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P 271056Z FEB 08
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STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
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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.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that both PM Ehud Olmert in Tokyo and FM 
Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem voiced skepticism publicly for the first 
time on Tuesday about concluding a peace agreement with the PA by 
the end of 2008.  Olmert said that while Israel desires to reach a 
deal and take a giant step forward to finally end the conflict, he 
is not sure that they will make it. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Omer 
Suleiman is scheduled to arrive in Israel next Tuesday for meetings 
with PM Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and FM Tzipi Livni 
in an effort to reduce tension along the border between Egypt, 
Israel, and Gaza.  Ha'aretz cited the doubts of Israeli security 
officials about the five-party plan -- involving Egypt, Israel, the 
Hamas government, the U.S., and the EU -- which calls for a 
reopening of the Rafah crossing with American support and 
guarantees, and the assistance of European monitors.  The IDF and 
the Shin Bet are dubious that the monitors can be effective based on 
past experience.  Israel Radio and other media reported that 
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Sallai Meridor told reporters in 
Washington that Egypt must stop the smuggling into Gaza, otherwise 
Israel would be forced to act.  Meridor was also quoted as saying 
that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas is ineffective and cannot 
act against Hamas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying on 
Tuesday that within two years, a fence will be built along 85 km of 
the border with Egypt. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the results of a Dialogue poll showing that 64 
percent of Israelis believe that the government must hold direct 
talks with the Hamas government in Gaza in order to reach a 
cease-fire and the release of Gilad Shalit.  Less than one-third (28 
percent) still opposes such talks. 
Electronic media quoted Palestinian sources as saying that five 
activists of Hamas's military and three other Palestinians were 
killed this morning when the bus in which they were riding along the 
coastal road in the Gaza Strip, west of Khan Yunis, was attacked in 
an air raid.  Israel Radio reported that IDF Special Forces killed a 
Fatah/Tanzim activist in Nablus. 
 
Democratic presidential candidate, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, 
was quoted as saying in an interview with Yediot that he is a friend 
of Israel, that he will bring to the White House his unshakeable 
commitment to Israel's security, that he is not a Muslim, and that 
he was sworn in on the Bible. 
 
Leading media quoted IDF Intelligence head Amos Yadlin as saying 
before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on 
Tuesday that trained terrorists and Al-Qaida operatives had entered 
Gaza through the recently breached border with Egypt.  Yadlin was 
quoted as saying that a nuclear Iran is the "greatest threat to 
Israel," and Iran could posses these weapons by 2010.  Yadlin also 
warned against retaliation by Hizbullah for the assassination of its 
top operative Imad Mughniyah, saying that past experience shows that 
many retaliatory terrorist attacks often come on the 40th day 
following such assassinations. 
 
Israel Radio reported that today PM Olmert met with Japanese Emperor 
Akihito and that he will meet with Japan's FM Masahiko Koumura. 
Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda, 
responding in writing to questions by the newspaper, criticized 
Israel for the slow rate of implementation of the Roadmap. Fukuda 
said that Iran's nuclear program must be met with a determined 
response.  Yediot reported that PM Olmert will propose to Fukuda the 
creation of a joint working group including Japan, the U.S., and 
Israel to monitor North Korea's moves in the Middle East. 
 
Israel Radio reported that UN officials John Holmes and Robert Serry 
told the UN Security Council that the situation along the border 
with Gaza endangers peace efforts. 
 
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that French lawyers assisting Gilad 
Shalit's family are expected to meet with his captors in Gaza next 
week. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that this week the Foreign Ministry 
named seasoned diplomat and spokesman Yigal Palmor as its spokesman, 
replacing Are Mekel, who has been promoted to deputy 
director-general of the ministry's Culture and Scientific Affairs 
division. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Intel as saying on Tuesday that it will 
convert a Jerusalem plant previously scheduled to be closed.  It 
said that it received a tax break from the GOI. 
 
Leading media reported that the Knesset is likely to pass a law 
today to censor the Internet.  Sites with sexual or gambling content 
would be banned.  Headlining "Good Morning, Pakistan," Maariv 
reported that Shas, Kadima, the Labor Party, and right-wing Knesset 
members will support the legislation. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet: "The 
wise Palestinian population knows full well that the leaders it has 
chosen for itself are working against its true interests." 
 
Former foreign minister Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel must ... change 
its strategic goal in Gaza from toppling Hamas to saving the 
Annapolis process." 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Secrets of Success" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet (2/29): 
"The event of the 'largest human chain in the world' was attended 
only by a few thousand people, there was no real human chain, and 
those who did arrive did so in an organized manner, in buses. 
Hamas's expectation of tens of thousands and perhaps more, was 
disappointed.  The Palestinians proved for the first time that they 
were not a human mass that docilely obeys any figure of power.  We 
in Israel complain of a problem of leadership?  Among the 
Palestinians, such leadership never existed, except for such 
abstract causes as the 'Palestinian problem,' whose meaning is 
something that no one quite understands to this day.... In all three 
cases [Gaza under Hamas, the West Bank under Abbas, and the Israeli 
Arabs], the wise Palestinian population knows full well that the 
leaders it has chosen for itself are working against its true 
interests.  One generation after another, thousands of fatalities 
and hundreds of thousands of casualties have been sacrificed by this 
unfortunate population on behalf of its false leaders, but it 
continues to stand at attention every time it receives orders." 
 
II.  "Saving Annapolis" 
 
Former foreign minister Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (2/27): "The 
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which were inaugurated by 
impressive speeches and good intentions three months ago at 
Annapolis, do not suffer from lack of ideas.... The problem is 
somewhere else.  It stems from the dearth of leadership and the 
crumbling of the political system on the Palestinian side..... It 
would be a fantasy and self-delusion to assume that the Palestinian 
architects of the peace industry who were partners in the 
disappointing Oslo process ... could have gained necessary 
legitimacy to move the peace process forward.... Israel must ... 
change its strategic goal in Gaza from toppling Hamas to saving the 
Annapolis process.  This requires not only a cease-fire with Hamas, 
but also a return to a Palestinian unity government that may grant 
the peace process the legitimacy it is lacking today.  Without the 
revival of the Mecca Agreement, Hamas won't be able to ensure its 
rule in Gaza, and the PLO won't t be able to put the peace process 
into practice." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "The news ... is not so much what Obama said, but 
the fact he said it, finally starting his own 'straight talk' 
dialogue with American Jewry." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
"Obama's New 'Straight Talk' on Israel" 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (2/27): "Support for Israel is much more comfortably 
measured by those who care most about it by a record of consistency 
built over decades, rather than in a scant few years.  It is this 
circumstance that has created uncertainty among some sectors of 
American Jewry (and in official Israeli circles as well) regarding 
Obama -- not an imaginary past that supposedly had him trained in an 
Indonesian madras to be an Islamic Manchurian candidate, but the 
lack of a real past when it comes to Middle East affairs, at least 
in comparison to the likes of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. .. 
But there is little in Obama's comments that counts as either 
surprising or any real deviation from his previous stands.  What's 
more, he took pains to distance himself from views on Israel 
expressed by some of his associates deemed less acceptable to the 
Jewish community, including his occasional foreign policy adviser 
Zbigniew Brzezinski, and his Chicago pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. 
The news here is not so much what Obama said, but the fact he said 
it, finally starting his own 'straight talk' dialogue with American 
Jewry.  Perhaps this can be taken as another sign that he is now 
looking beyond the primaries to a campaign against McCain, where 
U.S. policy on Israel will surely be more of a factor than it has 
been in his battle against Clinton." 
 
JONES