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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000871 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Israel-Europe Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported that Israel's friends in the US Congress are 
applying heavy pressure on the US administration and the EU not to 
modify their stances regarding the Palestinian national unity 
government.  The radio reported that US Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) 
and John Ensign (R-NV) asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not 
to resume financial assistance to the Palestinians as long as they 
do not abide by the terms of the Quartet.  Israel Radio reported 
that on Tuesday State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack justified 
meetings of USG officials with Palestinian officials, including the 
one that took place on Tuesday between US Consul-General in 
Jerusalem Jacob Walles and PA Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, which 
was reported in most media.  McCormack was quoted as saying: "We 
have settled on what we thought was an appropriate and right contact 
policy.  I know the Israeli government has a different view in this 
regard."  Ha'aretz also said that the US insists on maintaining 
contacts with Fayyad.  Israel Radio reported that on Tuesday EU 
envoy Marc Otte met with Palestinian FM Ziad Abu Amr.  Maariv 
reported that on Tuesday France declared that it intends to resume 
contacts with the Palestinian government, starting with non-Hamas 
representatives.  Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post quoted senior GOI 
sources in Jerusalem as saying on Tuesday that Israel will boycott 
foreign envoys who meet with Hamas ministers. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the IDF knew in advance of settlers' 
intention to occupy a Palestinian house in Hebron.  Maariv quoted a 
source involved in the alleged sale of the building to Jews as 
saying that the Palestinian who asserts ownership of the property 
sold it to a Palestinian who does not live in Israel and served as a 
"straw man," and who is now afraid for his life.  Therefore, 
according to the source, the Palestinian is claiming that he never 
sold the house to anyone.  Israel Radio reported that Defense 
Minister Amir Peretz is supposed to review the matter today. 
 
Yediot reported that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will arrive on 
Saturday night for a three-day visit of Israel and the PA.  Ban will 
meet with the families of MIAs and abducted IDF soldiers -- from the 
Yom Kippur War period through the latest war in Lebanon. 
 
Yediot reported that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, leader of 
Israel's team in the strategic dialogue with the US, who is visiting 
India, told Indian FM Pranab Mukherjee that Iran will soon have 
missiles able to deliver nuclear weapons.  Hatzofe reported that on 
Tuesday the Knesset approved a law drafted by opposition leader MK 
Binyamin Netanyahu, which bans institutional bodies such as pension 
funds from investing in companies trading with Iran.   Israel Radio 
reported that South Africa, Indonesia, and Qatar -- non-permanent 
members of the UN Security Council -- want to soften the sanctions 
expected to be imposed on Iran. 
 
The Jerusalem Post published an analysis by Tel Aviv University's 
Institute for National Security Studies (which incorporates the 
Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies).  The report says that the 
Iranian-Saudi summit was a microcosm of Mideast contradictions. 
 
Israel Radio reported that IDF troops killed a 22-year-old Fatah 
militant in Nablus.  He had reportedly hurled explosive devices at 
IDF soldiers. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Winograd Commission probing last summer's 
war in Lebanon may release the testimonies of PM Ehud Olmert and 
Defense Minister Peretz before the release of its interim report. 
Yediot reported that the testimony of former IDF chief of staff Dan 
Halutz will be made public on Thursday.  All media reported that on 
Tuesday the police interrogated Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson 
over the alleged embezzlement of 5.6 million shekels (around USD 
1.33 million) from Nili, a non-profit organization associated with 
the National Labor Federation in Eretz-Israel i.e. the Land of 
Israel] (Hebrew: Histadrut Haovdim Haleumit), to finance political 
activity in the Likud Party, of which Hirchson was a member before 
joining Kadima.  Ha'aretz quoted Kadima Party insiders as saying 
that Hirchson's days at the Treasury are numbered. 
 
Yediot reported that several days ago Israel's Permanent 
Representative to the UN Danny Gillerman met -- for the first time 
publicly -- with Indonesian Ambassador to the UN Rezlan Ishar 
Jenie. 
 
Leading media reported that the Knesset is expected today to extend 
and widen the controversial Citizenship Law, which denies family 
unification to Israelis and Palestinians.  The law, which was to 
have expired next month, will be extended to July 2008 and apply to 
citizens of the four "enemy states" -- Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran 
-- as well as to those of the PA.   The law provides for the 
establishment of a committee to consider exceptions on a 
humanitarian basis.  However, Ha'aretz wrote that, since the Shin 
Bet, IDF and Population Registrar will have a majority in the 
committee, not many exceptions are expected to be approved.  The 
Citizenship Law denies family unification to Palestinian men aged 
18-35 and women 18-25. 
 
The media reported that Tuesday's nationwide civil defense drill 
featured a response to a mock chemical terrorist strike at a school 
in Ramat Gan.  During the drill, security forces attempted to thwart 
an unexpected apparent terrorist threat that turned out to be 
unfounded. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Michael Melchior (Labor Meimad), 
the Chairman of the Knesset's Education Committee, intends to demand 
from Olmert that he present the findings of a new report on 
Palestinian textbooks to PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas at 
their next meeting.  The daily quoted Melchior at saying: "You 
cannot have agreements while this kind of hatred is inculcated in 
the children." 
 
Yediot reported that the US Commercial Service at the US Embassy in 
Tel Aviv, the United States-Israel Educational Foundation, and the 
Israeli company Nirshamim have set up a joint Internet site --- 
www.nirshamim.com -- to facilitate the registration of Israeli 
students in US institutions of higher learning.  The newspaper noted 
that the web site does not prominently feature the most prestigious 
American universities.  Yediot wrote that the US is interested in 
tripling the number of Israeli students in America. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, after suffering heavy losses to 
Hizbullah anti-tank missiles during the second Lebanon war, the 
IDF's Armored Corps has changed its mode of operations and now 
intends to defeat the enemy using its two major advantages -- speed 
and firepower. 
 
Leading media reported that the legislative process to enact the 
"Peres bill" according to which the next president of Israel would 
be elected in an overt Knesset ballot -- thus allowing Vice PM 
Shimon Peres to be chosen with a higher degree of certainty -- has 
been frozen: The Knesset will elect the next president in a secret 
vote.  Maariv reported that a biography of Peres penned by Michael 
Bar-Zohar, which is due to be published in New York shortly, says 
that the late French PM Maurice Bourges-Maunoury signed a 1957 
document committing France to aiding Israel's construction of a 
nuclear reactor.  Peres was director-general of Israel's Defense 
Ministry at the time. The problem, according to the book, was that 
Bourges-Maunoury signed the pact on October 1, 1957 -- one day after 
the French PM's government had fallen.  The book says Peres 
persuaded the French official to date the document September 30th, 
one day earlier. The book says Peres knew the new French government 
would not be as friendly to Israel.  The book says had word gotten 
out the document had been backdated, "the agreement would have been 
annulled." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that oligarch Arkady Gaidamak has recently stepped 
up efforts toward establishing a new party.  The newspaper reported 
that Gaidamak intends to woo the votes of Israeli Arabs and that he 
counts on a well-respected retired senior political figure, who held 
ministerial posts in previous governments, to join his party. 
 
Maariv cited the American magazine People as saying that, during his 
visit to Israel, Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio acceded to Shimon 
Peres's request to assist the peace process. 
 
Yediot reported that the Foreign Ministry has recently received 
complaints from the US, Spanish, British, and Chilean embassies 
regarding the alleged humiliating treatment of tourists at 
Ben-Gurion Airport. 
 
Maariv reported that, during the night between Monday and Thursday, 
a New York-bound Israir airliner ran out of fuel and had to refuel 
in Canada. 
 
Maariv cited a report by Symantec, a leading Israeli anti-virus 
software producer, that Israelis are world leaders in spreading 
computer viruses. 
 
Israel Radio reported that, at 9 A.M. today, the Histadrut Labor 
Federation began a nationwide strike in the public sector.  The 
industrial action will include almost all activity at Ben-Gurion 
Airport. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council, and former justice minister, wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Invading Gaza is an illusion, the remnants of the 
attitude of boastfulness and complacency, which apparently survived 
despite what happened to the IDF in Lebanon." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Finish Off Gaza in One Blow?" 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council, and former justice minister, wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (3/21): "Growing pressure is being applied by the 
political Right and by security officials for us to invade Gaza 
'before it is too late'.... [Their] reasons should not be made light 
of, since there is truth to them.  But invading Gaza is an illusion, 
the remnants of the attitude of boastfulness and complacency, which 
apparently survived despite what happened to the IDF in Lebanon.... 
So what should be done by someone who still thinks that there is a 
chance for an arrangement with the Palestinians?  The government is 
behaving correctly for now, when it refuses to recognize the Haniyeh 
government, and makes an effort to prevent the erosion on the 
international front against recognizing Hamas.  As time passes, we 
will see whether there is a chance that the current Hamas-Fatah 
coalition will choose a moderate path, which will wear down Hamas's 
rigidity, as happened to Fatah.  In that case, there may be someone 
to talk to and something to talk about -- if not tomorrow, then in a 
year or two.  At the same time, we will repeatedly warn the 
Palestinians -- and world public opinion -- that if the Hamas 
government launches a new Intifada, we will respond with 
unprecedented force.  Not with an invasion, that would only entangle 
us, but with bombings, shelling, cutting off the power supply and a 
total blockade -- until they take the hint.  It is hard to know 
whether this will do any good.  What is certain is that invading 
Gaza will do harm." 
 
---------------------------- 
¶2.  Israel-Europe Relations: 
---------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Oded Eran, Israel's Ambassador to the European Union, wrote in the 
 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel's insertion in 
the Union will make it necessary for Israel to adopt -- wherever is 
needed -- values, standards, and legislation, thus transforming it 
into more that just a partner." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Birth Pangs" 
 
Oded Eran, Israel's Ambassador to the European Union, wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (3/21): "In 1994 a 
visionary German leader -- Helmut Kohl -- made the European Council 
adopt in the German city of Essen a declaration according to which 
Israel would be granted preferential treatment in its relations with 
the European Union.... A breakthrough, i.e. a significant 
implementation of the 'Essen Agreement,' will be possible when one 
of the two (some say both) following scenarios will be realized: The 
first one would occur if Turkey and the EU reach the conclusion that 
Turkey cannot fully integrate the Union.... At that stage, neighbors 
such as Israel and the Ukraine could demand a minor status, similar 
to [Turkey's].... The second scenario would involve a diplomatic 
agreement resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Some people 
in Israel believe that the EU should offer Israel and Palestine 
membership in order to reach an arrangement more swiftly.  From my 
knowing the inner workings of the Union, I fear that this idea would 
actually delay the coming of the Messiah rather that bring it 
closer.... Israel's insertion in the Union will make it necessary 
for Israel to adopt -- wherever is needed -- values, standards, and 
legislation, thus transforming it into more that just a partner. 
This would be the realization of Kohl's wish to 'take Israel into 
Europe' and the achievement of the Essen Declaration." 
 
JONES