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P 031029Z JUN 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001192 
 
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 
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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: 
------------------------- 
 
Major media reported that yesterday President Obama dropped on DM 
Ehud BarakQs meeting with National Security Advisor Gen. James 
Jones.  Israel Radio reported that the President made it clear to 
Barak that Washington is firm in its demand that Israel stop 
construction in the settlements.  The leading Internet news service 
Ynet and other media reported that DM Barak presented the President 
with an Israeli proposal: removing outposts in exchange for 
construction in settlement blocs.  Ynet also reported that Obama and 
Jones clarified that the Palestinian issue and stabilizing security 
in the Middle East come before the Iranian concern.  Israel Radio 
quoted diplomatic sources in Jerusalem as saying that settlement 
cannot be stopped entirely, because the President has not presented 
an alternative.  HaQaretz quoted Shas Chairman and Interior Minister 
Eli Yishai as saying that Shas will not accept the settlements being 
Qdried out.Q  Channel 10-TV quoted PM Benjamin Netanyahu as saying 
in private conversations that Obama is trying to topple him.  The 
Jerusalem Post quoted top Likud ministers and Knesset members as 
saying that the PresidentQs criticism of Netanyahu has crossed the 
fine line of interfering in Israeli politics.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe 
reported that officials in Jerusalem increasingly hold that belief. 
HaQaretz reported that special envoy George Mitchell will arrive in 
Israel Monday night. 
 
Maariv reported that PM Netanyahu has instructed Haggai Hadas, the 
new mediator for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, to 
restart the negotiations, which were stopped after the end of the 
tenure of the previous mediator Ofer Dekel, about two months ago. 
Along with this Minister Gilad Erdan made a surprising statement in 
the Knesset that could assist in accelerating the talks.  He 
reversed his previous stance, saying in a discussion conducted on 
the occasion of the third anniversary of the kidnapping: QTerrorists 
with blood on their hands should be released in exchange for the 
release of Gilad Shalit. 
 
HaQaretz reported that senior officials will be participating in a 
joint U.S.-Israeli working group on Iran's nuclear program and the 
potential dialogue between Washington and Tehran.  The first meeting 
is expected to be held soon.  The newspaper reported that National 
Security Adviser Uzi Arad is expected to lead the Israeli team.  The 
U.S. team will probably be led by Deputy National Security Advisor 
Thomas Donilon, who is the administration official responsible for 
the Iranian issue.  The first meeting will probably address the 
presidential elections in Iran and the possibilities of U.S.-Iranian 
dialogue once a winner is announced.  The identity of the victor is 
expected to have significant influence on the nature of the 
dialogue.  Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that the Obama 
administration has authorized U.S. embassies around the world to 
invite Iranian diplomats to Fourth of July celebrations.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe bannered a truncated version of a comment the 
President made in an interview with the BBC yesterday: QIran has 
legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. 
 
Major media (banner in Israel Hayom) quoted President Obama as 
saying in an interview with French media that Qthe U.S. is one of 
the largest Muslim countries on the planet. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning security forces destroyed 
two unauthorized settler outposts and dismantled two roadblocks. 
The radio reported that Palestinian businessmen will soon be allowed 
to use passages currently reserved for Israelis. 
 
The media reported that yesterday Justice Minister Yaakov NeQeman 
criticized Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for denouncing Avigdor 
LiebermanQs appointment as foreign minister in the midst of a 
criminal investigation against him.  Yediot cited strong 
disappointment expressed by U.S. administration officials over FM 
Avigdor LiebermanQs Qbizarre courtingQ of Russia.  The newspaper 
reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed dismay 
over positive remarks made by Lieberman about Russia during his 
recent visit to that country.  (Media quoted Lieberman as saying 
that Israeli-Russian relations are at "their highest point,") 
LiebermanQs bureau would not comment.  Leading media quoted 
Lieberman as saying after his meetings with President Dmitry 
Medvedev and PM Vladimir Putin that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 
must be seen within a wider regional context, as the conflict is 
essentially a greater one between extremists and moderates. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the EU may suspend its upgrading 
of relations of Israel, which was slated for June 15. 
Yediot reported that yesterday Deputy FM Danny Ayalon had a chance 
encounter with Venezuelan FM Nicolas Maduro Moros at the summit of 
the Organization of the American States in Honduras and told him: 
QBeware of cooperation with Iran.  It harms the entire continent and 
Venezuela in particular. 
 
The media reported that, although schools and other institutions 
performed reasonably in the nationwide drill held yesterday, the 
general public tended to demonstrate indifference and mostly avoided 
entering shelters. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the Jerusalem planning and building committee 
has approved plans for a new hotel and commercial center slated for 
Wadi Joz in East Jerusalem.  Yesterday the newspaper reported that 
the U.S. administration told the GOI that it is opposed to building 
plans in the vicinity of the Old City. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported on increasing rifts in the Kadima 
party. 
 
HaQaretz cited a recent study published in the current issue of 
Foreign Policy that secular Jews are expected to become a minority 
in Israeli schools and among the draft-age population within 20 
years.  The study, which is based on figures from Israel's Central 
Bureau of Statistics, predicts that by 2030 Arabs and ultra-Orthodox 
Jews together will compose close to 60 percent of Israel's 
elementary school population and about 40 percent of eligible 
voters.   HaQaretz reported that Stuart Eizenstat, a lawyer and 
former U.S. Under Secretary of State, has been appointed to chair 
the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Shawn Pine, an 
Israeli-American contractor killed in Afghanistan last month, was 
laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QYes, We Can! 
 
Uri Savir, Oslo Accords architect and President of the Peres Center 
for Peace, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot 
(6/3): QIt is interesting that President Barack Obama chose June 4 
as the date to give his programmatic speech in Cairo.  It is 
difficult to believe that the date is accidental.  The separation 
lines of June 4, 1967 are the basis of the Arab demand for an 
Israeli withdrawal.  This time, however, besides this demand there 
are strategic issues of greater importance on the agenda: Creating a 
strategic coalition of Israel and the moderate Arab states.... 
Resolving relations between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis 
of two states for two peoples, without the right of return, and 
taking into consideration the parties' security needs.... Examining 
the possibility of negotiations between Israel, Syria, and the U.S. 
on the basis of the formula presented [in the past] by Defense 
Minister Barak: QThe depth of the withdrawal is as the depth of the 
peace and security,Q and a Syrian move away from the axis of Iran 
and its allies.  Regional cooperation with a view towards regional 
peace and gradual normalization measures between the Arab states and 
Israel, on the basis of the Saudi plan.... The alternative is 
extremism in the Arab world, strengthening Islam, mainly 
fundamentalist Islam, and among other things strengthening Hamas and 
increasing terror attacks.  This is a dangerous possibility that 
should be avoided, particularly since there are common interests 
today between Israel and leaders such as Abu Mazen, President 
Mubarak, the King of Jordan, the king of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf 
leaders, and the North African leaders.  The region must reply with 
a great QyesQ to Obama's plans.  This is a golden opportunity both 
for the Arabs and for Israel.  Rejections, reservations, and excuses 
will only harm both sides.  Israel and the entire region should say 
to Obama: QYes, we can! 
 
II.  QNo Messiah 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote from Cairo on page one of Yediot 
Aharonot (6/3): QThe expectations that ObamaQs brief visit to Egypt 
have created are almost messianic.... ObamaQs decision to place the 
Arab world at the top of his foreign policy agenda stems not from 
messianic aspirations but from necessity.  America needs Arab 
leaders and Arab public opinion as never before.... Obama is 
treading a fine line.  Given his need for the Arab leaders, he is 
going to have to tone down any talk about democracy and human 
rights.  There is an historical irony at play here: George Bush, a 
Republican, right-wing believer in religious values, sought to bring 
democracy to the Middle East.  Barack Obama, a Democrat, left-wing 
figure of the kind that is derisively referred to by the American 
right as a Qbleeding heart liberal,Q is courting the Saudi King and 
EgyptQs eternal President.  He is also treading a thin religious 
line.  His middle name, Hussein, has helped him win the hearts of 
multitudes across the Muslim world.  But by the same token it has 
elicited suspicion among non-Muslims. That suspicion exists not only 
in America and in Israel [but also among Christian minorities in the 
region].... ObamaQs speech is like the prologue of a play that has 
yet to be written.  The question is what will happen in Washington 
later, will a plan really be formed that will be able to unite all 
of the anti-Iranian and pro-American forces in the region, including 
Israel, into a single coalition that will aspire to achieve regional 
stabilityQto rein in Iran, to save Iraq and Afghanistan, and to 
achieve a regional Israeli-Arab peace?  Only a messiah can achieve 
all those objectives in the course of a single term. 
 
III.  "One Friend for Two Peoples" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (6/3): QThe extent of the differences between 
the United States and Israel will ... reveal itself on all core 
issues, with the exception of the right of refugees to return.  The 
dispute that Netanyahu is blowing out of proportion Q Qnatural 
growthQ of settlements -- is merely an attempt to stop Obama before 
the President raises it in the clash over borders and Jerusalem. 
Obama has bothered to make loud and clear to Netanyahu what Bill 
Clinton told his aides after their first meeting 13 years ago: QWhat 
the hell is he thinking?  Who is the leader of the superpower?Q  It 
appears Obama does not intend to make do with just talk. 
 
IV.  QCool It! 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (6/3): 
QObama is reportedly planning a major Washington policy address next 
month detailing his approach to Arab-Israel peacemaking.  Those who 
want to manipulate the environment to Israel's detriment will 
continue to foster an ambiance of crisis. But those who want what's 
best for Israel should be working in the opposite direction.  Our 
government can create a better atmosphere by permanently dismantling 
unauthorized outposts; reiterating Israel's Qno new settlements 
policy, and rethinking the wisdom of refusing to endorse previous 
Israeli governments' policy on the two-state solution.  Can we ask 
Obama to honor understandings about settlement blocs reached by 
Israel with his predecessor when we are not honoring agreements his 
predecessor reached with us?  Once we have taken these steps, we can 
feel more comfortable about disagreeing with other Obama policies 
without seeming to be disagreeable. 
 
¶V.  "Honey, They Switched the Presidents" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel and Palestinian affairs 
correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in HaQaretz (6/3): QThe U.S. 
administration is paying a hefty tuition to understand the region. 
Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Beirut just before the Lebanese 
elections was seen as a glaring attempt at intervening in the 
democratic process; it played right into Hizbullah's hands.  Obama's 
avoidance of a specific date for ending the dialogue with Iran is 
perceived in some moderate Arab countries as a mistake and display 
of weakness.  Will Obama's charm also stand him in good stead 
tomorrow in Cairo?  Perhaps.  But the President might wake up on 
Friday to find that his country is still extremist Islam's greatest 
enemy. 
 
VI.  QBarack Obama in My Hometown 
 
Daniel Dagan, the Berlin correspondent of Israel Broadcasting 
Authority (Israel Radio and TV), wrote in The Jerusalem Post (6/3): 
QThe dramatic events now unfolding in my native town offer a good 
opportunity to put a straight question not just to Mubarak and other 
Arab and Muslim leaders, but also to Obama: When you address the 
problem of refugees forced to leave their homes as a consequence of 
the Arab-Israeli conflict  -- as surely you will -- do you intend to 
consider all the refugees affected by this ongoing confrontation? 
Why have you failed until now to mention the 1 million Jews who fled 
Arab countries and sought a new home in Israel?  Why have you 
ignored the fate of these large, ancient communities across the Arab 
and the Muslim world that have all but disappeared?  Why don't you 
ever mention me?.... A truthful approach is also important in order 
to tackle other problems facing many Muslim nations -- problems 
which are far more serious and pressing than the conflict with 
Israel: poverty, technological backwardness, the status of women, 
and the widespread abuse of religious values to promote violence So 
to get me inspired -- which Obama definitely can do -- he may choose 
to depart from the text prepared by his speechwriters.  He may want 
to tell his audience some plain truths about the state of the Muslim 
world and about practical ways to seek progress. 
 
CUNNINGHAM