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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000365 
 
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.  Missile Defenses 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that UN 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier 
 
SIPDIS 
(representing the EU), Russian FM Sergey Lavrov, and US Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice will hold a meeting of the Quartet tonight in 
Washington to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The radio 
reported that Russia wishes to lift the international boycott 
imposed on the Hamas-led government.  The Jerusalem Post quoted 
senior European officials as saying prior to the meeting that the 
Quartet will need to discuss the role it should play in the internal 
Palestinian strife, in addition to dealing with the standard Roadmap 
issues. 
 
Ha'aretz, Yediot, and Israel Radio cited a claim by Fatah that 
members of its Palestinian Security Force arrested seven Iranian 
weapons experts working in the service of Hamas, including an 
intelligence officer, during a raid at the Islamic University, a 
Hamas stronghold in Gaza City, and that another Iranian committed 
suicide during the raid.  The leading Internet website Ynet quoted a 
Palestinian source as saying that the officer supervised several 
weapons lab at the university.  This morning electronic media 
reported that Hamas gunmen killed two members of a Fatah-linked 
intelligence service in Gaza.  Israel Radio and Ynet reported that 
seven Gazans were killed in clashes this morning.  Ha'aretz said 
that the Fatah forces apprehended some 1,400 firearms and missiles 
found at the site.  Media reported that on Thursday six Palestinians 
were killed and at least 65 were wounded, including two children, 
during renewed clashes in the central Gaza Strip between armed Hamas 
and Fatah militants.  Ha'aretz reported that Egypt blamed Hamas for 
the collapse of the cease-fire. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday Defense Minister Amir Peretz 
announced his choice of a short-range rocket defense system 
developed by Rafael -- Israel's Armament Development Authority -- as 
the system the defense establishment will develop to defend Israel 
against Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.  The system 
developed by Rafael and dubbed "Iron Dome" is planned to be capable 
of intercepting Qassam and Katyusha rockets with a small kinetic 
missile interceptor and is scheduled to be operational for 
deployment outside the Gaza Strip and along the northern border 
within two years.  Israel Radio quoted the Prime Minister's Office 
as saying that Peretz's decision on the system - whose development 
is valued at USD 300 million -- is not valid and that it must be 
endorsed by Olmert.  Israel Radio quoted an Israeli defense source 
as saying that, had Israel insisted upon developing a laser-guided 
US Nautilus system, Sderot would now be protected from Qassam rocket 
fire.  Hatzofe and Yediot reported that on Thursday Syria test-fired 
a Scud missile in its desert and an Israeli Arrow battery monitored 
the test. 
 
All media reported that the Winograd Committee probing last summer's 
war in Lebanon grilled PM Ehud Olmert during six hours on Thursday. 
 The media reported that Olmert stood by the decisions he made 
during the war.  Yediot (banner) and other media reported that the 
members of the committee asked Olmert why he entrusted the Defense 
Ministry with Amir Peretz.  Maariv reported that Olmert told the 
committee that he was unaware of the condition of the army reserves. 
 Maariv also quoted Olmert as saying that Israel had no choice but 
to go to war, including the ground operation during its last two 
days.  Ha'aretz reported that IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz forbade 
top IDF officers from expressing opinions that diverged from his own 
to cabinet members during the war, in a policy that that caused 
great controversy within the General Staff.  All media quoted Peretz 
as reiterating on Thursday that he has no intention of leaving the 
Defense Ministry and that he is suited to the post.  Ha'aretz cited 
an announcement made by the Finance Ministry on Thursday that four 
Arab villages near the border will be eligible for the standard 
government assistance offered to frontline communities that suffer 
the ravages of conflict. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday Israeli security forces shot 
and killed four Palestinians.   Over 30 Palestinians were arrested 
in a West Bank sweep.  Ynet reported that last night the IDF 
unintentionally killed two Fatah activists near Ramallah. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday, Saudi diplomatic 
official Jamal Khashoggi, who accompanied Ambassador to the US Turki 
Al-Faisal to a Capitol Hill reception condemning anti-Semitism, told 
the newspaper that the Holocaust was a "horrible" episode. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinians in Iraq face an 
"ethnic cleansing." 
 
Leading media reported on French President Jacques Chirac's 
flip-flop statements on the possibility that Iran may turn nuclear. 
 
On Thursday Ha'aretz ran an informal feature about the non-immigrant 
visa-granting process at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. 
 
Following Vice PM Shimon Peres's visit to Qatar, Maariv ran a 
feature about that gulf state.  Other media, including Channel 
10-TV, have announced that they will screen reports from Qatar. 
 
Maariv reported that the Conference of Major Jewish American 
Organizations has canceled a planned trip to the Gulf emirates -- 
Dubai and Abu Dhabi -- following a message it received from state 
sources in the United Arab Emirates that a visit by some of its 
members might cause rioting. 
 
Hatzofe reported that on Thursday Muslim Congressman Keith Elison 
(D-Minnesota) strongly condemned Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. 
 
Yediot reported that the organizers of the Tehran Film Festival have 
canceled the planned screening of an Israeli documentary about the 
war in Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that Michael Bloomberg, 
Mayor of New York City and "one of the richest people in the US," 
dedicated a USD 6.5 million state-of-the-art emergency rescue 
service in Jerusalem in memory of his father.  The new Jerusalem 
regional station of Magen David Adom will be named for William H. 
Bloomberg, who died in 1963 while the Mayor was in college.  The 
media said that Magen David Adom stressed that Bloomberg was the 
leading donor in the remodeling of the organization's center and in 
improving the services it offers.  Hatzofe quoted Bloomberg as 
saying that Israel should not hold contacts with Hamas. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "In no time at all Olmert's government 
might be gone, and the regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt may come up 
with a different interpretation of their own interests.  Hence the 
narrowness, in the eyes of many in the world, of opportunity's 
newest Mideast window." 
 
Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "What lies in the balance ... is too 
important for Israel and the United States to keep refusing to put 
Bashar Assad's intentions regarding peace to the test." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Aches and Panes" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (2/2): "Suicide bombers may still be 
blowing up Israelis, Qassam [rockets] may still be falling on 
Sderot, Iran may still be marching toward nukes, Hizbullah may still 
be stockpiling missiles, Palestinians may still be on the brink of a 
civil war, Hamas may still be giving no indications of changing its 
stripes, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government may still be on the 
verge of collapse, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas may 
still be unable to deliver anything, but listen to the background 
music emanating from capitals around the world and what you hear is 
a chorus of people singing -- once again -- about a Middle East 
peace 'window of opportunity'.... In no time at all Olmert's 
government might be gone, and the regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt 
may come up with a different interpretation of their own interests. 
Hence the narrowness, in the eyes of many in the world, of 
opportunity's newest Mideast window." 
 
II.  "Test of Syria's Intentions" 
 
Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/2): "If [Secretary of State Condoleezza] 
Rice and the Quartet members are unable to cut the Gordian knot of 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of continuing the 
Sisyphean task of untying it, they're better off deciding on what 
steps to take so they can move over immediately to an Israeli-Syrian 
peace track.  Such a move would have an unprecedented effect on 
creating the conditions for the maturation of an Israeli-Palestinian 
settlement.  But there is another failure in the U.S. strategy, 
which assumes that Syria must be isolated rather than turned into a 
negotiation partner, as the Baker-Hamilton report recommends.  What 
lies in the balance -- a more functional regional order, stability 
in Lebanon and a severing of the Damascus-Tehran axis -- is too 
important for Israel and the United States to keep refusing to put 
Bashar Assad's intentions regarding peace to the test.  There is no 
need to reinvent the wheel to solve the problem on the Palestinian 
front or on the Syrian front.  In both cases, the solution is 
already known.  The problem is the lack of political will and the 
leadership failure on both sides." 
 
--------------------- 
¶2.  Missile Defenses: 
--------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The 
option of 'demilitarizing' space does not exist.  The choice is 
between leaving the populations of free nations exposed to missile 
attack, or taking advantage of the best technologies available to 
meet that threat." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Build Missile Defenses" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (2/2): 
"On January 11, China shot down its own defunct satellite, claiming 
it was cleaning up 'space pollution.'  Israel is not the only 
country, however, to suspect China might have been demonstrating 
more than its environmental awareness.... How ... can satellites be 
defended?.... The only real way to defend satellites is with a 
comprehensive anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defense system.  As it 
happens, the United States has been talking about such a system for 
over two decades.... Such a system is necessary not just to defend 
satellites, but millions of people.... In this context, we hope 
administration opponents in Congress will abandon their 
anachronistic opposition to space-based defense systems.  The option 
of 'demilitarizing' space does not exist.  The choice is between 
leaving the populations of free nations exposed to missile attack, 
or taking advantage of the best technologies available to meet that 
threat." 
 
CRETZ