INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Special Israel Media Reaction

Published: Thu 8 Oct 2009 08:43 AM
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank
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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Hayom reported that the visit of U.S. Special Envoy for
Middle East Peace Senator George Mitchell to the region is the
continuation of U.S. efforts to start negotiations between Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas. The daily and other leading media quoted a senior
American official as saying yesterday that the United States has not
retreated from the demand that Israel freeze construction in the
settlements (contradicting statements by Israeli sources -- see
Ha'aretz below in this paragraph). The official was also quoted as
saying that the U.S. does not accept preconditions for starting
negotiations, a statement that Israel Hayom said was directed at the
Palestinians. Israel Hayom quoted a senior American official as
saying that October 18 -- the date set for the presentation of
Mitchell's report to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- is not a
deadline. The official was quoted as saying that an Israeli
declaration on settlement construction will help enlist positive
involvement by the Arab states, which may significantly advance the
peace process. Israel Hayom further quoted the official as saying
that the sides must start negotiations without delay -- but that
this will not happen during Mitchell's visit, as the U.S. would have
hoped. The Jerusalem Post reported that a "senior U.S. diplomat
called on both sides to get down to business." Ha'aretz quoted
sources in Jerusalem as saying that a temporary freeze of
construction in settlements was effectively off the agenda, and that
the Americans had dropped this demand. Ha'aretz quoted sources as
sayng yesterday that Abbas, whose standing among Palestinians has
suffered dramatically in recent weeks, is expected to refuse the
American request for an immediate return to negotiations without
preconditions. Abbas has been harshly criticized for requesting a
postponement of the U.N. discussion on the Goldstone report at the
request of the United States.
Yediot reported that the U.S. administration has decided to freeze
efforts to renew talks on the Israeli-Syrian track as it assesses
that this channel is not ripe and in light of Syria's negative role
in Iraq and its prevention of the prevention of a government in
Lebanon.
Leading media reported that yesterday the U.N. Security Council
decided to reject a Libyan request to hold a special session on the
Goldstone report. However, the council decided to debate the report
during the regular meeting of the council on the Middle East which
will be move forward to next week. Major media reported that
yesterday Hamas staged a rally in Gaza attended by families affected
by Operation Cast Lead. The crowd was invited to throw shoes at a
large poster of Abbas. Meanwhile Ha'aretz reported that Yasser Abed
Rabbo, chairman of the PLO's Executive Committee, told Palestinian
radio yesterday that the PA was mistaken in its approach to the
report. "We have the courage to admit our mistake, and this mistake
can be amended," Abed Rabbo said. The Jerusalem Post and other
media quoted Hamas leaders as saying "that the movement's
reconciliation talks with Fatah should be shelved over Abbas's
treason over the Goldstone report."
King Abdullah II of Jordan was quoted as saying in an interview with
Ha'aretz that the current diplomatic impasse sends the region "back
into the darkness." The King was quoted as saying that he has
raised the sanctity and sensitivity of Jerusalem with every Israeli
prime minister, including Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that it "is
important to understand the need of ending all settlement activities
and other unilateral actions that threaten the identity of the holy
city."
Leading media reported that Noam Shalit, the father of abducted IDF
soldier Gilad Shalit, will meet with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy in Paris today. Ha'aretz reported that Sarkozy recently
sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad asking him to
pressure the Hamas leadership in Damascus to close a deal for
Shalit's release. Ha'aretz quoted diplomatic sources as saying that
the Syrians passed the message to the head of the Hamas political
wing in Damascus, Khaled Mashal.
The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Netanyahu has not appointed any
minister in charge of Jerusalem, due to his hopes that the far-Right
party National Union will joint his government coalition.
Ha'aretz reported that some 3,000 Likud members converged on Samaria
National Park in the northern West Bank yesterday in a demonstration
of Israeli sovereignty in the region. The Likud members also sent a
message to President Obama to "keep your hands off the Land of
Israel." Ha'aretz reported that Knesset Member Danny Danon, who
organized the trip, said in an interview to CNN: "I want to tell
Obama we know there's no partner and your pressure is harmful to the
Jewish people ... this isn't Hollywood. You can't invent a partner.
We have to do what's good for the Jewish people in its country."
The Jerusalem Post quoted Danon as saying that he plans to press PM
Netanyahu on the President's settlement freeze demand.
Yediot detailed the Foreign Ministry's secret internal memo that The
Jerusalem Post said yesterday seeks to fashion a "whole new Israeli
foreign policy." Yediot cited the document as saying (in free
translation): "As far as Israel is concerned, there is no substitute
for the special relationship with the United States. The U.S.
undoubtedly is Israel's best friend in the world. However, the
exclusive reliance on the U.S. is not healthy for both sides and is
testing to the U.S. Israel must build a coalition with additional
states on the basis of shared interests. This is how a circle of
support for Israel will be strengthened and expanded. This will
make things easier for the U.S. as well."
Ha'aretz quoted Israeli activists against the separation fence as
saying that an IDF soldier was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of
beating a Palestinian resident during a nighttime raid in the West
Bank village of Bil'in on September 16.
The Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that opposition
leader and Kadima Knesset Member Tzipi Livni flew to the U.S.
yesterday to be a guest of honor at two special events this week in
which she will be honored for her work. First, she will receive the
highest honor awarded by Yale University to foreigners for their
work and inspiration and then, in Miami, she will attend a special
event held by the International Women's Forum and enter its
International Hall of Fame.
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday Israeli diplomatic
officials would not comment on claims made by Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that several countries had offered to sell
enriched uranium to his country. Maariv imagines Israeli societyQs
reaction to the reality of an Iranian nuclear weapon.
All media prominently reported on yesterdayQs granting of the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry to Professor Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute
of Science (as co-recipient). In interviews with the media, Yonath,
colleagues, and commentators voiced their concern about the future
of scientific research in Israel.
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U.S. Special Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to Israel, West Bank:
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Block Quotes:
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I. Watch Out for the Goldstoners
Senior commentator Ari Shavit wrote in the independent, left-leaning
Ha'aretz (10/8): "Nobody knows yet when the next war will break out.
Maybe in a decade, maybe in a year, or maybe even next month. It
is also not clear where the next war will erupt -- perhaps on the
Gaza border, perhaps the West Bank, or maybe in Jerusalem. But it
is already clear what the next war's name will be -- the Goldstone
War. It will be the war brought upon us by the Goldstone report,
Judge Goldstone and his Goldstoner followers. The report reflects
both the Goldstoners' holy fury and their complete belief that the
Palestinians can do no wrong. That belief is now endangering not
only Israel but calm and stability. In their fanaticism and
extremism, Goldstone and the Goldstoners have brought us closer to
bloodshed."
II. Our Exclusive Right to Self-Defense
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (10/8): "Virtually all of Israel is now
speaking in one voice against the Goldstone report, against any
attempt to blame us over the war in Gaza. We've honed our message
to a sharp point and, inspired by Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's performance at the U.N., we're delivering it with just
the right tone of outrage: How dare anyone deny us the right to
self-defense! How dare anyone deny us the right to fight back
against terrorism! Very nice. Puts everyone else on the
defensive. The right to self-defense is up there with motherhood
and apple pie -- who's going to come out against it, especially for
us, for Israel, for the Jews, for the people of the Holocaust? The
right to self-defense -- perfect. But I'd like to ask: Do the
Palestinians also have the right to self-defense? We probably
wouldn't admit it out loud, but in our heads we would say -- again,
in one voice, "No!" This is the Israeli notion of a fair deal.
Here is our idea of the "laws of war": When Israeli bulldozers
rolled across the border into Gazan villages and flattened house
after house so Hamas wouldn't have them for cover after the IDF
pulled out, that was self-defense. But if a Palestinian boy who'd
lived in one of those houses threw a stone at one of the bulldozers,
that was terrorism. The Goldstones of the world call this
hypocrisy, a double standard. How dare they! Around here, we call
it moral clarity."
III. You Worry about Nabatean Culture?
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in the popular, pluralist
Maariv (10/8): "A mysterious gap appears between the attitude
towards the destruction at the [world heritage site of] Avdat and
the wreckage on the Temple Mount. While vestiges of the Nabatean
civilization were found in Avdat, signs of lamented cultures and
remnants of the most revered religious site of Judaism lie buried."
CUNNINGHAM
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