ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000961 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. Syria -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Most media highlighted the IDF's version of the deaths of a mother and her four small children in Beit Hanun, northern Gaza, yesterday: The army maintains that the deaths occurred when two missiles fired against Palestinian militants near the family's tin-hut home detonated explosive devices carried by the militants, causing a "secondary explosion" that killed the civilians. Hamas maintains that an IDF tank fired a shell. Leading media reported that an IDF colonel will investigate the event and present his conclusions within 48 hours. Israel Radio reported that PM Ehud Olmert voiced his deep regret over the deaths; however he was quoted as saying that the circumstances of the incident have not been elucidated. The radio reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed Hamas for the violence in Gaza. The radio reported that this morning 10 rockets were fired at Israel, one of which struck a house. Israel Radio reported that President Bush will not hold a trilateral summit during his upcoming visit to the region. Leading media quoted Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is leading Israel's strategic dialogue with the U.S., as saying yesterday in Washington after meeting with Secretary Rice that returning the Golan to Syria would bring IRAN close to Israel's borders. Yediot reported that Eyal Arad and Lior Horev, strategic consulates to Kadima and PM Olmert, also advise the Golan Regional Council. Horev was quoted as saying in an interview with the Yediot-affiliated web site Ynet: "Diplomatic negotiations with Syria will bring down the government within 24 hours." Ha'aretz quoted Israeli officials as saying yesterday that the Syrian official in charge of the Turkish-mediated contacts with Israel is Samir Taqi, head of a Damascus-based research institute. The officials were quoted as saying that Taqi was very close to decision-makers in Damascus and enjoyed the confidence of the Turkish government. Ha'aretz quoted people who know Taqi personally as saying yesterday they believed he was very well-connected to the Syrian intelligence services. Ha'aretz quoted Taqi as saying in an interview with Aljazeera-TV on Saturday that Syria was interested in moving ahead in talks with Israel even during the present U.S. administration. Yediot quoted Turkish FM Ali Babacan as saying that an "agreement between the two long-standing enemies needs much political determination." The Jerusalem Post quoted Western diplomats as saying yesterday that one of the issues that Turkey is trying to work out between Israel and Syria as a prelude to direct negotiations is whether a Syrian announcement of ending support for terrorism needs to precede an Israeli guarantee that it will withdraw from the Golan in exchange for peace. Ha'aretz reported that Israel is trying to block what is expected to be a stern condemnation of its policies in Gaza by the donor nations to the PA, which are scheduled to meet in London on Thursday. In view of recent developments in Gaza, and the killing of civilians, there is concern in official circles in Jerusalem that the criticism will be severe. In parallel, Israel is faced with a complaint filed several days ago by Egypt with the UN Security Council, and criticism from members of the Quartet, who described a dangerously "explosive situation in the Gaza Strip." Ha'aretz reported that a group of experts from the Institute for National Security Studies has drawn up a draft law which defines, for the first time, the nature of the relationship between the government and the IDF, and the division of powers and responsibilities between the two bodies. In its report on the Second Lebanon War, the Winograd Commission said the lack of such organizational clarity was a "structural weakness" that "critically" needed repair. Major media reported that the Palestinian factions are resuming the truce talks in Cairo today. The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio noted that Fatah does not take part in the parley. Maariv reported that the residents of the unauthorized settler outpost Yatir Southwest (in the southern Hebron Hills),on whose removal in coming days the Defense Ministry and the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories have agreed, "will not go quietly." The Jerusalem Post reported that following a long-delayed green light from Italy, the EU is poised in the coming days to slap sanctions on Bank Melli, one of Iran's most influential banks, in a move praised in Jerusalem as "very important." The Jerusalem Post reported that ahead of the renewal of UNIFIL's mandate this summer, the Defense Ministry is hoping to strengthen the peacekeeping force's rules of engagement so that it can engage Hizbullah fighters when they are spotted and not just when Hizbullah fighters fire. Leading media cited claims by the Lebanese Army that yesterday the IAF violated Lebanese airspace for an hour. Maariv reported that the IDF would not comment on the report. Leading media cited news agencies reports quoting the Japanese public broadcaster NHK as saying, based on South Korean intelligence officials, that 10 North Koreans helping to build a suspected nuclear reactor may have died in Israel's air raid in September. Yediot reported that in the coming year the Justice Ministry and President Shimon Peres will expunge the criminal records of young people, most of them minors, who committed misdemeanors during the disengagement. The media reported that a border policeman, who was convicted of brutally killing a Palestinian teen in Hebron six years ago, was sentenced yesterday to six and a half years in prison. The Jerusalem Post quotQ officials as saying that it is likely that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will approve a death sentence imposed on a Palestinian policeman convicted of "collaboration" with IsraeQ The Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time, an American woman rabbi, Lynn Gottlieb, will travel to IRAN today on a mission of interfaith dialogue and understanding. She will co-lead a delegation of 21 peace activists to the Islamic Republic on a mission "to humanize the face of Iran, lest we end up with a disaster of global proportions we cannot imagine," as she told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. All media reported that the Israeli communications satellite Amos 3 was successfully launched into space from Kazakhstan yesterday. Major media reported that the Gil Pensioners Party has split and the breakaway members intend to form tycoon Arkady Gaidamak's new Knesset faction, dubbed Justice for Pensioners. However, it is not clear how many of the party's seven Knesset members, if any, will follow MK Moshe Sharoni to form the new faction. MK Elhanan Glazer, formerly one of the party's mavericks, decided not to quit yesterday, after being promised a post as a deputy minister. Ha'aretz reported that yesterday Israel's Police Commissioner David Cohen rejected claims of "persecution" and "blackmail" made earlier in the day at a press conference by Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman against the police officers conducting a probe into his affairs. Lieberman also lashed out at state prosecutors and investigative reporters. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tunisian representative to the PA has abruptly canceled his attendance at an international Holocaust conference this week in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post quoted police as saying yesterday that senior Islamic official Nasser Hakim Abu-Kueder has been barred from entering the Temple Mount compound for the next six months after allegedly inciting violence against Jews. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tourism and Transportation ministries are working toward closing Jerusalem's Old City to transportation, both private and public. The change is designed to remove traffic congestion and make visiting the Old City a more pleasant experience. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in an editorial of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "We have to get it into our brains that [the Palestinians] are fighting for their state and their liberty (yes, just as we fought in 1948),and that only a political agreement -- only a political agreement! -- will put an end to the horrific pictures." Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Khaled Mashal, the head of the Hamas politburo in Damascus, did nothing to assuage Israel's concerns on Sunday, when he declared that any cease-fire ... will allow Hamas to strengthen its ranks for the next confrontation. It is therefore no wonder that the IDF is pushing to carry out as many strikes as possible before a cease-fire." Ghassan Khatib, Co-Editor of the bitterlemons.org family of Israeli-Palestinian Internet publications, Vice President of Birzeit University, and a former PA minister of planning, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "A new regional U.S. approach that includes reversing the growing American presence and hegemony coupled with adherence to international law and an avoidance of double standards is called for." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "The Blood of a Small Child" Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in an editorial of the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/29): "Let's assume, just for a minute, that the Israeli version of yesterdayQs events in Gaza is correct, true and honest..... What Israeli PR has never understood, and apparently will never understand, is that the world and its media are not seeking the correct version or justice. The world does not ask and will not ask how the mother and four children happened to be at the same juncture of events together with a terror cell and 'what happened here?'.... We can say that the IDF is still the most moral and ideological army in the world and that the Palestinians should say thank you that they don't have an enemy like the Russians in Chechnya or the Americans in Iraq. We are still the best. And we can also say that they shoot deliberately to kill civilians -- at Sderot, for example. That they blow up buses. We can say that yesterday's victims were a mistake, that we will check, that we will investigate, that we will... For 20 years we have been in an Intifada. Today's soldiers were not yet born when a Gazan mob, after a traffic accident (in December 1987) burst out in masses and began what every child knows about today -- the Intifada. Just like on that first day, and 20 years down the line, we have to get it into our brains that they are fighting for their state and their liberty (yes, just as we fought in 1948),and that only a political agreement -- only a political agreement! -- will put an end to the horrific pictures. All the pictures. Those that we saw last night in Gaza, those that we saw innumerable times in Sderot, the charred buses, the shreds of human beings scattered in the streets, the puddles of blood at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva and hundreds of other places. Dear God, how do we reach such an agreement?" II. "Hurry, Shoot before the Cease-Fire" Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (4/29): "It is not at all certain that yesterday's killing will affect the cease-fire negotiations.... For the time being the IDF is behaving as if there is no hudna [truce] on the horizon.... From a diplomatic point of view, it is difficult to comprehend Israel's stance: Even if a cease-fire collapses, as the senior officers argue, why not allow the Palestinians to be the ones who break it? Israel was drawn into a hudna after Egyptian pressure and the government's concerns that a major ground operation in Gaza would result in heavy IDF casualties. But the government is not pleased with the idea of a cease-fire: It seems there is a zero-sum game mentality dominating the political leadership. After all, they argue, if Hamas is so desperate for a cease-fire, it can't be a good thing for Israel. Khaled Mashal, the head of the Hamas politburo in Damascus, did nothing to assuage Israel's concerns on Sunday, when he declared that any cease-fire will be a temporary hiatus in the fighting, which will allow Hamas to strengthen its ranks for the next confrontation. It is therefore no wonder that the IDF is pushing to carry out as many strikes as possible before a cease-fire." III. "Complex Regional Rivalry Muddying the Waters" Ghassan Khatib, Co-Editor of the bitterlemons.org family of Israeli-Palestinian Internet publications, Vice President of Birzeit University, and a former PA minister of planning, wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (4/29): "The tension between Israel, Syria, and Lebanon carries indirect negative consequences for Palestinians.... It has become evident that Palestine, like Lebanon and Iraq, is being affected by the ongoing regional rivalry between IRAN and the U.S. that started with the Iraq invasion and US attempts to weaken IRAN and interfere in its domestic affairs including with its nuclear program. With an American military presence on its borders in Iraq, the Arab Gulf and Afghanistan, IRAN has been motivated to play its cards against this growing American hegemony. These developments coincided with the collapse of the peace process, the moderate and secular leadership associated with it, and the rise of Hamas and its victory in Palestinian elections and subsequent takeover of the Gaza Strip.... A new regional U.S. approach that includes reversing the growing American presence and hegemony coupled with adherence to international law and an avoidance of double standards is called for. This may allow a regional environment to develop that is more conducive to improving Syrian-Israeli as well as Palestinian-Israeli relations. " -------------- ¶2. Syria: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "There is nothing that could create a more positive change in the Middle East than a peace accord between Israel and Syria." Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe: "An agreement with Assad that would include an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan cannot yet be seen on the horizon." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Go for It, Olmert" Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (4/29): "It seems too good to be true. But when the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, comes out of a meeting with the president of Syria with the news that Bashar Assad is prepared to work out a peace agreement with Israel and make the region a safer place, it's worth a try.... Our experience with Syria keeping itQmises with respect to military activity along the border has been satisfactory. The trouble is that while Syria may not be involved in any incidents outright, it has become a lifeline for Hizbullah, providing patronage, money, and missiles, from IRAN and its own arsenals. Syria plays host to the masterminds of Palestinian terrorism in Damascus and, above all, threatens us with its strategic alliance with Iran. A peace agreement with Syria is the kind of thing that Israeli leaders need to examine under a microscope. It must include evicting Palestinian terror chiefs from Syria, an end to arming Hizbullah, and, most importantly, severing strategic ties with Iran. There is nothing that could create a more positive change in the Middle East than a peace accord between Israel and Syria. If Assad understands what is required of him, and he really wants it, that is stronger than any Israeli leader afraid that concessions on the Golan Heights will be rejected by the Knesset opposition or Israeli public opinion. Go for it, Olmert." II. "An Agreement with Syria Is Not Realistic" Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (4/29): "An agreement with Assad that would include an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan cannot yet Qen on the horizon, despite the public diplomacy that has suddenly flooded our region, with Turkish assistance. Assad and Olmert have a joint interest: They both want to present a performance of negotiations -- not an agreement. What interests them are negotiations, not their results. In his mediocre political situation, Olmert wants to get the image of a statesman leading his country to regional peace, without paying the hefty price of a pullout. Assad wants the Americans to legitimize his regime, without truly disconnecting from the Iran-Hizbullah axis. He can get that through the very existence of the negotiations. How could the President of the U.S. cast doubt on a ruler with whom Israel itself holds talks?.... Assad very much wants to exit the 'axis of evil' in which President Bush has placed him without asking him; he wants the world to listen to him. Furthermore, he wants to turn Syria into a significant regional body that can't be ignored. Negotiations with Israel -- even without reaching an agreement -- can help him achieve those goals. The question is what Olmert gains by being so helpful to the promotion of Syrian interests." MORENO