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DE RUEHTV #1237/01 1640958
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P 120958Z JUN 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001237 
 
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 reported that yesterday the diplomatic-security cabinet 
decided to exhaust the possibility to reach a cease-fire with Hamas 
pursuant to Israel's terms, thus putting a major military incursion 
into Gaza on hold.  Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Amos 
Gilad, the head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security 
Bureau, will travel to Egypt today to advance the truce. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday PM Ehud Olmert agreed to hold 
primaries in Kadima, which Yediot said will take place in September. 
 Ynet, Yediot's news web site, and other media quoted Defense 
Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak as saying this morning 
that on July 25 his party will lead a move to dissolve the Knesset 
if Kadima does not choose a new leadership. 
 
Ha'aretz cited Israel's assessment that Hizbullah may be trying to 
carry out a terrorist attack to "settle scores" with Israel in 
revenge for the death of its top executive Imad Mughniyah. 
Hizbullah blames Israel for Mughniyah's assassination.  Ha'aretz 
reported that in particular, Israel fears the assassination of a 
senior defense official. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that Rabbi Avi Gisser, the rabbi of the 
settlement of Ofra, took the extraordinary step of allowing 
construction work to go on seven days a week, irrespective of the 
religious prohibition against labor on Shabbat.  Ha'aretz reported 
that not all Ofra residents agree with this ruling.  Earlier this 
month, Israeli human rights groups submitted a petition to the High 
Court of Justice in which they claimed that homes in Ofra are being 
built on private land owned by Palestinian villagers. 
 
Israel Radio and Ynet reported that last night two settlers faked 
their abduction to a Palestinian village near Nablus.  They were 
arrested. 
 
Maariv reported that French President Nicolas Sarkozy might cancel 
his visit to Israel at the end of this month because of the 
 
 
political situation here.  Leading media reported that Olmert is 
looking forward to a possible meeting with Syrian President Assad in 
Paris at the founding session of the Mediterranean Union proposed by 
Sarkozy. 
 
Over the past few days the media reported that Justice Minister 
Daniel Friedmann has asked the cabinet secretariat to put on the 
agenda of the next cabinet meeting the possible creation of a state 
 
committee to probe the use of wiretapping in the 2006 investigation 
of Vice PM Haim Ramon.  The media reported that yesterday police 
sources suggested that cabinet approval of such a committee would be 
a means of "terrorizing" the police. 
 
Major media reported that opposition Knesset members accused Finance 
Minister Roni Bar-On of "election economics" after he announced a 
plan to cut some taxes while raising others at a press conference 
yesterday. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the Popular Resistance Committees, one of 
the groups responsible for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, as saying 
yesterday that Israel could "forget" about him if the IDF launched a 
military operation in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Electronic media reported that IDF troops fired at Palestinians in 
Beit Lahiya (northern Gaza Strip), possibly killing three of them. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted diplomats at the UN as saying that the chronic delay 
in appointing a new Israeli ambassador to the UN is causing 
scandalous damage to the Israeli mission's ability to prepare for 
the 63rd General Assembly meeting, where Israel is expected to face 
greater criticism in debates on Middle Eastern issues, particularly 
on relations with the Palestinians.  Dan Gillerman will wrap up his 
tenure as ambassador to the UN next month, which lasted five and a 
half years, and has made it clear he will not postpone his return to 
Israel. 
 
Major media reported that Ha'aretz and Israel TV journalist Daniel 
Ben Simon has joined the Labor Party, aspiring to become a Knesset 
member and create social change. 
 
Yediot reported that a Jewish woman from Baghdad who was forced to 
convert to Islam 55 years ago fled Iraq through an Arab country and 
contacted her brother in Israel, to which she will soon immigrate. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Sunday Nir Eliahu, a kibbutz 
near Kfar Sava, accepted Amal Carmieh as a member, making her the 
first Arab Muslim to become a member of the Kibbutz Movement. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that next week the Standards Institute 
of Israel will host an international conference on "Crisis 
Management of Water Utilities" and offer solutions for water 
security standards. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Conservative columnist Yaakov Amidror, a retired IDF major general, 
wrote in the independent Israel Hayom: "The security cabinet 
decision [to seek a truce with Hamas] is liable to produce a 
situation in which Israel will be forced to pay the full price for 
its consent to turn Hamas into a legitimate negotiating partner 
while, in the end, it will also be forced to go to war." 
 
Strategic issues researcher and former senior IDF officer Shmuel 
Meir wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Israel can 
apparently expect to face a new situation.  On one side will be the 
peace treaties with Syria, Lebanon and the entire Arab world, with a 
dramatic decrease in the incentive for war on the part of distant 
countries.  On the other side of the scale will be Israel's policy 
of [nuclear] ambiguity." 
 
Labor Party Knesset Member and former interior minister Ophir 
Pines-Paz wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv: "Ever since [I 
heard Senator Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic Party 
convention in Boston] I have followed his career with a great deal 
of affection and empathy.... But one thing is certain: We need to be 
very cautious with Obama and examine in depth his intentions towards 
Israel and the Middle East." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Israeli 
negotiators must learn that it is futile to assign Western political 
attitudes to -- and demand democratic civility from -- our 
neighbors, in the hope of resolving a conflict that would never have 
arisen had these attitudes existed in the first place." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "No Illusions" 
 
 
Conservative columnist Yaakov Amidror, a retired IDF major general, 
wrote in the independent Israel Hayom (6/12): "The security cabinet 
decision [to pursue a truce with Hamas] is not clear.  It lacks a 
clear definition of the goal, and it is vague about what is worth 
fighting for, if need be.  The security cabinet decision is liable 
to produce a situation in which Israel will be forced to pay the 
full price for its consent to turn Hamas into a legitimate 
negotiating partner while, in the end, it will also be forced to go 
to war.  There are three things that ought to be clarified in order 
to improve the public debate on this matter:  1) If a large-scale 
military operation is proposed without the attendant willingness to 
remain in the Gaza Strip for many years to come, then Israel must 
not launch such an operation.  Any operation that is concluded with 
an IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip after a brief presence will be 
catastrophic.... 2) A truce (tahdiya) will not advance the 
negotiations over Gilad Shalit.  The only influence it might have is 
negative. During a truce Hamas will have no incentive to lower the 
price that it is demanding in exchange for Shalit. On the 
contraryQunder the umbrella of the truce it will be easier for Hamas 
to negotiate since it will have no reason to fear any action against 
it.... and 3) ShalitQs fate must not be a crucial factor when 
deciding whether to launch a military operation.  If a large-scale 
operation in the Gaza Strip is justified in terms of the need to 
address the problem of Gaza, then the needs of the state and of 
thousands of citizens must take precedence over the fate of a lone 
soldier.  After all, thousands of soldiers are going to be putting 
their lives on the line in the anticipated operation.  Why is their 
blood less important than Shalit's?  If Israel had decent 
intelligence, it would be appropriate to endanger the lives of a few 
dozen soldiers in a rescue operation." 
 
II.  "On the Horns of Dilemma" 
 
Strategic issues researcher and former senior IDF officer Shmuel 
Meir wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (6/12): "Israel 
can apparently expect to face a new situation.  On one side will be 
the peace treaties with Syria, Lebanon and the entire Arab world, 
with a dramatic decrease in the incentive for war on the part of 
distant countries.  On the other side of the scale will be Israel's 
policy of ambiguity.  The Arab League's peace initiative likewise 
created a connection between the nuclear potential and peace.  The 
doctrine of ambiguity succeeded in the peace with Egypt, but since 
then Egypt has raised the threshold of its demands for nuclear 
disarmament.  The United States, which has supported Israel in 
international forums, was not able to remove the Egyptian position 
from the agenda.... Peace talks with Syria and the declaration on 
the part of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter about Israel's 
nuclear capabilities, indicate this future has already arrived. 
Syria, with the diplomatic backing of other countries, is likely to 
stick by its position and to demand nuclear symmetry: full 
inspection of its facilities and possibly also those of Iran, in 
return for full inspection on the Israeli side.  A central layer in 
the doctrine of ambiguity -- a declarative policy of 
non-proliferation and inspection when comprehensive peace is 
attained -- will have to stand the test. Nuclear potential and peace 
are no longer separate worlds or worlds apart." 
 
III.  "Warily Respect Him" 
 
Labor Party Knesset Member and former interior minister Ophir 
Pines-Paz wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (6/12): "Ever since 
[I heard Senator Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic Party 
convention in Boston] I have followed his career with a great deal 
of affection and empathy.... [His AIPAC] speech troubled me not only 
because Obama's positions were more right wing than George Bush and 
even [nationalist Israeli politician] Effi Eitam, but mainly because 
I wondered how a leader who delivered such a pro-Israel, pro-Jewish 
and pro-Zionist speech had never truly taken an active role in that 
area -- neither in his work in Illinois nor in Washington.... What 
bothered me principally about ObamaQs speech was his over-eagerness 
to please his audience.  As the saying in English goes, it was 'too 
good to be true.'  And that is what it was.  My concern is that a 
person who speaks with such alacrity when addressing the members of 
AIPAC on the eve of the presidential elections might speak 
differently at other venues.  Therefore, there are two disturbing 
alternatives: Either Obama tells his audience everything it wants to 
hear, plus a bit more and, as such, could have said while addressing 
our adversaries what they wanted to hear.  Or, once he is elected, 
Obama will persevere with the direction taken and will do 
everything, just like the incumbent American president, to appease 
the Israeli right wing, while imposing a moratorium on the political 
process and destroying any chance of making peace.  I found myself 
worried that Obama is the kind of politician who wants to get 
elected at any cost -- the kind of politician who on the day after 
his election will use the tired old saying that 'things from here 
look different that they do from there.'  Maybe IQm wrong.  Maybe 
it's just over-sensitivity.  Maybe we ought to enjoy and be 
impressed by the unconditional support he voiced for us in that 
speech.  Maybe, but maybe not.  Time will tell.  But one thing is 
 
certain: We need to be very cautious with Obama and examine in depth 
his intentions towards Israel and the Middle East." 
 
IV.  "Bargaining with Assad" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (6/12): 
"In principle, a well-negotiated agreement with Syria is in Israel's 
strategic interest.... The first rule of negotiation: Know your 
primary objective, and carry a realistic assessment of achieving 
it.... Israel's main goal is to weaken the alliance between Syria 
and Iran, and by extension improve the prospects of a strategic 
normalization with Damascus and the rest of the Arab world. The 
prospects of such a Syrian break with the Islamic Republic, never 
likely, were made even less so at end of last month ... when Syria 
and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding regarding defense 
issues....This brings us to the second rule of negotiation: Be aware 
of the adversaries of your adversary.  Israeli officials, if they do 
not wish to act as pawns in Syria's bid for international 
respectability, ought to take stock of the reasons why even other 
Arab states refuse to engage with Syria.... The third rule: Know 
your position of relative strength. This means acknowledging that 
Syria, unlike Israel, is in crucial respects a failed state.... In 
short, the Syrian masses, now numbering almost 20 million, are no 
better off than before independence; they merely serve different 
despots.  Their leaders, meanwhile, habitually deflect blame onto 
'imperialism' and Israel.  A final and most critical rule of 
negotiation: Avoid the temptation to project your values or 
assumptions onto the party sitting on the other side of the table. 
Israeli negotiators must learn that it is futile to assign Western 
political attitudes to -- and demand democratic civility from -- our 
neighbors, in the hope of resolving a conflict that would never have 
arisen had these attitudes existed in the first place." 
 
JONES