ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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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: Nuclear Program


3. Israel-U.S. Relations

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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Radio reported that on Monday, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice cautioned Palestinian voters
ahead of Wednesday's elections for the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) that terrorism is not a
pathway to peace. Leading media published the results
of polls in the PA that predict a 10-percent gap in
Fatah's favor. Ha'aretz quoted U.S. Ambassador to
Israel Richard Jones as saying Monday that the USG
would have preferred to see Hamas only in the PLC and
not in the PA's government. He reportedly made a
comparison between the situation in the P.A. and in
Lebanon: "We talk to the Lebanese government, but not
to ministers from the Hizbullah and a similar mechanism
can be formed in the Palestinian Authority." Jones
spoke at a reception held by Meretz Chairman, Yossi
Beilin, in honor of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter,
who is heading a team of observers, who arrived to
supervise the Palestinian elections. The Ambassador
was quoted as saying that Hamas would be judged by its
actions after the elections.

The Jerusalem Post quoted diplomatic officials as
saying Monday that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas
ministers in a future PA government, but also that it
will not cut off ties with the PA as a result of
Hamas's inclusion. The newspaper quoted the officials
as saying that the U.S. formula for dealing with a PA
government following the elections would be based on
the "Lebanese model." Sheikh Muhammad Abu Tier,
Hamas's No.2 candidate in the PLC elections in
Jerusalem, was quoted as saying in an interview with
Israel Radio that civilians should be kept away from
violence on both sides. During the interview, Abu
Tier conveyed a conciliatory message to the Jews. The
radio noted that he refrained from saying whether he
favored peace with Israel. Other Israeli media also
interviewed Abu Tier. Maariv reported that on Monday,
two senior Hamas leaders -- Mahmoud Zahar and Khaled
Mashal -- hinted that they are not ruling out
negotiations with Israel under certain circumstances.

Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra was quoted as
saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that the
government will not allow jailed Fatah leader Marwan
Barghouti to serve as a minister in the PA following
the PLC elections.

Maariv quoted political commentators, politicians, and
Jewish leaders in the U.S. as saying the White House
has recently decided to support Olmert as Washington's
favorite candidate for the Israeli premiership. Maariv
cited the belief of American political commentators
that the "adoption" of Olmert by the White House will
not be public and open. Both Yediot and Maariv led
with predictions about what Acting PM Ehud Olmert will
say at his speech to the Herzliya Conference today.
Yediot wrote that Olmert is expected to state that
another disengagement would be a mistake, but that
Israel would have to concede further land in order to
maintain a Jewish majority. Maariv said that Olmert
will say that he does not fear Hamas and that Israel is
too strong to be afraid of the PA elections. Maariv
wrote that Olmert will refrain from vowing there would
not be another disengagement.

Leading media reported that in his speech at the
Herzliya Conference on Monday, Labor Party Chairman
Amir Peretz called for political negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinians with the goal of reaching a
peace agreement with the Palestinians by 2010, in
contrast to his statement immediately after his
election to head the Labor Party, when he said he
believed an agreement could be reached in a year.
Media quoted Peretz as saying that if a diplomatic
freeze results from a Hamas victory in the upcoming PLC
elections, he would take unilateral steps to separate
from the Palestinians in the West Bank. Peretz was
quoted as saying that he believed that in Jerusalem,
Israel should retain only its Jewish neighborhoods.

The Jerusalem Post quoted U.S. Permanent Representative
to the UN Ambassador John Bolton as saying on Monday
that President Bush will not accept a nuclear Iran.
Bolton was speaking from New York via video hook-up to
the Herzliya Conference.
Major media quoted FM Tzipi Livni as saying Monday at
the Herzliya Conference that the question of
Palestinian refugees and the right of return is the
most central problem threatening Israel as a nation
state. Several media quoted her as saying that the
establishment of a Palestinian nation state is the
solution to the refugee problem. Leading media quoted
former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon as saying
Monday at the conference that the disengagement has
turned the Gaza Strip into an "Al-Qaidastan."

The Jerusalem Post reported that former national
security adviser Uzi Dayan, who heads the new Tafnit
party, presented the newspaper with a diplomatic plan
in which settlement blocs, the Jordan Valley, and
Jerusalem would remain in Israel's hands. The
Jerusalem Post quoted Dayan as saying: "What I want is
for the U.S. to understand that this is the best we can
do given the alternatives we have now."

Israel Radio reported that last night, IDF troops
arrested Islamic Jihad activists, including Mahmoud Abu
Rob, a key militant, in Qabatiyeh near Jenin. The
radio also reported that in Ramallah, IDF troops
arrested Abdullah Arar, a Hamas activist who was
allegedly involved in the murder of the Israeli taxi
driver Sasson Nuriel in September 2005.

Citing the German press agency DPA, Ha'aretz quoted a
German government spokesman, Thomas Steg, as saying on
Monday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will
visit Israel and the PA on Sunday and Monday, plans to
make Iran's nuclear program a major issue for her talks
in the region. Ha'aretz cited a report that appeared
Monday on Farda News, a conservative Iranian web site
considered to be closely aligned with President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, according to which an agent working for
the Mossad was arrested while crossing the border
between Iran and Turkey.

Hatzofe reported that on Sunday, a close associate of
Libyan ruler Muammar Qadhafi told Dr. Farouk Mouassi,
an Arab Israeli, that Libya intends to declare
normalization of relations with Israel, and even said
that the announcement would be made this week. The
newspaper quoted Israeli Foreign Ministry official Lior
Ben David, who is in charge of communications with Arab
countries, as saying: "When Libya wants to signal to
Israel that it intends to establish relations with us,
it will know how to let us know that they are ready. At
present their solution is the establishment of a state
called Isratine, meaning Israel and Palestine
together."

Yediot reported that this week, 36 Palestinian medical
staff --16 doctors and 20 nurses -- attended a three-
day course in trauma medicine at the Sheba Medical
Center in Tel Hashomer in central Israel. The
organization Physicians For Human Rights was among the
program's initiators.

Israel Radio reported that Israeli filmmaker Yoav
Shamir's documentary "5 Days," which chronicles IDF
operations during the evacuation of 8,000 Jewish
settlers from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, is
enjoying tremendous success at the Sundance Film
Festival in Park City, Utah. The radio notes that
while Shamir's 2003 documentary, "Checkpoint," which
depicted the roadblocks that the IDF mans in the
territories, was criticized by the Right, "5 Days"
seems to arouse the audience's sympathy for IDF troops.

Ha'aretz reported that after PM Sharon's first stroke,
his doctors concealed his condition from the public.
The newspaper wrote that Sharon was suffering from
cardiac and cerebral diseases -- beyond what was
disclosed at the time.

Yediot reported that for the first time since the
establishment of Israel, the Knesset has readied a
draft constitution for the country, which leaves aside
the resolution of sensitive issues such as "religion
and state."

Ha'aretz bannered a rise of the number of Israelis
living in poverty (one quarter of the population),
according to a report released on Monday by the
National Insurance Institute -- the Israeli equivalent
of the Social Security Administration -- on Monday.
The issue is covered by all media.

Yediot featured a lengthy article on lobbyist Jack
Abramoff's possible acquaintance and deals with
President Bush.

Ha'aretz published the results of a Dahaf Institute
poll, which was commissioned by the Jewish Agency and
which will be presented today at the Herzliya
Conference: more that three-quarters (77 percent) of
the Israeli public are pessimistic about the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. Nearly half the respondents --
48 percent -- said they think there will be no change
in the next 20 years, with only one in five Israelis
saying they expect Israel and the Palestinians to reach
a peace agreement by 2025. Some 29 percent of the
respondents said the conflict would worsen, while 22
percent expect it to be resolved. Ha'aretz wrote that
the poll will be discussed at a session led by Jewish
Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski, with the participation of
former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross and renowned
lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach commented in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "The analyses as to who wants to hold
negotiations with us but cannot and whether those who
can do so ever will, leave the Israeli public totally
apathetic."

Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning,
independent Ha'aretz: "Kadima and Hamas are virulent
mutations of unilateral insanity."

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized: "The political positions of Fatah and
Hamas seem to have converged along with their joint
participation in terror attacks."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Elections Behind the Wall"

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach commented in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (January 24): "The [Israeli] politicians are
clutching at Hamas's participation in the elections
[for the Palestinian Legislative Council] as a drowning
man clutches at a straw.... All this political fury is
passing right over the heads of the public. Israelis
have long since realized what the more sober
politicians also know, namely that the die is cast.
The decision on the future borders of the State of
Israel is already upon us, and it is accepted by a very
large percentage of Israelis, and that is that there
will be a Palestinian state, and its capital will be
Jerusalem, in one guise or another. The borders will
be very close to those of 1967 if not identical, and in
spite of all our high-flown rhetoric and sundry
delusions of disengagement, it is not we who will
choose the time and place at which this inevitable
process will become a reality.... Most Israelis have no
empathy for the Palestinians. For them, the difference
between Fatah and Hamas is about as convincing as the
ritual declaration by Israeli leaders that [the
Palestinian Authority] must 'accept responsibility'
after terrorist attacks. The analyses as to who wants
to hold negotiations with us but cannot and whether
those who can do so ever will, leave the Israeli public
totally apathetic. Like the majority of Palestinians,
as reflected in the polls, the Israeli political center
knows that the election will not make much difference
to the condition of those living in the territories."

II. "Kadima and Hamas -- Virulent Mutations of
Unilateral Insanity"

Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning,
independent Ha'aretz (January 24): "A guest from afar,
now visiting Israel and the occupied territories, might
conclude that a deadly virus afflicts the political
opinion of both peoples. One side throngs to join an
instant party, directed by a substitute for a leader on
sick leave. The other puts its trust in a religious
party that entices small children to achieve celestial
union with 70 virgins. With a bit of effort, such a
visitor might unearth the source of the affliction.
This is neither a heavenly decree nor a deus ex
machina. This is 'chaos ex machina' by the hand of
man. Kadima and Hamas are virulent mutations of
unilateral insanity. Kadima is constructed on the
ruins of the Israeli public's belief in the prospect of
solving the conflict -- and on the growing belief in
the option of managing it according to the public will:
not negotiation but more unilateral withdrawals, more
separation fence, more assassinations and more curfews.
Hamas has risen atop the same ruins among the
Palestinian public, and the belief in the option of
managing it according to that public's will: not
negotiation but more acts of terror, more Qassam
missiles, more control of local authorities and more
seats on the Legislative Council."

III. "The Alternative to Wishful Thinking"

The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post
editorialized (January 24): "The U.S. reportedly
pressured Israel to allow [Marwan] Barghouti to be
interviewed, but it is not clear that much pressure was
necessary, given that the jailed Fatah leader seems to
have become the latest Israeli candidate -- after
Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas -- for the position of
the Palestinian leader with whom we can 'do
business'.... Barghouti's main message was to endorse
Hamas's participation in the elections and call for a
unity government. Indeed, the political positions of
Fatah and Hamas seem to have converged along with their
joint participation in terror attacks. Fatah
emphasizes its support for negotiations, Hamas its
support for 'resistance,' but both parties support both
tactics.... The refusal of supposed moderates, like
Barghouti, to abandon either the 'right to resist' or
the 'right to return' demonstrates that they have not
given up the quest to destroy Israel. The refusal of
Israeli and American policy makers to recognize this
and say so, far from advancing the cause of peace,
contributes directly toward the perpetuation of the
conflict."

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2. Iran: Nuclear Program:
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Summary:
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Defense and foreign affairs columnist Amir Oren wrote
in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "It would appear
that the Israelis and Americans would reluctantly
accept a nuclear Iran, should a secular regime take
power in Tehran, one that supports the West and abjures
terrorism."

Block Quotes:
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"The Real Conflict With Iran"

Defense and foreign affairs columnist Amir Oren wrote
in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (January 24):
"The most difficult dimension for Israel in the matter
[of the global implications of the Iranian crisis] is
not the Iranian nuclear program, but rather the Israeli
one -- the claim that Washington is biased in this
matter, and that after it pressured Israel in the 1960s
to limit its nuclear program, it discontinued this
pressure and has accepted the circumspect situation in
Dimona. While there are counterarguments (Israel did
not deceive the authorities, because it is not a
signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; it
has not called for the destruction of Iran or any other
country),they will not suffice should the political
prevention plans fail and if Bush is faced with a cruel
choice -- to wage an expensive war on Iran or to do
away with the affirmative action toward Israel's
nuclear situation, at the cost of stopping Iran from
arming itself with nuclear weapons. In order to escape
having to pay this price, it would appear that the
Israelis and Americans would reluctantly accept a
nuclear Iran, should a secular regime take power in
Tehran, one that supports the West and abjures
terrorism."

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3. Israel-U.S. Relations:
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Summary:
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Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "How long will it
be before the Christian leaders who are put on trial
point the finger at 'the Jew' who betrayed them?"
Block Quotes:
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"Sin and Absolution in Washington"

Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (January 24): "In
the Jewish communities [in the United States], some
people are waiting for signs of anti-Semitism.
[Lobbyist Jack] Abramoff is Jewish, as his name
suggests. He is observant, and he also helped to fund
a private Jewish school in the U.S., as well as a
target range in the West Bank -- a man of the book and
the sword, indeed. Concerning his links with lawmakers
and with the Christian Right, he also provided funding
for an organization that promotes dialogue between Jews
and Evangelists. On the one hand, they were
cooperating in support of Israel. On the other hand,
the permanent suspicion that the friendship would not
withstand rocky times still exists. How long will it
be before the Christian leaders who are put on trial
point the finger at 'the Jew' who betrayed them?"

JONES