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P 280615Z JUL 09
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell/NSA James Jones to Israel, July 
2009 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell as 
saying yesterday, before meeting with President Shimon Peres: 
QIsrael has taken meaningful steps in the West Bank.Q  Mitchell was 
alluding to the dismantling of 25 checkpoints, allowing the 
Palestinians greater freedom of movement and easier access.  The 
Jerusalem Post quoted Mitchell as saying that, during his visits 
with other leaders of the region, he had conveyed the message that 
steps must now be taken by Arab states to fulfill the promise of the 
Arab peace initiative.  The media quoted Mitchell as saying: QThe 
American commitment to Israel is firm, unshakeable, and will not 
change. Any disagreements were in the nature of Qdiscussions among 
friends and not disputes among adversaries.Q  Major media reported 
that Mitchell emphasized that the U.S. and Israel had a common 
purpose in their desire for comprehensive peace in the Middle East 
with full normalization of relations between Israel and all the 
states in the region.  (Yediot Aharonot and Israel Radio reported 
that President Obama has sent letters to seven Middle East Arab 
leaders, demanding that they take confidence-building measures.) 
Peres was quoted as saying that PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs declaration 
in his Bar-Ilan University speech last month supporting a two-state 
solution was a Qleap forward.Q  Peres also welcomed MitchellQs 
positive report of his talks in Damascus but said that Syria should 
engage in direct talks with Israel.  Peres also expressed cautious 
optimism regarding developments among the Palestinians, in Iran, and 
in Saudi Arabia.   He praised the positions of Egypt and Jordan, and 
warned against preconditions or linkage, Qbecause linkage means 
giving a veto to one of the parties.Q  Peres suggested that 
President Obama exercise patience in the peace process. 
 
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Israel Radio that Special Envoy Mitchell told PA 
President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel and the U.S. have not yet 
resolved their disagreement regarding the settlement construction 
issue. 
 
 
In its lead story, The Jerusalem Post reported that recent talks 
with U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell have left Israeli 
officials with the impression that Q contrary to expectations in 
some circles -- President Obama is not going to unfurl his own 
regional peace plan.  Rather, according to these officials, the U.S. 
administration is aiming to create a positive dynamic that will lead 
to the relaunching of a Palestinian-Israeli diplomatic process, but 
this time with more regional players on board. 
 
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made a short visit to Israel 
yesterday.  The media detected a toughening of his stance on Iran. 
The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli official as saying, after a 
meeting with Gates, that there is a greater awareness in the U.S. 
today about the threat of a nuclear Iran and a greater willingness 
to ensure that Tehran does not get the bomb than there was before 
the Iranian elections and their bloody aftermath.  The official, who 
characterized Gates's talks with PM Netanyahu as "very good," said 
the "commonalities far outweighed" the differences during the minute 
meeting.  The official dismissed speculation that the purpose of 
Gates's brief visit here was to "rein Israel" in and ensure that it 
did not take any unilateral military action against the Islamic 
republic.  All media quoted Gates as saying at a press conference 
with Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the U.S. was aware that Iran 
might try to Qrun out the clock,Q and that Obama wanted an answer 
from the Iranians before the UN General Assembly session, scheduled 
for the end of September.  Barak was quoted as saying that Israel is 
Qin no position to tell the administration, whether to run an 
engagement with Iran or not, but if there is an engagement, we 
believe is should be short in time.  Barak advocated tougher 
sanctions on Iran and thanked the Qcurrent and previous 
administrationsQ for their assistance to Israel and their commitment 
to the nationQs security. 
 
Leading media reported that 1,000 to 1,500 people rallied outside PM 
NetanyahuQs official residence in Jerusalem, calling on Israel to 
say QnoQ to U.S. pressure to freeze settlement activity and divide 
Jerusalem.   HaQaretz reported that the Yesha Council of Jewish 
Settlements in the Territories organized the protest.  HaQaretz 
reported that Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, the head of the Nir Yeshiva in 
the settlement of Kiryat Arba, told the crowd:  "Obama is a racist. 
If he continues with his actions, he will bring about the 
disintegration of the American superpower."  Israel Radio reported 
that right-wing militants are attempting to establish 11 outposts in 
the West Bank. 
 
Israel Radio reported that yesterday Special Envoy Mitchell 
confirmed that President Obama has approved exports of technological 
goods to Syria.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe also reported on the partial 
lifting of sanctions on Syria. 
 
Leading media reported that Israel has warned Beirut through the UN 
that it would be held responsible for any hostile action launched 
from Lebanese territory.  HaQaretz reported that yesterday DM Barak 
met U.S. told Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Israel was 
concerned by the developments on the Lebanon border and various 
Hezbollah statements and moves.  Israel Radio reported that 
yesterday Hizbullah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned 
that his group would attack Israel with missiles should the latter 
bomb the organizationQs south Beirut stronghold. 
 
Maariv reported that yesterday Foreign Ministry Director-General 
Yossi Gal visited Egypt.  The newspaper reported that senior 
officials from both countries will hold meetings every two months. 
 
HaQaretz reported that NetanyahuQs bureau has received a letter by 
six U.S. Congress members, who protest against the siege of Gaza. 
 
All media reported that yesterday succeeded in passing the QMofaz 
lawQ in a first reading in the Knesset, 62-47.  The bill will make 
it easier for the PM to split Kadima in the future. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday, for the first time in several 
years, a small group of Palestinian youth visited Yad Vashem.  This 
was the first Palestinian educational group to visit the museum in 
its history.  The newspaper also reported that three 19-year-old 
Palestinians took part in an art workshop in Israel, which was also 
attended by Israeli Arab and Jewish youth. 
 
HaQaretz and Yediot Aharonot reported that the Jerusalem District 
Court will rule today whether two Israeli crime kingpins, the 
Abergil brothers, will be extradited to the U.S.  Maariv reported 
that California authorities agreed not to sentence them to death. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell/NSA James Jones to Israel, July 
2009: 
---------------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.   QThe Myth of a Settlement Freeze 
 
Settlement policy expert David Newman, a professor of political 
geography at Ben-Gurion University and editor of the International 
Journal of Geography, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (7/28): QFreeze has always been applied, in Israeli 
terminology, to the establishment of new settlements, never to the 
expansion of existing communities.  The fact that the Obama 
administration has finally cottoned on to this is the main reason 
behind the current political tension.  The myth has been exposed. 
Another myth is the concept of Qillegal outpostsQ. These are 
Qillegal,Q while the existing permanent communities are QlegalQ. 
The settler movement has not realized its dream of Jewish 
sovereignty as far as the Jordan River, and it has not prevented the 
world -- or for that matter the majority of the Israeli public -- 
from accepting the inevitability of a Palestinian state.  But it has 
succeeded in making the implementation of the two-state solution as 
difficult as it has ever been.  Obama's is the first [in] the U.S. 
administration to see it for what it is, rather than be blinkered by 
the QfreezeQ terminology sold to it by Israeli officialdom. 
 
 II.  QA Matter We Must Solve Ourselves 
 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in Ha'aretz (7/28): 
QThe policy of settlements in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] 
is  an internal Israeli matter, and should not be a subject for 
negotiations with the United States. Whether settlements and 
outposts in Judea and Samaria are legal or illegal must be judged by 
the degree of their conformity with Israeli law.  And from that 
point of view there is little doubt that some of those established 
in recent years were not established legally. Those young people 
who have established settlements and outposts illegally in Judea and 
Samaria, and who warn that they will resist the removal of any of 
those settlements, may be under the illusion that they are 
performing a great service for the Zionist cause. Actually they are 
causing it great harm, by creating the impression in the public mind 
that all settlements in Judea and Samaria have been established 
illegally. 
 
 
II.  QThere Is a Solution 
 
Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon's top 
diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (7/28): QThe dispute between Israel and the U.S. regarding 
the development of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria [i.e. 
the West Bank] will intensify if Israel continues to ignore an 
understanding that was reached on the principle of future border 
determination between it and the prospective Palestinian state. 
Sowing Israeli neighborhoods or settlements in areas where 
Palestinians clearly represent a demographic majority is 
counterproductive.  A few dozens or hundreds of apartments wonQt 
succeed in turning majority-minority relations.  Neither will they 
modify the chances of final composition of the population.  They 
will only make a possible final status agreement more difficult and 
jeopardize its prospect. 
 
III.  QIran First 
 
Giora Eiland, former Director of the National Security Council, 
wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/28): 
QThe visit of the four senior U.S. officials represents an 
opportunity -- perhaps the last one -- to reduce disagreements [with 
Iran].  If the U.S. accepts IranQs uranium enrichment, it should at 
least be guaranteed that the U.S. demonstrate toughness concerning 
all technical conditions, for instance that material enriched at a 
5% level be immediately converted, under international supervision, 
into fuel bars (it later becomes difficult to continue to enrich the 
material until a bomb is produced).  Even if it is important to 
reach understandings on the Palestinian issue, the urgency of the 
Iranian issue requires that it be prioritized. 
 
IV.  QBilateral Talks -- a Condition for Any Agreement 
 
Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in the editorial of the 
nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (7/28): QUnfortunately, 
we have not seen any sign of good will on the other side [the 
Palestinians]. As in the past, we are facing an enemy who has not 
abandoned its hostility toward the people of Israel and the Jewish 
state.  The time has come for U.S. President Barack Obama and his 
emissaries to understand this and conduct their policy accordingly. 
Of course, in this spirit, we also have to steer the course of our 
policy -- Middle East peace policy.QCUNNINGHAM 
AM