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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002230 
 
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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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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Israel-Turkey Relations 
 
¶3.  Israel-NATO Cooperation 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that yesterday, in his opening speech to the 
KnessetQs winter session, PM Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the Qtwisted 
reportQ by (Justice Richard GoldstoneQs) Qtwisted commission,Q which 
he said Qundermines IsraelQs right to self-defense, encourages 
terror, and endangers peace.Q  He also stated which people he 
believed would be liable to face indictment in The Hague for war 
crimes: Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, and Tzipi Livni, Qwho sent IDF 
soldiers to protect our cities and our citizens.Q  HaQaretz noted 
that the Goldstone report never mentioned those three names.  The 
media reported that Netanyahu reiterated his demand that the PA 
recognize Israel as a Jewish state for there to be peace.  In her 
Knesset speech, Livni protested against the GovernmentQs inactivity, 
particularly as far as peace efforts are concerned. 
 
TurkeyQs cancelation of a planned joint exercise with the Israel Air 
Force scheduled for this week continues to be one of the main topics 
covered by IsraelQs media.  The exercise was to also include U.S., 
Italian, and NATO forces.  Media reported that in response to 
Turkey's decision against IsraelQs inclusion, the U.S. pulled out of 
the exercise, forcing Ankara to cancel the drill.  Turkey defended 
its move by saying that the planes that Israel was going to send 
likely bombed Hamas targets during Operation Cast Lead early this 
year.  The Jerusalem Post reported that 10 Turkish ministers are 
scheduled to travel to Syria today to take part in a meeting of the 
newly-formed Turkey-Syria High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council. 
Israel Radio and other media reported that Tzipi Livni was 
interviewed last night for Turkish state television TRT for a 
special interview in which she tried to relay a direct message to 
the Turkish public in wake of the crisis in Israel-Turkey relations. 
 Livni said in the interview that relations between Israel and 
Turkey were of a strategic nature and - as chairwoman of the 
opposition -  unrelated to the specific government that was in power 
in Jerusalem, noting that there was no distinction between the 
Israeli governing coalition and opposition on this matter. 
 
Maariv reported that an Israeli missile vessel will soon join NATO 
patrol activity in the Mediterranean to prevent terrorist activity 
in the sea. 
 
All media reported that last night a minor Hizbullah operative was 
killed in an explosion in the village of Tayr Filsi, southern 
Lebanon.  Five other activists may have been killed in the blast. 
Israel complained to UNIFIL that Hizbullah likely breaches U.N. 
Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans the group from having 
weapons south of the Litani River. 
 
On Sunday HaQaretz wrote: QThe differences between Israel and the 
Palestinian Authority appear to remain substantial even after a 
series of meetings with the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, 
George Mitchell.  Positions may have even hardened, with no 
breakthrough imminent, despite U.S. President Barack Obama's winning 
of the Nobel Peace Prize. 
 
Leading media quoted the German weekly Der Spiegel as saying 
yesterday that U.S. forces intercepted a German ship allegedly 
carrying weapons from Iran to Syria. 
 
Israel Radio reported that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 
supports the Palestinian proposal to hold a discussion on the 
Goldstone report soon at the U.N. Human Rights Council.  He spoke 
yesterday by phone with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and said he 
supported Abbas's efforts to have the report discussed.  Yesterday 
Yediot quoted a senior Israeli official as saying: QWe brought this 
upon ourselves.  Our unnecessary boasting after Abu MazenQs decision 
to consent to postpone the discussion by six months forced him to 
change the decision. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the U.S. told Egypt that it has reservations 
about the intra-Palestinian reconciliation effort in its current 
form and timing.  The newspaper reported that U.S. Special Envoy for 
Middle East Peace George Mitchell told his high-ranking Egyptian 
interlocutors Omar Suleiman and Ahmed Abu al-Gheit that the U.S. 
expects any Palestinian government and any minister taking part in 
it to accept the three conditions that the Quartet has imposed on 
Hamas. 
HaQaretz reported that Shin Bet is investigating who has distributed 
leaflets containing instructions on how to make bombs and weapons; 
the flyers were circulated in various illegal outposts one year ago. 
 Similar flyers were passed out before the Gay Pride Parades in 
Jerusalem during the past three years.  The flyers were titled, 
"Death to Sodomites" and included instructons on how to make 
Molotov cocktails and other iprovised weapons to be used against 
gays and lesbians.  The media reported that, in a separate 
development, the IDF banned three residents of the radical 
settlement of Yitzhar suspected of involvement in illegal activity 
from entering the West Bank. 
 
Israel Hayom reported that senior Israeli officials have recently 
begun to voice their concerns that one of the indirect results of 
the international uproar over the Goldstone report will be a 
successful Palestinian effort to sabotage Israel's efforts to become 
a member of the OECD. 
 
The media reported that this yearQs Nobel Prize winner for 
chemistry, Professor Ada Yonath, caused uproar on Saturday when she 
expressed her opinion regarding the case of the kidnapped soldier 
Gilad Shalit during an interview with IDF Radio.  She said that all 
the terrorists who are imprisoned in Israel should be released with 
no connection to the deal. "Anyone sitting in our jails who is not 
an ordinary criminal but rather someone whom we term a terrorist 
should not be in our prisons whether he has blood on his hands or 
not.  We should think of ways to make sure that people won't have 
the motivation to go out to kill or be killed." 
 
Israel Hayom and other leading media cited the results of a poll 
commissioned by the Geneva Initiative organization and carried out 
ten days ago: 
- Fifty-one (51) percent of the public is pleased with PM 
Netanyahu's performance on matters of state, as opposed to 33% who 
are displeased with that performance. 
-  Forty-six (46) percent of the respondents said that they believed 
that if the prime minister were to take a major political 
initiative, such a course of action was liable to increase public 
support for him. The poll also found that the public is equally 
divided, with 46% in favor and 46% opposed, to the proposed 
arrangement in the holy basin of Jerusalem that would leave the 
Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall under Israeli control, while 
placing the other quarters and the Temple Mount under Palestinian 
control. 
- Furthermore, 61% of the respondents said they supported a 
 
Palestinian state without an army. 
- The poll also found that the Geneva agreement enjoys the support 
of a majority of the respondents (56%), but that most respondents 
(55%) said they did not believe that such an agreement could be 
reached. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Prize for Failure" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/11): QLast March, he came here as the 
Qhigh commissioner.Q Everyone trembled with fear.  He supposedly had 
a plan, he presented demands and dictates, and sent the Israeli 
Government into a corner.  When people here thought that he was 
irritable, the Defense Minister abandoned his post and flew to New 
York especially to calm him down.  And, mirabile dictu: in October, 
the same George Mitchell comes here, but in the role of the nice 
American uncle, offering advice with a smile. At the beginning of 
the year, he knew exactly what we had to do.  Seven months later, he 
wants to know our suggestions for the peace process with the 
Palestinians, what we can contribute in order to strengthen Abu 
Mazen.  What started with unusual momentum has ended with nothing. 
The gap between the Mitchell of last March and the Mitchell of 
October is the story of the dismal failure of American diplomacy in 
the Middle East.... There is no such thing as an American president 
visiting an ally such as Saudi Arabia without getting an agreement 
on the object of his visit in advance, but his staff tripped him 
up.... Now the film is being corrected.  An expert, good old Dennis 
Ross, has been brought in.  Ross is an international expert on the 
Middle East, but he is no less an expert on procedure.  In 
diplomacy, essence is less important.  Procedure counts.  Therefore, 
they are going back now to the game in the Middle East that everyone 
loves best: who will meet with whom, who will report towhom, which 
committees will be established.  Blah, blah, blah.  ThatQs what 
happens when you do not have to sweat too much.  The director, 
producer and screenwriter already got the prize in advance, 
anyway. 
 
II.  "Netanyahu in the Consensus" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning HaQaretz (10/13): Q[In his speech to the Knesset 
yesterday] Netanyahu spoke in the name of the national consensus, in 
the knowledge that his political situation is stable and the public 
supports him.  A poll published this week by the Geneva Initiative 
-- a left-wing group that is not one of NetanyahuQs fans -- found 
that 51 percent of Israelis are happy with his policies and only 33 
percent are unhappy.  In this situation, when he represents the 
center, Netanyahu can declare that Israel is ready for peace and is 
waiting for a Palestinian leadership that will declare an end to all 
outstanding claims and recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  Until 
the Palestinians muster the courage to do so, Netanyahu will busy 
himself with land reform, paving roads, and fighting crime. 
 
III.  "Explosion Is on the Way" 
 
Veteran journalist and television anchor Yaron London wrote in 
Yediot Aharonot (10/12): QYour neighbor, a difficult character, 
covets your plot of land, and openly talks about the day when he 
will remove your house.  Can you sleep soundly?  This, in essence, 
is the explanation for the fact that it is so easy to inflame masses 
of Muslims with the allegation that Israel schemes to demolish the 
Temple Mount mosques.  In the eyes of many Jews, these buildings are 
an abomination, like the despicable object (of unclear nature) that 
the defilers placed at the site of the TempleQs altar.  This is not 
proof that Israel plots to destroy the holy sites of Islam, but it 
is enough to make the believers lose sleep.  There are no Jews who 
declare that they intend to take immediate action, but there have 
already been people who tried, and they are walking about freely in 
our midst.... I fear that the errors made by the rational part of 
the people of Israel since the Six-Day War can no longer be 
rectified.  The messianic madness cannot be cured by conventional 
means.  Perhaps the disaster can be postponed.  Firstly, the 
archeological excavations in the holy basin should be stopped for a 
few years, during which time the findings should be examined and 
research papers on them should be published.  Secondly, we should 
invite non-Jewish archeologists, theologians, Muslim and Christian 
clerics, historians, preservation architects and the like, to see 
things for themselves.  This will probably help as much as trying to 
resuscitate a dead body, but what do we have to lose? 
 
---------------------------- 
¶2.  Israel-Turkey Relations: 
---------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Ankara Must Decide" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/13): 
QWho would have thought -- Turkey and Armenia agreeing to normalize 
political relations. Armenia's president planning to attend a 
football match in Turkey.  And George Papandreou, the new Greek 
Prime Minister, making Turkey the destination of his first trip 
abroad.  These are encouraging examples of how age-old animosities 
are being relegated to the dustbin of history.  Too bad, then, that 
Ankara appears to be simultaneously doing everything it can to junk 
its relationship with the Jewish state.... Turkey is an 
irreplaceable ally.  Israelis want our two countries to enjoy 
cordial relations despite everything that's happened.  The onus is 
now on Ankara to make plain that it, too, wants the relationship to 
continue.  It would thereby also be signaling that Turkey wants to 
be a bridge between Islam and the West -- instead of yet another 
barrier. 
 
II.  "No More Playing Chicken with Turkey" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-Ha'aretz (10/12): QTurkey did not hide its deep 
opposition to Israel's policies in the territories in general and to 
Operation Lead Cast in particular.  Erdogan's outburst against 
President Shimon Peres last January at the Davos gathering did not 
stem from Islamist or pro-Iranian objectives.  Erdogan's support for 
a U.N. deliberation of the Goldstone Report and his declaration that 
Qthose responsible for war crimes must be identified and held 
accountable,Q is not based on any wish to please Iran or Syria. 
Turkey has a steady and clear policy on this issue and it is not a 
proxy for any country.  Public opinion exists in Turkey too and it 
is influential, and when the Prime Minister sees thousands of Turks 
protesting against Israel's policy in Jerusalem, he cannot remain 
indifferent.  At the same time, Turkey continues and will continue 
to have normal ties with Israel because such a relationship is part 
of Turkey's strategy, but today it finds itself in a different 
international status, of the sort that allows it to also take swipes 
at Israel. 
 
---------------------------- 
¶3.  Israel-NATO Cooperation: 
---------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
Liberal columnist and television anchor Ofer Shelach wrote in the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (10/13): QNATO uses cooperation with 
armies of states that are not part of the alliance as a sort of 
certificate of esteem, or as a prize for good behavior. In Israel's 
case, the issue at hand is the former of those two.... The 
importance of having an Israeli ship join the force is also related, 
of course, to the timing-at a time of tension between Israel and 
some of the members of the alliance, first and foremost Turkey.  The 
Israel Navy, often the army's neglected little sister, earned this 
right, and not by chance.... The IDF praises the navy's contribution 
in the battle against arms smuggling to the Gaza Strip. That said, 
it is clear that the navy cannot act far from Israel's shores in 
such a way that it is not discovered by NATO forces, which closely 
monitors activity in the waters of such a sensitive region.... 
However, along with the esteem and the cooperation, the overt and 
the covert, there is also responsibility: Israel needs the support 
of foreign forces, which receive orders from foreign governments, in 
order to safeguard its most immediate security interests. It has no 
choice but to recognize the fact that the response of these 
governments to its actions, and their interests, no longer fall 
under the category of Qwhat the goyim say,Q which as we know [as a 
phrase uttered by David Ben-Gurion], is far less important than what 
the Jews do.  And those who need international consent for activity 
far from the border, must be much more attentive to what is said in 
those countries about what it is doing close to the border, or even 
inside its own territory. 
 
CUNNINGHAM