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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000388 
 
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 
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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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Imad Mughniyah's Assassination 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that in a recorded video message at Imad 
Mughniyah's funeral in Beirut on Thursday, Hizbullah 
Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed to avenge his death, 
 
SIPDIS 
saying, "His blood will lead to Israel's fall.... You have killed 
Hajj Imad outside the natural battlefield." Nasrallah was referring 
to Hizbullah's longtime contention it only fights Israel within 
Lebanon and along their common border.  Nasrallah further said. 
"With this murder, its timing, location and method -- Zionists, if 
you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this 
war be open."  On Thursday Israel's Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued 
a severe travel advisory to all Israeli citizens amid concerns that 
Hizbullah will attempt terror attacks or kidnappings.  The IDF and 
Shin Bet have gone on high alert.  FM Tzipi Livni was quoted as 
saying in Washington on Thursday that Israel is a "strong country," 
and that statements uttered by terrorists will not change that. 
Media reported that Syria intends to provide information on the 
circumstances of Mughniyah's death soon.  Israel Radio reported that 
the FBI has raised the level of alert in synagogues and other Jewish 
institutions across the U.S. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the heads of the Palestinian negotiating team 
and FM Livni object to PM Ehud Olmert's directive to put 
negotiations on Jerusalem off until the final stage.  Ha'aretz 
quoted chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei as sayng that he was 
fully authorized and prepared to negotiate on all core issues, 
without exceptions or priorities.  Dr. Saeb Erekat told the paper on 
Thursday that it was not possible to discuss certain maters without 
involving Jerusalem.  Erekat denied reports of a secret channel 
between Vice PM Haim Ramon and Palestinian businessman Muhammad 
Rashid.  Erekat added that Rashid had not been authorized by anyone 
to conduct talks.  Ha'aretz further reported that FM Livni sent a 
letter last week to the head of the Jerusalem city council 
opposition, Nir Barkat, in which she wrote that in Annapolis Israel 
and the Palestinians agreed to conduct negotiations on all the core 
issues "without exception."  The paper also mentioned that Livni 
told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Qassam rocket fire 
must stop before the end of the negotiations. 
 
Israel Radio reported that hundreds of housing units are being built 
in dozens of settlements in defiance of the orders given by PM 
Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.  Ha'aretz reported that on 
Thursday the Israel Lands Administration named the winners of the 
tenders to build 307 housing units in East Jerusalem's Har Homa 
neighborhood.  This will make it extremely difficult, if not 
impossible, to stop the planned construction and thus could possibly 
jeopardize the peace talks. 
 
Yediot and Maariv led with interviews and stories linked to the 
Second Lebanon War.  In Yediot, former chief of staff Dan Halutz 
admitted having made mistakes.  Maariv reported that former deputy 
chief of staff Moshe Kaplinsky told associates that it was too bad 
that the Winograd Commission did not issue personal recommendations, 
while Halutz told Maariv that this was a good thing. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday the IDF bombed a number of 
abandoned buildings in Gaza that the army said were being used to 
launch rockets and mortar shells at Israel.  Palestinians fired five 
Qassam rockets at Israel on Thursday.  Ha'aretz quoted a security 
source as saying that that former Hamas FM Mahmoud Zahar entered 
Egypt from Gaza to resume talks with the Egyptian government on 
arrangements along the border.  Israel Radio quoted senior Egyptian 
official as saying that Hamas's military branch will not release 
Gilad Shalit out of concern that Israel will assassinate senior 
Hamas members.  In a feature story, Yediot listed a series of 
Israeli mistakes in the Shalit affair. 
 
Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that 
the U.S. has recently shared new evidence on Iranian efforts to 
obtain nuclear weapons to the International Atomic Energy Agency. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Jerusalem Center for Public 
Affairs has set up an Arabic-language web site -- www.infoarab.org 
(?) -- run by former Israeli ambassador to Egypt Zvi Mazel.  Mazel 
was quoted as saying: "We are seeking to translate materials from 
progressive and democratic voices in the West into Arabic, and make 
them available to Arab peoples in the Middle East who otherwise 
cannot access this material." 
 
Yediot reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak threatens to pull 
the Labor Party out of the government if the Finance Ministry does 
not restore certain tax benefits to communities along the northern 
border. 
 
Major media reported that on Thursday hundreds of Golan Heights 
Druze residents attended an annual protest against Israel's 
annexation of the area. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that France and the U.S. have threatened 
not to participate in the 2009 UN anti-racism conference if it shows 
signs of being dominated by the same anti-Semitism that was so 
prevalent in the controversial 2001 event held in Durban, South 
Africa. 
 
Leading liberal writer A.B. Yehoshua was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Ha'aretz that Israelis and Palestinians are two 
completely different peoples, that the Palestinians have other moral 
and cultural codes than Israelis, and that a binational state is a 
recipe for disaster.  Yehoshua, who in 1976 called on Israel to talk 
to the PLO, said in the interview that the Israeli occupation has to 
be taken in its proper context. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe and other media reported that on Israel's 
Independence Day (in May) the pro-settler Jewish-American tycoon 
Irving Markowitz will award $100,000 to an "outstanding personality 
in the field of Zionist achievement," as a counterweight to the 
official Israel Prize. 
 
Yediot quoted Silvio Berlusconi, the frontrunner in Italy's 
legislative elections, as saying in a new book that Europe cannot 
afford to appear to Israeli society as an enemy entity. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that the Foreign Ministry and the 
American Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC) are seeking to tighten 
relations with the U.S. Latino community through a visit this week 
by 20 leading American Hispanics to immigrant absorption centers 
across Israel.  The JDC claims that this delegation is the first of 
its kind. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Dr. Dan Ben David, a Tel Aviv University researcher, 
as saying that the scope of the brain drain of Israeli lecturers to 
the U.S. is much more important than that from Western countries. 
 
Maariv presented the results of a TNS/Teleseker poll: 
 
"Do you support or oppose a ground operation in Gaza aimed at 
stopping Qassam fire?" 
Support: 67%; oppose: 25%. 
 
"The IDF believes that many lives will be lost in a broad-ranging 
ground operation in Gaza.  In light of this belief do you support or 
oppose a ground operation in Gaza aimed at stopping Qassam fire?" 
Support: 51%; oppose: 38%. 
 
"Do you believe that a ground operation in Gaza will stop Qassam 
fire?" 
No: 53%; yes: 44%. 
 
----------------------------------- 
¶1.  Imad Mughniyah's Assassination: 
----------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel and Palestinian affairs 
correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: "The Gaza problem is still on the government's agenda. 
After Mughniyah, escalation could come on both fronts 
concurrently." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Mughniyah's killing does not mark anything.... But one must 
admit that the [assassination] was sweet.  In these crazy times, 
this is already something." 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Mughniyah's 
legacy is not simply a laundry list of massacre and torture.  It is 
the nexus of global terror." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Don't Break Out the Champagne Just Yet" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel and Palestinian affairs 
correspondent Avi Issacharoff wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (2/15): "The ramifications [of the Mughniyah] operation are 
likely to be very serious.  The year and a half of quiet on the 
Hizbullah front, about which Olmert boasted at last month's Herzliya 
Conference, is probably over, although Israeli intelligence 
officials believe the target will be far from the northern border. 
Hizbullah is not Syria, which has shown restraint since last 
September's air force strike.  Most indications are that Hizbullah 
will try to respond relatively quickly, with a terror attack 
designed to make a big impression.  The dramatic news from Damascus 
made everyone forget the events in Sderot for a day or two.  But the 
Gaza problem is still on the government's agenda.  After Mughniyah, 
escalation could come on both fronts concurrently.  The Gaza 
challenge is immeasurably more complicated, one that cannot be 
solved by obliterating a jeep.... The IDF is heading toward Gaza. 
What is not known is whether it will arrive before, after or during 
the escalation on another front, against Hizbullah." 
 
II.  "One Man's Defense Establishment" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (2/15): "Mughniyah has five or six possible successors -- all 
of them talented and efficient.  But an experienced intelligence 
source who followed Mughniyah for years says that nobody surpasses 
him.... [But] the West's war on terror is far from over. Mughniyah's 
killing does not mark anything.  There's no knock out, maybe only a 
victory in points, but one must admit that the [assassination] was 
sweet.  In these crazy times, this is already something." 
 
III.  "Mughniyah's True Legacy" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (2/15): 
"Mughniyah's legacy is not simply a laundry list of massacre and 
torture.  It is the nexus of global terror.  While it is a great 
thing that he is dead, it must be understood that his death is 
insufficient.  Hundreds of thousands converged in Beirut to 
celebrate his life's work.  The West must understand the 
significance of that work and unite to destroy it -- layer after 
layer." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Forget sanctions against the 
civilian population.  Forget power cuts.  Forget striking down their 
firstborn.  Talk to Hamas.  No one ever died from dialogue." 
 
David Kimche, former senior Israeli intelligence agent and former 
director general of the Foreign Ministry wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "The Arab states have a vital role to 
play in the weeks and months ahead.... Prince Turki would never have 
sent [a] message [of peace] ... if he did not have the backing of 
the Saudi king to do so." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Comment on Gaza" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/15): "Israelis have stopped 
believing in victories, with or without quotation marks, for which 
scores of people have to die.  The large-scale operation in Gaza 
that the generals are talking about is like riding a tiger.  It's 
easy to climb on, but hard to climb off without getting battered and 
bruised.  There is no way to stop the Qassam rockets by force. 
Massive military incursions are not the answer, and neither are 
targeted assassinations. Sheikh Yassin was assassinated.  So was 
that the end of Hamas?  Did terror stop?  Forget sanctions against 
the civilian population.  Forget power cuts.  Forget striking down 
their firstborn.  Talk to Hamas.  No one ever died from dialogue." 
 
II.  "An Outstretched Hand" 
 
David Kimche, former senior Israeli intelligence agent and former 
director general of the Foreign Ministry wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (2/15): "For those of us who had 
connections with Israeli intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal was a 
household name.... The brother of Foreign Minister Prince Faisal, he 
is considered to be one of the most senior -- and respected -- 
members of the Royal Household.  Perhaps people with a background in 
intelligence fear less to speak their minds than others.... A 
Reuters journalist asked the prince if he would like to send a 
message to the Israeli public.  This is what the prince had to say: 
'The Arab world, by the Arab peace initiative, has crossed the 
Rubicon from hostility to Israel to peace with Israel and has 
extended the hand of peace to Israel, and we await the Israelis 
picking up our hand and joining us in what inevitably will be 
beneficial for Israel and the Arab world.'  He told the journalist 
that Israel and the Arabs could cooperate in many areas including 
water, agriculture, science and education.... The Arab states have a 
vital role to play in the weeks and months ahead.  We should be 
urging them to become more involved.  We should be discussing their 
peace initiative with them. We should be seeking ways to reach out 
to them.  Prince Turki would never have sent that message via the 
Reuters journalist if he did not have the backing of the Saudi king 
to do so." 
 
JONES