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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000394 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Kosovo 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Most media highlighted the issue of negotiations with the PA over 
Jerusalem.  Ha'aretz reported that PM Ehud Olmert and Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice agreed to defer talks on Jerusalem to the 
final stage of negotiations with the PA.  However, PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas insisted on Monday that discussions on the 
status of the city must not be postponed.  Ha'aretz quoted a senior 
Jerusalem source as saying that Olmert and Rice had talked on the 
telephone about a week and a half ago, and that Rice accepted 
Olmert's position that discussing Jerusalem at the very beginning 
could jam the negotiations and obstruct them.  Speaking to a 
Jordanian newspaper, Abbas also said that the issue of Palestinian 
refugees must remain on the agenda of the talks, which he said were 
proceeding too slowly.  Media quoted Olmert as saying on Sunday that 
Abbas had consented to hold off discussing Jerusalem until the end 
of the negotiating process, a move that could anger Palestinians but 
help the Israeli leader hold together his fragile coalition 
government.  However, Ha'aretz quoted Nimer Hammad, Abbas's senior 
political advisor, as saying on Monday, "This is not true at all. 
The issue of Jerusalem is a fundamental issue and cannot be 
postponed.  The President did not agree to postpone it." 
 
All media reported that Olmert and Abbas are expected to meet in 
Jerusalem this evening.  In a speech on Sunday, Olmert was quoted as 
saying that the goal of peace talks with Abbas was to reach an 
understanding on "basic principles" for a Palestinian state by the 
end of 2008, rather than a full-fledged agreement.  "I don't know if 
we will be able to reach an understanding with the Palestinians," 
Olmert said.  "I hope we will. We'll do everything in our power to. 
But we will not start with the issue which is the most difficult. We 
will postpone dealing with Jerusalem to the last phase of the 
negotiations."   Olmert stressed that Abbas had "accepted" his 
suggestion.  Maariv saw a difference between a declaration by Abbas 
in a private forum that the final-status talks were progressing, and 
the "official" Palestinian insistence that the talks are stalled. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that with Lebanon in political deadlock 
and Hizbullah threatening to renew hostilities with Israel, defense 
officials in Tel Aviv expressed concern on Monday that European 
countries will gradually reduce their participation in UNIFIL over 
the coming year.   A high-ranking defense official told the 
newspaper that Israel had indications that Spain was considering 
withdrawing its forces from Lebanon. 
 
Major media reported that due to threats by Hizbullah following the 
assassination of Imad Mughniyah, the Shin Bet's protection service 
has bolstered its watch of senior Israeli figures in the country. 
Last night Channel 10-TV reported that some ministers will also 
enjoy protection abroad.  Maariv and other media cited the Kuwaiti 
newspaper A-Rai as saying that Hizbullah has a "bank of Israeli 
targets" that Mughniyah prepared before his death.  Ha'aretz 
reported that on Monday the IDF deployed Patriot air defense 
missiles near Haifa. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Monday the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and 
Defense Committee urged a delegation of U.S. congressmen to increase 
American funding for development of the Magic Wand system for 
defense against medium-range rockets and missiles.  Much of the 
talks were devoted to the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on 
Iran, which asserted that Tehran has halted its nuclear weapons 
program.  Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) nevertheless insisted that 
there is 'very little difference' between Israeli and American 
assessments of Iran.  Both believe that it is pursuing nuclear 
weapons, he said; the main difference is in the projected timetable 
for their acquisition -- and even there, he added, the differences 
are "very small."  Kyl, a co-sponsor of the law that enabled the 
U.S. to impose sanctions on companies that trade with or invest in 
Iran, believes that such sanctions should be intensified and applied 
to more companies. 
 
On Sunday Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the U.S. has begun to 
accelerate what it describes as the "security Roadmap" that will 
correspond to the needs of each side and thereby lead to the 
existence of a security common denominator that will allow both 
sides to advance significantly in the peace process without harm to 
their security. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a top official told the newspaper 
that the IDF stands to lose $500 million from its budget in 2008 due 
to the drop in the value of the dollar and rising fuel prices.  The 
official warned that the loss in funding could harm military 
readiness. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted officials in Jerusalem as saying on Monday 
that Israel will not recognize Kosovo's independence, and that it is 
watching developments in Brussels and elsewhere before it makes a 
final decision on the issue.  On Monday Ha'aretz cited a similar 
announcement by the Foreign Ministry on Sunday.  The Jerusalem Post 
cited the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as saying that uncertain Kosovo 
Jews "are seeing a Wahabi influence for the first time." 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday Foreign 
Ministry Director General Aharon Abramovitch rejected a statement on 
Monday by visiting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian 
Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator that the crisis in Gaza was 
a "vicious cycle of violence." 
 
On Monday The Jerusalem Post reported that on Sunday a ministerial 
committee led by PM Olmert approved a budget of 350 million shekels 
(approx. $ 97.5 million) to fortify 3,600 homes within a range of 
4.5 km from the Gaza Strip against Qassam rockets. 
 
Over the weekend the media cited Israel's denial of involvement in 
the killing of eight Palestinians in an unexplained explosion in the 
Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Friday evening.  The 
media reported on the continuation of Qassam fire.  An elite IDF 
fighter was seriously wounded on Sunday by shots fired by a 
Palestinian sniper in the southern Gaza Strip. 
 
Over the weekend the media widely quoted a report in the German 
weekly Der Spiegel that PM Olmert was considering declaring that 
abducted soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are dead. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that on Monday MK Eliahu Gabbay 
(National Union-National Religious Party) demanded that the GOI put 
an end to the renewal of the PA's Orient House in East Jerusalem, 
which he said eroded Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. 
 
Over the weekend the media reported that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. 
Gabi Ashkenazi announced that Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, who currently 
heads the IDF's Planning Directory, will be the next commander of 
the Israel Air Force. 
 
On Sunday Maariv reported that Bank Leumi, Israel's second-largest 
bank, is currently building a new underground computer compound. The 
cost of the new compound is 80 million shekels (approx. $22.8 
million).  The new compound, which is located in central Israel, 
will be safe from missile fire, chemical weaponry, and the 
electromagnetic pulse that is created by an atomic bomb.  The 
decision to build the new compound was made in the aftermath of the 
Second Lebanon War, following consultation with various military 
experts, mainly from intelligence. 
 
On Sunday Ha'aretz cited a Civil Administration report that more 
than one third of West Bank settlements were built on private 
Palestinian land that was temporarily seized by military orders for 
"security purposes." 
 
Yediot reported that on Monday Ehud Barak began the first visit to 
Singapore by an Israeli defense minister. The newspaper wrote that 
Singapore had kept ties with Israel at a low level since 1971. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel is preventing four children in the 
Gaza Strip from joining their parents in Ramallah.  The High Court 
of Justice is now debating a petition filed at the end of January by 
the Center for the Defense of the Individual against the Interior 
Ministry and the IDF, to enable the children to join their parents. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israelis are 30 times more likely to be 
wiretapped than Americans. 
 
Leading media reported that on Monday Tel Aviv University announced 
the creation of a "U.S. style" medical school program -- students 
could become physicians in four years. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "When peace agreements are 
perceived as concessions or as weakness ... there is nothing left 
but to wage war against the symbols of terror." 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet: 
"Nasrallah is operating and reacting on the basis of a shrinking set 
of options: Whatever he does, will first and foremost damage him." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "No Cause for Celebration" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/17): "When peace agreements 
are perceived as concessions or as weakness, when negotiations with 
Syria are repeatedly postponed on the grounds that President Bashar 
Assad is not serious and the talks with the Palestinians are 
suspended on the grounds that the person with whom we can speak is 
unable to deliver the goods, there is nothing left but to wage war 
against the symbols of terror, to eliminate the Hamas or Hezbollah 
leadership, to point to a brilliant operational and intelligence 
victory, to count the victims of vengeance and to proceed to the 
next candidate." 
 
II.  "Nasrallah's Options after MughniyahQs Assassination" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet (2/17): 
"Nasrallah would very much like to respond to the assassination of 
Imad Mughniyah, which greatly pained him, but conditions have now 
arisen in southern Lebanon that do not permit him to act freely, as 
he did before the war.  First of all, deterrence has been created, 
since he knows that an actual attack by him on Israel would lead to 
a renewal of the war, and this time perhaps the destruction of his 
organization, since Israel has already learned many lessons from the 
last campaign.  This time it will launch a real war, not an 
operation.  In other words, he cannot allow this to happen, except 
at a very high cost.... What will he do, then?  In his speech at the 
funeral, Nasrallah adopted a tactic that we failed to understand, 
just as we did not understand his words and actions prior to the 
war.  Here enter into play the hidden rules of the Middle East, such 
as the rules of creating deterrence.  His threats do not necessarily 
mean revenge, they mean creating a renewed balance of terror 
regarding assassinations, with the hope that they will stop.  He 
understood the significance of such a sophisticated assassination 
deep within his organization.  Of course, the IDF and our security 
establishment must take all the preparatory measures available, 
including warlike options, but Nasrallah is operating and reacting 
on the basis of a shrinking set of options: Whatever he does, will 
first and foremost damage him." 
 
----------- 
¶2.  Kosovo: 
----------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel 
maintains diplomatic and economic relations with Arab and Muslim 
countries around the world.  The government has a unique opportunity 
to stretch out a hand to the new state, and to prove that the Jewish 
state is not an enemy of the Muslims." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Recognize Kosovo" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (2/18): "Kosovo 
expects dozens of countries to recognize its independence.  We have 
to hope that Jerusalem has properly weighed the reasons in favor of 
responding to the call of the new European state, in the face of 
pressure from Serbia.  Although most of the residents of Kosovo are 
Muslims, the district has not identified with extremist Islamic 
tendencies and has kept a distance from Israel's opponents in the 
Arab world.... Jerusalem's special relations with the U.S., its 
major ally, always have been a central factor in Israeli diplomacy. 
Washington's decision to recognize Kosovo makes it easier for Israel 
to do so, too.  The struggle of the persecuted Kosovar people for 
independence is reminiscent of struggles by other nations for the 
right to self-determination.  The State of Israel, which was 
established in the wake of the Jewish people's struggle for a 
national home, should stretch out a hand to other nations seeking 
self-determination.  Israel maintains diplomatic and economic 
relations with Arab and Muslim countries around the world.  The 
government has a unique opportunity to stretch out a hand to the new 
state, and to prove that the Jewish state is not an enemy of the 
Muslims." 
 
JONES