ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 004047 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 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 -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- ¶1. Iran ¶2. Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter will leave on Sunday for an official visit to the US, during which he will meet with top law enforcement officials to share his first know-how in homeland security and counter-terrorism. The Jerusalem Post reported that Dichter spoke to the newspaper about what he believes the US can learn from Israel on fighting terrorism, his belief that Israel should give up the Golan Heights in a peace treaty with Syria and MK Avigdor Lieberman's prospects of heading a ministry charged with managing the Iranian threat. Dichter was quoted as saying: "Israel is a laboratory for learning how to defend citizens because we face threats every day. The US does not have to pay with American blood. They can learn from what we have learned here." According to Dichter, cooperation with the US on counter-terrorism has increased significantly since 9/11. All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, led with a joint police/Justice Ministry announcement Sunday recommending that Israeli President Katsav be indicted on charges of rape, as well as well as indecent acts using force, indecent acts without consent, and sexual harassment. The police also informed AG Menachem Mazuz on Sunday that there was enough evidence to prove that Katsav had committed grand larceny, fraud, and breach of faith and that he had violated the law prohibiting wiretapping. Over the weekend, all media reported on proposed entry of Lieberman's party Yisrael Beiteinu into the government coalition. On Sunday, Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz and Vice PM Shimon Peres of Kadima were discussing the creation of a joint front to block Yisrael Beiteinu's bid. On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that a majority of the Labor Party's Knesset faction is expected to demand that Peretz and the rest of Labor's ministers quit the cabinet if PM Ehud Olmert insists on bringing in Lieberman. Also on Sunday, Yediot reported that Lieberman allegedly urged oligarch Arkady Gaidamak, who reportedly had been sought out in the summer by Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu as a potential partner and counterweight to Lieberman, to form his own party and to run for Knesset. According to the report, Lieberman told Gaidamak that together they would be able to form the largest political party in Israel. On Sunday, the media (banner in The Jerusalem Post) reported that following 72 hours of intense fighting, the IDF withdrew from the central Gaza Strip Saturday night, leaving behind 21 dead Palestinians, including seven killed earlier in the day. Ha'aretz quoted IDF officers as saying that Hamas wants to create a "balance of terror" with Israel in the Gaza Strip, in order the IDF from making a ground forces incursion into the territory. The officers' conclusion is based on the organization's greatly accelerated munitions acquisitions over the past few months, which was reported by several media. Yediot quoted an Israeli expert as saying Sunday that the IAF can be expected to hold out new threats in Gaza. Ha'aretz reported that Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the cabinet on Sunday that he planned to meet with settlement leaders to discuss the possibility of a voluntary evacuation of the illegal settler outposts in the West Bank. Ha'aretz cited the London-based Al-Hayat as quoting Egyptian sources assaying that Syria, which pressured Khaled Mashal, the head of Hamas's political bureau, and torpedoed almost agreed-upon efforts to reach a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas. Israel Radio quoted Mashal as saying that he was not ready to start negotiations over the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit without Israel committing itself to releasing Palestinian prisoners. Yediot reported that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas is building a large, skilled, and terror-free force in Jericho with US financial support. The Jerusalem Post and Yediot quoted Brig. Gen. Yossi Badatz, the head of the IDF's intelligence directorate, as saying at Sunday's cabinet meeting as saying that Israel has indisputable proof that Syria continues to transfer weapons to Hizbullah. On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Hizbullah is hiding weapons in southern Lebanon and that the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL are not making efforts to find them. All media reported that commanders who did not fully understand their orders, who were not present with their troops during important battles, and who even failed to fulfill basic missions constitute some of the grave failures found by an internal IDF committee that probed Division 91's performance during the recent war in Lebanon. These are the first such findings emerging from internal IDF investigations. Ha'aretz and Maariv, and The Jerusalem Post reported that Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is calling for the suspension of State Prosecutor Eran Shendar for his role in the "failures of the Police Investigation Department (PID) into the events of October 2000.: Shendar headed the PID at the time of the disturbances, during which 12 Israeli Arabs and one Gazan were killed by the police, and he was in charge of its investigation of the events. Over the weekend, the media reported that the National Planning and Construction Council was set to make a final decision Tuesday on the controversial Safdie plan, named after architect Moshe Safdie, to build up the area west of Jerusalem. The media reported that on Sunday, the ministerial committee on legislation approved, by a five-to-four margin, the bill supporting a presidential-style premiership in Israel that was proposed by MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu). Over the weekend, the media reported that clashes erupted on Friday between hundreds of Palestinians and Border Police troops near the roadblocks at the entrances to Jerusalem. The clashes broke out after the Israel Police restricted access to the city for the third Friday of prayers during the Muslim month of Ramadan to people only above a certain age. On Sunday, Hatzofe reported that Knesset Member Uri Ariel from the National Union Party has been drafting plans for the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount. The Jerusalem Post cited GOI sources as confirming Sunday that Asi Shariv, Olmert's spokesman, will likely be Israel's consul-general in New York, one of the most sought after positions in the foreign service. The Jerusalem Post reported that the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.3 million teachers across the US, is calling on Irish academics to oppose demands to boycott Israel Ha'aretz cited the Australian Jewish community's dissatisfaction with the alleged characterization of Asians by Israel's Ambassador in Canberra Naftali Tamir in an interview with Ha'aretz as the "yellow race." On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Friday, the Foreign Ministry condemned Tamir's remarks in the interview that Israel and Australia were white sisters amid the "yellow race" of Asia. On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Tamir was being called back to Jerusalem for a "further clarification" of the matter. Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Sunday, Nobel Chemistry laureate Roger D. Kornberg, an American scientist with close ties with Israel, criticized the Israeli government for slashing support to universities, charging that this has shaken the foundation of Israel's scientific research community. -------------- ¶1. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Our government, crucially, should not allow the understandable desire to encourage a global response to be misinterpreted as a sign that even Israel is beginning to treat the unthinkable as inevitable." Block Quotes: -------------- "Unthinkable, Not Inevitable" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/15): "Last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened a special meeting of security chiefs to discuss Israeli strategy toward the Iranian threat, amid concerns that Western responses to it are inadequate. These concerns have grown with the expectation that any sanctions imposed on North Korea after it claimed to have exploded a nuclear weapon will amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. The Prime Minister's meeting reportedly concluded that Israel would continue to support the diplomatic approach toward the Iranian challenge, as led by the United States and Europe. In other words, Israel will continue to attempt to walk the fine line between encouraging the international community to take the lead on this global threat, and insisting that failure is not an option.... By stepping back, Israel is trying to accentuate the global nature of the Iranian challenge, but Israel can and should be doing more to explain this.... The mullahs fervently believe that nuclear weapons will not only protect their regime, but allow them to expand their power and the grip of their own militant brand of Islam throughout the world. Israel cannot accept such a genocidal threat, but neither can other free nations accept such a blatant attempt to hijack the world order. Our government, crucially, should not allow the understandable desire to encourage a global response to be misinterpreted as a sign that even Israel is beginning to treat the unthinkable as inevitable." -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel is marching headlong, with its eyes wide open and a clear mind, to a head-on clash with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. Both sides have been preparing for this confrontation carefully, with the sense that it is ineluctable." Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "That which is perceived as giving power in the Middle East weakens Israel in the West, particularly in Europe, and what is perceived in the Middle East as weakness gives it strength in world public opinion." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "War Around the Corner" Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/15): "The incidents these past few days in the Gaza Strip are just the preface to the big bang. Israel is marching headlong, with its eyes wide open and a clear mind, to a head-on clash with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. Both sides have been preparing for this confrontation carefully, with the sense that it is ineluctable. The Palestinians have been arming themselves to the teeth.... All of [the recent Israeli] defensive military activity is geared to stymie and delay the process in which Hamas has been building its army in the Gaza Strip. But it is all in vain. Israeli officials have watched Palestinian terror experts return to Gaza after spending months of training in Lebanon, whereupon they carry out a series of military preparations right under our nose, and all of which is generously funded by Hamas. A tremendous amount of weapons, ammunition and explosives -- leftovers from the war in Iraq -- has been flowing from the Sinai peninsula into the Gaza Strip, through the mediation of international arms dealers. That is why the clash is ineluctable. The Southern Command's defensive activity will not succeed in stopping the massive armament program, but it has contributed greatly to keeping the troops in top operational readiness in advance of the day when they are put to the test. And, as we learned in Lebanon, that is no laughing matter." II. "The Paradox of Power and Weakness" Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Yediot Aharonot (10/15): "Here is a paradox: That which is perceived as giving power in the Middle East weakens Israel in the West, particularly in Europe, and what is perceived in the Middle East as weakness gives it strength in world public opinion. In the Middle East, people admire the strong, whether it is Ahmadinejad, Saddam in his time or, not to mention them in the same breath, Ariel Sharon, who was perceived as a strongman. In the Western world, the strong arouse aversion. In the Middle East, one may never be perceived as weak. In the West, that is to one's credit. The size of the Israeli movement toward regional strengthening is equal to the amount of damage it suffers in the world arena, and the opposite. Both movements are dynamic, and therefore also reversible. Movement in both of them can occur in either direction. Holding on to territory is seen as Israeli power, but in the world it is viewed as causing damage....The rule also works for the Palestinians. As long as they were seen as weak, world sympathy for them grew; the moment that Hamas presented them as having an army and power, the world forgot them. From now on, any Israeli measure must take the paradox into account.... The Israeli leadership must embark on the forceful military operation under the justification of the existential threat -- a process that occurred in the first stages of the Lebanon War. For that, Israel must use the international institutions that we usually scorned, and we must establish a well-oiled public-relations network that can be activated on short notice. The world would see a clear victory against an existential threat as a blessing, while in the region it would be seen as strength and as a deterrent. The time has come for Israeli accomplishments that we have not had for more than two decades." CRETZ