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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001023 
 
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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 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair was quoted as saying in an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post that PM Benjamin Netanyahu can be 
a peacemaker.  Blair praised Netanyahu for focusing on improving the 
West BankQs economy. 
 
HaQaretz reported that senior officials in Jerusalem expressed 
concern recently over the sharp decline in the coordination between 
Israel and the United States on security and state affairs since 
President Obama entered the White House and especially since the 
formation of Israel's new government.  Senior White House officials 
told their Israeli counterparts that Obama will demand Netanyahu 
completely suspend construction in the settlements, the officials 
were quoted as saying.  "Obama's people brief their Israeli 
counterparts in advance much less about security and Middle East 
policy activities than the Bush administration used to," the 
officials said.  In addition, when they do brief Israeli officials, 
they don't consult with them or coordinate their statements in 
advance.  This has caused several coordination "malfunctions" 
between the two states in the past two months, they said.  The last 
incident was the statement of Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Rose 
Gottemoeller, calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty. 
 
HaQaretz reported that American and Israeli officials have told the 
newspaper that the U.S. has adopted some of former FM Tzipi Livni's 
recommendations about enlisting the Arab world into the peace 
process and have incorporated them into its Middle East policy. 
Livni's recommendations, which she passed on to U.S. Middle East 
envoy George Mitchell during his visit to Israel a few days before 
she left her post, deal with enlisting the Arab world to take part 
in the peace process and to advance gradual normalization of 
diplomatic relations with Israel as part of a regional process.  The 
document suggests that Arab leaders, even those who do not have 
relations with Israel, express public support for the peace process 
and the negotiations between Israel and the PA, without trying to 
dictate a hard line to the Palestinians.  They should also provide 
the PA with political support and assistance in isolating Hamas. 
Finally, they should start establishing diplomatic relations with 
Israel, such as reopening Israeli commercial or diplomatic missions 
in Arab states, holding open and covert meetings with Israeli 
leaders and holding official visits in Israel.  Livni told Mitchell 
that the Palestinians cannot make certain gestures in exchange for 
Israel's, such as the release of prisoners or handing them security 
control over West Bank cities. "Arab states could provide such 
gestures," she was quoted as saying.  Livni said that following the 
Annapolis conference, the Arab world did almost nothing to help the 
peace process, thus impairing the Israeli public's confidence in it. 
 Livni raised her suggestions at talks over the past year with 
officials in Arab states, including states that do not have formal 
relations with Israel.  Livni was quoted as saying: Q"The public in 
the Arab states sees on Aljazeera-TV only Mahmoud Abbas meeting with 
Israeli leaders, so Abbas is seen as a collaborator. If you too 
start meeting us in public, the resistance to the peace process with 
Israel would subside and the radicals in your countries would 
weaken."  HaQaretz reported that Livni's document raised keen 
interest in the U.S. administration.  Senior American officials said 
the term "gradual normalization" between the Arab states and Israel 
is being used by senior White House and State Department officials. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday the U.S. told Syria that it was 
committed to seeking a peace deal between the Syrian government and 
Israel, a main objective for Damascus in its rapprochement with 
Washington.  "We conveyed...President Obama's sincere commitment to 
pursue Arab-Israeli peace on all tracks, including on the 
Syrian-Israeli track," senior State Department official Jeffrey 
Feltman said after meeting Syrian FM Walid Muallem in Syria.  The 
media quoted Muallem as saying yesterday that there was no 
justification for amending a 2002 Saudi peace offer to Israel after 
reports earlier in the week that Arab states were revising the 
initiative.  HaQaretz quoted PA President Mahmoud Abbas as saying on 
Wednesday that he and his Egyptian counterpart planned to present 
the Obama administration with a complete formula for resolving the 
Middle East conflict. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that an American refusal to give Israel 
access to the internal computer on the Joint Strike Fighter jet is 
holding up an official Israeli order for the fifth-generation 
stealth fighter. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur 
as saying that Iran has placed submarines and missiles in the Red 
Sea. 
 
Yediot quoted a source close to PM Benjamin Netanyahu who told the 
newspaper that Netanyahu plans to unfreeze land for construction in 
the existing settlements for the purpose of natural growth, which 
could lead to a clash between him and President Obama when they meet 
in two weeks. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet will be asked on Sunday 
to approve the appointment of FM Avigdor Lieberman as the minister 
responsible for IsraelQs strategic dialogue with the U.S.  Maariv 
reported that Lieberman was mostly snubbed during his tour of 
European capitals.  In an unrelated development, Israeli Ambassador 
to the UK Ron Prosor told Maariv that an unorganized boycott of 
Israel in Britain is expanding. 
 
Israel Radio reported that U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice 
condemned HizbullahQs Qunwarranted interferenceQ in Egypt and 
demanded that the organization be disarmed.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted Israeli officials as saying that senior Egyptian officials 
have indicated that their relations with NetanyahuQs government are 
expected to be Qno less goodQ than with the former administration of 
Ehud Olmert. 
 
HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Deputy 
Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon told UN Under-Secretary-General for 
Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy that Israel will decide what to 
do about the village of Ghajar, whose northern part has been 
occupied by Israel since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, before PM 
Netanyahu's trip to the U.S. on May 17.  Le Roy was in Israel to 
discuss the situation in Lebanon. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday TogoQs visiting PM 
Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo told Deputy FM Ayalon that Israel should 
increase its presence in Africa to combat Iranian influence on the 
continent. 
 
Under the headline: QUzi AradQs Victory over the Americans,Q Yediot 
reported that next week the Chairman of the Israeli National 
Security Council will leave for the U.S. to prepare NetanyahuQs 
visit to Washington.  For the first time in two years, the U.S. 
issued Arad a diplomatic visa.  Yediot reported that over the past 
few weeks U.S. authorities made efforts to solve AradQs visa 
problem. 
 
Yediot reported that the national-religious building company Beemuna 
(phon.) is about to build a Jewish neighborhood next to the Arab 
neighborhood of Ajami, in the heart of Jaffa.  The newspaper 
reported that JaffaQs Arab residents intend to Qwage warQ against 
the project. 
 
All media reported that Netanyahu has relented on the issue of 
budget cuts, some of which he ordered reversed. 
The media covered the murder of Jewish student Johanna Justin-Jinch 
at ConnecticutQs Wesleyan University yesterday and wondered whether 
anti-Semitism was a motive. 
 
Famed liberal writer and Yediot columnist Meir Shalev humorously 
recounts his edgy encounters with U.S. customs officers over many 
years. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QThe question at the center of the trip 
preparations is what Netanyahu has to tell Obama to persuade the 
President to give him a chance. 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea imagined in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot what Prime Minister Netanyahu will tell 
President Obama when they meet: QLet us, for a minute, examine the 
possibility that nothing will come out of the talks [with Iran]. 
What will America do then?  In my opinion, America will have to use 
force. 
 
Correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: 
QThe link that the U.S. draws between the Iranian issue and the 
issue of the regional peace agreement is also being made by Israel. 
But on the American map the road to Tehran starts in Ramallah, and 
on the Israeli map, the road to Ramallah starts in Tehran. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "In Search of the Magic Formula" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (5/8): QBarring any surprising change next 
week, Netanyahu will likely try to take the middle ground.  It is 
unlikely that he will try, as former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir 
did during his term, to explain to the American president why an 
independent Palestine is a bad and unnecessary concept.  It's more 
likely that he will intimate to Obama, during their private meeting, 
that if he gets the time and opportunity, and if there is a 
Palestinian partner, and so on, he will consider accepting a 
Palestinian state; however, for the moment, Obama has to try to 
understand the Prime Minister's political constraints.  If Netanyahu 
succeeds, Obama's opening statement to the media will include a 
statement along the lines of, QI am very encouraged by what I heard 
from the prime minister today about his intention to work toward 
peace.Q  The question at the center of the trip preparations is what 
Netanyahu has to tell Obama to persuade the President to give him a 
chance.  A gesture involving the checkpoints?  A quiet freeze on the 
settlements?  Flexibility on the Syrian track?  A promise not to 
mount a surprise attack on Iran?  This is the question that will 
preoccupy the prime minister and his aides for the next 10 days. 
 
II.  "Thus Will Say Bibi" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea imagined in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot what Prime Minister Netanyahu will tell 
President Obama when they meet (5/8): QIf America promises to attack 
Iran, I will promise to remove outposts and to make more 
far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians, as far as my coalition 
will permit.... You intend to begin a round of talks with Iran soon. 
 We pray for your success.  But let us, for a minute, examine the 
possibility that nothing will come out of the talks. What will 
America do then?  In my opinion, America will have to use force.... 
And a word about nuclear weapons: following the practice that began 
with the meeting between president Nixon and Golda Meir, I suggest 
that we agree to maintain ambiguity as to Israel's nuclear weapons. 
I find it hard to believe that your administration views us as the 
same as Iran on this matter, as if the goal were to get both Israel 
and Iran to relinquish their nuclear weapons.  You know very well 
that the people in Israel, not to mention my coalition, will not let 
me give up nuclear weapons under any circumstances or in any form. 
That is the foundation of our power of deterrence.  You expect 
progress on the Palestinian issue.  I agree with you: I also do.... 
You will no doubt agree with me that the Palestinian state that is 
established will not be a state like other states. We will insist 
that it be demilitarized, without an army, that it will not be able 
to forge military alliances with countries hostile to Israel and not 
control its air space.  Why agree first to a state and then take 
powers away from it?  Obviously the goal is two political entities 
for two peoples, but why say a state when it is not really a 
state? 
 
III.  "And What Are We, Sheep?" 
 
Correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv 
(5/8): QAmong Netanyahu's associates there are those who believe 
that if Obama's aides constantly explain the extent to which the 
administration intends to be "tougher" on Israel than his 
predecessor, then we should make it clear, from the outset, that 
Israel too, albeit small, albeit dependent, albeit vulnerable, can 
also be tough. Given all this, the difference between Obama and 
Netanyahu is over the clock: what is urgent and what is simply 
important, what is urgent and what is cooling off, what comes before 
what, and in what order.  The link that the U.S. draws between the 
Iranian issue and the issue of the regional peace agreement is also 
being made by Israel.  But on the American map the road to Tehran 
starts in Ramallah, and on the Israeli map, the road to Ramallah 
starts in Tehran. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QEven if everyone ... around 
Obama is nice, we should remember that even a blizzard begins with 
tiny snowflakes. 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: QIt will be difficult not to draw 
comparisons between [NetanyahuQs] visit and the first visit to the 
U.S. in March 2001 of then newly-elected prime minister Ariel 
Sharon. 
 
Former Consul-General in New York Alon Pinkas wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: QIsraelQs maneuvering limits are inscribed within 
the circle of the United StatesQ interests. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Even a Blizzard Begins with Tiny Snowflakes" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (5/8): QBarack Obama is operating 
quickly and straight to the point on many issues.  Apparently he 
will not pressure Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty, but he cannot be expected to be a Likud member.  Netanyahu 
will be asked to promise to stop the construction in the settlements 
and remove illegal outposts to create conditions for negotiations 
based on the principle of two states for two peoples.  I hope the 
reports to the effect that Netanyahu will offer the Palestinians 
self-rule are a joke.  After all, the idea of autonomy died even 
before the death of its inventor, Menachem Begin.  There is empathy 
for Israel in the Obama administration, but it is not blind.  The 
period when we were able to stretch things as far as possible and 
play for time has ended.  And even if everyone there around Obama is 
nice, we should remember that even a blizzard begins with tiny 
snowflakes. 
 
 
 
II.  "ItQs the Trust that Counts" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (5/8): QWhen Netanyahu travels to 
Washington next Saturday night, it will be difficult not to draw 
comparisons between this visit and the first visit to the U.S. in 
March 2001 of then newly-elected prime minister Ariel Sharon.... And 
then, as now, there was overwrought speculation of an imminent clash 
between Sharon and Bush.... But Sharon went to Washington, and 
despite the perceived differences, laid the foundations for a solid 
working relationship with the Bush administration.... This dynamic 
has not been lost on NetanyahuQs team in its preparation for 
NetanyahuQs first meeting with Obama. 
 
III.  "Scenes from a Marriage" 
 
Former Consul-General in New York Alon Pinkas wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (5/8): QIsraelQs maneuvering limits are inscribed 
within the circle of the United StatesQ interests -Q that is to say: 
a crisis is produced when Israeli policy abuts or even creates 
friction with that circle.... The stronger the friction, the more 
powerful the crisis.  The moment one understands this basic 
principle of U.S.-Israel relations, this creates the fact that we 
never had symmetrical or equal relations, the strategic alliance and 
the Qpartnership of interests between two democracies carrying a 
moral weight and an identical set of values.  A relationship that 
started on the wrong foot continued with hesitancies, turned into 
boss-client relations, and eventually became a close, stable 
relationship of dependency between the superpower and the small 
Mideast state. 
 
CUNNINGHAM