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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002756 
 
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 
 
 
Please note: There will not be a Tel Aviv Media Reaction report 
Thursday and Friday, September 13-14, 2007, due to the Rosh Hashanah 
(Jewish New Year) holiday.  Also: Israel will move to Winter 
(Standard) Time on Sunday, September 16.  Between September 16 and 
November 4 the time difference between Israel and EDT will be six 
hours. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
¶3.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media cited a report by Christiane Amanpour of CNN based on 
American and Middle Eastern sources that Israel's action in Syria 
last week was directed at an Iranian shipment of weapons for 
Hizbullah and that it also involved ground forces.  Israel Radio 
reported that Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jafari denied on 
the Arabic program of the BBC that ground forces took part in the 
operation.   He was also quoted as saying that Syria has not yet 
retaliated for Israel's action.  Israel Radio quoted a US Defense 
Department spokesman as saying that this is a message to Syria not 
to support Hizbullah.   Israel Radio reported that although it 
lodged a complaint with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Damascus 
is refraining from calling for the convening the UN Security Council 
(UNSC), possibly because it might have been seriously infringing 
UNSC resolutions.  As leading media reported that North Korea 
condemned Israel for violating Syrian airspace, Yediot bannered: 
"North Korea Aids Assad."  Israel Radio quoted the Lebanese Al 
Mustaqbal-TV as saying that the communication systems in Lebanon 
have not worked properly since the purported Israeli attack. 
 
Israel Radio reported that on Tuesday State Department Spokesman 
Sean McCormack called on Israel to consider the consequences of any 
retaliatory attack following the firing of a rocket at an IDF base 
near Ashkelon, in light of the negotiations underway with PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas.  The Jerusalem Post and other 
media reported that PM Ehud Olmert continues to oppose mounting a 
major IDF operation in the Gaza Strip or cutting off 
Israeli-supplied utilities to the region, despite the attack. 
Conversely, The Jerusalem Post quoted senior GOI officials as saying 
that those decisions need not be reiterated.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that the Right is demanding a military response, while 
Kadima shies away from such action.   Leading media reported that 
Israel is delaying its response because of the tension in the North. 
 Yediot reported on an increase of the range of rockets fired from 
Gaza -- from 11 to 15 km.  All media cited the anger of soldiers' 
parents that their children were left like "ducks in a range." 
Yediot reported that Avi Dorfman, an IDF soldier who suffered a head 
wound in the attack, had turned down an offer to enroll in a 
prestigious US university, instead enlisting in the army. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the fall meeting in Washington will seek to 
win support for arrangements being drafted by PM Olmert and Chairman 
Abbas, but that it will not have any negotiating role.  Yediot 
quoted PM Olmert as saying during toasts with the security 
establishment that the upcoming Jewish year will bring a diplomatic 
turn and that Israel will strike the initiators of terrorism 
"mightily and wisely."  Israeli President Shimon Peres was quoted as 
saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that Olmert and Abbas 
are making steady progress toward a "Declaration of Principles" for 
a permanent peace accord, based in part on the parameters laid down 
by Bill Clinton in the final months of his presidency. Maariv 
reported on significant process in the talks, mostly on the issues 
of refugees and Jerusalem, but also on complex problems.  Israel 
Radio and other media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that the 
incipient Israeli-Palestinian agreement includes a land swap and 
financial compensation to Palestinian refugees who will not return 
to their homes in Israel.  The Jerusalem Post and Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu might not 
remain in the government coalition, due to the impending agreement. 
 
Leading media quoted a senior officer in the IDF's Central Command 
as saying on Thursday that over the past year Israel has dismantled 
most of the roadblocks and temporary barriers in the West Bank. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Portuguese FM Luis Amado, one of 
the 10 foreign ministers who signed a letter hinting at the need to 
engage with Hamas, told the newspaper that the initiative "was in 
the past." 
 
Leading media reported that Labor Party MK Ami Ayalon will join the 
government after the holiday as a minister-without-portfolio and 
will become a member of the diplomatic-security cabinet. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Iranian FM Manouchehr Mottaki has urged 
Russia to complete construction of the nuclear reactor at Bushehr. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited a Jewish Telegraphic Agency wire report 
quoting Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham 
Clinton as saying that she supports a united Jerusalem and 
defensible borders for Israel. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Noam Shalit, the father of abducted IDF 
soldier Gilad Shalit, met with French FM Bernard Kouchner at the 
residence of the French Ambassador in Jaffa. 
 
Leading media reported that a US district court in Washington ruled 
this week that the Iranian government must pay USD 12.9 million to 
the family of Marla Bennett, a US citizen murdered in a July 31, 
2002 terror bombing at a cafeteria in the Hebrew University of 
Jerusalem.  Eight other students and cafeteria workers were killed 
in the attack.   In his ruling the judge asserted that the Iranian 
government bore responsibility for the attack due to its 
long-standing support for Hamas, which had carried out the bombing. 
 
Maariv reported on an Israeli invention -- a camera that recognizes 
terrorists by the body heat they emit in stressful conditions. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Colombia's Ambassador to Israel has 
protested to the Foreign Ministry about the GOI's travel advisory to 
Israelis planning trips to his country, following reports in the 
Colombian media of Israeli involvement in military training in 
Colombia. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that last week at the Washington Institute for 
Near East Policy a special commemoration ceremony was held in memory 
of the late Ha'aretz journalist Zeev Schiff. Dignitaries from Israel 
and the US, including State Department senior adviser Professor 
Eliot Cohen; Robert Satloff, the Institute's Executive Director; and 
former US Ambassador to Israel. Martin Indyk attended the reunion, 
along with Israeli journalist Ehud Ya'ari, who presented to the 
crowd Schiff's journalistic creed. 
 
Media reported that the latest Jewish Agency figures put the number 
of people in the world who define themselves as Jews at 13.2 
million.  The largest Jewish community is Israel, with 5.4 million, 
followed closely by the US, with 5.3 million. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The talks 
with Abbas are now the light at the end of a very dark and dangerous 
tunnel, a model for what the Middle East can be one day, in an era 
of sanity." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Israel 
must not be deterred from protecting the lives of its people by 
theoretical international pressure." 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council, and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: " Despite the fact that Israel has problems -- perhaps more 
than any other Western state -- it is not caving in." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Sober Outlook for the New Year" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (9/12): "If the 
political and security leadership maintains its restraint and avoids 
arrogant talk, we may be able to declare the start of an era of 
wisdom and caution.  The new Chief of Staff and Defense Minister may 
be this past year's main security advance, and the talks with 
Mahmoud Abbas are the political one.  Were it not for the Winograd 
Commission, with its findings that have and have not been published 
yet, it is doubtful whether any lesson would have been learned.... A 
group of moderate states is forming in the Middle East, and while 
this group may be weak, perhaps even temporary due to regime 
changes, Israel must do everything in its power to bring the 
Palestinian state into this group.  So long as Hamas refuses to 
recognize Israel and prefers the Iranian rhetoric calling for the 
destruction of the Zionist state, and so long as Syria is on the 
Iranian side of the equation, by choice and not by compulsion, 
Israel must cling to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas 
with all its strength and prove it is willing to make concessions to 
those who acknowledge its existence and are willing to cooperate 
with it.  The talks with Abbas are now the light at the end of a 
very dark and dangerous tunnel, a model for what the Middle East can 
be one day, in an era of sanity." 
 
II.  "Fighting Back" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (9/12): 
"For too long, Israel has unilaterally acquiesced to an unwritten 
rule: We have no right to respond 'disproportionately,' with 
sufficient force or effect to deter attacks on our citizens.  We 
fret about being branded for imposing 'collective punishment' by 
cutting off electricity to Gaza, even for an hour, when our citizens 
are subject to the collective capital punishment of Hamas missiles. 
But Israel must not be deterred from protecting the lives of its 
people by theoretical international pressure.  Such 'pressure' has 
in any case lost all legitimacy, since the UN Security Council 
continues to fail to lift a finger to condemn, let alone impose 
sanctions against, the attacks against Israel.  Israel must defend 
itself; if we do not, we have no one to blame but ourselves. " 
 
III.  "Not a Collapsed People" 
 
Veteran journalist Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, Chairman of the Yad Vashem 
Council, and former justice minister wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (9/12): "The State of Israel is not collapsing.  Despite the 
fact that Israel has problems -- perhaps more than any other Western 
state -- it is not caving in.  Its most difficult problems derive 
from its relations with the Palestinians, the Arab world, and 
Islamic fundamentalism.  Apart from those, and unlike the impression 
given by the media, Israel as a state is working well.... Whenever 
polls showing that the great majority of Israelis are happy with 
their lives are published, their headlines are 'surprising poll.' 
Who is surprised?  The media.  Why?  Because, after all their 
efforts they make to convince the public that it is collapsing, the 
public will not collapse.  It aspires to more, but it does not 
collapse." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and diplomatic correspondent 
Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The 
effort to prevent Iran from joining the prestigious club of nuclear 
powers will top Israel's strategic and diplomatic agenda during the 
new [Jewish] year." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Nuclear Crunch Time" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner and diplomatic correspondent 
Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (9/12): 
"The effort to prevent Iran from joining the prestigious club of 
nuclear powers will top Israel's strategic and diplomatic agenda 
during the new [Jewish] year. There is no national or international 
issue that is more important and the decisions that will be made by 
US President George W. Bush will shape the regional balance of power 
for many years to come.  The talks Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is 
conducting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will be 
a sideshow, no more than a warm-up act, even if they result in 
agreements, understandings and spectacular ceremonies.... It is 
doubtful that a new president would want to take upon him- or 
herself the risk of a new war in the Middle East.  This is why, if 
Bush blinks and refrains from taking action, Iran will be able to 
luxuriate in its new status as the world's 10th nuclear power -- 
tent, but certainly not last..... It will be ... interesting to see 
whether Saudi Arabia shakes off its traditional reticence and sends 
a senior representative to the Washington conference, who will have 
his picture taken with Olmert and indicate the support of King 
Abdullah, the guardian of Islam's holy places, for the move of 
reconciliation with Israel.  If that happens -- and Olmert believes 
it will -- the front against Iran will receive important 
reinforcement.  This would also serve as a reminder to Bush that the 
moment of truth is approaching: Saudi Arabia, just like Israel, does 
not want a nuclear Iran as a neighbor." 
 
--------- 
¶3.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "The strategy 
that the US has adopted in Iraq, which has met with such success in 
the brief time it has been operative, is a long-term strategy." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Where America and Iraq Converge" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (9/12): "With 
Petreaus and Crocker's openness in acknowledging Iran's central war 
in the role in the war in Iraq, we are seeing for the first time an 
admission that it is counterproductive to view Iraq in isolation 
from its neighbors.  And this acceptance of the regional nature of 
the war exposes one of the central risks in the United States' 
current counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq.... The strategy that the 
US has adopted in Iraq, which has met with such success in the brief 
time it has been operative, is a long-term strategy.  Unless the 
Democrats regain their senses, it will be difficult for anyone to 
trust that the US won't simply abandon Iraq, and with it, its 
responsibility as the leader of the Free World in the midst of a 
global war." 
 
JONES