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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Visit of U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel and the 
Palestinian Authority 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs conversation with 
President Obama, the visit of U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East 
Peace George Mitchell to Israel, or related matters. 
 
Major media described a telephone conversation that took place 
yesterday between the President and Netanyahu.  Both Yediot and 
Maariv reported that Obama told Netanyahu that he is waiting with 
great interest for his speech next week.  Yediot bannered: 
QConciliation Call between Netanyahu and ObamaQ and Maariv: QObama 
to Netanyahu: Waiting for [Your] Speech.Q  Yediot quoted Israeli 
diplomatic sources as saying that through his call, the President 
expressed his desire that Netanyahu will deliver a moderate speech. 
 Akin to other media, HaQaretz quoted sources close to the PM as 
saying that Netanyahu will consult all Likud Knesset members ahead 
of his speech.  Yediot quoted Netanyahu associates as saying that 
the Americans understand that they went too far and that in the 
final analysis, Netanyahu is the United StatesQ partner.  HaQaretz 
quoted Netanyahu's confidants as saying that the PM believes that 
President Obama wants a confrontation with Israel, based on Obama's 
speech in Cairo last week.  The Netanyahu associates are further 
quoted as saying that, in Netanyahu's opinion, the Americans believe 
an open controversy with Israel would serve the Obama 
administration's main objective of improving U.S. relations with the 
Arab world. 
 
Israel Radio quoted a White House spokesman as saying that the 
President stresses his commitment to IsraelQs security. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that QMitchellQs first endeavor upon 
landing in Israel Monday night was to try and lower the volume in 
the U.S. dispute over settlement construction.  The Jerusalem Post 
and Yediot cited Sen. MitchellQs denial through the U.S. Embassy of 
media reports that he had said that Qthe Israelis lied to us all 
these years.  ItQs over.Q  He called the reports Qa total 
fabrication.Q  The Jerusalem Post wrote that MitchellQs comments 
indicate what appears to be a growing sensitivity in the State 
Department to what it feels are inaccurate quotes by senior U.S. 
officials that are heating up the atmosphere between the U.S. and 
Israel over the settlement issue.  Maariv quoted Israeli diplomatic 
sources as saying yesterday that it appears that Netanyahu will 
agree to a formula that will allow natural growth to continue only 
in the large blocs of settlements expected to remain under Israeli 
sovereignty in a future agreement, but not in isolated settlements. 
 Maariv quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that this is 
apparently NetanyahuQs Qred line.Q  HaQaretz wrote that Mitchell 
reportedly told former Meretz Party leader Yossi Beilin that he 
would like to commence negotiations on the core issues of the 
final-status agreement as soon as possible.  HaQaretz further 
reported: QMitchell is also expected to raise the possibility of 
resuming negotiations on the Syrian track.  With this in mind, Fred 
Hoff, Mitchell's chief of staff and a Syria expert, is expected to 
arrive in Israel, too.  Another matter expected to top the agenda 
during the meetings is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. 
 Netanyahu and [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak will brief Mitchell 
about Wednesday's scheduled special cabinet meeting on the subject, 
expected to result in a decision to lift restrictions on importing 
foodstuffs and other goods into the Strip.  The cabinet is also 
expected to lift the ban on exports. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday PA President Mahmoud Abbas met with 
Yossi Beilin at the Muqata'a government compound in Ramallah, where 
the Palestinian leader expressed his satisfaction with the results 
of his White House meeting with President Obama two weeks ago. 
"Washington has changed its attitude toward the Palestinians 
completely," Abbas reportedly told Beilin.  During their 
conversation, Abbas said the PA intends to meet the U.S. demand to 
cease incitement against Israel by official Palestinian organs. 
"There are things that we need to correct in our official media and 
elsewhere," Abbas was quoted as saying.  "I am in favor of dealing 
with these issues.  But at the same time, Israel needs to address 
similar matters, too." 
 
Citing the AP, HaQaretz reported that yesterday the deputy head of 
Hamas's political wing, Moussa Abu Marzouk, urged Obama to talk 
directly with the militant group, saying that Hamas represents the 
Palestinian people and the U.S. President's drive for Mideast peace 
will fail without it.  Abu Marzouk also said that Hamas would not 
renounce violence.  The U.S. and its European allies also want Hamas 
to recognize Israel, which it also refuses to do.  Abu Marzouk was 
quoted as saying that the Obama administration should change these 
positions, "because they know that without Hamas, their efforts will 
not succeed." 
 
Israel Radio quoted Tony Blair, the QuartetQs Middle East envoy, as 
saying after a Palestinian donors' conference in Oslo that Obama's 
push for a peace deal should be embraced by Arab states. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the Foreign Ministry 
voiced concern that Hizbullah might try to regain its lost prestige 
in the Lebanese elections with an attack along the border with 
Israel.  The newspaper also quoted an Israeli defense source as 
saying yesterday that Hizbullah failed to win the elections largely 
because of widespread dissatisfaction among the Lebanese people over 
the Second Lebanon War. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Syria has conveyed to Israel through the 
U.S. that it is interested in renewing Turkish-mediated 
negotiations. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Defense Minister Barak and 
Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe YaQalon will deliver major policy 
speeches before Netanyahu. 
 
The media reported that Netanyahu influenced the appointment of 
Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem and National Union MK Uri Ariel to 
the KnessetQs Judges Appointments Committee.  The media quoted 
left-wing politicians that this is a bad choice that is bound to 
influence the composition of the High Court of Justice. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a new video posted on the Internet 
featuring inebriated American Jewish youth in a Jerusalem bar 
spouting hate-filled sentiments against President Obama has garnered 
massive exposure and caused a firestorm in the media and the Jewish 
world. 
 
Yediot reported that three Israelis were chosen to participate in a 
project initiated by NASA, Google, and MIT, which is meant to 
present prospects about the world in 20 yearsQ time. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank, June 
8-10, 2009: 
--------------------------------------- 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QMess with Peace at Your Peril 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (6/9): QAnyone who asks, as 
usual, whether the new president is good or bad for the Jews will 
hear that there is no change in the general attitude toward Israel, 
but rather in the zeal for ending the conflict. Obama's United 
States does not want to have to choose between us and the Arabs. 
America's friendship for Israel still crosses party borders in 
Congress. And a wagging finger is warning the extremists that 
anyone who interferes with peace will pay the price.  This includes 
Israel's extreme right, which continues to cling to the insane idea 
that Israel's salvation lies only in holding on to the territories 
and outposts.  No one will deny, for example, that life will be 
better after Hizbullah's defeat in this week's elections.  The 
change Obama is proposing is not to Israel's detriment; rather, it 
seeks a swift agreement between us and the Palestinians.  This 
approach demands that Hamas recognize Israel and stop terror; it 
also demands that we stop building in the territories, take down the 
unapproved outposts and prepare for a plan of two states for two 
peoples.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no alternative but 
to adapt to the new reality, lest anyone who thwarts Obama's QYes we 
canQ be struck by lightning. 
 
II.  QYishai Must Be Reined In 
 
HaQaretz editorialized (6/9): QEvery sign suggesting an inkling of 
hope about a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians 
makes Shas chairman Eli Yishai try to outdo the extreme right wing 
for the title champion dissenter. From the Oslo 2 accords in 
September 1995 to the Annapolis process under the Olmert government, 
Shas has opposed every attempt to reach a compromise. Yishai 
prevented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from raising the issue of 
Jerusalem in final-status negotiations, and now he wants to 
transform the Interior Ministry under his aegis into a tool for 
expanding settlements and overtly challenging U.S. President Barack 
Obama. Yishai is  undermining his party's image as the protector 
of society's weak and downtrodden.  He is also trying to compete 
with Yisrael Beiteinu's racist campaign against Arab citizens in his 
demand that the right to annul Israeli citizenship be returned to 
his office -- a right the courts currently hold.  Yishai's 
statements require the Prime Minister to put the Interior Minister 
in his place immediately.  Benjamin Netanyahu must make clear that 
he opposes Yishai's statements and will allow no one to act 
unilaterally to expand the settlements.  Israel's interests are not 
tools in the hands of politicians acting out of considerations that 
have nothing to do with the public's broader good. 
 
III.  QAfraid of a Binational State? 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz (6/9): 
QAmerican pressure is penetrating the hearts of mainstream settlers. 
 People like Uri Elitzur -- who saw from a government office [as 
NetanyahuQs bureau chief in the Q90s] what many settlers do not see 
from the West Bank -- understand that Barack Obama has changed the 
rules of the game between the United States and Israel, and that 
despite the right's victory in the elections, the Palestinians are 
not planning to go anywhere.  What this means is that after 42 years 
of occupation, the time has come for the settlers to choose between 
Jewish land and a Jewish state.... On Friday, he debated Gadi 
Baltiansky, director general of the Geneva Initiative.... Elitzur 
rejected Obama's notion of a two-state solution, saying a 
Palestinian state in the 1967 borders would be a hotbed of terror. 
However, the status quo -- which, he said, means an apartheid state 
-- is also unacceptable to him.  So what does that leave?  A 
binational state. 
 
IV.  QAt Least an Israeli Initiative 
 
Columnist and former intelligence officer Amos Gilboa wrote in the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (6/9): QBefore ObamaQs Cairo speech, it 
was reported that he might adopt the QArab Peace InitiativeQ as part 
of a regional agreement.... But he didnQt.... The picture now 
emerging is the following: The Arab states are not prepared to 
change even one word in their initiative nor to make any gestures. 
It is not surprising that Obama is rebuking them.  However, the Arab 
initiative is alive and kicking.  What is missing is an Israeli 
initiative challenging it. 
 
¶V.  QNo Joy for Lebanon 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (6/9): 
QIt is good that Hizbullah did not achieve a better outcome [in the 
Lebanese elections].  Yet Israelis would be deluding themselves if 
they viewed the results as a substantive defeat for the Islamists. 
The harsh reality, the latest election results notwithstanding, is 
that Lebanon's radicalized Shi'ites are growing stronger and will 
need to be accommodated by the QvictoriousQ  forces of relative 
moderation.... It goes without saying that Shi'ite leaders will not 
honor their pledge to view the election as a referendum on continued 
QresistanceQ against Israel. Can Lebanon's fate yet be salvaged? 
Only if the West is prepared to do the heavy lifting required to 
block Tehran's drive for regional hegemony, and enforce UN Security 
Council resolutions 1559 and 1701 to stem weapons smuggling into 
Lebanon. 
CUNNINGHAM