ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 002339

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


--------------
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
--------------


1. Mideast


2. Darfur

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

Major media quoted PM Ehud Olmert as saying in Paris
Wednesday that realignment is unstoppable. The
Jerusalem Post wrote that Olmert left his meeting with
French President Jacques Chirac encouraged that,
despite French opposition to unilateral moves, Chirac
did not express opposition to his plan. Maariv quoted
Olmert as saying that, just like Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Hamas government wants to
destroy Israel

Ha'aretz reported that Hamas stopped firing Qassam
rockets at Israel on Wednesday, after Israel warned
that it would attack Hamas leaders. Ha'aretz and
Israel Radio reported that in response to Hamas's
restraint, the IDF will not attack Hamas targets as
long as it does not renew terror attacks. Ha'aretz
reported that Hamas's instructions to its operatives to
stop the rocket fire were given Monday night, during a
meeting between Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh and top
Hamas military wing officials in Gaza. The newspaper
wrote that the other Palestinian organizations are
ignoring the change in Hamas's position and are
expected to continue firing at Israel. The media
reported that Islamic Jihad fired a Qassam rocket at a
strategic infrastructure facility near Ashkelon on
Wednesday, causing no injuries. This morning,
electronic media and leading news websites reported
that several Qassam rockets fell on Sderot, wounding a
few Israelis. Israel Radio reported that Islamic Jihad
and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility
for the launchings.

Maariv reported that the Palestinians have started
manufacturing Katyusha rockets on their own. The
newspaper cited the IDF's concern that the rockets
could reach a 20-km range, thus becoming able to hit
Ashkelon.

Leading media (banner in Yediot) reported that over the
past 24 hours, Israel transferred 950 M16 rifles to
Ramallah and Gaza. The shipments left Jordan through
Allenby Bridge. Media reported that last week Israeli
groups filed three petitions at the High Court of
Justice against the move.

Major media quoted Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon
"battle damage expert" associated with Human Rights
Watch, who visited the Gaza beach where seven
Palestinians were killed on Friday, as saying that "all
the evidence points" to a "155-mm Israeli land-based
artillery shell" as the cause of the blast. Media
reported that reiterating its Tuesday conclusions, the
IDF was quick to reject the Human Rights Watch report.
Ha'aretz quoted Olmert as saying Wednesday in Paris
that Tuesday's incident in Gaza City, in which seven
Palestinian civilians were killed, was a tragedy that
could not be avoided. The Jerusalem Post quoted Olmert
as saying in Paris that there is no humanitarian crisis
in the Gaza Strip, even as the World Health
Organization (WHO) issued a statement warning of a
collapse in the PA health system. The Jerusalem Post
reported that Olmert supported his statement by saying
that the PA was not interested in some of the 50
million shekels (around USD 11 million) in drugs and
medical supplies Israel had agreed to transfer to it.

Maariv reported that the Jerusalem Municipality plans
to build high-rise hotels in the Jewish Quarter of
Jerusalem's Old City. The newspaper cited the outrage
of the Muslim Waqf over the reported plan.

Yediot and Maariv quoted Ra'anan Dinur, the DG of the
Prime Minister's Office, as saying Wednesday before the
Knesset's Finance Committee that the cost of the
implementation of the realignment plan is currently
assessed at 9 billion shekels (around USD 2 billion).
Major media reported that the far Right has issued a
brochure advocating various violent steps to prevent
the implementation of the realignment plan, including
setting trucks on fire, placing viruses in defense
establishment computers, and putting laxatives in the
soldiers' food.

Yediot and other media reported that on Wednesday,
Palestinian FM Mahmoud Zahar carried a great amount of
dollars (hundreds of millions, according to Yediot; 20
million, according to Israel Radio) through the Rafah
border crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Israel
Radio quoted Hamas members as saying that the money
will mainly serve to pay the salaries of the members of
the newly-established Hamas militia. Israel Radio
reported that World Bank Director James Wolfensohn has
announced that the Bank is discussing with the Quartet
ways of assisting the PA. All media reported on the
chaos in the PA. Major media cited Palestinian media
as saying that Egypt is trying to extricate the PA from
the crisis it has been in since the elections, and that
it has proposed that Hamas and PA Chairman [President]
Mahmoud Abbas form a government of technocrats, to be
headed by the Nablus businessman and millionaire Munib
el-Masri. In return, Abu Mazen would announce the
cancellation of the referendum.

The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that the
High Court of Justice is due to hear eight petitions --
some by settlers, other ones by Palestinians --
protesting the separation fence in Gush Etzion (the
Etzion Bloc). The court will also hear petitions
against the barrier route in other parts of the West
Bank. This morning, Israel Radio reported that the
court ordered the dismantling of part of the fence
around the settlement of Tzufin, near Qalqilya.

Maariv cited an unidentified demographic survey that
found that Jews in Israel will become a minority in

2077.

Ha'aretz reported that methods now employed by the IDF
after it abandoned its "neighbor procedure" (the use of
Palestinian civilians to order other Palestinians to
leave their houses to be arrested) eight months ago
include more frequent demolition of houses. The
newspaper also reported that the neighbors' security
has not increased.

Yediot reported that during a secret visit to Israel
this week, a senior delegation of officials from the
Indian Space Research Organization discussed joint
Israeli-Indian projects and examined new products made
by Israel's defense industries.

Ha'aretz reported that a petition has been filed before
the High Court of Justice, claiming that the
incarceration of 44 Africans from Niger, Togo, Liberia,
Rwanda, and Guinea-Conakry, who infiltrated into Israel
since the beginning of March, is illegal.

Hatzofe reported that Jacob Edery, a cabinet minister
in charge of liaison between the government and the
Knesset, refused to pledge that a GOI representative
would visit convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in his US
jail.

The Jerusalem Post printed an AP story quoting US
officials as saying that Hai Waknine, a Los Angeles-
based Israeli, who is a reputed enforcer of a notorious
Israel cartel, decided to take a plea deal Tuesday in
the midst of his federal trial after a top-ranking
member of the group testified against him.

Ha'aretz cited the results of a Pew Research Center
survey, which polled 17,000 people around the world.
The survey found that there has been a significant rise
in the level of the European public's support for
Israel compared to its support for the Palestinians.
For instance, French support for Israel has doubled
over the past four years, while support for the
Palestinians has remained almost exactly the same.


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

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

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

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized:
"[Defense] Minister [Amir Peretz] ... could leave his
mark ... by directing a restrained and responsible
policy."

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote on page one of
popular, pluralist Maariv: "If [Israeli] concessions
are not accompanied by an iron hand towards aggression,
we will have no existence here."

Liberal columnist Yehonatan Gefen wrote on page one of
Maariv: "What is being pinpointed and thwarted here is
[Israel's] morality and humaneness."

Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz:
"it is difficult for European public opinion to digest
a plan that would legitimize the forceful annexation of
territories. This isn't America."

Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel should
stop all types of aid to the Gaza Strip within a few
months. Not as a step of revenge, but as a step that
reflects the end of the road, now that the occupation
has ended."

Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular,
pluralist Maariv and the conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post: "Many hundreds or thousands of
innocents might still be alive today had the US related
to Arafat properly."

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


I. "Restraint Is Needed"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(6/15): "Israel is waging a defensive battle in
Gaza.... However, the Israeli campaign against
terrorism in Gaza is not free of mistakes or
malfunctions.... It would seem that [Defense] Minister
[Amir Peretz], who is still seeking his way in the new
post, could leave his mark by strictly monitoring the
IDF's use of force in the territories and by directing
a restrained and responsible policy."

II. "Ethical, Indeed"

Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote on page one of
popular, pluralist Maariv (6/15): "We are not the ones
carrying out a campaign of terrorism from inside a
populated area, trying to use innocent people as human
shields. We are not the ones behaving unethically,
worshipping death and violence. We are trying to stop
the fire at Sderot and Ashkelon. Is that wrong, too?
Do the inhabitants of the western Negev not have human
rights, and do their children not have the right to
sleep one night without fear? Do they not have the
right to live in quiet? Which 'human-rights
organization' will protect them? Only the organization
known as the IDF, it seems. Although it has no
American or British volunteers with goatees, thinning
hair and lunatic ideas, it has officers who are
ethical, discreet and cautious, who try to kill the bad
guys before the bad guys kill the good guys. That
sounds very simplistic, but what can we do -- sometimes
the simple truth is not terribly complicated.... I
write these words from the belief that we must evacuate
as much Palestinian territory as possible in the West
Bank, concentrating ourselves in a smaller amount of
territory in which the Jewish majority will be solid
for generations. Precisely out of the desire to give
the Palestinians conditions for independent existence
and self-definition. Precisely out of willingness to
give up much of the territory of the Land of Israel,
including parts of Jerusalem. If such concessions are
not accompanied by an iron hand towards aggression, we
will have no existence here. If such concessions are
not made by those who have iron in their backbones, we
will not survive here."

III. "Blood on the Wings"

Liberal columnist Yehonatan Gefen wrote on page one of
Maariv (6/15): "The most moral army in the world, which
does not kill, only thwarts, is gradually losing its
ability to kill only terrorists, and I would not be
surprised if for every pinpointed killing -- at least
ten clustering people were killed who had not done harm
to anyone, and were just there. The most moral army in
the world, as we like to call our troops, is following
(mainly flying) in the footsteps of the lost US army in
Iraq. Iraqi civilians who died in the war are quite
irrelevant as far as Bush and Tony Blair are
concerned.... Is there anyone up there, above the
explosions, the missiles and the death of innocent
people, who can end the pinpointed killing from far
away and high up, which is definitely starting to look
a bit like a small massacre? And it is not them. It
is us. And what is being pinpointed and thwarted here
is our morality and humaneness. Ours. Not theirs.
And if it is truly impossible to see civilians
clustering from an aircraft, how is it possible to
avoid thwarting them? And yes, it appears that
aircraft can also have blood on their wings."

IV. "Waiting For a Clear Plan"

Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz
(6/15): "After decades of strong, total opposition to
the settlements in the territories and to any Israeli
presence beyond the Green Line ... it is difficult for
European public opinion to digest a plan that would
legitimize the forceful annexation of territories.
This isn't America. In Europe there are many Muslims,
the pro-Palestinian lobby is strong and rooted, and it
is impossible to expect Blair to praise Olmert's
'daring' the way Bush did. And if friendly Britain is
hesitant about the convergence, it will be harder for
the countries on the Continent to digest it."


V. "Divorce from the Palestinians"

Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/15): "Have we
really left the Gaza Strip? The answer might be
negative, since the new Israeli government has still
not adopted a clear policy towards the Gaza Strip and
the Palestinians in general. On one hand, Israel
continues to sustain the Gaza Strip economically, as if
it were not foreign territory.... But there is a third
way -- a middle road, otherwise known as an
'isolationist policy.' In 1823, US President James
Monroe established a policy, known as the 'Monroe
Doctrine,' according to which his country would not
participate in the wars of the European powers unless
US rights were violated or it faced grave danger. It
is not by chance that former prime minister Ariel
Sharon called the withdrawal from Gaza 'disengagement.'
This places an irreversible differentiating and
separating line. Disengagement is divorce. On the
basis of this policy, Israel should stop all types of
aid to the Gaza Strip within a few months. Not as a
step of revenge, but as a step that reflects the end of
the road, now that the occupation has ended. As far as
Israel is concerned, there should be no difference
between Gazan and Syrian or Jordanian cities."

VI. "Covering Up For Arafat"

Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular,
pluralist Maariv and the conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post (6/15): "Despite the fact that the
American administration knew and had legal proof of
Yasser Arafat's direct involvement in the murder of its
own diplomats [in Khartoum in 1973], they turned a
blind eye. On the contrary, throughout all the years,
the Americans exerted pressure on Israel to turn Arafat
into a 'peace partner'.... President George W. Bush
completely repudiated Arafat in a speech he gave on
June 24, 2002.... What should be on our minds, however,
is how many hundreds or thousands of innocents might
still be alive today had the US related to Arafat
properly, as the depraved murderer that he was and
treated him accordingly, already back in 1973, when it
had the proof that it kept hidden from its own
citizens. After all, the US, unlike Israel, is a
country in which law and order abide."

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

2. Darfur:
--------------

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

Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "No matter
how its enemies behave, Israel should be held to the
highest standard of behavior."

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

"Israel's Response to Arab Genocide"

Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (6/15): "I
think Israel is being amazingly callous by keeping
about 200 Sudanese refugees, a large proportion of whom
fled the Darfur genocide, in jail now for up to a year.
I hope Israel realizes soon that these Sudanese are not
enemies, but rather victims of an enemy government, and
take the advice of Elie Wiesel and others by granting
them asylum. Until then, Israel deserves to be
deplored for its paranoia-fueled mistreatment of some
of the most ravaged people on earth. And if it ends up
deporting them, Israel will deserve all the
condemnation it will certainly get. No matter how its
enemies behave, Israel should be held to the highest
standard of behavior. But Israel's enemies should be
held to the same standard, and they're not, are they?"

JONES