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RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 3812
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RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 4561
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1431
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RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 5904
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001010 
 
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 
 
 
Please note: no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report on Thursday, May 8, 
2008, Israel's Independence Day holiday. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Israel's 60th Independence Day 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox papers, prominently and 
extensively covered, and commented on, events related to Israel's 
Memorial Day and 60th Independence Day.  Leading media quoted 
President Shimon Peres as saying last night at the official Memorial 
Day ceremony near the Western Wall: "We are ready to pay a price for 
the day of peace.  "We are ready to pay in exchange for the day of 
peace, in exchange for a smile of children, Palestinian children, 
Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian, too. We want to shake hands, but 
our enemies know that we are capable of pressing the trigger." 
Peres was quoted as saying in an interview with Ha'aretz this week 
that he did not imagine that Israel would leave Gaza and that the 
Palestinians would fire Qassam rockets from there, and that Hamas 
would show so strongly in the elections.  Peres was also quoted as 
saying that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamas are 
taking him back to the "Jew within himself." 
 
The media reported that a foreign national who is the central 
witness in the new investigation against PM Ehud Olmert will give 
testimony in the case.  "This does not indicate that an indictment 
will be issued against the respondents, PM Ehud Olmert and Shula 
Zaken," the judges wrote.  The Jerusalem District Court allowed this 
detail to be published, however, did not lift the gag order even 
though The New York Post published details of the investigation, 
including the name of the foreign national -- Morris Talansky. 
Media have highlighted this report in their stories as breaking new 
details while saying that they face legal action if they repeat 
those details.  Just about the only thing lacking in helping readers 
access the NY Post article is a hyperlink.  Israel Radio cited a 
denial by Olmert's bureau of an Aljazeera-TV report that Olmert will 
suspend himself after the Independence Day holiday. 
Ha'aretz reported that a senior Palestinian official told the 
newspaper yesterday that the investigation into Olmert means that 
Palestinians do not have a peace partner.  The official was quoted 
as saying that the PA realizes the allegations currently being 
investigated are more serious than previous probes.  "Our trouble is 
that we don't have a partner in Washington either," the official 
said about the American position on Israeli-Palestinian talks. In 
another development, Ha'aretz reported that Nabil Abu Rudeineh, PA 
President Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman, has released a statement saying 
that although Monday's meeting between Olmert and Abbas included an 
in-depth discussion on borders, there remain extensive gaps between 
the two sides.  Abu Rudeineh was quoted as saying that Abbas told 
Olmert that any final-status agreement must include the handover of 
the entire West Bank to the Palestinians.  He was also quoted as 
saying that Abbas would have to take drastic measures if no peace 
deal was reached.  Maariv quoted a high-ranking source in Abbas's 
bureau as saying that if a new government is formed, it would be 
necessary to see what its composition is before it is possible to 
see how the negotiations are affected.  "If you hold new elections, 
that's already another thing," said the source.  "In such a 
situation, there is no question that negotiations will be 
postponed."  Maariv reported that another high-ranking Palestinian 
source also related to the possibility that Olmert would not remain 
in his position.  "We only hope that the next prime minister, if 
Olmert falls, will honor all the commitments made so far," he was 
quoted as saying. "Israel has always said there is partner on the 
Palestinian side, but now we are discovered that the Israeli partner 
is the weak one."  Maariv also cited the concern of the security 
establishment about the investigation's effect on PM Olmert.  It was 
quoted as saying that political instability in wake of Ehud OlmertQs 
investigation is liable to have security ramifications -- 
particularly because after the holiday, the political echelon is 
supposed to decide whether to accept EgyptQs proposal to declare a 
cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that FM Tzipi Livni, who the newspaper 
says is veering to the right, is "bracing to inherit Olmert."  The 
paper quoted Livni associates as saying that red lines have been 
crossed in the talks with Abbas.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited the 
anger of Livni's entourage, which is quoted as saying that she does 
not support Olmert.  The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday 
Kadima members criticized Olmert and called for his resignation. 
The newspaper said that they see Livni, Internal Security Minister 
Avi Dichter, and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz as possible 
successors. 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel believes that Iran will 
master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium 
on a military scale this year.   The new assessment moves up 
Israel's forecasts on Tehran's nuclear program by almost a full year 
-- from 2009 to the end of 2008.  According to the new timeline, 
Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.  The 
newspaper quoted a senior defense official as saying yesterday that 
Iran had encountered numerous technical obstacles on its way to 
enriching uranium but was now on track to master the technology 
within six months.   The Jerusalem Post also reported that Israel is 
concerned that Tehran is developing a cruise missile that could 
evade interception by the Arrow, the IDF's anti-ballistic missile 
defense system. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the IAF carried out two raids in Gaza 
this morning.   Electronic media quoted Palestinian sources as 
saying that at least 11 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, were 
injured in the operation. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai as 
saying that Israel will hand over the Sdema army base near Bethlehem 
to the PA. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann has 
proposed an amendment to the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom 
that would exempt laws relating to immigration and citizenship from 
judicial review.  The amendment would presumably make it even harder 
for Palestinians married to Israelis to obtain citizenship. 
However, Ha'aretz reported that the amendment seems unlikely to 
pass. After receiving a draft of the proposal a few days ago, Labor 
Party Chairman Ehud Barak and two senior party members, Shalom 
Simhon and Ophir Pines-Paz, decided to recommend that their party 
oppose the bill.  Under the coalition agreement, no Basic Law can be 
amended without the consent of all coalition partners, so Labor's 
opposition would kill the proposal.  Earlier, Friedmann had proposed 
legislation to bar the court from intervening in security and 
budgetary issues, but Labor's opposition forced him to drop this 
idea as well. 
 
Major media reported that the Foreign Ministry is sending $100,000 
in initial emergency food and medical supplies to survivors of the 
deadly cyclone that battered Myanmar over the weekend.  The aid is 
being sent in coordination with the American Jewish Joint 
Distribution Committee. 
 
Maariv published the results of a TNS/Teleseker poll conducted on 
the occasion of Independence Day: 
Q: Will there soon be an agreement with the Palestinians? 
I don't believe so: 42.8%; I am sure there won't be one: 30.2%; I 
believe so: 17.9% 
Q: Which Israeli achievement are you most proud of? 
The high-tech [industry]: 63.1%; the IDF and its operations: 60.1%; 
the War of Independence and the establishment of the State of 
Israel: 52%. 
Q: What event influenced Israel most? 
The Six-Day War: 60.5%; the Yom Kippur War: 47.9%; the Rabin 
assassination: 46%. 
Q: Who was Israel's best prime minister? 
Menachem Begin: 31.4%; David Ben Gurion: 28.6%; Yitzhak Rabin: 
17.5% 
Q: Who was the IDF's best chief of staff? 
Moshe Dayan: 20.3%; Rafael Eitan [the commander of the First Lebanon 
War]; Yitzhak Rabin: 16.8%. 
Q: What is the most Israeli attribute? 
Cheekiness: 62.2%; The "trust me" and "it'll be OK" culture: 58.9%; 
impatience: 50.7%. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
----------------------------------- 
¶1.  Israel's 60th Independence Day: 
----------------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "[Positive 
diplomatic developments] arouse the hope that the State of Israel is 
stronger than its ills." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Sixty 
years after the Palestinian Arabs first rejected a two-state 
solution, they appear little closer to accepting a compromise that 
most Israelis could live with." 
 
Liberal columnist Ofer Shelach wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "When you are defending yourself against a Holocaust, there 
is no limit to the degree of force, and it has no purpose except 
that of survival." 
 
Liberal-turned-conservative author Eyal Megged wrote in Maariv: 
"Among wide, influential, leading circles in Israel, the word 
'homeland' has become a dirty word, an untouchable concept.  How can 
one love an occupying country?" 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Israel Is Stronger than its Ills" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (5/7): "The 
present Independence Day will be celebrated by the citizens of 
Israel as it is every year, ignoring the investigations of 
corruption, because basic pride at the success of the Zionist 
enterprise still beats in their hearts.... A government that is 
being dismantled cannot be expected to bring peace, but apparently 
the historical processes that are taking place in the region and in 
the world are stronger even than it.  The isolation of Hamas, which 
still wants to destroy Israel, the worldwide enlistment against the 
Iranian nuclear program, the peace talks with the moderate wing of 
the Palestinian people -- which wants to establish an independent 
state alongside Israel and to live with it in cooperation in the 
same conflict-ridden parcel of land -- the peace signals from Syria, 
which have met with a positive response on the Israeli side, and 
also a new U.S. administration, which may provide momentum for peace 
with Syria that the current administration refuses to provide -- all 
these arouse the hope that the State of Israel is stronger than its 
ills.... The aspirations of most Israelis for peace today have 
genuine partners in the Arab world, whose stance is no longer 
dependent only on the composition of some government or other in 
Israel.  If the gauntlet is picked up on both sides, perhaps we will 
finally see that same new Middle East that the president of the 
state [Simon Peres] has praised so highly." 
 
II.  "The Next 60 Years" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (5/7): 
"Sixty years on, Israel is a regional power, yet still not at peace 
with all its Arab neighbors.  The fight against terrorism demands 
unrelenting vigilance. Sderot and other southern communities are 
under intermittent bombardment from the Gaza Strip.  Hizbullah beats 
the drums of war, while Bashar Assad's intentions remain enigmatic. 
 
The greatest strategic threat comes from the fanatical Iranian 
regime, which threatens to wipe Israel off the map even as it 
dementedly denies the Holocaust.  The Palestinians mark our 
achievement of sovereignty as their Nakba, or catastrophe.  Mahmoud 
Abbas has yet to prepare his people for reconciliation. Sixty years 
after the Palestinian Arabs first rejected a two-state solution, 
they appear little closer to accepting a compromise that most 
Israelis could live with.  As Israeli officials speak of 
'considerable progress' in the post-Annapolis negotiations 
involving, perhaps, the uprooting of 60,000 Jews from Judea and 
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] and exit from parts of east Jerusalem, 
the Palestinians adhere to their demand for an Israeli pullback to 
the narrow boundaries of the 1949 Armistice Lines.  They have not 
abandoned their demand for a 'right of return,' which would spell 
the demise of the Jewish state.  That the Jewish people have 
sovereignty and the chance to enjoy a civilizational renascence in 
this land after a millennium in exile is -- quite literally -- a 
miracle.  May God shine His countenance upon us and navigate us 
safely through the next 60 years, and beyond." 
 
III.  "To Be Normal" 
 
Liberal columnist Ofer Shelach wrote in the popular, pluralist 
Maariv (5/7): "Anyone who sees himself as constantly on the 
defensive against a Holocaust, whose politicians, when they ask for 
his vote, instead of promising him hope and change, purport to be 
defending him against destruction, will recognize no limits, because 
when you are defending yourself against a Holocaust, there is no 
limit to the degree of force, and it has no purpose except that of 
survival.  Such a state perceives a local kidnapping by a small 
terrorist organization as an existential threat, and does not accept 
the limits of the purpose of its reprisal action.... In such a state 
the citizen does not get up in the morning and ask himself one 
simple question: what benefit do I derive from this umbrella 
organization called the state, which I established together with my 
fellow-citizens to make a better life for ourselves?.... Instead of 
that there is collective addiction to a 'feeling of security,' to 
expressionless generals who radiate 'military experience,' to the 
pointless sacrifice of every civilian objective for the sake of 
'security,' to the distorted values of the man at war, which in 
Israel are still regarded as expression of all that is exalted and 
beautiful in us." 
 
IV.  "It Is Allowed to Love" 
 
Liberal-turned-conservative author Eyal Megged wrote in Maariv 
(5/7): "It is allowed to love the land without loving Olmert.  One 
may long for the land without longing for Netanyahu or Barak, or 
even Ben Gurion.... Is it conceivable that the amount of love a 
Russian has for Russia depends on his degree of affection for 
Stalin, Gorbachev, or Putin?  Is it conceivable that the Russian 
will lose one gram of his connection to his homeland because of what 
it did in Afghanistan or Chechnya?  But among wide, influential, 
leading circles in Israel, the word 'homeland' has become a dirty 
word, an untouchable concept.  How can one love an occupying 
country?  Loving Israel has become an ignominy.... As Israel turns 
60, we can already relate to a condition in which we manage with our 
isolated homeland as one does with fate, and love it like the love 
of our life." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet: 
"Israel would have to be completely insane to accept [Hamas's] 
offer, which is meant to cast blame on it for the failure [of the 
truce], since this means a festival of terror [inside Israel]." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"The Paradox of Courage" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote on his Internet site Gplanet (5/6): 
"Closing the border with Gaza was a brilliant step and I assume that 
many have already begun to realize this, since enormous pressure has 
begun to be put on Egypt, which also has a border with Gaza, and 
less and less on Israel.... The Egyptians are trying to effect a 
'tahdiya,' a truce between Israel and Hamas, and have already 
reached agreement with all the Palestinian factions.... The 
agreement states: Israel will stop all its military activity in 
Gaza, and in tandem, the factions will stop firing Qassam rockets at 
Israel.  In six months this will also apply to Judea and Samaria 
[the West Bank], i.e., Israel must promise Egypt and the Americans 
that it will stop military activity in Judea and Samaria, and the 
factions are to stop their terror attacks from there.  Not a word, 
of course, about Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas does not want to give up. 
Israel would have to be completely insane to accept this offer, 
which is meant to cast blame on it for the failure [of the truce], 
since this means a festival of terror in Kfar Saba, in Jerusalem, in 
Petah Tikva and in central Israel, especially since after eight 
years, the separation fence is still not finished.  This means that 
the Palestinians will have a completely quiet home front in Judea 
and Samaria to develop their missile infrastructure there, too -- 
just as happened in Gaza, until the next round, when they will be 
much better prepared.  And the main point: high-ranking Palestinian 
sources say that Egypt promised the Palestinian factions that if 
Israel turned down the truce offer, or broke it, Egypt promises to 
open the Rafah crossing unilaterally to Palestinian traffic, and in 
effect, link Gaza to Egypt and to the Arab world.... Both Israel and 
Egypt are now sticking their fingers in the dam known as Gaza, which 
nobody wants.  The first to take his finger out -- the deluge will 
sweep over them, and I wish to remind us again of the 'bicycle 
strategy' that Khomeini espoused, and with which he succeeded in 
Iran: conducting a battle like this is like riding a bicycle.  If 
you stop, you fall." 
 
JONES