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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1. Mideast 
 
¶2. Iran 
 
Block Quotes Only: 
------------------- 
¶1. Mideast 
 
 
I."Obama, the Fly and the Revolution" 
 
Senior columnist Yoel Marcus wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (6/23):  "Barack Obama's election campaign was the best 
show in America....  He is now in the fifth month of his presidency, 
and the world is anxiously waiting to see how he will solve global 
problems and maintain America's position as a world leader.  Yet for 
all his White House activity, Obama has kept his sense of humor and 
his popular touch. He was filmed killing a pesky fly with a single 
blow during an interview with CNBC....  He plays handball in the 
Oval Office, speaks on the phone with his legs on the table, is 
photographed in a chef's apron cooking up a presidential barbecue, 
and so forth. In between all this, Obama gave a 55-minute speech to 
the Islamic world at the University of Cairo, of which seven minutes 
were devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is not clear 
why he chose this theatrical manner and this particular venue to 
speak his piece. But it is even less clear what he hoped to achieve. 
That... the lion and the lamb would lie down together? What did he 
think, that the settlements are really the heart of the conflict 
between us and the Palestinians, and not their opposition to 
Israel's very existence? And while we are on the subject, why did he 
not mention that they refused to accept the two-thirds of this land 
that the United Nations allocated them on November 29, 1947, and 
instead sentenced both us and themselves to decades of bloodshed?... 
 Obama placed his vision on the table and made it clear he is 
waiting for an answer. But three weeks after his oratory in Cairo, 
the Arabs have yet to bat an eyelid, because they interpreted 
Obama's speech as being aimed solely at Israel. Netanyahu labored 
over his response like someone suffering from constipation.... In a 
carefully thought out speech..., he got to the heart of the problem: 
He is willing to recognize a Palestinian state, albeit a 
demilitarized one, in exchange for recognition of Israel as a Jewish 
state. He thereby essentially recognized the principle of two states 
for two peoples....  But the Palestinian response, contrarian and 
infuriating as always, came from Saeb Erekat: "Even in 1,000 years, 
we will not recognize the Jewish state." ... Thus, judged by the 
test of results, Obama's speech proved empty, unless, in the wake of 
his prose, a comprehensive American plan for ending the conflict is 
secretly being cooked up.... Obama is a superb performer, but he 
will be tested not on rhetoric, but on implementation, his ability 
to stop the spread of radical Islam in our region. And, on a smaller 
scale, his ability to force the Palestinians to accept the idea of 
two states for two peoples." 
 
II. "Don't Hold Your Breath" 
 
Moshe Arens, a former Likud member, a former Minister of Defense and 
Foreign Affairs, and a former Israeli Ambassador to the US, wrote in 
the independent, left-leaning Ha'arez (6/23):  "His [Netanyahu] 
speech may have brought a feeling of satisfaction to all those who 
have been preaching the merits of the two-state solution, but they 
should not hold their breath in anticipation of its 
implementation.... What is the significance of Netanyahu's speech? 
Speeches rarely change the reality on the ground, and it is the 
reality on the ground that will constrain progress. Hamas controls 
Gaza and is amassing weapons with the objective of terrorizing 
Israel's civilian population. And Mahmoud Abbas does not control 
Judea and Samaria, despite the assistance he receives from Israel, 
the United States and the European Union. He is not in a position to 
implement any agreements he might sign. Palestinian terror remains 
the major obstacle....  The task at hand is to suppress Palestinian 
terror. When that task is accomplished a number of options for a 
peaceful settlement in the area will begin to open up. The two-state 
solution will be only one of them.... There was a time before the 
State of Israel was established when the Jewish people had no choice 
but to take orders from others. That time has passed. Israel's 
leaders must steer a course that is in the best long-term interests 
of Israel. We will gladly accept advice, but not orders." 
 
 ¶2. Iran 
 
¶I. "Obama's Odd Response to Iran" 
 
Yaakov Ahimeir, anchorman and editor of the weekly international 
news program "Roim Olam" on Israel Television's Channel One, wrote 
in the conservative, pluralist Israel Hayom(6/23): "The free world 
waited for the president's words, and he, even in the more assertive 
statements he made on Sunday about events in Iran, is still 
projecting silence.... True, Obama warned the Iranian government and 
asked it to put an end to acts of violence and the illegal steps 
taken against its citizens. But his statement was only made after 
pressure on him from home mounted, from the political arena. This 
silence, incidentally, was explained by his not wanting to meddle in 
Iran's domestic affairs. Excuse me? Since when does the US, the 
superpower, refrain from meddling in the domestic affairs of foreign 
countries? In the past it meddled in Iran a great deal.... But in 
the affair of the uprising in Iran, Obama suddenly forgot his art of 
rhetoric that won him applause after the "Cairo speech."...  His 
limp statements are only the natural continuation of a policy that 
he wishes to pursue and which he declared back during his race for 
the presidency: the policy of dialogue with the regime of President 
Ahmadinejad. But this policy is collapsing even before it began to 
be implemented and before any quid pro quo was received from Iran 
regarding its nuclear program.... To the explanation that blatant 
presidential meddling, even rhetoric, will "play into the hands" of 
the regime in Iran, it can be replied that a person who called the 
US the 'great Satan' cannot not resent an ideological response." 
 
 
II.   "The Obama Effect" 
Commentator Caroline B. Glick wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (6/23):  "It took US President Barack Obama eight 
days to issue a clear statement of support for the millions of 
pro-freedom demonstrators throughout Iran risking their lives to 
oppose the tyranny of the mullahs. He offered no American support of 
any kind for the protesters. Indeed, it is hard to say that in 
making his statement, the American president was speaking primarily 
as an American....  According to several prominent Western bloggers 
with direct ties to the protesters, Obama's statement left the 
Iranians underwhelmed and angry....But as Cooper [Helen Cooper, the 
New York Times' diplomatic correspondent, 6/21] sees it, the 
protesters owe their ability to oppose the regime that just stole 
their votes and has trampled their basic human rights for 30 years 
to Obama and the so-called "Obama effect."... The real Obama effect 
on world affairs relates to the US media's unprecedented willingness 
to abandon the basic responsibilities of a free press in favor of 
acting as propagandists for the president. From Cooper, who pretends 
that Obama's unreciprocated open hand to the mullahs is what 
empowered the protesters, to Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, who 
referred to Obama earlier this month as a "sort of God," without a 
hint of irony, the US media have mobilized to serve the needs of the 
president....  The most important repercussion of the US media's 
propagandistic reporting is that the American public is denied the 
ability to understand events as they unfold....  If Times readers 
were permitted to know just how demented Khamenei's views of the 
world are, they might come to the conclusion that Obama's intense 
desire to sit down with him, and his constant pandering to Iran's 
"supreme leader," are ill-advised and counterproductive,... that it 
is impossible to achieve a meeting of the minds with a man who calls 
Americans "morons" and leads his subordinate government officials in 
chants of "Death to America," "Death to Britain" and "Death to 
Israel."... As far as his media servants are concerned, his "mere 
election" is responsible for everything positive that has occurred 
in the US and throughout the world since last November....  In free 
societies, the media's primary responsibilities are to report 
current events to the public, and place those events into an 
historical context to enable the public to understand how and why 
they occurred.... Obama and his media flacks would have us believe 
that by speaking of American values and by distinguishing friend 
from foe, former president 
George W. Bush raised the hackles of the world against America. 
Perhaps there is some truth to this assertion. Perhaps there isn't. 
What they fail to consider is that by genuflecting to tyrants, Obama 
has made the US an international laughingstock. And unlike the US 
media, they realize that America has no understudy." 
CUNNINGHAM