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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 11 TEL AVIV 001887 
 
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.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Israel and the US are 
beginning discussions of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's 
convergence plan this week.  The newspaper wrote that 
the working assumption among senior Israeli officials 
is that the US administration supports the plan and 
views it as "the only game in town."   Ha'aretz said 
that two major issues are on the agenda: the timeline 
for the plan and the nature of the support to be 
extended by the USG.  On Sunday, Israel Radio and other 
media reported that three of the prime minister's 
advisers -- Dov Weisglass, Shalom Turgeman and Yoram 
Turbowicz -- left for Washington Saturday night in 
order to prepare Olmert's visit.  They will meet with 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security 
 
SIPDIS 
Advisor Stephen Hadley and with Deputy National 
Security Advisor Elliott Abrams.  The radio said that 
during his visit to Washington, Olmert will meet with 
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Secretary of 
State and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well 
as with leaders of the Senate and of the House of 
Representatives, and speak to a joint meeting of 
Congress.  Olmert is also expected to meet with leaders 
of Jewish organizations.  On Sunday, Yediot reported 
that three senior members of the American Jewish 
leadership -- Harold Tanner, Malcolm Hoenlein, and 
James Tisch - were to meet that day in Jerusalem with 
Olmert, and pass on a message they received from the 
administration in Washington: Don't ask the President 
for money to finance convergence at your meeting with 
him in the White House.  Yediot reported that The New 
York Sun  recently reported that officials in the White 
House and the National Security Council recently passed 
on discreet messages to Jewish leaders: it would be 
best if Olmert's first visit to Washington as prime 
minister were to focus on expansive strategic issues. 
Yediot wrote that The New York Sun asked for the 
response of Israeli Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon, 
who denied that Olmert had any intention of asking for 
an aid package to finance convergence. 
 
All media (Yediot's banner) reported that on Sunday in 
the area of Jenin, IDF troops killed a Palestinian 
civilian and 6 Islamic Jihad activists -- including 
most wanted terrorist Elias Ashkar, the head of Islamic 
Jihad in the northern West Bank, believed to have been 
behind all of the group's suicide attacks over the past 
year, including the latest suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. 
Over the weekend, the media reported that IDF forces on 
Friday found an explosives belt that weighed up to 10 
kg and was apparently intended for an attack in Israel. 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Friday, IDF 
soldiers shot dead an armed Fatah activist in Nablus. 
Leading media reported that on Sunday off the Gaza 
shore, the Israel Navy seized a Palestinian boat, which 
contained several hundred kg of military-grade 
explosives and mines, and arrested the crew. 
 
The Jerusalem Post wrote that it is not clear that the 
US will be able to influence the mechanism being 
developed by the European Commission to provide 
humanitarian aid to the Palestinians while bypassing 
the Hamas government.  Citing European Commission 
officials whom The Jerusalem Post interviewed on 
Sunday, the newspaper said that if the US does not 
approve the mechanism, it is possible that a 
splintering of funding strategies will emerge, leading 
to the payment of PA salaries by Europe and 
international donors.  Maariv reported that the EU is 
expected to announce today that it is resuming its 
financial aid to the PA. 
 
Major media (lead story in The Jerusalem Post) reported 
that the tension between Olmert and Defense Minister 
Amir Peretz continues.  Media reported that on Sunday 
the government did not debate a proposal put forward by 
Peretz Wednesday that 50 million shekels of tax revenue 
withheld from the PA be set aside for the purchase of 
medical equipment for the Palestinians. 
 
All media report that on Sunday, the High Court of 
Justice rejected, 6-5, petitions to reject amendments 
against the Citizenship Law, which prevents 
Palestinians from requesting residency status in Israel 
by virtue of "family unification" with Israel.  In its 
lead story, Ha'aretz quoted Justice Minister Haim Ramon 
as saying in an interview with the newspaper that he 
planned to legislate a basic law to anchor Israel's 
immigration policy, and that he would bring it before 
the Knesset for approval within about half a year. 
Other media quoted Ramon as making similar remarks. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that last week, two senior Israeli 
nuclear experts -- Atomic Energy Commission DG Gideon 
Frank and his deputy in charge of policy, Eli Levita -- 
visited Washington and discussed international efforts 
to contain Iran's nuclear program.  The newspaper wrote 
that their visit came ahead of Olmert's trip to the US, 
and that Mossad Director Meir Dagan, who, on Olmert's 
behalf, concentrates efforts for a "political 
obstruction" of Iran's nuclear policy, came to 
Washington in late April for talks with his American 
counterparts.  On Sunday, major media (banner in 
Yediot) cited a UN claim that enriched uranium was 
discovered in an Iranian military installation.  Yediot 
quoted an Israeli expert as saying that this could be 
the "smoking gun in a smoke-filled room." 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz and other media reported that IDF 
soldiers have been escorting Palestinian schoolchildren 
from the southern Hebron hills to protect them from 
attacks by settlers from the Maon farm.  On Sunday, in 
another development, Ha'aretz quoted senior army 
officers as saying that in the wake of an attempt by 
settlers to burn down a trailer in a Palestinian quarry 
near Nablus Thursday, Peretz ought to implement the 
decision of his predecessor, Shaul Mofaz, to remove the 
nearby illegal outpost, Bracha B. 
 
Leading media reported that Daniel Wultz, the 16-year- 
old American tourist who was critically wounded in the 
Passover suicide bombing at Tel Aviv's central bus 
station, died of his wounds on Sunday, two days after 
another victim, Lior Enidzer.  Ha'aretz reported that 
US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones visited Wultz 
recently. 
 
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that several 
greenhouses belonging to the former settlement of Morag 
in the Gaza Strip were destroyed over the weekend 
during an attempt by dozens of gunmen to take over the 
area. 
 
Major media reported that on Sunday, the cabinet 
approved the composition of the security cabinet, which 
will be chaired by PM Ehud Olmert and heavily dominated 
by Kadima.  Kadima will have seven representatives on 
the panel, with Olmert being joined by Tzipi Livni, Avi 
Dichter, Abraham Hirchson, Shaul Mofaz, Haim Ramon, and 
Shimon Peres.  Three ministers from Labor -- Amir 
Peretz, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Ophir Pines Paz will 
also sit in the security cabinet, along with Eli Yishai 
and the Gil Pensioners' Party Rafi Eitan. 
 
Citing news agencies, Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday, 
Palestinian Authority PM Ismail Haniyeh called on 
Middle East peace brokers to deal directly with the 
Hamas-led government, saying Palestinians cannot afford 
to wait weeks for a new aid mechanism that bypasses 
Hamas.  On Sunday, citing AP, Ha'aretz reported that on 
Saturday, Norwegian Foreign Ministry officials met with 
Palestinian Minister for Refugee Affairs Atef Adwan in 
Oslo and called upon the group to renounce violence 
against Israel.  The newspaper reported that the 
Norwegian government announced on Friday that it was 
going to increase by some 50 percent the financial aid 
it provides to the PA, and that it would now reach USD 
25 million, which will be transferred via the UN Relief 
and Works Agency.  Today, Hatzofe reported that 
pressure applied by the Austrian Foreign Ministry led 
to the cancellation of a planned visit by Atef Adwan to 
Austria.  Hatzofe reported that the Palestinian 
minister was invited to Austria by a left wing 
organization called the Council Against Imperialism, 
which is opposed to the policies of the US and Israel. 
On Sunday, Hatzofe reported that the Palestinians 
intended to send a truck loaded with medicine from the 
Gaza Strip to the West Bank that day.   Hatzofe quoted 
Israeli security officials as saying that this proves 
that the Palestinians have a sufficient supply of 
medicine, despite their cries of dismay. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Saturday, for the 
first time, Haniyeh said that the "national 
reconciliation" document drafted last week in the 
Hadarim prison by Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and 
Sheikh Abdel Halek Natshe of Hamas, which calls for 
accepting the principle of establishing a Palestinian 
state on the land occupied in 1967 as well as the 
agreements signed previously by the PA with Israel and 
the international community, "contains worthy 
principles to which agreement is possible."  However, 
Haniyeh said that other prisons are not a party to it 
and that the document therefore must be studied 
further. 
 
Citing information conveyed by associates of PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli defense 
sources, Ha'aretz reported that the Palestinian 
security forces believe that Islamic Jihad plans to 
assassinate Abbas. 
 
Over the weekend, major media reported that on 
Saturday, hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli 
protesters clashed with police and Border Police in the 
A-Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem during a protest 
against the neighborhood's enclosure by fences and 
checkpoints. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a High Court ruling 
Sunday paved the way for local authorities of Jewish 
settlements in the West Bank to use state funds to 
fight any future withdrawal plans, even as it warned 
that they may face financial penalties by doing so. 
The ruling was hailed as a victory by both the 
petitioner, Peace Now (for the Court's acknowledging of 
the funding), and the respondent, the Council of Jewish 
Settlements in the Territories. 
 
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that defense 
attorneys in the case of Steve Rosen and Keith 
Weissman, two former AIPAC officials, cited the Legal 
Cooperation Treaty signed between Israel and the US in 
the late 1990s, that would allow for depositions from 
three diplomats referred to in the indictment, who are 
all in Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has been 
appointed to serve on the UN committee on NGOs for four 
years beginning January 1. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that Special Counsel 
Patrick Fitzgerald may ask Vice President Dick Cheney 
to submit evidence in the affair of the exposure of CIA 
agent Valerie Plame. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Pensioners Affair Ministers 
Rafi Eitan's spokeswoman as saying Sunday that he is 
planning to visit Cuba this month for a private 
business trip. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua 
has expressed his "deepest apologies" over comments he 
made at the recent American Jewish Committee's 
centennial symposium in the US, in which he asserted 
that only people living in Israel and taking part in 
the daily decisions of the Jewish state had a 
meaningful Jewish identity -- remarks that have sparked 
a furious debate over the relationship between Israel 
and the Diaspora. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the first and second 
prizewinners of Israel's Intel Young Scientists 
Competition have won second and fourth place in the 
International Intel Young Scientists Competition -- 
held over the weekend in Indianapolis -- in which they 
were pitted against 1,400 teenagers from 47 countries. 
 
Yediot reported that Microsoft Israel takes steps 
against its employees who are called up for mandatory 
IDF reserve duty. 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "Does Olmert have [Shas 
party mentor] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's blessing for this 
traumatic and controversial plan?  Obviously he 
doesn't." 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[Amir] Peretz is a 
good candidate to adopt [leadership], on condition that 
he does not decide that he should be, first and 
foremost, an intern chief of staff." 
Columnist Dov Goldstein wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv: " Only through negotiations with the elected 
Palestinian leadership, and only through an agreement 
with such a leadership, is there a chance -- however 
slim it may be -- to find a solution for the conflict." 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
Ha'aretz: "The Arab response [to Hamas-led Palestine], 
no less than the American and Israeli one, made clear 
to Hamas leaders that they are facing a front the likes 
of which no Arab state has faced before." 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz: 
"If we ... continue the occupation, we should not be 
surprised when the occupied take our fate into their 
hands." 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in The Jerusalem Post: "The idea 
that the West should subsidize, directly or indirectly, 
a radical Islamist, innately anti-American, anti- 
Semitic, and genocidal-oriented Hamas regime is crazy." 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Olmert Going to US With a Precarious Coalition 
Behind Him" 
 
Columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (5/15): "The date for 
Olmert's trip was decided months in advance.  It seemed 
reasonable to assume that the coalition and government 
would be wrapped up a month and a half after the 
elections, and Olmert would be able to lean back and 
enjoy his flight.  Olmert kept to his schedule, but the 
coalition that he achieved is limited and 
precarious.... Olmert is going to Washington to receive 
Bush's agreement to his convergence plan.  Most 
observers believe that he will return home with the 
appropriate assurances.  But does Olmert have Rabbi 
Ovadia Yosef's blessing for this traumatic and 
controversial plan?  Obviously he doesn't or Shas 
wouldn't have insisted upon and received a letter 
exempting it from the clause in the coalition 
guidelines about leaving settlements." 
 
II.  "A Necessary Rebel" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (5/14): "Just let 
[Defense Minister Amir Peretz] not suddenly start 
'understanding security.'  Let him keep turning over 
every stone and looking with wonder at what he finds 
underneath.  Let him not be insulted by officers who 
wink behind his back or even make the sign of horns 
with their fingers behind the head.  Because this is 
the only way Amir Peretz will be able to break the 
thick layer of ice that has long covered what should be 
a bonfire of original thought.  The first signs are 
positive.... The hope that the well-arranged IDF chest 
of drawers, which contains a 'file' for every scenario 
and a 'response' to every event, will at least be aired 
out if not sanitized, expresses an aspiration toward a 
revolution in understanding, a hope for a situation in 
which the scenario is planned instead of fallen into or 
responded to.... However, the word 'withdrawal' does 
not exist in the IDF lexicon.  There it is 
'disengagement,' 'convergence,' or 'redeployment.' 
Peretz may find himself once again facing one of the 
stuck drawers in the chest.  The question may also be 
asked, with all due respect to the United States of 
course, what about Syria?  Must Assad's statements 
always be responded to instead of adopting a policy of 
willingness to conduct negotiations?  For all these 
reasons, that mysterious attribute called 
'statesmanship' is needed.  Peretz is a good candidate 
to adopt it, on condition that he does not decide that 
he should be, first and foremost, an intern chief of 
staff." 
 
III.  "Talk With Abu Mazen" 
 
Columnist Dov Goldstein wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv (5/14): "Only through negotiations with the 
elected Palestinian leadership, and only through an 
agreement with such a leadership, is there a chance -- 
however slim it may be -- to find a solution to the 
conflict.  Anything else is but an illusion.... True, 
Abu Mazen's status was damaged after Hamas's victory in 
the elections.  However, the Israeli government's 
working assumption that the Palestinian Authority's 
economic distress, the blocking of international 
financial assistance, and the inability to pay the 
salaries of PA employees and of the members of its 
security forces would cause the Hamas government to 
collapse and force the PA Chairman to declare new 
elections, turned out to be wrong." 
 
IV.  "Freud Believed This Was the Land of Holy 
Lunacies" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz 
(5/15): "That same 'plucked fowl' [Mahmoud Abbas] who 
is clinging with all his might to the diplomatic option 
is receiving a blessing for the road from prisoner for 
life Marwan Barghouti, whose power no one denies.  That 
same 'broken reed' who obtained an agreement to stop 
the terror attacks from Hamas is getting a document 
from Hamas prisoners that affords a chance, perhaps a 
last chance, for a two-state solution.  If Israel looks 
away, as it did following the important declaration by 
the Arab League, we will yet be fondly missing Ismail 
Haniyeh.  If we insist on adding to our collection of 
holy lunacies the wish 'to take our fate into our own 
hands' and continue the occupation, we should not be 
surprised when the occupied take our fate into their 
hands." 
 
¶V.  "When the Arab Boycott Is Aimed at Palestine" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
Ha'aretz (5/15): "Why is the Arab boycott of Hamas so 
successful?  American pressure is an influential 
factor, but such threats never prevented European and 
Arab countries in the past from cooperating with Saddam 
Hussein or Muammar Qadhafi before sanctions were 
lifted, and does not prevent most of them from 
conducting normal trade tries with Iran.  The 
difference is that Hamas is now perceived as unwilling 
to cooperate with the official Arab position adopted at 
the Beirut summit -- the Arab League resolution 
adopting the two-state principle and the 1967 
borders.... The Arab response [to Hamas-led Palestine], 
no less than the American and Israeli one, made clear 
to Hamas leaders that they are facing a front the likes 
of which no Arab state has faced before.  Hence the 
expectation that a change in Hamas's political stance 
is near." 
 
VI.  "Why Bail Hamas Out?" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in The Jerusalem Post (5/15): 
"Something about the Middle East makes people dopey. 
The latest example of this phenomenon is the plan, 
apparently endorsed by EU countries, to pay Palestinian 
Authority employees out of their own taxpayers' 
money.... The European plan would ensure that continued 
extremism is cost-free.  It would also show radical 
Islamists in Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere that they can 
take power, reject moderation, and still not face any 
real Western pressure.  Vladimir Lenin, the communist 
revolutionary and dictator, liked to say the 
bourgeoisie was so dumb that it would sell the rope to 
hang itself with.  Yet even he did not expect that 
those he intended to destroy would pay for the rope 
themselves.... The idea that the West should subsidize, 
directly or indirectly, a radical Islamist, innately 
anti-American, anti-Semitic, and genocidal-oriented 
Hamas regime is crazy.  Why should anyone -- much less 
any country -- take such a notion seriously?" 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Israel should formulate a comprehensive 
deterrence policy against Iran ... while continuing, of 
course, to view the US as the main factor in the battle 
against Iran." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Updated Deterrence Policy Needed" 
 
Columnist Amos Gilboa wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv (5/15): "Indeed, until August 2005, when 
[Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad was elected president, Iran did 
not directly threaten Israel's destruction (true, it 
was the 'little Satan' and an enemy of Iran against 
which terror was employed, but no more than that), and 
it did not make the goal of [Israel's] destruction its 
international 'battle cry.'  Therefore, until then the 
correct Israeli policy was indeed to refrain from 
jumping to the head of the international queue against 
Iran, to focus solely on quiet diplomacy, to be part of 
the global coalition against Iran; and to remain silent 
publicly.   But the reality has changed since the end 
of 2005, and in my opinion Israel should, therefore, 
update its policy -- remain silent no longer.  In other 
words, Israel should formulate a comprehensive 
deterrence policy against Iran, including on the PR and 
declarative front (what should be said, by whom, when 
and how), while continuing, of course, to view the US 
as the main factor in the battle against Iran." 
 
JONES