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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1. PM Netanyahu's Speech 
 
¶2. Iran 
 
¶3. Mideast 
Block Quotes Only: 
------------- 
¶1. PM Netanyahu's Speech 
 
 
¶I. "Netanyahu's revolution" 
 
Ari Shavit, senior commentator, wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (6/18):  "A week ago my piece about the 
seven-word formula - a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside a 
Jewish Israeli state - appeared on this page. Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu adopted this formula, making it the cornerstone 
of Israeli policy.... However, he added two fundamental elements to 
the formula: a solid international guarantee that the Palestinian 
state is indeed demilitarized, and a clear Palestinian recognition 
of Israel's being a Jewish state....He decided to break out of the 
corner and take the initiative. Netanyahu accepted the principle of 
dividing the land in a controlled manner to avoid an imposed 
partition. In order to prevent a swift, dangerous retreat to the 
1967 borders he proposed a painful compromise. Thus he found himself 
uttering the two taboo words he had sworn he would never say: 
Palestinian state.... He realized that neither the world nor the 
Israeli public understand what Israel is fighting over.... 
Netanyahu grasped that when the battle line is the occupation and 
the settlements, Israel is in an inferior position.... Unlike them 
he is not trying to engineer a practical arrangement, but rather to 
establish peace on a clear, solid ideological foundation. ... He may 
or may not succeed.... He might lead the country to peace, or bring 
it to war. But he made a move of revolutionary significance. 
Netanyahu not only took a courageous personal step, he generated an 
intellectual, ideological turnabout.  With the seven-word formula he 
changed the discourse on the conflict from its very foundations. He 
set an unprecedented challenge before the Palestinian nation and the 
international community. After the Bar-Ilan speech the question on 
the world agenda is not only when and where the Israelis will 
withdraw, but what the Palestinians, Arabs, Europeans and Americans 
will do to ensure that the great Israeli withdrawal does not end in 
disaster." 
 
II.  "He Also Considers Them a Nuisance" 
 
Veteran columnist Uzi Benziman wrote in popular, independent Maariv 
(6/18):  "The legitimacy of the settlement enterprise is already 
being eroded, not only in the eyes of Israeli society as a whole, 
but also in the eyes of the right wing camp itself....  When the 
prime minister-who is, as we recall, the Likud leader-declares his 
recognition of a Palestinian state on part of Judea and Samaria, he 
necessarily recognizes the possibility that part of the existing 
Israeli settlements will be compelled to hand over their land to 
this state...  He admits before the whole world that the settlements 
are a nuisance, an illegitimate enterprise, and ways must be found 
now to minimize their damage.... The practical attitude of the 
Israeli governments towards the settlements pushes the state into an 
absurd situation: Even though an absolute majority of Israelis and 
their elected leaders recognize the burden that the settlements 
impose on the state and its welfare, they continue to maintain and 
cultivate them.  This paradoxical conduct is made possible for known 
reasons...(the fear of governments over the generations to clash 
with the settler public, repressing the probability that a 
Palestinian state will be established one day, the cocky belief that 
it is possible to fool the entire world all the time), but the time 
has come to break free of it....  Netanyahu's speech this week 
determined what the settlements were for Israeli society; it now 
remains to determine the price of their evacuation." 
 
 
 
 
 
¶2. Iran 
 
 I:  "West Failed to Anticipate Magnitude of Iranian  Protest" 
 
Alex Fishman, Military Commentator, wrote in the mass-circulation, 
independent Yediot Aharonot (6/18): "Why do we have the feeling that 
all those Western experts and intelligence officials... simply 
missed a number of processes that were afoot within Iranian society 
and fell asleep on the job? We can only hope that the information in 
the West, and mainly in Israel, about the Iranian nuclear program is 
a bit more up to date and accurate....  The current unrest is being 
directed by conservative elites that are fighting against one 
another.... If it forcibly suppresses the demonstrations, Iran will 
enter a state of perpetual unrest.... The village fool in this story 
is President Barack Obama. That man thinks that he is playing the 
role of president of the United States in some Hollywood disaster 
movie. He showed weakness in dealing with the Iranians when he 
passed up on Dennis Ross's services as his representative in talks 
with Iran. The Iranians demanded that Ross be ousted, and Obama 
capitulated, despite his commitment not to allow any preconditions 
to be set before the talks were held. In addition to Dennis Ross's 
ouster, the Iranians set another eight preconditions that they are 
demanding be met before the talks are begun. Then he threatened to 
impose harsher sanctions against Iran without first coordinating 
that course of action with the Russians. Russia laughed behind his 
back and has been sabotaging the process. Then he announced in Cairo 
that he was prepared, actually, to allow the Iranians to develop 
their nuclear capabilities on their own for peaceful purposes. 
Behind the scenes, the Americans are trying to sell the Iranians the 
old and idiotic idea that Iran will develop its nuclear program on 
Russian soil under Russian supervision. In tandem, the Americans are 
trying to sell the Iranians an idea by the World Bank about a 
peaceful nuclear program that will supply Iran with the fissionable 
materials it needs. And today, in light of the events underway in 
Iran, we see the leader of the free world stammering a few 
non-committal and irrelevant statements. That too is something that 
Israel needs to take into account." 
 
II:  "Iran Youth Bring Promise of Change to Islamic Regime" 
 
Zvi Bar'el, senior Arab affairs commentator, wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (6/18): "Iran's young generation 
- which makes up 60 percent of the population and never experienced 
the Islamic Revolution nor identifies with the ideology behind it - 
is channeling all of its bottled-up economic, social and democratic 
frustrations into the current demonstrations. At this point, U.S. 
President Barack Obama's rationale that Iran's policy won't 
radically change whether its president is Mousavi or Ahmadinejad is 
of secondary importance. Protests are without a doubt in favor of 
one symbol over another; in favor of a Green Revolution and a new 
dream, rather than for an Islamic Revolution.... At this crucial 
point, Khamenei has to decide how to react. He has three options: To 
sacrifice Ahmadinejad; to clash with protesters and shed blood; or 
to find a worthy compromise acceptable to Mousavi. It is highly 
doubtful that Khamenei will call for new elections, but he might ask 
Ahmadinejad to make a compromise "for the sake of national unity and 
the revolution's honor."...  Such protests can get out of hand, be 
taken over by local leaders or simply dissipate - an outcome that 
would be a long-term defeat for reformists.... The expectation is 
that the regime will unbridle the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and 
order a forcible clampdown on the protests. The chances he will call 
for a compromise are also still considerable." 
 
¶3.  Midest 
 
 I."In the Aftermath of his Cairo Speech 
 
Dov Contorer, contributor, wrote in the Russian-language 
conservative daily Vesty (June 18):"In the aftermath of his Cairo 
speech, the US President came back home and posed for a picture 
during his telephone conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister, 
with his shoe soles facing the camera (and the interlocutor [PM 
Netanyahu]).  Israelis can't say anything, because 'this is American 
style', however the Arabs will understand immediately how President 
Obama is treating PM Netanyahu....  This was a thought-through 
gesture that President Obama would have never let himself do to the 
Saudi King or President Mubarak. ... The Israeli side should find a 
way to convey its dissatisfaction to the Americans.  If we don't 
want to have to deal with not only pressure, but also with growing 
political disrespect from the White House, we have to define what 
Israel believes to be unacceptable [behavior] towards it and its 
Prime Minister." 
 
CUNNINGHAM