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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000077 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Israel-Turkey Relations 
 
¶3.  Anniversary of President ObamaQs Swearing-In 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All major media led with the aftermath of the earthquake in Port au 
Prince, the capital of Haiti.  Leading media cited President ObamaQs 
response to the disaster.  The media reported that several Israeli 
visitors to the country survived, that some others are missing, and 
that Israel and the Jewish Diaspora are organizing to bring a search 
and rescue team to Haiti, in conjunction with American or European 
authorities.  Israel Radio reported that, in an interview with CNN, 
Haitian President Rene Preval counted Israel as one of the nations 
assisting his country.  HaQaretz reported that the IDF is waiting 
for the stateQs decision regarding the character of the rescue 
mission.  Israel Radio reported that Magen David Adom (the Israeli 
equivalent of the Red Cross) is waiting for agreement by the 
American Red Cross to enter Haiti.  The radio reported that Israel 
has decided to set up a field hospital in Haiti rather than send a 
rescue team. 
 
All media reported that yesterday Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon apologized 
in writing to Turkish Ambassador Ogur Celikkol for the way he 
treated him on Monday.  Maariv wrote that Israel wanted to humiliate 
but found itself humiliated.  The Jerusalem Post wrote about the 
Qdiplomatic shot in the footQ that was Qheard around the world. 
Media reported that President Shimon Peres convinced FM Avigdor 
Lieberman and PM Benjamin Netanyahu to issue an apology.  Israel 
Radio reported that Netanyahu had agreed in principle to convey 
IsraelQs rebuke to Turkey but not with the manner Ayalon handled it. 
 HaQaretz and the radio quoted Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who 
acknowledged the receipt of the apology as saying that Turkey will 
not change and that Israel must amend its relations with the 
Palestinians and Syria.  Major media quoted Erdogan as saying that 
it was "the expected and desired response."  Israel Radio reported 
that Ayalon told the Knesset that the affair will eventually benefit 
Israeli-Turkish relations.  Speaking on the radio this morning, 
influential Kadima Knesset Member Haim Ramon said that Ayalon should 
apologize to the Israeli nation for the unwarranted humiliation it 
inflicted on it.  Ramon also regretted what he said was NetanyahuQs 
approving attitude toward Ayalon.  Maariv reported that the Jewish 
community in Turkey is enlisting against Ayalon. 
 
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that the soldiers who waved banners 
against evacuation of settlements will be removed from the Qhesder 
arrangement in which they combine military service and religious 
studies.  In an unprecedented decision, these soldiers will be 
obligated to serve three full years in the IDF, instead of the 
shorter army service required of hesder soldiers. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Israel is prohibiting Palestinian lawyers and 
the relatives of Palestinian detainees from reaching a military 
tribunal via the Beitunia checkpoint west of Ramallah.  The 
prohibition, which has been in effect for the past three days, means 
that Israeli police are requiring Palestinians to use the Qalandiyah 
crossing 20 kilometers away, where they must produce an entry permit 
to Israel -- which can take weeks to obtain -- if they want to enter 
an Israeli military tribunal that is on West Bank land.  The court 
lies 300 meters south of the Beitunia roadblock, and was built on 
land that is part of Beitunia.  The restriction contravenes a recent 
High Court of Justice decision opening Route 443 to Palestinian 
traffic 
 
All media reported that yesterday the leader of the Islamic Movement 
(Northern Branch), Sheikh Raed Salah, was sentenced to nine months 
in prison for assaulting a policeman and taking part in a violent 
demonstration in February 2007 near JerusalemQs Temple Mount. 
 
The media reported that yesterday State Comptroller Micha 
Lindenstrauss released an extensive report on the shortcomings of 
the defense establishment, focusing on logistical and manpower 
problems in the IDF.  The comptroller also said that the Arabs in 
Israel are exposed to deliberate anti-Israeli propaganda on Arabic 
satellite television, especially Al Jazeera and the Hamas and 
Hizbullah television channels. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Jared Maslin, an American Jewish 
journalist who worked as a senior English-language editor at the 
MaQan Palestinian news agency was denied entry into Israel on 
Tuesday and that he is scheduled to be deported today.  Security 
sources told the daily that Qsuspicious signsQ were identified on 
Maslin, adding that the suspicions were passed on to the Interior 
Ministry. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that an American Muslim organization is 
denying charges leveled by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that a 
national conference held to combat extremism actually promoted 
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment.  The ADL claimed that the 
Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America 
gathering held in December Qhas proven to be a sham and a cover for 
anti-Semitism and extremism. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a Brandeis University report, QSearching 
for the Study of Israel,Q according to which the past three years 
have seen a huge jump in the number and variety of courses about 
Israel taught in top U.S. universities. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QThe Big Bang of 2010 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (1/14): QIf the political system had worked properly, 
Netanyahu would be leading a moderate right-wing party, while Tzipi 
Livni would be heading a moderate left-wing party and Ehud Barak a 
centrist party.  After a brief election campaign, the leaders would 
have brought all three parties into a single sane Zionist 
government.... [But] Netanyahu is trapped in the hands of the 
Likud's extremists, Livni is trapped by Kadima's Likudniks, and 
Barak is trapped in a party that loves him just as much as he loves 
it.  All three are unable to implement their true political 
worldviews.  None of them can offer a clear way or decisive 
solutions.  An irrelevant Likud, a Labor that has lost its way, and 
a crumbling Kadima are causing the national leadership to remain 
stagnant.  A distorted political structure is making the next big 
bang inevitable.... The silent Israeli majority feels that Zionism 
is under siege.  The threat is posed not only by Iran, Hizbullah and 
Hamas.  The threat lies within ourselves: our moral eclipse, our 
obtuseness, our lack of feeling, our stupidity.  Our loss of faith 
in our rightness.  So all Zionist parties must come to their senses, 
come together and take action.  If Netanyahu proves he can lead the 
Zionist coalition and unite the Israeli majority, his leadership 
will have meaning.  But to do so he must make sure that the big bang 
of 2010 is a Zionist one, not a cynical one. 
 
II.  QMitchell: Blunder or Threat? 
 
Washington-based columnist Douglas Bloomfield wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (1/14): QA State Department 
spokesman denied [Senator George] Mitchell was sending any signals 
[when he raised the issue of loan guaranteed to Israel], but it's 
hard to believe that was an innocent, off-the-cuff remark from such 
an experienced diplomat, politician and judge.  Administration 
credibility was damaged in the eyes of many friends of Israel last 
year when it demanded a total settlement freeze and only later 
talked about Arab reciprocity -- which the Arabs privately and 
publicly rejected.  Officials privately admit they're still unable 
to get the Arabs to pitch in with anything more than gratuitous 
advice.... Chances of success [of MitchellQs upcoming visit] are low 
thanks to a collapse of trust between the two sides, weak 
leadership, deep divisions among the Palestinians and wide gaps 
between the two sides on fundamental issues.  Some question whether 
the administration really is making a serious new move for peace or 
just marking time until both Israelis and Palestinians get leaders 
who are ready to make the tough decisions essential to ending the 
conflict.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, QThere is a 
hunger for a resolutionQ of the conflict and called it Qan 
imperative goal.Q  You couldn't tell it by listening to Israeli and 
Palestinian leaders. 
 
 
 
III.  QTo Be Israeli Today 
 
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (1/14): QWhen I try to explain Israel to 
Americans, I ask them to imagine that 80 percent of their fellow 
citizens were Republicans.  Israel has become a one-party country -- 
the war party.  We're at war with the Middle East, with Europe, with 
liberal Jews in the Diaspora, and with a pathetically small handful 
of dissenters at home.  We trust no one.  We see anti-Semites 
everywhere.  We'd like to build an Iron Dome over this whole country 
to keep the world out.  There's very little oxygen around here; 
everyone is breathing the air that everyone else has exhaled.  This 
country has been stagnating for a decade.  And we've never achieved 
such unity. 
 
IV.  QSaudis Seek Illusory 'Third Way' in Regional Diplomacy 
 
Jonathan Spyer, a senior researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center, 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (1/14): QWhile 
holding fast to their alliance with the Iranians, and in return for 
nothing, the Syrians have been invited back to the top table of Arab 
diplomacy.  This, the Saudis hope, will allow for the noble task of 
trying to put Humpty together again -- that is, rebuilding Arab 
regional diplomacy along the comforting lines of 
all-together-against-Israel (at least verbally).  The problem with 
all this is that it won't work.  If the Saudis or anyone else 
believe that the pro-Iranian alliance can be stopped in its tracks 
by handing it victory, they are sorely mistaken.  The result of 
surrender in Lebanon has not been to restore QnormalityQ to that 
country -- it has been to place it firmly back into the 
Syrian/Iranian orbit.... In the Middle East today there is the 
U.S.-led alliance and the Iran-led alliance.  There is no third, 
Arab way.  Offering up gifts to Iran's chief Arab partners, 
meanwhile, will serve not to satiate the Iran-led bloc, but rather 
to whet its appetite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
---------------------------- 
¶2.  Israel-Turkey Relations: 
---------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QTime to Pay the Bill 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (1/14): QIt is absolutely not the right of the 
ruling Islamic party to make Israel an instrument by which it 
embarrassingly courts the Arab world.  It is absolutely not its 
right to attack Israel, condemn it, and sow anti-Semitic statements. 
 Until today, Israel exercised restraint about this, and that was a 
mistake. The time has now come to set a price tag for the Turkish 
administration, if it should continue the incitement, and the 
Foreign Ministry did well to start doing so.... If the Turkish 
administration wishes to paint its state in colors of anti-Western 
defiance, it is entitled to do so.  That is its internal affair.  If 
it seeks to sweep the country gradually to Islam, that is also its 
internal matter.  But this must not be permitted to come at the 
expense of another sovereign state, Israel.  If Turkey continues to 
do so, it will also have to pay for the use that it is making of 
Israel, and it should take this into account.  In the Middle East, 
as the Syrians, the new friends of the Turks, have taught us -- 
there are no free lunches. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶3.  Anniversary of President ObamaQs Swearing-In: 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"America and Obama" 
 
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 (1/14): QAmerican society is still 
light-years away from full, true equality among the various ethnic 
groups that compose it.... As America stood to meet this challenge 
successfully, the disturbing fact has been exposed that the foci of 
patronizing and discrimination of the other -- as demonstrated [in 
QGame Change,Q] the shining opus by [American journalists Mark 
Halperin and John Heilman] -- are found in the halls of power, not 
in the analphabetic margins of society.  Against the background of 
this reality, there is room for asking whether the Aerica whether 
the American nation did not celebrate ObamaQs entrance into the 
White House too quickly. 
 
CUNNINGHAM