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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 002339 
 
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 
CDR USCENTCOM 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.  Darfur 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Major media quoted PM Ehud Olmert as saying in Paris 
Wednesday that realignment is unstoppable.  The 
Jerusalem Post wrote that Olmert left his meeting with 
French President Jacques Chirac encouraged that, 
despite French opposition to unilateral moves, Chirac 
did not express opposition to his plan.  Maariv quoted 
Olmert as saying that, just like Iranian President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Hamas government wants to 
destroy Israel 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Hamas stopped firing Qassam 
rockets at Israel on Wednesday, after Israel warned 
that it would attack Hamas leaders.  Ha'aretz and 
Israel Radio reported that in response to Hamas's 
restraint, the IDF will not attack Hamas targets as 
long as it does not renew terror attacks. Ha'aretz 
reported that Hamas's instructions to its operatives to 
stop the rocket fire were given Monday night, during a 
meeting between Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh and top 
Hamas military wing officials in Gaza.  The newspaper 
wrote that the other Palestinian organizations are 
ignoring the change in Hamas's position and are 
expected to continue firing at Israel. The media 
reported that Islamic Jihad fired a Qassam rocket at a 
strategic infrastructure facility near Ashkelon on 
Wednesday, causing no injuries.  This morning, 
electronic media and leading news websites reported 
that several Qassam rockets fell on Sderot, wounding a 
few Israelis.  Israel Radio reported that Islamic Jihad 
and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility 
for the launchings. 
 
Maariv reported that the Palestinians have started 
manufacturing Katyusha rockets on their own.  The 
newspaper cited the IDF's concern that the rockets 
could reach a 20-km range, thus becoming able to hit 
Ashkelon. 
 
Leading media (banner in Yediot) reported that over the 
past 24 hours, Israel transferred 950 M16 rifles to 
Ramallah and Gaza.  The shipments left Jordan through 
Allenby Bridge.  Media reported that last week Israeli 
groups filed three petitions at the High Court of 
Justice against the move. 
 
Major media quoted Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon 
"battle damage expert" associated with Human Rights 
Watch, who visited the Gaza beach where seven 
Palestinians were killed on Friday, as saying that "all 
the evidence points" to a "155-mm Israeli land-based 
artillery shell" as the cause of the blast.  Media 
reported that reiterating its Tuesday conclusions, the 
IDF was quick to reject the Human Rights Watch report. 
Ha'aretz quoted Olmert as saying Wednesday in Paris 
that Tuesday's incident in Gaza City, in which seven 
Palestinian civilians were killed, was a tragedy that 
could not be avoided.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Olmert 
as saying in Paris that there is no humanitarian crisis 
in the Gaza Strip, even as the World Health 
Organization (WHO) issued a statement warning of a 
collapse in the PA health system.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that Olmert supported his statement by saying 
that the PA was not interested in some of the 50 
million shekels (around USD 11 million) in drugs and 
medical supplies Israel had agreed to transfer to it. 
 
Maariv reported that the Jerusalem Municipality plans 
to build high-rise hotels in the Jewish Quarter of 
Jerusalem's Old City.  The newspaper cited the outrage 
of the Muslim Waqf over the reported plan. 
 
Yediot and Maariv quoted Ra'anan Dinur, the DG of the 
Prime Minister's Office, as saying Wednesday before the 
Knesset's Finance Committee that the cost of the 
implementation of the realignment plan is currently 
assessed at 9 billion shekels (around USD 2 billion). 
Major media reported that the far Right has issued a 
brochure advocating various violent steps to prevent 
the implementation of the realignment plan, including 
setting trucks on fire, placing viruses in defense 
establishment computers, and putting laxatives in the 
soldiers' food. 
 
Yediot and other media reported that on Wednesday, 
Palestinian FM Mahmoud Zahar carried a great amount of 
dollars (hundreds of millions, according to Yediot; 20 
million, according to Israel Radio) through the Rafah 
border crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.  Israel 
Radio quoted Hamas members as saying that the money 
will mainly serve to pay the salaries of the members of 
the newly-established Hamas militia.  Israel Radio 
reported that World Bank Director James Wolfensohn has 
announced that the Bank is discussing with the Quartet 
ways of assisting the PA.  All media reported on the 
chaos in the PA.  Major media cited Palestinian media 
as saying that Egypt is trying to extricate the PA from 
the crisis it has been in since the elections, and that 
it has proposed that Hamas and PA Chairman [President] 
Mahmoud Abbas form a government of technocrats, to be 
headed by the Nablus businessman and millionaire Munib 
el-Masri.  In return, Abu Mazen would announce the 
cancellation of the referendum. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that the 
High Court of Justice is due to hear eight petitions -- 
some by settlers, other ones by Palestinians -- 
protesting the separation fence in Gush Etzion (the 
Etzion Bloc).  The court will also hear petitions 
against the barrier route in other parts of the West 
Bank.  This morning, Israel Radio reported that the 
court ordered the dismantling of part of the fence 
around the settlement of Tzufin, near Qalqilya. 
 
Maariv cited an unidentified demographic survey that 
found that Jews in Israel will become a minority in 
¶2077. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that methods now employed by the IDF 
after it abandoned its "neighbor procedure" (the use of 
Palestinian civilians to order other Palestinians to 
leave their houses to be arrested) eight months ago 
include more frequent demolition of houses.  The 
newspaper also reported that the neighbors' security 
has not increased. 
 
Yediot reported that during a secret visit to Israel 
this week, a senior delegation of officials from the 
Indian Space Research Organization discussed joint 
Israeli-Indian projects and examined new products made 
by Israel's defense industries. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a petition has been filed before 
the High Court of Justice, claiming that the 
incarceration of 44 Africans from Niger, Togo, Liberia, 
Rwanda, and Guinea-Conakry, who infiltrated into Israel 
since the beginning of March, is illegal. 
 
Hatzofe reported that Jacob Edery, a cabinet minister 
in charge of liaison between the government and the 
Knesset, refused to pledge that a GOI representative 
would visit convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in his US 
jail. 
 
The Jerusalem Post printed an AP story quoting US 
officials as saying that Hai Waknine, a Los Angeles- 
based Israeli, who is a reputed enforcer of a notorious 
Israel cartel, decided to take a plea deal Tuesday in 
the midst of his federal trial after a top-ranking 
member of the group testified against him. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the results of a Pew Research Center 
survey, which polled 17,000 people around the world. 
The survey found that there has been a significant rise 
in the level of the European public's support for 
Israel compared to its support for the Palestinians. 
For instance, French support for Israel has doubled 
over the past four years, while support for the 
Palestinians has remained almost exactly the same. 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"[Defense] Minister [Amir Peretz] ... could leave his 
mark ... by directing a restrained and responsible 
policy." 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote on page one of 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "If [Israeli] concessions 
are not accompanied by an iron hand towards aggression, 
we will have no existence here." 
 
Liberal columnist Yehonatan Gefen wrote on page one of 
Maariv: "What is being pinpointed and thwarted here is 
[Israel's] morality and humaneness." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"it is difficult for European public opinion to digest 
a plan that would legitimize the forceful annexation of 
territories.  This isn't America." 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a 
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel should 
stop all types of aid to the Gaza Strip within a few 
months.  Not as a step of revenge, but as a step that 
reflects the end of the road, now that the occupation 
has ended." 
 
Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, 
pluralist Maariv and the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "Many hundreds or thousands of 
innocents might still be alive today had the US related 
to Arafat properly." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Restraint Is Needed" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(6/15): "Israel is waging a defensive battle in 
Gaza.... However, the Israeli campaign against 
terrorism in Gaza is not free of mistakes or 
malfunctions.... It would seem that [Defense] Minister 
[Amir Peretz], who is still seeking his way in the new 
post, could leave his mark by strictly monitoring the 
IDF's use of force in the territories and by directing 
a restrained and responsible policy." 
 
II.  "Ethical, Indeed" 
 
Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner wrote on page one of 
popular, pluralist Maariv (6/15): "We are not the ones 
carrying out a campaign of terrorism from inside a 
populated area, trying to use innocent people as human 
shields.  We are not the ones behaving unethically, 
worshipping death and violence.  We are trying to stop 
the fire at Sderot and Ashkelon.  Is that wrong, too? 
Do the inhabitants of the western Negev not have human 
rights, and do their children not have the right to 
sleep one night without fear?  Do they not have the 
right to live in quiet?  Which 'human-rights 
organization' will protect them?  Only the organization 
known as the IDF, it seems.  Although it has no 
American or British volunteers with goatees, thinning 
hair and lunatic ideas, it has officers who are 
ethical, discreet and cautious, who try to kill the bad 
guys before the bad guys kill the good guys.  That 
sounds very simplistic, but what can we do -- sometimes 
the simple truth is not terribly complicated.... I 
write these words from the belief that we must evacuate 
as much Palestinian territory as possible in the West 
Bank, concentrating ourselves in a smaller amount of 
territory in which the Jewish majority will be solid 
for generations.  Precisely out of the desire to give 
the Palestinians conditions for independent existence 
and self-definition.  Precisely out of willingness to 
give up much of the territory of the Land of Israel, 
including parts of Jerusalem.  If such concessions are 
not accompanied by an iron hand towards aggression, we 
will have no existence here.  If such concessions are 
not made by those who have iron in their backbones, we 
will not survive here." 
 
III.  "Blood on the Wings" 
 
Liberal columnist Yehonatan Gefen wrote on page one of 
Maariv (6/15): "The most moral army in the world, which 
does not kill, only thwarts, is gradually losing its 
ability to kill only terrorists, and I would not be 
surprised if for every pinpointed killing -- at least 
ten clustering people were killed who had not done harm 
to anyone, and were just there.  The most moral army in 
the world, as we like to call our troops, is following 
(mainly flying) in the footsteps of the lost US army in 
Iraq.  Iraqi civilians who died in the war are quite 
irrelevant as far as Bush and Tony Blair are 
concerned.... Is there anyone up there, above the 
explosions, the missiles and the death of innocent 
people, who can end the pinpointed killing from far 
away and high up, which is definitely starting to look 
a bit like a small massacre?  And it is not them.  It 
is us.  And what is being pinpointed and thwarted here 
is our morality and humaneness.  Ours.  Not theirs. 
And if it is truly impossible to see civilians 
clustering from an aircraft, how is it possible to 
avoid thwarting them?  And yes, it appears that 
aircraft can also have blood on their wings." 
 
IV.  "Waiting For a Clear Plan" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz 
(6/15): "After decades of strong, total opposition to 
the settlements in the territories and to any Israeli 
presence beyond the Green Line ... it is difficult for 
European public opinion to digest a plan that would 
legitimize the forceful annexation of territories. 
This isn't America.  In Europe there are many Muslims, 
the pro-Palestinian lobby is strong and rooted, and it 
is impossible to expect Blair to praise Olmert's 
'daring' the way Bush did.  And if friendly Britain is 
hesitant about the convergence, it will be harder for 
the countries on the Continent to digest it." 
 
¶V.  "Divorce from the Palestinians" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a 
lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/15): "Have we 
really left the Gaza Strip?  The answer might be 
negative, since the new Israeli government has still 
not adopted a clear policy towards the Gaza Strip and 
the Palestinians in general.  On one hand, Israel 
continues to sustain the Gaza Strip economically, as if 
it were not foreign territory....  But there is a third 
way -- a middle road, otherwise known as an 
'isolationist policy.'  In 1823, US President James 
Monroe established a policy, known as the 'Monroe 
Doctrine,' according to which his country would not 
participate in the wars of the European powers unless 
US rights were violated or it faced grave danger.  It 
is not by chance that former prime minister Ariel 
Sharon called the withdrawal from Gaza 'disengagement.' 
This places an irreversible differentiating and 
separating line.  Disengagement is divorce.  On the 
basis of this policy, Israel should stop all types of 
aid to the Gaza Strip within a few months.  Not as a 
step of revenge, but as a step that reflects the end of 
the road, now that the occupation has ended.  As far as 
Israel is concerned, there should be no difference 
between Gazan and Syrian or Jordanian cities." 
 
VI.  "Covering Up For Arafat" 
 
Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, 
pluralist Maariv and the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (6/15): "Despite the fact that the 
American administration knew and had legal proof of 
Yasser Arafat's direct involvement in the murder of its 
own diplomats [in Khartoum in 1973], they turned a 
blind eye.  On the contrary, throughout all the years, 
the Americans exerted pressure on Israel to turn Arafat 
into a 'peace partner'.... President George W. Bush 
completely repudiated Arafat in a speech he gave on 
June 24, 2002.... What should be on our minds, however, 
is how many hundreds or thousands of innocents might 
still be alive today had the US related to Arafat 
properly, as the depraved murderer that he was and 
treated him accordingly, already back in 1973, when it 
had the proof that it kept hidden from its own 
citizens.   After all, the US, unlike Israel, is a 
country in which law and order abide." 
 
----------- 
¶2.  Darfur: 
----------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "No matter 
how its enemies behave, Israel should be held to the 
highest standard of behavior." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Israel's Response to Arab Genocide" 
 
Liberal columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (6/15): "I 
think Israel is being amazingly callous by keeping 
about 200 Sudanese refugees, a large proportion of whom 
fled the Darfur genocide, in jail now for up to a year. 
I hope Israel realizes soon that these Sudanese are not 
enemies, but rather victims of an enemy government, and 
take the advice of Elie Wiesel and others by granting 
them asylum.  Until then, Israel deserves to be 
deplored for its paranoia-fueled mistreatment of some 
of the most ravaged people on earth.  And if it ends up 
deporting them, Israel will deserve all the 
condemnation it will certainly get.  No matter how its 
enemies behave, Israel should be held to the highest 
standard of behavior.  But Israel's enemies should be 
held to the same standard, and they're not, are they?" 
 
JONES