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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 001362 
 
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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All media highlighted Acting PM Ehud Olmert's coalition- 
forming efforts and the emerging Kadima-Labor 
partnership.  Major media reported that Olmert has told 
Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz that Yisrael Beiteinu 
would be a member of the next government.  Leading 
media wrote that Olmert made the statement in secret 
meetings, during which it was decided that Labor would 
join the coalition as the senior partner.  The media 
quoted sources in Labor and Kadima as saying that 
Peretz would be appointed defense minister, and that 
Labor would also be given the education portfolio.  In 
its lead story, Yediot quoted associates of Defense 
Minster Shaul Mofaz as saying that handing over the 
defense portfolio to Peretz is an irresponsible act, as 
the associates believe that Peretz's expected requests 
for cuts in the defense budget would be badly informed. 
IDF Radio and Israel Radio said that Mofaz told Peretz 
that the reports do not reflect his opinion, were made 
without his knowledge and noted that he is convinced 
that none of his close associates had uttered them. 
Major media reported that Tourism Minister Abraham 
Hirchson is the most likely candidate for finance 
minister, if the post is held by Kadima. 
 
Israel Radio cited Palestinian PM Mahmoud Zahar's 
denial of reports that he recognized Israel and its 
right to exist.  Leading media had reported that Zahar 
wrote UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, referring to a 
"two-state solution" for the Middle East and to the 
Palestinians' hope to "live in peace and security... 
side by side with our neighbors in this sacred part of 
the world."  Ha'aretz reported that Hamas is struggling 
to unite its local ranks and its leadership abroad. 
Ha'aretz reported that Egyptian President Hosni 
Mubarak's adviser Osama El Baz told the newspaper that 
Egypt is recommending that Hamas and Palestinian PM 
Ismail Haniyeh stop the "violence" -- terror against 
Israel.  Yediot and other media quoted the PA's FM, 
Mahmoud Zahar, as saying on Tuesday that the Chinese 
government has invited him to visit Beijing in May. 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday, Lu Jing, 
the spokesman of the Chinese Embassy to Israel, issued 
a denial of the report.  Yediot quoted PA Interior 
Minister Said Siam as saying on Tuesday that he is 
responsible for the security forces, not PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas.  This morning, Israel Radio 
quoted Abbas as saying that the National Security 
Service -- the most important force in the PA -- will 
remain under his sole control and responsibility. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted senior GOI sources in Jerusalem as 
saying on Tuesday that Israel does not intend to resume 
the transfer of tax money it levies on the PA's behalf, 
and that it is not looking for indirect channels to do 
so. 
 
Ha'aretz cited various reports, according to which 10 
terror operatives, who the London-based Al-Hayat said 
have infiltrated the Gaza Strip, belong to several 
factions -- mainly radical Islamic movements in Egypt, 
that are affiliated with Al-Qaida.  They allegedly 
include citizens of Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen.  Ha'aretz 
wrote that some of the reports could not be fully 
verified by Israeli authorities. 
 
Major media reported that on Tuesday, one Palestinian 
was killed and eight others were wounded, including a 
mother and her 6-month-old baby, in a series of IDF 
attacks throughout the Gaza Strip in response to Qassam 
rocket fire into Israel.  Major media reported that a 
Qassam landed close to  a chemical tanker in Ashkelon. 
Leading media reported that the IDF bombarded the PA's 
presidential complex in Gaza.  Ha'aretz reported that a 
13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by IDF troops 
north of Jerusalem.  Israel Radio reported that an IDF 
officer was wounded, and that two Palestinian militants 
-- one from Islamic Jihad, the other from the PFLP -- 
were arrested in Nablus. 
 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israel Prisons 
Service (IPS) confirmed on Tuesday that it was holding 
a Saudi Arabian national -- identified as Abdel Rahman 
El-Attawi -- who was caught close to a year ago 
illegally residing in Israel.  The newspaper quoted IPS 
officials as saying that El-Attawi was not held on 
terror-related charges.  The Jerusalem Post quoted 
Saudi FM Prince Saud as saying earlier on Tuesday that 
his country was in touch with international agencies to 
obtain el-Attawi's release. 
 
Yediot reported that after four years of preparations, 
two Israelis -- Dudu Yifrah and Micha Yaniv -- and one 
Palestinian -- Ali Bushnak -- are leaving within the 
next few days to climb Mt. Everest.  The newspaper said 
that the two promised yesterday that they would do 
everything in their power to help each other make 
history and place Israeli and Palestinian flags on Mt. 
Everest.  Yediot wrote that American mountain climber 
Lance Trumbull came up with the idea as a way to 
demonstrate human cooperation.  The expedition will 
also include representatives of the Christian, Hindu 
and Buddhist faiths. 
 
Maariv reported that 30-year-old Dr. Shany Blum, an 
Israeli physician from the Technion, won the American 
College of Cardiologists' annual young researcher 
award. 
 
Yediot reported that the American company Transaction 
Systems (NASDAQ:TSAI) has started negotiations to 
purchase the Israeli company Fundtech for USD 200-220 
million. 
 
 
 
 
 
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Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Assistance to the Hamas-controlled PA -- certainly 
not; however neither should we stand idly by in the 
face of the humanitarian disaster that has fallen on an 
uninvolved and innocent population." 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in Ha'aretz: 
"The supporters of convergence and its architects are 
deceiving themselves by thinking that [Palestinian] 
rage won't burst out." 
Conservative columnist and former Director General of 
the Israel Broadcasting Authority Uri Porat 
sarcastically wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot: "After it was definitely proved that 
the mighty Israel Defense Forces isn't worth anything 
against some insignificant Qassam rocket launchers, 
there's no doubt that only someone like [Amir] Peretz 
is suitable to put an end to the disgrace." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Do Not Stand Idly By" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (April 
5): "The Hamas victory in the Palestinian Legislative 
Council changed not only the diplomatic map of Israeli- 
Palestinian relations; it also threatens the 
Palestinian population, young and old, with a severe 
humanitarian crisis.... Israel's policy in principle 
prohibits any contact with the Hamas-led Palestinian 
government.  This attitude leaves some room for 
maneuvering with regard to maintaining links with 
Abbas, and with officials in the cabinet ministries 
(although following Hamas's decision not to establish a 
national unity government, all the ministers are Hamas 
people), and with local officials like district 
governors and mayors.  Even the Israel Defense Forces, 
sovereign in the territories according to international 
law, interprets the diplomatic directive in such a way 
that 'no' also can mean 'yes.'  For example, the 
complete severing of ties with local officials might 
disrupt attempts to extricate Israelis caught in the 
territories.  Danger to human life therefore trumps 
blacklisting, a rule that should also be brought to 
bear with regard to innocent Palestinians.  Assistance 
to the Hamas-controlled PA -- certainly not; however 
neither should we stand idly by in the face of the 
humanitarian disaster that has fallen on an uninvolved 
and innocent population.  There is also diplomatic 
wisdom in this. Israel does not want international 
involvement at a time of crisis, United Nations 
resolutions or a forced injection of aid through UN and 
nongovernmental organizations.  It would be better for 
Israel that the war with Hamas not hurt the Palestinian 
people.  The battle is against an organization and a 
government, not against a people or individuals." 
 
II.  "Convergence to a Border of Convenience" 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in Ha'aretz 
(April 5): "What drew the Jewish Israelis [to the 
settlements] -- and turned nearly half a million of 
them into outlaws under international law -- were not 
the clods of holy land but comfortable lives promised 
to them by Israeli military supremacy, the spacious 
inexpensive housing and the improved infrastructure.... 
The convergence, therefore, is the borders drawn by the 
average Israeli Jew's aspirations for comfort and 
convenience.  These would be natural ambitions if they 
did not come at the expense of the Palestinians as 
individuals and as a people.... The convergence plan, 
which coagulates the violence of occupation in densely 
populated Palestinian areas, will bring forth and 
intensify three types of Palestinian rage: national 
rage due to the sabotage of the Palestinian project for 
a state, development and independence; economic rage of 
the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost 
their land, property and livelihood to the Jews who 
prosper on the other side of the barbed wire; and 
religious rage, of those who turn for solace to the 
Koran and Allah, where they can find explanations 
stating that's the way Jews are.  The supporters of 
convergence and its architects are deceiving themselves 
by thinking that all these forms of rage won't burst 
out, or that it will always be possible to suppress 
them. Indeed, it is difficult to predict when and how 
the rage will erupt, but sooner or later, they will be 
back disrupting the dreams of comfort and convenience 
at the expense of another nation." 
 
III.  "The Defense Portfolio -- to Keep in Power" 
 
Conservative columnist and former Director General of 
the Israel Broadcasting Authority Uri Porat 
sarcastically wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (April 5): "The Kadima sages are 
telling the Labor Party sages, 'The finance portfolio 
is ours, take the defense portfolio.'  Thus, the 
[Kadima] people believe that they will stay in 
power.... What can one say?  This is a brilliant move - 
- the right man at the right place at the right time. 
At last we'll be able to sleep quietly.  If this is 
what the last elections brought forth, it was 
worthwhile.  After it was definitely proved that the 
mighty Israel Defense Forces isn't worth anything 
against some insignificant Qassam rocket launchers, 
there's no doubt that only someone like [Amir] Peretz 
is suitable to put an end to the disgrace.  For 
instance, he'll be able to sell the air force to the 
Electric Corporation's trade union and use the money to 
raise the port workers' minimum wage.... In fact, it 
will also be possible to do away with the ground 
forces, because not all soldiers will be needed after 
the implementation of Kadima's convergence plan." 
 
JONES