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DE RUEHTV #2015/01 2570623
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002015 
 
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: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Visit of U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, PA 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media highlighted the killing of IAF Captain Assaf Ramon 
yesterday when the F-16A Falcon jet he was flying crashed during a 
routine training flight.  He was the son of Ilan Ramon, the first 
Israeli astronaut, who died during the disastrous Earth reentry of 
the NASA space shuttle Columbia in 2003.  Israel Radio reported that 
PM Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Special Envoy Senator George Mitchell 
will be attending Assaf RamonQs funeral this afternoon, and that 
todayQs meeting between the two was put off until tomorrow.  Media 
also reported that Mitchell visited the Ramon family home 
yesterday. 
 
HaQaretz quoted PM Netanyahu as saying at yesterdayQs cabinet 
meeting that differences remain with the U.S. over the conditions 
necessary to resume peacemaking.  Netanyahu said he hopes to narrow 
the gaps between the two sides during his meeting with Mitchell. 
HaQaretz quoted Mitchell as saying during his meeting with President 
Shimon Peres that the purpose of his visit is to reach agreement on 
any outstanding issues and that reported that the dispute had been 
resolved are Qpremature.Q  Media reported that the Special Envoy 
also met with DM Ehud Barak and FM Avigdor Lieberman.  Maariv said 
that the latter is not involved in the current diplomatic contacts. 
 
Yediot cited the assessment of high=ranking diplomatic sources that 
the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will resume in 
a matter of weeks as part of the expected three-way summit between 
Netanyahu, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and President Obama.  Yediot 
cited the prevalent view of diplomatic sources that Mitchell will 
eventually succeed in obtaining from Netanyahu assent to temporarily 
freeze construction in settlements in exchange for normalization of 
relations with Israel on the part of Arab states.  The Jerusalem 
Post actually reported that Saudi Arabia is stepping up its 
boycotting of Israel: RiyadhQs boycott-related requests of American 
companies rise more than 76%. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday in Cairo, Netanyahu and 
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak discussed Mideast peacemaking, 
according to a statement from Netanyahu's office.  It said all sides 
-- Israel, the Palestinians, Arab nations and the international 
community -- must do their part in advancing the peace process, an 
apparent reference to gestures the Arab world might offer in 
exchange for a settlement freeze. 
 Netanyahu also discussed Egypt's attempts to mediate a prisoner 
swap between Israel and Hamas.  Yediot reported that Vice PM and 
Interior Minister Eli Yishai handed Mubarak a letter from ShasQs 
spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, urging him to use his influence 
to have Gilad Shalit released.   HaQaretz reported that Mubarak 
spokesman Suleiman Awad told the state-run ME NA news agency that 
Mubarak asked Netanyahu to halt Israeli construction in the West 
Bank and in East Jerusalem, to lift restrictions on Palestinians, 
and to quickly resume peace talks.  HaQaretz reported that Israeli 
and Palestinian officials denied the report published in yesterdayQs 
newspaper quoting unnamed European diplomats as saying that borders 
would be drawn between Israel and a Palestinian state to be 
established within two years while major outstanding issues would 
remain unresolved. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that today Vice PM Silvan Shalom will 
hold a press conference with the far-Right Council of Rabbis of 
Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank]. 
 
HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday settlers and 
security forces clashed at the northern West Bank outpost of Havat 
Gilad.  The clashes broke out following an attempt by security 
forces to confiscate a truck which was supposedly used to illegally 
transport a mobile home to the site.  Dozens of right-wing activists 
who came to the site to try to prevent the truck from being moved, 
punctured the tires of military vehicles, hurled stones, and set 
fire to a nearby Palestinian-owned olive orchard.   One man was 
injured and four were arrested.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that, 
in a toast ahead of the Jewish New Year, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. 
Gabi Ashkenazi made conciliatory remarks in the direction of the 
settlers. 
 
Maariv reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry is bracing for the 
publication of the U.N. Human Rights Council-appointed fact-finding 
mission to investigate international human rights and humanitarian 
law violations related to Operation Cast Lead.   The Jerusalem Post 
reported that British and Canadian lawyers, together with the U.N. 
watchdog QU.N Watch,Q are complaining the week of alleged bias in 
the commission. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that IsraelQs National Security 
Council will function as a command reporting to the prime minister. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Sheikh Salam al-Hoziel from Rahat, 
the only Bedouin city in Israel, who has been active on the campaign 
for the release of Gilad Shalit and whose house was subsequently 
burned down, will take on IsraelQs Islamic Movement and Hamas. 
 
Maariv reported that since Operation Cast Lead, 80,000 cubic meters 
of sewage from Gaza have been discharged daily into the 
Mediterranean, threatening to disrupt the operation of the 
desalination plant in Ashkelon. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Israel Antiquities Authority researchers have 
re-exposed a stretch of road in Jerusalem dating to the Second 
Temple period that is believed to have been used by pilgrims on 
their ascent to the Temple.  Existence of the 40-meter segment of 
road, cleared over the past few months to open it to visitors, has 
been known of for more than a century.  The excavation is taking 
place in the neighborhood of Silwan near the Siloam Spring. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Visit of U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, PA 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.   QFighting the Gatekeeper 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (9/14): QThe American designers of policy, who 
tend to sew the peace process according to the measures of the 
Israeli coalition, are blind to anything having to do with the 
limits within which Palestinian politics operates.  Over and over 
they offer a quilt that is too short, but which keeps the Israelis 
warm, only to complain that the Palestinians are the ones getting 
cold feet.  Proof of this can be found in an article by Aaron 
Miller, who served for many years as deputy to Dennis Ross in the 
American mediation team, and which was published in the Washington 
Post in May 2005.  Under the title QIsrael's Lawyer,Q he wrote that 
QFor far too long, many American officials involved in Arab-Israeli 
peacemaking, myself included, have acted as Israel's attorney, 
catering and coordinating with the Israelis at the expense of 
successful peace negotiationsQ.... Israel promised seven years ago 
to freeze settlement construction, including that which was meant to 
meet natural growth, but at the White House they certainly know that 
Netanyahu's deputy, [Moshe] Ya'alon, argues that it is the Qright 
of every Jew to build a home -- in the middle of the Nablus casbah. 
This approach only causes a loss of Arab trust in the willingness of 
Israeli governments to do justice by the Palestinians; it mortally 
undermines their trust in the willingness of the Americans to use 
their power and influence in order to carry out U.S. interests in 
the region.  If Obama is worried about fighting with the gatekeeper, 
and so lets Netanyahu rule the vineyard, we will all eat grapes of 
wrath. 
 
II.  QA Peace Plan Devoid of Contents 
 
Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in the editorial of the 
nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (9/14): QAccording to 
European sources, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that within two 
years, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations regarding the establishment 
of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel will resume.... 
Beyond the American and Palestinians stances, it appears that most 
Israelis cannot endure the concessions to which Netanyahu is 
prepared to commit itself in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank]. 
 Anyway, his new proposals will not withstand the test of reality. 
 
 
III.  QJews Also Have a Nakba 
 
Ron Breiman, a former chairman of the conservative group Professors 
for a Strong Israel, wrote in HaQaretz (9/14): QIn its 62nd year, 
Israel must decide between a Palestinian state or peace.  A 
Palestinian side alongside Israel at the outset, but on its ruins in 
the future, is the diametric opposite of peace.  Pushing toward such 
a state, and ignoring both common sense and the majority, rends the 
nation's fabric, and in itself sabotages the essential foundations 
of peace. 
IV.  QAssad Would Have Loved It 
 
Columnist and former intelligence officer Amos Gilboa wrote in the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (9/14): QChecks done by the Americans with 
Assad personally and with his aides show that the document that 
[Ron] Lauder [a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu] presented [former U.S. President Bill] Clinton was not at 
all acceptable to the Syrians or to Netanyahu.... A passage in 
Dennis RossQs book [QThe Missing PeaceQ] raises the possibility that 
this is an internal draft paper in which he inserted the positions 
that had been presented to him by the Syrians.  In other words, it 
is more or less a QSyrian paper,Q not a pledge by Netanyahu. 
 
¶V.  QProtecting the Quarterback in the White House 
 
Lenny Ben-David, who served as a senior diplomat in the Israeli 
Embassy in Washington and a member of AIPACQs staff in Washington 
and Jerusalem from 1992 to 1997, wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (9/14): QYesterday's New York Times 
Magazine published the latest paean to J Street, portraying it as 
brash and brave, representative of 92 percent of American Jewry, and 
a young and open organization willing to take on a monolithic and 
Paleolithic AIPAC and other veteran American Jewish 
organizations.... One fact the Times magazine seems to get right: QJ 
Street shares the Obama administration's agenda.Q  But the Times 
should have gone on to ask the nature of J Street's relationship 
with senior officials in the Obama administration. 
 
 
 
 
VI.  QIn the Middle East, Fear Trumps Popularity 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in The 
Jerusalem Post (9/14): QThis is the region's political style: 
Toughness counts; fear is better than popularity. In contrast to 
Western viewpoints, to concede or compromise shows weakness which 
means others will walk all over you.  Of course, this is precisely 
how they view the West's sensitivity and apologies. 
QConfidence-buildingQ measures become contempt-building measures. 
Many Western leaders and much of the Western intelligentsia are like 
people sleeping through a burglary.  Not only are their friends 
trying to wake them up, so are -- however inadvertently -- their 
enemies. 
 
VII.  QArea C Illegalities 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized (9/14): QThe right-wing 
organization Regavim has launched a campaign to force the government 
to issue and implement demolition orders against illegal Palestinian 
construction in Area C of the West Bank, which is entirely under 
Israeli military and administrative control.... Regavim's claim that 
it is demanding equality for Jews vis-`-vis Palestinians in the 
development of land resources in Area C is misleading.  By and 
large, the Israeli government is not offering a reasonable 
alternative to the Palestinians in Area C other than to build 
illegally at the risk of having their homes demolished.  Prime 
Minister Netanyahu has embraced the vision of Israel and a 
demilitarized Palestinian state living peacefully side by side.  He 
has vowed to drive a hard bargain on the division of disputed 
territory, but his hierarchy is holding to an unreasonable formula 
as regards Palestinian building, even in areas where Israel does not 
envision maintaining control.  A more nuanced approach is overdue. 
 
CUNNINGHAM