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DE RUEHTV #2096/01 2651047
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P 221047Z SEP 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002096 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media reported that the White House is making a last-minute 
diplomatic effort to come up with some significant statement 
signaling the revival of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to conclude 
the tripartite summit in New York today.  However, yesterday White 
House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration has no 
"grand expectations" for President Barack Obama's meeting with the 
Israeli and Palestinian leaders.  Israel Radio reported that PA 
President Mahmoud Abbas met in New York with U.S. Special Envoy 
Senator George Mitchell and also with representatives of Arab 
states. 
 
Electronic media reported that this morning, in comments made to 
high-school students, President Shimon Peres dismissed the "low 
expectations" attributed to the upcoming summit and declared hope 
that the meeting could yield a resumption of stalled peace 
negotiations. 
 
HaQaretz quoted diplomatic sources in Jerusalem as saying that 
President Obama may declare a temporary freeze of construction in 
the settlements; another possibility would be a proclamation about 
the resumption of the negotiations in mid-October; Obama may call 
for the convening of an international peace conference in coming 
months. 
 
 
HaQaretz reported that PM Benjamin Netanyahu could not have hoped 
for a more comfortable political atmosphere for his trip to New York 
for the three-way summit.  The vocal Likud rebels have been keeping 
relatively quiet, and none of his "ideological" ministers have come 
out and said anything against him. In general, the attitude on the 
Right is that Netanyahu has managed to withstand President Abbas's 
pressure and is heading to the summit without preconditions.  The 
only real exception to the quiet was from Minister without Portfolio 
Benny Begin (Likud) and the people in the settlers' protest tent 
outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, including settler 
leader Danny Dayan.  HaQaretz also reported that Yisrael Beiteinu 
was silent.   The Jerusalem Post emphasized division among Likud 
over NetanyahuQs diplomatic effort, as one of its Knesset members, 
Danny Dannon, is protesting in New York.  Chief Palestinian 
negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe that the PalestiniansQ goal at the summit is to 
obtain from Netanyahu an unequivocal decision regarding the freeze 
of construction in the settlements and to inform the U.S. President 
about the PalestiniansQ frustration over NetanyahuQs policy and 
positions. 
 
 
 
Major media reported that Israel is calling upon the U.N.Qs member 
states to boycott Iranian President Mahmoud AhmadinejadQs speech at 
the General Assembly.   Yediot and Israel Radio cited the response 
of most countries that their attitude will depend on the contents of 
AhmadinejadQs remarks.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Gabriela 
Shalev, IsraelQs Ambassador to the U.N., told the newspaper, Q"Our 
main goal at this crucial time is to show the world how dangerous 
Iran is.Q  She was further quoted as saying, "We stress and we 
emphasize that Iran is not only a threat to Israel, it's a global 
threat."  The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday, in an 
interview with Reuters,  Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon insisted that the 
military option against Tehran was still on the table, rejecting 
comments to the contrary made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev 
and published on Sunday. 
 
HaQaretz reported on land clearing for 80 homes in a neighborhood in 
the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, which the newspaper says 
were not included in DM Ehud BarakQs 455 retroactive approvals.  In 
an unrelated story, the electronic media reported that this morning 
IDF troops shot dead an Israeli Arab who tried to force a barrage in 
Beitar Illit. 
 
Israel Radio quoted former U.S. President Bill Clinton as saying 
that the settlements are the main obstacle to a peace agreement. 
 
Yediot reported that President Shimon Peres, PM Netanyahu, FM 
Avigdor Lieberman, DM Ehud Barak, and Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon have 
made phone calls critical of the Goldstone report to major heads of 
state and government including to Secretary of State Hillary 
Clinton.  Justice Richard Goldstone was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Channel 2-TV that Israeli officers who gave orders 
that can be construed as war crimes should be held responsible for 
their acts. 
 
Yesterday, HaQaretz and other media reported that, for the first 
time in 18 years, the U.S. and other Western powers were 
unsuccessful at preventing the passage of a resolution at the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) calling on Israel to sign 
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  The resolution also demands 
that Israel open its nuclear reactor in Dimona to international 
inspectors.  Israel did, however, manage to thwart a proposal by 
Iran to prohibit any member of the IAEA from attacking the nuclear 
facilities of another member. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the Israeli Education Ministry will be 
reexamining a new Hebrew-language textbook that was approved for 
11th and 12th-grade classes, which includes the concept of Qethnic 
cleansingQ to describe what happened to the Palestinians in 1948. 
 
HaQaretz quoted a World Bank report for a conference being held 
today in New York that the PA is facing a $400 million financing gap 
for 2009. 
 
Maariv reported that a compromise has been reached in the affair of 
Israeli mogul Lev LevievQs company Africa IsraelQs $711 million debt 
to The New York Times: while the newspaperQs owners will give up on 
$350 million, Africa Israel will immediately inject capital into The 
Times.  Leviev had bought the NYT building at the height of the 
boom. 
 
 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Taking It One Step at a Time" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning HaQaretz (9/22): QThe tripartite summit meeting to be 
convened in New York Tuesday by U.S. President Barack Obama with his 
Israeli and Palestinian counterparts underscores the discrepancies 
between the mentalities of Jerusalem and Washington.  Israelis 
expected (some hopefully and others fearfully) that Obama would 
reveal a peace plan, and push Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas 
into working out the nitty-gritty.... But Americans work at a 
different pace than Israelis.  Obama didn't promise to present a 
quick solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.  He promised he would 
be more involved than George W. Bush, and work toward reviving the 
peace process.  Obama has thus far made good on his promises: He 
appointed George Mitchell special envoy to the Mideast, and Tuesday 
will meet with leaders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian 
divide for the first time since Netanyahu returned to power. 
Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas will be overawed by what Obama says, but 
they also won't be able to refuse him. 
 
II.  "Wobbling Washington" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (9/22): 
QForgive us our skepticism at this dawn of a new year, but lately 
the Obama administration has come to seem like something other than 
the clear-headed captain at the confident helm of the free world.... 
By ratcheting up his demands of Israel beyond the point of viable 
agreement, and then failing to obtain any substantive concessions 
from Arab leaders or the Palestinians in exchange, Obama actually 
walked into the most basic of Middle East peacemaking traps -- 
encouraging the instinctive Arab resort to intransigence.  After 
all, how could the Palestinians now demand less of the Israelis than 
the Americans?  And with a full-blown diplomatic crisis apparently 
under way between Israel and America, what interest could Arab 
leaders have in ending the crisis through a diplomatic breakthrough? 
 We might well ask why the administration is convinced that peace is 
being held up by settlements.  Dozens of settlements have been 
dismantled and tens of thousands of settlers have been resettled in 
the Israeli withdrawals from Gaza and Sinai, while Palestinian 
rejectin has only increased in response to apparent Israei 
weakness.  In a world that is wondering increaingly whether 
Washington is willing and able to nforce its key values and 
effectively promote its vital interests, Obama today plays host to 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority 
President Mahmoud Abbas.  And they will both be asking themselves a 
question neither would have anticipated eight months ago: Can 
America be relied upon and taken seriously?  That uncertainty can 
only further undermine the prospects for a substantive 
Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough -- a breakthrough all three players 
at today's summit profess to fervently desire. 
III.  QJust Not Another Meaningless Summit 
 
Former Meretz leader, former Justice Minister, and chief Israeli 
promoter of the Geneva Initiative, Yossi Beilin,  wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (9/22): QAbu Mazen and Netanyahu have no 
interest in looking as if they hurt Obama.  Abu Mazen -- because 
essentially, Obama is his life-saver; Netanyahu -- because despite 
his preference for an American leader like Bush Jr., knows that 
Obama will be in the White House for several more years and he 
cannot succeed if they clash.  It must be Obama's direct interest 
and the indirect interest of Netanyahu and Abu Mazen to ensure that 
when the summit finishes on Wednesday there is an agreement -- even 
just procedural -- regarding next steps: the duration of 
negotiations on permanent status arrangements, its location, the 
level of the negotiators, and milestones.  If this is accompanied by 
a statement of principle by Obama in his speech at the U.N. General 
Assembly along with a photograph of Israeli-Palestinian agreement, 
this will be a pleasant end to a dark chapter that began exactly 
nine years ago and which stopped, in practice, serious negotiations 
for an Israeli-Palestinian peace. 
 
IV.  "The Obama Show" 
 
Conservative columnist Amos Carmel wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (9/22): QAt this juncture there are no 
indications that [President Obama] is succeeding better than his 
predecessor, in putting North Korea in its place, in containing 
IranQs nuclearization, or in disentangling from the Afghan quagmire. 
 Neither have we seen him until now extract gestures from the Saudis 
or heard any tangible idea about how to reach, as he said in Cairo, 
Qtwo states, where which Israelis and Palestinians each live in 
peace and security.Q  Meanwhile, unfortunately, todayQs Qphoto-op 
suggestion looks like a part of his routine. 
 
¶V.  "He Knows Better Now" 
 
Columnist Shmuel Rosner, who was HaQaretzQs correspondent in 
Washington, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (9/22): QSince he 
was elected, Obama made the same mistake as every president before 
him -- in his great eagerness to prove that Qhe is not Bush,Q he 
forgot to check what was worthwhile to learn from his predecessor -- 
for instance that there are no shortcuts. After all, Obama did not 
even obtain a settlement freeze.  Bush saw Israel fold dozens of 
settlements. Of course what will happen today in New York cannot be 
viewed as the funeral of the peace process.  This will be a meeting 
and more will come.  The sides will eventually engage in a cycle of 
talking or shooting or both.  What will be interred at this funeral 
will be the exaggerated confidence of a young, bright, and 
charismatic president who somehow assumed that he knew better in 
this domain, too.  It must be hoped that he really knows better 
now. 
 
VI.  QImpossible Deal 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Yediot Aharonot (9/22): QBecause 
it fears that a [prisoner-exchange] deal could go through, Hamas has 
raised the price, knowing that no country in the world can agree to 
its terms.  Now Hamas is not only talking about freeing prisoners. 
It wants national, security and political achievements from Israel, 
which are completely opposed to Israel's interests.  It has never 
yet happened in the course of history that in exchange for one 
person - important as he may be - that a state paid with its vital 
and existential interests.  What is Hamas asking for now, in 
addition to the list of prisoners, some of them highly dangerous? 
For all the crossings between Israel and Gaza to be permanently 
opened; to remove the siege from the air, sea and land, i.e. the 
Gaza Port would open so that Hamas would have a free port of its own 
for smuggling; for Israel to provide food to Gaza like in the past, 
in other words Israel would both feed this terrorist organization 
and its population as if disengagement had never taken place (in 
this regard, Hamas has an inherent contradiction: at its request, 
the siege would be lifted, and it would be connected to the world, 
then why should Israel continue to feed it?  But who cares about the 
subtleties); for there to be an international guarantee that Israel 
will not launch any future strikes on Gaza.  In other words, they 
will shoot at Israel, but Israel will promise not to respond. 
Moreover, the IDF would be forbidden to enter Gaza for any reason in 
the future.  With conditions such as those, there is not going to be 
any deal.  Israel cannot and does not want a deal of this sort. 
Those exerting vocal street pressure on the government simply don't 
understand what is at stake.  The greater their pressure, the price 
will only rise higher.  The Egyptians don't want a deal either, 
since their mediation in the affair grants them centrality and 
importance.... In light of these assessments, the negotiations on 
Gilad Shalit have become a political means to garnering 
achievements, and it is liable to go on forever.  Israel must stop 
these shameful talks and begin to take action itself.  It is 
unthinkable that after so many years, the great IDF doesn't know 
where Gilad is being held.  It is simply unthinkable. 
 
VII.  QGetting behind Obama 
 
David Newman, Professor of Political Geography at Ben-Gurion 
University and Editor of the International Journal of Geopolitics, 
wrote in The Jerusalem Post (9/22): QDespite the window of 
opportunity that has presented itself for progressive Jewish 
organizations in the US, they have largely remained silent.  They 
have the ear of the new American administration.  They must not go 
the way of the Israeli peace movement and tone down their rhetoric 
because they mistakenly think the administration will carry out the 
job on their behalf.  Israel's peace movement always made this 
mistake whenever a Labor government was in power.... Equally, it is 
time for Israeli governments and embassies throughout the world to 
work with the pro-peace lobbies instead of ignoring them.... Just as 
[The Jerusalem PostQs liberal columnist Gershon] Baskin's call to 
the domestic peace constituency to wake up is critical, so too must 
our friends and allies in the American (and European) Jewish 
communities seize this opportunity.  They must not remain silent. 
They must not let themselves be humbled into submission by an 
organized community which attempts to portray them negatively.  Now 
is the time for them show their support of Israel by coming 
together, supporting President Obama and his Middle East envoy, and 
demonstrating to Israeli governments that there is an alternative 
way forward. 
 
VIII.  QConsequence of the Oslo Agreement: Annex the West Bank 
 
Columnist Assaf Golan wrote in the editorial of the nationalist, 
Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (9/22): QAt this time, the summit 
meeting between Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Abu Mazen 
looks like a grand funeral ceremony for the AmericanQs mediation 
efforts in the region.... Israel must embark on a new diplomatic 
initiative that will include the annexation of all of Judea and 
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] and the granting of maximal autonomy to 
the Palestinians.... Only thus can Israel stop the dangerous 
infiltration of Iranian agents into the region -- an infiltration 
that threatens peace in the entire Middle East and also directly and 
immediately harms patent American and European interests. 
 
MORENO