ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 001533

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. Lebanese-Syrian Track

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Key stories in the media:
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Leading media reported that FM Tzipi Livni, who
successfully proposed revoking the Jerusalem residency
of the Hamas legislators, persuaded a governmental
forum convened on Tuesday to continue with its
characterization of the PA as a "hostile entity,"
rather than adopting terminology proposed by the
defense establishment: "enemy entity." Yediot and
other media reported that in the wake of Monday's
bombing in Tel Aviv, the forum decided to issue a
warning to the PA rather than conduct a military
operation. Israel Radio quoted a senior IDF officer as
saying that the army is prepared to conduct an
operation in the Gaza Strip if Hamas does not act
against terror. The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior GOI
official as saying Wednesday that Israel is considering
expanding its Tuesday decision to revoke the Jerusalem
residency of three Hamas Palestinian Legislative
Council members and a PA cabinet minister to include
other known Hamas members or even PA workers living in
the city. Major media wrote that Hamas intends to
petition the High Court of Justice against the GOI
decision. The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior
Israeli official noted the irony that Hamas officials,
who do not recognize Israel, were threatening to
petition an Israeli court. The Jerusalem Post quoted
GOI officials as saying that the policy of targeted
assassinations would continue and that road blocks and
patrols along the Green Line would be increased to
crack down on people illegally smuggling Palestinian
workers across the Green Line. The media reported that
three Knesset members from the United Arab List-Arab
Movement for Renewal met with a Hamas parliamentarian
in East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Ha'aretz reported that Egypt and Saudi Arabia are
pressing Hamas to adopt the Arab League declaration
passed in Beirut in 2002. The declaration included
recognition of the 1967 borders and a just solution to
the refugee problem. Ha'aretz and Israel Radio said
that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wants to arrange
a meeting between Olmert and PA Chairman [President]
Mahmoud Abbas.

Leading media reported that Islamic Jihad and other
Palestinian organizations have asked Abbas to apologize
over his condemnation of the Tel Aviv bombing. Maariv
cited a "secret" document in which Palestinian PM
Ismail Haniyeh, prompted by Hamas political leader
Khaled Mashal, "dries up" the PLO. Haniyeh was quoted
as writing in the document that only the salaries of
Hamas members in the PA administration will be paid.

Yediot reported that the Bush administration is
considering turning to the International Atomic Energy
Agency, circumventing the UN Security Council to take
steps that would terminate the Iranian nuclear program.
Major media cited a story published in the British
newspaper The Guardian on Wednesday that the Committee
for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic
Campaign, an Iranian group claiming to be an
independent body that has the backing of the Iranian
regime, said that it is seeking to recruit Muslims in
Britain for attacks on Israel. Yediot reported that
the Simon Wiesenthal Center has asked the German
government to reconsider its decision to let Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come to the upcoming
soccer world championship. Yediot and The Jerusalem
Post reported that last week, an Iranian representative
was appointed as a deputy chair of the UN Disarmament
Committee. Yediot wrote that the case was akin to a
"cat guarding the cream."

Maariv (lead story) and other major media quoted UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying on Wednesday

SIPDIS
that Lebanon must dismantle Hizbullah. Annan was
responding to the publication of a report issued by UN
Lebanon envoy Terje Roed-Larsen that found that
Hizbullah was continuing to rule in southern Lebanon
and to receive weapons from Syria -- including Katyusha
rockets. Yediot reported that UN investigators might
interrogate Syrian President Bashar Assad Friday
regarding his possible involvement in the assassination
of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri.
Israel Radio reported that five Qassam rockets landed
south of Ashkelon this morning. There were no injuries
or material damage. The station reported that the IDF
responded with artillery fire.

Major media reported that the Jordanian government
canceled a planned visit to Amman by PA FM Mahmoud
Zahar, saying that Hamas had smuggled weapons into the
kingdom. Leading media reported that Hamas leaders
strongly denied the charges.

Ha'aretz quoted German Justice Minister Brigitte
Zypries as saying at a news conference Tuesday at the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) that Berlin will
work with Washington on opening millions of files on
hundreds of slave-labor and concentration camps, now
being preserved in the German town of Bad Arolsen.
Yediot quoted USHMM Director Sara Bloomfield as saying
that the German government's decision to open the
archives was significant both historically and morally.
Maariv and The Jerusalem Post also reported on the
matter.

Yediot reported that it was Olmert who suggested the
title of the 1990 Hollywood movie "Pretty Woman" to
producer Arnon Milchan and director Garry Marshall.

Major media reported that President Bush's Deputy Chief
of Staff Karl Rove and White House Press Secretary Scot
McClellan have tendered their resignation. The media
said that the purpose of the changes was to rejuvenate
the White House and stop the slide in public opinion
polls. The Jerusalem Post printed an AP story that
President Bush nominated Trade Representative Rob
Portman as the White House budget director.

Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, and other media reported
that on Tuesday, the High Court of Justice rejected
petitions by Palestinians for injunctions to delay the
completion of the separation fence near the Palestinian
villages of Bir Naballah, Beit Hanina, Al Jib, Jedira,
Qalandya and A-Ram, north of Jerusalem. The court will
allow Israel to complete the construction of the
separation fence surrounding Jerusalem. The court
ruled that the state may now complete the fence since
alternate roads and checkpoints have been constructed
to enable unrestricted Palestinian travel.

Leading media cited demands by senior Labor Party
members that the party be handed the finance and
education portfolios. Yediot and other media quoted
senior Kadima officials as saying that Labor will not
be a government coalition partner if the price is too
high.

The Jerusalem Post reported that FBI agents tried to
gain access to documents of the late reporter Jack
Anderson to find material related to the AIPAC case.

Maariv reported that on Wednesday, Israeli photographer
Rina Castelnuovo, the New York Times' photographer in
Israel, won the Overseas Press Club prize, which Maariv
said is the equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize for foreign
reporting.

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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "A
boycott of the Hamas government, such as the one
developing internationally, may be more effective than
any Israeli action."


Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Those who talk
about peace with Israel do not mean real peace, but are
looking for a way to reach the US consciousness and
Western money."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Who Is Responsible?"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(4/20): "The clear-cut statement by the Hamas
government's spokesman that the Tel Aviv suicide
bombing was a 'legitimate step of self-defense against
the occupation' determines for all intents and purposes
that government's responsibility for the attack....
Despite the inherent international expectation of an
Israeli response to the Tel Aviv attack, the ball is
still in the Palestinian court. The Palestinians can
still prevent another round of violence.... Marwan
Barghouti's ability to attain a new cease-fire from
prison is limited, but any initiative of this kind,
whether from jail, Israel, the PA or elsewhere in the
world, is welcome. The call by the right-wing parties
for a widespread military action should not be heeded,
since vengeance is not a policy. A boycott of the Hamas
government, such as the one developing internationally,
may be more effective than any Israeli action."

II. "The Terrorist PA"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized (4/20): "The PA's highest echelons cannot
and must not be absolved of responsibility for this
latest massacre, even if it is Islamic Jihad's
handiwork. Not only does the Hamas establishment not
dissociate itself from the deadly attack on civilians,
its own creed is also identical with that of Islamic
Jihad. Hamas's charter declares that 'the liberation
of Palestine' -- a euphemism for eradicating the Jewish
state -- 'is the individual duty for every Muslim
wherever he may be. Israel will exist only until Islam
obliterates it.' This is the mind-set that now governs
the PA; this is the vicious message it seeks to spread
to its people.... Homicide-by-suicide has been adopted
by Islamic terror-mongers throughout the globe.
Strikingly and appallingly, we have yet to see any
serious, widespread and effective opposition to the
practice instituted by moderate Muslims. In the
meantime, Israelis and other Westerners must exercise
the inherent right of self-preservation -- and seek,
savvily and resolutely, to thwart the murderous
ambitions of the bombers, the Qassam cells, the PA
government that champions them... and the ambitions,
too, of the Iranian regime that helps inspire and fund
them."

III. "Israel Is Just the Means"

Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/20):
"Ostensibly, this is a mirror image: some of the Middle
East talks about peace with Israel, has signed peace
agreements with it and the Arab world is supposedly
bound by the Saudi peace initiative. Another part
talks about war with Israel, even its destruction, such
as the Palestinian Authority or Iran. But in fact,
this is very same phenomenon. Those who talk about
peace with Israel do not mean real peace, but are
looking for a way to reach the US consciousness and
Western money. They know that Washington is impressed
by the tones of peaces, but the goal [of that approach]
is not Israel, but America. Israel is the ladder by
which they will get to Washington.... Iran today hopes
to become a Middle East, perhaps a world, superpower.
How, as a discounted Shi'ite country among the Arabs,
will it ascend to such a lofty status? It will fight
Israel, at least verbally.... We must not become overly
excited by Arab peace initiatives, since what is
usually behind them is local distress, as was the case
with Sadat, Gemayel, Arafat, and Hussein, and they are
therefore also limited. More than Israel needs this
initiative, the other side needs it. Therefore, as
determined by the rules of negotiations, Israel must
demand more in return.... Israeli misunderstanding of
what lies behind declarations of war and peace in the
Middle East has in the past led to disaster and
disillusionment, and this is liable to happen now too.
We must pray that Israel's new leadership knows that in
our region, what is hidden is larger than what is
revealed, particularly when it refers to Israel, and we
must distinguish well between reality and illusion."

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2. Iran:
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Summary:
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Liberal op-ed writer Yigal Sarna wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The threat of
mutual destruction prevents killing."


Nationalist writer Uri Dan opined in popular, pluralist
Maariv and the conservative, independent Jerusalem
Post: "Is Israel sending ... a pervasive message of
weakness, one that ... invites the venom that may be
paving the way for a military offensive directed
against us?"

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


I. "In Praise of the Iranian Bomb"

Liberal op-ed writer Yigal Sarna wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/20): "The
spin of Iran's atom has long served the pressures of
the [Israeli] defense establishment and the need for a
scarecrow of awe.... I'll ... place myself against the
grain of all the fears, the reports, and even the
boastful speeches of the big-mouthed Iranian, and say
that Iran is no more a paranoid state than Mofaz's
Israel or Bush's America.... In terms of a current
military operation, [Iran] is less violent and
threatening than the latter... The threat of mutual
destruction prevents killing, in the same way as the
International War Crimes Tribunal reins in countries --
Israel, too -- from carrying out wild military
operations.... In the distant future the two regional
powers [Israel and Iran] that had a stormy love affair
a generation ago may get close to each other."



II. "What Kind of Tree Is Israel?"

Nationalist writer Uri Dan opined in popular, pluralist
Maariv and the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
(4/20): "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated
his well-known intent to erase Israel from the map last
Friday with a new twist: 'Israel is a rotten, dried
tree that will be annihilated in one storm.' Ha'aretz,
the self-appointed paper for the thinking classes,
buried this terrible, blatant threat deep inside its
news pages.... The International Herald Tribune ...
hid the threat to destroy Israel in a small item ...
without even calling attention to it in the
headline.... But give Ha'aretz and The International
Herald Tribune a story about "A young Palestinian
killed by IDF shelling ... and you will usually find
the news item with a banner headline on those papers'
front pages.... Is Israel sending ... a pervasive
message of weakness, one that feeds and fosters -- in
fact invites -- the venom that may be paving the way
for a military offensive directed against us?.... The
Iranian-Hamas-Hizbullah threat is the most serious
Israel has faced since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. If
Ahmadinejad's remark offends us, we should cut off
those dry branches, of which there are too many, and
remove the dry rot, of which there is too much, so that
when the day comes Ahmadinejad and his ilk will be able
to sense the strong roots that support the Jewish
tree."

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3. Lebanese-Syrian Track:
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Summary:
--------------

Arab affairs correspondent Jackie Hoogie wrote in
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Kofi Annan's call to
Hizbullah to disarm will record soon enough a highly
publicized accomplishment -- it will toughen Hassan
Nasrallah's position."





Block Quotes:
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"Terrible Timing"

Arab affairs correspondent Jackie Hoogie wrote in
popular, pluralist Maariv (4/20): "Perhaps Israeli
officials are pleased today, but just a moment -- it is
only a UN report. If not for the sensitive timing, it
is likely that even this report would be swept under
the Persian rugs that adorn Iran's embassy in Beirut.
Kofi Annan's call to Hizbullah to disarm will record
soon enough a highly publicized accomplishment -- it
will toughen Hassan Nasrallah's position.... Today,
both the West and Jerusalem understand that like the
withdrawal of the Syrian army, the disarmament of
Hizbullah cannot be imposed from outside, but only by
Lebanese agreement. Indeed, efforts in this direction
have been made in recent weeks. All the parties and
powerful forces in Lebanese politics are joining
together in the National Dialogue, a new forum that is
intended to resolve the most sensitive national
questions.... Since the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon
in May 2000, the UN has sided with Israel in its
position. Because of that, and through no fault of its
own, it is perceived by Hizbullah as a hostile element.
The publication of the Larsen Report as the National
Forum dialogue is at its height will only help
Nasrallah to claim that abandoning the armed struggle
is a gift to the UN and to its ally, Zionism."

JONES