Cablegate: Special Israel Media Reaction

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SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Ambassador Susan Rice to Israel

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Key stories in the media:
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The media reported on last nightQs opening of President Shimon
PeresQ QFacing TomorrowQ Conference in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem
Post reported that in his opening address, Peres welcomed the world
leaders attending the conference and reiterated Israel's support for
a two-state solution. Ahead of the conference, Obama sent a message
which praised Peres as a "great statesman." In videotaped remarks,
President Obama said that Peres' "life stands as an extraordinary
example how courage and perseverance help shape the future, turning
harrowing challenges into historic opportunities." The Jerusalem
Post noted that Obama stated that Israeli-U.S. relations were Qmore
than a strategic alliance.Q Speaking about the conference itself,
Obama said, "by drawing upon such a wide range of expertise within
Israel, President Peres is harnessing the talent and dynamism of the
Israeli people in facing the future. Bringing together such a broad
and remarkable group of leaders from around the world is
underscoring a fundamental truth -- we cannot meet the tests of our
time unless we meet them together." Obama added that all of us
Qmust share the responsibility for progress.Q Yediot reported that
President Obama called for an immediate resumption of negotiations.
In a related story, The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday in
Jerusalem, WashingtonQs U.N. Ambassador, Susan Rice, met with Peres
and, according to a statement issued by PeresQ office, said the U.S.
would continue to stand by Israel as a Qtrue friend,Q including in
the struggle against the Goldstone report. She is scheduled to meet
today with PM Benjamin Netanyahu. QYour war against terrorism is
clear to us as well as the complexity involved in itas the United
StatesQ Ambassador to the U.N. I will continue to act in the future
as I have acted up until now,Q Rice was quoted as telling Peres.
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that ObamaQs statements
at the conference were followed by a speech by PM Netanyahu, in
which he said that peace with the Palestinian was possible, but that
it demanded Qleadership and courage from both sides.Q Addressing PA
QChairmanQ Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu said the time had come to Qlead
your people to peace,Q and to say that the time has come to Qend
this conflict once and for all.

With regard to the peace process, The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli
sources as saying that the Israeli Government did not accept two
conditions set forth by the Palestinians and, apparently, backed by
the U.S.: that the start of the negotiations be accompanied by a
statement saying the goal was to reach an agreement within two years
and that the goal was the establishment of a Palestinian state with
permanent borders based on an Israeli withdrawal. HaQaretz quoted
chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is in Washington to
meet with senior U.S. officials, as saying in an interview with PA
newspaper Al-Ayyam that the most important issue is freezing Israeli
settlement construction. "There are no interim solutions. It's not
a precondition for negotiations, but an explicit Israeli commitment
that they have to meet." Erekat told Al-Ayyam there is an American
plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, but said it is irrelevant as
long as Israel continues building in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, adding that all peace talks are currently being held with
the Americans, not the Israelis. He said the second most important
issue to be discussed during his visit is the Palestinian request
that U.S. President Barack Obama state that the peace process must
lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967
borders and that negotiations must include all the final-status
issues. HaQaretz quoted Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair as saying
during a visit to Hebron yesterday that he expects
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a final-status agreement to
resume within a few weeks.

HaQaretz reported that PM Netanyahu instructed the Foreign, Justice,
and Defense ministries to prepare an international initiative that
would see the laws governing warfare adjusted to combating
terrorism. Leading media reported that a proposal that was briefly
discussed during yesterdayQs security-diplomatic cabinet meeting was
for the establishment of an external committee of inquiry to
investigate the events of Operation Cast Lead. The idea was backed
by a number of ministers, but DM Ehud Barak led the opposition to
the matter, and the discussion was cut off. Yediot reported that
senior IDF officers told DM Barak privately that they fear that the
creation of an independent commission of inquiry into the Goldstone
report would leave the IDF unprotected. Deputy Prime Minister and
Intelligence Affairs Minister Dan Meridor was quoted as saying in an
interview with HaQaretz (lead story) that Israel should establish
its own independent committee to investigate IDF activity in Gaza
during last winter's Operation Cast Lead. HaQaretz and The
Jerusalem Post reported that in a New York Times opinion piece,
Robert L. Bernstein, founding chairman emeritus of the NGO Human
Rights Watch, has sharply criticized the organization for Qhelping
those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah.

HaQaretz quoted a senior Shin Bet official as saying that Hamas
failed militarily during Operation Cast Lead and did not achieve any
of its aims. According to the official, the group's battle doctrine
was proved hollow and failed to cause any real damage to Israel.

Leading media reported that a U.S. court remanded Stewart David
Nozette, the former NASA scientist who was arrested this week for
offering to pass along classified information to an FBI agent posing
as an Israeli intelligence officer, into custody until October 29.
Key intelligence reporters expressed their belief in Israeli media
that there is an QobsessionQ about Israeli spying in the U.S. among
the U.S. intelligence branches. Yediot cited the concern of
officials in the Israeli military industries that the affair might
harm relations between the U.S. and their enterprises.

Major media reported that today the U.S. and Israeli militaries will
launch their biggest joint missile defense drill yet, in the shadow
of mounting missile threats from Iran, Hizbullah and Syria, and
growing regional tension over Tehran's nuclear program. The Juniper
Cobra 10 exercise will test responses to a range of incoming
projectiles. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the IDF
announced that more than 1,000 members of the U.S. military's
European Command and a similar number of IDF soldiers will
participate. Maariv reported that the IDF may install Arrow
missile defenses on ships.

Israel Radio reported that French FM Bernard Kouchner has canceled
his scheduled visit to the region. The radio cited IsraelQs veto on
a visit by Kouchner to Gaza as one of the likely reasons for the
move.

HaQaretz reported that the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. announced
yesterday that it would send an "observer" to left-leaning Israel
lobby J Street's first national conference next week, in place of
Ambassador Michael Oren. J Street responded to the statement by
saying it was still awaiting a direct response from Oren on the
matter.

The Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday, past and present
Jordanian, Israeli, and American diplomats will come together at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem to mark the 15th anniversary of the
peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

Maariv quoted Dan Schueftan, an influential Middle East scholar, as
saying during a lecture at Tel Aviv University that the QArabs are
the greatest failure of the human race.Q Schueftan also reportedly
made other derogatory statements against Arabs and the Palestinian
people.

Leading media reported that Israel dropped 46 slots to 93rd place
(out of 175 countries around the world) in the annual freedom of the
press rankings released yesterday by Reporters without Borders. The
fall was attributed to IsraelQs increased restrictions on
journalists, notably during Operation Cast Lead. However, Reporters
without Borders said Israel Qstill enjoys total [press] freedom that
is unequalled in the region.

The media reported that PM Netanyahu is turning 60 today.

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Ambassador Susan Rice to Israel:
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Block Quotes:
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I. QAn Investigation Will Guarantee a Veto

Irit Kahan, the Vice President of the International Association of
Jewish Lawyers and Jurists and a former head of the International
Department at the State ProsecutorQs Office, wrote in the
independent, left-leaning HaQaretz (10/21): QWe should recall that
universal authority is complementary authority -- it will be used
only if the country in whose territory crimes allegedly have been
committed does not exercise its power of investigation and
jurisdiction. And in fact, Goldstone operated according to this
principle and gave Israel an opportunity to act on its own.... There
is no question that investigating events that took place on the
battlefield is a difficult task. Nevertheless, we must complete the
investigation quickly because time is not on our side. We owe this
investigation to ourselves, first of all. If we are equipped with
the results of a serious investigation, as proposed, it will be
easier for our friends in the Security Council to veto the proposal
to transfer the matter to the International Criminal Court in The
Hague.

II. QNo More Pollards

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/21):
QWhatever the truth, the FBI's arrest of Stewart David Nozette in
Washington on Monday on charges of spying for Israel is bad news.
It will provide fodder for enemies of this country and cause them to
hope that the energies of the pro-Israel community will be diverted,
dissipated, or delegitimized. It will bolster anti-Zionist
extremists across the political spectrum who promulgate the canard
that Jewish Americans are guilty of dual loyalty. And though there
is no evidence whatsoever that Israeli intelligence had any
connection to Nozette, the arrest will reinforce the slander about
Israeli spying in the U.S.... Nozette is said to be Jewish. It's
plain, however, that neither ideology nor ethnicity served as a
catalyst for his alleged treason. QDon't expect me to do this for
free,Q he told the FBI agent posing as a Mossad operative. Some
will see this case as part of an ongoing vendetta by U.S.
counterespionage against Israel -- contributing to an
overzealousness that has seen some of its cases thrown out of court.
The feud purportedly stems from a conviction in Washington that an
Israeli Qsuper moleQ infiltrated the U.S. Government and that until
Jerusalem admits this and makes amends, the witch-hunts will go on.
But Israel's position since the 1984 Pollard affair is that it does
not spy on the United States. The Nozette case only reinforces the
need to adhere strictly to this promise and not to let anything
undermine the special relationship between our two countries.

III. QCaught in the Partisan Crossfire

Jonathan S. Tobin, Executive Editor of Commentary Magazine, wrote in
The Jerusalem Post (10/21): QBoth sides of the political divide [in
America] are guilty at times of hypocritically judging their
opponents more harshly than their allies. Not very long ago some on
the right were happy to brand Bush-bashers as un-American or
unpatriotic, a stance that liberals found intolerable since it
blurred the very real distinction between extremists and mainstream
dissent. Today, the Left is trying to play the same game in dealing
with Obama-bashers. But this is not a pastime in which those who
claim to represent American Jewry should play a part. While Jewish
groups have an obligation to hold those who employ Holocaust
analogies accountable, they would do well to stay out of the sort of
partisan crossfire into which Obama's foot soldiers would like to
fling them.
CUNNINGHAM

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