ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast


2. Iran

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Key stories in the media:
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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.

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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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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:
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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.

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2. Iran:
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Summary:
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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:
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"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