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DE RUEHTV #1434/01 1831136
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P 021136Z JUL 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001434 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Yediot reported that DM Ehud Barak presented to Special Envoy George 
Mitchell a series of demands of the Arab world and the Palestinians 
in exchange for a temporary settlement freeze -- a Palestinian 
commitment  that the negotiations towards a permanent-status 
agreement will lead to an Qend of conflict;Q gestures by Arab states 
to normalize relations; an expression of willingness by the 
Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state; and a 
Palestinian indication that the negotiations will lead to a 
demilitarized state.  Yediot also reported that PM Benjamin 
Netanyahu told the EU ambassadors to Israel on June 30 that Qmany 
Israelis are willing to make many concessions to the Palestinians 
but that there is one thing they are not disposed to: being 
Qsuckers.Q  Therefore, if someone wants me to freeze settlements, I 
expect the Palestinians to make concessions in exchange.Q  Speaking 
on Israel Radio this morning, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon 
(Yisrael Beiteinu) said that Israel will not freeze natural growth 
in the settlements and that Israel could not be required to take 
immediate action while the other side was unwilling to take even one 
small step.  Ayalon told the radio that any move undertaken by 
Israel concerning the settlements would be part of a regional 
settlement.  He said that Israel and the U.S. view the final status 
arrangement eye to eye and are continuing to hold talks.  Israel 
Hayom quoted a senior Israeli diplomatic source as saying that the 
Bark-Mitchell meeting succeeded in allaying fears recently raised at 
the Prime MinisterQs Office, including an alleged desire by 
President Obama to topple the Netanyahu government and that Obama 
planned to impose a regional peace plan on Israel.  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that yesterday settler leaders promised to lobby 
against any concessions that Netanyahu might consider making to the 
Americans on the issue of settlement construction when he meets with 
Mitchell in the next few weeks. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that visiting Congressman Robert Wexler 
(D-FL), a Qclose political ally of President Obama and a stalwart 
Israel supporter,Q told the newspaper yesterday that Israel would 
lose nothing, and potentially gain everything, by agreeing to a 
temporary moratorium on construction in the settlements for a short 
period of time.  Wexler was also quoted as saying that the U.S. is 
urging 22 Arab countries to take significant steps now towards 
normalization with Israel.  HaQaretz quoted a senior source in 
Jerusalem as saying yesterday that the U.S. administration has not 
been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take 
steps toward normalizing relations with Israel.  The source said 
President Obama's recent meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia 
did not produce a commitment to encourage the other Arab states to 
begin normalization. "In such a situation, the Americans can't 
continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand 
that Israel freeze settlement construction," the source was quoted 
as saying.  In response, a senior White House source said talks with 
the Arab states are continuing with the aim of obtaining a 
commitment to make gestures toward Israel, and there is still hope 
for progress. 
 
Leading media reported that last night PM Netanyahu attended a 
Fourth of July celebration at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to 
Israel James Cunningham, and said that the bond between Israel and 
the U.S. was still strong.  The PM declared that the sentiments 
voiced by President Obama, who said in Cairo last month that his 
country's bond with Israel was unbreakable, were true.  The PM also 
warned that the world order could break down if tyrannical regimes 
were to obtain weapons of mass destruction.  However, freedom has 
usually triumphed over repressive regimes, the PM stressed.  "The 
greatest danger facing our world today is that this historical 
consistency of the triumph and spread of democracy could change if 
the world's worst regimes acquire the world's most dangerous 
weapons," he was quoted as saying.  Israel Hayom and other media 
quoted Ambassador Cunningham as saying that the bond between the 
U.S. and Israel is strong and that the U.S. is committed to the 
security of Israel and of its citizens. 
 
The media reported that yesterday Iranian delegates walked out of an 
interfaith conference in Kazakhstan when President Shimon Peres got 
up to speak.  No other delegates left the hall.  In his speech, 
Peres urged King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and other Arab leaders to 
meet with him to discuss a regional peace initiative.  Noting that 
Abdullah was the author of the Arab peace initiative, Peres 
declared, "Together, we can realize your vision, the vision of all 
those who believe in peace and justice."  Israel Hayom reported that 
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Abdulmohsin Al-Turki, the Saudi representative 
at the conference, responded to PeresQs call by saying:QReligion can 
contribute to intercultural dialogue, but we do not see positive 
signs on IsraelQs side regarding cooperation. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Noam Shalit will ask a UN committee on Monday 
to declare the abduction of his son, Gilad Shalit, by Hamas in 2006 
a war crime. 
 
Leading media reported that Amnesty International (AI) has issued a 
comprehensive, voluminous report condemning Israel and Hamas for 
their role in Operation Cast Lead.  AI accused both sides of 
carrying out war crimes.  The leading news Web site Ynet and Israel 
Radio responded by saying the operation followed a long period of 
bombardment of thousands of Israelis, that the Palestinians used 
civilians as human shields, that the AI report presents a twisted 
version of the rules of war, and that the IDF strove to minimize 
loses to civilian lives. 
 
The media reported that yesterday the High Court of Justice 
yesterday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to press harsher charges 
against a commanding officer who presided over the shooting of a 
bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainee last September.  The 
victim, Ashraf Abu Rahmeh, 27, was not seriously hurt.  He was 
detained during a protest against the construction of Israel's 
security fence in the West Bank.  The soldier and officer said they 
had intended only to frighten him. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, due to rising production costs, 
the Israel Navy is shelving the Lockheed MartinQbuilt Littoral 
Combat Ship (LCS) in favor of a German-designed and Israeli-built 
corvette. 
 
Maariv reported that Israel is late in producing biometric 
passports, as demanded by the U.S. and EU.  In an unrelated 
development, leading media reported that the interior minister may 
refuse to extend the passport of an Israeli who is classified as an 
evader of military service, according to a decision handed down last 
week by Jerusalem District Court Judge Noam Sohlberg. 
 
Maariv reported that DM Ehud Barak has recently prevented a meeting 
between Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi during 
the past three months. 
 
HaQaretz quoted IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky as saying at a 
conference two weeks ago that women ought not to serve in the army. 
HaQaretz reported that QOz,Q the newly created task force dealing 
with illegal immigration, carried out its first raid yesterday, 
rounding up 300 foreign laborers in Tel AvivQs southern 
neighborhoods. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the American carrier U.S. Airways is 
commencing service between the U.S. and Israel.  Today it 
inaugurates a regular line, flying nonstop between Ben-Gurion 
Airport and Philadelphia. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Tough Love" 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (7/2): QThe United States is a superpower.  If the United 
States wants a broken, battered Israel, it will get a broken, 
battered Israel.  This is a collision between a tank and an ATV, 
between a stealth bomber and a glider.  But the question the White 
House ought to be asking itself is whether riding roughshod over 
Israel serves its goals -- whether a crushed Israel is an American 
interest.  The answer is unequivocal: no.  Already, Israel's public 
humiliation is hurting America.  It is making even moderate Arabs 
unwilling to contribute anything to advancing the diplomatic 
process. And without a significant Arab contribution, there will be 
no diplomatic process.  But a continued tough love policy toward 
Israel is liable to do damage that is far more serious -- and 
irreversible.  Without a strong Israel, a Middle East peace can 
neither be established nor survive.  Without a strong Israel, the 
Middle East will go up in flames. The hour is late. Both Obama's 
government and Benjamin Netanyahu's government have made serious 
mistakes the last few months.  But ultimately, both Obama and 
Netanyahu are worthy leaders who want to do the right thing. 
Therefore, the two must stop the dangerous game they are playing. 
The time has come to replace tough love with sensible, grown-up 
love. 
 
II.  "Oral Law" 
 
Visiting Professor of Political Science at Haifa University Avraham 
Ben-Zvi, an expert in U.S.-Israeli relations, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (7/2): QSecretary of State Hillary 
ClintonQs latest utterances denying the existence of oral 
understandings between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon in 
May 2003 regarding construction in settlements is a cause of 
amazement.  Her approach contradicts the testimony of the Deputy 
National Security Advisor in the Bush advisor, Elliott Abrams, who 
has recently confirmed the existence of the understandings that 
state that Israel was granted an OK to build inside the existing 
settlements, provided this would not involve the confiscation of 
Palestinian land or an increase in economic incentives for the 
settlers.  Attempts to minimize the value and significance of oral 
understandings  runs against one of the cornerstones of traditional 
U.S. diplomacy. Not only have the U.S. leaders believed that even 
in the complex and subdued global environment, codes of credibility 
can and must be maintained, but they were also aware of the fact 
that it is inevitable to anchor all aspects of foreign policy in 
signed documents. ClintonQs claim that if oral understandings were 
achieved between the Bush administration and the Sharon government, 
they do not obligate Obama, is problematic too.  Those remarks are 
akin to turning a blind eye to the continuity of written or oral 
treaties, agreements, and understandings that are supposed to 
persist beyond the term of any administration. 
 
 
 
 
 
III.  "Without Any Tricks" 
 
Shaul Arieli, a member of board of the Council for Peace and 
Security and one of the founders of the Geneva Initiative, wrote in 
HaQaretz (7/2): QIn negotiations on a final-status agreement, it 
would be possible to reach understandings with the United States and 
the Palestinians on the completion of projects that are almost 
finished -- for instance, in Ma'aleh Adumim -- and new construction 
within the built-up areas of certain settlements, mainly Modi'in 
Ilit and Betar Ilit, which abut the Green Line. But to demand more 
than that in exchange for Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University 
-- for instance, the trick of relocating Migron settlers to Adam or 
Qhigh-rise constructionQ -- looks like an attempt to put one over on 
the Americans.  And the Americans are quite familiar with the Sasson 
and Spiegel reports on the settlements and outposts. 
 
IV.  "The Main Thing Is That There Was a Speech" 
 
Liberal columnist Uzi Benziman wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (7/2): QThe relations of hostility between Israel and the 
Arab world, of which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among them, 
will not be resolved in a retail approach; to resolve them, 
comprehensive and energetic root canal treatment must be taken.  The 
American President's speech at Cairo University ostensibly 
recognized this and ostensibly heralded the intent to handle the 
challenge this way.  But in practice, the U.S. administration is 
nitpicking with Israel and with the Palestinians over words and 
numbers (what is Qnatural growthQ and how many refugees will realize 
the Qright of returnQ).  Ehud Barak returned from Washington pleased 
(that, in any case, is the pose he is trying to convey) because, 
ostensibly, there appear to be understandings over the extent of 
construction in the settlements, and Abu Mazen leaves his meeting in 
the White House happy because the President expressed adherence to 
the Roadmap and promised to act to remove roadblocks in the West 
Bank.  With the current American approach, the handling of the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been converted into small change 
and a dynamic of procrastination and floundering is developing that 
succeeded, for 42 years, in dissolving all the initiatives to 
resolve it. 
 
 
 
 
¶V.  QMitchell-Barak 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Lord wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe (7/2): QAssuming that Israel and the United States 
will soon conclude the affair [of settlement construction], one can 
expect harsher stages to appear in the future on the diplomatic 
agenda.  Obama showed the Palestinians that they donQt need to do 
anything, chiefly not enter negotiations with the government of 
Israel.  It looks as if he views the QsolutionQ of the conflict as 
the imposition of moves on Israel exclusively -- as Israel is 
supposed to get something in exchange from the Arab states, not from 
the Palestinians.  It will be very difficult to manage the next 
moves without reaching a crisis between the two countries.  Israel 
must already engage in propaganda moves ahead of the coming 
confrontations with the Obama administration. 
 
CUNNINGHAM