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P 240938Z DEC 09
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with a possible split in Kadima that would bolster 
Likud.  Maariv banners PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs Qrevenge plan, 
saying that the PM does not forgive former PM Ariel Sharon for 
creating Kadima and crushing Likud.  Yediot reported that SharonQs 
son Gilad appealed Kadima members not to leave the party Qfor his 
fatherQs sake.Q  Last night Israel TV reported that six Kadima 
Knesset members have initialed a request to leave their faction. 
The media reported that Kadima MK Eli Aflalo intends to form a 
one-man faction.  HaQaretz reported that Kadima chair Tzipi Livni 
and MK Shaul Mofaz are waging a Qproxy war over the party 
leadership.Q  In an unrelated development, The Jerusalem Post 
reported that PM Netanyahu told the Knesset plenum yesterday that in 
the face of the Iranian nuclear threat, concerted attacks in 
IsraelQs right to exist, and a stalled peace process, it was 
imperative for the opposition to support the government. 
 
The media reported that Hamas will respond in a few days to IsraelQs 
prisoner swap offer.  Israeli media echo reports in media outlets in 
Gaza yesterday that a Hamas delegation would head from Gaza to Cairo 
today, and then to Damascus, where they would meet with members of 
Hamas' political wing there to discuss their response to what Israel 
has put on the table.  The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior European 
official as saying yesterday that it is Qaltogether prematureQ to 
talk about deporting to Europe any prisoners released in a possible 
swap. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a report published yesterday by the Israeli 
human rights groups BQTselem and Bimkom that Israel had always 
intended to annex MaQaleh Adumim as part of Jerusalem. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that this week the IDF and Foreign 
Ministry held a joint seminar to boost IsraelQs international 
standing. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media noted that the U.S. stresses that 
Iran should take the year-end deadline seriously. 
 
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that 15 IDF soldiers who were 
wounded during Operation Cast Lead are seeking legal action in 
Belgium against 10 top Hamas leaders.  The appellants are binational 
Israeli/Belgian citizens. 
 
Leading media quoted Syrian President Bashar Assad as saying 
yesterday, after talks with Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 
Damascus, that peace talks with Israel had been stalled because 
Israel was not interested in achieving peace.  Assad was quoted as 
saying that Israel's demand for negotiations without conditions 
meant that it wanted to bring down the peace process. 
 
Israel Radio reported that 200 young people about to be drafted have 
signed a petition that they will refuse any orders that contradict 
the Torah according to rabbisQ understanding. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Hannah Rosenthal, head of the U.S. administration's 
Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism as saying that remarks by 
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, against the liberal 
Jewish lobby J Street were "most unfortunate."  In an interview with 
HaQaretz in Jerusalem, where Rosenthal was the administration's 
envoy to the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Global Forum for Combating 
Anti-Semitism, Rosenthal, who once served on J Street's board of 
directors, said she opposes blurring the lines between anti-Semitism 
and criticism of Israel. 
 
Citing the AP, HaQaretz reported that the Vatican has clarified that 
the elevation of the late Pope Pius XII to the title of Qvenerable 
does not constitute a hostile act toward the Jews.  For its part, 
Maariv reported that Jewish pressure has slowed down Pius XIIQs 
beatification process begun by Pope Benedict XVI. 
 
Yediot reported that 11 Israelis are QhostagesQ in the U.S.: eight 
young Israeli women and three young Israeli men were arrested for 
working illegally in Seattle malls. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday Ike Aranne (Yitzhak 
Ahronovitch), the captain of the famed refugee ship Exodus 1947, 
died in Hadera at the age of 86 after a long illness. 
 
Yediot published the findings of a Dahaf/Mina Zemach poll: 
- 76 percent of Israelis favor a prisoner swap under the conditions 
set by the GOI; 14 percent oppose such a deal; 10 percent are 
undecided. 
- 65 percent are satisfied with the performance of PM Netanyahu; 25 
percent are dissatisfied; 10 percent are undecided. 
- 69 percent are satisfied with the performance of IDF Chief of 
Staff Gabi Ashkenazi; 12 percent are dissatisfied; 19 percent are 
undecided. 
- Only 44 percent are satisfied with the performance of DM Ehud 
Barak; 41 percent are dissatisfied; 15 percent are undecided. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QEvasiveness and Foot-Dragging 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (12/24): QThe 
framework of the deal [over Gilad ShalitQs release] was agreed on in 
Olmert's term and Netanyahu has not succeeded in changing it in his 
nine months in office.  Deporting the released prisoners will change 
nothing, if instead of returning to the West Bank -- where they will 
be supervised by the Shin Bet and Palestinian Authority -- they will 
travel the world, planning terror attacks against Jewish and Israeli 
targets.  Instead of wasting any more time on futile one-upmanship 
games with Hamas, Netanyahu must say: It stops here.  It's time to 
decide.  End Gilad and his family's suffering and bring the soldier 
home. 
 
 
II.  QEverything, We Repeat, Everything, at All Costs 
 
Dr. Muhammad Watad, a senior law lecturer at the Safed Academic 
College, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (12/24): QIsrael 
should have paid before [Gilad ShalitQs] abduction to prevent it. 
When it failed to do so and Gilad was abducted, [the official word 
was that] the Qstate must do everything, repeat everything, and at 
all costs to return the son.... Besides, Israel has not done the 
Shalit family any favor, and the claims by the families of the 
terror victims -- however heartrending they may be -- are only 
Qemotional.Q  I believe that, had the victims had been alive and had 
that been known for certain, their screams of Qreturn the sons home 
would even have torn the separation fence. 
 
III.  QLeftists Voted for KadimaQs Likudniks 
 
Former Meretz leader, former Justice Minister, and chief Israeli 
promoter of the Geneva Initiative, Yossi Beilin, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (12/24): QWhen Kadima was founded, figures 
from Likud and the Labor Party joined it; it won the elections under 
Ehud Olmert and hit Likud in its most tender spot.  Then an 
interesting phenomenon appeared: OlmertQs moderate utterances sent 
the Likudniks back to Likud.  Those who remained Kadima supporters 
presented positions closer to Meretz than to the Labor Party. 
Labor, Meretz, and Shinui voters chose Kadima during the 2009 
elections.  The only former Likudniks who remained in Kadima were 
its Knesset members.  It would only be natural for them to come back 
to their natural places.  Instead of raising false claims of the 
moveQs illegitimacy or problematic timing, I would make efforts to 
ensure a Kadima-Meretz-Labor rebel.  This would represent suitable 
quantitative and qualitative compensation that would stabilize 
opposite the center-right bloc -- at last a center-left bloc. 
 
IV.  QBibi, King of Israel 
 
Far left columnist Gideon Levy wrote in Ha'aretz (12/24): QThe 
charade of soul-searching surrounding the Gilad Shalit deal staged 
by the forum of seven senior cabinet ministers revealed that it was 
in fact an unnecessary effort, and that Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu is virtually omnipotent and could have forced the passage 
of any resolution.  We have not had such a strong prime minister in 
a long time.  FYI to the Americans, who like to think that Netanyahu 
wants to do the right thing but can't; as well as to the Europeans, 
the Arabs and especially the Israelis: There are no domestic 
politics in Israel now, because there is no one who poses a genuine 
threat to Netanyahu.  He has no opposition, neither within his party 
nor without, neither parliamentary nor extra-parliamentary.  His 
seat is safe.  Above all these words are addressed to Netanyahu 
himself, that master of intimidation and wizard of self-inflicted 
fear. 
 
¶V.  QReligious Zionists Must Disown the Zealots 
 
Columnist and conservative international Jewish leader Isi Leibler 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (12/24): 
QReligious Zionists are confronted by an unenviable challenge which 
could permanently undermine their status in Israel.  From being 
regarded by the mainstream as the voice of religious moderation and 
a force of societal unification -- whose youth have earned the 
reputation as role models of devotion and dedication to the state 
and its defense -- they are now teetering on marginalization at 
best, and stigmatized as zealots at worst.  The current impasse was 
an inevitable consequence of edicts issued by a number of rabbis 
proclaiming that forfeiture of territory in the Land of Israel 
constitutes a breach of Halacha [Jewish religious law].  These 
rabbis refused to consider any exceptions to this decree -- not even 
for Qpikuah nefesh,Q the requirement to safeguard human life, which 
overrides most halachic injunctions.  Nor were they willing to 
respect the authority of the majority of their rabbinical 
colleagues, who disagreed with their interpretation of Jewish law 
and also recognized the potential societal polarization it would 
create.... [Correcting this situation] will require courage and 
determination, particularly by moderate religious-Zionist laymen. 
These represent the vast majority of religious Zionists whose 
commitment to the state is unconditional, but have hitherto lacked 
the backbone to resist, condemn and ostracize the extremists. They 
must do so now, before this hesder [the institution combining 
military service with religious studies]-IDF imbroglio spins out of 
control, endangering the entire religious-Zionist enterprise.  This 
would represent a great loss not only for the IDF, but for the 
entire nation. 
 
CUNNINGHAM