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DE RUEHTV #2225/01 2821100
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P 091100Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002225 
 
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: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
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U.S. Special Envoy Senator Mitchell to Israel, West Bank October 
7-11, 2009 
 
High level of alert and tension ahead of Friday prayers in 
Jerusalem 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media 
-------------------------- 
All newspapers reported on Sen. Mitchell meetings with President 
Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Minister 
Avigdor Lieberman, noting that the visiting American official will 
meet with Netanyahu on Friday and will travel to Ramallah for talks 
with Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad over the 
weekend. Haaretz quoted Special Envoy Mitchell as saying at the 
start of his meeting with Peres, that the United States was making 
efforts to restart the negotiations between Israel and the PA in the 
near future. 
 
The Jerusalem Post wrote that hopes among Israeli and American 
officials are dim ahead of U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell's 
meeting on Friday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the 
talks will yield a resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace 
talks. However, Yediot quoted senior diplomatic sources as saying 
that some progress was achieved during the latest round of talks, 
but a scheme to enable the re-launching of talks has not yet been 
found. 
 
Ha'aretz reported this morning that last month's summit in New York 
between Obama, Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas also reduced 
Washington's expectations of a speedy resumption of final-status 
talks between Israel and the PA. While U.S. envoy George Mitchell 
will meet Netanyahu again Friday, the meeting is not expected to 
resolve the crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations. 
 
According to Ha'aretz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 
considering goodwill gestures that would bolster the Palestinian 
Authority and would help PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been 
suffering harsh criticism following a Palestinian decision not to 
press for the UN Human Rights Council's adoption of the Goldstone 
report on last winter's Gaza offensive. Netanyahu is considering 
announcing a goodwill package during his meeting Friday with the 
special U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. According to 
a senior political source in Jerusalem a number of ideas were raised 
on goodwill gestures that would boost Abbas. The Prime Minister's 
Bureau did not deny the existence of such proposals. Measures being 
considered include authorization for setting up a second cellular 
telephone network in the West Bank and releasing the necessary 
frequency for use by the PA. Another idea is to stop opposing a 
Palestinian request for building a new city near Ramallah. It is 
also possible that more roadblocks will be lifted and other measures 
will be put in place to help improve the Palestinian economy, a key 
goal of Netanyahu. 
 
 
All newspapers reported on the high level of security alertness in 
Jerusalem following days of tension at the Temple Mount compound as 
Palestinian protesters sporadically clashed with Israeli police. The 
fear that clashes would break out during Friday's Muslim prayers 
brought additional security and police forces to Jerusalem's Old 
City.  There is fear that violence will expand beyond Jerusalem, 
into the West Bank and even within Israel's borders, into towns with 
mixed populations of Jews and Arabs. Still, a senior police 
commissioner said early Friday that he believes that violence and 
disturbances will be under control in Jerusalem. On Thursday, the 
Hamas declared Friday a "day of rage" and called on its supporters 
to come out and demonstrate at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Temple Mount. 
 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Democratic congressmen close to Obama, as saying to 
an Israeli source who returned from a visit to Washington this 
week,that the U.S. administration is furious over Israeli incitement 
against President Barack Obama, also hinting that Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu has been personally involved. The source also 
said that he was stunned by the level of anger over attempts to 
portray Obama to the American public as an enemy of Israel because 
of his efforts to restart peace talks and freeze settlement 
construction.  The source was quoted as saying that, "There are 
people here who are playing with fire by damaging our relationship 
with the U.S." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that King Abdullah of Jordan warned Washington 
recently that Israel's settlement policy in East Jerusalem is 
undermining the stability of Israeli-Jordanian relations. He also 
ordered the Jordanian embassy in Israel to submit an official 
protest to the Foreign Ministry over a plan to build a new Jewish 
neighborhood on lands belonging to the East Jerusalem village of 
Walaja. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Director of the Central Intelligence 
Agency Leon Panetta told TIME magazine that Israel was involved in 
uncovering Iran's nuclear facility near Qom. According to the TIME 
article, Israeli intelligence was involved in editing and creating 
the sanitized version of information about Iran's recently revealed 
secret uranium enrichment facility. 
 
 
------------ 
Block Quotes 
------------ 
 
"Artificially Respirating Abbas 
Senior Analyst Gil Hoffman wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (10/9): "When American envoy George Mitchell meets 
with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on 
Friday, don't be surprised if the two get a little closer than they 
normally would.  The Americans believe that Abbas requires urgent 
resuscitation, and Mitchell's separate meetings with Abbas and Prime 
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are intended for that purpose.  Don't be 
surprised if Netanyahu, in his meeting with Mitchell, is asked for 
some kind of confidence-building measure to boost Abbas. The 
American envoy already sent an associate to tell the media on 
Wednesday that US President Barack Obama will still crack down on 
settlement construction.  But if Mitchell really wanted to boost 
Abbas, perhaps he should get on a plane and go back to the United 
States, because his mere presence in Ramallah harms Abbas at a 
sensitive time for him... Obama raised expectations in the Arab 
world when he insisted on the unrealistic demand of a complete 
freeze in Israeli construction east of the 1949 armistice lines. 
Abbas, who couldn't appear less anti-Israel than the president of 
the Unites States, made this a new precondition for talks with 
Israel.  Then Obama forced Abbas to come to Washington to meet with 
Netanyahu, despite his demand not being met. This humiliated Abbas, 
who was so noticeably upset in his meeting with Netanyahu and 
Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Barak had to butter him up by 
telling him that his popularity on the Palestinian street surpassed 
that of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, at his peak. Finally, in his 
speech at that summit, Obama set a mid-October deadline for 
significant progress on the peace process. This deadline, 
immediately after three weeks of Israeli governmental officials 
barely working due to the holidays, cannot and will not be met, 
which will harm Abbas even more. If Abbas falls and Hamas wins the 
election, no American envoy could succeed in reviving the peace 
process. That's why it's so important for America that it acts 
smartly in its renewed efforts to revive Abbas. 
 
CUNNINGHAM