VZCZCXRO6096
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHJM #2099/01 3271518
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 231518Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6738
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEADWD/DA WASHINGTON DC//DAS-ZD/DACS-ZK//
RUEAHQA/CSAF WASHINGTON DC//POLAD//
RHMFIUU/CMC WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC//POLAD//
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 7957
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 4924
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 4774
RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 6262
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 4693
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 3294

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JERUSALEM 002099 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS BBG 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC 
CMC WASHINGTON DC FOR POLAD 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD 
LONDON FOR HKANONA AND POL - TSOU 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KMDR KPAL KWBG KPAO IS
 
SUBJECT: JERUSALEM MEDIA REACTION (11/23): Progress on Prisoner 
Exchange; Negotiations Resumption Offer Rejected, and Settlements 
Prominently Covered 
 
------------- 
Main Stories: 
-------------Dailies lead with news that progress has been achieved 
on the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas through 
German mediation.  Reports expect the deal to be concluded by 
Al-Adha Eid. 
 
Ma'an and dailies report that President Mahmoud Abbas refused a US 
proposal to resume negotiations with Israel including the following 
offers: 
Q Weapons for Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces 
Q Release of 400 Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails before the 
Muslim holiday of Eid 
Q Extending the PA's West Bank jurisdiction in Area B to full 
control and Area C to partial control 
 
Dailies and Ma'an report on PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's 
statement yesterday at a police training graduation ceremony in 
Al-Fari'a in the Jordan Valley that the "PA will not accept a 
fragmented state". 
 
PA official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reports on Qassam brigades 
(Hamas' military wing) reaching an agreement with other Palestinian 
factions to stop rocket attacks against Israel in order to protect 
Palestinian national interests from Israeli retaliation. 
 
Dailies report on Egyptian President Mubarak's statements on Sunday 
during a joint press conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres 
in Cairo that construction on Palestinian lands occupied since 1967 
must stop. Peres was quoted as saying that the expansion of 
settlements in the West Bank is a "marginal" topic that obstructs 
the peace talks. 
 
Independent daily Al-Quds front pages news that Israeli authorities 
distributed 25 evacuation orders to Palestinian families residing in 
housing units in Samiramis near Qalandia area, claiming that the 
units were built on land that is owned by Jewish settlers.  The 
evacuation orders will leave 200 people homeless. 
 
Dailies and Ma'an report on a Syrian delegation entering Gaza 
through Rafah border crossing yesterday on a solidarity visit. The 
delegation was composed of several well-known Syrian television 
stars, including Dureid Lahham and Jamal Sulaiman. 
 
---------------- 
Weekend stories: 
---------------- 
Sunday, November 22: 
 
All three dailies lead with statements by Egyptian President Mubarak 
to a joint meeting of Egypt's Parliament that Israelis are 
"undermining chances for a just peace by asking for recognition of 
Israel as a Jewish state, asking to negotiate over temporary borders 
for the Palestinian state, and excluding Jerusalem from the peace 
negotiations."  Mubarak is also quoted as saying that Egypt will not 
accept further procrastination regarding internal Palestinian unity. 
 Independent daily Al Ayyam quotes Mubarak saying that foreign 
pressures are seeking to undermine Palestinian reconciliation. 
 
 
JERUSALEM 00002099  002 OF 003 
 
 
All three dailies front page excerpts from an Israeli TV interview 
with an Israeli international law expert, Moshe Hersh, in which he 
stated that a majority of UN general assembly members would 
recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.  According to 
Hersh, 130 states would likely recognize such a state.  He noted 
that even "timid" EU support for such a state would embarrass the 
United States, which intends to oppose a unilateral declaration of 
Palestinian Statehood. 
 
Al Hayat Al Jadida runs a front page story, quoting Ma'an News 
Network that Israeli sources revealed that Jewish rabbis have paid 
an Israeli soldier, imprisoned for refusing to evacuate Israeli 
settlers from settlement outposts in the West Bank, 1000 shekels for 
each of the 56 days he spent in prison for refusing to carry out the 
evacuation order. 
 
Al Quds runs a front page interview with the Fatah Parliament Block 
leader Azam Al Ahmad, who expressed astonishment at claims by the 
United States of its inability to exert pressure on Israel to stop 
settlement construction.  He stated that all U.S. presidents, 
including President Obama, have considered Israel part of U.S. 
national security, and if that is the case, then if President Obama 
were to issue an order for Israel to stop building settlements it 
[Israel] would obey.  Al Ahmad expressed the "deep frustration and 
disappointment over the U.S. blind biasness towards Israel" as felt 
by Palestinians, the PA and Fattah.  He also expressed concerns that 
if the political environment does not change, PA President Abbas 
might quit political life, and consequently the PA might collapse, 
however Al Ahmad does not believe that will occur. 
 
 
Saturday November 21: 
 
All three dailies front-page reports that progress has been achieved 
on the Hamas-Israeli prisoner exchange deal.  The reports reveal 
that the German mediator passed a new list, from Hamas to Israel, 
containing 70 names of Palestinian prisoners, after Israel rejected 
releasing some prisoners from a previous list.  According to the 
reports, Israeli PM Netanyahu has already given his consent to go 
ahead with the deal, making it possible to move to phase two of the 
deal, in which Shalit is to be transferred to Egypt.  Once Shalit is 
examined by Israeli doctors and found to be in good health, Israel 
will release the 450 Palestinian prisoners.  The dailies further 
report that Hamas hopes to wrap up the deal by November 27 in time 
for the Eid Al Adha holiday despite official statements by Israeli 
and Palestinian officials that a deal by Friday is "too early."  The 
reports add that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi and the Popular 
Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmad Saadat are said 
to be among those that will be released. 
 
All three dailies run lead stories about President Abbas' visit to 
Brazil, his call for Brazil to play a more active role in the 
stalemated Mideast peace talks, and his statements accusing Israel 
of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Jerusalem.  He also accused 
Israel of "all forms of oppression and cruelty against the 
Palestinians."   PA official daily Al Hayat Al Jadida quotes Abbas 
as saying "The Palestinian people want a peace in which our sons and 
the sons of the Israelis can live free of fear, a peace that returns 
to the land of peace its mission of peace...as our people look 
forward to the liberation day because occupation is an ugly form of 
slavery."  The three papers quote Brazilian President Da Silva's 
demands that "settlement expansion in the West Bank must be 
 
JERUSALEM 00002099  003 OF 003 
 
 
frozen...the borders of the future Palestinian state must be 
protected and the access of movement within the occupied territories 
must be ensured." 
 
Al Quds front page runs several articles on Israeli settlement 
activity in Jerusalem.  The below-the fold center item headlines "An 
Israeli expert: - 'Any Palestinian land owner - in Jerusalem- will 
need 10 to 15 years of Israeli construction permit procedures, to be 
able to build a house in Jerusalem, even if he is able to prove land 
ownership.'"  The statements were published Friday in The Jerusalem 
Post in response to Israeli official reports that "one day" 
Palestinians would benefit from Israeli plans to build housing units 
in Jerusalem.  In another front page article, Al Quds reports on 
Fatah official for Jerusalem Affairs, Hatem Abdul Qader, noting that 
GOI plans to confiscate hundreds of dunums of Palestinian lands in 
the Walajeh area near Jerusalem to construct the new settlement of 
Givat Yael which will house 50,000 Israeli settlers.  In a third 
front page article, Al Quds, reporting on Friday prayer in 
Jerusalem, notes that hundreds of Palestinians performed prayers in 
a protest tent in the Bustan area in Silwan, to protest Israeli 
settlement activity in the neighbourhood.  The paper quotes Sheikh 
Raed Salah of the Islamic Movement in Israel calling on the 
Palestinians to stay in Jerusalem and stick to their land and 
houses. 
 
Al Quds runs a center front-page story entitled "Prominent US 
journalist commends PA PM Fayyad's plan."  The paper quotes 
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius' recent article, 
"Ramallah's Road Map to Statehood," which praised PA PM Salam 
Fayyad's plan for establishing a Palestinian state within two years. 
 Ignatius quotes Martin Indyk, who heads the Saban Center at the 
Brookings Institution, as saying, "Fayyad is the only game in town, 
but his plan isn't sustainable without a political process." 
Ignatius' article calls for U.S. approval and support of Fayyad's 
plan. 
 ------------- 
BLOCK QUOTES: 
------------- 
   Independent daily Al-Quds runs an editorial under the title: 
"Mubarak Rectifies Facts in Peres' Misleading Statements" (11/23): 
"We all know that Peres' statements, that settlements are a 
'marginal' issue obstructing the resumption of negotiations, are 
misleading...expansion of settlements is the major obstacle 
obstructing the resumption of negotiations as well as to achieving 
peace... Peres has no right to determine the future territory of the 
Palestinian state, be it Jerusalem, West Bank or Gaza."  Al Quds 
characterizes Mubarak's courageous statements as a unified Arab 
Muslim position supporting the Palestinian cause before the 
international community. 
 
 
RUBINSTEIN 
EIN