VZCZCXYZ0011
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #2543/01 2341000
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221000Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002543 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio cited the PA daily Al-Ayyam quoting Palestinian sources 
as saying that PM Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas may meet this month ahead of Secretary Condoleezza Rice's 
visit to the region.  The Jerusalem Post quoted the Office of the 
President of Israel as saying that President Shimon Peres' talks 
with Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad, which were lambasted by the Right, 
centered on economics, not diplomacy.  Israel Radio reported that 
Peres told the UN Middle East envoy that Israel should not intervene 
in the struggle between Fatah and Hamas. 
 
All media reported that IDF troops killed six Palestinians in three 
separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, including two 
children aged nine and 12 who were targeted as they tried to collect 
Qassam rocket launchers.  Ha'aretz quoted IDF officers as saying 
that it is possible that Islamic Jihad hired the children to collect 
the launchers.  This phenomenon had already been observed in other 
instances, they were quoted as saying.  The media reported that 
earlier on Tuesday IDF troops killed three Palestinian militants 
near the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip, near Khan Yunis. 
 This morning Israel Radio reported that a Hamas militant was killed 
and two others were wounded in an IAF strike near the Israel-Gaza 
border fence.  Israel Radio reported that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs 
Brigades, the PFLP, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility 
for Qassam rocket and mortar shell attacks against Israel this 
morning. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa 
Martyrs Brigades, announced on Tuesday that it would no longer honor 
understandings reached with Israel, and called on its members to 
carry weapons to defend themselves against the IDF.  The group was 
quoted as saying that the decision was made after the IDF arrested 
two Fatah gunmen who had been given amnesty by Israel in line with 
understandings reached between Israel and the PA. 
 
Leading media reported that the supply of fuel for electricity to 
the Gaza Strip will be resumed today following an agreement reached 
between the EU and the PA according to which the sides will prevent 
irregularities and the transfer of funds to Hamas.  National 
Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Israel Radio 
this morning that Israel would interrupt the supply of fuel and 
electricity to the Strip if Palestinians keep firing rockets and 
shells against Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, preparing for a possible US or 
Israeli strike on its nuclear installations, Iran has developed a 
remote-controlled launch system that can be used to operate dozens 
of unmanned Shihab ballistic launchers in underground bunkers. 
After recent upgrades, the Shihab-3 ballistic missiles are believed 
to have a target range of 2,000 kilometers.  The missile was 
initially developed with a 1,300-km. range. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that in an effort to extricate himself from a 
scandal surrounding the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) refusal to 
support a bill calling on the Bush administration to recognize the 
1915-17 Turkish massacre of the Armenian minority as genocide, the 
ADL's national (US) director Abe Foxman did an abrupt about-face. 
After consulting with Nobel Prize-winning author and Holocaust 
survivor Elie Wiesel, Foxman referred to the Armenian massacre as 
"genocide" for the first time.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Turkish 
sources as saying on Tuesday that the new ADL stand could negatively 
impact Turkey's close relations with Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Canon Andrew White, the caretaker 
of the Jewish community in Baghdad, told the newspaper from London 
on Tuesday that eight Baghdad Jews, who represent the remnants of 
the community, are facing security threats so grave that they need 
to flee Iraq. 
 
Maariv reported that "like during the Cold War," Russia tries to 
obtain influence in Israel though immigrants.  The newspaper 
reported that Russia will fund Russian-language studies and 
establish a cultural center in Israel. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Egypt's FM Ahmed Ali Abu al-Gheit as 
saying that Egypt has asked the US to let Syria join the 
international Middle East meeting in the fall. 
 
Ha'aretz noted that in recent months several Arab countries have 
boosted their nuclear programs. 
 
Maariv quoted a senior IDF Central Command officer as saying on 
Tuesday that the IDF intends to evacuate soon the farm of far-Right 
settler Noam Federman near Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank. 
 
Maariv reported that the Israeli and Syrian ambassadors to the UN 
institutions in Geneva are cooperating on the issue of nuclear 
nonproliferation. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that organizers of a UN conference 
hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels at the end of August 
are refusing to make public the list of NGOs scheduled to attend the 
meeting, which various organizations have called "one-sided, 
partisan, and anti-Israel." 
 
Maariv reported that the joint committee of Israel's National 
Security Council and the Academy of Sciences recommends security 
supervision over all Israeli biotechnological research due to fears 
that information might reach terrorist organizations. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that fifth and sixth-graders in all 52 Haifa 
elementary schools will take Arabic-language classes as well as 
study Arab and Islamic history as part of their regular curriculum. 
The project will be funded by the Ministry of Education and the 
Haifa Municipality. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Likud activists recently told the newspaper 
that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz's allies in his former 
Likud party are recruiting people to help him win Kadima's upcoming 
elections.  According to the sources, the Likud activists want to 
see Mofaz replace PM Olmert as Kadima's leader. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the controversy over former 
President Jimmy Carter's book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 
"Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is set to be reignited by an 
upcoming screening of a documentary centered on his book tour. 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported on the ADL's fight against the book 
"The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy," by John J. Mearsheimer and 
Stephen M. Walt.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe dubs the book "anti-Semitic." 
 Yediot reported that New York City Jews are divided regarding the 
opening of an Arab school in the city in two weeks.  Some were 
quoted as saying that the institution will foster hatred, while 
other believed that it will further tolerance. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that three weeks ago a Palestinian hotel 
company petitioned the High Court of Justice, charging that the 
state illegally confiscated 40 dunams of land it allegedly owned in 
east Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and that it gave it to a 
private Jewish businessman to build a hotel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that Dorian Paskowitz, 
an 86-year-old retired Jewish doctor from Hawaii, arrived at the 
Erez Crossing to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to hand over 12 
surfboards he is donating to Gaza's small surfing community. 
Paskowitz was quoted as saying that surfing can bring peace to 
Israelis and Palestinians. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported on love -- and hate -- e-mails sent by 
Iranians to the Foreign Ministry Web site. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, even as manufacturers were 
reporting growth in exports to the US for the first six months of 
the year, investment bank Morgan Stanley is warning that Israel 
would be most vulnerable to a US economic slump, given the huge 
amount of products shipped to America. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that exports of Israel's advanced 
Merkava tank systems are expected to reach some USD 400 million in 
2008, following 13 percent growth to USD 350 million this year. 
However, the newspaper said various factors may damage Merkava 
exports.  The Jerusalem Post noted that, according to reports, 
foreign sales of Merkavas are generally made to the US, Turkey, and 
eastern Europe. 
 
Leading media reported that on Monday the Bad Arolsen, Germany-based 
International Tracing Service (ITS) handed over a database with 
millions of documents from over 50 concentration camps and prisons 
-- which includes books recording Jewish deaths, transportation 
lists, and medical reports -- to Yad Vashem and the US Holocaust 
Memorial Museum.  The Jerusalem Post noted that ITS director Reto 
Meister met with officials from the State Department and other 
organizations during his visit to Washington. 
 
Maariv reported that the remains of Theodor Herzl's only grandson, 
Stephen Theodor Neumann (Norman) will soon be re-interred on Mount 
Herzl in Jerusalem.  In 1946, when Norman heard of the death of his 
parents in the Holocaust, he committed suicide in the US. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a new public opinion poll 
conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, which found 
that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians are convinced that the 
UN is dominated by the US. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior military affairs analyst Reuven Pedatzur wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The Israeli message to European 
countries hesitating to impose severe sanctions against Iran is that 
nuclear proliferation in the Middle East is dangerous not only to 
Israel but the entire world." 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Experts ... and of course politicians warned us that war 
would break out with Syria this summer.... The problem with 
misguided, misleading prophecies is that they can affect fateful 
decisions." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Apparently even the most careful cartography is mutable..... 
Whatever can be retroactively modified to appease implacable enemies 
of peace plainly isn't worth the purportedly peace-upholding paper 
it is written on." 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[A] candidate who opts for a message of 
disengagement, a withdrawal from the world, will reflect on the US 
no less than on the world.  It would mean that he does not believe 
in the superiority of the system, and in the morality and leadership 
of America.  What kind of American would want such a president?" 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Danger For the Entire World" 
 
Senior military affairs analyst Reuven Pedatzur wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/22): "The renewed focus on 
nuclear programs by countries in the Middle East stems from concerns 
that Iran will acquire nuclear arms.  An Iranian nuclear weapon may 
result in an accelerated effort to develop nuclear arms in many of 
the countries in the region.... Of course, no one believes that the 
countries controlling enormous fossil fuel reserves have suddenly 
realized that nuclear technology -- which has been around for six 
decades -- can meet their energy needs.  The problem is that the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), in which all these countries 
are members, allows many of the steps necessary for the development 
of nuclear weapons to occur under the guise of civilian nuclear 
programs.... The Israeli message to European countries hesitating to 
impose severe sanctions against Iran is that nuclear proliferation 
in the Middle East is dangerous not only to Israel but the entire 
world." 
 
II.  "Gambling Prophets" 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (8/22): "Military commentators, publicists, academics, 
experts on Arab affairs, senior officers in the reserves, and of 
course politicians warned us that war would break out with Syria 
this summer.  They gambled: If a war were indeed to break out, they 
could boast: 'I told you so!'  If it did not break out, no one would 
remember their error.  They would be free to move to the next 
prophecy.  The problem with misguided, misleading prophecies is that 
they can affect fateful decisions.  We should remember that for 
every military expert who predicts a war, an expert can be found who 
will explain why there will be no war.... In the summer of 1973 the 
greatest security maven of all, Moshe Dayan, said on television that 
no war was expected.  During that same broadcast they also 
interviewed passersby and a 'primitive,' elderly woman said: 'I feel 
in my gut that there will be a war.'  Several months after the 
broadcast, the Yom Kippur War broke out.  Was the elderly woman a 
greater expert on security affairs than Dayan?  Not necessarily. 
She was just a better prophet." 
 
III.  "Keeping the Blue Line" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/22): 
"In May 2000, on the eve of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from 
Lebanon, the UN carried out painstaking measurements to establish 
precisely where the international border ran.  The boundary it 
marked is popularly known as the Blue Line.  The aim was to make 
absolutely sure that Israel indeed indisputably retreated from every 
last centimeter of what was ascribed to Lebanon's jurisdiction.  In 
the end, the UN officially proclaimed its satisfaction that Israel 
had exited fully and incontrovertibly from Lebanese territory, as 
per UN Security Council Resolution 425.  Beirut agreed to honor the 
line of withdrawal as certified by the UN.  But apparently even the 
most careful cartography is mutable.... Thus the UN, though directly 
responsible under Security Council Resolution 1701 for curtailing 
Hizbullah, might now embolden its chieftain, Hassan Nasrallah, who 
last year triggered the war with Israel.... The anyway imperfect 
promise of Resolution 1701 has been dissipated by the UN itself. 
But even the mockery the UN makes of its own undertakings would be 
eclipsed if it were to revise maps of its own charting, and change 
its meticulously drawn demarcation lines as per the specifications 
of some of the world's most aggressive and uncompromising 
terrorists.  Put starkly, such a shift would render UN 
determinations worthless.  For whatever can be retroactively 
modified to appease implacable enemies of peace plainly isn't worth 
the purportedly peace-upholding paper it is written on." 
 
IV.  "The Moral Agency" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/22): "The Republican [presidential] 
candidates continue to rely on neo-conservative rhetoric, and their 
Democratic counterparts on neo-liberal arguments.  Both groups 
believe equally that the US should continue to be involved in the 
affairs of other states, and all assume that it is good for the 
world if the US influences it.  Attempts to erode this belief have 
proven to pay poor political dividends.  After all, the candidate 
who opts for a message of disengagement, a withdrawal from the 
world, will reflect on the US no less than on the world.  It would 
mean that he does not believe in the superiority of the system, and 
in the morality and leadership of America.  What kind of American 
would want such a president?  In any case, within the policies of 
the candidates for the presidency lies a seed of patronizing 
arrogance but also of value.  This is the approach Fred Thompson, 
[a] Republican candidate, summarized a few days ago: 'I don't 
apologize for the United States of America.  This country has shed 
more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other 
nations in the history of the world combined.'  And, if one believes 
its candidates, this appears to be the way it will continue." 
 
JONES