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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000961 
 
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.  Syria 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Most media highlighted the IDF's version of the deaths of a mother 
and her four small children in Beit Hanun, northern Gaza, yesterday: 
The army maintains that the deaths occurred when two missiles fired 
against Palestinian militants near the family's tin-hut home 
detonated explosive devices carried by the militants, causing a 
"secondary explosion" that killed the civilians.  Hamas maintains 
that an IDF tank fired a shell.  Leading media reported that an IDF 
colonel will investigate the event and present his conclusions 
within 48 hours.  Israel Radio reported that PM Ehud Olmert voiced 
his deep regret over the deaths; however he was quoted as saying 
that the circumstances of the incident have not been elucidated. 
The radio reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed Hamas for 
the violence in Gaza.  The radio reported that this morning 10 
rockets were fired at Israel, one of which struck a house. 
 
Israel Radio reported that President Bush will not hold a trilateral 
summit during his upcoming visit to the region. 
 
Leading media quoted Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is 
leading Israel's strategic dialogue with the U.S., as saying 
yesterday in Washington after meeting with Secretary Rice that 
returning the Golan to Syria would bring Iran close to Israel's 
borders.  Yediot reported that Eyal Arad and Lior Horev, strategic 
consulates to Kadima and PM Olmert, also advise the Golan Regional 
Council.  Horev was quoted as saying in an interview with the 
Yediot-affiliated web site Ynet: "Diplomatic negotiations with Syria 
will bring down the government within 24 hours."  Ha'aretz quoted 
Israeli officials as saying yesterday that the Syrian official in 
charge of the Turkish-mediated contacts with Israel is Samir Taqi, 
head of a Damascus-based research institute.  The officials were 
quoted as saying that Taqi was very close to decision-makers in 
Damascus and enjoyed the confidence of the Turkish government. 
Ha'aretz quoted people who know Taqi personally as saying yesterday 
they believed he was very well-connected to the Syrian intelligence 
services.  Ha'aretz quoted Taqi as saying in an interview with 
Aljazeera-TV on Saturday that Syria was interested in moving ahead 
in talks with Israel even during the present U.S. administration. 
Yediot quoted Turkish FM Ali Babacan as saying that an "agreement 
between the two long-standing enemies needs much political 
determination."  The Jerusalem Post quoted Western diplomats as 
saying yesterday that one of the issues that Turkey is trying to 
work out between Israel and Syria as a prelude to direct 
negotiations is whether a Syrian announcement of ending support for 
terrorism needs to precede an Israeli guarantee that it will 
withdraw from the Golan in exchange for peace. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel is trying to block what is expected to 
be a stern condemnation of its policies in Gaza by the donor nations 
to the PA, which are scheduled to meet in London on Thursday.  In 
view of recent developments in Gaza, and the killing of civilians, 
there is concern in official circles in Jerusalem that the criticism 
will be severe.  In parallel, Israel is faced with a complaint filed 
several days ago by Egypt with the UN Security Council, and 
criticism from members of the Quartet, who described a dangerously 
"explosive situation in the Gaza Strip." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a group of experts from the Institute for 
National Security Studies has drawn up a draft law which defines, 
for the first time, the nature of the relationship between the 
government and the IDF, and the division of powers and 
responsibilities between the two bodies.  In its report on the 
Second Lebanon War, the Winograd Commission said the lack of such 
organizational clarity was a "structural weakness" that "critically" 
needed repair. 
 
Major media reported that the Palestinian factions are resuming the 
truce talks in Cairo today.  The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio 
noted that Fatah does not take part in the parley. 
 
Maariv reported that the residents of the unauthorized settler 
outpost Yatir Southwest (in the southern Hebron Hills), on whose 
removal in coming days the Defense Ministry and the Yesha Council of 
Jewish Settlements in the Territories have agreed, "will not go 
quietly." 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that following a long-delayed green 
light from Italy, the EU is poised in the coming days to slap 
sanctions on Bank Melli, one of Iran's most influential banks, in a 
move praised in Jerusalem as "very important." 
The Jerusalem Post reported that ahead of the renewal of UNIFIL's 
mandate this summer, the Defense Ministry is hoping to strengthen 
the peacekeeping force's rules of engagement so that it can engage 
Hizbullah fighters  when they are spotted and not just when 
Hizbullah fighters fire.  Leading media cited claims by the Lebanese 
Army that yesterday the IAF violated Lebanese airspace for an hour. 
Maariv reported that the IDF would not comment on the report. 
 
Leading media cited news agencies reports quoting the Japanese 
public broadcaster NHK as saying, based on South Korean intelligence 
officials, that 10 North Koreans helping to build a suspected 
nuclear reactor may have died in Israel's air raid in September. 
 
Yediot reported that in the coming year the Justice Ministry and 
President Shimon Peres will expunge the criminal records of young 
people, most of them minors, who committed misdemeanors during the 
disengagement. 
 
The media reported that a border policeman, who was convicted of 
brutally killing a Palestinian teen in Hebron six years ago, was 
sentenced yesterday to six and a half years in prison. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quotQ officials as saying that it is likely 
that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will approve a death sentence 
imposed on a Palestinian policeman convicted of "collaboration" with 
IsraeQ 
The Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time, an American 
woman rabbi, Lynn Gottlieb, will travel to Iran today on a mission 
of interfaith dialogue and understanding.  She will co-lead a 
delegation of 21 peace activists to the Islamic Republic on a 
mission "to humanize the face of Iran, lest we end up with a 
disaster of global proportions we cannot imagine," as she told The 
Jerusalem Post on Monday. 
 
All media reported that the Israeli communications satellite Amos 3 
was successfully launched into space from Kazakhstan yesterday. 
 
Major media reported that the Gil Pensioners Party has split and the 
breakaway members intend to form tycoon Arkady Gaidamak's new 
Knesset faction, dubbed Justice for Pensioners. However, it is not 
clear how many of the party's seven Knesset members, if any, will 
follow MK Moshe Sharoni to form the new faction.  MK Elhanan Glazer, 
formerly one of the party's mavericks, decided not to quit 
yesterday, after being promised a post as a deputy minister. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that yesterday Israel's Police Commissioner David 
Cohen rejected claims of "persecution" and "blackmail" made earlier 
in the day at a press conference by Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK 
Avigdor Lieberman against the police officers conducting a probe 
into his affairs.  Lieberman also lashed out at state prosecutors 
and investigative reporters. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tunisian representative to the 
PA has abruptly canceled his attendance at an international 
Holocaust conference this week in Jerusalem. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted police as saying yesterday that senior 
Islamic official Nasser Hakim Abu-Kueder has been barred from 
entering the Temple Mount compound for the next six months after 
allegedly inciting violence against Jews. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tourism and Transportation 
ministries are working toward closing Jerusalem's Old City to 
transportation, both private and public.  The change is designed to 
remove traffic congestion and make visiting the Old City a more 
pleasant experience. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in an editorial of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "We have to get it into 
our brains that [the Palestinians] are fighting for their state and 
their liberty (yes, just as we fought in 1948), and that only a 
political agreement -- only a political agreement! -- will put an 
end to the horrific pictures." 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Khaled Mashal, the head of the 
Hamas politburo in Damascus, did nothing to assuage Israel's 
concerns on Sunday, when he declared that any cease-fire ... will 
allow Hamas to strengthen its ranks for the next confrontation. It 
is therefore no wonder that the IDF is pushing to carry out as many 
strikes as possible before a cease-fire." 
 
Ghassan Khatib, Co-Editor of the bitterlemons.org family of 
Israeli-Palestinian Internet publications, Vice President of Birzeit 
University, and a former PA minister of planning, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "A new regional U.S. 
approach that includes reversing the growing American presence and 
hegemony coupled with adherence to international law and an 
avoidance of double standards is called for." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Blood of a Small Child" 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late prime 
minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in an editorial of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (4/29): "Let's assume, 
just for a minute, that the Israeli version of yesterdayQs events in 
Gaza is correct, true and honest..... What Israeli PR has never 
understood, and apparently will never understand, is that the world 
and its media are not seeking the correct version or justice.  The 
world does not ask and will not ask how the mother and four children 
happened to be at the same juncture of events together with a terror 
cell and 'what happened here?'.... We can say that the IDF is still 
the most moral and ideological army in the world and that the 
Palestinians should say thank you that they don't have an enemy like 
the Russians in Chechnya or the Americans in Iraq.  We are still the 
best.  And we can also say that they shoot deliberately to kill 
civilians -- at Sderot, for example.  That they blow up buses.  We 
can say that yesterday's victims were a mistake, that we will check, 
that we will investigate, that we will... For 20 years we have been 
in an Intifada.  Today's soldiers were not yet born when a Gazan 
mob, after a traffic accident (in December 1987) burst out in masses 
and began what every child knows about today -- the Intifada.  Just 
like on that first day, and 20 years down the line, we have to get 
it into our brains that they are fighting for their state and their 
liberty (yes, just as we fought in 1948), and that only a political 
agreement -- only a political agreement! -- will put an end to the 
horrific pictures.  All the pictures.  Those that we saw last night 
in Gaza, those that we saw innumerable times in Sderot, the charred 
buses, the shreds of human beings scattered in the streets, the 
puddles of blood at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva and hundreds of other 
places.  Dear God, how do we reach such an agreement?" 
 
II.  "Hurry, Shoot before the Cease-Fire" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (4/29): "It is not at all certain 
that yesterday's killing will affect the cease-fire negotiations.... 
For the time being the IDF is behaving as if there is no hudna 
[truce] on the horizon.... From a diplomatic point of view, it is 
difficult to comprehend Israel's stance: Even if a cease-fire 
collapses, as the senior officers argue, why not allow the 
Palestinians to be the ones who break it?  Israel was drawn into a 
hudna after Egyptian pressure and the government's concerns that a 
major ground operation in Gaza would result in heavy IDF casualties. 
 But the government is not pleased with the idea of a cease-fire: It 
seems there is a zero-sum game mentality dominating the political 
leadership.  After all, they argue, if Hamas is so desperate for a 
cease-fire, it can't be a good thing for Israel.  Khaled Mashal, the 
head of the Hamas politburo in Damascus, did nothing to assuage 
Israel's concerns on Sunday, when he declared that any cease-fire 
will be a temporary hiatus in the fighting, which will allow Hamas 
to strengthen its ranks for the next confrontation. It is therefore 
no wonder that the IDF is pushing to carry out as many strikes as 
possible before a cease-fire." 
 
 
 
III.  "Complex Regional Rivalry Muddying the Waters" 
 
Ghassan Khatib, Co-Editor of the bitterlemons.org family of 
Israeli-Palestinian Internet publications, Vice President of Birzeit 
University, and a former PA minister of planning, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (4/29): "The tension 
between Israel, Syria, and Lebanon carries indirect negative 
consequences for Palestinians.... It has become evident that 
Palestine, like Lebanon and Iraq, is being affected by the ongoing 
regional rivalry between Iran and the U.S. that started with the 
Iraq invasion and US attempts to weaken Iran and interfere in its 
domestic affairs including with its nuclear program.  With an 
American military presence on its borders in Iraq, the Arab Gulf and 
Afghanistan, Iran has been motivated to play its cards against this 
growing American hegemony.  These developments coincided with the 
collapse of the peace process, the moderate and secular leadership 
associated with it, and the rise of Hamas and its victory in 
Palestinian elections and subsequent takeover of the Gaza Strip.... 
A new regional U.S. approach that includes reversing the growing 
American presence and hegemony coupled with adherence to 
international law and an avoidance of double standards is called 
for.  This may allow a regional environment to develop that is more 
conducive to improving Syrian-Israeli as well as Palestinian-Israeli 
relations. " 
 
---------- 
¶2.  Syria: 
---------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "There is nothing that could 
create a more positive change in the Middle East than a peace accord 
between Israel and Syria." 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe: "An agreement with Assad that would include an 
Israeli withdrawal from the Golan cannot yet be seen on the 
horizon." 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Go for It, Olmert" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (4/29): "It seems too good to be 
true.  But when the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 
comes out of a meeting with the president of Syria with the news 
that Bashar Assad is prepared to work out a peace agreement with 
Israel and make the region a safer place, it's worth a try.... Our 
experience with Syria keeping itQmises with respect to military 
activity along the border has been satisfactory.  The trouble is 
that while Syria may not be involved in any incidents outright, it 
has become a lifeline for Hizbullah, providing patronage, money, and 
missiles, from Iran and its own arsenals.  Syria plays host to the 
masterminds of Palestinian terrorism in Damascus and, above all, 
threatens us with its strategic alliance with Iran.  A peace 
agreement with Syria is the kind of thing that Israeli leaders need 
to examine under a microscope.  It must include evicting Palestinian 
terror chiefs from Syria, an end to arming Hizbullah, and, most 
importantly, severing strategic ties with Iran.  There is nothing 
that could create a more positive change in the Middle East than a 
peace accord between Israel and Syria.  If Assad understands what is 
required of him, and he really wants it, that is stronger than any 
Israeli leader afraid that concessions on the Golan Heights will be 
rejected by the Knesset opposition or Israeli public opinion.  Go 
for it, Olmert." 
 
II.  "An Agreement with Syria Is Not Realistic" 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe (4/29): "An agreement with Assad that would 
include an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan cannot yet Qen on 
the horizon, despite the public diplomacy that has suddenly flooded 
our region, with Turkish assistance.  Assad and Olmert have a joint 
interest: They both want to present a performance of negotiations -- 
not an agreement.  What interests them are negotiations, not their 
results. In his mediocre political situation, Olmert wants to get 
the image of a statesman leading his country to regional peace, 
without paying the hefty price of a pullout.  Assad wants the 
Americans to legitimize his regime, without truly disconnecting from 
the Iran-Hizbullah axis.  He can get that through the very existence 
of the negotiations.  How could the President of the U.S. cast doubt 
on a ruler with whom Israel itself holds talks?.... Assad very much 
wants to exit the 'axis of evil' in which President Bush has placed 
him without asking him; he wants the world to listen to him. 
Furthermore, he wants to turn Syria into a significant regional body 
that can't be ignored.  Negotiations with Israel -- even without 
reaching an agreement -- can help him achieve those goals.  The 
question is what Olmert gains by being so helpful to the promotion 
of Syrian interests." 
 
MORENO