ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TEL AVIV 001191

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

Please note: No Israel Media Reaction report Tuesday,
March 28, 2006, Israeli Election Day.

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast


2. US-Israel Relations

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Election polls:
--------------

A Yediot/Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll held on
Sunday:
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom
would you vote?" (Results in Knesset seats -- in
brackets, results of Yediot's poll published on March
24.)
-Kadima 34 (36); Labor Party 21 (21); Likud 13 (14);
Yisrael Beiteinu 12 (11); Shas 11 (11); National Union-
National Religious Party 9 (9); Arab parties 7 (7);
United Torah Judaism 6 (5) Meretz 5 (6); Pensioners'
Party 2 (the party was not represented in any previous
poll).

Maariv printed the results of a TNS/Teleseker Polling
Institute survey:
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom
would you vote?" (Results in Knesset seats -- in
brackets, results of a Maariv poll conducted on March
23.)
--Kadima 34 (37); Labor Party 17 (21); Likud 12 (14);
Yisrael Beiteinu 12 (10); Shas 12 (9); National Union-
National Religious Party 11 (11); Arab parties 7-11
(9); United Torah Judaism 5-6 (5); Meretz 5 (5);
Pensioners' Party 2.
According to Maariv, the right-wing and religious
parties are close to forming an obstructing bloc (54-59
Knesset seats).

Channel 10-TV and Ha'aretz published the results of a
survey conducted by Prof. Camil Fuchs of the Amanet
Group's Dialogue Institute:
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom
would you vote?" (Results in Knesset seats -- in
brackets, results of poll conducted on March 23.)
-Kadima 36 (36); Labor Party 18 (17); Likud 14 (14);
Shas 11 (11); Arab parties 8 (8); National Union-
National Religious Party 12 (9); Yisrael Beiteinu 7
(9); United Torah Judaism 6 (6); Meretz 6 (6);
Pensioners' Party 2.

The Jerusalem Post published the results of a Smith
Institute poll conducted for the newspaper:
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom
would you vote?" (Results in Knesset seats -- in
brackets, results of poll published on March 24.)
-Kadima 33-34 (34); Labor Party 20-21 (19-20); Likud 15
(15); Yisrael Beiteinu 11 (11); Shas 10 (11); National
Union-National Religious Party 9-10 (10); Arab parties
9 (9-10); United Torah Judaism 6 (5); Meretz 6 (5).

According to a Maagar Mohot poll commissioned by
Channel 2-TV, Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu
passed the Likud, 15 seats to 12, to move to third
place behind Kadima (34) and Labor (19).

Ha'aretz wrote that "defying all logic," the number of
floating voters -- people who have not yet decided
which party to voted for -- rose sharply this week, to
28 seats, from 18 seats last week. Maariv found that
the floating votes equal ten Knesset seats.





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Key stories in the media:
--------------

During the weekend, all media led with the lead up to
Tuesday's elections. The media quoted senior Kadima
leaders, including FM Tzipi Livni, as saying that their
party had too quickly concluded that it had won the
elections. On Sunday, the media reported that Peres,
no. 2 in Kadima, minimized the importance of Labor
Chairman Amir Peretz's achievements, while Peretz
raised the question of Peres's participation in Kadima,
some of whose senior members took part in a heated
right-wing Jerusalem rally prior to the late PM Yitzhar
Rabin's assassination. Yediot and Ynet, the leading
news web site associated with the newspaper, quoted
Yitzhak Rabin's son Yuval as saying that he endorses
Acting PM Ehud Olmert.

The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Kadima member Haim
Ramon as saying on Sunday that the PA would have six to
twelve months to comply with Israeli demands before a
Kadima-led government would begin unilateral
withdrawals from the West Bank.

All media reported that Palestinian PM-designate Ismail
Haniyeh is slated to present his cabinet to the
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) today, and that
the new Palestinian government is expected to be sworn
in on Wednesday. All media quoted Haniyeh as saying
Sunday: "We don't want a whirlpool of blood on this
region. We want the rights and dignity of our people.
We also want to put an end to this complicated conflict
that has been going on for decades." The Jerusalem
Post reported that Haniyeh lashed out at Olmert's
refusal to negotiate with his government. Israel Radio
quoted senior GOI sources in Jerusalem as saying that
the purpose of Haniyeh's remarks is to sedate Israel
and the international community in order to win
legitimacy. The radio quoted IDF Chief of Staff Dan
Halutz as saying that Haniyeh's remarks could signify
Hamas's eventual recognition of Israel and the
agreements the PA signed with it, and the cessation of
terrorism. On Sunday, Yediot reported that on
Saturday, PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas sent a
letter to Haniyeh, in which he wrote: "The election
results do not constitute the breaking of all the
agreements and commitments of the Palestinian Authority
or the breaking of all the political plans of the PLO,
the organization which represents and is the source of
legitimate authority for the Palestinians in their
homeland and in the Diaspora. From the moment that the
government is established, I will demand a second time
that you adopt the principles that I presented to you
in the letter of appointment and that you carry out the
required amendments to the government's basic
principles." The media reported that Haniyeh ignored
Abbas's statements. In its lead story Sunday, The
Jerusalem Post quoted Abbas as saying on Saturday that
he would use his "constitutional powers" against the
new Hamas cabinet unless it altered its political
program and honored all agreements with Israel.

Maariv devoted the main feature of its daily supplement
to the "almost paranoid bureaucracy" encountered by
Israeli applicants for US non-immigrant visas. The
newspaper cited what applicants view as the
unfriendliness of the Internet forms referred to by the
US Embassy's web site. Maariv cited a response by the
Embassy that the visa application system is very
efficient, despite some technical flaws.

Major media reported that today IDF troops killed a
Palestinian gunman firing rocket-propelled grenades
into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Leading
media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that another
gunman was wounded by Israeli fire during the incident.
Media reported that earlier today, Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at a car carrying four members of
the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza
City, wounding one of the men and a bystander. Leading
media reported that IDF troops killed a Palestinian
teenager in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. Leading
media reported that on Sunday, security guards at Tel
Aviv's central bus station apprehended a 24-year-old
Palestinian trying to enter the bus station with a
concealed dagger. Major media reported that the Shin
Bet recently thwarted two attempts by Islamic Jihad to
stage terror attacks in Israeli territory. Hatzofe
cited the British newspaper The Sunday Times as saying
that the Israeli Ministry of Defense plans an important
military operation in Palestinian cities in the West
Bank after the elections.

Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that starting today,
the IDF plans to turn the Qalandya checkpoint north of
Jerusalem into a border crossing into Israel.

Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday, several Palestinians
and an American volunteer in the West Bank filed
complaints with the police, accusing settlers of
violence toward Palestinians in the Hebron area on
Saturday, after three people were wounded in two
separate incidents.

On Sunday, all media reported that a young Labor Party
activist was electrocuted on Saturday after he climbed
an electric pole in order to take down a Likud campaign
poster.

The Jerusalem Post reported that while most English-
speaking voters interviewed randomly in the Jerusalem
area said that there were voting for right-wing
parties, a majority of Israelis from English-speaking
countries living in the Tel Aviv area seem to be
leaning predominantly toward left-wing parties ahead of
Tuesday's election.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Friday at the
pretrial hearing for Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman,
two former lobbyists with the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis
questioned the constitutionality of a law under which
Rosen and Weissman have been charged with receiving and
disclosing national defense information to reporters
and foreign diplomats. Ha'aretz also reported that the
prosecution announced that it would object to the
defense request to subpoena witnesses from Israel,
including a former Israeli Embassy employee, Naor
Gilon, to whom Rosen passed on information. The judge
insisted that the defense ascertain whether the
witnesses would be prepared to attend, or at least to
provide affidavits, and only then would the court rule.

Maariv reported that a teacher who had served in the
past as an interpreter for American troops in the
western Iraqi town of Ramadi was decapitated in front
of his students for allegedly collaborating with the
CIA and the Mossad. Major Israeli media quoted
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying in an

SIPDIS
interview with NBC that the US might reduce the number
of its troops in Iraq.

Maariv reported that over recent months, the State
Department has employed Israeli Attorney Shamai
Leibowitz as an instructor in Israeli affairs at the
Departments' schools of diplomacy. Maariv quoted
Israeli sources in Washington as saying that Leibowitz,
a strident anti-Israeli critic who defended Fatah
leader Marwan Barghouti, is not a direct USG hire.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Jewish voters in
Illinois may stop supporting Illinois' Democratic
Governor Ron Blagojevich because he did not dismiss a
female activist in Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam
from his state's Hate Crimes Commission.

Maariv reported that the US subsidiaries of the Israeli
energy companies Alon and Delek will supply fuel to the
US Army.

--------------

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

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

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv: "Israel has a rare window of
opportunity, for what remains of George Bush's term of
office, to determine, with American agreement,
permanent borders with a solid Jewish majority."

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "It
must be hoped that Labor under Peretz's leadership will
be the senior coalition partner in the next
government."

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in the conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post: "The Hamas regime will facilitate a
terrorist war on Israel while disclaiming
responsibility."

The Jerusalem Post editorialized: "In the past,
Jerusalem has been wary of American calls for a
'reassessment'.... Yet this is precisely the reflex
that itself should be reconsidered in light of dramatic
changes on the ground."

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


I. "In Favor of Olmert"

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv (March 27): "Israel has a rare window
of opportunity, for what remains of George Bush's term
of office, to determine, with American agreement,
permanent borders with a solid Jewish majority....
Olmert is right when he says the time has come for us
to take our fate into our own hands. We are stuck with
the dangerous consequences of two historic errors: the
occupation and the settlements at the beginning, and
the wretched Oslo agreements later. The time has come
for us to break out of this entanglement.... For three
years Ehud Olmert has been pointing in a revolutionary
direction. By doing so he has shown courage and
integrity and taken great risks. He was a pioneer of
the disengagement idea and the idea of creating a large
centrist party which would make it come true. In
effect he is fighting Israel's second war of
independence -- the war for liberation from the burden
of the occupation and the settlements, and for our
independence as a state with a solid Jewish majority
which serves the interests of the great majority of the
public, and is not led towards the edge of the abyss by
an extremist minority."

II. "Peretz's Revolution"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (March
27): "[Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz's]
understanding of the connection between the economy and
foreign policy, between irrational investments over the
Green Line and neglect of the development towns [new
immigrant towns established in the 1950s, especially in
the border areas, rural regions, and periphery of
Israel], between large salary gaps and growing
xenophobia -- as well as the fact that Peretz, in
contrast to the leading prime ministerial candidate,
has been working to end the occupation since the early
1970s, even when his entire social milieu thought
otherwise -- testify to his independence, courage and
ability to foresee consequences.... It must be hoped
that Labor under Peretz's leadership will be the senior
coalition partner in the next government, and that its
chairman will receive a significant portfolio, which
will also help him gain governmental experience.
Peretz will seek to conduct negotiations with the
Palestinians before deciding on another unilateral
withdrawal, but has promised to support any withdrawal
or evacuation of settlements if it becomes clear that
negotiations are unfeasible."

III. "Hamas Governs"

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in the conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post (March 27): "How will the Hamas regime
handle violence against Israel? Let's get real. The
most 'moderate' policy Hamas will follow is to let
Fatah, the PFLP and Islamic Jihad attack Israel on a
daily basis. No terrorist will be stopped beforehand,
or imprisoned afterwards. The Hamas regime will
facilitate a terrorist war on Israel while disclaiming
responsibility. It will maintain a cease-fire as a
movement while carrying out a war policy as a
government. Is this sufficient to provide a fig leaf
for European aid? Let's hope not. "

IV. "Time For a Real 'Reassessment'"

The Jerusalem Post editorialized (March 27): "The day
after the elections this week, America's top Mideast
hands -- Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott
Abrams and Assistant Secretary of State David Welch --
will arrive to assess the new lay of the landscape.
Regardless of the election outcome, the new situation
in the region is an opportunity for an overdue
reassessment of American policy. In the past,
Jerusalem has been wary of American calls for a
'reassessment,' taken as a code word for more active
diplomatic efforts, which in turn were assumed to mean
more pressure on Israel. Yet this is precisely the
reflex that itself should be reconsidered in light of
dramatic changes on the ground. In Israel, our
election will clearly be a referendum on unilateralism
as a strategy, both as it was carried out in Gaza and
as Ehud Olmert has promised its application in Judea
and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank]. Though the degree of
endorsement by the electorate is yet to be seen, it
seems more than possible that unilateralism will, even
in the absence of Ariel Sharon, be ratified as the
organizing principle of Israeli policy.... Kadima's
strategy is essentially to force statehood on the
Palestinians, even in the absence of a peace
agreement.... This new situation presents no small
challenge for US policy which has, since 1967, been
based on producing two states through a land-for-peace
trade. Explicitly or not, UN Security Council
Resolution 242, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, the
Madrid Conference, Oslo, the 2000 Camp David summit,
and the Roadmap have all attempted to steer the parties
toward a negotiated peace along the same lines. What,
however, should the US make of a situation that is
moving closer to two states but, at the same time,
further from negotiations? How can a 'peace process'
be reconstructed around this new reality?.... We have
come to a time for Plan B: a plan not built on the main
assumption of the old plan, namely that the Arab world
had accepted Israel's right to exist."

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2. US-Israel Relations:
--------------

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

Columnist Shlomo Gazit, a former head of IDF
Intelligence, wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "Our
basic premise must view the continued strategic
partnership between Jerusalem and Washington as an
asset of supreme value; we must prepare for the post-
Iraqi era in the US."

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

"Red Warning Light in the American Arena"

Columnist Shlomo Gazit, a former head of IDF
Intelligence, wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (March
27): "Two respected American professors, John
Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen
Walt of Harvard University, collaborated in the
publication of a joint study on the pro-Israel lobby in
the US.... There is no doubt that a careful examination
of the many assertions brought in the paper shows a
clearly one-sided and anti-Israel approach, a total
disregard for the background, for the existing threats
and for the motives for Israel's policy and actions....
Nevertheless, I believe that we should thank the two
professors for the red warning light they have lit. We
must all prepare for the post-Iraqi era of the US.
There is a substantial probability that the military
campaign will end with a failure of the US attempt to
establish a stable and democratic regime in Iraq, and
this will have severe implications for America's
standing in the region in general. At that point,
incisive discussions will ensue: Who is responsible for
entangling the US in the unnecessary war? It will be
easy to turn Israel into a scapegoat. In a few more
weeks, a new government will be formed in Israel. We
must make a thorough examination of our relations with
the US: Our basic premise must view the continued
strategic partnership between Jerusalem and Washington
as an asset of supreme value; we must prepare for the
post-Iraqi era in the US. We will not have unlimited
time at our disposal, and must be first to offer
initiatives, actions and solutions in our arena, as
long as the conditions are convenient for us; and at
the same time, Jerusalem should make the Jewish lobby
operating in the US Congress understand that our
strength will not last forever."

JONES