ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002311 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 Please note: There will be no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report on Thursday, October 9, 2008, due to the Yom Kippur holiday. -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media reported that a surprise 0.5-percent cut in the Bank of Israel discount rate sent local stocks soaring yesterday. The Jerusalem Post reported that official Kadima and Labor negotiating teams met for the first time on Friday to try to finalize a deal on a new governing coalition led by Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. HaQaretz reported that the coalition talks stalled yesterday after Labor called off a meeting between the two negotiating teams at the last minute. Maariv and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Histadrut Labor Federation Secretary-General Ofer Eini will represent the Labor Party in the talks with Kadima. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and his associates are opposed to the establishment of a narrow-based government. Leading media published transcripts of generalsQ testimony to the Agranat Commission that investigated the Yom Kippur War. The IDF released the tapes for publication yesterday. Then Maj. Gen. (res.) Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying that there was no clear picture of what was going on. The late Moshe Dayan, then Defense Minister, was quoted as saying that he lacked military qualifications to influence decisions. Yediot revealed that East German pilots aided Syria during the war. HaQaretzQs military correspondent commented that the same arrogance characterized the Yom Kippur War and the Second Lebanon War. EU envoy Marc Otte was quoted as saying yesterday in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that PM Ehud OlmertQs comments about Israel needing to make a nearly complete withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines will certainly be a reference point in the future, although Olmert and FM Tzipi Livni have insisted that the comments are not binding. Leading media quoted PM Ehud Olmert as saying yesterday that he received assurances that Russia would not allow Israel's security to be threatened, but he offered no indication that he won the concrete promises he sought on Russian arms sales or sanctions on Iran. After meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Olmert also said that Israel was not prepared to tolerate a situation in which Iran possesses nuclear weapons, but will not take the lead in preventing it from gaining nuclear capability. Media reported that Olmert did not receive a clear commitment that Russia would refrain from supplying Syria with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles or selling advanced weapons to Iran. However, he was quoted as saying that he succeeded in getting Medvedev to understand his fears that Russian-made missiles and other technology could fall into the hands of anti-Israeli militants in the region. The Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the IDF is finalizing a new PA deployment in Hebron. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe also reported that six pipe bombs were seized during an IDF operation in Jenin. The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday, in a letter to the police and the Internal Security Minister, the KnessetQs Internal Committee lamented the lack of resources available to law enforcement forces in the West Bank. HaQaretz reported that Israeli authorities are implementing a closure on settlements in the South Hebron Hills east of the separation fence for Yom Kippur, citing a lack of manpower to keep the road open. So far, limitations on traffic have been in effect during Jewish holidays only for the Palestinian population. Maariv quoted the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera as saying that Iran sent a senior official to Lebanon to replace assassinated Hizbullah operative Imad Mughniyah. Yediot reported that last week Jordanian intelligence arrested two flight cadets from Bahrain on suspicion of gathering intelligence that would be used to plan attacks against Israeli cities. The newspaper reported that involvement by Iran or Islamic radicals is being considered. HaQaretz reported that Khalid Dukhi, an Israeli Arab lawyer for the workers rights group Kav La'Oved, was handcuffed and briefly detained by police on Monday when he refused to take his pants off during an airport security check. It was the second time in two months that local airport officials had asked Dukhi to remove his pants as part of a pre-flight security check. Dukhi was flying from Tel Aviv to Eilat on Monday to provide legal assistance to Sudanese refugees. Former World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman was quoted as saying yesterday in an interview with HaQaretz: "Judaism must open up and fully accept families where one of the parents is not Jewish. If a revolutionary change is not made in the present rejectionist attitude toward mixed couples, the Jewish community in America will shrink and lose its influence, and American support for Israel will be in danger." Yediot reported that a 12-year-old cancer patient from Iran will arrive in Israel on Friday for treatment at the Shiba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. His parents will accompany him. The Jerusalem Post printed a feature article on Dan Ben-David (Kadima),the QU.S. immigrant whoQs turned down the Knesset.Q He gave up a Knesset seat in favor of Rachel Adato-Levy. Leading media reported that Israeli archeologists have discovered a fragment from the lid of a sarcophagus, bearing the inscription "son of the high priest" in a Second Temple-era script. The fragment was found north of Jerusalem, near Nebi Samuel, in a salvage excavation conducted by the Civil Administration to prepare for the separation fence. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: QIt is clear that the good of the country is ... [to] establish a government whose plans and makeup reflect the fundamental guidelines of the outgoing government. Conservative Jewish affairs correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote in Ha'aretz: QOne must beware of those who talk about the greatness of the rule of law even as their hearts are full of hatred when it comes to the Other. Columnist Michael Freund, who was an assistant to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: QIt is regrettable that Peres could not ... offer some acknowledgement of failure or at least a plea for forgiveness from the victims of Oslo. Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "A New Government - Now" The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (10/8): QIn this period of uncertainty and financial crisis threatening to become a recession, the cabinet must prepare an emergency plan, but it needs to do so in secret, without talking about it in the media. But to carry out such plans there must be a new government as soon as possible, a government that will last for two years, until the scheduled 2010 elections. It [should be] clear that the good of the country is the top priority for Barak and for Shas chairman Eli Yishai, both of whom now need to put aside all the so-called achievements for their voters they were trying to win, and establish a government whose plans and makeup reflect the fundamental guidelines of the outgoing government. II. "The Left Marked Them" Conservative Jewish affairs correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote in Ha'aretz (10/8): QOne must beware of those who talk about the greatness of the rule of law even as their hearts are full of hatred when it comes to the Other. Someone who beats up Palestinians and damages their property should sit in jail. But are the settlers as a whole -- all 300,000 of them -- responsible for that?.... From the perspective of the left and the media, settlers have become the ultimate Other, mainly because of the ideological threat that they, religious Zionists and anyone who identifies with them, poses to those who pride themselves on an absence of ideology. The Kadima party, with its blurred identity and limited values, is just one example of this. The settlers -- in the path they have chosen, in their faith, and even in their appearance -- represent the exact opposite. That is their sin, and that is their reward. III. "Atonement for Oslo" Columnist Michael Freund, who was an assistant to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/8): QIn an interview last Friday with Makor Rishon, our President [Shimon Peres] showed little inclination toward introspection when the subject turned to the disastrous 1993 Oslo Accords with the PLO that he helped to fashion. Asked what he now thought of Oslo in retrospect, the putative peace-maker had only words of praise for the unmitigated catastrophe that he brought on this country. Disproving the notion that with hindsight necessarily comes knowledge, Peres insisted that QOslo gave us the basis for peace.Q What it also gave us, of course, was murder and mayhem on an unprecedented scale, as a surge in Palestinian terror left hundreds of Israelis dead and thousands of others injured over the course of subsequent years.... It is regrettable that Peres could not rise to the occasion in his interview and offer some acknowledgement of failure or at least a plea for forgiveness from the victims of Oslo. But not a single, solitary word of contrition, penitence, or remorse is to be found on the subject.... Peres' obstinate refusal to come clean is also reflective of a larger problem in Israeli society: a lack of willingness to accept personal responsibility for one's actions. It plagues our lives in so many spheres, from the playground to the boardroom to the Knesset. CUNNINGHAM