VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1164/01 1481035
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281035Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1978
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 5481
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 2061
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 6014
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 6292
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 5522
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 4080
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 6345
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3154
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1358
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0051
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 7560
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 2538
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 6553
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 8603
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 1380
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 2107
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001164 
 
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 
 
Please note: The Israel Media Reaction report will not appear on 
Friday, May 29, 2009, due to the Israeli holiday of Shavuot. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying 
yesterday that President Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements 
-- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth 
exceptions."   Leading media reported that, at their meetings with 
PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs envoys in London this week, U.S. officials 
stated that the U.S. will not renounce its opposition to Israeli 
construction in the territories and outposts.  The Jerusalem Post 
and other media reported that yesterday leading religious Zionist 
rabbis called on IDF soldiers to disobey orders to dismantle and 
evacuate outposts and settlements in the West Bank.  However, the 
daily reported that a major insubordination is unlikely.  Leading 
media reported that Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer 
called on Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to launch an investigation 
against those religious leaders.  "The rabbis are using their 
religious authority to sabotage democracy and turn the IDF into a 
political tool to be used by the settlers," Oppenheimer was quoted 
as saying. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu told the Knesset 
yesterday that he is committed to agreements signed by previous 
government -- Qthe closest he has come in public to adopting the 
two-state solution formula. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Secretary Clinton as saying yesterday that 
the U.S. would present detailed plans on the peace process to the 
parties as part of its efforts to jumpstart negotiations. 
 
The media reported that PA President Mahmoud Abbas Is due to meet 
with President Obama in the White House today.  HaQaretz wrote: 
QObama considers his role as one in which he provides Abbas with the 
necessary support, in part by pressing Netanyahu and taking a tough 
stance on settlements.Q  Maariv predicts that the President will 
pressure Abbas to remove the three conditions he set to a meeting 
with Netanyahu.  Israel Radio quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting 
yesterday that he "will not demand the return of five million" 
Palestinian refugees to Israel -- saying "we will not destroy 
Israel."  HaQaretz notes that the U.S. media has questioned AbbasQs 
effectiveness ahead of the visit. 
 
The media reported that yesterday the Knesset plenum gave initial 
approval to a bill that would make it a crime to publicly deny 
Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, punishable by a sentence 
of up to a year in prison.  The bill would outlaw the publication of 
any "call to negate Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic 
state, where the content of such publication would have a reasonable 
possibility of causing an act of hatred, disdain or disloyalty" to 
Israel.  Forty-seven Knesset members voted in favor of the bill and 
34 voted against, with Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) 
abstaining from the vote.  The measure would have to pass three 
additional votes in parliament and a committee review before 
becoming law.  HaQaretz reported that on Sunday MK David Rotem 
(Yisrael Beiteinu) will introduce a bill that would force candidates 
for Israeli citizenship to take an oath of allegiance to the state. 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the Foreign Ministry has 
dissociated itself from MK Arieh EldadQs (National Union) QJordan is 
PalestineQ idea.   The Jerusalem Post and other media noted that 
several such new legislative initiatives from right-wing parties are 
causing discomfort among mainstream U.S. Jewish advocacy 
organizations that worry that efforts to forbid anti-Israel activism 
in the country may be tinged with racist intentions and lead to 
infringements on freedom of speech. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that visiting Sen. Frank Lautenberg 
(D-NJ) told the newspaper yesterday that President Obama Qcan never 
dictate to Israel to follow a path that would lead to harming 
itself.Q  Lautenberg was referring to the possibility of Israel 
bombing IranQs nuclear facilities. 
 
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk was quoted as saying 
in an interview with Yediot that Syria will agree to discuss the 
possibility of leaving Israeli settlements in place in the Golan 
under its sovereignty. 
 
Israel Radio reported that 70 representatives of foreign governments 
and armies will arrive in Israel to watch the nationwide drill it 
will conduct next week. 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, Qin a move liable to reignite 
controversy over QWhoQs a Jew?,QQ Shas and United Torah Judaism are 
preparing a bill that would give the Chief Rabbinate sole 
jurisdiction over conversions in Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Israeli defense officials as saying 
yesterday that the IDF is drafting operational plans to evacuate 
several West Bank outposts by the end of June. 
 
Maariv reported that a ministerial committee on economic peace with 
the Palestinians held its first meeting yesterday.  Major media 
quoted DM Ehud Barak as saying yesterday that Israel intends to 
build a Palestinian city near Ramallah, the idea of which was put 
forward by Barak and Quartet envoy Tony Blair a long time ago. 
 
Maariv and The Jerusalem Post cited IsraelQs concern that assault 
helicopters and tanks that the U.S. promised the Lebanese Army will 
fall into HizbullahQs hands.  Maariv quoted an Israeli defense 
source as saying that a statement by Vice President Joe Biden 
regarding U.S. military aid to Lebanon is evidence that the U.S. 
lacks understanding about what is happening in that country. 
 
Israel Radio and The Jerusalem Post reported that Amnesty 
InternationalQs annual report denounces actions by Israel, the PA, 
and Hamas ..  The report states that Gaza is on the brink of 
disaster.  HaQaretz reported that according to an inspection by the 
Palestinian human rights organization Mizan, which was commissioned 
by the newspaper, 1085 of the 1400 Palestinian casualties in 
Operation Cast Lead were killed in Israeli air raids.  Mizan said 
that around 7% of Palestinians killed during the operation were shot 
at point-blank range. 
 
Maariv reported that the rift between Jews and Arabs in the city of 
Acre has deepened since last yearQs riots. 
 
HaQaretz and other media reported that police investigators are 
increasingly confident that they will be able to press charges 
within the next few weeks against FM Avigdor Lieberman, over a 
series of violations for which he is being questioned. 
 
Yediot reported that next week former PM Ehud Olmert will undergo 
surgery in a New York hospital to remove a tumor from his prostate. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Worthy Agenda" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (5/28): QIn his 
speech next week directed at the Muslim and Arab world, U.S. 
President Barack Obama is expected to launch a new era in AmericaQs 
relations with Islam.... The U.S. is striving, not only with the 
PresidentQs speech, to restore its political legitimacy in the 
Middle East.  This legitimacy has badly eroded both because of the 
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as AmericaQs special relations 
with Israel.  Due to the wars and the United StatesQ tendency to 
support IsraelQs positions absolutely, the U.S. has lost its statuts 
as a honest broker and a power that can and wants to impartially 
examine the needs of Israel, the Palestinians and the Arabs. 
[wbs1]Israel is used to zero-sum games in which every American 
leaning toward the Arabs does so at IsraelQs expense, and every 
expression in IsraelQs favor is an achievement at the Arabs 
expense.  So it awaits the speech suspiciously, not to say 
apprehensively.  So far Israel has QbenefitedQ from the balance in 
which Muslim hostility toward the U.S. has turned Israel into 
AmericaQs only apparent strategic partner in the region.  Now 
Washington may find new friends.  IsraelQs exclusivity is about to 
crack, if not to crash.... [Nonetheless,] an American-Arab and 
Muslim friendship could prove to be s strategic asset.  Washington 
is now expected, as a continuation to ObamaQs speech in Cairo and 
his meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, to present a viable peace plan 
that would launch the practical stage of the American vision. 
 
II.  "Is Obama truly Looking for a Fight with Israel over QNatural 
GrowthQ?" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (5/28): QIsraeli officials 
are confident -- perhaps overly confident -- that if they Qline up 
with the U.S. administration on the Qright side of the fenceQ on 
most settlement issues, they could find a formula to work regarding 
natural growth.  This means that if, as the Olmert government 
declared, the Netanyahu government says it will uproot illegal 
outposts, not set up new settlements, not give incentives to move to 
the settlements, and not expropriate any additional Palestinian 
lands, then the conventional wisdom in the current government is 
that the U.S. would permit -- as it has in the past -- natural 
growth construction as long as it does not go beyond the existing 
construction lines.  But what if Obama, as some maintain, is 
actually looking for a public fight with Israel on this issue in 
order to win credit with the Arab world, and legitimacy among the 
Europeans as a leader who is willing to take Israel on when 
necessary?  That could be a tricky tactic, because if the U.S. 
President picks a fight with Israel over the natural growth issue at 
a time when Israel has declared it won't build new settlements, 
expropriate land or give incentives to move there, then it could be 
perceived among some Obama supporters in Congress as being unfairly 
tough on Israel, especially since various verbal understandings were 
made over the years that Israel interpreted as a green light for 
natural growth. 
 
III.  "Only the Outposts Interest Them" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in HaQaretz (5/28): QDarfur can 
wait.  Our outposts interest [President Obama] more, as does 
removing the roadblocks.  They are not pleasant, but what are they 
compared to the atrocities in vast parts of Africa and Asia?  But 
they are more important than his other humanitarian concerns.  ItQs 
not merely a humanitarian problem.  The outposts, according to the 
AmericansQ political beliefs, are obstacles to peace.... Anyone who 
equates [outposts] with IranQs nuclearization betrays an extreme 
lack of sense of proportion.  How can one rely on him for matters 
that are a thousand times more serious? 
 
 
 
 
 
IV.  "When Rahm Emanuel Curses" 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Lord wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe (5/28): QThe fact that senior former and current U.S. 
administration officials allow themselves to frown and harm the 
respect due to the Prime Minister is a grave phenomenon in 
itself.... But those attitudes betray something --  Obama and his 
peopleQs tactic in handling Netanyahu, such as what was and what was 
not achieved during the Obama-Netanyahu meeting. 
 
¶V.  QSave Yourselves from Yourselves 
 
In the popular, pluralist Maariv, conservative Op-Ed Page Editor 
Ben-Dror Yemini imagined an QalternativeQ speech by President Obama 
in Cairo (5/28): QThose who relieve the Muslim world from 
responsibility for the culture of fear and oppression that has taken 
it over harm Muslims and strengthen Islamists who slaughter them. 
They told you that the West is to blame.  In their incitement they 
proclaimed: Zionism is guilty.  There is no bigger lie than that. 
There is no worse racism than that.   As the son of a Muslim father, 
I do not believe that I am different from others.  The first 
condition required to get out of this misery is the recognition that 
a choice must be made between self-delusion and outer delusion, on 
one side, and responsibility for oneself on the other.  Stop blaming 
all others. 
 
CUNNINGHAM 
[wbs1]THIS SENTENCE DOESNQT MAKE SENSE.  A word must be missing.