ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002543 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 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Israel Radio cited the PA daily Al-Ayyam quoting Palestinian sources as saying that PM Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas may meet this month ahead of Secretary Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region. The Jerusalem Post quoted the Office of the President of Israel as saying that President Shimon Peres' talks with Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad, which were lambasted by the Right, centered on economics, not diplomacy. Israel Radio reported that Peres told the UN Middle East envoy that Israel should not intervene in the struggle between Fatah and Hamas. All media reported that IDF troops killed six Palestinians in three separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, including two children aged nine and 12 who were targeted as they tried to collect Qassam rocket launchers. Ha'aretz quoted IDF officers as saying that it is possible that Islamic Jihad hired the children to collect the launchers. This phenomenon had already been observed in other instances, they were quoted as saying. The media reported that earlier on Tuesday IDF troops killed three Palestinian militants near the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip, near Khan Yunis. This morning Israel Radio reported that a HAMAS militant was killed and two others were wounded in an IAF strike near the Israel-Gaza border fence. Israel Radio reported that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the PFLP, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Qassam rocket and mortar shell attacks against Israel this morning. The Jerusalem Post reported that Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, announced on Tuesday that it would no longer honor understandings reached with Israel, and called on its members to carry weapons to defend themselves against the IDF. The group was quoted as saying that the decision was made after the IDF arrested two Fatah gunmen who had been given amnesty by Israel in line with understandings reached between Israel and the PA. Leading media reported that the supply of fuel for electricity to the Gaza Strip will be resumed today following an agreement reached between the EU and the PA according to which the sides will prevent irregularities and the transfer of funds to Hamas. National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Israel Radio this morning that Israel would interrupt the supply of fuel and electricity to the Strip if Palestinians keep firing rockets and shells against Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported that, preparing for a possible US or Israeli strike on its nuclear installations, Iran has developed a remote-controlled launch system that can be used to operate dozens of unmanned Shihab ballistic launchers in underground bunkers. After recent upgrades, the Shihab-3 ballistic missiles are believed to have a target range of 2,000 kilometers. The missile was initially developed with a 1,300-km. range. Ha'aretz reported that in an effort to extricate himself from a scandal surrounding the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) refusal to support a bill calling on the Bush administration to recognize the 1915-17 Turkish massacre of the Armenian minority as genocide, the ADL's national (US) director Abe Foxman did an abrupt about-face. After consulting with Nobel Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Foxman referred to the Armenian massacre as "genocide" for the first time. The Jerusalem Post quoted Turkish sources as saying on Tuesday that the new ADL stand could negatively impact Turkey's close relations with Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported that Canon Andrew White, the caretaker of the Jewish community in Baghdad, told the newspaper from London on Tuesday that eight Baghdad Jews, who represent the remnants of the community, are facing security threats so grave that they need to flee Iraq. Maariv reported that "like during the Cold War," Russia tries to obtain influence in Israel though immigrants. The newspaper reported that Russia will fund Russian-language studies and establish a cultural center in Israel. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Egypt's FM Ahmed Ali Abu al-Gheit as saying that Egypt has asked the US to let Syria join the international Middle East meeting in the fall. Ha'aretz noted that in recent months several Arab countries have boosted their nuclear programs. Maariv quoted a senior IDF Central Command officer as saying on Tuesday that the IDF intends to evacuate soon the farm of far-Right settler Noam Federman near Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank. Maariv reported that the Israeli and Syrian ambassadors to the UN institutions in Geneva are cooperating on the issue of nuclear nonproliferation. The Jerusalem Post reported that organizers of a UN conference hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels at the end of August are refusing to make public the list of NGOs scheduled to attend the meeting, which various organizations have called "one-sided, partisan, and anti-Israel." Maariv reported that the joint committee of Israel's National Security Council and the Academy of Sciences recommends security supervision over all Israeli biotechnological research due to fears that information might reach terrorist organizations. Ha'aretz reported that fifth and sixth-graders in all 52 Haifa elementary schools will take Arabic-language classes as well as study Arab and Islamic history as part of their regular curriculum. The project will be funded by the Ministry of Education and the Haifa Municipality. Ha'aretz reported that Likud activists recently told the newspaper that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz's allies in his former Likud party are recruiting people to help him win Kadima's upcoming elections. According to the sources, the Likud activists want to see Mofaz replace PM Olmert as Kadima's leader. The Jerusalem Post reported that the controversy over former President Jimmy Carter's book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is set to be reignited by an upcoming screening of a documentary centered on his book tour. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported on the ADL's fight against the book "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy," by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe dubs the book "anti-Semitic." Yediot reported that New York City Jews are divided regarding the opening of an Arab school in the city in two weeks. Some were quoted as saying that the institution will foster hatred, while other believed that it will further tolerance. The Jerusalem Post reported that three weeks ago a Palestinian hotel company petitioned the High Court of Justice, charging that the state illegally confiscated 40 dunams of land it allegedly owned in east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and that it gave it to a private Jewish businessman to build a hotel. The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that Dorian Paskowitz, an 86-year-old retired Jewish doctor from Hawaii, arrived at the Erez Crossing to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to hand over 12 surfboards he is donating to Gaza's small surfing community. Paskowitz was quoted as saying that surfing can bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post reported on love -- and hate -- e-mails sent by Iranians to the Foreign Ministry Web site. The Jerusalem Post reported that, even as manufacturers were reporting growth in exports to the US for the first six months of the year, investment bank Morgan Stanley is warning that Israel would be most vulnerable to a US economic slump, given the huge amount of products shipped to America. The Jerusalem Post reported that exports of Israel's advanced Merkava tank systems are expected to reach some USD 400 million in 2008, following 13 percent growth to USD 350 million this year. However, the newspaper said various factors may damage Merkava exports. The Jerusalem Post noted that, according to reports, foreign sales of Merkavas are generally made to the US, Turkey, and eastern Europe. Leading media reported that on Monday the Bad Arolsen, Germany-based International Tracing Service (ITS) handed over a database with millions of documents from over 50 concentration camps and prisons -- which includes books recording Jewish deaths, transportation lists, and medical reports -- to Yad Vashem and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Jerusalem Post noted that ITS director Reto Meister met with officials from the State Department and other organizations during his visit to Washington. Maariv reported that the remains of Theodor Herzl's only grandson, Stephen Theodor Neumann (Norman) will soon be re-interred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. In 1946, when Norman heard of the death of his parents in the Holocaust, he committed suicide in the US. The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a new public opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, which found that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians are convinced that the UN is dominated by the US. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior military affairs analyst Reuven Pedatzur wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The Israeli message to European countries hesitating to impose severe sanctions against Iran is that nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is dangerous not only to Israel but the entire world." Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "Experts ... and of course politicians warned us that war would break out with Syria this summer.... The problem with misguided, misleading prophecies is that they can affect fateful decisions." The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Apparently even the most careful cartography is mutable..... Whatever can be retroactively modified to appease implacable enemies of peace plainly isn't worth the purportedly peace-upholding paper it is written on." Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[A] candidate who opts for a message of disengagement, a withdrawal from the world, will reflect on the US no less than on the world. It would mean that he does not believe in the superiority of the system, and in the morality and leadership of America. What kind of American would want such a president?" Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Danger For the Entire World" Senior military affairs analyst Reuven Pedatzur wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/22): "The renewed focus on nuclear programs by countries in the Middle East stems from concerns that Iran will acquire nuclear arms. An Iranian nuclear weapon may result in an accelerated effort to develop nuclear arms in many of the countries in the region.... Of course, no one believes that the countries controlling enormous fossil fuel reserves have suddenly realized that nuclear technology -- which has been around for six decades -- can meet their energy needs. The problem is that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),in which all these countries are members, allows many of the steps necessary for the development of nuclear weapons to occur under the guise of civilian nuclear programs.... The Israeli message to European countries hesitating to impose severe sanctions against Iran is that nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is dangerous not only to Israel but the entire world." II. "Gambling Prophets" Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (8/22): "Military commentators, publicists, academics, experts on Arab affairs, senior officers in the reserves, and of course politicians warned us that war would break out with Syria this summer. They gambled: If a war were indeed to break out, they could boast: 'I told you so!' If it did not break out, no one would remember their error. They would be free to move to the next prophecy. The problem with misguided, misleading prophecies is that they can affect fateful decisions. We should remember that for every military expert who predicts a war, an expert can be found who will explain why there will be no war.... In the summer of 1973 the greatest security maven of all, Moshe Dayan, said on television that no war was expected. During that same broadcast they also interviewed passersby and a 'primitive,' elderly woman said: 'I feel in my gut that there will be a war.' Several months after the broadcast, the Yom Kippur War broke out. Was the elderly woman a greater expert on security affairs than Dayan? Not necessarily. She was just a better prophet." III. "Keeping the Blue Line" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/22): "In May 2000, on the eve of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, the UN carried out painstaking measurements to establish precisely where the international border ran. The boundary it marked is popularly known as the Blue Line. The aim was to make absolutely sure that Israel indeed indisputably retreated from every last centimeter of what was ascribed to Lebanon's jurisdiction. In the end, the UN officially proclaimed its satisfaction that Israel had exited fully and incontrovertibly from Lebanese territory, as per UN Security Council Resolution 425. Beirut agreed to honor the line of withdrawal as certified by the UN. But apparently even the most careful cartography is mutable.... Thus the UN, though directly responsible under Security Council Resolution 1701 for curtailing Hizbullah, might now embolden its chieftain, Hassan Nasrallah, who last year triggered the war with Israel.... The anyway imperfect promise of Resolution 1701 has been dissipated by the UN itself. But even the mockery the UN makes of its own undertakings would be eclipsed if it were to revise maps of its own charting, and change its meticulously drawn demarcation lines as per the specifications of some of the world's most aggressive and uncompromising terrorists. Put starkly, such a shift would render UN determinations worthless. For whatever can be retroactively modified to appease implacable enemies of peace plainly isn't worth the purportedly peace-upholding paper it is written on." IV. "The Moral Agency" Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/22): "The Republican [presidential] candidates continue to rely on neo-conservative rhetoric, and their Democratic counterparts on neo-liberal arguments. Both groups believe equally that the US should continue to be involved in the affairs of other states, and all assume that it is good for the world if the US influences it. Attempts to erode this belief have proven to pay poor political dividends. After all, the candidate who opts for a message of disengagement, a withdrawal from the world, will reflect on the US no less than on the world. It would mean that he does not believe in the superiority of the system, and in the morality and leadership of America. What kind of American would want such a president? In any case, within the policies of the candidates for the presidency lies a seed of patronizing arrogance but also of value. This is the approach Fred Thompson, [a] Republican candidate, summarized a few days ago: 'I don't apologize for the United States of America. This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined.' And, if one believes its candidates, this appears to be the way it will continue." JONES