ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 11 TEL AVIV 001887

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

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Key stories in the media:
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On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Israel and the US are
beginning discussions of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
convergence plan this week. The newspaper wrote that
the working assumption among senior Israeli officials
is that the US administration supports the plan and
views it as "the only game in town." Ha'aretz said
that two major issues are on the agenda: the timeline
for the plan and the nature of the support to be
extended by the USG. On Sunday, Israel Radio and other
media reported that three of the prime minister's
advisers -- Dov Weisglass, Shalom Turgeman and Yoram
Turbowicz -- left for Washington Saturday night in
order to prepare Olmert's visit. They will meet with
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security

SIPDIS
Advisor Stephen Hadley and with Deputy National
Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. The radio said that
during his visit to Washington, Olmert will meet with
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Secretary of
State and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well
as with leaders of the Senate and of the House of
Representatives, and speak to a joint meeting of
Congress. Olmert is also expected to meet with leaders
of Jewish organizations. On Sunday, Yediot reported
that three senior members of the American Jewish
leadership -- Harold Tanner, Malcolm Hoenlein, and
James Tisch - were to meet that day in Jerusalem with
Olmert, and pass on a message they received from the
administration in Washington: Don't ask the President
for money to finance convergence at your meeting with
him in the White House. Yediot reported that The New
York Sun recently reported that officials in the White
House and the National Security Council recently passed
on discreet messages to Jewish leaders: it would be
best if Olmert's first visit to Washington as prime
minister were to focus on expansive strategic issues.
Yediot wrote that The New York Sun asked for the
response of Israeli Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon,
who denied that Olmert had any intention of asking for
an aid package to finance convergence.

All media (Yediot's banner) reported that on Sunday in
the area of Jenin, IDF troops killed a Palestinian
civilian and 6 Islamic Jihad activists -- including
most wanted terrorist Elias Ashkar, the head of Islamic
Jihad in the northern West Bank, believed to have been
behind all of the group's suicide attacks over the past
year, including the latest suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Over the weekend, the media reported that IDF forces on
Friday found an explosives belt that weighed up to 10
kg and was apparently intended for an attack in Israel.
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Friday, IDF
soldiers shot dead an armed Fatah activist in Nablus.
Leading media reported that on Sunday off the Gaza
shore, the Israel Navy seized a Palestinian boat, which
contained several hundred kg of military-grade
explosives and mines, and arrested the crew.

The Jerusalem Post wrote that it is not clear that the
US will be able to influence the mechanism being
developed by the European Commission to provide
humanitarian aid to the Palestinians while bypassing
the Hamas government. Citing European Commission
officials whom The Jerusalem Post interviewed on
Sunday, the newspaper said that if the US does not
approve the mechanism, it is possible that a
splintering of funding strategies will emerge, leading
to the payment of PA salaries by Europe and
international donors. Maariv reported that the EU is
expected to announce today that it is resuming its
financial aid to the PA.

Major media (lead story in The Jerusalem Post) reported
that the tension between Olmert and Defense Minister
Amir Peretz continues. Media reported that on Sunday
the government did not debate a proposal put forward by
Peretz Wednesday that 50 million shekels of tax revenue
withheld from the PA be set aside for the purchase of
medical equipment for the Palestinians.

All media report that on Sunday, the High Court of
Justice rejected, 6-5, petitions to reject amendments
against the Citizenship Law, which prevents
Palestinians from requesting residency status in Israel
by virtue of "family unification" with Israel. In its
lead story, Ha'aretz quoted Justice Minister Haim Ramon
as saying in an interview with the newspaper that he
planned to legislate a basic law to anchor Israel's
immigration policy, and that he would bring it before
the Knesset for approval within about half a year.
Other media quoted Ramon as making similar remarks.

Ha'aretz reported that last week, two senior Israeli
nuclear experts -- Atomic Energy Commission DG Gideon
Frank and his deputy in charge of policy, Eli Levita --
visited Washington and discussed international efforts
to contain Iran's nuclear program. The newspaper wrote
that their visit came ahead of Olmert's trip to the US,
and that Mossad Director Meir Dagan, who, on Olmert's
behalf, concentrates efforts for a "political
obstruction" of Iran's nuclear policy, came to
Washington in late April for talks with his American
counterparts. On Sunday, major media (banner in
Yediot) cited a UN claim that enriched uranium was
discovered in an Iranian military installation. Yediot
quoted an Israeli expert as saying that this could be
the "smoking gun in a smoke-filled room."

On Sunday, Ha'aretz and other media reported that IDF
soldiers have been escorting Palestinian schoolchildren
from the southern Hebron hills to protect them from
attacks by settlers from the Maon farm. On Sunday, in
another development, Ha'aretz quoted senior army
officers as saying that in the wake of an attempt by
settlers to burn down a trailer in a Palestinian quarry
near Nablus Thursday, Peretz ought to implement the
decision of his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz, to remove the
nearby illegal outpost, Bracha B.

Leading media reported that Daniel Wultz, the 16-year-
old American tourist who was critically wounded in the
Passover suicide bombing at Tel Aviv's central bus
station, died of his wounds on Sunday, two days after
another victim, Lior Enidzer. Ha'aretz reported that
US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones visited Wultz
recently.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that several
greenhouses belonging to the former settlement of Morag
in the Gaza Strip were destroyed over the weekend
during an attempt by dozens of gunmen to take over the
area.

Major media reported that on Sunday, the cabinet
approved the composition of the security cabinet, which
will be chaired by PM Ehud Olmert and heavily dominated
by Kadima. Kadima will have seven representatives on
the panel, with Olmert being joined by Tzipi Livni, Avi
Dichter, Abraham Hirchson, Shaul Mofaz, Haim Ramon, and
Shimon Peres. Three ministers from Labor -- Amir
Peretz, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Ophir Pines Paz will
also sit in the security cabinet, along with Eli Yishai
and the Gil Pensioners' Party Rafi Eitan.

Citing news agencies, Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday,
Palestinian Authority PM Ismail Haniyeh called on
Middle East peace brokers to deal directly with the
Hamas-led government, saying Palestinians cannot afford
to wait weeks for a new aid mechanism that bypasses
Hamas. On Sunday, citing AP, Ha'aretz reported that on
Saturday, Norwegian Foreign Ministry officials met with
Palestinian Minister for Refugee Affairs Atef Adwan in
Oslo and called upon the group to renounce violence
against Israel. The newspaper reported that the
Norwegian government announced on Friday that it was
going to increase by some 50 percent the financial aid
it provides to the PA, and that it would now reach USD
25 million, which will be transferred via the UN Relief
and Works Agency. Today, Hatzofe reported that
pressure applied by the Austrian Foreign Ministry led
to the cancellation of a planned visit by Atef Adwan to
Austria. Hatzofe reported that the Palestinian
minister was invited to Austria by a left wing
organization called the Council Against Imperialism,
which is opposed to the policies of the US and Israel.
On Sunday, Hatzofe reported that the Palestinians
intended to send a truck loaded with medicine from the
Gaza Strip to the West Bank that day. Hatzofe quoted
Israeli security officials as saying that this proves
that the Palestinians have a sufficient supply of
medicine, despite their cries of dismay.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Saturday, for the
first time, Haniyeh said that the "national
reconciliation" document drafted last week in the
Hadarim prison by Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and
Sheikh Abdel Halek Natshe of Hamas, which calls for
accepting the principle of establishing a Palestinian
state on the land occupied in 1967 as well as the
agreements signed previously by the PA with Israel and
the international community, "contains worthy
principles to which agreement is possible." However,
Haniyeh said that other prisons are not a party to it
and that the document therefore must be studied
further.

Citing information conveyed by associates of PA
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli defense
sources, Ha'aretz reported that the Palestinian
security forces believe that Islamic Jihad plans to
assassinate Abbas.

Over the weekend, major media reported that on
Saturday, hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli
protesters clashed with police and Border Police in the
A-Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem during a protest
against the neighborhood's enclosure by fences and
checkpoints.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a High Court ruling
Sunday paved the way for local authorities of Jewish
settlements in the West Bank to use state funds to
fight any future withdrawal plans, even as it warned
that they may face financial penalties by doing so.
The ruling was hailed as a victory by both the
petitioner, Peace Now (for the Court's acknowledging of
the funding),and the respondent, the Council of Jewish
Settlements in the Territories.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that defense
attorneys in the case of Steve Rosen and Keith
Weissman, two former AIPAC officials, cited the Legal
Cooperation Treaty signed between Israel and the US in
the late 1990s, that would allow for depositions from
three diplomats referred to in the indictment, who are
all in Israel.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has been
appointed to serve on the UN committee on NGOs for four
years beginning January 1.

Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that Special Counsel
Patrick Fitzgerald may ask Vice President Dick Cheney
to submit evidence in the affair of the exposure of CIA
agent Valerie Plame.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Pensioners Affair Ministers
Rafi Eitan's spokeswoman as saying Sunday that he is
planning to visit Cuba this month for a private
business trip.

Ha'aretz reported that Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua
has expressed his "deepest apologies" over comments he
made at the recent American Jewish Committee's
centennial symposium in the US, in which he asserted
that only people living in Israel and taking part in
the daily decisions of the Jewish state had a
meaningful Jewish identity -- remarks that have sparked
a furious debate over the relationship between Israel
and the Diaspora.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the first and second
prizewinners of Israel's Intel Young Scientists
Competition have won second and fourth place in the
International Intel Young Scientists Competition --
held over the weekend in Indianapolis -- in which they
were pitted against 1,400 teenagers from 47 countries.

Yediot reported that Microsoft Israel takes steps
against its employees who are called up for mandatory
IDF reserve duty.





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

Summary:
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Columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post: "Does Olmert have [Shas
party mentor] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's blessing for this
traumatic and controversial plan? Obviously he
doesn't."

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[Amir] Peretz is a
good candidate to adopt [leadership], on condition that
he does not decide that he should be, first and
foremost, an intern chief of staff."
Columnist Dov Goldstein wrote in popular, pluralist
Maariv: " Only through negotiations with the elected
Palestinian leadership, and only through an agreement
with such a leadership, is there a chance -- however
slim it may be -- to find a solution for the conflict."

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
Ha'aretz: "The Arab response [to Hamas-led Palestine],
no less than the American and Israeli one, made clear
to Hamas leaders that they are facing a front the likes
of which no Arab state has faced before."

Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz:
"If we ... continue the occupation, we should not be
surprised when the occupied take our fate into their
hands."

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in The Jerusalem Post: "The idea
that the West should subsidize, directly or indirectly,
a radical Islamist, innately anti-American, anti-
Semitic, and genocidal-oriented Hamas regime is crazy."





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


I. "Olmert Going to US With a Precarious Coalition
Behind Him"

Columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (5/15): "The date for
Olmert's trip was decided months in advance. It seemed
reasonable to assume that the coalition and government
would be wrapped up a month and a half after the
elections, and Olmert would be able to lean back and
enjoy his flight. Olmert kept to his schedule, but the
coalition that he achieved is limited and
precarious.... Olmert is going to Washington to receive
Bush's agreement to his convergence plan. Most
observers believe that he will return home with the
appropriate assurances. But does Olmert have Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef's blessing for this traumatic and
controversial plan? Obviously he doesn't or Shas
wouldn't have insisted upon and received a letter
exempting it from the clause in the coalition
guidelines about leaving settlements."

II. "A Necessary Rebel"

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (5/14): "Just let
[Defense Minister Amir Peretz] not suddenly start
'understanding security.' Let him keep turning over
every stone and looking with wonder at what he finds
underneath. Let him not be insulted by officers who
wink behind his back or even make the sign of horns
with their fingers behind the head. Because this is
the only way Amir Peretz will be able to break the
thick layer of ice that has long covered what should be
a bonfire of original thought. The first signs are
positive.... The hope that the well-arranged IDF chest
of drawers, which contains a 'file' for every scenario
and a 'response' to every event, will at least be aired
out if not sanitized, expresses an aspiration toward a
revolution in understanding, a hope for a situation in
which the scenario is planned instead of fallen into or
responded to.... However, the word 'withdrawal' does
not exist in the IDF lexicon. There it is
'disengagement,' 'convergence,' or 'redeployment.'
Peretz may find himself once again facing one of the
stuck drawers in the chest. The question may also be
asked, with all due respect to the United States of
course, what about Syria? Must Assad's statements
always be responded to instead of adopting a policy of
willingness to conduct negotiations? For all these
reasons, that mysterious attribute called
'statesmanship' is needed. Peretz is a good candidate
to adopt it, on condition that he does not decide that
he should be, first and foremost, an intern chief of
staff."

III. "Talk With Abu Mazen"

Columnist Dov Goldstein wrote in popular, pluralist
Maariv (5/14): "Only through negotiations with the
elected Palestinian leadership, and only through an
agreement with such a leadership, is there a chance --
however slim it may be -- to find a solution to the
conflict. Anything else is but an illusion.... True,
Abu Mazen's status was damaged after Hamas's victory in
the elections. However, the Israeli government's
working assumption that the Palestinian Authority's
economic distress, the blocking of international
financial assistance, and the inability to pay the
salaries of PA employees and of the members of its
security forces would cause the Hamas government to
collapse and force the PA Chairman to declare new
elections, turned out to be wrong."

IV. "Freud Believed This Was the Land of Holy
Lunacies"

Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz
(5/15): "That same 'plucked fowl' [Mahmoud Abbas] who
is clinging with all his might to the diplomatic option
is receiving a blessing for the road from prisoner for
life Marwan Barghouti, whose power no one denies. That
same 'broken reed' who obtained an agreement to stop
the terror attacks from Hamas is getting a document
from Hamas prisoners that affords a chance, perhaps a
last chance, for a two-state solution. If Israel looks
away, as it did following the important declaration by
the Arab League, we will yet be fondly missing Ismail
Haniyeh. If we insist on adding to our collection of
holy lunacies the wish 'to take our fate into our own
hands' and continue the occupation, we should not be
surprised when the occupied take our fate into their
hands."


V. "When the Arab Boycott Is Aimed at Palestine"

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
Ha'aretz (5/15): "Why is the Arab boycott of Hamas so
successful? American pressure is an influential
factor, but such threats never prevented European and
Arab countries in the past from cooperating with Saddam
Hussein or Muammar Qadhafi before sanctions were
lifted, and does not prevent most of them from
conducting normal trade tries with Iran. The
difference is that Hamas is now perceived as unwilling
to cooperate with the official Arab position adopted at
the Beirut summit -- the Arab League resolution
adopting the two-state principle and the 1967
borders.... The Arab response [to Hamas-led Palestine],
no less than the American and Israeli one, made clear
to Hamas leaders that they are facing a front the likes
of which no Arab state has faced before. Hence the
expectation that a change in Hamas's political stance
is near."

VI. "Why Bail Hamas Out?"

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in The Jerusalem Post (5/15):
"Something about the Middle East makes people dopey.
The latest example of this phenomenon is the plan,
apparently endorsed by EU countries, to pay Palestinian
Authority employees out of their own taxpayers'
money.... The European plan would ensure that continued
extremism is cost-free. It would also show radical
Islamists in Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere that they can
take power, reject moderation, and still not face any
real Western pressure. Vladimir Lenin, the communist
revolutionary and dictator, liked to say the
bourgeoisie was so dumb that it would sell the rope to
hang itself with. Yet even he did not expect that
those he intended to destroy would pay for the rope
themselves.... The idea that the West should subsidize,
directly or indirectly, a radical Islamist, innately
anti-American, anti-Semitic, and genocidal-oriented
Hamas regime is crazy. Why should anyone -- much less
any country -- take such a notion seriously?"

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

Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist
Maariv: "Israel should formulate a comprehensive
deterrence policy against Iran ... while continuing, of
course, to view the US as the main factor in the battle
against Iran."

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

"Updated Deterrence Policy Needed"

Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist
Maariv (5/15): "Indeed, until August 2005, when
[Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad was elected president, Iran did
not directly threaten Israel's destruction (true, it
was the 'little Satan' and an enemy of Iran against
which terror was employed, but no more than that),and
it did not make the goal of [Israel's] destruction its
international 'battle cry.' Therefore, until then the
correct Israeli policy was indeed to refrain from
jumping to the head of the international queue against
Iran, to focus solely on quiet diplomacy, to be part of
the global coalition against Iran; and to remain silent
publicly. But the reality has changed since the end
of 2005, and in my opinion Israel should, therefore,
update its policy -- remain silent no longer. In other
words, Israel should formulate a comprehensive
deterrence policy against Iran, including on the PR and
declarative front (what should be said, by whom, when
and how),while continuing, of course, to view the US
as the main factor in the battle against Iran."

JONES