ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 004752 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: OPRC KMDR IS SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- ¶1. Iraq Study Group Report ¶2. Iran -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Leading media (banner in Ha'aretz) cited the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (a.k.a. Baker-Hamilton committee),which were made public at the US Senate on Wednesday. Ha'aretz quoted President Bush as saying that the US administration will reflect on the recommendations but that it does not pledge to adopt them. The media said that the Group's report called for a "Madrid Conference framework," referring to the 1991 Madrid Conference, as well as direct Israeli-Syrian negotiations that could lead to a return of the Golan Heights. The Group said that the US must support PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas and the creation of a Palestinian national unity government. Leading media reported that PM Ehud Olmert's bureau and other GOI officials are not concerned about President Bush modifying his Mideast policy. Olmert said in a speech today that the report is primarily a domestic American issue, and that President Bush and senior US officials recently assured him that they do not support Israeli-Syrian talks over the Golan Heights. The Jerusalem Post quoted senior diplomatic sources in Jerusalem as saying on Wednesday that the White House will not pressure Israel into talking to Syria. The media also cited the main recommendations of the report: shifting the role of US forces in Iraq from fighting to training the Iraqi military, diminishing the number of American soldiers in Iraq, and encouraging direct talks between the US and Iran and Syria. The Jerusalem Post reported that Knesset members from across the political spectrum noted how drastically relations between Israel and the US had changed in the past year. Yediot reported that Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor Party) was an adviser to the Iraq Study Group. �A;Israel Radio quoted Defense Secretary-appointee Robert Gates as saying at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that Israel has nuclear weapons. Yaron Dekel, the radio's Washington correspondent, said that Gates infringed the ambiguity policy that had been maintained by all Israeli governments and embraced by successive US administrations. Maariv quoted senior GOI sources as saying that Israel accepts the original Saudi initiative (as made public at the time by New York Times newsman Thomas Friedman, among others). The newspaper reported that the US and Israel are holding confidential contacts in order to adapt the "Arab initiative" to Israel's diplomatic limitations and reach an agreed-upon formula that would the start of negotiations with the "Arab Quartet" composed of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Maariv wrote that those four countries are involved in the contacts. Maariv quoted Saudi sources as saying that, should Israel accept the principles of the Saudi initiative, this would change the entire region and Saudi Arabia would lead that change. Israel Radio quoted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as saying on Wednesday en route to Europe that the negotiations over the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit have reached their last stage and that Hamas's assent is being awaited. However, Mubarak was quoted as saying that other elements are intervening -- in contradiction with the Palestinians' interest. Ha'aretz reported that among those whose release Hamas intends to demand is Abbas Sayed, the mastermind of the massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya over Passover in 2002, in which 29 civilians were killed. Israel Radio quoted the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam as saying that Palestinian factions in Gaza, with the exception of Hamas, have devised an expanded "tahdiya" (calm period) for 2007, during which Israeli forces would pull out from Palestinian cities and make other concessions. Major media cited an IDF report released on Wednesday that IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are thought to have suffered serious injuries-- one of them critically -- at the time of their abduction last July by Hizbullah. The media cited the dissatisfaction of the abductees' families over Olmert's recent statements that they may not be alive. Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that French President Jacques Chirac told FM Tzipi Livni in Paris on Wednesday that Israel should stop flying warplanes over Lebanon in what Israel says is an effort to gather intelligence on Hizbullah arms smuggling. The Jerusalem Post quoted French FM Philippe Douste-Blazy as saying at a press conference with Livni that the overflights cannot be considered a separate element of UN Security Council Resolution 101, and that all elements need to be implemented. Maariv cited Livni's belief that the crisis over the overflights is over. Various media reported that Livni told Chirac that the flights are for intelligence purposes only. Maariv reported that Olmert will meet next week with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, and that the two are expected to discuss Iran's nuclear program and the situation in the territories. Olmert's trip will include Germany and Italy. The Jerusalem Post quoted a member of the Hamas-led PA government as saying on Wednesday that Hamas officials have managed to smuggle more than USD 66 million in cash through the Rafah border crossing in the past eight months. Citing the Palestinian news agency Maan, Hatzofe quoted a Hamas source as saying that several European countries, including the UK and France, have started a channel of talks with Hamas. Hatzofe quoted Palestinian Legislative Council member and chair of the Palestinian prisoners' committee Issa Karaka (phon.) as saying that the Palestinian government has paid hundreds of thousands of shekels to Israel (one shekel equals approximately USD 0.24) for the release of Palestinian cabinet ministers who were detained in Israel. The Jerusalem Post and Maariv reported that serious unexplained technical glitches are plaguing the Iranian nuclear program. The newspapers cited a Western assessment that the malfunctions will be fixed in two months. Ha'aretz, Yediot, and The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran's Foreign Ministry will hold a conference next week at which scholars from 30 countries will discuss the scale of the Holocaust and whether the Nazis really used gas chambers to kill Jews. Major media reported that in a report he presented to the IDF's General Staff in November, Maj. Gen. Amiram Levine was highly critical of the conduct of Northern Command during the recent war in Lebanon. The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel plans to set up a 160 million-shekel (approximately USD 38 million) private equity fund to help develop the businesses of the country's Arab citizens over the next decade. Ha'aretz printed a Reuters story about heart surgery performed by Israeli doctors on Palestinian children. -------------- ¶1. Iraq Study Group Report: -------------- Summary: -------------- Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "About half the report covered something allegedly unrelated to the matter at hand -- a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem centered on an old idea that never loses its vitality." Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The message conveyed in the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group] Report is weakness -- American exhaustion in the face of the fanatical determination of Islamic extremists." Zalman Shoval, senior Likud member and former ambassador to the US, wrote on page one of the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Israeli diplomacy ... must now make a major effort to resist the attempts to 'Palestinianize' the situation in Iraq, with Israel being asked to pay for it." Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Bush now has the opportunity of showing how much he loves Israel." Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "The report that was submitted on Wednesday by Baker and Hamilton about a change in American policy in the region reflects the process in which the momentum of the extremist Shi'ites in the region has gained strength, while the 'American regional order,' which peaked in 2003, is in decline." Arab affairs correspondent Zvi Bar'el wrote on page one of Ha'aretz: "The solution must be found within Iraq, among the various political and ethnic forces that constitute that nation." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Old Idea Still Fresh" Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/7): "About half the report covered something allegedly unrelated to the matter at hand -- a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem centered on an old idea that never loses its vitality: Resolving the Arab-Israeli problem is the key to stabilizing the entire region. US administrations from Eisenhower to Clinton have thought so, James Baker apparently thinks so, having proven it throughout his term as secretary of state. The report could be seen as a policy proposal, SIPDIS but no less as the chair's ego trip as well. Baker proposes a summit 'like Madrid' and refers positively to the measures of the early '90s. The Baker Report undermines everything Bush and his aides have believed, everything they have declared in recent years. The question is how they will neutralize the clauses that bother them without angering a public thirsty for new solutions." II. "Call When You Find a Serious Palestinian Leadership" Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (12/7): "In an uncharacteristic outburst for the No. 1 American diplomat, [then Secretary of State James] Baker made public the phone number of the White House in 1990 and told the Israelis: 'Please call when you are serious about the peace process'.... The message conveyed in the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group] Report is weakness -- American exhaustion in the face of the fanatical determination of Islamic extremists chasing the West from all sides. When America is tired of fighting, it is easy to look for solutions under the streetlamp, especially if it is in some negligible Israeli settlement in Samaria [the northern West Ban]. This is easier than understanding that the enemy facing the United States will not express his thanks for solving the Palestinian or Iraqi problem, and return to his cave.... We can only tell [James Baker] that the phone number of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem is 02-6705555. Let him call when he finds a serious Palestinian leadership." III. "Israel Must Not Pay Price For Iraq Mess" Zalman Shoval, senior Likud member and former ambassador to the US, wrote on page one of the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (12/7): "Though common sense should show that the Palestinian problem or the Golan have nothing to do with Iraq -- the combination of Arab fears of a Shi'ite Crescent and European attitudes in general (as we saw in the recent Spanish-French-Italian initiative) and American frustration over Iraq could lead to a situation in which, in the absence of real solutions for Iraq, attention will be shifted to matters directly affecting us. Israeli diplomacy, which has not been too successful in recent times in making its positions clear -- including with the Europeans but also with the victorious Democrats in Congress and perhaps even with parts of the administration -- must now make a major effort to resist the attempts to 'Palestinianize' the situation in Iraq, with Israel being asked to pay for it." IV. "Bush's Opportunity" Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/7): "President Bush's personal and political history shows repeatedly that the moment he understands that he is about to lose everything, his stubbornness dissolves as well and he makes a U-turn.... Bush now has the opportunity of showing how much he loves Israel. This is what Israel's supporters on both sides of the political arena in the United States believe. If he adopts the Baker-Hamilton document, he will be able to present an initiative that will lead to two routes of enmity: against the Palestinians and Syria. Should he decide, however, to throw the recommendations away, this would be akin to pointing a gun at his temple and pressing the trigger." ¶V. "An Iranian Victory" Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in Yediot Aharonot (12/7): "An analysis of the mood in the Iranian leadership shows that the Iranians feel that no effective front is forming against them -- on the contrary. Israeli security establishment officials say that the Iranians were pleased to hear the statements that were made by the incoming secretary of defense, Robert Gates. Gates' statements -- during a Senate hearing this week -- that the US would use military force against Iran only as a last resort, strengthened the sense in Iran that they had bought themselves some more time in which they could to continue to work on acquiring nuclear weapons without any impediment. And that is precisely what they have been doing, said Israeli security officials, at a heightened pace. The security officials said that the current round of American-Iranian arm-wrestling ended with an Iranian victory.... As a rule, note political officials in Jerusalem, the Iranian influence in the region has been on the rise, while the American influence has been fighting a rearguard action. The report that was submitted on Wednesday by Baker and Hamilton about a change in American policy in the region reflects the process in which the momentum of the extremist Shi'ites in the region has gained strength, while the 'American regional order,' which peaked in 2003, is in decline with the entanglement of the American warfare in Iraq. This process will have an impact on all the countries in the region, including Israel, say the political officials." VI. "Iraq Will Solve Iraq's Problems" Arab affairs correspondent Zvi Bar'el wrote on page one of Ha'aretz (12/7): "Following the excitement stirred by the Baker-Hamilton report, because it referred to Iran and Syria as essential partners to solving the problem in Iraq, a small question remains: Will these two be willing to voluntarily take this role upon themselves? Without asking for something in return? And, can the countries of the region, Egypt and Saudi Arabia foremost among them, help Iraq in view of the chaos there?.... The solution must be found within Iraq, among the various political and ethnic forces that constitute that nation." -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Now it falls to President Bush to reveal whether Gates' thinking reflects his own, or whether he is still committed to preventing the world's most dangerous regime from obtaining the world's most dangerous weapons." Block Quotes: -------------- "Gates' Shocking Thinking on Iran" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/7): "[Defense Secretary-nominee Robert] Gates assures us that although Ahmadinejad may be wacko, his Iranian leadership higher-ups have got to be more responsible. These moderate, reasonable, Iranian leaders, Gates calmly explains, have perfectly understandable reasons to want nukes to defend themselves. Not to worry, it's just the Cold War Iranian-style. Israel, the US, and Pakistan have nukes, why not Iran? But what if this sunny analysis is wrong and Iran lobs a weapon of mass destruction at Israel? Well, that's a risk that Gates seems willing to take.... Gates has now made the case for tolerating an Iranian nuclear weapon and against taking military action to prevent that eventuality. In doing so, he elicited no discernible alarm from his Senatorial inquisitors. We wish one of them had pointed out that an Iranian nuclear weapon would dramatically increase both Tehran's capability to inflict increasing damage against US interests and the likelihood of Iran doing just that. Now it falls to President Bush to reveal whether Gates' thinking reflects his own, or whether he is still committed to preventing the world's most dangerous regime from obtaining the world's most dangerous weapons." JONES