null
Carol X Weakley  10/25/2006 03:07:50 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Carol X Weakley

Cable 
Text:                                                                      
                                                                           
      
UNCLAS        TEL AVIV 04247

SIPDIS
CXTelA:
    ACTION: PD
    INFO:   POL DAO DCM AMB

DISSEMINATION: PD
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: PAO:HKFINN
DRAFTED: PD:RPAZ
CLEARED: IO:STUTTLE

VZCZCTVI447
PP RUEHC RHEHAAA RHEHNSC RUEAIIA RUEKJCS RUEAHQA
RUEADWD RUENAAA RHEFDIA RUEKJCS RUEHAD RUEHAS RUEHAM RUEHAK
RUEHLB RUEHEG RUEHDM RUEHLO RUEHFR RUEHRB RUEHRO RUEHRH
RUEHTU RUCNDT RUEHJM RHMFISS RHMFIUU RHMFIUU
DE RUEHTV #4247/01 2980951
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 250951Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7185
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUENAAA/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 1100
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 7876
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 0932
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 1867
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 1077
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 8738
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 1803
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 8728
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 9176
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 5858
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 3230
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 8095
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 2350
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 4249
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 4839
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 004247 
 
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 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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1. Mideast 
 
¶2. US Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Internal political issues continued to dominate the Hebrew language 
newspapers. All media estimated that Defense Minister Amir Peretz 
will inform Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the Labor party is 
remaining in the coalition.  At a meeting Tuesday night, Peretz 
agreed to MK Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beitenu party joining the 
coalition, in return for benefits for the Arab sector in Israel. 
The government meeting that is supposed to confirm Israel Beitenu's 
membership in the coalition was postponed until Monday, after the 
Labor party central committee's meeting. 
 
 
All media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that the Egyptians 
have presented a new proposal for freeing abducted soldier Corporal 
Gilad Shalit, and that a group of senior Hamas officials are 
expected in Cairo by the end of the week.  The media noted that it 
is not yet clear whether the head of Hamas's political bureau, 
Khaled Mashal will go to Cairo as well. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media outlets reported that: "An internal opinion 
in the State Prosecutor's Office, which has yet to be adopted by the 
state prosecutor or the attorney general, recommends that a criminal 
investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be opened without 
delay. He is suspected of having acted to further the interests of 
two businessmen friends from abroad while serving as acting finance 
minister in 2005. The state prosecution is investigating suspicions 
that Olmert interfered with the tender for the controlling interest 
in Bank Leumi." The media noted that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz 
will decide within a few days whether to open a critical 
investigation. 
 
Leading media cited CoS Dan Halutz as saying to members of the 
Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee that terrorist activists in the 
Gaza Strip have dug "an underground city of tunnels." He was also 
quoted as saying that Israel is very close to the point at which it 
will have to decide what to do about the Philadelphi route. The 
Jerusalem Post quoted Defense Minister Peretz as saying that there 
will be no large offensive in the Gaza Strip as a result of public 
pressure. 
All media reported that an AP photographer who was kidnapped on 
Tuesday by Palestinian activists was freed a few hours after his 
abduction. 
 
Maariv reported that EL AL Airline Company is stopping its flights 
to Cairo, Egypt due to high security fees. 
 
Maariv printed the results of a TNS/Teleseker Polling Institute 
survey conducted among Labor party members: 
"If primaries for the roll of Labor Party chairman were to be held 
today, who would you vote for?" 
35 percent would vote for Ami Ayalon; 23 percent for Ehud Barak; 17 
percent for Amir Peretz; and 14 percent for Avishai Braverman. 
 
----------- 
¶1. Mideast: 
----------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "From Israel's 
point of view, there is prime diplomatic and security significance 
to the organizing of friendly forces in the Arab world, with which 
Israel shares common interests and which oppose extremist Islam and 
terror.... However, Olmert has apparently forgotten that Israel must 
do its part to strengthen the axis of moderates; declarative 
statements are not enough." 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: "All of us will eat the results of the Olmert-Lieberman 
horror show.  You will eat them.  We will not have long to wait. 
You will not have long to wait." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Since the state was founded, Israel has not experienced a 
leadership crisis of such magnitude.  The political desert no longer 
extends outside the realm of government.  It encompasses it as well. 
 Right and left, there is nothing but desert and bereavement." 
 
Commentator Hagai Huberman wrote in nationalist Hatzofe: "From this 
moment on Olmert is dependent on Lieberman.  Neither the Labor 
Party, riven with internal disputes, nor even on his own party, 
Kadima, which is disintegrating at a pace which will accelerate as 
the next elections draw nearer, can save him." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
¶I. "Strengthening the moderate axis" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (10/25): "A series 
of events over recent months has increased the fears of many 
governments in the Middle East of the growing power of Iran and its 
allies.... The result has been the coalescing of an 'axis of 
moderates' in the Arab world, standing alongside Israel and the 
United States against Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, with the 
goal of halting the rise of extremist forces and maintaining the 
balance of powers in the Middle East.... From Israel's point of 
view, there is prime diplomatic and security significance to the 
organizing of friendly forces in the Arab world, with which Israel 
shares common interests and which oppose extremist Islam and 
terror.... However, Olmert has apparently forgotten that Israel must 
do its part to strengthen the axis of moderates; declarative 
statements are not enough.  The leaders in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh 
will find it difficult in terms of public opinion in their countries 
to justify moderate positions in the face of aggressive behavior on 
the part of Israel, which ignores their internal and regional 
exigencies.... The actions of the army in the Gaza Strip in the 
middle of the Id al-Fitr holiday shows contempt and disregard for 
the feelings of the Palestinian public and the entire Muslim world. 
Talk of expanded military action in Gaza, which will certainly only 
increase with Lieberman in the cabinet, is a bad sign of things to 
come.   Now is the time to stop and reevaluate the government's 
policies, so that they will suit Israel's wider interests and not 
only short-term political and military considerations." 
 
II. "Horror Show" 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (10/25): "In the history of the country, there has been no 
one like Ehud Olmert, who with unbridled cynicism has placed the 
needs of a shaky coalition and personal survival considerations 
above the country's concerns.... At the same time, the Olmert-Peretz 
government is a conducting a cruel war in the Gaza Strip that is 
exacting hundreds of victims, though it has not been declared a war. 
 Olmert scorns the possibility of any kind of talk with the leaders 
of the elected Palestinian government.... In his embarrassing, 
non-thunderous silence, Peretz is accompanying these moves of the 
prime minister's as though he were a devoted member of a virtual 
ruling party.... There is no point in wondering.  From its very 
first day, the Olmert government contributed to this abandonment of 
Israeli values and interests, while it still enjoyed the usual 
beginners' credit.  It was in this manner that it embarked on the 
war and conducted it.  And thus it calculated its survival moves 
until now, as its political situation was worsening.  Now, with its 
devious new partner, there isn't anything that is going to stop 
it.... All of us will eat the results of the Olmert-Lieberman horror 
show.  You will eat them.  We will not have long to wait.  You will 
not have long to wait." 
 
III. "A Political Desert" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv (10/25): "The incumbent prime minister ... broke a new 
national record yesterday: He is the first politician who became 
entangled in two different corruption affairs in one day, which join 
dozens of additional affairs that are associated with him and have 
been following him for some time.  Nothing has been proven yet, 
there are no indictments and no police investigation, but Ehud 
Olmert's conduct is tainted.... The leader of the Labor Party, Amir 
Peretz, is playing the lead in a satirical play about himself. 
Humiliated by his people, abandoned by his foot soldiers and 
supporters, lying helpless in the main square, with the lowliest 
characters assailing him.  Peretz joins Olmert and Netanyahu as the 
third side in a problematic leadership triumvirate.  Hedonism and 
suspected corruption here, lying and deceitfulness there, a wretched 
and pathetic dishrag on the other hand.  These are the leaders and 
saviors of Israel.... Since the state was founded, Israel has not 
experienced a leadership crisis of such magnitude.  The political 
desert no longer extends outside the realm of government.  It 
encompasses it as well.  Right and left, there is nothing but desert 
and bereavement." 
 
IV. "Lieberman's Test" 
 
Commentator Hagai Huberman wrote in nationalist Hatzofe (10/25): 
"Unlike my friends on the Right I am not really shocked by Avigdor 
Lieberman's joining the Olmert government.... A government with 
Lieberman may yet turn out to be a government which will protect the 
settlement outposts and refrain from harming them.  Until recently 
Lieberman made this a non-negotiable condition for joining the 
coalition, no less that electoral reform or the partnership union 
bill.... From this moment on Olmert is dependent on Lieberman. 
Neither the Labor Party, riven with internal disputes, nor even on 
his own party, Kadima, which is disintegrating at a pace which will 
accelerate as the next elections draw nearer, can save him.  Avigdor 
Lieberman is now the strong man in the government.  But this is the 
first test of Lieberman.  Will his joining the government really 
remove the threat of eviction which is hanging over the head of the 
State of Israel? Will his presence in the government really remove 
the despicable 'realignment plan' from the agenda once and for all? 
If Lieberman stands up for his true principles, it can still emerge 
that his participation in Olmert's coalition has served the 
interests of the Right.  If he betrays these principles also, he 
will never get another chance." 
 
----------------------- 
¶2. US Israel Relations: 
----------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Prof. Uzi Arad, Chairman of the Atlantic Forum of Israel and a 
Professor at the Interdisciplinary Center wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "It should be noted that quietly, and 
sometimes explicitly, all of Israel's prime ministers in the last 
generation have aspired to reach a defense pact with the United 
States.  It would appear that in light of the foreseeable strategic 
reality, this upgrade should be considered.  From an operative point 
of view, the last two years of the friendly administration of 
President Bush should be used to reach a defense pact with the 
United States." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Is Israel on Its Way to a Defense Pact?" 
 
Prof. Uzi Arad, Chairman of the Atlantic Forum of Israel and a 
Professor at the Interdisciplinary Center wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/25): "On October 16, Israel and NATO 
signed a bilateral cooperation agreement.  Israel is the first 
country outside of Europe with which NATO has implemented the format 
known as the Individual Cooperation Program (ICP).... This upgrade 
opens up the door for improving ties that already branched out last 
year.... Israeli membership in NATO includes a US defense guarantee, 
which renders a bilateral defense agreement unnecessary.  There are 
those in the US who believe that the model to which Israel should 
aspire is similar to the one that arranges the special relations 
between Britain and the US.... If Israel reaches the conclusion that 
a defense pact, within the framework of NATO or directly with the 
US, will add an external deterrent aspect to it, above and beyond 
the deterrence that it possesses -- then it will have to decide 
whether to act on the multilateral track (NATO) or the bilateral 
track (the US), or perhaps even on both.  In any case, this will 
involve an effort of overcoming opposition and obstacles, and Israel 
will need active, vigorous and sophisticated diplomacy, which 
leverages its capabilities, in order to achieve the goal.... It 
should be noted that quietly, and sometimes explicitly, all of 
Israel's prime ministers in the last generation have aspired to 
reach a defense pact with the United States.  It would appear that 
in light of the foreseeable strategic reality, this upgrade should 
be considered.  From an operative point of view, the last two years 
of the friendly administration of President Bush should be used to 
reach a defense pact with the United States.  But if for political 
or other practical reasons this does not work out-then the NATO 
track will be the route to pursue." 
JONES