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P 061022Z OCT 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002196 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
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HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
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LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
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SIPDIS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media emphasized the continued violence around the Temple Mount 
in Jerusalem.  Clashes continued yesterday between Palestinian 
demonstrators and security forces.  One Israeli soldier was stabbed 
and the number of people detained since the start of the latest 
disturbances reached 50.  HaQaretz reported that sources close to 
the situation told the newspaper that the U.S. and Jordan are trying 
to ease the tensions surrounding the Temple Mount area, with Jordan 
asking Israel to prevent the entry of Jews and tourists to the site 
until the situation calms down.   HaQaretz reported that Israel, the 
PA, and the Waqf Muslim authority will hold talks on rules for 
visiting the site until the crisis eases.  Yediot cited a Shin Bet 
warning that the PA has embarked on a takeover of East Jerusalem for 
the past few months.  Yediot and other media reported the PA has 
injected millions of dollars to strengthen East JerusalemQs economic 
infrastructure with effective Palestinian supervision.   Speaking on 
Israel Radio this morning, Vice PM Silvan Shalom called on the 
government to outlaw the Islamic Movement and arrest the leader of 
its northern branch Sheikh Raed Salah and his deputy, Kamal Khatib. 
 
The media reported that thousands of people demonstrated against 
Israel in Istanbul in support of the Palestinians at the Temple 
Mount. 
 
Israel Hayom reported that official spokesmen at the Prime 
MinisterQs Office and at the Foreign Ministry have clarified that 
the postponement of the vote at the U.N Human Rights Council that 
would have endorsed the Goldstone Report was the result of massive 
diplomatic pressure on the U.S., Russia, France, Germany, the U.S., 
and others by Israel. HaQaretz and other media reported that 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is facing unusually harsh 
criticism from within Fatah and other Palestinian groups for his 
decision last week to withdraw the draft document.  HaQaretz 
reported that a few hundred protesters demonstrated in Ramallah 
 
yesterday against the PAQs decision to delay endorsing the Goldstone 
report. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that the Obama 
administration has cautiously welcomed the Iranian gestures coming 
out of the talks over its nuclear program last week, saying they are 
a "constructive beginning" even if much more work is needed and 
progress cannot be taken for granted.  However, The Jerusalem Post 
said that many Washington hands are warning that the key factor 
behind IranQs more cooperative approach has been a shift in 
America's posture rather than in Tehran's.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted Ilan Mizrachi, a former head of IsraelQs National Security 
Council and deputy head of the Mossad, as saying that Israel would 
not be able to oppose a deal under which IranQs uranium is enriched 
in Russia.  Yediot reported that the notion of Russian enrichment of 
uranium for Iran was an Israeli idea raised by Shaul MofazQs team in 
its strategic dialogue at the end of President BushQs term, and 
cited concern that Iran will breach the agreement.  MaarivQs Web 
site NRG reported that ahead of the large-scale IDF-U.S. Army aerial 
defense exercise that will simulate a missile attack from Iran, 15 
missile boats, cargo planes, and aerial defense systems have arrived 
in Israel. A senior Israeli defense source was quoted as saying: 
QSoon an American officer of the rank of general will arrive, 
attesting to the importance of the drill. This is a clear message to 
Iran. 
 
Maariv reported that the Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu parties are 
cooperating to change the Israeli political system through the 
mediation of politician Haim Ramon: they will reportedly draft an 
initiative to strengthen the status of the prime minister and they 
intend to have a bill to this effect passed with the support of 
Likud and Labor Knesset members.  The newspaper cited LikudQs anger 
over the move and Avigdor LiebermanQs cooperation with the 
opposition. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that an archeological project funded by 
a Jewish-Ukrainian philanthropist made possible the rehabilitation 
of a Second Jewish Temple-era hall that was recently unearthed in 
the Western Wall tunnels.  All media cited the newly uncovered 
areas. 
 
HaQaretz and The Jerusalem Post cited a Peace Now investigation 
reporting that 800 housing units in 34 West Bank settlements are in 
early development stages and 100 are already under construction. 
According to the organization, settlement movement leaders are 
rushing to begin construction in as many places as possible, so that 
when a construction freeze as ordered these locations are not 
affected.  Peace Now said that merely not issuing new permits wasn't 
enough and that a direct order banning all new construction was 
needed.  Media quoted right-wing figures as saying that Peace Now is 
a QtreacherousQ group or a "foreign agent." 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian schoolchildren in 
U.N.-run schools may soon learn about the Holocaust as part of a new 
curriculum on human rights that is being developed by the U.N Relief 
and Works Agency (UNRWA).  The newspaper reported that UNRWA is 
pushing forward with the curriculum despite Palestinian opposition. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday a court in Azerbaijan 
sentenced a group of militant Islamists, including two Lebanese men, 
to between 12 and 15 years in jail for plotting attacks on the 
Israeli and U.S. embassies in Baku.  A spokesman for the court said 
the group was linked to Hizbullah, al-Qaida, and the Iranian 
security services. 
 
All media reported that on Sunday unknown people vandalized the 
southern archaeological park of Avdat.  Yesterday police arrested 
two Negev Bedouin in relation with this act.  Leading media reported 
that they are suspected of destroying the site as revenge for the 
recent demolition of homes in the area.   The media reported that 
the perpetrators may have causedwhat one high-ranking preservation 
official called "unparalleled damage" to the site.  Avdat's 
archaeological section was recognized by UNESCO as a Heritage Site 
four years ago. 
 
HaQaretz reported that FM Avigdor Lieberman has withdrawn his 
nominee for the position of Israel's ambassador to Cairo. Lieberman 
had planned to appoint his close Yisrael Beiteinu associate, Col. 
Shaul Kamisa.  The idea was criticized across the board both inside 
and outside the Foreign Ministry and a few days ago the candidacy 
was shelved.  The Jerusalem Post reported that some Foreign Ministry 
diplomats are upset at FM Avigdor LiebermanQs decision to appoint 
former Mossad man Reuven Dinal as ambassador to Turkmenistan. 
 
The media pin hopes on Israeli candidates for Nobel Prizes: Yakir 
Aharonov (Physics) and Amos Oz (Literature). 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Obama Is No Sucker" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/6): QA report of the planned presence [of 
Netanyahu] at the volatile site of Silwan in East Jerusalem] reached 
Washington, and the order came to cancel the event with lightning 
speed.... A senior person from the National Security Council at the 
White House recently told Jewish leaders that Obama had mustered all 
his charm to convince Arab leaders to offer Netanyahu a series of 
gestures.  It all ended, said the official, when the Prime Minister 
decided to approve construction of 450 housing units in the West 
Bank.  The President, to put it mildly, was not amused. 
 
II.  "Third Intifada?" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/6): 
QIsraeli authorities foster coexistence and maintain free access to 
the holy sites. Palestinian factions, by contrast, want just the 
opposite. Jews do not deny the religious significance of the Muslim 
sites on the Temple Mount. Yet Palestinians can't abide the fact 
that the Jewish presence in Jerusalem anteceded the Muslim arrival 
in 636 CE by well over [two?] millennia.... Sadly, not one 
Palestinian leader is willing to tell his people that, ofcourse, 
there was a Jewish temple where the Aqsa osque stands today. To 
admit a Jewish civilizational connection would demand that 
Palestinians agree to share the area and to treat Jewish holy places 
with respect.  It would turn upside down a Palestinian political 
culture that has socialized generations to think of Jews as 
interlopers.  And this neither Fatah's Abbas, nor Hamas's Ismail 
Haniyeh nor the Islamic Movement's Sheikh Raed Salah will ever do. 
Since the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967, the Jews have been 
magnanimous in victory.  Not only have they permitted Muslims to 
retain administrative control over their holy places, Israeli 
authorities have forbidden Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.... So 
while Israel's QThird TempleQ fanatics are carefully policed and 
marginalized by mainstream society, the Palestinian leadership 
continues to mainstream fanatical ideas about Jews -- making 
reconciliation unreachable. 
 
III.  "The Temple Mount Is the Heart of the Conflict" 
Columnist Assaf Golan wrote in the editorial of the nationalist, 
Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (p. 6) (10/6): QOne of the most 
complex problems that Israel will have to face in the next few years 
is the issue of the Temple Mount.... It is impossible to produce 
historic reconciliations between national entities only based on 
instant politics when both sidesQ deep foundations lean on profound 
spiritual and emotional worlds.  This simple truth teaches us that 
not only might fleeing the challenge of the Temple Mount blow up in 
IsraelQs face but it might as well drag the entire Middle East into 
a terrible bloodshed despite itself. 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"No Cause for Celebration" 
 
Intelligence affairs writer Ronen Bergman opined in the 
mass-circulation pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/6): QThe supposedly 
dramatic agreement produced by the talks between Iran and the 
[world] powers will not lead to the disappearance of the nuclear 
peril from the regime of the ayatollahs.  Anyway this a nice 
achievement for the Iranians -- an agreement that will only slightly 
delay their race to the bomb, provide them a bonus in public 
opinion, provide Russia and China with an alibi for the continuation 
of their excellent economic ties with Iran.... The positive side of 
this arrangement is that the quantity to be transferred to Russia -- 
as long as it stays in Russia -- will be supervised.... But there 
are drawbacks.  First of all, the agreement doesnQt prevent Iran 
from continuing to enrich ... uranium on its territory.  It will be 
able to produce a bomb.... Those who stand to earn most from this 
agreement, should it materialize, are the Russians.  Not only will 
they receive a lot of money for this process, but they will succeed 
in creating for themselves an alibi for continuing their vast 
economic, military, and civilian ties with Iran. 
 
CUNNINGHAM