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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002725 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA 
HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
DA WASHDC FOR SASA 
JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA 
CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
 
SIPDIS 
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 reports today on a meeting that took place yesterday between 
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the Chairman of hesder yeshiva 
deans, Rabbi Haim Druckman, in an attempt to reach an understanding 
between the parties on the issue of the Har Bracha yeshiva. The 
meeting, which was described as difficult, apparently bore no 
results. A rabbi whom Maariv describes as known for his moderate 
views, was quoted as saying, "We have no idea what the defense 
minister wants. He slammed the door on all our proposals to bring 
this affair to rest, even when he learned that Rabbi Melamed was 
willing to sign that he opposes protest in the IDF. At this rate he 
will push us towards unraveling the entire package. The majority of 
hesder yeshiva directors oppose insubordination and support service 
in the IDF." Rabbi Melamed is apparently still deliberating as to 
whether to add his signature to a letter by all hesder yeshiva 
rabbis opposing demonstrations in the IDF. In his column in the 
national religious newspaper Besheva, Melamed wrote, among other 
things: "Though I knew that because of the defense minister's 
imperiousness, things could come to the termination of the 
arrangement with the Har Bracha Yeshiva, with all the consequences 
this entails, I am committed to maintaining the Torah principle of 
independent judgment, without succumbing to his tyranny. For this 
reason neither did I agree to report to a 'hearing' or a 'summons' 
under an ultimatum, words that fail to honor those who are entitled 
and committed to freedom of thought and expression." 
 
On the front page of Ha'aretz this morning, senior correspondent 
Aluf Benn reveals the last offer presented by former Prime Minister 
Ehud Olmert to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the borders 
of a Palestinian state. The report includes a map of territories and 
settlements that would be annexed to Israel and areas that would be 
handed over to the Palestinians in exchange. 
 
Yediot reports that nearly 50 Knesset members have signed an unusual 
parliamentary petition calling for a boycott of British products in 
response to the recommendation of British officials that products 
made in the West Bank and on the Golan Heights be marked in order to 
assist those who wish to boycott such products. 
 
Block Quotes: 
----------- 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
 
¶I. "Abbas now" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (12/17): "As 
could have been expected, the limited construction freeze in the 
settlements has not brought the Palestinian leaders back to the 
negotiating table.... The decision to give incentives to ... 
settlements will not contribute to building trust between Netanyahu 
and Abbas. Netanyahu is continuing to walk a tightrope between ... a 
two-state solution and his desire to placate the settlers ... and 
the governing coalition. Abbas [is] in a bind, hoping to end the 
occupation but fearing that a retreat from principles such as Jewish 
construction in East Jerusalem would play into the hands of his 
Hamas rivals. Abbas suggested a way out of the dilemma: freezing 
Jewish construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem for six 
months without making a public declaration to that effect.... If 
Netanyahu and Barak truly wish to preserve the two-state option and 
avoid the collapse of the Palestinian leadership that supports it, 
they must respond positively to Abbas' proposal.... The bitter 
lesson of Netanyahu and Barak's previous terms in office should have 
taught them that a leader who tries to advance the peace process and 
maintain Israel's standing in the world while reconciling with the 
extreme right loses in the end. This time their acrobatics could end 
in the loss of an important partner for peace and a deterioration in 
Israel's foreign relations." 
 
II. "Hamas still wants to liberate 'all of Palestine'" 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (12/17): "The cat is out of the bag: Palestine, all of 
Palestine.... Ismail Haniyeh this week declared the objective of the 
Hamas movement.... The ultimate solution is not the total liberation 
of the Gaza Strip or a Palestinian state. It is the liberation of 
all of Palestine. In recent years, quite a number of experts have 
promised us that Hamas does not really mean it. PA Chairman Abbas is 
an alternative to Hamas. Two days ago Abbas told Haaretz 
correspondent Avi Issacharoff that an agreement could be reached 
within six months.... But every time an Israeli leader takes another 
significant step toward Abbas, Abbas becomes evasive. Minister Benny 
Begin says the reason is that Fatah is also a Greater Palestine 
movement.... [Abbas]has been talking about two states for the past 
21 years, without being willing to pay the price. Both Hamas and 
Fatah are making it very difficult to end the occupation. The 
alternative is an Israeli initiative. MK Shaul Mofaz's plan is one 
possibility; a second disengagement is another. Whatever the case, 
Israel must deal with the existential threat of the occupation on 
its own. Time is running out and the writing is on the wall. 
'Palestine,' the wall is blaring, 'all of Palestine.'" 
 
 
III. "Three States for Two Peoples" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/17): "In the 
original plan ... Hamas and Abu Mazen worked on a four-stage 
scenario: reconciliation between the camps, a joint police force in 
Rafah, opening the border crossings, and only then an exchange deal 
that would lead to the release of Gilad Shalit. Meanwhile, there is 
no reconciliation, the police of Ramallah cannot set foot in the 
Gaza Strip, Gaza is closed completely, and there is no deal.... The 
vocal declarations about the unilateral establishment of a 
Palestinian state vanished all at once. In a creeping process, 
people in Gaza and the ... West Bank are working on two separate 
states for the same people. Down in Gaza ... the government runs the 
tunnel economy together with the military wing, which prevents 
terror attacks almost entirely. Suddenly a terrorist group shouts 
... that it has no intention of recognizing Israel, yet makes a 
great deal of effort to maintain calm. Even the delineation of 
borders ... the right of return for Palestinian refugees ... and the 
trucks of cement and concrete  for the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip 
are stuck without an expiration date. Abu Mazen will not go wild for 
the good of Gaza, and Hamas, for its part, does not intend to give 
Israel an excuse to call in the Air Force. Meanwhile, there is calm. 
No one is raising his head to complain. No one is standing up with a 
plan for a high-speed train or an elevated bridge between Gaza and 
the West Bank, either. Yasser Arafat may turn over three times in 
his grave: once for the State of Israel, a second time for the state 
of Gaza, and a third time in a wide circle around his gravesite in 
Ramallah." 
 
IV. "The Weak Link" 
 
Intelligence affairs writer and television anchor Ronen Bergman 
opined in the mass-circulation pluralist Yediot Aharonot 
(12/17):"Cooperation between the extremist elements (Syria, Iran, 
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah) which has 
skyrocketed over the past year, constitutes a strategic threat to 
Israel. None of this is taken for granted. Sheikh Yassin [had] 
refused Iranian offers of funding and training. But Mashal was noted 
... for his close ties with Iran. Hizbullah's accomplishments during 
the war in 2006 and the series of blows that all the members of the 
axis took afterwards ... made the cooperation between them truly 
amazing. Israeli intelligence has reported [that weapons] 
development takes place in Iran [and]manufacturing goes on in Syria. 
The smuggling of the weapons is carried out along routes that are 
common to all the members - towards Lebanon, Syria, or Gaza and the 
West Bank. But director of IDF Intelligence  Amos Yadlin raised 
another matter: Syria is actually the weak link. He and IDF 
Intelligence Research Department Director Yossi Baidatz believe that 
Syria can be uprooted from the axis and that a peace treaty may be 
signed with it. They believe that cutting Syria off from the axis 
will lead to the dissolution of the entire front, or at least to a 
dramatic weakening. The director of the Mossad Meir Dagan believes 
that Assad would agree to sign, but would not leave the axis. 
Netanyahu has not yet decided between them. 
CUNNINGHAM