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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Imad Mughniyah's Assassination 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All Israeli media led with the assassination of Hizbullah military 
leader Imad Mughniyah on Tuesday night in Damascus.    The Israeli 
Prime Minister's Office has issued a denial of involvement in the 
assassination; however Syria, Hizbullah and Iran have publicly 
blamed Israel for Mughniyah's death.  Syria stated that the 
assassination was an "act of terror" and Iran said that "it is a 
further example of terror carried out by the Zionist regime."  In 
Israel, the assassination has been praised by key Israeli public 
figures and in Ha'aretz's analysis, the event will give a boost to 
PM Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who will give a nod and a 
wink, even in the off chance that Israel wasn't involved.  All media 
reported that posts along Israel's northern border and diplomatic 
representations abroad have been put on alert for possible 
retaliatory strikes by Hizbullah.  Israel Radio, citing another 
theory, suggested that the assassination may have been carried out 
by Lebanese Christians to mark the third anniversary of the 
assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri.  Leading media 
also carried State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack statement 
that "The world is a better place without this man in it.  He was a 
cold-blooded killer, a mass murderer, and a terrorist responsible 
for countless innocent lives lost." 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Olmert told Shas leader Eli 
Yishai that Jerusalem would not be discussed until the end of the 
peace negotiations and that he will make sure that FM Tzipi Livni 
follows that directive.  The Jerusalem Post also reported that 
Olmert promised Yishai that construction would continue in Jewish 
neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.  Ha'aretz quoted Nir Barkat, the 
head of the opposition in Jerusalem's Municipality, as saying that 
Vice PM Haim Ramon and PA adviser Muhammad Rashid have agreed in a 
secret talks to a division of Jerusalem.   The Jerusalem Post quoted 
 
SIPDIS 
Vice PM Haim Ramon as saying that Barkat's claims of talks are 
"absurd and unfounded." 
 
The media reported that on Wednesday FM Tzipi Livni took 70 foreign 
diplomats on a tour of Sderot and the area.  Ha'aretz quoted Livni 
as saying during the tour that Israel has rejected a proposal by PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas and PM Salam Fayyad to let the PA 
take responsibility for crossings between Gaza and Israel. 
 
Israel Radio reported that at a Jewish community event in Paris on 
Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to secure the 
release of Gilad Shalit.  Yediot reported that Sarkozy, who 
announced he will visit Israel in May, stressed the importance of 
celebrating Israel's 60th anniversary.  The radio reported that the 
ambassadors to France of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and 
Mauritania, as well as the PLO representative in Paris, attended the 
dinner. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that at a conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday 
military experts presented alternatives to Israel's permanent 
roadblocks in the West Bank, suggesting instead surprise 
checkpoints, PA-coordinated patrols, and more fences around Israeli 
settlements.  The experts were quoted as saying that the current 
policy harms both the Palestinian population as well as the IDF. 
 
Leading media described the interests in Israel of Badri 
Patarkatsishvili, an exiled Jewish Georgian tycoon and opposition 
politician, who died unexpectedly in suspicious circumstances on 
Tuesday night at his home outside London.  This morning Israel Radio 
reported that the British police now believe that he died of natural 
causes. 
 
Kosovar PM Hashim Thaci, the "Ben Gurion of Kosovo," was quoted as 
saying in an interview with Ha'aretz that his country will be a 
model of secularism.  He called on Israel to join the bloc of 
democratic countries recognizing Kosovo's independence. 
 
------------------------------- 
Imad Mughniyah's Assassination: 
------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote on page one of 
the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "If the Mughniyah 
assassination generates a mass outbreak in Lebanon, it might develop 
into a new civil war and create a tough front for Israel." 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in Ha'aretz: "the fact 
that Mughniyah was killed on Syrian soil will go on the growing list 
of American charges against Syria." 
 
Liberal columnist Ofer Shelach wrote on page one of the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Such an operation, to which Israel denies any 
connection, renews the sense that we have daring and resourceful 
organizations that can go any place and reach anyone.... But the way 
we see everything as an ongoing attack ... attest[s] to an Israeli 
mentality that is often no less dangerous." 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Hizbullah organization has the habit 
of always saying the 'last word,' even when its leaders know they 
will take in more and more blows." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: 
"[Mughniyah's assassination] is ... an act of justice on an 
international level." 
 
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle 
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote in Yediot Aharonot: 
"Nasrallah is now facing  a dilemma. If he reacts, he -- and 
especially his Shi'ite supporters -- will be hit hard by Israel.  If 
he does not react, then his image, which is already in trouble, will 
be damaged even more." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Iran 
does not have to ever use a nuclear weapon, either directly or 
through proxies, for that weapon to have a profound impact on the 
level of terrorism in the world." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Under Their Noses" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote on page one of 
the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/14): "If the Mughniyah 
assassination generates a mass outbreak in Lebanon, it might develop 
into a new civil war and create a tough front for Israel, since 
Lebanese chaos would likely spell the end of agreements reached 
following the Second Lebanon War and on the basis of Security 
Council Resolution 1701.  In the most dangerous scenario, Hizbullah 
will respond to the assassination by deciding to go to war with 
Israel, and thereby place the Lebanese government in an impossible 
situation." 
 
II.  "Not Just 'Who' but Also 'Where'" 
 
Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in Ha'aretz (2/14): 
"State Department spokesman Sean McCormack gave vent to the 
Americans' joy at Mughniyah's demise when he said 'the world is a 
better place without this man in it.'  Better -- but not necessarily 
safer.... On Wednesday fingers were pointed in three possible 
directions.  If Israel did it -- the widespread assumption -- it 
would join the mysterious bombing of a Syrian facility last 
September in contributing substantially to improving Israel's 
security standing in Washington.... If America did it, it would come 
as a great surprise to most experts in Washington..... The third 
version has Syria as a potential suspect, perhaps as a means of 
signaling to the Americans that it wishes to resume talks and sever 
ties, at least partially, with the terror groups that have made 
Damascus home.... In any event, the fact that Mughniyah was killed 
on Syrian soil will go on the growing list of American charges 
against Syria.  If the Syrians didn't know they were hosting one of 
America's greatest enemies, then Assad's rule is so weak that terror 
groups can establish a base there, compelling the U.S. to take 
preventive steps.  If they knew, then they're in even bigger 
trouble." 
 
III.  "The Mindset and the Advantage" 
 
Liberal columnist Ofer Shelach wrote on page one of the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (2/14): "Such an operation, to which Israel denies 
any connection, renews the sense that we have daring and resourceful 
organizations that can go any place and reach anyone.  It renews our 
faith that we are the pursuers and not the hunted.... On the other 
hand, think of this scenario: Israel does not react to the [July 
2006] kidnapping immediately.  A year and a half later, Imad 
Mughniyah meets his death in a mysterious explosion in Damascus. 
Nobody claims responsibility, but everyone knows why he died.  This 
is elegant, smart, avoids acts that have no objective, and is so not 
Israel.  We often talk about the Arab mentality, but the way we see 
everything as an ongoing attack, the way in which an operational 
opportunity leads us to thoughts about targets, achievements and 
costs, all these attest to an Israeli mentality that is often no 
less dangerous." 
 
IV.  "Blessed be the Almighty Who Rid Us of That Man" 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote on page one of the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (2/14): "Believers amongst us will say: 
'Blessed be [the Almighty] who rid us' [of Mughniyah].  The secular 
will quote a couple of lines by [the Israeli poet] Haim Hefer: 'This 
people would certainly like to say thank you/To the hidden fighters 
and the people of the secret and the enigma/And to add some 
affectionate word/ This people would certainly like to say thank you 
-- if it knew the address'.... However the motto of the day is: 
Beware.  The Hizbullah organization has the habit of always saying 
the 'last word,' even when its leaders know they will take in more 
and more blows." 
 
¶V.  "Making Justice on an International Level" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (2/14): 
"Not only is the mysterious blast in which Imad Mughniyah found his 
death in Damascus an act in the war against terror.  It is also an 
act of justice on an international level.  The status of the 
international justice system could be exemplified by a comment that 
Quartet envoy Tony Blair made to [Israeli Internal Security] 
Minister around a week ago.  Blair ... expressed his stupefaction at 
the fact that ... Dichter may not enter Britain out of concern that 
he will be arrested and put to trial for his involvement in the war 
on terror.... [Conversely], Imad Mughniyah has been roaming the 
world for almost three decades.... The international justice system 
has not been able to provide Israel and the Jewish people proper 
protection.... It turns out that in the absence of international 
power to prosecute criminal terrorists and bring them to justice, 
there is only one way to take care of them -- by eliminating them, 
thus deterring their accomplices." 
 
VI.  "Hizbullah Without Confidence" 
 
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle 
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote in Yediot Aharonot 
(2/14): "Nasrallah is now facing a dilemma. If he reacts, he -- and 
especially his Shi'ite supporters -- will be hit hard by Israel.  If 
he does not react, then his image, which is already in trouble, will 
be damaged even more.  In the past Nasrallah could rely on the 
support and advice of Mughniyah when times were difficult, but the 
latter is no longer with him.  Nasrallah was battered and hurt 
Wednesday, but Nasrallah and his organization, like the masses of 
Shi'ite Muslims who support him, is not going anywhere.  The 
organization still enjoys wide support and its military force is 
impressive.  When the time comes he will try to punish Israel for 
the assassination of Mughniyah....  But the lesson of Mughniyah's 
killing is clear.  Hassan Nasrallah is not omnipotent, nor is his 
organization.  He is vulnerable and is on the defensive against his 
enemies and rivals.  Anyone who followed the reactions inside and 
outside Lebanon -- some of them rejoicing at Hizbullah's misfortune 
-- can easily see that Israel is not Hizbullah's only enemy, and not 
necessarily the most dangerous one. " 
 
VII.  "Death of a Terrorist" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (2/14): 
"The death of Mughniyah ... should refocus attention on the danger 
posed by his real masters in Tehran.  Every time the world 
contemplates a nuclear Iran, it must also contemplate the 
possibility that Mughniyah's successors will be tasked with using 
that weapon in a way that bears no obvious fingerprints leading back 
to Iran, presents no clear address for retaliation, and therefore 
leaves the entire deterrence model in shambles.  But Iran does not 
have to ever use a nuclear weapon, either directly or through 
proxies, for that weapon to have a profound impact on the level of 
terrorism in the world.  If Iran goes nuclear, the mullahs will be 
able to greatly ramp up their support for the entire jihadi axis, 
including Hamas, Hizbullah, and al-Qaida, while enjoying substantial 
immunity from Western retaliation.  This Iranian freedom of action 
could quickly change the face of the region, substantially raise the 
price of oil and otherwise pummel Western economies, and destroy any 
prospects for Arab-Israeli peace." 
 
JONES