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PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #0211/01 0251115
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251115Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5148
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
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RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 9972
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 3528
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4080
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 3340
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 1498
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 4075
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0921
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1395
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 7955
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RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000211 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that the IDF closed down Highway 10 along the 
Israeli-Egyptian border from Gaza to Eilat on Thursday night amid 
heightened concern of terrorist infiltration following the Gaza 
border breach.   Defense officials expressed concern that terrorists 
were among the hundreds of thousands of Gazans to swarm into Egypt 
over the last 48-hours and would try to launch attacks from Sinai. 
In addition, the National Security Council's counter-terrorism 
bureau issued a warning Thursday recommending that Israelis avoid 
visiting Sinai and that any Israelis currently there "leave 
forthwith."   Israel Radio reported that a parliamentary delegation 
from the Egyptian opposition, which included one of Saddam Hussein's 
lawyers, visited Gaza, and paid a condolence visit to senior Hamas 
leader Mahmoud Zahar, whose son was killed in a recent IDF 
operation.  Maariv and other media reported that Israel is concerned 
that Gilad Shalit could be smuggled into Sinai.  Maariv cited the 
belief of Palestinian sources that around 150 rockets were smuggled 
into Gaza over the past couple of days.  Israel Radio reported that 
the Egyptian authorities will close the border with Gaza at 3 p.m. 
(08:00 EST) today. 
 
Leading media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying at the 
World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that Israel could allow 
Gaza crossings to be opened under PA security control.  Israel Radio 
said that the defense establishment finds the idea objectionable. 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad as saying that Barak's 
statement was a cause for hope.  "We must seriously consider 
Israel's security concerns.  We are committed to non-violence and to 
solving the conflict by peaceful means," he was quoted as saying. 
The Jerusalem Post reported that President Shimon Peres told UN 
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Davos that Israel will not allow 
 
SIPDIS 
the people of Gaza to starve. 
 
Leading media published reports and commentaries ahead of  the final 
Winograd report which will be released on Wednesday.  Yediot quoted 
Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying in Davos that maintaining 
government stability in Israel is important.  Maariv said that he 
hinted that he would not resign following the publication of the 
report.  Referring to the backing of Olmert by liberal figures, 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe bannered: "On the Eve of Winograd, the Left 
Sides with Olmert." 
 
All major media reported on two late-night terrorist attacks that 
took place minutes apart:  A border policeman was killed and his 
female colleague was wounded by assailants at a checkpoint outside 
the refugee camp of Shuafat immediately north of Jerusalem.  A 
hitherto unknown branch of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- the 
Return and Struggle Brigades -- claimed responsibility for the 
attack.  Two Palestinians were killed while attempting to carry out 
an attack at a yeshiva in Kfar Etzion, Gush Etzion.  Two Israelis 
were slightly wounded in the incident. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the IAF killed four Palestinians 
militants in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that in Davos FM Tzipi Livni would not commit to 
completing negotiations with the Palestinians by the end of the 
year. She said that negotiations are not bound by the current 
American administration.  Livni was quoted as saying that both sides 
want to solve the conflict and that it takes time to do so properly. 
 "I don't believe it's connected to the present American 
administration.  We're doing it for our own sakes.  We want to do it 
this year.  We will have meetings every few days," she was quoted as 
saying.  Livni said that before implementing the agreement certain 
changes must be made.  At this stage it does not appear possible to 
complete the agreement and throw a key over the fence, hoping 
someone on the other side catches it.  We need an effective 
government that can rule, a proper administration, something that 
could change the situation and accept the key not only in the West 
Bank but in Gaza," she said. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday a delegation of Kadima 
Knesset members traveled to Ramallah and met with PA President 
Mahmoud Abbas and PM Salam Fayyad.  The Jerusalem Post reported that 
the Palestinian leaders told the members of the delegation that all 
core issues were on the table.  The newspaper noted that those 
comments did not help PM Olmert's chances of surviving the Winograd 
report. 
 
Leading media reported that U.S. objections to a draft UN Security 
Council presidential statement about the situation in Gaza continued 
on Thursday, stalling action for the  third day in a row.  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that Israel slammed a "farcical" 
condemnation of Israel by the UN Human Rights Council over its 
actions in the Gaza Strip.  Israel and the U.S. boycotted the 
proceedings. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Under Secretary of State for 
Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told reports in Jerusalem on 
Thursday that a new draft for a third round of UN sanctions could 
cause Tehran to rethink its pursuit of nuclear power by paving the 
way for the EU to impose to own much harsher sanctions. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the High Court of Justice changed 
course on Thursday and scheduled a hearing for Sunday regarding the 
government's decision to reduce fuel and electricity supplies to the 
Gaza Strip. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel has completely frozen all new 
construction in West Bank settlements, despite recent comments by PM 
Ehud Olmert that Israel would treat construction in the major 
settlement blocs differently from building in most settlements. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Sallai 
Meridor has blasted his predecessor Danny Ayalon for an article 
critical of Sen. Barack Obama that he published in The Jerusalem 
Post. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) is 
promoting the diplomatic plan of MK Benny Elon (National 
Union-National Religious Party) in Congress.  The plan calls for 
applying Israeli sovereignty in the West Ban, granting Jordanian 
citizenship to West Bank Palestinians, and eliminating refugee 
camps. 
 
Leading media reported that this week Yad Vashem launched an 
Arabic-language Web site. 
 
Ronen Bergman of Yediot wrote a feature about "all the secrets" in 
Israeli-Moroccan relations, including Israel's part in the 
assassination of opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, intelligence 
that Morocco gave Israel on the eve of the Six-Day War that Arab 
armies were not prepared for war, and the breakthrough that led to 
President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem and the Israel-Egypt 
peace treaty. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that U.S. citizens in Israel will be 
able to vote online for the first time this year, when Democrats 
Abroad holds its global primary. 
 
Yediot cited the results of a poll conducted among high school 
students, education students, army officers and soldiers: 82% 
believe that the Holocaust could repeat itself. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "There is 
little point in [Olmert] extolling the quiet on the northern border 
when a diplomatic and security crisis for which Israel has no 
solution is taking place in the South." 
 
Liberal columnist Ofer Shelach wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Lebanon was a quagmire; Gaza is a Gordian knot." 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe: "The collapse of the border at Rafah is one of 
the good things that has happened in the Gaza Strip following 
disengagement." 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in Maariv: "After we 
digest Winograd, there will be room for pushing the next commission 
of inquiry, which will have to check how Israeli society entered 
this trap in the South -- from which it is not certain how Israel 
will escape." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Siege of Gaza Has Failed" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (1/25): "The 
border with Egypt was breached in a single moment, with no warning. 
It is impossible to refrain from asking whether any of our decision 
makers, or any of those who whisper in their ears, foresaw this 
scenario and prepared for it.... As hundreds of thousands of 
Palestinians were streaming into Sinai by car and making a mockery 
of Israel's policy in Gaza, the Prime Minister gave a speech at the 
Herzliya Conference that sounded disconnected from reality.  There 
is little point in extolling the quiet on the northern border when a 
diplomatic and security crisis for which Israel has no solution is 
 
 
taking place in the South.... In his speech, Ehud Olmert declared: 
'Mistakes were made; there were failures.  But in addition, lessons 
were learned, mistakes were corrected, modes of behavior were 
changed, and, above all, the decisions we have made since then have 
led to greater security, greater calm and greater deterrence than 
there had been for many years.' Olmert was referring to the Winograd 
report.  But he categorically ignored the fact that what was 
happening in the South completely contradicts his statements.  If 
that is what learning lessons looks like, if that is what deterrence 
means, the Olmert government has precious little to boast about." 
 
II.  "Nauseating Odor" 
 
Liberal columnist Ofer Shelach wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (1/25): "Two-and-a-half years after the disengagement the 
Gaza Strip is taking on an appearance similar to that of Lebanon in 
the late 1990s -- exactly the same sorry state of mind as evoked by 
the 'security zone' ... a nauseating feeling that nothing good will 
come out of Gaza, and that anything Israel does will create nothing 
but a fiasco.  But it is impossible to disengage from Gaza.  We've 
already left, but Israel cannot disengage from a territory that does 
not have a sovereign ruler and depends on Israel for its 
subsistence.  Israel does not recognize the regime in Gaza.  It 
cannot change the dependence [problem].  Lebanon was a quagmire; 
Gaza is a Gordian knot." 
 
 
III.  "The Best Thing since the Disengagement" 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (1/25): "The collapse of the border at Rafah is 
one of the good things that has happened in the Gaza Strip following 
disengagement.  If it later results in an exodus of Gazans to Sinai 
-- this is even better.  If this is the product of Israel's siege, 
it might turn out to be one of the few achievements of the Olmert 
government.... The arrangement at the Rafah crossing following 
[Israel's] pullout continued to link the Gaza Strip to Israel even 
after the disengagement.  That arrangement allowed the entire world 
to demand that Israel continue to supply water and electricity, 
medicines and equipment, to the Gaza Strip, and caused Israel to 
apologize forever and beat its breast every time it did not in fact 
support its enemies.  An opening has now been produced to change the 
situation.  We have disengaged from the Strip, at least until Israel 
frees it again in a military operation." 
 
IV.  "The Southern Fiasco" 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in Maariv (1/25): "As 
regards the situation in southern Israel, a single man, the supreme 
leader, is lying in stupor, enjoying a halo of sanctity despite 
everything, while a bunch of his suns [aides] are guiding the 
country.  No one is thinking of calling Winograd to investigate. 
Neither does anyone demand of the Prime Minister and the architects 
of the southern fiasco to draw conclusions.... It has turned out to 
be that the Gazan neighbors are not playing according to Sharon and 
Olmert's rules of the game.  They are not folding down.  At the same 
time the border with Egypt -- the very Philadelphi route against 
whose abandonment Sharon had warned -- was breached.  If a motorway 
of weapons functioned there until now, an ocean will flow through it 
from now on.... After we digest Winograd, there will be room for 
pushing the next commission of inquiry, which will have to check how 
Israeli society entered this trap in the South -- from which it is 
not certain how Israel will escape." 
 
JONES