Cablegate: Israel Media Reaction

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 006297

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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
USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019

JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL
PARIS ALSO FOR POL
ROME FOR MFO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast

2. Syria

3. Iran

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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Radio quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as
saying in Washington Wednesday, at a meeting with
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that Israel will

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not frustrate the PA's legislative elections, despite
Hamas's participation in them. The radio quoted
Secretary Rice as saying that Israel should facilitate

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a solution to the border crossing issue at Rafah. The
radio also reported that Mofaz met with U.S. National
Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. The Jerusalem Post
reported that on Wednesday, in a meeting with the
leadership of the Israel Policy Forum (a pro-Israel,
pro-peace advocacy group), Secretary Rice put the onus
of moving forward on the PA and said she would like to
see PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas act against
terrorism even before the January PA elections.

All media reported that an Israeli civilian was lightly
wounded and five others treated for shock on Wednesday
evening when a mortar shell exploded after striking a
house in Netiv Ha'asara, a moshav located near the
northern Gaza border. Israel Radio reported that the
IDF used artillery fire against areas in the Gaza Strip
where the Palestinian fire originated. In its lead
story, Ha'aretz quoted many residents in the western
Negev communities as saying recently that they want to
leave the area, in view of continued rocket and mortar
fire from the Gaza Strip. Israel Radio cited
Palestinian claims that a 12-year-old Palestinian boy
was killed by IDF fire in the West Bank this morning.

Citing the London-based Al-Hayat, Israel Radio quoted
senior Palestinian sources as saying that the PA has
acceded to Israel's demand that foreign citizens enter
and leave the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom
crossing instead of through the Rafah crossing. The
radio said that Israel and the PA agreed that the
Palestinian civilians would use the Rafah crossing and
that goods would pass through the Kerem Shalom
crossing. Ha'aretz cited the EU's executive commission
as saying, in a statement issued on Wednesday, that the
EU was sending senior officials to the Middle East to
evaluate a possible role in helping monitor the Rafah
crossing. Ha'aretz reported that the commission said
it "stands ready to play its part" should Israel and
the Palestinians both request an EU role on the border.

Ha'aretz reported that Mofaz has for several months
contravened a cabinet decision aimed at making it more
difficult to establish illegal settler outposts and
easier to punish offenders. The cabinet decision was
taken on March 10 following completion of a report on
illegal outposts by former senior state prosecutor
Talia Sasson.

The Jerusalem Post interviewed Ammar Abdulhamid, a
Damascus resident who openly criticizes his "stupid"
president.

The Jerusalem Post reported that President Moshe Katsav
issued a public invitation to King Mohamed VI of
Morocco on Wednesday night to come to Israel on an
official visit and to help sow the seeds of peace in
the region.

Ha'aretz reported that Jewish-American millionaire
Irwin Moskowitz is behind a plan to establish a new
Jewish neighborhood in the Sheikh Jarrah quarter of
East Jerusalem.

Leading media reported that on Wednesday, Israeli and
Palestinian human rights groups -- Physicians For Human
Rights-Israel and the Gaza Community Mental Health
Program -- petitioned the High Court of Justice to
compel the IAF to stop causing sonic booms over Gaza,
citing psychological damage and calling the practice
"collective punishment."

Ha'aretz reported that residents of the Gush Etzion
settlements are divided over the planned security
fence, which, some residents say, would slice the
settlement bloc in two.

Ha'aretz reported that, addressing the Knesset on
Wednesday on the matter of Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's statement that "Israel must be wiped off
the map," FM Silvan Shalom said: "With this
antagonizing and scandalous announcement, the president
of Iran lowered the facade of rationalism and normalcy
that Iran tries to don in its dealings with the West
and showed the whole world exactly what sort of
ideological party the world is dealing with." Leading
media reported that pro-Israel demonstrations were held
in front of the Iranian embassies in Paris and Rome on
Wednesday.

Leading media reported that events marking the 10th
anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination will begin
this morning with the lighting of the "Yitzhak Candle"
at President Moshe Katsav's residence. Leading media
reported that the head of the Education Committee of
the Elkana local council in the West Bank has suggested
that educational institutions in his council condemn
Rabin, who "was the man who acted to achieve the vision
of our enemies." Israel Radio and other media quoted
Vice PM Ehud Olmert as saying this morning at a
memorial for Rabin: "From the distance of time and
perspective, Yitzhak Rabin's Oslo Agreement brought on
a process of disillusionment by the Israel public and
the formation of a more realistic, sober and balanced
perception of the moves Israel has to make."

Ha'aretz quoted Vice Premier Shimon Peres as saying
Wednesday that members of the Israeli-Arab public will
take part in drawing up a strategic plan for developing
the Galilee.

Israel Radio reported that Sen. Hillary Clinton will
come to Israel next week to discuss bilateral relations
and meet with PM Sharon.

Yediot quoted Prof. Mina Teicher, the Science and
Technology Ministry's chief scientist, as saying on
Wednesday that the number of Israeli-born Israeli
scientists who immigrated to the U.S. is almost equal
to that of the senior academics on the staffs of all
Israeli universities.

Yediot reported that the Israeli airline Israir has
fired senior employees who had demanded that Israir
pilots lie about a near-accident that involved one of
the company's airliners at New York's JFK airport
almost four months ago.
All media (banners in Yediot and Maariv) reported that
on Wednesday, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss
announced that he is investigating seven cases of
corruption, which he has not yet disclosed. However,
Yediot reported that Education Minister Limor Livnat's
husband is allegedly involved in one of the cases, and
Maariv wrote that the acquisition of part of the
company Elisra by Israel Aircraft Industries. The
media also cited former Israel Electric Corporation
chairman Eli Landau's alleged conflict of interests in
the natural gas deal with Egypt.

Yediot reported that the Pakistani rock band Haro
(phon.) wants to visit Israel and to cooperate with an
Israeli band. The newspaper says that Prof. Judah
Pearl, the father of Jewish-American journalist and
musician Daniel Pearl, who was assassinated in
Pakistan, told Israel's Consul General in New York Arye
Mekel and FM Shalom about the Pakistani band's wishes.

Yediot reported that the American singer Madonna has
expressed her desire to visit Israel again during the
Chanukah holiday in December.

Ha'aretz, Yediot, Maariv, and Israel Radio cited the
results of the Democracy Index 2005 survey, conducted
by the Israel Democracy Institute, which found that:
-84 percent of Israelis believe that a political murder
could occur again, in the wake of the disengagement
plan.
-42 percent believe that a civil war could take place
in Israel over the fate of the territories.

A Yediot/Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll conducted
on Wednesday among Labor Party members found that in
the race for the party leadership, the gap between
Shimon Peres and Histadrut Labor Federation Secretary-
General Knesset Member Amir Peretz is narrowing. Peres
would garner 37 percent of the votes in the party's
primaries; Peretz 34 percent; Minister-without-
Portfolio Matan Vilnai 15 percent; Infrastructure
Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer 11 percent.

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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized:
"Positive [Israeli] actions will bring the world
closer; negative actions will distance it."

Liberal columnist Yael Paz-Melamed wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv: "When a targeted killing operation,
which is going to be followed by revenge, is carried
out ... that is negligence towards the [Israeli]
public."

Nationalist writer Uri Dan wrote in Maariv: "This week,
senior Palestinian Authority official Jibril Rajoub
dubbed the Israeli cabinet a 'government of crazies.'
Rajoub couldn't have given a more pleasant compliment
to the Jerusalem government."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Changed Attitude at the World Body"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(November 3): "The UN General Assembly this week
unanimously approved Israel's proposal to mark an
annual international remembrance day for the Holocaust
and its victims on January 27.... The latest decision
joins a series of positive UN events and activities
from Israel's standpoint over the past two years....
The improvement in Israel's relations with the UN stems
from a change in the Foreign Ministry's policy toward
the organization, the supportive position of Secretary-
General Kofi Annan, and a reward for the withdrawal
from the Gaza Strip.... Maintaining membership in the
UN and joining forces with states with which Israel
wishes to establish ties mean that Israel must adopt
appropriate behavioral norms, make progress in the
peace process, and improve its attitude toward human
rights in the occupied territories. Positive actions
will bring the world closer; negative actions will
distance it."

II. "Closed-Circuit Assassinations"

Liberal columnist Yael Paz-Melamed wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv (November 3): "There is no moral
question here. It is clear that anyone who sends
suicide bombers or car bombs on their way should be
assassinated. The only question is how much human life
will the decision to assassinate him cost. If once
upon a time Israel used to assassinate senior activists
from the murderous groups once every few weeks, now
this has become a far more frequent event, almost
daily. In other words, this is the main tool used
against the terror organizations. Hence, we can expect
a renewal of terrorism on a scope we had hoped never to
see again. God help us.... When a targeted killing
operation, which is going to be followed by revenge, is
carried out -- even though parts of the fence are still
breached and the crossings are still not sealed -- that
is negligence towards the public. As long as the
security forces cannot ensure that our border with the
Palestinians is sealed, the leaders need to calculate
far more carefully the chances that Israeli civilians
are going to be hurt as a result of the targeted
killing operation.... We keep killing and killing, and
the revenge and terror attacks keep on coming. Could
it be that the time has come to begin to look for other
ways?"

III. "Thanks to 'Madness'"

Nationalist writer Uri Dan wrote in Maariv (November
3): "In an interview to an Arab television station this
week, senior Palestinian Authority official Jibril
Rajoub dubbed the Israeli cabinet a 'government of
crazies.' Rajoub couldn't have given a more pleasant
compliment to the Jerusalem government for conducting a
very sane and normal policy of raids in Judea and
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] and assassinations in Gaza
against Palestinian terrorists.... According to Rajoub
and his friends in the PA, 'normalcy' is expressed
through Israel's make-believe, delusion or self-
delusion, when the 'peace' process continues despite
the terror. Peace is not dead, because it has never
been alive between Israelis and Palestinians."

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2. Syria:
----------

Summary:
--------

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The United
States must understand that the Middle East won't
achieve conditions of stability if the Syrian regime is
left in place."

Block Quotes:
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"What's To Be Done With Assad?"

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (November 3):
"Should Assad feel that Washington has decided to leave
him in power just because of the chaos in Iraq, he
would do whatever he could to increasingly sow anarchy
there. Iraq's destruction would turn into a guarantee
of his success. This is how Washington would dig its
own chasm -- through fear of being entangled again in
Syria, it would increasingly deepen its predicament in
Iraq. The United States must understand that the
Middle East won't achieve conditions of stability if
the Syrian regime is left in place -- neither in Iraq,
nor in Lebanon, nor in the Palestinian context, nor in
Jordan, and neither in the contest of Israeli Arabs.
Syrian intelligence is involved in all those.... A new
regional order and the achievement of Middle Eastern
stability, democracy, and human rights make necessary
the termination of the second Ba'ath regime [after
Saddam's]. In Iraq and Syria, Ba'ath dictatorships
constitute the problem, not the solution."

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3. Iran:
---------

Summary:
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The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized: "The UN did good Tuesday; Annan
shouldn't dilute it by going ahead with his misguided
trip [to Iran]. "

Block Quotes:
-------------

"The UN Vote"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized (November 3): "Let's start by saying up
front that the United Nations did a good thing Tuesday
by adopting a resolution instituting January 27 as
worldwide Holocaust Awareness Day. Not only did it do
good, but it went a distance toward washing out one of
the world body's long-standing stains -- up until now
there had not been one substantive UN resolution or
document dealing with the Holocaust.... The anti-
Israeli animus that infected the UN during [former UN
secretary-general Kurt] Waldheim's reign did not crawl

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out of Turtle Bay when he left.... Much work,
obviously, does remain to be done. UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan would be wise to start the ball
rolling by canceling his upcoming visit to Iran. Annan
said last week he was dismayed by Ahmadinejad's
comments. But he should do much more than just issue a
statement. He should refuse to go to Iran and shake
hands, thereby lending legitimacy, to a man who says
proudly and publicly that he wants to do to Israel
today what Hitler wanted to do to the Jewish people 65
years ago -- wipe it off the map. The UN did good
Tuesday; Annan shouldn't dilute it by going ahead with
his misguided trip. "

JONES

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