ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000266 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: -------------- All media reported that last night the IDF struck Hamas targets in central and southern Gaza, including smuggling tunnels. The media reported that over 15 rockets and mortar shells landed in Israel over the weekend. Three Israelis were lightly wounded. This morning the IAF bombed a car in Rafah, killing a militant of the Popular Resistance Committees after the launching of a rocket. The media reported that PM Ehud Olmert and FM Tzipi Livni are pushing for tougher actions, while DM Ehud Barak criticized the idle talk of people who Qhave never held weapons in their hands.Q According to HaQaretz, Barak is clashing with Olmert and Livni on whether to strike a deal with Hamas. HaQaretz reported that, in parallel with talks between Egypt and Hamas, Israel is holding intensive negotiations with Egypt. The head of the security-political bureau at the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, told Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Omar Suleiman that Israel rejects the Egypt-Hamas idea of a new time-limited cease-fire. The current proposal is for a cease-fire lasting between 12 to 18 months. Israel also has rejected verbal accords with Egypt on the character of the response to violations of a cease-fire, including attacks and arms smuggling. Israel Radio reported that Hamas is demanding the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including those with blood on their hands, in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Maariv reported that Hamas leader Khaled Mashal told French-Jewish author Marek Halter before the Gaza operation that Hamas is willing to enter into negotiations with Israel on the basis of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders. Yesterday The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior Israeli diplomatic official told the daily on Saturday that Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan Qhas lost credibility as an honest broker in peace discussions.Q HaQaretz reported that Israeli and Turkish officials are engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions aimed at easing tensions between the two countries in the wake of Israel's Gaza operation. Yesterday HaQaretz quoted European officials as saying: QErdogan wants to be part of the EU, but now he can forget about it.Q The Jerusalem Post reported that officials told the newspaper yesterday that the Defense Ministry is considering rejecting a number of requests by Turkey to purchase advanced Israeli military platforms. Yediot reported that Turkish hoteliers are trying to return Israeli tourists to their country. Yesterday HaQaretz quoted a Belgian minister as saying on Thursday that the Belgian government has agreed to ban the export to Israel of weapons that Qstrengthen its militarily.Q The Jerusalem Post reported that Iceland might sever ties with Israel. Yesterday leading media reported that Egypt has installed tunnel-detection devices along the Philadelphi Corridor. This morning, Israel Radio reported that Egypt has destroyed several such tunnels. HaQaretz reported that a secret seven-year investigation at the Defense Ministry has raised concerns that senior ministry officials used inside information to help certain American companies win more than $100 million in security-equipment tenders advertised in the U.S. However, the state prosecution closed the investigation in late 2007, citing insufficient evidence, after the ministry stalled the probe due to fears it would harm Israel-U.S. ties. The media reported that IsraelQs security forces are on high alert ahead of next weekQs anniversary of the killing of senior Hizbullah operative Imad Mughniyah. Israel Radio quoted the British daily The Times as saying that the International Court of Justice is looking into ways to prosecute Israeli officers for war crimes. Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 2-TV on Saturday that Iran will not obtain a nuclear weapon. Yesterday The Jerusalem Post quoted former minister Natan Sharansky as saying that Netanyahu will not clash with President Obama. Maariv reported that a meeting will take place today at the Prime MinisterQs Office to discuss the enforcement of patent law on Israeli pharmaceutical companies. The HEALTH establishment is afraid that the decision that will emerge from the meeting, which is being held at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative, might harm IsraelQs drug companies, first and foremost Teva. Major media reported that yesterday PM Olmert excoriated opposition to the appointment of Col. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch as a lecturer for Tel Aviv University's Law Faculty because she allegedly gave the legal go-ahead for the IDF to perpetrate "war crimes" during the recent operation in Gaza. Olmert responded to such criticism by saying that Israel would not support state-funded institutions that discriminate against IDF officers because of their military service. Media reported that over the weekend a synagogue in Caracas was vandalized and its guard beaten up. Israel Radio reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez condemned the attack. Yesterday The Jerusalem Post reported that local Jews speak openly of government-sponsored anti-Semitism and an unprecedented hate campaign. Yesterday Maariv cited the American magazine Aviation Weekly as saying that the U.S. prevented Israel from raiding the Iranian vessel that was allegedly carrying a great deal of arms and hundreds of tons of explosives intended for terrorist organizations in Gaza. Yesterday The Jerusalem Post cited a State Department announcement on Friday that it is contributing an additional $20 million to humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza. The Jerusalem Post reported that in an interview with The Washington Post, IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei refused to take a position on whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post reported that, two years after the model first arrived in Israel, the last batch of four F16-I fighter jets were delivered last week, bringing the total number of the advanced aircraft in the air forceQs fleet to 101. HaQaretz reported that yesterday senior Cypriot diplomats told the newspaper that Cyprus' detention and investigation of a ship carrying weapons in Limassol is a gesture to the U.S. Maariv quoted senior Labor officials as saying that they will not let Ehud Barak sit in a Netanyahu-Lieberman government. Yesterday HaQaretz cited a new study by the Jewish Peoplehood that although American Jews and Israelis share a strong and mutual feeling of solidarity, U.S. coreligionists have a very low willingness to strengthen the relationship. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QA pledge to topple Hamas by military means is like a pledge to make Qeconomic peaceQ with the Palestinians. It seems anything but needless to point out that we are dealing with a political conflict, not a military or economic one. HaQaretz editorialized: QEven more worrying than the harming of U.S. interests or the pouring of public funds into a project whose future is uncertain are the serious contradictions between the government's declared policies and its actions. The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QCan the [Israeli-Turkish] relationship survive Erdogan's term, which expires in 2011? Ankara may well have forfeited its role as honest broker for a long time to come. Still, those who care about the bond between Turkey and Israel want to see relations back on an even keel. Raphael Israeli, conservative Professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern, and Chinese history at Hebrew University , wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe: Q[TurkeyQs secular circles] understand that Israel ... might ... cause untold damage to TurkeyQs image and interests -Q simply because of Gaza. Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Not War by Other Means" Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/2): QWhen it comes to the policies in the territories in general and in the Gaza Strip in particular, the sole difference between Livni and Barak and the right is that the right proposes using a bigger club. Much to their surprise, not only does Hamas refuse to be dismantled, its standing in Arab public opinion and the territories was strengthened by Operation Cast Lead. And that is just the beginning.... A pledge to topple Hamas by military means is like a pledge to make Qeconomic peaceQ with the Palestinians. It seems anything but needless to point out that we are dealing with a political conflict, not a military or economic one. Hamas is not a Qterror organization,Q but a movement that won an election held with the international community's blessing, and with Israel's permission. When the adversary is a political party, no matter how violent, it is impossible to turn on its head the rule of famous military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz, changing it to Qpolitics is a continuation of war by other means.Q Or, as Livni put it in her recent HaQaretz interview, QOperation Cast Lead should be treated as a military operation with military goals. II. "Bad News from a New Neighborhood" HaQaretz editorialized (2/2): QThe news that Israel has invested close to 200 million shekels [around $50 million] in Mevasseret Adumim, a new Jewish neighborhood east of Jerusalem where 3,500 housing units are slated to be built, reveals the real intentions of the outgoing government. As Amos Harel reported in HaQaretz yesterday, for the past two years, Israel has invested massive amounts of money on infrastructure for the construction of housing units to create a contiguous bloc between Ma'aleh Adumim and East Jerusalem. Over the past decade, the U.S. government has objected to any Israeli construction in the area. But even more worrying than the harming of U.S. interests or the pouring of public funds into a project whose future is uncertain are the serious contradictions between the government's declared policies and its actions. Most disturbingly, the construction reveals that the government sought to entrench the Israeli occupation of the West Bank at the same time that it spoke about reaching a settlement with the Palestinians.... The chances of creating a Palestinian state amid the Jewish settlements in the West Bank are dim even without the added complication of Mevasseret Adumim. Such government hypocrisy and contradictions between stated policies and actions need to be halted before the new U.S. administration gets involved. If you want peace, you don't invest in the construction of Mevasseret Adumim. III. "Turkey: The Longer View" The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (2/2): QIn considering the Israel-Turkey relationship, Israelis have reason to feel let down by the behavior of the Turkish government and people. From the start of Operation Cast Lead on December 27, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been on a diplomatic rampage. His words -- coupled with the unbalanced media coverage prevalent worldwide -- incited the Turkish masses into an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish frenzy. Turkish leaders declared that Israel was committing atrocities against Gaza and would be punished by Allah.... In the old days the army might have intervened; the generals saw themselves as Turkey's Qconstitution,Q charged with defending Kemal Ataturk's legacy in the face of tyranny, governmental incompetence, or threats to civil liberties. Paradoxically, as Turkey has moved closer to EU membership -- a prospect now on hold -- the army's overt role as the system's final arbiter has diminished. Nowadays the army has pro-Iranian elements, and the Islamist government is suspected of trying to discredit pro-Western generals. The state of play is truly Byzantine.... Can the relationship survive Erdogan's term, which expires in 2011? Ankara may well have forfeited its role as honest broker for a long time to come. Still, those who care about the bond between Turkey and Israel want to see relations back on an even keel. IV. "From Ally to Islamic Enemy" Raphael Israeli, conservative Professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern, and Chinese history at Hebrew University , wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (2/2): Q[TurkeyQs secular circles] understand the Israel, which is strangely keeping mum about the Armenian genocide and the abuse and extermination of Kurds in Anatolia, and covers up those atrocities before American public opinion, might recant and cause untold damage to TurkeyQs image and interests -Q simply because of Gaza. However painful the latter issue, it is minute and marginal compared with the burden of atrocities weighing on TurkeyQs conscience -Q due both to the past and the present. CUNNINGHAM