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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000906 
 
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.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai asked former 
U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Monday to tell Hamas leaders, 
including Khaled Mashal, that he would like to meet in order to 
expedite a prisoner exchange to bring home  Gilad Shalit.  Yishai's 
bureau said he did not ask PM Ehud Olmert for permission to hold the 
meeting, nor did he tell Olmert what he discussed.  Ha'aretz quoted 
Yishai as saying that other Israeli officials erred in boycotting 
Carter. During the meeting, he told Carter that he opposed the 
former president's use of the term "apartheid" in his book about the 
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Yishai said Carter told him that the 
interpretation of his use of the word was fundamentally wrong. 
Speaking on Israel Radio this morning, diplomatic-security cabinet 
member Rafi Eitan said that only the government was entitled to 
decide on contacts with Hamas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that senior defense officials have told 
the newspaper that Iran has stepped up its efforts to smuggle 
weapons into Gaza by using floatable devices that it drops in the 
waters off the coast to be picked up by Palestinian fishermen.  In 
another story, the paper carried comments by Likud leader Benjamin 
Netanyahu that Israel will ultimately have to "bring down" the Hamas 
regime in Gaza, and this can done in a way that does not necessitate 
a permanent return to the Strip.  Netanyahu further said that if the 
Olmert government did not know how to stop the Gaza attacks, "let 
them clear the way for people who can do it a lot better."  In an 
interview with Makor Rishon-Hatzofe, Netanyahu was quoted as saying 
that if elected prime minister, he won't carry out any peace deal 
with the Palestinians reached by PM Olmert. 
 
Israel Radio reported that today the Construction and Housing 
Ministry published tenders for construction of 100 housing units in 
two settlements -- Elkana and Ariel.  The radio quoted Peace Now as 
saying that this would spell the end of peace efforts with the 
Palestinians. 
 
Israel Radio quoted PA President Mahmoud Abbas as saying on Al 
Arabiya-TV that Olmert told him that Jerusalem was entirely Israeli, 
to which Abbas replied: "So why did you place it on the table?" 
 
All media reported that yesterday the IDF thwarted an attempted 
terror attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.  Gunmen opened 
fire on the Israeli side of the crossing, but a patrol of IDF 
soldiers located nearby fired back, killing one gunman and wounding 
another, who fled with a third gunman into the Strip.  Media also 
reported that yesterday Palestinians fired on Israeli fuel trucks at 
the Nahal Oz terminal that brings kerosene to Gaza.  Leading 
electronic media reported that in the Nablus refugee camp of Balata 
this morning IDF troops killed Hani Ka'beh, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs 
Brigades activist who was behind a plan to poison diners at a 
Ramat-Gan restaurant. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a group of Jewish settlers in Hebron insulted 
and threatened a visiting German parliamentary delegation touring 
the city yesterday. 
 
Citing AP, The Jerusalem Post's web site quoted former U.S. 
President Jimmy Carter as saying after meeting with Hamas officials 
in Cairo that Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip is an "atrocity." 
Carter was also quoted as saying that he had asked Hamas officials 
to stop rocket attacks into Israel and defended his controversial 
meetings with the Palestinian terrorist group, saying it was 
necessary to talk to all parties to achieve peace.  Major media 
reported that in an interview with The Washington Post, Gaza-based 
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar compared Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told 
reporters yesterday that "Syria is most certainly an issue in 
proliferation." 
 
Yediot reported that Egypt will complete a high-power cable from El 
Arish to Gaza within two years.  The power line is supposed to 
replace Israel's electricity supply to Gaza. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday the B'Tselem human rights 
organization demanded a criminal investigation into the death of 
Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana'a in Gaza on Wednesday.  It said that 
its own investigation, combined with the results of Shana'a's 
autopsy as reported in the media, showed that Shana'a was killed by 
a Flechette shell fired by the IDF. 
Ha'aretz reported that Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky is planning 
to enlist world Jewry in a fund-raising drive for East Jerusalem's 
Arabs, in a bid to counter Hamas influence in local schools.  The 
money will be used mainly for educational projects in the east of 
the city, where an acute classroom shortage means many pupils end up 
in schools identified with Hamas and the PA. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel will fortify its presence in 
space next week when Israel Aerospace Industries launches the Amos 3 
communications satellite from Kazakhstan. 
 
Yediot reported that PM Olmert has clarified that he will not give 
evidence to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss regarding the 
Jonathan Pollard affair, Olmert told Yediot that "what I discuss 
with the President of the U.S. does not regard anyone."  Yediot 
reported that Lindenstrauss threatened to summon Olmert. 
 
Leading media reported that the Justice Ministry's Police 
Investigations Department announced yesterday that no indictments 
will be issued or measures taken against police officers accused of 
shooting demonstrators during the riots in the Israeli-Arab village 
of Peki'in in October 2007.  A Justice Ministry release said that no 
direct tie could be made between specific events cited by those shot 
and specific shots fired by police personnel.  Ha'aretz reported 
that privately police officials are pleased with decision while 
residents were "not surprised".  Druze spiritual leader Sheikh 
Mowafaq Tarif said that "Those who used live fire must answer for 
it." 
 
Maariv and other media reported that the GOI's Central Bureau of 
Statistics has announced that the unemployment rate has decreased by 
4.4% over the past four years to 6.5%.  Ha'aretz reported that IBM 
will announce today that it is purchasing the Israeli start-up 
Diligent for $165 million.  The newspaper noted that IBM has spent 
almost $500 million on three Israeli start-ups in the past four 
months.  The media reported that Moody's has raised Israel's credit 
rating for the third time in a year.  Maariv reported that a 
delegation of 35 Chinese business leaders from Harbin will come to 
Israel for a meeting with their Israeli counterparts, and discuss 
cooperation projects worth $13 billion. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe published the results of a Maagar Mohot poll 
Q: Should Israel make preemptive military strike on Iran? 
No: 51%; yes: 35%; 14% were undecided. 
Q: (Among the supporters of a Kadima-Labor merger.)  Who should head 
the merger? 
Barak: 38%; Olmert: 30%; 32% were undecided. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The IDF must 
make every effort to thwart every attempt to harm the residents of 
the south.... [But] no military action -- whether a revenge attack 
or the renewed occupation of the Gaza Strip -- will lead to real 
calm." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "It 
would be a mistake to keep to the routine and treat the 
Palestinian-Nazi messages as noise that should be ignored." 
 
Washington correspondent Hilary Leila Krieger wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "The U.S. and Israel are 
having one of their most public disputes since the second Bush 
administration took office in 2001.  And the issue, once again, is 
over the settlements." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "All of Gaza Can't Be Razed" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (4/18): "Hamas 
can be blamed for the latest conflagration in the Gaza Strip..... 
[But] the IDF operation after Wednesday's fatal ambush left the 
impression that once again, Israel acts only out of revenge.... The 
inevitable outcome of such an ostentatious display of force was that 
more than 20 Palestinians were killed in one day, including a 
journalist and several minors.  When Israel resorts to such 
indiscriminate shooting, it is playing by Hamas's rules -- launching 
an attack that leads to a retaliation with numerous casualties, 
which leads to another attack, and so on and so forth, as if it were 
an endless gang war.... The IDF must make every effort to thwart 
every attempt to harm the residents of the south -- but only through 
targeted operations.  At the same time, the statesmen must make 
every attempt to reach a political agreement -- even if it is only 
temporary -- to calm the area down.  No military action -- whether a 
revenge attack or the renewed occupation of the Gaza Strip -- will 
lead to real calm." 
 
II.  "From the Warsaw Ghetto to Netanya's Park Hotel" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (4/18): 
"On April 19, on Passover Eve [1943], the Warsaw Ghetto uprising 
started.... It is no fluke that the most monstrous terrorist attack 
also took place on Passover Eve.  Tomorrow six years will have gone 
by since the Passover Eve massacre at the Park Hotel [in 
Netanya].... The massacre changed our perception of the enemy and 
the Israel Defense Forces' way of fighting.  Immediately on the next 
day the IDF embarked on the large-scale Operation Defensive 
Shield.... It would be a mistake to keep to the routine and treat 
the Palestinian-Nazi messages as noise that should be ignored.... 
The time has come, like on Passover 2002, to embark on a similar 
operation that will limit the strength and capability of the Gazan 
enemy.  Every senior IDF officer ... will tell you that the IDF has 
a military solution for Gaza.  We need diplomatic decision and 
determination by out leadership.... It is no longer possible to play 
by the rules of an enemy such as Hamas in Gaza." 
 
 
 
 
III.  "Deconstructing the Debate" 
 
Washington correspondent Hilary Leila Krieger wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (4/18): "Today, [as opposed 
to 1992], while no loan guarantees have been withheld, and American 
Jewry hasn't been mobilized, the U.S. and Israel are having one of 
their most public disputes since the second Bush administration took 
office in 2001.  And the issue, once again, is over the 
settlements.... The current circumstances have pushed the issue onto 
the front burner.  While it has yet to boil over, Palestinian 
Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's tenuous position, Prime Minister 
Ehud Olmert's political vulnerabilities, and America's new role of 
Roadmap monitor have all added fuel to the fire... [According to 
David Wurmser, who advised Vice President Dick Cheney on the Middle 
East], the relationship between the two countries and the process 
governing the settlements has been changing, since the U.S. has 
assumed its new position monitoring the Roadmap, as agreed to in 
Annapolis..  'By setting up a monitoring force, you're taking a step 
toward an internationalization of the settlement issue, and that's a 
very dangerous precedent for Israel,' he said.... The, he concluded, 
'will lead to a tension,' because the way the Israeli and the U.S. 
define settlements differs.'" 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "As 
Iranian leaders employ disinformation, obduracy and guile to keep 
the world powers spinning their wheels, we hear Prime Minister Ehud 
Olmert insisting that Iran's efforts will, at the end of the day, 
fail.  [But] the mullahs take their extremist Islam very seriously." 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"The Price of Freedom" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (4/18): 
"Never in the ebb and flow of its long, rich and complicated history 
has the Jewish people experienced greater national, political and 
personal freedoms than it enjoys now.  There are no ghetto walls. 
We are Jews by choice and we identify with the Jewish past, share in 
the Jewish present and look toward a common future.... [However,] 
given the threats the Jewish global collective faces, stemming 
mainly from the menace of Islamist extremism, Jews had better stop 
dissipating their energies and resources in internal bickering. 
Iran is hurrying to build nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles 
to deliver them.... As Iranian leaders employ disinformation, 
obduracy and guile to keep the world powers spinning their wheels, 
we hear Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisting that Iran's efforts 
will, at the end of the day, fail.  The mullahs take their extremist 
Islam very seriously.  It is the bedrock of their perverted vision 
of world domination.  In this 'season of our freedom' [Passover] we 
need to recommit to our own Jewish and humane values.  And if we 
cherish our freedom, we need to recognize that it comes at a 
price." 
 
JONES