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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio and other media reported that yesterday President Obama 
marked the fifteenth anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty 
between Israel and Jordan.  He was quoted as saying: QAs we honor 
this historic event, we remember that peace is always possible 
despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying that 
efforts should center on bolstering the position of Palestinian 
President Mahmoud Abbas.  Her comments were in a report to President 
Barack Obama last week on attempts to renew negotiations between 
Israel and the Palestinians.  HaQaretz reported that a senior 
diplomatic source who was privy to the State Department report noted 
that in it Clinton had stressed the significant setback to Abbas in 
Palestinian public opinion because of the initial decision not to 
press ahead with bringing the Goldstone report on Gaza to the Human 
Rights Council of the U.N.  Last night Channel 10-TV reported that 
Abbas has told the White House that he is considering stepping down 
because of the lack of progress in the peace process.  Israel Hayom 
says that he is Qthreatening the U.S.Q by doing this.   Israel Radio 
reported that Abbas denied the report.  Some media quoted Abbas as 
saying that Israel and Netanyahu are to blame for his alleged 
intention to resign. 
 
Major media reported that the U.N. General Assembly will debate the 
Goldstone report next week at the behest of the Arab League.  Yediot 
says that the assembly is already expected to condemn Israel. 
Israel Hayom reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has 
distributed to all ambassadors posted in Israel a report containing 
an internal IDF critique of its action during Operation Cast Lead. 
Maariv bannered a letter written by Dr. David Tsangan, who served in 
the Jenin district during Operation Defensive Shield.  The doctor, 
citing the Jenin massacre hype, suggests on the basis of that 
precedent that Goldstone was deceived in Gaza by similar means. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday IDF Chief of General Staff 
Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi warned, during a speech at a Holocaust 
memorial in Berlin that contained a veiled reference to Iran that 
Israel will not entrust its security to the hands of "strangers" and 
will do "everything needed" to protect its citizens if war is forced 
upon it.  HaQaretz and Israel Hayom wrote that Ashkenazi told 
reporters that he refuses to rule out an Israeli probe into 
Operation Cast Lead. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. will continue pressing for 
a deal to get Israel and the PA back to the negotiating table, 
despite concerns in Jerusalem that Friday's announcement of PA 
elections in January makes the likelihood of starting negotiations 
now even more remote. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that the human-rights 
group Amnesty International (AI)  has issued a critical report 
charging that Israel prevents Palestinians from receiving adequate 
water supplies.  The radio media cited the Israel Water AuthorityQs 
response that AIQs data is inaccurate.  The radio cited the 
authority as saying that Israel has even helped the Palestinians in 
this domain. 
 
Leading media quoted Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying 
yesterday that FM Avigdor Lieberman threatened to make use of 
nuclear weapons during Operation Cast Lead.  However, Erdogan said 
that the strategic alliance with Israel still exists.  Yediot 
reported that a Turkish Navy ship arrived in Israel a few days ago 
for a joint exercise with the Israel Navy. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the U.K. is placing an obstacle to 
IsraelQs admission to the OECD: it wants Israel to report statistics 
within the Green Line only.  Each member state of the OECD has a 
power of veto on the admission of new members. 
 
HaQaretz reported that human rights lawyers and pro-Palestinian 
activists in a number of European countries hold lists with names of 
IDF soldiers allegedly linked to war crimes committed during 
Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.  Existing legislation enables 
arrest warrants to be issued against these officers if they enter 
those countries. 
 
Major media quoted French FM Bernard Kouchner saying in an interview 
with the British daily The Daily Telegraph that Israel is likely to 
take military action against Iran if the latter acquires nuclear 
weapons, making it urgent for world powers to break the nuclear 
deadlock. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday France decided to postpone a 
conference of the foreign ministers of the Union for the 
Mediterranean, after Egypt said it would not participate if FM 
Lieberman was among the delegates.  France and Egypt have shared 
presidency of the union since 2008.  France has been pressuring the 
Egyptians to attend the conference regardless, but to no avail. 
HaQaretz cited a proposed suggestion to elevate the rank of 
conference participants to the prime-ministerial level.   This would 
resolve the conflict, as Egypt does not boycott PM Benjamin 
Netanyahu.  However, the proposal is not yet complete and has not 
been officially presented to the member states. 
 
Israel Hayom quoted DM Ehud Barak as saying yesterday at a meeting 
of the Labor PartyQs Knesset faction that the QLeft behaves like a 
small childQ that treats peace as a toy to be had here and now.  The 
newspaper quoted Meretz Party Chairman Haim Oron as saying that 
Barak has turned the Labor Party into QNetanyahuQs blind chorus. 
 
Yediot reported that the Labor Party QrebelsQ will form a political 
movement next week. 
 
Leading media reported on the friendship between an Israeli boy who 
was hit by a Palestinian missile and a Palestinian girl who was 
injured by an Israeli missile. 
 
Maariv reported that Israel is considering purchasing F-35B 
warplanes from the U.S.  The aircraft employs a 
short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) capability, which the daily 
says will be useful if runways are paralyzed by missile attacks. 
 
Maariv reported that the IDF and the Defense Ministry are 
considering eliminating duplications in the areas of construction 
and purchasing. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Venezuelan Government has made 
it difficult for Israeli tourists to procure entry visas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that newly elected UNESCO 
Director-General Irina Bokova will attend a memorial ceremony for 
the assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in Tel AvivQs Rabin Square on 
November 4. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) Chairman Natan 
Sharansky as saying yesterday that JAFI plans to send more than 100 
well-trained emissaries to North American college campuses within 
the next two years.  Currently, about 20 JAFI emissaries work on 
American university campuses.  The new JAFI representatives will be 
tasked with explaining to students the "realities of the Middle East 
and to show what Hamas and Hezbollah are doing and what Israel is 
doing to bring some justice and democracy to Palestinians."  The 
plan is mentioned in a proposed resolution of JAFI's task force on 
anti-Semitism, which is expected to pass. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the results of an Anti-Defamation League 
poll conducted among Americans and released on Monday: 
-67% see Israel as a country to be counted on as a strong, loyal 
U.S. ally; 
-By a 3-1 ratio, the American people express more sympathy with 
Israel than with the Palestinians; 
-64% of Americans continue to believe that Israel is serious about 
reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians; 
-Americans are skeptical about "peace dividends" that would result 
from a freeze on settlements; 53% believe leaders of the Arab world 
will continue to refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, even 
if Israel stops all further construction settlements; only 25% 
believe the Palestinians would be prepared to achieve a final 
resolution of the conflict if Israel stopped further construction of 
settlements; 
-While Americans support the creation of a Palestinian state, 56% 
believe it must not be established until the Palestinians end the 
violence and accept Israel's legitimacy; 
-A majority places the onus for peace on Palestinians because of the 
division between the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and other Arab 
states and because of their refusal to accept Israel's right to 
exist; 51% believe Palestinian division stands in the way of peace. 
-There has also been significant gain in those who would support 
either Israel or the U.S. using military action to stop Iran from 
making a nuclear weapon, with 57% of Americans supporting an Israeli 
response, up from 42% in 2007and 54% supporting U.S. action, up from 
47% in 2007. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "On Goldstone, the U.S. Is on IsraelQs Side" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/27): QObama will not call 
Bibi to account for the Goldstone report.  The administration has 
accepted Operation Cast Lead with understanding.  If only for the 
reason that the American armed forces themselves are killing 
civilians in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and anywhere else they 
come into contact with civilians.  With all the changes in warfare 
methods, the day will come when the Geneva Conventions will have to 
be adjusted to regular armies' wars against terror groups, which 
mostly target civilians.  But until we get there, the subject and 
victim of the Goldstone Commission is Israel, which has been 
tarnished as responsible for war crimes, and perhaps even crimes 
against humanity. 
 
II.  "The QThird TemplarsQ" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/27): 
QIt's a dilemma for mainstream Israelis.... Step back from the 
Temple Mount and Arab intimidation wins.  Assert Jewish rights and 
risk heartening a band of Jewish extremists high on a toxic potion 
of piety and politics.  That even a QmoderateQ Palestinian leader 
like Mahmoud Abbas does not accept the Temple Mount as sacred to 
Jews further complicates the predicament.  One possible approach is 
for the government to explicitly remind the Waqf that its 
administrative role on the Mount derives from the authority vested 
in it by the Jewish state.... In parallel, we want to clearly hear 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denounce as folly the actions of 
those agitating for a Third Temple built on the ashes of the Muslim 
shrines.  He should disabuse anyone who imagines that the antics of 
these QThird TemplarsQ have support on the sane Right.  Given the 
Palestinians' endemic intransigence and quick resort to violence -- 
including, it should be stressed, via malevolent inflation of 
tensions on the Mount -- it is easy to be dismissive of all their 
grievances over Jerusalem.  But sometimes, more sensitivity could be 
applied.  The Palestinians are not always wrong to complain that 
municipal authorities are placing unreasonable demands on them in 
seeking building permits while facilitating scatter-site Jewish 
housing (with no security value) in densely populated Arab 
neighborhoods.  In the final analysis, Israeli sovereignty is best 
manifested by providing the same level of municipal services to all 
taxpaying Jerusalemites -- and by insisting on the same adherence to 
 
the law from all. 
 
III.  "George MitchellQs Mission Impossible" 
 
Efraim Inbar, Professor of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University 
and Director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, 
wrote in The Jerusalem Post (10/27): QAmerican diplomacy can hardly 
make a dent in the schism within Palestinian society that is the 
main stumbling block for progress in peace-making.  As long as 
Islamist Hamas has a powerful grip on the Palestinian ethos and 
Palestinian aspirations and as long as its ruthless rule over Gaza 
continues, Palestinian politics are hostage to the extremists and 
are unable to move toward an historic compromise with the 
Jewish-Zionist national movement.  Mitchell cannot even prevent a 
draft of a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation document that does not conform 
to Quartet demands (renounce violence, recognize Israel and respect 
past agreements).  The final obstacle for Mitchell is the nature of 
his mandate -- the pursuit of an outdated paradigm, the two-state 
solution.  Unfortunately, the desired outcome of the Oslo process, 
partition of the Land of Israel [i.e. Israel, including the 
territories] into two states -- Jewish and Palestinian -- was not 
achieved and this predicament is unlikely to change any time soon. 
The Palestinians failed the main test of statehood: monopoly over 
the use of force.... Therefore, what is needed is a new policy 
paradigm. It is high-time to consider a return to the status quo 
ante of pre-1967.  Jordan and Egypt are responsible states at peace 
with Israel that successfully ruled over the Palestinians.  They 
should be induced to share responsibility for regional stability. 
The Palestinian potential for regional mischief is not only Israel's 
problem. 
 
 
 
IV.  "Abbas Is a Partner for Peace.  Is Netanyahu?" 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information, wrote in The Jerusalem Post (10/27): 
Q[Mahmoud] Abbas has implemented almost all the Palestinian 
obligations under the Roadmap (Israel has not implemented any of its 
obligations).... He has dismantled the infrastructure of Hamas and 
Islamic Jihad throughout the West Bank.... He has refused to give in 
to public pressure pushing him toward reconciliation with Hamas 
under almost any terms.  He has demonstrated leadership time and 
time again.  It is time to stop saying Abbas is weak.  Abbas is 
perhaps the best Palestinian partner we could ever hope for.  No, he 
is not a Zionist, and no, he will not adopt Israel's positions in 
negotiations.  He will stand by his decision to bring the Goldstone 
report to the United Nations, against fierce Israeli pressure.  He 
is a Palestinian leader, not an agent of Israel.  He will demand 
Palestinian rights in Jerusalem and he will demand that the refugee 
issue be negotiated and not conceded prior to negotiations.  Abbas 
is a partner for peace.  Is Benjamin Netanyahu? 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "An Iranian Dictate" 
 
Columnist Shmuel Rosner, who was HaQaretzQs correspondent in 
Washington, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (10/27): Q[At the 
upcoming Jewish-American convention in Washington], Benjamin 
Netanyahu] will have to talk about the peace process in order not to 
appear as a man who is again trying to divert the topic to his 
favorite subject.  But, in the closed White House room, the order of 
priorities will be more obvious: Iran first, Palestine later.  The 
outline of the conversation will be determined by the developments 
over the few weeks before [NetanyahuQs] trip -- that is to say by 
the Iranians. 
 
 
 
 
II.  "Hope or Illusion?" 
 
Avraham Ben-Zvi, visiting Professor of Political Science at Haifa 
University and an expert in U.S.-Israel relations, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (10/27): QDespite question-marks inherent 
in the agreement [with Iran], the [Obama] administrationQs eagerness 
to adopt it as a successful expression of its comprehensive 
diplomatic approach might produce an atmosphere of conciliatory 
forgiveness vis-a-vis an extremist regime.... It can only be hoped 
that the Israeli nightmare of facing an indifferent administration 
(which prefers to deny scenarios contradicting its world view) will 
not happen.  It must be hoped that the current American optimism 
will eventually be mitigated with an alert, sober American behavior 
attentive to the doings in Iran. 
 
CUNNINGHAM