ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000924 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. Arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish ¶2. Iran -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Leading electronic media cited a report published today by the Syrian news agency Sham-Press that PM Ehud Olmert has relayed messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad affirming that he would agree to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan in return for peace. According to the report, the message was passed on by Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ha'aretz says that Sham-Press is an independent Syrian news agency affiliated with the Damascus regime, and that it is believed to be a relatively credible source of information. Ha'aretz's web site reported that the Prime Minister's Office would not respond to the story. Israel Radio cited serious condemnations by the Likud and Kadima MK Zeev Elkin of Olmert's reported concession. Speaking on the radio, Meretz leader Yossi Beilin said that peace with Syria would be a "dramatic change" for Israel. All media led with yesterday's arrest of the American Jew Ben-Ami Kadish, 84, a former U.S. Army mechanical engineer, on charges that he spied for Israel over 20 years ago. The Jerusalem Post reported that the charges cited nuclear information transfer to Jonathan Pollard's handler from 1979 through 1985. Israel Radio reported that Kadish was apprehended following a phone conversation between him and his handler "Yosef (or Yossi) Yagur." (The media quoted the FBI as saying that the two handlers are the same man.) Media quoted State Department Spokesman Tom Casey as saying: QI would simply say, just as a general matter, that 20-plus years ago during the Pollard case, we noted that this was not the kind of behavior we would expect from friends and allies, and that would remain the case today.Q Yediot quoted Kadish's wife, Doris, as saying after the federal Manhattan court hearing that the Israeli Embassy in �A;Washington refused to assist Kadish, since he is not an Israeli citizen. Leading media quoted PM Ehud Olmert's bureau and the Foreign Ministry as saying that they knew nothing about the affair. However, Yediot cited the concern of Israeli diplomatic circles that relations with the U.S. could be harmed. Major media quoted Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan, who recruited Pollard, as saying that he was not aware of the Kadish case. The question of the timing came up in various media. Several media commented that some members of the U.S. administration might not be happy with efforts to release Pollard. The Jerusalem Post quoted senior defense officials as saying that Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is planning a trip to Israel next week to present the cease-fire proposal he has brokered with Hamas. The Jerusalem Post quoted the officials as saying that the negotiations have picked up speed in recent days, and that PM Olmert will need to make a decision. Ha'aretz reported that at this time Israel is not responding to the Egyptian mediation bid. Maariv reported that Hamas will reply to the offer within two days. Leading media quoted PA Information Minister Riyad Al-Malki as saying yesterday that Egypt's mediation efforts, which include much joint activity with Hamas, are directly harming Israeli-Palestinian talks. Headlining "Hillary Clinton's Balance of Terror," Maariv reported that the Democratic presidential candidate told the newspaper that if she is elected president, the U.S. will punish Iran if the latter attacks Israel. Clinton was quoted as saying that the U.S. must return to the balance of terror like in the Cold War. Clinton would not respond to Hamas's declaration following former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's visit to Damascus. The Jerusalem Post wrote that former NATO commander Wesley Clark's support for Clinton might be a liability with Jewish voters. The Jerusalem Post reported that Sen. Barack Obama has enlisted former Ambassador to Egypt and Israel Daniel Kurtzer to his campaign. Leading media reported that two rockets were fired from Gaza yesterday. One of them struck a house in Sderot. Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that yesterday the State Department announced the appointment of Robert Danin as head of Tony Blair's professional team. Ha'aretz reported that Danin is Jewish, has relatives in Israel, and is held in high esteem by Israel's body politic. The media reported that yesterday Israel reopened the Sufa and Erez crossings into Gaza, allowing some 60 trucks to enter with humanitarian supplies. The Jerusalem Post quoted PA officials in Ramallah as saying yesterday that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will tell President Bush at their meeting tomorrow that this is the last time to reach an agreement -- a framework agreement and not a declaration of principles. The Jerusalem Post reported that Roadmap monitor Lt. Gen William M. Fraser is leaving the country. Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying yesterday that the SIPDIS Bush administration explicitly warned Carter against meeting with Hamas. Rice contradicted Carter's assertions that he never got a clear signal from the State Department. Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post printed an AP story that Al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has blamed Iran for spreading the theory that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. In an audio tape posted on the Internet, Zawahiri insisted al-Qaida had carried out the attacks on the U.S. He accused Iran, and its Hizbullah allies, of trying to discredit Osama Bin Laden's network. The Jerusalem Post reported that a new grassroots effort to unify the religious Zionist parties might end up in the formation of one single list for the new Knesset that would include dovish Meimad MK Rabbi Michael Melchior and far-Right (formerly Kach) activist Baruch Marzel. Ha'aretz reported that Russia has asked Israel for clarifications about its sales of UAVs to Georgia. -------------- ¶1. Arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish: -------------- Summary: -------------- Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of the popular, pluralist Maariv: "Not so long ago the Americans forced us to sack the director general of the Defense Ministry, and isolated other senior officials from access to information. Appropriate, measured but forceful Israeli handling of this affair should make it clear to them that we will not let it happen again." Diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The ironic side of this affair is also related to the initial talks held over the past year on the possibility that Israel and the U.S. would sign a defense pact in order to express the overwhelming support of the U.S. for Israel." Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "This is an old story, but from our past in Israel we have already learned that extremely old stories can topple governments in Israel and be scorched in the political consciousness for generations." Veteran journalist Hemmi Shalev wrote in the independent Israel Hayom: "The affair will only slightly, if at all, cloud Israel's relations with a very friendly U.S. administration.... Conversely, the affair will supply valuable ammunition to various anti-Semites." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "No Need to Panic" Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of the popular, pluralist Maariv (4/23): "Senior Israeli officials who know the Pollard affair well are warning that it would be very worthwhile that this time, if the allegations are true, Israel should not behave like a banana republic or a protectorate. It would be very desirable that this time, also because the case has been dug out of the archives, that we should not capitulate, nor panic, nor do things which we will regret for generations. It is worth recalling that it was Israel that incriminated and handed over Pollard. Without the material that was sent from here after he was caught, the man would be free today and our relations with the United States would also have been healed. So we panicked, probably not without reason. Today there is no reason for this, at least according to the information which we possess at the moment. Israel has to remember that in spite of everything it is considered a sovereign state. Not so long ago the Americans forced us to sack the director general of the Defense Ministry, and isolated other senior officials from access to information. Appropriate, measured but forceful Israeli handling of this affair should make it clear to them that we will not let it happen again." II. "Spoiling Bush's Celebration" Diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/23): "A senior Israeli political source said last night: 'It is an embarrassment that someone in the law enforcement agencies in the U.S. decided to cause George Bush.' Embarrassment, because in the coming weeks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush and his wife SIPDIS Laura will arrive in Israel in order to celebrate with Israel the 60th year of its founding, and the alliance that the two countries have [forged].... The Americans also know that Israel has learned the lesson from PollardQs handling and from its attempts in the distant past to learn about weapons systems and technological know-how that the Americans refrained from giving it..... We can presume that at the current stage ... officials in America think that the U.S. intelligence community is warning Bush against considering pardoning Jonathan Pollard towards the end of his term. Even after 25 years, these systems do not forgive those who succeeded in outsmarting them.... The ironic side of this affair is also related to the initial talks held over the past year on the possibility that Israel and the U.S. would sign a defense pact in order to express the overwhelming support of the U.S. for Israel. And now, someone has come along and decided to spoil the expected celebration, and to say: Before you celebrate, tell us what else you tried to steal from the American nation." III. "The Eternal Price to Pay" Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in Yediot Aharonot (4/23): "This is all we needed.The current new-old story has no connection -- none! -- with the Jonathan Pollard affair, but the people who dredged up yesterday's story would do anything to link the two stories.... What suddenly set off the Americans, who remembered a story that was nearly 25 years old? Well, in various branches of the U.S. administration, there are circles who are displeased by the special relations between Washington and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. These are mainly people whose criticism of these special relations is not listened to, and they have it in for us.... To sum up: This is an old story, but from our past in Israel we have already learned that extremely old stories can topple governments in Israel and be scorched in the political consciousness for generations." IV. "Embarrassment for the Jews, Celebration for the Anti-Semites" Veteran journalist Hemmi Shalev wrote in the independent Israel Hayom (4/23): "It is difficult to understand what caused the Americans to suddenly wake up and take the skeletons out of the closet, after twenty-odd years of restraint, but two possible explanations were given yesterday by people in the know: Firstly, this is a diversion intended to shift attention from the emerging failure of the Justice Department and the FBI to prosecute senior AIPAC lobbyists Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, whose trial, in an ironic and very inconvenient timing, is scheduled to begin next Monday in Virginia. The second explanation, even more intriguing and even more threatening, is that Kadish's exposure is only a by-product of a large-scale, ongoing American investigation aimed at revealing the 'senior Israeli mole' whose existence has been suspected by the Americans since the Pollard affair.... However, the affair will only slightly, if at all, cloud Israel's relations with a very friendly U.S. administration, which was not the target of Kadish's espionage acts in any case. Conversely, the affair will supply valuable ammunition to various anti-Semites, who last night already voiced cries of joy and 'we told you so' on their rapidly multiplying web sites. At the same time, it will greatly embarrass the American Jews, particularly those who fill sensitive posts in branches of the administration and the military." -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Likud Knesset Member and co-chair of the U.S.-Israel Joint Parliamentary Committee on National Security Yuval Steinitz wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Intelligence errors are unavoidable. What is troubling regarding the new National Intelligence Estimate is that it is not a matter of pure error, but an unreasonable repression of the threat -- precisely like the case of Little Red Riding Hood." Block Quotes: -------------- "Repressing the Iranian Threat" Likud Knesset Member and co-chair of the U.S.-Israel Joint Parliamentary Committee on National Security Yuval Steinitz wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (4/23): "American intelligence ... saw the Iranian Wolf prior to 2003.... What seems to have happened, according to the [National Intelligence Estimate] report, is that Iranian efforts to develop the bomb mechanics recently dropped off the radar screens of U.S. intelligence (as opposed to the focus on the fissile material which lies at the center of the nuclear project). And since not all the parts of the project are visible any longer, the ability to determine the presence of the wolf, according to the new standards set, also dissipated. The way American intelligence has conducted itself on this matter constitutes a thrilling example for what is described as the 'pendulum effect' -- which is causing the intelligence assessments to shift between an 'overestimate' pole and an 'underestimate' pole. Overestimation, as occurred in Iraq, draws criticism and underestimation is carried onto the next case, and the other way around..... Intelligence errors are unavoidable. What is troubling regarding the new National Intelligence Estimate is that it is not a matter of pure error, but an unreasonable repression of the threat -- precisely like the case of Little Red Riding Hood." JONES