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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Anti-Terrorism Efforts 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media quoted State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly as saying 
yesterday: QOur position is clear.  We support the creation of a 
Palestinian state that is contiguous and viable. But we think that 
the best way to achieve that is through negotiations by the two 
parties.  And we understand that people might be frustrated, but ... 
we are convinced that this has to be achieved through negotiation 
between the two parties.... 
I canQt say weQre going to veto something we havenQt seen or hasnQt 
even been proposed yet.Q The Jerusalem Post and HaQaretz reported 
that yeterday a delegation of visiting U.S. lawmakers slamed the 
Palestinian plan to pursue unilateral sttehood at the U.N as a 
Qwaste of timeQ and said hat the U.S. would likely veto such a 
proposal should it come before the Security Council.  Leading edia 
reported that France also rejects the idea f unilateral Palestinian 
statehood. 
 
Yediot (Simon Shiffer) reported that Israel is QstunnedQ over a new 
U.S. demand -- to refrain from building in the East Jerusalem 
neighborhood of Gilo.  The daily reported that U.S. Special Envoy 
for Middle East Peace Senator George Mitchell made the demand in a 
meeting with Attorney Yitzhak Molcho, the PMQs liaison with the 
Americans on negotiations with the Palestinians.  Mitchell allegedly 
claimed that construction in Gilo might thwart the resumption of 
negotiations with the Palestinians.  Yediot cited the response of 
the Prime MinisterQs Office that there is no difference between 
construction in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday six IDF soldiers in the West 
Bank held up a sign proclaiming their unit would refuse to evacuate 
West Bank settlements.  This marks a shift in right-wing activity 
from attacks on Palestinians to protest in IDF ranks.  Yesterday's 
protest, mounted by six soldiers of the Nachshon Battalion's West 
Bank base, followed the demolition of two illegal houses near the 
Negohot settlement south of Hebron.  Military sources were quoted as 
saying that the soldiers were suspended and face a court martial. 
Yediot reported that the IDF conveyed a sharp message to the 
soldiersQ rabbis, and that it intends to boycott yeshivas that will 
support rebels in DF uniform.  Israel Radio quoted high-ranking 
officers as saying that if it emerged that rabbis of hesder yeshivas 
(that combine religious studies and military service) had encouraged 
soldiers to disobey orders, the IDF would stop the arrangement with 
those yeshivas and their students would be drafted into regular army 
service. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media cited the International Atomic 
Energy Agency's (IAEA) concern about possible further secret nuclear 
sites in Iran.  Major media reported that IAEA inspectors are 
revisiting the suspected Syrian nuclear site of Dir al-Hajer. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and HaQaretz reported that in a clear response to 
the pressure from the Obama administration for Israel to halt 
construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, a group of some 50 
American Jews are currently here to weigh purchasing homes in those 
areas, and are advising other U.S. Jews to buy there as well.  The 
delegation, led by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, is in the 
middle of a four-day tour throughout the Jewish communities in the 
West Bank, and will conclude with a cornerstone-laying ceremony in 
the East Jerusalem community of Nof Zion tomorrow. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that smuggling into Gaza from Egypt 
beneath the Philadelphi Corridor has returned to the busy levels 
that prevailed before Operation Cast Lead last winter. 
 
HaQaretz cited data compiled by the Council of Higher Education and 
released yesterday, Israel ranks fourth in the world in scientific 
activity.  The data, which dates to 2005, puts Israel behind 
Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark in terms of the number of 
scientific publications per million citizens. 
 
The media reported that yesterday FM Avigdor Lieberman created a 
brief government coalition crisis over what he said was too small a 
budget for new immigrants. 
 
HaQaretz cited the satisfaction of Israeli defense establishment 
sources over the pace of development of Iron Dome, the short and 
medium range rocket defense system. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday Dr. Rafiq al-Husseini, Mahmoud 
AbbasQs office director, called on the Arab states to cut their ties 
with two French companies -- Alstom and Veolia -- that take part in 
the construction of JerusalemQs light railway, whose route passes 
through occupied territory. 
 
HaQaretz quoted residents of Ras Hamis, an East Jerusalem 
neighborhood east of the separation fence, as saying that two 
children died in a house fire two weeks ago while a fire crew had to 
wait 200 meters away at a checkpoint for lack of Border Police or 
army escort.  HaQaretz writes that Israeli fire and ambulance crews 
have reported that there have been numerous incidents in which their 
crews on the way to emergencies have been attacked by Palestinians. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday President Shimon Peres 
received a mixed welcome in Buenos Aires: beside a warm meeting with 
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, thousands of 
people brought together by Islamic groups and left-wing parties 
demonstrated against the Israeli President, carrying such banners 
as: QPeres -- Nobel Prize in Murder.Q  The Jerusalem Post quoted 
Peres as saying at a luncheon hosted in his honor by Kirchner that 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Qcarries the mark of Cain. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the head of the IDFQs Gaza Coordination 
and Liaison Administration, Col. Moshe Levi, as saying yesterday 
that humanitarian aid by various organizations has increased by 
close to 900% in 2009. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the Association of Civil Rights in Israel is 
planning a march for human rights in Tel Aviv on Friday, December 
¶11.  The march is scheduled to coincide with international human 
rights week, which starts December 10.  The organizers told HaQaretz 
that this would be the first such event in Israel.  They were quoted 
as saying that previous rallies, marches, and protests all were held 
in the name of specific group interests. 
 
All media reported that yesterday PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced 
yesterday that the duties of the next attorney general will not be 
split, as Justice Minister Yaakov NeQeman proposed doing several 
weeks ago.  Netanyahu's decision is seen as a blow to NeQeman, who 
had spent months consulting with Israel's top jurists as he 
formulated his plan.  Netanyahu told the selection committee that 
the next attorney general will fulfill the role in its current 
format, and the position will not be split.  He said he had not made 
a final decision regarding the eventual future of the post, 
however. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday PM Netanyahu withdrew his 
request for a Knesset debate about the Qbiometric law.Q  Some media 
said that this was a one-week postponement.  HaQaretz reported that 
he feared a humiliation.  The newspaper also reported that Israel 
has a database of 220,000 West Bank Palestinians -- without a law. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a discussion between Israeli and Jordanian 
archeologists during UNESCOQs second annual World Heritage Workshop 
on QDisaster Risk: Reduction to Cultural Heritage Sites,Q which was 
held in Acre last week. 
 
Yediot reported that Italian Jews are organizing against the 
candidacy of former Italian PM and FM Massimo DQAlema to the post of 
EU policy chief.  Yediot also reported that the Israeli Government 
is not intervening on this issue. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is moving 
certain production lines from Israel to the U.S. T he production 
lines are being moved to group company Stark Aerospace, located in 
Starkville, Mississippi.  Stark is technically a subsidiary of IAI 
International, which is the main U.S. subsidiary of the Israeli 
firm.  Yesterday IAI inaugurated its new Stark plant to manufacture 
and assemble drones (small pilotless planes).  Stark will also be 
making the electronic and electro-optic systems used by the drones. 
IAI commented, however, that none of the workers engaged in building 
drones in Israel will be fired.  They will simply build drones for 
other countries. 
 
HaQaretz reported that TIME Magazine called the Jerusalem-born DJ 
Kutiman (whose offline name is Ophir Kutiel) the Qmost famous DJ on 
YouTube.Q   According to TIME, KutimanQs project, ThruYOU, has a 
simple premise: to create visual symphonies using random YouTube 
footage of school concerts, piano lessons, weirdly intimate 
soliloquies and American Idol-esque performances uploaded by people 
across the world. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
¶I.  QThe Return of the Illusionist 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/17): QAfter uttering one 
hope-raising paragraph in the Bar-Ilan speech (Qtwo states for two 
peoplesQ), Bibi managed to swiftly erase his statement's impression 
by setting conditions, insisting on continuing the construction in 
the territories and mainly in angering the U.S. administration.... A 
peace agreement with Syria has a price, but isn't it better to reach 
the agreement and pay for it now, before Syria is driven to a war 
sponsored by Iran?  The unsolved mystery is why, if Bibi is so 
hesitant, in surveys the answer to the question Qwho is more 
suitable for prime minister,Q is 43 percent for Bibi, compared to 5 
percent for Barak?  The explanation is that the public has become 
more right-wing and the Likud more radical.  Netanyahu has prepared 
a list of delaying tactics.  The Palestinians are playing into his 
hands by threatening to declare unilaterally a Palestinian state, 
which is a recipe for an enforced solution or, heaven forbid, a 
third Intifada. 
 
II.  QLast Call for the Palestinian Authority 
 
Shaul Arieli, a member of the board of directors of the Council for 
Peace and Security and one of the architects of the Geneva 
Initiative, wrote in HaQaretz (11/17): QIn Cast Lead Israel decided 
to leave control of the Gaza Strip in the hands of Hamas, 
understanding that the only alternative was resumption of Israeli 
rule there, with all its disastrous implications.  The 
disintegration of the PA would perhaps generate a storm of exultant 
Qwe told you soQ from right-wingers, but it would also obligate 
Israel to reassume responsibility for ruling over the lives of more 
than two million Palestinians in the West Bank.  In the absence of a 
suitable candidate to succeed Abbas (assuming that Marwan Barghouti, 
who has declared that he will contest the election, could not do so 
from his Israeli prison cell), the breakup of the PA is not an 
unreasonable scenario.... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who 
time and again speaks of the need to make a distinction between Gaza 
and the West Bank, must act to make this concept a reality and to 
again give the West Bank Palestinians the sense that there is 
benefit in a diplomatic solution.  Israel must create the conditions 
that will in the short run enable the realization of the Fayyad plan 
to build a Palestinian state Qfrom the bottom upQ and in the long 
run the resumption of negotiations with an agreed agenda and time 
frame for completing negotiations on a final-status arrangement. 
 
III.  QYes to a Palestinian State 
 
Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (11/17): QAfter Netanyahu said yes [to Palestinian 
statehood], [the Palestinians] also remembered. Israeli opposition 
will give points to the Palestinians and Israel will again be 
depicted as refusing an agreement.  So Israel should not jump like 
donkey from the top of the cliff and shout Qhelp!.Q  We must always, 
absolutely always, say yes, and only afterwards set conditions. 
Because if this is a trap, there is no need for Israel to do exactly 
what the Palestinians want and say Qno.Q That would be another 
Palestinian victory.  And if this is an historic change, then we 
should certainly say yes, and only afterwards, of course, say that 
the permanent borders and security arrangements and more and more 
things -- are not a matter for a unilateral declaration.  In an 
inversion of what [hard-line PLO leader] Farouk Kaddoumi said, the 
problem was never a Palestinian state.  The problem was and remains 
the right of return.  There is no drama in consenting to a 
Palestinian state.  They have always wanted it, provide this is 
greater Palestine by means of the right of return.  Israel must 
return the ball to them.  Yes to a state.  No to the right of return 
and to greater Palestine. 
 
IV.  QSalam FayyadQs Bar-Ilan Speech 
 
Deputy Editor-in-Chief Uri Elitzur, who was director of the Prime 
MinisterQs Office during Netanyahu's first term, wrote in the 
editorial of the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (11/17): 
QIt is not the stalemate in the negotiations that led to the idea of 
[Palestinian statehood], but the movement around them.  What made 
the Palestinian leaders threaten a unilateral move was the Bar-Ilan 
speech.  The man who caused Salam FayyadQs declaration was Benjamin 
Netanyahu.  The Arabs know that proclaiming statehood will not 
change anything in the reality on the grounds.  They cannot forcibly 
remove the IDF and the settlers; neither can they take over roads 
and the air space nor build instruments of state or an independent 
economy.  A declaration of independence per se will only be words. 
What they want to achieve is not an actual state but international 
recognition of their state within the borders they have determined 
and according to the conditions that they dictate while ignoring 
IsraelQs positions. 
 
¶V.  QThick Prophets 
 
Conservative columnist Amos Carmel wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (11/17): Q[Former U.S. President Bill] 
ClintonQs mention of [what would have happened had Yitzhak Rabin not 
have been assassinated] is pure speculation --  for instance, the 
assumption that had he not rightly earned his victimhood, he [was 
unlikely to have been reelected.... Perhaps the wise Clinton knows 
how it would have been possible to reach a Qjust and lasting peace 
within three years. 
 
--------------------------- 
¶2.  Anti-Terrorism Efforts: 
--------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
QA Matter of Justice 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/17): 
QIt wasn't Osama bin Laden (OBL) who came up with the idea of using 
airliners as ballistic missiles. The scheme had to be sold to him by 
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM).... On Friday, U.S. Attorney-General 
Eric Holder announced that KSM, the brains behind the 9/11 plot, in 
U.S. custody since March 2003, would be put on trial in Manhattan 
federal court along with his co-conspirators.... All face the death 
penalty.  Holder insisted that the decision to forgo a military 
trial and place the case before a civilian jury sitting just blocks 
from Ground Zero was his decision alone; that President Barack Obama 
was informed after the fact because the President, himself a lawyer, 
did not want to intrude in the justice system.  But aren't the 9/11 
attacks more a matter of national security than of criminal justice? 
 Holder's decision regrettably treats what the conspirators did as a 
major crime rather than an act of war.  Moreover, it provides KSM 
with the opportunity to turn the trial into an enormous Qreality TV 
extravaganza, in the words of New York Times columnist David Brooks. 
 It gives Islamist terrorists fresh incentives to target New York 
City.  It risks exposing in open court the methods U.S. intelligence 
employs to combat Muslim extremists.  Finally, although Holder 
insinuated that federal prosecutors have ample admissible evidence 
against the plotters, an open, possibly televised trial, will divert 
attention from the conspiracy to the fact that KSM -- a Qticking 
bombQ if ever there was one -- was repeatedly tortured.  This will 
not play well on Al-Jazeera.... Holder's protestations about a Qshow 
trialQ notwithstanding, the U.S. Justice Department -- with 
President Obama out of the loop -- may have inadvertently handed KSM 
a world-class stage to rationalize 9/11. 
 
CUNNINGHAM