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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001767 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
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JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
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PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
 
SIPDIS 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Nabil ShaQath, a Fatah Central 
Committee member, listed 14 preconditions set yesterday by Fatah 
delegates meeting in Bethlehem to dialogue with Israel, among which: 
no renewal of  peace negotiations with Israel until all Palestinian 
prisoners are released from Israeli jails, all settlement-building 
is frozen, and the Gaza blockade is lifted.  The newspaper quoted 
analysts as saying that the conditions are not binding on PA 
President Mahmoud Abbas, but also that they broadly accorded with 
the positions had Abbas had himself set out in an address to the 
gathering on Tuesday.  The Jerusalem Post reported that the 
conference's unanimous resolution yesterday to hold Israel 
responsible for the death of Yasser Arafat Qleft Israeli officials 
annoyed and bemused,Q with Deputy PM Eli Yishai remarking there was 
a better chance of negotiations on Mars than in the region, and 
Deputy FM Danny Ayalon saying the conference was a "serious blow to 
peace."  The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Netanyahu and DM Ehud 
Barak have stayed relatively quiet about the conferenceQs 
proceedings. 
 
Channel 10-TV last night quoted Israeli Consul-General in Boston 
Nadav Tamir, a Qrespected veteran diplomat,Q as saying in a widely 
distributed internal memo addressed to the Foreign Ministry that PM 
Benjamin Netanyahu's attitude toward the Obama administration is 
causing Israel strategic damage, in the view of a senior Israeli 
diplomat in Boston.  Media noted that Tamir's reported comment is a 
rare internal rebuke, highlighting the growing tension between 
Washington and Jerusalem.  Tamir wrote that the public spat with the 
U.S. over the issue of a settlement freeze has alienated a 
significant number of American Jewish supporters.  "There are 
political elements in America and Israel who oppose Obama on 
ideological grounds and are ready to sacrifice the special 
relationship between the two countries for the sake of their own 
political agendas."  While Israel and America have long disagreed 
over the settlements, "there was always a measure of coordination 
between the governments," Tamir continued.  "Nowadays, there is a 
sense in the United States that Obama is being forced to deal with 
obduracy from the governments of Iran, North Korea, and Israel.  The 
administration is making an effort to play down the disagreements, 
and we are the ones who are actually making the differences public," 
Tamir added.  Tamir also accused Netanyahu of endangering American 
Jewish backing for Israel by publicly sparring with the Obama 
administration over the construction of Jewish housing in the West 
Bank and East Jerusalem.  A spokesperson for Netanyahu said Tamir's 
comments were not worthy of comment.  A senior associate of the PM 
said that "this is an unprofessional document ... reflecting the 
writer's personal political views. It's a pity that an Israeli 
diplomat should launch an attack like this on Israel's policy and 
try to cause deliberate damage." 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted visiting Congressman Eric Cantor as 
saying that aid to the Palestinians through UNRWA amounts to funding 
Hamas. 
 
HaQaretz quoted senior Palestinian officials as saying yesterday 
that the U.S. administration will demand that Israel and the 
Palestinians address the issue of borders as the first step in the 
Middle East peace plan  The Palestinian officials also said that the 
Americans will outline proposals for Israeli peace with Syria and 
Lebanon.  The American plan will reportedly not specify step-by-step 
actions for an Israeli-Palestinian solution, but will address final 
status issues -- borders, Jerusalem, and refugees.  The Americans 
will set a timetable of about a year and a half for the negotiations 
and demand the sides first solve the border issue, under the belief 
that this will lead to solutions for other issues, such as the 
settlements and water.  Following that, the sides will discuss the 
other fundamental issues -- Jerusalem and the refugees.   The 
sources were quoted as saying that the negotiations between the 
Israelis and the Palestinians probably will be conducted in the 
presence of American officials, and that the U.S. administration is 
likely t present its plan before or during the U.N. Genera 
Assembly set for September.  HaQaretz reported that Saeb Erekat, 
head of the PLO's negotiating tem, denied knowledge of the plan. 
 
HaQaretz repored that four "rebel" legislators from the Labor Paty 
-- Eitan Cabel, Yuli Tamir, Amir Peretz, and Ophir Pines-Paz -- will 
meet next week to examine how they can profit from a recently-passed 
law making it easier for lawmakers to break away from their parties. 
 Leading media quoted party chairman Ehud Barak as saying that the 
mandate is not theirs and that they should return it. 
 
Major media reported that this week the Armored Corps announced that 
the first active tank defense system, QWindbreaker,Q is now 
operational. 
 
HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post cited a report released yesterday by 
Human Rights Watch (HRW) that Hamas and other militant groups 
committed war crimes against Israel by besieging it with rockets 
during the three-week war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.  The 
31-page report on Operation Cast Lead focuses on Hamas, after HRW 
and similar groups repeatedly accused Israel of war crimes. 
 
The Jerusalem Post printed a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report that 
U.S. Jewish groups are divided over IsraelQs proposed ban on NGO 
funding. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported on the Football Village 
of Hope, which brings Israeli and Palestinian children together for 
coexistence through soccer. 
 
Leading media reported that Maj. Gen. Gad Shamni has been appointed 
military attache in Washington, replacing Benny Ganz, the incoming 
deputy IDF chief of staff. 
 
Maariv and Israel Radio reported that the Transportation Ministry 
proposes to create a second international airport at the location of 
the Ramat David IAF base in the Jezreel Valley (northern Israel). 
 
Maariv reported that Netanyahu will ask Germany to supply Israel 
with H1N1 virus vaccine.  The media reported that the U.S. is the 
most likely prospective supplier of swine flu vaccine. 
 
The media reported that, during a historic visit to the gay and 
lesbian association in Tel Aviv, where Saturday nightQs massacre 
occurred, PM Netanyahu affirmed the value of tolerance.  Netanyahu 
said that the fact that somebody entered a youth center and 
perpetrated a serial murder qualified the events as a terrorist 
attack.  A solidarity rally will take place at Rabin Square in Tel 
Aviv tomorrow night with the participation of President Shimon 
Peres, Education Minister Gideon SaQar (Likud), and Culture and 
Sport Minister Limor Livnat (Likud). 
 
HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that, hours after landing in Israel 
to start a new life here with his wife, 27-year-old Israeli-American 
Naftaly Schindler from Connecticut was arrested by the IDF in June 
for draft-dodging.  The couple -- now rendered homeless because of 
the arrest -- claims that an IDF representative at the Israeli 
Consulate-General in New York had promised them this wouldn't 
happen. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "We Have a Partner" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (8/7): QFatah's 
new platform, and Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's speech, won sweeping 
support from the more than 2,200 delegates who came [to the 
movementQs convention] from throughout the Palestinian Diaspora. 
From Bethlehem, they sent Jerusalem an unequivocal message: The 
Palestinian national movement's strategic choice is still two states 
for two peoples.... The convention rejected the demand to recognize 
Israel as the Qstate of the Jewish people,Q as well as the idea of 
establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders.  It is a 
pity that its call for stronger ties with the Israeli peace camp was 
stained by the ugly hint that Israel had murdered Yasser Arafat. 
Both Fatah's platform and its chairman's speech made it clear that 
in the absence of real progress toward a two-state solution, the 
movement would switch to a struggle to establish a single binational 
state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, or else 
unilaterally declare an independent state in the 1967 borders. The 
Palestinian public's avid interest in the convention, and the 
delegates' impressive attendance, testify that despite the numerous 
crises Fatah has undergone, it is still the leading popular 
political movement in the West Bank.  The Israeli public and Israeli 
decision makers would do well to study the Bethlehem meeting's 
resolutions seriously.  It is only natural for Israel not to accept 
Fatah's platform, just as the Palestinian leadership objects to 
Likud's platform.  But Fatah's approach to the peace process refutes 
the right-wing argument that Qthere is no Palestinian peace 
partner.Q  The fate of the pragmatic national movement on the 
Palestinian side will depend largely on Israel's policy regarding 
the terms for resuming peace talks. This includes the issue of 
freezing the settlements, the gaps between the parties' positions on 
a final-status arrangement, and the extent of the international 
community's resolve to bridge these gaps. 
 
II.  "What, Me Worry?" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in HaQaretz (8/7): QThe 
most important ramification of the present [security] quiet is the 
fact that it reinforces Israelis' indifference toward any kind of 
peace process. Netanyahu's reference to a Qtwo-state solutionQ and 
Obama's pressure tactics to freeze West Bank settlements arouse 
little public interest. Israelis want peace and quiet. And that's 
what they have -- and without negotiations or peace accords. The 
scars of past hopes blown to smithereens, following the Oslo accords 
and Gaza disengagement, are still fresh; Israelis do not find peace 
talks tempting. The Qinternational communityQ considers peace and 
the occupation's end as self-understood values requiring no 
marketing.  But that's not the way it works in Israel.  After the 
bloody failures of the past, the public will have to be convinced to 
support a peace process in which its own government seems to be 
reluctant to become involved.  Most Israelis take no interest in the 
settlements or the Qright of Jews to live wherever they like,Q but 
they also have no inherent desire to fly El Al through Saudi Arabian 
airspace, or to visit Morocco's Qinterests office. 
 
III.  "Cooing Obama while Looking Edgewise" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/7): QAbu Mazen prepares [Fatah] for a 
struggle over the Palestinian street, ahead of the presentation of 
U.S. President Barack ObamaQ peace outline.... The effort to harness 
Fatah to the cooing campaign of Obama is costing Abu Mazen domestic 
criticism that he is trying to transform the organization into an 
American-Israeli satellite.  But Netanyahu has rescued him.... 
[Mideast affairs specialist Dr. Matti Steinberg] says that the 
Qrefusal to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people has 
provided Abu Mazen with a trump card: the option of presenting 
himself as a man who does not go along with Israel and is not its 
collaborator.... Eventually, [the Palestinians] will present two 
alternatives to Israel: Instead of two states for two peoples, it 
will get one democratic state -- or a unilateral declaration of a 
Palestinian state in the Q67 borders with Jerusalem as its 
capital.... Fatah also gears up to the possibility that ObamaQs 
civil ways will not satisfy the Palestinians. 
 
IV.  "Illusions" 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (8/7): Q[Netanyahu] lets Peres run around the world; he 
doesnQt tell him Qno,Q but he certainly doesnQt tell him Qyes.Q  He 
might wake up tomorrow morning with an agreement providing for a 
Palestinian state within interim borders -- with the consensus of 
the entire world, without NetanyahuQs consent.  In such a situation, 
[Ehud] Barak and Peres will try to tempt him with [Kadima politician 
Shaul] Mofaz, by bringing Kadima into the coalition or by bringing 
in Mofaz with a splinter faction.  Peres continues to act 
energetically.  He did so at his meeting with U.S. National Security 
Advisor James Jones.  PeresQs main problem is that the Palestinians 
are strenuously opposed to this plan and want a comprehensive 
agreement. 
 
¶V.  QAbandon ObamaQs Economic Titanic 
 
Far-right Likud activist Moshe Feiglin wrote in the nationalist, 
Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe  (8/7): QObama know no other reality 
than the television screens.... When you throw oil into a campfire, 
small flames seem to appear for a moment.  The real fire will 
materialize shortly.  We may witness -- for the second time in a 
generation -- the instant collapse of a huge empire.  Instead of 
linking IsraelQs economy to that Titanic, [Bank of Israel Governor 
Stanley] Fischer had better strive with all his force to move away 
from it. 
 
 
 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Boycott Ahmadinejad" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/7): 
QEven if Iranian elites remain divided over Ahmadinejad, this in no 
way diminishes the dangers represented by the country's nuclear 
program.  If anything, Khamenei may have an incentive to accelerate 
the project to rally the nation and underscore the prowess of his 
leadership.  But what if the cost of pursuing the bomb undermined 
his position?.... Now, more than ever, [Iran] desperately needs 
international investment.... Yet the stakes are far too high to give 
up.  Iran is not North Korea.  The Obama administration should lead 
the civilized world in refusing to recognize the Ahmadinejad regime. 
 It should offer to cooperate with any Iranian leadership that 
abandons nuclear weapons, ends support for terrorism, and frees 
political prisoners.  Iran is the lynch-pin to President Barack 
Obama's hopes for a world that is free of nuclear weapons. 
Conversely, an Iranian nuclear bomb would unleash a new atomic arms 
race in the already volatile Middle East. 
 
MORENO