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P 261003Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003109 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Iran 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
¶3.  US-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that on Thursday Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
approved economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip in response to 
continued Qassam rocket attacks. This will include cuts in the 
electrical supply, however essential institutions such as hospitals, 
will not be affected.  Barak's approval is conditioned on legal 
authorization from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and from the 
Military Advocate General.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli 
defense officials told the newspaper that the IDF plan is the first 
step toward a "complete disengagement."  Avi Issacharoff and Amos 
Harel of Ha'aretz gave a similar assessment. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted FM Tzipi Livni as saying on Thursday, during her 
meeting with US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley -- who also 
met PM Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas -- that 
the implementation of future agreements with the Palestinians must 
be conditioned by the Roadmap.  Israel Radio quoted PM Olmert as 
saying that the Annapolis meeting is supposed to lay the foundations 
for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  Ha'aretz also 
reported that today Livni will for the first time take part in a 
meeting between Olmert and Chairman Abbas. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday the US administration 
introduced new sanctions on Iran, designed to isolate it from the 
world economy.  The new measures designate Iran's Revolutionary 
Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces 
Logistics proliferators of ballistic missile technology, and the 
Quds Force off-shoot of the IRGC a terrorist organization.  Noting 
that the step was liable to hit foreign firms, The Jerusalem Post 
reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry welcomed the US decision, 
saying it represented "an important contribution through 
international means to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear 
program."  The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior official in the Prime 
Minister's Office as saying: "We totally and absolutely back and 
support it, and hope other countries will take similar steps." 
Ha'aretz reported that visiting senior Russian Foreign Ministry 
officials told Israel that Russia would like Israel to send Syria 
"positive signals" in order to encourage it to end its alliance with 
Iran.  The Russians also presented their assessment that Iran is 
nowhere near acquiring nuclear weapons. 
 
Major media reported that new satellite pictures reveal that Syria 
recently razed all buildings at the suspected site of Israel's 
September 6 strike.  Yediot banners: "The Reactor Was Erased."  The 
pictures were analyzed by David Albright, a former UN weapons 
inspector now working at the Institute for Science and International 
Security.  The Syrians "are clearly trying to conceal evidence," he 
was quoted as saying.  Yediot quoted Turkish media as saying that PM 
Olmert promised Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Israel will 
soon make a public announcement regarding the September 6 event. 
Meanwhile, the IDF on Thursday canceled part of a major exercise 
scheduled for next week in the Golan, to avoid raising tensions with 
Syria.  The exercise will be limited to the Galilee. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel is upset about comments made 
by Abbas to Al-Arabiya-TV that Israeli and Hamas representatives 
have been secretly meeting to discuss ending Israel's "siege" of 
Gaza, including its ban on exports. 
 
Leading media reported that three armed Palestinians were killed in 
two clashes with the IDF in the Gaza Strip.  Two IDF soldiers were 
lightly wounded.  On Friday the electronic media reported on further 
fighting in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan 
Williams, is expected to visit Israel nest week for meetings with 
the chief rabbis.  The newspaper noted that he blasted Israel's 
security policy on previous visits, although he is reportedly 
committed to Israel's existence and good relations between Jews and 
Anglicans.  In another development, Ha'aretz reported that the 
Interior Ministry recently canceled all reentry visas for Christian 
Arab religious travelers who wish to travel in and out of the West 
Bank and the Gaza Strip.  The newspaper quoted the ministry as 
saying on Thursday that security officials had requested the 
rescindment. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the organization Gisha - the Legal Center 
for Freedom of Movement - as saying on Thursday that the army has 
broken a promise given to the High Court of Justice to renew bus 
service for Gaza students  to Egypt so that they can pursue their 
academic studies abroad. 
 
Yediot reported that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are making use of 
aerial photographs displayed on the Google Earth site to orient 
Qassam rockets. 
 
Leading media reported that PM Olmert's Chief of Staff, Yoram 
Turbowicz, testified before the Winograd Commission that Olmert was 
aware from the beginning that by hitting back hard at Hizbullah for 
abducting IDF soldiers, he would be exposing the home front to 
rocket attacks. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that TIME Magazine declared Israeli Benjamin Kahn, 
the founder of the environmental group Zalul, to be one of its 
"Heroes of the Environment" for 2007. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "There is no reason to suspect the US 
administration does not mean what it says: Sanctions are the tool of 
choice, with the hope that they will push Iran into recognizing that 
if it does not give in, the US will crush its economy." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "Those who prevent economic pressure on Iran 
are making the use of military force against it more likely." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Signal to Iran and the Global Community" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/26): "Washington's belligerent tone has 
some of its more suspicious friends warning of an impending military 
attack.  But talk of a military option is at this stage a mere 
diversion from the gray reality of sanctions.  There is no reason to 
suspect the US administration does not mean what it says: Sanctions 
are the tool of choice, with the hope that they will push Iran into 
recognizing that if it does not give in, the US will crush its 
economy.... [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice and Defense 
Secretary Robert Gates, considered the administration's 'moderates,' 
 
SIPDIS 
are harsh realists. They support negotiations, but from a position 
of strength.  On Thursday they sought to demonstrate this strength 
and hurt Iran through tough, but non-military, means." 
 
II.  "Sanctions or Force" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (10/26): "French President Nicolas Sarkozy 
and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown espoused a determined and 
coordinated position on the need to stop Iran's nuclear program 
during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's visits to their countries last 
week.... Against the background of a noticeable toughening of the 
rhetoric against Iran by senior American government officials, 
Sarkozy and Brown are seeking to give diplomacy another chance and 
to exert 'soft power.'  The challenge they face is to persuade two 
other key European states -- Germany and Italy -- to join the French 
sanctions initiative and cut back on their booming business with 
Iran.... The position adopted by sanction opponents is liable to 
achieve the opposite of what they intend: Those who prevent economic 
pressure on Iran are making the use of military force against it 
more likely.  If there is still any chance for the diplomatic effort 
to succeed, as Olmert says, it must not be missed because of 
short-sighted business considerations.  This is the moment for 
Europe to display unity and leadership and to prove that its way can 
achieve results in solving the 'most important international issue,' 
as Sarkozy termed it." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "Do I think Abbas is going to seize the 
moment -- to tell his own people where their true interests lie?  I 
do not." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Abbas's Opportunity" 
 
Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (10/26): "We've heard many fine words 
over the years... Nonetheless, [Mahmoud] Abbas would serve four sets 
of interests -- Palestinian, Israeli, moderate regional, and global 
-- if he severed the line from Arafat, defied Hamas and his own 
radicals by urging international assistance in the battle against 
terrorism, and issued an unequivocal public rejection of the refugee 
'right of return' and an endorsement of Jewish Israel as the first 
step toward reviving a peace process.... A win-win-win-win 
situation, though pregnant with personal risk.  Do I think Abbas is 
going to seize the moment -- to tell his own people where their true 
interests lie?  I do not.  Whether or not he has the inclination, I 
don't think he has the guts.  I hope he'll prove me wrong." 
 
------------------------ 
¶3.  US-Israel Relations: 
------------------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist and Law Professor, and former cabinet minister Amnon 
Rubinstein, who currently teaches at Columbia University, wrote in 
the popular, pluralist Maariv: "There indeed can be no apology for 
Walt and Mearsheimer's book, which is impregnated with lies.  One 
would be truly hard-pressed to believe that so soon after the 
extermination of European Jewry, such generalizing accusations would 
be uttered against the Jews." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"It Is Hard to Be a Jew" 
 
Columnist and Law Professor, and former cabinet minister Amnon 
Rubinstein, who currently teaches at Columbia University, wrote in 
the popular, pluralist Maariv (10/26): "Pre-Holocaust anti-Semites 
should be judged according to the gravity of their lies.  Today's 
readers of Richard Wagner, Henry Ford, Austin Chamberlain, and their 
peers will view them as harbingers of the Holocaust.  However, it 
should be assumed that they did not know where hatred of the Jews 
would lead to.  Conversely, today, when the entire world is aware of 
this, the return to incitement is considerably worse.  There indeed 
can be no apology for Walt and Mearsheimer's book, which is 
impregnated with lies.  One would be truly hard-pressed to believe 
that so soon after the extermination of European Jewry, such 
generalizing accusations would be uttered against the Jews." 
 
 
JONES