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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 006241 
 
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 
USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD 
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
¶3.  New Delhi Bombings 
 
¶4.  Libby Affair 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Yediot Washington correspondent Orly Azolai reported 
that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided to 
move up the date of her visit to Israel and the PA to 
November as part of U.S. efforts to prevent escalation 
in the region following the recent bombings.  The 
newspaper reported that Secretary Rice told Abbas in a 
phone conversation following the Hadera bombing that 
the U.S. would help him if he acted against terror. 
Yediot reported that Abbas told Rice that he finds it 
hard to put an end to terrorist attacks emanating from 
Damascus and Tehran. 
 
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Vice 
Premier Shimon Peres and FM Silvan Shalom reiterated 
Saturday that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas 
remained a partner for Israel, only a few days after 
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted as telling 
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Israel has no one 
to talk to on the Palestinian side.  The media later 
cited PM Sharon's reservation about Mofaz's comments. 
 
Yediot cited a "secret" document drafted by the Foreign 
Ministry's Diplomatic Planning Bureau, which says that 
the establishment of a Palestinian state is a strategic 
interest of Israel, because it would cancel out the 
asymmetrical component in the conflict, which grants an 
edge to the Palestinian side. 
 
Leading media reported that three Palestinians were 
killed on Sunday in a shootout with IDF troops in the 
West Bank town of Qabatiyah.  The media reported that 
one of the men killed was Jihad Awidat, the Islamic 
Jihad operative who dispatched the suicide bomber 
Hassan Abu Zaid to Hadera.  Leading media reported that 
during the weekend, the IAF struck Gaza Strip areas 
where Qassam rocket fire has originated.  Leading media 
reported that early this month, the Shin Bet and police 
arrested three Gaza residents --  "Qassam rocket 
engineers" -- who were dispatched to the Jenin area, 
where they were supposed to set up a weapons- 
manufacturing infrastructure.  The senior members of 
the Popular Resistance Committees were caught in the 
Negev after crossing the border from Egypt. 
 
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel 
welcomed a statement issued by the Quartet on Friday 
calling on Syria to close the offices of the 
Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Damascus.  On Sunday, 
major media cited Syria's denial that Islamic Jihad 
still maintains its headquarters in the Syrian capital. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Quartet special envoy 
James Wolfensohn wrote the foreign ministers of the 
Quartet on October 16 that Israel has asked the World 
Bank and USAID to stop a study aimed at determining how 
to create a transportation link between the Gaza Strip 
and West Bank.  The newspaper wrote that Wolfensohn 
noted in his letter that he called for the study to 
continue.  Ha'aretz reported that the Prime Minister's 
Office told the newspaper over the weekend that no 
official Israeli representative had made such a 
request. 
 
All media reported that the government currently lacks 
a majority in the Knesset for the approval of the 
appointment of three Likud ministers (Ehud Olmert as 
finance minister, Roni Bar-Lev as industry, trade, and 
employment minister, and Zeev Boim as immigrant 
absorption minister) to the cabinet.  The media note 
that one-third of the Likud faction, including Knesset 
Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Member Binyamin 
Netanyahu, will refuse to support the appointments. 
Israel Radio quoted Labor Party whip Knesset Member 
Ephraim Sneh as saying that his party's partnership in 
the government coalition will end in a few weeks. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that the IDF has been 
constructing a major new checkpoint south of Nablus, at 
the Zaatara (Tapuah) junction, to check Palestinian 
cars arriving from the northern and western parts of 
the West Bank. 
On Sunday, leading media reported that on Friday, the 
UN Security Council condemned Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's call to "wipe Israel off the map" and 
called on Iran not to use threatening language against 
Israel.  The media reported that Iran subsequently 
issued a statement saying it had no intention of 
attacking Israel and said it was obliged to adhere to 
the rules of the UN.  Speaking on Israel Radio Sunday, 
Israel's representative to the UN expressed his hope 
that following Ahmadinejad's remarks, UN Secretary- 
General Kofi Annan would reconsider his planned visit 
to Iran.  On Sunday, Yediot reported that the U.S. 
House of Representatives unanimously passed a 
resolution calling on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan 
to act to put an end to the defamation of Israel in the 
world body. 
 
Ha'aretz printed an AP story, which said that Jordan 
has banned broadcast of a controversial miniseries 
criticized as being anti-Semitic, thus winning praise 
on Sunday from Israel and the Washington-based media 
watchdog Coalition Against Terrorist Media. 
 
On Sunday, Yediot reported that the U.S. has authorized 
a deal providing for an Israeli sale of dozens of F-16 
jet fighters to Romania.  Israeli companies will 
overhaul the aircraft ahead of the sale. 
 
On Sunday, all media (Ha'aretz's lead story) reported 
on Saturday's bombings in New Delhi, in which dozens of 
people were killed. 
 
On Sunday, Carmi Gillon, head of the Shin Bet at the 
time of the late Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, was 
quoted as saying in an interview with Yediot that 
Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir should have been physically 
eliminated.  Gillon made the remarks in the wake of a 
poll published in Yediot during the weekend, which 
showed that every fifth Israeli favors a pardon for 
Amir.  Israel Radio quoted President Moshe Katsav as 
saying today that Amir would not be pardoned, nor his 
jail conditions alleviated. 
 
Jerusalem Post front-paged the first comprehensive poll 
conducted in the U.S. since Israel's withdrawal from 
the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, which found 
that more than three quarters of those surveyed said 
they supported the Israeli move.  The survey, the 
results of which were made public by The Israel 
Project, a nonpartisan organization started three years 
ago to improve Israel's image in the international 
media, also revealed growing approval of Israel's 
security barrier and a more favorable overall 
impression of Israel among the American public.  Two 
American polling firms were hired to execute the 
bipartisan study, one aligned with the Democratic Party 
and the other with the Republicans. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv published the results of a 
TNS/Teleseker Polling Institute survey, which found 
that for the first time more Israelis demonstrated a 
positive attitude (33 percent) vis-a-vis the UN, while 
29 percent demonstrated a negative attitude. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Positive Israeli action would help to strengthen 
moderate Palestinians, because it would make it clear 
that the disengagement from Gaza was not the end, but 
the beginning." 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in the lead editorial of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Let us hope 
that ... decency and fairness will replace the 
automatic capitulation to the Arab lobby in the UN 
corridors." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Act First, Talk Later" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(October 31): "The almost-automatic tendency throughout 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to repeat the phrase 
'there is no one to talk to' evidently does not 
characterize the current Israeli leadership alone. 
George Bush agreed too easily to postpone the 
establishment of a Palestinian state to an unspecified 
time, and the Palestinians -- who know that they cannot 
achieve a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines -- 
are not enthusiastic about discussing anything less. 
But in order to keep the withdrawal from Gaza from 
becoming the start of a blood-soaked disappointment, it 
is nevertheless worth trying to inject a renewed spirit 
of optimism rather than making do with statements such 
as that made by Shaul Mofaz over the weekend: 
'[Palestinian Authority Chairman] Abu Mazen is a one- 
man show; there is nothing behind him. There is only a 
vacuum'.... The Palestinian Authority might be too weak 
to fulfill its obligations under the road map plan, but 
Israel is strong enough to take steps that will serve 
the interests of both sides on the way to a division 
into two states.... Positive Israeli action would help 
to strengthen moderate Palestinians, because it would 
make it clear that the disengagement from Gaza was not 
the end, but the beginning." 
 
II.  "Our UN" 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in the lead editorial of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (October 31): 
"This is a new era in relations between Israel and the 
United Nations.  The sovereign State of Israel, the 
Jewish people's state, was given its birth certificate 
from the UN, and it can be said, and justifiably so, 
that the UN was present at its birth and gave its 
blessing to it.  But the organization's attitude 
towards Israel has always been as if to an unusual and 
unwanted creature.  Only in the past year, after 
decades of hostility and animosity, is a real 
improvement emerging in Israel's standing in the UN. 
This improvement has many causes: Israel's policy, a 
rise in the level of awareness for the dangers of anti- 
Semitism, the international mobilization against 
terror, and the vigorous activity of Foreign Minister 
Silvan Shalom and the entire Israeli Foreign Ministry. 
Let us hope that the improvement will persist and that 
decency and fairness will replace the automatic 
capitulation to the Arab lobby in the UN corridors." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Why doesn't Iran 
fear sanctions?.... Now the Americans fear Iran's 
political takeover of Iraq." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"We hope, not just for our own sake but for the 
world's, that Iran's contempt for [the UN] charter and 
the nations meant to implement it are misplaced." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Hellfire Versus Interests" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (October 30): "With 
so many states capable of applying pressure on Iran, 
why can Ahmadinejad continue to mouth off?  In other 
words, why doesn't Iran fear sanctions?.... The answer 
is: the countries capable of exerting pressure are also 
concerned about harming their economic relations with 
Iran.  Russia earned about USD 1 billion from its 
nuclear reactor project in Bushehr; China needs Iranian 
oil very much; Japan is dependent on Iran; businessmen 
from Germany, France, Italy and Spain are profiting 
handsomely from the sanctions the United States imposed 
on Iran; and now the Americans fear Iran's political 
takeover of Iraq -- all of these factors explain why 
everyone tiptoes around the Iranian leadership.  And 
when this is the feeble balance of fear, Ahmadinejad 
can continue to invoke the fires of hell." 
 
II.  "Beyond Condemnation" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(October 30): "It is not every day that all 15 members 
of the United Nations Security Council rally to 
Israel's defense. The wider context of the unanimous 
vote on Friday condemning Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's calls to 'wipe Israel off the map,' 
however, must be concern that condemnations, in this 
case, are not enough.... Iran is the quintessential 
rogue state.  As amply evident from Ahmadinejad's 
rhetoric, his country has motive for malevolence, and 
will soon have the means and the opportunity to create 
even more devastation, depending only on its own 
caprice.... Israel should be pointing out the obvious: 
that Iran's genocidal call against Israel is not just 
one country's problem.  Iran's support for terrorism, 
its nuclear ambitions, and its threats against Israel 
are not isolated concerns.  They must be addressed as a 
package by the community of nations as a whole.  This 
means moving beyond condemnations to doing what the UN 
charter was designed to do: protect international peace 
and security by imposing stiff multilateral sanctions 
against international aggressors.  The charter, which 
the Iranian regime has the gall to wrap itself in, was 
written to be used in precisely such instances.  We 
hope, not just for our own sake but for the world's, 
that Iran's contempt for that charter and the nations 
meant to implement it are misplaced." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
----------------------- 
¶3.  New Delhi Bombings: 
----------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"India is under attack from Muslim extremists -- like 
Israel -- not for anything it does or did, but for 
being a largely non-Muslim entity in a part of the 
world claimed by the Islamists." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"India Mourns" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(October 31): "No innocent citizen, whether in a 
country of 1 billion or in a nation with a mere 6 
million souls, should die at the hands of religious or 
ethnic extremists for being at the wrong place -- a 
market, a bus, a cafe -- at the wrong time.... We 
understand that India is a multicultural nation, that 
13 percent of its population is Muslim and that both 
internal harmony and stability in its relations with 
Pakistan are Indian interests.  But 'terrorism' is not 
the foe -- it is [a] tactic.  The larger lesson of this 
tragedy is that India is under attack from Muslim 
extremists -- like Israel -- not for anything it does 
or did, but for being a largely non-Muslim entity in a 
part of the world claimed by the Islamists.... Beyond 
expressing sympathy as India mourns its losses, 
Jerusalem, over the long haul, needs to do a better job 
at affirming that our two great civilizations have much 
in common." 
 
----------------- 
¶4.  Libby Affair: 
----------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in an editorial of mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Lewis Libby ... also has 
very close links with Jewish and Israeli circles and 
institutions." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Our Libby" 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in an editorial of mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (October 31): "Special 
American Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who was 
appointed to probe the leak of the identity of CIA 
agent Valerie Plame, announced during the weekend the 
indictment of Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's 
Chief of Staff.  Who is Lewis Libby?  Until his 
resignation on Friday, Libby was one of the Bush 
administration's strongest members.... But Lewis Libby, 
who attends services at Temple Rodef Shalom in northern 
Virginia, also has very close links with Jewish and 
Israeli circles and institutions.... Libby's trial will 
arouse a huge political scandal in the U.S.  It will 
focus on senior pro-Israel officials, who are 
associated with Israel and the majority of whom are 
Jewish.  The affair, which is connected to fighting and 
denigrations between supporters and opponents of the 
war in Iraq, could turn up at Israel's feet.  This is 
the last thing Israel needs." 
 
JONES