ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000954 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: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- The Jerusalem Post quoted defense officials as saying on Sunday that the U.S. and Egypt have increased the pressure on Israel to accept the cease-fire deal with Hamas before President Bush's visit to Jerusalem. The newspaper quoted a top defense official as saying on Sunday: "There is a push to wrap up the deal before Bush's visit. The hope is that quiet in Gaza will enable Israel and the PA to focus on reaching a peace deal by the end of the year." On Sunday Ha'aretz quoted Israeli security officials as saying that Israel will accept a cease-fire only if small Palestinian factions are included. The Jerusalem Post also reported that while the Defense Ministry is pursuing the cease-fire talks, senior IDF officers have voiced opposition to halting military operations in Gaza. Maariv quoted senior IDF officers as saying that the agreement does not serve the army's interests, but that Defense Minister Ehud Barak is inclined to accept it provided Egypt's terms are upheld and Gilad Shalit's release is accelerated. On Sunday Israel Hayom reported that Khaled Mashal admitted on Saturday in an interview to Aljazeera-TV that a cease-fire with Israel was Qanother tactic in the management of the struggle against it. Over the weekend media reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has cancelled a planned trip to the U.S. Barak, who was scheduled to leave this morning, was to meet with the U.S. Secretary of Defense and Vice President. Israel Hayom quoted a spokesman in Barak's office said that the meeting had been cancelled due to technical reasons, but cited the belief of other people that the cancellation stems from the security situation in the south and the reports in the U.S. about the Israeli attack in Syria in September 2007. The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz is expected to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Monday, a day before he takes part in the quarterly Israeli-American strategic dialogue. That daylong dialogue is once again expected to focus on Iran and the ramifications of Tehran's nuclear program. Mofaz will head the Israeli team, and his counterpart on the U.S. side will be State Department Counselor Eliot Cohen, who has replaced Nicholas Burns. In an interview with Israel Radio, Mofaz was quoted as saying that all options regarding Iran are still on the table. Ha'aretz quoted a source in Jerusalem as saying on Sunday that Turkey is trying to find a compromise that would allow peace talks between Israel and Syria to begin. Ha'aretz reported that Turkish PM Recep Erdogan plans to send an emissary to Jerusalem to brief PM Ehud Olmert on his recent talks with Assad in Damascus. Erdogan will apparently send his foreign policy advisor, who is also in charge of talks with Syria and has in the past met with Olmert adviser Yoram Turbowicz in Ankara. According to Maariv, Turbowicz would conduct the negotiations with Syria. Ha'aretz quoted the GOI source as saying: "The U.S. has never vetoed talks between Israel and Syria, which is why there is nothing to stop talks from going ahead during this U.S. administration -- if the conditions are ripe." Yediot quoted diplomatic sources saying that Olmert will not concede the Golan as a precondition for the negotiations. In response to the congressional hearings on the September strike in Syria, Olmert said over the weekend that "It seems to me that today we can say with confidence, not, heaven forbid, with arrogance, that the nation of Israel has a government that knows how to protect it, that it has a leadership that knows how to take care of our security and our future, and perhaps today we know that a little bit more than what the general public knew." Ha'aretz reported that based on an agreement signed with former police commissioner Moshe Karadi, right-wing settlers will take up residence in a group of buildings in East Jerusalem's predominantly Arab neighborhood Ras al-Amud in the next few days. The building had hitherto served as the Samaria and Judea [West Bank] District Police headquarters. The buildings are slated to become the nucleus of a new Jewish neighborhood in the so-called Holy Basin area, the fate of which is supposed to be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Ha'aretz quoted police officials as saying yesterday that work began before Passover on vacating the place, and that in the coming days they will finish moving the offices to a new facility built in controversial Area E1, which connects Jerusalem with Ma'aleh Adumim. On Sunday, two Qassam rockets struck Sderot. One scored a direct hit on a home, causing extensive damages but no injuries. Eight more rockets landed in the western Negev today. Electronic media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that seven Palestinians were killed and six were wounded in an IAF strike in Gaza this morning. According to Israel Radio, a mother and her four young children, as well as two armed Palestinians, were killed in the raid. On Sunday leading media quoted U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain as saying over the weekend that he would be Hamas's worst nightmare, while Democratic rival Barack Obama was clearly Hamas's choice for president. Leading media cited PA President Mahmoud Abbas's disappointment with the outcome of his talks with President Bush. The Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas has subsequently urged Abbas to officially declare the failure of peace talks with Israel and to resume national unity negotiations with the movement and other Palestinian factions. The Jerusalem Post ran a feature on senior State department official Robert Danin, who will head Tony Blair's Jerusalem mission. On Sunday Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. registered an official protest with Israel against its ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, for calling former U.S. President Jimmy Carter an "enemy of Israel" and "a bigot" prior to Carter's recent visit to the region. In addition, Ha'aretz reported that the State Department is planning to issue a public statement condemning Gillerman's comments. FM Tzipi Livni refused on Saturday to respond to the demand by MK Yossi Beilin that Gillerman be recalled. Beilin described the ambassador's statements as "mad." A Foreign Ministry source was quoted as saying that Gillerman's attack on Carter "surprised and embarrassed" Jerusalem, which contravened direct instructions from Livni to avoid comments on the former president. The Jerusalem Post quoted sources in the Palestinian Petroleum Authority as saying that on Sunday Hamas militiamen in Gaza attacked fuel trucks headed toward the Nahal Oz border crossing , forcing them to turn back. The newspaper also reported that Jerusalem expressed mild satisfaction on Sunday that a statement issued by the EU on the fuel shortage in Gaza placed at least part of the blame on Hamas's shoulders. Ha'aretz quoted senior sources in Jerusalem as saying that UNIFIL is intentionally concealing information about Hizbullah activities south of the Litani River in Lebanon to avoid conflict with the group. In the last six months there have been at least four cases in which UNIFIL soldiers identified armed Hizbullah operatives, but did nothing and did not submit full reports on the incidents to the UN Security Council. The Jerusalem Post quoted Tel Aviv University as saying that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will deliver the opening address at a conference on "Renewable Energy and Beyond," scheduled to be held at the university on May 20-21. Yediot and Maariv reported that the IAF has resumed flights by F16I aircraft after it has been found that the risk from a carcinogen present on the planes is low. Major media reported that Yossi Harel (Hamburger),the commander of the ship Exodus, passed away on Saturday, aged 90. He later commanded intelligence operations. All media (lead story in Yediot and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe) reported on the global food crisis, which has also been affecting Israel. The price of rice has increased by 50-65%, while that of meat has gone up by 40%. All media reported that on Sunday the Jerusalem District Court sentenced Shas MK Shlomo Benizri, who was convicted of accepting bribes, breach of faith, obstructing justice, and conspiracy to commit a crime, to eighteen months imprisonment and an 80,000-shekel fine (approx. $ 23,000). The sentence involved moral turpitude, which automatically revoked Benizri's membership in the Knesset. Benizri's successor in the Knesset could be Mazor Bayana, who plans to push for increased immigration from his native Ethiopia. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Defense commentator Amir Oren wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Soon Israel will have to choose between two contradictory policies: seeking peace with its neighbors, or denying them nuclear capability." Ha'aretz editorialized: "The cease-fire, if successful, could establish a period of absence of hostilities whose duration would depend on the speed at which both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, proceed along the path toward a peace agreement." The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Experience shows that Hamas will use [a truce] to rearm and regroup, then come at Israel twice as hard.... A counter-proposal might be the wisest approach." Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in Ha'aretz: "If achieving peace with Syria is one of Olmert's burning ambitions, and if he is endowed with leadership characteristics, the Prime Minister is capable of getting the public backing he needs." Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "[Allegedly,] Israel's deterrence was raised. No one is better than we are. But in the long run we are going to pay for all this boasting." Veteran columnist and anchor Yaron London wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "The political outlook of most Jews was shaped in the spirit of the Enlightenment period, whereas most Muslims trail far behind. Hamas is an expression of the spirit of the Middle Ages, which cannot be moderated with words, only by force." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Peace or the Nuclear Option" Defense commentator Amir Oren wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (4/28): "Soon Israel will have to choose between two contradictory policies: seeking peace with its neighbors, or denying them nuclear capability. Until now, Israel has avoided such a dilemma because its neighbors either tried and failed to obtain nuclear capabilities (Iraq and Syria),or have accepted the status quo. But what if a change in government or policy in Jordan or Egypt, or in one of the countries with which Israel may sign a peace deal in the future, leads to an attempt to acquire nuclear capabilities? Such a course of action would not constitute a breach of any peace accord. After all, a clause prohibiting nuclear capabilities would be reciprocal. Israel's dilemma, then, will be whether to risk violating the accord by launching a strike against its neighbor's nuclear facilities or restrain itself and accept a nuclear Middle East." II. "Instead of Doing Nothing" Ha'aretz editorialized (4/27): "The objection to the proposal for a bilateral cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is understandable.... What is the point of a cease-fire if every organization or faction can rain Qassam rockets onto Israeli territory while Hamas, the actual ruler of the Gaza Strip, can claim that its hands are clean?.... The cease-fire entails Israeli agreement to allow the reopening of the Rafah crossing and thus to restore life in the Strip to a reasonable and tolerable level. That is an essential interest of Hamas, which seeks to prove that it can function as a responsible government for its citizens, and it may be expected to enforce the cease-fire on the other groups as well. It is also in the interests of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. This is because the sanctions that Israel imposed on Gaza, which were received at first with understanding by the international community and even with Arab cooperation, now place Israel and the countries that have signed peace treaties with it -- Egypt and Jordan -- under heavy public pressure.... The creation of an opportunity for calm and for continuing the negotiations without violent interruptions obligates Israel to respond positively to the cease-fire proposal. The objection and potential for risk embodied in the proposal require Israel to tighten its military cooperation with Egypt, to allow more Egyptian troops to deploy along the border with Gaza and to set clear conditions for monitoring and controlling the Rafah crossing. This is not the ideal outcome of the war of attrition underway now for years along the border, but those who drag their feet in peace talks must make do with a fragile cease-fire. The cease-fire, if successful, could establish a period of absence of hostilities whose duration would depend on the speed at which both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, proceed along the path toward a peace agreement." III. "Hamas's Offer" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (4/28): "The prospect of a six-month truce is superficially enticing -- even one that is, in the words of Hamas chief Khaled Mashal, purely 'tactical'.... Regrettably, however, experience shows that Hamas will use this time to rearm and regroup, then come at Israel twice as hard. Moreover, the price of saying yes would be a massive boost to Hamas's standing and torpedo any prospect of cutting a deal with moderate Palestinians. Unfortunately, the situation is exacerbated by Abbas. Concluding his final White House meeting with George W. Bush on Saturday, the Palestinian leader told his people that the peace talks with Israel are going nowhere because of 'settlement expansion.' Yet negotiating precedent makes plain an Israeli readiness to dismantle the overwhelming majority of settlements, and Olmert has stressed repeatedly his sense of an Israeli imperative for an accommodation. If the talks are indeed as fruitless as Abbas claims, therefore, he must be making unrealistic demands, from a position that combines weakness with ineptitude. So what should Israel do about Hamas's truce offer? A counter-proposal might be the wisest approach. First, Hamas should free Gilad Shalit in an exchange palatable to the Israeli body politic; next, it should allow American-trained forces loyal to Abbas to be redeployed throughout Gaza. Only then should Jerusalem accept a truce -- with the explicit proviso that any sign of enemy war preparations would instantly void the cease-fire." IV. "Above All, Olmert Must Want Peace" Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in Ha'aretz (4/28): "If achieving peace with Syria is one of Olmert's burning ambitions, and if he is endowed with leadership characteristics, the Prime Minister is capable of getting the public backing he needs. To do so, Olmert must occupy center stage, not operate solely from behind the curtains. This means he has to create a stable coalition for the peace initiative, get the support of the defense establishment, and prepare the public for the concessions that successful negotiations will entail. A poor start does not necessarily say anything about the expected results. Even the counter-examples -- the assassination of Rabin and Ehud Barak's political downfall in the wake of negotiations with the Palestinians -- do not contradict the bottom line, that above all, Olmert must want." ¶V. "Dangerous Exposure" Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/27): "Had the Americans shown the pictures [from the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor] to the North Koreans behind closed doors without citing their source in order to secure achievements in the negotiations with them and to prove to them that they had been lying, that wouldnQt have been so bad. At least it would have obviated provoking the Syrians. It is very safe to assume that someone in Israel wanted to demonstrate to the Americans just what IsraelQs capabilities are and how credible Israeli intelligence is when it comes to other countries in the region. Israel, after all, has been trying to convince the Americans to accept its reading of the progress Iran has made on its way to the production of nuclear weapons. But none of those reasons justify the damage that was caused to a national intelligence asset.... The intelligence officials on either side might have had agreements about what should be publicized and how. But as soon as that material landed in the laps of Israeli and American politicians, who use it for DOMESTIC purposes, those agreements became worthless. Initially, perhaps, they'll be able to claim innocence and say that no damage was done. Rather, on the contrary, Israel's deterrence was raised. No one is better than we are. But in the long run we are going to pay for all this boasting." VI. "We Are All Muslim Sages" Veteran columnist and anchor Yaron London wrote in Yediot Aharonot (4/28): "Those who advise us to talk to Hamas are, in most cases, commentators of the secular, democratic, and liberal variety.... It is interesting that commentators of this breed are the last to agree that a consensus can be reached with Jewish religious authorities on the image of the state and the character of Israeli society.... Imagine a council with representatives of the senior spiritual leaders of the national-religious and the ultra-Orthodox. Would rabbis [from all those persuasions] ... agree that the 'divine promise' is a text written by humans who needed a formative religious idea in order to strengthen their control of the territory known as the 'Land of Israel'? Would they agree that the source of political hegemony is the will of the people as manifested in civil law, that religious law should defer [to civil law] in case of a clash between the two, that there is no conditional democracy, that all citizens deserve equal rights and that women are equal to men in all rights? None of them would agree.... Hamas's religious authorities are no different from them, with one exception: the political outlook of most Jews was shaped in the spirit of the Enlightenment period, whereas most Muslims trail far behind. Hamas is an expression of the spirit of the Middle Ages, which cannot be moderated with words, only by force." MORENO