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P 221012Z OCT 07
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003051 
 
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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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.  Iran 
 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The top story over the  weekend was the alleged assassination plot 
against PM Olmert in June.  Reportedly, the plot which was broken up 
by Shin Bet and PA security services, involved five Fatah linked 
individuals who were planning to hit the Prime Minister's motorcade 
during a visit to Jericho.  The news broke on Sunday  when Shin Bet 
head Avraham Diskin told the cabinet that PA security services had 
released several of those being held.   The media quoted Internal 
Security Minister Avi Dichter as saying that this is a "classic 
example of the PA's policy of make believe."  All media reported 
that PM Ehud Olmert told reporters accompanying him on his trip to 
Paris that "what is troubling is the inappropriate way that the 
suspects were handled.  We cannot let this go by, but I also do not 
intend to stop the efforts at dialogue and the negotiations with the 
Palestinians."  Ha'aretz reported that it sent a correspondent to 
the prisons where these individuals were held and verified that they 
were re-arrested on Friday.  The paper also questioned the 
seriousness of the threat by saying that those involved lacked the 
means and had not devised a plan, rather they were picked up after 
conversations where the idea was raised were overhead by the Shin 
Bet.  Ha'aretz then questioned the motivation behind the timing and 
mischaracterization of Dichter's announcement. 
 
All media reported that today PM Olmert will meet with French 
President Nicolas Sarkozy and that he will continue to Britain, 
where he is scheduled to meet with PM Gordon Brown.  The media 
reported that Olmert will discuss efforts to block Iran's nuclear 
program, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and other bilateral 
issues.  Maariv expects Sarkozy to tell Olmert that now is the time 
to take risks and that France is not ruling out military action 
against Iran.  Leading media quoted Olmert as saying: "The meeting 
at Annapolis is not meant to propose or produce solutions, but 
rather to bolster a negotiations process that should lead to a 
solution of two states living side by side in peace and security." 
 
 
Ha'aretz reported that FM Tzipi Livni is calling for the creation of 
a "negotiation administration" to handle ongoing work on core issues 
after the Annapolis meeting. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted sources in Ramallah as saying that the 
Bush administration is pressuring  Abbas to appoint senior Fatah 
figure Muhammad Dahlan as his deputy.  According to the sources, 
Abbas has rejected the US demand, triggering a crisis with 
Washington. 
 
Major media quoted the Israel Antiquities Authority as saying on 
Sunday that Israeli archaeologists overseeing a controversial dig on 
the Temple Mount to replace electrical cables, stumbled upon a 
sealed archaeological level dating back to the era of the First 
Temple.  But the Waqf (Islamic trust), which has de facto control 
over the mount, denied that any discovery was made, or that Israeli 
archaeologists were even supervising the work. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Sunday Vice President Dick 
Cheney reiterated the Bush administration's insistence that Iran 
would not be able to acquire nuclear bombs.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted PM Olmert as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin 
assured him that Russia would not "put Israel in a place where it 
could be threatened."  Ha'aretz reported that during his visit to 
the IMF, Finance Minister Roni Bar-On is trying to build an economic 
front against Iran's nuclear program.  On Sunday Maariv reported 
that former US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross told the newspaper that 
there were no discernible signs of an impending American  strike on 
Iran.  Over the weekend major media quoted Gen. Mahmoud Chaharbaghi, 
a top Revolutionary Guards Corps commander, as boasting that Iran is 
capable of firing 11,000 rockets into enemy bases in the first 
minute following an attack. 
 
On Sunday The Jerusalem Post cited ABC News as saying that Israel 
obtained detailed photographs from inside an alleged Syrian nuclear 
facility prior to carrying out an air strike on September 6. 
 
All media reported that Israel received from Hizbullah a 21-year-old 
letter sent by MIA Ron Arad to his wife Tami. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that James Roche, a former Secretary of the USAF, 
told the newspaper this week that if Israel and the US achieve an 
interceptor that its 80 percent effective against ballistic threats, 
they will be sufficiently prepared to deal with such threats.  Roche 
is visiting Israel for the first convention of the Israel Missile 
Defense Association. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a draft study by the mainstream, liberal 
Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies that an Israeli pullout from 
Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem as part of a peace accord with 
the Palestinians without an agreement regarding the Old City and the 
Temple Mount will not resolve the dispute over Jerusalem. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that NGOs have accused settlers and 
security forces of increased violence against Palestinians in Hebron 
since last spring. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that NATO Deputy Secretary-General 
Claudio Bisogniero arrived in Israel for a two-day visit on Sunday, 
three weeks after taking up his new post. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post printed an AP wire report that David 
Peleg and Khaled Ghazal, respectively the Israeli and Palestinian 
ambassadors to Poland, visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death 
camp complex together on Sunday in a rare joint act of reflection on 
the Holocaust. 
 
Over the weekend Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that Kadima 
MK Majalli Whbee, a Druze who was close to former PM Ariel Sharon 
and whom Sharon sent on numerous diplomatic missions in the Arab 
world, will be appointed deputy FM next week. 
 
Leading media reported that the far Right is disseminating a new 
film demanding the release of Yitzhak Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "President Bush must have envisioned the War 
of Gog and Magog when he gave Israel the status of the spark that 
will ignite World War III.... But why place Israel in the center of 
events?" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Jacky Hoogie wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Do Ehud Olmert, whose name is linked with the 
Second Lebanon War, and George Bush, the architect of Iraqi 
quagmire, have the moral authority to pull the entire Middle East 
into an adventure that is even more dangerous than their previous 
two put together?" 
 
Daniel Levy, one of the main drafters of the Geneva initiative, 
wrote in Ha'aretz: "A strategy of deterrence and containment 
vis-a-vis a nuclear Iran is preferable to a military option, even 
from an Israeli point of view." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "No Thanks, Mr. President" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/21): "President Bush must have envisioned 
the War of Gog and Magog when he gave Israel the status of the spark 
that will ignite World War III.... This makes me want to say to the 
President: 'No thank you.  Don't make Israel your chief concern.' 
Iran under its current leadership is indeed a dangerous state, and 
its efforts to attain nuclear weapons must be thwarted.  But why 
place Israel in the center of events?.... The head of the world's 
greatest power should lead the effort to foil the Iranian threat, 
and he seems to be taking this complex role upon himself so far. 
Bush's efforts -- diplomatic and economic pressure as well as 
increasingly explicit threats to employ military force against Iran 
-- are the way to tackle the problem.  Israel should be left outside 
the picture.... These guidelines also apply to the Israeli 
government: It should not take a prominent role in the international 
efforts against Iran.  It should also not believe and act as if the 
nuclearization of Iran is intended against it primarily.... 
Sixty-two years after the horror engendered by the bombing of 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it would be best to bring redemption closer 
through other, earthly and controllable measures -- for example, by 
striving to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians.  This is a 
measure that is likely to neutralize the Iranian bomb." 
 
II.  "The Iraqi Lesson" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Jacky Hoogie wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (10/21): "What is the source of this confidence 
that an Iranian nuclear bomb is necessarily an existential threat to 
the State of Israel and the free world?.... The United States 
conducted itself with outrageous amateurism in Iraq.  Only after the 
fact did it become evident just how superficial its prior knowledge 
of Iraq was.  It ousted from power a ruler whose advantages 
outweighed his disadvantages, and created a hothouse for terrorism 
in the heart of the Arab world.  Israel, its political, historical 
and intelligence ally, failed to inform the US of its errors on time 
and, as such, is party to the fiasco. Israel, which has a tremendous 
amount of intimate knowledge about its neighbors, should have 
pounded on the table.  It should have told its naove friend that a 
weak dictator was preferable over a weak democracy.  But, then, just 
as now, it was enamored by the sound of the war drums beating.  The 
citizens of the Middle East have learned their lesson.  Before 
another adventure is begun on our backs, we demand to have a look at 
the dossier....  And there is also the personal question.  Do Ehud 
Olmert, whose name is linked with the Second Lebanon War, and George 
Bush, the architect of Iraqi quagmire, have the moral authority to 
pull the entire Middle East into an adventure that is even more 
dangerous than their previous two put together?" 
 
III.  "A Green Light to the Americans" 
 
Daniel Levy, one of the main drafters of the Geneva initiative, 
wrote in Ha'aretz (10/22): "The lesson that Iran can learn from 
events in recent years is that its membership in the axis of evil 
with nuclear weapons means adequate conditions for negotiations 
(North Korea); this is not the case in the absence of nuclear 
weapons (Iraq).... An Israeli operation against Iran that will not 
get a green light from America is not an option.  In any case, such 
an operation does not ensure success.  However, its consequences -- 
responses by Iran and the Muslim world -- will almost undoubtedly be 
destructive -- in particular to Israel.  Thus, and with all the 
difficulty to accept such a conclusion, a strategy of deterrence and 
containment vis-a-vis a nuclear Iran is preferable to a military 
option, even from an Israeli point of view.... Many experts have 
advocated the diplomatic option.  So have American think tanks and 
politicians.  But official Washington continues to demonstrate 
skepticism.  An Israeli green light could tilt the balance within 
the administration.  Any Israeli leader who seriously intends to 
'stop Iran' must relegate to the dustbin the comparison with 1938 
and provide quiet diplomatic advice to Uncle Sam." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the 
 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The only way of 
wrenching Syria free from Iran's bear hug is to include it in the 
regional peace plan." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"To Produce a Change of Heart in Damascus" 
 
Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/21): "An 
Israeli-Arab peace agreement requires a comprehensive approach that 
will lay the foundations for solving the conflict.... The peace 
talks between Israel and the Palestinians, just like the American 
veto against negotiations with Syria, indicate that we have reverted 
to a 'Palestine first' approach.  But the chances of this approach 
being successful are depressingly meager.  When the American sponsor 
still refrains from committed mediation of the kind done by Clinton, 
the parties are incapable of meeting even the minimal demands to 
reach a final status arrangement.  This failure will have dire 
repercussions for the entire region.  The Syria-Iran-Hamas-Hizbullah 
axis will be bolstered in its opposition to Americanization in the 
region.  And when President Abu Mazen is humiliated and defeated, 
the scenario of a third Intifada does not seem so delusional.  That 
is why it is crucial that Syria be removed from the circle of 
war.... The only way of wrenching Syria free from Iran's bear hug is 
to include it in the regional peace plan.  But, regrettably, 
precisely because of their isolation in the region and because of 
the paranoid nature of the regime in Damascus,  the Syrians are not 
expected -- as the United States hopes will happen -- to abandon 
their alliances and relations with terrorists as a precondition for 
peace talks.  A change of heart in Damascus will be the result of 
negotiations, not a precondition to them.  The idea that the 
Israeli-Arab peace process is a choice between the Palestinian track 
and the Syrian track has proven itself to be a dangerous mistake. 
Neither of the parties, neither the Palestinians nor the Syrians, 
will agree to be excluded from the process.  It is not too late yet 
to begin the peace process once again as a comprehensive, regional 
initiative and to invite Syria to the Annapolis conference.  In 
addition to examining once again the state of Israeli-Palestinian 
negotiations, the conference should also be a platform for the 
Israeli-Syrian channel and a forum in which the parties will agree 
on procedure and means of communication.  The conference will not 
mark the end of the Damascus-Tehran axis but it certainly might be 
the beginning of a process in which that connection begins to 
weaken." 
 
 
JONES