ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 006219 SIPDIS 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 -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- The Israeli media lead with the aftermath of the Hadera bombing Wednesday. All media reported on the IAF missile strike in Northern Gaza last night, directed at the car of an Islamic Jihad activist which killed Islamic Jihad operative Shadi Mohanna, the Qassam`s engineer along with two of his aides and four civilians. Israel Radio reported this morning that in a large- scale ground operation in Northern Sumaria, 12 wanted Islamic Jihad operatives were arrested in the Villages of the Tulkam region and one in Jenin. Israel Radio and IDF Radio quoted State Department spokesman Sean McCormack as saying this morning that Israel has the right to defend itself, however it should consider the consequences of its actions. All media reported on the "twice postponed" meeting between PA's Mahmud Abbas and Ari'el Sharon, due to "the current environment." The postponement was announced during the meeting of PM Sharon and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. PM Sharon was also quoted as saying that, "If the PA doesn't take serious and real action against terrorism there will not be any diplomatic progress, and that would be a shame." According to The Jerusalem Post, Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Minister Lavrov that Israel does not have a policy of expanding the settlements, and that it has committed itself to dismantling the unauthorized settlement outposts and moving forward along the road map. At the same time, this could only occur if Abbas would wage a "determined war" against the "armed organizations." Yedi'ot Aharonot reported that after meeting President Mubarak in Cairo yesterday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said: "I am not sure we could ever make a peace agreement with the current Palestinian leadership. We will have to wait for the next generation. The best we could hope for in the meantime is yet another interim agreement. A Palestinian state, a permanent agreement? I cannot envision this in the coming years." Ha'aretz reported that "Jerusalem is furious" that Egypt has invited Islamic Jihad and Hamas to hold talks with Cairo, thereby essentially granting them equal status with the Palestinian Authority, at a time when the former is perpetrating suicide bombings in Israel and the latter is launching Qassam rockets at civilian targets inside the green line. Jerusalem reportedly said Cairo has effectively accorded Hamas the same diplomatic status that it accords the PA. The US State Department stated that Israel has the right to defend itself, but must decide which steps to take out of all of the possibilities, Israel Radio reported. Fearing more attacks, the Israel Police remain on high alert, going up "to Level 3, one notch below a total state of emergency," the Jerusalem Post reported. The Jerusalem Post also reported that yesterday in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange "shares declined after the IDF launched air strikes on Gaza Strip," with leading bank shares falling and the Tel Aviv-25 Index losing 1.1%. The Jerusalem Post reported that "Israel's Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman began trying to build a coalition Thursday in favor of expelling Iran from the UN, as governments around the globe condemned Iran for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel should be 'wiped off the map,' though "UN mathematics indicate that no such coalition could possibly prevail." The report further lists senior international officials denouncing the Iranian president's statement. The Jerusalem Post reported that, according to remarks by the Likud's legal advisor yesterday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not break the law when a $10,000-a- plate dinner was hosted in his honor on September 19 in New York, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz and State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss launched probes into the dinner investigating whether it was illegal for people who came to the dinner to be asked to donate $10,000 - more than the $7,894 limit set in the Israeli Election Law. But Likud legal advisor Eitan Haberman revealed in campaign fundraising guidelines that he sent to the Likud leadership cabinet on Sunday that the limit had not yet taken effect. Once the date is set for the primary, which can be held no later than April, each candidate will be limited to raising no more than NIS 36,472 ($7894) per person. Ha'aretz reports this morning on Defense Minister Mofaz's instruction to evict 15 families that have lived for the past few years in old buildings in Hebron's wholesale market. He has also instructed troops to destroy 12 permanent buildings at the Amona outpost near Ofra in the West Bank. The Yesha Settlement Council fears that the decision, which was taken in principle a long time ago but only now is being made operative, is the beginning of the implementation of the promise given by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the US Administration that Israel will evacuate some of the outposts. Also, all media report that in the past 24 hours, the IDF have evacuated five new outposts set up in the past two days by youth, reporting that the settlers used excessive force during these evacuations. Chief of Staff Dan Halutz condemned the youths' behavior, while Mofaz said that "the behavior of these hoodlums will not go unpunished." Ynet and Yediot report that the US has recently halted for an unlimited period of time all thea contracts to supply night vision equipment and electro-optic devices to the IDF. It is reported that the reason is the Israeli failure to report loss of night vision devices. -------------- Mideast -------------- Summary: -------------- Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz carries commentary by senior columnist Yoel Marcus who writes, "it's not easy to preach restraint during this week of terror. But in the era of moving toward negotiations, the political echelon must stand up to the pressures from a military establishment that demands escalating our forceful reactions, and instead use a pair of tweezers on the Palestinians.. In this transition period between the disengagement and the implementation of the road map, the government must display more empathy toward the Palestinians." Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz carries commentary by diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn who writes, "Israel's biggest problem is not how Syria and Iran are treated, but the fact that the international community lost interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, shoving it into the drawer of unresolved problems that should wait for the future., which is sure to give us more terror attacks and targeted eliminations." Diplomatic correspondent Ben Kaspit writes in popular, pluralist Ma'ariv: "Should Israel overthrow Asad? The majority in the Israeli political system believe we should not. We could close a deal with Syria and eliminate the northern front. For that, we need Syria to be stable and well-led, one that can decide and act on it, one that we had until not so long ago. Otherwise, we will receive a new and upgraded model of the PA, and then we will spend our time screaming that 'we have no partner.' In the end, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we will realize that we have no more partners because we had eliminated them." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Despite Hadera" Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz carries a commentary by senior columnist Yoel Marcus who writes, "With the opening of the winter session of the Knesset this coming Monday, a new Ariel Sharon will take the podium, a Sharon who made the ideological transformation from a man of war to a man of peace. Above all, the man at the podium will be the person who foiled the plot by extremists in his party to topple him from power for the sin of the disengagement. He will deliver his state of the State speech with the new status of King of Israel. Or at least he is in the eyes of the majority of the public that believes that maybe, just maybe, he will be elected the leader of his party and its candidate for prime minister in the primaries, and will continue leading the country to an agreement with the Palestinians.. Disengagement opponents are convinced that they have been proven right. Look, they say, only 10 weeks have passed since Gaza was evacuated and the intifadah is back.. It's not easy to preach restraint during this week of terror. But in the era of moving toward negotiations, the political echelon must stand up to the pressures from a military establishment that demands escalating our forceful reactions, and instead use a pair of tweezers on the Palestinians.. In this transition period between the disengagement and the implementation of the road map, the government must display more empathy toward the Palestinians. The return to limits on their transportation, checkpoints and passages is less effective than generosity. I would expect Sharon to say that Israel must not fall into the trap of the extremists on the other side, provoking us into an escalatory response. Israel needs patience and a view to the further horizon. Palestinian society, due to its poverty and distress, will eventually be forced to impose its authority over its extremists. Although in the immediate calculation there are winds of disappointment among us, Sharon can sum up his political speech by saying that the future will prove that Israel's disengagement initiative was justified and eventually will lead to a far-reaching historic change." II. "Bush Wants Democracy, There'll Be Democracy" Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Ben writes in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Last week's events were a grim reminder for Israel that the Palestinian intifadah is not over yet. A year after Arafat's death and two and a half months after the disengagement, reality remained as violent as it was before, with the repeated ritual of a Palestinian suicide attack followed by a large-scale IDF operation in the territories.. The feeling that the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is happening in a bubble, far removed from events in the world, becomes stronger when examined against the dramatic changes all around us.. The Bush Doctrine for a democratic reform in the Arab world., and his foreign policy is showing results. The new Iraqi constitution, that is supposed to serve as a democratic model for the Arab world, was approved last week; the UN Security Council started discussing a condemnation of Syria over the Rafik Hariri murder; and Iran is sweating ahead of another discussion of its nuclear policy.. It is hard to imagine a more favorable strategic situation for Israel.. As the international situation changes, no one is blaming Sharon and his activities in the territories for the rising oil prices.. The Israeli presence in the West Bank. is no longer viewed as a real strategic problem. It is hard to overestimate the importance of this change.. But Israel belatedly understood the nature of the new US stand. Israel's declared interest was to leave the regimes in their thrones, only weaker and disarmed. because the alternatives might be a radical Islamic regime that might threaten Israel, or a supposedly Western regime, that would make the West press Israel on the Golan.. The Iranian president's call for a world without Zionism was seized by Jerusalem for a quick PR campaign. yet, even countries that may be willing to help dismantling the Iranian nuclear project would not be as enthusiastic if they are viewed as helping Israel. Sharon understands that and thus keeps quiet and out of the events around us.. Sharon does not believe that the 'Arabs' can change, certainly not soon, nor does he share Bush's enthusiasm, but he was the first leader in the region who realized where President Bush was going, and chose to move with the US storm, not against it. He chose the disengagement to secure the US support. A Jerusalem official cautioned last week against euphoria, saying: '.the problem is that we don't know where the Americans are going.. "Still, Israel's biggest problem is not how Syria and Iran are treated, but the fact that the international community lost interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, shoving it into the drawer of unresolved problems that should wait for the future., which is sure to give us more terror attacks and targeted killings." III. "The Asad Riddle" Diplomatic correspondent Ben Kaspit writes in popular, pluralist Ma'ariv: "So what do we do with Asad? .The man who was the big white hope of the West turned out weak, lazy, hardly thinking.. His Syria is a weak country, almost insignificant militarily, that feeds on past rumors.. Asad does not have a real center; there is nothing original about him.. He put Syria on a track where it turned into 'the sick man' of the Middle East, perhaps even of the world. Still, it is asked: Should Israel overthrow Asad? The majority in the Israeli political system believe we should not, with opinions divided between 'conservative' and 'reformists.' Strongly backed by Sharon and Mofaz, the majority of the senior Israeli defense establishment officials are 'guardians of the current situation'. claiming there is no reason to replace him for an unknown.. They maintain that the Americans, who sent the Middle East into frenzy with their irresponsible folly and picking on the weak instead of the dangerous, might leave behind them a scorched earth infested with Bin Ladens. Incidentally, speaking off the record and very privately, Sharon too does not excessively believe in Bush's dream of Arab world democratization. The theories of Bush and Natan Sharansky (one of them is even a good friend of Sharon) make him mock and laugh at them: We will have an Iraqi democracy right away, and it will break out in Syria soon after -- yeah, right. Against this background, the current situation is our- best option.. The price of peace with Syria is well known (it even slightly dropped recently). It will put an end to the cycle of hostility around Israel, open it in every direction, and isolate the Palestinians. Why did they not opt for that? Who knows? .Perhaps the threat of peace terrified the defense establishment, where tens of thousands make a living.. We could close a deal with Syria and eliminate the northern front. For that, we need Syria to be stable and well-led, one that can decide and act on it, one that we had until not so long ago. Otherwise, we will receive a new and upgraded model of the PA, and then we will spend our time screaming that 'we have no partner.' In the end, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we will realize that we have no more partners because we had eliminated them." JONES