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P 080843Z OCT 09
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Hayom reported that the visit of U.S. Special Envoy for 
Middle East Peace Senator George Mitchell to the region is the 
continuation of U.S. efforts to start negotiations between Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President 
Mahmoud Abbas.  The daily and other leading media quoted a senior 
American official as saying yesterday that the United States has not 
retreated from the demand that Israel freeze construction in the 
settlements (contradicting statements by Israeli sources -- see 
Ha'aretz below in this paragraph).  The official was also quoted as 
saying that the U.S. does not accept preconditions for starting 
negotiations, a statement that Israel Hayom said was directed at the 
Palestinians.  Israel Hayom quoted a senior American official as 
saying that October 18 -- the date set for the presentation of 
Mitchell's report to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- is not a 
deadline.  The official was quoted as saying that an Israeli 
declaration on settlement construction will help enlist positive 
involvement by the Arab states, which may significantly advance the 
peace process.  Israel Hayom further quoted the official as saying 
that the sides must start negotiations without delay -- but that 
this will not happen during Mitchell's visit, as the U.S. would have 
hoped.   The Jerusalem Post reported that a "senior U.S. diplomat 
called on both sides to get down to business."  Ha'aretz quoted 
sources in Jerusalem as saying that a temporary freeze of 
construction in settlements was effectively off the agenda, and that 
the Americans had dropped this demand.  Ha'aretz quoted sources as 
sayng yesterday that Abbas, whose standing among Palestinians has 
suffered dramatically in recent weeks, is expected to refuse the 
American request for an immediate return to negotiations without 
preconditions.  Abbas has been harshly criticized for requesting a 
postponement of the U.N. discussion on the Goldstone report at the 
request of the United States. 
 
Yediot reported that the U.S. administration has decided to freeze 
efforts to renew talks on the Israeli-Syrian track as it assesses 
that this channel is not ripe and in light of Syria's negative role 
in Iraq and its prevention of the prevention of a government in 
Lebanon. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday the U.N. Security Council 
decided to reject a Libyan request to hold a special session on the 
Goldstone report.  However, the council decided to debate the report 
during the regular meeting of the council on the Middle East which 
will be move forward to next week.  Major media reported that 
yesterday Hamas staged a rally in Gaza attended by families affected 
by Operation Cast Lead.  The crowd was invited to throw shoes at a 
large poster of Abbas.  Meanwhile Ha'aretz reported that Yasser Abed 
Rabbo, chairman of the PLO's Executive Committee, told Palestinian 
radio yesterday that the PA was mistaken in its approach to the 
report.  "We have the courage to admit our mistake, and this mistake 
can be amended," Abed Rabbo said.  The Jerusalem Post and other 
media quoted Hamas leaders as saying "that the movement's 
reconciliation talks with Fatah should be shelved over Abbas's 
treason over the Goldstone report." 
 
King Abdullah II of Jordan was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Ha'aretz that the current diplomatic impasse sends the region "back 
into the darkness."  The King was quoted as saying that he has 
raised the sanctity and sensitivity of Jerusalem with every Israeli 
prime minister, including Benjamin Netanyahu.  He said that it "is 
important to understand the need of ending all settlement activities 
and other unilateral actions that threaten the identity of the holy 
city." 
 
Leading media reported that Noam Shalit, the father of abducted IDF 
soldier Gilad Shalit, will meet with French President Nicolas 
Sarkozy in Paris today.  Ha'aretz reported that Sarkozy recently 
sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad asking him to 
pressure the Hamas leadership in Damascus to close a deal for 
Shalit's release.  Ha'aretz quoted diplomatic sources as saying that 
the Syrians passed the message to the head of the Hamas political 
wing in Damascus, Khaled Mashal. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Netanyahu has not appointed any 
minister in charge of Jerusalem, due to his hopes that the far-Right 
party National Union will joint his government coalition. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that some 3,000 Likud members converged on Samaria 
National Park in the northern West Bank yesterday in a demonstration 
of Israeli sovereignty in the region.  The Likud members also sent a 
message to President Obama to "keep your hands off the Land of 
Israel."  Ha'aretz reported that Knesset Member Danny Danon, who 
organized the trip, said in an interview to CNN: "I want to tell 
Obama we know there's no partner and your pressure is harmful to the 
Jewish people ... this isn't Hollywood.  You can't invent a partner. 
 We have to do what's good for the Jewish people in its country." 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Danon as saying that he plans to press PM 
Netanyahu on the President's settlement freeze demand. 
 
Yediot detailed the Foreign Ministry's secret internal memo that The 
Jerusalem Post said yesterday seeks to fashion a "whole new Israeli 
foreign policy."  Yediot cited the document as saying (in free 
translation): "As far as Israel is concerned, there is no substitute 
for the special relationship with the United States.  The U.S. 
undoubtedly is Israel's best friend in the world.  However, the 
exclusive reliance on the U.S. is not healthy for both sides and is 
testing to the U.S.  Israel must build a coalition with additional 
states on the basis of shared interests.  This is how a circle of 
support for Israel will be strengthened and expanded.  This will 
make things easier for the U.S. as well." 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Israeli activists against the separation fence as 
saying that an IDF soldier was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of 
beating a Palestinian resident during a nighttime raid in the West 
Bank village of Bil'in on September 16. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that opposition 
leader and Kadima Knesset Member Tzipi Livni flew to the U.S. 
yesterday to be a guest of honor at two special events this week in 
which she will be honored for her work.  First, she will receive the 
highest honor awarded by Yale University to foreigners for their 
work and inspiration and then, in Miami, she will attend a special 
event held by the International Women's Forum and enter its 
International Hall of Fame. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Israeli diplomatic 
officials would not comment on claims made by Iranian President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that several countries had offered to sell 
enriched uranium to his country.  Maariv imagines Israeli societyQs 
reaction to the reality of an Iranian nuclear weapon. 
 
All media prominently reported on yesterdayQs granting of the Nobel 
Prize in Chemistry to Professor Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute 
of Science (as co-recipient).  In interviews with the media, Yonath, 
colleagues, and commentators voiced their concern about the future 
of scientific research in Israel. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank: 
--------------------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.   Watch Out for the Goldstoners 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (10/8): "Nobody knows yet when the next war will break out. 
 Maybe in a decade, maybe in a year, or maybe even next month.  It 
is also not clear where the next war will erupt -- perhaps on the 
Gaza border, perhaps the West Bank, or maybe in Jerusalem.  But it 
is already clear what the next war's name will be -- the Goldstone 
War.  It will be the war brought upon us by the Goldstone report, 
Judge Goldstone and his Goldstoner followers. The report reflects 
both the Goldstoners' holy fury and their complete belief that the 
Palestinians can do no wrong.  That belief is now endangering not 
only Israel but calm and stability.  In their fanaticism and 
extremism, Goldstone and the Goldstoners have brought us closer to 
bloodshed." 
 
II.  Our Exclusive Right to Self-Defense 
 
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (10/8): "Virtually all of Israel is now 
speaking in one voice against the Goldstone report, against any 
attempt to blame us over the war in Gaza.  We've honed our message 
to a sharp point and, inspired by Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu's performance at the U.N., we're delivering it with just 
the right tone of outrage:  How dare anyone deny us the right to 
self-defense! How dare anyone deny us the right to fight back 
against terrorism!  Very nice.  Puts everyone else on the 
defensive.  The right to self-defense is up there with motherhood 
and apple pie -- who's going to come out against it, especially for 
us, for Israel, for the Jews, for the people of the Holocaust?  The 
right to self-defense -- perfect.  But I'd like to ask: Do the 
Palestinians also have the right to self-defense?  We probably 
wouldn't admit it out loud, but in our heads we would say -- again, 
in one voice, "No!"  This is the Israeli notion of a fair deal. 
Here is our idea of the "laws of war": When Israeli bulldozers 
rolled across the border into Gazan villages and flattened house 
after house so Hamas wouldn't have them for cover after the IDF 
pulled out, that was self-defense.  But if a Palestinian boy who'd 
lived in one of those houses threw a stone at one of the bulldozers, 
that was terrorism.  The Goldstones of the world call this 
hypocrisy, a double standard.  How dare they!  Around here, we call 
it moral clarity." 
 
III.  You Worry about Nabatean Culture? 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (10/8): "A mysterious gap appears between the attitude 
towards the destruction at the [world heritage site of] Avdat and 
the wreckage on the Temple Mount.  While vestiges of the Nabatean 
civilization were found in Avdat, signs of lamented cultures and 
remnants of the most revered religious site of Judaism lie buried." 
 
CUNNINGHAM