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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000978 
 
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 
 
Please note: The US Embassy in Tel Aviv will be closed on 
Monday-Tuesday, April 2-3, for the Passover holiday.  There will be 
no Israel Media Reaction on those dates. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All major media highlighted separate Passover holiday interviews 
that each of them conducted with PM Ehud Olmert.  In all interviews, 
the PM stressed his interest in pushing peace forward.  In the 
interview he granted Ha'aretz, Olmert was quoted as saying that he 
wants to start a dialogue with Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab 
countries after the Riyadh summit again ratified the Saudi peace 
initiative.  He was further quoted as saying that he would be happy 
to take part in a regional conference that would support direct 
negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  "A bloc of states 
is emerging that understands that they may have been wrong to think 
that Israel is the world's greatest problem.  That is a 
revolutionary change in outlook," Olmert was quoted as saying. 
"There are interesting ideas there, and we are ready to hold 
discussions and hear from the Saudis about their approach and to 
tell them about ours," he added.  "We are not going overboard in 
this matter, but we are also not discounting it.  We will act 
cautiously and wisely out of a willingness to create a dynamic that 
will improve and strengthen the process.  The Riyadh summit is 
certainly a serious matter.  We do not delude ourselves -- they want 
us to go back to the 1967 borders and they also want the right of 
return.  We were not surprised; we understood it would be this way. 
The content is important, but it is also important to relate to the 
atmosphere, positioning and direction.  Saudi Arabia is the country 
that in the end will determine the ability of the Arabs to reach a 
compromise with Israel," Olmert was quoted as saying. 
 
In his interviews with Yediot and Ha'aretz, Olmert was quoted as 
saying that peace can be reached in five years. 
 
Summarizing Olmert's interview with the newspaper, Maariv stressed 
his criticism of opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu, who Olmert 
said made a career by "generating panic." 
 
Olmert was quoted as reiterating in the interview with The Jerusalem 
Post that Israel would not accept the return to Israel of any 
refugees.  It is "out of the question," he was quoted as saying.  "I 
will never accept a solution that is based on their return to 
Israel, any number."  In the interview, Olmert praised Saudi 
Arabia's "remarkable" King Abdullah. 
 
Media reported that Israel's official response, released in a 
statement by the Foreign Ministry in coordination with the Prime 
Minister's Bureau, was lukewarm.  It ignored the content of the 
Riyadh resolution and focused on the call by the moderate Arab 
nations to enter a dialogue with Israel. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Defense Minister Amir Peretz as saying on 
Thursday that Israel must start a diplomatic initiative of its own 
and begin debating the principles of the final-status agreement.  He 
was quoted as saying that the discussions should be with PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas, in coordination with the members of the 
Quartet and Arab League representatives. 
 
Ha'aretz reported on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to 
the region, citing differences between her and Olmert about the war 
in Iraq.  Israel Radio cited her forthcoming visit to Damascus. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior US State Department 
official told the newspaper this week that there is a growing threat 
that terrorist groups such as Hizbullah will acquire nuclear or 
other WMD technology.  He indicated that there are a "large number" 
of nuclear smuggling incidents each year, some of which are 
"substantial" and not limited to low-grade material.  "You have this 
environment of material, expertise and supporting equipment [for 
weapons of mass destruction] being more widely available than 
before," he was quoted as saying.  "You have that coupled with the 
demonstrated interest of some terror groups to acquire these 
capabilities, and that is a real concern to us."   "It's a bigger 
threat than it was in the past.... You see work by the groups to try 
to acquire the means. It's not just the will.  They are working to 
acquire the means," he added.  While the official would not discuss 
the specific capabilities of Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, he 
was quoted as saying that "each of those terrorist groups is one 
that the US is very concerned about."   He was also quoted as saying 
that Arab and Muslim countries were increasingly playing a role in 
combating the spread of such technologies to terrorist 
organizations. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted a top Palestinian official as saying on 
Thursday that Abbas agreed to meet with Olmert twice a month only to 
appease the Americans.  Leading media quoted Hamas leader Khaled 
Mashal as saying in a phone address to supporters in Gaza City that 
his movement would continue to launch attacks on Israel despite the 
formation of the PA unity government. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying on Thursday that 
negotiations on the release of Gilad Shalit. the Israeli soldier 
held by Hamas since his abduction on June 25 last year, have hit a 
bump and are now back at the starting point.  Ha'aretz reported that 
Palestinian sources told the daily on Thursday that a group of 
high-ranking officials in Hamas's military wing, Izz al-Din 
al-Qassam, which is headed by Ahmed Jabri, have thwarted the deal. 
They reportedly claim that Shalit's captors have expressed fear of 
Israel's reprisal if Shalit is released.  The sources were quoted as 
saying that they therefore decided against transferring the list of 
prisoners whom they wish to exchange for Shalit.  Israel was to 
release their list of prisoners in several stages, and the abducted 
soldier was to be transferred to Egypt after the release of the 
first group. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Arieh Herzog, the head of the 
Defense Ministry's Homa Missile Defense Agency, has told the daily 
that recent modifications made to the Arrow enable Israel's 
ballistic missile defense system to successfully intercept and 
destroy any ballistic missile in the Middle East, including 
nuclear-capable missiles under development by Iran. 
 
The media devoted considerable space to revelations about the Second 
Lebanon War.  Ha'aretz reported that Mossad Director Meir Dagan 
recommended after the abduction of two IDF soldiers in the North 
last July 12 that Israel delay its military response against 
Hizbullah.  According to Ha'aretz, Dagan explained to a forum headed 
by Defense Minister Amir Peretz it would be advisable to take basic 
steps to better protect the home front from possible Katyusha rocket 
attacks before striking in Lebanon.  Maariv chronicled the course of 
events on July 12 -- a "failure foretold." 
 
Hatzofe reported that senior Canadian officials refused to meet with 
Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti, who is visiting 
their country.  The newspaper commented that Canada and Australia 
are the friendliest countries to Israel -- even more so than the 
US. 
 
Hatzofe reported that Fatah Secretary Abdel Hakim Awad warned 
against a wide-ranging IDF offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying that 
it would lead to a new disaster for the Palestinians. 
 
Leading media quoted police as saying that two Arab residents of 
Jerusalem were under arrest on Thursday for allegedly trying to 
kidnap and murder ultra-Orthodox Jews in the city. 
 
Maariv divulged that in mid-2006 Hamas unsuccessfully tried to take 
over the headquarters of the Palestinian Police in the West Bank. 
The newspaper wrote that Israel arrested 250 Hamas militants, thus 
thwarting the attempt.  Maariv cited Hamas's denial of the story. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that earlier this week the PA and Jordan arrested 
two Palestinians suspected of selling a house in Hebron to settlers 
who have been occupying it since March 19.  One of the suspects is 
being held in Jordan, and the other in Jericho (the latter arrest 
also reported by Hatzofe).  PA laws call for a death sentence for 
anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews.  Ha'aretz reported that 
Hebron's Jewish Committee condemned the arrest, saying: "The arrest 
exposes once again the anti-Semitic nature of the PA.  We call upon 
the government to accept the racial hatred prevalent in the PA." 
The newspaper also reported that several well-known leftist 
academics have called on Peretz to issue an order to evict the 
settlers from the building.  "The decision not to evict the settlers 
is not only asinine and wrong, but also a violation of international 
law and public order," they wrote. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that, according to IDF projections, the cost of 
reinforcing buildings in the western Negev town of Sderot and in the 
"Gaza envelope" against Qassam rockets is approximately 1 billion 
shekels (around USD 240 million). The assessment covers only 7,000 
homes in five towns including Sderot, which is also in Qassam range. 
 While Olmert has already made a decision in principle to reinforce 
homes in the Gaza envelope, no budget has been allocated. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday Russia thwarted a British 
bid to pass a resolution condemning Iran at the UN Security Council, 
following the capture of 15 British sailors. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday Greenpeace staged a 
demonstration off Israel's Mediterranean coast in favor of a 
nuclear-free Middle East.  Yediot reported Israel's anger at the 
publication by the organization of a map of nuclear sites in 
Israel. 
 
Yediot reported that on Thursday Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora informed 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that he would not let him bring 
along to Beirut Yediot's Washington correpondent Orly Azolai, who 
covered the Riyadh conference.  The newspaper wrote that the 
"Secretary-General's peace flight collided with the Middle Eastern 
reality." 
 
In a Letter to the Editor printed in Ha'aretz, HRH Prince Hassan bin 
Talal of Jordan deplores the sewage flooding of a village in Gaza. 
Prince Hassan wrote that one should not forget "for one moment that 
the fundamental cause of Palestinian vulnerability continues to be 
the illegal occupation of their land that has led to the devastating 
concentration of large numbers of refugees and displaced people in 
confined areas with over-stretched infrastructure." 
 
Yediot reported that US tycoon Donald Trump donated USD 250,000 to 
Israel's Soldier's Welfare Association. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that American evangelical Christian 
leaders in a visit to Jerusalem this week delivered a letter of 
repentance to Knesset members for crimes committed against Jews in 
the name of Christianity.  The letter is the initiative of the 
Texas-based Covenant Alliances. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) quoted Israeli tourism officials as saying 
this week that the number of foreign tourists arriving for Passover 
has decreased by as much as 10 percent compared to last year.  The 
newspaper cited one official's belief that the reason for the 
decline was last summer's war in Lebanon. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that, in its response to the report of the 
British) All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into anti-Semitism, the 
British government has stated its opposition to an academic boycott 
on Israel and that it is concerned about the "rising tide of 
anti-Semitic discourse and anti-Semitism on university campuses." 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that Israeli 
archeologists from the Shalem Center have uncovered a wall from the 
10th century BC in the City of David area next to the Old City of 
Jerusalem.  The archaeologists were quoted as saying that the 
discovery strengthens the belief in the existence of King David's 
city. 
 
Ha'aretz cited documents released by the CIA over the past several 
years that show that, instead of capturing the escaped Nazi war 
criminal Walter Rauff, Israeli intelligence paid him for information 
about the Syrian army and helped him flee from Europe to South 
America.  The newspaper said that he was not the only one. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Rice and President George Bush, it turns 
out, are undergoing a process of becoming more pragmatic, but their 
basic beliefs have not changed: Without democratization, they 
believe, the Middle East will know no peace." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "If the 
Arab states were serious about achieving peace, they would not be 
putting forward an ultimatum, complete with threats of war if it is 
not accepted, to which no Israeli government could possibly agree." 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "This may sound odd, 
especially to Arab ears: Even after the leaders of the Arab world 
approved the 'full peace' plan yesterday, the ball returns to the 
Arab court." 
 
Moti Cristal, a lecturer on negotiations at Tel Aviv University and 
the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Ha'aretz: "To the extent that 
Israel does not wake up and present the Arab world and its 
supporters in Europe and the United States with a comprehensive 
diplomatic plan ... it will find itself being dragged again and 
again into the center of the international boxing ring." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "'Dancing With a Corpse'" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/30): "Rice and President George Bush, it 
turns out, are undergoing a process of becoming more pragmatic, but 
their basic beliefs have not changed: Without democratization, they 
believe, the Middle East will know no peace.  In any event, the 
foundation on which American policy is now resting -- unification of 
a front of moderates in the face of the forces of darkness that are 
rocking the Middle East -- looked very rickety this week.  It's 
convincing on paper, but the concrete results are dubious.  The 
Egyptians are angry, the Saudis are conducting an independent 
policy, the Jordanians are distancing themselves, and the Lebanese 
are trembling.  If this is the forecast, it's no wonder the Iranians 
are guffawing.... Rice's delegation tried to play up modest 
accomplishments in the visit.  The agreement between Rice and 
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni relates to the decisive issue of the 
future of the talks. In Livni's words, 'There are two possibilities 
-- to wait for things to work out, which isn't happening, or to keep 
working on it.'  And another remark, voiced by a senior figure in 
the U.S. delegation, who tried to explain why Rice intends to go on 
investing in the 'corpse' [the Mideast peace process]: 'Absent the 
effort, all the alternatives are worse.'" 
 
II.  "Unserious Summit" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (3/30): 
"The Arab states seem serious about looking like they are serious 
about achieving peace.  If the Arab states were serious about 
achieving peace, they would not be putting forward an ultimatum, 
complete with threats of war if it is not accepted, to which no 
Israeli government could possibly agree.  Indeed, this would seem to 
be the objective of the summit: an Israeli rejection that would 
enable the Arab states to once again say that it is Israel that is 
the obstacle to peace.  Israel should not fall into this trap.  The 
government should say that it is obvious that peace cannot be 
achieved by ultimatums, but only by negotiation, and that Israel 
remains committed to negotiating over all the final-status issues -- 
such as refugees, borders and Jerusalem -- and is ready to meet at 
any time in Jerusalem or any Arab capital.  The problem is that the 
Arab side continues to insist on coming to the table with a demand 
that clearly negates the objective of the entire exercise: two 
states living side-by-side in peace.... If Israel's sovereignty is 
to mean anything, then Palestinians can have no more right to move 
to Israel than Israelis would to a future Palestine.  The Arab 
states, if they want peace, need to be saying this.  If they cannot, 
it shows that they may be serious about making Israel look 
obstructionist, but not about achieving peace." 
 
III.  "The Ball Is Still in Arab Court" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (3/30): "This may sound 
odd, especially to Arab ears: Even after the leaders of the Arab 
world approved the 'full peace' plan yesterday, the ball returns to 
the Arab court.  They, and only they, are the ones on whom the 
burden of proof rests.  They are the ones who now have to go to the 
West, persuade and mobilize the international community to support 
their plan.  Israel hurried to announce that it rejects the plan in 
its present format, even if it includes a tempting bonus in the form 
of 'normal relations with all the countries of the Arab world.'  It 
was enough to see the broad smile on the face of Syrian President 
Bashar Assad on Thursday, when he announced that he was pleased with 
the Riyadh understandings, to realize that there were no 
earthshaking surprises..... Mubarak, who has 30 years of experience 
in negotiations with Israel, tried to say reassuringly that the 
Israeli 'no' is not the end of the road, but Jerusalem was careful 
to signal that it prefers the current situation to the temptations 
of normalization, which could cost dearly if the dam is burst on the 
matter of the right of return for refugees.  On Thursday the Arab 
Quartet -- Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates 
-- received a green light to go to Washington and to UN headquarters 
in New York to mobilize support for the Arab peace plan.   The 
Quartet was also given a mandate to form working committees that 
would launch negotiations, without mentioning Israel explicitly by 
name.   If they insist on sticking to the conditions of the Syrian 
president and if they refuse to meet Israelis face to face, the Arab 
peace plan can be buried until next time." 
 
IV.  "Danger -- and Opportunity -- Ahead!" 
 
Moti Cristal, a lecturer on negotiations at Tel Aviv University and 
the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in Ha'aretz (3/30): "In Israel 
it is still believed that substantive negotiations is a 'policy' in 
and of itself, whereas the rest of the world has already 
internalized that negotiations are just another tool in the hands of 
statesmen, and equal in legitimacy to the use of force or economic 
sanctions.  To the extent that Israel does not wake up and present 
the Arab world and its supporters in Europe and the United States 
with a comprehensive diplomatic plan -- that is, agreements with 
Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians, along with the establishment of 
a stable system of political, security and economic relations with 
the Arab-Muslim world, it will find itself being dragged again and 
again into the center of the international boxing ring.  Such a 
plan, for example, could already be presented at the end of the 
month in Riyadh, by a senior and respected Israeli figure on behalf 
of the prime minister.  This would be a correct move for taking 
advantage of a tactical opportunity in the complex strategic 
expanse." 
 
JONES