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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002183 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed 
President Bush's announcement of a Middle East conference in the 
fall.  Saying that the White House lowered expectations for the 
conference, Yediot and Israel Radio quoted White House Press 
Secretary Tony Snow as saying on Tuesday: "I think a lot of people 
 
SIPDIS 
are inclined to try to treat this as a big peace conference. It's 
not. This is a meeting."  Yediot quoted State Department Spokesman 
Sean McCormack as saying on Tuesday: "Secretary Rice is going to 
host it here in the United States, but we still haven't decided 
exactly where."  McCormack added: "I think privately we have heard 
from a number of different parties very positive responses to the 
President's remarks [on Monday]."  The Jerusalem Post reported that 
despite President Bush's declaration of support for the 
Palestinians, particularly financial help, the US administration has 
acknowledged than no new funding requests have been made to Congress 
as part of the program outlined in Bush's speech on Monday.  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that diplomacy has moved into high gear 
following President Bush's speech. 
 
Erratum: Part of a sentence in Tuesday's Media Reaction Report was 
omitted.  It should have read: "While citing the satisfaction of 
Fatah/PLO spokesmen over the President's address, the media quoted 
Hamas as saying that it was a 'crusade' against the Palestinian 
people." 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli diplomatic officials as saying on 
Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad's demand that Israel 
agree to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights before 
negotiations can begin, does not meet basic Israeli requirements. 
The officials were responding to a speech that Assad gave to the 
Syrian parliament on Tuesday after being sworn in for a second 
seven-year term as president.  Assad, in his speech, called on 
Israel to respond publicly to peace overtures from Damascus.  He was 
quoted as sayng: "The Israelis should remember that the price of 
peace is lower than the cost of war."  The Jerusalem Post quoted an 
Israeli official as saying: "We are listening carefully to what he 
said, and waiting to get a full translation before responding 
formally."   The official added: "We have stated repeatedly that we 
are more than willing, without prior conditions, to sit and talk. 
But the first thing we heard from him was a very clear set of 
preconditions."  Yediot quoted senior diplomatic sources in 
Jerusalem as saying that Israel will not publicly pledge to a full 
withdrawal from the Golan.  Assad demanded "minimum" evidence that 
Israel was willing to formalize a peace agreement, citing the "Rabin 
Pledge," a promise allegedly made by late prime minister Yitzhak 
Rabin to Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, in which he 
unofficially gave his word that Israel would withdraw from the Golan 
Heights in return for complete peace with Syria.  Although the 
pledge was never documented, Syria still holds it as a platform for 
potential talks.  Assad also made reference to recent mediation 
efforts by a third party, but did not mention the party by name. 
Nevertheless, it is widely believed to be a reference to Turkey, 
which in recent months has "tested the waters" in Damascus and 
Jerusalem about a resumption of some sort of negotiations.  Assad 
also reiterated his support for Hizbullah and Hamas, without 
specifically naming them.   Maariv quoted Assad as saying that 
American figures who had supported Israel during the Second Lebanon 
War are now opposed to the official line of the US administration 
and call for peace between Syria and Israel. 
 
All media reported that State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss will 
publish a scathing report today on the state of the home front and 
its functioning during the Second Lebanon War.  The report is the 
longest the State Comptroller's Office has ever published, and it is 
also expected to be the harshest.  Contrary to usual practice, it 
will name names in discussing the performance of several current and 
former senior officials: PM Ehud Olmert, former defense minister 
Amir Peretz, former IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz and commander of 
the IDF Home Front Command Yitzhak Gershon.  The media reported that 
the Prime Minister's Office and the IDF are preparing, separately, 
to wage a media war against Lindenstrauss' conclusions.  In both 
places, people have harshly criticized the comptroller's motives, 
findings and recommendations, as well as the tone of his report, in 
recent days. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday Kadima Knesset members 
loyal to Olmert expressed hope that the prospects of a fall summit 
and an impending diplomatic process could extend Olmert's tenure and 
end threats from Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak to remove the party 
from the government ahead of the final Winograd report's release in 
September or October. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying on Tuesday that after 
Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas and several of his associates asked Israel and Egypt not to 
open the Rafah crossing to Egyptian residents.  Maariv reported that 
senior Al-Qaida activist Khaled Mustafa slipped by Egyptian border 
guards and entered the Gaza Strip through a tunnel. 
 
Media reported that on Tuesday Israel released two high-ranking 
Hamas detainees, including former PA education minister and former 
deputy PM Nasser Shaer. 
 
Leading media reported that Israeli President Shimon Peres took a 
hard line on Hamas in a meeting with Iceland's FM Ingibjorg Solrun 
Gisladottir on Tuesday. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted diplomatic sources as saying that UN cartographer 
Miklos Pinter has determined that the Sheba Farms, an area on the 
slopes of Mount Hermon claimed by Lebanon and under Israeli control, 
spans 20 to 40 square kilometers.  The area of Mount Hermon that is 
under Israeli control extends to 70 square kilometers, and the 
entire Golan Heights is 1,250 square kilometers. 
 
Yediot reported that the wait time for most visa interview 
appintments at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv is three months -- 
an unprecedented amount of time.  The newspaper noted that besides 
the USD-112 application fee, applicants can pay hundreds of dollars 
to private agencies to help them through the process. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that World Likud Chairman Danny Danon 
widened the field of candidates in the August 14 Likud leadership 
race to three on Tuesday as he challenged incumbent Binyamin 
Netanyahu and far-right activist Moshe Feiglin.  The newspaper noted 
that Danon's views are just as hawkish as Feiglin's and they only 
differ on religion. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that for the first time in the history of academic 
and musical life in Israel, dozens of musicians, scholars and 
educators from the field of classical music have come out with a 
joint call against the occupation and in favor of peace, 
rapprochement and a two-state solution. 
 
All media reported that on Tuesday Justices questioned the U-turn of 
the prosecution in the sexual offense case allegedly involving 
former Israeli president Moshe Katsav. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the Education Ministry has instructed all 
Israeli schools to screen during the upcoming academic year "An 
Inconvenient Truth," a documentary on former Vice President Al 
Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized 
problem worldwide. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Check Point Software Technologies 
Ltd., a maker of security software, has been chosen as an approved 
vendor in the US Department of Defense's data-at-rest initiative, 
intended to protect sensitive information on government computers. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the results of a poll released on Tuesday by the 
Anti-Defamation League, according to which 50 percent of Europeans 
in six countries believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to 
their home country; 34.5 percent agree that Jews have too much 
financial and business clout; and 43 percent said Jews talk too much 
about the Holocaust.  In Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and 
the UK, respondents said they viewed Israel more favorably than in 
¶2005.  The favorable rating for Israel dropped, meanwhile, in 
Austria and Hungary. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel cannot 
allow itself to yawn at US President George W. Bush's speech calling 
for an international peace conference in September." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "Some 
damage was caused [by President Bush's address]: For the sake of the 
holy balance, Bush reawakened the issue of [settler] outposts." 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council, and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "The ingenuousness of President Bush and President Peres is 
somewhat moving.... There will be no real peace here.  It is 
important to internalize this so that we do not take irreversible 
paths." 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz: "It 
appears that the work of the various mediators [between Israel and 
Syria], especially the Turks, has born fruit, in the form of public 
diplomacy that relies on new language." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Israel Cannot Yawn" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (7/18): "Israel 
cannot allow itself to yawn at US President George W. Bush's speech 
calling for an international peace conference in September.  It 
cannot allow itself to give up on any chance to resolve the conflict 
with the Palestinians, after the entire world and a large majority 
of the Israeli public have recognized the need to withdraw from the 
West Bank and end the occupation.  The Qassam rocket fire from the 
Gaza Strip is not proof that withdrawals from the territories are 
not worthwhile for Israel, because the Gush Katif settlements were 
not a line of defense for the communities of southern Israel.... 
Instead of goading Bush over Iraq, scorning Abbas and minimizing the 
value of the new Palestinian government, Israel must do the minimum 
required of it.  Removing outposts is not a gesture to the 
Palestinians, but to ourselves, and the same holds for every 
reduction of settlers beyond the West Bank separation fence, which 
was built precisely for that purpose.... Whoever wants the West Bank 
to serve as a model for Gaza, and possibly to encourage the 
Palestinians to choose the option of recognizing Israel and 
cooperating with it, must make every effort to improve the lives of 
the Palestinians in the West Bank.  The government can also reduce 
the amount of roadblocks to the minimum necessary and prove that 
ending the violence pays off for the Palestinians and improves their 
lives." 
 
II.  "A Non-Dramatic Speech at an Odd Time" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (7/18): 
"Some damage was caused [by President Bush's address]: For the sake 
of the holy balance, Bush reawakened the issue of [settler] 
outposts.  It is as if he was saying that by devoting my speech to 
demands from the Palestinians, I had to raise some demands from the 
Israelis.  The administration long ago stopped pressuring [Israel] 
on the matter, knowing that the current Israeli government, which 
depends on Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, is not strong enough 
politically to go to another Amona [to fight over an outpost].... 
There is a great amount of moral distortion in pitting [Jewish 
homesteads] against Muslim terror and murderousness.  In this 
regard, Monday's speech was not much more than lip service; it would 
be a great mistake if the Israeli government 'inhaled' it." 
 
III.  "Illusion Game" 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council, and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (7/18): "The ingenuousness of President Bush and President 
Peres is somewhat moving.  This week they outlined paths that are 
meant to lead to the yearned-for peace in the Middle East.  Perhaps 
they really believe -- or at least hope -- that an arrangement can 
be reached.  Maybe they are only doing their duty, since politicians 
must strive for peace and promise a rosier future, even if they know 
in their hearts that there is no chance.  There is no chance for 
peace, because there will always be elements in the Palestinian 
public, in the Arab countries, and the Muslim world, that will 
thwart any attempt to reach an arrangement recognizing Israel's 
right to exist as a Jewish state -- all the more an arrangement that 
does not ensure the return of the [Palestinian] refugees.... We 
should not deny that Israel has contributed to the creation of a 
situation that cannot lead to peace.  Is there any chance of an 
Israel government that will be able to evacuate settlements?  And 
the Golan for peace with Syria?  And in the North?  The Lebanese 
administration might fall into the hands of Hizbullah at any 
time.... [Also, Iran] will sooner or later have lethal weapons.... 
After the Americans leave Iraq. Defeated and humiliated, Arab 
nationalism and Islamic fanaticism will increase tremendously.... We 
must talk, meet, make announcements, sign, threaten, hope, predict, 
and promise.  But that is valid and necessary as long as we 
understand that this is a game of illusions.  The harsh reality is 
that there will be no real peace here.  It is important to 
internalize this so that we do not take irreversible paths." 
 
IV.  "Assad's Roadmap" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz 
(7/18): "One of the regular conditions was missing from Syrian 
President Bashar Assad's comments yesterday: the caveat that any 
negotiations with Israel must pick up where they left off.  Israel 
has always seen this statement as an obstacle set up by Syria, since 
it aims to prevent talks from expanding or from opening the door to 
new Israeli demands.... The other condition that Assad refrained 
from mentioning was his demand that the United States get involved 
in the talks.  This condition, which was raised recently by Syrian 
spokesmen, was used by Israel as evidence that all Assad wants is to 
get Washington off his back, and not to make progress on the 
diplomatic front.  With appropriate caution, Assad said the next 
phase of negotiations would require the involvement of an impartial 
mediator, without going into details.  With the neutralization of 
the first condition and the fact that Assad did not explicitly 
mention Washington as an essential mediator, it appears that the 
work of the various mediators, especially the Turks, has born fruit, 
in the form of public diplomacy that relies on new language." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Prof. Uzi Arad, the Director of the Institute for Policy and 
Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center, who was a senior advisor 
to former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The main effort now 
should be directed at the Iranian theater, not the Palestinian 
front, and the focus should be on preventing Iran from going 
nuclear." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Iran as the Main Strategic Sector" 
 
Prof. Uzi Arad, the Director of the Institute for Policy and 
Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center, who was a senior advisor 
to former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/18): "The main effort 
now should be directed at the Iranian theater, not the Palestinian 
front, and the focus should be on preventing Iran from going 
nuclear.  The side that it is vital to strengthen is not Abu Mazen, 
an unwieldy support for all intents and purposes, but rather Israel 
itself.... In fact, [Israel] has already defined for itself several 
of the necessary deterrent responses.  Versus the low-intensity 
threats posed by Palestinian terrorism, Israel has established a 
considerable degree of deterrence thanks to the targeted killings... 
A similar strategy may also be of use against the danger of 
higher-intensity military actions, of the type that Syria is liable 
to take.  Versus the vulnerability of the Israeli home front to 
missiles and rockets, there is a clear vulnerability of the Syrian 
regime to forceful Israeli measures.... The main challenge, however, 
lies in coping with the Iranian threat.  This threat, if it matures 
to the point of military nuclear capability, will require a complex 
and comprehensive deterrent response.... But the most significant 
component is the punitive component.  We should note the 'Shimon 
Peres formula' in this context.  When Peres was asked recently for 
his opinion on the threats of destruction arriving from Iran, he 
replied laconically, 'Iran can also be destroyed.'  This answer also 
demonstrates the 'beheading' strategy.  And if this formula is not 
enough to deter the 'undeterred,' it may not be the highest level of 
necessary deterrence.... If the current Israeli action on the 
Palestinian front is supposed to pave the way to more effective 
coping by the international community with the Iranian issue, it is 
useful.  But if this is not the purpose, it will divert efforts to a 
secondary sector and lead to evasion from coping with the main 
battle." 
 
CRETZ