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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001780 
 
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 
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CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
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.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Yediot reported that the members of the Quartet are trying to 
arrange a meeting between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO Chairman 
Mahmoud Abbas during the course of the UN General Assembly meeting 
in September in New York. 
 
The media reported that yesterday Deputy FM Ayalon used polling 
figures showing continued and even increasing support for Israel 
among Americans to counter a highly critical memo from the 
Consul-General in Boston.  Consul-General Nadav Tamir argued that 
the governmentQs policies were damaging U.S. public support. 
Israel Radio reported that FM Avigdor Lieberman advised Tamir to 
resign. 
 
Major media reported that the exchange of rhetoric between Hizbullah 
and Israel escalated further yesterday, as a senior official for the 
organization, Hashem Safi a-Din, predicted that the "war of 2006 
will seem like a joke" next to Hizbullah's reaction if Israel should 
attack.  Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon said that, "if one hair on the head 
of an Israeli representative or tourist is harmed, we will see 
Hizbullah as responsible and it will bear the direst consequences." 
Speaking on Israel Radio on Thursday, DM Ehud Barak said that 
Lebanon would be considered responsible in case of a major Hizbullah 
attack. 
 
Several media reported that Israel and Hamas recently resumed 
intensive negotiations on a deal for the release of Gilad Shalit. 
Yesterday the Palestinian News Agency reported that the parties are 
close to an agreement.  HaQaretz reported that the Prime Minister's 
Bureau refused to comment on the Palestinian report.  But political 
sources in Jerusalem denied that the sides are close to an 
agreement, saying the news agency report was merely "spin" by the 
Palestinians.  The sources also said the report came from Islamic 
Jihad activists who were seeking to foil any progress toward release 
of the kidnapped soldier. "There is no dramatic progress in the case 
of Gilad Shalit," said one.  HaQaretz reported that Egyptian sources 
also denied that there have been any significant developments on the 
issue of Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas in a cross-border raid 
into Israel three years ago. They said the parties have not 
exchanged any new lists of Palestinian prisoners to be released, nor 
have high-level delegations from either side visited Egypt to 
discuss the case. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday FatahQs sixth General 
Assembly approved a political platform that emphasizes the 
PalestiniansQ right Qto resist occupation in all forms.Q  The 
conference also endorsed a resolution that defines Fatah as a 
Qnational liberation movement whose goal is to remove and defeat the 
occupation.Q  The statement also stressed the Palestinian refugees 
right to return to their original villages inside Israel.  The 
newspaper reported that yesterday DM Barak was critical of the 
positions expressed at the assembly in recent days, saying at the 
start of the weekly cabinet meeting that the Qrhetoric coming from 
Fatah and the positions being expressed are grave and unacceptable 
to us.Q  However, he said: QIt must be understood that there is no 
solution in the Middle East other than a comprehensive [peace] deal, 
which includes us and the Palestinians,Q  Media also reported that 
yesterday Fatah endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state 
alongside Israel, underlining its ideological conflict with the 
Islamist Hamas and drawing political battle lines for their next 
election showdown.  Media quoted PA President Mahmoud Abbas as 
saying on Saturday: "We will continue our struggle and with the path 
of resistance until we establish our state whose capital is a united 
Jerusalem that is purged of settlements and settlers. We are 
determined to liberate the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners who are 
incarcerated in Israel." 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday two Qassam rockets and a 
mortar shell landed in the Negev.  Israel Radio reported on an IAF 
retaliation raid against smuggling tunnels in Gaza.  There were no 
victims on either side. 
 
Over the weekend media cited a document put together by U.S. 
National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair that Iran will be unable 
to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium in sufficient quantities 
to produce a nuclear weapon before 2013. 
 
On August 9, The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF is sending 
QCapt. Asher,Q one of the brightest members of the Ground Forces 
CommandQs Technology and Logistics Department, to the U.S., where he 
will conduct research in a leading laboratory that specializes in 
discovering underground oil reserves. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Jeff Halper, the director of the Israel 
Committee against House Demolitions (ICHD), as saying that the 
Spanish government is paying for 42 people to come here and rebuild 
two Palestinian homes that Israel deemed illegal and tore down in 
Anata in northern Jerusalem.  ICHD is in charge of the project. 
 
The media quoted PM Netanyahu as saying at yesterdayQs cabinet 
meeting that the 2005 disengagement from Gaza and the northernmost 
part of the West Bank should never have happened.  Netanyahu vowed 
never to withdraw unilaterally from territory held by Israel.  QWe 
will never repeat this mistake,Q Netanyahu said. 
 
On August 9, HaQaretz quoted Syrian Ambassador to Washington Imad 
Mustafa as saying that President Obama has removed several items 
from the list of goods the U.S. refuses to sell Syria.  The goods 
include civil aviation equipment. 
 
Leading media quoted the Cairo daily Almasry Alyoum as saying on 
Saturday that Egyptian security forces have uncovered a plot to 
murder Israeli Ambassador Shalom Cohen. 
 
The media reported that some parliamentarians have attacked PM 
Netanyahu for Failing to appoint his own settlement adviser.  Some 
sources who spoke with The Jerusalem Post speculated that Netanyahu 
was waiting to reach an agreement with the U.S. on the issue of 
settlements, and that only then would he appoint a settlement 
adviser. 
 
Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen was quoted as saying in 
an interview with Maariv that former President ClintonQs visit to 
North Korea had far wider implications than what was published. 
Cohen is also optimistic about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and 
pessimistic about Iran.  He was quoted as saying that the fear of 
Iran is much bigger today than enmity towards Israel, and that he 
has no doubt that President Obama is a friend of Israel who tries to 
push forward a two-state solution. 
 
Maariv noted that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman cited a 
Maariv story about the improvement of life in Nablus in one of his 
columns. 
HaQaretz and Maariv reported that DM Barak attended the introduction 
ceremony of a Torah scroll in a synagogue of the Muslim Quarter of 
the Old City of Jerusalem.  The synagogue was reconstructed with the 
financial support of Irving Moskowitz, the patron of right-wing NGOs 
in East Jerusalem. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, in an effort to present IsraelQs 
version of Operation Cast Lead to the world, the defense 
establishment has, for the first time, composed a counter-report to 
a damning document on the IDFQs conduct published by Physicians for 
Human Rights-Israel (PHR) earlier this year.  The Jerusalem Post 
cited PHRQs response that the IDF document is not sourced, 
inaccurate, and superficial. 
 
HaQaretz reported on an Israeli sweatshop in Jordan.  The daily 
reported that the National Labor Committee, a U.S.-based workers' 
rights organization, has released a report accusing the Musa 
Garments factory in Jordan of employing workers under inhuman 
conditions, and charges the company with "human trafficking, abuse, 
forced overtime, primitive dorm conditions, imprisonment and 
forcible deportations of foreign guest workers."  The report says 
that the cheap production costs for Israeli labels is a very 
expensive price for workers' rights at Musa Garments. 
 
On August 9, Yediot reported that PM Netanyahu intends to make a 
state visit to India in the next few months. 
 
Leading media reported that Shas leader and Interior Minister Eli 
Yishai has asked President Shimon Peres to grant clemency to former 
cabinet minister Shlomo Benizri, who was sentenced  to 4 years in 
jail on corruption charges.  Yishai invoked his qualities of 
QSephardiQ and QVice PM.Q  The media said that Yishai alluded to the 
case of former deputy cabinet minister Naomi Blumenthal, whose 
prison and fine sentence was commuted to community service by Peres 
in 2007.  The mainstream media said that Yishai released the Qethnic 
genieQ from the bottle. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that more than 100 Jewish and Arab 
Israelis are calling on American entertainer Madonna to call off her 
Tel Aviv concerts, scheduled for September 1 and 2.  The group was 
quoted as saying that Israel does not practice Qthe Jewish concept 
of Qtikkun olam,Q (healing the world), as Palestinian dignity and 
life are being trampled upon. 
 
Leading media marked 80 years of the massacre of 67 Jewish residents 
of Hebron. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the results of Tel Aviv UniversityQs War 
and Peace Index, conducted on June 30-July 1. 
More than 60% of Israelis endorse PM NetanyahuQs plan for continued 
building to accommodate natural growth within existing settlement 
construction lines. 
However, if NetanyahuQs policies were to damage U.S.-Israeli 
relations, the support for his policies would drop by 21 percentage 
pints. 
Sixty-two percent of Israeli Jews recognize the existence of a 
Palestinian people; only among voters for Shas, the Jewish Home, and 
the National Union does the majority claim that there is no such 
thing as a Palestinian people.  Because an overwhelming 71% of 
Israelis believe that most Palestinians do not recognize Israel as 
the state of the Jewish people, only 50% of Israelis believe that 
the Palestinians have the right to an independent state. 
Sixty percent of Israelis oppose a QPalestinians state that 
encompasses the territories conquered in 1967,Q even if there were 
Qofficial Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the 
Jewish people. 
Fifty-nine percent of Israelis do not believe that the governmentQs 
current strategy to bring Gilad Shalit home is effective. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶1.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"He Has a View" 
 
Correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv 
(8/10): QIt is clear that the small storm generated by the leaked 
letter of Consul-General [in Boston Nadav Tamir] results from 
political gaps between him and the incumbent government in 
Jerusalem.... Internal documents cannot be free of reflections of 
those ideas.  It would be better to allow small embarrassments and 
not to expect consensus views from all Israeli representatives 
across the world.  Tamir should not be reprimanded for conveying a 
true report, as he understands it.  This is a diplomatQs task.  His 
superiors may accept his recommendations or reject them politely. 
Their anger had better be turned to the leaker -- if he is known to 
them.  Anyway, there isnQt much to QclarifyQ here.... They had 
better seek to strengthen the relations with Washington. 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "AbbasQs Bully Pulpit" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/10): 
QIn keeping with a long tradition of Qhelping Abu Mazen,Q Israel 
made it possible for Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah General Assembly to 
gather 2,000 delegates in Bethlehem beginning August 4.  The 
assembly is an effort to demonstrate that Fatah remains the vanguard 
of the Palestinian polity.  Delegates have come from around the Arab 
world, save for Hamas-controlled Gaza.  The atmosphere for the 
conference was auspicious.... For Israelis, what matters is that 
rather than demonstrating leadership, Abbas and Fatah made demagogic 
appeals to a Palestinian street that sees moderation as weakness. 
This self-defeating intransigence is a deep-seated facet of 
Palestinian political culture.  Abbas had a bully pulpit to coax the 
population in a more moderate direction, yet he and other Fatah 
leaders took the easy road -- scapegoating Israel.  Still, the 
assembly generated enough prevarication and dissimulation to 
perpetuate the pose that Fatah is a genuinely QmoderateQ alternative 
to Hamas.... When the incendiary rhetoric from Bethlehem is over, 
chances are unfortunately remote that Washington -- much less Europe 
-- will ease off on the red-herring issue of settlements to take 
Abbas to task for not using the assembly to preach peace, 
compromise, and coexistence.  At times like this, it seems Qhelping 
Abu MazenQ has become an end in itself. 
 
II.  "Freezing for Failure" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-Ha'aretz (8/9): QIt should be said from the onset: 
Do not freeze settlement construction, do not stop it in part or 
periodically, not for six months, not for a single day.  As long as 
the U.S. administration does not present a comprehensive plan that 
explains its endgame -- what the end will look like and what the 
shape and character of the Palestinian state will look like -- the 
demand for a cessation of construction is pointless.... The demand 
for a cessation of settlement construction will have no impact on 
the political process as long as they are not telling the Israeli 
and Palestinian public what will happen with the half-million 
Israelis who already live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.... 
The attempt to understand the American move as an action from the 
periphery inward -- a tactical move meant to lead to further moves, 
one slice at a time -- is leading toward a dead end and might even 
be dangerous as well.... It is not the [Israeli] public that needs 
to be encouraged; it is the right-wing government for whom the 
remnants of the Labor Party are serving as apologists.... But this 
is not the sort of government that is running Israel.  Washington 
knows this, as every Israeli citizen does.  Hence the need for a 
comprehensive plan that will be managed with precision and 
determination.  Freezing the settlements is not a plan and is not a 
prescription. 
 
III.  "Illusion Shattered" 
 
Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon's top 
diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (8/10): QThe Fatah conference is being held at a time when 
the Israeli-Palestinian daily reality is not bad.... The Palestinian 
Authority enjoys worldwide support, and the United States, Israel's 
greatest friend, looks more kindly upon the Palestinians than ever 
before.  The Palestinians certainly have cause for satisfaction. 
And although they will not admit it, something has also changed in 
their attitude towards Israel after Hamas's rise to power in Gaza: 
The horrors of the "Iranian" lifestyle and the act of throwing Fatah 
activists from rooftops made it very clear to the Palestinians that 
their real trouble, as of now, threatens them from Gaza.  One might 
expect, therefore, that the voices and the resolutions being issued 
from the Fatah conference would reflect to some degree the improved 
reality, and demonstrate the start of greater moderation, in 
practical terms.  But the Palestinians hold true to form: an 
abundance of threatening and extremist slogans, mostly detached from 
reality and some foolish.  For example, the resolution about 
QIsrael's responsibility for killing ArafatQ.... The reactions in 
Israel were predictable: the right wing finds in the statements made 
 
at the conference further reinforcement of the eternal conclusion 
that there is no one to talk to and there will never be anyone to 
talk to, and since this is the case, [Jews] should continue to 
settle everywhere; the left wing tries to convince that an in-depth 
analysis of the Fatah discourse leads to the conclusion that Qit is 
not terrible.Q  Both sides are wrong.  There is no practical 
importance to the content of the talk or the resolutions passed at 
the conference, but the clear and disappointing conclusion that 
arises from them is that such a leadership is incapable of bravely 
and honestly facing its people, as required by the effort to obtain 
a final status arrangement with Israel. 
 
IV.  "No State Was Established in Bethlehem" 
 
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle 
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the online service 
nana10.co.il (8/9): QThe problem is that when you try to please 
everyone, the final result is that no one is pleased.  That is what 
happened in the case [of FatahQs General Assembly] as well.  Israel 
voiced its displeasure with the conferenceQs resolutions, but there 
were also many members of the Palestinian camp who were upset by 
resolutions that they felt were excessively moderate.  One thing is 
clear: by trying to reach the lowest common denominator, the 
Palestinians refrained from making historic and daring resolutions. 
Either way, this conference will soon end and will be forgotten.  In 
any event, it is powerless to change reality on the ground.  FatahQs 
test, therefore, will be on the day after.  The test will be how it 
tries to win the renewed support of the Palestinian street, which 
was given to Hamas. In the meantime until that happens, if ever, the 
Palestinians will continue to miss opportunities to promote their 
own people towards sovereignty and independence on the way to 
peace. 
 
¶V. QHope from Bethlehem 
 
Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer wrote in Yediot 
Aharonot 8/10): QWhoever thought the Palestinians were about to join 
the Zionist Congress and swear allegiance to the State of Israel can 
find reasons to be disappointed; but whoever wishes to take a 
sincere and real look at reality can see the Fatah conference as a 
unprecedented positive sign of the Palestinian people's willingness 
and ability to make peace with Israel, while giving up the 
implementation of the right of return to the State of Israel.  It is 
not easy to be a Fatah member in Palestinian society.  After years 
of occupation, doubling the number of settlers and the construction 
of the wall deep in the heart of Palestinian territory, the 
Palestinian people's civilian political movement continues to preach 
non-violent struggle against the State of Israel and the occupation, 
while dealing with trends of violent religious extremism coming from 
the direction of Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran.  Sometimes, being a 
Fatah member in the eyes of the Palestinians is worse than being a 
leftist in the eyes of some of the Israelis.... The Fatah conference 
is not a conference of collaborators or of avowed lovers of Israel. 
At the conference in Bethlehem, the leaders of the Palestinian 
national struggle have gathered, who believe that peace with Israel 
is possible and desirable, and that the moderate and secular 
Palestinian liberation movement is the one that should lead the 
Palestinian people on its way to independence.  We are best off 
seeing reality as it is, and exhausting every possibility of 
reaching an agreement now, with a pragmatic and moderate leadership, 
before it is replaced by a fanatic, religious leadership, which 
views violent jihad as the main means of battling against Israel. 
 
MORENO