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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 000763 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA 
HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
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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.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with tension between Israel and Jordan 
following an utterance by O/C Central Command Maj. Gen. 
Yair Naveh during a closed meeting on Wednesday with 
diplomats and journalists, including the Jordanian 
Consul-General, at the Jerusalem Center for Public 
Affairs.   Naveh warned that King Abdullah II risked 
being toppled by an "Islamic axis" and could be the 
last Jordanian monarch.  Leading media quoted the 
Jordanian Charge d'Affaires in Israel, Omar al-Nadif as 
saying that the remarks could harm Israeli-Jordanian 
relations if "appropriate action" is not taken against 
the officer.  Israel Radio reported that Naveh will 
send a letter of apology to his Jordanian counterpart. 
Media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and 
IDF C-o-S Dan Halutz hastened to issue statements of 
rebuttal, saying that Naveh's comments do not reflect 
Israel's position on the matter.  Mofaz was quoted as 
saying that he and Halutz "demanded an immediate 
inquiry of the issue."  Israel Radio reported that last 
night, FM Tzipi Livni called Jordanian FM Abdelelah M. 
Al-Khatib, clarifying to him that Israel views Jordan 
as a strategic partner.  The media also highlighted 
remarks made Wednesday by Deputy IDF C-o-S Moshe 
Kaplinsky that the Middle East is in a state of 
uncertainty and that "even in Egypt we see initial 
signs of a possible undermining of President Mubarak's 
solid regime." 
 
Major media quoted Acting PM Ehud Olmert as telling the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: "Hamas 
does not constitute a strategic threat to Israel. 
Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran are the only 
strategic threat to Israel."  Olmert also vowed to 
disband the parliamentary commission of inquiry into 
the evacuation of the Amona settler outpost on February 
¶1. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot cited Radio Tehran that on 
Wednesday, Iran offered to fund the Hamas-led PA 
leadership.  Major media reported that Fatah and Hamas 
officials met on Wednesday to discuss the formation of 
a joint government. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel, the U.S., and 
Europe are looking for ways in which the Palestinians 
can continue to receive international money without it 
going through Hamas hands.   The newspaper reported 
that FM Livni chaired a meeting Wednesday night 
examining the Palestinian budget.   Ha'aretz and other 
media reported that Labor Party Chairman MK Amir Peretz 
met with Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss how 
to transfer money to the PA without involving Hamas. 
 
Maariv quoted Israeli President Moshe Katsav as saying 
that the U.S. should exercise caution, particularly in 
Iraq, that democracy cannot happen at once, and that 
the "entire Muslim world is radicalizing in front of 
our own eyes." 
 
Yediot cited the belief of sources in Israel's defense 
establishment that 2006 will be a target year for a 
mass-scale terrorist attack by global Jihad in Israel. 
 
Israel Radio reported that two Palestinians were killed 
in clashes with IDF troops in Nablus this morning.  The 
radio reported that five Qassam rockets were fired at 
the western Negev from the northern Gaza Strip last 
night, causing no injuries or damage. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that tests are under way in 
Israel to determine whether samples of blood and saliva 
from livestock and dead fowl found in Gaza and received 
from PA officials confirm fears of a possible outbreak 
of hoof-and-mouth disease and bird flu in Gaza. 
Ha'aretz printed an AP dispatch on the issue. 
 
All media reported that terrorists dressed as members 
of Iraqi security forces detonated powerful bombs 
inside one of Shi'ite Islam's most holy shrines in 
Samarra Wednesday, destroying most of the building and 
causing the collapse of its famous golden dome.  The 
media reported that the attack triggered reprisals 
throughout Iraq.  Several media wrote that Iraq is on 
the verge of a civil war.  Israel Radio reported that 
the U.S. blamed Al Qaida for the Samarra attack.  The 
radio reported that Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. and Israel of being behind 
the attack. 
 
Yediot correspondent Orly Azolai recounts her 
impressions from a visit to North Korea.  Azolai quoted 
North Korean officials as saying that their country is 
next in line for a U.S. attack. 
 
Yediot and Maariv quoted FM Livni as saying during a 
meeting of the Foreign Ministry leadership that she 
will give up presenting political nominations in the 
ministry, except for the position of ambassador to 
Washington.  Yediot and Maariv reported that the 
Foreign Ministry is confronting U.S. Ambassador to 
Washington Danny Ayalon over the issue of furniture in 
the embassy. 
 
Citing statistics released Wednesday by the GOI's 
Central Bureau of Statistics, Ha'aretz reported that 
immigration to Israel was at its lowest since 1989 
though immigration from the U.S. rose in 2005.  Two 
thousand immigrants came from the U.S. in 2005, marking 
a 5-percent increase compared to the previous year. 
 
Israel Radio reported that a delegation of Foreign 
Ministry officials and rabbis from Israel's rabbinical 
courts met with officials from the U.S. Department of 
Homeland Security in an effort to return to Israel 
husbands who failed to give their wives a writ of 
divorce and later fled to the U.S., many of whom reside 
there illegally. 
 
Ha'aretz reported on a controversy in the U.S. 
following the transfer of control of six U.S. seaports 
to a company from Dubai.  The Jerusalem Post printed an 
AP story on the issue. 
 
Maariv printed the results of a TNS/Teleseker Polling 
Institute survey conducted Wednesday evening, which 
shows a decline in support for Kadima: 
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom 
would you vote?"  (Results in Knesset seats -- in 
brackets, results of last week's poll.) 
-Kadima 40 (39); Labor Party 20 (20); Likud 15 (15); 
National Union-National Religious Party 10 (9); Shas 9 
(9 or 10); Yisrael Beiteinu 8 (7); Arab parties 7 to 9 
(8); Meretz 5(6); United Torah Judaism 5 (6). 
 
Channel 10-TV and Ha'aretz published the results of a 
survey conducted Tuesday night by Prof. Camil Fuchs of 
the Amanet Group's Dialogue Institute: 
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom 
would you vote?"  (Results in Knesset seats -- in 
brackets, results of poll conducted on February 16.) 
-Kadima 39 (39 or 40); Labor Party 19 (19); Likud 14 
(13); Shas 9 (10); National Union-National Religious 
Party 11 (10); Arab parties 9 (1); United Torah Judaism 
7 (6); Yisrael Beiteinu 7 (7); Meretz 5 (5). 
-"How would you define the government's demeanor versus 
Hamas?"  Too soft: 42 percent; appropriate for the 
circumstances: 38 percent; too harsh: 12 percent; 
undecided: 8 percent. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The pent-up frustration [among the 
Israeli defense establishment] is pointed in one 
direction: Washington." 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "If the U.S. 
loses Egypt's support, it will be even more difficult 
to get the Gulf countries, which really do have the 
money to save the Palestinian economy, to adhere to the 
limitations set forth by the U.S. and the international 
community." 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in independent, left- 
leaning Ha'aretz: "It is as if since Oslo there have 
not been thousands of victims of terrorism.... It is 
all so familiar, and so depressing." 
 
Intelligence affairs reporter Ronen Bergman wrote in 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: 
"Intelligence can't predict the behavior of hundreds of 
thousands of people.  All Israelis are bound to pay the 
price for this." 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a 
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in 
Yediot Aharonot: "Israel must accept [the 
Palestinians'] free choice, but because it cannot live 
with it, it must disengage from them." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Israeli Generals Anger Egypt and Jordan" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (February 23): "The main problem with 
what the two talkative Israeli generals said on 
Wednesday, aggravating the already strained nerves in 
the Middle East, is that both of them were right.  The 
statements of Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Moshe 
Kaplinski about the Egyptian regime and of O/C Central 
Command Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh about the Jordanian 
regime, are the essence of what has been said in the 
past few months, and more forcefully in the past few 
weeks, at many meetings behind closed doors here and in 
many parts of the world.... After the fire dies down, 
someone will have to listen to what [the two generals] 
said, and to give it some thought.  The pent-up 
frustration that one can read between the lines is 
pointed in one direction: Washington.... The day will 
come when we will miss the eastern front that we had, 
with that likeable Saddam Hussein, generous Hafez Assad 
and even the stable Yasser Arafat." 
 
II.  "Rice Aims to Prevent Further Cracks in the Wall" 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (February 23): 
"Time is critical for the U.S. effort; if the 
international front against Hamas crumbles in the next 
weeks and months, it will be very difficult to restore 
it, which is exactly why the Americans are struggling 
now to prevent any crack in the wall.  Egypt is not a 
major contributor to the Palestinians, but is seen as a 
leader of the moderate Arab world.  If Cairo stays on 
board with Washington on the Hamas issue, most of the 
Arab countries will follow.  But, if the U.S. loses 
Egypt's support, it will be even more difficult to get 
the Gulf countries, which really do have the money to 
save the Palestinian economy, to adhere to the 
limitations set forth by the U.S. and the international 
community." 
 
III.  "Between Hamas and Kadima" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in independent, left- 
leaning Ha'aretz (February 23): "In Israel, once again 
the escapist and overused line from the days when 
Arafat and the Palestinian covenant has been given 
legitimacy: true, the Hamas covenant exists, but they 
do not really intend to implement it; realpolitik will 
obligate them to revise it.  And just as on the eve of 
the Oslo Accords, Israelis and Palestinians are already 
meeting abroad -- and led by top Israeli figures from 
those days -- with the goal of moving Hamas and Israel 
closer.  They haven't learned, they haven't forgotten. 
It is as if since Oslo there have not been thousands of 
victims of terrorism; as if the results of the war of 
terrorism, the fruits of the Oslo Accords, have not 
eroded Israel's status in the eyes of itself and in the 
eyes of the world; as if there are no dark waves of 
Islam threatening from near and far.  It is all so 
familiar, and so depressing." 
 
IV.  "IDF Intelligence-Induced Chaos" 
 
Intelligence affairs reporter Ronen Bergman wrote in 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (February 
23): "After it failed in predicting Hamas's victory in 
the elections -- to say nothing about preventing its 
growth as a leading social movement over the past two 
decades -- the [Israeli] intelligence community aspires 
to topple it by producing chaos.  Historical 
experience, which the heads of [Israel's] defense 
establishment and the politicians that direct them had 
better learn -- as soon as possible -- shows that, as 
efficient as they are, security services are good at 
the micro level ... at most.... They almost always fail 
to understand comprehensive social processes at the 
macro level -- obviously so when they try to lead those 
processes.... Intelligence can't predict the behavior 
of hundreds of thousands of people.  All Israelis are 
bound to pay the price for this." 
 
¶V.  "Divorce -- And It Is Better That Way" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a 
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in 
Yediot Aharonot (February 23): "The destructive wording 
of Oslo has collapsed. This wording stipulated that the 
Palestinians would give the Israelis an agreement, and 
in exchange Israel would take measures that would lead 
to its own destruction, mainly by accepting refugees 
into its territory....  Paradoxically, Hamas ... will 
welcome any unilateral move by Israel.  It has an 
interest in such moves, just as Hizbullah had an 
interest in an Israeli withdrawal.  Thus, the path of 
unilateralism is the only one left, and it is also the 
only one that will work.  Thus it happens that those 
who pretended in the past to bring a solution and 
brought anything but, and today, when no one pretends 
to bring a solution anymore, the solution, too, will 
come.  We should remember that today the Israelis and 
the Palestinians are not getting married but rather 
getting divorced, and it is better that way.  Another 
blessing for Israel is the demographic 
disengagement.... [The Palestinians] rejected the 
vision that was offered to them and chose political 
Islam, Iran and the despair of Hamas.  Israel must 
accept their free choice, but because it cannot live 
with it, it must disengage from them.  It must explain 
to the world: this is neither punishment nor revenge, 
but disengagement.  Thus Israel will maximize its new 
situation, in order to sever once and for all the 
Israeli-Palestinian Gordian knot, which does not allow 
Israelis to live a normal life." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Those most 
interested in additional large terror attacks are Sunni 
political elements who wish to use the terror to impose 
vetoes on political decisions.  Preventing a 
deterioration will now be a function of the degree of 
control Shi'ite religious leaders have over their 
public." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
"A Question of Who Will Control Iraq" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (February 23): "The 
U.S. knows that if the Sunnis are left out, or if the 
new government fails to take into account Sunni 
interests, it will be impossible to reduce terror in 
Iraq -- and will delay the withdrawal of the U.S. 
forces from the country.  It appears, therefore, that 
those most interested in additional large terror 
attacks are Sunni political elements who wish to use 
the terror to impose vetoes on political decisions. 
Preventing a deterioration will now be a function of 
the degree of control Shi'ite religious leaders have 
over their public." 
 
JONES