ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001617 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: -------------- Ha'aretz reported that after a five-year battle, the defense establishment has finally agreed to dismantle a 2.4-kilometer stretch of the separation fence north of Qalqilya. The move will return 2,600 dunams (around 643 acres) of agricultural land to its Palestinian owners. The dismantled stretch will be replaced by 4.9 kilometers of fencing closer to the Green Line, at a cost of more than 50 million shekels. The new route largely follows the one proposed years ago by the Council for Peace and Security The change apparently stemmed in part from the views of IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who believes that the government, not the IDF, should determine the precise route of the fence. The fence in this area was built in 2003, and residents of several nearby Palestinian villages promptly petitioned the High Court of Justice against it. They won several legal victories over the years: The court ordered the fence be moved closer to the Green Line around Bil'in, Alfei Menashe and Tzufin. Yediot reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who left Israel last night for a visit to Washington, will try to convince the heads of the U.S. administration not to remove a military option against Iran. Maariv reported that FM Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz will also visit the U.S. this week. The Jerusalem Post cited speculation by Israeli defense officials on Sunday that recent talks that the U.S. held with Iran are aimed at creating legitimacy for a potential attack against Iranian nuclear facilities. The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials have expressed doubt over claims by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday that his country now possesses 6,000 centrifuges. Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pressuring Israel and the PA to try to agree on a document of understanding by September, ahead of the UN General Assembly. The sources were quoted as saying that Rice wants to be able to present the document to the General Assembly to show progress in the talks. The document would include agreed-upon points particularly on borders, an issue where, according to an Israeli diplomat, the gap is not significant. According to Palestinian sources, the gap regarding a right of return for Palestinian refugees has also narrowed. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday, speaking at a Kadima rally in Jerusalem that was closed to the press, FM Tzipi Livni came out against American efforts to have Israel reach an interim agreement with the Palestinians before the end of President Bush's term. On Friday Israel TV reported that PM Ehud Olmert is seriously considering quitting the premiership following the mid-September Kadima leadership race if the winner can form a new government. Israel Hayom quoted a senior police official as saying yesterday: "Out of all the Olmert affairs, the Rishon Tours [travel agency] affair is the most advanced from the evidentiary standpoint." The official noted that the detectives had gathered enough evidence to warrant a first indictment of the PM. Former chief of the police's National Fraud Unit investigator Boaz Guttman was quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that the spate of media leaks in relation with PM Ehud Olmert's interrogation is an attempt by elements working for the premier to signal other suspects in the probe currently wiretapped by law enforcement to keep silent. Over the weekend the media reported on extensive Hamas-Fatah violence in Gaza and Hamas's numerous arrests of Fatah activists in the Strip. Major media reported that Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin told the cabinet yesterday that East Jerusalem neighborhoods on the "other" side of the security fence are fast becoming Hamas hotbeds and more "problematic" security-wise than much of the West Bank. Ha'aretz reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak is considering purchasing or borrowing several Phalanx automated cannons from the U.S. The cannons intercept mortar shells and short-range rockets, and would be used to defend Sderot and other Negev town from rocket fire from Gaza. Barak is expected to ask Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen to appraise the Phalanx's performance. Ha'aretz reported that the defense establishment is divided on the issue. Ha'aretz quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates as writing in the latest issue of Parameters, the U.S. Army War College quarterly, that a war with Iran would be "disastrous." The Jerusalem Post quoted John McCain as saying on CNN on Friday he would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem if he were elected president. Leading media reported that Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan is expected to announce at a press conference today that he will join Likud. Dayan founded the Tafnit movement, which failed in its bid to be represented in the Knesset in the last general elections. Dayan is considered an advocate of clean government, and supported a demand by reserve soldiers for a government commission of inquiry into the Second Lebanon War. The media reported that yesterday border policemen and soldiers killed Shihab Natshe, a top Hamas bomb maker who had masterminded a suicide bombing in Dimona earlier this year. Ha'aretz cited Reuters as saying BG, formerly known as British Gas, announced at the end of last week that it had resumed talks with Israel on developing its gas field off the Gaza Coast, but that both Israeli reluctance to pay world prices for gas and political problems made a deal difficult. Over the weekend the media reported that a mysterious explosion occurred in Iran on July 19 in the middle of a military convoy apparently meant for Hizbullah. On Sunday Maariv quoted Israeli intelligence sources as saying that they do not believe that the Mossad would waste operational capability in Iran for a weapons shipment to Hizbullah, unless they were new weapons introduced in the arena, such as anti-aircraft missiles. On Sunday Maariv cited the belief of Israeli officials that Hizbullah will try to focus its efforts on attacking IAF planes in Lebanese skies. Ha'aretz reported that Israel is not planning a partial withdrawal this week from the village of Ghajar, which straddles the Israel-Lebanon border. The denial came in response to a report published yesterday by the Saudi newspaper Okaz. Yediot reported that the IDF will allow Jews to pray at the grave of Rav Ashi, a 4th-5th century Talmudic scholar, which bestrides the Israel-Lebanon border. Maariv cited the Israeli-Arab web site Panet as saying that a group of Israelis has requested Syria for permission to visit the grave of Rabbi Haim Vital near Damascus. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Veteran journalist and anchor Dan Margalit wrote in the independent Israel Hayom: "The government must not act on the basis of a momentary gut feeling. Certainly not in a country that paid a high price for six years of tahdiya [truce] on the northern border, which evaporated in the Second Lebanon War." Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[The story of East Jerusalem's Arabs is that] of utter neglect, based on the wishful thinking that the city could be united without all its residents being integrated into its fabric." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Don't Be Blinded by the Calm" Veteran journalist and anchor Dan Margalit wrote in the independent Israel Hayom (7/28): "Yesterday, among other security issues, the cabinet discussed the respite on the Gaza-Sderot front. Ehud Barak stated his opinion that it was good for Israel. The natural inclination is to join his opinion.... But the government must not act on the basis of a momentary gut feeling. Certainly not in a country that paid a high price for six years of tahdiya [truce] on the northern border, which evaporated in the Second Lebanon War. Three issues should be examined: Is the respite bringing the Hamas regime closer to its end? Not at all. On the contrary, it is bringing Israel closer to the point where it will withdraw its demand to return the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. Due to Israeli weakness, American and European pressure has collapsed. Has the accumulation of offensive weapons in the hands of Hamas in Gaza been curbed? On the contrary, tons of weapons of various types have been added.... Is the tahdiya facilitating the release of Gilad Shalit? Certainly not. Clearly, the opposite is true. Mossad Director Meir Dagan was right when he opposed the truce without effecting Shalit's release first. Israel now remains without the main bargaining chip for achieving a release under difficult but reasonable conditions. Now they will be very difficult, to the point of endangering the Shalit deal. What, then, is working in Israel's favor at this time, when all its citizens without exception want to see the Qassam rocket and mortar shell fire at the Negev stop? Anyone who says this [i.e. argues in favor of the truce] should remember the fine, shining, sunny, calm morning in July 2006, which put an end to the illusion in one fell swoop and turned the Middle East upside down." II. "A Story of Neglect" Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/28): "[Since the Six-Day War], Jerusalem was officially enlarged and united, but has in large measure remained divided to this day.... The challenge of integrating Jerusalem's Arab residents into the city cannot be overestimated, and the directions that need to be taken are obvious: equalizing the municipal services provided to Arab and Jewish neighborhoods, as well as welfare, health-care and educational services.... All this could probably have been done only gradually, but in fact almost nothing was done during the past four decades. This is a story of utter neglect, based on the wishful thinking that the city could be united without ll its residents being integrated into its fabri.... These reflections have been provoked by the tree recent acts of terror committed by Arab resients of Jerusalem.... It is well known that the quivalent of the Islamic Movement, Hamas, is at tis time active and popular among the Jerusalem Ara population, and no doubt encourages them to vioence against Israel. But it is equally clear tht had progress been made over the years in properl absorbing the Jerusalem Arab population into Isrel, the task facing the Palestinian extremists would have been more difficult.... Those who believe that Jerusalem should not be divided, and mean by that that the Arab neighborhoods should not be separated from the city, should be the first to insist that an active policy be adopted by the government and the municipality to improve the lot of local Arab residents. Barring that, Jerusalem will continue to remain a divided city." MORENO