ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001442 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 -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Major media reported that preparations for the prisoner swap with Hizbullah continue. The radio also reported today that the family of policeman Eliyahu Shahar, a victim of Samir Kuntar, will petition the High Court of Justice against KuntarQs release. Maariv quoted a senior Israeli diplomatic official as saying that the HizbullahQs pending report on the fate of MIA Ron Arad will not harm the deal. Yesterday Maariv reported that PA officials were angry at Israel for giving in to Hizbullah. The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli diplomatic and defense officials as saying on Sunday that the recent spate of leaks and reports from Washington about whether Israel will, or should, take military action against Iran, and what that would mean for the U.S., is a reflection of deep divisions on the matter inside the Bush administration. The officials were quoted as saying that the two sides of the argument, the "hawkish camp," led by Vice President Cheney, and the "dovish camp," led by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, are leaking assessments about Israeli intent to further their own agendas, and in this regard using Israel as a "pawn" in their own political battles. The newspaper quoted an Israeli diplomatic official as saying that as the debate rages in Washington, it was clear that Israel would be unable to take military action without a green light from the U.S. On Friday The Jerusalem Post quoted GOI officials as saying that this week's warnings from President Bush and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, against an IDF strike on Iran are a sign that Washington is concerned that Jerusalem may indeed attack Iran. Ha'aretz reported that the IDF will soon be stepping up its campaign against Hamas's civilian infrastructure in the West Bank, shutting down a large number of Hamas-affiliated charities, confiscating their property, and searching computers and documents that detail their activity. The IDF has been carrying out similar raids in the Hebron, Qalqilya, and Ramallah areas since the beginning of the year, but the campaign will now be expanded to additional parts of the West Bank, in the wake of approval from Israel's legal authorities. Yesterday The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel warned on Saturday that any delay by Hamas on contacts over a prisoner swap involving Gilad Shalit's s release may torpedo the Egyptian-mediated Gaza truce agreement reached last month. The media reported that yesterday, for the first time since the start of the truce, a Palestinian sniper fired from the Gaza Strip at civilians inside Israeli territory (near Kibbutz Nahal Oz). Ha'aretz reported that the Israel Police fraud squad is investigating the authenticity of some of the documents involving the sale of lands in Migron, an outpost outside Ramallah inhabited by Jewish settlers. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday police arrested two settlers who were allegedly involved in beating a Palestinians they had tied to a utility pole near the outpost of Assa'al in south Hebron in an incident that was caught on camera by activists. Ha'aretz cited the belief expressed by officials that a state comptroller's investigation into the use of wiretaps, will take seven to nine months. All media reported that the cabinet voted for this comprehensive probe of the police and the prosecution's handling of wiretaps, which will include an investigation of "complaints raised on this matter in recent years," as an alternative to Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's proposal to set up a governmental inquiry committee on misconduct in the 2006 trial of minister Haim Ramon -- specifically, with respect to the failure to give him transcripts of wiretaps related to his sexual offenses case, or even to inform him of the wiretaps' existence. Israel Hayom banners that the "Justice Minister got a lesson in the rule of law." Maariv reported that Israel-Jordan relations might be impaired if following the freeing of Kuntar, Jordan released four of its nationals who killed two Israeli soldiers Yehuda Lipshitz and Pinchas Levy 18 years ago. Israel repatriated the Jordanians to their country a year ago, on condition they serve 18 months in Jordanian jail. On Friday The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials dismissed as "nonsense" an Iranian diplomat's accusation on Thursday that Israel is secretly imprisoning four Iranians -- three diplomats and their driver -- who disappeared in Lebanon in ¶1982. Their fate was supposed to be discussed ahead of the swap. Yesterday Yediot reported that Barack Obama is slated to come to Israel in another two weeks as part of a regional tour. On Friday Ha'aretz quoted President Shimon Peres as saying that he believes that there is no chance of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. He made the statement last Saturday at a dinner with the Jordanian and French ambassadors in Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Tel Aviv apartment. Over the weekend some media reported that Israelis contributed to the release of Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Ha'aretz and other media reported that she compared her "impeccable" rescue operation to Israeli commando operations. As the government prepares to seal the homes of the families of two Arab residents of East Jerusalem who carried out the last two terror attacks in the city, The Jerusalem Post quoted officials as saying yesterday that the Jerusalem Municipality continues to plan new construction for Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, including in the very neighborhood the bulldozer attacker came from. All media reported that yesterday the customs authorities at Haifa Port seized 104 kilograms of pure cocaine, worth $15 million, on board a Colombian ship. -------------- ¶1. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote on page one of the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "If Israel has to act alone to protect itself it will do so -- but only because once again, the world has left it alone." Very liberal columnist Kobi Niv wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "Absurdly, the only thing that apparently can prevent Israel's expected suicidal running amok ... actually is a nuclear weapon in Iran's hands." Block Quotes: -------------- "Disquiet on the 'Third Front' between the U.S. and Israel" Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote on page one of the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/7): "The complications [resulting from Saddam's downfall] are now abundantly clear in the face-off over the Iranian nuclear threat, to the extent of it possibly limiting an Israeli response to a potential existential threat.... Yet the premise that Washington has -- or even wants -- straight-up veto power over the Israeli response to the Iranian threat, or that Jerusalem would cede it, is a gross simplification of a more complex reality, both past and present.... The route of diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions against Tehran will play itself out in the coming year, resulting in either success or failure. At the end of that day, though, a day that increasingly cannot be too long in coming, if Israel has to act alone to protect itself it will do so -- but only because once again, the world has left it alone." II. "In Favor of the Iranian Bomb" Very liberal columnist Kobi Niv wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (7/7): "Absurdly, the only thing that apparently can prevent Israel's expected suicidal running amok (This month? This year?) actually is a nuclear weapon in Iran's hands. Thus, we would be sitting quietly and doing nothing to burn ourselves as a wick destroying the world by fire. Let us say this to those who fear an Iranian bomb: Contrary to Israel, Iran is a rational state, which will do nothing to harm itself, so that its possessing that weapon would not only deter a certain country in the region from going berserk and destroying its environment and life." -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Perhaps [the razing of terrorists' East Jerusalem homes] will help us understand that an accord in the West Bank, without a solution in Jerusalem, is a dangerous illusion." Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz: "Syria is hoping to pave its way out of the American 'axis of evil,' while emphasizing to the Arab states that it is a central player, still capable of fulfilling a role that countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have so far found difficult to play." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "A Binational Reality" Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/7): "How nice that this time, too, the terrorist was a 'lone wolf, a drug addict or just a nut case. Just so long as Jerusalemite murderers are not acting on behalf of terrorist groups. 'Wild weeds' can grow in any garden. We also once had a strange doctor who carried out a massacre in a mosque; his family erected a glorious tombstone in honor of the 'saint'.... The murderer at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and the terrorist with the bulldozer did not represent an organization. Worse still: They reflect the mood of thousands of residents in Israel's capital.... Many years ago, a U.S. diplomat who served in Jerusalem said the following about the Arabs of the city: 'You will not be able to break them or buy them.' Razing two homes in Jerusalem will destroy yet another superficial division between Palestinians and Palestinians. Perhaps this will help us understand that an accord in the West Bank, without a solution in Jerusalem, is a dangerous illusion." II. "Assad Pushing for Palestinian Unity" Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz (7/7): "'When we come to Syria we are coming to our second country,' Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Syrian President Bashar Assad flatteringly when the two met in Damascus on Sunday. This 'homecoming' was initiated by Assad, who recently stepped up his involvement in the Palestinian arena -- at Egypt's expense.... Assad, who is scheduled to participate early next week in the Euro-Mediterranean conference in Paris, would like to arrive with two successes under his belt. The first is the forming of a new Lebanese government; the second is the beginning of a Palestinian national reconciliation. With two such achievements, in addition to the start of talks with Israel, Syria is hoping to pave its way out of the American 'axis of evil,' while emphasizing to the Arab states that it is a central player, still capable of fulfilling a role that countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have so far found difficult to play. Palestinian reconciliation has become a central element in the media dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.... If the sort of reconciliation that Syria is putting forth does emerge, and an interim unity government is established, Israel may be faced with an old dilemma: Should it recognize such a government and establish a working relationship with it -- or adopt, anew, the policy of boycotting such a government, and thus bring the talks with Mahmoud Abbas to a standstill?" JONES