ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000647 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. Iran -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- HaQaretz quoted sources close to PM-designate Benjamin Netanyahu as saying yesterday that the Likud leader will make his first working visit to Washington on May 3, pending an official invitation from President Obama. Maariv quoted senior Hamas figure Mahmoud Zahar as saying that a new list of prisoners that the organization wants released in exchange for Gilad Shalit will be much more painful to Israel. Zahar warned that Hamas will abduct further soldiers. Israel Radio quoted Hamas sources as saying that the IDF has arrested political leaders from the organization in the West Bank. The media reported that yesterday the Special Ministerial Committee for Examining the Condition of Hamas Prisoners considered making conditions worse and reducing privileges for Hamas prisoners. The Jerusalem Post reported that an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman told the newspaper yesterday that Egypt has been urging Europe and the U.S. to deal with whatever government is agreed on by the rival Palestinian factions negotiating in Cairo. Israel Radio reported that the IAF killed two Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza. HaQaretz quoted soldiers who fought in Operation Cast Lead as saying that that Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians during the offensive under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property. Their testimony runs counter to the IDFQs claims that Israeli troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation. Other media cited the phenomenon. Leading media quoted the IDF Spokesman as saying that the army is not aware of the events and that it will investigate. The Jerusalem Post reported that Avigdor LiebermanQs possible appointment as IsraelQs new foreign minister is receiving a chilly greeting from some on Capitol Hill, with sources saying it could dampen the enthusiastic support Israel has historically received in Congress. HaQaretz reported that Yasser Rida, the Egyptian ambassador to Israel is threatening to boycott the ceremony marking 30 years of relations between the two countries, as a protest against LiebermanQs pending appointment. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur cited a classified EU document stating that the GOI is planning to separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank. HaQaretz reported that a document recently uncovered in Ottoman archives in Ankara confirms that Palestinians are the owners of disputed land and houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. If an Israeli court accepts the document's validity, Palestinian families could be saved from eviction. The Jerusalem Post reported that Knesset members and Palestinian lawmakers failed to agree on a draft joint declaration aimed at promoting cooperation, peace, and reconciliation, at a meeting with European parliamentarians in Paris on Tuesday. HaQaretz quoted a senior Foreign Ministry source as saying that Israel rejects the latest draft of the "Durban 2" anti-racism conference closing statement. While all direct references to Israel and the Israel-Palestinian conflict have been removed -- in an attempt to keep the European Union from boycotting -- it still implicitly singles out Israel. Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu will ask President Peres for more time to form his coalition. Leading media quoted DM Ehud Barak as saying yesterday that the Labor Party should "seriously consider" Netanyahu's offer to join the government coalition, putting him on a collision course with at least half of the party's faction -- who reject the proposal. Maariv reported that Labor is Qabout to split.Q Next Tuesday the Labor convention will debate the idea of joining Netanyahu in a national unity government. Netanyahu reportedly offered Barak five portfolios, including Defense, Industry and Trade, Agriculture and two others, in addition to deputy DM for Knesset Member Matan Vilnai and the chair of a Knesset committee. HaQaretz quoted Labor Secretary-General MK Eitan Cabel as saying that most Labor MKs would oppose joining the far right parties that Netanyahu has teamed up with, which opposed U.S.-sponsored talks with Palestinians for a two-state solution. Leading media reported that the right-wing party The Jewish Home is splintering. Leading media reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad told the Italian daily La Repubblica that PM Ehud Olmert agreed to withdraw from all the Golan Heights during indirect talks with Damascus. Assad was quoted as saying that it was too soon to speak of a Qhistoric shiftQ in U.S. foreign policy. The Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited Russian media as saying that his country has signed an agreement with Iran to sell anti-aircraft missiles. The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials downplayed those reports. Dr. James Zogby, founder and president of the Washington- based Arab American Institute, was quoted as saying in an interview with HaQaretz that QIranQs target is not Israel, but regional hegemony. Israel is a tool, a game that Tehran is using to enlist Arab support and export extremism to the Persian Gulf. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Defense Ministry told the newspaper yesterday that talks on installing further Israeli systems in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are still on. The Jerusalem Post reported that, fearing a spate of killings following threats to the Yemenite Jewish Community, the umbrella body of North American Jewish federations will evacuate almost half of YemenQs Jewish community -Q 110 souls -- to the U.S. over the next two weeks. The operation will reportedly take place in conjunction with the State Department. Israel Radio reported that the High Court of Justice has authorized the holding of a 100-strong march around the Israeli-Arab town of Umm el-Fahm. Far-Right activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir will be leading the rally. Yediot reported on a planned Qreality TV version of the peace processQ: Six Palestinians and six Israelis, all aged 18, will be closeted in a villa in France and filmed. French director and filmmaker Mohammed Waled, who is working on a project proposal for the QFrench Broadcasting Authority,Q is hoping to recruit the 12 participants by this coming summer, and trying to provide as much diversity as possible, including boys and girls, religious and secular. Maariv reported that American investors have recently bought GOI-issued bonds to the tune of $12 billion -Q 24 times the expect amount. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited the belief of Likud MK Benny Begin, the former head of IsraelQs Geological Institute, that a lethal earthquake will soon hit Israel and the neighboring countries, and that regional cooperation will be needed to cope with it. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Columnist and former IDF Intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (3/19): QIsraeli capitulation to HamasQs demands [in a deal to release Gilad Shalit] would ... give Hamas a victory in the internal Palestinian political arena. The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: Q[The] scandalous behavior [of IDF troops in Gaza] did not stem from the policy of the senior commanders.... It would be appropriate to investigate the problems from outside the IDF and root them out before the rot destroys the IDF and Israeli society. Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz: QWe urgently need a new idea. The paradigm of the right is obsolete, but neither is the center-left's paradigm relevant any longer. Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QAssad can now move in two ostensibly opposite directions: diplomatic negotiations or a military offensive. There is not much difference between them: They both make use of Israel to relieve the pressure. Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. QOlmert Is Right Columnist and former IDF Intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (3/19): QIsraeli capitulation to HamasQs demands [in a deal to release Gilad Shalit] would ... give Hamas a victory in the internal Palestinian political arena. At stake is the question of the balance of power between the Fatah leadership and Hamas, and what they consider the preferred policy towards Israel. Following Operation Cast Lead, popular support by West Bank residents for Hamas already increased. An Israeli capitulation to HamasQs uncompromising conditions for a deal would give them and their path a great advantage. With a bit of imagination, one can imagine what the Hamas members would undoubtedly say to Fatah: QLook what you achieved in three years of Sisyphean negotiations between Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni with Abu Mazen and Abu Ala, and what we achieved by means of struggle and thanks to one Israeli POW that we seized.Q In the plaza opposite the Prime MinisterQs Residence, there is a third camp missing -- the camp of PA Chairman Abu Mazen. The interests of this camp are a central consideration in the negotiations that we are conducting. It is unthinkable for IsraelQs considerations to focus only on the question of how many prisoners and which ones would be released in exchange for the Israeli POW. It is important for Abu MazenQs position to be heard and taken into account in any round of talks pertaining to ShalitQs release. II. "The Lead Is Cast" The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (3/19): QOperation Cast Lead ended two months ago in a show of arrogance by Israeli leaders: Hamas had been dealt a crushing defeat that would deter it from firing rockets, and if it continued to smuggle weapons into Gaza the entire international community, from Washington to Cairo, would rally together to intercept them. The price paid by Gaza's civilian population ... was presented as an unfortunate, but necessary, result of the combat methods required to protect IDF soldiers.... [In an internal newsletter,] soldiers [now] describe the killing of innocent civilians, pointless destruction, expulsions of families from homes seized as temporary outposts, disregard for human life and a tendency toward brutalization. This scandalous behavior did not stem from the policy of the senior commanders. It resulted from the disconnect between the battalion commanders and higher officers, versus their subordinates in the companies, platoons and houses where the soldiers waited for fighting to resume after Hamas retreated from the crowded urban battlefield. When the soldiers had no one to fight, they fought what was there. The IDF's internal investigations, which are moving ahead very slowly, are not enough. The army is absorbing more and more religious extremism from the teachings of the IDF's rabbinate. It would be appropriate to investigate the problems from outside the IDF and root them out before the rot destroys the IDF and Israeli society. III. "Thinking outside Two Boxes" Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz (3/19): QWe urgently need a new idea. The paradigm of the right is obsolete, but neither is the center-left's paradigm relevant any longer. A two-state solution is the right slogan, but not a plan of action. It can't be implemented in the real world. Instead of repeating the dogma religiously, its fundamental assumptions should be examined. Lessons should be learned from the repeated failures to make it happen. Ideas are not taboo; perhaps a hudna [truce] with Hamas, if it forgoes military power and full sovereignty. Perhaps Egyptian-Jordanian patronage over areas of the Land of Israel, from which Israel withdraws. Perhaps an international umbrella over a long-term, deep process of Palestinian nation-building. Perhaps an Ireland plan, perhaps the Tony Blair approach, perhaps an idea that has not yet been born. In any case, it's clear: The time has come to think outside the box. The time has come to think outside two boxes. That will be the new government's task. Along with dealing with Iran and the economy, it will have to lead a national process of rethinking possible solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. IV. "President in the Gun Sights" Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (3/19): Q[Following international demands that the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri be investigated,] the regime in Damascus is now in a very sensitive situation and fears that opposition organizations in Syria or outside it will take advantage of the situation against it. The response could be aimed at Israel, as is accepted in the Arab world. Assad can now move in two ostensibly opposite directions: diplomatic negotiations or a military offensive. There is not much difference between them: They both make use of Israel to relieve the pressure. On the diplomatic level, SyriaQs price is dropping now, and whoever wants to conduct negotiations with Damascus can dare to demand more, since Syria has to negotiate with Israel. On the military level, the IDF must understand that we are entering a sensitive period, despite the fact that as of now, the Syrian regime has no interest in clashing with Israel. Such a step can be reserved for moments of severe embarrassment to the regime, as the trial continues to progress. Assad will try in the coming months to reach a kind of formula with the United States, in which he pays prices and receives things in return. For example, calming down Iraq in exchange for alleviating the pressure in his international criminal trial. This option may appeal to the Obama administration, to which it is very important to pull out of Ira while maintaining stability. Will we also know hw to fit into such a deal, from the aspect of Hibullah and Hamas? I believe that this is theoreically possible, and requires coordination with te U.S. We are entering an unstable period versu Syria, whose senior officials could find themselvs in the dock similarly to the Serb Milosevic orthe President of Sudan. This is not easy for a sate that has based its entire worldview on the premise that Israel is a terrorist state. -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Intelligence affairs correspondent Yossi Melman wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QThe differences between the Israeli and the U.S. assessments are smaller than one might think and are based largely on geographical proximity. Israel, which feels itself threatened by Iran, has more reasons for concern than the U.S. Block Quotes: -------------- "What We Mean When We Talk about Iranian Nukes" Intelligence affairs correspondent Yossi Melman wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/19): QTwo clocks are ticking, one in Jerusalem and one in Washington. These are the clocks that measure the Iranian nuclear threat. Apparently these do not show the same time.... Israel believes Iran is no more than a few months, perhaps a little over a year, away from putting together its first nuclear device. According to U.S. estimates, on the other hand, even if Iran takes the political decision to manufacture a bomb it would not be ready until 2013 or perhaps even 2015.... In any case, the differences between the Israeli and the U.S. assessments are smaller than one might think and are based largely on geographical proximity. Israel, which feels itself threatened by Iran, has more reasons for concern than the U.S. CUNNINGHAM