Cablegate: Israel Media Reaction
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P 031032Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 7000
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 6241
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 4886
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WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM
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SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA
HQ USAF FOR XOXX
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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
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
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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Maariv devoted several articles to the first anniversary of
President Barack ObamaQs election.
HaQaretz reported that yesterday in Morocco, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton sought to tone down the statements she made in
Jerusalem on Saturday. "Israel has done a few things [to renew peace
talks], but they need to do much more," Clinton said in Marrakesh
ahead of a meeting with Arab ministers about the peace process.
"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued
Israeli settlements," she said. However, Israel is "expressing a
willingness to restrain settlement activity. They will build no new
settlements, expropriate no land, allow no new construction, or
approvals. This offer falls far short of what we would characterize
as our position or what our preference would be. But if it is acted
upon, it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and
would have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their
growth," Clinton said, reading from a written statement. She made
these statements after Arab ministers said the Arab world was
disappointed that not enough was being done to pressure Israel to
freeze settlement construction. Citing news agenciesQ reports,
HaQaretz reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S.
Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Senator George Mitchell
yesterday in Amman that the PA will not resume peace talks with
Israel until all construction in the West Bank settlements is
stopped.
DM Ehud Barak was quoted as saying in an interview with Israel Radio
that his upcoming visit to the U.S. is meant to promote peace talks
and put an end to the occupation. Barak expressed his gratitude to
Secretary Clinton and Special Envoy Mitchell for their efforts in
the peace process. Barak said: "Israel has an interest to engage in
peace talks not because of the Palestinians, but first and foremost
for our own sake, not because of the U.S., but mostly for the future
of Israel."
HaQaretz cited the belief of security forces investigating suspected
Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel (or Tytell) that he may have
committed a number of murders in addition to those he admitted in
his interrogation. Media reported that security forces are looking
for a possible accomplice. The Jerusalem Post quoted defense
officials as saying yesterday that Jewish terror suspects are still
at large in the West Bank.
HaQaretz reported that a joint French-British U.N. initiative would
call on Israel and the Palestinians to hold immediate, independent
investigations into war crimes allegations stemming from the war in
Gaza, as part of a bid to send the Goldstone report back to Geneva
and out of the hands of the Security Council or the International
Criminal Court at The Hague. The proposal comes before the United
Nations General Assembly is scheduled Wednesday to deliberate on the
Goldstone report. HaQaretz quoted a source in the Israeli Foreign
Ministry as saying that the initiative is a list of "red lines"
which was adopted by the 27 members of the European Union. Its main
points: 1. A resolution brought for the approval of the General
Assembly will not include operational steps, like taking the matter
to the Security Council or the International Court of Justice; 2.
The resolution would call on Israel and the Palestinians to embark
on an independent investigation into the events of Operation Cast
Lead, and the allegations of war crimes; 3. The handling of the
Goldstone report will return to the U.N. Human Rights Council; and
4. The parties will have to report to the council on the findings of
their investigations in a few months. According to the Foreign
Ministry source, the document was delivered yesterday by the British
and French permanent representatives at the U.N. to the Palestinian
Authority delegation at the international body as well as to the
representatives of Arab states and the members of the Security
Council. Today Arab representatives at the U.N. are expected to
complete the first draft of a resolution that will be brought to the
General Assembly for a vote. The French and British have emphasized
in their exchanges with the Arab representatives that if the "red
lines" are not part of the resolution being prepared, the European
Union will abstain and may even vote against it -- and expects that
much of the international community will as well. HaQaretz cited
assessments in Israel that there is little chance the Palestinians
will agree to the Franco-British proposal and that Jerusalem wants
any resolution torpedoed. Yediot and Israel Radio reported the Arab
League demands that the Goldstone report be moved to the Security
Council, where a resolution would be passed, demanding that senior
IDF officers be tried for war crimes. Yediot quoted an official in
the U.S. representation to the U.N. as saying that the Arabs will
E
agree to compromise and soften the resolution draft, which would
lead the U.S. to remove its expected veto.
Leading media reported that today IDF Intelligence head General Amos
Yadlin told the KnessetQs Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on
Tuesday that Hamas has recently tested a missile capable of reaching
targets at a distance of 60 kilometers -- putting Tel Aviv within
missile range. The missile was fired into the Mediterranean Sea.
The MI chief said this latest development is indicative of the Hamas
regime's growing military capabilities.
Maariv reported that in a Qcautious but reasonableQ peace plan,
Kadima Knesset Member Shaul Mofaz is overtaking his party leader
Tzipi Livni from the Left. Maariv cited MofazQs belief that Livni
is still mired in the Annapolis process which has failed to produce
any results and succeeded only in delaying the peace process. He
proposes giving the Palestinians a state immediately -- with interim
borders that will be comprised of Areas A and B and contain 99% of
the Palestinian people. Mofaz is prepared to discuss for the first
time transferring sovereignty over large neighborhoods and villages
to the Palestinian state and about special arrangements in
JerusalemQs holy basin.
The Jerusalem Post quoted the Jerusalem-based NGO Ir Amim that a
proposed southeast Jerusalem neighborhood will encroach on land
allocated by the Jerusalem Master Plan as a Qgreen zone.
The media reported that Donald Bostrom, a Swedish journalist who
caused outrage in Israel with allegations that IDF soldiers
harvested organs of dead Palestinians and trafficked in them
defended his article yesterday to a largely hostile audience in
Dimona. Speaking at a media conference, where he was frequently
interrupted by hecklers, Bostrom admitted he had no proof beyond the
allegations of the families of Palestinians killed by the Israeli
army.
The media reported that Shabtai Kalmanovich, a long-term Soviet spy
and later a Shin Bet informant, was murdered in Moscow yesterday, in
what experts called an act of revenge by business rivals. Former
Knesset Member Shmuel Flatto-Sharon told Israel Radio this morning
that Kalmanovich let him know that he had spied on the U.S., not on
Israel.
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, led with the
admission by Russian immigrant Dmitry Olegovich Kirilik that he
stabbed to death the six members of the Oshrenko family in Rishon
Lezion on October 17. Two years ago Kirilik was fired from an
Oshrenko-owned restaurant where he worked as headwaiter.
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Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "ThereQs No Peace of the Weak"
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/3): QThe President's basic
error was linking the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with his
reconciliation policy with the Muslim world. Thus he drove Abbas to
set every condition he could muster. What negotiations begin by
making concessions in advance? And how can Obama pressure the
Palestinians after tying the conflict's resolution to reconciliation
with the Muslim world?.... The main pressure has now shifted from
Netanyahu to Abbas, who is setting unrealistic conditions. You don't
give first, then talk. First you talk and then you give. There is
only one business in which clients pay first, and it's not the
peace-agreement business. Defense Minister Ehud Barak was right
when he said, QWhat do you care if they build a little, we'll
evacuate most of the settlements in the end anyway.Q There is no
justification for setting preconditions to opening negotiations.
Everything must be open and on the table, not as dictates but as
bargaining chips. Abbas did not respond to Netanyahu's Qalmost
historicQ proposal for Qtwo states for two peoples.Q Israel would
have to negotiate the fate of more than a quarter of a million
settlers as part of this proposal. What more does Abbas want, to
agree to resume talks on the two-state principle? An observer
familiar with politicians' shtick believes that Bibi is doing
nothing and will continue to do nothing. QHe's lucky Obama is
emerging as a nothing, that Abbas is a nothing, and that nothing
will happen," he said. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has won the
jackpot in the form of his planned meeting with Obama. He is
marking time and Abbas is marking time.... The Camp David we knew
was not a basis for a peace of the weak. The last time we were
there the second Intifada broke out.
II. "On Jewish Terrorists"
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/3):
QThe blanket repudiation by the settlers of the crimes attributed to
[Yaakov] Teitel is significant for its resonance within the settler
community and beyond. Egregiously, one Hebrew tabloid columnist
insisted that the suspect's neighbors could not possibly have been
ignorant while he planned his crimes. For many years now,
television's popular Eretz Nehederet [QWonderful CountryQ] comedy
program has parodied American immigrants in the West Bank as
gun-toting religious fanatics. In that kind of climate, there may
be an inclination within the settler movement to circle the wagons
and resist introspection.... A not-insignificant minority of
religious settlers has broken away from mainstream Zionism; their
allegiance is no longer to the state. To the extent that they
listen to anyone, it is to renegade rabbis who countenance political
violence. Their followers can be seen accosting security personnel
and throwing stones at passing Arab motorists. Behind the scenes,
responsible settler leaders are struggling to end such behavior. Now
is the time for communal leaders to demarcate anew an indelible red
line against violence -- whether directed at Arabs or Jews....
Troubled souls must not be left to their own devices. And settler
leaders -- especially rabbis -- must advocate opposition to
murderous political violence as fervently as they champion the
[Greater] Land of Israel itself.
III. "HeQs One of Ours"
Naama Katiee, who is working on a masterQs thesis on radical
religious Zionism and postmodern discourse at Tel Aviv UniversityQs
Cohn Institute, wrote in Ha'aretz (11/3): QRight-wing rabbis have
hastened to dissociate themselves from Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, the
QJewish terrorist.Q Instead, they are trying to place him in the
same category as the perpetrators of other recent shocking
murders.... The State of Israel is no longer perceived [by religious
Zionists] as part of things. At best, it's a secular country that
has outlived its role and is no longer relevant to the messianic
process.... Religious Zionism is morphing into a fear of defilement
and is increasingly turning the QothersQ into the Qtainted.
Teitel, like [mass-murderer Baruch] Goldstein and Yigal Amir before
him, is merely the executor acting on behalf of a radical ideology
that can also be expressed in delicate and moderate terms, so it is
spreading fairly widely in the religious community. Teitel is not
alone.
IV. "Freedom of Expression?"
Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular,
pluralist Maariv (11/3): QYaakov Teitel does not represent the
Right, just as [self-exiled Israeli-Arab politician] Azmi Bishara
does not represent the Left. However, such wild weeds grow amidst a
public atmosphere that grants them legitimacy. It doesnQt take an
entire sector. There is a need for fanatics who know how to produce
an atmosphere. And theyQre quite successful at that. The current
mayhem following the exposure of the Jewish terrorist will subside
in a day or two. The next victim is only a matter of time.
V. QThe Real Condition for Resolving the Conflict
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the online service
nana10.co.il (11/3): QThe past number of weeks have demonstrated
that the Palestinian national movement has not learned anything from
its history. In the shadow of the incessant efforts of U.S.
President Barack Obama to promote Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,
the Palestinians have been hard put to close ranks and to report to
the negotiating table as an effective partner. And so, instead of
investing all of their efforts in promoting their agenda with
Washington and Israel, the Palestinians find themselves mired up to
their necks in the bloody conflict between Hamas and Fatah....
We could have just left the Palestinian to sink into the swamp of
their own making. Th problem is that an intra-Palestinian struggle
hs a direct bearing on Israel. In the absence of a effective and
legitimate Palestinian leadership, it will be impossible to advance
on the path to eace. That is on the optimistic assumption thatamong the Palestinians or, at the very least, among the moderates
among them, there is historic willingness to advance towards peace.
After all, even when the Palestinians had an accepted and strong
leadership, and I am referring to Yasser Arafat, we remained far
from peace. Palestinian-Palestinian peace is an essential condition
for peace to be achieved. Without such peace or, alternatively,
without the suppression of Hamas and the imposition of the
Palestinian Authority's control over all the Palestinian
territories, it will be very hard to advance anywhere or to ensure
quiet and stability over time. But at preset, in light of the
profound animosity between the vying Palestinian camps, it is hard
to envision such reconciliation occurring.... The argument that
Israel has the ability to advanceQtra-Palestinian reconciliation
is baseless. The experience drawn from Iraq, Afghanistan and also
the Palestinian Authority territories demonstrates that those things
that the local population is incapable of either achieving or making
manifest on its own will remain unattainable no matter who, and
certainly not a foreign, external and Western force, intervenes on
its behalf. And so we are left with another missed Palestinian
opportunity for which some people will try to blame Israel. But
ultimately the ball will roll back into the Palestinian court. The
ones who proved to have the inability to lead to stand strong and,
by so doing, brought upon themselves and upon his people tragedy
after tragedy, is the one who bears responsibility. The problem is
that we are probably going to have to share paying the price.
VI. QThe Sane Times Have Gone
Liberal columnist Professor Aviad Kleinberg wrote in the
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (11/3): QOne would say
that the Israeli Left has never been an authentic social movement --
it was the Qpeace camp.Q This camp no longer exists in Israel. It
is not Yigal Amir who eliminated the peace camp, but Ehud Barak,
when he finally proclaimed the disappearance of a partner. It was
comfortable for Israeli society to hold on to a conception that
absolved it of all responsibility. The other side -- and only that
side Q is responsible for the continuation of the conflict. All the
rest -- our narrow-mindedness, the brutality -- is white noise.
Those who claim otherwise are anti-Semites.... [Since the last
Israeli elections] we have been cramming in IsraelQs center. That
packing movement has almost insensibly pushed us rightwards.
CUNNINGHAM