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Carol X Weakley  10/17/2006 02:43:09 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Carol X Weakley

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STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
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COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
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JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
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ROME FOR MFO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IS KMDR
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that in a speech at the opening of the Knesset's 
winter session, PM Ehud Olmert said that the "Lebanon campaign" 
underlined the threat a nuclear Iran would pose for the "region and 
the entire free world."  Olmert invited Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora to 
begin peace talks.  Siniora rebuffed the offer.  Ha'aretz quoted 
Siniora as saying that Israel should first withdraw from the Sheba 
Farms.  The media also reported that Olmert offered to resume talks 
with PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas, based on the Roadmap. 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that Abbas did not get a 
green light from the Fatah leadership to fire the Hamas-led 
government and call new elections or form a cabinet of technocrats. 
Israel Radio cited the London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat as saying 
that Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman told Khaled Mashal, 
the head of Hamas's political bureau, that Hamas should give up 
power in the PA and supervise it from outside.  Ha'aretz reported 
that a group of Labor and Meretz Knesset members met in East 
Jerusalem Friday with Yasser Abed Rabbo, a close associate of Abbas. 
 Ha'aretz said that the Knesset members decided to establish a 
multi-party parliamentary lobby for renewing diplomatic talks 
between Israel and the Palestinians. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office 
has begun formulating the indictment that will be submitted against 
Israeli President Moshe Katsav.  Leading media speculated on 
Katsav's succession.  Leading media reported that former Knesset 
Speaker MK Reuven ("Rubi") Rivlin, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and 
former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Labor MK Colette 
Avital, Likud MK Natan Sharansky, and Vice PM Shimon Peres are the 
leading candidates for the position.  The Jerusalem Post quoted 
political sources as saying that Olmert's preferred candidate to 
succeed President Katsav, Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center 
President Amnon Rubinstein, has decided to turn down an offer from 
Olmert to run on the presidential ticket. 
 
Israel Radio reported that an Islamic Jihad activist was killed in a 
clash with IDF troops in Qabatiyeh south of Jenin.  The radio 
mentioned further fighting in the territories. 
 
Maariv reported that Syria is dispensing money to various groups of 
Druze in the Golan Heights to strengthen its influence in the 
occupied territory.  Maariv said that this is part of a broader plan 
to deepen the Syrian administration's connection with the Golan 
Druze.  The newspaper wrote that the man in charge of Syria's 
program for the "annexation from afar" of the Golan is Madhat Salah, 
who speaks Hebrew and is considered in charge of Golan affairs in 
the Syrian government. 
 
Yediot reported that Israel has rejected a proposal by the US and 
European states to provide intelligence from their spy satellites in 
exchange for the cessation of Israeli overflights in Lebanon. 
Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that Defense Minister Amir Peretz told 
the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday that the 
commanders of the French contingent in UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in 
Lebanon) have warned that if Israeli warplanes continue their 
overflights in Lebanon, they may have to open fire on them. 
Ha'aretz said that Peretz told members of the committee that despite 
the warnings, Israel would continue to patrol the skies over Lebanon 
as long as UN Security Council Resolution 1701 remained unfulfilled, 
adding that such operations were critical for the country's 
security, especially as the abducted IDF soldiers remain in 
Hizbullah custody and the transfer of arms continues.  Over the past 
few days, Peretz said, Israel had gathered clear evidence that Syria 
was transferring arms and ammunition to Lebanon, meaning that the 
embargo imposed by UN Resolution 1701 was not being completely 
enforced.  Peretz was quoted as saying that Israel plans to inform 
the joint committee of representatives of UNIFIL, the IDF, and the 
Lebanese Army that unless the arms transfers are stopped, Israel 
will be forced to take independent action.  Turning to the situation 
in the Gaza Strip, Peretz said that Israel could under no 
circumstances allow the Strip to be turned into a second South 
Lebanon.  According to Peretz, the time when Israel used to check 
who was sending every missile is over, and the IDF is intent on 
striking at every terrorist no matter what organization he belongs 
to.  Maariv quoted Abu Obeydeh, the head of Hamas's military wing, 
as saying that should the IDF invade the Strip, Hamas would destroy 
its tanks. Hatzofe quoted Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, the head of IDF 
Intelligence's research department, as saying before the Knesset's 
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hamas is building a 
fortified underground system in the Strip. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israeli authorities are refusing entry to 
Palestinian-Americans arriving in buses from Jordan at the Allenby 
Bridge border crossing.  The newspaper quoted State Department 
Spokesman Sean McCormack as saying during his daily briefing on 
October 12 that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss 
with Israeli officials the issue of entry to Israel of Americans of 
Palestinian origin. 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that Russia has told Israel that it 
intends to tighten its export control on arms.  The media reported 
that Olmert will start a two-day official visit to Moscow today. 
The talks will focus on Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran and 
the UN Security Council's difficulties in imposing sanctions on 
Tehran. 
 
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that Israel and NATO are increasing 
their cooperation.  Israel will help NATO to carry out naval patrols 
in the Mediterranean Sea in accordance with an agreement that both 
parties signed Monday.  Israel is the first country that has signed 
such an agreement with the organization.  Connections between NATO 
and Israel were strengthened following the visit of the 
organization's director, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, to Israel and the 
visit of a delegation of Knesset members to NATO's headquarters in 
Brussels. 
 
Yediot reported that Hizbullah has started a web site in substandard 
Hebrew. 
 
Major media reported that on Monday, Supreme Court President Dorit 
Beinisch decided that an extended panel of the High Court of Justice 
will rule whether to accept petitions calling for the cancellation 
of the Winograd Committee and the establishment of a state 
commission of inquiry into the war in Lebanon.  Leading media 
reported that the team investigating the attack on the Israeli naval 
vessel during the war in the North has lambasted the performance 
both of the ship's commanders and the heads of the Israel Navy. 
 
Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that the heads of the 
Immigrant Absorption Ministry will travel this week to the US and 
Canada to attend conferences with "thousands" of expatriate Israelis 
in order to convince them to return to Israel.  The Jerusalem Post 
stressed the share of Israelis from the former Soviet Union in that 
population. 
 
All major media reported that on Monday the Knesset marked the 20th 
anniversary of MIA navigator Ron Arad's disappearance in southern 
Lebanon. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a recommendation to investors by the US 
financial powerhouse Merrill Lynch Monday that they "park their 
money in Israel by year-end to protect themselves from what is 
expected to be another round of emerging-market volatility.  Major 
media reported that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Israel 
reached an all-time high in 2005, hitting USD 5.6 billion.  Such was 
reported by the annual World Investment Report published by the UN 
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  Israel, according to 
the report, ranks 23rd in terms of attractiveness for foreign 
investors, but is only in the 63rd slot when it comes to realizing 
this potential. The report also shows that FDI in the financial 
sector amounts to 26 percent of all capital in the Israeli market. 
This is up from 20 percent in 2003. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted conservative Israeli-American Professor Israel 
Aumann, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics last year, as saying 
in an address he delivered this week at the Judea and Samaria 
College in the West Bank that Israel may not be capable of 
continuing to exist in the long term.  Aumann said that Olmert's 
statement that Israel is tired of wars and sacrifices was a sign of 
national fatigue that manifested itself in the recent war in Lebanon 
and could turn fatal for Israel. 
 
Georgia's Ambassador to Israel was quoted as saying in an interview 
with Maariv that Russia treats his country like the Nazis. 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Olmert's positions change due 
to political contingency." 
 
Uri Savir, President of the Peres Center for Peace, wrote in the 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "The [Israeli] government's 
pragmatic-bureaucratic approach needs to be replaced with the 
ideological approach of a leader." 
 
Isi Leibler, a veteran conservative international Jewish leader who 
chairs the Diaspora-Israel relations committee of the Jerusalem 
Center for Public Affairs, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "Lacking the confidence of the nation [Israel's 
leaders] are incapable of resisting unreasonable demands from our 
American friends because, as lame ducks, they desperately need to 
cling to the coattails of the American administration." 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Advanced Spin" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/17): "Comparing Olmert's 
speech at the opening of the Knesset's term] Monday to the one that 
introduced his government in the Knesset, on May 4, reveals highly 
significant differences.  Then his top priority was setting the 
border between Israel and the Palestinians, with or without an 
agreement.  Now the Prime Minister has far more pressing matters to 
attend to: changing the system of government, introducing a 
constitution and rendering the political system more stable.  All 
these matters are not even hinted at in the guidelines of the Olmert 
government, nor were they included in his inaugural speech in 
May.... All of Olmert's innovations and surprises share a common 
motive: his desire to survive and expand the coalition, to guarantee 
the budget passes and to inoculate himself against rebellions and 
ambushes by the Labor Party.  The lesson of Monday's speech is that 
Olmert's positions change due to political contingency.  His 
extollers will call him pragmatic, while rivals will say this is 
Ehud in flip-flop." 
 
II.  "Pragmatism is Dangerous" 
 
Uri Savir, President of the Peres Center for Peace, wrote in the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (10/17): "It seems that we currently have 
a government and a prime minister whose comportment conforms to a 
pragmatic world view and a 'balanced' approach to administering 
state affairs. Prima facie, that sounds reasonable but, actually, 
many dangers lurk therein. Israel cannot afford to adopt so 
bureaucratic an approach, which will lead it to viewing every issue 
as it were a coin that has two sides to it and, by so doing, to doom 
itself to a state of diplomatic deadlock..... The government's 
pragmatic-bureaucratic approach needs to be replaced with the 
ideological approach of a leader.  We need to clarify what our 
fundamental values and goals are, and those will serve as a compass 
to direct the government's course of action in the following 
critical areas: The Palestinian issue: We need to terminate, above 
all, the occupation.  It is immoral, it exacerbates hatred and 
radicalism.  Hence, we need to take action to find shortcuts in the 
Roadmap and to reach final status arrangement negotiations with Abu 
Mazen.  The Syrian issue: Peace is the paramount value, and only its 
achievement will ensure for us our security.  Therefore, we need to 
take courageous action that is in keeping with conditions that will 
make Syria free itself from terrorism and to make progress towards 
political negotiations that include the possibility of a withdrawal 
from the Golan Heights.... The moral and ethical consideration 
proves ultimately to be the correct and expedient consideration." 
 
III.  "We Need the Guts to Say No to Rice" 
 
Isi Leibler, a veteran conservative international Jewish leader who 
chairs the Diaspora-Israel relations committee of the Jerusalem 
Center for Public Affairs, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (10/17): "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is 
now actually urging Abbas to form a unity government with Hamas. 
The only obstacle is that Hamas insists on retaining its weapons and 
adamantly refuses -- even insincerely -- to express an incantation 
implying that it could ever accept the existence of the 'Zionist 
entity.'  Rice had previously coerced Sharon and his defense 
minister Shaul Mofaz into handing over control of the Philadelphi 
route between Sinai and Gaza to the Egyptians.  Not surprisingly, 
the Egyptians reneged on their undertakings and a massive flow of 
armaments and terrorists have been pouring into Gaza along that 
route.   Yet today the Americans are pressing Israel to ease 
security requirements at all checkpoints for 'humanitarian reasons,' 
in order to bolster Abbas.  Rice had previously insisted that Israel 
endorse the transfer of weapons to Palestinian security forces to 
strengthen the PA.  Although reluctant, Olmert agreed to do so in 
May on the grounds that 'we need to help Abu Mazen'.... Nobody, 
including our own government, seemed concerned that since Oslo 
weapons provided to Palestinian security personnel had been used to 
murder Israelis.  Nor has the government drawn attention to the fact 
that Abbas is still trying desperately to persuade Hamas killers to 
merge with the PA security, which already incorporates Fatah 
murderers.... We are currently being led by people who seem to have 
forsaken any vestige of common sense.  Lacking the confidence of the 
nation they are incapable of resisting unreasonable demands from our 
American friends because, as lame ducks, they desperately need to 
cling to the coattails of the American administration." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "[President Bush's Iraq 
policy] may be a noble stance, but it is a mistaken one, a 
self-sacrificing choice that will end up costing Bush's reputation, 
maybe his party, and probably the popularity of his ideas." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Bush -- Noble, But Mistaken" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (10/17): "Bush is doing 
what he thinks is the right thing: not 'cutting and running' nor 
seeking partisan advantage, but instead 'staying the course,' 
'maintaining US credibility,' and not 'abandoning'  the Iraqi 
people.  This may be a noble stance, but it is a mistaken one, a 
self-sacrificing choice that will end up costing Bush's reputation, 
maybe his party, and probably the popularity of his ideas.   It is 
impossible for the US and its allies to win the war in Iraq.  It is 
also impossible for them to lose.... There is only one way for this 
war to end and for Iraq to achieve relative stability, and that is 
for the Shi'ites and Kurdish majority to win.  But they will never 
be compelled to do so as long as the coalition forces fight the 
battles for them.... Forcing Shi'ites to sink or swim will show that 
they are Olympic contenders when it comes to fighting such a civil 
war.  The second problem, regrettably, is the method needed to 
achieve victory.  The Shi'ites will fight Middle East-style, not 
obeying the niceties of American law, codes of conduct, or rules of 
engagement.... What Bush should have done -- and it isn't too late, 
though he seems determined to compound his errors -- is to set a 
timetable for withdrawal, without a detailed public commitment but 
with a clear message to Iraq's government that it must take 
responsibility for its own defense.  By failing to do so, he has 
doomed his administration and his own reputation." 
 
CRETZ