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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 006337 
 
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.  10th Anniversary of Rabin Assassination 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Maariv reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice may arrive in Israel as early as the beginning of 
next week. 
 
The Jerusalem Post led with Defense Minister Shaul 
Mofaz's assurance to Secretary Rice that Israel would 
not interfere in the upcoming PA elections even if 
Hamas participates.  However, the newspaper quoted a 
senior Israeli diplomatic official as saying Thursday 
that Israel will not give wanted Hamas activists 
"immunity" and free movement in the West Bank just 
because they are involved in an election campaign. 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Mofaz and the 
Quartet's special disengagement envoy James Wolfensohn 
have agreed that the parties will try to reach 
understandings on the Egypt-Gaza border crossings 
within a week.  The media reported that Wolfensohn and 
Secretary Rice are pressing Israel to take measures to 
 
SIPDIS 
alleviate the Palestinians' hardships.  Ha'aretz 
reported that on her upcoming visit to Israel Secretary 
Rice will demand that Jerusalem immediately remove all 
obstacles to the passage of cargo between Israel and 
Gaza through the Erez and Karni checkpoints. 
 
Ha'aretz led with a report that senior Hamas officials 
have recently asked Egypt and Jordan whether either 
country would be willing to allow the organization's 
headquarters to relocate to its territory. The queries 
were reportedly made due to Hamas's assessment that 
Syria, where both Hamas and Islamic Jihad headquarters 
are located, may force both groups to leave in an 
effort to divert growing international pressure sparked 
by a UN investigation into the murder of former 
Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri.  Ha'aretz writes that both 
Egypt and Jordan apparently refused. 
 
IDF Radio and other leading media cited a warning 
issued Thursday by senior officers from the IDF's 
Northern Command that Hizbullah is trying to carry out 
a significant terrorist attack along Israel's northern 
border.  The media reported that the officers' main 
concern was that Hizbullah would attempt to kidnap 
soldiers and civilians. 
 
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, 
highlighted the 10th anniversary of the late Yitzhak 
Rabin's assassination on November 4, 1995.  Maariv 
bannered a comment made on Thursday by Vice PM Ehud 
Olmert that the Oslo agreements constituted a 
courageous step. 
 
Major media reported that on Thursday, 15 to 20 
thousand people marched toward the Iranian Embassy in 
Rome to protest the statement by Iran's President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that "Israel should be wiped off 
the map."  Ha'aretz quoted Italian FM Gianfranco Fini 
as saying he would not participate in the rally, 
despite a promise to Israel that he would do so, in 
order to avoid damaging Italian national interests. 
 
Hatzofe reported that Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim 
told the Knesset plenum Wednesday that Israel intends 
to authorize the construction of a Palestinian school 
on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery in Hebron. 
 
Yediot bannered a call by Vice Premier Shimon Peres to 
the other contenders to Labor Party leadership to help 
him defeat Histadrut Labor Federation Secretary-General 
Knesset Member Amir Peretz in the contest scheduled to 
take place on Wednesday.  Other media reported on 
Peres's attempt to widen his gap with Peretz. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the trial of former 
AIPAC employees Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman will 
begin on April 25, nearly four months later than the 
originally scheduled date of January 3.  The newspaper 
reported that the court accepted both sides' 
contentions that they need sufficient time to deal with 
issues of classified information before the trial 
begins. 
 
Leading media reported that secular Israelis will now 
be able to join the National Religious Party.  However, 
some media reported that the party will only admit new 
members who adhere to the Jewish tradition. 
Maariv notes that the USD's representative rate, 
reached a 30-month high on Thursday -- 4.67 shekels. 
 
Yediot tells the story of "Gmul," an espionage 
operation against the Soviet Union, in which the Mossad 
started recruiting agents in Eastern Europe in 1968. 
The newspaper reported that the Shin Bet subsequently 
started a successful intelligence campaign of its own. 
 
Yediot reported that an officer from the IDF's Medical 
Corps was lightly wounded Thursday by a Qassam rocket 
at Nahal Oz base, next to the Gaza Strip, and that the 
IDF responded with artillery fire into the Strip. 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that in the report 
it forwarded to the state attorney's office on 
Wednesday, the Civil Service Commission found that 
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, could 
face a disciplinary court over alleged irregularities 
during his tenure.  The media cited Ayalon's denial of 
the allegations against him. 
 
Maariv reported that Hillel Halkin, an intellectual who 
emigrated from the U.S., recently wrote in the U.S. 
magazine Commentary, which is identified with the Neo- 
Conservatives, that he advocates an Israeli withdrawal 
from 90 percent of the West Bank, in exchange for U.S. 
recognition of Israel's new border and the postponement 
of Palestinian statehood.  Maariv prints an extensive 
interview with Halkin about his ideas. 
 
Maariv quoted nuclear whistleblower Mordecai Vanunu as 
saying around a month ago, in a phone interview with a 
cable TV station in Louisiana, that Israel will soon 
use nuclear weapons.  He also reportedly said that 
Israel is able to strike any city in the world with 
nuclear weapons, and that the disengagement was an act 
of propaganda. 
 
Maariv printed the results of a recent TNS/Teleseker 
Polling Institute survey: 
"Ten years after the murder of Yitzhak Rabin, who do 
you believe has been the follower of Rabin's true 
course over the past five years?"  Peres: 48.6 percent; 
Sharon: 25.6 percent; Ehud Barak: 13.2 percent; Matan 
Vilnai: 12.6 percent. 
Maariv cited the results of a Stanley Greenberg poll 
conducted in the U.S., which shows that 46 percent of 
Americans (as opposed to 49 percent before the 
disengagement) support Israel.  The poll also found 
that 10 percent of Americans support the Palestinians 
(as opposed to 14 percent before the disengagement). 
Maariv says that the poll was conducted by a PR 
organization in the U.S., which is funded by Jewish- 
Americans, and that the poll's organizers had first 
tried to make the results look like there had been a 
rise in support for Israel, most likely in order not to 
present their work as a failure.  Maariv writes that 
the erroneous results had been sent to the Foreign 
Ministry's Information and Media Division and to the 
media. 
 
Erratum: The media reported that the 12-year-old 
Palestinian boy from Jenin who was hit by IDF fire 
Thursday was not killed, but severely wounded.  He had 
been holding a toy F-16 rifle. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶1.  10th Anniversary of Rabin Assassination: 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "On 
the 10th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, 
it would be appropriate to adopt the most practical 
lesson from the murder and finally bring the state's 
full authority to bear on right-wing outlaws who 
threaten the country from within." 
 
Senior columnist Dan Margalit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "It wasn't only the lesson [of 
Rabin's assassination] that prevented bloodshed [during 
the disengagement move], but it definitely helped." 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
editorialized: "As Israel solemnly remembers the brave 
leader who in six days beat three Arab armies that 
demanded war, only to be gunned down by a Jew who 
objected to the path by which he had chosen to pursue 
peace, we hope all Israelis will remember that the 
Jewish state depends on its citizens' mutual 
solidarity, and that such solidarity is about 
respecting and compromising with each other." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Lesson From the Rabin Legacy" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(November 4): "On the 10th anniversary of Yitzhak 
Rabin's assassination, it would be appropriate to adopt 
the most practical lesson from the murder and finally 
bring the state's full authority to bear on right-wing 
outlaws who threaten the country from within.  For more 
than 30 years, the religious right has made a laughing 
stock of law and democracy, overpowering heads of state 
and cabinet ministers one after the other.  Defense 
Minister Shaul Mofaz apparently is politically afraid 
of another confrontation with settlers in an election 
year. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the delay 
in evacuating 24 outposts that already have been 
recognized as being illegal, and which could be emptied 
at any moment.  The cabinet agreed to such an 
evacuation in March 2001, and reconfirmed its 
commitment to the decision upon the submission of the 
Sasson report on illegal outposts this March.... Sharon 
may be seeking the right timing to evacuate the 
outposts, but any date that is chosen is too late.  An 
atmosphere of mutiny is developing around the outposts, 
as is a sense of power among the youth, some of whom 
are the children and grandchildren of Gush Emunim's 
founders.  This is the second generation of destroyers 
of Israeli democracy, and not settlement pioneers as 
they try to portray themselves.... Religious Zionism 
has not assimilated democratic values and learned its 
lesson." 
 
II.  "We Have Learned Something, After All" 
 
Senior columnist Dan Margalit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (November 4): "Have the proper 
conclusions from Yitzhak Rabin's assassination one 
decade ago been learned?  Have they been appropriately 
implemented and internalized?  These questions are 
usually answered negatively.... However, a partial, 
initial, and significant answer has built up.  In a 
dramatic, unprecedented confrontation -- unlike the 
situation at the time of the peace treaty with Egypt -- 
8,800 settlers were uprooted from their homes in Gush 
Katif and northern Samaria [i.e. the northernmost part 
of the West Bank]; during that stormy precedent, only a 
few red lines, which are vital to Jewish togetherness 
in this divided land, were crossed.  Both sides 
demonstrated adult self-restraint, which was a thorn in 
the flesh of the opposing parties.... It wasn't only 
the lesson [of Rabin's assassination] that prevented 
bloodshed at Kfar Maimon, Neve Dekalim, and Sa-Nur, but 
it definitely helped." 
 
III.  "A Decade On" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
editorialized (November 4): "For all Rabin's mistakes, 
they dwarf in comparison with the conduct of some of 
his opponents.  Their failure back in the 1990s to keep 
the debate civil was politically catastrophic from 
their viewpoint, and morally corrupt from any 
viewpoint.  Their nonchalant, even gleeful, resort to 
the basest rhetoric and depictions surely created an 
atmosphere conducive to Rabin's murder.  If not the 
murder's shock, then at least the Likud's subsequent 
endorsement of the Oslo Accords, and Ariel Sharon's 
dismantlement of settlements, should have made them 
humbly concede that the arms they were twisting were 
not just this or that leader's, but mainstream 
Israel's.  Tragically, such humility has yet to emerge 
among the fanatics who now portray Ariel Sharon much 
the way they did Rabin before his assassination. 
Sharon, for his part, also seems not to have drawn all 
the necessary conclusions from the murder.  Like his 
good friend, the prime minister carried out a 
controversial scheme of his own, the disengagement 
plan, while focusing on maintaining his resolve and 
disregarding the need for persuasion and empathy.  As 
Israel solemnly remembers the brave leader who in six 
days beat three Arab armies that demanded war, only to 
be gunned down by a Jew who objected to the path by 
which he had chosen to pursue peace, we hope all 
Israelis will remember that the Jewish state depends on 
its citizens' mutual solidarity, and that such 
solidarity is about respecting and compromising with 
each other." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: 
"The time has come [for Israel] to come down from the 
stands.... The annihilation pronouncement from Tehran 
calls for a re-examination of the strategy vis-a-vis 
Iran under its current regime." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Hitler From Tehran" 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(November 4): "There is an upside to Iranian President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's shocking call to wipe Israel off 
the map: it is a good thing that the Iranian leader has 
revealed his hopes.  For by doing so, he has helped 
those who are still undecided as to how to relate to 
the Iranian regime.... Israel has adopted a tactic vis- 
a-vis Iran of sitting in the balcony, as it does in 
international disputes over Bashar Assad's regime in 
Syria and Emile Lahud's Lebanon, where Hizbullah 
operates.  In so doing, Israel apparently is signaling 
that it does not want to be pushed to the forefront of 
activity against Iran, and is leaving the work to 
others.  The erroneous conclusion is that by doing so, 
the country will not become a target of its enemies.... 
The time has come to come down from the stands.  There 
is no need to do so with a marching band, and this 
writer is not recommending a declaration of war against 
the Iranian regime. But Israel has good levers for 
applying pressure on Iran, which can be very bothersome 
-- for example, by aiding Kurds and the mujahideen in 
its territory who oppose the regime.... The struggle 
against Iranian nuclear arms development needs to focus 
not only on intelligence gathering, which is quite 
good, but also on additional ways, with the goal to 
foil such development.  Although there is great doubt 
over whether a military option should be pursued, 
especially by a small state like Israel, that does not 
mean the country should give up on building appropriate 
forces.  Clearly, the annihilation pronouncement from 
Tehran calls for a re-examination of the strategy vis-a- 
vis Iran under its current regime." 
 
JONES