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P 210605Z OCT 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002318 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Ambassador Susan Rice to Israel 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The media reported on last nightQs opening of President Shimon 
PeresQ QFacing TomorrowQ Conference in Jerusalem.  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that in his opening address, Peres welcomed the world 
leaders attending the conference and reiterated Israel's support for 
a two-state solution.  Ahead of the conference, Obama sent a message 
which praised Peres as a "great statesman."   In videotaped remarks, 
President Obama said that Peres' "life stands as an extraordinary 
example how courage and perseverance help shape the future,  turning 
harrowing challenges into historic opportunities."  The Jerusalem 
Post noted that Obama stated that Israeli-U.S. relations were Qmore 
than a strategic alliance.Q  Speaking about the conference itself, 
Obama said, "by drawing upon such a wide range of expertise within 
Israel, President Peres is harnessing the talent and dynamism of the 
Israeli people in facing the future. Bringing together such a broad 
and remarkable group of leaders from around the world is 
underscoring a fundamental truth -- we cannot meet the tests of our 
time unless we meet them together."  Obama added that all of us 
Qmust share the responsibility for progress.Q  Yediot reported that 
President Obama called for an immediate resumption of negotiations. 
In a related story, The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday in 
Jerusalem, WashingtonQs U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice, met with Peres 
and, according to a statement issued by PeresQ office, said the U.S. 
would continue to stand by Israel as a Qtrue friend,Q including in 
the struggle against the Goldstone report.  She is scheduled to meet 
today with PM Benjamin Netanyahu.  QYour war against terrorism is 
clear to us as well as the complexity involved in itas the United 
StatesQ Ambassador to the U.N. I will continue to act in the future 
as I have acted up until now,Q Rice was quoted as telling Peres. 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that ObamaQs statements 
at the conference were followed by a speech by PM Netanyahu, in 
which he said that peace with the Palestinian was possible, but that 
it demanded Qleadership and courage from both sides.Q  Addressing PA 
QChairmanQ Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu said the time had come to Qlead 
your people to peace,Q and to say that the time has come to Qend 
this conflict once and for all. 
 
With regard to the peace process, The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli 
sources as saying that the Israeli Government did not accept two 
conditions set forth by the Palestinians and, apparently, backed by 
the U.S.: that the start of the negotiations be accompanied by a 
statement saying the goal was to reach an agreement within two years 
and that the goal was the establishment of a Palestinian state with 
permanent borders based on an Israeli withdrawal.  HaQaretz quoted 
chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is in Washington to 
meet with senior U.S. officials, as saying in an interview with PA 
newspaper Al-Ayyam that the most important issue is freezing Israeli 
settlement construction.  "There are no interim solutions.  It's not 
a precondition for negotiations, but an explicit Israeli commitment 
that they have to meet."  Erekat told Al-Ayyam there is an American 
plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, but said it is irrelevant as 
long as Israel continues building in the West Bank and East 
Jerusalem, adding that all peace talks are currently being held with 
the Americans, not the Israelis.  He said the second most important 
issue to be discussed during his visit is the Palestinian request 
that U.S. President Barack Obama state that the peace process must 
lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 
borders and that negotiations must include all the final-status 
issues.  HaQaretz quoted Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair as saying 
during a visit to Hebron yesterday that he expects 
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a final-status agreement to 
resume within a few weeks. 
 
HaQaretz reported that PM Netanyahu instructed the Foreign, Justice, 
and Defense ministries to prepare an international initiative that 
would see the laws governing warfare adjusted to combating 
terrorism.  Leading media reported that a proposal that was briefly 
discussed during yesterdayQs security-diplomatic cabinet meeting was 
for the establishment of an external committee of inquiry to 
investigate the events of Operation Cast Lead.  The idea was backed 
by a number of ministers, but DM Ehud Barak led the opposition to 
the matter, and the discussion was cut off.  Yediot reported that 
senior IDF officers told DM Barak privately that they fear that the 
creation of an independent commission of inquiry into the Goldstone 
report would leave the IDF unprotected. Deputy Prime Minister and 
Intelligence Affairs Minister Dan Meridor was quoted as saying in an 
interview with HaQaretz (lead story) that Israel should establish 
its own independent committee to investigate IDF activity in Gaza 
during last winter's Operation Cast Lead.  HaQaretz and The 
Jerusalem Post reported that in a New York Times opinion piece, 
Robert L. Bernstein, founding chairman emeritus of the NGO Human 
Rights Watch, has sharply criticized the organization for Qhelping 
those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah. 
 
HaQaretz quoted a senior Shin Bet official as saying that Hamas 
failed militarily during Operation Cast Lead and did not achieve any 
of its aims.  According to the official, the group's battle doctrine 
was proved hollow and failed to cause any real damage to Israel. 
 
Leading media reported that a U.S. court remanded Stewart David 
Nozette, the former NASA scientist who was arrested this week for 
offering to pass along classified information to an FBI agent posing 
as an Israeli intelligence officer, into custody until October 29. 
Key intelligence reporters expressed their belief in Israeli media 
that there is an QobsessionQ about Israeli spying in the U.S. among 
the U.S. intelligence branches.  Yediot cited the concern of 
officials in the Israeli military industries that the affair might 
harm relations between the U.S. and their enterprises. 
 
Major media reported that today the U.S. and Israeli militaries will 
launch their biggest joint missile defense drill yet, in the shadow 
of mounting missile threats from Iran, Hizbullah and Syria, and 
growing regional tension over Tehran's nuclear program.  The Juniper 
Cobra 10 exercise will test responses to a range of incoming 
projectiles.  The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the IDF 
announced that more than 1,000 members of the U.S. military's 
European Command and a similar number of IDF soldiers will 
participate.   Maariv reported that the IDF may install Arrow 
missile defenses on ships. 
 
Israel Radio reported that French FM Bernard Kouchner has canceled 
his scheduled visit to the region.  The radio cited IsraelQs veto on 
a visit by Kouchner to Gaza as one of the likely reasons for the 
move. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. announced 
yesterday that it would send an "observer" to left-leaning Israel 
lobby J Street's first national conference next week, in place of 
Ambassador Michael Oren.  J Street responded to the statement by 
saying it was still awaiting a direct response from Oren on the 
matter. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday, past and present 
Jordanian, Israeli, and American diplomats will come together at the 
Hebrew University of Jerusalem to mark the 15th anniversary of the 
peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. 
 
Maariv quoted Dan Schueftan, an influential Middle East scholar, as 
saying during a lecture at Tel Aviv University that the QArabs are 
the greatest failure of the human race.Q  Schueftan also reportedly 
made other derogatory statements against Arabs and the Palestinian 
people. 
 
Leading media reported that Israel dropped 46 slots to 93rd place 
(out of 175 countries around the world) in the annual freedom of the 
press rankings released yesterday by Reporters without Borders.  The 
fall was attributed to IsraelQs increased restrictions on 
journalists, notably during Operation Cast Lead.  However, Reporters 
without Borders said Israel Qstill enjoys total [press] freedom that 
is unequalled in the region. 
 
The media reported that PM Netanyahu is turning 60 today. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Ambassador Susan Rice to Israel: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QAn Investigation Will Guarantee a Veto 
 
Irit Kahan, the Vice President of the International Association of 
Jewish Lawyers and Jurists and a former head of the International 
Department at the State ProsecutorQs Office, wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning HaQaretz (10/21): QWe should recall that 
universal authority is complementary authority -- it will be used 
only if the country in whose territory crimes allegedly have been 
committed does not exercise its power of investigation and 
jurisdiction.  And in fact, Goldstone operated according to this 
principle and gave Israel an opportunity to act on its own.... There 
is no question that investigating events that took place on the 
battlefield is a difficult task.  Nevertheless, we must complete the 
investigation quickly because time is not on our side.  We owe this 
investigation to ourselves, first of all.  If we are equipped with 
the results of a serious investigation, as proposed, it will be 
easier for our friends in the Security Council to veto the proposal 
to transfer the matter to the International Criminal Court in The 
Hague. 
 
II.  QNo More Pollards 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/21): 
QWhatever the truth, the FBI's arrest of Stewart David Nozette in 
Washington on Monday on charges of spying for Israel is bad news. 
It will provide fodder for enemies of this country and cause them to 
hope that the energies of the pro-Israel community will be diverted, 
dissipated, or delegitimized. It will bolster anti-Zionist 
extremists across the political spectrum who promulgate the canard 
that Jewish Americans are guilty of dual loyalty.  And though there 
is no evidence whatsoever that Israeli intelligence had any 
connection to Nozette, the arrest will reinforce the slander about 
Israeli spying in the U.S.... Nozette is said to be Jewish.  It's 
plain, however, that neither ideology nor ethnicity served as a 
catalyst for his alleged treason.  QDon't expect me to do this for 
free,Q he told the FBI agent posing as a Mossad operative. Some 
will see this case as part of an ongoing vendetta by U.S. 
counterespionage against Israel -- contributing to an 
overzealousness that has seen some of its cases thrown out of court. 
 The feud purportedly stems from a conviction in Washington that an 
Israeli Qsuper moleQ infiltrated the U.S. Government and that until 
Jerusalem admits this and makes amends, the witch-hunts will go on. 
But Israel's position since the 1984 Pollard affair is that it does 
not spy on the United States.  The Nozette case only reinforces the 
need to adhere strictly to this promise and not to let anything 
undermine the special relationship between our two countries. 
 
 
 
III.  QCaught in the Partisan Crossfire 
 
Jonathan S. Tobin, Executive Editor of Commentary Magazine, wrote in 
The Jerusalem Post (10/21): QBoth sides of the political divide [in 
America] are guilty at times of hypocritically judging their 
opponents more harshly than their allies.  Not very long ago some on 
the right were happy to brand Bush-bashers as un-American or 
unpatriotic, a stance that liberals found intolerable since it 
blurred the very real distinction between extremists and mainstream 
dissent.  Today, the Left is trying to play the same game in dealing 
with Obama-bashers.  But this is not a pastime in which those who 
claim to represent American Jewry should play a part.  While Jewish 
groups have an obligation to hold those who employ Holocaust 
analogies accountable, they would do well to stay out of the sort of 
partisan crossfire into which Obama's foot soldiers would like to 
fling them. 
CUNNINGHAM