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DE RUEHTV #2205/01 2801047
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P 071047Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 6876
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 6122
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 4758
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 6969
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3746
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1961
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 9197
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 1957
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 2925
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002205
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM
NSC FOR NEA STAFF
SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA
HQ USAF FOR XOXX
DA WASHDC FOR SASA
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
SIPDIS
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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Media reported that U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Senator
George Mitchell will arrive in the region today for talks with the
Israeli and PA leaders. He is slated to meet with DM Ehud Barak
tomorrow and with PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. Maariv reported
that the U.S. wants Israel to show flexibility vis-a-vis PA
President Mahmoud Abbas, who the U.S. reportedly believes has been
weakened by his postponing of the handling of the Goldstone report,
riots in Jerusalem, and growing security tension in the West Bank.
However, Maariv cited the belief of senior Israeli diplomatic
officials that a breakthrough in relations with the Palestinians is
likely, that obstacles can be surmounted, and that the resumption of
negotiations will soon be declared, possibly after MitchellQs
visit.
All media reported that yesterday police briefly arrested Sheikh
Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic MovementQs northern branch.
The Jerusalem MagistrateQs Court later refused to etend SalahQs
remand and ordered his banishment fom Jerusalem for 30 days. The
Jerusalem Post quoed sources in Yisrael Beiteinu as saying that the
cabinet will consider legislation banning the Islmic Movement
currently being drafted by the partQs ministers Uzi Landau and
Yitzhak Aharonovitch The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Fatah
oficial Hatem Abdel Kader, a former PA Minister forJerusalem
affairs, told the newspaper yesterday that recent violence in
Jerusalem and the ongoing tensions surrounding the Temple Mount
could trigger a third Intifada. (Maariv and other media cited the
Israeli defense establishmentQs belief that disturbances could
extend to the West Bank.) The media reported that senior PA
officials, including President Abbas, blamed Israel for the recent
violence around JerusalemQs Temple Mount. In an interview with
Israel Radio this morning Kadima Knesset Member, former Internal
Security Minister, and former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter expressed
his belief that SalahQs actions are fully coordinated with the PA.
HaQaretz and other media reported that the U.N. Security Council is
scheduled to meet today to discuss Libya's request for an emergency
session on the QGoldstone reportQ that accused Israel and the
Palestinian group Hamas of committing war crimes during Israel's
offensive in Gaza. Vietnam's Ambassador Le Luong Minh, who holds
the council presidency this month, said he set closed-door talks
after receiving the request from Libya, the only Arab member on the
15-nation council. The Palestinian Mission at the U.N. issued a
press release saying it affirmed full support for the Libyan
request. HaQaretz reported that an associate of President Abbas
told the newspaper yesterday that if Israel does not soften its
positions on the peace process, the PA will resume pushing to get
the Goldstone report moved to the Security Council and, from there,
to the International Criminal Court.
The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Avigdor Lieberman seeks to
fashion a Qwhole new Israeli foreign policy. The newspaper wrote
that, in a secret internal memo, the Foreign Ministry calls for less
dependence on the U.S., forging closer links with the developing
world, reducing expectations for Palestinian talks, and zero
tolerance for anti-Semitism.
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that today a cornerstone-laying
ceremony will take place at the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Nof
Zion (next to the Palestinian village of Jabel Mukaber) to mark the
beginning of the second stage of building there. Speaking on Israel
Radio, Labor Knesset Member and former Education Minister Yuli Tamir
lamented the implications of this development for the peace
process.
Yediot and other media reported that Noam Shalit, the father of the
abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit -- a dual Israeli-French citizen
-- is leaving for Paris today to meet with associates of French
President Nicolas Sarkozy. The meetings were set before the
screening of the video showing Gilad.
Yediot reported that yesterday shots were fired at IDF soldiers
carrying out private works along the Gaza border.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Civil Administration in the
Territories ignored a Tuesday deadline set by human rights
organizations, demanding that it cancel a decision made last month
and allow them to continue representing Palestinians seeking to
enter Israel on humanitarian grounds. In an unrelated matter,
Yediot reported that Israel is helping the U.S. build the Civil
Administration in Iraq after the Americans decided to copy the model
of the Civil Administration in the Territories.
The Jerusalem Post reported that amid threats by settlers that they
will hinder Palestinians from harvesting land, the IDF and Border
Police have deployed large numbers of security personnel at numerous
hotspots throughout the West Bank in an effort to prevent violence
between the sides.
Yediot reported that Israel Military Industries (IMI) has developed
a system that recognizes guided anti-tank missiles immediately upon
their launching and diverts them.
The Jerusalem Post reported that influential Russian Jewish leader
and politician Boris Shpigel has promised to fund the defense of IDF
soldiers caught in legal troubles overseas due to their military
service.
Maariv and The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday three Israeli
conscientious objectors called on students of the University of Cape
Town to boycott Israel and assist the struggle against the
occupation. The Jerusalem Post cited the fear of Cape Town Jews
that their visit may spur anti-Semitism.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the University of California,
Irvine (UCI), has launched an internal probe and contacted law
enforcement authorities over a student-organized event that may have
raised money for Hamas. The investigation is in response to
allegations made by the Zionist Organization of America, which
alerted local law enforcement officials last week bout the May
event. Organized by the Muslim Student Union at UCI, the event
featured British politician George Galloway, who reportedly
solicited funds for Viva Palestina, his organization that brings
aid to Gaza.
HaQaretz quoted Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki as
saying yesterday that Fatah and Hamas representatives will meet in
Cairo on October 24 to sign a reconciliation agreement.
Citing Reuters, HaQaretz quoted the PA as saying yesterday that it
had asked the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to press
Israel to release more frequencies for a long-awaited second mobile
phone operator.
HaQaretz and Israel Radio reported that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah
is expected to arrive in Damascus today for a historic, three-day
visit, during which he will meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Assad has been in Riyadh twice in the past six months, but this
will be the King's first visit to the Syrian capital since 2005. The
two leaders are expected to discuss Lebanon's future. Relations
between Syria and Saudi Arabia soured in the wake of the
assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, in
February 2005.
Yediot reported that, for the first time since PM Netanyahu was
sworn in, an Israeli cabinet member (Finance Minister Yuval
Steinitz) met with a senior Turkish official (Minister of State in
Charge of the Treasury Ali Babacan) in Istanbul, on the sidelines of
the International Monetary FundQs annual meeting. The newspaper
noted that the meeting could signal a thaw in Turkish-Israel
relations.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel ranked 27th of the 182
countries in the U.N Human Development Index, which measures quality
of life and was published in Bangkok on Monday. Israel dropped four
places since the last report came out two years ago. However, The
Jerusalem Post noted that IsraelQs ranking tops other Mideast
countries by far.
Globes reported that Business Week ranked the Israel pharmaceutical
firm Teva ranks 20th among the worldQs best firms.
Maariv reported that one week before the Kippur War, then-Mossad
agent Avner Yaron warned his superiors in 1973 that an Arab attack
was imminent. In an interview with the daily, he says that
everything could have been different had his warning been heeded.
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1. Mideast:
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Block Quotes:
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I. "Restraint in a Delicate Place"
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (10/7): The
growing tension surrounding the Temple Mount threatens to undermine
the calm Israel has enjoyed for the past few months.... Netanyahu's
government played up its efforts to populate East Jerusalem with
Jews while standing up against the U.S. demand for a freeze on
construction in the settlements. The PA, under President Mahmoud
Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, calls for saving Al-Aqsa
while facing stiff criticism from within its own ranks for not
pressing discussion of the Goldstone report in the United Nations.
Both sides must show restraint and focus on renewing negotiations
toward a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict instead of igniting a
fire at this sensitive site and risking another violent
confrontation. Israel has a unique responsibility due to its
control over Jerusalem, and it must use utmost caution and avoid
provocations and insensitive remarks such as that by Jerusalem
District police commander Aharon Franco, who accused the city's
Muslims of being ungrateful. The capital's police force has thus
far succeeded in preventing an escalation of the conflict. This
attitude must guide the cabinet as well in the days to come.
II. "Bob Dylan form Umm Al Fahm"
Conservative columnist Erel Segal wrote in the popular, pluralist
Maariv (10/7): Israel stands at a critical crossroads. Up till now
we hesitated when facing the Sheikh [Raed Salah] and his followers,
and we strengthened radical elements. Now is the time to outlaw
them. Things are apparently viewed differently in out neighborhood.
The Egyptian and Jordanian regimes handle the Muslim Brotherhood in
a very undemocratic, intolerant fashion, without a multicultural
discourse -- to say nothing about the chivalrous Syrian rights
defenders. It sometimes looks as if history returns with sickly
twists, like the soul of Mufti Haj Amin Husseini -- an SS
Gruppenfuehrer -- that has come back in the figure of Raed Salah.
III. "Goldstone... So Far"
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/7):
QJust when Israelis thought we had a respite from the harmful
repercussions of the profoundly unfair Goldstone Mission Report, it
transpires that Hamas is insisting Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas push
the Security Council to consider Richard Goldstone's bill of
particulars against Israel (during Operation Cast Lead at the turn
of the year) -- or else the deal due to be signed between Fatah and
Hamas in Cairo on October 26 will be in jeopardy. Abbas is also
under withering pressure from within his own movement to exploit
Goldstone for all its worth. That would have been Abbas's natural
inclination too, but the Fatah chief bowed to U.S. pressure to allow
the report to be shelved at least until March 2010. The Obama
administration appreciates that if Goldstone monopolizes the daily
agenda, Benjamin Netanyahu's government will be too preoccupied to
conduct meaningful talks with the Palestinian Authority. Moreover,
a toxic environment dominated by Goldstone will sap any popular
support within Israel for further compromise with the
Palestinians.... Of course, we're supposed to give Goldstone credit
because he's a friend of Israel.... Moreover, didn't he ask Hamas to
release Gilad Shalit on humanitarian grounds? And didn't he give
Hamas hell, too? Well, actually, he originated the convoluted idea
that attacks against Israeli civilians /would constitute war crimes
and may amount to crimes against humanity. In any case, Hamas is
so plainly unconcerned that anyone will understand such prattle as
blame that it is using the Goldstone Report to batter the hapless
Abbas. And it's too early to assess how much damage the judge's
work will yet do....
IV. QChurchill and His Disciple
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent,
left-leaning HaQaretz (10/7): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
an admirer of Winston Churchill and views him as a role model....
The wars in Lebanon and Gaza helped Netanyahu adopt [one of the]
aspects of the Churchill legacy, the bombings of German cities.
When Israel is criticized for bombing Beirut and Gaza, Netanyahu
responds by mentioning Dresden and Hamburg.... Like Netanyahu,
Churchill also believed in if they give, they'll get as a
fundamental principle of statecraft. The American support he
received came at a price: the dismantling of the British Empire. In
Netanyahu's view, the Iranian threat against Israel resembles the
Nazi threat on Britain. Like Churchill, Netanyahu hopes for
American help to lift the threat; like Roosevelt, U.S. President
Barack Obama demands the dismantling of Israel's little empire in
the territories and the liberation of the Palestinians from
occupation. It will be interesting to see whether Netanyahu also
learns this lesson from the leader he admires, or whether the
analogy ends with bombing.
V. "Intifada vs. Normalizations"
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker wrote in
the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/7): The
strengthening of the Palestinian middle classes, which might fall in
love with a normal standard of living -- shaking off the
continuation of the struggle and enjoying the proximity to the big
Israel market -- is disliked by the militant Palestinian leadership,
and not only that. The tension between economic and personal
progress and the diplomatic and national impasse is tearing up the
entire Palestinian society and creating a dissonance in
consciousness that is looking for an outlet. If an Intifada breaks
out, it might focus on the Temple Mount, but its logic is definitely
not linked to religious feelings. As during the past ones, it will
originate in an explosive cocktail of diplomatic stalemate and an
economic boom. It turns out that they don't work well together.
CUNNINGHAM