ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000394 SIPDIS 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. Mideast ¶2. Kosovo -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Most media highlighted the issue of negotiations with the PA over Jerusalem. Ha'aretz reported that PM Ehud Olmert and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice agreed to defer talks on Jerusalem to the final stage of negotiations with the PA. However, PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas insisted on Monday that discussions on the status of the city must not be postponed. Ha'aretz quoted a senior Jerusalem source as saying that Olmert and Rice had talked on the telephone about a week and a half ago, and that Rice accepted Olmert's position that discussing Jerusalem at the very beginning could jam the negotiations and obstruct them. Speaking to a Jordanian newspaper, Abbas also said that the issue of Palestinian refugees must remain on the agenda of the talks, which he said were proceeding too slowly. Media quoted Olmert as saying on Sunday that Abbas had consented to hold off discussing Jerusalem until the end of the negotiating process, a move that could anger Palestinians but help the Israeli leader hold together his fragile coalition government. However, Ha'aretz quoted Nimer Hammad, Abbas's senior political advisor, as saying on Monday, "This is not true at all. The issue of Jerusalem is a fundamental issue and cannot be postponed. The President did not agree to postpone it." All media reported that Olmert and Abbas are expected to meet in Jerusalem this evening. In a speech on Sunday, Olmert was quoted as saying that the goal of peace talks with Abbas was to reach an understanding on "basic principles" for a Palestinian state by the end of 2008, rather than a full-fledged agreement. "I don't know if we will be able to reach an understanding with the Palestinians," Olmert said. "I hope we will. We'll do everything in our power to. But we will not start with the issue which is the most difficult. We will postpone dealing with Jerusalem to the last phase of the negotiations." Olmert stressed that Abbas had "accepted" his suggestion. Maariv saw a difference between a declaration by Abbas in a private forum that the final-status talks were progressing, and the "official" Palestinian insistence that the talks are stalled. The Jerusalem Post reported that with Lebanon in political deadlock and Hizbullah threatening to renew hostilities with Israel, defense officials in Tel Aviv expressed concern on Monday that European countries will gradually reduce their participation in UNIFIL over the coming year. A high-ranking defense official told the newspaper that Israel had indications that Spain was considering withdrawing its forces from Lebanon. Major media reported that due to threats by Hizbullah following the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, the Shin Bet's protection service has bolstered its watch of senior Israeli figures in the country. Last night Channel 10-TV reported that some ministers will also enjoy protection abroad. Maariv and other media cited the Kuwaiti newspaper A-Rai as saying that Hizbullah has a "bank of Israeli targets" that Mughniyah prepared before his death. Ha'aretz reported that on Monday the IDF deployed Patriot air defense missiles near Haifa. Ha'aretz reported that on Monday the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee urged a delegation of U.S. congressmen to increase American funding for development of the Magic Wand system for defense against medium-range rockets and missiles. Much of the talks were devoted to the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which asserted that Tehran has halted its nuclear weapons program. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) nevertheless insisted that there is 'very little difference' between Israeli and American assessments of Iran. Both believe that it is pursuing nuclear weapons, he said; the main difference is in the projected timetable for their acquisition -- and even there, he added, the differences are "very small." Kyl, a co-sponsor of the law that enabled the U.S. to impose sanctions on companies that trade with or invest in Iran, believes that such sanctions should be intensified and applied to more companies. On Sunday Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the U.S. has begun to accelerate what it describes as the "security Roadmap" that will correspond to the needs of each side and thereby lead to the existence of a security common denominator that will allow both sides to advance significantly in the peace process without harm to their security. The Jerusalem Post reported that a top official told the newspaper that the IDF stands to lose $500 million from its budget in 2008 due to the drop in the value of the dollar and rising fuel prices. The official warned that the loss in funding could harm military readiness. The Jerusalem Post quoted officials in Jerusalem as saying on Monday that Israel will not recognize Kosovo's independence, and that it is watching developments in Brussels and elsewhere before it makes a final decision on the issue. On Monday Ha'aretz cited a similar announcement by the Foreign Ministry on Sunday. The Jerusalem Post cited the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as saying that uncertain Kosovo Jews "are seeing a Wahabi influence for the first time." Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon Abramovitch rejected a statement on Monday by visiting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator that the crisis in Gaza was a "vicious cycle of violence." On Monday The Jerusalem Post reported that on Sunday a ministerial committee led by PM Olmert approved a budget of 350 million shekels (approx. $ 97.5 million) to fortify 3,600 homes within a range of 4.5 km from the Gaza Strip against Qassam rockets. Over the weekend the media cited Israel's denial of involvement in the killing of eight Palestinians in an unexplained explosion in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Friday evening. The media reported on the continuation of Qassam fire. An elite IDF fighter was seriously wounded on Sunday by shots fired by a Palestinian sniper in the southern Gaza Strip. Over the weekend the media widely quoted a report in the German weekly Der Spiegel that PM Olmert was considering declaring that abducted soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are dead. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that on Monday MK Eliahu Gabbay (National Union-National Religious Party) demanded that the GOI put an end to the renewal of the PA's Orient House in East Jerusalem, which he said eroded Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. Over the weekend the media reported that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi announced that Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, who currently heads the IDF's Planning Directory, will be the next commander of the Israel Air Force. On Sunday Maariv reported that Bank Leumi, Israel's second-largest bank, is currently building a new underground computer compound. The cost of the new compound is 80 million shekels (approx. $22.8 million). The new compound, which is located in central Israel, will be safe from missile fire, chemical weaponry, and the electromagnetic pulse that is created by an atomic bomb. The decision to build the new compound was made in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War, following consultation with various military experts, mainly from intelligence. On Sunday Ha'aretz cited a Civil Administration report that more than one third of West Bank settlements were built on private Palestinian land that was temporarily seized by military orders for "security purposes." Yediot reported that on Monday Ehud Barak began the first visit to Singapore by an Israeli defense minister. The newspaper wrote that Singapore had kept ties with Israel at a low level since 1971. Ha'aretz reported that Israel is preventing four children in the Gaza Strip from joining their parents in Ramallah. The High Court of Justice is now debating a petition filed at the end of January by the Center for the Defense of the Individual against the Interior Ministry and the IDF, to enable the children to join their parents. Ha'aretz reported that Israelis are 30 times more likely to be wiretapped than Americans. Leading media reported that on Monday Tel Aviv University announced the creation of a "U.S. style" medical school program -- students could become physicians in four years. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "When peace agreements are perceived as concessions or as weakness ... there is nothing left but to wage war against the symbols of terror." Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet: "Nasrallah is operating and reacting on the basis of a shrinking set of options: Whatever he does, will first and foremost damage him." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "No Cause for Celebration" Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/17): "When peace agreements are perceived as concessions or as weakness, when negotiations with Syria are repeatedly postponed on the grounds that President Bashar Assad is not serious and the talks with the Palestinians are suspended on the grounds that the person with whom we can speak is unable to deliver the goods, there is nothing left but to wage war against the symbols of terror, to eliminate the Hamas or Hezbollah leadership, to point to a brilliant operational and intelligence victory, to count the victims of vengeance and to proceed to the next candidate." II. "Nasrallah's Options after MughniyahQs Assassination" Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet (2/17): "Nasrallah would very much like to respond to the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, which greatly pained him, but conditions have now arisen in southern Lebanon that do not permit him to act freely, as he did before the war. First of all, deterrence has been created, since he knows that an actual attack by him on Israel would lead to a renewal of the war, and this time perhaps the destruction of his organization, since Israel has already learned many lessons from the last campaign. This time it will launch a real war, not an operation. In other words, he cannot allow this to happen, except at a very high cost.... What will he do, then? In his speech at the funeral, Nasrallah adopted a tactic that we failed to understand, just as we did not understand his words and actions prior to the war. Here enter into play the hidden rules of the Middle East, such as the rules of creating deterrence. His threats do not necessarily mean revenge, they mean creating a renewed balance of terror regarding assassinations, with the hope that they will stop. He understood the significance of such a sophisticated assassination deep within his organization. Of course, the IDF and our security establishment must take all the preparatory measures available, including warlike options, but Nasrallah is operating and reacting on the basis of a shrinking set of options: Whatever he does, will first and foremost damage him." -------------- ¶2. Kosovo: -------------- Summary: -------------- The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel maintains diplomatic and economic relations with Arab and Muslim countries around the world. The government has a unique opportunity to stretch out a hand to the new state, and to prove that the Jewish state is not an enemy of the Muslims." Block Quotes: -------------- "Recognize Kosovo" The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (2/18): "Kosovo expects dozens of countries to recognize its independence. We have to hope that Jerusalem has properly weighed the reasons in favor of responding to the call of the new European state, in the face of pressure from Serbia. Although most of the residents of Kosovo are Muslims, the district has not identified with extremist Islamic tendencies and has kept a distance from Israel's opponents in the Arab world.... Jerusalem's special relations with the U.S., its major ally, always have been a central factor in Israeli diplomacy. Washington's decision to recognize Kosovo makes it easier for Israel to do so, too. The struggle of the persecuted Kosovar people for independence is reminiscent of struggles by other nations for the right to self-determination. The State of Israel, which was established in the wake of the Jewish people's struggle for a national home, should stretch out a hand to other nations seeking self-determination. Israel maintains diplomatic and economic relations with Arab and Muslim countries around the world. The government has a unique opportunity to stretch out a hand to the new state, and to prove that the Jewish state is not an enemy of the Muslims." JONES