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Carol X Weakley  08/01/2006 02:38:13 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Carol X Weakley

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 002964 
 
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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
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Secretary Rice to Israel, July 29-31, 2006 
 
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------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
This morning all electronic media covered a press conference by 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem, quoting her as 
 
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saying that she will call for a UN cease-fire resolution this week. 
Secretary Rice urged the international community to create an 
 
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"international stabilization force" in Lebanon. Israel Radio noted 
that Secretary Rice refrained from calling for the disarming of 
Hizbullah. 
 
All media reported that following the IAF strike on the southern 
Lebanese village of Kafr Qana, Israel agreed to suspend its aerial 
bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours.  Yediot reported that 
PM Ehud Olmert made the decision after a one-on-one meeting with 
Secretary Rice.  Yediot quoted senior Israeli defense sources as 
 
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saying that they were surprised by the decision.  All media reported 
that on Sunday, Secretary Rice cancelled a scheduled visit to 
Beirut.  Leading media quoted Olmert as saying that Israel reserves 
the right to attack sources of fire against it. 
 
Al media reported that in the deadliest attack since Israel started 
its offensive against Hizbullah 19 days ago, almost 60 civilians -- 
most of them children -- were killed on Sunday in a building in Kafr 
Qana, apparently as a result of an IAF missile strike.  In 1996, 
Israel was forced to suspend Operation Grapes of Wrath against 
Hizbullah after IDF artillery shells killed more than 100 civilians 
seeking refuge in a UN building in the village.  The media cited the 
IDF as saying that the army had warned Kafr Qana residents to 
evacuate the village in anticipation of air strikes on Katyusha 
launchers. 
 
Israel Radio reported that on Sunday the UN Security Council 
expressed its "extreme shock and distress'" over the Israeli air 
raid and called for an end to hostilities.  "The Security Council 
expresses its concern at the threat of escalation of violence with 
further grave consequences for the humanitarian situation, calls for 
an end to violence, and underscores the urgency of securing a 
lasting, permanent and sustainable cease-fire," the 15-member 
Council said in a presidential statement, reached after unanimous 
agreement.  Israel Radio reported that the US had softened the 
statement.  The radio quoted Israel's Representative to the UN Danny 
Gillerman as saying before the Security Council that he regrets the 
deaths of Lebanese at Kafr Qana but that Hizbullah had shored itself 
up in southern Lebanon and that it was using residents as human 
shields. 
 
All media reported that 100 Katyusha rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona 
Sunday. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Jibril Rajoub, the PA's National Security Adviser, 
as saying that the Kafr Qana events would delay the release of Cpl. 
Gilad Shalit. 
 
All media reported that security services foiled a suicide bombing 
inside Israel Sunday when they arrested a man with an explosives 
belt near Nablus. 
 
Similar to other leading media, The Jerusalem Post wrote: "Knesset 
members' responses to the air strike on Kafr Qana Sunday ranged from 
the furiously critical, via the apologetic, to the robustly 
supportive, largely along predictable party lines." 
 
Leading media reported that Prof, Ghazi Falah, an Israeli-Canadian 
geographer who teaches at the University of Akron, Ohio, and who was 
detained three weeks ago on suspicion of spying for Hizbullah, was 
released without charges on Sunday. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a joint Christian-Jewish solidarity 
mission from the US will arrive in Israel on Monday to give moral 
support to the country during the war against Hizbullah.  The 
newspaper also reported that Dr. Michael D. Evans, founder of the 
Evangelical Israel Broadcasting Network, is in Israel taping a major 
television special -- The Awakening -- that will be shown on several 
thousand Christian stations in the US as well as on major secular 
outlets. 
 
Maariv reported that the American company Sandisk will announce 
today that it will purchase the Israeli firm Sandisk for USD 1.5 
billion in shares.  M-Systems is involved in legal difficulties in 
the US. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Secretary Rice to Israel, July 29-31, 2006: 
 
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------------------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner opined on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Rice will return to Washington 
today, frustrated and bruised from two weeks of an exhausting trek 
that has ended on a bitter note." 
 
On page one of popular, pluralist Maariv, diplomatic correspondent 
Ben Caspit wrote what he said is a proposal for s speech by Prime 
Minister Olmert: " I cannot remember such a wave of responses 
following the daily killing of 100 Iraqi civilians.  Sunnis kill 
Shi'ites, who murder Sunnis, everybody kills Americans, and the 
entire world keeps mum." 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Prime Minister's decision to stop 
[Israel's] aerial activity in southern Lebanon is baffling, to say 
the least." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "Herein lies the window of opportunity to 
which President George Bush referred to, most recently on Friday, 
when he called on Syria to become an active partner in peace in the 
Middle East." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "We -- 
the US, UK, and Israel, for starters -- must stand together for the 
truth and our own interests.  We must not submit to the epitome of 
stupidity and immorality, masquerading as moral blackmail.  If we 
do, we have no one to blame but ourselves." 
 
Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in 
Ha'aretz: "'We are sorry' is also true and very nice, but it is 
impossible to be too sorry until all the regret is used up." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The moment of Truth For the Bush Administration" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner opined on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/31): "For more than a year now 
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been working on her image 
around the world.  A year's worth of effort, and some worthy 
achievements, and then in two weeks of crisis everything is ruined. 
The Europeans, the ambassadors to the UN, the leaders of Arab 
states, all those who considered Rice a stabilizing factor, a 
calculated and reasonable person in the Bush administration, are 
reevaluating their stances.  For Rice this is a personal blow, and 
also a professional obstacle.  Her prestige is an important tool of 
the trade, and without it she will find it difficult to mark 
successes in the future.  Rice will return to Washington today, 
frustrated and bruised from two weeks of an exhausting trek that has 
ended on a bitter note.... In different parts of the Bush 
administration there is a growing realization that the time is 
nearing when it will be necessary to 'cut and bolt with whatever is 
at hand,' as one Washington source said Sunday.  Perhaps this will 
be sooner than Israel expects.  Still, the White House is not the 
State Department." 
 
II.  "We Will Not Fold" 
 
On page one of popular, pluralist Maariv, diplomatic correspondent 
Ben Caspit wrote what he said is a proposal for a speech by Prime 
Minister Olmert (7/31): "Every place from which Katyusha rockets 
will be fired will be a legitimate target for our attacks.  This 
must be said clearly, before the Israeli people and the world.  You 
are invited to judge us, to shun us, to boycott us, and to defame 
us.  To kill us?  No way.... We do not dance of the roofs when we 
see the bodies of our enemies' children.  We express true regrets 
and remorse.  We do not adopt our enemies' bestial behavioral 
patterns... Iran established a huge infrastructure of terror along 
our borders, threatening our citizens.  It is growing before our own 
eyes, waiting for the moment when the Ayatollahs' state turns into a 
nuclear power that would bring us to our knees.  Make no mistake: we 
will not go down alone. You, the leaders of the free, enlightened 
world, will come down along with us.  Let me bring this march of 
duplicity to an end -- here and now.  I cannot remember such a wave 
of responses following the daily killing of 100 Iraqi civilians. 
Sunnis kill Shi'ites, who murder Sunnis, everybody kills Americans, 
and the entire world keeps mum." 
 
III.  "Baffling Decision" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/31): "The Prime Minister's decision to 
stop [Israel's] aerial activity in southern Lebanon is baffling, to 
say the least.  It curbs the momentum and the erosion process of 
Hizbullah.  In fact, this it is starting a cease-fire process in the 
worst conditions for Israel.  Hizbullah continues to shoot, keeps 
its head above water, Israel panics and folds under pressure.  Not 
only should the battle not be stopped, but Israel must not relate to 
the Kafr Qana as a factor that is meant to affect it.  This is not 
contempt for human lives.... Israel went to war to achieve 
objectives vital to its existence and it must abide by them. 
Otherwise the price it would have to pay would be unbearable for 
many years." 
 
IV.  "Opportunity on Syria's Doorstep" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (7/30): "The transfer of Sheba Farms to 
Lebanon requires that Syria officially recognize that this territory 
is Lebanese and not Syrian, as it has been described to date.  It 
can be assumed that Syria will pose its own conditions for making 
concessions on Sheba Farms, which will allow it to retain its 
influence both in Lebanon and the region.  Herein lies the window of 
opportunity to which President George Bush referred to, most 
recently on Friday, when he called on Syria to become an active 
partner in peace in the Middle East.  It is possible that Bashar 
Assad is not a leader with the vision and courage necessary to make 
use of this window of opportunity which the war in Lebanon created, 
and it is possible that the best he can do is to retain hermetic 
control over the situation in Syria.  However, this should not 
prevent Israel or the US from presenting him with the basis for a 
different option." 
 
¶V.  "Reject Bogus Moral Blackmail" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (7/31): 
"It is appalling that Hizbullah would deliberately target Israel's 
cities, and do so from civilian areas, hoping that Israel would kill 
greater numbers of Lebanese civilians. It is appalling that this 
barbaric tactic -- after some 5,000 Israeli bombing sorties -- has 
proved 'effective,' with tragic consequences for innocent Lebanese 
people, and producing the expected international fallout: not 
against Hizbullah, but against Israel.  It is also appalling that 
for three weeks over a million Israelis -- Jews and Arabs -- have 
been living in bomb shelters, never knowing when a missile aimed at 
them will kill them or destroy their homes.... Are we powerless to 
overturn the bizarre moral calculus by which Israel is held 
accountable for the barbaric tactics of its enemies?  We are not. We 
-- the US, UK, and Israel, for starters -- must stand together for 
the truth and our own interests.  We must not submit to the epitome 
of stupidity and immorality, masquerading as moral blackmail.  If we 
do, we have no one to blame but ourselves." 
 
 
VI.  "You Have Been Warned" 
 
Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in 
Ha'aretz (7/31): "The government didn't mean it and the military 
didn't mean it and the pilot didn't mean it.  'We didn't mean it' is 
a good argument, certainly, and yet not good enough.  That is the 
last thing we need: to kill 60 civilians, including 30 children, 
intentionally, with malice and forethought.  The government warned 
the residents of southern Lebanon, the IDF dropped pamphlets and 
declared: If you don't run for your lives, you will die.  'We 
warned' and 'We warned often' make a good argument, and yet not good 
enough.  'We are sorry' is also true and very nice, but it is 
impossible to be too sorry until all the regret is used up.... Here 
is Qana and here we will leap out of this war -- together with all 
the warned people, whether residents of shelters in South Lebanon or 
northern Israel.  And we'll cry out from the depths of our hearts: 
Enough." 
 
JONES