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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 001216 
 
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.  Aftermath of Israeli Elections 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
¶3.  Iraq 
 
¶4.  Europe: Anti-Americanism 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Assistant Secretary of State for 
Near Eastern Affairs David Welch and Deputy US National 
Security Advisor Elliott Abrams will arrive in the 
region on Thursday for talks with Israel and the PA. 
The newspaper wrote that they will hear from Olmert his 
plans for the future of the West Bank.  Ha'aretz quoted 
Israeli sources as saying that the two will invite the 
incoming prime minister to visit Washington once he has 
completed forming his new government. 
 
All media reported on the results of the Knesset 
elections.  Both Yediot and Maariv bannered" "The [Big] 
Bang."  Ha'aretz bannered: "Kadima Leads, Pensioners 
Shock, Likud Crashes," Hatzofe: "Blow to the Right; 
Achievement For Pensioners" and The Jerusalem Post: 
"Exit Polls Show Olmert Can Form 'Pullout' Government." 
The media speculated on whether parties such as Shas, 
which says that it does not accept Kadima's 
"consolidation" (or "convergence") plan, would be able 
to join the coalition. 
 
This morning, as the electronic media and leading news 
web sites reported that 99.67 percent of the votes have 
been counted, the following results were tallied (in 
Knesset seats): Kadima: 28; Labor: 20; Shas: 13; 
Yisrael Beiteinu: 12; Likud: 11; National Union- 
National Religious Party 9: Pensioners' Party: 7; 
United Torah Judaism: 6; Meretz: 4; Arab parties: 10 
(Balad -- National Democratic Assembly: 3 ; Hadash: 3; 
and United Arab List: 4).  The turnout was an all-time 
low for Knesset elections -- 63.2 percent. 
 
Leading media reported that early this morning, Acting 
PM Ehud Olmert appealed to PA Chairman [President] 
Mahmoud Abbas to enter into negotiations over the 
permanent borders of Israel, but added that Israel 
would act alone if peace efforts remained stalled. 
Olmert was quoted as saying: "We are ready to 
compromise, to give up parts of the beloved Land of 
Israel, and evacuate -- under great pain -- Jews living 
there, in order to create the conditions that will 
enable you to fulfill your dream and live alongside us. 
If the Palestinians are wise enough to act, then in the 
near future we will sit together at the negotiating 
table to create a new reality.  If they do not, Israel 
will take its destiny in hand.  The time has come to 
act."  Israel Radio quoted Abbas as saying that he is 
prepared to enter negotiations with Israel under the 
Roadmap.  The radio quoted Palestinian PM-designate 
Ismail Haniyeh as saying that he is not optimistic 
given the results of the Israeli elections and Kadima's 
declared policy.  Israel Radio reported that reactions 
from other Hamas leaders were stronger. 
 
The media quoted Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu as 
saying that he is not resigning the leadership of his 
party.  The media quoted Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman 
Avigdor Lieberman as saying that Yisrael Beiteinu will 
be the ruling party next time.  Nahum Barnea of Yediot 
noted that Pensioners' Party chairman Rafi Eitan, who 
was involved in the Pollard affair, could become the 
"first Israeli cabinet minister wanted by law 
enforcement authorities in the US." 
 
Leading media cited a confirmation by the IDF last 
night that Palestinians (from Islamic Jihad) have for 
the first time fired a Katyusha rocket -- a much longer- 
range projectile than the Qassam -- from the Gaza Strip 
into Israel.  The media reported that four Bedouin 
shepherds were killed in separate incidents on Tuesday 
when Qassam rockets and munitions unexpectedly 
detonated in southern Israel.  Israel Radio reported 
that three Qassam rockets landed in Israel this 
morning. 
 
All media reported that on Tuesday, the Palestinian 
parliament endorsed the Hamas government, 71-36, with 
two abstentions.  On Tuesday, Dr. Nasser Eddin Sha'er, 
who is slated to serve as deputy to Haniyeh, was quoted 
as saying on Monday in an interview with Ha'aretz: "The 
new [PA] government does not reject coordination to 
resolve routine problems with anyone, including 
Israel."  Sha'er was also quoted as saying that Hamas 
is not ready to concede to Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Foreign Ministry has 
completed the drafting of a new bill on security- 
related exports.  The new legislation was drafted 
following the US administration's demand that Israel 
tighten its supervision over weapons sales.  Ha'aretz 
cited the Foreign Ministry's anger over a bill proposed 
by the Defense Ministry that gives the Foreign Ministry 
only a small part in the supervision process. 
 
Hatzofe reported that the Jerusalem Committee of the 
Zionist Council recommends that Jerusalem's Arab 
neighborhoods administer themselves in the form of sub- 
municipalities, as an interim solution ahead of a final- 
status agreement for the city. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz wrote that three organizations -- 
the PA, the IDF, and Palestinian local councils -- are 
busy renovating, upgrading, and improving roads in the 
West Bank in response to the transportation problems 
created by IDF barriers and the diversion of 
Palestinian vehicles to secondary roads. 
 
Citing Reuters, Ha'aretz reported that the Arab League, 
which is convening in Khartoum, reiterated its support 
of the 2002 Arab peace initiative.   Leading media 
reported that during an interview broadcast Tuesday on 
PBS-TV, Syrian President Bashar Assad expressed doubts 
about the Holocaust. 
 
Leading media reported that President Bush has 
appointed White House Budget Director Josh Bolten as 
his new White House Chief of Staff, replacing Andy 
Card.  Maariv reported that Bolten calls himself a 
"devoted Jew."  Ha'aretz, Maariv, and Hatzofe reported 
that former US Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger 
passed away Tuesday at age 88. 
 
Ha'aretz cited The New York Sun as saying Tuesday that 
Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University's Kennedy 
School of Government, who recently co-wrote research 
about the influence of the Jewish lobby in the US, will 
retire from his administrative position at Harvard in 
June, but continue to teach there. 
The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a Gallup poll 
conducted among Americans on February 6-9 and released 
on Monday: 
-"In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies 
more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?" 
Overall, sympathy with Israel was measured at 59 
percent whereas support for the Palestinians was 15 
percent.  Only 8 percent of Americans surveyed had no 
opinion, while 13 percent supported neither side, and 5 
percent supported both sides equally. 
 
----------------------------------- 
¶1.  Aftermath of Israeli Elections: 
----------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote on 
page one of independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The 
fact that the voter, in his strange way, crushed the 
right seems to be a message to the Acting Prime 
Minister: 'Take hold of the torch and keep going.'" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The truly 
momentous news item last night was neither Kadima nor 
the Labor Party.  It was the implosion of the Likud." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel's new government must 
announce its willingness to talk to any Palestinian 
element that calls for an agreement based on a two- 
state solution." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one 
of popular, pluralist Maariv: "The public has allocated 
[Olmert] limited credit. The burden of proof is on 
him." 
 
Editor-in-Chief Gonen Ginat wrote in the editorial of 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe: "The results of the 
Knesset elections as they appeared last night in the TV 
exit poll are a very serious blow to the right wing." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
¶I.  "4.5 on the Richter Scale" 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote on 
page one of independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (March 
29): "Instead of a right-wing government headed by 
Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud rebels, who undermined 
any attempt to move toward a peace agreement, Israel 
will be getting a government that will have the means 
to implement the plan devised by Ehud Olmert when he 
becomes prime minister... Olmert's convergence plan 
speaks of evacuating 60,000 settlers from the 
'settlement blocs.'  Such a move won't pass by without 
violent opposition, and there is no chance that the 
United States will foot the 150-billion shekel [around 
USD 32-billion] bill. Even if Olmert manages to put 
together a peace government, he is not Sharon.  But the 
fact that the voter, in his strange way, crushed the 
right seems to be a message to the Acting Prime 
Minister: 'Take hold of the torch and keep going.'" 
 
II.  "Sharon's Revenge" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (March 29): 
"Every analysis of election results in Israel begins 
with the majority bloc.  On the assumption that the 
exit polls last night resemble the final results, the 
center-left bloc has at least 61 seats.  The Right is 
incapable of forming a government. Kadima will form the 
next government, and Olmert will head it. 
Nevertheless, there was something hollow to the 
isolated whoops of joy that were aired last night at 
Kadima and Labor Party headquarters. Kadima had 
expected to get far more.... The Labor Party too had 
expected to get more... But the truly momentous news 
item last night was neither Kadima nor the Labor Party. 
It was the implosion of the Likud.  This was the 
greatest revenge of the man 'from Hadassah Ein Kerem' 
[Ariel Sharon, on his hospital bed].  He, who took the 
Likud to 38 seats, brought it down to one-third of 
that, threatened to banish his adversaries Uzi Landau 
and Yisrael Katz from the Knesset, and dealt Netanyahu 
a humiliation that no game of chess with his father 
might ever heal.  And he did all that with closed 
eyes." 
 
III.  "Kadima with Labor" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one 
of popular, pluralist Maariv (March 29): "The seats 
that Olmert won on Tuesday have not turned him into a 
determined national leader. The public has allocated 
him limited credit. The burden of proof is on him.... 
It was Ariel Sharon's last revenge. It was the 
vengeance of the tractor after its engine had fallen 
silent. He is lying there between life and death, but 
the Likud is in a similar situation.  The same applies 
to the settlements in Gush Katif.  Now this is Olmert 
time.  It is his turn now.  He won on Tuesday, and 
together with the other winner, Amir Peretz, they are 
the new leaders of Israel -- Kadima with Labor. 
[Hebrew play on words also meaning 'Forward to Work']." 
 
IV.  "Initiatives For New Governments" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (March 29): "Israel's new 
government must announce its willingness to talk to any 
Palestinian element that calls for an agreement based 
on a two-state solution.... The parties that come out 
on top in Israel's elections must make a serious effort 
toward a comprehensive diplomatic move that will lead 
to a peace agreement and the end of the conflict.... 
[The Israeli government's] unilateralism comes to spur 
on diplomatic efforts, certainly not to make them 
redundant from the outset.  It is to be hoped that the 
Palestinians will openly accept the agreed-upon rules 
of the game.  Abbas, in an interview in Ha'aretz last 
Friday, expressed his desire to renew negotiations 
without preconditions.  If Hamas is willing to go the 
same route, it must clear the fog away from its 
positions and renounce the armed struggle." 
 
¶V.  "Facing a Difficult Period" 
 
Editor-in-Chief Gonen Ginat wrote in the editorial of 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe (March 29): "The results 
of the Knesset elections as they appeared last night in 
the TV exit poll are a very serious blow to the right 
wing.  The sane camp that warned against the crazy 
policy stayed home.  Apathy, despair, disappointment 
with democracy, all led to the big mass of right wing 
voters, Likud members, who stayed away from the polling 
stations.  The right wing, without its main backbone, 
the Likud, is weaker -- much weaker.  The battles that 
it will face will be impossible.  Because Olmert has 
already promised additional withdrawals.... Let there 
not be a shadow of a doubt: We are facing a difficult 
period." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The US is to be 
commended for ... refusing to accept Hamas's bid for 
talks with the Quartet before Hamas has accepted the 
Quartet's conditions." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Hamas's 'Moderation'" 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized (March 29): "For all 
Hamas's previous bravado about not caring about Western 
financial assistance and its claims that the PA will do 
without or find support elsewhere, Haniyeh would very 
much like to avoid becoming an international pariah. 
Haniyeh's slight rhetorical shift, then, can be seen as 
an effort to induce someone -- Israel, the US, or the 
EU -- to break Hamas's isolation and agree to talk. 
The US is to be commended for seeing through this and 
refusing to accept Hamas's bid for talks with the 
Quartet before Hamas has accepted the Quartet's 
conditions.... [Besides], convincing Palestinians to 
abandon the dream of destroying Israel, either through 
terrorism or by flooding Israel with 'refugees 
exercising their right of return' ... may be daunting. 
But with sufficient patience and determination it may 
be accomplished." 
 
--------- 
¶3.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Defense and foreign affairs columnist Amir Oren wrote 
in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "In addition to 
the risk posed to the US, and commitments to Europe and 
Israel, Bush's commitment to the new Iraq provides him 
with another excuse.  If the Iranians fail to 
comprehend that, they will repeat Saddam's mistake." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Of Iraq, Pokemon, and Israel" 
 
Defense and foreign affairs columnist Amir Oren wrote 
in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (March 29): "The 
new Iraqi military, which America is constructing, will 
stand on its own feet in time, and will allow America 
to gradually withdraw.  With or without war in Iraq, 
Iran's determination to achieve nuclear capability 
leads to a US calamity.  Saddam, had he not been 
toppled, would have considered it an existential reason 
to renew his efforts to arm Iraq with nuclear weapons. 
Now, in addition to the risk posed to the US, and 
commitments to Europe and Israel, Bush's commitment to 
the new Iraq provides him with another excuse.  If the 
Iranians fail to comprehend that, they will repeat 
Saddam's mistake." 
 
 
----------------------------- 
¶4.  Europe: Anti-Americanism: 
----------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Eve Bonnivard, a French journalist, and Barbara 
Lefebvre, a French history teacher, the authors of a 
book denouncing anti-American excesses in French 
textbooks, wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: 
"Current French education might produce an anti- 
American generation apt to accept terrorism as one way 
among others of expressing opposition to American 
imperialism." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
"Anti-Americanism in French Textbooks" 
Eve Bonnivard, a French journalist, and Barbara 
Lefebvre, a French history teacher, the authors of a 
book denouncing anti-American excesses in French 
textbooks, wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(March 29): "If there is one subject that should be 
discussed because its treatment in French school 
textbooks is faulty, it is that of contemporary 
terrorism and the vision of American policy.... Current 
French education might produce an anti-American 
generation apt to accept terrorism as one way among 
others of expressing opposition to American 
imperialism.... Reflecting France, or rather its 
elites, some of those textbooks describe the actual 
world not as it exists but as they fantasize it: a 
world in which the United States is a superpower and 
imposes its point of view on everyone.  A world where 
France bravely stands up to 'Uncle Sam' as a 'Mother 
Courage' speaking in the name of the silent majority. 
A world where terrorism is not a killer of democracy, 
but the proud reaction of 'humiliated' Muslims." 
 
JONES