ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000297 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: -------------- ¶1. Iran ¶2. Mideast ¶3. Israel: Governance -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Ha'aretz reported that during a session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, FM Tzipi Livni warned PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday that should he reach a compromise with Hamas that would send the diplomatic process into a deep freeze. The daily wrote that Abbas, though not mentioning Hamas by name, responded by saying that should the Islamic organization refuse to honor agreements signed by the PLO or to accept proposals that have the support of the Arab world -- an apparent reference to the Arab League's Beirut declaration of 2002 -- he will call new elections. Ha'aretz wrote that both Livni and Abbas stressed a desire for a two-state solution, but disagreements were evident on the subjects of borders and the Palestinian refugees. Abbas reportedly added that a comprehensive solution is needed, rather than another partial or interim solution, and urged Israel to begin final-status talks now. The Jerusalem Post stressed that Livni outlined her plan to empower the moderates. Ha'aretz reported that Vice PM Peres, who also addressed the gathering, announced a trilateral Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian agreement to develop a joint economic zone in a 500-square-kilometer region of their mutual border, and urged all those attending the WEF to invest there. Leading media reported that Livni presented Peres as the "next president of Israel." Ha'aretz reported that Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told the newspaper that Israel and the Palestinians have also agreed to establish a joint, USD 25-million venture capital fund that will invest in technology projects in Israel and the PA. Maariv cited the surprise of Israeli defense sources over PM Ehud Olmert's declaration at the Herzliya Conference on Wednesday that Israel may strike Iran militarily -- a change in Israel's explicit policy. Israel Radio cited the US weekly Aviation Week & Space Technology as saying that Iran is ready to launch a satellite into space. Maariv expects IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz to tell the Winograd Committee -- probing the war in Lebanon -- on Sunday that the IDF only recommended attacking infrastructure in Lebanon. The newspaper said that Halutz will claim that the IDF did not recommend going to all-out war, and that Defense Minister Amir Peretz recommended wide-ranging aerial attacks, which inevitably led to war. Israel Radio quoted Olmert as saying that there were big victories in Lebanon, as Hizbullah was removed from the Israeli border and foreign forces stationed there. Yediot and other media reported that Olmert convened the General Staff, whose members presented him with the conclusions of the investigation of former chief of staff Dan Shomron. Yediot reported that Maj. Gen. Aviv Mizrahi, the head of the IDF's Logistics Branch, told Olmert that Shomron had adopted a lenient attitude toward the General Staff. Ha'aretz reported that today the UN General Assembly is expected to adopt a resolution condemning "any denial of the Holocaust." The newspaper reported that Iran, which supported the resolution to commemorate the Holocaust, may support today's resolution, which is seen as a direct response to Iran's hosting a Holocaust denial conference in December 2006. Yediot's Sever Plotker met with former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami in Davos and quoted him as saying that he is very interested in coming to Israel and that he condemns Holocaust deniers. Plotker quoted him as saying: "What are you doing to my townsman?" He was referring to Iran-born President Katsav. Most media continued to lead with developments pertaining to the affair of Israel's President Moshe Katsav. All media reported that the Knesset's House Committee voted on Thursday, by 13 to 11, to accept Katsav's request for temporary incapacity. Shortly after the vote, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik became Acting President, but Katsav retains the right to reside in the President's Residence. The Jerusalem Post noted that the next time Itzik goes abroad, the Acting President will be Druze MK Majalli Whbee (Kadima, formerly Likud). Leading media reported that on Monday, at the next House Committee meting, MKs led by Meretz's Zahava Gal-On will vote on whether to start a process intended ultimately to force Katsav to resign. To embark on this process, 19 of the 25 MKs would have to back it. As of Thursday night it was unclear whether there were sufficient votes for such a move. Leading media (banner in Ha'aretz) reported that Olmert is working to get Vice PM Shimon Peres elected to the post of president of the state. The Jerusalem Post quoted Attorney General Menachem Mazuz as saying on Thursday that Katsav's hearing will be held "as soon as possible and within a reasonable amount of time." This morning Israel Radio quoted a close aide to Mazuz as saying that the AG is prepared to hold the hearing immediately. Major media refuted allegations made by Katsav in his speech on Wednesday. Yediot and Maariv reported that since 2000, 3,000 Israelis have requested political asylum in Canada. They claim that they were persecuted and exposed to terrorism in Israel. Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday IDF troops killed an Islamic Jihad/Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades activist near Tulkarm. The Jerusalem Post and Hatzofe reported that security troops captured a Tanzim/Hizbullah terrorist in Nablus. Leading media reported that on Thursday a Hamas security officer was killed and five others were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip. This morning Israel Radio reported that a militant of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was killed in the same region, probably by Hamas. The radio also reported that gunshots were fired at the house of Palestinian FM Mahmoud Zahar in Gaza. Leading media reported that on Thursday international donors pledged some USD 7.6 billion in aid and loans for Lebanon's PM Fouad Siniora and his economic reform program. Israel Radio quoted State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack as saying on Thursday that the US urges all sides in Lebanon to exercise self-restraint. Ha'aretz (Zvi Bar'el) reported that regional discussions this week (which did not involve Israel) on the crises in the PA and in Lebanon revealed emerging centers of influence in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. Margaret Chan, the new Director of the World Health Organization, has invited Israeli health professionals to contribute their experience and skills to the UN organization. Ha'aretz printed an AP story quoting a PA Interior Ministry official as saying on Thursday that the Palestinian government has begun issuing papers to thousands of Gaza residents caught in a legal limbo with no residence permit, although Israel continues to regard them as non-persons. Major media cited data on poverty for mid-2006 published on Thursday by the National Insurance Institute -- the equivalent of Social Security -- that every fifth family in Israel is considered poor, every fourth person and ever third child. However, the poverty figures do indicate stability after a decade of expanding distress. Ha'aretz attributed the phenomenon to former finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu's growth policy. Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday Finance Ministry Accountant General Yaron Zelekha announced on Thursday that government policies on supporting nonprofits are about to come under scrutiny. Charges that current criteria were created to discriminate against Arab NGO's were brought by the Mossawa Center - The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, prompting Zelekha's decision. Yediot reported that the Israeli musician Yair Dellal recently held a successful concert at Cairo's Nile Hilton Hotel under the auspices of the Israeli Embassy in Egypt. Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported theta group of Palestinian, American, and Israeli comedians has teamed up for a local comedy tour in English billed as an attempt to "solve the Middle East conflict in only six shows." Yediot ran a feature pitching Democratic Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama against each other, saying that Washington's "rock star" (Obama) should not be underestimated. Maariv ran a feature about, and published an interview with Washington, DC's Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier. Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll according to which only 8 to 10 percent of the public believe that Olmert is fit for the post of prime minister. Livni, Netanyahu and Labor MK Ami Ayalon, appear to be stronger candidates in a possible race for the premiership. -------------- ¶1. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The US has decided to focus on overall Iranian activity, not just on the danger of a nuclear bomb." Ha'aretz editorialized: "The struggle against Iran's threats and its nuclearization -- a struggle in which diplomatic and economic channels have not yet been exhausted -- demands international and, especially, European determination." Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "A proper Israeli policy would serve to check and undermine Iran's international maneuvering." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Everything But the War" Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (1/26): "Bush mentioned Iran five times in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, but only once in the nuclear context. That was no coincidence: The US has decided to focus on overall Iranian activity, not just on the danger of a nuclear bomb. That is even more worrying to the 'moderate' Arab states. The Saudis fear an Iranian-sponsored uprising by their own Shi'ite minority, not an Iranian nuclear missile strike on Riyadh. The states in the region see the Iranians as using nuclear power as a cover, to ward off a military threat and allow them to advance the 'revolution' through more conventional methods. The fear of physical annihilation, of the actual use of a nuclear bomb, is reserved for Israel alone. Dealing with Iran has breathed new life into the strategic dialogue between Israel and the US." II. "A Helpless World" Ha'aretz editorialized (1/26): "[Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's] open threats of destruction are backed by Iran's efforts to arm itself with weapons of mass destruction that would be capable of carrying out this threat. Yet the international community is not excited.... In a balanced address about the Iranian threat delivered at the Herzliya Conference, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refrained from putting Israel alone at the forefront of the struggle, but, at the same time, he left no doubt about Israel's determination never again to allow an existential threat to develop against it. But Israel's isolation in this struggle does not depend only on itself. The struggle against Iran's threats and its nuclearization -- a struggle in which diplomatic and economic channels have not yet been exhausted -- demands international and, especially, European determination against these developing threats, and not just a rallying round memorial days and ceremonies for the holocausts of the past." III. "Making the Case Against Genocide" Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (1/26): "A proper Israeli policy would serve to check and undermine Iran's international maneuvering. It would work to bring about Iran's delegitimization and isolations in the international community.... An effective, coherent foreign policy would be aimed at building solid international coalitions in which Israel could be part of an international public opinion for a unilateral Israeli military campaign against Iran." -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Professor Naomi Chazan, a former Meretz Knesset member, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Those who reject Jimmy Carter's comparison cannot escape the challenge he poses." Block Quotes: -------------- "The Carter Challenge" Professor Naomi Chazan, a former Meretz Knesset member, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (1/26): "Jimmy Carter dared to warn, in the title of his recent book, that the Palestinian-Israeli relationship may be veering toward apartheid.... Some Israelis do admit to the prevalence of injustice. The majority, however, continues to excuse its occurrence in all-embracing security terms. But his argument, however critical, can no longer justify everything.... The purposeful denigration of the other, for whatever reason, goes against the human grain and is totally antithetical to the Jewish tradition. Its negative repercussions corrupt Israeli society and distort his norms. For this reason, if for no other, Israel must do everything possible to liberate the Palestinians, and thereby itself, from the impossible burden of occupation. In the interim, it has a duty to do whatever it can to make Palestinian life bearable. Those who reject Jimmy Carter's comparison can therefore not escape the challenge he poses." -------------- ¶3. Israel: Governance: -------------- Summary: -------------- The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The first step is not to compound the damage Katsav has caused by leaving him in office." Block Quotes: -------------- "Katsav Must Go" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (1/26): "According to [Israeli President Moshe] Katsav, the media decided that his political success was unacceptable because he did not belong to the Ashkenazi establishment.... Not since the heyday of Shas have we seen a politician so blatantly play the ethnic card. The principal function of the president - beyond representing a paragon of citizenship and legal rectitude -- is to unite our divided society: Jews and Arabs, rich and poor, religious and secular, and Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Many had thought, as the President himself suggested, that his ascent to the highest post in the land was emblematic of at least this last rift being behind us. Now Katsav has taken a giant wedge and hammered it home into a wound that, if not healed, was healing. Now also, millions of Israelis who believe that our system is rigged against them have encouragement from the highest source. What happened to me could happen to anybody, Katsav said. That, of course, depends whether our legal system is in fact as totally corrupt as our president alleges. Unfortunately, his bitter complaints against police and prosecutors who leak to the media, if not necessarily valid in every instance, cannot be neatly dismissed.... Our legal system does need to address the widespread sense that it is elitist and leaks like a sieve, a sense that Katsav attempted to tap into. But that is a longer term project that Katsav has made both more urgent and more difficult -- by coloring it in ethnic terms. The first step is not to compound the damage Katsav has caused by leaving him in office." JONES