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P 130522Z MAY 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001025 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The media began describing President Bush's visit to Israel starting 
Wednesday.  A headline in Yediot reads: "Bush-Mania Is Back." 
 
All media reported that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman 
will present the Gaza cease-fire proposal today to Prime Minister 
Olmert, Defense Minister Barak, and Foreign Minister Livni.  Yediot 
reported that Ofer Dekel, PM Ehud Olmert's special envoy on a 
prisoner swap, wrote Olmert and Barak to say that if Israel does not 
demand the release of Gilad Shalit as part of the agreement with 
Hamas, it would mean that they have given up on him.  Yediot cited 
Egypt's belief that this agreement is the last chance to avoid a 
large-scale Israeli incursion into Gaza.  Ha'aretz reported that PM 
Olmert is expected to visit Egypt in the coming weeks and discuss 
Gaza as well as the state of the post Annapolis negotiations with 
President Hosni Mubarak. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that according to sources involved in the probe 
into Olmert, the investigation is focusing on hundreds of thousands 
of dollars that American businessman and fund-raiser Morris Talansky 
gave to Olmert while Olmert was Minister of Trade and Industry and 
not as Olmert claimed, on supposed campaign contributions from 
Talansky while Olmert was the Mayor of Jerusalem.  According to the 
sources, Olmert was not involved in any political campaign at the 
time of these alleged payments.   Ha'aretz has additionally learned 
that the debts of an organization that campaigned for Olmert's 
election as mayor of Jerusalem were covered out of funds received 
from Talansky.  In an interview with Channel 10-TV on Sunday, 
Talansky "emphatically" denied that he bribed Olmert. 
 
Maariv cited the concern of Kadima members that Olmert will push FM 
Livni to the wall and make her resign.  They were quoted as saying 
that Livni does not back Olmert and that she will pay for this in 
elections, even if Olmert is not Kadima's candidate.  However, 
Maariv quoted senior Kadima members as saying that if Olmert forces 
Livni to resign, the party will crumble.  Maariv said that if Livni 
goes, the big winner may be Shaul Mofaz, who would take over the 
post of FM. 
 
Yediot quoted IDF Intelligence head Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin as saying 
at Sunday's weekly cabinet session that Iran pushed Hizbullah into 
acting.  Maariv reported that acceding to U.S. pressure, Israel 
agreed to reduce IAF flights over Lebanon to a bare minimum. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom emphasized Lebanese PM Fouad 
Siniora's comment on Sunday: "Even the Israeli enemy never dared to 
do to Beirut what Hizbullah has done."  Ha'aretz reported that Vice 
PM Haim Ramon told cabinet members yesterday that Lebanon must be 
viewed as a "Hizbullah state," after the Shi'ite guerilla group 
seized control of the western part of Beirut over the weekend. 
"Lebanon has no government.  It is a fiction, there is only 
Hizbullah," Ramon was quoted as saying. 
 
Yediot reported that PM Olmert will leave for the U.S. on May 31 for 
a five-day visit to attend AIPAC's annual convention. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot featured the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. 
Truman -- according to Ha'aretz, "first and foremost a magnificent 
fighting machine" -- currently cruising between Israel and Cyprus. 
On Sunday Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that the Bush 
administration appears set to offer Israel a powerful radar system 
that could greatly boost Israeli defenses against enemy ballistic 
missiles.   The Jerusalem Post reported that President Bush is 
expected to discus the issue during his visit this week. 
 
On Sunday Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the IDF is concerned 
over the sharing of information and the joint learning process among 
the extremist elements surrounding Israel -- Iran, Syria, Hizbullah 
and Palestinian terror organizations in the West Bank and Gaza.  The 
newspaper also said that the U.S. is suffering from this military 
cooperation. 
 
Leading media quoted Democratic presidential candidate Senator 
Barack Obama as saying during a surprise appearance at the Israeli 
Embassy's celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary that the 
U.S.-Israel friendship is "unbreakable."  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that a new Gallup survey found that 61% pf Jewish voters 
prefer Obama to Sen. John McCain, who got 32% of the Jewish 
support. 
 
Israel Radio reported that two improved Qassam rockets landed in 
Ashkelon this morning.  All media reported that Jimmy Kedoshim, a 
member of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, was killed in a mortar attack on Friday. 
 Media reported that IDF retaliations killed five Hamas men.  Media 
reported that an IDF/police investigation found that a Palestinian, 
who was shot to death on Friday near a cave north of Ramallah where 
Israelis were hiking, was killed by Israeli gunfire. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Gaza's only power plant has been shut down 
since Saturday afternoon due to a lack of fuel, and that the Strip's 
bakeries announced Sunday that they would shut down as well because 
of a lack of fuel to run their ovens. As a result of the power 
plant's shutdown, almost a third of Gaza's residents are without 
electricity.  Israel has not transferred fuel to Gaza since last 
Wednesday, just before the Independence Day holiday began.  Maariv 
reported that Hamas has recently inaugurated the "Palestine Cavalry 
Unit" -- because of the fuel shortage. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a new winery is currently being set up in the 
West Bank, in an area three kilometers from Migron, an outpost that 
the state promised the Supreme Court would be removed by August. 
 
Maariv reported that Al-Azhar University-associated Muslim scholars 
in Cairo have issued an edict forbidding the sale of Egyptian gas to 
Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that yesterday several dozen Palestinian refugees, 
public figures, and Israeli left-wing activists toured the West 
Jerusalem neighborhoods of Talbieh and Baka to mark the 60th 
anniversary of the Nakba. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz reported that Shmuel Katz in The 
Jerusalem Post's words, a "historic figure of the Zionist Right" -- 
died on Friday in Tel Aviv, at the age of 93. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) 
poll, which show that 59% of Israelis believe that PM Olmert should 
resign. 
Asked about their voting intentions if Livni heads Kadima in the 
next elections, the respondents said they favor Kadima granting it 
the equivalent of 27 Knesset mandates; Labor would get 15 mandates; 
and Likud 23. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Not only have matters not improved since ... 
Annapolis ... since then, the occupation has been progressing, while 
the vision of two states has been receding." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "Faced with ... two threats, from both north 
and south, Israel can no longer sit with arms folded or make do with 
military bombast.  It must also examine the diplomatic alternatives 
and make immediate and wise use of them while they still exist." 
 
Veteran columnist and anchor Yaron London wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Contrary to those who 
believe that we should not have launched the [Second Lebanon] War or 
that it should have been reduced to a short and deterring 
retaliatory strike, I believe that had we been better at forecasting 
 what we could expect, we would have expanded the war's goals and 
defined them as weakening Hizbullah's strength to such an extent 
that it would not be able to restore it for some years." 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Iran and Syria back their 
friends with weapons and help; the West responds with words backed 
by nothing.  Who can blame Hizbullah and Damascus and Tehran for 
laughing in contempt?" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and military correspondent 
Yaakov Katz wrote on the first page of the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "If Hizbullah takes over Lebanon and uses it to 
stage attacks on Israel, Jerusalem would have no compunction about 
striking at Lebanon's infrastructure, something it was hesitant to 
do during the Second Lebanon War." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Bush Should Stay Home" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (5/12): "If George Bush were a true friend of 
Israel, he would seize the investigation against Prime Minister Ehud 
Olmert as an excuse to stay home tomorrow.  Unless he has a rabbit 
in his hat, this will be the third time in the past half year that 
the President of the U.S. shows the Palestinians and the entire Arab 
world that they are wasting their time by trying to end the 
occupation by peaceful means.  Not only have matters not improved 
since he troubled dozens of leaders from around the world to come to 
Annapolis in late November, 2007; since then, the occupation has 
been progressing, while the vision of two states has been receding. 
The number of new buildings erected in the settlements in the last 
few months rivals only the number of roadblocks that have been added 
since Bush last visited Jerusalem, in January.  Bush is an 
accomplice to an offense far worse than all of the criminal offenses 
of which Olmert is suspected combined.  Every speech made by the 
President is one more bit of exposure of the nakedness of the 
Palestinian circles who tied their collective fate to the Annapolis 
declaration, which pledged to 'make every effort to conclude an 
agreement before the end of 2008.'  In light of the stasis in the 
negotiations, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) seems 
likely to resign even before Olmert does.  The failed gamble of the 
United States also undermines the standing of leaders in Egypt, 
Saudi Arabia and Jordan." 
 
II.  "Bypassing the Factions" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (5/12): "On its northern border, Israel is 
facing a country controlled less by its government than by a 
dangerous organization.  And within Lebanon itself, there is not 
much Israel can do about this situation, either militarily or 
diplomatically.  However, it has another alternative: Prompt, 
serious engagement in diplomatic negotiations with Syria could 
create an envelope around Lebanon that would significantly reduce 
Hizbullah's ability to act against Israel.  Granted, Syria cannot be 
expected to sever its ties with either Iran or Hizbullah.  But when 
a country that is allied with Iran and gives aid to Hizbullah is not 
'embarrassed' to declare its desire to forge a peace and security 
pact with Israel, it thereby presents a genuine strategic 
alternative.  However, it is not just on its northern border that 
Israel faces an organization in control of a state.  In Gaza, Hamas 
continues to hold the reins of government and to determine not only 
its own military response to Israel, but also the nature of Israel's 
relationship with its neighbors, especially Egypt.  But as with 
Hizbullah in Lebanon, in Gaza, too, Israel has an opportunity that 
must not be missed to deal with the political monopoly that Hamas is 
gradually consolidating for itself: advancing negotiations with the 
Palestinian Authority and demonstrating its determination to fulfill 
all the conditions of the Roadmap peace plan.  Even removing 
sanctions on Gaza, which have thus far not proven effective, might 
do much to neutralize Hamas's political leverage.  Faced with these 
two threats, from both north and south, Israel can no longer sit 
with arms folded or make do with military bombast.  It must also 
examine the diplomatic alternatives and make immediate and wise use 
of them while they still exist." 
 
III.  "The Syrian Option" 
 
Veteran columnist and anchor Yaron London wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (5/12): "Hizbullah did 
not wait for its constant pressure and measured steps to topple the 
secular government, influenced by the democratic traditions of the 
West.  Rather, it launched an exercise to take control of the 
capital, and if it can control the capital, that is the same as 
controlling the entire country.  The street battles in Beirut proved 
once again just how powerless Hizbullah's rivals are.  The Sunni 
Arab states and the superpowers in the West did not threaten with 
military intervention and sufficed with a call to the warring sides 
to settle their differences by means of negotiations.  The execution 
of sentence has been slightly delayed because, for the time being 
Hizbullah would prefer to rule without taking on the responsibility 
required of a ruling party.  But as soon as its leaders want it, 
Hizbullah will grab the reins and we will be sitting next to a 
benighted Shi'ite regime, Iran's forward outpost.  This outpost is 
equipped with tens of thousands of rockets that have all of Israel's 
population centers within range, and when it fully seizes power, it 
will also enjoy territorial depth and will have seaports and an 
airport at its disposal.  Against this background, we must reexamine 
the causes and the purpose of the two wars in Lebanon.  In the 
first, we forged a sterile alliance with the receding element of the 
Lebanese population and we missed an opportunity to win the trust of 
the Shiite element.  In the second, we did not define our goals 
properly and did not properly evaluate the ability of the enemy. 
Contrary to those who believe that we should not have launched the 
war or that it should have been reduced to a short and deterring 
retaliatory strike, I believe that had we been better at forecasting 
 what we could expect, we would have expanded the war's goals and 
defined them as weakening Hizbullah's strength to such an extent 
that it would not be able to restore it for some years.  What we 
didn't do then, we will have to do under more difficult conditions, 
unless we make peace with Syria." 
 
IV.  "As Lebanon Turns into Gaza" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (5/12): "While America's 
secretary of state devotes her time to doomed Israel-Palestinian 
talks and America goes gaga over a candidate whose entire foreign 
policy strategy is to talk to dictators, yet another crisis is 
empowering radical Islamists and undercutting Western friends and 
interests.  The Lebanese logjam has broken at last as Hizbullah 
seized Beirut and inflicted a major defeat on the government. 
Hizbullah is pulling a more limited version of Hamas's Gaza strategy 
in Lebanon as the world stands by.  Iran and Syria back their 
friends with weapons and help; the West responds with words backed 
by nothing.  Who can blame Hizbullah and Damascus and Tehran for 
laughing in contempt?.... This is Hizbullah's program: a new 
Lebanese consensus based on 51% of power for itself and its 
pro-Syrian allies.  What's needed isn't consensus (equivalent to 
getting Fatah-Hamas cooperation or an Iraq coordinated with Iran and 
Syria) but winning a conflict.  Instead, Obama is -- whether he 
knows it or not -- backing a Syrian-Iranian- and Hizbullah-dominated 
Lebanon. Such talk makes moderate Arabs despair.  When Obama says 
he'll make Syria and Iran partners in setting Iraq's future, he is 
signaling every Persian Gulf regime to cut its own deal with 
Iran.... This does not mean that Obama is the candidate favored by 
Arabs in general; he is favored only by the radicals. Egyptians, 
Jordanians, Gulf Arabs, and the majorities in Lebanon and Iraq are 
very worried.  This is not just an Israel problem. It is one for all 
non-extremists in the region.  If the dictators and terrorists are 
smiling, it means everyone else is crying." 
 
¶V.  "Israel Eyes both Dangers, Opportunities in a Hizbullah Takeover 
of Lebanon" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon and military correspondent 
Yaakov Katz wrote on the first page of the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (5/12): "If Hizbullah takes over Lebanon and uses it 
to stage attacks on Israel, Jerusalem would have no compunction 
about striking at Lebanon's infrastructure, something it was 
hesitant to do during the Second Lebanon War for fear of toppling 
the democratic government in Beirut, diplomatic sources said  on 
Sunday.  According to the officials, while Hizbullah control of 
Lebanon would pose enormous challenges for Israel, it would provide 
opportunities for the IDF in that infrastructure targets considered 
out of bounds while Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora was in 
control would suddenly be fair play if Hizbullah leader Hassan 
Nasrallah were making the decisions. 
 
JONES