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DE RUEHTV #1996/01 1800914
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001996 
 
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.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, led with news on 
the plea bargain agreement for President Moshe Katsav.  As a result 
Katsav resigned this morning.  The media reported that Attorney 
General Menachem Mazuz faced a barrage of criticism and calls for 
his resignation.  In a live appearance on all TV channels, "A.," a 
high-profile plaintiff in the case, described what she claimed were 
sexual assaults by Katsav when she was an assistant in his office. 
Yediot's banner consists of an article by its senior columnist Nahum 
Barnea: "Disgraceful Deal."  Katsav told Maariv: "This was an awful, 
terrible persecution."  Women's groups will demonstrate on Saturday 
night at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. 
 
Israel Radio reported that in Rhode Island on Thursday, President 
Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq, saying 
the US goal there is not to eliminate attacks but to enable a 
democracy that can function despite violence.  The radio termed the 
President's comparison "strange." 
 
Leading media reported that President Bush has officially named his 
choice for the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy 
Admiral Mike Mullen. 
 
Israel Radio cited a Jordanian newspaper as saying that the Egyptian 
and Jordanian FMs will come to Israel next week as representatives 
of the Arab League. 
 
Leading media reported that the IDF found a weapons store and 
arrested militants in Nablus.   Two Israeli officers were seriously 
wounded and three other soldiers suffered lesser injuries.  Israel 
Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying that IDF troops killed an 
unarmed taxi driver.  The Jerusalem Post's Web site reported that 
the slain man was an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades traveling in the cab. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Thursday Israel unilaterally 
reopened the Karni crossing to Gaza to avert a shortage of flour in 
the Strip.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited the EU's criticism of the 
Israeli policy to isolate Hamas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Fatah is being torn apart by 
infighting. 
 
Yediot reported that Iran is purchasing missiles on Syria's behalf. 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the Syrian Army is training with 
the lessons of the Second Lebanon War in mind and that the IDF has 
reopened a course for commanders of army groups. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Israeli defense officials 
told the newspaper on Thursday that Lebanon's refusal to sign an 
agreement brokered by UNIFIL is delaying the final withdrawal of IDF 
troops from the town of Ghajar, which straddles the Israeli-Lebanese 
border. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that on Wednesday FM Tzipi Livni 
criticized the UN Human Rights Council at an event marking Canada 
Day in Ramat Gan. 
 
The media published many features on the Second Lebanon War as its 
first anniversary approaches. 
 
Yediot and Maariv quoted Prof. Uriel Reichman, a leading founder of 
the Kadima Party, as saying that PM Ehud Olmert should be replaced. 
Reichman noted that Kadima has fallen fell in public opinion polls, 
to the extent that if an election were held today, it would only win 
8 Knesset seats, down from 40. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted former Mossad head Zvi Zamir as saying that reports 
in Israel about Dr. Ashraf Marwan, Israel's Egyptian agent who 
warned of the pending outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, led to his 
death. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) quoted Ruth Messinger, President of the 
American Jewish World Service, an international development 
organization, as saying during a visit to Israel this week that the 
genocide in Darfur has forced the American Jewish community to 
expand its foreign policy interests beyond just Israel.  Messinger, 
the former borough president of Manhattan, was one of the leading 
forces behind the creation of the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance 
of over 100 organizations working to end the genocide in Sudan.  The 
Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, she lost to Rudy Giuliani 
in the 1997 elections. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the candidate preferred by the daily's panel 
of experts examining the upcoming US presidential elections in light 
of US-Israel relations is Rudolph Giuliani.  The panel said the 
Henry Kissinger was the secretary of state who best understood the 
Middle East, with a score of 4.5 -- on a 1-10 scale -- regarding the 
Middle East and 4.625 regarding Israel.  Condoleezza Rice scores 
under 3 on both counts.  Kissinger and Rice scored similarly on the 
question of how well secretaries of state realized administration 
policy in the region. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that PM Olmert rejected a warning by 
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer of an impending deficit in 
Israel's state budget. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Prof. David Zaslavsky, Chairman of 
Israel's National Research and Development Council, as saying that 
Israel is losing its technological edge. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that following an inquiry from the 
newspaper, CNN has corrected a feature on its Web site that failed 
to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital and which had instead 
listed it as "Jerusalem, null." 
 
Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that the brothers David and 
Ed Milliband, whom incoming British PM Gordon Brown appointed 
Foreign Secretary and Minister of the Cabinet Office (respectively), 
are the sons of Holocaust survivors. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) 
poll: 69 percent are opposed to the plea bargain reached by Katsav. 
Forty-two percent of the public believe that A-G Mazuz should resign 
in view of the gap between the indictment writ draft and the pea 
agreement; 47 percent believe he should not resign; 11 percent are 
undecided. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that some 45 percent of high school students who 
immigrated from the former Soviet Union (FSU) do not believe they 
have a future in Israel, according to the preliminary results of a 
study conducted over the past two months by the Forum for Immigrant 
Parents and due to be published in a few months.  Only 65 percent 
would define themselves as Israeli, the study found. However, 88 
percent would accept a hyphenated definition, such as 
Israeli-Russian. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "The concern ... is ... that the reality 
on the ground will dictate that the IDF officers at the border 
crossings  will have no choice, if they want to let food and medical 
supplies into Gaza, than to deal with the person on the other side 
of the crossing.  And that person will be from Hamas." 
 
Deputy Managing Editor Anshel Pfeffer wrote in The Jerusalem Post: 
"The composers [of Hamas's message] were totally tapped in to the 
public mood in Israel, and every detail in the message was aimed at 
its raw nerves." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Summit Summary" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (6/29): "Abbas made clear, according to 
Israeli officials, that his strategy was simple: Let the West Bank 
bloom economically and politically, to show the Gazans that they 
have lost by throwing their lot in with Hamas, and then tempt them 
with what they could gain if they would just repudiate the 
organization.  Abbas couldn't put things in such bald terms, so 
Olmert did it for him.... The concern, [an Israeli] official said, 
is not over a political decision that will be made in Jerusalem to 
permit functional dealing with Hamas -- something Abbas doesn't 
think will happen -- but rather that the reality on the ground will 
dictate that the IDF officers at the border crossings  will have no 
choice, if they want to let food and medical supplies into Gaza, 
than to deal with the person on the other side of the crossing.  And 
that person will be from Hamas.... Two weeks after Hamas surprised 
itself, Israel, the Arab world, and the international community by 
effortlessly plucking control of the Gaza Strip, a senior European 
diplomat succinctly summarized the new emerging policy towards the 
Palestinians as follows: 'The West Bank first, and Gaza will follow 
-- somehow.'  It's the 'somehow' that's the killer.  The rough 
contours of how the main players view the 'somehow' started to 
appear this week: Make the West Bank blossom, and then hope, pray, 
and try to ensure that the Gazans will want those petals as well." 
 
II.  "Hamas Presses Israel's Buttons" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor Anshel Pfeffer wrote in The Jerusalem Post 
(6/29): "Sometimes an idea's timing is so accurate, pressing all the 
correct buttons, that even if it's broadcast in the crudest and most 
blatant manner, the normally sophisticated and cynical press just 
swallow it hook, link, and sinker.  It doesn't matter that it's 
totally transparent and that everyone understands exactly what's 
going on: It still does the trick.  The perfect PR coup.  And that's 
exactly what Hamas achieved on Monday when it sent out the 72-second 
recording of Gilad Shalit's voice, one year to the day he was 
captured... The composers [of the message] were totally tapped in to 
the public mood in Israel, and every detail in the message was aimed 
at its raw nerves." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
 
Professor David Menashri, the Director of the Center for Iranian 
Studies at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Recent events [inside Iran] are a 
further signal of increased public discontent in general, and of 
disappointment in Ahmadinejad's two years [in power] in 
particular." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Despairing of Ahmadinejad" 
 
Professor David Menashri, the Director of the Center for Iranian 
Studies at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/29): "[Iranian] citizens have been 
quoted as saying that rationing fuel in a country awash in oil is 
inconceivable.... Ahmadinejad, who was elected two years ago after 
promising to improve the lot of the disadvantaged classes, is being 
accused of not delivering the goods.  While Iran is proud of its 
assistance to radical movements outside its borders (Hamas and 
Hizbullah, e.g.), the plain citizen is being worn down.... Recent 
events are a further signal of increased public discontent in 
general, and of disappointment in Ahmadinejad's two years [in power] 
in particular." 
 
JONES