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P 051020Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001732 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA 
HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
DA WASHDC FOR SASA 
JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA 
CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
LONDON ALSO OR HKANONA AND POL 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FORMFO 
 
SIPDIS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS RPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mieast 
 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
¶3.  Iran 
 
------------------------ 
Key stories in the media 
------------------------- 
 
HaQaretz reported that Washington issued another diplomatic protest 
over Israeli conduct in East Jerusalem on Monday, its second in as 
many weeks.   Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs 
Jeffrey Feltman summoned Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to 
Washington, to tell him that the U.S. views Sunday's eviction of two 
Palestinian families from homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah 
neighborhood as a "provocative" and "unacceptable" act that violates 
Israel's obligations under the Roadmap.  Oren allegedly responded by 
saying that the buildings in question have been Jewish-owned since 
before Israel's founding, and that a court ordered the families' 
evictions because they had violated the terms of their leases. 
 
Leading media quoted PA President Mahmoud Abbas as saying yesterday, 
at the opening of FatahQs sixth convention, that Palestinians have a 
legitimate right to engage in QresistanceQ against Israel, but that 
Qwe must not stain our legitimate struggle with terror.Q  Media 
reported that Israeli Arab Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi made strong 
statements at the conference.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted DM Ehud 
Barak that FatahQs decisions will bear witness to its maturity.  One 
of the participants in the conference, Khaled Abu Asba, one of only 
two perpetrators still alive of the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, in 
which 35 Israelis were killed and 71 wounded, is not willing to 
express remorse or to apologize for what he did.  However, he said: 
QWe have to reach a solution of peace, and thatQs what is important 
now.Q  Abu Asba made the remarks in an interview with HaQaretz. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Israel Qis preparingQ ahead of 
the presentation of President ObamaQs peace plan.  Major media 
quoted DM Barak as saying yesterday that the President will soon 
prepare his plan.  Barak was speaking to the KnessetQs Foreign 
Affairs and Defense Committee. 
 
All media reported that the Labor Party may split tonight in the 
wake of party chairman Ehud BarakQs insistence on revising the 
partyQs constitution. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted settler leaders as saying that Netanyahu 
has already frozen new construction. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordanian FM Nasser Judeh strongly 
backed the Obama administration efforts to garner 
confidence-building measures toward Israel toward Israel from Arab 
states. 
 
Israel Radio reported that PM Benjamin Netanyahu and FM Avigdor 
Lieberman have agreed to a pullout from the northern the village of 
Ghajar.  HaQaretz reported that Lieberman wants a fence to run 
through Ghajar.  The radio cited Ghajar residentsQ opposition to the 
move, as they say that Israel conquered the village from Syria in 
the Six-Day War. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday PM Netanyahu visited the Negev 
Nuclear Research Center in Dimona.  Media reported that he praised 
the employees there for Qstrengthening IsraelQs security. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the IDF is gradually reducing its use of 
pillboxes -- a British invention dating back to the British Mandate 
-- in the West Bank, given the decline in the number of terror 
attacks and the consequent reduction in the number of troops 
stationed there.  One of the pillboxes' main functions was to give a 
sense of security to settlers, who suffered frequent shooting 
attacks on the roads in the early years of the intifada. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday the High Court of Justice issued an 
interim order barring the IDFQs Civil Administration in the West 
Bank from destroying a building constructed of tires and mud that is 
to serve as a school and kindergarten for the Jahalin tribe in the 
area of Khan al-Ahmar northeast of Jerusalem.  The eco-friendly 
school, built of inexpensive materials, was the initiative of 
members of the Italian non-governmental organization Vento di Terra 
(Wind of the Earth). 
 
HaQaretz reported that there was a sharp increase in safety-related 
aviation incidents of varying seriousness last year that involved 
foreign air carriers in Israel, according to the Transportation 
Ministry's annual civil aviation safety report, a copy of which was 
obtained by HaQaretz. There were 112 such incidents involving 
foreign airlines in 2008, compared to 36 in 2007 and 50 in 2006, 
according to the report, which was prepared by the ministry's chief 
aviation safety investigator, Yitzhak Raz.  Raz noted that the 
recent downgrade of Israel by the FAAQs reflected the U.S. agencyQs 
desire to warn of Israel's limited capacity, in the view of the FAA, 
to comply with international standards, but not that Israeli civil 
aviation is unsafe.  Raz did express concern, however, regarding 
oversight of the private plane sport aviation sector. 
 
Saying that the QAmericans are quite fair in distributing their 
custom,Q The Jerusalem PostQs social column reported on Special 
Envoy George MitchellQs stay at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem. 
 
QTzikiQ Sela, the head of the Immigration Authority's Oz unit that 
implements expulsions of foreign workers and their families, was 
quoted as saying in an interview with Maariv that organizations 
assisting foreign workers are interested in the Qobliteration of 
Israel. 
 
The media reported that Amos Keinan, a columnist, painter, sculptor, 
 
playwright, novelist, and one of IsraelQs earliest satirists, passed 
away yesterday at the age of 82.  In 1970, he co-founded the 
Israeli-Palestinian Council, and later joined Ariel SharonQs 
Shlomzion Party.  One of KeinanQs daughters told Israel Radio that 
he did not view the facets of his political activity as 
contradictory. 
 
HaQaretz (Hebrew Ed.) led with the success of former U.S. President 
Bill ClintonQs personal mission to rescue two female American 
journalists from imprisonment in North Korea. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Obama and the Three Noes" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/5): QPresident Barack Obama's first 
encounter with Middle Eastern realities ended in great 
disappointment. His effort to restart the peace process.... Instead 
of Obama's suggestions being received with cries of joy, they were 
answered with three noes: Israel will not freeze the settlements, 
the Palestinians will not resume negotiations, and the Arab states 
will not take any steps toward normalization with Israel.  The final 
blow to Obama's initiative was dealt by the Saudi Foreign Minister, 
Saud al-Faisal, who announced in Washington last week that first, 
Israel must quit all the territories and a Palestinian state must 
arise; only then will the Saudis talk about normalization.  In other 
words, don't bother them now with ideas for meetings with Israelis 
and opening Saudi airspace to El Al planes.  Call them after you 
have gotten Israel out of the territories.  These three noes painted 
Obama as extremely weak.... But if the President does present 
detailed principles for a final-status agreement, that in itself 
will not solve the conflict.  It is more important that Obama 
convince the skeptical public on both sides that a) peace is 
possible and b) their lives will improve if it is achieved.  No less 
important, his positions must be backed by both sticks and carrots, 
as well as a willingness to get into confrontations and pay a 
political price.  Nice words will not suffice.  And he must find 
solutions to problems such as what to do with Gaza and how to ease 
the internal rift in Israel if settlements are evacuated.  But above 
all, Obama must demonstrate total commitment to the job.  If he 
evinces doubts, or despairs in the face of the parties' stubbornness 
and rejectionism, his presidency will end up being just another 
episode in the lengthening series called QThe Missed Peace. 
 
II.  "FatahQs Goals" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/5): 
QThere's nothing all Israelis -- no matter what their political 
inclinations -- would like better than to receive a genuine message 
of reconciliation and accommodation from Fatah's sixth General 
Assembly, which opened in Bethlehem yesterday.... But thus far, the 
signals from Bethlehem are not the sort to bolster hope.... 
Unfortunately Fatah's make-or-break rivalry with Hamas is 
underpinning the more radical elements within it rather than 
inspiring ideals of coexistence. In the competition for the hearts 
and minds of ordinary Palestinians -- already indoctrinated by 
hostile, anti-Israeli propaganda in the classrooms, media and 
mosques -- readiness for compromise isn't regarded as an attractive 
selling point.... Israel's government and the new American 
administration are seeking to create a climate for substantive 
progress in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Fatah conference 
represents an opportunity for Abbas and his colleagues to assure the 
watching world, and emphasize to their own constituency, that their 
goal is real peace -- that they are committed to the path of viable 
reconciliation with Israel.  Sadly and counterproductively for all 
sides, the indications thus far are quite different. 
 
III.  "Injustice in Sheikh Jarrah" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (8/5): QThe eviction of two Palestinian 
families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of 
Sheikh Jarrah, in order to replace them with Jewish families, 
predictably sparked harsh condemnations.  U.S. Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton urged the government to refrain from such actions, 
which she described as QprovocativeQ.... The sight of the evicted 
Palestinian families, who had lived in these houses for decades, 
paints Israel in the world's eyes as a country that maintains a 
cruel regime of occupation, oppresses the weak and strives to create 
political facts in the disputed city under the guise of the Qrule of 
lawQ. The government must immediately return the Palestinian 
residents to their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and cancel the eviction 
orders that have been issued against additional houses.  And the 
neighborhood's fate must be determined via diplomatic 
negotiations. 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Idolatry by Any Other Name" 
 
Avraham Feder, a Masorti (Conservative) Rabbi in Jerusalem and the 
author of Torah through a Zionist Vision, wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (8/5): QThat American Jews have 
contributed to Obama's rise is not surprising. Most American Jews 
vote Democrat, even if the presidential candidate is a Carter or a 
McGovern.  Israeli Jews may not vote for the U.S. president, but 
they suffer from a neurotic side-effect of this 
Qadoration-bordering-on-idolatryQ syndrome.  They display a neurotic 
anxiety at every manifestation of presidential approval or 
disapproval.  How many presidents have been described 
sycophantically by Israeli representatives as Qthe best friend 
Israel has ever had?Q  Or conversely, how many Israeli prime 
ministers have been lamented as having Qgotten off on the wrong 
footQ with this or that president?  Such manic-depressive reactions 
are inappropriate for a nation -- no matter how small -- that is 
truly free.  This is not to underestimate the power of the American 
president -- whether a Truman, a Nixon or an Obama.... National 
self-respect should never mean arrogance.  The State of Israel 
recognizes that the United States is its principle ally. Israeli 
political, military, diplomatic and cultural leadership should 
always be mobilized toward cultivating maximal cooperation between 
the two countries.  At the same time, the determination of policies 
and strategies, while soliciting U.S. approval, must never be 
exclusively dependent upon that approval.  The single overriding 
proposition that must guide our struggle for survival and growth is 
that our national freedom should never condition itself upon the 
worship of any human leader, no matter how powerful.  By any other 
name, that is still idolatry. 
 
 
 
 
--------- 
¶3.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Increasingly Worrisome Signals" 
 
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Dr. Dore Gold wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (8/5): QWe are now witnessing a trend among 
senior commentators in the United States to minimize the dimension 
of the Iranian threat, despite solid information to the contrary. 
Their aim is to influence the Obama administration to be content 
with a diplomatic dialogue with Tehran without conducting a tough 
policy to stop its nuclear program.  It appears that, following the 
Iraq War, many commentators are increasingly tired of any 
confrontation with the challenge posed by Tehran.  This bias 
constitutes a means of escaping tough decisions that the West will 
have to take following the failure of the nuclear negotiations with 
Iran over the past six years. 
 
MORENO