This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TEL AVIV 000535 
 
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.  Muhammad Cartoon Controversy 
 
¶3.  Iran: Nuclear Program 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported that FM Tzipi Livni, who leaves 
for the U.S. today, will meet with Vice President Dick 
Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and 
National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.  The radio 
reported that Livni will also meet with King Abdullah 
II of Jordan and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  The 
station noted that The New York Times called her a 
"most unusual Israeli politician." 
 
Israel Radio quoted Acting PM Ehud Olmert as saying 
this morning at a conference organized by The Marker, 
Ha'aretz's business section, that it is not in Israel's 
interest to harm PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas 
as long as he refrains from collaborating with Hamas 
and as long as the PA does not have a Hamas government. 
Olmert was quoted as saying that Israel will cooperate 
with Abbas in order to strengthen elements that 
recognize Israel's right to exist within secure 
borders.  Olmert was also quoted as saying that Israel 
will not play into the hands of extremists who want a 
never-ending war and terror.  Ha'aretz led with a 
report that Abbas told Israel recently that he will 
continue to be responsible for diplomatic contacts with 
Jerusalem despite Hamas's victory in the PA's 
parliamentary elections, and that he requested that 
Israel continue this dialogue rather than ignoring him 
as "irrelevant."   Ha'aretz wrote that Olmert responded 
that in that case, Israel will continue talking with 
Abbas for the time being.  The newspaper reported that 
Abbas's envoys stressed that the PLO, and not the PA, 
is the body that has signed all previous agreements 
with Israel and is officially responsible for 
conducting diplomatic negotiations, and that since 
Abbas is also chairman of the PLO, he intends to 
continue negotiating with Israel in this capacity. 
Abbas was also quoted as saying said that he intends to 
try to regain control over both the PA's security 
services and its budget.  Both responsibilities were 
taken away from Abbas's predecessor, Yasser Arafat, and 
transferred to other Palestinian officials under 
pressure from Israel and the U.S. 
 
The media reported that on Sunday, Olmert ordered the 
Finance Ministry to give the PA 249.7 million shekels 
(around USD 53 million) in indirect taxes that Israel 
collects on the PA's behalf.  Olmert had delayed the 
transfer for a few days in response to Hamas's 
electoral victory.  However, Olmert was quoted as 
saying that from now on, the monthly transfers will not 
be made automatically; instead, the government will 
reexamine the situation each month and make a decision. 
He assigned Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to conduct the 
monthly assessment on whether to transfer the tax 
money, but Mofaz will consult with Olmert before making 
a final decision. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Mousa Abu Marzuk, the deputy head 
of Hamas's political bureau, as saying in Cairo that 
Hamas will abide by the agreements signed between the 
PA and Israel, except for those that harm the interests 
of the Palestinian people.  Abu Marzuk was also quoted 
as saying that his organization does not intend to 
recognize Israel.  The Jerusalem Post quoted PA Acting 
Finance Minister Jihad Wazir as saying that if Hamas 
did not change its ideology, the PA would collapse for 
lack of funds. 
 
All media reported that a 22-year-old Palestinian man 
from the Nablus area stabbed a woman to death and 
wounded four people on Sunday morning in an attack on 
passengers of a Petah Tikva minibus taxi service.  The 
assailant was arrested.  During the weekend, all media 
reported that on Friday afternoon, a Qassam rocket 
landed outside a trailer-villa occupied by Gush Katif 
evacuees in Kibbutz Carmiya, injuring a seven-month-old 
baby and his father while they were napping.  The IDF 
responded with artillery fire into the Gaza Strip. 
Today, all media quoted Palestinian officials as saying 
that Israeli missiles hit two cars carrying Islamic 
Jihad militants in Gaza City last night, killing two 
senior militants and badly injuring several others. 
Media reported that the IAF also hit and killed three 
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades activists in Gaza on Sunday 
morning.  The media reported that the IDF confirmed 
carrying out the double air strike. 
On Sunday, all media reported that the International 
Atomic Energy Agency decided on Saturday to refer 
Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council. 
 
All media reported that tens of thousands of right-wing 
demonstrators rallied in Jerusalem Sunday night, 
calling for a state commission of inquiry into the 
excessive use of force by police at the Arnona 
settlement outpost last week.  The theme of the rally 
was "Olmert is bad for the Jews."  In its lead story, 
Yediot quoted Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin as saying at 
Sunday's cabinet meeting that a settler is bound to 
fire at the security forces.  Yediot reported that the 
popular right-leaning Internet web site rotter.net 
published a montage of Police Superintendent Moshe 
Karadi with a Nazi flag in the background. 
 
In its lead story, Maariv reported that last week FM 
Tzipi Livni dispatched two of her senior aides to 
London to meet with senior Afghan officials. 
 
Leading media reported that a Belgian-Islamic political 
organization, the Arab-European League, posted anti- 
Semitic cartoons on its web site on Saturday in 
response to the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that 
appeared in a Danish newspaper last September.  Leading 
media cited claims in Lebanon that the arson of the 
Danish Embassy in Beirut was directed from Damascus, 
and noted the apathy of the Syrian forces in Damascus 
during the attack on the Danish Embassy there. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported on Sunday's 
capsizing in the Red Sea of the Egyptian ferry As- 
Salaam 98, which carried around 1,400 passengers, in 
which 1,000 people disappeared.  Ha'aretz reported that 
Egypt turned down an aid offer from Israel. 
 
All media reported that A-G Menachem Mazuz recently 
ordered the Interior Ministry to recognize the marriage 
of Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir and Larissa 
Trimbovler, despite the fact that the Justice Ministry 
had defined the marriage as "problematic." 
 
Maariv quoted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as 
saying in an interview with the German newspaper 
Handelsblatt that the U.S. is not ruling a military 
response against Iran.  Over the weekend, major media 
cited a call for unity in the fight against terrorism 
made by Rumsfeld on Saturday at the annual Munich 
security conference. 
 
During the weekend, leading media reported that 
Hizbullah fired dozens of mortar shells and anti-tank 
missiles at anti-tank missiles at IDF posts in the 
Sheba Farms area.  An IDF soldier was lightly wounded 
in the clashes.   Leading media reported that in 
retaliation, the IAF hit Hizbullah positions in 
Lebanon. 
 
Yediot reported that Israel's National Council for 
Planning and Construction is expected to approve on 
Tuesday the construction of a desalination plant in 
Hadera that will supply water to the PA. 
 
Ha'aretz cited an announcement released by the Israeli 
Health Ministry on Sunday, according to which the 
ministry and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
recently signed a first-of-its-kind memorandum of 
understanding on the exchange of information between 
the two bodies.  The newspaper said that the agreement 
related to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the U.S. publication Defense 
News as saying over the weekend that Israel has signed 
a secret USD 350-million deal with India to develop and 
manufacture the long-range Barak anti-missile air 
defense system for both countries' militaries.  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli defense sources 
refused to confirm the report but that they said Israel 
had signed several "large-scale" deals with various 
countries during the DEFEXPO arms exhibition in New 
Delhi last week. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Russia and Turkey announced last 
weekend that they are advancing plans to extend a 
Russian-Turkish gas pipeline to Israel. 
 
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post printed a Jewish 
Telegraphic Agency dispatch according to which American 
Jewish leaders are fighting lobbying reform efforts in 
the U.S. Congress. 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[The U.S. 
administration] is responding to long-term issues -- 
such as the fate of the Roadmap -- with a shrug." 
 
 
Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Palestinian society has the potential for a 
counter-reaction against Hamas." 
 
Conservative columnist Prof. Efraim Inbar, Director of 
the Begin-Sadat Strategic Center at Bar-Ilan 
University, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "The Hamas ascendancy in Palestinian 
politics ... further calls into question the wisdom of 
the two-state paradigm." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "It's Currently Convenient For the U.S. 
Administration Not To Look For Answers" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (February 6): "Like 
everybody else, the {U.S.] administration was surprised 
by the results of the PA elections.  But it continues 
to say that it isn't sorry about their having taken 
place.  It is responding to long-term issues -- such as 
the fate of the Roadmap -- with a shrug.  It says that 
it is clear that the Roadmap is based on a situation in 
which both sides can communicate and are interested in 
its progress.  If it turns out that this is the 
situation, [the Roadmap] will have to be reassessed. 
'Altogether,' says a senior U.S. official, 'I don't 
feel the need to hurry.  One can wait and see.  The 
time for new ideas and sophisticated proposals will 
come.  What's important for the Americans is to present 
a united international front.'  A senior administration 
official says that this is what the U.S. has been able 
to do." 
 
II.  "Still Not Hamastan" 
 
Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv (February 6): "The Palestinian Authority and 
Palestinian society are still not Hamastan; there is 
still a strong secular-national element in Palestinian 
society.  In other words, Palestinian society has the 
potential for a counter-reaction against Hamas.  It is 
impossible to conjecture how the situation will 
develop, but it is quite clear that if Fatah does not 
engage in real soul searching -- and it needs to do so 
-- and if Hamas is granted freedom of action (by the 
internal arena and the international community), then 
it will truly turn the PA into Hamastan in the future." 
 
 
III.  "Fatah-Hamas Cohabitation" 
 
Conservative columnist Prof. Efraim Inbar, Director of 
the Begin-Sadat Strategic Center at Bar-Ilan 
University, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (February 5): "The Hamas ascendancy in 
Palestinian politics ... further calls into question 
the wisdom of the two-state paradigm -- a bad idea that 
is gradually losing its appeal.  The exercise of 
Palestinian self-determination has put the Palestinians 
on a path of self-destruction by empowering Hamas, and 
also endangering their neighbors.  It is empathy for 
the Palestinians that should ring the warning bells 
against a Palestinian state and encourage a serious 
search for alternative ways to manage the situation." 
 
--------------------------------- 
¶2.  Muhammad Cartoon Controversy: 
--------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Neither European countries' fears of their Muslim 
minorities, the fear of terrorism by Al-Qaida zealots 
nor the anti-Jewish publications of the Arab states 
suffice to justify hurtful assaults on religion." 
 
Veteran columnist Yaron London wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "While the 
West, after the wars of the Reformation, matured into 
the 'age of Enlightenment,' the Muslim world is still a 
backwards child." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
editorialized: "Must 'understanding' invariably result 
in the abdication of Western values?" 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Muslim Protest" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(February 6): "The violence that has accompanied the 
outbreaks of protest in the Arab and Muslim world 
against European countries in which caricatures of the 
prophet Muhammad were published deserves harsh 
denunciation.  The torching of embassies, the 
commercial boycotts, the kidnappings, the beatings and 
certainly the calls for murdering the desecrators of 
Islam must be condemned.  Nevertheless, it is 
impossible not to understand the feelings of insult 
among Muslims worldwide, including in the territories 
and in Israel.  The West's preaching of the value of 
multiculturalism cannot be taken seriously if it does 
not include both religious and secular people, members 
of different communities, religious minorities and 
Muslims and Christians alike.... The Arab media, 
including the Palestinian press, publish an endless 
stream of cartoons, television series and books whose 
anti-Jewish character falls little short of the 
infamous caricatures and publications of the Nazi Der 
Sturmer. These publications should be unequivocally 
condemned.  But neither European countries' fears of 
their Muslim minorities, the fear of terrorism by Al- 
Qaida zealots nor the anti-Jewish publications of the 
Arab states suffice to justify hurtful assaults on 
religion." 
 
II.  "Artistic Terror" 
 
Veteran columnist Yaron London wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (February 6): 
"Why are other ideals, whatever they might be, not 
immune to debasement, whereas religious beliefs, all of 
which are part of the stupidest and most murderous set 
of beliefs devised by the human spirit, enjoys 
different treatment.  The reason lies in their nature: 
the precepts of religion need no proof, and in the eyes 
of its adherents, there is no other truth.  The 
moderation of a moderate religious person does not stem 
from his religion, but rather from the acceptance of 
the principles of secular humanism.  While the West, 
after the wars of the Reformation, matured into the 
'age of Enlightenment,' the Muslim world is still a 
backwards child.  It is very frightening to quarrel 
with an overgrown, violent child, who attacks everyone 
around him whenever he is offended." 
 
III.  "The Prophet's Honor" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
editorialized (February 6): "There are those who would 
argue that the controversy does not reflect a clash of 
civilizations.  Yet it is precisely this persistent 
refusal to acknowledge the obvious that weakens the 
cause of tolerance and liberty.  Must 'understanding' 
invariably result in the abdication of Western values? 
If anyone wants to appreciate why the West views with 
such suspicion the weapons programs of Muslim states 
such as Iran, they need look no further than the 
intolerance Muslim regimes exhibit to these cartoons, 
and what this portends.... Globalism demands that 
points of contact between Islam and the West be multi- 
cultural havens, not flashpoints.  For that to happen, 
tolerance must be a two-way street." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶3.  Iran: Nuclear Program: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Tehran will now have to pay the price of its partial 
and mendacious reports to the IAEA." 
 
Bar-Ilan University Communications and Political 
Science Professor Eytan Gilboa, currently on sabbatical 
at the University of Southern California, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The United 
States, the world's only superpower, has no tools to 
prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Price of the Lie" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(February 5): "The resolution by the Board of Governors 
of the International Atomic Energy Agency to report on 
Iran to the United Nations Security Council is an 
important step in the right direction.  It is the most 
resolute step to be taken thus far in the effort to 
curb the Iranian nuclear threat.... Tehran will now 
have to pay the price of its partial and mendacious 
reports to the IAEA while breaking the international 
agreements it signed, and to be punished for throwing 
off the agreement with the European powers to delay its 
uranium enrichment activities.  It is reasonable to 
assume that the threatening anti-Semitic declarations 
by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad illustrated 
for the international community the aggressive nature 
of the Iranian regime and its refusal to respect 
acceptable norms of behavior between nations.... Israel 
conducted a responsible policy that preferred 
international mobilization led by the U.S. to 
presenting the Iranian threat as purely an Israeli 
concern.... The wording that was agreed on, 'The 
solution to the Iranian issue would contribute to 
global nonproliferation efforts and to realizing the 
objective of a Middle East free of weapons of mass 
destruction,' does not immediately endanger the 
deterrent capability Israel has, which hinges on its 
nuclear image.  It is a reminder that the international 
community is aware of the exceptional status of Israel 
as an 'ambiguous power,' and will not agree to it 
forever.  However as long as Israel is exposed to 
threats and numerous regional sources negating its 
right to exist, it is clear -- obviously to the 
international community as well -- that Israel will not 
give up its deterrent capability." 
 
II.  "Without Teeth" 
 
Bar-Ilan University Communications and Political 
Science Professor Eytan Gilboa, currently on sabbatical 
at the University of Southern California, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (February 5): 
"The United States, the world's only superpower, has no 
tools to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear 
weapons.... The naive Europeans believe that every 
conflict in the world, including the one between 
Saddam's regime and the U.S. and the one that continues 
between the Arabs and Israel, can be resolved by 
negotiations.  The European attempt failed, and Bush 
can say 'I told you so' to his allies.  The problem is 
that he has no better alternatives.  Bush wants the 
Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.... In any 
case, it will be a long time before sanctions are 
imposed, and during this time Iran can accelerate its 
nuclear program.  A diplomatic failure in the UN ... 
leaves two problematic options: putting up with the 
nuclearization of Iran, with all that implies, or 
taking military action.  The United States' trouble in 
Iraq, the lack of support at home for additional 
military measures in the Middle East, doubts regarding 
the ability to destroy all Iranian nuclear 
installations and fear of violent responses reduce the 
probability that America will use military force in 
Iran.... It is very doubtful whether America and the 
West will be able to cope with a nuclear Iran, which 
they themselves describe as the most prominent threat 
to world peace." 
 
JONES