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P 241501Z OCT 07
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003077 
 
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.  Rabin Assassination Anniversary 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday a Palestinian was killed in an air 
force attack on a vehicle in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the 
central Gaza Strip.  The newspaper quoted the IDF as saying that the 
targeted vehicle was carrying a terrorist from the Popular 
Resistance Committees.  Leading media reported that on Tuesday eight 
Qassam rockets and eight mortar shells were fired from the Gaza 
Strip.  A house in Sderot sustained a direct hit. 
Israel Radio reported on a drive-by shooting this afternoon at the 
entrance of the West Bank settlement of Ariel, in which an Israeli 
was wounded. 
 
Major Israeli media reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak plans 
to approve a list of sanctions against Gaza following an escalation 
of Qassam rocket fire.  The Jerusalem Post quoted officials as 
saying that Israel will begin to cut the supply of gasoline to Gaza 
in the coming days.  Leading with the same issue, Ha'aretz said that 
the security forces plan to cut power in Beit Hanun in the northern 
Gaza Strip for two hour intervals, during the evening or the night. 
 
Major media (lead story in Makor Rishon-Hatzofe) quoted Likud leader 
Binyamin Netanyahu as saying on Tuesday during a Likud photo-op on 
the Tower of David in Jerusalem's old city, that the "Olmert 
government is leading to a Hamas-led Jerusalem."  Likud MKs have 
vowed to fight against any territorial concessions within or around 
Jerusalem. 
 
All media (banners in Yediot and Maariv) devoted considerable space 
to the 12th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.  Ha'aretz 
quoted President Shimon Peres as saying on Tuesday that "Today, the 
path that Yitzhak Rabin paved for us is reemerging; the path of 
peace has not been lost."  Israel Radio quoted Ehud Barak as saying 
that Israeli public institutions still harbor people who were part 
if the incitement that preceded the assassination. 
Leading media reported that on Tuesday PM Ehud Olmert heard from 
British PM Gordon Brown that he and his government would seek 
further sanctions against Iran in the UN and the EU.  Ha'aretz and 
Israel Radio reported that  Russian President Vladimir Putin told 
Olmert in their meeting last week that Russia will not supply 
nuclear fuel to Iran.   Olmert also met in London with Turkish PM 
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 
 
Yediot reported that the IDF is asking the public to make use of 
quiet days to protect their homes against missile attacks -- 
preparing protected spaces, plastic sheets, and drinking water. 
 
Yediot reported that while current Shin Bet head Avraham Diskin 
believes that the failure of the Annapolis meeting would increase 
terror, previous Shin Bet head and Knesset Member Ami Ayalon, holds 
a contrary opinion.  The Jerusalem Post quoted PA negotiator Saeb 
Erekat as saying on Tuesday that the PA will not attend the 
Annapolis meeting unless an agreement is reached beforehand on all 
final status issues. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Hamas announced on Tuesday that 
it uncovered a Shin Bet spy ring that was gathering information on 
abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. 
 
Leading media reported that in a speech at the National Defense 
University, President Bush described the deployment of a missile 
system in Europe as essential to counter the Iranian threat.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying on 
Tuesday that US missiles in Poland will be positioned for defensive 
purposes only. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Vice PM Haim Ramon will ask PM Olmert for 
further funding to extend the West Bank separation barrier. 
Construction will soon be halted unless new funds are found. 
 
Yediot and Maariv reported that on Tuesday Syrian President Bashar 
Assad ordered that citizenship be granted to the residents of the 
four Druze communities in the Golan.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported 
that Gen. Ali Habib, the commander of the Syrian Air Force, told his 
pilots to be prepared to counter any foreign aggression. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that in an interview with AFP, 
Hizbullah's foreign relations chief Nawaf Mussawi warned against the 
establishment of a US military base in Lebanon. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted the Russian news agency Novosti as saying that Iran 
has signed a deal with China to buy two squadrons of J-10 fighter 
planes that are based on Israeli technology. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday the Military Advocate General 
petitioned the High Court of Justice to require the Winograd 
Commission to make good on its pledge to issue warnings to those who 
might be harmed by the committee's final report. 
 
Leading media reported that State Attorney Eran Shendar, in 
agreement with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, has decided not to 
prosecute PM Olmert in two affairs involving the purchase of 
properties -- in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. 
 
The Jerusalem Post printed a Jewish Telegraphic Agency wire report 
quoting Turkish FM Ali Babacan as saying in an interview with the 
liberal Islamic newspaper Zaman that he had told American Jewish 
leaders that a genocide bill would strengthen the public perception 
in Turkey that "Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against 
Turks." 
 
Yediot reported that Israelis can now only find employment in 
Europe, since the US is "full" and will no longer admit high-tech 
workers. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------------------------------ 
¶1.  Rabin Assassination Anniversary: 
------------------------------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The demand to 
create a Jewish consensus before any decision on withdrawal has 
become a code for refusing to accept any concession, even if it is 
supported by a large democratic majority." 
 
Conservative, Orthodox journalist Hanoch Daum wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Since [the Rabin 
assassination] we yeshiva students have all become accustomed to the 
accusatory looks and the collective smear campaign.  Some of us also 
felt a bit guilty....  something of this sense of guilt, something 
of the knowledge that I took part in the ongoing incitement, that I 
too was in [Jerusalem's] Zion Square [the scene of incitement by 
right-wing leaders before the assassination], still stings in my 
heart." 
 
Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The obsessive interest in Amir's life is turning 
the murderer into a legitimate figure, a local celeb." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Democracy or Hypocrisy" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (10/24): "A 
large majority of the Israeli public continues to support leaving 
the occupied territories in return for a peace agreement.  From this 
point of view, [Yitzhak Rabin's assassin Yigal] Amir failed 
resoundingly.  The minority that believes the territories must not 
be left under any circumstances has not grown, but it has become 
more extreme.... The demand to create a Jewish consensus before any 
decision on withdrawal has become a code for refusing to accept any 
concession, even if it is supported by a large democratic 
majority.... Amir decided to murder Rabin the moment the Oslo 
Accords were signed.  He was not deterred, but rather imbued with 
faith in the justness of his cause.  Generations of young people 
must be educated against this faith and cause.  Even before he 
carried out the assassination Amir belonged to the camp that 
preferred the greater, occupying Land of Israel to the democratic 
Israel, although he understood that these are two conflicting 
entities. Many still believe as he does.  Education for democracy 
must encompass debate about Israel's control over the lives of 
Palestinians deprived of civil rights; it must relate to the fact 
that Israeli democracy suffers from an essential flaw.  Without 
discussing these issues on the commemoration day of the 
assassination, the initiative will not be educational, but 
hypocritical." 
 
II.  "My Responsibility" 
 
Conservative, Orthodox journalist Hanoch Daum wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/24): "The days were 
the stormy days of Oslo, and I was sent by the organizers of the 
demonstrations, together with my classmates from the yeshiva, to 
demonstrate in front of RabinQs home, to blow on whistles opposite 
the Prime Minister's Residence and to shout all kinds of yells 
there, including 'I don't want to be next,' and of course 'Rabin the 
traitor' and 'You don't have a mandate.'  I regret those 
demonstrations.  To a large degree, they were part of the atmosphere 
in which Yigal Amir grew.  Part of a delegitimization campaign that 
was conducted incorrectly and without a sense of proportion against 
a person who was promoting a completely mistaken idea and who had 
mismanaged the battle against his opponents in the national camp by 
ostracizing them -- but who had done so in good faith..... Since 
[the assassination] we yeshiva students have all become accustomed 
to the accusatory looks and the collective smear campaign.  Some of 
us also felt a bit guilty.  We remembered the demonstrations, the 
defamations, the persecution that we were part of.... The years 
passed.  The collective guilt passed from us to Ariel Zilber [a 
singer who recently participated in the creation of a movie calling 
for the early release of Amir] and his 'compatriots.'  But something 
of this sense of guilt, something of the knowledge that I took part 
in the ongoing incitement, that I too was in [Jerusalem's] Zion 
Square [the scene of incitement by right-wing leaders before the 
assassination], still stings in my heart." 
 
III.  "The Yigal Amir Festival" 
 
Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (10/24): "This year it seems that ... instead of 
stories and broadcasts about Rabin's actions and legacy, public 
debate focuses on the murderer, his wife, and his yet to be born 
child.  Instead of marking 12 years since the prime minister's 
assassination, it looks as if Israeli society is marking the 12 
years since the assassin was jailed.... The obsessive interest in 
Amir's life is turning the murderer into a legitimate figure, a 
local celeb.... Make no mistake.  The media is not providing such 
approving coverage to Amir's fans and family to expose wild weeds in 
Israeli society or to prevent the next assassination.  The real, 
principal motive behind every detail coming out of the Amir 
household only stems from the unrestrained chase for rating and 
public exposure.... As was to be expected, 12 years after that 
horrible night, memory fades, prime minister Rabin becomes no more 
than a distant figure in Israeli history, and the hot news is 
provided by an assassin who never stopped smiling." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
----------- 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The conflict is perceived as an ailment that 
is part of the scenery -- a troubling phenomenon we have to put up 
with.  It is not given the status of a major problem that must be 
urgently resolved." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"The Time to Put Principles Aside" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Uzi Benziman commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/24): "The personal fate of the prisoners 
and the missing [Israelis], and the horrendous hardship experienced 
by their families are only a random illustration to the suffering 
and injustice the conflict has caused to thousands of people on both 
sides.  When the suffering manifests itself in a single, individual 
case, the decision makers are overwhelmed by misgivings and ethical 
considerations.  Why are these elements not expressed in their daily 
handling of the conflict?  A hundred years of a chronic conflict, 
with many bloody outbursts, especially 40 years of violent 
confrontation, has dulled the Israeli public and its leaders to the 
human cost of the struggle with the Palestinians.  The conflict is 
perceived as an ailment that is part of the scenery -- a troubling 
phenomenon we have to put up with.  It is not given the status of a 
major problem that must be urgently resolved." 
 
JONES