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DE RUEHTV #0660/01 0601013
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P 011013Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000660 
 
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.  Iran 
 
¶2.  Proposed Baghdad Conference 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz quoted a senior political source in Jerusalem as saying on 
Wednesday that Olmert and PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas will 
meet in two weeks, their third meeting since the resumption of 
top-level diplomatic contacts.  They will concentrate on ways of 
"furthering the dialogue" in view of the difficulties in forging a 
Palestinian unity government.  Ha'aretz wrote that earlier this 
week, aides for the two leaders met for a frank discussion to 
prepare for the Olmert-Abbas meeting.  Ha'aretz quoted Abbas as 
saying in Cairo on Tuesday that he would meet Olmert in "a week or 
two."  Ha'aretz said that Olmert reiterated on Wednesday during his 
meeting with the visiting European Union Commissioner for Foreign 
Affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the preconditions for proceeding 
further with diplomatic talks with the Palestinians. "My talks with 
the Palestinian President will deal with issues relating to 
containing terrorism and the quality of life of the Palestinians," 
he was quoted as saying.  Ha'aretz recalled Olmert's unwillingness 
to discuss the issue of a final status or the implementation of the 
second stage of the Roadmap. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Iraqi sources as saying that Syria and Iran have 
agreed to participate in the "Baghdad conference" that will discuss 
the security crisis in Iraq.  The Jerusalem Post reported that, a 
day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US would 
take part in a "neighbors' meeting" with Syrian and Iranian 
representatives on stabilizing Iraq, Israeli officials said 
Jerusalem had no need to "feel threatened" by the move.  Government 
officials in Jerusalem were quoted as saying that the decision "is 
about Iraq," and that when it comes to Iraq, "Israel is not the one 
to tell the administration what to do."  Major media said that the 
US, meanwhile, reassured Israel that its policy on Tehran's nuclear 
program remained firm, despite its willingness to sit with Iranian 
representatives.  Leading media reported that Rice, hosting Knesset 
Speaker and Acting President of Israel Dalia Itzik in Washington, 
stressed to her that Iraq would be the central focus of the regional 
talks slated for next month.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Itzik 
told Israeli reporters following the meeting: "I couldn't detect any 
cracks in the American position on the Iranian nuclear issue." 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday Strategic 
Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Knesset's Defense and 
Foreign Affairs Committee that Israel is capable of dealing with the 
Iranian threat on its own.  "Israel has the capability to deal with 
the Iranian threat, even in the worst case scenario in which our 
friends throughout the world stop dealing with the threat and we are 
left on our own," he was quoted as saying.  Lieberman warned that 
"unless Iran is contained and it is blocked from achieving its goal, 
the minute it acquires non-conventional weapons the entire Middle 
East will enter a mad arms race and it is therefore the obligation 
of the Western world to block Iran."  The minister was quoted as 
saying that the sanctions against Iran were effective and that they 
have shocked the Iranian economy that is being managed by 50 to 60 
families holding monopolies.  Lieberman was quoted as saying that 
sanctions should be directed at those families by restricting their 
travel and limiting their banking transactions.  He expressed hope 
that the sanctions would bring about a collapse of the Iranian 
regime. 
 
The Jerusalem Post's web site reported that FM Tzipi Livni told the 
Palestinian daily Al Ayyam in an interview published this morning 
that "Israel could not accept the Arab peace initiative in its 
current format."  The Arab peace plan, also known as the Saudi 
Initiative, was adopted by all the Arab states participating in the 
Beirut summit of the Arab League in April 2002.  Livni was quoted as 
saying that the wording regarding the Palestinian claim to a "right 
of return" was one of the reasons the plan was currently 
unacceptable to Israel.  Israel Radio reported that, in the 
interview, Livni was critical of the Mecca Agreement reached between 
Fatah and Hamas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday a four-member team of 
experts from UNESCO toured the Antiquities Authority's 
archaeological dig near Jerusalem's Temple Mount that triggered 
protests around the Arab world. 
 
Yediot reported that Environment Minister Gideon Ezra, a former 
deputy Shin Bet head, has recently advised Olmert to consider 
releasing Fatah-Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti.  Ezra was quoted as 
saying: "I know that Barghouti's name evokes repugnance, but, what 
to do, he is the strongest man among the Palestinians." 
The Jerusalem Post printed an AP wire report saying that on Tuesday 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met relatives of two IDF soldiers 
seized by Hizbullah in northern Israel at the start of last year's 
Lebanon war and promised that he will keep working hard for their 
release. 
 
Hatzofe reported that the marketing campaign of West Bank houses in 
the US is successful. 
 
Hatzofe reported that right-wing groups are planning the 
reconstruction of Homesh, a northern West Bank settlement destroyed 
during the disengagement. 
 
Yediot reported that on Wednesday Al-Ahram, the official Egyptian 
newspaper, prominently published a story according to which National 
Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a man liked by 
President Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian leadership, was responsible 
for killing 250 Egyptian troops in the Sinai at the end of the 
Six-Day War.  The report is based on a feature broadcast on Israel 
TV. 
 
Yediot reported that Israel will accelerate its launching of 
satellites into space. 
 
Last night Channel 10-TV revealed the existence of an internal 
document written by an adviser to PM Ehud Olmert when he was 
Minister of Industry and Trade.  The document lists the favors and 
promotions Olmert and his associates granted to 115 political 
activists and Likud Central Committee members. The media quoted 
Olmert as saying that he did not recall the document in question and 
that he acted in accordance with the attorney general's directives. 
The Prime Minister's Office said some of the details appeared to be 
correct and justified, while others were not.  Hatzofe bannered: 
"Ehud Olmert's Corruption Industry."  In an unrelated development, 
Yediot noted that on Wednesday senior New York Times columnist 
Thomas Friedman criticized the weakness of the Israeli government 
and described the Israeli public's contempt for it. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot quoted Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin as saying on 
Monday that his service is to acquire a security system based on new 
technology to prevent the need for separate, individual screening of 
Arab passengers at airports. 
 
Yediot reported that Vice PM Shimon Peres has put Col. Erez Ron in 
charge of the "Peace Canal" project linking the Red Sea with the 
Dead Sea. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the GOI's Central Bureau of Statistics as saying on 
Wednesday that unemployment decreased significantly in 2006, 
especially during the last quarter of the year, when it sank to its 
lowest level in a decade amid strong economic growth. 
 
All media prominently reported that Knesset Member Esterina Tartman 
withdrew her candidacy for tourism minister last night, only four 
days after she was nominated, following a series of embarrassing 
revelations about nonexistent university degrees and a medical 
opinion that declared her incapable of working more than four hours 
a day.  Her announcement followed a meeting with Yisrael Beiteinu 
Chairman Avigdor Lieberman at which he evidently persuaded her that 
she would have to concede the job.  In her place, Yisrael Beiteinu 
nominated MK Yitzhak Aharonovitch, number eight on the party's 
slate, confounding expectations that Lieberman would choose MK 
Yisrael Hasson, who occupies the number two slot.  In the past, 
Aharonovitch served as a high-ranking police official. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Asaf Homosany, the Israel director of the 
NASDAQ Stock Market, as saying on Wednesday that Israeli companies, 
already the biggest non-US contingent on NASDAQ, will hold more 
initial share sales on the exchange in the next two year than it did 
in the last two. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Polish PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski told leaders of 
the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany on 
Wednesday that Poland is working on a law entitling Jews to receive 
partial compensation for family property stolen during the 
Holocaust.  The law is slated to be passed by the end of the year. 
 
Maariv described the upcoming hike in the cost of acquiring American 
citizenship. 
 
Yediot reported that researchers at the English University of 
Leicester believe that founding father and President Thomas 
Jefferson was Jewish. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Now 
there should be no obstacle to a fully bipartisan American policy 
toward Iran." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Time For Bipartisanship" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (3/1): 
"It is not yet clear what will ultimately result from Monday's 
six-nation talks in London to decide on a Western response to Iran's 
defiance of yet another UN deadline.  An agreement evidently was 
reached to marginally tighten existing UN sanctions.  The most 
immediate battle, however, is to more fully implement the financial 
sanctions already imposed by the last UN Security Council 
resolution.... Though there is some support among European 
governments for turning the financial screws on Iran, there is also 
opposition.  This is where those who have been pressing the US to 
talk to Iran, and who now seem to be getting their way, have a 
responsibility to step in.  Now there should be no obstacle to a 
fully bipartisan American policy toward Iran.  Congressional leaders 
and the White House presumably agree: A diplomatic solution is 
preferable to a military one, but for diplomacy to have a chance, 
the campaign to sanction Iran must move into high gear.  In this 
context, a bipartisan leadership delegation from the US Congress, 
pressing European leaders to fully join the US-led sanctions 
campaign, could help convince reluctant allies to present a united 
front.  Those who want to avoid the military option most should be 
the first to participate in such an effort, which is the last, best 
chance to stop the growing Iranian threat without firing a shot." 
 
-------------------------------- 
¶2.  Proposed Baghdad Conference: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "The decision [to convene 
an international conference in Baghdad] was far from a full 
acceptance of the Baker-Hamilton bipartisan report on Iraq that 
called for direct US engagement with Syria and Iran." 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Even if Washington insists 
there is no connection between the talks on the Iranian nuclear 
program and the situation in Iraq, it will be hard-pressed to find 
an audience for its claims." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Tactical, Not Strategic, Change" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (3/1): "The US decision to 
take part in a regional conference on Iraq that will include Iran 
and Syria did not send diplomatic officials in Jerusalem scrambling 
to recalibrate Israel's diplomatic policies to deal with a seismic 
shift in US Middle East policy, for the simple reason that Jerusalem 
does not feel this represents a seismic shift in US regional policy. 
 A tactical shift in how to deal with Iraq?  Yes.  But a strategic 
regional shift?  Not at all.  The first thing Israeli and US 
officials stressed Wednesday, following US Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice's announcement of the decision, was that the 
conference will be an international gathering, and will not 
constitute direct bilateral talks between the US and either Iran or 
Syria.  In this sense, the decision was far from a full acceptance 
of the Baker-Hamilton bipartisan report on Iraq that called for 
direct US engagement with Syria and Iran.  Another element stressed 
in Jerusalem was the US domestic political context in which the 
decision was made.  In this regard, the decision was viewed as a 
tactical step taken by President George W. Bush to give the 
Democratic Congress something in return for not stopping his move to 
send another 21,500 troops to Iraq, and to show Congress and the 
American public that he is not deaf to their concerns and demands. 
And in the localized context of Iraq, this is seen as a tactical 
move to try and do something that could perhaps be a positive step 
toward stabilizing the worsening situation there.  There is also no 
sense in Jerusalem that the decision to engage Syria and Iran on 
Iraq constitutes an American green light for Israel to begin 
actively exploring various diplomatic feelers Damascus has put out 
in recent months." 
 
II.  "Waiting For the US to Tire" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/1): "Russia is positioning 
itself in the Middle East in anticipation of the moment the United 
States begins its Iraq pullout.  At the Munich Conference on 
Security Policy in February, Putin accused the US of aspiring to 
dominate the world. Meanwhile, Putin has no intention to stay in his 
corner.  It therefore appears that the American willingness to 
participate in a conference with Syria and Iran is related to the 
Russian regional involvement and the threat to America's standing. 
Washington has made it clear that during this conference, no 
meetings will be scheduled with Iranian and Syrian representatives, 
but it will be impossible to avoid preliminary talks between the 
American ambassador in Iraq and senior Iranian representatives if 
the conference is to have results.  The same applies to Syria. 
Therefore, even if Washington insists there is no connection between 
the talks on the Iranian nuclear program and the situation in Iraq, 
it will be hard-pressed to find an audience for its claims.  It 
seems that a solution for Iraq has been becoming more urgent than 
the nuclear issue -- especially following Britain's announcement 
that it was withdrawing another 1,600 soldiers, and plans by other 
allies to leave the US on its own." 
 
CRETZ