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RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 0007
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 3563
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4114
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 3374
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 1533
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 4109
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0955
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1429
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 7989
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 5461
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RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 4501
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 6448
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 8974
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000262 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Final Winograd Report 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning six gunmen opened fire at 
the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania.  No Embassy staff 
were hurt in the attack. 
 
All media quoted former PM Binyamin Netanyahu as saying on Thursday: 
"The people of Israel know today that they are led by a prime 
minister who is not qualified or fit to lead them.  Barak knows this 
and he knows that the public expects him to ensure that this failed 
leadership does not continue."  Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday 
Kadima ministers closed ranks around PM Ehud Olmert at a meeting in 
Tel Aviv.  The Jerusalem Post quoted associates of Labor Party 
Chairman Ehud Barak as saying that he will neither quit the 
government nor push for immediate elections, but that he will decide 
over the weekend whether to press hard for Kadima to replace Ehud 
Olmert with an alternative prime minister.  Major media reported 
that the Knesset will debate the Winograd report on Monday.  In its 
lead story, Yediot found that Olmert prevails over Barak in a public 
opinion poll (see under: polls). 
 
Ha'aretz reported that senior IDF officers have characterized the 
Winograd Commission's findings on the army's performance in the 
Second Lebanon War as "nothing less than an earthquake." 
 
Maariv cited the belief of political sources that Gilad Shalit -- 
and perhaps the diplomatic process -- will dominate the activity of 
the government in a few weeks.  Yediot and Israel Radio quoted the 
Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashal as saying in the Italian 
weekly Panorama that Shalit is alive, healthy, and being treated 
"with white gloves."   The radio also quoted Mashal as telling 
Panorama that Hamas is willing bring about a truce of at least 10 
years with Israel, provided the latter withdraws [from the 
territories], recognizes [the Palestinians' right to] Jerusalem, the 
right of return, and dismantles the settlements.  Khaled also said 
that "evil is being helped by some of our brothers [the PA, under 
Mahmoud Abbas] who support it with silence and complicity."Ha'aretz 
and The Jerusalem Post cited press agencies quoting EU 
External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as saying on 
Thursday that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Mideast 
Quartet envoy Tony Blair are to travel to the Middle East next week 
to work out a solution for better access to Gaza. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted the state as saying a few days ago that it is 
suspending the construction of a neighborhood in the Givat Ze'ev 
settlement north of Jerusalem, contrary to PM Olmert's promise to 
Shas leader Ali Yishai that there would be no freeze in the greater 
Jerusalem area.  Ha'aretz also reported that UNESCO is attempting to 
mediate between Israel, Jordan, and the Waqf Muslim religious trust 
over construction at the controversial Mugrabi Gate in the Old City 
of Jerusalem.  Visiting UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura 
discussed the efforts in an interview with Ha'aretz this week. 
 
Major media reported that on Thursday IDF troops shot and killed an 
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant who approached the border between 
Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, east of Rafah. 
 
Reporting on the decision by the UN Security Council to abandon a 
presidential statement on the situation in Gaza, The Jerusalem Post 
noted that it was a rare victory for Israel, and that the ensuing 
discussions signified a subtle shift away from the condemnation of 
Israel "typical of the international body."  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 
Louise Arbour expressed concern on Wednesday over the 
"incompatibility of some of the provisions" of the Arab Charter on 
Human Rights "with international norms and standards." On January 
24, she had praised its ratification as a "step forward." 
 
Major media reported hat the Winograd Commission charged that the 
IDF's rules for using cluster bombs were unclear and that it called 
on the army to review them with the aim of reducing civilian 
casualties from bomblets that explode after the end of hostilities. 
 
Maariv reported that the remains of Alona Avraham, an Israeli who 
traveled on United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the World 
Trade Center on 9/11, were interred in Ashdod on Thursday. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that the American Embassy in Tel 
Aviv has added more appointment slots to its Web site in a move that 
it claims has reduced waiting time for reporting citizen births 
abroad to just over two months.  The move followed a "public outcry" 
over lengthy waits, first reported by Ha'aretz. 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll 
(in parentheses, results of a previous poll): 
 
Whom would you like to see as prime minister? 
Binyamin Netanyahu: 33% (30%); Ehud Olmert: 18% (8%); Ehud Barak: 
14% (17%); 38% are undecided (37%). 
 
Ha'aretz printed the results of a Dialog poll (in parentheses, 
results of the Dialog poll conducted on May 1, 2007, after the 
interim report): 
 
What do you thing PM Olmert should do [after the publication of the 
final Winograd report]? 
Resign: 53% (68%); stay as PM and fix mistakes: 37% (23%); 1% (9%) 
are undecided. 
 
What do you thing Defense Minister Barak should do [after the 
publication of the final Winograd report]? 
Remain in the government: 36% (24%); resign and act to move up 
elections: 36% (4%); call for Olmert's replacement: 14% (17%); 14% 
(19%) are undecided. 
 
Maariv presented the results of a TNS/Teleseker poll conducted on 
Wednesday (other questions than those asked on Thursday): 
 
"Were elections held today, for whom would you vote?" 
(Results in Knesset seats -- in brackets, 2006 elections results.) 
Likud: 32 (12); Labor Party (under Ehud Barak) 21 (19); Kadima 
(under Ehud Olmert):11 (29); Yisrael Beiteinu 10 (11); Shas: 10 
(12); National Union-National Religious Party: 9 (7); Arab parties: 
9 (10); Social Justice (under Arkady Gaidamak) 7; Meretz-Yahad: 6 
(6); United Torah Judaism: 5 (7); Pensioners Party: 0. 
 
"Were the party map to change, for whom would you vote?" 
Labor-Kadima bloc (under Tzipi Livni): 39; Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu 
bloc (under Netanyahu): 38; Shas: 10; National Union-National 
Religious Party: 8; Social Justice: 7; United Torah Judaism: 5; 
Meretz-Yahad 4; Pensioners Party: 0. 
 
---------------------- 
Final Winograd Report: 
---------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "If there is 
any Realpolitik justification for Olmert's continued tenure, it lies 
in the faint hope that if the Prime Minister is already fated to 
fall, he will at least choose to fall on the sword of peace efforts 
rather than the sword of a failed war." 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote on page one of the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "Not taking bolder action than 
[government members] have until now means simply keeping their 
cabinet seats warm through the cold winter for Netanyahu and the 
Likud until the next election." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Fortunately for Olmert, his enemies made everything depend 
on the last 60 hours [of the ground offensive]." 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in The Jerusalem Post: "The source of the government's failure 
in Lebanon 18 months ago and of its failures in Gaza today is its 
political commitment to the strategy of unilateral withdrawal from 
territory." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Fall on the Right Sword" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (2/1): "If 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert thought he would be 'let off' by the 
Winograd Commission, just as he has been saved thus far from an 
incredible number of other investigations against him during his 
brief tenure, he was mistaken.... Olmert's immediate resignation or 
ouster would satisfy a desire for revenge and let him go down in 
history as Israel's worst prime minister ever.  The question is how 
the state would benefit from this, given that his removal would 
absolve him, and us, of any attempt to satisfy the obligations he 
has undertaken, on the basis of which he was elected with a party 
and coalition that may well prove one-time events. This is all the 
more true when the alternative is a policy that gloried in 
torpedoing the Oslo Accords and has a hidden but firm agenda of not 
dividing the land.  Following the report's publication, Olmert will 
no longer have the excuse that he is waiting for Winograd and so is 
refraining from bold actions that would implement his diplomatic 
declarations.  If there is any Realpolitik justification for 
Olmert's continued tenure, it lies in the faint hope that if the 
Prime Minister is already fated to fall, he will at least choose to 
fall on the sword of peace efforts rather than the sword of a failed 
war." 
 
II.  "Olmert Must Look Beyond Mere Survival" 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote on page one of the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (2/1): "The Winograd Report may have 
bought the government breathing space until the next national vote, 
but it has not improved the electoral prospects of anyone sitting in 
it; if anything, the opposite is true. Simply surviving the report 
has until now provided the coalition with all the 'vision horizon' 
it needed.  From here on in, though, with the impact of Winograd 
melting away as fast as the winter snows that fell this week, it 
will have to prove to the public, especially its own constituencies, 
that it has some purpose beyond staying in power.  For 18 months the 
Olmert government has been largely reactive, including in the peace 
process, where it has been primarily responding to the Bush 
administration's initiatives.  Taking a more proactive approach -- 
be it a large-scale operation in Gaza, staking out solid positions 
on final-status issues in the peace talks, evacuating the outposts, 
even some kind of response to the Iranian nuclear project -- carries 
real risks, political and otherwise, for Olmert, Barak, Livni et al. 
 But not taking bolder action than they have until now means simply 
keeping their cabinet seats warm through the cold winter for 
Netanyahu and the Likud until the next election." 
 
 
 
 
III.  "The Other Way Around" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (2/1): "The final [Winograd] report was a pale compromise 
document that shrank in comparison with the expectations built in 
the first one and, with its minor tone, granted Olmert a new life. 
If in its first report, the commission wanted to topple Olmert 
almost at all cost, in its second report it tried with the same 
fervor to rescue him.... The two Winograd reports should have 
appeared in the reverse order... Fortunately for Olmert, his enemies 
made everything depend on the last 60 hours [of the ground 
offensive].  When this died down, all the rest fell.  This is one 
good thing we can say about Olmert.  We utter it wholeheartedly. 
But this is also the only good word we owe Olmert after that war." 
 
IV.  "Will We Now Be Silent?" 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing 
columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in The Jerusalem Post (2/1): "The Winograd Commission properly 
noted the government's failure to define what it was doing in 
Lebanon.  But it did not explain why the government failed.  The 
source of the government's failure in Lebanon 18 months ago and of 
its failures in Gaza today is its political commitment to the 
strategy of unilateral withdrawal from territory.  Olmert's Kadima 
Party and Barak's Labor Party have embraced this strategy.  It is 
the centerpiece of their governing rationale.... During the war in 
Lebanon and since Israel withdrew from Gaza, the guiding assumptions 
of the unilateral withdrawal strategy have proven false.  But 
Israel's leaders have refused to acknowledge reality.  Rather they 
claim that it is reality, not their policy, that is mistaken.  Their 
daily search for new silver bullets is a manifestation of their 
denial of reality." 
 
MORENO