQs QGrand BargainQ" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/8): 
QThe IAEA/Euro-liberal consensus is that Iran should certainly not 
acquire nuclear weapons.  But at the same time, nothing tangible is 
recommended that would thwart Teheran's extremist Shi'ite ideology, 
Holocaust-denial or sponsorship of terror.... The EU has been 
negotiating with Iran for years to no avail, and even the Bush 
administration has held dozens of meetings with Teheran.  Still, 
Euro-Liberals envision the mullahs swooning once they're Qengaged 
by the Obama administration.... So it's no to sanctions, no to 
force, and no to opposing dual-use centrifuge technology.  What's 
left?  Trusting the mullahs that if the international community goes 
along with their hegemonic demands and never mentions Qregime 
change,Q Teheran will stop -- just short of constructing a bomb? 
Cynics might think that Mr. ElBaradei and the Euro-libs want to 
paint Jerusalem into a corner. 
 
SIEVERS