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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002603 
 
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WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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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.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The media reported that yesterday PM Netanyahu told a group of more 
than 20 members of the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in the 
Territories that he is not their enemy, but that he will not revoke 
the building freeze.  Netanyahu stressed that the Qlaw must be 
respected and cabinet decisions must be carried out."  Media quoted 
Netanyahu as saying: "There is one thing that is out of the 
question," he said. "You are allowed to demonstrate and protest, but 
you cannot show disrespect for a decision that was made lawfully. 
The solution is dialogue. We need to work together during this 
period and cooperate."  The PM added: "The decision made by the 
cabinet is the best for Israel under the complicated diplomatic 
circumstances Israel is in and in view of the multifaceted 
challenges facing us.  We made a difficult decision in order to 
advance the broader interests of Israel.  This move makes it clear 
to key players around the world that Israel is serious in its 
intentions to achieve peace, while the Palestinians refuse to enter 
negotiations for peace. There is a side that wants to [talk] and 
another that does not. This move has made clear [which side] is 
refusing peace."  Trying to appease the settlers, Netanyahu asked 
for their patience and promised to resume construction after the 
10-month hiatus was over. He also promised that the implementation 
of the order banning construction would "be carried out in the least 
intrusive way possible for the public and where there are 
unnecessary difficulties, we shall make them go away."  The PM also 
blamed the Palestinian Authority for not responding to Israel's 
decision to freeze settlement construction and for refusing to 
return to the negotiating table. Netanyahu called PA President 
Mahmoud Abbas "someone who refuses peace." 
 
Major media reported that right-wing activists are planning to block 
major traffic arteries throughout the country next week as part of 
an escalating protest of the government decision to freeze 
settlement construction in the West Bank for 10 months.   The 
Jerusalem Post reported that setters are gearing up for a mass 
protest rally outside the PMQs official residence in Jerusalem. 
HaQaretz reported that IDF officers in the West Bank have expressed 
concerned that settlers may escalate their acts of opposition to the 
freeze on settlement construction by targeting the Palestinian 
population. 
 
Yediot led with a report by its correspondent Gad Lior, who spent 48 
hours in Dubai.  Lior brings an eyewitness account of the financial 
collapse there. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the U.S. fell short in its efforts to gain a 
declaration of international support for Israel's temporary 
settlement construction freeze.  The Americans were hoping that its 
partners in the Quartet would agree to such a declaration, but 
Moscow expressed a series of reservations and foiled Washington's 
effort.  HaQaretz reported that a senior U.S. administration 
official told the newspaper that without a consensus among the 
members of the Quartet, it would be impossible to issue a statement 
for the whole group.  The Arabic-language Assennara quoted Marc 
Otte, E.U. special representative for the Middle East peace process, 
as saying that the basis of any solution is the Q67 borders and that 
Jerusalem must be the capital for both countries. 
 
HaQaretz and Israel Radio quoted Arab newspapers as saying that 
Hamas has rejected IsraelQs latest deal offer for the release of 
Gilad Shalit.  Several media quoted the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida 
as saying that Shalit was secretly moved to Egypt.  The Jerusalem 
Post cited a denial of the story by Osama Hamdan, Hamas 
representative in Lebanon.  HaQaretz reported that high-ranking 
political and defense officials in Jerusalem have decided that the 
Shalit deal will not bring about a change to IsraelQs siege policy 
in Gaza and its ban of personnel and goods movements between the 
West Bank and Gaza. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the U.S. and several Arab states are pressing 
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to remain in office 
until new PA elections are called, in order to prevent a power 
vacuum that could result in the West Bank falling to Hamas. 
HaQaretz noted that if a deal for Shalit in fact goes through, it 
would include the release of many Hamas legislators -- enough to 
restore Hamas' parliamentary majority and enable it to dictate the 
rules of the next election, which would presumably be designed to 
facilitate its chances of winning.  HaQaretz reported that an 
Israeli security official predicted yesterday that Abbas "would not 
abandon the field to Hamas," but added that the possibility of his 
resigning could not be ruled out. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday Jordan summoned Israeli 
Ambassador Danny Nevo to demand a halt to "unilateral" work carried 
out by Israel on the outer walls of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy 
Sepulcher. 
 
The media reported that yesterday White House Pres Secretary Robert 
Gibbs warned Iran that it has less than a month to respond to the 
compromise offer by world powers.  The Jerusalem Post reported that 
a senior Israeli diplomatic official told the newspaper yesterday 
that Israeli officials believe the international community is 
"starting to come to the understanding that Iran has been lying to 
everybody" about its nuclear intentions.  The statement followed 
news of a U.N. agency completing a nuclear test detection station in 
Turkmenistan, just a few kilometers from the Iranian border. 
"Luckily, Iran itself is decimating the efforts of even its most 
vociferous defenders to help it avoid international criticism," the 
Israeli official was further quoted as saying. 
 
Senior U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Yediot that Israel must contribute to the sapping of 
Islamist radicals and reach a just, reasonable agreement with the 
Palestinians. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Jewish conservatives in the U.S. are fighting 
against appointments of Qanti-IsraelisQ to the U.S. administration. 
 
Media reported that Hollywood QheavyweightsQ Steven Spielberg and 
Phil Rosenthal will film a medical drama series at JerusalemQs 
Shaare Zedek Hospital.  The show is slated to run on the Sundance 
Channel in the U.S. in 2011. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a poll taken by Independent Media 
Review Analysis on December 1-2 found that an overwhelming majority 
of Israelis believe that Israel's policy of redeeming captives 
should only be toughened after Shalit's release.  Of the respondents 
who expressed an opinion, 55% were in favor of setting the new 
policies only after the Shalit deal.  Just 23% said the criteria 
should be changed before the deal and 22% said the guidelines should 
not be changed at all. The poll also found that a huge majority of 
Israelis believe that PM Netanyahu decided to freeze settlement 
construction in Judea and Samaria due to pressure from President 
Obama, but that the freeze would only increase international 
pressure for further concessions.  Asked whether Netanyahu decided 
on the freeze because he thought it would advance the peace process 
with the Palestinians or to satisfy Obama, 77% of respondents who 
expressed an opinion agreed with the latter and just 23% with the 
former statements.  More than two-thirds of respondents said 
Netanyahu broke campaign promises with the freeze, that he violated 
his principle of reciprocity, and that he had to bring the freeze to 
a vote in the Knesset. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QThe Likud-West Bank Partnership 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/4): 
QThat Netanyahu assented to the moratorium even at settlements where 
Israel expects to ultimately expand sovereignty can only reflect the 
intensity of the pressure he is facing -- not only from Washington, 
but from most of the international community, emphatically including 
self-perceived strong supporters of Israel in Western Europe.  The 
dismay in the Qnational campQ is understandable.  A moratorium, even 
with all its caveats and the promise of a resumption of building 10 
months from now, is not what it anticipated from a Likud prime 
minister.  And yet, his hawkish critics may want to reflect , 
Netanyahu, acting today with the support of ministers like Bennie 
Begin and Moshe Ya'alon, determined to preserve as much of the 
settlement enterprise as he can and wary about the prospects of 
peacemaking, is the best defender of the settlers' interests they 
are likely to see in the Prime Minister's Office. 
 
II.  QThe Battle of Wills 
 
Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote in the Jerusalem Post (12/4): 
Q[Many defenders of the ultimately moderate Israel] have stressed 
that successive Israeli peace offers have explicitly involved the 
dismantling of the overwhelming proportion of settlements and that 
the disengagement from Gaza and a small part of Samaria [i.e. the 
northern West Bank] in 2005 demonstrated IsraelQs capacity to carry 
out such traumatic reverses -- a capacity that, were the day to 
come, could be replicated, albeit still more wrenchingly, in parts, 
even most, of Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank].  As of this 
week, those assertions are being put to the test.... For now, itQs a 
freeze, not a demolition program, that has been ordered.  But by 
consenting to a freeze even at those settlements whose continued 
existence is supported by the Israeli mainstream, Netanyahu has 
empowered a wider swathe of domestic opposition than may have been 
necessary.  And because the Prime Minister is so plainly being 
squeezed between the angry Israeli Right and the frustrated 
international community Q and is so plainly susceptible to that 
pressure -- the battle of wills over Judea and Samaria is already 
being joined in earnest. 
 
III.  QNetanyahuQs Way Out 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning HaQaretz (12/4): QWashington ... is making do with 
Qconstructive ambiguity.Q  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 
declared last week that the goal should be an independent 
Palestinian state Qbased on the 1967 lines and agreed swaps.Q  This, 
she added, would grant Israel Qsecure and recognized borders that 
reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security 
requirements.Q  Translation: she is saying nothing and is not 
putting forward an approach.  The problem with the plans for a 
final-status settlement is that it's difficult to obtain an 
agreement on issues relating to each side's national identity and 
even more difficult to implement such agreements.  Here are three 
reasons: the Fatah-Hamas split, Israel's right-wing government, and 
Obama's weakness.... The settlers are waging the battle against the 
freeze in part to deter the Government against thoughts of another 
evacuation.  They apparently understand that Abbas' rejection is 
drawing Netanyahu closer to a decision on an interim move in the 
West Bank. 
 
IV.  QThe End of the Diplomatic Process 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Lord wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe (12/4): QIn the interim freeze period, Israel has a 
chance of presenting its principles anew regarding an agreement with 
the Palestinians.  The Prime Minister would be well-advised to 
present at the Knesset a series of principles that the legislative 
body will approve.  Since Israel is not part of a Qdiplomatic 
processQ but of a vital battle currently being fought in the 
diplomatic arena, it must determine that it has well-known 
territorial interests in Judea, Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], and 
the Jordan Valley, which it will neither concede nor negotiate on. 
This is the farthest one can go without unilateral annexation.... At 
the same time, it would be good for Israel to tell the Americans 
that it is displeased by the spying and surveillance carried out by 
U.S. agents and officials in greater Jerusalem -- in violation of 
Israeli sovereignty. 
 
¶V.  QA Bus Blows Up in Damascus : Exploding Tire or Terror 
Strike ? 
 
Jonathan Spyer, a senior researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center, 
wrote on page one of The Jerusalem Post (12/4): QThe Syrian 
authorities are currently trying to attribute the blast Thursday on 
a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims near the Saida Zeinab mosque in 
Damascus to an exploding tire.... The tire story, on the face of it, 
looks like a somewhat ludicrous attempt by the Syrian authorities to 
explain away an alarming episode for the regime.  If what took place 
in the Saida Zeinab quarter was in fact a bombing rather than an 
exploding tire, then it may be assumed that the perpetrators were 
intending to deliver a series of calculated insults.  First, and 
perhaps most importantly, such an act would constitute an attack on 
the Islamic Republic of Iran. The explosion took place as Saeed 
Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, was visiting Damascus. The 
targeted bus contained Iranian citizens, at least one of whom is 
reported dead.... Second, such a bombing would be a slap in the face 
for the Assad regime. Syria has been emerging smartly from 
international isolation in recent years. Its practice of fomenting 
trouble for its neighbors -- Israel, Iraq and Lebanon -- and then 
offering to help solve the problems it is largely responsible for 
creating, has been paying dividends.  But a security-state such as 
BaQathist Syria holds power because of its ability to inspire quiet 
at home.... Syria's relations with Sunni Islamists are complex. 
Damascus has offered support and safe passage to Sunni jihadis on 
their way to fight in Iraq.  Yet the regime itself -- non-Sunni, 
aligned with Shi'a Iran, and with a record of brutal suppression of 
the Muslim Brotherhood -- is also a natural target of opposition for 
devout Sunni Islamists.  The world of extreme Sunni Islamism is 
notoriously murky and riven, with many groups operated and/or 
supplied by governments for their own aims.  It can only be a matter 
for speculation and theorizing (of which there will be much) as to 
who might have had an interest in striking a blow at Iran, its 
religion, and its allies in the heart of a regional capital.  But 
the latest events in Damascus offer further potent proof to Iran and 
Syria that support for terrorism is a two-way street. 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
QChurchill Is Ill 
 
In a tongue-in-cheek article, former Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner 
Qspeaks from within Churchill-admiring NetanyahuQs headQ in the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (12/4): QFor a moment I had a terrible 
thought: can Ahmadinejad be Churchill compared to me?  Can he be 
determined and self-confident and aware of what he wants, while I am 
wavering?.... One day IQll wake up having missed [the danger signs 
from Iran].  Because I was Chur and I was Chill, but I never was the 
whole thing.  In the final analysis I was just Bibi. 
 
MORENO