ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001814 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: -------------- Yesterday Maariv listed security arrangements that Israel has drafted for any future final status arrangement with the Palestinians. The Israelis would like to submit this list and to have it endorsed by the outgoing Bush administration in such a way so that the next U.S. president would be obliged by that endorsement. According to the report, both John McCain and Barack Obama told PM Ehud Olmert that they would be happy to accept such an arrangement since it would leave them with one less problem to address. According to the newspaper, not all the security arrangements that Israel supposedly intends to demand are deemed acceptable by the Palestinians. Maariv elaborates on the general structure of the inchoate final status agreement that Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are working on. There remain differences between the two sides over borders, the number of Palestinian refugees who will be permitted to relocate to Israel and, of course, Jerusalem. According to Maariv, President Bush is considering drafting a presidential bridging proposal between the Palestinian and Israeli positions that he could leave as his legacy for the next administration. Maariv reported that Bush has not yet decided whether to draft such a proposal, which is what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would like him to do. Maariv's Ben Caspit comments that pro-Israel lobby groups in the U.S. were likely to oppose such a course of presidential action. Yesterday Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted senior PA official Yasser Abed Rabbo as saying that Olmert has agreed to joint Jewish-Islamic control of Jerusalem's holy sites. Most media led with Iran's test-launching of a satellite (a spy or mock satellite, depending on the media) yesterday. Experts were quoted as saying that the system could be used to launch other devices. Israel Radio quoted White House Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Johndroe as saying that the launch is troubling because the technology could be diverted to ballistic missiles -- a claim also made by Israeli defense experts and politicians. Maariv reported that although the launch did not impress the Israeli defense establishment, the latter has determined that Iranian threats against Israel have acquired a "super-status." Media cited Iran's announcement that Iranian planes were now able to fly for 3,000 km without refueling. The media reported that the government, at its weekly session yesterday, decided to release around 200 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to the PA. Shin Bet, Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, and other right-wing politicians criticized the move, while Hamas responded that this is an "attempt to strengthen the Palestinians' internal divisions." Yesterday The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom quoted a spokesman of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv as saying yesterday that the U.S. is concerned about the activities of Iranian terror forces in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. The information reportedly held by the U.S. says that Iran, through Hizbullah, trains Iraqi insurgents to strike U.S. and Iraqi government forces. The U.S. report says that the Qods (Jerusalem) force is the Iranian regime's primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists and Islamic militant groups abroad. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israel Navy has been ordered to turn back two boats carrying activists who are attempting to "break the siege of Gaza." Ha'aretz reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman reportedly told Khaled Mashal, the Hamas political bureau head in Damascus, a few days ago that Hamas must stop obstructing progress in the deal to release Shalit, and uphold its end of the Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel. Yesterday Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Hamas officials denied reports of a demand to transfer the issue of the Shalit case to European officials, and refute the reports issuing from Israel that they have raised the price for the Israeli soldier Yesterday Israel Radio and other media reported that DM Barak met on Saturday in Tel Aviv with Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad, and promised him that Israel will continue to work toward lifting restrictions for the Palestinians. Barak said that Israel would expand the Jenin experiment to include other cities, in which the PA will strengthen its security mechanisms, but that responsibility for security would be in the hands of the IDF. Yesterday, based on a story published on Saturday in the periodical Defense News, Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. and Israel have agreed on the deployment of high-powered, early-warning missile radars in the Negev desert, to be manned by U.S. military personnel. The radars, known as X-Band, will be linked to a U.S. satellite-based alert network. A spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) was quoted as saying that the new system could double or even triple the missiles' range of identification, which would be particularly useful should Iran launch an attack on Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday far-right groups vowed to block a recent compromise deal supported by the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories, whereby the unauthorized Migron outpost will be relocated to new construction in an authorized settlement nearby. Yesterday The Jerusalem Post reported that an independent monitoring group in Lebanon -- the International-Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559 -- has disputed a claim made by Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, the commander of UNIFIL, that Hizbullah has honored UN Security Council, and that it called the UN forces "hostages of Hizbullah." The daily reported that on Friday Dan Carmon, acting head of the Israeli delegation to the UN, reprimanded Graziano during a personal meeting for ignoring Hizbullah violations. All media reported that yesterday an estimated 5,000 Ethiopian Israelis demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem to protest against the government's decision to end immigration from Ethiopia as 8,700 Falash Mura -- Ethiopians whose Jewish ancestors converted to Christianity -- remain in rundown camps in northern Ethiopia. Major media reported that yesterday at the cabinet meeting, Olmert lashed out at Defense Minister Ehud Barak, accusing him of blocking any meaningful discussion on military matters. Channel 10-TV reported that Barak's wife, Nili Priel, has offered business encounters with public opinion leaders. Priel denied that Barak was connected with her business. Leading media reported that a Qassam rocket fired from central Gaza landed yesterday in an open area in the western Negev. Since the start of the cease=fire between Israel and Hamas on June 19, over 20 Qassam rockets have been fired and some 20 mortar rounds. Ha'aretz reported that the Defense Ministry intends to open the Kerem Shalom crossing this week. Ha'aretz reported that there are no school supplies in Gaza. Yesterday IDF Radio reported that the Civil Administration in the territories has issued approval for a "U.S. agency" to resurface eight roads in Judea and Samaria, under full Israeli sovereignty. The cost of the work is estimated at USD 36 million. Yesterday Israel Hayom quoted informed sources in the police as saying that the Israeli authorities took into account from the outset the possibility that the U.S. tax authorities might launch an investigation into possible wrongdoing by Talansky and that as a result he would refuse to return to Israel for cross-examination. The Jerusalem Post reported that although Egypt is still considered the leading mediator between Hamas and Fatah, reports indicate that Yemen, Jordan, and Qatar have also joined the efforts. Channel 10-TV reported that FM Tzipi Livni has helped chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei obtain an Israeli ID card for his daughter. Ha'aretz cited a denial by Qurei associates that she received the document. Ha'aretz reported that yesterday a small group of students from Tel Avi University hosted a mock regional peace summit based on the Arab Peace Initiative. Ha'aretz quoted one of the organizers, Omer Pines, as saying that the army allowed in only three of the five invited Palestinian students. The Jerusalem Post reported that Harvard University has agreed to digitize the Israel Broadcasting Authority archives. -------------- ¶1. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "It will no longer be possible to halt this enormous Iranian project by bombing one installation or another.... Only heavy international pressure can, perhaps, divert it from its course." Yoav Limor, the military correspondent of Israel TV, wrote on page one of the independent Israel Hayom: "Iran wants to make it clear to [the decision-makers in the West] that this train can no longer be halted: it is determined to join the small space club.... And if everything goes according to Khamenei or Ahmadinejad's plan, by then Iran should already also be a nuclear superpower, a power that will try to change the order in the Middle East." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "An Attack Will No Longer Help" Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (8/18): "It's not specifically the new toy Iranian satellite that worries IsraelQs security experts. What is a lot more troubling is that this 'space show' revealed another piece of the enormous puzzle that composes the strategic threat that is being built against us.... The novelty is in the fact that the Iranians don't stop for a moment the construction of the strategic threat. If international pressure leads to a temporary halt in one sphere, for example, the development of a nuclear warhead -- as the Americans claim -- then they invest, at an accelerated pace, in other spheres. In satellites, for example, which is a completely legitimate sphere, or in a less legitimate sphere -- uranium enrichment. After all, in the end, all these spheres will converge into one. But the Western world -- stuck in a sort of repression or insane denial -- doesn't really believe that this will happen. It will no longer be possible to halt this enormous Iranian project by bombing one installation or another. In Baghdad, in the early 1980s, there was one reactor that Iraq received from France. The moment it was destroyed, the project was destroyed. In this case, there is a monster that is being built right in front of our eyes and the eyes of the world. Only heavy international pressure can, perhaps, divert it from its course." II. "They Want to Be a Superpower" Yoav Limor, the military correspondent of Israel TV, wrote on page one of the independent Israel Hayom (8/18): "Iran again made it clear yesterday where it's headed: to being a leading regional superpower, one that cannot be ignored, a power that has the atom bomb and that goes into space, against its most hated enemy -- Israel. The path to realizing these aspirations is long, but let there be no confusion. Iran is following a clear path, with determination and force, and ultimately, it will also reach its goal. Three years ago it launched the first satellite of its own making, but then the launcher was Russian; yesterday before dawn it took another step forward, and carried out the first all-Iranian launch.... Since Israel is already threatened by the Shihab [missile], this message is mainly intended for the decision-makers in the West, those who are about to decide on the matter of intensifying the sanctions on Tehran. Iran wants to make it clear to them that this train can no longer be halted: it is determined to join the small space club, and it has an orderly space program that corresponds to its intentions, a plan that when it is completed -- in about 2015 -- it will launch into space the first Iranian espionage satellite. And if everything goes according to Khamenei or Ahmadinejad's plan, by then Iran should already also be a nuclear superpower, a power that will try to change the order in the Middle East. That is the real (double) challenge that yesterday's launch poses to the world, which, in the meantime, continues to ignore all the Iranian writing on the wall." -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel's relationship with the Palestinian Authority and its leaders is very fragile.... Releasing the prisoners is a bearable price." Ha'aretz editorialized: "[The unauthorized outpost of] Migron is no more legal or illegal than [the veteran settlement of] Ofra, located beside it." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "A Bearable Price" The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (8/18): "The [upcoming] prisoners' release is meant to buttress the shaky reign of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian public, in Gaza and especially in the West Bank, is weighing the accomplishments and failures of Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and comparing them to those of Hamas since it forcibly took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007. So far, however, Abbas has not managed to demonstrate to his people that his way, which favors compromise with Israel, has led to better results than Hamas' violence in Gaza (and Hizbullah's violence along the northern border). Abbas will not be able to bring his people significant Israeli concessions on borders, the refugees or Jerusalem by the end of Olmert's time in office. The horizon of a diplomatic solution may not be growing more distant, but it certainly continues to be out of reach. Commuting the sentences of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons is a tangible asset that Israel can give to Abbas.... Israel's relationship with the Palestinian Authority and its leaders is very fragile. Every effort should be made to avoid slipping into another round of violence and to ensure that Abbas and Fayyad do not lose all remaining control over the radical elements on their side. For this purpose, releasing the prisoners is a bearable price." II. "Ofra First" Ha'aretz editorialized (8/17): "At present we are witnessing the final days of yet another government that failed to promote a political solution. Moving a few homes from Migron does not absolve it from its historic miss. Another government that held peace talks is gasping its final breaths. The next government that takes its place will find itself faced with more settlers on the same patch of land that is slated for partition, whether they reside in Migron or in another settlement. Migron is no more legal or illegal than Ofra, located beside it.... Circumstances in the West Bank are conspiring to create one state with greater rights for Jews. Partition is becoming impossible to implement. This is the future toward which the Israeli public -- both right and left -- is marching while it obsesses over a caravan in Migron." CUNNINGHAM