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P 201041Z AUG 07
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002513 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
On Sunday Ha'aretz reported that two friendly Arab countries have 
told Israel that Syria is not planning to attack in the coming 
months.  The messages were relayed by senior officials and are based 
in part on talks with the officials' Syrian counterparts.  Leading 
media cited Syrian-Saudi tensions about Saudi Arabia's role in the 
Middle East. 
 
On Sunday leading media cited denial by sources in PM Olmert's 
bureau that Israel plans to take 110 Palestinian militants in the 
West Bank off its wanted list. 
 
Maariv reported That PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas will 
attend a business conference in Tel Aviv in October.  Maariv 
reported that President Shimon Peres has met with former Palestinian 
PM Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala).  Maariv reported that cabinet minister 
Haim Ramon is PM Olmert's candidate to lead negotiations with the 
Palestinians. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Sunday the cabinet agreed to 
support the extension of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 
governing UNIFIL's operations in southern Lebanon, even though it 
was clear that the extended mandate will not include a mechanism for 
the implementation of the arms embargo from Syria into Lebanon. 
 
Over the weekend major media quoted Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad as saying on Saturday that Israel was the standard 
bearer of Satan and that it would soon fall apart. 
 
Over the weekend media quoted the IDF as saying that on Saturday 
Israeli troops shot dead one Palestinian and detained two others for 
questioning after the men allegedly tried to lay a bomb next to the 
Gaza border fence. 
 
Leading media reported that on Sunday Gaza's main power plant shut 
down operations after it said it had depleted its fuel reserves, 
despite a pledge from Israel to resume deliveries that had been 
halted late last week. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior PA security official in Ramallah 
as saying that the PA security forces have failed to thwart Hamas's 
efforts to create new armed cells in the West Bank.  Citing Reuters, 
Ha'aretz quoted the State Department as saying on Sunday that US 
security officials will soon begin training the Palestinian 
presidential guard in an effort to support Abbas's government. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that thousands of students in communities near the 
Gaza Strip will begin the school year in another 12 days in 
classrooms that are not fully protected against rocket attacks, 
despite the High Court of Justice's order that the government 
reinforce every classroom in rocket range of Gaza by September 1. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF intends to import produce 
from the Gaza Strip on a trial basis ahead of the upcoming "shmita" 
(sabbatical) year, when Jewish farmers are forbidden by Jewish law 
to harvest the land. 
 
On Sunday The Jerusalem Post quoted Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the 
northern branch of Israel's Islamic Movement, as saying on Saturday 
that those who disagree with Israeli policy risk being murdered. 
 
On Sunday Maariv reported that on Saturday combat planes were 
scrambled from IAF bases all over Israel following the hijacking of 
a Turkish airplane.  On Sunday, in another development, Yediot 
reported that there has been a wave of negative reports in Turkey 
about the security authorities' humiliating treatment of Turkish 
tourists at Ben-Gurion Airport. 
 
Maariv reported that the US Army has decided to resume the Nautilus 
project and that it will sign contracts next week with Boeing and 
Northrop-Grumman.  The newspaper, which noted that the Nautilus is 
supposed to offer protection against Qassam rockets, reported that 
Israel is following up on the US announcement, but that it is 
certain that Rafael, Israel's Armaments Development Authority, will 
bring its Iron Dome Project to maturity in two years.  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that in order to intercept Syrian missiles, the IAF is 
deliberating whether to buy an improved model of the US-made Patriot 
missile defense system. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the cost of digging a tunnel 
between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip is USD 200,000 and 
that the passage of a terrorist through the border costs around USD 
10,000.  The figures were given by a group of smugglers. 
 
 
Ha'aretz reported that in an effort to bolster Israeli hitchhikers' 
security in the West Bank, the IDF has decided to install electronic 
surveillance and other equipment at at least 10 major stops 
frequented by settlers along Road 60, which links many of the major 
settlements.  The issue of securing Israelis in the territories is 
one that has consistently troubled the security forces, which 
recognize that civilians, lured into taking risks by the relative 
calm in the West Bank, are "soft targets" for militants. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday Israel deported 50 Africans to 
Egypt, for the first time since PM Ehud Olmert obtained Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak's consent to such a move last month. 
According to the IDF, most of the deportees were from Sudan's 
war-torn Darfur region.  Israel Radio quoted senior officials in 
Olmert's bureau as saying that on Sunday he held a phone 
conversation with Mubarak in which the two agreed that Israel would 
continue to return infiltrators to Egypt.  The radio quoted Egyptian 
FM Ahmed Ali Abu al-Gheit as saying that his country has agreed to 
admit 48 refugees returned from Israel on humanitarian grounds. 
However, Abu al-Gheit stressed that this would not change Egypt's 
policy.  Leading media reported that Israeli activists have 
condemned the expulsion of the 48 refugees. 
 
Major media (lead stories in Yediot and Maariv) reported that on 
Sunday the cabinet voted unanimously to create a national service 
program for youth who do not serve in the army.  The resolution will 
mainly affect Arabs, who are not drafted, and well as ultra-Orthodox 
yeshiva students whose religious duties exempt them from military 
service. 
 
All media reported that on Sunday PM Olmert agreed, in his meeting 
with representatives of Holocaust survivors, to allocate 100 million 
shekels (around USD 23.6 million) next year for medical and 
nursing-care benefits to survivors living in Israel. In addition, he 
said they would enjoy municipal tax discounts, an exemption from the 
television tax, and 30 million shekels in vacation and convalescence 
benefits.  However, Olmert refused to grant benefits to those who 
were not in camps or ghettos. 
 
All media reported that PM Ehud Olmert plans to reorganize the 
institutions dealing with immigration.  Leading media reported that 
the state will grant more important budgets to independent 
immigration organizations. 
 
Leading media reported that today the inter-ministerial committee on 
conversion will present its report to PM Olmert.  The overall 
process would come under the supervision of Sephardi Chief Rabbi 
Shlomo Amar. 
 
Yediot and other media reported that Bank of Israel Governor Stanley 
Fischer is considering lowering interest rates on loans taken by 
financial banks from the Bank of Israel.  The media said that such a 
move would follow US practice. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist and former IDF Intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit wrote in 
the popular, pluralist Maariv: "Israel's steps [vis-a-vis Syria] are 
determined more than anything by domestic politics, and in 
particular by the Prime Minister's attempt to portray the Second 
Lebanon [War] as an unequivocal strategic victory." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "In 
the present circumstances, neither side is prepared to pledge how 
long [the cease-fire] will hold -- certainly not Syria, whose policy 
is eventually determined in Tehran." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "It is 
not the US that should fear jeopardizing its 'friendship' with 
Russia, but Russia that should be concerned about losing the 
benefits of its current membership in the West." 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The goal of 
the national-religious NGOs in purchasing property in East Jerusalem 
is ideological and political, but that does not justify breaking the 
law or the standards of good government." 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz: "Receiving 
the prestigious keys to the holy site will bolster the pragmatists 
among the Palestinians, and will make it easier for them to 
relinquish their wish to use the keys to homes they left behind in 
Jaffa." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Danger of Unnecessary War" 
 
Columnist and former IDF Intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit wrote in 
the popular, pluralist Maariv (8/20): "For the past year, since the 
end of the Second Lebanon War, we are threatened by a new war that 
could break out on the Lebanese border or the Golan Heights.... 
Indeed, Syria does not seek war.  The regime in Damascus is well 
aware of the balance of power and the great damage that Israel could 
cause, particularly since such a war would break out with Damascus 
isolated both in the inter-Arab and international arenas.  However, 
Syria is determined to regain the Golan Heights.... Israel's steps 
are determined more than anything by domestic politics, and in 
particular by the Prime Minister's attempt to portray the Second 
Lebanon [War] as an unequivocal strategic victory.  Israel is aware 
of the price it will have to pay in exchange for a peace agreement 
with Damascus, but is not willing to pay it.  Deep down inside, 
there is the hope that sooner or later Damascus will accept the loss 
of the Golan, just as it accepted the loss of the Alexandretta 
region to the Turks.  And if this is the case, why hurry?.... So far 
it has been a rational analysis.  However, this cannot remove the 
element of mutual suspicion, the gnawing fear on each side -- 'and 
what if we are wrong in our assessment?'  Here come 'reassuring' 
declarations in Damascus and Jerusalem, but these not only do not 
remove the suspicion, they even enhance it -- and perhaps they are 
no more than a veil intended for concealment and deceit?  Another 
important point, of which it would appear that both sides are 
insufficiently aware: the extremely different nature of the two 
regimes and the two societies in Syria and Israel.... What is the 
explanation for the Prime Minister's publicized tour of the border 
line?  How should one understand the Defense Minister's statement 
that 'Israel does not seek war against Syria today' -- but does it 
'tomorrow'?  And when will this 'tomorrow' come?  I believe that 
both sides are sincere in what they are saying.  Nevertheless, we 
should remember that as the prophet said, 'out of the north the evil 
shall break forth' [Jeremiah 1:14]." 
 
II.  "Damascus' Signals Are Not Soothing" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (8/20): 
"The signals emanating from Damascus that Syria does not intend to 
attack Israel are not reassuring.  Continued tension in the region 
has become a fact.  The Syrian ruler has not backtracked from his 
war threats.... It is well known that Russia is conducting a 
two-faced policy. On the one hand, it allegedly rules out Russian 
involvement in Syria; on the other hand, it does not prevent the 
supply of arms ... thus causing a bellicose flare-up.  Thus, it is 
 
hard for Moscow to stop the war move, despite the Kremlin's peaceful 
declarations.  The war of statements is continuing without an end in 
sight.  Both signs depend on a temporary cease-fire whose length is 
difficult to determine.  In the present circumstances, neither side 
is prepared to pledge how long it will hold -- certainly not Syria, 
whose policy is eventually determined in Tehran." 
 
III.  "Pressure Russia" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/20): 
"At the same moment when even Arab states are trying to reassure 
Israel that Syria has no plans to attack, Damascus is taking 
delivery of advanced Russian SA-22 E anti-aircraft missiles and 
artillery. According to Arab press reports, this arms deal, which 
cost some USD 900 million, is being financed by Iran.... While 
President George W. Bush has often been accused of going it alone 
diplomatically, this certainly has not been the pattern with Russia. 
 If anything, Bush is to be criticized for putting too much 
confidence in his 'friendship' with President Vladimir Putin.  This 
sort of soft touch has evidently reached its limits, as Putin has 
taken advantage of US reluctance to trim back its relations with 
Russia in any way, even though the US could threaten to withhold 
billions of dollars worth of space cooperation and other bilateral 
benefits to Russia.... Western willingness to impose consequences on 
Russia for its open support of rogue regimes will be a key litmus 
test for all nations that are making judgments regarding which side 
is serious enough to win.  It is not the US that should fear 
jeopardizing its 'friendship' with Russia, but Russia that should be 
concerned about losing the benefits of its current membership in the 
West." 
 
IV.  "Land Grab in East Jerusalem" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (8/20):  "It is 
difficult to escape the sense that the Israel Lands Administration 
[ILA], a governmental body, worked hand in glove with the settlers' 
non-profit organization Ateret Cohanim to take control of the 
30-dunam (7.5-acre) plot in East Jerusalem known as Kerem 
Hamufti..... Since the 1980s, a group of yeshiva students with 
religious-nationalist views along the lines of Gush Emunim has 
conducted a campaign to acquire houses and land for Jewish 
settlement in the Arab neighborhoods of the eastern part of the 
capital.... The goal of the national-religious NGOs in purchasing 
property in East Jerusalem is ideological and political, but that 
does not justify breaking the law or the standards of good 
government.  Even though many years have passed since the 
publication of the [1992] Klugman Report [about the improper funding 
received by NGOs], it would appear that little has been done to 
right the wrongs it documented. Now, too, it seems that supposedly 
law-abiding governmental bodies -- in this case the ILA -- continue 
to operate like agents of these NGOs, waging for them the war of 
taking over Arab property in an underhanded manner. In other words, 
the practice of placing the settlers above the law, which has been 
discussed at length in the context of the West Bank, has reached 
east Jerusalem." 
 
¶V.  "Give Them the Temple Mount" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in Ha'aretz (8/20): "The 
international summit being organized by the Bush administration is 
Abbas's last throw of the dice. In the zero-sum game between him and 
Hamas, the loss of the bet will mean a victory for the camp that 
rejects a two-state solution.  The only way that Israel and the 
United States can affect the struggle in the Palestinian camp is to 
take away the main contentious elements preoccupying the religious 
extremists -- the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem and the problem of 
the 1948 refugees -- and to hand them over to the moderate 
secularists.  If Abbas emerges from the negotiations without 
sovereignty over the Temple Mount and without Israeli recognition of 
the issue of the refugees as proposed by the Arab League (an agreed 
solution on the basis of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 
194) -- he might as well stay home.... The continued dispute over 
the excavations the Palestinians are carrying out in the Temple 
Mount complex suggests that transferring sovereignty to them is no 
more than a virtual concession for Israel.  An agreement that will 
include UNESCO supervision over the excavations and free access to 
the Israelis will improve the situation vis-a-vis this sensitive 
area.  Receiving the prestigious keys to the holy site will bolster 
the pragmatists among the Palestinians, and will make it easier for 
them to relinquish their wish to use the keys to homes they left 
behind in Jaffa." 
 
JONES