VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #2080/01 2610616
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 180616Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3513
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 5980
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 2554
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 6572
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 6790
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 6037
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 4664
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 6884
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3658
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1873
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0544
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 8058
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 3068
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 7050
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 9106
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 1873
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 2808
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002080 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media reported that in a Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) 
greeting to Jews the world over, President Barack Obama called for 
the rejection of the "impulse to harden ourselves to others' 
suffering," urging empathy and "compassion to those in need."  The 
Qfirst African-American PresidentQ (in HaQaretzQs words) also called 
for resistance to "prejudice, intolerance and indifference" and for 
a strong stance against what he described as "the scourge of 
anti-Semitism, which is still prevalent in far too many corners of 
our world."  Obama also expressed the desire to "work to achieve 
lasting peace and security for the state of Israel, so that the 
Jewish state is fully accepted by its neighbors, and its children 
can live their dreams free from fear."  Yediot noted that, for the 
first time, the PresidentQs greeting was also translated into Hebrew 
(QShana shel Shalom Uvitahon LeYisraelQ Q a Year of Peace and 
Security for Israel.) 
 
The media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. 
Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Senator George Mitchell will 
meet today (MaarivQs headline: QThis Morning: Fateful Meeting 
Between Netanyahu and Envoy MitchellQ) in order to determine whether 
a tripartite meeting including Obama and Palestinian Authority 
President Mahmoud Abbas, will take place next week at the U.N. 
General Assembly.  The hope is that the three-way meeting will serve 
as a catalyst for restarting the negotiations between Israel and the 
PA.  Senior U.S. officials told HaQaretz yesterday that todayQs 
meeting will resolve all differences in order to open the door for 
holding talks in New York.  Netanyahu told Channel 2-TV in a special 
Jewish New Year interview: QQIf it [the summit] will be, it will be. 
 If not, not.  I didnQt ask for it, and I didnQt put conditions on 
the talks.Q  The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe banners: 
QToday Mitchell Will Pressure: Concede for the SummitQs Sake.Q  The 
Palestinians are refusing  to meet with Netanyahu unless he declares 
a comprehensive freeze on settlement activity, including in East 
Jerusalem.  HaQaretz reported that Mitchell also met with Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan during his 
current visit to the region, and asked them to exert pressure on 
Abbas to soften his stance so that a meeting can take place at the 
U.N.  Mitchell also reportedly asked the two Arab leaders to rally 
the Arab world in undertaking goodwill gestures toward Israel. 
 
Last night, in interviews with Israeli TV stations on the occasion 
of the Jewish New Year, which starts tonight, Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a U.N. report (the QGoldstone reportQ) 
alleging Israeli war crimes during its three-week offensive in Gaza 
last winter, warning world leaders that they and their anti-terror 
forces could be targets for similar charges. He said that the report 
ignored Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian 
rocket attacks that preceded Israel's invasion, adding that lessons 
must be learned for future agreements with the Palestinians.   "I am 
telling international leaders: You are telling us that you support 
our right of self defense.  Don't tell us that after the next 
agreement, tell us now.  Reject the findings of this commission," 
Netanyahu told Channel 2-TV.  "Come out now, condemn this report and 
act to quash its consequences now," he went on to say.  Netanyahu 
called on the world to oppose the conclusion that formal charges 
could be brought against Israeli soldiers, officers and leaders as a 
result of the Gaza war.  He said it was a blow to the fight against 
terrorism and warned that other countries could find their soldiers 
and leaders in the dock as the result of anti-terror operations. 
HaQaretz reported that late last night, Netanyahu spoke with Russian 
President Dmitry Medvedev, asking for his support in curbing the 
effects of the Goldstone report. Netanyahu stressed that the 
report's conclusions compromise Russia's capability to combat 
terrorism, as well as Israel's.  HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post 
reported that earlier Thursday, Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to 
the U.N., criticized the U.N. Human Rights Council for giving an 
"unacceptable" mandate to the fact-finding mission in Gaza.  Rice 
was quoted as saying that Washington has had "serious concerns" 
about the mandate given to the Goldstone-led four-member mission by 
the Geneva-based council.  The U.S. officially took its seat in the 
46-member body in early September.  "We have long expressed our very 
serious concerns about the mandate given by the Human Rights Council 
prior to our joining it," Rice was quoted as saying in her first 
reaction to the missionQs findings by.  "We view the mandate as ... 
one-sided and basically unbalanced," she was quoted as saying.  She 
also objected to Goldstone's recommendations, including one for the 
15-nation Security Council to investigate and refer the war crimes 
to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.  Rice urged both 
Israelis and Palestinians to look to the future in order to resolve 
their conflict. 
 
Unrelated to the Goldstone mission, HaQaretzQs Washington 
correspondent noted that Ambassador Rice is required to convince the 
world that President Obama really wants to open a new foreign policy 
chapter. 
 
Major media reported that experts at the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA) acknowledge, in a secret report obtained by The 
Associated Press, that Tehran is capable of making a nuclear weapon 
and that it is developing a missile system that can deliver a 
nuclear warhead.  The document affirms what Israel, the U.S., and 
other western countries have maintained for some time regarding the 
real purpose of Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran has touted as 
having peaceful purposes.  According to the document, which 
Washington reportedly says is being withheld by the IAEA's outgoing 
chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran has "sufficient information" to build 
a bomb.  It also says Iran is likely to "overcome problems" on 
developing a delivery system -- which means Tehran will be able to 
mount a warhead on a ballistic missile capable of striking western 
targets.  Israel Radio quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
as saying in an interview with NBC that his country does not intend 
to arm itself with nuclear weapons. 
 
IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan was quoted as saying in an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post that Israel needs to make every 
possible effort to stop the Russian-made S-300 missile defense 
system from reaching counties where the Air Force may need to fly. 
Nehushtan also defended IsraelQs choice of targets in Operation Cast 
Lead. 
 
HaQaretz reported that, despite the United StatesQ demand to suspend 
construction in the West Bank, building is continuing in at least 
one settlement Q Beitar Illit. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the IDFQs denial that it is refusing to 
process GazansQ applications for medical treatment. 
 
Maariv disclosed that in indirect talks held in Turkey, Syrian 
President Bashar Assad asked former PM Ehud Olmert to draw the 
anticipated border between the two countries. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday the Counter-Terrorism Bureau 
at IsraelQs National Security Council issued a severe terror warning 
for India.  It said that a Pakistani terror organization affiliated 
with al-Qaida and responsible for the attacks in Mumbai last year is 
planning to carry out a string of attacks throughout the Indian 
subcontinent.  The warning said that while all westerners in India 
are in peril of being targeted, Israelis and places where Israelis 
usually congregate in large numbers are in more serious danger. 
The bureau asked all Israelis in India to steer clear of places 
where Western tourists are found in large numbers.  It put a special 
emphasis on Chabad ultra-Orthodox houses, which are popular with 
Israeli tourists, especially during the High Holidays (the period 
from the Jewish New Year through Sukkoth).  The bureau rated the 
threat as "imminent and concrete," and pointed specifically at the 
Jammu and Kashmir regions in India's North.  The Jerusalem Post 
noted that the warning was unusual, as India is a friendly country 
and there are tens of thousands of Israelis in India at any given 
time. 
 
The media reported that yesterday President Obama abruptly canceled 
plans for a long-anticipated missile shield system for Eastern 
Europe on Thursday, replacing a Bush-era project that was bitterly 
opposed by Russia with a plan he contended would better defend 
against a growing threat of Iranian missiles.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that Israel Space Agency Chairman and former Kadima Knesset 
Member Professor Yitzhak Ben-Israel told the newspaper yesterday 
that there is no need to be alarmed by President ObamaQs decision 
and that it is ultimately good for Israel that there are improved 
relations  between Russia and the U.S.  Maariv quoted a senior 
Israeli defense source as saying that Qthis will represent a step 
forward in the defense of IsraelQs skies.Q  Conversely, a panel of 
experts talking on Channel 10-TV saw possible negative long-term 
implications of the move for IsraelQs defenses.  Akin to other 
commentators, HaQaretzQs intelligence affairs analyst Yossi Melman 
characterizes ObamaQs decision as Qappeasement without getting 
anything in exchange.Q  MaarivQs Europe correspondent Nadav Eyal 
says that the American announcement is a big victory for the 
Putin-Medvedev regime. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank 
--------------------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.   QWhat Are We Thinking? 
 
The independent, left-leaning HaQaretz editorialized (September 18): 
QThis [past Jewish] year, following the establishment of Benjamin 
Netanyahu's government and the change of power in the White House, 
it seems Israel has taken giant steps backward, incredibly quickly. 
Hated, bitter, violent, hamstrung by self-righteousness, wallowing 
in its sense of victimization -- with its sole strange comfort being 
that none of this is our fault, but actually the result of 
international anti-Semitism.  In this sense then, the Goldstone 
Commission report on Operation Cast Lead, which accuses Israel of 
war crimes and even of Qcrimes against humanity,Q has come at the 
worst possible time.  And not only because it is a QbitterQ holiday 
present.  Its unprecedented severity gives strong backing not only 
to the those who are enemies of Israel, but also to the pessimistic, 
fatalistic attitude that guides the current government in Israel -- 
the same government which is busy gathering evidence of 
anti-Semitism, and looking for reasons to withdraw into the ghetto 
of our self-righteousness rather than searching for ways to become a 
normal nation in an ever-changing region and world.  One such way, 
for example, would be to honestly and courageously investigate our 
actions, and determine whether Qethics,Q for us, is not just an 
empty word.  But even without examining the facts and motives that 
appear in this difficult report, we can say that the terribly 
emotional responses it is stirring in Israel -- with the support of 
its leadership and its tabloid media, including the demand that it 
be rejected entirely -- are no more than the other side of the coin 
of the verbal frenzy and indignation that originally motivated 
Operation Cast Lead. Israel is an emotional, hot-tempered nation, 
loaded with deep traumas and justified fears.  But its leadership is 
expected to behave rationally, coolly and intelligently when 
confronted with real crises, not to blatantly encourage fear and 
bitterness, as Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman tend 
to do out of a pessimistic and self-fulfilling approach.  Hopefully, 
the Israeli Government will start using more of its head and less of 
its gut. 
 
II.  QGoldstone Has Made Tings More Difficult for Mitchell 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (9/18): QIf Mitchell thought it was rough 
getting the Arab world to make normalization gestures before 
Goldstone issued his report alleging Israeli war crimes in Gaza, 
then one can only imagine how difficult it will be now.... So if the 
Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world were not exactly 
chomping at the bit to do their part to get the negotiations under 
way before Goldstone, now they will be even more reluctant.... And 
it is not only the Arabs who will be influenced by the report. As 
Netanyahu made clear in his television interviews Thursday night, 
the report does not exactly give Israel confidence that if it 
withdraws from further territory, the world will recognize its right 
to self defense. Mitchell's job, as everyone realized from the 
outset, would be an extremely difficult one. Goldstone just made it 
even more so. 
 
III.  QHow to Perpetuate the Conflict in One Easy Move 
 
Veteran journalist Evelyn Gordon wrote in The Jerusalem Post (9/17): 
QThere are reasons to fear that [ President ObamaQs rumored peace 
plan] might be true.  First, Washington has not denied it.  Second, 
it accords with Obama's known desire to create a Palestinian state 
within two years, thus assuring him of one foreign policy success in 
what otherwise looks likely to be an unbroken string of failures. 
Third, it would appease his left-wing base, which is currently 
furious at him over issues ranging from the QsurgeQ in Afghanistan 
to his apparent willingness to make concessions to moderates on 
health care reform.  Fourth, it would please the EU and the Muslim 
world, and Obama has made better relations with both a major goal of 
his foreign policy.  Finally, he has even found a way to avoid 
alienating his big-ticket Jewish donors: The media reports market 
the plan as being based, inter alia, on ideas presented by Israel's 
very own president, Shimon Peres. Indeed, the plan has only one 
drawback: Far from bringing peace, it would perpetuate the conflict 
for all eternity.  If 16 years of deadly terror combined with 
refusing to budge an inch on any of their demands could produce such 
stellar results, why would any Palestinian want to abandon these 
successful tactics?  Thus they will continue the terror, and Israel 
will continue its counterterrorism operations.... It would require 
massive self-centeredness, and massive short-sightedness, to 
sacrifice any chance of lasting peace for the sake of a momentary 
foreign policy Qachievement.Q  But that is exactly what this plan 
would do. 
 
IV.  QWhatQs the Alarm? 
 
Deputy Editor-in-Chief Uri Elitzur, who was director of the Prime 
MinisterQs Office during Netanyahu's first term, Qwrote a missive to 
NetanyahuQ on page one of the nationalist, Orthodox Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe (9/18): QYou are about to meet George Mitchell today 
-- a meeting that media commentators term Qdecisive.Q  Israelis are 
being threatened with a rift with America and many disasters if you 
donQt give in to all the demands.... It may be unpleasant to 
disappoint the U.S. President, but you know that this is neither the 
end of the world nor a diplomatic catastrophe.... Obama ultimately 
knows, too, that the man who refuses to take part in a summit is Abu 
Mazen. 
 
¶V.  QA Year of Peace with Our Neighbors 
 
Popular, liberal columnist and television anchor Yair Lapid wrote in 
the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (9/18): QDear 
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.... In the coming year, I 
wish you to succeed in creating in Palestine a society such as the 
one you describe: an open, western society that does not engage in 
incitement, a society that believes in democracy and nurtures 
religious and civil tolerance.  If you succeed in doing so, believe 
me: Israelis will be all right, too.  Happy New Year to you. 
 
CUNNINGHAM