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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  President ObamaQs Nobel Speech 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Hayom bannered President ObamaQs statement in his Nobel Prize 
acceptance speech in Oslo yesterday endorsing the concept of Qjust 
war.Q  Yediot headlined: QPeace and War Nobel.Q  Maariv wrote that 
Obama is Qfighting for peace.Q  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe bannered: 
QObama in Oslo: QWar Is Sometimes Necessary. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a survey released on 
Thursday and conducted by the progressive New America Foundation 
that Jewish Israelis are nearly evenly split in their attitudes 
toward President Obama, with 40% viewing him favorably and 39% 
viewing him unfavorably.  Pollster Jim Gerstein pointed out that 
some have incorrectly characterized the results of an August 
Jerusalem Post poll as a 4% Qapproval ratingQ for the President. 
The New America Foundation poll found that the general Israeli 
public, by a 65 to 31 margin, believes that the U.S. is the only 
powerful country that Israel can count on in the world today, and 
that majorities fear the loss of American support in the event that 
Israel rejects a U.S.-sponsored peace plan. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. was not apprised in 
advance of plans to place dozens of settlements in the revised 
national priorities map that will be brought to the cabinet on 
Sunday, but it has been assured that the incentives to be given in 
these areas will have nothing to do with housing or construction. 
The Jerusalem Post quoted senior officials in the Prime Minister's 
Office as saying that conversations had been held yesterday with 
Washington on the matter, and it had been explained that the 
national priorities map was one that took in scores of communities 
from around the country, and that the settlements would not be 
eligible for any assistance having to do with housing.  The U.S. was 
also told that this was in no way an attempt to roll back the 
10-month moratorium on housing starts.  Similarly, The Jerusalem 
Post quoted senior government officials as saying yesterday that the 
establishment of a committee led by Likud Minister Benny Begin and 
DM Ehud Barak to take a look at how the moratorium was being 
implemented was not an attempt to roll back the moratorium. 
According to the officials, the implementation order in the 
government's decision to stop new housing is much stricter than the 
decision itself, and the committee is now trying to correct the 
difference, which may even entail rewriting the original order to 
bring it more into line with security cabinet decision.  Despite 
these assurances, however, major media quoted Begin, who voted in 
favor of the 10-month construction moratorium, as saying yesterday 
that even with the stop-work orders, "construction continues and 
will continue for the next 10 months."   Making his comments at a 
gathering in Tel Aviv, Begin said that the government had not 
decided on a construction freeze in the customary meaning of the 
term.  Rather, "if we are seeking to clarify the conditions  ... we 
are not planning on freezing life in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the 
West Bank]."  Furthermore, Begin said, "we are not discriminating 
between isolated settlements and those considered to be within the 
parameters of the agreement. Had we agreed to such a distinction, we 
would be, in essence, setting the borders before the start of 
negotiations."  Begin went on to say that in the next 10 months, the 
population of Judea and Samaria would grow by more than 10,000 
people. 
 
HaQaretz and other media reported that all Labor Party ministers are 
expected to vote against a proposed revision of the country's 
national priority zones at Sunday's cabinet meeting.  The ministers 
are objecting to the fact that the new map confers national priority 
status on several isolated settlements.  Designation as a national 
priority zone entitles a town to various economic benefits.  Several 
Labor ministers were quoted as saying that even party chairman and 
DM Ehud Barak would not be able to vote for the map in its current 
form. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the current sense in Jerusalem is 
that the U.S. is scaling down its intensive involvement in the 
diplomatic process.  The newspaper cited the feeling n Jerusalem is 
that Washington believed that PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs moratorium 
would somewhat move the process along, and that when the 
Palestinians failed to respond positively to the move, the U.S. 
decided to sit back and see how things would play out. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the international newspaper Al Hayat 
quoted senior Hamas members as saying that the prisoner swap with 
Israel will not take place, following IsraelQs refusal to release 
100 male and female Palestinian prisoners. 
 
The electronic media reported that last night unknown persons set 
fire to the second floor of a mosque in the West Bank village of 
Yasuf, leaving the Hebrew inscription: QPrepare for the price-tag. 
Israel Radio cited the policeQs uncertainty as to whether the 
suspected perpetrators were settlers, but quoted Palestinian 
security staff as saying that residents of the radical settlement of 
Tapuah were behind the crime. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the mayor of Ghajar, a village that will 
possibly move from Israeli to Lebanese control, refuses to let 
UNIFIL officials into his village.  The Mayor claims that the 
village belongs to Syria, not Lebanon.  The radio also reported on a 
demonstration by the village residents. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Syrian FM Farouk Shara as saying at the BaQath 
convention that all Israeli PMs since 1991 have agreed to leave the 
Golan.  HaQaretz (English Ed.) quoted Turkish journalists visiting 
Israel this week as saying they were "confused" by conflicting 
statements they heard here from senior politicians (PM Netanyahu and 
Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon are named) regarding Turkey's role as peace 
broker between Israel and Syria. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Israeli defense officials as saying 
yesterday that EgyptQs metal wall will not be deep enough to block 
smuggling tunnels. 
 
Maariv reported that DM Barak wants to decrease funding for hesder 
yeshivas (which combine military service with religious studies). 
 
The media cited the anger of the municipalities of Ashkelon and 
MaQaleh Adumim for having been excluded from the national priorities 
map.  Media reported that the government may revise its decision on 
the matter. 
 
HaQaretz reported that this week the IDF carried out two extensive 
drills simulating war and national emergency situations. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Shin Bet is looking for new immigrants from 
Iran to offset the Islamic RepublicQs efforts to entice Israelis 
back to Iran or blackmail them into spying for Tehran. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF has concluded that 30 out 
of 36 Qmost seriousQ cases of alleged war crimes as cited by Judge 
Richard Goldstone in his QdamningQ report on Operation Cast Lead are 
Qbaseless accusations. 
 
Leading media cited IsraelQs anger over a British government advice 
to retailers and importers to single out imports from settlements. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a 21-member mission of U.S. Latino 
leaders made a six-day visit of Israel under the auspices of the 
Anti-Defamation League. 
 
Leading media reported that Israel is in the process of receiving a 
new generation of Hercules C-130 transport aircraft from the U.S. 
 
Shuki Oren, the Israeli TreasuryQs Accountant General, was quoted as 
saying in an interview with Maariv that he fears for the strength of 
the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange amid the IsraelisQ indifference to the 
state of their economy. 
 
----------------------------------- 
¶1.  President ObamaQs Nobel Speech: 
----------------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QThe President Starts to Understand 
 
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 (12/11): QAfter almost a year of continued 
frustration and failure in diplomatic efforts to bring Iran and 
North Korea into the world order, yesterday the U.S. President 
outlined a more sobered-up, illusion-less vision . Compared to the 
three key speeches permeated with moderation and hope that he 
delivered over the past year -- the acceptance speech in Chicago, 
his swearing-in address, and mostly the Cairo speech -- the Oslo 
speech was largely characterized by diplomatic realism and 
willingness (which didnQt find an expression in the Cairo speech) to 
confront by force the challenges and the threats on his course.... 
Not only did he state in his speech that war as a social phenomenon 
was and will remain a permanent component of the international 
experience, but he also said that the use of force -- or the 
forceful and uncompromising policy of force against the Iranian and 
North Korean nuclear threat is an unavoidable necessity.  Thus, the 
 
U.S. PresidentQs thinking has gone a long way since he entered the 
White House.  There is great irony in the fact that he is receiving 
the prestigious prize around a week after deciding on the expansion 
of American military in Afghanistan.  International reality is 
indeed stronger than any dream or wish. 
 
II.  QQJust WarQ Is Back 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized 
(12/11): QIt has been a long time since we last heard the notion of 
Qjust war.Q  Representatives of the enlightened world, led by the 
Scandinavians, absolutely object to waging war.  This is not an 
option and Obama destroyed their claims [in his Nobel speech].... 
Regarding the limited Israeli-Palestinian domain, Obama said in a 
relevant sentence: QLet us focus on a more practical, more 
attainable peace.Q  He was quoting the late President John Kennedy 
and did not actually mean Israel and the Palestinians.  However, in 
principle, this conception can suit us and serve as a platform for 
all sides. Time will tell whether he will recognize over the next 
year the need to act in Iran in a Qjust war. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QFalse Altars 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/11): 
QThursday's main headline in The Jerusalem Post captured some of the 
best news of the week: QThousands rally peaceably against building 
freeze.Q  Some 30,000 demonstrators, many of them young people, 
turned out on a chilly evening near the Prime Minister's residence 
in Jerusalem to protest the security cabinet's November 25 
moratorium on new settlement construction.  The assembly was a 
celebration of democracy.  There was neither incitement nor 
violence.  It could easily have been otherwise.... The establishment 
of the state means that competing centers of authority cannot be 
tolerated.  There can be no false altars.  Settler leaders are being 
disingenuous if they think they can turn to the High Court of 
Justice, appeal to public opinion, and lobby members of Knesset yet 
retain the QrightQ to violently confront the state if they don't get 
their way.  While insisting settlers work within the law, we are not 
oblivious to the often dysfunctional nature of Israel's political 
system or the possibility of individual corruption.  That is why we 
support Wednesday's Knesset vote to expedite legislative 
consideration of a bill that would require a national referendum 
prior to any withdrawals from the Golan Heights or East Jerusalem. 
Consideration might be given to a similar requirement for 
substantial withdrawals in Judea and Samaria as well.  In this way, 
decisions about Israel's permanent borders would benefit from the 
unassailable legitimacy of the body politic.  For now, however, the 
security cabinet's settlement freeze decision deserves the absolute 
allegiance of the governed. 
 
II.  QSyria or the Palestinians? 
 
Senior columnist and longtime peace advocate Yoel Marcus wrote in 
the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/11): QLike the cherry 
trees in Washington that bloom every year for just a few days, the 
subject of an agreement with Syria has bloomed annually for decades 
now, like a balloon that stays inflated for a few days until the air 
escapes.  First we were dealing with Hafez Assad.  Once he sat with 
Henry Kissinger for hours, arranging the seating at the first peace 
conference in Geneva, and when they parted, after Kissinger nearly 
burst his bladder, Assad informed him that Syria would not 
participate.  Another time Assad went to Geneva and surprised Bill 
Clinton with a personal announcement that he was no longer 
interested in negotiating with Israel.  Every time the talks with 
the Palestinians reach a stalemate our leaders remember that we have 
to reach an agreement with Syria.  Now the initiator is Bashar 
Assad, the son.  We are receiving direct messages from Turkish Prime 
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. 
The price is known and has not changed.  And there is a plethora of 
proposals for possible long-term arrangements. But there is nothing 
so simple that Israel cannot make complicated.  Now there is a 
proposal for a referendum.  In real democracies there are no 
referendums and it is important that a golem of this kind not 
replace the cabinet and the Knesset. 
 
III.  QTurn Left Right Here 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote in Ha'aretz 
(12/11): Q[NetanyahuQs] left hand signs construction-freeze orders 
for the settlers, and his right hand votes for the law granting 
amnesty to the rioters of summer 2005.  His left hand is 
outstretched to President Bashar Assad of Syria in a gesture of 
peace -- he said he was pleased to hear from French President 
Nicolas Sarkozy that Assad is ready to resume negotiations without 
preconditions -- and his right hand supports, even before such 
negotiations have begun, a bill that would oblige a national 
referendum on a withdrawal from the Golan Heights.  His left hand is 
indicating to the whole world that this time he is serious about 
leading the country to a peace agreement with the Palestinians, 
something that would entail evacuating all the isolated settlements, 
and his right hand categorizes all those settlements as lying within 
national priority areas, meaning more money for growth.  After the 
Netanyahu government's wobbly start in the Knesset, the opposition 
melted away.  The government passes whatever legislation it wants. 
 
CUNNINGHAM