ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 002964

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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

SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION


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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Secretary Rice to Israel, July 29-31, 2006

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Key stories in the media:
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This morning all electronic media covered a press conference by
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem, quoting her as

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saying that she will call for a UN cease-fire resolution this week.
Secretary Rice urged the international community to create an

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"international stabilization force" in Lebanon. Israel Radio noted
that Secretary Rice refrained from calling for the disarming of
Hizbullah.

All media reported that following the IAF strike on the southern
Lebanese village of Kafr Qana, Israel agreed to suspend its aerial
bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours. Yediot reported that
PM Ehud Olmert made the decision after a one-on-one meeting with
Secretary Rice. Yediot quoted senior Israeli defense sources as

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saying that they were surprised by the decision. All media reported
that on Sunday, Secretary Rice cancelled a scheduled visit to
Beirut. Leading media quoted Olmert as saying that Israel reserves
the right to attack sources of fire against it.

Al media reported that in the deadliest attack since Israel started
its offensive against Hizbullah 19 days ago, almost 60 civilians --
most of them children -- were killed on Sunday in a building in Kafr
Qana, apparently as a result of an IAF missile strike. In 1996,
Israel was forced to suspend Operation Grapes of Wrath against
Hizbullah after IDF artillery shells killed more than 100 civilians
seeking refuge in a UN building in the village. The media cited the
IDF as saying that the army had warned Kafr Qana residents to
evacuate the village in anticipation of air strikes on Katyusha
launchers.

Israel Radio reported that on Sunday the UN Security Council
expressed its "extreme shock and distress'" over the Israeli air
raid and called for an end to hostilities. "The Security Council
expresses its concern at the threat of escalation of violence with
further grave consequences for the humanitarian situation, calls for
an end to violence, and underscores the urgency of securing a
lasting, permanent and sustainable cease-fire," the 15-member
Council said in a presidential statement, reached after unanimous
agreement. Israel Radio reported that the US had softened the
statement. The radio quoted Israel's Representative to the UN Danny
Gillerman as saying before the Security Council that he regrets the
deaths of Lebanese at Kafr Qana but that Hizbullah had shored itself
up in southern Lebanon and that it was using residents as human
shields.

All media reported that 100 Katyusha rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona
Sunday.

Ha'aretz quoted Jibril Rajoub, the PA's National Security Adviser,
as saying that the Kafr Qana events would delay the release of Cpl.
Gilad Shalit.

All media reported that security services foiled a suicide bombing
inside Israel Sunday when they arrested a man with an explosives
belt near Nablus.

Similar to other leading media, The Jerusalem Post wrote: "Knesset
members' responses to the air strike on Kafr Qana Sunday ranged from
the furiously critical, via the apologetic, to the robustly
supportive, largely along predictable party lines."

Leading media reported that Prof, Ghazi Falah, an Israeli-Canadian
geographer who teaches at the University of Akron, Ohio, and who was
detained three weeks ago on suspicion of spying for Hizbullah, was
released without charges on Sunday.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a joint Christian-Jewish solidarity
mission from the US will arrive in Israel on Monday to give moral
support to the country during the war against Hizbullah. The
newspaper also reported that Dr. Michael D. Evans, founder of the
Evangelical Israel Broadcasting Network, is in Israel taping a major
television special -- The Awakening -- that will be shown on several
thousand Christian stations in the US as well as on major secular
outlets.

Maariv reported that the American company Sandisk will announce
today that it will purchase the Israeli firm Sandisk for USD 1.5
billion in shares. M-Systems is involved in legal difficulties in
the US.

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Secretary Rice to Israel, July 29-31, 2006:

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Summary:
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Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner opined on page one of
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Rice will return to Washington
today, frustrated and bruised from two weeks of an exhausting trek
that has ended on a bitter note."

On page one of popular, pluralist Maariv, diplomatic correspondent
Ben Caspit wrote what he said is a proposal for s speech by Prime
Minister Olmert: " I cannot remember such a wave of responses
following the daily killing of 100 Iraqi civilians. Sunnis kill
Shi'ites, who murder Sunnis, everybody kills Americans, and the
entire world keeps mum."

Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Prime Minister's decision to stop
[Israel's] aerial activity in southern Lebanon is baffling, to say
the least."

Ha'aretz editorialized: "Herein lies the window of opportunity to
which President George Bush referred to, most recently on Friday,
when he called on Syria to become an active partner in peace in the
Middle East."

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "We --
the US, UK, and Israel, for starters -- must stand together for the
truth and our own interests. We must not submit to the epitome of
stupidity and immorality, masquerading as moral blackmail. If we
do, we have no one to blame but ourselves."

Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in
Ha'aretz: "'We are sorry' is also true and very nice, but it is
impossible to be too sorry until all the regret is used up."

Block Quotes:
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I. "The moment of Truth For the Bush Administration"

Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner opined on page one of
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/31): "For more than a year now
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been working on her image
around the world. A year's worth of effort, and some worthy
achievements, and then in two weeks of crisis everything is ruined.
The Europeans, the ambassadors to the UN, the leaders of Arab
states, all those who considered Rice a stabilizing factor, a
calculated and reasonable person in the Bush administration, are
reevaluating their stances. For Rice this is a personal blow, and
also a professional obstacle. Her prestige is an important tool of
the trade, and without it she will find it difficult to mark
successes in the future. Rice will return to Washington today,
frustrated and bruised from two weeks of an exhausting trek that has
ended on a bitter note.... In different parts of the Bush
administration there is a growing realization that the time is
nearing when it will be necessary to 'cut and bolt with whatever is
at hand,' as one Washington source said Sunday. Perhaps this will
be sooner than Israel expects. Still, the White House is not the
State Department."

II. "We Will Not Fold"

On page one of popular, pluralist Maariv, diplomatic correspondent
Ben Caspit wrote what he said is a proposal for a speech by Prime
Minister Olmert (7/31): "Every place from which Katyusha rockets
will be fired will be a legitimate target for our attacks. This
must be said clearly, before the Israeli people and the world. You
are invited to judge us, to shun us, to boycott us, and to defame
us. To kill us? No way.... We do not dance of the roofs when we
see the bodies of our enemies' children. We express true regrets
and remorse. We do not adopt our enemies' bestial behavioral
patterns... Iran established a huge infrastructure of terror along
our borders, threatening our citizens. It is growing before our own
eyes, waiting for the moment when the Ayatollahs' state turns into a
nuclear power that would bring us to our knees. Make no mistake: we
will not go down alone. You, the leaders of the free, enlightened
world, will come down along with us. Let me bring this march of
duplicity to an end -- here and now. I cannot remember such a wave
of responses following the daily killing of 100 Iraqi civilians.
Sunnis kill Shi'ites, who murder Sunnis, everybody kills Americans,
and the entire world keeps mum."

III. "Baffling Decision"

Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/31): "The Prime Minister's decision to
stop [Israel's] aerial activity in southern Lebanon is baffling, to
say the least. It curbs the momentum and the erosion process of
Hizbullah. In fact, this it is starting a cease-fire process in the
worst conditions for Israel. Hizbullah continues to shoot, keeps
its head above water, Israel panics and folds under pressure. Not
only should the battle not be stopped, but Israel must not relate to
the Kafr Qana as a factor that is meant to affect it. This is not
contempt for human lives.... Israel went to war to achieve
objectives vital to its existence and it must abide by them.
Otherwise the price it would have to pay would be unbearable for
many years."

IV. "Opportunity on Syria's Doorstep"

Ha'aretz editorialized (7/30): "The transfer of Sheba Farms to
Lebanon requires that Syria officially recognize that this territory
is Lebanese and not Syrian, as it has been described to date. It
can be assumed that Syria will pose its own conditions for making
concessions on Sheba Farms, which will allow it to retain its
influence both in Lebanon and the region. Herein lies the window of
opportunity to which President George Bush referred to, most
recently on Friday, when he called on Syria to become an active
partner in peace in the Middle East. It is possible that Bashar
Assad is not a leader with the vision and courage necessary to make
use of this window of opportunity which the war in Lebanon created,
and it is possible that the best he can do is to retain hermetic
control over the situation in Syria. However, this should not
prevent Israel or the US from presenting him with the basis for a
different option."


V. "Reject Bogus Moral Blackmail"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (7/31):
"It is appalling that Hizbullah would deliberately target Israel's
cities, and do so from civilian areas, hoping that Israel would kill
greater numbers of Lebanese civilians. It is appalling that this
barbaric tactic -- after some 5,000 Israeli bombing sorties -- has
proved 'effective,' with tragic consequences for innocent Lebanese
people, and producing the expected international fallout: not
against Hizbullah, but against Israel. It is also appalling that
for three weeks over a million Israelis -- Jews and Arabs -- have
been living in bomb shelters, never knowing when a missile aimed at
them will kill them or destroy their homes.... Are we powerless to
overturn the bizarre moral calculus by which Israel is held
accountable for the barbaric tactics of its enemies? We are not. We
-- the US, UK, and Israel, for starters -- must stand together for
the truth and our own interests. We must not submit to the epitome
of stupidity and immorality, masquerading as moral blackmail. If we
do, we have no one to blame but ourselves."


VI. "You Have Been Warned"

Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in
Ha'aretz (7/31): "The government didn't mean it and the military
didn't mean it and the pilot didn't mean it. 'We didn't mean it' is
a good argument, certainly, and yet not good enough. That is the
last thing we need: to kill 60 civilians, including 30 children,
intentionally, with malice and forethought. The government warned
the residents of southern Lebanon, the IDF dropped pamphlets and
declared: If you don't run for your lives, you will die. 'We
warned' and 'We warned often' make a good argument, and yet not good
enough. 'We are sorry' is also true and very nice, but it is
impossible to be too sorry until all the regret is used up.... Here
is Qana and here we will leap out of this war -- together with all
the warned people, whether residents of shelters in South Lebanon or
northern Israel. And we'll cry out from the depths of our hearts:
Enough."

JONES