VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #2270/01 2881040
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 151040Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3829
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 6096
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 2668
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 6698
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 6910
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 6152
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 4789
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 7000
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3776
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1991
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 0658
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 8180
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 3184
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 7164
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 9228
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 1987
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 2979
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002270 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Israel-Turkey Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Yediot (Shimon Shiffer) reported that, following the failure in 
obtaining a settlement construction freeze and Arab gestures towards 
Israel, the U.S. administration is drafting a new diplomatic 
outline: inviting the sides for negotiations on the core issues -- 
borders, Jerusalem, and the refugees.  The daily reported that the 
Americans have informed Israelis and Europeans of the move, which 
Yediot says is likely to be announced by President Obama after he 
receives the results of Senator MitchellQs mission from Secretary of 
State Hillary Clinton. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a resolution that the PA and a 
group of countries intend to submit today to the U.N. Human Rights 
Council (UNHRC), which will deliberate over the Goldstone report, 
makes no mention of Palestinian violence against Israelis, such as 
the eight years of rocket attacks from Gaza against southern border 
communities.  The newspaper reported that PLO Ambassador to the U.N. 
in Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi told The Jerusalem Post that there were 
enough votes in the council to endorse the resolution and move it on 
to New York, where it would carry more weight.  Khraishi was quoted 
as saying that Palestinians were keen to use international law to 
stop the "occupation," which has led to grave "violations of human 
rights."  HaQaretz quoted Palestinians as saying that if their 
proposal does not garner support, it could bring about the collapse 
of PA President Mahmoud AbbasQs government. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday at the U.N. Security Council, 
the U.S., Britain, and France requested that Israel conduct an 
investigation of its own into Operation Cast Lead.  Spanish PM Jose 
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Maariv that the Goldstone report must be taken into account but that 
it should not become an obstacle to peace.  (Zapatero also told 
Maariv that his family has Jewish (QMarranoQ) roots.)  Major media 
reported that at a U.N. Security Council debate on the Middle East 
that was not expected to take action, Israel's Ambassador to the 
U.N., Gabriela Shalev, dismissed the Goldstone report as a waste of 
the council's time, saying that the document "favors and legitimizes 
terrorism."  Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Alejandro Wolff was 
quoted as saying that Washington had serious concerns about the 
report, including what he said was its "unbalanced focus on Israel." 
 But he repeated the U.S. view that Israel should look into it.  "We 
take the allegations in the report seriously," he told the council. 
"Israel has the institutions and the ability to carry out serious 
investigations of these allegations and we encourage it to do so." 
Wolff said that Hamas was a "terrorist organization" that was 
neither willing nor able to investigate its own behavior. 
 
All media reported that yesterday the state-run Turkish TV channel 
TRT1 broadcast the first episode of a series on a Palestinian family 
living in the West Bank, in which IDF soldiers are variously seen 
killing a baby and a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be 
shot before a firing squad.  Israel Hayom banners: QTurkish Blood 
Libel.Q  The Israeli Foreign Ministry called in Turkey's envoy to 
register a protest.  FM Avigdor Lieberman, currently holding 
meetings in Austria, issued a statement saying the airing of this 
show, on a government-controlled station, represented the "gravest 
form of incitement."  Lieberman was quoted as saying: "This series, 
which has absolutely no connection to reality, and which presents 
IDF soldiers as murderers of innocent children, is not fit to be 
broadcast even in the most hostile countries, and certainly not in a 
country that has full diplomatic relations with Israel.Q  Israel 
Radio cited the Turkish newspaper Zaman as saying that Turkey will 
ask Israel to disburse up to $4million in compensation for an 
alleged delay in the delivery of drones. 
 
HaQaretzQs Web site and Israel Radio cited the French weekly Le 
Canard Enchaine as saying that Israel is preparing to attack Iran 
after December.  The magazine quoted French sources as saying that 
Israel has reportedly ordered combat rations for its elite army 
units from a French supplier and IDF reservists overseas have been 
ordered to return to their units between November and December,. 
According to the report, during his brief visit to France, IDF Chief 
of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told his French counterpart, 
Jean-Louis Georgelin, that "Israel will not bomb Iran, but may carry 
out ground operations in the area."  The French source further 
reported that Israel is planning to assassinate scientists linked to 
the Iranian nuclear program and take military action against Hamas 
and Hizbullah. 
The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior GOI official as saying that 
Israel has passed on unequivocal messages to the PA that it will not 
quietly accept a Palestinian unity government that would neither 
denounce violence, recognize Israel, nor accept previous 
Israeli-Palestinian agreements.  The official declined to say what 
measures Israel would take or whether it would cut off ties with the 
PA as a result. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the U.S. House of 
Representatives passed Iran sanctions legislation, trying to add 
pressure to the Iranian regime even as the administration has 
emphasized diplomacy with Tehran.  The bill authorizes state and 
local governments to divest from firms with investments of $20 
million in IranQs oil and gas sectors, relieving some of the legal 
barriers currently in place. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli flag was displayed at 
the first International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) conference 
in Abu Dhabi this week. 
 
All media highlighted State Comptroller Micha LindenstraussQs 
special report on the travel of DM Ehud Barak, his entourage, and 
other leading military figures to the Paris Air Show last June. 
Accommodations during the visit cost 944,000 shekels (around 
$236,000), not including flights, food, or any other expenditures. 
All media are critical of the splurge, including HaQaretzQs 
editorial, which calls on the Defense Ministry to reimburse the 
monies. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the IDFQs Home Front Command will begin 
distributing new gas mask kits to the civilian population beginning 
in January.  The plan is to hand out 4.5 million kits within three 
years. 
 
HaQaretz cited a suit filed last week in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's 
Court, according to which a Palestinian taken by ambulance to 
JerusalemQs Hadassah University Hospital in 2006 was denied entry by 
hospital security, which may have been a factor in his death en 
route to another hospital 
 
The media reported that U.S. born Judge Neal Hendel is one of three 
new Supreme Court Justices who were sworn in yesterday 
 
In a feature story about involvement by Israelis in Central and 
South America, Maariv told the story of Yehuda Leitner, who is 
accused of trying to help exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. 
Leitner says he was in his kibbutz at the time. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Iceberg" 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (10/15): QThe Right is the primary culprit of Israel's 
legitimacy crisis.  With the occupation, the settlements and 
brutality, religious nationalism has fed the destructive forces that 
seek to trample the natural rights of Jews and Israelis.  But the 
Left has also contributed its part to the legitimacy crisis.  Those 
on the radical Left did not always make certain that opposition to 
Israeli policies would not turn into reservations about Israel's 
very existence.... On one hand, there is an urgent need for a 
creative, daring diplomatic initiative that would prove that Israel 
is truly and genuinely striving to end the occupation. Without such 
an initiative, the world will not listen to Israeli justice, which 
today remains a concept largely invisible to the world.  On the 
other hand, there is a need to enlist Israeli and Jewish elites in 
the struggle to once again strengthen the foundations of Israel's 
legitimacy.  This diplomatic and moral effort is no less important 
than the struggles that produced the Balfour Decaration and the UN 
partition resolution.  If suc an effort is not launched 
immediately, and does ot soon succeed, Israel will become an 
internatinal pariah. 
 
 
II.  "A Defeat Foretold" 
 
Chief conomic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker rote in 
the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aaronot (10/15): QOperation 
Cast Lead did not resut in the liberation of Gilad Shalit, it did 
not opple Hamas, it did not boost the moderates (the economic 
revival in the Palestinian cities boosted them), it did not stop the 
Qassam rocket fire (the rocket fire was stopped after Israel agreed 
to hold its fire and resigned itself, for all intents and purposes, 
to the existence of an arms smuggling network that utilized tunnels) 
and failed to achieve even a single one of its stated objectives, 
barring the one that found expression in those two words, 'savage 
response' [citing Tzipi LivniQs words in an interview yesterday]. 
From a political standpoint, the ramifications of Operation Cast 
Lead are destructive.... Even if no one from Israel is tried at the 
International Court of Justice at The Hague, the Goldstone report is 
going to remain seared in the minds of the Western intellectual 
elites and the incited masses across the Muslim world.  That charge 
sheet against Israel, one of the most egregious ever written, will 
haunt us for years to come.  There isn't an eraser that will elide 
the mark of Cain that the report has left stamped on our foreheads. 
An infuriating report, a coarse blood libel -- but an existing 
fact. 
 
III.  "Saving Abu Mazen" 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in HaQaretz 
(10/15): QWhile [Mahmoud] Abbas would be happy to see Israel's 
cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffer political 
damage, the decision to approach the U.N. Human Rights Council is 
intended first and foremost to hurt Hamas in the eyes of the 
Palestinian public and to save Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) from 
more harsh criticism.... However, it seems there is some substance 
to Hamas' claims against Fatah.  Abbas, Prime Minister Salam 
Fayyad's cabinet -- everyone, in short -- is blasting Israel over 
Operation Cast Lead.  But their own hands are far from clean in this 
regard.  Quite a few senior Fatah officials, including ones close to 
Abbas, urged Israel to intensify its attacks on Hamas during the 
operation.  Now they are accusing Israel of war crimes. 
 
 
 
 
IV.  "It Looks Like Law, but It's Just Politics" 
 
South AfricaQs Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, who also has a PhD in 
human rights law, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem 
Post (10/15): QThe [Goldstein] report uses the veneer of 
respectability that comes with legal methodology, and with the 
presence of an internationally respected judge, to gain credibility. 
 Law is a very powerful weapon to give respectability to 
contemptible actions and opinions.  The South African Apartheid 
Government was very legalistic in its approach to racial oppression, 
and was punctilious about promulgating proper laws, and about 
maintaining a fully functioning judiciary to give the fagade of 
respectability to its repugnant policies.... One aspect of the 
 
evidence, presented to but not accepted by the Goldstone Mission, 
was that of Hamas leader Fathi Hammad, who said: QThis is why we 
have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, 
and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing 
machine.  It is as if we are saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire 
death while you desire life.Q  These procedural and substantive 
injustices demonstrate the complete lack of integrity and fairness 
of the process.  It looks like law, but it is not.  It is just 
politics.  The Goldstone Mission is a disgrace to the most basic 
notions of justice, equality and the rule of law.  And it is 
dangerous.  Injustice will only lead to more death and destruction. 
The Talmud says QThe world stands on three things: truth, justice 
and peace.Q  These three values are linked.  There can never be 
peace without justice and truth.  The Goldstone Mission is unjust 
and wanting in truth. It has, therefore, harmed the prospects for 
peace in the Middle East. 
 
---------------------------- 
¶2.  Israel-Turkey Relations: 
---------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "DonQt Kill A Turk.  Rest" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (10/15): Q[The headline is a play on a 
Hebrew expression, Qto kill a Turk and to rest,Q which is to say: to 
do one thing at a time.]  We need to begin to get used to the fact 
that Turkey is changing -- a substantive, profound, strategic 
change.  That isnQt good, but it is something that can be lived 
with.... The traditional focal points of power in Turkey have 
gradually grown weaker.  The army no longer controls the country the 
way it used to.  The diplomatic elite has also been pushed aside. 
Instead, Islam has come to occupy the central rubric, and along with 
it has arisen a neo-Ottomanism, which talks about restoring TurkeyQs 
lost glory, casting its gaze inward at the Middle East and the 
neighboring Muslim countries at the expense of the West and Europe. 
That change is social, deep and real. 
 
II.  "Turkey -- the QSick ManQ Again" 
 
Veteran journalist and television anchor Dan Margalit wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (10/15): QA contortion of madness is 
gripping Recep Tayyip ErdoganQs leadership.  He behaves as if he 
were drugged, in need of increasing doses of narcotics with an 
anti-Semitic flavor....  Erdogan perhaps thinks he can return Turkey 
to the days of the Ottoman Empire, which disappeared at the end of 
World War I and will not return.... For many years noted European 
statesmen called [Turkey] the Qsick man on the Bosporus.Q  Recent 
indications on the diplomatic scene are evidence that this is how it 
can now be called. 
 
CUNNINGHAM