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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TEL AVIV 001191 
 
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 
 
Please note: No Israel Media Reaction report Tuesday, 
March 28, 2006, Israeli Election Day. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  US-Israel Relations 
 
--------------- 
Election polls: 
--------------- 
 
A Yediot/Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll held on 
Sunday: 
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom 
would you vote?"  (Results in Knesset seats -- in 
brackets, results of Yediot's poll published on March 
24.) 
-Kadima 34 (36); Labor Party 21 (21); Likud 13 (14); 
Yisrael Beiteinu 12 (11); Shas 11 (11); National Union- 
National Religious Party 9 (9); Arab parties 7 (7); 
United Torah Judaism 6 (5) Meretz 5 (6); Pensioners' 
Party 2 (the party was not represented in any previous 
poll). 
 
Maariv printed the results of a TNS/Teleseker Polling 
Institute survey: 
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom 
would you vote?"  (Results in Knesset seats -- in 
brackets, results of a Maariv poll conducted on March 
23.) 
--Kadima 34 (37); Labor Party 17 (21); Likud 12 (14); 
Yisrael Beiteinu 12 (10); Shas 12 (9); National Union- 
National Religious Party 11 (11); Arab parties 7-11 
(9); United Torah Judaism 5-6 (5); Meretz 5 (5); 
Pensioners' Party 2. 
According to Maariv, the right-wing and religious 
parties are close to forming an obstructing bloc (54-59 
Knesset seats). 
 
Channel 10-TV and Ha'aretz published the results of a 
survey conducted 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 March 23.) 
-Kadima 36 (36); Labor Party 18 (17); Likud 14 (14); 
Shas 11 (11); Arab parties 8 (8); National Union- 
National Religious Party 12 (9); Yisrael Beiteinu 7 
(9); United Torah Judaism 6 (6); Meretz 6 (6); 
Pensioners' Party 2. 
 
The Jerusalem Post published the results of a Smith 
Institute poll conducted for the newspaper: 
-"Were elections for the Knesset held today, for whom 
would you vote?"  (Results in Knesset seats -- in 
brackets, results of poll published on March 24.) 
-Kadima 33-34 (34); Labor Party 20-21 (19-20); Likud 15 
(15); Yisrael Beiteinu 11 (11); Shas 10 (11); National 
Union-National Religious Party 9-10 (10); Arab parties 
9 (9-10); United Torah Judaism 6 (5); Meretz 6 (5). 
 
According to a Maagar Mohot poll commissioned by 
Channel 2-TV, Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu 
passed the Likud, 15 seats to 12, to move to third 
place behind Kadima (34) and Labor (19). 
 
Ha'aretz wrote that "defying all logic," the number of 
floating voters -- people who have not yet decided 
which party to voted for -- rose sharply this week, to 
28 seats, from 18 seats last week.   Maariv found that 
the floating votes equal ten Knesset seats. 
 
 
 
 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
During the weekend, all media led with the lead up to 
Tuesday's elections.  The media quoted senior Kadima 
leaders, including FM Tzipi Livni, as saying that their 
party had too quickly concluded that it had won the 
elections.  On Sunday, the media reported that Peres, 
no. 2 in Kadima, minimized the importance of Labor 
Chairman Amir Peretz's achievements, while Peretz 
raised the question of Peres's participation in Kadima, 
some of whose senior members took part in a heated 
right-wing Jerusalem rally prior to the late PM Yitzhar 
Rabin's assassination.  Yediot and Ynet, the leading 
news web site associated with the newspaper, quoted 
Yitzhak Rabin's son Yuval as saying that he endorses 
Acting PM Ehud Olmert. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted senior Kadima member Haim 
Ramon as saying on Sunday that the PA would have six to 
twelve months to comply with Israeli demands before a 
Kadima-led government would begin unilateral 
withdrawals from the West Bank. 
 
All media reported that Palestinian PM-designate Ismail 
Haniyeh is slated to present his cabinet to the 
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) today, and that 
the new Palestinian government is expected to be sworn 
in on Wednesday.   All media quoted Haniyeh as saying 
Sunday: "We don't want a whirlpool of blood on this 
region.  We want the rights and dignity of our people. 
We also want to put an end to this complicated conflict 
that has been going on for decades."  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that Haniyeh lashed out at Olmert's 
refusal to negotiate with his government.  Israel Radio 
quoted senior GOI sources in Jerusalem as saying that 
the purpose of Haniyeh's remarks is to sedate Israel 
and the international community in order to win 
legitimacy.  The radio quoted IDF Chief of Staff Dan 
Halutz as saying that Haniyeh's remarks could signify 
Hamas's eventual recognition of Israel and the 
agreements the PA signed with it, and the cessation of 
terrorism.  On Sunday, Yediot reported that on 
Saturday, PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas sent a 
letter to Haniyeh, in which he wrote: "The election 
results do not constitute the breaking of all the 
agreements and commitments of the Palestinian Authority 
or the breaking of all the political plans of the PLO, 
the organization which represents and is the source of 
legitimate authority for the Palestinians in their 
homeland and in the Diaspora.  From the moment that the 
government is established, I will demand a second time 
that you adopt the principles that I presented to you 
in the letter of appointment and that you carry out the 
required amendments to the government's basic 
principles."  The media reported that Haniyeh ignored 
Abbas's statements.  In its lead story Sunday, The 
Jerusalem Post quoted Abbas as saying on Saturday that 
he would use his "constitutional powers" against the 
new Hamas cabinet unless it altered its political 
program and honored all agreements with Israel. 
 
Maariv devoted the main feature of its daily supplement 
to the "almost paranoid bureaucracy" encountered by 
Israeli applicants for US non-immigrant visas.  The 
newspaper cited what applicants view as the 
unfriendliness of the Internet forms referred to by the 
US Embassy's web site.  Maariv cited a response by the 
Embassy that the visa application system is very 
efficient, despite some technical flaws. 
 
Major media reported that today IDF troops killed a 
Palestinian gunman firing rocket-propelled grenades 
into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.  Leading 
media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that another 
gunman was wounded by Israeli fire during the incident. 
Media reported that earlier today, Israeli aircraft 
fired two missiles at a car carrying four members of 
the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza 
City, wounding one of the men and a bystander.  Leading 
media reported that IDF troops killed a Palestinian 
teenager in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday.   Leading 
media reported that on Sunday, security guards at Tel 
Aviv's central bus station apprehended a 24-year-old 
Palestinian trying to enter the bus station with a 
concealed dagger.  Major media reported that the Shin 
Bet recently thwarted two attempts by Islamic Jihad to 
stage terror attacks in Israeli territory.  Hatzofe 
cited the British newspaper The Sunday Times as saying 
that the Israeli Ministry of Defense plans an important 
military operation in Palestinian cities in the West 
Bank after the elections. 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that starting today, 
the IDF plans to turn the Qalandya checkpoint north of 
Jerusalem into a border crossing into Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday, several Palestinians 
and an American volunteer in the West Bank filed 
complaints with the police, accusing settlers of 
violence toward Palestinians in the Hebron area on 
Saturday, after three people were wounded in two 
separate incidents. 
 
On Sunday, all media reported that a young Labor Party 
activist was electrocuted on Saturday after he climbed 
an electric pole in order to take down a Likud campaign 
poster. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that while most English- 
speaking voters interviewed randomly in the Jerusalem 
area said that there were voting for right-wing 
parties, a majority of Israelis from English-speaking 
countries living in the Tel Aviv area seem to be 
leaning predominantly toward left-wing parties ahead of 
Tuesday's election. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Friday at the 
pretrial hearing for Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, 
two former lobbyists with the American Israel Public 
Affairs Committee, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis 
questioned the constitutionality of a law under which 
Rosen and Weissman have been charged with receiving and 
disclosing national defense information to reporters 
and foreign diplomats.  Ha'aretz also reported that the 
prosecution announced that it would object to the 
defense request to subpoena witnesses from Israel, 
including a former Israeli Embassy employee, Naor 
Gilon, to whom Rosen passed on information.  The judge 
insisted that the defense ascertain whether the 
witnesses would be prepared to attend, or at least to 
provide affidavits, and only then would the court rule. 
 
Maariv reported that a teacher who had served in the 
past as an interpreter for American troops in the 
western Iraqi town of Ramadi was decapitated in front 
of his students for allegedly collaborating with the 
CIA and the Mossad.  Major Israeli media quoted 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying in an 
 
SIPDIS 
interview with NBC that the US might reduce the number 
of its troops in Iraq. 
 
Maariv reported that over recent months, the State 
Department has employed Israeli Attorney Shamai 
Leibowitz as an instructor in Israeli affairs at the 
Departments' schools of diplomacy.  Maariv quoted 
Israeli sources in Washington as saying that Leibowitz, 
a strident anti-Israeli critic who defended Fatah 
leader Marwan Barghouti, is not a direct USG hire. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Jewish voters in 
Illinois may stop supporting Illinois' Democratic 
Governor Ron Blagojevich because he did not dismiss a 
female activist in Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam 
from his state's Hate Crimes Commission. 
 
Maariv reported that the US subsidiaries of the Israeli 
energy companies Alon and Delek will supply fuel to the 
US Army. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Israel has a rare window of 
opportunity, for what remains of George Bush's term of 
office, to determine, with American agreement, 
permanent borders with a solid Jewish majority." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "It 
must be hoped that Labor under Peretz's leadership will 
be the senior coalition partner in the next 
government." 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "The Hamas regime will facilitate a 
terrorist war on Israel while disclaiming 
responsibility." 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized: "In the past, 
Jerusalem has been wary of American calls for a 
'reassessment'.... Yet this is precisely the reflex 
that itself should be reconsidered in light of dramatic 
changes on the ground." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "In Favor of Olmert" 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (March 27): "Israel has a rare window 
of opportunity, for what remains of George Bush's term 
of office, to determine, with American agreement, 
permanent borders with a solid Jewish majority.... 
Olmert is right when he says the time has come for us 
to take our fate into our own hands.  We are stuck with 
the dangerous consequences of two historic errors: the 
occupation and the settlements at the beginning, and 
the wretched Oslo agreements later.  The time has come 
for us to break out of this entanglement....  For three 
years Ehud Olmert has been pointing in a revolutionary 
direction.  By doing so he has shown courage and 
integrity and taken great risks.  He was a pioneer of 
the disengagement idea and the idea of creating a large 
centrist party which would make it come true.  In 
effect he is fighting Israel's second war of 
independence -- the war for liberation from the burden 
of the occupation and the settlements, and for our 
independence as a state with a solid Jewish majority 
which serves the interests of the great majority of the 
public, and is not led towards the edge of the abyss by 
an extremist minority." 
 
II.  "Peretz's Revolution" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (March 
27): "[Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz's] 
understanding of the connection between the economy and 
foreign policy, between irrational investments over the 
Green Line and neglect of the development towns [new 
immigrant towns established in the 1950s, especially in 
the border areas, rural regions, and periphery of 
Israel], between large salary gaps and growing 
xenophobia -- as well as the fact that Peretz, in 
contrast to the leading prime ministerial candidate, 
has been working to end the occupation since the early 
1970s, even when his entire social milieu thought 
otherwise -- testify to his independence, courage and 
ability to foresee consequences.... It must be hoped 
that Labor under Peretz's leadership will be the senior 
coalition partner in the next government, and that its 
chairman will receive a significant portfolio, which 
will also help him gain governmental experience. 
Peretz will seek to conduct negotiations with the 
Palestinians before deciding on another unilateral 
withdrawal, but has promised to support any withdrawal 
or evacuation of settlements if it becomes clear that 
negotiations are unfeasible." 
 
III.  "Hamas Governs" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (March 27): "How will the Hamas regime 
handle violence against Israel?  Let's get real.  The 
most 'moderate' policy Hamas will follow is to let 
Fatah, the PFLP and Islamic Jihad attack Israel on a 
daily basis.  No terrorist will be stopped beforehand, 
or imprisoned afterwards.  The Hamas regime will 
facilitate a terrorist war on Israel while disclaiming 
responsibility.  It will maintain a cease-fire as a 
movement while carrying out a war policy as a 
government.  Is this sufficient to provide a fig leaf 
for European aid?  Let's hope not. " 
 
IV.  "Time For a Real 'Reassessment'" 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized (March 27): "The day 
after the elections this week, America's top Mideast 
hands -- Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott 
Abrams and Assistant Secretary of State David Welch -- 
will arrive to assess the new lay of the landscape. 
Regardless of the election outcome, the new situation 
in the region is an opportunity for an overdue 
reassessment of American policy.  In the past, 
Jerusalem has been wary of American calls for a 
'reassessment,' taken as a code word for more active 
diplomatic efforts, which in turn were assumed to mean 
more pressure on Israel.  Yet this is precisely the 
reflex that itself should be reconsidered in light of 
dramatic changes on the ground.  In Israel, our 
election will clearly be a referendum on unilateralism 
as a strategy, both as it was carried out in Gaza and 
as Ehud Olmert has promised its application in Judea 
and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank].  Though the degree of 
endorsement by the electorate is yet to be seen, it 
seems more than possible that unilateralism will, even 
in the absence of Ariel Sharon, be ratified as the 
organizing principle of Israeli policy.... Kadima's 
strategy is essentially to force statehood on the 
Palestinians, even in the absence of a peace 
agreement.... This new situation presents no small 
challenge for US policy which has, since 1967, been 
based on producing two states through a land-for-peace 
trade.  Explicitly or not, UN Security Council 
Resolution 242, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, the 
Madrid Conference, Oslo, the 2000 Camp David summit, 
and the Roadmap have all attempted to steer the parties 
toward a negotiated peace along the same lines.  What, 
however, should the US make of a situation that is 
moving closer to two states but, at the same time, 
further from negotiations?  How can a 'peace process' 
be reconstructed around this new reality?.... We have 
come to a time for Plan B: a plan not built on the main 
assumption of the old plan, namely that the Arab world 
had accepted Israel's right to exist." 
 
------------------------ 
¶2.  US-Israel Relations: 
------------------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Shlomo Gazit, a former head of IDF 
Intelligence, wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "Our 
basic premise must view the continued strategic 
partnership between Jerusalem and Washington as an 
asset of supreme value; we must prepare for the post- 
Iraqi era in the US." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Red Warning Light in the American Arena" 
 
Columnist Shlomo Gazit, a former head of IDF 
Intelligence, wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (March 
27): "Two respected American professors, John 
Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen 
Walt of Harvard University, collaborated in the 
publication of a joint study on the pro-Israel lobby in 
the US.... There is no doubt that a careful examination 
of the many assertions brought in the paper shows a 
clearly one-sided and anti-Israel approach, a total 
disregard for the background, for the existing threats 
and for the motives for Israel's policy and actions.... 
Nevertheless, I believe that we should thank the two 
professors for the red warning light they have lit.  We 
must all prepare for the post-Iraqi era of the US. 
There is a substantial probability that the military 
campaign will end with a failure of the US attempt to 
establish a stable and democratic regime in Iraq, and 
this will have severe implications for America's 
standing in the region in general.  At that point, 
incisive discussions will ensue: Who is responsible for 
entangling the US in the unnecessary war?  It will be 
easy to turn Israel into a scapegoat.  In a few more 
weeks, a new government will be formed in Israel.  We 
must make a thorough examination of our relations with 
the US: Our basic premise must view the continued 
strategic partnership between Jerusalem and Washington 
as an asset of supreme value; we must prepare for the 
post-Iraqi era in the US.  We will not have unlimited 
time at our disposal, and must be first to offer 
initiatives, actions and solutions in our arena, as 
long as the conditions are convenient for us; and at 
the same time, Jerusalem should make the Jewish lobby 
operating in the US Congress understand that our 
strength will not last forever." 
 
JONES