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DE RUEHTV #2918/01 2821308
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P 091308Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002918 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian Authority Minister for 
Jerusalem Affairs Adnan Husseini told the newspaper on Monday that 
any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will require the 
establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in all of East 
Jerusalem.  Yediot reported that Israeli and Palestinian 
participants at Annapolis will declare to start negotiations over 
Jerusalem.  Leading media reported that Jerusalem's "holy basin" is 
at the center of the debate between Israel and the Palestinians. 
Various media quoted the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi that reported 
an agreement between Olmert and Chairman Abbas that would give 
Jordan control over parts of the Old City -- including the Temple 
Mount -- as part of a peace agreement.  On Monday Maariv reported 
that a majority is emerging among cabinet members to divide 
Jerusalem.  The media stressed a plan by Strategic Affairs Minister 
Avigdor Lieberman to give up some Arab neighborhoods. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) 
poll: 
As part of a final status agreement with the Palestinians, should 
Israel accept any compromise in Jerusalem? 
       Yes: 21%;  No: 63%; Only after a referendum: 16% 
As part of a final status agreement, should Israel transfer [control 
of] Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to the Palestinians? 
      Yes: 20%; No: 68%; Only after a referendum: 11%; Undecided: 
1% 
If a final status agreement is reached, who should control the holy 
sights, including the Temple Mount? 
Israel Only: 61%; An International Body: 21%; Joint 
Israeli-Palestinian Sovereignty: 16%; Jordan: 1%; Undecided: 1% 
Do you believe the Olmert government has a mandate from the public 
to reach a final status [agreement] in Jerusalem? 
Yes: 10%; No: 7%; Only if there is an 80 Knesset member-majority: 
52%; Only if there is a referendum: 22%; Undecided: 7% 
 
All media quoted PM Ehud Olmert as saying on Monday at the opening 
of the Knesset's winter session that he intends "to give impetus and 
a chance to a substantive diplomatic process in cooperation with PA 
President Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]."  Olmert warned that Israel 
will not find better partners than Abbas and PM Salam Fayyad.  That 
if they are allowed to fall, Hamas will take over the West Bank. 
And if Israel gives up on the diplomatic process and sticks to the 
status quo, as opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu proposes, it 
will find itself in "a bloody demographic struggle steeped in 
tears."   Olmert was quoted as saying that there will be no Israeli 
withdrawal before terror is eradicated in the West Bank.  Netanyahu 
was quoted as saying that that government is bringing Iranian terror 
closer to Jerusalem. 
Addressing the Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu factions, Netanyahu asked 
them what they are doing in Olmert's coalition.  Highlighting PM 
Ehud Olmert's comments in his speech to the Knesset that the cabinet 
ministers should be indulgent with Netanyahu's slip of the tongue 
regarding the Israeli action in Syria in September, Maariv said that 
Olmert indirectly confirmed the operation.  The media reported that 
Israeli President Shimon Peres condemned Iranian President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad's "lie" that "Iran does not intend to produce a nuclear 
bomb." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the IDF recently issued an order 
expropriating over 1,100 dunams (around 272 acres) of land from four 
Arab villages located between East Jerusalem and the West Bank 
settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.  The land is slated to be used for a 
new Palestinian road that would connect East Jerusalem with Jericho, 
thus "freeing up" the E-1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim 
for Jewish development.  Critics of the plan argue that development 
of the E1 area would effectively divide the West Bank into two and 
sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank. 
 
All media (banners in Ha'aretz and Yediot) reported that the 
Winograd Commission will issue its final report without conclusions 
or recommendations against specific persons involved.  By so doing, 
the committee is trying to avoid having to issue warning letters to 
individuals who may be harmed by its conclusions, and thus be able 
to publish the report by the year's end.  However, according to 
Ha'aretz, this may not be enough to avoid legal wrangles. 
 
The media reported that police will question PM Olmert today about 
his role in the privatization of Bank Leumi -- Israel's second 
largest bank -- with the goal of trying to determine whether he 
altered the tender to help a friend.  In 2005, when the tender was 
issued, Olmert was finance minister.  The interrogation may be 
open-ended.  Yediot quoted senior police officials as saying that 
Olmert did not receive bribes. 
 
On Sunday The Jerusalem Post quoted senior IDF officers as saying 
that there has been a sharp increase in the quantity of explosives, 
including various types of rockets, smuggled into the Gaza Strip 
from Egypt.  On Sunday, a Grad Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza 
landed near Netivot, a town out of reach of the shorter-range Qassam 
rockets. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister and 
Shas leader Eli Yishai is slated to meet today in Cairo with Egypt's 
President Hosni Mubarak and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday Minister Eli Yishai urged 
Olmert to suspend his talks with Chairman Abbas until the 
Palestinians halt terrorism. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Monday police evacuated the illegal West 
Bank outpost of Shvut Ami, which was set up last week and has since 
been inhabited by dozens of right-wing activists. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Menachem Leibovitz, deputy chairman of the 
Jewish National Fund (JNF), told the newspaper on Monday that most 
of the JNF's leadership is against a law that would officially 
sanction the leasing of its land to Jews only.  Instead, the JNF has 
proposed swapping its urban land for land in rural areas which could 
then remain solely under Jewish control. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli and 
Palestinian negotiation teams met for the first time in Jerusalem on 
Monday to draft a joint statement for next month's international 
meeting in Annapolis.  Ha'aretz reported that a participant in the 
talks told the newspaper" "This is only the beginning. It is hard to 
tell if we are going in a positive or negative direction.  Each side 
presented its opening positions.  We also spoke about technical 
matters like the talks' location and agenda." 
 
Maariv reported that some key Religious Zionist leaders and Rabbis 
now favor a return of their flock to the fold over setting up new 
outposts. 
 
Leading media quoted Hizbullah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan 
Nasrallah as saying on Friday that Israel is behind a series of 
murders of anti-Syrian politicians and journalists in Lebanon over 
the past two years.  However, Ha'aretz reported that the charge was 
instantly rejected by many anti-Syria lawmakers. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted President Peres's office as saying on 
Monday that Peres sent a letter congratulating Gen. Pervez Musharraf 
on his victory in Pakistan's presidential elections.  Pakistan has 
no formal relations with Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that visiting Turkish FM Ali Babacan 
told the newspaper on Monday that the widespread perception in 
Turkey is that US Jewish organizations have linked up with Armenian 
groups to "defame" and "condemn" Turkey. 
 
On Monday Maariv presented the results of a TNS/Teleseker poll 
conducted last week: 
-"Do you believe the claim that Yigal Amir is not behind Yitzhak 
Rabin's murder?" 
Yes: General public: 28%; religious public: 46%. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "With George W. Bush and Olmert 
scraping the bottom of the barrel in the public opinion polls, and 
Abu Mazen lacking his people's support, peace is not going to erupt 
in Annapolis.  But the importance of this summit is that it is held 
at all.  No one ever died from talking." 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "[Prime Minister 
Olmert] sincerely believes that the talks with Abu Mazen are the 
lesser evil and the last chance to block Hamas....  He hopes to 
reach the conference with a paper that they both agree on, full of 
promises for the future -- but one that does not commit to 
concessions in the present." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "If the 
Arab world in general, and the Palestinians in particular, are not 
ready to accept [Israel's right to self-determination], they are not 
ready for peace.  If they continue to meaninglessly repeat only 
[Israel's right to exist], they are reserving the right to continue 
to seek Israel's destruction." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Cat's Tail" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/9): "If peace breaks out 
between the Israelis and Palestinians at the Annapolis summit, I'll 
eat my hat.... On the eve of the summit, the problem is the feeble 
leadership of Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).  They look 
more like two British gentlemen meeting for a drink at the club than 
tough statesmen who can force the extremists in their camps to 
accept peace based on mutual concessions and conciliation with the 
enemy.  I find it hard to imagine Abu Mazen putting his foot down in 
Gaza, halting terror, dissolving the terrorist organizations and 
ending the Qassam rocket fire.  I find it hard to imagine Olmert, 
under a cloud of criminal investigations, getting a quarter of a 
million Greater Israel groupies to give up the territories and kiss 
some of their settlements goodbye.  In the cabinet, I don't see how 
Olmert will get around Ehud Barak, who opposes the summit and calls 
it 'hot air,' or Tzipi Livni and Avi Dichter, who are riddled with 
doubt, or Shaul Mofaz, who says that 'Jerusalem is not a piece of 
real estate.'  These guys can't even tie a knot in a cat's tail, 
[the late influential Israeli politician] Pinhas Sapir used to say 
about politicians of the Olmert and Abu Mazen ilk.  With George W. 
Bush and Olmert scraping the bottom of the barrel in the public 
opinion polls, and Abu Mazen lacking his people's support, peace is 
not going to erupt in Annapolis.  But the importance of this summit 
is that it is held at all.  No one ever died from talking." 
 
II.  "Lucky Guy" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/9): "This week the 
[Israeli-Palestinian] teams will hold one meeting.  Condoleezza Rice 
will arrive on Sunday.  The Palestinians will complain about 
Israel's inflexibility.  Then the talks will resume, until they 
reach a big crisis just before the conference.  Olmert and Abu Mazen 
will have to meet. Rice will be called in from Washington.  In the 
end, everyone will go to Annapolis feeling that they were coerced. 
So let them postpone the trip for a while.  Another reason for 
pessimism is the sheer number of Israelis stirring the Palestinian 
pot, most of whom have good intentions, but whose stirring has 
raised expectations on the Palestinian side to the sky.  The most 
prominent of them is Haim Ramon.... The Annapolis conference is 
being pushed by Condoleezza Rice.  She has a personal agenda: she 
wants to show up her detractors, she wants to leave a mark, and her 
recognition of the suffering of the Palestinian people.  President 
Bush is less enthusiastic.  Olmert could have perhaps turned Rice 
down in a talk with Bush, but did not want to.  He sincerely 
believes that the talks with Abu Mazen are the lesser evil, the last 
chance to block Hamas from taking over the neighboring people.  He 
hopes to reach the conference with a paper that they both agree on, 
full of promises for the future -- but one that does not commit to 
concessions in the present.  A paper that will make it possible for 
him to continue to keep his government.  And afterwards?  For what 
comes afterwards he needs [continued good luck]." 
 
III.  "Real Peace" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/9): 
"We do not know what, if anything, will emerge from the planned 
conference in Annapolis next month.  We do know that success or 
failure should not be measured by whether some document is produced, 
but by whether the Palestinians show some sign of accepting exactly 
what Abu Sitta [a prominent spokesman for Palestinian refugees] 
fears: that peace with Israel means ending the campaign to destroy 
Israel.  This is why it has become so important for Israel that the 
Arab side accept the Jewish people's right to renewing its national 
self-determination in this land, not just Israel's de facto 
existence.  If the Arab world in general, and the Palestinians in 
particular, are not ready to accept the former, they are not ready 
for peace.  If they continue to meaninglessly repeat only the 
latter, they are reserving the right to continue to seek Israel's 
destruction." 
 
JONES