Cablegate: Israel Media Reaction

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Mideast

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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Radio quoted a senior American official as saying that the
talks between Israel and the Palestinians could be resumed even
without a complete freeze in settlement construction and that the
U.S. insists on a complete freeze in settlement construction. The
radio reported that an Arab diplomat confirmed the U.S. officialQs
statement and said that Israel should content itself with a symbolic
thaw of relations with the Arab states, while the Palestinians would
receive in exchange a partial freeze of construction in settlements.
Both officials were interviewed by a Reuters correspondent in
Washington.

The Jerusalem Post reported that two Likud rallies have been
organized to express opposition to the settlement freeze PM Benjamin
Netanyahu reportedly negotiated with U.S. Special Envoy for Middle
East Peace George Mitchell in London. The first, scheduled for
Tuesday at Tel Aviv's Azrieli Tower, was organized by
Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled. It is not officially an
anti-Netanyahu rally but rather a "pro-Jerusalem event," and yet
Knesset members who attend are expected to bash the deal the PM is
negotiating with the Americans. The second, set for September 9 at
the Likud's Tel Aviv headquarters, openly opposes any freeze on
construction in the West Ban and will launch a "National Forum" in
the Likud that will actively oppose concessions to the U.S. Three
ministers have told organizers they will attend the event:
Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan, Communications
Minister Moshe Kahlon, and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein.
Organizers still hope to attract Vice PM Moshe Ya'alon and
Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin to the rally. In a related
matter, The Jerusalem Post quoted Pinchas Wallerstein, the
Director-General of the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in the
Territories, as saying yesterday: "When Netanyahu talks of a
Palestinian state, I hate it, but am not worried, because there will
be no peace deal. When Netanyahu speaks about a settlement freeze,
it's a death sentence for the settlement enterprise."

The media highlighted events organized yesterday to mark Gilad
Shalit's 23rd birthday. Israel Radio cited the London-based
Al-Hayat that quoted Egyptian sources as saying that Hamas political
leader Khaled Mashal will come to Cairo next week to finalize the
Shalit deal.

All media reported that yesterday in Berlin, PM Benjamin Netanyahu,
who was presented the architectural blueprints of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps that will be permanently deposited at
the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, hinted at the danger posed to
Israel by the Iranian nuclear program. The media also reported that
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who ignored Netanyahu's
Auschwitz-Iran comparison, reiterated the need for a freeze on
settlement construction on a number of occasions during her joint
press conference with the Israeli PM. Israel Radio reported that
Israel is resuming its strategic dialogue with Germany, and that
Netanyahu and eight of his senior ministers are slated to visit
Germany in one-and-a-half months.

The Jerusalem Post reported on more illegal building in northern
West Bank settlements -- for instance in Kiryat Netafim. The
newspaper also cited a report published yesterday by the Ir Amim NGO
-- an Israeli organization founded in 2004 to promote
Israeli-Palestinian co-existence in Jerusalem -- that the GOI is
helping a plan to move an additional 750 Jews into Arab areas of
East Jerusalem.

Israel Radio reported that Bahrain denied a report in the British
daily The Guardian that it will allow El Al planes to fly in its air
space and that an Israeli Embassy and cultural mission will open in
its capital, Manama. Israel Radio cited an announcement by the
Bahraini Foreign Ministry that there will not be normalization with
Israel until just, full peace is established in the Middle East.
The Guardian had reported that Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, and the UAE
has agreed in principle to overflights by El Al airliners and the
opening of diplomatic representations as part of a normalization of
relations with Israel.

Former Irish President and former U.N. Human Rights Commissioner
Mary Robinson, a member of the 'Elders' delegation touring Israel
and the Palestinian territories, was quoted as saying in an
interview with The Jerusalem Post that if Israel does not freeze
settlement construction, a two-state solution may no longer be
possible. Bishop Desmond Tutu, another member of the delegation,
was quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz:
The lesson that
Israel must learn that the Holocaust
is that it can never get
security through fences, walls, and guns.

HaQaretz reported that, standing in for the leaders of Israel, the
U.S., the PA, and other regional and world actors, Israeli policy
experts met this week at a Council for Peace and Security-sponsored
simulation of the Obama peace initiative's launch. The daily's
Akiva Eldar reported that the results of the exercise resembled
reality -- hopeful but fraught with risks.

Citing FM Avigdor LiebermanQs upcoming trip to several African
countries, Maariv reported that the Israeli Government is trying to
fight Iranian rapprochement plans in Africa.

HaQaretz and Maariv reported that Palestinian authorities in the
West Bank, funded by USAID, have begun replacing Israeli-installed
road signs bearing Hebrew script with new signs in just Arabic and
English. The move is in preparation for a future Palestinian state.
HaQaretz cited an AP report quoting Howard Sumka of USAID as saying
that the project is expected to take four years and cost $20
million.

HaQaretz quoted peace activist Prof. Leonard Fine as saying in an
Internet blog that when the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy came to
Israel in 1995 to attend the funeral of assassinated PM Yitzhak
Rabin, he scattered on RabinQs grave earth from the graves of his
brothers, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy.

HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that U.S.-born Judge Neal Hendel,
who has been appointed Justice in the High Court of Justice, Qbrings
in U.S. legal experience, not just religion.

Yediot reported that many Israeli residents of Los Angeles planning
to return to their homeland as a result of the current economic
depression have defrauded American citizens and businesses.

Yediot reported that Beirut Mayor Abdel Mounim Ariss, who also
chairs the Union of Mediterranean Cities (sic), has invited the
Mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, to a congress on proper water usage.

The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a Smith Research poll taken
this week on behalf of the newspaper: The number of Israelis who see
President Obama's policies as pro-Israel has fallen to 4% from 6% in
a Jerusalem Post poll in June. Fifty-one percent of Jewish Israelis
consider Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than

pro-Israeli, according to the survey, while 35% consider it neutral,
and 10% declined to express an opinion. The poll asked Jewish
Israelis whether they would support freezing settlement construction
for a year as part of an American-brokered deal. Fifty percent said
Qno,Q 41% said QyesQ and 9% did not express an opinion.

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Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "Chain Reaction"

Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent,
left-leaning HaQaretz (8/28): QThe issue of Iran's nuclear program
... hovered in the background of [this week's Netanyahu-Mitchell]
meeting. After stripping the expected rhetorical flourishes from
Obama's gesture -- the talk of peace and quotations from the Koran
-- its strategic purpose is laid bare: the formation of a regional
coalition against Iran, led by the United States and with the
participation of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan,
Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the small Gulf states. Every member will
have to contribute something: the United States, the diplomatic
cover and the military umbrella; Israel, the removal of checkpoints
and a freeze on building in West Bank settlements; the PA, the
renewal of the peace talks; Egypt and Saudi Arabia, intra-Arab
legitimacy; while the Gulf and Maghreb states are to agree to an
Israeli diplomatic presence on their soil and overflights by El Al
Israel Airlines in their skies. The discussion is about the details
-- the scope of the construction freeze and the normalization -- not
the essence. The linkage between the settlements and Iran's nuclear
program cannot be taken for granted. Even if not a single new
apartment is built in Ariel, Psagot or Ma'ale Levona, and even if

all the settlements are dismantled, this will not stop the spinning
of the centrifuges at the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility. The
converse is also true: the elimination of Iran's nuclear program, or
even the collapse of Iran's Islamic regime and its replacement with
a pro-Western, pro-Zionist government will not end the conflict over
the Land of Israel. The absence of a direct causal relationship,
however, does not mean that there is no connection. There is a big
connection, due to the strategic interests of the parties.

II. "Obama Gives, Obama Gets"

Columnist Shmuel Rosner, who was HaQaretz's correspondent in
Washington, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (8/28):
QMitchell, who always excelled in his practical caution, got another
chance to help the president come down off his high horse. On the
way, it looks like he also helped the Prime Minister of Israel.
Both of them have made mistakes over the past several months: Obama,
who rightly saw the settlements as an Israeli weak point, which is
hard to defend to the public, pushed a little too hard, in a
too-aggressive tone, until he even made some of the people who abhor
the settlement movement angry with him. Netanyahu, who hoped to
reset the political dictionary and erase the concept of the
two-state solution from it, discovered that the price of such
semantic ventures did not justify the gain. This week, a very
practical conversation took place -- a business meeting. It was
actually NetanyahuQs same old give-and-take, only this time it was
directed toward the American ally rather than toward the Palestinian
interlocutor.... The seeds of the next calamity are already planted
in the interim reports about this weekQs meetings between Netanyahu
and Mitchell. The reason: it is not certain that Netanyahu will be
able to deliver the goods that he has promised. The settlers will
certainly try to circumvent the slight freeze to which Israel has
agreed and object to any evacuation. Even the vague agreement about
East Jerusalem invites trouble -- the Americans agreed that
Jerusalem would not be frozen, but understood that Israel would
try not to go too far in provocations. This means, practically
speaking, that right-wing organizations and their supporters will
try to embarrass the government as much as possible by purchasing
and populating (two days ago, one of the big donors to these
organizations had a telephone conversation in which he promised to
increase the pace), and that the Palestinians will continue to
expect the American referee to call a foul every time such an
incident occurs. But even more than Netanyahu, it is not certain
that Obama will be able to deliver the goods. For all practical
purposes, the U.S. President can be compared to one who promised
Israel a shipment of goods that has a bill of lading that proves
that he received them, but they are not yet in the warehouse. In
other words, the keeping of MitchellQs promises to Netanyahu -- and
we are talking here about Qdefining goalsQ more than firm Qpromises
-- depends upon the keeping of promises that other countries gave to
Obama.

III. "Liberals and Israel"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized (8/28):

The pro-Israel liberalism embodied by [Edward] Kennedy, Hubert
Humphrey, Henry Jackson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Jacob Javits
seems archaic nowadays. Their generation knew first-hand that the
Arabs' rejection of Israel's existence was at the root of the
conflict. Today, calls for throwing the Jews into the sea have been
replaced by reasonable-sounding Arab initiatives for a two-state
solution. Only the fine print -- pertaining to recognition,
borders, militarization and refugees -- suggests something else.
Once there were no settlements, and still the Arabs sought Israel's
destruction. Yet yesterday, a CNN primer of the conflict pointed to
settlements as the stumbling block to peace. Maybe the old Kennedy
liberals were really centrists, and today's progressives are really
leftists. Or maybe, 60 years on, liberals have just grown
uncomfortable and impatient -- after Lebanon wars, intifadas,
checkpoints, barriers, and Gaza blockades. The liberal catechism is
1. All conflicts are soluble; 2. Israel is the stronger party; 3.
And so it must take the greater risks for peace. Liberals are
exasperated by Israel's failure to embrace these principles
categorically. Yet we survive in this region because we don't.
Edward Kennedy understood all this and more. Israel feels his loss
acutely.

IV. "Bibi the Sincere, or Bibi the Cynic"

Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/28): At the very moment the
world is waiting for not very far-reaching decisions on freezing
construction in the territories and the removal of illegal outposts,
Netanyahu finds himself in a tight spot. He has to cheat either the
Jews or the goyim, or he can hitch a ride on U.S. President Barack
Obama's domestic troubles and do nothing. But if he does that, the
day may come when they say about us what Abba Eban said about the
Palestinians, that they never miss an opportunity to miss an
opportunity.... When Obama told Bibi that an important aspect of
friendly relations was to behave honestly, Israel's political elite
thought that double-talk in the confrontation with the Palestinians
was over. But Bibi's conditioning his consent to the two-state
solution on recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and the
Palestinian state being demilitarized gave immediate cause for
suspicin. One state cannot say what another state shouldlook
like. For example, George W. Bush insistedon democracy in Gaza,
thereby dumping it into Haas's hands.... Judging by Special Envoy
George Michell's activities and messages from the State Deprtment,
an American proposal will be forthcomingat the end of next month, a
proposal that will be hard to reject....
Sincere or cynical, Bibi
may still pull a surprise out of the cookie jar.

V. Not a Revolt -- an Awakening

Likud Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely wrote in the nationalist,
Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (8/28): Contrary to want might have
been understood from the media, the struggle against construction
freeze is not a humanitarian gesture to young couples who do not
have the possibility of establishing their homes in Judea and
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank]. It is the national struggle of those
who believe in the right of the Jewish people to build everywhere in
the Land of Israel [Israel, including the territories].... One
should not get used to a reality in which leaders breach the voters
trust regarding the core issues. Tough diplomatic issues start with
the erosion of principles and public silence. We cannot be allowed
to wake up too late.

CUNNINGHAM

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