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DE RUEHTV #1868/01 2381021
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P 261021Z AUG 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001868 
 
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 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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio quoted Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. Gabriela Shalev 
as saying that a three-way meeting between President Obama, PM 
Benjamin Netanyahu, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas is likely during 
the gathering of the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month. 
The radio later quoted Palestinian officials as saying that they 
have not been invited to such talks. 
 
All three major newspapers led with reported progress in the Gilad 
Shalit affair.  Particular emphasis is given to German mediation 
efforts.    Yediot quoted an Egyptian source as saying that senior 
members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have met with Hamas 
political leader Khaled Mashal in an attempt to thwart ShalitQs 
release. 
 
The media reported that PM Netanyahu will meet in London this 
morning with U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Senator George 
Mitchell to discuss the resumption of Israeli-Palestinians talks and 
the issue of construction freeze in the settlements.  HaQaretz 
reported that senior U.S. officials told the newspaper they felt the 
talks were progressing.  "We stated right from the outset what we 
want regarding the settlements, and we are getting close to getting 
this from Israel," one of them was quoted as saying.  Maariv quoted 
senior American officials as saying that the U.S. is close to 
understandings with Israel on construction freeze in the 
settlements. Israel Radio reported that Netanyahu plans to express 
reservations about a construction freeze.  Israel Hayom and Israel 
Radio quoted the British newspaper The Guardian as saying that the 
U.S. intends to promise to adopt a much tougher line with Iran over 
its alleged nuclear weapons program.  The U.S., along with Britain 
and France, is planning to push the U.N. Security Council to expand 
sanctions to include Iran's oil and gas industry, a move that could 
cripple its economy.  The Guardian reported that, in return, the 
Israeli Government will be expected to agree to a partial freeze on 
the construction of settlements. 
 
All media quoted PM Netanyahu as saying yesterday at a press 
conference at 10 Downing Street that the settlements are a 
territorial issue that can be resolved in negotiations with the 
Palestinians, but that the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel 
as the national home of the Jewish people is the core problem 
preventing a peace agreement.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Netanyahu 
as saying: QWhat we are trying to achieve with the U.S. is to find a 
bridging formula to enable us to launch the process but enable those 
[Jewish] residents [of the West Bank to] continue to lead normal 
lives."  Netanyahu added that there are 250,000 Jews beyond the 
Green Line who "have children who go to school, they need 
classrooms, kindergartens, they need a place to house families. 
This is very different from grabbing land.  I made clear that we are 
not going to expropriate new land."  Yediot quoted Netanyahu as 
saying that it is not enough to have a partner, but that the partner 
has to be brave.  The media quoted British PM Gordon Brown as saying 
that the settlements are an obstacle to peace.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted Netanyahu as saying during the press conference that the 
stronger the sanctions the international community applies against 
Iran now, the less will be the need for using Qstrong forceQ later. 
 
Electronic media reported on the passing of Democratic Massachusetts 
Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy, the brother of the late U.S. 
President John F. Kennedy and the late Attorney General Robert F. 
Kennedy.  Israel Radio noted that Ted Kennedy was a great friend of 
Israel.  President Shimon Peres and PM Netanyahu expressed sorrow 
over KennedyQs decease. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the U.S. administration is said to be 
studying President Shimon Peres's plan for the establishment in the 
near future of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, with 
guarantees and a timetable for a permanent agreement that will 
include solutions on all core issues.  Peres presented the plan to 
U.S. envoy George Mitchell as well as senior Palestinian officials 
and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.  He also discussed it with PM 
Netanyahu and with opposition leader Knesset Member Tzipi Livni. 
HaQaretz reported that sources close to Peres's initiative told the 
daily that there is some skepticism both in Washington and in 
NetanyahuQs Bureau as to the probability that both the Palestinians 
and the Netanyahu government will embrace the plan.  Sources close 
to Netanyahu were quoted as saying that there was no chance he would 
accept a plan which required withdrawal from most of the West Bank 
as a first step.  HaQaretz says that the Obama administration also 
fears that the split between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West 
Bank would make such an agreement impossible to implement.  HaQaretz 
says 
that, due to Palestinian concerns that temporary borders could 
become permanent, the U.S. will seek assurances from Israel that if 
the borders function successfully, Israel will enter expedited 
negotiations to solve the problems of Jerusalem and the Palestinian 
refugees.  According to  HaQaretz, the U.S. administration has 
recently discussed Peres's ideas in preparation for a return to 
negotiations, assuming a solution to the settlements can be found. 
The main obstacle is construction in East Jerusalem, which Netanyahu 
says Israel will not freeze. HaQaretz presumes that the U.S. may 
address this obstacle in the near future by announcing that there is 
a disagreement with Israel on this issue and that it reserves the 
right to comment on expanded Jewish construction in East Jerusalem 
as it sees fit. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday Peace Now activists toured 
unauthorized settler outposts as a response to last weekQs tour of 
the outposts by four right-wing ministers.  The 20 activists, 
accompanied by three Knesset members, said that the trip was aimed 
at reminding the government of its promise to dismantle the 
outposts.  HaQaretz reported that DM Ehud BarakQs office declined to 
either confirm or deny Labor Knesset Member Daniel Ben-SimonQs claim 
that Barak had promised to evacuate all the outposts within two 
months. 
 
The Jerusalem Post, Makor Rishon-Hatzofe, and the ultra-Orthodox 
HamodiQa reported that yesterday Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef 
asked visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to intervene in 
the campaign to free Gilad Shalit.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Carter 
as saying that he had been critical of both sides in the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  He was quoted as saying: QIQm just 
looking for peace. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday in London, PM Netanyahu lashed out 
against Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization that collects 
testimonies from IDF soldiers about alleged abuse of Palestinians in 
the territories.  The British Government had contributed funding for 
the group.  Netanyahu also addressed the lawsuits filed in Britain 
against Israeli officials and senior officials for alleged war 
crimes over their actions in the territories.  Netanyahu was quoted 
as saying that Israel was acting in self-defense, and that Israeli 
officers should not be accused of crimes, just as British officers 
should not be subject to lawsuits for their actions in Afghanistan 
or Iraq. 
 
Media reported that DM Barak has appointed his military secretary, 
Brig. 
Gen Eitan Dangut, as the Coordinator of Government Activities 
in the Territories. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, after years of planning and delay, 
New York University is set to open a study-abroad sit in Tel Aviv 
starting this fall over the objections of some faculty members who 
oppose the program on political grounds. 
 
The media reported that the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is QhotQ: the 
blue chip TA-25 index rose more than 2% yesterday, to cross the 
1,000-point barrier -- on the way up -- for the first time since the 
financial crisis started, Qafter weeks of almost reaching, touching, 
and retreating (according to HaQaretz). 
 
Yediot ran a feature on the Israeli-Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, 
who stars in the forthcoming Hollywood production Miral.  The 
newspaper quoted her as saying that she backs the right of return 
for Palestinian refugees, but that she will not come back to the 
country herself. 
 
Yediot quoted the U.S. technology magazine Wired as saying that last 
week the Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum,. a.k.a. The Analyzer, 
confessed in a New York court that he was involved in a credit scam 
in which $10 million were stolen from two U.S. banks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Is Obama Forcing Israel to Halt Construction of the Security 
Barrier?" 
 
Correspondent Tovah Lazaroff wrote on page one of the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (8/26): QThe U.S. could demand Israel 
stop work on the security barrier in the West Bank as part of its 
call for a freeze in settlement activity, security expert Col. 
(res.) Shaul Arieli speculated as he spoke with The Jerusalem Post 
on Tuesday. 
 Sources in the Prime Minister's Office disagreed, 
saying work on the barrier, which is designed to prevent terrorist 
attacks, was not part of their talks with the U.S.  But it is 
immediately obvious to anyone looking at a map of the planned 
805-km. barrier route that the 295 km. that have yet to be built are 
largely made up of loops around the settlement blocs of Ma'aleh 
Adumim, Gush Etzion and the Ariel/Kedumim area.  There are no plans 
at this time to complete the barrier in those blocs.  Such 
construction would, in a de facto, unilateral fashion, define the 
size of these blocs.... The international community has argued that 
if Israel wants to build a barrier to protect its citizens, it 
should do so along the entire Green Line.  According to figures 
provided by the United Nations, 85% of the barrier's planned route 
is inside the West Bank and only 15% is on the pre-1967 armistice 
line.  In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague 
ruled that it was illegal for Israel to build the barrier in the 
West Bank.... Both [Arieli] and security sources list three clear 
reasons why the work has slowed down: petitions to the High Court, 
lack of funds in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War, and the 
lull in suicide bombings that has allowed the Israeli public to 
forget that the barrier is a tool against terror.  But Arieli and 
[Shlomo] Lecker [an attorney who represents Palestinians in the 
MaQaleh Adumim area] also believe American pressure has played a 
clear role.... In the last year, security sources said, work has 
focused on closing the holes in the barrier around Jerusalem.  But 
they hinted broadly that there has been a shift in planning and that 
routes such as the Ma'aleh Adumim loop that appeared reasonable when 
they were designed are no longer feasible in the current diplomatic 
climate. 
 
II.  "Voluntary Evacuation Now" 
 
Former Knesset Member Avshalom Vilan wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (8/26): QThe grace period of Netanyahu and 
Barak has long ... ended.  They should now initiate a plan for 
voluntary evacuation-compensation.  In other words, the evacuation 
of all settlers in the West Bank who wish to leave the territories 
and return to the Green Line boundaries, in exchange for a fair sum 
of money that would enable them to buy a house within the State of 
Israel and restart their lives.... The international community would 
welcome such an initiative and shift the main burden of diplomatic 
pressure towards the Palestinians and Arab states.  From an internal 
Israeli standpoint, the real decision on the issue of the 
settlements and the settlers would be postponed, since the hard core 
of ideological settlers would continue to live in these places until 
the 
final status arrangement (this refers to less than 40,000 people 
of a population of over 80,000 in settlements outside the fence), 
and therefore the plan would receive broad support in the public. 
The Prime Minister would be able to pass such a plan without paying 
too high a political price.  The right-wing government could 
continue to argue that it did not give up territory and did not back 
down from its starting positions.... Ehud Barak, as defense minister 
in OlmertQs government, supported such a move publicly.  Benjamin 
Netanyahu, who is trying to restore his relations with the Obama 
administration and appear as a leader who is pragmatic on one hand, 
but has also not given up his ideological dreams on the other, can 
connect with this plan, and adapt it to fit perfectly his political 
and diplomatic goals.  The initiative will stand to IsraelQs credit, 
and it will no longer remain in the dangerous corner of the worldQs 
village leper, and will shift the burden of the response to the 
Palestinian side.  Netanyahu and Barak are people who can do 
this.... The time has come for these two, whom in their twenties 
knew how to be daring, to do so again in their sixties, when the 
weight of national responsibility rests on their shoulders. 
 
 
III.  "The Americans Will Pressure -- and Obtain What They want" 
 
Gilad Sharon, the son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wrote 
in Yediot Aharonot (8/26): QNo Netanyahu voter and no one who 
recommended him to President [Shimon Peres] as their candidate for 
the premiership could imagine he would continue the [settlement] 
freeze.  For this, they could have voted Meretz.... Why is Netanyahu 
not thawing [construction]?  There is no argument that he supports 
building in [the settler town of] Ariel.  He already knew that this 
is part of the agreements with the Americans; he promised this to 
his voters and wants to do so.... [But] he pretends to be 
neutral.... The Americans respect a direct, reliable attitude and 
can live with the fact that IsraelQs stance and theirs is not the 
same on every issue, but they neither value nor respect those who 
lack principles.... The Americans will not respect the Israeli 
Government more than it will respect itself.  Bibi, you lived in 
America for so many years but you didnQt learn anything.  When you 
must build, build  don't talk. 
 
IV.  "The Successful Netanyahu-Barak Axis" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (8/26): 
Today, with a perspective of almost five months, the successful 
Netanyahu-Barak axis clearly seems a success.  Their working 
arrangements 
in the diplomatic domain vis-a-vis the Americans, as 
well as the handling of Hamastan-Gaza and Fatahstan-Judea and 
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], have yielded good results and both 
leaders conduct points to surprising harmony between them.... 
Netanyahu is impeccably handling the controversy with the almost 
hostile U.S. administration over the settlements.  His success lies 
in the fact that he deals with the argument in a way that doesn't 
turn it into a confrontation. 
 
¶V.  Netanyahu, Get Rid of Him 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning HaQaretz (8/26): QThe damage that [Avigdor] Lieberman 
is causing the country and its relations with foreign countries is 
getting worse, and it is similar to the farce of Amir Peretz at the 
Defense Ministry. Netanyahu must get a hold of himself and put an 
end to this.  During the hot August days, usually thin on news, 
Lieberman is giving the media and Knesset members thirsty for 
comments a daily show.  He is bashing Sweden, thumping Norway, 
clearing the Foreign Ministry of Arabs and ultra-Orthodox, making 
the Prime Minister out to be a fool and wasting his time in a 
pointless diplomatic effort -- threatening his envoys to align 
themselves with the official line being dictated from above or wind 
up on the outside.  Who knows what he will announce next.... But the 
problem is not Lieberman's freedom of expression, which is not in 
question, but his conduct as foreign minister.  It can be summed up 
as an utter failure.  Foreign ministers have a dual role: furthering 
national interests through diplomatic exchanges with other 
countries, and representing the views of the international community 
in the domestic decision-making process.  In the room where they 
decide war and peace, the foreign minister must sound like a 
statesman, just as a defense minister must present the military 
possibilities.  Lieberman is finding it difficult to fulfill his 
role for a simple reason: the boycott and isolation that the world 
has imposed on him.... Right before the peace process is resumed and 
the Iranian issue comes to a head, he must immediately replace 
Lieberman with a more appropriate foreign minister, irrespective of 
the criminal investigation against the current one.  It is by this 
that the Prime Minister's leadership will be tested. 
 
CUNNINGHAM