ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 006337

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. 10th Anniversary of Rabin Assassination


2. Iran

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Key stories in the media:
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Maariv reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice may arrive in Israel as early as the beginning of
next week.

The Jerusalem Post led with Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz's assurance to Secretary Rice that Israel would
not interfere in the upcoming PA elections even if
Hamas participates. However, the newspaper quoted a
senior Israeli diplomatic official as saying Thursday
that Israel will not give wanted Hamas activists
"immunity" and free movement in the West Bank just
because they are involved in an election campaign.
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Mofaz and the
Quartet's special disengagement envoy James Wolfensohn
have agreed that the parties will try to reach
understandings on the Egypt-Gaza border crossings
within a week. The media reported that Wolfensohn and
Secretary Rice are pressing Israel to take measures to

SIPDIS
alleviate the Palestinians' hardships. Ha'aretz
reported that on her upcoming visit to Israel Secretary
Rice will demand that Jerusalem immediately remove all
obstacles to the passage of cargo between Israel and
Gaza through the Erez and Karni checkpoints.

Ha'aretz led with a report that senior Hamas officials
have recently asked Egypt and Jordan whether either
country would be willing to allow the organization's
headquarters to relocate to its territory. The queries
were reportedly made due to Hamas's assessment that
Syria, where both Hamas and Islamic Jihad headquarters
are located, may force both groups to leave in an
effort to divert growing international pressure sparked
by a UN investigation into the murder of former
Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri. Ha'aretz writes that both
Egypt and Jordan apparently refused.

IDF Radio and other leading media cited a warning
issued Thursday by senior officers from the IDF's
Northern Command that Hizbullah is trying to carry out
a significant terrorist attack along Israel's northern
border. The media reported that the officers' main
concern was that Hizbullah would attempt to kidnap
soldiers and civilians.

All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers,
highlighted the 10th anniversary of the late Yitzhak
Rabin's assassination on November 4, 1995. Maariv
bannered a comment made on Thursday by Vice PM Ehud
Olmert that the Oslo agreements constituted a
courageous step.

Major media reported that on Thursday, 15 to 20
thousand people marched toward the Iranian Embassy in
Rome to protest the statement by Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that "Israel should be wiped off
the map." Ha'aretz quoted Italian FM Gianfranco Fini
as saying he would not participate in the rally,
despite a promise to Israel that he would do so, in
order to avoid damaging Italian national interests.

Hatzofe reported that Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim
told the Knesset plenum Wednesday that Israel intends
to authorize the construction of a Palestinian school
on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery in Hebron.

Yediot bannered a call by Vice Premier Shimon Peres to
the other contenders to Labor Party leadership to help
him defeat Histadrut Labor Federation Secretary-General
Knesset Member Amir Peretz in the contest scheduled to
take place on Wednesday. Other media reported on
Peres's attempt to widen his gap with Peretz.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the trial of former
AIPAC employees Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman will
begin on April 25, nearly four months later than the
originally scheduled date of January 3. The newspaper
reported that the court accepted both sides'
contentions that they need sufficient time to deal with
issues of classified information before the trial
begins.

Leading media reported that secular Israelis will now
be able to join the National Religious Party. However,
some media reported that the party will only admit new
members who adhere to the Jewish tradition.
Maariv notes that the USD's representative rate,
reached a 30-month high on Thursday -- 4.67 shekels.

Yediot tells the story of "Gmul," an espionage
operation against the Soviet Union, in which the Mossad
started recruiting agents in Eastern Europe in 1968.
The newspaper reported that the Shin Bet subsequently
started a successful intelligence campaign of its own.

Yediot reported that an officer from the IDF's Medical
Corps was lightly wounded Thursday by a Qassam rocket
at Nahal Oz base, next to the Gaza Strip, and that the
IDF responded with artillery fire into the Strip.

Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that in the report
it forwarded to the state attorney's office on
Wednesday, the Civil Service Commission found that
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, could
face a disciplinary court over alleged irregularities
during his tenure. The media cited Ayalon's denial of
the allegations against him.

Maariv reported that Hillel Halkin, an intellectual who
emigrated from the U.S., recently wrote in the U.S.
magazine Commentary, which is identified with the Neo-
Conservatives, that he advocates an Israeli withdrawal
from 90 percent of the West Bank, in exchange for U.S.
recognition of Israel's new border and the postponement
of Palestinian statehood. Maariv prints an extensive
interview with Halkin about his ideas.

Maariv quoted nuclear whistleblower Mordecai Vanunu as
saying around a month ago, in a phone interview with a
cable TV station in Louisiana, that Israel will soon
use nuclear weapons. He also reportedly said that
Israel is able to strike any city in the world with
nuclear weapons, and that the disengagement was an act
of propaganda.

Maariv printed the results of a recent TNS/Teleseker
Polling Institute survey:
"Ten years after the murder of Yitzhak Rabin, who do
you believe has been the follower of Rabin's true
course over the past five years?" Peres: 48.6 percent;
Sharon: 25.6 percent; Ehud Barak: 13.2 percent; Matan
Vilnai: 12.6 percent.
Maariv cited the results of a Stanley Greenberg poll
conducted in the U.S., which shows that 46 percent of
Americans (as opposed to 49 percent before the
disengagement) support Israel. The poll also found
that 10 percent of Americans support the Palestinians
(as opposed to 14 percent before the disengagement).
Maariv says that the poll was conducted by a PR
organization in the U.S., which is funded by Jewish-
Americans, and that the poll's organizers had first
tried to make the results look like there had been a
rise in support for Israel, most likely in order not to
present their work as a failure. Maariv writes that
the erroneous results had been sent to the Foreign
Ministry's Information and Media Division and to the
media.

Erratum: The media reported that the 12-year-old
Palestinian boy from Jenin who was hit by IDF fire
Thursday was not killed, but severely wounded. He had
been holding a toy F-16 rifle.








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1. 10th Anniversary of Rabin Assassination:
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Summary:
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Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "On
the 10th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination,
it would be appropriate to adopt the most practical
lesson from the murder and finally bring the state's
full authority to bear on right-wing outlaws who
threaten the country from within."

Senior columnist Dan Margalit wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv: "It wasn't only the lesson [of
Rabin's assassination] that prevented bloodshed [during
the disengagement move], but it definitely helped."
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized: "As Israel solemnly remembers the brave
leader who in six days beat three Arab armies that
demanded war, only to be gunned down by a Jew who
objected to the path by which he had chosen to pursue
peace, we hope all Israelis will remember that the
Jewish state depends on its citizens' mutual
solidarity, and that such solidarity is about
respecting and compromising with each other."

Block Quotes:
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I. "A Lesson From the Rabin Legacy"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(November 4): "On the 10th anniversary of Yitzhak
Rabin's assassination, it would be appropriate to adopt
the most practical lesson from the murder and finally
bring the state's full authority to bear on right-wing
outlaws who threaten the country from within. For more
than 30 years, the religious right has made a laughing
stock of law and democracy, overpowering heads of state
and cabinet ministers one after the other. Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz apparently is politically afraid
of another confrontation with settlers in an election
year. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the delay
in evacuating 24 outposts that already have been
recognized as being illegal, and which could be emptied
at any moment. The cabinet agreed to such an
evacuation in March 2001, and reconfirmed its
commitment to the decision upon the submission of the
Sasson report on illegal outposts this March.... Sharon
may be seeking the right timing to evacuate the
outposts, but any date that is chosen is too late. An
atmosphere of mutiny is developing around the outposts,
as is a sense of power among the youth, some of whom
are the children and grandchildren of Gush Emunim's
founders. This is the second generation of destroyers
of Israeli democracy, and not settlement pioneers as
they try to portray themselves.... Religious Zionism
has not assimilated democratic values and learned its
lesson."

II. "We Have Learned Something, After All"

Senior columnist Dan Margalit wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv (November 4): "Have the proper
conclusions from Yitzhak Rabin's assassination one
decade ago been learned? Have they been appropriately
implemented and internalized? These questions are
usually answered negatively.... However, a partial,
initial, and significant answer has built up. In a
dramatic, unprecedented confrontation -- unlike the
situation at the time of the peace treaty with Egypt --
8,800 settlers were uprooted from their homes in Gush
Katif and northern Samaria [i.e. the northernmost part
of the West Bank]; during that stormy precedent, only a
few red lines, which are vital to Jewish togetherness
in this divided land, were crossed. Both sides
demonstrated adult self-restraint, which was a thorn in
the flesh of the opposing parties.... It wasn't only
the lesson [of Rabin's assassination] that prevented
bloodshed at Kfar Maimon, Neve Dekalim, and Sa-Nur, but
it definitely helped."

III. "A Decade On"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized (November 4): "For all Rabin's mistakes,
they dwarf in comparison with the conduct of some of
his opponents. Their failure back in the 1990s to keep
the debate civil was politically catastrophic from
their viewpoint, and morally corrupt from any
viewpoint. Their nonchalant, even gleeful, resort to
the basest rhetoric and depictions surely created an
atmosphere conducive to Rabin's murder. If not the
murder's shock, then at least the Likud's subsequent
endorsement of the Oslo Accords, and Ariel Sharon's
dismantlement of settlements, should have made them
humbly concede that the arms they were twisting were
not just this or that leader's, but mainstream
Israel's. Tragically, such humility has yet to emerge
among the fanatics who now portray Ariel Sharon much
the way they did Rabin before his assassination.
Sharon, for his part, also seems not to have drawn all
the necessary conclusions from the murder. Like his
good friend, the prime minister carried out a
controversial scheme of his own, the disengagement
plan, while focusing on maintaining his resolve and
disregarding the need for persuasion and empathy. As
Israel solemnly remembers the brave leader who in six
days beat three Arab armies that demanded war, only to
be gunned down by a Jew who objected to the path by
which he had chosen to pursue peace, we hope all
Israelis will remember that the Jewish state depends on
its citizens' mutual solidarity, and that such
solidarity is about respecting and compromising with
each other."

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

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

Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz:
"The time has come [for Israel] to come down from the
stands.... The annihilation pronouncement from Tehran
calls for a re-examination of the strategy vis-a-vis
Iran under its current regime."

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

"Hitler From Tehran"

Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz
(November 4): "There is an upside to Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's shocking call to wipe Israel off
the map: it is a good thing that the Iranian leader has
revealed his hopes. For by doing so, he has helped
those who are still undecided as to how to relate to
the Iranian regime.... Israel has adopted a tactic vis-
a-vis Iran of sitting in the balcony, as it does in
international disputes over Bashar Assad's regime in
Syria and Emile Lahud's Lebanon, where Hizbullah
operates. In so doing, Israel apparently is signaling
that it does not want to be pushed to the forefront of
activity against Iran, and is leaving the work to
others. The erroneous conclusion is that by doing so,
the country will not become a target of its enemies....
The time has come to come down from the stands. There
is no need to do so with a marching band, and this
writer is not recommending a declaration of war against
the Iranian regime. But Israel has good levers for
applying pressure on Iran, which can be very bothersome
-- for example, by aiding Kurds and the mujahideen in
its territory who oppose the regime.... The struggle
against Iranian nuclear arms development needs to focus
not only on intelligence gathering, which is quite
good, but also on additional ways, with the goal to
foil such development. Although there is great doubt
over whether a military option should be pursued,
especially by a small state like Israel, that does not
mean the country should give up on building appropriate
forces. Clearly, the annihilation pronouncement from
Tehran calls for a re-examination of the strategy vis-a-
vis Iran under its current regime."

JONES