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RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 5974
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 4597
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 6820
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3595
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1811
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0485
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 7998
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 9043
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RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 2725
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RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001974 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Over the weekend, controversy over the GOIQs announcement that it 
would build 455 housing units in the West Bank dominated the media. 
The media reported that DM Ehud Barak approved the plan.  Today 
HaQaretz reported that most of the housing approved by PM Benjamin 
Netanyahu was already under construction.  On Sunday, Maariv and 
other media reported that on September 6 Netanyahu announced that at 
the three-way summit with President Obama and PA President Mahmoud 
Abbas, which is due to take place at the end of this month, he does 
not intend to announce a complete freeze, but rather only a 
Qreduction in the scale of construction.Q  Maariv quoted Abbas as 
saying over the weekend that if construction continues, there will 
be no summit. 
 
The media reported that yesterday in MaQaleh Adumim and Hebron, 
right-wing activists protested against the expected construction 
freeze.  Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) was quoted as saying 
at the official ceremony marking 80 years of the massacre of 
67Jewish residents of Hebron: QThose who believe that Jerusalem will 
rise from the Hebron disaster have learned nothing.  Those who 
believe that by drying up Ariel and MaQaleh Adumim we will build Tel 
Aviv and Netanya may unfortunately eventually stumble where others 
have.Q  The media reported that around 20 Peace Now demonstrators 
protested at the site of the MaQaleh Adumim rally. 
 
The media quoted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs as saying 
on Friday that Qthe United States does not accept the legitimacy of 
continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop.Q  The media 
reported that the EU also rebuked Israel on its new settlements 
plans. 
 
On September 7, HaQaretz quoted U.S. Government officials as saying 
that they have succeeded in extracting "pledges" from a number of 
Arab states to move toward normalization of relations with Israel. 
The officials, who refused to name the states in question, said that 
the promised gestures were offered in response to Israel's agreement 
to initiate a construction freeze in West Bank settlements. 
 
Speaking from Africa on Israel Radio this morning, FM Avigdor 
Lieberman said that Israel should review with the U.S. the 
assurances given by former President George W. Bush. 
 
Israel Radio reported that PM Netanyahu will visit Egypt next week 
to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. 
 
Yesterday, The Jerusalem Post quoted senior officials as saying on 
September 6 that the Defense Ministry is preparing for the 
possibility that the U.S. will decide to leave missile defense 
systems in Israel following a joint missile defense exercise the two 
countries hold next month. 
 
Yediot reported that next Wednesday, Gaza-based families of Hamas 
prisoners detained in Israel will take part in a cross-border 
protest coordinated with Gilad ShalitQs family. 
 
Yesterday, Yediot reported that the Saudi Transport Minister 
objected to oveflights of his country by Israeli civilian airliners, 
saying that Qthe Israelis will defile the Islamic holy places. 
 
Maariv reported that a Palestinian family testified before the 
Military Police regarding Human Rights WatchQs claim that, during 
Operation Cast Lead, IDF soldiers killed 11 Palestinians who were 
holding white flags. 
 
Media quoted PM Netanyahu as saying at SundayQs cabinet meeting that 
the nearly one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union who 
have come to Israel since 1989 QrescuedQ the country and should be 
considered Qone of the greatest miracles that happened to the 
state. 
 
Yesterday, The Jerusalem Post reprinted a Jewish Telegraphic Agency 
report analyzing the role of Qinaccurate media reportsQ in disputes 
between the U.S. and Israel.  Spats between the GOI and HaQaretz are 
mentioned in the Post story. 
 
Yediot reported that an anti-establishment Iranian cartoonist 
calling himself Qthe IranianQ is exposing his works at a Haifa 
exhibition. 
 
Yesterday, The Jerusalem Post published the results of a poll for 
The Israel Project that gathers Arab public opinion on a number of 
key issues: Hamas's approval rating has sunk to significantly low 
levels in the West Bank and even lower levels inside Gaza. 
 
The survey, conducted by Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner 
Research, included face-to-face interviews with hundreds of adults 
in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza, along with a series of 
focus groups in Cairo and Ramallah.  While the numbers indicate 
ongoing, deep hostility toward Israel in the Arab world, the poll 
also shows signs that powerful players in the region, such as Hamas, 
are in deep trouble at home, and that the people living under their 
direct rule are becomingly increasingly vocal in their criticism. 
 
According to the poll, 58% of Gazans said they disapprove of the job 
being done by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while 42% of them said they 
"disapprove strongly." 
 
Fifty-seven percent of Palestinians in the West Bank also said they 
disapprove of Hamas, but only 16% disapproved "strongly." 
 
The poll also shows Fatah would beat Hamas by a solid 10 percentage 
points in both the West Bank and Gaza, if Palestinians were to vote 
in parliamentary elections today. While Fatah's popularity was much 
higher than Hamas's in the West Bank, by a 45-28% margin, Fatah was 
still able to edge Hamas by 3% in Gaza, where 33% of those polled 
said they favored Fatah, compared to 30% for Hamas. 
 
When asked who was responsible for the current crisis in Gaza, 
Israel was overwhelmingly blamed by all the groups polled. But while 
5% of Egyptians and Jordanians blamed Hamas for the current crisis, 
35% of Palestinians in the West Bank said Hamas was to blame, while 
16% of Gazans agreed. 
 
Additionally, of all the places polled, Gazans made up the highest 
percentage -- 38% -- of those who said they believed that both 
Israel and Hamas, together, were responsible for the current Gaza 
crisis. 
 
Nonetheless, Gazans and Jordanians both showed a surprisingly high 
level of support for direct negotiations with Israel. More than half 
of those two groups -- 52% of those polled -- said they believed 
Palestinians should negotiate directly with Israel, accep its right 
to exist and honor past agreements.  hirty-nine percent of 
Egyptians said the same, compared to 36% of Palestinians in the West 
Bank. 
Also surprising, Greenberg said, was that while 35% of the other 
groups polled stressed the importance of releasing Gilad Shalit, an 
overwhelming two-thirds of Gazans said the same. 
 
The poll also revealed that nearly a decade after the breakdown of 
the Camp David Accords between Yasser Arafat, then-US president Bill 
Clinton and then-prime minister Ehud Barak, a majority of those 
polled in Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank expressed regret that 
Arafat failed to accept the peace deal proposed there. Fifty-six 
percent of West Bank Palestinians said that in retrospect, they 
wished Arafat had accepted the agreement, while 50% of Jordanians 
and 39% of Egyptians said the same. In Gaza, 57% of those polled 
said they did not regret Arafat's rejection of the deal.  Greenberg 
said that these West Bank results show a change of heart since the 
breakdown of the Camp David talks. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Bibi Shall Not Fall Again" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (9/8): QWhether Bibi's statements 
were coordinated or not, he is playing with fire with his 
construction games.  The upcoming visit by U.S. Envoy George 
Mitchell will give us a better picture of where we stand.  In any 
case, Obama has not been weakened to as great an extent as the 
Israeli media claims. Almost every president suffers a certain loss 
in popularity in public opinion polls at this stage of his term.... 
The question is, how long can Bibi satisfy the right wing while also 
reaching an understanding on the American plan to establish a 
Palestinian state as part of a pan-Arab arrangement?  The Obama 
administration has made its expectations of Israel clear.  And 
despite the threats of several right-wing politicians, it is 
unlikely that a majority to topple this government can be found.... 
Netanyahu may be playing a flip-flopping game, but he will soon have 
to make a decision.  Not only because it is the majority's desire, 
but first and foremost because he doesn't want to lose the 
premiership yet again.  And if any refrain is running through his 
head, it is probably something along the lines of the heroic poem 
about Masada: Bibi shall not fall again. 
 
II.  "Four Hundred and Fifty-Five Frogs" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz (9/8): QOn 
Sunday evening, after signing some of the authorizations needed to 
build 455 new housing units in West Bank settlements, Defense 
Minister Ehud Barak rushed from his ministry in Tel Aviv to a 
conference in Herzliya.  There, the Labor Party Chairman declared 
that Qit is our obligation to support, soberly but with an open 
mind, the American initiative to bring about a comprehensive 
regional agreement in the Middle East.Q  The only explanation for 
this is that Barak has reason to believe U.S. President Barack Obama 
will swallow another 455 frogs. 
 
III.  "The Man Who Will Decide 
 
Former Meretz leader, former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, and 
chief Israeli promoter of the Geneva Initiative, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (9/7): QThe idea that the construction of 
additional housing units must immediately be approved, beyond the 
thousands of units whose construction has already begun, and only 
then will construction be frozen -- though not in Jerusalem -- is 
doomed to failure.  The Americans cannot accept such a scorched 
stew.  The Palestinians cannot allow themselves to return to the 
talks on the basis of this formula, whereas the keepers of the faith 
in the Likud will not compromise on any freeze -- even if it is 
wrapped in a temporary expansion of construction in the settlements. 
 In fact, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stuck, shortly after 
his election, between a rock and a hard place.  He has to calculate 
who is with him and who is against him.  He is trying, naturally 
enough, to connect between his personal supporters, even if they are 
on the hawkish side of the map, and the more moderate figures in his 
camp, whom he joined following the Bar Ilan speech.  This is 
Netanyahu's moment.  The ball is in his court, and the decision has 
to be made in the period between the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur 
[roughly September 19 through 28].  Netanyahu can expect a majority 
in the Knesset for any decision that he makes.  If he sticks to the 
formula of a freeze following an expansion of construction, he will 
enjoy the support of a majority of his current coalition; if he 
agrees to a historic move of a real construction freeze and 
launching serious negotiations with the PLO leadership on a final 
status arrangement within six months, he will gain the support of 
part of his faction's Knesset members, as well as the support of 
those on the left of it].... However, it is reasonable to assume 
that choosing the second option sends a chill through him.  Every 
prime minister in the history of the state -- both on the Right and 
on the Left -- has preferred to act with a broad coalition, from the 
center rightwards.... But the distance from being caught between a 
rock and a hard place, to the uplifting situation he can reach 
between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, could be shorter than a 
stone's throw. 
 
IV.  QOne More Tug and the Rope Will Break 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (9/6): QIn practice, Netanyahu is being led today by Shimon 
Peres and Ehud Barak, and even though only half of the Labor Party's 
Knesset members vote for him, he has become the Labor Party voters' 
prime minister.... [Netanyahu] has got enough rope to maneuver 
cleverly, in hopes that he would not take his eyes off the goal for 
which he had promised to strive.  But lately, it also has become 
clear to the leaders of Netanyahu's camp that he is going back to 
the old, disliked pattern of his first term, according to which, 
when faced with pressure from the left wing, the press and 
international elements, he changed his skin, signed the Hebron 
Agreement, embraced Arafat, and gave his consent to the Wye 
Memorandum. 
 
¶V.  "Plain Speaking" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (9/7): 
QTime will tell if the Israelis are right about having changed 
American minds [on settlement construction freeze].  To give 
Netanyahu his due, at his Bar-Ilan speech in June, he tried speaking 
plain about settlements and about the root causes of the conflict, 
but much of what he said was lost on his American and European 
audiences.  The Premier urged the Palestinian leadership to 
recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state of its own. 
Abbas said no.  Netanyahu implored them to solve the Palestinian 
refugee issue outside Israel's borders.  Abbas ignored him.  The 
Premier urged them to negotiate the establishment of a 
non-militarized Palestinian state.  Abbas's advisers scorned the 
notion.  Netanyahu also tried some plain speaking to the settlers, 
saying Israel did not want to rule over the Palestinians.  Granted, 
it would have been better had he stated unequivocally that even a 
deal with the Palestinians he could live with would entail uprooting 
communities outside the settlement blocs.  Yet given the constraints 
of our political system and the inhospitable political environment 
in Europe and in Washington, there is just so much plain speaking 
Netanyahu can usefully do.  So maybe the real problem, in this 
instance, is not that Netanyahu doesn't speak plainly, but that ears 
attached to closed minds -- on the Israeli Right, at the EU and in 
Washington -- have made it difficult for his words to strike a 
chord. 
 
VI.  QAmerica Is Calling for Obama 
 
Columnist Shmuel Rosner, who was HaQaretzQs correspondent in 
Washington, wrote in Maariv (9/8): QObamaQs first year is slipping 
between his fingers.... The legislators are edgy and jumpy.... In 
April, the settlements were an Qobstacle to peaceQ; they have now 
become an obstacle, a disturbance, in ObamaQs path as well.  He has 
many reasons to want to clinch a deal with Netanyahu -- one of them 
is that he doesnQt have time to take care of trivia. 
 
VII.  QCarter, the Enemy Of Peace 
 
Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in Maariv 
(9/8): QThere are thousands of residents in [Jimmy] CarterQs home 
state in Atlanta who were evicted from their homes because they 
donQt have the money to make mortgage payments.  The rights of the 
Smith family, which was thrown into the street in Atlanta, are far 
more substantiated than the rights of the [East Jerusalem] Hanoun 
family.  But Carter is not looking for justice.  He is looking to 
defame.  The criticism over the eviction of the Hanoun family could 
be justified.... The Palestinians underwent the experience of flight 
and expulsion in the wake of a declaration of a war of destruction 
against the fledgling Jewish state.  The Jews in Arab states 
underwent a similar experience -- flight, expulsion, and property 
confiscation -- although they did not declare war on the Arab 
states.  Whose rights, therefore, are greater?  Did Carter ever tell 
the Palestinians this basic truth?  We know the answer.  Like other 
Qpeace activists,Q he treats the Arabs in general, and the 
Palestinians in particular, like retarded children.  They mustnQt be 
told the truth.  They mustnQt be told that if there are rights to be 
had -- then they are for both Jews and for Arabs.  And if there are 
no rights -- then neither the Jews nor the Arabs have them.... 
Israel can and should be criticized for the settlement enterprise. 
Sometimes this criticism is justified.  But Carter, like thousands 
of other Qpeace activists,Q is not bringing peace any closer.  Their 
demonization of Israel strengthens the peace rejectionists.... 
Carter wrote an article [in the Washington Post] condemning Israel. 
One of many.  Instead of being an honest critic, Carter is becoming 
part of the incitement mechanism against Israel.  Carter is capable 
of much more.  He succeeded in other regions.  For some reason, when 
he deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he loses his 
fairness and his balance. 
This doesnQt help promote peace.  Just the opposite.  This is 
CarterQs contribution to strengthening Palestinian rejectionism and 
to distancing the chance of peace. 
 
VIII.  QAmericaQs Obsession with Dialogue 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (9/7): QSyria won't invade 
Iraq, it will just keep welcoming, training, arming, financing, 
transporting and helping the terrorists who do so.  The Obama 
administration has declared the war on terrorism to be over.  But it 
also said that the U.S. viewed al Qaida and those working with it as 
enemies.  The Syria-based Iraqi terrorists fall into that category. 
America sacrificed hundreds of lives for Iraq's stability.  Most of 
those soldiers and civilian contractors were murdered by the very 
terrorists harbored by Syria.  How can the administration distance 
itself from this conflict instead of supporting its ally and trying 
to act against the very terrorists who have murdered Americans?.... 
how can any ally have confidence that the U.S. Government will 
support it if menaced by terrorism or aggression?  It can't.  The 
problem with treating enemies better than friends is that the 
friends start wondering whether their interests are better served by 
appeasing mutual enemies or mistreating an unfaithful ally which 
ignores their needs. 
 
CUNNINGHAM