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Carol X Weakley  10/16/2006 03:11:01 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Carol X Weakley

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SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Iran 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Internal Security 
Minister Avi Dichter will leave on Sunday for an official visit to 
the US, during which he will meet with top law enforcement officials 
to share his first know-how in homeland security and 
counter-terrorism.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Dichter spoke 
to the newspaper about what he believes the US can learn from Israel 
on fighting terrorism, his belief that Israel should give up the 
Golan Heights in a peace treaty with Syria and MK Avigdor 
Lieberman's prospects of heading a ministry charged with managing 
the Iranian threat.  Dichter was quoted as saying: "Israel is a 
laboratory for learning how to defend citizens because we face 
threats every day.  The US does not have to pay with American blood. 
 They can learn from what we have learned here."  According to 
Dichter, cooperation with the US on counter-terrorism has increased 
significantly since 9/11. 
 
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, led with a joint 
police/Justice Ministry announcement Sunday recommending that 
Israeli President Katsav be indicted on charges of rape, as well as 
well as indecent acts using force, indecent acts without consent, 
and sexual harassment.  The police also informed AG Menachem Mazuz 
on Sunday that there was enough evidence to prove that Katsav had 
committed grand larceny, fraud, and breach of faith and that he had 
violated the law prohibiting wiretapping. 
 
Over the weekend, all media reported on proposed entry of 
Lieberman's party Yisrael Beiteinu into the government coalition. 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that Labor Party Chairman 
Amir Peretz and Vice PM Shimon Peres of Kadima were discussing the 
creation of a joint front to block Yisrael Beiteinu's bid.  On 
Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that a majority of the Labor 
Party's Knesset faction is expected to demand that Peretz and the 
rest of Labor's ministers quit the cabinet if PM Ehud Olmert insists 
on bringing in Lieberman.  Also on Sunday, Yediot reported that 
Lieberman allegedly urged oligarch Arkady Gaidamak, who reportedly 
had been sought out in the summer by Likud Chairman Binyamin 
Netanyahu as a potential partner and counterweight to Lieberman, to 
form his own party and to run for Knesset. According to the report, 
Lieberman told Gaidamak that together they would be able to form the 
largest political party in Israel. 
On Sunday, the media (banner in The Jerusalem Post) reported that 
following 72 hours of intense fighting, the IDF withdrew from the 
central Gaza Strip Saturday night, leaving behind 21 dead 
Palestinians, including seven killed earlier in the day.  Ha'aretz 
quoted IDF officers as saying that Hamas wants to create a "balance 
of terror" with Israel in the Gaza Strip, in order the IDF from 
making a ground forces incursion into the territory.  The officers' 
conclusion is based on the organization's greatly accelerated 
munitions acquisitions over the past few months, which was reported 
by several media.  Yediot quoted an Israeli expert as saying Sunday 
that the IAF can be expected to hold out new threats in Gaza. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the cabinet 
on Sunday that he planned to meet with settlement leaders to discuss 
the possibility of a voluntary evacuation of the illegal settler 
outposts in the West Bank. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the London-based Al-Hayat as quoting Egyptian sources 
assaying that Syria, which pressured Khaled Mashal, the head of 
Hamas's political bureau, and torpedoed almost agreed-upon efforts 
to reach a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.  Israel Radio 
quoted Mashal as saying that he was not ready to start negotiations 
over the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit without Israel committing 
itself to releasing Palestinian prisoners. 
 
Yediot reported that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas is 
building a large, skilled, and terror-free force in Jericho with US 
financial support. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Yediot quoted Brig. Gen. Yossi Badatz, the 
head of the IDF's intelligence directorate, as saying at Sunday's 
cabinet meeting as saying that Israel has indisputable proof that 
Syria continues to transfer weapons to Hizbullah.  On Sunday, 
Ha'aretz reported that Hizbullah is hiding weapons in southern 
Lebanon and that the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL are not making efforts 
to find them. 
 
All media reported that commanders who did not fully understand 
their orders, who were not present with their troops during 
important battles, and who even failed to fulfill basic missions 
constitute some of the grave failures found by an internal IDF 
committee that probed Division 91's performance during the recent 
war in Lebanon.  These are the first such findings emerging from 
internal IDF investigations. 
Ha'aretz and Maariv, and The Jerusalem Post reported that Adalah - 
the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is calling for 
the suspension of State Prosecutor Eran Shendar for his role in the 
"failures of the Police Investigation Department (PID) into the 
events of October 2000.:  Shendar headed the PID at the time of the 
disturbances, during which 12 Israeli Arabs and one Gazan were 
killed by the police, and he was in charge of its investigation of 
the events. 
 
Over the weekend, the media reported that the National Planning and 
Construction Council was set to make a final decision Tuesday on the 
controversial Safdie plan, named after architect Moshe Safdie, to 
build up the area west of Jerusalem. 
 
The media reported that on Sunday, the ministerial committee on 
legislation approved, by a five-to-four margin, the bill supporting 
a presidential-style premiership in Israel that was proposed by MK 
Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu). 
 
Over the weekend, the media reported that clashes erupted on Friday 
between hundreds of Palestinians and Border Police troops near the 
roadblocks at the entrances to Jerusalem.  The clashes broke out 
after the Israel Police restricted access to the city for the third 
Friday of prayers during the Muslim month of Ramadan to people only 
above a certain age.  On Sunday, Hatzofe reported that Knesset 
Member Uri Ariel from the National Union Party has been drafting 
plans for the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited GOI sources as confirming Sunday that Asi 
Shariv, Olmert's spokesman, will likely be Israel's consul-general 
in New York, one of the most sought after positions in the foreign 
service. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the American Federation of 
Teachers, which represents 1.3 million teachers across the US, is 
calling on Irish academics to oppose demands to boycott Israel 
 
Ha'aretz cited the Australian Jewish community's dissatisfaction 
with the alleged characterization of Asians by Israel's Ambassador 
in Canberra Naftali Tamir in an interview with Ha'aretz as the 
"yellow race."  On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that on Friday, the 
Foreign Ministry condemned Tamir's remarks in the interview that 
Israel and Australia were white sisters amid the "yellow race" of 
Asia.  On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Tamir was being 
called back to Jerusalem for a "further clarification" of the 
matter. 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that at the Hebrew 
University of Jerusalem on Sunday, Nobel Chemistry laureate Roger D. 
Kornberg, an American scientist with close ties with Israel, 
criticized the Israeli government for slashing support to 
universities, charging that this has shaken the foundation of 
Israel's scientific research community. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Our 
government, crucially, should not allow the understandable desire to 
encourage a global response to be misinterpreted as a sign that even 
Israel is beginning to treat the unthinkable as inevitable." 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Unthinkable, Not Inevitable" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/15): 
"Last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened a special meeting of 
security chiefs to discuss Israeli strategy toward the Iranian 
threat, amid concerns that Western responses to it are inadequate. 
These concerns have grown with the expectation that any sanctions 
imposed on North Korea after it claimed to have exploded a nuclear 
weapon will amount to little more than a slap on the wrist.  The 
Prime Minister's meeting reportedly concluded that Israel would 
continue to support the diplomatic approach toward the Iranian 
challenge, as led by the United States and Europe.  In other words, 
Israel will continue to attempt to walk the fine line between 
encouraging the international community to take the lead on this 
global threat, and insisting that failure is not an option.... By 
stepping back, Israel is trying to accentuate the global nature of 
the Iranian challenge, but Israel can and should be doing more to 
explain this.... The mullahs fervently believe that nuclear weapons 
will not only protect their regime, but allow them to expand their 
power and the grip of their own militant brand of Islam throughout 
the world. Israel cannot accept such a genocidal threat, but neither 
can other free nations accept such a blatant attempt to hijack the 
world order.  Our government, crucially, should not allow the 
understandable desire to encourage a global response to be 
misinterpreted as a sign that even Israel is beginning to treat the 
unthinkable as inevitable." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel is marching headlong, with its 
eyes wide open and a clear mind, to a head-on clash with the 
Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip.  Both sides have 
been preparing for this confrontation carefully, with the sense that 
it is ineluctable." 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "That which is 
perceived as giving power in the Middle East weakens Israel in the 
West, particularly in Europe, and what is perceived in the Middle 
East as weakness gives it strength in world public opinion." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "War Around the Corner" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/15): "The incidents these past few 
days in the Gaza Strip are just the preface to the big bang. Israel 
is marching headlong, with its eyes wide open and a clear mind, to a 
head-on clash with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in the Gaza 
Strip.  Both sides have been preparing for this confrontation 
carefully, with the sense that it is ineluctable.  The Palestinians 
have been arming themselves to the teeth.... All of [the recent 
Israeli] defensive military activity is geared to stymie and delay 
the process in which Hamas has been building its army in the Gaza 
Strip.  But it is all in vain. Israeli officials have watched 
Palestinian terror experts return to Gaza after spending months of 
training in Lebanon, whereupon they carry out a series of military 
preparations right under our nose, and all of which is generously 
funded by Hamas.  A tremendous amount of weapons, ammunition and 
explosives -- leftovers from  the war in Iraq -- has been flowing 
from the Sinai peninsula into the Gaza Strip, through the mediation 
of international arms dealers.  That is why the clash is 
ineluctable. The Southern Command's defensive activity will not 
succeed in stopping the massive armament program, but it has 
contributed greatly to keeping the troops in top operational 
readiness in advance of the day when they are put to the test.  And, 
as we learned in Lebanon, that is no laughing matter." 
 
II.  "The Paradox of Power and Weakness" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Yediot Aharonot (10/15): "Here is 
a paradox: That which is perceived as giving power in the Middle 
East weakens Israel in the West, particularly in Europe, and what is 
perceived in the Middle East as weakness gives it strength in world 
public opinion.  In the Middle East, people admire the strong, 
whether it is Ahmadinejad, Saddam in his time or, not to mention 
them in the same breath, Ariel Sharon, who was perceived as a 
strongman.  In the Western world, the strong arouse aversion.  In 
the Middle East, one may never be perceived as weak.  In the West, 
that is to one's credit.  The size of the Israeli movement toward 
regional strengthening is equal to the amount of damage it suffers 
in the world arena, and the opposite.  Both movements are dynamic, 
and therefore also reversible.  Movement in both of them can occur 
in either direction.  Holding on to territory is seen as Israeli 
power, but in the world it is viewed as causing damage....The rule 
also works for the Palestinians.  As long as they were seen as weak, 
world sympathy for them grew; the moment that Hamas presented them 
as having an army and power, the world forgot them.  From now on, 
any Israeli measure must take the paradox into account.... The 
Israeli leadership must embark on the forceful military operation 
under the justification of the existential threat -- a process that 
occurred in the first stages of the Lebanon War.  For that, Israel 
must use the international institutions that we usually scorned, and 
we must establish a well-oiled public-relations network that can be 
activated on short notice.  The world would see a clear victory 
against an existential threat as a blessing, while in the region it 
would be seen as strength and as a deterrent.  The time has come for 
Israeli accomplishments that we have not had for more than two 
decades." 
 
CRETZ