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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 000700 
 
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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 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Major media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz 
is expected to present to Acting PM Ehud Olmert today 
recommendations formulated by the defense establishment 
to reduce Israel's ties with the PA as of Sunday, the 
day after the Hamas-led Palestinian Legislative Council 
(PLC) takes office.  According to the proposal, Israel 
would announce a freeze on further transfers of the tax 
revenues that Israel collects on behalf of the PA; a 
ban on the entry of workers from the Gaza Strip into 
Israel; a ban on the movement of Palestinians between 
Gaza and the West Bank; the freezing of a plan to 
upgrade the crossing points between the territories and 
Israel; freezing plans to build a port and airport in 
Gaza; and the prevention of transfers of military 
equipment to the PA from foreign countries, such as 
donations of armored personnel carriers and 
communications gear.  In contrast, Palestinian 
merchants would continue to be allowed into Israel, and 
the Erez and Karni crossings between Israel and Gaza 
would remain open. However, the defense establishment 
would begin preparations for turning these crossings 
into full-fledged borders, and removing Gaza from its 
joint customs envelope with Israel.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted Foreign Ministry sources as saying that Israel 
is considering labeling the PA an enemy of the state on 
the level of Syria, Lebanon, and Libya.  Yediot 
bannered: "Hamas Era Begins."  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that Israel's decision to halt funding to a 
Hamas-led PA has put NGOs under a harsh GOI spotlight. 
 
Maariv reported that Israel intends to present a 
"tangible" ultimatum to PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas: if he does not prevent Hamas from forming a 
government, Israel would detach Gaza from the West 
Bank, thus causing tremendous harm to the Palestinian 
economy.  Maariv reported that some Arab governments 
intend to stop economic aid to the PA. 
 
Yediot reported that Israel is concerned about possible 
erosion in international opposition to Hamas.  The 
media reported that a Hamas delegation led by Khaled 
Mashal, the head of the movement's political bureau, 
met with Turkish government officials in Ankara on 
Thursday.  Yediot reported that Israeli diplomatic 
sources likened Turkey's move to a stab in Israel's 
back, and quoted them as saying that this is a crisis 
in confidence with Washington and Europe and not only 
with Israel.  Israel Radio reported that following U.S. 
and Israeli pressure, the members of the delegation did 
not meet with Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 
Ha'aretz quoted Turkish FM Abdullah Gul as saying 
Thursday that he had clarified to Hamas that Turkey 
stood firmly behind the Quartet's condition to withhold 
aid from a Hamas-led Palestinian government unless the 
Islamist group renounces violence and abandons its 
commitment to Israel's destruction.  Major media 
reported that Jordan has invited Hamas representatives 
to visit.  Maariv reported that Jordanian FM Maruf al- 
Bakhit has decided to refrain from receiving the Hamas 
delegation. 
 
Citing the Russian news agency Interfax, Ha'aretz and 
Israel Radio quoted the chief of the Russian army's 
chief of general staff Yuri Baluyevsky as saying that 
Russia may supply 50 armored personnel carriers and two 
helicopters to the Hamas-led PA.  Israel Radio later 
quoted Russian FM Sergey Lavrov as saying that any such 
deals with the PA would be coordinated with Israel. 
The radio reported that Hamas has asked Russia to 
pressure Israel to put an end to targeted killings. 
Israel Radio reported that on Thursday, FM Tzipi Livni 
told visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana 
that visits of Hamas officials abroad are harmful. 
 
Maariv (Ben Caspit) reported that over the past two 
weeks, Hamas has been devising a plan that would allow 
it to rule in the PA and to break the wall of 
international isolation that has been created around 
the movement.  The plan reportedly includes a formal 
continuation of the truce, indirect recognition of 
Israel, and the inclusion of Hamas's military branch in 
the Palestinian police.  Yediot (Alex Fishman) reported 
that Hamas will more or less exercise self-restraint in 
response to any Israeli provocation plans and then 
establish its power during a year.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that at closed meetings in Beirut and 
Damascus, Hamas has been developing a new charter that 
is designed to showcase a more moderate face.  The 
newspaper wrote that its source is one of those 
advising on its content -- Dr. Azzam Tamimi, the Hebron- 
born director of the Institute of Political Thought in 
London, who acknowledged that this new document would 
still call for an end to the Jewish state and the 
creation of a Palestinian state on all on British- 
Mandate Palestine. 
 
Leading media reported that Hamas on Thursday nominated 
Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader widely viewed by 
Palestinians as a pragmatist, as the next PA prime 
minister.  The Jerusalem Post reported that a power 
struggle between Fatah and Hamas is looming on the eve 
of the PLC's inauguration. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a military order that took 
effect last week bars Palestinians with permits from 
entering Israel via the roads that Israelis use to 
enter the country from the West Bank. The order also 
forbids Israelis to transport Palestinians with valid 
entry permits via these roads.  Instead, Palestinians 
must enter via one of the 11 crossing points earmarked 
for them.  Until now, Israelis could ferry Palestinians 
with valid permits into Israel without going through 
one of these special crossings. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Wednesday, Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice told Jewish leaders in Washington that 
the U.S. does not have a credibility problem regarding 
the use of force against Iran.  Last night, Channel 2- 
TV reported that three weeks ago, Iran secretly tested 
a solid-fuel ballistic missile with a 2,000-km range. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post cited the defense 
establishment as saying Thursday that construction of 
the separation fence in the Judean Desert will start in 
the coming weeks.  The southern section of the fence 
between Israel and the West Bank will begin east of the 
Hebron Hills, where the barrier currently ends. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Israeli 
security and government officials warned on Thursday 
that Israel needs to prepare for a large-scale disaster 
caused by Qassam rockets that could strike the Ashkelon 
power plant or chemical storage tanks in the nearby 
industrial zone. 
Leading media reported that Israel Aircraft Industries 
and Boeing are jointly developing an interception 
system against Qassam rockets. 
 
Maariv featured Mufid Abdul Kader (phon.), Khaled 
Mashal's half-brother, who was an engineer for the City 
of Dallas and is currently being tried for making death 
threats against Mark Briskman, director of the Anti- 
Defamation League in Dallas. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that three peace activists, members 
of the organization European Jews For Just Peace, were 
prevented from entering Israel on Thursday. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) cited research by Prof. Chaim 
Waxman, an American Jewish sociologist, that between 10 
to 30 percent of Americans who immigrated to Israel in 
the past decade continue to commute to the U.S. for 
work. 
 
Commenting on criticism voiced in Israel about his 
movie "Munich", American filmmaker Steven Spielberg was 
quoted as saying in an interview with Yediot that 
Israelis are entitled to be afraid of terror but that 
he is entitled to ask tough questions. 
 
Major media reported that on Thursday, Justice Minister 
Tzipi Livni signed an extradition order for underworld 
kingpin Zeev Rosenstein.  He will be flown to the U.S. 
in about two weeks, escorted by U.S. marshals. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "It 
already is clear that under the current situation, 
there will be no talk about operating the passage 
between Gaza and the West Bank as had been promised to 
Condoleezza Rice." 
Intelligence affairs correspondent Yossi Melman wrote 
in Ha'aretz: "[Putin's Russia] primary reason ... is 
its desire to return the world to the bipolar era and 
minimize the American hegemony that evolved after the 
collapse of the Soviet Union." 
 
Editorial Page Editor Saul Singer wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: 
"Unfortunately, as we have seen, pretend recognition 
can only produce pretend peace." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "What the Palestinians Have to Lose" 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(February 17): "It already is clear that under the 
current situation, there will be no talk about 
operating the passage between Gaza and the West Bank as 
had been promised to Condoleezza Rice.  The 
Palestinians are not ready to invest anything to ease 
the passage of workers and merchandise.  Their excuses 
are varied and strange.  They expect that Israel, the 
Americans and the international community will make 
things easier for their people and goods.  That did not 
prevent them from shooting at the vehicle passage at 
the Erez crossing.  And the launch of Qassam rockets 
from nearby areas continues as usual.  In addition, 
they are boycotting the new passage that Israel opened 
at Kerem Shalom....  The Quartet's representative, 
James Wolfensohn, is behaving as if nothing happened. 
After the rise of Hamas, he pushed for an operation to 
collect funds for the Palestinian Authority.  He 
presents Israel with ridiculous proposals for removing 
most of the security measures at the passages as if 
they were between Canada and the U.S., demanding the 
transfer of goods with nearly no security check." 
 
II.  "Putin's Real Target?  The U.S." 
 
Intelligence affairs correspondent Yossi Melman wrote 
in Ha'aretz (February 17): "There should be no mistake 
here: Putin's invitation last week to Hamas 
representatives to visit Moscow this month, was not 
capricious.  Russian policy does not rely on gut 
feelings.... It is part of the comprehensive policy 
that has characterized [Russian President Vladimir 
Putin] since he was elected in 2000.  Its objective: to 
return to Russia the international standing the Soviet 
Union once had.  From the days of Peter the Great and 
through the Soviet period, Russia has seen the Middle 
East as a region of influence, a type of backyard in 
which to advance its crucial interests.... Putin's 
Russia is also trying to build special ties with China 
so as to create new rules in the international system. 
Its primary reason for doing so is its desire to return 
the world to the bipolar era and minimize the American 
hegemony that evolved after the collapse of the Soviet 
Union.... American foreign policy is aimed at 
accomplishing results.... The Russians, on the other 
hand, are still too weak to conduct a similar foreign 
policy.  The policy led by Putin therefore suffices 
with activity, with defiance, and with sending a 
message: we're here, we're an important factor, we're 
liable to disrupt things, and therefore it's necessary 
and worthwhile to take us into account.... It seems 
that in the final analysis, even the West will hitch a 
ride on the Russian approach to Hamas and will fall 
into line with Putin." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
III.  "Playing Pretend" 
 
Editorial Page Editor Saul Singer wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (February 17): 
"The whole world -- even Russia and Egypt -- is 
ostensibly demanding that Hamas recognize Israel's 
right to exist.  Yet what is really being demanded is 
that Hamas pretend to accept Israel, like the PLO in 
¶1988.  Unfortunately, as we have seen, pretend 
recognition can only produce pretend peace.... IN 
practice, no one ever asked the Palestinians to 
transform themselves, as Israelis have.  The idea that 
Palestinians would accept that the Jews have created a 
state here by right, and are not just thieves sitting 
on 'stolen Palestinian land,' is never really 
contemplated, let alone considered realistic.... The 
real objection to Israel is Islamic, not 
nationalist.... Western leaders should say that the 
root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict, like the root 
cause of the Islamist war against the West, is the 
rejection of any right of non-Muslims to hold power.... 
Compelling Hamas to pretend that it accepts Israel may 
be a necessary first step.  More necessary is to 
realize that while those who reject 'Christian' 
sovereignty over America and Europe are considered wild- 
eyed extremists, the analogous view of Israel remains 
mainstream throughout the Arab world among 
'nationalists' and Islamists alike." 
 
--------------------------------- 
¶2.  Muhammad Cartoon Controversy: 
--------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, who served as 
(Meretz) education minister, wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The writer of these lines will ... 
no longer listen to European moral preaching against 
Israel." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Stop the Moral Preaching" 
 
Columnist Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, who served as 
(Meretz) education minister, wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv  (February 17): "This is an amazing 
story: an atmosphere of open hatred to Islam is 
prevailing in Europe's democratic and liberal 
states.... [However, as opposed to anti-Semitism] 
Islamophobia is mainly directed at Islam's religion and 
culture and not at Muslims.... The interesting point is 
that this atmosphere was created in absence of the 
harsh conditions Israel is going through.... How can 
one explain the difference between the harsh European 
response and Israeli moderation?.... I believe there 
are two explanations for that difference: the first one 
resides in the fact that Israel's political, social, 
and legal leadership learned to live with a continued 
emergency situation and adopted more tolerant positions 
than those of European states that have been astonished 
to suddenly discover Islamic extremism in their 
midst.... The second explanation is that Israeli 
society is more pluralistic and multi-cultural than 
European societies.... This is why the writer of these 
lines will ... no longer listen to European moral 
preaching against Israel." 
 
JONES