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

210900Z Feb 06

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 000716 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Israel Radio quoted PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas as saying Monday that Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice will visit the PA on Friday as part of 
her Mideast tour.  On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post said 
that her visit is meant to ensure that Arab countries 
do not provide financial aid to the Hamas-led PA and to 
strengthen the international front against Hamas.  On 
Monday, Ha'aretz reported that A/S David Welch will 
visit Israel and the PA over the weekend.  The 
newspaper said that the U.S. would try to strengthen 
Abbas as he deals with Hamas.  On Monday, Maariv 
reported that Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin was about 
to leave for the U.S. in order to coordinate efforts to 
isolate Hamas and to discuss the Hamas-Iran connection. 
 
Leading media reported that Abbas has formally charged 
Hamas leader Mahmoud Haniyeh to form the new 
Palestinian government.  Major media reported that 
Hamas and Fatah might create a national unity 
government.  Leading media reported that the PFLP has 
agreed to join the Hamas government.  Some media 
reported that the PFLP has received assurances that its 
imprisoned militants, including the murderers of 
Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi, would be freed. 
Major media quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as 
saying that Israel would respond harshly to this.  The 
Jerusalem Post quoted PA officials as saying Monday 
that Abbas is planning to appoint new security chiefs 
in a bid to maintain control over the PA security 
forces after Hamas forms the new cabinet.  Ha'aretz 
reported that Israel continues to coordinate security 
forces with the PA, as IDF officers and their 
counterparts in the Palestinian security services are 
maintaining ties as per usual.  On Monday, Ha'aretz led 
with the request Abbas made of Hamas during Saturday's 
swearing-in session of the parliament that it honor 
agreements made with Israel. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported that on Sunday, 
the Israel cabinet approved a series of sanctions that 
would be taken against the PA after the new Palestinian 
parliament was sworn in on Saturday, giving Hamas a 
majority in the Palestinian legislature.  The central 
sanction is a decision to withhold the Palestinian tax 
funds that Israel levies for the PA -- funds that are 
used generally to cover the PA civil service payroll. 
The cabinet, however, voted down a proposal that was 
put forward by the security establishment to close the 
Erez crossing and to terminate immediately the 
employment of Gazan laborers in Israel. 
 
Leading media quoted Hamas's deputy political bureau 
head Musa Abu Marzouk as saying in an interview with 
the Israeli-Palestinian radio Kol Hashalom that 
Israel's existence is a fact. 
 
All media reported on, and Yediot and Maariv led with, 
the visit of a Hamas delegation led by political bureau 
head Khaled Mashal to Iran.  Maariv bannered: "A Hate 
Alliance."  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali 
Khamenei called on Muslim nations to provide annual 
financial aid to a Hamas-led PA government and 
supported Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel. 
Ha'aretz reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak 
declined to meet with Hamas representatives.  Leading 
media cited the London-based Al-Hayat that Jordan 
canceled a visit of Hamas's leaders to Amman. 
 
On Monday, The Jerusalem Post reported that American 
officials have been quietly probing whether Georgia 
would be willing to allow the U.S. to use its military 
bases and airfields in the event of a military conflict 
with Tehran. 
 
All media cited an announcement by the Shin Bet and IDF 
Monday that plans by a Fatah-Tanzim cell in Bethlehem 
to fire mortars into Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood have 
been thwarted.  The Jerusalem Post quoted members of 
the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as 
saying that plans to attack neighborhoods in central 
Jerusalem were also discovered. 
 
All media reported that the IDF has conducted an 
operation in Nablus in the past few days.  An Islamic 
Jihad militant was killed Monday in the city's refugee 
camp of Balata. The media reported that four 
Palestinians were killed in clashes with the IDF on 
Sunday. 
 
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Maariv that he wishes for Kadima's 
victory in the elections. 
 
All media highlighted the sentencing of British 
holocaust denier David Irving to three years' 
imprisonment. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that last week a federal court 
ordered a lower court to review the case of an American 
child whose passport indicates his place of birth as 
"Jerusalem," as his parents want "Israel" to appear 
instead. 
 
On Monday, Yediot reported that on Sunday, 300 Israeli 
and Palestinian high-school students took part in a 
diplomatic simulation game.  The newspaper wrote that 
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones attended the 
opening ceremony. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the results of a poll conducted among 
Palestinians by the Jerusalem Media and Communication 
Center, according to which 66 percent of respondents 
said the new government should honor the PA's 
commitment to negotiations with Israel.  Among Hamas 
voters, only 12 percent said they chose Hamas for its 
political agenda, while 43 percent said they were fed 
up with Fatah's corruption.  The rest said they were 
hoping for a better life or voted for religious 
reasons.  Mahmoud Abbas's popularity continued to 
decline. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Olmert is 
determined to continue to restrain himself, despite the 
fact that it is not certain that he can allow himself 
to do so." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "It 
is not realistic to think about separating Hamas rule 
from the Palestinian people." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
editorialized: "The international community, often with 
Israel's participation, has a long history of 
financially supporting the Palestinian national project 
almost regardless of the form it takes." 
 
Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "[In the past, Hamas] had no interest in 
becoming an Iranian protectorate.  Now ... I don't 
think ... a strategic alliance will be forged between 
them." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Ehud's Piping Hot Bowl of Soup" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (February 20): 
"This is the first diplomatic crisis that Olmert has 
encountered as prime minister.  Unfortunately, it is 
taking place in the midst of an election campaign. 
Olmert is trying to deal with the [Hamas-related] 
crisis in the most sober way possible, according to his 
perspective.  The U.S. administration believed that 
Israel should have refrained, at the present stage, 
from taking any action against the Palestinian 
Authority.  The argument was that as long as a Hamas 
government has not been formed, there was no pretext 
for severing relations with the PA.  Olmert believed 
differently: as soon as the parliament has been sworn 
in, power has been handed over in the PA.... Olmert's 
bigger problem is on the internal Israeli front.  He 
refuses to send a message to the public that the rise 
of Hamas is a national disaster.... According to the 
stormy reaction of the Hamas leaders to Israel's 
decisions, Olmert presumes that at least in the 
territories they have produced the necessary 
impression.  Olmert is not Sharon.  He does not have a 
reserve of decades of fighting the Palestinians at his 
disposal.  Sharon could allow himself to show restraint 
where necessary.  Olmert is determined to continue to 
restrain himself, despite the fact that it is not 
certain that he can allow himself to do so." 
 
II.  "Diet Instead of Wisdom" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(February 20): "It is not realistic to think about 
separating Hamas rule from the Palestinian people, or 
about starving government institutions while sending 
humanitarian assistance directly to the population. 
The Palestinians chose their leadership democratically, 
and any such separation is arrogant and has no chance. 
The unsuccessful comments by Dov Weisglass -- whose 
position and source of authority in the present 
government is difficult to understand -- regarding the 
need to put the Palestinian nation on a diet, but not 
to starve it, symbolizes more than anything the 
humiliating way in which Israel relates to the 
Palestinians, which was one of the factors in Hamas's 
rise to power.  It is unnecessary and degrading to 
recommend a diet to a hungry and unemployed nation, in 
addition to which Israel is still responsible for 
preventing hunger in all parts of the West Bank that it 
controls as an occupying power.  At this stage Hamas is 
acting more responsibly than the Israeli government. 
Its representatives speak of a new era, of a transition 
from terror to politics, of continued opposition to 
occupation via other means, and of aspirations to a 
long-term hudna (cease-fire)." 
 
 
 
III.  "Stop Aiding Hamas" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
editorialized (February 21): "In its January 30 
statement, the Quartet linked its continued funding of 
the PA to a Palestinian leadership 'commitment to the 
principles of nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and 
acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, 
including the road map'.... The trouble is that the 
international community, often with Israel's 
participation, has a long history of financially 
supporting the Palestinian national project almost 
regardless of the form it takes, the goals it endorses, 
and the means it chooses.  Why should Hamas believe 
things have changed?  This is not a question of timing 
but of substance.  It is a question of whether 
Palestinian statehood is, as President George W. Bush 
declared in June 2002, conditional on the Palestinians 
choosing to create a lawful, peaceful democracy rather 
than an aggressive terrorist state.  The Palestinian 
people, it is widely argued despite the landslide 
electoral support for Hamas, wants the former.  If so, 
the international community will be betraying that 
Palestinian people, not to mention Israel and its own 
interests, if it does not hold the PA leadership to the 
full requirements of democracy and peace." 
 
IV.  "Iran Is Not Here" 
 
Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv (February 20): "The main reason for the low 
Iranian aid [to Hamas in the past] was the relationship 
between the two, which was never characterized by 
strategic relations, but rather by suspicion and 
maintaining a distance.  First, because Hamas 
maintained its independence and its agenda was utterly 
different than that of Iran's.  It also had no interest 
in becoming an Iranian protectorate.  Now, ostensibly, 
the potential has been created for a change in the 
relationship, but I don't think this is to the extent 
that a strategic alliance will be forged between them. 
Hamas will have a definite interest in maintaining its 
ties with the Arab states, headed by Saudi Arabia and 
the Gulf emirates, which will continue to help it 
unless it becomes an Iranian satellite. Secondly, Hamas 
belongs to the Sunni stream of Islam, whereas the 
Iranians are Shiites.  There is a difference in 
principle between Hamas and Hizbullah, which is Shiite 
and recognizes the supreme authority of the top Iranian 
religious leader, and whose leaders trained in Iran. 
Moreover, Iran is known to be quite stingy when it 
comes to handing out money." 
 
JONES