ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Iraq


2. Syria


2. Iran

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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Radio quoted a State Department official in Washington as
saying that no one in the US administration, including President
Bush, can point out a date for the establishment of a Palestinian
state.

The Jerusalem Post's web site reported that a senior State
Department official told the newspaper that the first meeting
between the US and Israel to work out a new aid package for the
latter was "extremely useful." Israel Radio and The Jerusalem Post
said that Israel is arguing that expanded strategic threats, such as
a nuclear Iran, Hizbullah's capabilities and Hamas's influence,
necessitate additional military assistance. The current 10-year aid
program expires this year and Israeli officials are looking to
replace it with a new decade-long plan. The official told the Post
that the US agrees with Israeli security assessments. "There's a
general consensus about the problems we face, the threats that
exist," he was quoted as saying, adding that Thursday's discussions
were particularly helpful in terms of getting more perspective from
the Israelis on how they've been affected by security issues such as
the war on the northern front and the second Intifada. "We're
strategic partners, and in that sense it was extremely useful," he
was quoted as saying. "We got a greater level of granularity about
the specifics." He added, however, that the amount of aid to be
given was not discussed. "We did not talk about dollar figures.
It's way too premature," he was quoted as saying.

Ha'aretz reported that senior GOI sources told the newspaper on
Thursday that Israel is expecting the Arab League to adopt an
improved version of the Saudi peace plan at a summit meeting called
for the end of this month in Riyadh. "We understand that the
intention is to improve the initiative and come up with a better
offer," one was quoted as saying. FM Tzipi Livni presented Israel's
demands in an interview with Channel 10-TV on Thursday. First and
foremost, she said, Israel objects to the document's section on the
Palestinian refugees, which was not part of the initial Saudi draft,
but was added at the 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut. "A new
summit is in the offing, and they ought to know which parts [of the
plan] are acceptable to Israel and what seems to us like an absolute
red line," she explained in the interview. Livni was quoted as
saying that the original draft presented by King Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia "was, in my view, positive." That draft called for a full
Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders in exchange for peace and
normalization with the entire Arab world. "Admittedly, the
initiative spoke of the 1967 lines, but I only wish we were in a
situation in which the conflict was just a border dispute," she
added. The new article inserted at the 2002 Beirut summit, however,
demanded a "just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, to be
agreed upon in accordance with UNGA Resolution 194," and that
resolution calls for allowing the refugees to return to Israel. It
therefore contradicts Israel's vision of a two-state solution,
which, explained Livni, calls for a Jewish national homeland
alongside a Palestinian national homeland, with the latter serving
as the solution for the Palestinian refugees. Livni was quoted as
saying that she has presented this stance in conversations with
Palestinian representatives with whom she met over the last month.
Ha'aretz dubbed Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's National
Security Adviser, "Israel's liaison to its neighbors."

Yediot and The Jerusalem Post led with reports that Syria has been
rearming. The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Israeli defense
officials have told the newspaper that Syria has spent the past few
months constructing and moving infrastructure to its southern border
that could be used to launch a war against Israel. Yediot cited the
concern of the Israeli defense establishment about the possible sale
to Syria by Russia of advanced anti-tank weapons. Israel Radio
reported that GOI sources responded harshly to the planned sale,
saying that such rockets have reached Hizbullah. Yediot said that
Russia has a "revolutionary" rocket based on radar technology that
can penetrate any Western tank. Israel Radio quoted Vice PM Shimon
Peres as saying that the transfer constitutes an encouragement to
Syria, which might turn to the path of war. Maj. Gen. Wolfgang
Jilke, the commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer
Force),deployed in Israel and Syria and responsible for maintaining
the cease-fire between the two countries, was quoted as saying in a
phone interview with The Jerusalem Post that he had not noticed any
military changes on the ground.

Ha'aretz cited the concern of Western intelligence agencies about a
growing concentration of terror operatives associated with the
global jihad movement in Lebanon. The daily reported that recent
intelligence indicates that hundreds of Sunni Muslim terrorists from
various Arab countries are currently residing around Tyre, mainly in
a Palestinian refugee camp near the city. Some of the terrorists are
apparently from Sudan and Yemen. Ha'aretz said that both Western
and Israeli intelligence agencies fear that the jihadists' growing
presence in southern Lebanon will lead to more attacks against
Israel and a renewed escalation along Israel's northern border. The
UN forces deployed along the border following last summer's war with
Hizbullah are also considered potential targets. Israel Radio cited
the London-based Al-Hayat as saying that Israel has announced to the
UN that it will increase the number of its flights over Lebanon,
because Hizbullah continues to boost its arsenal. Hatzofe reported
that Lebanese security forces are investigating a spying network
that allegedly acted in Lebanon against Hizbullah at the service of
a European country. Hatzofe cited the belief of Lebanese sources
that the Mossad recruited those men.

Israel Radio quoted diplomats at the UN as saying that the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany have
achieved considerable progress regarding imposing stiffer sanctions
on Iran, but that some issues are still in contention ahead of a
possible Security Council vote. Visiting British opposition leader
David Cameron was quoted as saying on Thursday in an interview with
Ha'aretz that the time has come for the international community to
start exerting massive pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.
Cameron was also quoted as saying in the interview that the
British-American relationship should be "solid but not slavish."

Hatzofe reported that on Thursday US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
promised Knesset Speaker and Acting President of Israel that she
will use her influence to obtain information about the abducted IDF
soldiers.

Ron Dermer, the outgoing Israeli Economic Attache in Washington, was
quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that he is
using the last stretch of his unexpectedly shortened tenure to
receive what he hopes will be Israel's last "welfare check" and to
promote divestment from Iran.

Media reported that on Thursday an Israeli civilian was lightly
wounded in a shooting attack in the West Bank and that the IDF
halted its large-scale operation in Nablus despite failing to
capture senior militants. Israel imposed complete closure on the
West Bank and Gaza Strip at midnight last night after Defense
Minister Amir Peretz consulted with defense chiefs. The closure,
imposed due to terror alerts, is to last until midnight on Monday,
at the conclusion of the Purim holiday.

Yediot quoted Olmert as saying on Thursday that Israel will boycott
all Palestinian cabinet ministers -- even those from Fatah -- as
long as the Palestinian government does not recognize Israel.

All media reported that an Israeli Jew who transported a terrorist
is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday about 1,000 people attended a
demonstration in Hebron to demand that stolen Jewish property be
returned. The property was stolen by Arabs in 1929, following an
Arab pogrom that killed 67 Jews and drove the rest of the Jewish
community out of the city.

Citing AP, The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran's level of
participation in the announced regional conference in Baghdad
remained uncertain on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a team of Israeli aid workers has
been in Kenya this week to distribute humanitarian aid supplies and
determine the needs on the ground ahead of future missions. The
newspaper said that the team helps Somali refugees.

The media quoted Attorney General Menachem Mazuz as saying on
Thursday that he will examine the allegations reported by Channel
10-TV on Wednesday that PM Ehud Olmert provided political favors to
115 members of the Likud's Central Committee when he headed the
Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor.

The Jerusalem Post and Hatzofe reported that a delegation of
high-tech trade executives from the State of Ohio will arrive in
Israel in the coming days to conduct a conference in Tel Aviv in
order to acquaint leading Israeli companies with the benefits of
establishing their main US offices in cities such as Akron or
Cleveland. Over 75 companies have expressed interest in attending
at least part of the conference and any companies that are seriously
relocating will be invited to the Ohio-Israel Investment Forum this
summer.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a coalition of 31 American Jewish
organizations has launched a new three-year initiative to bring
Israel studies to American college campuses.
Yediot reported that, following a ruling by the High Court of
Justice, an Israeli consul in Boston registered two lesbians -- an
American and an Israeli -- as a married couple.

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1. Iraq:
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Summary:
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Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and diplomatic correspondent
Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Iraq is
the key around which US policy will revolve, certainly in the months
ahead. Every other problem will be shunted aside, as far as
possible."

Block Quotes:
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"The White House, Like the White Paper"

Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and diplomatic correspondent
Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/2):
"Anyone looking for the reasons that prompted the [US]
administration to talk to Iran and Syria will not have to work very
hard. The coalition the Americans created is pressing from the
outside, but in the domestic arena one can take a well-paved, very
American path that suits almost every situation: Follow the money.
It wasn't by chance that Rice chose the arena of the announcement:
the Senate Appropriations Committee. She came there with Defense
Secretary Gates to solicit for the budget that will fund the

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continuation of the war in Iraq. Iraq is the key around which US
policy will revolve, certainly in the months ahead. Every other
problem will be shunted aside, as far as possible. Every obstacle,
real or imagined, on the road to success in Iraq, will be
neutralized. This is also what happened to the administration with
regard to the talks with Iran."

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2. Syria:
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Summary:
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Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev Schiff wrote on
page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "We need to
think like the Turks: Despite everything, it is preferable to have
Bashar Assad sitting in Damascus -- rather than the Muslim
Brotherhood."

Block Quotes:
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"Some Serious Thoughts on Syria"

Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev Schiff wrote on
page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/2): "In
principle, no country should declare itself unwilling to explore the
possibility of peace. The question is how this exploration should
be carried out. Secret contacts are of the utmost importance. Our
major precondition is that Syria end its involvement in terror
against Israel. At the same time, it is unreasonable to believe
that Syria will sever its ties with Iran. Coordination with
Washington is also an issue, and in this area, things are changing.
Previous Israeli contacts with the Arabs were usually secret and
were not coordinated with the Americans. This was the case with
Egypt, at Oslo with the Palestinians, and with Jordan. Israel's
interest lies in preventing war and reaching an agreement with
another Arab state in a manner that will also impact on Lebanon. We
need to think like the Turks: Despite everything, it is preferable
to have Bashar Assad sitting in Damascus -- rather than the Muslim
Brotherhood."

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3. Iran:
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Summary:
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Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "It seems
that in spite of the praise it is reaping from the policy jet-set,
the Bush administration would do well to reexamine its new policy
toward Iran."

Block Quotes:
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"If Iran Gets the Bomb"

Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (3/2): "It
seems that in spite of the praise it is reaping from the policy
jet-set, the Bush administration would do well to reexamine its new
policy toward Iran. It should accept their criticism and revert to
basing its policy toward the nuclear-proliferating,
terror-supporting rogue state on what is known rather than on what
is unknown. Since Iran not only wants nuclear weapons, but has an
active nuclear weapons program, the question that should be guiding
policymakers is not whether Iran should be negotiated with, but
rather, whether the US is willing to accept any of those scenarios,
then it should be asking itself what must be done to prevent Iran
from becoming a nuclear power. While Europe may be willing to sit
on the sidelines of the fight, just as it sat on the sidelines of
the Cold War, and did little to prevent the Nazi conquest of the
continent in World War II, Israel has no such luxury. In light of
this, it is deeply disturbing that this week the Olmert-Livni-Peretz
government reacted to the US move toward appeasement by claiming
that it will have no impact on Israel. Rather that trying to gloss
over the dangers, Israel should be actively engaging the many forces
in Washington and elsewhere who understand the dangers of a
nuclear-armed Iran. Together we should be working tirelessly to
ratchet up support for a policy based on the understanding that the
world cannot abide a nuclear-armed Iran."

CRETZ