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P 171124Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 3171
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 1289
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 3903
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0757
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1228
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 7798
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 5264
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 6254
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 8637
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RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003536 
 
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 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Maariv quoted the Israeli defense establishment as saying that 
Mossad Director Meir Dagan is not capable of convincing the 
Americans about the seriousness of the Iranian nuclear threat.  On 
Sunday Maariv reported that an Israeli intelligence team has headed 
to the U.S. for an in depth review of the National Intelligence 
Estimate (NIE).  Maariv reported that Israel will likely make 
available to the U.S. new material which up till now has been held 
back  for "information security" reasons.  All media reported that 
on Saturday Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter blasted the NIE, 
warning that the NIE is liable to bring about the regional 
equivalent of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and that Israel would be one 
of the victims.  Today Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that PM Ehud 
Olmert rebuked Dichter over his remarks.  Dichter was also quoted as 
saying that if Washington was wrong about Tehran, it could also be 
wrong about Palestinian intentions.  The Jerusalem Post reported 
that Maj. Gen. Benny Ganz, the IDF's incoming military attache to 
the U.S., told the newspaper that the world does not yet appreciate 
the gravity of the Iranian threat. 
 
Yediot reported that on Sunday PM Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud 
Barak authorized the IDF to "upgrade" the list of Gaza targets in 
response to Qassam rocket fire.  All media reported that a 
two-year-old toddler from Kibbutz Zikim in the Ashkelon area was 
slightly wounded on Sunday in a rocket strike. 
 
On Sunday Ha'aretz reported that a planned Israeli-Palestinian peace 
gathering in Madrid "collapsed before even taking off." 
 
The Jerusalem Post's web site and other media quoted Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice as saying on Sunday that militant 
Palestinians, not Israel, are to blame for deteriorating conditions 
in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, as the U.S. announced it intends to 
donate about $550 million to the impoverished Palestinians this 
year.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli diplomatic officials as 
saying on Sunday that Arab states participating in today's donor 
conference in Paris are likely to pledge generous sums to the PA, 
but that won't follow through on their pledges so as not to 
antagonize Hamas.  According to the officials, this was likely to be 
especially true of Egypt.  On Sunday Yediot reported that the 
Palestinian government intends to ask the donor countries for  $2 
billion annually for the next three years.  This sum is between 
three and four times the annual amount that was transferred to the 
PA following the Oslo Accords. Maariv and other media reported that 
on Sunday FM Tzipi Livni told PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas 
that there will be progress in the negotiations if the Palestinians 
fight terror.  Over the weekend all media reported on Saturday's 
100,000-strong rally in Gaza, at which Hamas leaders vowed never to 
recognize Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported John Rood, Assistant Secretary of State for 
International Security and Nonproliferation, arrived in Israel last 
night for discussions on the NIE and sanctions against Iran. 
Ha'aretz quoted Israeli officials as saying that they will give Rood 
the most up-to-date intelligence Jerusalem has gathered on this 
program, however, their outlook is gloomy.  "There won't be a third 
Security Council resolution against Iran before January, and even 
then, it is likely to be watered down and toothless," an Israeli 
official was quoted as saying. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. is examining the possibility of 
helping Egypt build a physical barrier to foil the weapons-smuggling 
tunnels that run from Sinai to Gaza.  According to Ha'aretz, the 
Americans plan to send a delegation of officers from the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers and engineers from the Department of Defense to 
the Sinai in the near future for a feasibility study.  The 
recommendation to send the delegation came from two senior 
administration officials who visited Israel and Egypt a few weeks 
ago to investigate Israel's claim that the Egyptians were not doing 
enough to stop weapons-smuggling into Gaza. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has 
been instructed by the cabinet to continue its work at the Mugrabi 
walkway near the Western Wall in Jerusalem.  The cabinet recently 
instructed the IAA to complete the work "as soon as possible, with 
full transparency and with the cooperation of the relevant bodies." 
Excavations at the site were halted in June after they raised an 
international protest. 
 
Ha'aretz cited an advertisement published in the Palestinian 
newspaper Al-Quds last week as saying that the GOI has decided 
Palestinians who have been "annexed" to Jerusalem by the separation 
fence will receive neither permanent nor temporary Israeli 
residency.  Instead, they will receive residency permits from the 
military authorities -- which confer no right to work, to health 
insurance or to any other benefit of legal residency.  The 
Association for Civil Rights in Israel accused the government of 
trying to force the Palestinians to leave the city. 
 
Major media cited an Islamic Jihad site, Falastin Al-Yawm, quoting 
an eyewitness to the abduction of Gilad Shalit that he was weak and 
wounded at the time. 
 
Leading media reported that on Sunday Yossi Beilin, the Chairman of 
Meretz-Yahad, left the race for leadership of his party.  Yediot 
reported that MK Haim Oron is the leading candidate in the race. 
Maariv reported that Beilin is promoting an initiative to achieve 
peace within a year. 
 
Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, the founder of Israel's Islamic 
Movement, was quoted as saying in an interview with The Jerusalem 
Post that Israeli Arabs will never agree to do national service for 
the state because it would call into question their loyalty to the 
Palestinian cause. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that American real estate mogul Bob Stark is 
heading an investor group that plans to invest $3-4 billion in a new 
university town in the Safed area that will include a medical school 
affiliated with Bar-Ilan University.  The town is slated as well to 
have housing, shopping centers and cultural institutions, Stark told 
Ha'aretz on Sunday.  The medical school is to be funded by a 
donation of some $500 million, to be provided by Stark and others, 
which would make such a project the first instance in Israeli 
academia of a donation being made as part of a business enterprise. 
 
Maariv noted that the "Maof" share index on the Tel Aviv stock 
market has dropped by 3.2% following the published of consumer price 
indexes in the U.S. and Israel over the weekend.  The media reported 
on a continued rise of the US dollar as compared to the shekel (on 
Sunday, a dollar was worth 3.971 shekels) 
 
Major media reported that three Tel Aviv University academics have 
been named by Scientific American on the magazine's list of the past 
year's greatest advancements in science. Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob 
and Dr. Itay Baruchi created a new type of organic memory chip and 
Professor Beka Solomon was honored for her research in treating 
Parkinson's disease 
 
Donatella Rovera, chief researcher for Amnesty International on 
Israel and the Palestinians, was quoted as saying on Sunday in an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post that the Annapolis conference 
failed to address human rights issues on both sides in the 
Israeli-Palestinian dispute, just as previous initiatives including 
Oslo failed before it.  The Jerusalem Post reported that "in a rare 
public statement," the International Committee of the Red Cross 
warned that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing a 
"worsening humanitarian crisis as a result of the drastic 
deterioration of the situation there." 
 
On Sunday Maariv reported that the Separation Fence Administration 
was disbanded in the course of the past number of weeks and that its 
director has ended his term. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited AP quoting that Abu Ghazal, head of the 
Knights of the Night group, loosely associated with Fatah, as saying 
that he is calling off attacks on Israel and taking his group 
underground, after Israel refused to grant his gang amnesty. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that on Saturday the 
Union for Reform Judaism, America's largest Jewish movement, and the 
Islamic Society of North America, unveiled an interfaith dialogue 
curriculum and are urging their hundreds of thousands of members to 
use it.  Both sides say it is the broadest Jewish-Muslim interfaith 
effort in the continent's history. 
 
Maariv reported that Defense Ministry Barak has okayed the creation 
of a second cellular phone network in the Palestinian territories. 
 
Maariv reported that a group of Labor Party veterans, which does not 
believe that Ehud Barak has changed and is identified with the late 
Yitzhak Rabin's line, has threatened to join the Likud. 
 
Leading media reported that on Monday an interministerial committee 
decided that the president of Israel will not be able to pardon or 
reduce the sentence a person who assassinated a prime minister.  The 
Knesset must pass a bill to this effect. 
 
Leading media reported that Israel will sign a free-trade agreement 
today with Mercosur, the South American free trade union that 
includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and a "country 
outside of Latin America."  The treaty has been in the works for a 
decade. 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/17): 
"Bush ... can forget about the Annapolis process getting anywhere if 
the U.S. is perceived to be easing the pressure on the Iran." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "With 
all due respect to the United States, Israel must determine its 
defense policy independently -- and listen to Dichter." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "On His Way to Israel" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/17): 
"Bush ... can forget about the Annapolis process getting anywhere if 
the U.S. is perceived to be easing the pressure on the Iran....  A 
high-profile, top-level U.S. push for European sanctions on Iran 
could correct these impressions, demonstrate that an Iranian bomb is 
not inevitable, and help convince the Arab world not to run away 
from the American 'weak horse' and towards accommodation with Iran. 
As much as Israelis are always happy to see an American president, 
it is only in the context of a renewed sanctions push that Bush's 
visit would make policy sense. " 
 
II.  "An Alternative to Olmert's Perception" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized 
(12/17): "In light of past experience, Minister Dichter's warning 
[about the NIE's report] cannot be ignored.  He urged us ... to 
learn the lessons of the past.  The conclusion that should be drawn 
is that Israel should lead its defense policy from a purely ... 
Israeli point of view.  With all due respect to the United States, 
Israel must determine its defense policy independently -- and listen 
to Dichter." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Security and intelligence affairs commentator Amit Cohen wrote in 
the popular, pluralist Maariv: "One way or another, Hamas is here to 
stay, and to stay in power." 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "It seems that Washington has understood only 
the gravity of the threat [of smuggling tunnels] -- not what is 
needed to cope with it." 
 
Columnist and former IDF Intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit wrote in 
Maariv: "As opposed to Professor [Bernard] Lewis, I support 
negotiations and the achievement of a diplomatic agreement." 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"It is difficult to see how [Salam] Fayyad plans to implement 
hundreds of millions of dollars in economic projects without Hamas's 
agreement." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Here to Stay" 
 
Security and intelligence affairs commentator Amit Cohen wrote in 
the popular, pluralist Maariv (12/16): "More than anything Hamas 
would like us to visit, so that we would see Gaza under its rule -- 
order in the streets, the cleanliness, the [absence of] the vendor 
stalls that have been removed from the roadsides.  Ironically, this 
extremist organization, which prides itself on its isolationism, 
behaves as though it is longing for attention from Israel, perhaps 
even for a pat on the shoulder.  They want us to see; it's not that 
they believe in reconciliation.  They genuinely believe that they 
faithfully represent the interests of their people, and that is what 
they want us to understand.... One way or another, Hamas is here to 
stay, and to stay in power.  Twenty years have passed since that 
secret, nocturnal meeting at the home of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin [when 
 
SIPDIS 
Hamas was founded].  The people who started that phenomenon now 
called Hamas numbered only seven.  Four of them are still alive. 
'We did not plan to come to power but we always knew it would 
happen,' one of the seven founders said.  'We knew that victory 
would come, sooner or later.  Islam is the future.'" 
 
II.  "They Still Don't Get It" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (12/17): "The U.S. administration's 
willingness to talk with the Egyptians about ideas for halting 
weapons smuggling across the Gaza-Egypt border reflects Washington's 
belated recognition of the severity of the problem.  Even the United 
States now understands that the smuggling industry -- and especially 
its contribution to Hamas's military build-up in Gaza -- is liable 
to result in an Israeli invasion of Gaza, thereby further 
undermining the regional situation.  But based on the reported 
American recommendations, it seems that Washington has understood 
only the gravity of the threat -- not what is needed to cope with 
it.... What the U.S. apparently refuses to understand is that the 
first requirement for any solution to the problem must be 
substantive, not technical: As long as Cairo does not view the war 
on weapons smuggling as a genuine Egyptian interest, no real 
progress will occur." 
 
 
 
III.  "The Bone of Contention" 
 
Columnist and former IDF Intelligence chief Shlomo Gazit wrote in 
Maariv (12/17): "Professor Bernard Lewis, one of the greatest Middle 
East scholars, published an article on the eve of the Annapolis 
conference.... Lewis believes that there is no chance nor reason for 
negotiations and an agreement, if the bone of contention is not 
Israel's borders but its very existence.... Lewis concludes that as 
long as the Arab stance has not changed, there is no point to Israel 
engaging in the diplomatic process.... I share Professor Lewis' 
pessimistic, even realistic assessment, but I have  reservations 
about his conclusion.... As opposed to Professor Lewis, I support 
negotiations and the achievement of a diplomatic agreement.  As long 
as a [protracted hudna, i.e. lull] goes on and the Arab attitude 
doesn't change, Israel will be at war.... [But I can sum up my 
position thus:]  Yes to an agreement, yes to a process that will 
turn a hudna into a new reality." 
 
IV.  "Fayyad's Alibi" 
Palestinian affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in Ha'aretz 
(12/17): "[Palestinian Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad is an exception 
in Palestinian politics: He belongs to neither Fatah nor Hamas, 
having helped found the Third Way party, and unlike most Palestinian 
leaders, Fayyad does not blame 'the occupation' for everything.... 
In Nablus he wrought significant change on the ground, making the 
city secure again. As a result, both the United States and Israel 
see him as 'the great hope.'  Nonetheless, it is difficult to see 
how Fayyad plans to implement hundreds of millions of dollars in 
economic projects without Hamas's agreement.  He has also neglected 
to mention that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is continuing in part 
due to the pressure the PA is exerting on Israel to do so.  Some 
Fatah officials argue that Fayyad has been trying to signal to Hamas 
in anticipation of the possibility that Palestinian President 
Mahmoud Abbas will go back to negotiating with them.  Such a 
scenario may be part of Fayyad's calculations, but Fatah complaints 
appear to stem primarily from the fear that in the next elections, 
Fayyad, with his clean public image, is likely to steal votes from 
Fatah.  The billions of dollars coming in from the donor states will 
only help him do so." 
 
JONES