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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 statements made yesterday morning by FM Avigdor 
Lieberman at Bar-Ilan University yesterday that Syria would be 
defeated and the regime of President Assad and his family toppled 
were it to attack Israel, and that Syria should renounce the idea of 
receiving the Golan.  Maariv says that the FM is trying to thwart 
secret contacts with Syria that were initiated by DM Ehud Barak. 
Most media stressed efforts by PM Benjamin Netanyahu and DM Barak to 
calm down relations with Syria, while other media outlets reported 
that the PM is trying to reconcile or appease his senior ministers 
or silence his cabinet members.  Maariv quoted the IDFQs OC Central 
Command Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi as saying that the IDF can reach 
Damascus.  Mizrahi was speaking to students in the Efrat Yeshiva (in 
the West Bank).  Maariv quoted Assad as saying in an interview with 
The New Yorker that he will not give Israel the peace it wants. 
Media reported that Assad commented on IsraelQs messy 
decision-making. 
 
Israel Radio quoted the London-based newspaper A-Sharq Al-Awsat as 
saying that Washington is trying to resolve the differences between 
Israel and Syria. 
 
Leading media cited a report written by U.N. Secretary-General Ban 
Ki-moon upon the request of the U.N. General Assembly that Israel 
has responded in detail to the U.N.Qs demand to comment on its 
actions during Operation Cast Lead, but that it is still impossible 
to draw conclusions regarding IsraelQs examination of the 
accusations included in the Goldstone Report, because the 
investigation is on-going.  The Yediot-linked news service Ynet 
quoted Israeli diplomats as saying that BanQs comment reflects 
IsraelQs determination to conduct independent probes.  Maariv 
reported that the IDF will include a Qhumanitarian officerQ in any 
future incursion into Gaza. 
 
Kadima Knesset Member and former minister Meir Sheetrit was quoted 
as saying this morning in an interview with Israel Radio that his 
party might enter NetanyahuQs government coalition under certain 
circumstances. 
 
Yediot reported that, contrary to other senior leaders, Hamas 
Qchief of staffQ Ahmed al-Ja'abari is opposed to the prisoner swap 
involving Gilad Shalit, as it would remove the movementQs trump 
card. 
 
Israel Radio quoted IranQs Ambassador in Moscow as saying that 
Russia will make good on the delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft 
missiles to his country.  The radio cited RussiaQs silence on the 
matter. 
 
HaQaretz reported that, following the controversy over the alleged 
role of the New Israel Fund (NIF) in providing information to the 
Goldstone Commission, The Jerusalem Post is dropping a weekly 
left-leaning column by NIF President Professor Naomi Chazan. 
HaQaretz said that Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz 
would not comment. 
 
HaQaretz (Amira Hass) reported that settler efforts to stem Qillegal 
Arab buildingQ in Beit Sahur-East (in the Bethlehem area) have 
momentarily borne fruit: USAID stopped funding a public park in the 
community and the IDF is building a watchtower that the settlers 
hope will expand onto a Jewish town in the only empty space left in 
the Christian town 
 
HaQaretz reported that a group of Israelis and Palestinians have 
joined forces to create a binational neighborhood along the 
Jerusalem/Bethlehem border -- for the first time since 1967. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the central district attorney is set to serve 
an indictment, pending a hearing, against Omri Abo, who was then in 
the Border Police, on charges of negligent manslaughter in the fatal 
shooting of 10-year-old Ahmad Musa in the village of NaQalin 18 
months ago. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this week British PM Gordon Brown and 
French PM Francois Fillon responded to harsh reports about 
manifestations of anti-Semitism in their respective countries -- 
most of them in the wake of Operation Cast Lead -- by promising to 
implement deterrent measures and promote legislation. 
 
HaQaretz reported that over 40 Nobel Prize winners from various 
countries have added signatures to a full-page ad denouncing Iranian 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that is due to be published in The New 
York Times and International Herald Tribune in the next few days. 
The ad, initiated by Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, condemns IranQs 
severe human rights violations and warns that IranQs nuclear program 
is a danger to humanity. 
 
For the past couple of weeks, the media wondered whether popular TV 
and print journalist Yair Lapid -- the son of the late journalist 
and politician Yosef (Tommy) Lapid -- would enter politics.  Likud 
politicians demanded that he observe a Qcooling periodQ and 
suggested that legislation be voted to this effect. 
 
According to a HaQaretz poll conducted on February 1 and 2, 53 
percent of the Israeli public are unhappy with FM Lieberman. 
- The survey also asked,  QIs a military confrontation between 
Israel and Iran more likely in 2010?,Q  to which 43 percent of 
respondents answered QyesQ; 41 percent believe there will be no 
change in likelihood; while 4 percent said Qno. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QThe New Maturity 
 
Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (2/5): QThe frustrations 
ObamaQs administration feel with Israel are empathetically still 
 
there.... But still, for now, some [Washington] insiders reiterate, 
things are a little better.  Ties between a fresh, young president 
newly recognizing the limits of his power and a second-time prime 
minister all-too aware of the limits of his, have reached a certain 
maturity. 
 
 
II.  QSuddenly, a Crisis 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning HaQaretz (2/5): QDamascus' appearance on 
the American tourist map and the imminent appointment of a U.S. 
ambassador there reflect a rapprochement between Bashar Assad's 
regime and the United States after years of tension and distance.... 
But suddenly a crisis has erupted.  Syrian and Israeli officials 
exchanged declarations about war and cranked up the threats.... 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried, as usual, to appease [his 
defense and foreign ministers] and released a lukewarm response. 
QIsrael wants peace without preconditions,Q he said to appease Ehud 
Barak, and QIsrael will react resolutely and firmly to any threat, 
to appease Avigdor Lieberman. 
 
III.  QBlowing off Steam 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff and military 
correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of HaQaretz (2/5): QIn 
the absence of an American Qstick,Q there is no obvious candidate 
for urging Syria to initiate unconditional talks with Israel.  Even 
Syria's bitter rivals in the Arab world, such as Saudi Arabia and 
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of former Lebanese Prime 
Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated in 2005 apparently on 
Syrian orders, recognize they must reconcile with Damascus for the 
sake of Lebanon's stability.  Perhaps it is Syria's new, brighter 
situation that led Assad to declare that it will not stand idly by 
if Israel carries out another aerial assault on Syrian targets or if 
there is another mysterious assassination on Syrian soil. 
 
IV.  QFrustration in Damascus 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (2/5): 
QBashar Assad understands the price he and the ruling Alawite 
minority would have to pay, in a country that is 74 percent Sunni, 
for a genuine peace with Israel.  That is why in this weekQs New 
Yorker, Assad frankly told Seymour Hersh that even if Syria regained 
the entire Golan, Israel Qcannot expect me to give them the peace 
they expect.Q  Indeed, if Israel got the peace we expected, AssadQs 
de-facto truce with the Muslim Brotherhood would come undone.  HeQd 
have to expel Hamas leaders from Syria, a step the Brotherhood would 
find insufferable. A bad divorce with Teheran would ensue. 
Hizbullah would reorient LebanonQs policies accordingly.  In short, 
Assad would be going down the path taken by the late Anwar Sadat: 
carving out a separate peace with Israel while the Palestinian issue 
festered, albeit due to the PalestiniansQ own intransigence. 
Naturally, if Assad got the Golan Heights on his terms, the 
legitimacy of his regime would be bolstered.  But no Israeli 
government -- not Yitzhak RabinQs and not Benjamin NetanyahuQs -- 
can come down from the Golan in return for a sham peace.... 
Regrettably, Assad cannot afford to make real peace. Worse still, 
through a series of military and rhetorical miscalculations -- 
inspired, perhaps, by Iranian mischief-making -- Assad is blundering 
toward a conflagration with Israel. 
 
¶V.  QWhat Wonderful Leadership 
 
Diplomatic correspondent and television anchor Ben Caspit wrote on 
page one of the popular, pluralist Maariv (2/5): QThis is our 
foreign minister: instead of dealing with calming matters, 
rapprochement, quiet diplomacy, and improving IsraelQs standing 
around the world, he deals with threats, warnings, and a bloody 
battle over IsraelQs dignity.  In other words, because Lieberman 
identifies Barak as the real foreign minister, he tries to be the 
defense minister.  In his terms, the defense minister is the war 
minister.... Lieberman has caused major, inconceivable damage over 
the past year to IsraelQs international standing.  He has caused 
this damage by saying a great many true things.  But in the end, 
when the truth disperses, we are left with the shards, with a 
Goldstone report, and with officers and leaders who cannot leave 
IsraelQs borders for fear of being arrested.  Israel is under 
international siege, losing its legitimacy, and losing the worldQs 
attentiveness for its arguments.  This is greater strategic damage 
than the damage of a war or an Intifada.  Lieberman is not 
interested in this.  The main thing is that we maintained our 
posture and stuck it to the Syrians. 
 
VI.  QLieberman Speaks their Language 
 
Nationalist columnist Erel Segal wrote on page one of Maariv (2/5): 
QForeign Minister LiebermanQs threat against Bashar Assad is not a 
bad answer to the Syrian Foreign Minister.  One can deride 
LiebermanQs triteness, lack of sophistication, and verbal brutality. 
 Everybody is so touchy about the Damascus tyrantQs dignity.  But 
inwardly ... all of you know that in real life, the more so in our 
neighborhood, one must talk in a language that absolutely everyone 
understands.  With due respect to diplomacy and pandering, sticky 
cocktail parties, Israeli diplomacy gets a failing grade and sinks 
into the murky water of apologies.  Maybe it should try something 
else. 
 
VII.  QA Marketplace Style 
 
Veteran journalist and television anchor Dan Margalit wrote on page 
one of  the independent Israel Hayom (2/5): QNetanyahu is paying a 
double, hefty price for the dizzy show of the Foreign Minister who 
assails key countries.  Domestic and foreign voices increasingly 
wonder whether the two men may be playing Qgood cop/bad copQ in full 
coordination.  I cannot imagine that this is a real possibility, but 
the very fact that it being mentioned in every debate is causing the 
Prime Minister damage by its very futility. 
 
VIII.  QLieberman Is Not Alone 
 
Senior diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (2/5): QPrime Minister 
Binyamin Netanyahu hurried to call Lieberman after the speech, but 
NetanyahuQs advisers made it clear: QHe didnQt reprimand him.Q  In 
fact, they say, the two are completely in accord as to the content 
of the statements.  They differ only on the question of the timing. 
Netanyahu wants quiet now on the Syrian front.  He seeks to lower 
the flames in the statements made on the Israeli side.... No less 
important is the position of the United States.  In advance of the 
planned pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq in the course of 2010, the 
administration is preparing to establish understandings with the 
states of the region in order to ensure that Iraq will not 
disintegrate.  From the standpoint of the U.S., there is great 
importance to the way Syria will act: it can encourage terrorist 
groups or it can cooperate with the Americans.  The decision to 
return an American ambassador to Damascus, which was announced by 
U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell to Assad, was intended to 
strengthen the cooperation between the CIA and the Syrian security 
services, in an attempt to cope with terror organizations whose 
members leave from Syria to attack American and Iraqi troops.  Assad 
expects the U.S. to reward him for the cooperation: to extricate 
NetanyahuQs consent to a withdrawal from the entire Golan Heights as 
part of a peace agreement.  One way or another, the next peace 
agreement will be signed according to the principle established by 
Menachem Begin: all the territory occupied in 1967 in exchange for 
peace with Syria and the Palestinian Authority. 
 
IX.  QShattered Images in the South 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (2/5): QBarack Obama and other dignified 
guests have been taken to Sderot to witness the town's suffering 
under Qassam barrages.  But the townspeople's expectations that they 
would be the first to be protected by Iron Dome have been shattered. 
 Now our defense chiefs are telling them that a situational 
evaluation will be necessary to figure out where to put the system. 
The mutual backslapping over the system's success and the fight over 
who deserves the credit have given way to mutual accusations and 
complaints.... The cost of producing launchers and missiles against 
cheap rockets is extremely high.  We need money for building attack 
forces, protecting civilians and other defense measures, not just 
Iron Dome.  The dilemma is more real than its packaging.  Israelis 
deserve not merely defense, but a leadership that speaks to them 
seriously, without spreading illusions. 
 
CUNNINGHAM