ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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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. U.S.-Israel Relations

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Key stories in the media:
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All media continued to highlight PM Sharon's physical
condition. The Jerusalem Post and Yediot quoted Dr.
Yoram Weiss, one of his anesthesiologists, as saying in
a briefing outside Jerusalem's Hadassah University
Hospital, Ein Karem, last night that Sharon has
"stepped meters away from the precipice" and that he is
"no longer in immediate danger." This morning, Israel
Radio reported that Sharon's doctors will stop
administering sedatives to Sharon. Their effect will
disappear in 36 hours. Expanding on its lead story on
Tuesday, Ha'aretz reported that doctors at Hadassah
University Hospital, Ein Karem, discovered that Sharon
suffered from a vascular disease when he was
hospitalized with his first stroke on December 18, but
administered him blood-thinning medication anyway.
This morning, Israel Radio cited a rebuttal by the
hospital of criticism leveled at Sharon's treatment.

All media reported that Acting PM Ehud Olmert told
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday that

SIPDIS
Israel will allow Palestinians living in East Jerusalem
to vote in the January 25 Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC) elections, but that it will restrict the
participation of terrorist groups. The cabinet will
vote on the decision on Sunday. The media reported
that the Likud expressed its strong opposition to the
move.

In its lead story, Maariv quoted Sharon associates as
saying that Likud Chairman Knesset Member Binyamin
Netanyahu is taking advantage of the situation by
presenting himself in interviews with the media,
particularly in Tuesday's edition of The New York
Times, as Sharon's most direct inheritor. Speaking on
Israel Radio this morning, prominent Kadima Knesset
Member Roni Bar-On said that Netanyahu is "squinting
towards the U.S. administration." Ha'aretz and
Maariv's polls indicate further strengthening of the
Kadima Party (see below).

All media reported that Vice Premier Shimon Peres is
slated to be No. 2 on Kadima's Knesset list, whereas
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is the party's candidate
for the foreign affairs portfolio.

Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin was quoted as saying before
the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on
Tuesday that there are 40-km range missiles in the PA.

All media reported that on Tuesday, Iran resumed its
uranium enrichment research. The media cited U.S. and
European threats to bring the issue to the UN Security
Council (UNSC). Visiting U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos
(D-CA) was quoted as saying in an interview with The
Jerusalem Post that the U.S. and the EU should impose a
range of sanctions against Iran for continuing to press
ahead with its nuclear program if the UNSC does not do
so.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Tourism Minister
Abraham Hirchson, a close ally of Sharon and one of the
first members of Kadima, has aborted a potential USD 50-
million partnership with American televangelist Pat
Robertson to protest his suggestion that Sharon's
stroke was God's punishment for the Gaza pullout. The
newspaper wrote that the Tourism Ministry was about to
sign a deal with Robertson and a group of other
evangelical leaders, committing the GOI to providing
land and infrastructure for a Christian Heritage Center
in the Galilee, while Robertson's group would raise USD
50 million in funding.

All media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
ordered that work be resumed on three sections of the
separation fence in Jerusalem that have been frozen by
order of the High Court of Justice. However, media
quoted officials in Mofaz's office as saying that the
minister merely ordered the construction of a
"temporary fence" that will later be moved to wherever
the court decides, and that even this part will not be
built without first obtaining the court's permission.

Ha'aretz and Maariv quoted Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin
as saying on Tuesday that his agency has given the army
and police identifying details of "hilltop youth" from
the settlements of Yitzhar and Itamar who are suspected
of having cut down olive trees belonging to
Palestinians. Leading media cited the Yesha Council of
Jewish Settlements in the Territories' claim that
Palestinians sometimes label pruned trees as having
been vandalized in order to smear the settlers, who are
believed responsible for the vandalism. Ha'aretz
reported that experts in olive tree cultivation refuted
the council's allegations.

Yediot reported that Amir Peretz told the newspaper
that as part of an agreement with the PA, he would be
willing to give back the Arab villages on the outskirts
of Jerusalem's jurisdiction to the control of the PA.

The media reported that primaries in Likud and three
small parties are slated to take place on Thursday.

Leading media reported that on Tuesday, the Beersheba
District Court indicted Shadi Halawa, a Gaza Strip
Hamas activist, for infiltrating Israel in order to
enter the West Bank and set up a Hamas cell there.
Major media reported that on Tuesday, the Tel Aviv
District Court sentenced Abbas al-Sayed to 35
consecutive life sentences, the longest prison term in
Israeli history, for involvement in two deadly attacks
-- the Passover eve suicide attack in Netanya's Park
Hotel in March 2002, which killed 30 Israelis, and a
suicide attack in Netanya's Hasharon Mall in May 2001,
which killed five Israelis. Some 250 people were
wounded in the two attacks.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Meir Elran, the author of a
study on the effect of the Intifada on the Israeli
public, which was recently released by Tel Aviv
University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, as
saying: "If the Intifada was supposed to undermine the
foundations of Israeli society and to bring it to a
state of imbalance and destabilization, it has failed."

Channel 10-TV and Ha'aretz published the results of a
survey conducted on Monday by Prof. Camille Fuchs of
the Amanet Group's Dialogue Institute, which show that
Sharon's Kadima Party has recorded another rise in the
polls to 44 Knesset seats, compared with 40 seats one
day before Sharon's hospitalization. Labor, on the
other hand, dropped two seats (to 19),while Likud lost
one (to 13). Of the remaining parties, Shinui stands
on the threshold for Knesset entry, with 4 seats. The
poll gives Shas 10 seats, with Meretz-Yahad holding
steady at 5. The poll also found that Olmert bested
his rivals, Netanyahu and Labor Party Chairman Amir
Peretz, in personal characteristics such as credibility
and suitability to the position of prime minister.

An Israel TV/Geocartographia survey found that Kadima
would get 45 Knesset seats, the Labor Party 18, Likud
15, Shas 11, National Union 8, the Arab parties 7,
United Torah Judaism 6, Yisrael Beiteinu 3, and Meretz-
Yahad 3. The poll found that Shinui and the National
Religious Party would get 2 seats each, which is below
the threshold for entering the Knesset.

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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Israel tried to
place the U.S. administration in a dilemma between the
two values it is promoting: democratization in the Arab
world and the war on terrorism."

Ha'aretz editorialized: "The Likud chairman must not
blur his party's essence and place on the political
map: a right-wing party whose positions are no
guarantee of progress in the peace process."

Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in nationalist,
Orthodox Hatzofe: "Israel's objection to the setting up
of ballot boxes in Jerusalem stems from its opposition
to the posting of Hamas observers, not to an objection
to the holding of elections in Israel's capital."

Tel Aviv University political science lecturers Evgeni
Klauber and Alberto Spektorovski wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv: "Even without [right-wing politician
Avigdor] Lieberman (should he decide to return to the
territorial Right),Liebermanism is the prominent trend
in Israeli politics."

Editor-in-Chief Lutfi Mashour wrote in independent,
moderate Arabic-language Assennara: "The collapse of
Sharon's health has brought Israel and the Middle East,
particularly as regards the Palestinians, into a new
historical stage -- the post-Sharon stage."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Olmert Faces Reality"

Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (January 11): "Ehud
Olmert finally decided to back down and agreed that
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem could vote in
the Palestinian legislative elections at polling booths
to be stationed at post offices in the city. Thus
ended Israel's failed attempt to protest Hamas's
participation in the elections.... Israel tried to
place the U.S. administration in a dilemma between the
two values it is promoting: democratization in the Arab
world and the war on terrorism. The Americans made it
clear that they consider the Palestinian elections, and
broad participation in them, to be of top priority.
They warned that Israel would be blamed for the
postponement of the elections if it insisted on
preventing voting in East Jerusalem, and would also be
absolving Mahmoud Abbas of his pledge to dismantle the
terrorist groups 'after the elections'.... Olmert 'cut
to the chase,' in keeping with his approach that there
is no point in dragging out decisions that have
foregone results. He telephoned Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to inform her of his decision, instead
of waiting for the administration's emissaries, Elliott
Abrams and David Welch, who are arriving in the region
today. He was worried that a further delay in the
decision would achieve nothing and merely present him
as a doormat who gives in to pressure."

II. "Unwarranted Presumption"

Ha'aretz editorialized (January 11): "In an interview
with The New York Times (January 10),[Likud Chairman
Binyamin Netanyahu] presented himself as 'Sharon's most
direct inheritor.' This claim involves more than a
little vulgarity and effrontery. Vulgarity, even to
speak of inheriting while the legator is in the
hospital in serious condition, and effrontery, because
Netanyahu is trying to blur the significant gaps that
developed between himself and Sharon over a Palestinian
state (as evidenced by the Likud Central Committee
vote) and the disengagement, which led to his
opportunistic, last-minute resignation from the
government. The interview's detailed description of
Netanyahu's positions and intentions should he attain
power -- from the principle of 'if they give, they will
get' to his willingness to use disproportionate force
to deter terror -- seem dishonorable in light of his
statement that he does not want to make declarations
about political strategy, but prefers to postpone the
political debate at a time when the focus should be on
Sharon's 'battle for life.' At the end of March, the
public will be called upon to decide whether Netanyahu
is fit to return to power. But the Likud chairman must
not blur his party's essence and place on the political
map: a right-wing party whose positions are no
guarantee of progress in the peace process."

III. "The Olmert Government's Slippery Slope"

Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in nationalist,
Orthodox Hatzofe (January 11): "The announcement by
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz that 'the elections in the
Palestinian Authority will take place as they did in
1996' heralded the surrender of the Olmert government
to the U.S. administration with regard to the Jerusalem
issue.... It appears that the Kadima-led Olmert
government is about to replicate the process that was
then [in 1996] led by one of its senior members --
Shimon Peres.... Israel's objection to the setting up
of ballot boxes in Jerusalem stems from its opposition
to the posting of Hamas observers, not to an objection
to the holding of elections in Israel's capital.
According to the Palestinian election regulations,
representatives of all parties must be present in each
voting center.... The placement of Palestinian ballot
boxes in Jerusalem and the propaganda for those
elections place a huge question mark above Israel's
sovereignty in Jerusalem.... Olmert is simply dividing
Jerusalem."

IV. "The Right Will Divide Jerusalem"

Tel Aviv University political science lecturers Evgeni
Klauber and Alberto Spektorovski wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv (January 11): "Despite inevitable
differences [within the new Right] between Israel and
Europe, the declared trend is to strengthen the ethno-
national state by delaying, as much as possible, the
granting of rights to foreigners and to the national
minority in its midst.... To this purpose, Lieberman is
prepared to concede not only parts of the Land of
Israel [i.e. Israel, including the territories] but
also of Israel proper and Jerusalem.... Even without
Lieberman (should he decide to return to the
territorial Right),Liebermanism is the prominent trend
in Israeli politics."


V. "After Sharon"

Editor-in-Chief Lutfi Mashour wrote in independent,
moderate Arabic-language Assennara (January 6): "The
collapse of Sharon's health has brought Israel and the
Middle East, particularly as regards the Palestinians,
into a new historical stage -- the post-Sharon
stage.... Even if Sharon survives, he will most likely
not return to power, not during the coming weeks before
the elections and not even afterwards.... Sharon's
illness will first of all affect Kadima.... If Olmert
proves himself to be powerful as a prime minister or as
a head of a coalition, then the next period will be
better and more promising. However, if he turns out to
be weak and if his coalition relies on the Right, then
it will be a horrible period, provided Kadima doesn't
get shattered altogether after Sharon, which is also a
possibility.... Even if [Amir] Peretz and Olmert follow
in Sharon's steps, they still wouldn't have Sharon's
power and experience. It seems like a coalition might
be formed between Kadima, Labor and Shinui. However,
if Netanyahu forms the next government or is part of
it, there will be a major regression.... The post-
Sharon period will be very different and radiate to all
fields of life -- within Israel and outside."

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2. U.S.-Israel Relations:
--------------

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

Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the
late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, commented in an
editorial in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "The Foreign Minister did well in reminding
Israelis who's the boss, to whom we owe so much, and
why we abide by its commands."

Jonathan S. Tobin, executive editor of The Jewish
Exponent in Philadelphia, wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post: "As compelling as the story
from Israel might be this week, Jewish fears about the
Christian Right and the liberal counter-attack against
conservatives remains the key issue for American Jews."

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


I. "Our Life Source"

Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the
late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, commented in an
editorial in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (January 11): "Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom
said this week that U.S. assistance to Israel amounts
to over USD 3 billion this year. There is nothing new
in these data, but the Foreign Minister did well in
reminding Israelis who's the boss, to whom we owe so
much, and why we abide by its commands. We indeed pray
three times a day, as we turn eastwards [in the
direction of Jerusalem], but with such an amount of aid
remedy, we may have to start praying westwards. It is
there that we have our source of living water."

II. "Politically Holier Than Thou"

Jonathan S. Tobin, executive editor of The Jewish
Exponent in Philadelphia, wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (January 11): "Israelis
would be wrong if they assumed that the uncertainty
over their political future is the top priority for
their American cousins.... While Sharon lay ill at
Hadassah Hospital, many American Jews were far more
interested in an Italian-American from New Jersey
rather than anyone in Israel. The nomination of Judge
Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court has
resulted in a mobilization of a wide cross-section of
Jewish groups who oppose him and the Bush
administration. That they do so speaks volumes about
American Jewish politics and priorities.... So as
compelling as the story from Israel might be this week,
Jewish fears about the Christian Right and the liberal
counter-attack against conservatives remains the key
issue for American Jews. And in a week when the Alito
confirmation hearings start, even the Sharon illness
and the ascent of Ehud Olmert cannot eclipse this
struggle."

JONES