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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio quoted Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley as 
saying yesterday, at the daily State Department briefing: QThere had 
been some reporting after yesterdayQs briefing that I think 
represents some misinterpretation.  ThereQs been some reporting that 
the United States is contemplating financial or economic pressure 
against Israel.  We are not contemplating such action. 
 
HaQaretz reported that he U.S. administration has issued a stiff 
warning to Israel not to build in the area known as E-1, which lies 
between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. 
Anychange in the status quo in E-1 would be "extremel damaging," 
even "corrosive," HaQaretz quoted th message as saying. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reportd that the Qmost influentialQ Center for 
America Progress, which is the Qclosed research center to Obama, 
has issued a document calling for removingJerusalem from Israeli 
sovereignty. 
 
Major meda reported that yesterday PM Benjamin Netanyahu called on 
the Arab world to negotiate with Israel on the Arab League's peace 
initiative, hinting that certain alterations in it would help to 
advance peace in the region.  The Jerusalem Post emphasized 
NetanyahuQs praise of the QspiritQ of the initiative.  Speaking at a 
reception marking EgyptQs Revolution Day at the Egyptian 
ambassador's home in Herzliya, Netanyahu said, "We appreciate the 
efforts by Arab states to advance the peace initiative. If these 
proposals are not final, they can create an atmosphere in which a 
comprehensive peace can be reached."  QWe hope in the months ahead 
to forge peace with the Palestinians and to expand that into a 
vision of a broader regional peace," Netanyahu added.  Maariv quoted 
President Shimon Peres as saying at the ceremony that President 
Mubarak is capable of being the man who will lead to peace with the 
Palestinians and the Arab world. 
 
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, was 
quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz that the vast 
majority of American Jews back a settlement freeze.  Charles 
Bronfman, one of the Jewish peopleQs most prominent philanthropists, 
was quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz (English Ed.) 
that what keeps Israel and U.S. Jewry apart is not lack of religious 
pluralism, but lack of peace in the Middle East. 
 
Reviewing the current state of U.S.-Israel relations, incoming 
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren granted a particularly 
optimistic interview to YediotQs Washington correpondent Orly 
Azolai, who remarks that his dream may be disturbed by an QAmerican 
hammer.Q  Maariv (Shmuel Rosner) reported that the latest flare-up 
between the Israeli government and the U.S. administration resulted 
from a conversation between Oren and the State DepartmentQs Jacob 
Levy. 
 
Yediot (Alex Fishman) reported that over the past few months Israeli 
and Palestinian officials have drafted a detailed security annex to 
a future agreement establishing a Palestinian state (including a 
withdrawal calendar, warning systems, and even GPS devices to be 
distributed to drivers entering the West Bank).  Yediot says that 
this is how Qwolves are supposed to dwell with sheep.Q  The 
newspaper reported that the document, which was completed around two 
months ago,  will be officially presented this week to Secretary of 
State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor James Jones, and 
that the Pentagon, the White House, and the foreign ministries of 
France, Egypt, Britain, and Jordan have already viewed it over the 
past few weeks.. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz as saying 
yesterday that growing tensions between Israel and the U.S. over 
construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank will not affect U.S. 
loan guarantees. 
 
HaQaretz and other media reported that yesterday the UN Security 
Council accused Hizbullah of violations of UNSC Resolution 1701. 
The Council convened upon a request by the U.S.  HaQaretz and Israel 
Radio quoted IsraelQs Ambassador to the UN Gabriel Shalev as saying 
that, for the first time, a UN body addressed such Israeli 
complaints. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday Kyler Kronmiller, a diplomat at the 
American Consulate-General in Jerusalem, visited the protest tent of 
two East Jerusalem Palestinian families served with an eviction 
order.  The newspaper said that during an initial visit there two 
weeks ago, Kronmiller did not enter the tent in order not to 
publicly expose a U.S. protest against house demolitions.  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the state called on the High 
Court of Justice to reject a petition by the NGO Yesh Din calling on 
it to demolish nine permanent residential buildings in Rehalim, an 
outpost established on state and private land without government 
permission in 1991. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Vice PM and Regional 
Development Minister Silvan Shalom lashed out at the PA for not 
accepting IsraelQs offer to resume talks unconditionally. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF and the United States 
European Command conducted a joint exercise this week of the X-Band 
radar that is deployed in the Negev to check its interoperability 
with Israeli early-warning systems. 
 
Maariv reported that John Ging, Director of Operations of UNRWA, 
left Gaza for two weeks after he refused to hand over aid money to 
Hamas.  Maariv and The Jerusalem Post cited IsraelQs concern that 
$900 million in U.S. aid to Gaza will be used for terror purposes. 
 
The media reported that PM Netanyahu plans to impose faction 
discipline on his Likud Party during the vote on the so-called 
"Mofaz Bill" this coming Monday, and any Knesset member who fails to 
vote with the coalition will be sanctioned.  This decision is meant 
to prevent another humiliating defeat like the one Netanyahu's 
reform of the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) suffered on 
Wednesday, when he was forced to pull the bill at the last minute 
after several coalition members made it clear they planned to vote 
against, while others ostentatiously absented themselves from the 
hall.  The "Mofaz Bill" would make it easier for a group of Knesset 
Members to split off from their party and form an independent 
faction.  It is so called because Netanyahu hopes it will enable a 
group of MKs to quit the opposition Kadima party and join the 
government, and MK Shaul Mofaz is considered the most likely person 
to lead such a group.  HaQaretz noted that Government Services 
Minister Michael Eitan (Likud), a staunch opponent of the QMofaz 
Bill,Q is a primary target of NetanyahuQs dismissal threat.  Vice PM 
and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud), a close 
Netanyahu ally, skipped the vote on the ILA bill because he opposes 
it.  However, HaQaretz and other media reported that Netanyahu is 
trying to reach an agreement with him. 
 
Russian Ambassador to Israel Piotr Stegniy was quoted as saying in 
an interview with HaQaretz that Russia has no desire to regain 
superpower status.  He hinted that, when it comes to territorial 
compromie, small nations like Israel just cannot act like ig ones. 
 Regarding the issue of weapons to Iran,Stegniy was also quoted as 
saying that his county honors an arms balance in this Qsensitive 
regin,Q and that it will not sell any weapons that wil truly upset 
this balance drastically. 
 
The meia reported that far-Right militants Baruch Marzel and Itamar 
Ben-Gvir (parliamentary aide to National Union Knesset Member 
Michael Ben-Ari), and Ben-Ari himself, plan to lead a march on 
Sunday in the Israeli-Bedouin Negev town of Rahat to protest what 
they call building violations there.  The police have only 
authorized the participation of 60 people in the demonstration. 
 
HaQaretz (English Ed.) quoted a World Zionist Organization (WZO) 
official as saying that the expected election next month of Rabbi 
Michael Melchior, a dovish politician, will lead to a clash between 
the WZO and the Jewish Agency, chaired by the hawkish Nathan 
Sharansky. 
 
HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that a group of 23 students from 
Jerusalem's Hebrew University came up with a small application which 
uses the Facebook "status line" to inform hundreds of thousands of 
users at any given moment about positive facts about Israel. 
 
Lawrence (Larry) Franklin, a former senior analyst at the Pentagon, 
who was accused of revealing secret information to Israel, was 
quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz that he had felt 
betrayed by then AIPAC officials Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman. 
 However, Franklin was quoted as saying that he had broken the law 
by telling Rosen about internal rivalries within the U.S. 
administration.  HaQaretz also quoted Franklin on the Iranian issue: 
QThe Israeli government's intelligence agencies must do everything 
short of attacking Iranian territory to disrupt the rule of Iran's 
military theocrats.  To take the bait and bomb Iran's known nuclear 
facilities will gain some time, but it will unite Iranians behind a 
despised regime.  Propaganda, cyberwar, sabotage all are viable 
weapons [in this struggle]." 
 
All secular media (lead stories in Yediot and Maariv) reported that 
several rabbis, three New Jersey mayors and two state legislators 
were among the 44 people arrested in New York and New Jersey 
yesterday in a sweeping corruption investigation that began as a 
probe into an international money laundering ring that operated 
between Brooklyn; Deal, NJ; Israel; and Switzerland, and trafficked 
in goods as diverse as human organs and fake designer handbags. 
Media reported that the key suspects are members of the 
Jewish-Syrian community in Brooklyn.  Banners in Yediot: QThe Jewish 
QLaundryQQ and Maariv: QA Money-Laundering Synagogue. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a poll carried out by the 
Maagar Mohot Survey Institute: 62% of Israelis believe that 
Palestinian leaders want to destroy Israel, not live alongside it. 
 
Yediot cited the results of a Pew survey: 71% of Israelis have a 
positive view of the U.S.  However, Israel is the only reviewed 
country where the status of the U.S. has not dramatically increased 
recently. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"A QCrisisQ Manipulated" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (7/24): 
QDiplomacy involves an element of political manipulation -- 
sometimes even psychological warfare.  WeQre witnessing this in the 
U.S.-Israel relationship.  The Obama administration has made a 
strategic decision to pressure Israel pointlessly, relentlessly, and 
publicly, while, for now at least, asking little of the 
Palestinians.  The diversionary issue employed in this campaign is 
housing construction over the Green Line.  Washington cannot 
realistically think that Israel is going to knuckle under and stop 
building within strategic settlement blocs, or in post-Q67 
Jerusalem.  So it appears that the administration is engaging in 
confrontation for the sake of confrontation.  The object?  To gain 
credibility with the Arab world in the belief it will give them an 
incentive to make peace.  ItQs the same failed approach pursued by 
practically every administration since 1967 -- only on hyper-drive. 
And this time, itQs characterized by manipulatively overplaying the 
chasm in the U.S.-Israel relationship.... In response, Israel 
engages in its own, clumsy manipulation.... The Netanyahu government 
is wrong to think that exacerbating the perception of a crisis in 
U.S.-Israel relations is the wisest method of setting Qred lines 
for future negotiations with the Palestinians.... ItQs a [very big] 
shame that the administration is expending so much energy on an 
approach that actually reduces the prospects of a breakthrough -- 
and that in so doing, it is employing manipulative tactics that make 
mainstream Israelis even more fearful of taking risks for peace. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Last Train to Tehran" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/24): QNetanyahu is out of whack. 
That's what his problem is.  He zigzags between the trivial and the 
main thing.  He has no compass.  He has no sense of direction.  On 
Sunday, [Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George] Mitchell will 
arrive.  The next day Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will arrive, 
and on Tuesday National Security Adviser James Jones.  Gates was the 
most outspoken, the most forthright against a clash with Iran. 
Israelis who met him received the impression that there had been a 
change in his position.  He realizes that the Iranians are 
determined in their decision to move toward obtaining the bomb. 
Words will not divert them from their path.  He also realizes that 
Iran is more vulnerable today than in the past to international 
economic pressure.  Now is the time to get him moving.... Obama is 
losing stature, both in America and also in a large part of the 
world. 
 
II.  "No Existential Threat form Iran" 
 
Gabi Sheffer, a liberal political science professor at the Hebrew 
University, wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/24): 
Q[Netanyahu government officials and senior IDF officers] repeat the 
same mantras that the current Iranian regime will continue to rule, 
that it will become even more extreme, that Iran will attain a 
nuclear military capability, that it will not hesitate to use it 
directly or through terrorist intermediaries, and that it would set 
off reactionary nuclear armament in other Middle Eastern countries 
which, in their view, would cause a disaster.  Barack Obama, Nicolas 
Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and other politicians and generals in the 
West and Middle East have voiced more restrained fears.... There are 
three basic reservations regarding these much-talked-about concerns 
over Iran.  First, like other small states, Iran seeks to attain 
nuclear weapons in order to deter other nuclear-armed states from 
attacking it.  So if Iran is not attacked, it will not attack. 
Second, Iran's goal is primarily to boost its influence in the 
Muslim world.  Third, and most important, with the exception of two 
atomic bombs that were needlessly used by none other than the 
democratic and liberal United States -- since Japan was very near 
surrender -- no other country possessing nuclear weapons has used 
them.  The other reasons for not using nuclear weapons are numerous. 
 The main reason is these states' fears, including Iran's, of a 
response by other nuclear-armed countries.... Other reasons for 
refraining from using nuclear weapons include moral considerations, 
fear of mistakenly striking allies in the region, concern over 
widespread destabilization and other related factors.  The 
conclusion is that even if Iran attains nuclear weapons, it does not 
pose a real existential threat to other countries, Israel included. 
It would behoove Israeli politicians and defense officials to take 
these considerations into account and cease disseminating statements 
about the existence of this threat and military operations against 
Iran.  Even if the Iranian threat is not completely imagined, it is 
completely weak and the Israeli public should understand this rather 
than allow itself to be dragged into supporting a destructive 
military operation. 
 
CUNNINGHAM