VZCZCXYZ0006
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #3286/01 3201137
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161137Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4191
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RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 3012
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 9691
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 3167
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3796
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 3040
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 1121
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 3764
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0630
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1095
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 7672
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 5125
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 0045

RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 4186
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 6124
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 8425
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003286 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Various media, including Israel TV and Channel 10-TV, reported that 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the region before the 
 
SIPDIS 
Annapolis meeting.  Israel Radio quoted the Kuwaiti newspaper 
Al-Jarida as saying that the U.S. is considering postponing the 
meeting as Arab countries are only prepared to send mid-level 
representatives to the gathering.  Yediot quoted a senior State 
Department official as saying on Thursday that Syria and Saudi 
Arabia will participate in the meeting.  Ha'aretz and other media 
reported that on Thursday senior Russian officials told their 
Israeli counterparts that Syria will participate in the Annapolis 
meeting, even with a low-level delegation.  Israel Radio reported 
that Israel welcomes Syria's participation in the meeting, but 
insists that Syria must understand that the Palestinian issue will 
be its main topic.  Ha'aretz quoted Israeli sources as saying that 
Russia has asked Israel to include in the joint declaration a 
statement that the summit is the first step of a regional diplomatic 
effort for Israel to achieve peace with its neighbors. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Saudi Arabia is 
furious that Israel is not willing to mention in Annapolis' 
concluding remarks the Arab League peace proposal as a take-off 
point toward final-agreement negotiations.   Maariv reported that PM 
Olmert may not let Defense Minister Ehud Barak attend the meeting. 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the right wing is increasing its 
opposition to Annapolis. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the defense establishment has 
warned against making goodwill gestures to PA Chairman [President] 
Mahmoud Abbas ahead of Annapolis. The Jerusalem Post also added that 
Shin Bet officials have warned that Abbas might be tempted to "blow 
up" the meeting under the pretext that Israel was not making enough 
concessions.  Maariv cited Israel's concern that the US may demand 
that Israel release 2,000 Palestinian prisoners during the Annapolis 
meeting. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that PM Ehud Olmert is considering 
reopening the Orient House  in East Jerusalem.  The house was home 
to the PLO during the 1990's and was closed by Israel at the start 
of the second Intifada. 
 
PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted as saying in an interview with 
The Jerusalem Post that he rejects PM Olmert's call for an explicit 
Palestinian recognition as the "Jewish state," saying he was baffled 
as to why Olmert wanted to "poke us in the eye" over the issue. 
 
Maariv reported that Israel and Syria have officially designated 
Turkey to mediate between them. 
 
Major media quoted the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying 
on Thursday that information about Iran's nuclear program is 
diminishing.  Israel Radio reported that the U.S. has subsequently 
prodded the UN Security Council members to apply stronger sanctions 
on Iran.  Yediot stressed the IAEA's declaration that Iran is 
cooperating with the agency.  Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor 
Lieberman was quoted as saying in an in an interview with The 
Jerusalem Post that the "unacceptable" IAEA report is further proof 
that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei is pro-Iranian.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Israeli diplomatic and military sources as 
saying on Thursday that Israel is bracing itself for the possibility 
of Iran turning nuclear. 
 
Leading media reported that at the "Jerusalem Forum" held in 
Istanbul on Thursday, Hamas spokespersons warned Chairman Abbas not 
to concede anything in Jerusalem at Annapolis.  Raed Salah, the 
leader of the northern branch of Israel's Islamic movement, said at 
the gathering that that all refugees will return to Jaffa and the 
Galilee. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot quoted a senior aide to Britain's Prince Charles 
as saying that there is "no chance" the prince would ever visit 
Israel as such a visit would boost Israel's image. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media reported that on Thursday IDF troops opened 
fire on a car carrying Qassam rocket launchers in the northern Gaza 
Strip, killing two and injuring five.  Yediot and other media 
reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has required the 
Israeli defense establishment to warn the PA two weeks in advance of 
disruptions of the power supply to Gaza. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Thursday the northern West Bank 
outposts of Harhivi and Shvut Ami were evacuated without 
resistance. 
 
Maariv reported that the construction of the West Bank security 
fence was stalled following the cancellation of a debate at the 
Prime Minister Office on Thursday. 
 
Yediot quoted former PM Ariel Sharon's top advisor Dov Weisglass as 
saying in his testimony to the Winograd Commission that Sharon would 
not have started a war in July 2006. 
 
All media reported that on Thursday a farmer from the Sharon area 
was critically wounded when he was stabbed by unknown assailants in 
a field.  Media reported that police arrested Palestinian and 
Israeli-Arab suspects, and that the attack could have been carried 
out because of nationalistic or criminal motives. 
 
All media reported on the continuing conflict between Justice 
Minister Daniel Friedmann and the High Court of Justice.  Ha'aretz 
reported that Friedmann is drafting a bill that would limit the High 
Court's ability to rule on matters of government and defense policy. 
 Leading media reported that the entire Labor Party stands behind 
the High Court. 
 
Yediot and Maariv led with the ongoing crisis in the educational 
system and giant demonstration that is planned for Rabin Square in 
Tel Aviv on Saturday night.  Yediot bannered an open letter by PM 
Ehud Olmert to the teachers, which contains promises of monetary 
compensation.  Israel Radio reported that an agreement with the 
secondary school teachers' union may be signed today in Olmert's 
office. 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Olmert's diplomatic target is a 'shelf 
agreement' in which the Palestinians will be coerced to sign an 
agreement." 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"People who have spoken with [Avigdor] Lieberman, the Minister of 
Strategic Affairs, during the last few days got the impression that 
he is taking most of the credit for transforming Annapolis from a 
formative event in the history of the Middle East to a 
'get-together' lasting just a few hours." 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"We exist, and we are a Jewish state.  The Arab countries that 
attacked after Israel's Declaration of Independence did do because 
it was a Jewish state.  We made peace with Egypt and Jordan in spite 
of being a Jewish state." 
 
Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "Israel committed a strategic error in 
not requiring that Palestinians to recognize Israel as the 'Jewish 
state' at the very start of the attempts at peace making almost 20 
years ago." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Science of Hope" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/16): "Olmert's diplomatic target is a 
'shelf agreement' in which the Palestinians will be coerced to sign 
an agreement against their will: Israel as the state of the Jewish 
people and Palestine as the state of the Palestinian people.  The 
agreement will present a model for the resolution of the conflict 
and will be endorsed by the UN Security Council....The 
implementation of the agreement will be postponed -- maybe for many 
years, until the Palestinian Authority recovers and presents a 
proper system of government and defense.  Until then the situation 
in the West Bank will continue, with the IDF and the settlers, but 
nobody will be able to claim that Israel; is an occupier, a 
land-grabber, and a snatcher of Palestinian rights: Israel has 
agreed to withdraw from the territories and is only waiting for the 
Palestinians to pull through." 
 
II.  "Assassinating Annapolis" 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote in Ha'aretz 
(11/16): "Paradoxically, for [cabinet ministers Avigdor Lieberman 
from Yisrael Beiteinu and Eli Yishai from Shas], the 'Annapolis 
declaration' will be a double blessing: It will leave them in their 
cabinet seats, with all the goodies that go with that, and will also 
allow them to boast to their voters about their targeted 
assassination of the summit -- to which, by the time of this 
writing, official invitations had yet to be issued.  (The joke 
making the rounds in right-wing circles these days is: 'Why haven't 
invitations been issued for the summit yet?  Because you send out 
wedding invitations two months ahead of time, but invites to a 
funeral only go out the day before.')  People who have spoken with 
Lieberman during the last few days got the impression that he is 
taking most of the credit for transforming Annapolis from a 
formative event in the history of the Middle East to a 
'get-together' lasting just a few hours." 
 
III.  "A Stupid Demand" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in Ha'aretz 
(11/16): "Neither side wants to be blamed for the failure of the 
summit, which is shaping up as a kind of multi-delegation, global 
conference orchestrated by the President of the United States.  And 
then we wake up one morning to the announcement by the Palestinian 
Authority's chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who says the PA is 
planning to recognize Israel's right to exist (well, thank you, Mr. 
Erekat), 'but will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.'  You 
read that statement over and over, and try not to explode. 
Especially at our stupidity at even making the demand that they 
recognize for us our Jewishness.... The ever-present threat against 
the very fact of Israel's existence is what has caused, or at least 
encouraged, the expansion into the territories by tens of thousands 
of settlers.  It is this threat that eggs on the Jewish extremists 
and has turned this country, which has longed so much to live in 
peace, into a country of occupiers.  We exist, and we are a Jewish 
state.  The Arab countries that attacked after Israel's Declaration 
of Independence did do because it was a Jewish state.  We made peace 
with Egypt and Jordan in spite of being a Jewish state.  If there is 
anyone who needs recognition, it's the Palestinians." 
 
IV.  "The 'Jewish Israel' Genie" 
 
Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (11/16): "As Annapolis looms closer, with 
even its scaled down joint statement of principles still anything 
but finalized, Olmert is said to be confident that the 'Jewish 
Israel' genie he chose to let loose will yet be satisfactorily 
addressed there.  That confidence is not shared by the Israeli 
negotiating team that is attempting to formulate a mutually 
acceptable text for the Palestinians.  But [Palestinian negotiator 
Saeb] Erekat ... also reckoned it would not derail resumption of the 
negotiating process.... Israel committed a strategic error in not 
requiring that Palestinians to recognize Israel as the 'Jewish 
state' at the very start of the attempts at peace making almost 20 
years ago.  Postponement of that moment of fundamental reckoning has 
only spilled bloodshed and the development of the false sense on the 
Palestinian side that it can yet be subverted." 
 
JONES