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P 240621Z MAR 08
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Vice President Cheney to Israel, West Bank, March 22-24, 2008 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a release put out by Defense Minister Ehud 
Barak's office on Sunday that Barak told Vice President Dick Cheney 
that "Iran's build-up is endangering the stability of the region and 
the entire world.  Israel believes that there is still time for 
sanctions, but none of the options should be removed from the 
table."  During a press availability with the Vice President, 
Israeli President Shimon Peres indicated that under the current 
constellation of forces in the region, Israel could not afford to 
withdraw from the Golan Heights.  While Israel's hand was always 
extended in peace, Peres said: "Israel is not prepared for a deal 
whereby the Golan Heights will be returned to Syria in exchange for 
Iranian-Syrian control."  The Jerusalem Post cited Peres's office 
quoting VP Cheney as saying that the U.S. was concerned about arms 
going to Hizbullah from Syria, and that it did not appear that 
Syrian President Bashar Assad was interested in any kind of 
dialogue.  All media reported that the Vice President told Peres 
that the U.S. was well aware of the threats facing Israel, and that 
it was clear that the Iranian threat was not to Israel alone, but 
also to the U.S. 
 
All media highlighted VP Cheney's remark in Ramallah on Sunday: 
"Terrorism and rockets not only kill innocent civilians, they also 
kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian 
people."  Cheney, who was speaking at a press conference with PA 
President Mahmoud Abbas, reassured him that the U.S. would continue 
to support efforts to establish a Palestinian state.  The media 
cited the desire of Palestinian officials to see settlement 
construction activity halted, with the help of the USG.  The 
Jerusalem Post quoted an official in Ramallah as saying that VP 
Cheney did not bring anything new, and that "we don't want 
statements, we want deeds.  Bush is deluding himself if he thinks 
that a peace agreement could be achieved by the end of 2008." 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli government officials as saying on 
Sunday that a list of goodwill measures Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
is considering for the Palestinians may be intended as a message for 
the PA that if it gets too close to Hamas, it risks "losing 
everything."  Maariv quoted a senior cabinet minister as saying that 
Israel cannot agree to take in rocket volleys from Hamas while 
continuing negotiations with its "coalition partner."  (The media 
reported that in Sanaa on Sunday Fatah and Hamas agreed to keep 
reconciliation contacts alive but that they immediately wrangled.) 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio reported that Barak is 
considering a series of measures meant to ease the lives of 
Palestinians ahead of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit 
next week. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a source in the Israeli defense establishment 
recently told the newspaper that Israel has lifted its opposition to 
a deal with Hizbullah involving the release of Palestinian prisoners 
in exchange for signs of life from captured soldiers Eldad Regev and 
Ehud Goldwasser.  This source and other officials were quoted as 
saying that indirect negotiations for the release of the two IDF 
soldiers whom Hizbullah abducted in July 2006 did not bog down after 
the assassination of senior Hizbullah official Imad Mughniyah last 
month in Damascus, for which Hizbullah blamed Israel.  Yediot cited 
the IDF's concern that a terrorist attack by Hizbullah overseas 
would spark an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon.  Yediot 
quoted senior IDF officers as saying that Hizbullah may kidnap IDF 
soldiers, hit senior IDF officers in the Northern Command, or 
infiltrate an Israeli community or a strategic facility. 
 
Reviewing the U.S.- and Israeli-devised interception systems (Magic 
Wand, Iron Dome, Arrow, and Nautilus), Ha'aretz reported that the 
Defense Ministry is developing it own unique, laser-based system. 
 
Ha'aretz reported cited an internal Meretz-Yahad report released 
last week as saying that the party is on the verge of paralysis and 
would be unable to contest an election. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Israel has 
been granted membership to the Development Center of the 
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 
marking another step on the country's path to full membership in the 
OECD. 
 
Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that PM Olmert has issued instructions 
that African refugees caught crossing the Sinai border will be 
immediately deported to Egypt. 
 
The media reported on a surge on Tel Aviv's financial market but 
quoted analysts as saying that this may be a fleeting trend. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Israeli government is planning to set up 
an Internet portal in English and Hebrew for Jews and Judaism.  The 
newspaper said that the initiative is part of a comprehensive 
program being prepared for PM Ehud Olmert to redefine the 
relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Vice President Cheney to Israel, West Bank: 
------------------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "If the 
U.S. had limited itself to the gist of what Cheney said in Jerusalem 
on Saturday night, and to elaborating in this same spirit, it is 
likely that the prospects for peace and moderation in this region 
would be substantially greater." 
 
Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon's top 
diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "The more the diplomatic negotiations meant to achieve 
final-status arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians remain 
stalled, the more Israel is required to conduct a wise and 
courageous policy vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority." 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Shas knows that nothing will come of the 
negotiations with Abbas.  Olmert also knows that nothing will come 
of them, but in the meantime he is keeping his coalition together. 
Each gets what he needs, at least for the moment.  This is Olmert's 
agenda.  That's all there is to it." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Cheney Model" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (3/24): 
"U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney is not known for making 
flamboyant speeches, but sometimes less is more.  If the U.S. had 
limited itself to the gist of what Cheney said in Jerusalem on 
Saturday night, and to elaborating in this same spirit, it is likely 
that the prospects for peace and moderation in this region would be 
substantially greater.... There are, it should be understood, two 
basic models for looking at the conflict, each of which leads to 
different policy approaches.  The standard model is that Arabs and 
Israelis have been fighting for years and that blame for 
perpetuation of the conflict lies with both sides, or perhaps mainly 
with Israel, since Israel is the 'occupying power' and the 
Palestinians are seeking independence within land held by Israel. 
The second model is almost nonexistent in diplomatic circles but was 
instinctively expressed by Cheney and is taken as axiomatic by the 
many Americans who sympathize with Israel.  This model holds that 
the Arab world opposed Israel's creation, tried many times to 
destroy Israel, and still has not come to terms with Israel's right 
to exist.  It is this Arab rejection of Israel, not a supposed 
Israeli refusal to allow the creation of a Palestinian state, that 
is the true obstacle to peace.   A peace process designed to produce 
Arab acceptance of Israel would start with simple statements of the 
problem.  The U.S. might state that: 'Israel has accepted and seeks 
to implement the two-state solution. So the principal obstacle to 
peace is the remaining rejection among many Palestinians and within 
much of the Arab world of the legitimate national rights of the 
Jewish people to their own state, the State of Israel.'   The next 
important step would be to demand that the Arab states lead by 
example, rather than waiting for the divided and radicalized 
Palestinians to move first.  Indeed, the Arab states are behind, in 
that Mahmoud Abbas routinely meets Israeli leaders, but the leaders 
of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states will not." 
 
II.  "A Lighter Touch" 
 
Dov Weisglass, who was former prime minister Ariel Sharon's top 
diplomatic advisor, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (3/24): "The more the diplomatic negotiations meant to 
achieve final-status arrangements between Israel and the 
Palestinians remain stalled, there is no tangible chance for an 
agreement and Israel must do all it can to preserve and strengthen 
the PA's current leadership.... Everyone understands that the 
collapse of the [PA's] current leadership would bring about a much 
worse alternative: a PA ruled ... by Hamas, with the Gazan reality 
moving to Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank].... In the current 
circumstances Israel must help nurture life conditions in the PA so 
that the Palestinian population-at-large understands the PA's 
conciliatory policy toward Israel benefits the Palestinians and 
stabilizes the current PA." 
 
III.  "Olmert's Agenda" 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (3/24): "To those who have their doubts about 
the wisdom of Olmert's policy, he produces the American card. 
Visits by Condoleezza Rice to Israel and Tzipi Livni to Washington 
give the impression that Israel really has no choice.  The U.S. will 
not allow effective action to be taken in Gaza and the negotiations 
with Mahmoud Abbas must continue.  Nobody who knows the U.S. scene 
will be fooled by this argument.  George W. Bush might welcome an 
Israeli-Palestinian agreement to crown the final months of his 
tenure as president, but he surely has the Palestinian Authority 
sized up.  In any case he is not about to get into a confrontation 
with Israel at this time.  That's all he needs in addition to his 
other headaches.  But some people want to be fooled, and some even 
want to be raped.  With the peace camp in tow, all Olmert needs to 
survive politically is Shas.  He is showering them with presents 
they could only have dreamed of.  Meanwhile, Labor and even Meretz 
grin and bear it.  After all, this is for the sake of peace.... Shas 
knows that nothing will come of the negotiations with Abbas.  Olmert 
also knows that nothing will come of them, but in the meantime he is 
keeping his coalition together.  Each gets what he needs, at least 
for the moment.  This is Olmert's agenda.  That's all there is to 
it." 
 
JONES