ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003030 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. Mideast ¶2. Iran -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- The Jerusalem Post reported that President Bush is sending National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley to the Middle East next week and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return soon after that. The Jerusalem Post also reported that Secretary Rice was encouraged by what she heard in the region, while still acknowledging splits between the two sides. All media reported on PM Ehud Olmert one-day visit to Moscow to see Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior official in Olmert's office that Olmert returned "with an understanding that Russia is concerned about Iran having nuclear weapons." Olmert told Yediot: QWe held a very thorough, impressive and encouraging conversation. I was very encouraged by what President Putin said to me on the Iranian issue and also about other issues that are causing us profound concern, such as the expected arms deals between Russia and Syria. Major media reported that on Thursday President Bush met Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Washington. The radio reported that Barak thanked Bush for increasing military aid to Israel and that diplomatic pressure on Iran should be increased. The Jerusalem Post reported that Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told the newspaper on Wednesday that the UN Security Council is taking too long in introducing additional sanctions against Iran. All media reported that the Winograd Commission announced that it will publish its final report by the end of the year. The IDF Advocate General still plans to petition the High Court of Justice for a delay to allow those individuals whose reputations may be tarnished to respond before the report is issued. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted senior Labor Party members as saying that they will topple the government after the publication of the report. Ha'aretz reported that Amos Gilad, the head of the Political-Military Bureau at the Defense Ministry, turned down a proposal by UN envoy Geir Pedersen that Israel enter into negotiations with Lebanon over Sheba Farms. Pedersen noted that the evidence boosts Lebanese claims to the area. Leading media reported that a majority of Knesset members -- including 13 from Kadima -- signed a petition this week calling for Jerusalem to remain undivided in a move that could tie Olmert's hands ahQd of the Annapolis meeting. Ha'aretz reported that Shas party leader and Industry, Trade, and Employment Minister Eli Yishai told the newspaper in Washington that any mention of Jerusalem in the document will lead to Shas leaving the government coalition. The Jerusalem Post quoted Shas sources as saying that their mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef made similar remarks on Thursday. Israel Radio quoted the Washington based Internet newspaper World Tribune as saying that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's HEALTH has deteriorated over the past 24 hours, but that his life is not in danger. Yediot reported that on Thursday President Shimon Peres compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler and Stalin. Major media quoted Peres as saying that there is unquestionable evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Major media quoted Peres as saying that six would-be suicide bombers have been caught in the past three weeks. Yediot reported that Arab and Islamic countries, including Egypt and Iran, have recently introduced an amendment to a proposed UNESCO resolution encouraging Holocaust education around the world. The amendment, which is supported by 70 countries, says that the Holocaust is not unique. Major media reported that the IDF reprimanded Brig. Gen. Yair Golan, the former IDF West Bank commander, for making use of the "neighbor procedure" (using human shields). Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that on Thursday Finance Minister Roni Bar-On left for the annual convention of the IMF and the World Bank to try to convince these organizations to support Israel's bid to be admitted into the OECD. Yediot and other media reported that Israel knew for years that the body of Ethiopian-Israeli Gabriel Dawit was in Lebanon, but that it did not inform the family. Dawit's body was returned to Israel in this week's "small deal" with Hizbullah. Various media cited comments by Larissa Trimbovler, the wife of Yitzhak Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir, that contrary to media reports, she does not plan to give birth to the couple's son on the anniversary of the assassination. Leading media reported that on Thursday four Palestinian activists -- two from Fatah and two from Hamas -- were killed in factional violence in Gaza. Major media reported that FM Tzipi Livni protested against anti-Semitic remarks last week by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The Jerusalem Post cited an AP wire report quoting US mayors visiting Israel that they are interested in joint projects, following a tour of leading biotechnology companies. Maariv and The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli surgeons have performed circumcisions on hundreds of males in Africa as part of AIDS prevention. Today Channel 2-TV will start broadcasting a documentary series on Israelis working in international organizations around the world. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn and Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[Secretary Rice] understands Israel's security concerns, but ... if the current opportunity is missed, Israel will find itself facing the forces of radical Islam -- and also a less friendly administration in America." Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page ONE of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "[Secretary Rice's] apocalyptic vision is simple and chilling.... Rice is not [anti-Israel] -- far from it.... Still, the continuation of the occupation is perceived by her not only as a political and military problem, but also as a moral problem." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Rice's Marketing Trip" Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn and Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/19): "Secretary Rice devoted her visit to the Middle East this week to aggressive marketing of her initiative. Her message was that it is very much worth Israel's while to achieve an agreement with the Palestinians while Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are still on the scene, and while the friendly Bush administration is still in power. She understands Israel's security concerns, but statesmanship is sometimes about making a choice between the bad and the awful, and if the current opportunity is missed, Israel will find itself facing the forces of radical Islam -- and also a less friendly administration in America." II. "Rice's Truth" Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page ONE of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/19): "In meetings [Condoleezza Rice] held here, she compared the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to her academic area of specialization: the Soviet Union. 'The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Five years before the collapse, no ONE thought it could happen. Two years before the collapse, ONE year before the collapse, no ONE predicted the collapse. The international arena is influenced by all kinds of factors that can be monitored and analyzed. What cannot be predicted is the moment in which all these factors come together and create a change.' She believes that the Palestinians and the Israelis face a similar juncture. Nothing is certain, but it is worth trying. We must try. A comprehensive arrangement will not come of this, apparently, not now and perhaps not by the end of the current administration's term, but we must prove to the Palestinians that there is a chance for an arrangement, otherwise.... Her apocalyptic vision is simple and chilling. 'If we do not prove that there is a chance for an arrangement,' she said to her Israeli interlocutors, 'you will not get Hamas in the West Bank. You will get a different Hamas, with widespread Iranian infiltration, with al-Qaida. Who would have imagined five years ago, that there would be cooperation between Hamas and Iran? Today it is part of the reality in Gaza'.... The moralizing attitude, generated by Sunday sermons of Evangelist preachers in southern churches, led President Jimmy Carter to achieve a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, and then led him to blind identification with the Palestinian suffering, to the verge of hating Israel. Rice is not there -- far from it. She is too loyal to Bush's basic approach. She is too pragmatic. Still, the continuation of the occupation is perceived by her not only as a political and military problem, but also as a moral problem." III. "Why Failure Is Not an Option at Annapolis" David Kimche, former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/19): "A one-state solution is rapidly gaining supporters among Palestinian radical elements. A failure in Annapolis could eventually tip the balance in its favor.... Eventually we will have to make the choice -- to make the most of the opportunity that exists to end the conflict, or to be drawn, willy-nilly, into the unknown of a one-state solution, with all its dire consequences." -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: " The 'anti-war' camp has to wake up and realize that, by blocking effective non-military measures, it is paving the road to war." Block Quotes: -------------- "Pacifist Warmongers" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/19): "Ostensibly, the world is dividing into two camps: those warning of war and those warning against war.... In such a division, those willing to contemplate war or saying that Iran must be stopped are being painted as the 'pro-war' camp, while those speaking against force or for tolerating a nuclear Iran are the 'anti-war' faction. But is it really how an astute observer should look at things, as if there are pro-war and anti-war camps? In fact, these labels should be reversed. The 'pro-war' camp not only does not want war, but is working to prevent war much more than is the 'anti-war' camp. By the same token, it is the 'anti-war' camp that is misguidedly ensuring that war will come.... The 'anti-war' camp has to wake up and realize that, by blocking effective non-military measures, it is paving the road to war." JONES