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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002036 
 
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WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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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: 
------------------------- 
 
The media reported that yesterday U.S. Special Envoy Senator George 
Mitchell was unable to bridge the gaps between the U.S., Israel, and 
the PA in a way that would allow a three-party summit to be held at 
the U.N. General Assembly next week.   HaQaretz reported that 
Mitchell asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show flexibility 
on the issue of freezing settlements, in order to allow Palestinian 
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to attend the meeting with 
Netanyahu and President Obama. Media reported that last night the 
forum of senior ministers in Netanyahu's inner circle met to discuss 
whether they believe Israel has additional room to maneuver within 
the administration's red lines. Israel Radio quoted Netanyahu 
associates as saying that the PM is willing to resume negotiations 
with the Palestinians but not at all cost.  The radio quoted 
ministers as saying that the Palestinians are playing a game of 
brinkmanship.  Media quoted Mitchell as saying before meeting with 
Netanyahu that he hoped he would be able to reach an agreement with 
the PM that would allow the three-way summit to take place. After 
yesterday's meeting the Prime Minister's Office issued a laconic 
statement that the meeting had been "good." HaQaretz quoted an 
official as saying later that the two sides are continuing efforts 
to narrow the differences between them. Following yesterday's 
fruitless talks, Netanyahu is scheduled this morning to meet with 
Mitchell again, after the envoy extended his stay in Israel by an 
additional day. Today Mitchell and Netanyahu will try to reach a 
compromise on a settlement freeze that would allow the renewal of 
diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. 
Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote: QThe fact 
that Mitchell met with Netanyahu on Tuesday morning, went to Abbas 
in Ramallah in the afternoon and will meet again on Wednesday 
morning with Netanyahu in Jerusalem left the impression that he was 
shuffling questions and answers back and forth.Q  HaQaretz noted 
that one of the outstanding issues between Washington and Jerusalem 
is the length of the proposed freeze -- the U.S. is demanding that 
settlement construction be suspended for a year, while Israel is 
offering to do so for only six months. The timetable for talks is 
also under dispute, as Washington is seeking to reach an 
Israeli-Palestinian agreement within two years, a target the 
Netanyahu government has rejected.   In today's meeting, Mitchell is 
expected to update Netanyahu on his meeting yesterday with Abbas, 
during which he dined with the Palestinian leader to break the day's 
Ramadan fast.   Media quoted Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as 
saying after the meeting that Mitchell and Abbas did not even 
discuss the possibility of a tripartite meeting. Erekat said all 
settlement construction must completely stop, including in East 
Jerusalem, before such a meeting could be arranged. 
 
Yediot cites assessments in Israel, following the Mitchell-Netanyahu 
meeting, that the three-way summit will take place next week. 
 
PM Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a Jewish New Year interview 
with Maariv that Mahmoud Abbas must declare that the conflict has 
ended.  Netanyahu was quoted as saying that Abbas would then put him 
to a test. 
 
Major news reports are about yesterdayQs release of the report from 
the U.N. Human Rights Council-appointed fact-finding mission, headed 
by Judge Richard Goldstone, to investigate international human 
rights and humanitarian law violations related to Operation Cast 
Lead, Although the document accuses both Israelis and the 
Palestinians of actions amounting to war crimes, the media reported 
that Israel began fighting the diplomatic battle yesterday to 
prevent the report from being brought before the U.N. Security 
Council and from there to the International Criminal Court in The 
Hague, where charges could be brought against Israeli officials 
involved in the military campaign. Major media quoted Israeli 
sources as saying that the commission has Qdeclared war on Israel. 
HaQaretz reported that on the diplomatic front, Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, President 
Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will telephone many of 
their counterparts around the world. They will stress that the 
Goldstone report is one-sided, that it rewards terrorism, and that 
it sets a precedent which will make it difficult for any country in 
the world to defend itself against terror. Israel's diplomatic 
efforts will focus on the five permanent members of the UN Security 
Council but that they will also give priority to members of the EU, 
because of their influence in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. 
The senior Israeli leaders will ask their counterparts to express 
disagreement with the report and to oppose any use of it as the 
basis for anti-Israel resolutions at other international 
institutions. HaQaretz quoted a senior Israeli staffer handling the 
Goldstone report as saying: "It will be a long diplomatic and legal 
campaign. We will involve our friends around the world, especially 
the United States, to prevent Israel's isolation."  Israel's 
ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev was quoted as saying in an 
interview with HaQaretz yesterday: "Exactly what we feared 
occurred.  The mandate of the Goldstone Commission," she said, "was 
one-sided from the beginning and the initiative to establish the 
commission came from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is known 
for regularly and routinely condemning Israel." QWe anticipated that 
the contents of the report would be slanted and one-sided, but we 
didn't imagine that it would be so harsh and blunt," she added. The 
Jerusalem Post quoted Avi Bell, an expert in international law and 
laws of war at Bar-Ilan University, as saying that the report will 
cause Israel serious political damage, but that it is unlikely to 
lead to any tangible consequences.  HaQaretz reported that yesterday 
Hamas ejected the report.  A representative of the organization, 
Ismail Radwan, told HaQaretz last night that the report was 
unbalanced and completely misrepresented reality.  Media quoted 
Israeli human rights groups as saying that Israel cannot ignore the 
report. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a report issued yesterday by 
epidemiologist Elihu Richter and Dr. Yael Stein charged that a 
recent document released by the Israeli human rights group BQTselem 
on the number of Palestinian combatants and non-combatants killed in 
Operation Cast Lead Qis flawed by major errors of commission and 
omission and possibly major misclassification biases. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted DM Barak as saying yesterday that Israel 
took too big a risk by removing roadblocks in the West Bank. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Geneva Initiative co-sponsor Yossi Beilin 
as saying yesterday that talk about a settlement freeze distracts 
negotiators from real issues -- such as Jerusalem and refugees -- 
that truly block the path to peace between Israelis and 
Palestinians. 
 
Israel Radio reported on Syrian President Bashar AssadQs visit to 
Turkey and the likely discussion there of the Israeli-Syrian 
negotiation track. 
 
Leading media reported that U.S. astronauts came to Israel to 
comfort the family of IAF Capt. Assaf Ramon, who was killed on 
Sunday during a routine training flight.  The media cited the close 
friendship between the astronauts and the Ramon family. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Israel has arrested Mohammed Harwish, a Hamas 
militant wanted since 2004 for involvement in the suicide bombing 
that killed 30 people at a Passover Seder in the Park Hotel in 
¶2002. 
 
HaQaretz reported that settler Rabbi Mordechai Geniram will go on 
trial today for obstructing justice by refusing to give police the 
names of students suspected of attacking and beating Palestinian 
shepherds in March 2008.  On what it described as unprecedented 
settler violence, Israel TV reported that yesterday masked Jews 
attacked border policemen Q notably with firebombs -- at the West 
Bank outpost of Havat Gilad. 
 
HaQaretz quoted the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi as 
saying that Syria plans to block Internet users from accessing 
Facebook, because the site now allows residents of the Golan to 
identify Israel as their country of origin. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz met 
with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in Washington on Monday 
in an effort to intensify ties and strengthen cooperation with the 
U.S.  The newspaper also reported that Industry, Trade, and Labor 
Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer is scheduled to meet with New York 
Governor David Paterson to sign an R&D cooperation agreement between 
Israel and New York State.  Ben-Eliezer is also scheduled to meet 
with leading companies in Atlanta and Boston, including GE 
Technology, AT&T, Coca Cola, and waste management firms to encourage 
closer cooperation. 
 
HaQaretz and Yediot reported that major Hollywood actors Q including 
Jerry Seinfeld, Sasha Baron Cohen, Natalie Portman, Jason Alexander, 
and Lisa Kudrow -- have voiced their opposition to a petition 
calling for the boycott of Israeli movies at the Toronto Film 
Festival.  Yediot reported that Julie Christie, Danny Glover, and 
Viggo Mortensen support the petition, while Jane Fonda is hesitant. 
Leading media reported that American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, 
who is in Israel to promote his latest film, Inglourious Basterds, 
faced tough questions from some critics regarding his treatment of 
the Holocaust in the movie. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Visit of U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, PA 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.   QIsraelQs Mistakes 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning HaQaretz (9/16): QBut the ultimate 
adjudicator on the fate of the report by [the U.N. Human Rights 
Council- appointed commission on the Gaza war] will be Barack Obama, 
who now has another whip with which to flay Benjamin Netanyahu -- if 
you don't freeze the settlements and agree to concessions, legal 
proceedings will commence against those responsible for Operation 
Cast Lead. It is doubtful that Obama wishes to make such a threat, 
which would set a precedent against other militaries fighting terror 
in civilian areas, as is the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.... 
Perhaps most important, the Goldstone report reinforces the most 
serious strategic threat Israel brought upon itself with the Gaza 
offensive, in that it saps international legitimacy for a similar 
operation in the future. A country considering attacking the nuclear 
reactor in Iran, and then endangering itself to rocket fire from 
Lebanon and Gaza in response, will have to take into account whether 
the world will give Israel another opportunity for a severe, 
crushing response. 
 
II.  QHypocrisy and War 
 
Defense commentator Amir Oren wrote on page one of Ha'aretz (9/16): 
QIn the end, it is not about the law, but about power, military and 
political. [Judge Richard] Goldstone is now free to go to Kunduz 
[Afghanistan], but American might means there is no chance that he 
will.  When the smoke of Goldstone's report clears, the IDF and the 
Government can emerge from the bunker to find that little damage has 
been done. Israel's cooperation is needed in the diplomatic arena. 
After Operation Defensive Shield, Israel succumbed to external 
pressure and agreed to establish a committee of inquiry headed by 
U.S. General William Nash on the massacre-that-never-was in Jenin. 
Only after Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland and UN Envoy Terje Roed Larsen 
intervened was the committee called off.  Then-U.S. President George 
¶W. Bush preferred to push his diplomatic initiative to establish a 
Palestinian state.  And that is what President Barack Obama will 
probably do: He will curb the propagandistic trend of slamming 
Israel for war crimes in order to extract tangible concessions from 
it as a peace partner. 
 
III.  QFundamentally Flawed, or a Step toward Sanctions? 
 
Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor and member of the 
political science faculty of Bar-Ilan University, wrote on page one 
of  the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (9/16): Q[Judge 
Richard] Goldstone told his audience [yesterday] that they should 
Qrejoice that we are living in a world today in which there is 
accountability for war crimes.Q  Sadly, the rejoicing will come from 
exactly those quarters that fear true accountability.  The Hamas 
leadership and its supporters, including the Iranian regime, will 
gladly accept the result, but few Israelis or fair-minded 
individuals will view this mission, its report, or its 
recommendations, as having provided accountability or restored the 
morality of the United Nations. 
 
IV. QWage War 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (9/16): QThe [IsraelisQ] immediate, natural, almost 
instinctive response to the Goldstone report on the IDFQs war crimes 
is -- more or less -- Qlet them go to hellQ.... It would be very 
unwise to ignore the report.  It would be very wise to come out 
unscathed from this trouble.  Israel would be well advised -- 
starting today -- to wage a diplomatic and public relations campaign 
throughout the world.  All good available forces in Israel should be 
recruited. 
 
 
 
¶V.  QDonQt Disturb the Diplomats 
 
HaQaretz editorialized (9/16): QIsrael has an interest in the 
success of [the international communityQs] talks [with Iran] -- 
namely, in curbing the Iranian threat through diplomacy rather than 
the use of force, which could drag the region into prolonged war and 
severely harm both Israel's home front and its economy.   It must 
continue preparations for a rainy day. But at the same time, it must 
not impair Obama's attempts to exhaust the diplomatic process. 
 
CUNNINGHAM