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DE RUEHTV #3454/01 3391115
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P 051115Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003454 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Last night Channel 2-TV, followed by all media, reported that 
President Bush is expected to make a two-day visit to Israel in 
January.  Maariv reported that the White House and PM Ehud Olmert's 
office have confirmed the visit, but that they added that no exact 
date for the visit has been set.  Various media cited possible dates 
ranging from the beginning through the middle of the month. 
Ha'aretz and Yediot said that the visit will focus on advancing 
Israeli-Palestinian talks. 
 
All media highlighted President Bush's comment, following the 
publication of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iranian 
Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities, that pressure can change Iran's 
mind, but that Iran remains dangerous.  Media quoted Israeli 
officials as saying that their assessment of Iran's nuclear program 
differed greatly from the U.S. report.  Yediot reported that Israel 
has shown the U.S. intelligence that contradicts the NIE.  Yediot 
reported on a severe disagreement between the top Israeli officials 
who received the report and President Bush and Vice President 
Cheney.  However, Yediot cited denial of the incident by sources in 
the Prime Minister's Office.  Major media quoted PM Ehud Olmert as 
saying that sanctions against Iran must be tightened.  Ha'aretz 
quoted PM Ehud Barak as saying that words do not stop missiles. 
Maariv reported that Israel's main concern is the international 
public atmosphere that the report will produce and the greater level 
of difficulty that the continuation of the sanctions regime against 
Iran will encounter.  Leading media reported that FM Tzipi Livni has 
initiated a worldwide diplomatic campaign aimed at tightening 
sanctions against Iran.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Strategic Affairs 
Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying on Tuesday that the U.S. report 
is irrelevant and will not affect decisions about how to handle 
Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Maariv cited Israel's concern 
that Iran has received assistance from North Korea.  Yediot reported 
that in a letter to his troops, IAF commander Eliezer Shkedy 
compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's utterances to 
Hitler's. 
 
 
Maariv cited a classified Israeli Foreign Ministry document stating 
that President Bush is politically weak and unable to carry out a 
military operation against Iran. 
 
Leading media reported that this morning two or three Palestinians 
were killed and two others were wounded in an IAF strike in the Gaza 
Strip.  The Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday the IDF denied 
that a house on a western Negev kibbutz was hit accidentally during 
an IAF helicopter attack on a Gaza training base overnight on 
Monday. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz cited a Peace Now report released on 
Tuesday, according to which only 3% of illegally constructed 
buildings in West Bank settlements and unauthorized outposts have 
been dismantled by the authorities. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset has begun to discuss 
extending temporary legislation granting the Shin Bet extensive 
powers to investigate security suspects at the same time that the 
High Court of Justice is holding hearings on whether this same 
legislation contravenes human rights and should be cancelled. 
 
Maariv reported on a thaw in relations between Olmert and Barak 
after the Annapolis conference.  The newspaper reported that the two 
have apparently realized that maintaining the government coalition 
is now crucial for both of them. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the registrar of non-profit organizations has 
given the Elad organization, which purchases property in Arab East 
Jerusalem for Jewish settlers, 21 days to reveal the identity of its 
donors. 
 
Yediot reported that an Israeli radio station -- Al-Masharkiyeh -- 
broadcasts to south Lebanese audiences. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that visiting American 
financier Michael Milken warned on Tuesday that Israel's $7 trillion 
human capital market is in danger of rapidly depreciating should the 
government not take the appropriate corrective steps to repair and 
invest in the local education system. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted visiting Cypriot FM Erato 
Kozakou-Marcoullis as saying this week that Israelis investing in or 
purchasing property in the Turkish-occupied sector of Cyprus may be 
engaging in an illegal transaction. 
 
The Jerusalem Post printed a Jewish Telegraphic Agency newswire 
report that Venezuela's Jews are relieved by President Hugo Chavez's 
defeat in the country's constitutional referendum. 
 
----- 
Iran: 
----- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Those who wish to avoid a 
nuclear Iran better heed those within the Islamic Republic who are 
seeking to engage in dialogue." 
 
Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: " A dialogue between the United States 
and Iran will be good for America, perhaps for Israel too." 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "From a Jerusalem viewpoint, the message [the NIE 
report] sends from Washington seems to be: If you're thinking of a 
military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, Israel -- you're 
on your own." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "No Military Strike?  Then Start Talking" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/5): "The American 
intelligence report that makes the option of a military strike 
against Iran -- and possibly the next dose of sanctions- - less 
likely to materialize gives us an important time-out to try a new 
avenue vis-a-vis the Islamic Republic.  That route would center on 
diplomacy aimed at neutralizing Tehran's motivation to further 
pursue the development of nuclear arms.  For some time now, Iran has 
held an internal debate -- which sometimes reaches the Iranian media 
-- on how far Tehran can go in defying international pressure to 
abandon its nuclear program.... The American interest in talks with 
Iran stems from the fact that it was not only Tehran that was 
pleased by the intelligence report.  Russia, too, was no less 
satisfied.... For the Americans, the trick now will be to find the 
right leverage to open up a channel of negotiations -- which could 
deprive Russia of its virtual monopoly on ties and influence on 
Iran.  Those who wish to avoid a nuclear Iran better heed those 
within the Islamic Republic who are seeking to engage in dialogue -- 
especially in light of the assumption that Iran will continue its 
efforts to obtain nuclear weapons." 
 
II.  "In America, There Are Already Calls for Talks with Tehran" 
 
Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/5): "Bush may not have modified his 
policy, but the reality around him has changed a lot since [the 
publication of the NIE] report.  At this juncture there is 
absolutely no chance of Congress allowing him to go to war with 
Iran.  His ability to lead a move of sanctions is also fading away: 
China and Russia will not agree; neither will Europe.... A dialogue 
between the United States and Iran will be good for America, perhaps 
for Israel too.  Handshakes between Washington and Tehran are better 
than American cruise missiles in the skies of Bushehr.  This being 
said, it is important to remember that over the past few years the 
forecasts of U.S. intelligence have not been brilliant.... It has 
become clear that the U.S. intelligence agencies did not really know 
what was going on in Tehran: the report that was made public this 
week is the opposite of the one that was presented two years ago." 
 
III.  "Reading Between the Lines of the New Iran Report" 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (12/5): "The White House may have tried to keep [the 
NIE] report from going public, as some pundits have suggested. 
However, having claimed proudly to have forged at Annapolis a 
coalition of Arab states in opposition to Iran and its radical 
Islamist proxies, Bush and Rice might well be thinking that it might 
be handy at this stage to have a reason to implicitly back down from 
the military option that those 'moderate' Muslim allies so ardently 
oppose.  That's certainly what the NIE report conveniently provides, 
even if that will not be publicly acknowledged by the 
administration.  What does the NIE analysis really tell us about 
Iranian nuclear intentions and capabilities?  That's anybody's 
guess.  But from a Jerusalem viewpoint, the message it sends from 
Washington seems to be: If you're thinking of a military strike 
against Iran's nuclear facilities, Israel -- you're on your own." 
 
JONES