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P 281129Z DEC 07
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 003630 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
DA WASHDC FOR SASA 
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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.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Assassination of Benazir Bhutto 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader 
and former PM Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on Thursday.  Ha'aretz 
headlined: "Grave Crisis in Muslim State that Has Nuclear Weapons." 
Several media reported that Israeli leaders, including President 
Shimon Peres, paid tribute to Bhutto, even though Israel and 
Pakistan do not have diplomatic ties.  PM Ehud Olmert told The 
Jerusalem Post: "I saw her as someone who could have served as a 
bridgehead to relations with that part of the Muslim world with who 
our ties are naturally limited."  He was quoted as saying that the 
assassination was a "great tragedy" and that he received the news 
"with deep sadness."  Olmert was further quoted as saying that two 
months ago Bhutto relayed a message that she would "in the future 
like to strengthen the ties between Israel and Pakistan.  Israel TV 
and Israel Radio quoted Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny 
Gillerman as saying that at a meeting with Bhutto two months ago, 
she told him that she would take steps towards normalizing ties with 
Israel if elected prime minister.  Gillerman wrote an obituary for 
her in Maariv.  Maariv reported that shortly before returning from 
exile, Bhutto had asked the Mossad to protect her -- a request that 
Maariv says was considered but not put into action. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday PM Olmert promised PA 
President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Jerusalem that 
Israel will not undermine negotiations toward a final-status 
agreement.  Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that on Wednesday Secretary 
of State Condoleezza Rice called the two leaders, urging them to end 
the stalemate.  Ha'aretz reported that Olmert and Abbas agreed to 
put an end to the Har Homa crisis.  The Jerusalem Post quoted a 
senior Israeli official as saying that Ma'aleh Adumim and Har Homa 
were already existing facts therefore adding to them does not 
prejudice any possible agreement.  Yediot cited Abbas's office as 
saying that the meeting did not produce any result. 
 
Major media reported that nine Islamic Jihad and Hamas operatives -- 
including senior Islamic Jihad militant Muhammad Abdullah Abu 
Murshud, whom the Israeli media dub the "Qassam rockets' brain" -- 
were killed overnight in a series of IDF raids in the Gaza Strip. 
Leading media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that IDF troops 
killed a security guard of Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei (Abu 
Ala).  Leading media reported that an IAF helicopter was almost hit 
by a Hamas missile. 
 
Maariv reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad offered Ehud 
Barak through Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a channel to "bypass 
Olmert."  The newspaper quoted a senior GOI source as saying that 
Assad's attempt to bypass Olmert is irrelevant and that Barak will 
not play this game.  Likud MK Yuval Steinitz was quoted as saying in 
an interview with Makor Rishon-Hatzofe that Egypt's rapport with 
Hamas in Gaza is similar to Syria's with Hizbullah in Lebanon. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordan has in recent months 
rejected requests from the Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashal 
to reestablish formal Jordan-Hamas relations and open Hamas offices 
in its territory. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Physicians for Human Rights-Israel 
(PHR) accused the IDF of deliberately delaying action on requests to 
allow seriously ill Palestinians from Gaza to enter Israel for 
life-saving or urgent hospital treatment. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe and The Jerusalem Post reported that Ha'aretz 
editor David Landau told Secretary Rice at a recent private dinner 
that Israel "wants to be raped by the U.S." and needed more vigorous 
American intervention to resolve Middle East conflicts, according to 
the New York Jewish Week.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Landau 
told the New York weekly that this description was "inaccurate" and 
a "perversion of what I said," although he repeated his first 
statement, 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday the Knesset approved the 
2008 state budget (around 315 billion shekels -- approximately $81.3 
billion) by a 64-to-31 majority.  Forty-eight billion shekels will 
go to defense -- and 27.5 billion shekels to education.  The media 
said that the passage of the budget was made possible when PM Olmert 
agreed to allocate 50 million shekels in January for  protecting 
communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. 
 
Major media reported that Shula Zaken, PM Olmert's former chief of 
staff, who had been suspected in an alleged bribery affair involving 
the Tax Authority, was allowed to return to another position in 
Olmert's office. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Haifa's Rambam Medical Center has 
diagnosed a girl in Kabul, Afghanistan, with a rare genetic disorder 
found in only 90 people in the world. 
 
All media reported that former FM David Levy, 70, is considering a 
comeback to politics. 
 
A Yediot investigative report found that opposition leader MK 
Binyamin Netanyahu tried to promote the construction of a luxurious 
hotel and apartment complex in Jerusalem in which his relatives and 
associates are involved.  Maariv reported that the police suspect 
Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman of having received 
money from a company he sold when he had become a minister. 
 
Maariv reported that on Thursday the Israeli translation software 
firm Babylon signed a cooperation agreement with Google. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll 
conducted ahead of the New Year: 
 
Who will be prime minister at the end of 2008? 
Binyamin Netanyahu: 41%; Ehud Olmert: 22%; Ehud Barak: 16%; Tzipi 
Livni: 8%. 
Will an agreement be reached with the Palestinians? 
Unlikely: 89%; likely: 10%. 
Will Israel attack Iran? 
Unlikely: 69%; likely: 28%. 
. Will negotiations with Syria start? 
Unlikely: 70%; likely: 29%. 
Are you optimistic about Israel's condition? 
Pessimistic: 54%; optimistic: 46%. 
Are you optimistic about your personal condition? 
Optimistic: 85%; pessimistic: 14%. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited a poll conducted in Saudi Arabia by the 
international organization Terror Free Tomorrow, which found that 89 
% of Saudis hate the Jewish people. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn and Washington correspondent 
Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The 
Annapolis summit and the efforts to revive the peace process have 
exacerbated the tension that already existed between Prime Minister 
Ehud Olmert and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." 
 
Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in 
Ha'aretz: "Who still believes that by the end of George Bush's 
unfortunate term, a peace agreement will be attained and signed?.... 
Not much remains of the to-do at Annapolis." 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Despite all the differences between 
Israel and Egypt, an existential threat coming from Iran and its 
allies is hovering over the heads of both nations." 
 
Editorial Page Editor Saul Singer wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "The current U.S. approach is absurd, 
given that it is almost the exact opposite of the approach that 
America should take to achieve its own objectives." 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "What's the Hurry?" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn and Washington correspondent 
Shmuel Rosner wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(12/28): "The Annapolis summit and the efforts to revive the peace 
process have exacerbated the tension that already existed between 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice.  Olmert's personal charm doesn't work on Rice, and the Prime 
Minister's Office is anxious about her tendency to push ahead too 
quickly with political contacts.... Rice's exasperation with Israel 
stems primarily from the gap between expectations and results, and 
from the fast-dwindling time she has left on the seventh floor of 
the U.S. State Department.  Rice thinks that Israel received a lot 
and didn't give anything in return.... As long as we're only talking 
with the Palestinians, everyone can sit comfortably in their cabinet 
seats.  But a forceful evacuation of settlers, or far-reaching 
understandings with Abbas, could upset the partnership with 
 
 
Lieberman and Shas.  Olmert is well aware of this, and prefers to 
maintain the coalition and the government over making any serious 
moves in the territories.  For Rice to understand this too, however, 
she'll have to be convinced each time anew." 
 
II.  "The Little that Remains" 
 
Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in 
Ha'aretz (12/28): "Who still believes that by the end of George 
Bush's unfortunate term, a peace agreement will be attained and 
signed?  Like dogs returning to their vomit, they will cover 
themselves with the Roadmap, which contains no road, barely a 
direction.  It was only last month, and already Annapolis seems so 
distant, and an agreement more distant than ever.... The returnees 
from Annapolis were welcomed by the construction in Har Homa. And 
the river of excuses did not dry up, from 'municipal boundary' to 
'state lands' to 'natural increase.'  The whole world knows that no 
one has the power to enforce the law on the settlers, and therefore 
the state is enforcing it only on smokers.... Not much remains of 
the to-do at Annapolis." 
 
III.  "The True Egyptian Interest" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (12/28): "Despite all the differences 
between Israel and Egypt, an existential threat coming from Iran and 
its allies is hovering over the heads of both nations.  The 
discussions conducted this week by Defense Minister Ehud Barak with 
the Egyptian President and heads of the Egyptian security 
establishment boil down to one question: How is the expansion of 
Iranian influence in the region to be halted?  Mubarak wants a 
settlement in the Golan Heights in order to extract the Syrians from 
Iran's embrace.  On the Palestinian front, the Egyptians have come 
to understand that reconciliation between the Palestinian factions 
may halt Iranian influence and that the road to such reconciliation 
must include a cease-fire with Israel.  Therefore, the Egyptians 
commenced on a dialogue with Hamas for a Palestinian reconciliation 
and cease-fire with Israel immediately following the Annapolis 
summit.  In order to recruit Israel for this effort, the Egyptians 
know that they must put more effort into halting ammunition 
smuggling through the Philadelphi Road.  So, after having bad 
mouthed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, they are now sending a 
military delegation ... to search for solutions which will be to 
IsraelQs satisfaction.  The Egyptians also understand that there 
will be no reconciliation of any kind as long as the Gilad Shalit 
affair is not put to end.  They are going into this matter in full 
 
throttle as well." 
 
IV.  "How to Pressure for Peace" 
 
Editorial Page Editor Saul Singer wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (12/28): "It is absurd, of course, to 
suggest that Condoleezza Rice wants the Annapolis process to stall 
on take-off.  But the current U.S. approach is absurd, given that it 
is almost the exact opposite of the approach that America should 
take to achieve its own objectives.... If Rice continues to squeeze 
Israel into a total settlement freeze and dismantling outposts, the 
Palestinians will continue to hide behind these demands rather than 
fulfill their own part of the bargain.  The opposite, however, is 
not true.  If Palestinians were to demonstrate meaningful movement 
on ending incitement, accepting Israel's national rights, and 
cracking down on terrorism, this would generate much more internal 
political pressure for Israeli concessions than anything Rice could 
do.  The underlying reality is that Israelis want the two-state 
solution more than the Palestinians.  This means that the Israeli 
political system will automatically enter into peace euphoria mode 
of there are credible signs of Palestinian movement, while the 
Palestinian side will use any U.S. claims of Israeli non-compliance 
as an excuse to do nothing. Accordingly, if Rice wants the peace 
process to go somewhere, she should do the opposite of what she is 
doing now.  She should spend more time on Iran than Annapolis, and 
put more pressure on the Palestinians than on Israel.  This is not a 
matter of fairness (though it is also that), but a realistic 
assessment of what has a chance to work." 
 
------------------------------------ 
¶2.  Assassination of Benazir Bhutto: 
------------------------------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "After its fiasco in handling the Iranian nuclear ambitions, 
the United States now faces the no less grave challenge of 
maintaining stability in Pakistan without appearing as a party 
opposing a greater amount of democracy in that country." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "If any 
were needed, the Bhutto assassination is a reminder that the world 
is facing a threat of unparalleled barbarity that will stop at 
nothing unless it is thwarted." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "An American Task" 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (12/28): "The anxiety seizing the entire world upon the death 
of Benazir Bhutto is fully justified.  While Pakistan is improving 
its nuclear and missile capability, it is a slippery slope leading 
to increasing political instability.... It is with lack of fervor 
that Pakistan is being dragged into the war against global terror, 
following accusations that its intelligence services created 
al-Qaida.... Two weeks are left until the general elections and it 
is unclear whether they will be held in the prevailing chaos.  In 
any case, after its fiasco in handling the Iranian nuclear 
ambitions, the United States now faces the no less grave challenge 
of maintaining stability in Pakistan without appearing as a party 
opposing a greater amount of democracy in that country.  Another 
failure of American intelligence might be very costly to the 
world." 
 
II.  "Mourning Bhutto, and Heeding the Lesson" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (12/28): 
"The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto 
illustrates the fragility of the current international order in the 
face of the radical Islamist threat.  Pakistan is an Islamic country 
with nuclear weapons and security services that contain many 
sympathizers with the Taliban and al-Qaida.  It is hardly clear that 
the massive U.S. investment in the Musharraf government as a bulwark 
against these same jihadi groups will be sustainable.... Israelis, 
of course, are familiar with the preferred jihadi weapon, the 
suicide bomber.  But the terrorism in Pakistan is a reminder that no 
country is immune from such barbarism -- not even countries where 
the bombers and all the victims are Muslims.  Pakistan, moreover, is 
thought of as a Western ally.  Imagine a country were the jihadis 
are in charge and openly extol the virtues of murder through 
'martyrdom' and one has described neighboring Iran.  It is in this 
context that the eerie complacency characterizing the global 
approach to the Iranian threat is difficult to understand.  This 
complacency can be most dramatically seen in the widespread 
disinterest in Moscow's growing support for Tehran..... In his first 
State of the Union address after 9/11, President George W. Bush 
stated, 'The United States of America will not permit the world's 
most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most 
destructive weapons.'  He repeated this pledge to the UN in 2003, 
and again to his fellow Americans in 2006.  If any were needed, the 
Bhutto assassination is a reminder that the world is facing a threat 
of unparalleled barbarity that will stop at nothing unless it is 
thwarted." 
 
MORENO