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P 061128Z JUL 09
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Iran 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media highlighted remarks made yesterday by Vice President Joe 
Biden in Baghdad on ABC-TV's "This Week" program: "We cannot dictate 
to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they 
make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're 
existentially threatened."  Some Israeli commentators interpreted 
Biden's work as a non-endorsement of an Israeli action.   Ha'aretz 
reported: "Israel is urging the United States and other countries to 
start preparing now for the possibility that Washington's proposed 
dialogue with Iran will fail, by readying a 'Plan B' that includes 
'paralyzing sanctions' and other measures against Tehran.  The U.S. 
has resisted this idea so far."  The Jerusalem Post reported that 
the Israel Air Force plans to participate in aerial exercises in the 
U.S. and Europe in the coming months with the aim of training its 
pilots for long-range flights.   On July 5 major media quoted Mossad 
Director Meir Dagan as saying in an interview with London's Sunday 
Times that Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli warplanes to fly over its 
territory in order to attack Iran's nuclear installations.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe  quoted sources in PM Netanyahu's office as saying 
that the British newspaper's report is baseless.  Israel Radio 
reported that a senior Iranian official warned against an Israeli 
attack on his country's nuclear installations. 
 
Maariv reported that today's meting in London between DM Ehud Barak 
and Special Envoy George Mitchell will be overshadowed by a new 
argument: While Israel claims that 23 unauthorized settler outposts 
remain, the American list based on UN statistics includes 100 
outposts.  Maariv reported that Barak will tell Mitchell that Israel 
will continue to build what it has already started, but will not put 
up new buildings.  This refers to over 2,000 housing units in 
various settlements, including Kiryat Sefer and Beitar Ilit. 
Ha'aretz reported that, in his meetings with Mitchell, Barak 
encouraged the envoy to engage in "shuttle diplomacy" between 
Jerusalem and a number of Arab capitals to draft a regional peace 
plan.  On July 5, The Jerusalem Post reported that President Obama 
urged Morocco to lead an Arab-Israeli rapprochement. 
 
Leading media reported that today in Geneva, Gilad Shalit's father 
Noam will testify before the Human Rights Council-appointed 
fact-finding mission to investigate international human rights and 
humanitarian law violations related to the recent conflict in the 
Gaza Strip, which is headed by Judge Richard Goldstone.  Maariv 
quoted Israeli sources as saying that the session will constitute a 
"show trial" on Israel's actions during Operation Cast Lead.  Yediot 
quoted Noam Shalit as saying that his son's abduction constitutes a 
war crime.  Israel Radio quoted him as saying that it is a violation 
of international treaties. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that PM Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of Likud 
Party ministers yesterday that no deal about settlement construction 
had been reached with Washington yet, "and all the reports saying we 
have agreed to freeze construction in the settlements are the sole 
responsibility of those who publish them."  Leading media quoted 
Netanyahu as saying at a separate meeting of the full cabinet that 
his government had "brought about a national consensus on the idea 
of two states for two peoples."  On July 3, Yediot bannered a 
supposed U.S. plan that would allow Israeli airliners to fly over 
Arab countries in exchange for a settlement freeze. 
 
On July 5, Ha'aretz reported that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are 
pressing Syria to demarcate its border with Lebanon, in order to 
allow for the beginning of an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed 
Sheba Farms, straddling the border between Lebanon and the Golan. 
 
Former PM Ariel Sharon's top diplomatic advisor Dov Weisglass was 
quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post (July 3) 
that Netanyahu must endorse the Roadmap or risk the U.S. imposing 
something worse. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the Construction and Housing Web site as 
saying that first-time home buyers can receive a bigger mortgage if 
they move to settlements such as Itamar and Elon Moreh as opposed to 
the city of Ashkelon. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted defense officials as saying on July 6 that 
DM Ehud Barak has approved the transfer of 1,000 automatic weapons 
to the PA.  Following ballistic tests, the IDF will be able to know 
if one of the weapons is used in a terrorist attack. 
Ha'aretz quoted the Israeli Interior Ministry as saying that Mairead 
Corrigan Maguire, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Cynthia 
McKinney, a former U.S. congresswoman, are among eight people to be 
released today and expelled after having sailed on a protest ship 
heading to Gaza from Cyprus. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that IAF fighter jets and transport planes to "get 
a workout" at U.S. bases.  The Jerusalem Post reported that, under 
pressure from the Pentagon, Israel Aerospace Industries has been 
forced out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company 
to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role 
fighter jets to the Indian Air Force. 
 
Maariv reported that hundreds of Hamas activists are defecting to 
the ranks of Al Qaida-affiliated organizations. 
 
Maariv reported that the Israel Land Fund, directed by Jewish 
millionaire Aryeh King, is seeking tenants for a luxury house in the 
East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, which belongs to King. 
The newspaper says that there is a clear goal behind the initiative 
-- to settle Jews in the Arab neighborhood.  On July 5, Maariv 
reported that on Thursday the Jerusalem Municipality approved plans 
to build 20 housing units in the Shepherd's Hotel, on the slopes of 
Mount Scopus, in the heart of an Arab neighborhood.  As Maariv 
reported some six months ago, this project was promoted by Jerusalem 
Mayor Nir Barkat.  Maariv's report produced intense pressure on 
Barkat to suspend the plans, mainly from the direction of Secretary 
of State Hillary Clinton. 
 
Yediot reported that Doron Eilat, a 17-year-old Israeli from Rishon 
Lezion, met President Obama in the White House during a convention 
of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Back on the Agenda" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/6): "Biden's words should not 
be understood as American permission for Israel to bomb Iran's 
nuclear facilities.  Rather, they were a veiled warning to Iran that 
if it does not embark on a serious dialogue with President Barack 
Obama's administration, it is liable to be attacked.  An Israeli 
government source said Biden's statement was not coordinated with 
Israel.  But it clearly serves Netanyahu, who sees halting Iran's 
nuclear program as a historic mission.... Israeli officials argue 
that Iran's apparently fraudulent election and its brutal 
suppression of the subsequent demonstrations reveal the 
pointlessness of talking with Tehran and the need for stiffer 
sanctions.  The statements of the last few days are meant to bolster 
this message with hints of possible military action." 
 
II.  "No One Is a Sucker" 
 
In the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot, senior columnist 
Nahum Barnea imagined a speech by President Obama(7/3): "'The United 
States will block the Iranian nuclear program.  If we do not succeed 
in thwarting the project by means of sanctions, we will thwart it by 
force.  A nuclear Iran poses a clear and present danger not only to 
the countries of the region but also to the security of the United 
States.  But they too will have to do their share.... Israel will 
commit itself to immediately launch negotiations with the 
Palestinian Authority, with the basis for discussion being the 
establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state within the 1967 
borders.... I know that this requires tough decisions for all 
parties, including us, the Americans.... But leaders are measured by 
tough decisions'.... How would Netanyahu respond to such a proposal? 
 I think I know.  He would say, let's see:  'Show me the money,' he 
would say to the U.S. envoys.  'Show me what you have received from 
the Arabs in the area of normalization, show me what you have 
received from Abu Mazen, show me what guarantees I will receive from 
America, and you will be surprised to find how generous, bold and 
creative I can be.  They will meet with similar reactions in Saudi 
Arabia....' [By the way,] Netanyahu does not know yet what the Obama 
administration really wants." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Netanyahu's Consensuses" 
Ha'aretz editorialized (7/6): "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 
who until last month opposed the solution of two states for two 
peoples, has suddenly adopted this premise as his policy.... 
Netanyahu's repeated statements were designed to ease the 
Mitchell-Barak talks, especially given the dispute over whether to 
freeze construction in the settlements.... Netanyahu must aspire to 
achieve not only national consensus within Israel, but also 
international consensus between two nations - Israelis and 
Palestinians. To this end, he must stop setting conditions and 
return without delay to negotiations on a final-status agreement 
with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, either directly or with 
the mediation of Obama and his envoys." 
 
II.  "Conditions to Avoid a Bantustan" 
 
Shlomo Avineri, Hebrew University Professor of Political Science and 
former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, wrote in Ha'aretz 
(7/6): "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to be praised for 
saying, albeit unenthusiastically, that Israel would agree to the 
establishment of a 'demilitarized' Palestinian state.  His 
statements seem reasonable until one looks at the details: a 
demilitarized state with no army, no right to sign accords with 
other countries and no control over border crossings and airspace. 
As Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country is currently 
chairing the European Union, rightly asked, with all these 
limitations, what's left of Palestinian sovereignty?  Indeed, it's 
too similar to Bantustan.  It should come as no surprise that the 
Palestinians rejected Netanyahu's position outright.... Nowhere in 
the world is a country entirely demilitarized with no control over 
its borders.... [Yet,] it is impossible to ignore that even if 
Netanyahu's proposal is completely bizarre, it reflects Israel's 
real security problem.... Arrangements for demilitarization under 
these circumstances [involving Egyptian and Jordanian custodianships 
of the Palestinians for a transitional period, while a peace treaty 
is being forged], even extending to the crossings, could be easier. 
This is not a return to the 'Jordanian option.'  The Palestinians 
are embroiled in a de facto civil war, which requires a search for 
creative, unusual ways to reach the desired solution of two states 
for two peoples.  Sometimes the long road is the short one, 
especially since the short road has so far been an utter failure." 
 
III.  "The Secret of Failure" 
 
Minister without Portfolio and Likud Knesset Member Ze'ev Benjamin 
(Benny) Begin wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot; "What is accepted as the 'two-state solution,' as a 
mechanism of making a permanent peace, is not in reality a solution. 
As far as the Moderate Palestinian Liberation Organization is 
concerned, this is still a 'two-stage solution:' in the first stage 
the establishment of an Arab state alongside Israel, and in the 
second stage, after the refugees enter deep into Israel, the 
establishment of one Arab state from the Jordan River to the 
Mediterranean Sea.  In an effort to verify this conjecture 
conclusively or in an attempt to refute it, the Israeli governments 
have already conducted all possible political experiments, and the 
excuses have now run out. In other words, there will be no end to 
the one hundred year conflict so long as the Arab position does not 
fundamentally change." 
 
CUNNINGHAM