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P 171003Z JUL 09
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Maariv (Maya Bengal) reported that President Obama is expected to 
present his regional peace plan within a few weeks.   The daily 
quoted Israeli sources as saying that the plan will not come as an 
Qout of the blueQ surprise to Israel, as the Americans have updated 
Israel on the issue.   Bengal also reported that Defense Secretary 
Robert Gates is expected to visit Israel in two weeks Q accompanied 
by U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Sen. George Mitchell -- 
to discuss security issues, principally the Iranian nuclear program. 
 Israel Radio reported that U.S. envoy Frederick Hof, who is trying 
to revive Israel-Syria negotiations, will return to Israel soon, 
accompanying Special Envoy Mitchell.   (The Jerusalem Post quoted 
officials close to Likud MK Carmel Shama as saying that there is no 
connection between efforts to block his proposed law that would make 
an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan more difficult, and HofQs visit 
to the region.)   Speaking on Israel Radio, IsraelQs Ambassador to 
the UN Gabriela Shalev said that their visit will apparently take 
place in 10 days.  She told the radio that Israel has discussed 
Syrian infringements and Iranian involvement in arms smuggling to 
Hizbullah with the U.S. administration. 
 
Israel Radio reported that State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly told 
Radio Sawa that Thomas Pickering, a former Ambassador to Tel Aviv 
and the UN, who The Washington Post said (on Wednesday) met last 
month in Geneva with senior Hamas officials Mahmoud Zahar and Bassam 
Naim, was acting in his private capacity.  The radio reported that 
Hamas praised the meeting, but that it also said that it should not 
be granted too much importance.  A Hamas source told Israel Radio 
that the meeting was the latest in a series of contacts between the 
U.S. and the group, and that it will take some time until the former 
U.S. diplomatsQ change in attitude reaches decision-makers in 
Washington. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Likud sources as saying that PM Benjamin 
Netanyahu is working behind the scenes against a bill that would 
prevent Hamas prisoners from receiving visitors until Gilad Shalit 
comes home.  The sources cited NetanyahuQs belief that the proposed 
bill could complicate negotiations on ShalitQs release and harm 
IsraelQs image abroad. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Western and Israeli intelligence sources as saying 
that Iran's smuggling network to Gaza through Sudan has shrunk 
following Operation Cast Lead and that international awareness of 
the issue has increased.  Maariv cited LondonQs Times as saying that 
a possible Israeli attack on IranQs nuclear facilities would involve 
advanced aircraft and naval vessels -- including three Dolphin-class 
submarines, which foreign sources say are equipped to carry nuclear 
weapons. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted a source Qin the inner circle of 
Secretary of State Hillary ClintonQ as saying that the Secretary was 
in effect cut off from U.S. foreign policy-making by ObamaQs Qnew 
commissarsQ (his advisers: first and foremost, Rahm Emanuel). 
 
Maariv reported that yesterday a Qassam rocket landed in an empty 
area in the western Negev.  The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF 
has developed a special training regiment to teach infantry units 
how to storm and sweep skyscrapers that have been built in Gaza and 
the West Bank. 
 
Maariv (Ben Caspit) reported that President Shimon Peres intends to 
renew his peace efforts -- on a smaller scale than his QNew Middle 
East.Q  Caspit also reported that Kadima Knesset Member Shaul Mofaz 
is supposed to present a diplomatic plan consistent with the 
Peres-Ehud Barak program.  Caspit said that a majority in MofazQs 
party favors his plan, which is based on interim steps, as opposed 
to Kadima leader Tzipi LivniQs comprehensive view of the process. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday, a day after releasing a 
QdamningQ report on Operation Cast Lead and amid accusations that it 
is operating without transparency, the group Breaking the Silence 
presented the daily with its donor list for the year 2008, which 
included several European governments -- the EU, the UK, and the 
Netherlands Q and the New Israel Fund.  Judge Richard Goldstone, the 
head of the UN Human Rights Council-mandate commission of inquiry on 
alleged war crimes during the operation, was quoted as saying in an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post that the mandate of his probe has 
not changed and that there is no reason for Israel not to cooperate. 
 The newspaper noted that Israel disagrees, saying that there has 
been no formal change and that the commissionQs goal is not to find 
truth but to attack Israel. 
 
 
Yediot reported that a year ago, the Defense MinistryQs internal 
comptroller presented to the IDFQs General Staff a report detailing 
the activities of the ministryQs delegations worldwide.  The 
newspaper reported that the ministryQs mission in the U.S. includes 
211 employees.   Yediot criticizes the perks enjoyed by those 
officials.  In an unrelated story, HaQaretz featured the promotion 
arms deals in Congo by three members of the Israeli defense 
establishment over the past decades, while a bloody civil war raged 
there and IsraelQs official policy forbade such sales. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the Anti-Defamation League as saying 
yesterday that WhyIslam, a U.S. -based educational awareness Web 
site, links to anti-Semitic content. 
 
Leading media reported that former PM Ehud Olmert has decided to 
boycott a scheduled hearing with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, 
after an indictment was filed yesterday against a former aide who is 
a key figure in the case of double-billing in a travel agency that 
the hearing was slated to address. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that beyond the PAQs anger over Fatah 
Secretary-General Farouk QadoummiQs remarks about the alleged 
assassination conspiracy of Yasser Arafat, the PA is also critical 
of Jordan for having facilitated the broadcasting of QadoummiQs 
comments on Al Jazeera-TV. 
 
HaQaretz (English Ed.) quoted local and international anti-boycott 
groups as saying this week that they are monitoring the growing 
academic Israel-boycotting movement in the U.S. but that they do not 
currently deem it a serious threat. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that 20 Israeli and Palestinian 
religious teachers will begin a weeklong join workshop on Sunday in 
Jerusalem, where they will discuss conflict resolution and the role 
of religion in the Middle East. 
 
All media highlighted the continued ultra-Orthodox clashes with 
police in Jerusalem -- the worst in years, as 1,000 ultra-Orthodox 
took part in the riots yesterday.  The religious extremists demand 
the release of the mother who allegedly starved her toddler son. 
(HaQaretz presented a projection by the Jerusalem Institute for 
Israel studies and renowned demographist Sergio Della Pergola:  In 
2020, Jews will constitute 61% of the population of Jerusalem; the 
ultra-Orthodox will represent 33.7% of the cityQs Jewish population. 
 In an extreme scenario, if ultra-Orthodox do not migrate from 
Jerusalem, Jews will be 65.5% of JerusalemQs population and the 
ultra-Orthodox will be 41% of the Jewish population.) 
 
Maariv predicts that the cost of living in Israel will acutely rise 
over the coming months.  The newspaper cited private research that 
100,000 more Israelis will be unemployed in a yearQs time (at 
present, 257,000 are jobless -- 8.4% of the workforce). 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Picture Perfect No More" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/17): QAll the reports emanating from 
Washington indicate that Obama will not issue a detailed peace plan 
any time soon.  Netanyahu's fear -- that Washington will demand that 
he withdraw from all the territories and divide Jerusalem -- will 
not become reality in the near future.  The administration 
distinguishes between QsubstanceQ and QprocessQ and will now focus 
solely on creating the framework for negotiations and also probably 
on setting target dates for the parties involved.  There is no 
reason for Netanyahu and his coalition to lose any sleep over that. 
Netanyahu seemingly won this round, then, but that is no cause for 
joy on his part.  Even the most optimistic assessment, even the most 
flattering to Netanyahu, shows that Obama has emerged from the 
arm-wrestling contest with a slight advantage. 
 
II.  "WhereQs the Magic?" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz 
(7/17): QIraq finds itself in a precarious situation. Nor are 
things going smoothly for Obama along the main front in 
Afghanistan.... For now, an American departure does not seem to be 
anywhere in sight.  Iran is another arena in which the U.S. 
administration is unsure of how to proceed.  Whereas the principle 
of dialogue, which Obama seeks to promote as a substitute for the 
ineffective policy of sanctions, still depends in part on Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's official reinstatement as president, the details of 
this policy remain blurred: What will the dialogue be about?  What 
will be the minimum demands that Washington wants the other side to 
meet before removing the sanctions?  And -- most important -- will a 
target date be set for the end of this dialogue?.... The problem 
[with ObamaQs handling of IsraelQs conflicts and the 
intra-Palestinian arena], as in Iraq and Afghanistan, lies in the 
execution.... Obama's vision still depends on the nature of 
relations between Hamas's Mahmoud Zahar and Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, 
and between Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu.  Maybe the President 
is not such a magician after all. 
 
III.  "Obama, Go to the Bible" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in Ha'aretz 
(7/17): QThe only place where [Obama] hasn't been as president is 
Israel.  He has spoken about us, but not to us.  That was precisely 
what the Jewish leaders complained about in their discussion with 
him last week.  Obama assumed he did a great thing when he spoke in 
Cairo about the suffering of the Jewish people in the Holocaust. 
What is infuriating about these appearances is the implied 
distortion: that we deserve a state because of the Holocaust. 
Although, as a believing Christian, Obama is familiar with the 
Bible, his disregard of our historical connection to the Land of 
Israel, and obscuring the fact that the Palestinians are unable to 
overcome their passions and to be worthy partners to a peace 
agreement, is extremely annoying. 
 
 
 
IV.  "Israel vs. Human Rights Watch" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/17): QIn the intervening 
31 years [since then Jewish Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky was 
helped in his cause by Helsinki Watch, the group] has morphed into 
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a mammoth human rights NGO that went to 
Saudi Arabia in May and used its work castigating Israel as a way to 
solicit funds in one of the worldQs worst human rights violators. 
That transformation, at least for Sharansky, is simply too much. 
Calling a spade a spade is what Bar-Ilan University political 
science professor Gerald Steinberg, executive director of NGO 
Monitor, has been trying to do for years, monitoring the work and 
methodology of HRW and other human rights organizations  but this 
has largely been a voice in the wilderness, one dismissed by the NGO 
themselves Q and some in the media Q as nothing more than that of a 
propagandist with a right-wing Zionist agenda.,  Now, however, the 
[Israeli] government is listening, and after years of choosing 
largely to ignore damning reports put out by HRW and similar 
organizations, it has decided to go on the offensive and attack the 
organizations for essentially using human rights and legal lingo to 
delegitimize Israel. 
 
CUNNINGHAM