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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000343 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Islam and Democracy 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that one 
of Israel's goals in the Gaza Strip is to bring down Hamas.  Laying 
out the general strategy, Barak said that the first priority is to 
contain the Qassam rockets and the smuggling of arms and explosives 
from the Sinai, followed then by destabilizing Hamas's grip on the 
territory.   All media quoted IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi as 
saying on Monday that the "IDF is prepared and ready to deepen and 
broaden its activities in the Gaza Strip, in any way necessary, and 
in line with the [political] decisions that will be made."  Ha'aretz 
noted that sources at the Defense Ministry have said that the army's 
preparations are not yet complete and may take several more months. 
Leading media reported that on Monday an assassination attempt by 
the IDF in Gaza failed. 
 
All media reported that Shas is threatening to pull out of the 
governing coalition following reports that Palestinian and Israeli 
negotiating teams have been secretly discussing the future of 
Jerusalem.  The Jerusalem Post said that a story it printed on 
Sunday is the basis for Shas's threat.  Maariv reported that senior 
Shas members attacked FM Tzipi Livni, quoting one of them as saying 
that she "is stirring things up for Olmert and pushing Shas out of 
the government. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Jerusalem city manager Yair Ma'ayan as saying that 
the government is holding up construction of hundreds of apartments 
in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, including in Pisgat Ze'ev 
and Har Homa.  However, Ha'aretz reported that Ma'ayan told the 
Knesset's Economics Committee on Monday that the municipality is 
still moving forward with plans to build 10,000 apartments in East 
Jerusalem, including some in these same neighborhoods. 
 
All media reported that on Monday around 200 people from Sderot 
blocked streets in central Tel Aviv to protest the government's 
inability to stop Qassam rocket tikes on their city.  In Jerusalem, 
hundreds of protesters gathered at a protest tent erected by Sderot 
residents.  Ha'aretz commented that the demonstration leaders are 
politically slanted (to the Right) but that the despair is real. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad as saying in a 
lecture in Washington that Israel is not living up to its Roadmap 
commitments. 
 
Major media quoted a Justice Ministry official as saying on Monday 
that the Registrar of Nonprofit Organizations has decided to 
withdraw the certificate of proper administration from the 
organization that provides funding for Peace Now. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the police arrested five Palestinian 
residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan this week 
after they petitioned the High Court of Justice to stop an Israel 
Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation under their homes.  According 
to the IAA, the dig has uncovered the remains of a Second Temple-era 
drainage channel.  It is being financed by Elad, an organization 
that promotes the Judaization of East Jerusalem. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that last night PM Ehud Olmert met with German 
Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss, among other Middle East issues, 
tougher sanctions against Iran.  Ha'aretz quoted a senior GOI source 
as saying Olmert planned to show Merkel intelligence information on 
the Iranian nuclear program.  The two leaders also planned to 
discuss German mediation efforts for the release of the two Israeli 
soldiers abducted by Hizbullah, as well as efforts to broker a deal 
for the release of Gilad Shalit.  The Jerusalem Post reported that a 
senior Hamas official in Gaza warned on Monday that Israel can 
forget about Shalit if it goes ahead with its threats to assassinate 
the political leaders of Hamas.  The leading Internet news site Ynet 
quoted Merkel as saying during her meeting with Olmert that the 
situation along the Gaza border has only one solutions and that is 
for Hamas to stop the Qassam attacks.  Should the fire persist, 
Merkel was quoted as saying, Israel has every right to defend 
itself. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that during his two-day visit to Ankara 
that starts today, Defense Minister Barak plans to sell Turkey the 
Arrow missile defense system and the Ofek spy satellite. 
 
Israel Radio reported that some Jewish and Palestinian residents of 
Hebron have complained about last week's meeting between Palestinian 
and settler leaders in the city.  The radio reported that radical 
right-wing militant Baruch Marzel was among the Jewish dissenters, 
and that the PA summoned Sheikh Abu-Hader Jabri for clarifications. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited Al Jazeera-TV as saying that a proposal by 
Israeli Ambassador to Cairo that Hebrew be added to the list of 
foreign languages in the Egyptian curriculum was met with anger and 
demands to remove Hebrew studies from the university curriculum. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that a settler group -- 
the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel -- has demanded that 
Education Minister Prof. Yuli Tamir revoke the Israel Prize awarded 
last week to Prof. Zeev Sternhell.  The group cited Sternhell's 
long-time antagonism toward settlers, and claimed that he "justified 
their murder at the hands of Arab terrorists, and essentially called 
for civil war." 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that Fitch, one of the 
three leading international credit-rating agencies, has upped its 
ratings on Israel for the first time in 15 years, on the back of the 
country's rapidly falling public debt and "revitalized growth." 
 
All media reported that Rep. Tom Lantos, the Chairman of the House 
Foreign Affairs Committee and the only Holocaust to serve in 
Congress, died on Monday aged 80.  The media recalled his close 
affinity with Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday in Washington, the 
American friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center (at Tel Aviv 
University) will pay tribute to Jimmy Hoffa at a gala dinner that 
will feature guest speakers Dalia and Yuval Rabin, as well as former 
President Bill Clinton.  The newspaper wrote that Hoffa demonstrated 
his willingness to help the Jewish community in Palestine's hour of 
need. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[Ehud Olmert] needs to make a 
serious effort to ... move toward a peace agreement with the 
Palestinians while U.S. President George W. Bush is still in 
power.... Olmert may have risen to power with a message of peace, 
but Gaza could be his downfall." 
 
Military correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Statements [recently] made by [cabinet ministers] 
... attest to the fact that not much was learned from the painful 
lessons of the Second Lebanon War." 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"Israel has turned into a vital plaything [in] the intra-Palestinian 
struggle." 
 
Ahmed Yousef, senior political advisor to Palestinian (Hamas) Prime 
Minister Ismail Haniyeh, wrote in Ha'aretz: "If our people can see 
no genuine and realistic political or economic horizon and their 
attempts to establish a genuine truce are consistently rejected, it 
is inevitable that they will turn to resistance as the only outlet 
for their anger and frustration." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Gaza Could Be His Downfall" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/12): "Quite a few voices 
nowadays are clamoring for the army to go [into Gaza] and fix [the 
terrorists'] hides.... Israel cannot go into Gaza today unless it 
knows how to get out, when to get out, what it plans to achieve, and 
how many soldiers it may cost us.  After one bloody trap in Lebanon, 
Israel must beware of a sequel.... After the Lebanon fiasco and the 
problems in Gaza, there is only one way for Ehud Olmert to get the 
country out of the mess he's dragged us into.  He needs to make a 
serious effort to get back on the Annapolis track and move toward a 
peace agreement with the Palestinians while U.S. President George W. 
Bush is still in power.  Mahmoud Abbas is weak?  So strengthen him 
with a multi-national force in Gaza, before Hamas gets its claws on 
the West Bank, masterminding terror attacks and grabbing the reins 
of the Palestinian Authority.  Olmert may have risen to power with a 
message of peace, but Gaza could be his downfall." 
 
II.  "We HavenQt Learned Anything" 
 
Military correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (2/12): "The events of the past number of days -- 
the terror attack in Dimona, the injury of the brothers from Sderot 
and the fact that Israel has come to be perceived by the Arab world 
and its own residents as helpless in the face of the Qassam rocket 
fire -- have clearly demonstrated that not only do the IDF and the 
despairing residents of Sderot yearn for a leader who might radiate 
authority and set a path, but the government in its entirety. 
Statements [recently] made by [cabinet ministers] ... attest to the 
fact that not much was learned from the painful lessons of the 
Second Lebanon War.  Even worse, many security establishment 
officials say they feel that the Winograd Commission report has 
served to paralyze the political echelon and to prevent any 
possibility of dealing in an organized way with the current threat 
facing Israel.  And so, instead of a policy that defines what goals 
Israel would like to achieve versus Hamas in the Gaza Strip, ideas 
are tossed into the air at a dizzying pace but without any clear 
purpose.  And so, without any clear path, the list of means to 
achieve any sort of military or political goal with respect to the 
Gaza Strip does not look promising." 
 
III.  "Hamas Sets Its Crosshairs on Ramallah and Cairo" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in Ha'aretz 
(2/12): "Hamas's battle against Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, 
and in the face of Arab pressure, including from Egypt and Saudi 
Arabia, is guiding its Qassam fire and tactics no less than its 
desire to hit Israel.  Since Hamas understands that Qassam rockets 
will not bring down Israel, Hamas will pursue its objectives in 
Ramallah and Cairo.... Israel has turned into a vital plaything [in] 
the intra-Palestinian struggle.... On the diplomatic level, Hamas 
assesses that to the Arab public, the fighting with Israel, even if 
it becomes bloody, will turn the organization into the true fighter 
against the occupation; first and foremost, it will preclude 
[Mahmoud] Abbas's diplomatic negotiations with Israel when the 
latter crushes neighborhoods in Gaza.  Even Hamas's detractors 
within Fatah will find it difficult at such a time to express 
themselves against Hamas -- this would be deemed support for Israel. 
 Hamas believes that a military confrontation threatens Abbas no 
less than it would harm Hamas and the Gazans.  A possible refuge 
would be a Fatah-Hamas dialogue that Abbas is not yet ready for, but 
Hamas is not against it, at least on its own terms." 
 
IV.  "Palestinian Revenge Was Inevitable" 
 
Ahmed Yousef, senior political advisor to Palestinian (Hamas) Prime 
Minister Ismail Haniyeh, wrote in Ha'aretz (2/12): "Last week's 
bombing in Dimona was the first martyrdom operation committed by 
Hamas in more than five years.... In the last two months, more than 
a hundred people have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces 
in the Gaza Strip, including many civilians, women and children. 
Thirty people have died in the last month for lack of medical care 
brought on by the embargo.... The cold-blooded fact is that the 
ratio of Palestinian deaths to Israelis is now over 40 to 1.  The 
Hamas-led government has consistently called for a long-term 
cease-fire.... If the people of Sderot want to know why rockets 
continue to land around them, they should ask their own government 
why it has continually rejected our calls for a cease-fire and 
continued its policy of daily incursions and reckless targeting that 
put the whole population at risk.... If our people can see no 
genuine and realistic political or economic horizon and their 
attempts to establish a genuine truce are consistently rejected, it 
is inevitable that they will turn to resistance as the only outlet 
for their anger and frustration.... Given the facts on the ground 
and the total mistrust that now prevails on all sides, we believe 
neither Israelis nor Palestinians are ready for final-status 
negotiations." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------------------ 
¶2.  Islam and Democracy: 
------------------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Former foreign minister Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The question that must 
be asked is whether the Muslims are prepared to accept the fact that 
Islam is a religion and not a state." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Possible Reconciliation?" 
 
Former foreign minister Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (2/12): "The question 
that must be asked is whether the Muslims are prepared to accept the 
fact the fact that Islam is a religion and not a state, and that 
just like in the Christian world, there is the Emperor's domain -- 
and God's.  An enlightenment in the Muslim states should be pushed 
by the fact that during the entire history theocracy has not served 
to promote humanity.... It is always possible to claim ... that the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the mainstay of the problem and that 
resolving the distress of the Palestinians will greatly contribute 
to the improvement of relations between Muslim society and the 
West....  However, Muslim Arabs should not delude themselves into 
thinking that this conflict is the main reason for their slow 
progress.  The end of the American occupation in Iraq and an 
Israeli-Arab peace agreement will have a tremendous influence, but 
they are no miracle cures.  The battle to eradicate distress, 
analphabetism, and corruption, as well as a rapprochement between 
Islam and the age of science, do not have to wait for the outcome of 
the Annapolis process." 
 
JONES