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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Maariv devoted several articles to the first anniversary of 
President Barack ObamaQs election. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday in Morocco, Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton sought to tone down the statements she made in 
Jerusalem on Saturday. "Israel has done a few things [to renew peace 
talks], but they need to do much more," Clinton said in Marrakesh 
ahead of a meeting with Arab ministers about the peace process. 
"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued 
Israeli settlements," she said.  However, Israel is "expressing a 
willingness to restrain settlement activity.  They will build no new 
settlements, expropriate no land, allow no new construction, or 
approvals.  This offer falls far short of what we would characterize 
as our position or what our preference would be.  But if it is acted 
upon, it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and 
would have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their 
growth," Clinton said, reading from a written statement.  She made 
these statements after Arab ministers said the Arab world was 
disappointed that not enough was being done to pressure Israel to 
freeze settlement construction.  Citing news agenciesQ reports, 
HaQaretz reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. 
Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Senator George Mitchell 
yesterday in Amman that the PA will not resume peace talks with 
Israel until all construction in the West Bank settlements is 
stopped. 
 
DM Ehud Barak was quoted as saying in an interview with Israel Radio 
that his upcoming visit to the U.S. is meant to promote peace talks 
and put an end to the occupation.   Barak expressed his gratitude to 
Secretary Clinton and Special Envoy Mitchell for their efforts in 
the peace process.  Barak said: "Israel has an interest to engage in 
peace talks not because of the Palestinians, but first and foremost 
for our own sake, not because of the U.S., but mostly for the future 
of Israel." 
HaQaretz cited the belief of security forces investigating suspected 
Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel (or Tytell) that he may have 
committed a number of murders in addition to those he admitted in 
his interrogation.  Media reported that security forces are looking 
for a possible accomplice.  The Jerusalem Post quoted defense 
officials as saying yesterday that Jewish terror suspects are still 
at large in the West Bank. 
 
HaQaretz reported that a joint French-British U.N. initiative would 
call on Israel and the Palestinians to hold immediate, independent 
investigations into war crimes allegations stemming from the war in 
Gaza, as part of a bid to send the Goldstone report back to Geneva 
and out of the hands of the Security Council or the International 
Criminal Court at The Hague.  The proposal comes before the United 
Nations General Assembly is scheduled Wednesday to deliberate on the 
Goldstone report.  HaQaretz quoted a source in the Israeli Foreign 
Ministry as saying that the initiative is a list of "red lines" 
which was adopted by the 27 members of the European Union. Its main 
points:  1. A resolution brought for the approval of the General 
Assembly will not include operational steps, like taking the matter 
to the Security Council or the International Court of Justice;  2. 
The resolution would call on Israel and the Palestinians to embark 
on an independent investigation into the events of Operation Cast 
Lead, and the allegations of war crimes;  3. The handling of the 
Goldstone report will return to the U.N. Human Rights Council; and 
¶4. The parties will have to report to the council on the findings of 
their investigations in a few months.  According to the Foreign 
Ministry source, the document was delivered yesterday by the British 
and French permanent representatives at the U.N. to the Palestinian 
Authority delegation at the international body as well as to the 
representatives of Arab states and the members of the Security 
Council.  Today Arab representatives at the U.N. are expected to 
complete the first draft of a resolution that will be brought to the 
General Assembly for a vote.  The French and British have emphasized 
in their exchanges with the Arab representatives that if the "red 
lines" are not part of the resolution being prepared, the European 
Union will abstain and may even vote against it -- and expects that 
much of the international community will as well.  HaQaretz cited 
assessments in Israel that there is little chance the Palestinians 
will agree to the Franco-British proposal and that Jerusalem wants 
any resolution torpedoed.  Yediot and Israel Radio reported the Arab 
League demands that the Goldstone report be moved to the Security 
Council, where a resolution would be passed, demanding that senior 
IDF officers be tried for war crimes.  Yediot quoted an official in 
the U.S. representation to the U.N. as saying that the Arabs will 
E 
agree to compromise and soften the resolution draft, which would 
lead the U.S. to remove its expected veto. 
 
Leading media reported that today IDF Intelligence head General Amos 
Yadlin told the KnessetQs Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on 
Tuesday that Hamas has recently tested a missile capable of reaching 
targets at a distance of 60 kilometers -- putting Tel Aviv within 
missile range.  The missile was fired into the Mediterranean Sea. 
The MI chief said this latest development is indicative of the Hamas 
regime's growing military capabilities. 
 
Maariv reported that in a Qcautious but reasonableQ peace plan, 
Kadima Knesset Member Shaul Mofaz is overtaking his party leader 
Tzipi Livni from the Left.  Maariv cited MofazQs belief that Livni 
is still mired in the Annapolis process which has failed to produce 
any results and succeeded only in delaying the peace process.  He 
proposes giving the Palestinians a state immediately -- with interim 
borders that will be comprised of Areas A and B and contain 99% of 
the Palestinian people.  Mofaz is prepared to discuss for the first 
time transferring sovereignty over large neighborhoods and villages 
to the Palestinian state and about special arrangements in 
JerusalemQs holy basin. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the Jerusalem-based NGO Ir Amim that a 
proposed southeast Jerusalem neighborhood will encroach on land 
allocated by the Jerusalem Master Plan as a Qgreen zone. 
 
The media reported that Donald Bostrom, a Swedish journalist who 
caused outrage in Israel with allegations that IDF soldiers 
harvested organs of dead Palestinians and trafficked in them 
defended his article yesterday to a largely hostile audience in 
Dimona.  Speaking at a media conference, where he was frequently 
interrupted by hecklers, Bostrom admitted he had no proof beyond the 
allegations of the families of Palestinians killed by the Israeli 
army. 
 
The media reported that Shabtai Kalmanovich, a long-term Soviet spy 
and later a Shin Bet informant, was murdered in Moscow yesterday, in 
what experts called an act of revenge by business rivals.  Former 
Knesset Member Shmuel Flatto-Sharon told Israel Radio this morning 
that Kalmanovich let him know that he had spied on the U.S., not on 
Israel. 
 
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, led with the 
admission by Russian immigrant Dmitry Olegovich Kirilik that he 
stabbed to death the six members of the Oshrenko family in Rishon 
Lezion on October 17.  Two years ago Kirilik was fired from an 
Oshrenko-owned restaurant where he worked as headwaiter. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "ThereQs No Peace of the Weak" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/3): QThe President's basic 
error was linking the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with his 
reconciliation policy with the Muslim world.  Thus he drove Abbas to 
set every condition he could muster.  What negotiations begin by 
making concessions in advance?  And how can Obama pressure the 
Palestinians after tying the conflict's resolution to reconciliation 
with the Muslim world?.... The main pressure has now shifted from 
Netanyahu to Abbas, who is setting unrealistic conditions. You don't 
give first, then talk.  First you talk and then you give. There is 
only one business in which clients pay first, and it's not the 
peace-agreement business.  Defense Minister Ehud Barak was right 
when he said, QWhat do you care if they build a little, we'll 
evacuate most of the settlements in the end anyway.Q  There is no 
justification for setting preconditions to opening negotiations. 
Everything must be open and on the table, not as dictates but as 
bargaining chips.  Abbas did not respond to Netanyahu's Qalmost 
historicQ proposal for Qtwo states for two peoples.Q  Israel would 
have to negotiate the fate of more than a quarter of a million 
settlers as part of this proposal.  What more does Abbas want, to 
agree to resume talks on the two-state principle?  An observer 
familiar with politicians' shtick believes that Bibi is doing 
nothing and will continue to do nothing.  QHe's lucky Obama is 
emerging as a nothing, that Abbas is a nothing, and that nothing 
will happen," he said.  Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has won the 
jackpot in the form of his planned meeting with Obama.  He is 
marking time and Abbas is marking time.... The Camp David we knew 
was not a basis for a peace of the weak.  The last time we were 
there the second Intifada broke out. 
 
II.  "On Jewish Terrorists" 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/3): 
QThe blanket repudiation by the settlers of the crimes attributed to 
[Yaakov] Teitel is significant for its resonance within the settler 
community and beyond.  Egregiously, one Hebrew tabloid columnist 
insisted that the suspect's neighbors could not possibly have been 
ignorant while he planned his crimes.  For many years now, 
television's popular Eretz Nehederet [QWonderful CountryQ] comedy 
program has parodied American immigrants in the West Bank as 
gun-toting religious fanatics.  In that kind of climate, there may 
be an inclination within the settler movement to circle the wagons 
and resist introspection.... A not-insignificant minority of 
religious settlers has broken away from mainstream Zionism; their 
allegiance is no longer to the state.  To the extent that they 
listen to anyone, it is to renegade rabbis who countenance political 
violence.  Their followers can be seen accosting security personnel 
and throwing stones at passing Arab motorists.  Behind the scenes, 
responsible settler leaders are struggling to end such behavior. Now 
is the time for communal leaders to demarcate anew an indelible red 
line against violence -- whether directed at Arabs or Jews.... 
Troubled souls must not be left to their own devices.  And settler 
leaders -- especially rabbis -- must advocate opposition to 
murderous political violence as fervently as they champion the 
[Greater] Land of Israel itself. 
 
III.  "HeQs One of Ours" 
 
Naama Katiee, who is working on a masterQs thesis on radical 
religious Zionism and postmodern discourse at Tel Aviv UniversityQs 
Cohn Institute, wrote in Ha'aretz (11/3): QRight-wing rabbis have 
hastened to dissociate themselves from Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, the 
QJewish terrorist.Q  Instead, they are trying to place him in the 
same category as the perpetrators of other recent shocking 
murders.... The State of Israel is no longer perceived [by religious 
Zionists] as part of things.  At best, it's a secular country that 
has outlived its role and is no longer relevant to the messianic 
process.... Religious Zionism is morphing into a fear of defilement 
and is increasingly turning the QothersQ into the Qtainted. 
Teitel, like [mass-murderer Baruch] Goldstein and Yigal Amir before 
him, is merely the executor acting on behalf of a radical ideology 
that can also be expressed in delicate and moderate terms, so it is 
spreading fairly widely in the religious community.  Teitel is not 
alone. 
 
IV.  "Freedom of Expression?" 
Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (11/3): QYaakov Teitel does not represent the 
Right, just as [self-exiled Israeli-Arab politician] Azmi Bishara 
does not represent the Left.  However, such wild weeds grow amidst a 
public atmosphere that grants them legitimacy.  It doesnQt take an 
entire sector.  There is a need for fanatics who know how to produce 
an atmosphere.  And theyQre quite successful at that.  The current 
mayhem following the exposure of the Jewish terrorist will subside 
in a day or two.  The next victim is only a matter of time. 
 
¶V.  QThe Real Condition for Resolving the Conflict 
 
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle 
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the online service 
nana10.co.il (11/3): QThe past number of weeks have demonstrated 
that the Palestinian national movement has not learned anything from 
its history. In the shadow of the incessant efforts of U.S. 
President Barack Obama to promote Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, 
the Palestinians have been hard put to close ranks and to report to 
the negotiating table as an effective partner.  And so, instead of 
investing all of their efforts in promoting their agenda with 
Washington and Israel, the Palestinians find themselves mired up to 
their necks in the bloody conflict between Hamas and Fatah.... 
We could have just left the Palestinian to sink into the swamp of 
their own making.  Th problem is that an intra-Palestinian struggle 
hs a direct bearing on Israel.  In the absence of a effective and 
legitimate Palestinian leadership, it will be impossible to advance 
on the path to eace.  That is on the optimistic assumption thatamong the Palestinians or, at the very least, among the moderates 
among them, there is historic willingness to advance towards peace. 
After all, even when the Palestinians had an accepted and strong 
leadership, and I am referring to Yasser Arafat, we remained far 
from peace.  Palestinian-Palestinian peace is an essential condition 
for peace to be achieved.  Without such peace or, alternatively, 
without the suppression of Hamas and the imposition of the 
Palestinian Authority's control over all the Palestinian 
territories, it will be very hard to advance anywhere or to ensure 
quiet and stability over time.  But at preset, in light of the 
profound animosity between the vying Palestinian camps, it is hard 
to envision such reconciliation occurring.... The argument that 
Israel has the ability to advanceQtra-Palestinian reconciliation 
is baseless.  The experience drawn from Iraq, Afghanistan and also 
the Palestinian Authority territories demonstrates that those things 
that the local population is incapable of either achieving or making 
manifest on its own will remain unattainable no matter who, and 
certainly not a foreign, external and Western force, intervenes on 
its behalf.  And so we are left with another missed Palestinian 
opportunity for which some people will try to blame Israel.  But 
ultimately the ball will roll back into the Palestinian court.  The 
ones who proved to have the inability to lead to stand strong and, 
by so doing, brought upon themselves and upon his people tragedy 
after tragedy, is the one who bears responsibility.  The problem is 
that we are probably going to have to share paying the price. 
 
VI.  QThe Sane Times Have Gone 
 
Liberal columnist Professor Aviad Kleinberg wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (11/3): QOne would say 
that the Israeli Left has never been an authentic social movement -- 
it was the Qpeace camp.Q  This camp no longer exists in Israel.  It 
is not Yigal Amir who eliminated the peace camp, but Ehud Barak, 
when he finally proclaimed the disappearance of a partner.  It was 
comfortable for Israeli society to hold on to a conception that 
absolved it of all responsibility.  The other side -- and only that 
side Q is responsible for the continuation of the conflict.  All the 
rest -- our narrow-mindedness, the brutality -- is white noise. 
Those who claim otherwise are anti-Semites.... [Since the last 
Israeli elections] we have been cramming in IsraelQs center.  That 
packing movement has almost insensibly pushed us rightwards. 
 
CUNNINGHAM