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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 002789 
 
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 
 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
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Israel-Lebanon Crisis 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Major media quoted President Bush as saying Thursday: 
"Israel has the right to defend herself.  Secondly, 
whatever Israel does should not weaken ... the 
government of Lebanon.  The President was speaking at a 
news conference after a meeting with German Chancellor 
Angela Merkel.  Israel Radio and other media reported 
that on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 
urged Israel to exercise restraint in its attacks 
against Lebanese targets and demanded Syria press 
Hizbullah guerrillas to stop attacking Israel.  Israel 
Radio reported that Israel's leaders exposed the GOI's 
position to visiting Deputy National Security Advisor 
Elliott Abrams and Assistant Secretary of State David 
Welch.  The radio said that Israel expected Washington 
to use levers such as Syria to resolve the crisis. 
 
All media led with the intensive Katyusha rocket attack 
on northern Israel and Israel's vigorous response. 
Yediot bannered: "The Target: Nasrallah" and Maariv: 
"Crushing Hizbullah."  Besides the woman killed in 
Nahariya, as reported here on Thursday, a man was 
killed in Safed and up to 115 other Israelis were 
wounded.  Last night, a Katyusha rocket struck Haifa. 
In response, the IAF set alight fuel storage tankers at 
Beirut International Airport and targeted the Shi'ite 
neighborhood of Dahiya, which houses Hizbullah's HQ and 
the residence of the movement's Secretary-General, 
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.  The Jerusalem Post reported 
that Justice Minister Haim Ramon suggested Thursday 
that Nasrallah was a target for assassination.  The 
media also reported that Israel hit around 100 targets, 
bombarding major roads, including the Beirut-Damascus 
highway.  Major media reported that at least 58 
Lebanese were killed in Israeli attacks.  Leading media 
quoted Defense Minister Amir Peretz as saying Thursday 
that Hizbullah will not be allowed to return to the 
Israeli border and that Israel "is changing the rules 
of the game entirely."  Ha'aretz quoted Israeli 
political sources as saying that Israel will demand 
that all Hizbullah forces withdraw from the Israeli 
border and that a buffer zone is created in southern 
Lebanon as a condition for any cease-fire agreement. 
Major media reported that Lebanon has announced that it 
is interested in a cease-fire.  Leading media reported 
that some Lebanese cabinet ministers have strongly 
criticized Hizbullah and Syria for their role in the 
current developments. 
 
Leading media reported that the UN Security Council 
scheduled an urgent meeting for today.  Israel Radio 
quoted US Representative to the UN Ambassador John 
Bolton as saying that the draft resolution presented to 
the Council was "unbalanced."  Major media quoted UN 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying Thursday that a 
 
SIPDIS 
UN team will come to the Middle East in the coming days 
to try to defuse the conflict with Hizbullah and Hamas. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday, the EU accused 
Israel of using "disproportionate" force in response to 
Wednesday's raid by Hizbullah.  Yediot and other media 
quoted senior Israeli political sources as saying that 
the international window of opportunity that opened to 
an Israeli military action has started to close 
following the positions expressed by world countries 
regarding the escalation in the region. 
 
Israel Radio and other media quoted Iranian President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Thursday in a telephone 
conversation with Syrian President Bashar Assad that an 
Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack 
on the whole Islamic world that would bring a "fierce 
response."  Israel Radio reported that in an 
announcement released Thursday, Saudi Arabia placed 
indirect responsibility for the events on Hizbullah. 
Today at midday, Israel Radio quoted Syria's Ambassador 
to the UK as saying that Hizbullah must desist from its 
rocket fire against Israel. 
 
Maariv and other media quoted Deputy Foreign Ministry 
DG Gideon Meir as saying Thursday that Israel knows 
that Hizbullah intends to move the two captured 
soldiers to Iran so that they cannot be rescued by the 
IDF.  Israel Radio cited Iran's denial that the two 
soldiers were moved to its territory. 
 
Ha'aretz cited Israel's belief that Hizbullah has 
missiles that can hit most of Israel, and which could 
even strike Beersheva under optimum conditions.  Yediot 
cited Israel's concern that the IDF actions in Lebanon 
might lead to retaliatory attacks against Israeli 
tourists and Israeli embassies abroad. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Thursday, PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas expressed fears that 
the latest tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border 
could deteriorate into a regional war.  Abbas vowed to 
do his utmost to ease tensions between Israel on the 
one hand and Hamas and Hizbullah on the other.  Abbas 
was speaking to reporters after meeting with visiting 
Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi.  Israel Radio cited Arab 
sources that Shin Bet head Avraham Diskin met with 
Abbas in Amman last week. 
 
Major media reported that early Thursday morning, the 
IAF bombarded the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Gaza 
City, seriously damaging the building and wounding 10 
Palestinians.  Yediot and Maariv cited the IDF's belief 
that Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who was 
wounded in an IAF bombardment in Gaza City on 
Wednesday, is paralyzed and in a critical condition. 
This morning, Israel Radio reported that the IAF 
continued its strikes on infrastructure targets in the 
Gaza Strip. 
 
Leading media reported that the IDF will not appoint an 
external committee of inquiry into Hizbullah's attack 
along the northern border on Wednesday, in which eight 
soldiers were killed and two others were kidnapped. 
Instead, Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has decided to make 
do for now with an in-house review by Northern Command 
officers. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday, the Beersheva 
District Court indicted two young Palestinians from the 
Gaza Strip.  They are accused of being members of Hamas 
and of having infiltrated Israel in order to kidnap and 
murder a soldier or a civilian. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that major Jewish-American 
organizations and several US Christian organizations 
have voiced their support for the IDF's actions in 
Lebanon. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that an increasing 
number of American immigrants in Israel are working for 
US firms by "telecommuting" with them through the 
Internet. 
 
Hatzofe cited the results of a poll conducted by Maagar 
Mohot, an institute directed by Prof. Yitzhak Katz, on 
behalf of the newspapers Makor Rishon, Yisraeli, and 
Hatzofe, which found that 73 percent of respondents 
support PM Ehud Olmert's realignment plan, and that 27 
percent are opposed to it.  The poll also found that 87 
percent of respondents believe that Israelis have no 
knowledge of the plan, whereas 13 percent believe that 
Israelis know about the plan.  [The three newspapers, 
including Yisraeli, a free daily distributed in the 
streets of Israeli cities, belong to one single group 
with a strong right-wing orientation]. 
 
---------------------- 
Israel-Lebanon Crisis: 
---------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "The US will 
think twice before acting on its own, and will pay 
extra attention to what is said in Europe and the rest 
of the world before taking any steps." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "If 
it is possible to achieve our security goals through 
diplomacy, a temporary cease-fire should be declared -- 
and hopefully, these aims can be achieved without 
inflaming the entire region." 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The [world's] feeble behavior during 
the nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea, and the 
American entanglement in Iran, must make clear that can 
Israel solve its own problems only by itself." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Shi'ite 
leader erred in his reading of the Israeli political 
map and his analysis of Olmert, Peretz, and Halutz." 
 
Senior columnist Dan Margalit wrote in Maariv: 
"[Israel's response to Hizbullah] stems from Israel 
acting in its interest." 
 
Former Ambassador to the US Prof. Itamar Rabinovich 
wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "The dividing line between 
the Lebanese and Syrian arenas is a virtual one." 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in Yediot 
Aharonot: "Today, Nasrallah is the nightmare of the 
Lebanese.  No one will shed a tear the minute he 
disappears." 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The international 
community cannot expect Iran to take its brinkmanship 
seriously when, at the same moment it threatens 
sanctions, it refuses to clearly take Israel's side 
against Iran's blatant act of proxy aggression." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Backing Off" 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (7/14): "Why 
is the US staying on the sidelines of this crisis?  One 
reason may be bad timing.... As a lead-in to the summit 
in Russia, President Bush is trying to project a new US 
image to replace that of 'cowboy diplomacy,' as Time 
Magazine labeled it in this week's cover story -- one 
that embrace multilateralism, diplomacy, and 
negotiations.... What it means for the Israeli- 
Palestinian conflict is that the US will think twice 
before acting on its own, and will pay extra attention 
to what is said in Europe and the rest of the world 
before taking any steps.  The US, to be sure, remains 
the world leader of the anti-Hamas approach.  It is 
also the country setting the tone on the issue of not 
legitimizing terrorist groups -- even democratically 
elected ones.  But as far as executing concrete 
measures is concerned, the process will be long and 
subtle.  The other reason the US is having difficulty 
with the current situation in Israel is its lack of 
effective channels of communication with Hamas, 
Hizbullah, and Syria." 
 
II.  "Time Out In the Fighting" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(7/14): "The launching of Qassam and Katyusha rockets 
at Israeli citizens in Sderot and the Galilee is 
unacceptable; the sole question is, what  it the best 
way of stopping them?.... Israel has a very powerful 
military and everyone in the region understands this. 
But even when there are grounds for employing force, 
the military's full power should not be used, no matter 
how justified the action may be.  If it is possible to 
achieve our security goals through diplomacy, a 
temporary cease-fire should be declared -- and 
hopefully, these aims can be achieved without inflaming 
the entire region." 
 
III.  "Let Them Not Preach" 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (7/14): "Proportion is a question of 
geography, or at least of perspective.  The IDF has 
hardly begun to pound Lebanon, and many important 
people have started talking to us about proportion. 
They say that what the Israel Air Force is doing in 
Lebanon is not proportionate to what Hizbullah did to 
us.  This is what Russia said on Thursday.  That 
country left its proportion on every building that is 
still standing in Grozny, the Chechnyan capital.... The 
[world's] feeble behavior during the nuclear crises in 
Iran and North Korea, and the American entanglement in 
Iran, must make clear that can Israel solve its own 
problems only by itself." 
 
IV.  "Nasrallah's Mistake" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/14): "The 
strategic mistake belongs to Nasrallah.  The Shi'ite 
leader erred in his reading of the Israeli political 
map and his analysis of Olmert, Peretz, and Halutz. 
That trio is demonstrating serenity and is prepared to 
fight back in dimensions hitherto unknown in this 
region.  This is not the first time in Israel that a 
government composed of 'peace lovers' and not of right- 
wing 'warmongers' has no compunction about making 
extreme moves, which involve harming 'innocents.'" 
 
¶V.  "The Time of Fire Has Come" 
 
Senior columnist Dan Margalit wrote in Maariv (7/14): 
"No less that the killing and abduction of IDF soldiers 
... Hassan Nasrallah's speech left the government in 
Jerusalem no choice but to strike forcefully and 
immediately.... This was not done because of a whim 
frustration, and anger.... Neither was it done as to 
punish Hizbullah, although it would be legitimate; the 
reason was not the honor of the Jewish state, although 
this is legitimate too.  It stems from Israel acting in 
its interest.  [Nasrallah] acted as if Olmert, Amir 
Peretz, and Dan Halutz are no more than Neville 
Chamberlains.  The must prove through their operation 
that ... they are built like scions of Winston Spencer 
Churchill." 
 
VI.  "On the Way to a Confrontation With Syria" 
 
Former Ambassador to the US Prof. Itamar Rabinovich 
wrote in Yediot Aharonot (7/14): "At this stage, Israel 
focuses its responses on the deterioration along its 
northern border and in Lebanon -- both in its offensive 
and public relations.  But the dividing line between 
the Lebanese and Syrian arenas is a virtual one, and 
the chances of the conflict developing into a 
tripartite Israeli-Lebanese-Syria one-- and even in a 
quadripartite one with Iran -- are high." 
 
 
VII.  "Nasrallah Has Become Lebanon's Nightmare" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in Yediot 
Aharonot (7/14): "Over the past two days it came clear 
to Nasrallah that his removal from the arena and the 
disarming of Hizbullah are not only Israel's dream, but 
also the dream of many Lebanese who are sick of paying 
the price of his whimsy.... There is no doubt that 
Nasrallah has gotten Lebanon into trouble.  There is no 
doubt that he did not guess to what extent the pictures 
from Gaza terrify the ordinary citizen in Lebanon. 
After the murder of Hariri, Lebanon had learned not to 
fear and to get out into the streets in order to dispel 
the nightmares.  Today, Nasrallah is the nightmare of 
the Lebanese.  No one will shed a tear the minute he 
disappears." 
 
VIII.  "Fighting Seamless Jihad" 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized (7/14): "It is 
inconceivable that Hizbullah attacked Israel without 
the knowledge and blessing of Iran, on which it is 
wholly dependent.   The international community cannot 
expect Iran to take its brinkmanship seriously when, at 
the same moment it threatens sanctions, it refuses to 
clearly take Israel's side against Iran's blatant act 
of proxy aggression.  We cannot even say we have 
reached the end of the beginning before free nations 
show something of the solidarity and clarity of purpose 
that the jihadis -- in Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Al Qaida 
-- show against us." 
 
JONES