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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
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JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
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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: 
------------------------- 
 
Over the weekend the media reported on slight progress in 
negotiations toward the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit.  On Sunday 
leading media reported that Hamas demands the liberation of 1,300 
prisoners in exchange for Shalit's freedom.  The media reported that 
the list includes terrorists responsible for the deaths of dozens of 
Israelis in suicide bombings.  On Sunday Maariv reported that Israel 
would be flexible regarding the definition of detainees "with blood 
on their hands."  The media reported that Israel clarified that on 
no account will it release murderers.  This morning Israel Radio 
quoted a senior Hamas official in Gaza as saying that if Israel does 
not release prisoners "with blood on their hands," Hamas will not 
free Shalit.  Media reported that Fatah/Tanzim leader Marwan 
Barghouti is among the prisoners whose release is demanded by the 
Palestinians.  The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Palestinian 
officials are opposed to Barghouti's release in a prisoner exchange 
for Shalit.  The Jerusalem Post said that the Palestinian concern is 
that Barghouti's release at this stage will spoil his image and that 
it will foil Fatah's plans to run him at the top of its ticket in 
the next Palestinian elections. 
 
Leading media reported that the Shin Bet announced this morning that 
in late March it broke up a Hamas cell in Qalqilya that had planned 
to detonate a car bomb in Tel Aviv during the Passover holiday, 
apparently at the time of the Seder, on the holiday's first night. 
According to the details released by the security service, the 
driver, a suicide bomber, managed to cross into Israel in a vehicle 
laden with about 100 kilograms of explosives.  However, once he 
reached Tel Aviv, and for reasons that are still unclear, he changed 
his mind and returned to Qalqilya.  Nineteen members in the cell 
have been arrested by the security forces. 
 
On Sunday the Nazareth-based Arabic-language weekly Assennara 
reported that MK Azmi Bishara (Balad) intended to announce his 
resignation while he was out of the country, but several media cited 
a Balad statement issued on Monday according to which his decision 
to resign is not yet final.  Leading media reported that censorship 
laws are embargoing serious allegations against Bishara.  Ha'aretz 
quoted senior Balad officials as saying that Bishara is being 
persecuted for his opposition to the Second Lebanon War. 
 
All media quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying on 
Monday that Iran is now capable of enriching nuclear fuel "on an 
industrial scale."  The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Israeli 
officials brushed off the claim as "nuclear boasting."  Hatzofe 
quoted US National Security Council Spokesman Gordon Johndroe as 
saying: "We are very concerned about Iran's announcement that they 
entered an 'industrial stage' of nuclear fuel production."  Leading 
media quoted State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack as saying 
that the US is looking for an Iranian leader who will listen to the 
voice of reason, make a cost-efficiency calculation, and understand 
that it is not in the Iranian people's interest to pursue the 
present course." 
 
Over the weekend media reported that an armed militant from the 
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) was killed 
on Saturday in an IDF helicopter strike on the northern Gaza Strip. 
This was the first strike of its kind on Palestinian gunmen since 
the cease-fire agreement last November.  However, Ha'aretz cited a 
joint statement by the DFLP and Islamic Jihad that said that the man 
blew himself up to cause casualties among IDF ground troops.  Media 
reported that on Monday a Palestinian stabbed two Border Policemen 
at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, before being arrested. 
Leading media printed an AP wire report quoting Egyptian police as 
saying that Egyptian authorities arrested a Palestinian in the Sinai 
Peninsula on Sunday.  An Egyptian security official was quoted as 
saying that the man had allegedly crossed from Gaza to Egypt in one 
of two tunnels recently dug in the border city of Rafah. 
 
On Sunday The Jerusalem Post quoted Kadima MK and former settler 
leader Otniel Schneller as saying in an interview over the weekend 
that an agreement with settlers resolving the issue of 24 
unauthorized outposts by legalizing some and moving others to 
accepted West Bank settlement blocs could be reached within a few 
weeks once Defense Minister Amir Peretz is out of office. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh as 
saying in an interview with the BBC that Israel made a mistake when 
it used cluster bombs during the Second Lebanon War. 
 
On Sunday Yediot quoted sources in Washington as saying that the US 
 
will be able to supply Israel with Thaad anti-missile systems in 
¶2009. 
 
Maariv reported that the Winograd Commission probing the Second 
Lebanon War has requested a postponement of the presentation of the 
testimonies of PM Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, and former 
IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz, until after the publication of the 
commission's interim report at the end of April.  The testimonies 
were supposed to be made public by the Passover holiday.  On Sunday 
Ha'aretz reported that the UN may form a committee to review weapons 
smuggling in Lebanon. 
 
Over the weekend leading media quoted Peretz as saying on Saturday 
at a rally of supporters that allowing Yisrael Beiteinu leader 
Avigdor Lieberman to join Olmert's coalition is his only regret. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Anti-Defamation League National [US] 
Director Abraham H. Foxman as saying that UN Secretary-General Ban 
Ki-moon has acknowledged that the UN has treated Israel poorly. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday the Shas party's spiritual leader 
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef implied that his party world support Vice PM 
Shimon Peres's candidacy for the presidency of Israel. 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the lead editorial of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Palestinians have 
known for years what our weak point is." 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Through 
their cowardly and unnecessary genuflections to our enemies, made 
under the preening cover of feigned concern for the lives of our 
hostages they have done nothing to free, Olmert and his associates 
place the lives of every one of us in danger." 
 
Regional correspondent Ronni Shaked wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "It is no secret that neither Hamas's 
military wing nor its field operatives are pleased with the marriage 
between Ismail Haniyeh and Abu Mazen." 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Only if the UN Security Council 
members are determined will they have a chance to succeed in helping 
Lebanon save itself, and in taking real steps to prevent the next 
war." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Black List" 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the lead editorial of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/10): "The 
Palestinians have known for years what our weak point is.... No 
prime minister, defense minister, or chief of staff has yet been 
born in Israel who could bear the tears of a mother and the gaze of 
a father whose son is in captivity.  All prime ministers who had 
images of strong men -- from Begin and Shamir to Rabin -- have paid 
hefty prices when they reached advanced stages of negotiations to 
exchange abductees and prisoners.  Israel returned, among others, 
hundreds of murderers "with blood on their hands" -- including some 
who took part in the harshest terrorist actions.  The coming days 
and weeks will therefore be hard.... But we will know that ... 
Israel will pay crazy prices for the return of its sons from the 
enemies' jaws.  This is the Israelis' nature." 
 
II.  "The Next Grand Bargain" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (4/10): "Since 
the ignominious cease-fire last August, the public has demanded an 
accounting from Olmert.  At almost every single non-scripted public 
gathering where Olmert appears, he is hounded by angry citizens who 
demand he explain how he dared to abandon the field of battle and 
leave our soldiers behind.... The Olmert-Livni-Peretz government 
acts as though there is no way other than releasing terrorists, and 
so signing the death warrants of hundreds more Israelis, to bring 
about Shalit's release.  But this is simply untrue.  What is true is 
that since the government embraced defeat last summer, it has had no 
policy other than capitulation.... As Hizbullah, Iran, Syria, and 
the Palestinians show daily with their escalating saber-rattling, 
our leaders' continued incompetence since the war has brought us 
ever closer to a new war.  Now, through their cowardly and 
unnecessary genuflections to our enemies, made under the preening 
cover of feigned concern for the lives of our hostages they have 
done nothing to free, Olmert and his associates place the lives of 
every one of us in danger." 
 
III.  "A Strategic Attack to Scuttle Palestinian Unity" 
 
Regional correspondent Ronni Shaked wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/10): "A 100-kilogram bomb in the heart 
of Tel Aviv, at Israel's soft underbelly, on Passover eve -- that is 
not something that is planned by a puny terrorist from Qalqilya, and 
not even by the commander of Hamas in Samaria [the northern West 
Bank].  A terror attack on that scale is not carried out without 
either direct orders or approval from the highest command within 
Hamas -- this was to have been a strategic terror attack that would 
have long-term repercussions.  It is no secret that neither Hamas's 
military wing nor its field operatives are pleased with the marriage 
between Ismail Haniyeh and Abu Mazen.  They do not want Hamas and 
Fatah sitting together in a single government.  They place no stock 
in Haniyeh and do not share their decisions with him.... The rift 
between Hamas's military wing and its political headquarters has 
also become plainly visible surrounding the Gilad Shalit deal. 
Haniyeh and his cohorts in the political leadership have no say 
about the prisoner exchange deal.  They are mere observers from the 
sidelines, without any influence.  Why Qalqilya?  One might think 
that the close proximity to Israel would have a positive impact on 
that city.  The truth is otherwise. Qalqilya has undergone more than 
any other city in the West Bank a process of rapid Islamization in 
the wake of the overwhelming victory Hamas achieved in the 
elections.  Hamas's military wing in Gaza demanded suicide bombers 
-- and Qalqilya provided them.  To our great fortune and good luck, 
this time the suicide bomber did not press the detonator.  It was a 
'Passover miracle.'  We cannot rely on that kind of miracle 
recurring.  And we shouldn't deceive ourselves -- Hamas has remained 
the same Hamas." 
 
IV.  "Lebanon's Determination " 
 
The Jerusalem Post editorialized (4/10): "[Hizbullah 
Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan] Nasrallah boasts that he will 
 
SIPDIS 
defend Lebanon.  It should be obvious, however, that the more 
Hizbullah, an agent of Iran, is armed, the greater the likelihood of 
renewed war in Lebanon and of the fall of the precarious 
government.... It is encouraging that the UN Security Council is 
poised to take some action in response to Hizbullah's weapons 
buildup.  The draft French resolution, however, seems to focus on 
congratulating Lebanon for its 'determination' to stop smuggling and 
urging Syria and Iran to enforce the arms embargo -- on themselves. 
This may well be a step in the right direction, but beginning to 
recognize the problem is not the same as solving it.  If Lebanon 
really is 'determined,' it will be the Security Council that is 
letting Lebanon down and turning its own resolution into a dead 
letter by not devising serious enforcement mechanisms.  Only if the 
UN Security Council members are determined will they have a chance 
to succeed in helping Lebanon save itself, and in taking real steps 
to prevent the next war." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Intelligence affairs reporter Ronen Bergman wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Tehran is trying to 
guarantee that future negotiations about its nuclear capability 
will start as its technology already reaches the most advanced 
stage." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Tehran Presents: A Real Nuclear Program" 
 
Intelligence affairs reporter Ronen Bergman wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/10): "Ahmadinejad's 
announcement [that his country is capable of enriching uranium 'on 
an industrial scale'] is not news to Western intelligence bodies.... 
From a declarative point of view, Iran is ceaselessly trying to 
follow two paths and not turn into a total pariah state like North 
Korea.  On the one hand, it takes care not to cross the border.  On 
the other, it is not prepared to give up its ambitions to procure 
nuclear weapons.  Since the Natanz site was uncovered in 2003, 
[Iran's] delaying and covering-up tactics have succeeded in 
repeatedly postponing UN sanctions.  When sanctions were imposed, 
Iran moved to the next stage, whose purpose is to amass enough 
knowledge to continue the covert course, even if the overt 
installations are under inspection.  If this is the case, why does 
Iran willingly admit that it is going ahead at full speed?  In fact, 
the Iranians are boasting about scientific achievements that they 
have not yet reached, as their initial assumption is that any 
agreement signed with them in the future would start from the point 
that was reached.  Tehran is trying to guarantee that future 
negotiations about its nuclear capability  will start as its 
technology already reaches the most advanced stage." 
 
JONES