ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 002239

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
CDR USCENTCOM 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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Mideast

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Key stories in the media:
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All media underscored the blocking by Defense Minister
Amir Peretz on Sunday of an IDF proposal to step up its
offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to the recent
barrage of Qassam rockets fired into Israeli territory.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired over 20 Qassam
rockets at the western Negev on Sunday, wounding two
Israelis, one seriously, in the hard-hit Negev town of
Sderot. The barrage is continuing today. More than 20
other rockets were fired at Israel over the weekend.
The media reported that in the wake of an incident on
Friday, in which seven Palestinian civilians were
killed in a yet unsolved blast originally thought to
have resulted from an IDF shelling, the military wing
of Hamas said that it would renew rocket attacks and
suicide bombings in Israel, ending the truce that the
group declared last year. The media quoted a Hamas
spokesman as saying: "We have decided to make Sderot a
ghost town." Major media reported that on Sunday,
Khaled Mashal, the head of Hamas's political bureau,
defended a decision to renew suicide attacks against
Israel, a view that the media said is not shared by
many Hamas leaders in the territories. Maariv reported
that the IDF has prepared a list of senior Hamas
leaders possibly slated for assassination.

Leading media reported that the IDF investigation of
the explosion that killed seven members of a
Palestinian family on a beach in the northern Gaza
Strip (Beit Lahiya) is exploring three possible causes:
an off-target IDF shell; unexploded IDF ordnance; or
the detonation of a Palestinian bomb. The Jerusalem
Post reported that both PM Ehud Olmert and Peretz
indicated at Sunday's cabinet meeting that the blast
may have been caused by the Palestinians, not the IDF.
Over the weekend, the media quoted State Department
Spokesman Sean McCormack as saying Friday: "We call on
the PA to prevent all acts of terrorism, including the
firing of missiles and rockets from Gaza," and reported
that responses from other international bodies, such as
Russia and France, were more severe. Ha'aretz
reported that two Palestinians who were wounded in the
explosion are being treated in Israel.
Over the weekend (Maariv's banner on Sunday read:
"Palestinians: We Kidnapped Israeli Youth") the media
reported that after several hours in captivity, Jewish-
American student Benjamin Bright-Fishbein was released
early Sunday morning after he was kidnapped by
Palestinian gunmen while visiting Nablus on Saturday.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Bright-Fishbein, an
exchange student at the Hebrew University who had spent
the past month as an intern at The Jerusalem Post, went
to Nablus because he had heard it was an "interesting
city."

All media reported that on Sunday gunfire at a passing
vehicle killed a Palestinian man on the northern Tel
Aviv-Jerusalem road in the West Bank in what police and
the IDF suspect was an attack for nationalist motives.
Leading media cited the IDF's belief that the incident
was a terrorist attack, and that the shooter mistook
the victim for an Israeli citizen because of the
Israeli license plates on the vehicle.

All media reported that Olmert will meet with British
PM Tony Blair in London today and with French President
Jacques Chirac on Wednesday to present the principles
of the realignment plan. All media reported that a car
with three Palestinians illegally residing in Israel
was forcing Ben Gurion Airport's main gate. They were
arrested. Maariv noted that the incident took place
while Olmert was taking off. Over the weekend, The
Jerusalem Post reported that Ra'anan Gissin, the Prime
Minister's Office's foreign press spokesman, who for
the last five years has been an "Israeli fixture" in
the foreign media, will not accompany Olmert on his
European trip. The Jerusalem Post expressed its belief
that he will soon be leaving his job.

The Jerusalem Post quoted FM Tzipi Livni as saying in
an interview with AP on Sunday that Israel wants to sit
down with PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas, but
that it is "not realistic" to pursue a final deal with
him as long as Hamas refuses to moderate.

Ha'aretz printed a Reuters story quoting Western
diplomats as saying Sunday that the Bush administration
is pressing the EU to scrap a plan to pay salaries to
Palestinian health workers and possibly others to avert
the collapse of essential services.

Maariv cited a New York Times story Sunday that quoted
experts as saying that Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's remark that Israel should be "wiped off
the map" was likely mistranslated. On Sunday, The
Jerusalem Post cited Defense News that the Pentagon is
actively supporting the upgrading of the Israeli Arrow
anti-missile system. Major media reported that on
Sunday, thousands of Jews and Israelis demonstrated
against Ahmadinejad in the German city of Nuremberg
during a World Cup soccer match between Iran and
Mexico.

All media reported that after Abbas called on Saturday
for a July 26 referendum on the "prisoners' document,"
Hamas members jailed in Israel retracted their support
for the document.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that the US
House of Representatives voted Friday, 312-97, to cut
foreign aid to Saudi Arabia due to its teaching of
intolerance and the lack of action by the kingdom in
preventing funding of terror groups. The Jerusalem
Post said that the measure still needs to be approved
by the Senate, which has not yet voted on its version
of its foreign aid bill.

Ha'aretz reported that Paul Mackney, General Secretary
of the National Association of Teachers in Further and
Higher Education (NATFHE),Britain's largest teachers'
association, announced over the weekend that NATFHE's
recent decision to encourage an academic boycott of
Israel has expired, as was expected when it was
implemented. It stopped being valid two weeks ago
because NATFHE merged with another British union, the
Association of University Teachers. Maariv also wrote
that the boycott had expired.

Israel Radio reported that Justice Ministry
representatives and US Embassy staff will discuss the
issue of trafficking in persons. The radio noted that
three weeks ago, the GOI decided to establish a
commission of directors-general of ministries to
coordinate efforts on the matter. The station said
that late last week it was decided to name attorney
Rachel Gershoni to head that commission.
Yediot reported that writings by the late ultra-
nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane were found in the room of
Private Yisrael Reinman, the American immigrant soldier
who is believed to have committed suicide in a West
Bank mosque on Monday.

Maariv reported that Minister for Pensioner Affairs
Rafi Eitan, who was the handler of convicted spy
Jonathan Pollard, claims that Pollard's petition
against him at the High Court of Justice, accusing
Eitan of abandoning him to the Americans, is a "medley
of unfounded allegations and false accusations."

The Jerusalem Post cited the results of Tel Aviv
University's Peace Index poll, conducted on May 29-31:
Only 39 percent of Israelis think Israel will be able
to determine its borders unilaterally even if it does
not gain international and US support for such a move,
whereas the majority (55 percent) say it cannot do so
without such support.









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Mideast:
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Summary:
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Prominent liberal writer David Grossman wrote in
popular, pluralist Maariv: "The disgrace on the Gaza
beach is a defeat in a campaign that is far more
important than the exchange of blows with the
Palestinians -- the campaign for our image as a nation
and as human beings."

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote on page one of
Maariv: "Israel has every right in the world to
robustly protect its citizens from Qassam rocket fire."

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized: "Those who would condemn Israel for
attempting to protect itself are not, in fact, serving
the interests of the innocents for whom they claim to
be concerned."

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The
Prime Minister is sounding a lot less determined as
time passes."

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
Ha'aretz: "A referendum may not bring the desired
results for [Mahmoud] Abbas."

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in The Jerusalem Post: "Actually
making peace with Israel is very far down [Mahmoud
Abbas's] list of priorities, and successfully doing so
is blocked by all Abbas's other domestic political
considerations."







Block Quotes:
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I. "We Have to Wake Up"

Prominent liberal writer David Grossman wrote in
popular, pluralist Maariv (6/11): "The sight of the
girl on the Gaza beach, whose life was torn to shreds
before our very eyes, must wake us from the hypnotic
coma we have been in for years. Instead of worrying
about the 'damage to Israel's image that could be
caused,' instead of immediately voicing the automatic
and faded arguments, we would do best were we to look
at our handiwork and to ask ourselves to where, towards
what abyss are we propelling ourselves with our own
handiwork. To what end is all this done? What results
have we achieved with our endless fire into the 'Qassam
launching grounds,' our 'arrest of wanted men' dozens
of times every night in the occupied territories and
the targeted killing operations that murder mainly
innocent people?.... The Prime Minister has said at
every podium around the world that Israel 'will make
every possible effort' before it despairs of the
possibility of dialogue with the Palestinians and opts
for unilateral realignment. But the daring declaration
made by Abu Mazen about the referendum was immediately
dismissed as 'completely meaningless'.... The disgrace
on the Gaza beach is a defeat in a campaign that is far
more important than the exchange of blows with the
Palestinians -- the campaign for our image as a nation
and as human beings."

II. "Hypocritical Chorus"

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote on page one of
Maariv (6/12): "It is not yet clear at all what caused
the deaths of seven members of a Palestinian family on
a Gaza beach.... [However,] Israel has every right in
the world to robustly protect its citizens from Qassam
rocket fire.... The attitude of sixties-like flower
children who haven't grown up and who believe that,
were it only possible to give peace a chance, it would
land on us with crowns of roses, borne by white Hamas
doves ... is so stupid in the perspective of what
Israel has lived through.... True, there are no wonder
cures. But another conclusion is wrong, too -- it was
reached by [prominent liberal Israeli author] David
Grossman in this newspaper on Sunday, who said that
instead of military wonder solution that doesn't exist,
there is a wonderful diplomatic one."

III. "Death in Gaza"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized (6/11): "Hamas's very reaction to
Friday's deaths [of seven Palestinian family members]
underlines the bankruptcy of its approach. A leadership
that genuinely sought to act in the interest of its
people would call for, and determinedly act to achieve
a halt in the unceasing fire of Qassam rockets and
intermittent other anti-Israeli assaults from Gaza into
Israel. Self-evidently, after all, a halt to such
rocket fire would obviate the need for any Israeli
response and thus ensure the well-being of ordinary
Palestinians. Instead, Hamas has itself now openly
rejoined the ranks of those terror groups firing Qassam
[rockets] across the border, in turn requiring further
Israeli action to try to thwart the fire.... Those who
would condemn Israel for attempting to protect itself
are not, in fact, serving the interests of the
innocents for whom they claim to be concerned. The way
to avoid bloodshed is to demand and ensure a halt to
the original acts of aggression, not to blame a nation
under attack on those occasions, of which Friday may or
may not turn out to be a rare example, when its efforts
at self-defense misfire."

IV. "Sharpening Olmert's Message"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(6/12): "Since [Ehud Olmert's] government was sworn in,
the convergence plan has been pushed off the diplomatic
and the public agendas. They were replaced with
military escalation and the danger that the cease-fire
with Hamas may collapse. In view of the fact that the
disengagement from the Gaza Strip did not result in a
period of calm, it is difficult to convince the Israeli
public and the international community of the necessity
of a similar move in the West Bank.... Israel has also
lost the initiative on the diplomatic front -- in the
face of international pressure to enter negotiations
with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and
American support for Abbas's efforts to bring the so-
called prisoners' document to a referendum among
Palestinians -- to create a legitimate 'partner' for
dialogue with Olmert. The end result is that the Prime
Minister is sounding a lot less determined as time
passes.... The Prime Minister proved in his visit to
the United States that he is able to make an impressive
showing on the international stage. His visits in
London and Paris will be an opportunity to sharpen his
message. That way he will be able to persuade both his
hosts and the people at home."


V. "An Expected Change of Heart"

Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in
Ha'aretz (6/12): "That Hamas and Islamic Jihad
contributors to the prisoners' document would distance
themselves from it was expected.... For Abbas, the sole
reason to hold a referendum would be to prove that he
is popular and as such dismiss the sense that Hamas
continues to enjoy massive public support. Abbas may
be basing his efforts on opinion polls that reflect his
popularity, and may be seeking to prove those
assessments at the polls. However, in view of the
realities on the ground, the deaths of civilians on
Friday, the escalation of violence between the various
factions and the absence of diplomatic hope, which may
lead to the next Intifada, a referendum may not bring
the desired results for Abbas."

VI. "A Disturbing Poll"

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in The Jerusalem Post (6/12): "A
careful and balanced evaluation of Mahmoud Abbas's new
strategy is tremendously important. While in some
respects it represents a step forward, it is also
couched in the tricky double meanings Palestinian
political groups have used to conceal their continuing
goal of total victory in eliminating Israel. Moreover,
nothing is likely to come out of it.... [A Bir Zeit
University poll] seems [to indicate that] a large
majority of Palestinians support the plan -- which they
see as a way of promoting national unity and stopping
chaotic Hamas-Fatah fighting -- and also oppose
recognition of Israel, or even a real two-state
solution.... Abbas wants to consolidate Fatah popular
support, stop the fighting with Hamas, force Hamas back
into being Fatah's junior partner, gain more
international support through a public relations
campaign, and end the international sanctions against
the PA. Actually making peace with Israel is very far
down that list of priorities, and successfully doing so
is blocked by all Abbas's other domestic political
considerations."

JONES