VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #2081/01 1871017
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061017Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2135
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 2423
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 9134
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 2468
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3228
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 2443
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0387
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 3181
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0054
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0526
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 7117
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 4535
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 9449
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 3619
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 5562
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 7341
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002081 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio quoted State Department Spokesman Sean 
McCormack as saying on Thursday that the US has not changed its view 
of Hamas, despite the group's role in winning the release in Gaza of 
BBC reporter Alan Johnston.  Ha'aretz further quoted McCormack as 
saying that he does not think that "the world views Hamas any 
differently as a result of this." 
 
Israel Radio and Ha'aretz's Web site reported that Hamas has 
authorized members of its military wing held in Israeli jails to 
conduct negotiations with Israel for the release of captive IDF 
soldier Gilad Shalit.  The report was based on comments made by 
Hamas Parliament Member Ayman Dararma in an article published today 
in the Dubai newspaper Al-Khaleej.  Dararma reportedly told 
Al-Khaleej that the jailed Hamas leaders would determine the 
criteria for which Hamas prisoners they will demand to be released 
in a prisoner swap.  He said the leaders have already met several 
times with Israeli officials.  However, Israel Radio reported that 
the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told 
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Web site that only Cairo was authorized 
to negotiate a deal and that no other negotiations were taking 
place.  The radio also cited Dararma's denial of Al-Khaleej's 
report. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the IDF ended its latest incursion into 
the central Gaza Strip.  Media quoted the IDF as saying that the 
operation was aimed at clearing out Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror 
infrastructure from the border area.  Two IDF soldiers were 
moderately wounded -- and according to Palestinian sources, 11 
Palestinians -- including six Hamas activists -- were killed and 
another 26 wounded.  Ha'aretz reported that Imad Ghanem, a cameraman 
for Hamas's Al Aqsa television network, was seriously wounded while 
documenting the clashes.  Though the origin of the gunfire cannot be 
confirmed, it seems that IDF soldiers fired repeatedly at him.  Al 
Jazeera-TV cameras documented the incident.  Ha'aretz quoted medical 
sources in Gaza as saying that both his legs were amputated and he 
is in critical condition.   Ha'aretz quoted an IDF source as saying 
 
on Thursday that Ghanem had been in the first line of fire and was 
not wearing a vest indicating that he was a member of the press. The 
source added that the man was probably not a card-carrying reporter, 
but rather shooting footage for use in Hamas propaganda. 
 
Ha'aretz cited a Peace Now report as saying that only nine percent 
of the area earmarked for settlements has been built upon, and that 
only 12 percent is being used at all.  The report cites figures 
provided by the IDF's Civil Administration in the territories. 
Despite their huge unused land reserves, 90 percent of the 
settlements exceed their boundaries, and about one-third of the 
territory they do use lies outside their jurisdiction, the report 
added.  The newspaper noted Peace Now's charge that the findings 
attest to the government's ongoing cooperation with the settlement 
expansion. 
 
 
Maariv reported that the Labor Party and Likud agree to hold Knesset 
elections in March 2008 or in May at the latest.  Ha'aretz published 
the results of a Dialog poll: 42 percent prefer Netanyahu as prime 
minister, compared to 34 percent who prefer Barak.  PM Olmert 
trailed behind, with 9 percent support.  The poll gave Labor 25 
Knesset seats if elections were held today -- six more than it has 
at present.  Likud, headed by Netanyahu, would be the largest party, 
with 31 seats, up from its present 12.  Kadima placed third on the 
list, with 11 seats --- 18 fewer than it has now. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that undeterred by Hamas's takeover of 
Gaza, Israel and the British group BG are set to press ahead with a 
USD 4 billion project to drill for natural gas off the Gaza coast. 
 
Ha'aretz cited a report released on Thursday by the immigrant aid 
organization Nefesh B'Nefesh that a 33-year high in immigration from 
the US and Canada is expected in 2007, with some 3,500 Americans and 
Canadians expected to move to Israel this year 
 
In its coverage of the Fourth of July reception held at the US 
Ambassador to Israel's residence on Tuesday, Ha'aretz (English Ed.) 
printed a picture of Ambassador and Mrs. Jones, Acting President of 
Israel Dalia Itzik, and PM Ehud Olmert.  The newspaper quoted Olmert 
as saying: "There is no country other than our own that we love 
more, that we value more, or that we feel closer to than the US." 
Itzik thanked the US for its "deep friendship and enduring 
support." 
 
Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Ha'aretz that an annual increase of 500 million 
shekels (around USD 120 million) for each of the next four years 
would solve the fundamental problems associated with the Iranian 
threat, and that this is within Olmert's reach.  In an interview 
with The Jerusalem Post, Sneh was quoted as saying that Iran is the 
driving force behind global terror.  Ha'aretz cited the belief of 
IDF Intelligence that relations with Syria are explosive, but that 
war can be avoided.  According to the daily, Military Intelligence 
also believes that Hizbullah is presently uncomfortable confronting 
Israel, and that Iran has not yet reached the threshold of nuclear 
capability.  Yediot reported that the holes in Israel's civil 
defense apparent during the Second Lebanon War have not been fixed 
and that civilians and infrastructures are likely to be hit by 
missiles in future conflicts.  Leading media reported that Pensioner 
Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan told the Winograd Commission that the 
GOI did not declare a state of emergency during last year's Lebanon 
War so as not to harm its global financial status,  Eitan slammed 
the IDF for "failing to deliver" in Lebanon. 
 
Italian  PM Romano Prodi was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Maariv ahead of his visit to Israel on Sunday that Iran is about to 
decide its role in the world.  Prodi advocated a tough dialogue with 
Iran and called on Israel to make good on the prisoner swap with the 
Palestinians and talks with Syria. 
 
Yediot cited the IDF's concern that Hamas might put IAF planes at 
risk, as the arsenal it seized from Fatah includes anti-aircraft 
rockets. 
 
Israel Radio reported that on Thursday the foreign ministers of the 
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, 
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- called for 
the situation in the Gaza Strip to return to how it was before the 
Islamist movement Hamas seized control last month.  Still, the radio 
reported that the council called for "respect for the Palestinian 
national legitimacy, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, and respect for the 
Palestinian Authority's legitimate institutions ... including the 
elected Palestinian Legislative Council," where Hamas has a 
majority.  Israel Radio also said that the chief diplomats of the 
GCC called on Iraq's neighbors to refrain from meddling in the 
internal affairs of the war-torn country, in an apparent reference 
to Iran. 
 
Leading media reported that Israeli security sources oppose reducing 
by one third the jail term of Nahum Manbar, because releasing him 
would harm the struggle against Iran's nuclear ambitions.  In 1998, 
Manbar, an Israeli businessman, was sentenced to 16 years in prison 
for doing business with Tehran. 
 
Maariv reported that Israeli soldiers are putting pictures of the 
bodies of dead terrorists online, even though their commanders have 
not given permission to make the photos public. 
 
The Jerusalem Post (banner) and Maariv reported that the Israel 
Union for Environmental Defense (Adam Teva V'din) warned on Thursday 
that Israel could lose its seaports, see its entire coastline 
flooded, and suffer irreparable damage if global warning is allowed 
to continue unchecked. 
 
Yediot reported that former Soviet spy Marcus Klingberg revealed in 
his memoirs that he had recruited a senior Israeli scientist and 
Israel Prize winner. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz: "Israeli 
warnings of the danger that Islamic extremists would do to Syria 
what they are now doing to Iraq makes no impression on the 
President.  To Bush, death provides the only release from the axis 
of evil." 
 
National Union-National Religious Party Knesset Member Arieh Eldad 
wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "The 'Jordanian option' is 
popping up..... Jordan is Palestine." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Syria Needs a Shrink" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz (7/6): "The US 
refusal to promote a peace agreement between Israel and Syria, in 
the name of democratization -- which in light of its successes in 
Iraq one might assume had disappeared altogether -- is viewed by 
Israeli diplomats as a relatively small problem.  The big problem is 
George W. Bush's obsession with bringing down the regime in 
Damascus.  In talks with senior US officials it became clear that 
they haven't the vaguest idea of what would take its place.  Israeli 
warnings of the danger that Islamic extremists would do to Syria 
what they are now doing to Iraq makes no impression on the 
President.  To Bush, death provides the only release from the axis 
of evil." 
 
II.  "Jordan Is Palestine" 
 
National Union-National Religious Party Knesset Member Arieh Eldad 
wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (7/6): "Little by little, 
almost surreptitiously, voices are starting to be heard.  For years 
our brains have been washed with the motto 'Two states for two 
peoples'.... The trend has suddenly reversed itself.  Most Israelis 
know once again what they knew in the past: They [the Palestinians] 
do not want an independent state alongside Israel.  They want to 
push us out.  Voices are slowly being heard overseas too -- in the 
United States: in key research institutes, not only those associated 
with the conservative Right, and in senior administration circles. 
The White House still murmurs President Bush's vision and continues 
to call for strengthening the scarecrow Abu Mazen.  Olmert and his 
corrupt, failed court still follow their steps, but new plans are 
being devised behind their backs towards the day when that vision 
dies away -- when there is a new president, when Israel gets a prime 
minister.  It comes as no surprise to the Palestinians, too, that 
that the vision was a delusion.  This is why the 'Jordanian option' 
is popping up..... Jordan is Palestine.  Millions of refugees from 
the camps of Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], Lebanon, Syria, 
and even from Jordan itself can be resettled there.... A voluntary 
transfer is possible and highly moral -- certainly more than the 
bloodshed bearing the signature of those deluding themselves that 
Greater Israel can be divided and a Palestinian state be established 
west of the Jordan River." 
 
JONES