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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000261 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
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.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Major media led with a statement made yesterday by Syrian President 
Bashar Assad in a meeting with Spanish FM Miguel Moratinos that 
Israel is pushing the Middle East toward a new war.  The media 
reported that Assad was responding to DM Ehud BarakQs comment on 
Monday that the stalled peace process with Syria could bode ill for 
the future of the Middle East and even lead to comprehensive war. 
Media quoted Syrian FM Walid Muallem as saying that Israelis Qknow 
that war at this time will come to your cities.Q  The media 
highlighted PM Benjamin NetanyahuQs expression of sorrow over 
AssadQs remarks.  HaQaretz quoted Netanyahu as saying on Tuesday 
during talks with Moratinos that he did not share Moratinos' belief 
that Syria was ready to leave Iran's orbit.  "I have seen no 
evidence whatsoever of what you are saying," the PM was quoted as 
saying.  This morning leading media reported that FM Avigdor 
Lieberman, who spoke before a business forum at Bar-Ilan University, 
warned Assad Qin unprecedented wordsQ that should he attack Israel, 
he stands to lose not only a war but also his grip on Syria.  The 
media cited LiebermanQs amazement at the way Syrian leaders 
responded to DM BarakQs moderate statements. 
 
 
The Jerusalem Post led with a demand by Knesset members to 
investigate the New Israel Fund (NIF), in the wake of last FridayQs 
article in Maariv that sympathetically cited the NPO Im TirtzuQs 
allegation that NIF was at the basis of the Goldstone ReportQs 
blaming of Israel.  (The Knesset decided to set up a special 
subcommittee to inquire into the matter of contributions to Israeli 
NGOs from foreign governments and organizations.)  NIF President 
Professor Naomi Chazan was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Israel Radio that Im Tirtzu is engaged in anti-democratic NIF 
bashing.  The radio also cited the Israeli Arab human rights group 
Adalah as having Qbecome one of the major human rights organizations 
in the world. 
 
The media quoted PM Netanyahu as saying in his address to the 
Herzliya conference yesterday: QI have reason to hope, 
realistically, that in the next few weeks we will renew the peace 
process with the Palestinians, without preconditions.Q  However, 
NetanyahuQs main message to the conference was an emphasis on 
strengthening Jewish and Zionist education and values. 
 
HaQaretz reported that last week in Washington an Israeli Foreign 
Ministry delegation met with American officials, including Assistant 
Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Michael 
Posner, and President Barack Obama's adviser on human rights, 
Samantha Power.  The U.S. reportedly suggested to Israel that easing 
the Gaza blockade would help counter the fallout from the Goldstone 
Report.  In another development, Yediot reported that Judge Richard 
Goldstone recently told Yale University students that the U.N. is 
unfair toward Israel. 
 
Maariv revealed that for the past two years an Israeli and a 
Palestinian team has been discussing the borders of a future 
Palestinian state at the James A. Baker III Institute for Foreign 
Policy in Houston.  The newspaper reported that the teams have come 
up with three alternatives. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday the Jerusalem Municipality 
announced that Mayor Nir Barkat had agreed to carry out a court 
order to evacuate and seal Beit Yehonatan, a seven-story 
Jewish-owned structure built without the proper permits in the East 
Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.  Nonetheless, in his response to 
State Attorney Moshe Lador, Barkat made it clear that he was 
carrying out the order under Qprotest and heavy criticism,Q and that 
while the city would act on the matter of Beit Yehonatan, more than 
200 Arab-owned homes in Silwan built without the proper permits 
would be evacuated and demolished as well. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a paper prepared for Chief PA 
Negotiator Saeb Erekat calls for a one-state solution alternative to 
the two-state solution.   The newspaper cited the hope of senior 
Fatah official Nabil ShaQath that his trip to Gaza yesterday will 
spark a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation. This is the first visit by a 
senior Fatah official since the Hamas takeover of the Strip in 
¶2007. 
 
Israel Radio reported that yesterday Palestinians fired two rockets 
at Israel.  No casualties were reported.  The media reported that 
yesterday another barrel filled with explosives washed ashore on the 
Palmahim beach south of Rishon Lezion. The police urged the public 
not to visit the beaches at this time.  In other news, media 
reported that residents of southern Israel, including Labor Knesset 
Member and former Defense Minister Amir Peretz, a Sderot resident, 
are vowing to rise up against the decision not to deploy the Iron 
Dome missile system. 
 
The media reported that yesterday Iran successfully conducted a 
ballistic test.  Commentators noted that the new missiles could 
reach targets in Europe or even the U.S. 
 
The media reported that a few hours after making a pro-Zionist 
speech to the Knesset plenum, Italian PM Silvio likened the 
suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza to that of the Jews during the 
Holocaust.   Berlusconi was talking at a press conference with 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. 
 
Israel Radio reported that an Egyptian court punished two senior 
Egyptian journalists for holding contacts with Israeli officials. 
The radio construed that Culture Minister Farouk Hosni instigated 
those moves. 
 
Over the past few days, several media described the reported plight 
of Palestinian Christians in Hamas-controlled Gaza. 
 
Israel Hayom reported that the U.S. will build the new QpitQ -- the 
underground IDF command -- in the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv. 
 
Yediot reported that the Israeli Embassy in Berlin has protested 
over the characterization of Jaffa as a QPalestinian ghettoQ by the 
German producers of the film QAjamiQ Q the Israeli contender for 
best foreign film at the Academy of Motion pictures. 
 
Yediot reported that the City of Beverly Hills will soon name a 
street after Dr. Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism. 
 
HaQaretz reported that a U.S. grandson of Holocaust survivors has 
purchased the diary of notorious Auschwitz physician Dr. Joseph 
Mengele. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QLook for the Iranians 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (2/4): QIsraelQs 
repeated calls for calm to Syria continue to fall on deaf ears.  The 
Syrians do not believe us.... [Bashar Assad] would remain 
unconvinced ]by tips from Israeli intelligence that Israel has no 
bellicose plans against Syria].... From remarks [made last week by 
National Security Advisor James] Jones it can be surmised that the 
ones inciting the Syrians are the Iranians.  Confronted with the 
American threat, Iran is now posing its own, all too concrete, 
threat: if you upset us, we can set the entire Middle East on fire. 
Fanning the flames up north increases as the date of sanctions 
approaches.... With one hand the Americans are planning to tighten 
the rope around IranQs neck, and with the other to brace for an 
Iranian military response.  The Iranians are well aware of the 
American deadline.  This is why their responses are becoming more 
and more extreme.  On the one hand they suddenly display moderation, 
saying that they would be willing to have their uranium enriched in 
some other country, but at the same time they are making public 
displays of ballistic missiles and sending threats in every 
direction.  And the Syrians and the Lebanese?  They are pawns on 
IranQs chess board.... There is no real Israeli threat to Syria. 
The trouble is that in our region virtual tensions -- if not treated 
carefully -- may become, overnight, all too real. 
 
II.  QSyria Now 
 
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote on page one of the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/4): QThere will be no dramatic breakthrough 
on the Palestinian track in the near future, so a breakthrough on 
the Syrian track must be initiated. The problem is basically 
political. Peace with Syria has no party and no leader. And it has 
no libido. Oddly, the remnants of the Israeli left relate to peace 
with Syria like some kind of stepchild. Their passion is for the 
Palestinians, not the Syrians. The ardent courting is all aimed at 
the disinterested Palestinians. Even today, Israel is expending most 
of its peace-seeking energy on a useless effort to cajole the wrong 
neighbor.  The time has come to reset the system and change course. 
To forestall the evil rising in the east, every effort must be made 
to enter a dialogue with Syrian President Bashar Assad.  To avert a 
horrendous war, not a stone on the road to Damascus should be left 
unturned.  To offer hope to the Middle East, the prospects held out 
by the secular regime in Syria must be exhausted.  It may be that at 
the end of the day, the Syrians, too, will turn their backs on us, 
but every day that goes by without an effort to reach peace with 
Syria is a day marked by criminal negligence. 
 
III.  QObama Is Weak: and That Is Bad for the Jews 
 
Conservative columnist and former senior IDF officer Yaakov Amidror 
wrote in the independent Israel Hayom (2/4): QIsrael has many 
reasons to regret the fact that the U.S. President has been 
weakened.  The fact that he will find it more difficult to enforce 
his view on the matter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not 
make up for the loss of American ability in other spheres.  It may 
be that even the President realizes the danger of an image of being 
weak and the report on the deployment of missiles in the Persian 
Gulf as well as the decision to get weapon sales to Taiwan approved 
should be seen in this light.  These two events were reported as a 
signal to all those rejoicing in his weakness in the world.  Will 
the White House also want to signal, in the Palestinian matter too, 
that it should be taken into consideration more than its weakness? 
Time will tell. 
 
IV.  QShalit Is Disappearing 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (2/4): QIt 
seems the Prime Minister is being motivated by considerations of 
honor, which he fears will be decimated if he accedes to all of 
Hamas' demands.  Netanyahu is still a prisoner of his former 
opposition to freeing any terrorist, as well as of the fear that he 
will be held responsible for any future terror attacks.  Honor is 
indeed a fundamental consideration in any act of state.  But the 
Shalit deal is not an Qact of stateQ -- it is a humanitarian 
necessity.  Failing to carry it out will actually undermine the 
state's honor in the eyes of its citizens.  Moreover, when Netanyahu 
places the ball in Hamas' court, he is eradicating the last vestiges 
of his own honor.  After all, he conducted negotiations with Hamas 
and made huge concessions to the organization.  But in the end he 
could not find the courage to complete the deal.  Shalit must not be 
allowed to disappear into a mist of empty verbiage.  This soldier, 
who has already been in captivity for three and a half years, cannot 
serve as a living monument to Israel's national pride.  The price of 
such an Qimage victoryQ over Hamas is liable to prove higher than we 
can bear. 
¶V.  QDaydreaming 
 
Dr. Matti Steinberg, who served as has adviser to two heads of Shin 
Bet, wrote in HaQaretz (2/4): Q[In a HaQaretz article last month, 
former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Meron] Benvenisti saw the QFuture 
VisionQ document formulated by prominent Israeli Arab intellectuals 
as an exemplary expression of Qparity of esteem,Q but in fact what 
they advocate is neutralizing the Jewish nation's capability of 
self-determination in a binational state.  They would achieve this 
by demanding a veto right over any government decision affecting the 
Arab population -- in other words over everything, because all 
decisions affect them.  When I pointed this out at an academic 
conference and explained that the document would ultimately lead to 
mono-national Arab-Palestinian rule, an Arab Israeli academic told 
me in private that they were demanding a veto right to protect me, 
as an Israeli Jew, when I become part of a national minority in a 
single state.  It's a pity that this academic, an advocate of a 
binational state, did not summon up the courage to say this openly 
in public.  It's an even greater pity that Benvenisti wishes, 
probably unconsciously, to draw us either consciously or 
unconsciously into this booby trap. 
 
VI.  QGive Responsibility back to Jordan 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Yediot Aharonot (2/4): QIsrael 
did Jordan a favor in 1967, when it severed it from the troubles of 
the Palestinians in the West Bank, just as it did Egypt a favor when 
it severed it from Gaza.  This Israeli stupidity has to end, and 
right away.  The Jordanians, of course, are alarmed by the 
possibility of having to handle Palestinian affairs, just as the 
Egyptians became alarmed and did everything so that Israel not leave 
Philadelphi Road -- but there is no evading this.  The tiny 
Palestinian state will not be viable unless it has a direct and 
clear connection to Jordan, where already there is a solid 
Palestinian majority, and the crown prince himself is half 
Palestinian.  How can Israel go about this?  By opening the Allenby 
crossing to a direct Jordanian-Palestinian connection, without 
Israeli involvement.... The time has come for Israel to stop doing 
the dirty work for the Jordanians, just as it has stopped doing it 
for the Egyptians. 
 
VII.  QWar Stories Our Daughters WonQt Tell Us 
 
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (2/4): QI think everyone knows why the 
soldiers who talk to Breaking the Silence [the NGO which collects 
mostly anonymous testimony from soldiers serving in the territories] 
remain anonymous: because if their identities were known, theyQd be 
pariahs in this society -- Goldstones on a smaller scale.... We can 
go on brutalizing the Palestinians.  Inadvertently, we can go on 
brutalizing our daughters and sons, too.  We just canQt do it in 
silence -- which is what gives me hope. 
 
VIII.  QSilvio Caesar 
 
Columnist Nadav Eyal wrote on page one of the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (2/4): QOur politicians bestowed an emperorQs honor on 
Berlusconi and did just about everything short of flinging roses at 
his feet, but such disappointment: just as the Italian Prime 
Minister crossed the Green Line yesterday, he sided with the 
Palestinians -- and even with comparisons made between Gaza and the 
Holocaust.  Roman pragmatism, you see.  Most of the time Berlusconi 
is a friend to Israel, however such a fact fails to change other 
facts, some of which even more important.  The first of these is, of 
course, the problematic character of Berlusconi himself.... The 
world really doesnQt tolerate him; his political and financial 
accomplishments are mediocre at best, but the people love him.  Our 
politicians gaze at Berlusconi and are certainly jealous; Silvio is 
their role model. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
QObama's Lobbying Law of Unintended Consequences 
 
Washington-based columnist Douglas Bloomfield wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (2/4): QU.S. President 
Barack ObamaQs call for tightening restrictions on lobbying could 
have an unintended impact on Jewish organizations and other 
nonprofit groups working on behalf of a wide range of public 
interest causes, including the elderly, the poor, the environment 
and the hungry.  The proposals in ObamaQs State of the Union address 
to Qrequire lobbyists to disclose each contactQ with Congress or the 
administration on behalf of a client will create an avalanche of 
paperwork for the small groups that can least afford it.  More 
useful would be more detailed reporting by public officials -- and 
spouses -- of their sources of funding and assets.... The politics 
of disclosure could discourage volunteers from working for 
charitable causes if they fear theyQll be attacked by the 
incumbentQs political opponents as influence peddlers engaging in 
questionable activity, which is the way the President made lobbying 
sound.  The key to the success of public-interest advocacy is a 
well-informed, motivated grassroots network of citizen lobbyists. 
Turning them into targets for gotcha politics is unhealthy for our 
democracy. 
 
CUNNINGHAM