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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002779 
 
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 
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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.  France-US Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media quoted PM Ehud Olmert as saying on Monday, in a 
briefing for Russian-language media outlets in Israel: "I have a lot 
of respect for the Syrian leader and for Syrian policy. They have 
internal problems, but we have no reason to rule out dialogue with 
Syria."  He was further quoted as saying: "As I have said in the 
past, we want to make peace with everyone.  If the conditions ripen, 
we are ready to make peace with Syria, with no preconditions and no 
ultimate demands."  Yediot quoted Israeli diplomatic sources as 
saying that Olmert's comments were carefully chosen and that they 
were intended to assuage Bashar Assad.  Ha'aretz led with a report 
that on Monday Israeli academics told the newspaper, based on their 
conversation with a senior US official, that the US is opposed to 
Syria attending Washington's regional peace summit in November.  The 
academics were quoted as saying that the official described Syria as 
a "vicious, brutal regime allied to Iran strategically," which 
subscribes to "the most barbaric anti-Semitic views." 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials are treating 
Iran's latest claims that it has 600 Shihab-3 missiles aimed at 
targets throughout the country the same way it treated Teheran's 
claims last month to have crossed a key nuclear threshold: by 
listening carefully, but not believing everything they hear.   The 
Jerusalem Post quoted PM Olmert as saying at the briefing with the 
Russian-language media that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
was trying to frighten the world into thinking that it was "too 
late" to get the Iranians to stop their nuclear march.  Olmert was 
quoted as saying that Israel was not afraid of the situation in 
Iran: "We are concerned, but we don't have to lose our head." 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli and US officials as saying on 
Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will not have a 
three-way meeting with PM Olmert and PA President Mahmoud Abbas 
during her upcoming visit.  The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio said 
that the US is pushing Israeli and Palestinian leaders toward an 
agreement this year that would put both sides on record on even 
small areas of accord but that probably would fall short of a full 
framework for peace.  The Jerusalem Post's Web site and Israel Radio 
quoted State Department spokesman Sean McCormack as sayng on Monday: 
"It is to help them start to bridge any differences across a whole 
wide range of issues" and capitalize on areas of agreement.  "I 
don't expect any writing of anything down to happen on this trip," 
McCormack was quoted as saying, pointing to the formation of 
lower-level committees to do any detailed drafting of an eventual 
joint statement or agreement.   The Jerusalem Post's Web site and 
Israel Radio quoted Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern 
Affairs as saying that Olmert and Abbas are considering a joint 
document that would give more structure to a recent series of 
one-on-one talks and other contacts.   "This is a very important 
moment and we think that we can make some progress here," Welch was 
quoted as saying.  He added: "For the first time here in quite some 
time I really do feel that there is an opportunity [and] with a 
little hard work -- and that may take quite a bit of time -- we can 
get it in a way that looks a little bit better."  Ha'aretz reported 
that Secretary Rice is interested in being updated on the 
Olmert-Abbas talks before the US forms its view on the agenda of the 
planned international meeting.  The Jerusalem Post wrote that 
Secretary Rice faces a "tall order" on her visit to the region. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli defense source a saying on Monday that 
Israel will alleviate traffic restrictions in the West Bank slowly 
and gradually if the security situation allows it.  "We will start 
by removing 10 to 20 roadblocks in the periphery, gradually and 
prudently," the source was quoted as saying.  Ha'aretz printed a 
Reuters story citing a British government report as saying that the 
Gaza blockade is the biggest obstacle to PA growth.  Ha'aretz also 
cited a new World Bank report warning that there can be no peace and 
economic recovery in the PA without including the Gaza Strip. 
 
Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton was quoted as saying in 
an interview with Yediot that North Korean scientists were 
apparently killed in the attack on Syria and that Iran was likely to 
be involved in the bombed nuclear facility.  Bolton was further 
quoted as saying that the Israeli raid was a clear message that 
Israel has the right to defend itself. 
 
Leading media reported that on Monday in Ramallah a 16-year-old 
Palestinian was killed by IDF gunfire.  The media quoted the IDF as 
saying that he was armed -- a claim refuted by Palestinians. 
 
All media reported that MK Zehava Gal-On, the head of Meretz's 
Knesset faction, has asked Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz to make 
PM Olmert brief the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee 
about the operation in Syria. 
 
Yediot and other media reported that the government will set up a 
commission to check the damage caused to Palestinian civilians by 
the July 2002 bombardment of a Gaza building that killed Hamas 
leader Salah Shehadeh. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that US officials have recently complained that 
Israeli immigration authorities harass American citizens of Arab 
origin at Israeli border crossings. 
 
Maariv reported that in a recently published book, Washington Post 
diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler revealed that Secretary Rice 
co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll 
that found that PM Olmert's popularity has grown since the "raid in 
Syria": 
-"How do you view Ehud Olmert's performance as PM?"  Good: 35 
percent (25 percent two weeks ago); bad: 63 percent (75 percent two 
weeks ago); 2 percent were undecided. 
-"According to foreign reports, Israel raided nuclear targets in 
Syria.  Do you support or oppose the operation?"  Support: 78 
percent; oppose: 10 percent; 12 percent were undecided. 
-"Following the IDF operation, do you believe chances of a war with 
Syria have increased or decreased?"  Unchanged: 51 percent; 
increased: 32 percent; decreased: 13 percent; 4 percent were 
undecided. 
-"Has the operation changed your view of PM Olmert?"  No change: 70 
percent; it is better: 20 percent; it is worse: 6 percent; 4 percent 
were undecided. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "The alleged connection to 
North Korea makes Syria vulnerable.  The question is whether the 
world will seize the moment." 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "IDF 
Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin's statement that Israel has restored 
its deterrence capabilities was premature." 
 
Moshe Karif, a founder of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition, 
a social justice NGO among Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab and Muslim 
lands and the East) in Israel, wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Jews from Arab countries ... lost 
their entire world in one fell stroke..... A transparent public 
administration ought to be set up [in Israel] to map the Jewish 
property in Arab countries." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "There's a Reason World Is Quiet on Alleged IAF Strike" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote on page one of the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (9/18): "Damascus, it is 
safe to assume will want to shrug off a North Korean image and 
present itself as a responsible player on the international scene. 
It has even expressed interest in coming to the international Middle 
East meeting that the US is planning later this year.  The 
allegations of a North Korea-Syrian connection could make the time 
ripe, therefore for Israel to push the world to place certain 
conditions on Syria's being accepted back into the international 
fold.  .  The conditions are obvious. And ones that Israel has been 
demanding -- without any success at all -- for years: kicking the 
terrorist organizations out of Damascus, first and foremost Hamas 
and its leader Khaled Mashal, and an end to the support and the 
supply of weapons to Hizbullah.  In the past Syria has just ignored 
these calls.  But now, in order to avoid being seen as North Korea's 
kid brother, t may have no choice but to pay a little attention. 
The alleged connection to North Korea makes Syria vulnerable.  The 
question is whether the world will seize the moment." 
 
II.  "It Takes Time to Restore Deterrence" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (9/18): "IDF 
Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin's statement that Israel has restored 
its deterrence capabilities was premature.  Deterrence is a fine and 
encouraging word, but it is difficult to measure.  It is much easier 
to detect and measure complacency and self-satisfaction.... 
Excessive self-satisfaction has led Israel's past governments to 
numerous failures.  It has made the nation's leadership think time 
is working in our favor.  It has persuaded our leaders to miss out 
on opportunities, to wantonly set up settlements in areas which were 
supposed to serve as bargaining chips. It compelled Jerusalem to 
postpone giving back the West Bank to Jordan's King Hussein when he 
still wanted it back.  Every time Israel relishes in its military 
might, we must remind ourselves of its limits and its limitations. 
Let us hope that Yadlin's words were taken out of full context, and 
that if a successful action was indeed carried out in Syria, it 
would not make anyone think that the weakness Israel had 
demonstrated in the days of the Second Lebanon War has been 
erased." 
 
III.  "Jewish Property in Arab Countries" 
 
Moshe Karif, a founder of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition, 
a social justice NGO among Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab and Muslim 
lands and the East) in Israel, wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (9/18): "Compensation of the Palestinian 
refugees is one of the central issues which has to be solved for an 
historic reconciliation between us and the Palestinians.  But in the 
same breath it must be recalled that the Jews left behind them, in 
Arab countries, assets in the billions, and nobody even thinks of 
paying that debt.   The Jews from Arab countries, many of whom came 
here ... lost their entire world in one fell stroke.... The young 
State of Israel could not believe the stories of the great wealth 
that had been left behind.  On the rare occasions on which attention 
was given to the issue of the Jewish property in the Arab countries, 
this was not for the purpose of compensating the immigrants from 
Tunis, Morocco or Iraq, but in order to offset, in a cynical manner, 
the Jewish property that had been left there against the Palestinian 
property that was left here.... Estimates of the value of Jewish 
property left behind range from USD 10 to 30 billion.  Others claim 
that the Jewish property left in Iraq is worth USD 100 million and 
the property in Egypt USD 60 million.  Now, when Saudi Arabia wishes 
to settle once and for all the major questions, this is the time to 
discuss also a solution for the question of Jewish property in Arab 
countries.  Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has an opportunity to put 
right the decades-long injustice to the periphery of Israeli 
society, which is populated by Jews from Arab countries, their 
children and their grandchildren.  A transparent public 
administration ought to be set up to map the Jewish property in Arab 
countries.  Teams should be set up to gather information from the 
generation of the grandparents who are still among us and can prove 
that they own the properties.  After the cartographical stage, the 
findings should be submitted to whoever really wants to put an end 
to the conflict here.  We will talk to them in the fall about 
everything, about the property of the Jews and the Palestinians.  We 
will not deduct one from the other.  We will build, at long last, 
the infrastructure which those who left their property behind, here 
and there, truly deserve." 
 
------------------------ 
¶2.  France-US Relations: 
------------------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist and French politics expert Daniel Ben Simon wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "It is no accident that Sarkozy 
appointed [Bernard Kouchner] as his foreign minister -- the 
right-wing man and the left-winger who have discovered that they 
view the world through the same eyes." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"France Aligns Itself with Bush" 
 
Columnist and French politics expert Daniel Ben Simon wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (9/18): "As regards Iran, 
[Bernard Kouchner], the man of the Left who was appointed Foreign 
Minister in a right-wing government, expressed exactly what was on 
his mind.... There is a change in France's policy not only regarding 
Iran but also in other arenas.  Even before spending his summer 
vacation in the US, Sarkozy tightened the connection with that 
country.... [Kouchner's visit to Baghdad] would have been 
unthinkable under Chirac's regime.... Despite being a man of the 
Left, Kouchner did not condemn the US invasion [of Iraq] and is even 
considered a pro-American who did not hesitate to express support 
for a world under American hegemony.  It is no accident that Sarkozy 
appointed him as his foreign minister -- the right-wing man and the 
left-winger who have discovered that they view the world through the 
same eyes." 
 
JONES