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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002105 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
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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: 
------------------------- 
 
All media quoted PM Benjamin Netanyahu as saying in interviews with 
various media that he sees confirmation of IsraelQs positions in 
President ObamaQs first U.N. speech yesterday.  In an interview with 
HaQaretz, the PM said that President Obama's speech to the U.N. 
General Assembly was "positive" because "he also said something we 
had been seeking for six months, that we have to meet and begin the 
diplomatic process without preconditions."  Netanyahu also said 
Obama had spoken "clearly about Israel as the nation-state of the 
Jewish people.  I believe that disagreement about this is the root 
of the conflict."  Netanyahu also pointed out that Obama had made 
reference to Israeli efforts to improve the Palestinian economy by 
lifting roadblocks.  The PM was quoted as saying that he disagrees 
with the idea that Israel should withdraw to the 1967 orders.  In an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post, the PM said that the PresidentQs 
speech was Qgood and positiveQ for Israel and for moving the peace 
process forward.  Netanyahu told reporters that there is no demand 
of Israel to freeze the settlements.  The Jerusalem Post quoted 
Knesset members on the Right as saying that PM Netanyahu 
Qprematurely celebratedQ what he thought was an American policy 
shift in IsraelQs favor. 
 
The media cited, and Maariv bannered, President ObamaQs comment that 
Qthe U.S. will not accept the legitimacy of Israel's continued 
settlement building.Q  Media said that this corrected IsraelQs 
assumptions stemming from the PresidentQs remarks following the 
three-way meeting with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders earlier 
in the week.  The media also reported that Obama called on the 
Palestinians to stop incitement against Israel and on Israel to end 
the occupation.  The media often cited the PresidentQs remark that 
the U.S. cannot Qsolve the world's problems alone. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media wrote that Netanyahu will seek 
wide consensus on an action against Iran.  Yediot expects PM 
Netanyahu to tell heads of state at the U.N. General Assembly today 
that they must choose between Israel -- a democratic, liberal 
country -- and Iran -- a terror-sponsoring state.  The newspaper 
also says that Netanyahu will condemn the Goldstone report and say 
that the U.N outlaws Israel.  The PM was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Makor Rishon-Hatzofe that his achievement is an 
improvement of relations with the U.S. and that he will tell the 
entire world that Israel will not agree to a new Holocaust.  The 
media reported that although the tone of Iranian President Mahmoud 
AhmadinejadQs speech was more moderate than last year, the 
representatives of 20 countries, led by French envoys, walked out of 
the hall. 
 
Maariv reported that PM NetanyahuQs envoy Yitzhak Molcho and senior 
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat are slated to meet in New York to 
try to reach understandings that will pave the way for the beginning 
of negotiations between Netanyahu and Abbas.  Molcho reportedly met 
with U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Senator George 
Mitchell yesterday to prepare for todayQs meeting.  The newspaper 
reported that Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are 
slated to visit the region in two weeks. 
 
Israel Radio reported that, in an interview with the London-based 
Al-Hayat newspaper, PA President Mahmoud Abbas described the 
Netanyahu government as a problem and said that the PA had no common 
basis for dialogue with it.  Abbas was quoted as saying that there 
are no subjects left to discuss between the sides, since the Israeli 
Government continued the construction in the settlements and refused 
to talk about Jerusalem and the refugees.  He stressed that the PA 
was opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state in temporary 
borders, which he believes would turn into an established fact. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, a senior prosecutor 
at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, as saying on 
Monday that he is considering opening an investigation into whether 
Lt. Col. David Benjamin, an IDF reserve officer, allowed war crimes 
to be committed during the IDF's three-week offensive in Gaza this 
winter.  The officer -- a dual citizen of Israel and South Africa, 
where he was born -- served in the IDF Advocate General's 
international law department, which authorized which targets troops 
would strike before and during the operation.   HaQaretz reported 
that on Monday Newsweek released an interview with Moreno-Ocampo in 
which he said he is convinced his office has the authority to launch 
an investigation into Benjamin's actions.  The ICC has until now 
refrained from trying IDF officers, as it lacks authority to do so, 
since Israel is not a signatory to the 2002 Rome Treaty that founded 
the court.  South Africa, however, did sign the treaty, so the ICC 
is authorized to indict its citizens.  HaQaretz notes that 
Moreno-Ocampo's remarks are in line with the recommendations of a UN 
fact-finding commission on the Gaza war headed by South African 
Justice Richard Goldstone.  HaQaretz reported that the ICC began 
looking into Benjamin's case after receiving material from 
pro-Palestinian organizations in South Africa.  The material 
included a transcript of an interview Benjamin gave to the web site 
Bloomberg.com, in which the officer recounted his involvement in 
legal consultations with the IDF ahead of army operations. 
 
The media reported that yesterday, in his address to the U.N. 
General Assembly, Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi ripped the U.N. 
Charter and dismissed the two-state solution.  He pitted the bloody 
history of Jews in Europe against what he termed the tolerance of 
Islam. 
 
Maariv reported the police will increase their state of alert in the 
northern, mixed city of Acre, for fear of a repetition of last Yom 
KippurQs clashes. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF Central Command is forming 
a rapid-response team to combat extremist settlers. 
 
HaQaretz and Maariv reported that, one day after losing the UNESCO 
leadership contest to Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova, Egyptian 
Culture Minister Ferrous Hosni renewed his attacks against the Jews. 
 He was quoted as saying that the Qorganization gave in to 
tremendous political and Zionist pressure.Q  Yediot quoted a Saudi 
Web site in a report that Hosni had assisted Palestinian 
terrorists. 
 
Yesterday Channel 2-TV revealed that in July terrorists tried to 
carry out an attack against a bus carrying Israelis in the Sinai and 
that this was the reason for severe warnings at the time by the 
Counter-Terrorism Bureau at IsraelQs National Security Council. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the organization Breaking the Silence will be 
among the groups receiving grants from a foundation set up by the 
prominent Canadian singer Leonard Cohen -- the Fund For 
Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Peace.  Cohen will perform in Tel 
Aviv tonight. 
 
The media reported that former PM Ehud OlmertQs trial will start at 
the Jerusalem District Court tomorrow. 
HaQaretz cited the results of a poll conducted among Palestinians by 
the International Peace Institute headed by Terje Roed-Larsen: 
- Fifty-five percent of Palestinians favor a Palestinian state in 
the West Bank and Gaza, separate from Israel.  The survey did not 
ask respondents about the option of one Palestinian state between 
the Mediterranean and the Jordan River 
- Sixty-six percent support the Arab peace initiative. 
- Fifty-two percent are opposed to a solution of the Jerusalem issue 
according to the principle of QArab neighborhoods to the Arabs and 
Jewish neighborhoods to the Jews (including the Old City). 
- Sixty-nine percent support a solution to the refugee problem 
according to U.N. Resolution 194 Q Israel would take in a number of 
refugees similar to the number absorbed in the European states. 
- Almost 70% say that they do not support the U.S. President and 56% 
say that they do not believe he will bring about progress toward the 
establishment of two states. 
- Fifty-five percent are happy with the performance of President 
Abbas; 51% are unhappy with PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; and 64% 
are unhappy with the performance of Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "DonQt Descend from the Summit" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (9/24): QIt is 
to be hoped that the triumphal crowing from Netanyahu's camp after 
the summit does not mean the Prime Minister interprets Obama's 
decision to pull back from his demand for a total settlement freeze 
as a carte blanche for construction in the West Bank and East 
Jerusalem.... Israel also has no interest in making Obama look like 
a weak leader who cannot impose his will on a small, friendly state. 
 The United States holds the key to restraining the Iranian nuclear 
threat, and is also Israel's bulwark against imposed political 
solutions.... The New York summit was an important step, but by no 
means sufficient. Now is the time to move forward from mere 
handshakes to real action. 
 
II.  "The Go Kart Policy" 
 
Channel 2-TV commentator Amnon Abramovich wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (9/24): QIn his Cairo 
speech, Obama managed to sway Arab public opinion in his direction, 
but was unable to budge any Arab leader by a millimeter. Even from 
the King of Saudi Arabia, who depends on him for his physical 
existence, Obama was unable to extract passage for Israeli planes. 
It is worth mentioning that the firm formulation that President 
Obama made in his U.N. speech last night -- to end the occupation 
that began in 1967 -- was adopted by the Likud government headed by 
Ariel Sharon seven years ago already in the framework of the 
Roadmap.  And nothing happened.  The conflict here is complicated 
also because there are no partners.  The Israeli Prime Minister 
trembles as if he had spent the night in the Settlers Council's 
protest tent.  And Abu Mazen, who was given, at the time, an 
inordinate proposal from Ehud Olmert, did not even get back to him 
purely as a courtesy.  Without employing all the levers, all the 
might and pressure on both sides, how will the U.S. President truly 
know that he has no partners? 
 
 
 
 
III.  "On ObamaQs Block" 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz (9/24): QThis region 
must be given evolutionary, and not revolutionary, treatment.  The 
key word is: process.  Not a KO punch, but a long and thorough 
chipping away that will gradually change Palestinian society and at 
the same time lead to the end of the occupation.  No one is more 
suited to the task than Obama.  This talented community worker will 
have to see this blighted and violent neighborhood for what it is. 
Instead of wasting time on doomed efforts to get Netanyahu and Abbas 
on the road to an illusory Peace-Now solution, Obama should initiate 
a gradual, deep and cautious process, one that will relentlessly 
partition the country. 
 
IV.  "The QHalf-FullQ Aspects of ObamaQs Speech" 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (9/24): QThat the 
settlement line received the loudest applause of the president's 
speech ... should not distract anyone from the interesting nuances 
that redounded very much in Israel's favor.  For instance, the 
President did not call -- as some in Israel had worried about -- for 
two states along the 1967 lines.... Likewise, the President -- 
unlike in his Cairo speech -- made no mention of Jerusalem, other 
than to say it was one of the issues that would be discussed in the 
permanent-status negotiations.  Another nuance in yesterday's 
address was his reference to Israel as a Jewish state, something 
that has been interpreted as shorthand for an appreciation that 
descendants of Palestinian refugees, in any future agreement, will 
be allowed to return to a future Palestinian state, and not to 
Israel.  And, finally, Obama also gave voice to his exasperation 
with the failure of the Arab world to heed his call and make any 
gestures toward normalizing ties with Israel, or do anything 
concrete to move the diplomatic process forward.... [Regarding his 
condemnation of incitement, the PresidentQs] message was clear: it 
was time for the Arabs to stop saying one thing in private, and 
another in public, but to act publicly on what they say privately. 
From the [Israeli] Government's point of view, that comment more 
than compensated for his remark that continued settlement 
construction was illegitimate. 
 
¶V.  QThe Great Betrayal 
 
Far left columnist Gideon Levy wrote in Ha'aretz (9/24): QWhy is it 
okay to talk to Iran but not to Hamas?.... As Israel's isolation in 
the world only grows, and the danger of Iran threatens the country, 
Israel's best friend must pressure its ally and save it from itself. 
 Instead, we got another condemnation of the Goldstone Commission 
report, this time from the new American Ambassador to the United 
Nations, Susan Rice, who had held the promise of major change.  It's 
not too late.  True, the initial momentum has been lost, but now, 
following this week's Qsummit of rebukes,Q America must hurry up and 
rebuke itself and mainly ponder how to get out of the booby trap to 
which it has succumbed.  Now, too, only America can (and must) do 
it. 
 
VI.  "America ShouldnQt Cuddle Itself in Its Visions" 
 
Veteran journalist and television anchor Dan Margalit wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (9/24): QObamaQs America is weaker than at 
any given time since the end of World War II; this allows Israel to 
repel some pressure from the White House, but Israel essentially has 
a supreme interest in the strengthening of the United States and the 
acceptance of its leadership.... If the United States of the 44th 
President continues to cuddle itself in his visions, 2009 and 2010 
will be recorded as historical parallels of 1936 and the most 
horrible war that started three years later. It can be fairly 
assumed that not only the composition of [NetanyahuQs] words [at the 
speech he will deliver today to the U.N. General Assembly], but the 
resonance they will find, will determine the worldQs assessment of 
the intentions of the Jewish state, which is such an important actor 
on the Middle Eastern scene. 
 
VII.  "ObamaQs Word" 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (9/24): QFor so many years, Israelis have been told to fold 
their national flags because of the limits of IsraelQs power.... It 
has been proven this week in New York that this scenario is not 
really implementable.... The person who demonstrated the limits of 
his power was U.S. President Barack Obama.... Had ObamaQs entourage 
learned the history of U.S. pressure on Israel, it would have 
adopted a slightly more modest approach.  If it had not been blinded 
by the temporary success in the elections, it would have found out 
that since the foundation of Israel, no American pressure could 
defeat determined Israeli resistance. 
 
 
VIII.  "The Restraining of Obama" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in HaQaretz (9/24): QSettlement in 
Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] is a solid, permanent and 
deeply rooted reality.  A long and terrible war of terror could not 
vanquish it, oceans of horrific and cruel propaganda, especially 
from those within Israeli society who hate it, could not break its 
spirit.  The complete opposite happened.  All the more so, external 
dictates will not rattle its foundations.  Functional arrangements 
for the future of Judea and Samaria have their place, but the 
starting point is clear: Settlements will not be uprooted and their 
size will not be limited.  Even the restrained Obama has begun to 
realize this.  So when will the extreme left in Israel also restrain 
itself and realize it? 
 
IX.  "Played for a Sucker" 
 
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (9/24): QWe're laughing at this guy now. 
Look, Benjamin Netanyahu stared down the President of the United 
States!  The settlers have stopped worrying.  All is well again in 
our little Qvilla in the jungle,Q as Ehud Barak, the government's 
man of the Left, likes to describe this country.  And if Israel is 
happy -- 21st century Israel, that is, Israel the right-wing 
monolith -- then the Republican Party is happy, too.  We're allies, 
Israelis and Republicans.  If we stare down Obama, the Republicans 
are encouraged, and vice versa.  In the campaign to cripple the 
Obama administration, to destroy his presidency, Israel is doing 
much, much more than its share.... This cannot go on.  Obama, for 
the sake of his presidency, cannot allow this to go on. 
 
¶X.  QA Continuation Will Follow 
 
Political commentator Ephraim Ganor wrote in Russian-language 
popular pluralist weekly Novosty Nedely (9/24):QThe American 
President looked like a tough teacher coping with irresponsible 
students.... He publically reprimanded Netanyahu and Abu Mazen.... 
The U.S. President spoke with a very serious face and his entire 
speech expressed a visible dissatisfaction with both IsraelisQ and 
PalestiniansQ approaches.  He expressed a firm intention to bring 
the sides to the negotiations in the nearest future...  The U.S. 
President succeeded in breaking the resistance of the Palestinians, 
who were unwilling to start the negotiations until an absolute 
freeze of settlement construction in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the 
West Bank].... Despite the toughness demonstrated by President 
Obama, both Prime Minister  Netanyahu and Abu Mazen tried to show 
journalists accompanying them that actually the U.S. President was 
unable to achieve anything.... The QtrilateralQ high-level meeting 
was first of all important for Barack Obama in order to improve his 
image that has tremendously suffered recently.  The feeling that 
Obama is rather a person of words than deeds is increasing.... His 
famous election campaign slogan QYes, We Can!Q today seems an empty 
one with no real basis.  The number of the U.S. PresidentQs failures 
and political malfunctions is continuing to grow.... ObamaQs 
unenviable situation leads one to expect that he will undertake a 
maximum of efforts to achieve significant results on the 
Israeli-Palestinian track, [since] his chances [to succeed] look 
much more realistic [on this track] than anywhere else. 
 
CUNNINGHAM