ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 006241

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


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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast


2. Iran


3. New Delhi Bombings


4. Libby Affair

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Key stories in the media:
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Yediot Washington correspondent Orly Azolai reported
that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided to
move up the date of her visit to Israel and the PA to
November as part of U.S. efforts to prevent escalation
in the region following the recent bombings. The
newspaper reported that Secretary Rice told Abbas in a
phone conversation following the Hadera bombing that
the U.S. would help him if he acted against terror.
Yediot reported that Abbas told Rice that he finds it
hard to put an end to terrorist attacks emanating from
Damascus and Tehran.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Vice
Premier Shimon Peres and FM Silvan Shalom reiterated
Saturday that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas
remained a partner for Israel, only a few days after
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted as telling
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Israel has no one
to talk to on the Palestinian side. The media later
cited PM Sharon's reservation about Mofaz's comments.

Yediot cited a "secret" document drafted by the Foreign
Ministry's Diplomatic Planning Bureau, which says that
the establishment of a Palestinian state is a strategic
interest of Israel, because it would cancel out the
asymmetrical component in the conflict, which grants an
edge to the Palestinian side.

Leading media reported that three Palestinians were
killed on Sunday in a shootout with IDF troops in the
West Bank town of Qabatiyah. The media reported that
one of the men killed was Jihad Awidat, the Islamic
Jihad operative who dispatched the suicide bomber
Hassan Abu Zaid to Hadera. Leading media reported that
during the weekend, the IAF struck Gaza Strip areas
where Qassam rocket fire has originated. Leading media
reported that early this month, the Shin Bet and police
arrested three Gaza residents -- "Qassam rocket
engineers" -- who were dispatched to the Jenin area,
where they were supposed to set up a weapons-
manufacturing infrastructure. The senior members of
the Popular Resistance Committees were caught in the
Negev after crossing the border from Egypt.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
welcomed a statement issued by the Quartet on Friday
calling on Syria to close the offices of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Damascus. On Sunday,
major media cited Syria's denial that Islamic Jihad
still maintains its headquarters in the Syrian capital.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Quartet special envoy
James Wolfensohn wrote the foreign ministers of the
Quartet on October 16 that Israel has asked the World
Bank and USAID to stop a study aimed at determining how
to create a transportation link between the Gaza Strip
and West Bank. The newspaper wrote that Wolfensohn
noted in his letter that he called for the study to
continue. Ha'aretz reported that the Prime Minister's
Office told the newspaper over the weekend that no
official Israeli representative had made such a
request.

All media reported that the government currently lacks
a majority in the Knesset for the approval of the
appointment of three Likud ministers (Ehud Olmert as
finance minister, Roni Bar-Lev as industry, trade, and
employment minister, and Zeev Boim as immigrant
absorption minister) to the cabinet. The media note
that one-third of the Likud faction, including Knesset
Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Member Binyamin
Netanyahu, will refuse to support the appointments.
Israel Radio quoted Labor Party whip Knesset Member
Ephraim Sneh as saying that his party's partnership in
the government coalition will end in a few weeks.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that the IDF has been
constructing a major new checkpoint south of Nablus, at
the Zaatara (Tapuah) junction, to check Palestinian
cars arriving from the northern and western parts of
the West Bank.
On Sunday, leading media reported that on Friday, the
UN Security Council condemned Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's call to "wipe Israel off the map" and
called on Iran not to use threatening language against
Israel. The media reported that Iran subsequently
issued a statement saying it had no intention of
attacking Israel and said it was obliged to adhere to
the rules of the UN. Speaking on Israel Radio Sunday,
Israel's representative to the UN expressed his hope
that following Ahmadinejad's remarks, UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan would reconsider his planned visit
to Iran. On Sunday, Yediot reported that the U.S.
House of Representatives unanimously passed a
resolution calling on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
to act to put an end to the defamation of Israel in the
world body.

Ha'aretz printed an AP story, which said that Jordan
has banned broadcast of a controversial miniseries
criticized as being anti-Semitic, thus winning praise
on Sunday from Israel and the Washington-based media
watchdog Coalition Against Terrorist Media.

On Sunday, Yediot reported that the U.S. has authorized
a deal providing for an Israeli sale of dozens of F-16
jet fighters to Romania. Israeli companies will
overhaul the aircraft ahead of the sale.

On Sunday, all media (Ha'aretz's lead story) reported
on Saturday's bombings in New Delhi, in which dozens of
people were killed.

On Sunday, Carmi Gillon, head of the Shin Bet at the
time of the late Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, was
quoted as saying in an interview with Yediot that
Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir should have been physically
eliminated. Gillon made the remarks in the wake of a
poll published in Yediot during the weekend, which
showed that every fifth Israeli favors a pardon for
Amir. Israel Radio quoted President Moshe Katsav as
saying today that Amir would not be pardoned, nor his
jail conditions alleviated.

Jerusalem Post front-paged the first comprehensive poll
conducted in the U.S. since Israel's withdrawal from
the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, which found
that more than three quarters of those surveyed said
they supported the Israeli move. The survey, the
results of which were made public by The Israel
Project, a nonpartisan organization started three years
ago to improve Israel's image in the international
media, also revealed growing approval of Israel's
security barrier and a more favorable overall
impression of Israel among the American public. Two
American polling firms were hired to execute the
bipartisan study, one aligned with the Democratic Party
and the other with the Republicans.

On Sunday, Maariv published the results of a
TNS/Teleseker Polling Institute survey, which found
that for the first time more Israelis demonstrated a
positive attitude (33 percent) vis-a-vis the UN, while
29 percent demonstrated a negative attitude.

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1. Mideast:
--------------

Summary:
--------------

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized:
"Positive Israeli action would help to strengthen
moderate Palestinians, because it would make it clear
that the disengagement from Gaza was not the end, but
the beginning."

Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever
Plotker wrote in the lead editorial of mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Let us hope
that ... decency and fairness will replace the
automatic capitulation to the Arab lobby in the UN
corridors."

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


I. "Act First, Talk Later"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(October 31): "The almost-automatic tendency throughout
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to repeat the phrase
'there is no one to talk to' evidently does not
characterize the current Israeli leadership alone.
George Bush agreed too easily to postpone the
establishment of a Palestinian state to an unspecified
time, and the Palestinians -- who know that they cannot
achieve a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines --
are not enthusiastic about discussing anything less.
But in order to keep the withdrawal from Gaza from
becoming the start of a blood-soaked disappointment, it
is nevertheless worth trying to inject a renewed spirit
of optimism rather than making do with statements such
as that made by Shaul Mofaz over the weekend:
'[Palestinian Authority Chairman] Abu Mazen is a one-
man show; there is nothing behind him. There is only a
vacuum'.... The Palestinian Authority might be too weak
to fulfill its obligations under the road map plan, but
Israel is strong enough to take steps that will serve
the interests of both sides on the way to a division
into two states.... Positive Israeli action would help
to strengthen moderate Palestinians, because it would
make it clear that the disengagement from Gaza was not
the end, but the beginning."

II. "Our UN"

Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever
Plotker wrote in the lead editorial of mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (October 31):
"This is a new era in relations between Israel and the
United Nations. The sovereign State of Israel, the
Jewish people's state, was given its birth certificate
from the UN, and it can be said, and justifiably so,
that the UN was present at its birth and gave its
blessing to it. But the organization's attitude
towards Israel has always been as if to an unusual and
unwanted creature. Only in the past year, after
decades of hostility and animosity, is a real
improvement emerging in Israel's standing in the UN.
This improvement has many causes: Israel's policy, a
rise in the level of awareness for the dangers of anti-
Semitism, the international mobilization against
terror, and the vigorous activity of Foreign Minister
Silvan Shalom and the entire Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Let us hope that the improvement will persist and that
decency and fairness will replace the automatic
capitulation to the Arab lobby in the UN corridors."

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2. Iran:
--------------
Summary:
--------------

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Why doesn't Iran
fear sanctions?.... Now the Americans fear Iran's
political takeover of Iraq."

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized:
"We hope, not just for our own sake but for the
world's, that Iran's contempt for [the UN] charter and
the nations meant to implement it are misplaced."

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


I. "Hellfire Versus Interests"

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (October 30): "With
so many states capable of applying pressure on Iran,
why can Ahmadinejad continue to mouth off? In other
words, why doesn't Iran fear sanctions?.... The answer
is: the countries capable of exerting pressure are also
concerned about harming their economic relations with
Iran. Russia earned about USD 1 billion from its
nuclear reactor project in Bushehr; China needs Iranian
oil very much; Japan is dependent on Iran; businessmen
from Germany, France, Italy and Spain are profiting
handsomely from the sanctions the United States imposed
on Iran; and now the Americans fear Iran's political
takeover of Iraq -- all of these factors explain why
everyone tiptoes around the Iranian leadership. And
when this is the feeble balance of fear, Ahmadinejad
can continue to invoke the fires of hell."

II. "Beyond Condemnation"

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized
(October 30): "It is not every day that all 15 members
of the United Nations Security Council rally to
Israel's defense. The wider context of the unanimous
vote on Friday condemning Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's calls to 'wipe Israel off the map,'
however, must be concern that condemnations, in this
case, are not enough.... Iran is the quintessential
rogue state. As amply evident from Ahmadinejad's
rhetoric, his country has motive for malevolence, and
will soon have the means and the opportunity to create
even more devastation, depending only on its own
caprice.... Israel should be pointing out the obvious:
that Iran's genocidal call against Israel is not just
one country's problem. Iran's support for terrorism,
its nuclear ambitions, and its threats against Israel
are not isolated concerns. They must be addressed as a
package by the community of nations as a whole. This
means moving beyond condemnations to doing what the UN
charter was designed to do: protect international peace
and security by imposing stiff multilateral sanctions
against international aggressors. The charter, which
the Iranian regime has the gall to wrap itself in, was
written to be used in precisely such instances. We
hope, not just for our own sake but for the world's,
that Iran's contempt for that charter and the nations
meant to implement it are misplaced."







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3. New Delhi Bombings:
--------------

Summary:
--------------

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized:
"India is under attack from Muslim extremists -- like
Israel -- not for anything it does or did, but for
being a largely non-Muslim entity in a part of the
world claimed by the Islamists."

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

"India Mourns"

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized
(October 31): "No innocent citizen, whether in a
country of 1 billion or in a nation with a mere 6
million souls, should die at the hands of religious or
ethnic extremists for being at the wrong place -- a
market, a bus, a cafe -- at the wrong time.... We
understand that India is a multicultural nation, that
13 percent of its population is Muslim and that both
internal harmony and stability in its relations with
Pakistan are Indian interests. But 'terrorism' is not
the foe -- it is [a] tactic. The larger lesson of this
tragedy is that India is under attack from Muslim
extremists -- like Israel -- not for anything it does
or did, but for being a largely non-Muslim entity in a
part of the world claimed by the Islamists.... Beyond
expressing sympathy as India mourns its losses,
Jerusalem, over the long haul, needs to do a better job
at affirming that our two great civilizations have much
in common."

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4. Libby Affair:
--------------

Summary:
--------------

Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever
Plotker wrote in an editorial of mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Lewis Libby ... also has
very close links with Jewish and Israeli circles and
institutions."

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

"Our Libby"

Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever
Plotker wrote in an editorial of mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (October 31): "Special
American Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who was
appointed to probe the leak of the identity of CIA
agent Valerie Plame, announced during the weekend the
indictment of Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's
Chief of Staff. Who is Lewis Libby? Until his
resignation on Friday, Libby was one of the Bush
administration's strongest members.... But Lewis Libby,
who attends services at Temple Rodef Shalom in northern
Virginia, also has very close links with Jewish and
Israeli circles and institutions.... Libby's trial will
arouse a huge political scandal in the U.S. It will
focus on senior pro-Israel officials, who are
associated with Israel and the majority of whom are
Jewish. The affair, which is connected to fighting and
denigrations between supporters and opponents of the
war in Iraq, could turn up at Israel's feet. This is
the last thing Israel needs."

JONES