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P 301048Z JAN 07
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000324 
 
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 
 
SIPDIS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with the suicide bombing that took place in a 
neighborhood bakery in Eilat on Monday morning -- the first such 
incident in the city.  Media reported that one of the victims, 
Yisrael Smolia, was a new immigrant from Peru whose entire family 
lives in the US.  The authorities are unsure about how the 
terrorist, Islamic Jihad operative Muhammad Faisal Saksak, 21, of 
Gaza City, made his way to Eilat after probably crossing the border 
from Egypt.  Leading media found indications that the attack was 
meant to restore unity among Palestinians.  Media reported that the 
White House and the EU condemned the bombing.  White House Press 
Secretary Tony Snow was quoted as saying in a statement on Monday 
 
SIPDIS 
that the Palestinian Authority was responsible for preventing such 
attacks. "Failure to act against terror will inevitably affect 
relations between that government and the international community 
and undermine the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state 
of their own," Snow was quoted as saying.  Leading media reported 
that Jordan's King Abdullah II also condemned the assault. 
 
The Jerusalem Post wrote that the IDF was ordered on Monday night to 
prepare plans to target Palestinian terror organizations and Islamic 
Jihad terror chiefs in the Gaza Strip.  Yediot reported that on 
Monday, during a security meeting, Defense Minister Amir Peretz 
rejected those recommendations by the army.  Conversely, The 
Jerusalem Post reported that Peretz called for an end to Israel's 
policy of restraint.  Ha'aretz bannered PM Ehud Olmert's reported 
intention to maintain the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and not to 
respond with a broad military offensive.  Leading media wrote that 
in addition to the problem of the porous boundary with Egypt, 
Israel's intelligence in the Gaza Strip is growing weaker. 
 
Israel Radio reported that last night the IAF struck a tunnel at the 
Karni crossing, and quoted a senior GOI source as saying that the 
hit is not linked to the Eilat bombing. 
The Jerusalem Post cited the State Department as saying this week 
that there has been no change of policy on Hamas despite Secretary 
of State Condoleezza Rice's characterization of the group as a 
"resistance movement.  The newspaper quoted Rice as saying in 
speaking to reporters in Berlin on January 18, discussing the 
situation of Palestinians in the year 2000: "You had Hamas, of 
course, sitting out as a resistance movement, not at all, by the 
way, involved in the politics at all." 
 
Media reported that the cabinet is expected to approve the 
appointment of Maj. Gen. (reserves) Gabi Ashkenazi as the next IDF 
chief of staff at its next meeting.   The committee in charge of 
evaluating senior civil service appointments approved Ashkenazi's 
appointment on Monday.  In addition, three Supreme Court Justices 
ruled on Monday that the government is entitled to appoint without 
delay a new chief of staff before the Winograd Committee, which is 
investigating the second Lebanon war, issues an interim report on 
its findings.  The court thereby rejected a petition filed by the 
Movement for Quality Government and Almagor, a group representing 
victims of terror, which had argued that it would be wrong to name a 
new chief of staff before the Winograd Committee's interim report is 
available.  Ashkenazi is expected to take over at the General Staff 
in another two weeks. 
 
Maariv and The Jerusalem Post reported that Vice PM Shimon Peres has 
left for an official visit to Qatar.  Maariv said that this will be 
the first time Peres will appear before Arab students in an Arab 
country. 
 
Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that a new ministerial committee 
decided on Monday that more police officers will be assigned to 
areas of the West Bank with a high incidence of illegal activity by 
Jewish settlers, and that the use of restraining orders against 
right-wing extremists who are suspected of violence against 
Palestinians will be increased. 
 
Leading media reported that fighting between rival Palestinian 
factions continued on Monday despite a Saudi offer to host talks 
between Hamas and Fatah. 
 
Maariv reported that the US is concerned that Latin American 
countries might become a jumping-off point for terrorists intent on 
operating in the US.  The newspaper cited the fear of US 
intelligence that Iran's alliances with Venezuela and Nicaragua 
might assist the trend.  Maariv reported that over 10,000 Iranians 
have visited Yad Vashem's Farsi-language website since it was first 
opened last Thursday.  Yediot quoted Iranian Ambassador to Iraq 
Hassan Kazemi as saying on Monday in an interview with The New York 
Times that Iran should replace the US in the reconstruction of 
Iraq. 
 
Yediot quoted former FM Shlomo Ben-Ami as saying in an address to 
the Spanish Parliament (Cortes) that Israel is a prisoner of the 
paranoia of Holocaust remembrance and that it should stop comparing 
Saddam Hussein and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted prominent Israeli demographer Sergio Della Pergola, 
who was an adviser to Israeli governments and the Jerusalem 
Municipality, as writing in a book to be published by the Jerusalem 
Institute for Israel Studies that Israel should concede parts of 
Jerusalem with a Palestinian majority.  Della Pergola was quoted as 
saying that by 2020, if the present ratio continues, only 60 percent 
of the population of Jerusalem will be Jewish. 
 
Yediot reported that on Monday dozens of senior IDF reserve officers 
presented a petition to Olmert demanding that former PM Ehud Barak 
be named defense minister.  The officers clarified that their move 
was not part of the Labor Party primaries. 
 
Yediot cited Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's belief that Israel's 
President Moshe Katsav should leave his official residence ahead of 
his hearing. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Ben-Gurion University Prof. Dan. G. 
Blumberg as saying that geomorphologists from his university have 
been collaborating with NASA scientists in using the Negev and other 
deserts as analogs to understand windblown formations and how they 
affect the landscape.  The experiments are meant to simulate 
atmospheric conditions on Mars.  Leading media reported that NASA 
sent two astronauts and one of its chief science officers to Israel 
this week to take part in a series of consultations and lectures. 
The NASA delegation will also take part in the second annual Ilan 
Ramon International Space Conference at the Israel Air Force 
Center's Fisher Brothers Institute in Herzliya on Wednesday. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that on Monday morning 
Israel was the world's first country to see the long-awaited edition 
of Microsoft's Vista operating system, even before Bill Gates and 
company were due to launch it in New York.  Israel Radio reported 
that Google has opened its first R&D center in Haifa with 10 
employees.  The radio said that Google will open another one in Tel 
Aviv. 
 
Erratum: In Monday's Israel Media Reaction we omitted the name -- Ir 
Amim -- of the non-profit organization that recently reported that 
Israel has neglected Arab neighborhoods that are within Jerusalem's 
municipal boundaries but outside the West Bank separation fence. 
The item appeared in Ha'aretz. 
 
Yediot cited the results of a poll conducted among high school 
students hailing from the Commonwealth of Independent States and 
commissioned by the Gertner Institute: 
-39 percent of junior high school students and 30 percent of high 
school students would prefer not to enlist in the IDF. 
-33 percent of junior high school students and 44 percent of high 
school students would like to live elsewhere, mainly in the US or 
Europe. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The 
Arab states say they want peace.  They say, privately, that they are 
very concerned about Iran.  Now is the time to take real action on 
both fronts, by working directly to defuse the Iranian campaign to 
ignite the entire region." 
 
Journalist and far-Left peace activist Uri Avnery wrote in NRG, the 
Internet site of the popular, pluralist Maariv: "If Arafat were 
alive we would have a clear address for engaging in negotiations 
with the Palestinian people." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Defuse the Conflict" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (1/30): 
"In the context of the Eilat attack and the growing 
intra-Palestinian violence, the policy of Israel and other countries 
of providing funds and even weapons to Abbas in the hopes of 
encouraging 'moderation' needs to be reexamined.  There are better 
ways to promote real, not just relative, moderation among 
Palestinians.  We note that Saudi Arabia, for the first time, has 
invited all Palestinian factions to join in talks to end the 
fighting between them.  This squares with the claims of a confluence 
of interests between Arab states, Israel and the US, all of whom are 
concerned with the Iranian threat.... That the Saudis and other Arab 
states are concerned about Iran is not theory, but fact.... The Arab 
states say they want peace.  They say, privately, that they are very 
concerned about Iran.  Now is the time to take real action on both 
fronts, by working directly to defuse the Iranian campaign to ignite 
the entire region." 
 
II.  "My Longings For Arafat" 
 
Journalist and far-Left peace activist Uri Avnery wrote in NRG, the 
Internet site of the popular, pluralist Maariv (1/30: "'If only 
Arafat were alive.'  One hears that sentence more and more, and not 
only in conversations with Palestinians but also with Israelis and 
foreigners.... If Arafat were alive we would have a clear address 
for engaging in negotiations with the Palestinian people.  The 
absence of such an address is currently the Israeli government's 
formal excuse for its unwillingness to begin peace negotiations. 
Every time either Condoleezza Rice or some other parrot of President 
Bush talks about the need to 'renew the dialogue' (but does not 
mention 'negotiations') about the 'final status' or the 'permanent 
arrangement' (but does not mention 'peace'), that is the answer that 
is furnished by Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert and company....  At the 
conference of billionaires in Davos, Tzipi Livni, Condi's new friend 
... publicly warned Abu Mazen not to make 'compromises with 
terrorists.'  That was a timely warning.  In a desperate attempt to 
create a credible Palestinian address Abu Mazen flew to Damascus to 
meet with Khaled Mashal. By so doing, he admitted publicly that 
nothing could be done without the Hamas leader, who has become the 
supreme president of the Palestinian people.  Livni quickly 
identified the danger and swiftly torpedoed the process.  There 
isn't going to be any dialogue with a Palestinian unity government, 
just like there isn't going to be any dialogue with either Abu Mazen 
or Hamas.  Do you understand that, Condi dearest?" 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist Yonatan Rosenblum wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: 
"If Bush does not act against the Iranian nuclear infrastructure 
before he completes his term, it would be almost impossible to 
imagine any heir -- be he a Democrat or a Republican -- who would do 
so." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Steadfast In His Determination" 
 
Columnist Yonatan Rosenblum wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv 
(1/30): "From Israel's point of view, the most important part of 
President Bush's speech earlier this month, in which he outlined a 
new American move in Iraq, is the statement: 'We will interrupt the 
flow of support from Iran and Syria.  And we will seek out and 
destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our 
enemies in Iraq.'  The New York Sum believes that this pronouncement 
is akin to a virtual declaration of war an Iran and Syria.... If 
Bush does not act, Israel will have no choice but to try to co it 
itself.... [But] the most important is that the US has a military 
capability that goes far beyond Israel's.... If Bush does not act 
against the Iranian nuclear infrastructure before he completes his 
term, it would be almost impossible to imagine any heir -- be he a 
Democrat or a Republican -- who would do so." 
 
JONES