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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
Please note: 
 
1) There will be no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report on Monday, 
September 28, 2008, due to the Yom Kippur holiday. 
2) Israel is moving back to Winter Time at 2 A.M. on Sunday, 
September 27.  Until the introduction of Daylight Saving Time in the 
U.S. on November 1, Israel will be six hours ahead of EDT. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with the speech delivered by PM Benjamin Netanyahu at 
the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) yesterday.  The PM blasted IranQs 
nuclear program and the welcome President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
received at the U.N.  (QWhat a disgrace!  What a mockery of the U.N. 
Charter!Q)  Netanyahu also denounced the U.N.Qs silence facing 
HamasQs eight-year-long rocket barrage, and the Goldstone reportQs 
accusation of IsraelQs having committed Qwar crimes.Q  The PM also 
extended IsraelQs hand in peace to the Palestinians, but emphasized 
that the future Palestinian state must be Qeffectively 
demilitarized.Q   The media reported that Israeli politicians lauded 
the PMQs address, although -- like journalists among others -- 
Kadima Knesset Member and former Finance Minister Roni Bar-On told 
Israel Radio that Netanyahu did not have to prove the reality of the 
Holocaust.  Israel Radio cited negative responses to the speech by 
the PA and Hamas.  The latter said that Netanyahu lied and that 
there never were Jews in Palestine. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the Quartet welcomed President ObamaQs 
remarks on the Middle East in his address to the UNGA. 
 
HaQaretz quoted White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as saying 
yesterday in an interview with PBS that Israeli and Palestinian 
leaders must move quickly to take advantage of this "unique moment" 
for making peace, following their meeting with U.S. President Barack 
Obama earlier this week.  Emanuel was quoted as saying: "He [Obama] 
challenged them publicly, which means they now have to go home and 
face the people that they represent about the opportunities of peace 
versus the risk of not taking action."  He added that he believes 
both parties desire peace.  According to Emanuel, whose father is 
Israeli, Obama told both parties: "First of all, I have a lot of 
other challenges. I don't have an inexhaustible amount of time, but 
I'm going to spend whatever time it takes to help. But not more than 
you're willing to take."  "I will spend political capital, as [I 
did] in the heart of the Arab world, in Cairo," Emanuel quoted the 
president as saying.  "Talk about the right of the state of Israel 
to exist in that region, as a secure country.  And America will 
always have that friendship, and it runs deep."  Obama "also said he 
is willing to challenge the Israeli government and friends when he 
thinks they're wrong, as he has shown on the settlement[s], in a 
public way as well as in private," Emanuel added.  This, he said, 
ensures that both sides trust Obama "to be an honest broker; don't 
miss that opportunity in his story."  Obama, Emanuel said, believes 
Israeli settlements "can be provocative to a peace process, in a 
negative sense."  But even more importantly, he believes that both 
parties, Israeli and Palestinian, need to "put aside the 
negotiations about the negotiations and begin their negotiations," 
Emanuel told PBS. "And you can't start as if there hasn't been a 
process."  "If you don't make progress and engage in the process of 
making peace," he continued, "you give Hamas and Hizbullah and Iran, 
who are enemies of the peace process, and vocal opponents of it, a 
veto."  Referring to Netanyahu, Emanuel said Obama views the PM as a 
"practical person," adding that Netanyahu "has shown" this "in the 
past," at the Wye Plantation talks in 1998.  "He'll take risks," 
Emanuel said of the prime minister. And "the risk[s] for peace, in 
the President's view, are less than the risks of not making peace." 
Asked about the U.S. administration's message to the Israelis - "if 
they decide they want to take military action at some point" against 
Iran - Emanuel said, "I wouldn't do it, even though I would like to 
do it."  He also argued that Iran has lost much of its clout. 
 
In an interview with HaQaretz, IsraelQs Ambassador to the U.S. 
Michael Oren downplayed the admonitions he reportedly received from 
the U.S. administration. 
 
The far-Left group Gush Shalom affirms in paid ads in HaQaretzQs 
Hebrew and English editions: QNetanyahu has won: no settlement 
freeze.  Obama has swallowed the frog.  How much shall we have to 
pay for that in the future? 
 
Media speculated that Morocco or the Maldives were renewing 
 
diplomatic relations with Israel. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the construction of a large new Jewish 
neighborhood in East Jerusalem is being planned.  Government 
ministries are seen as sympathetic to the idea.  The newspaper 
reported that Palestinian residents of Walaja, an Arab village 
within the boundaries of Jerusalem that abuts the area of the 
proposed neighborhood, have been offered concessions in exchange for 
their consent to the plan. 
 
Fatah strongman Jibril Rajoub, whose standing was enhanced in his 
movementQs recent elections, is quoted as saying in an interview 
with HaQaretz that he does not rule out the notion of armed 
struggle, and that he does not consider Hamas an enemy, but a 
political rival. 
 
Yediot printed the story of a reporter who infiltrated the far-Right 
settler movement (the QWild EastQ) during three months. 
 
HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that the U.S. Internal Revenue 
Service (IRS) extended the deadline for Israel residents filing 
their Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBAR.  The 
IRS announced this week that instead of September 23, people 
intending to join the program could now do so through October 15. 
The newspaper noted that the extension roughly corresponds to the 
Jewish High Holiday period. 
 
 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "An Elephant in the Room" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (9/25): 
QRadical Palestinians interpreted Obama's advocacy [at the U.N] of a 
QJewish State of IsraelQ as negating the Palestinians' claim to a 
Qright of return.Q  We agree.  Relative moderates among the 
Palestinians were perturbed that Obama wanted negotiations to resume 
without preconditions.  Mahmoud Abbas had been holding out for a 
total settlement freeze.  Yet by speaking of QsettlementsQ in the 
generic sense, without reference to strategic settlements blocs, the 
President was inadvertently encouraging Abbas to dig in his heels. 
Unsurprisingly, Obama found it politic not to mention that Hamas 
controls Gaza and has designs on the West Bank.  Palestinian 
disunity was the elephant in the room.... Given the inhospitable 
venue, we did not realistically expect Obama to take moderate 
Palestinians to task for their unwavering insistence on the Qright 
to settle Palestinians en masse in Israel proper; nor did we expect 
him to call on them to budge from their demand for a pullback to the 
1967 boundaries.  We also did not realistically expect the president 
to say that Palestinian demilitarization is the sine qua non of any 
resolution.  But Obama must at least say these things privately to 
the Palestinians if the prospect of lasting peace Qbetween Israel, 
Palestine, and the Arab worldQ is to be fulfilled. 
 
II.  "Woe to the Victor" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (9/25): QPrime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged pleased from the three-way 
summit in New York this week.  In an interview with HaQaretz 
correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya, Netanyahu boasted of his diplomatic 
achievements: Q[Obama] said something we had been seeking for six 
months, that we have to meet and begin the diplomatic process 
without preconditions.Q  Netanyahu was encouraged by the fact that 
the U.S. President gave in on the demand for a total freeze on 
settlements and by the agreement of Palestinian President Mahmoud 
Abbas to come to the summit despite the conditions he had set for 
renewal of talks with Israel not being met.... But Netanyahu's joy 
of victory is worrisome.  The Prime Minister went to the summit and 
is returning today to Israel without having renewed negotiations 
with the Palestinians.... By presenting Obama as a weak president, 
who folded in the face of Israel's refusal to freeze settlements, 
and Abbas as refusing peace, Netanyahu is signaling to his political 
base in Likud and the right-wing parties.  However, he risks missing 
the opportunity presented by Obama's election for a renewal of the 
peace process and a solution to the Israel-Arab conflict.  In 
presenting the expansion of the settlements as an achievement, 
Netanyahu is working against Israel's interests in ending the 
occupation and dividing the land.  His momentary QvictoryQ might be 
the country's loss. 
 
III.  "The Best Show in Town" 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (9/25): QTwenty-one years after completing 
his term as Israel's ambassador to the U.N., the Prime Minister 
returned to the scene of the crime, the General Assembly of the 
organization that in 1975 defined Zionism as racism and in 2009 
accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.  Benjamin Netanyahu 
proved yesterday that he and the U.N. are, and have always been, a 
winning cast -- the best show in town.... It was an excellent 
speech.  Well written, beautifully constructed, given in the proper 
tone.  Slow, measured, firm.  During the half hour of his address, 
Netanyahu represented almost all of us.  The sane Israeli 
mainstream, from Meretz to the [far-Right] National Union, from 
Shelly Yacimovich [on the left wing of the Labor Party] to Benny 
Begin, stood behind him.  It seemed to me that some of the Arab 
Knesset members would have signed off on parts of his speech, 
particularly the ones that mentioned Iran.... Netanyahu persuaded 
those who were already convinced, but made no impression on the 
hypocritical and the obtuse.... On the other hand, he spoke in our 
name.  He expressed our frustration. He defended our pride and our 
honor.  He said what we have been shouting to our television screens 
or our computers or the newspaper headlines, to all those who have 
been holding us to a standard that is not applied to anyone else. 
 
IV.  "At His Best" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (9/25): QGive Netanyahu 
a good platform, a convenient enemy and a charged issue to battle 
over, and he is at his best.... There probably are Israelis who did 
not like the recurring emphasis on the Holocaust motif.  Netanyahu 
does not really think that the threat that Iran poses to Israel is 
identical to the threat that Hitler posed to the Jews in Europe. 
Israel was established so that such threats would not reach 
fruition.  But in America, the Holocaust works. 
Criticism of the U.N. also works.  The Americans loathe the U.N., 
and they know why.... Netanyahu has good reasons to sum up his visit 
to New York favorably.  It is not out of the question that this was 
his best week since being reelected prime minister.  The good news 
is that Netanyahu is pleased with himself.  This may also be the bad 
news. 
 
¶V.  QLeaving Them Cold 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in HaQaretz (9/25): QObama 
has not succeeded in enlisting even one supporter in Israel's public 
arena or political establishment, who will stand up to Netanyahu and 
call upon him to accept the president's initiative and gallop toward 
a Qtwo-state solution.Q  The Israelis don't think establishment of a 
state headed by Abbas will improve their situation in any way.  The 
hard-core ideological left is fighting the IDF in the name of 
pacifism, and striving for a binational state in the name of 
equality and liberalism.  The right is striving for a binational 
state in the name of the Greater Land of Israel, fulfillment of the 
Bible's promises and the security afforded by dominating the 
hilltops.... Nor are the Palestinians thrilled by Obama.  A survey 
published this week by the International Peace Institute, headed by 
Terje Larsen, the former mediator from the time of the Oslo Accords, 
has found that 70 percent of Palestinians do not support the U.S. 
president, and 56 percent do not expect Obama to achieve progress in 
the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.  And this in 
a public opinion poll in which most of the respondents expressed 
support for Abbas, not Hamas.... In order to lead, [Obama] must 
articulate a clear path that everyone in Israel and the territories 
can support.... He has given up on the Qconfidence-building 
measuresQ he had hoped to achieve ... and is now urging the sides to 
renew negotiations quickly, Qwithout prior conditions.Q  Netanyahu 
interprets this as a victory: construction in the settlements will 
continue and Israel will go into talks without promising the 
Palestinians anything. There is no danger to the integrity of the 
coalition and the unity of Likud. Obama, too, is minimizing his 
political risk by delegating the negotiations to his rival, 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Here is an elegant way to 
attribute the expected failure to her and to damage her chances of a 
rematch against Obama. 
 
VI.  "Give Hope to the Palestinian" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in Maariv (9/25): QSome 
[officials] in Washington are considering adopting Salam FayyadQs 
plan [of Palestinian statehood within two years].  The Palestinian 
Prime Minister is happy with NetanyahuQs economic peace vision and 
Shimon PeresQs ideas.... [But] FayyadQs congeniality and pragmatism 
would turn into a tangible danger [for Israel; the [Israeli] Prime 
MinisterQs bureau would regret its dilly-dallying ... and perhaps 
the humiliating of the Palestinians and the premature celebrations 
and the arrogance that we saw this week in New York.  On the other 
hand, we are in the Middle East -- so many things can happen. 
 
VII.  "ItQs Not Goldstone, ItQs We" 
Legal commentator Boaz Okun, who was Director of IsraelQs Courts 
from 2004 to 2006, wrote in Yediot Aharonot (9/25): QWe need the 
[Goldstone CommissionQs] report because of what it tells about 
Israel and what we donQt want to hear.... It pointed at 
contradictions in Israeli claims that damaged their credibility.... 
The Commission found that it was impossible to point out any 
military gains that could have been obtained through [IDFQs] 
targeting civilians.... International humanitarian law requires an 
independent investigation to verify such actions.  There was no need 
for an international commission to reach such a conclusion. 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
QObama: I Am Not Naive 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea and diplomatic correspondent Shimon 
Shiffer wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot 
(9/25): QNetanyahu learned one important lesson from his relations 
with the [U.S.] administration in his previous term.  He is careful 
to conduct his talks with the Obama administration in full 
transparency, without concealing his political difficulties and the 
disputed points.  The key word is transparency.  Almost every day, 
there is a dialogue between the two governments.  QNot almost, every 
day,Q he is corrected by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael 
Oren.  The Israelis are careful to emphasize that the White House 
gave Netanyahu in advance the main points of ObamaQs speech at the 
UN General Assembly.  During Sharon and OlmertQs period, the 
Israelis not only received the draft, they also succeeded in 
revising it.  Netanyahu and his aides have not yet reached this 
degree of intimacy. 
 
CUNNINGHAM