ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION


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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Mideast

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Key stories in the media:
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The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior Israeli diplomatic
official as saying that Israel will find ways to block
the flow of Iranian money into the West Bank if Tehran
delivers on its promise to give a Hamas-led PA USD 250
million. He was responding to a report that appeared
in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that Iran would
allocate USD 250 million to the PA to replace the
funding withheld by Israel and the US. Ha'aretz
printed an AP dispatch quoting Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy
head of Hamas's political bureau, as dismissing the
report about such a specific pledge by Iran. Yediot
quoted Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's Supreme
National Security Council, as saying in an interview
with TIME that should Israel attack Iran's nuclear
installations, Tehran's retaliation would not be "a
pleasant one." Larijani was also quoted as saying that
Iran will consider talks with the U.S. to address
concerns that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, but only
if "Mr. Bush does not harangue us." Yediot also quoted
former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami as saying in
an interview with the Iranian news agency that the
Holocaust is a "historical fact."

Yediot prominently cited a travel warning for Israel
issued this week by the State Department: "Violent
confrontation between organized criminal elements has
led to the death and injury of innocent bystanders in
incidents throughout Israel, including an October 26,
2005 incident in which a bomb destroyed a Tel Aviv
apartment building, killing three people and wounding
five. Such incidents in the past have involved the use
of bombs, grenades, anti-tank missiles, and small arms
fire, and have taken place in Tel Aviv, Caesarea,
Ramle, Acre, Hadera, Arad, and the Galilee."

Israel Radio cited the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi as
saying that the US is interested in the new Palestinian
government being formed only after the Israeli
elections. The radio cited the Arabic-language
newspaper as saying that A/S David Welch asked Abbas to
postpone the announcement he will make about the new
government. Israel Radio reported that Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will soon come to
Israel. The radio said that Egypt recommends that
Israel not rule out contacts with Hamas completely and
that it wait to decide how to deal with Hamas, once it
has a better impression of whether Hamas will abide by
Israel's demands.

Leading media reported that the PA has rejected an
Israeli offer to use the Kerem Shalom crossing in the
southern Gaza Strip for the passage of goods while the
Karni crossing is closed, because of fear that a
temporary agreement might continue indefinitely. The
Jerusalem Post quoted chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat
as saying in an interview with the newspaper: "We are
worried that this will become permanent. I really urge
the Israelis to stick to the agreement."

Electronic media reported this morning that an Israeli
was shot to death near the West Bank settlement of
Migdalim. All media reported that on Tuesday
afternoon, a man from the settlement town of Kiryat
Arba was moderately injured and a teenage girl from the
settlement of Tekoa was lightly wounded in a stabbing
incident at the Gush Etzion junction. Soldiers shot
and mortally wounded the stabber before he could attack
others. Ha'aretz reported that the IDF is predicting
the return of the "stone Intifada" to the West Bank,
similar to the situation in 1987-1989.

Leading electronic media reported this morning that a
Qassam rocket landed south of Ashkelon, and that the
IDF responded with artillery fire. The Jerusalem Post
quoted a senior Artillery Corps officer as saying that
heavy IDF artillery barrages on unpopulated areas in
the northern Gaza Strip may hamper terrorists'
movements, but that efforts by the army to avoid
harming innocent civilians often means that those
firing Qassam rockets are able to escape unharmed.

This morning, Israel Radio and Ha'aretz's web site
reported that a senior Islamic Jihad commander was
killed in a car explosion in Gaza on Wednesday that
witnesses said was caused by an Israeli air strike.
The media reported that Palestinian security sources
and medics identified him as Abu al-Waleed al-Dahdouh,
and that the IDF had no immediate comment.

Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying that
Hamas and Palestinian PM-designate Ismail Haniyeh are
refusing to respond to the written appointment by PA
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas to form the PA new
government.

Major media quoted Acting PM Ehud Olmert as saying on
Tuesday, following the high-level meeting he convened
on the issue of Israel's relations with Russia, that
Russia was an "important country" with which it was
necessary to improve relations.

Citing news agency reports, Ha'aretz and Yediot
reported that on Tuesday at the Conference on
Disarmament in Geneva, Syria accused Israel of using
the Golan as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. The
media cited a response from Ambassador Itzhak Levanon,
Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN Office in
Geneva, that Syrian Representative Ambassador Bashar
Ja'afari's speech was full of "repetitive, inaccurate
information."

Israel Radio quoted Ambassador John Negroponte, the
Director of National Intelligence, as saying that a
civil war in Iraq would influence other Middle East
countries as well as other places in the world.

All major media, except The Jerusalem Post, led with
today's vote at the Likud Central Committee on party
chairman Binyamin Netanyahu's proposal that the
selection of the Likud's Knesset slate be moved from
the central committee to the rank-and-file. Leading
media reported that on Tuesday, Netanyahu accused
senior Kadima members of attempting to influence Likud
Central Committee members to torpedo his proposal. He
was quoted as saying in closed talks with central
committee members that Kadima was "running an organized
campaign" against the move, "including getting senior
ministers involved in it." Leading media wrote that by
changing his party's voting process, Netanyahu hopes to
regain many voters who shifted their preference to
Kadima.

Major media (banner in Hatzofe) cited a report that
appeared in the Israeli web site News First Class that
Olmert was given a USD 320,000 discount on an apartment
he bought in a Jerusalem housing project in 2004, in
the hope that this would accelerate the granting of
construction permits for the entire project. Ha'aretz
and other media cited Olmert's office as saying that
the contract notes that the seller has the necessary
permits and that Olmert was not involved in issuing
them.

All media reported that on Tuesday, the Central
Elections Committee rejected by a vote of 18-16
requests to disqualify the United Arab List/Arab
Movement for Renewal from participating in the upcoming
Knesset elections. Kadima MKs voted against the
disqualification.

Yediot reported that an IDF major serving in the Arrow
anti-missile unit opened a "private bank," investing
millions of shekels in the stock exchange on behalf of
his commanding officers, and disappeared. Yediot
quoted the IDF Spokeswoman's office as saying that the
major was suspended.

All media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
and Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra announced
that they would bar the IDF and police from appearing
before a special parliamentary investigation committee
on the evacuation of the West Bank outpost of Amona
last month. Mofaz and Ezra said they would appear on
behalf of the army and police before the committee.
The media said that both ministers seek to protest the
committee's decision to add to its team right-wing
politicians who took part in resisting the evacuation.
The ministers were quoted as saying that the committee
was politically motivated, and formed for the purpose
of bashing the government.

Leading media reported that on Tuesday, a resident of
the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn was found shot in
his car a few blocks from his house. He was a member
of the Lubavitch community. The Jerusalem Post and
other media reported suspicions that the murder may
have been motivated by anti-Semitism. The media
reported that anti-Semitism was a possible motive in
the murder of a Tashkent rabbi on Saturday.

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Mideast:
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Summary:
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Senior op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in left-
leaning, independent Ha'aretz: "All Israel has to do is
declare that it is willing to negotiate for peace with
whomever is leading the Palestinians."

Israeli-Arab contributor Hamis Abulafia wrote in
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Iran has decided to hand a
quarter of a million dollars to the Palestinians. Do
we need further proof that boycotting the Palestinians
only pushes them into Iran's arms?"

Gidi Grinstein, the president of the Re'ut Institute
(www.reut-institute.org),who served on the Israeli
delegation to the negotiations with the PLO from 1999
to 2001, wrote in the conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post: "Hamas's mistimed ascendance has made
it more vulnerable than ever to an erosion of its
power."





Block Quotes:
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I. "Ignore Hamas? No Way"

Senior op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in left-
leaning, independent Ha'aretz (March 1): "The outrage
among the decision makers in Jerusalem at the results
of the election in the Palestinian Authority have them
embroiled in internal contradictions, becoming involved
in confrontations with the international community, and
sending a message of confusion and disorientation to
Israeli society. Ehud Olmert should come to his
senses.... All Israel has to do is declare that it is
willing to negotiate for peace with whomever is leading
the Palestinians. If the Hamas wants to come to the
negotiating table -- welcome; if it refuses, it will
bear the consequences.... It is of course impossible to
ignore Hamas's doctrines or the security danger its
fundamental approach poses to Israel.... One position
is unacceptable: a declaration that Hamas is
irrelevant. Those that do not want to dialogue with
Hamas should get out of the territories and make the
new government in Ramallah and Gaza the exclusive
internal problem of the Palestinians."

II. "Pushing Hamas Into Iran's Hands"

Israeli-Arab contributor Hamis Abulafia wrote in
popular, pluralist Maariv (March 1): "All sensible
people acknowledge that the Palestinian national
interest requires getting farther from Iran on one
hand, and nearer to those who are quite able to fulfill
the Palestinians' dreams by establishing a national
home alongside Israel on the other hand -- I am
talking about the state to which the Palestinians are
connected in all walks of life: water, electricity,
funds, etc. At the same time, Israel shouldn't
'reward' Hamas in the form of fund freezing, wall
building, and imposing continued closure on the
Palestinians: taking such measures might play in the
hands of Hamas.... Iran has decided to hand a quarter
of a million dollars to the Palestinians. Do we need
further proof that boycotting the Palestinians only
pushes them into Iran's arms?"


III. "Don't Let Hamas Escape the Driver's Seat"

Gidi Grinstein, the president of the Re'ut Institute
(www.reut-institute.org),who served on the Israeli
delegation to the negotiations with the PLO from 1999
to 2001, wrote in the conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post (March 1): "For now, security forces and
key diplomatic and economic positions remain in the
hands of Fatah while Abbas has veto power over any
legislation. Hamas needs time to digest the PA and
close the gap between its political over-representation
and actual weak power.... The key to taking advantage
of Hamas's temporary weakness is keeping what New York
Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls a 'burning
platform' under its political feet. Israel and the
world can force Hamas into a set of choices between its
ideology and terror infrastructure, on the one hand,
and the security and wellbeing of the Palestinian
population, on the other. Either Hamas would be forced
to moderate, or its power could decline due to tensions
between moderates and radicals.... Hamas's mistimed
ascendance has made it more vulnerable than ever to an
erosion of its power. The advent of the new
Palestinian government is a historic opportunity to
generate a crisis that may lead to an ideological
change in Hamas, the dismantling of its terror
infrastructure or at least to a deep division within
its ranks. If the West works to keep the 'platform
burning,' Hamas's great moment can be turned into a
Pyrrhic victory."

JONES