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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001292 
 
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.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended her 
sixth trip to the region this year, with no sign of progress on the 
Israeli-Palestinian track  The paper quoted Israeli and Palestinian 
officials as saying that faced with the prospect of early elections 
should Olmert fall, Israel's chief negotiator, FM Tzipi Livni, has 
balked at producing a document that could spell out proposed 
concessions on borders and other issues.  Ha'aretz said that Israeli 
officials were also cool to suggestions, backed by the Palestinians, 
that Rice hold more intensive three-way meetings with Livni and her 
Palestinian negotiating partner Ahmed Qurei.  Israeli sources were 
quoted as saying that instead Livni favored a joint announcement 
that the negotiations will continue after Bush leaves office in 
2009, though her position puts her at odds with Olmert who favors a 
written agreement this year.   Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman, said 
yesterday: "The goal is still to reach an agreement with the 
Palestinians by the end of Bush's term." 
 
Major media (except Maariv) reported that an exchange of prisoners 
with Hizbullah is expected to take place in the near future. 
Ha'aretz reported that Israeli security sources confirmed this 
yesterday and that the deal is likely to take place late next week. 
Leading media reported that Israel told Hizbullah that were it to 
reject the deal, Israel would make known that abductees Eldad Regev 
and Ehud Goldwasser are no longer alive.  Yediot bannered the dread 
of Regev and Goldwasser's parents of the moment they will be told 
(that their sons may be dead). 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that PM Ehud Olmert's two top diplomatic 
advisers -- chief of staff Yoram Turbowicz and chief foreign policy 
adviser Shalom Turgeman -- finished two days of indirect talks with 
Syria in Turkey on Monday, and headed for Paris, fueling speculation 
that they were trying to arrange a meeting between Olmert and Syrian 
President Bashar Assad at a regional conference in Paris next month. 
  The Jerusalem Post quoted sources in the Prime Minister's Office 
as saying that Olmert's advisers were impressed "by the positive 
atmosphere, and the constructive nature of the discussions."  Yediot 
reported that the Israeli and Syrian teams agreed yesterday that "PM 
Olmert's political crisis will not negatively influence the 
continuation of the dialogue."  However, Yediot reported that the 
Syrian team expressed its concern to the Turkish mediators that an 
Israeli prime minister who would succeed Olmert might not honor 
agreements and understandings reached during the current talks. 
Ha'aretz reported that Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN Secretary-General's 
special envoy for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 
1559, is highly critical of the talks. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted an American official involved in monitoring 
Israel-PA relations as saying yesterday that the roadblocks and 
other traffic impediments lifted by Israel in the West Bank in 
recent months have not significantly altered the situation on the 
ground for the Palestinian population,  The same official noted that 
the PA security forces have taken action to counter terrorist 
activities, and carried out a major operation in Jenin where they 
tried to arrest suspects who had been on Israel's wanted list.  "The 
security forces can do even more, but they have had some successes," 
he was quoted as saying.  He added that the U.S. administration is 
not providing the PA security forces with arms, and stressed that 
according to information received by the Americans, weapons recently 
transferred to the PA did not make their way to Islamic militants. 
He explained that the central weakness of the PA security 
establishment is in the Palestinian legal system, which makes it 
impossible for the Palestinian authorities to prosecute suspects or 
to remand them in custody.  "The changes in this area [law] have not 
been sufficient," the official was quoted as saying.  The official 
was quoted as saying that the Palestinian National Security force 
that completed its basic training in Jordan has gone back for more 
specialized training under U.S. guidance.  He said that Israel has 
still not made clear whether it would agree to the transfer of 
protective equipment for the PA security forces, items like helmets 
and protective vests. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media quoted Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh as saying 
yesterday that an agreement on a cease-fire with Israel is near. 
Ha'aretz reported that Israeli security sources told the newspaper 
that today, Israel expects to receive the clarifications about the 
truce that it requested from Hamas via Egyptian mediators.  But 
Haniyeh announced yesterday that Hamas has already succeeded in 
getting Israel to separate the truce talks from a deal to free 
kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.  "The truce must be mutual," Haniyeh 
added, stressing that Hamas continues to insist that any such deal 
include the reopening of the border crossings into Gaza.  "It will 
begin in Gaza, and then spread to the West Bank."  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that yesterday a U.S. military delegation arrived 
along the Egypt-Gaza border and was assisting border police there in 
setting up tunnel-detection equipment to counter smuggling under the 
Philadelphi Corridor. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the number of Knesset members who 
support the dissolution of the Knesset has risen to 69, as Shas 
decided to back the move.  Leading media reported that Defense 
Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak is continuing to promote 
the dissolution of the Knesset.  However, Maariv reported that eight 
Labor MKs have decided not to support the proposal, but to transfer 
it to party institutions in which a majority will oppose it. 
 
Yediot quoted sources in Senator Barack Obama's presidential 
campaign team as saying that he will come to Israel and meet with 
President Shimon Peres, PM Olmert, and possibly with the foreign and 
defense ministers, as well as opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. 
 
Leading media reported that fighting escalated along the Gaza border 
yesterday, with the IDF killing four armed Palestinians and an 
Israeli civilian wounded in a Palestinian rocket strike on Ashkelon. 
 The missile was an enhanced Qassam rocket with an 18-kilometer 
range -- longer than that of an ordinary Qassam. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that fears are mounting in the Israeli 
defense establishment that comments by senior officials regarding an 
imminent Israeli military strike against Iran will spur Russia to 
complete controversial sales of anti-aircraft missile systems to the 
Islamic Republic.  There is also a fear that the comments will lead 
Iran to take extra precautions in defending its nuclear 
installations and begin to relocate and scatter some of them 
throughout the country.  The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday 
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called on the U.S. and 
Israel should set up a high-level forum to coordinate strategy and 
policy on ways to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons 
capability.  The think-tank issued the call to establish a new 
presidential-prime ministerial forum on strategic issues as one of 
the key recommendations of its Presidential Task Force on the Future 
of U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
Ha'aretz reported that secretariat of the settlement of Ofra told 
the High Court of Justice on Friday that Ofra has connected nine 
homes allegedly built on Palestinian land to water and electricity, 
and that people have moved in.  This being the case, the demand by 
the human rights organizations Yesh Din and B'Tselem for an 
injunction against occupying the homes was irrelevant, the 
secretariat told the court.  Ofra argued that the organizations 
demanding the injunction "knew all along about the construction, 
since the development and building work began in June 2007." 
Ha'aretz quoted Yesh Din as saying that the settlement's claim that 
"all the houses" are occupied is strange and constitutes a major 
failure by the authorities. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Peace Now has called for the immediate 
suspension of the Hebron district police Colonel Avshalom Peled, who 
on Sunday suggested left-wing activists visiting the city caused 
"dangerous" provocations.  "Hebron police should focus on right-wing 
rioters and not try to conceal the disgraceful reality it is 
responsible for," Peace Now chairman Yariv Oppenheimer was quoted as 
saying yesterday.  Peled told the major Internet news site Ynet on 
Sunday that civil disturbances are caused by both right-wing and 
left-wing activists in order to shape public opinion.  Israel Radio 
reported that the police may have identified two masked settlers who 
beat up Palestinians in the southern Hebron hills on June 9.  The 
media reported that the event was videotaped with a camera lent by 
the human rights group B'Tselem to Palestinians. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a delegation of senior Fatah officials will 
arrive in Gaza today, for the first time since Hamas seized control 
of the Strip last year, to discuss the possibility of a 
reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian factions. The 
delegation will not actually meet with Hamas officials; rather, it 
will meet with Fatah members who reside in Gaza. However, a Hamas 
spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, said yesterday that his organization will 
do everything possible to promote a resumption of the Hamas-Fatah 
dialogue, implying that Hamas will make no effort to disrupt the 
Fatah officials' meetings. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday, in a unanimous vote by its 27 
country members, the EU decided to upgrade relations with Israel in 
the field of trade, economy, academia, as well as an improvement in 
the diplomatic dialogue between the sides. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the new JStreetPAC 
announced its first endorsements of candidates as part of its effort 
to challenge the established pro-Israel Political Action Committees 
in Washington. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that yesterday Israel Aerospace 
Industries presented its Nimrod 3 missile at the Eurosatory defense 
exhibition in Paris. 
 
Major media reported that the leading Israeli pharmaceutical company 
Teva is the first to develop a drug slowing the progress of the 
Parkinson disease (Azilect), and that the firm gained 3% on the Tel 
Aviv stock exchange yesterday. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "It would be 
better for Olmert to leave the stage -- and for his would-be 
successors to improve their positions there -- against the 
background of courageous acts of leadership.  They must decide to 
decide." 
 
Yoav Limor, the military correspondent of Israel TV, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom: "The open cases [of prisoner exchanges] 
need to be closed, even if the price is exorbitant, but immediately 
thereafter to declare: No more." 
 
Political and parties columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel cannot afford 
to once again pay the price of a missed opportunity, of forgetting, 
of abandonment." 
 
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle 
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote on the Nana website 
(www.nana10.co.il) (6/16): "Israel... is waking up to a reality in 
which a hostile entity that is not interested in a peace process and 
historic reconciliation with it has been formed on its southern 
border." 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information (IPCRI), wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "Are the basic national demands of both 
sides reconcilable?  I believe that they are.... It is now time to 
begin to show the publics that progress is being made and that hope 
is still alive." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Deciding to Decide" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (6/16): "While 
there is some basis for the impression [that politicians are partly 
motivated by personal and party considerations], people who profess 
to be leaders have an obligation to rise above such behavior and 
make decisions, despite the difficulties and the political price. 
This is especially true regarding two moves, one in the North and 
one in the South, involving Israel's relations with Hizbullah and 
Hamas, respectively: a deal to exchange Lebanese prisoners for 
Israeli captives, and an agreement on a cease-fire in Gaza.  In both 
cases, the broad outline is fairly clear. Israel will receive 
certain assets ... and for this, of course, there is massive support 
among the Israeli public.  The hesitation stems from the assets 
Israel will have to cede to these extremist Islamic organizations in 
exchange:... What is keeping Israel from implementing both of these 
deals -- along with a deal to release hundreds of Palestinian 
prisoners in exchange for Shalit, soon after the cease-fire is in 
place -- is political will.  In practice, this means a willingness 
to risk the anger of the critics, both inside and outside the 
Knesset, including relatives of the victims of terror attacks.  And 
that requires courage: If the deals turn out to be mistakes, their 
opponents will be strengthened.  That, however, is the true test of 
leadership.... It would be better for Olmert to leave the stage -- 
and for his would-be successors to improve their positions there -- 
against the background of courageous acts of leadership.  They must 
decide to decide." 
 
II.  "Just One Last Deal" 
 
Yoav Limor, the military correspondent of Israel TV, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (6/16): "Irrespective of [the case of MIA 
Ron] Arad, the question of the price still remains dangling in the 
air.  If [Hizbullah abductees] Goldwasser and Regev are dead, why is 
Israel releasing live prisoners in exchange for them?  Why not 
adhere to the principle of life for life, bodies for bodies?  An 
excellent question that is all the more applicable in the argument 
(which still hasn't heated up) over the Gilad Shalit deal.  There we 
are going to release 450 terrorists, including multiple murderers, 
in exchange for a lone soldier.  Without getting into the heart of 
the argument -- everyone is entitled to his or her opinion -- Israel 
ought to set for itself boundaries that are clear, but mainly ones 
that are publicly declared.  The open cases need to be closed, even 
if the price is exorbitant, but immediately thereafter to declare: 
No more.  A string of former senior security and political officials 
have come to support that point of view, and the time has come for 
it to be Israel's official and clear position.  Had we conducted 
ourselves that way in the past, Ron Arad might have come home long 
ago." 
 
III.  "With All the Pain" 
 
Political and parties columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/16): "The dilemma is 
clear to all of us: What is Israel prepared to pay if it turns out 
that [Hizbullah] will hand over corpses?  This likely is the reason 
why Hizbullah is in a haste to carry out the deal.... But the chance 
shouldn't be wasted.  There isn't going to be  'another time' or a 
'next deal.'  This is not for [Hizbullah abductees] Regev and 
Goldwasser.  Neither is it for Gilad Shalit.  Israel cannot afford 
to once again pay the price of a missed opportunity, of forgetting, 
of abandonment.  No more." 
 
IV.  "On the First Anniversary of Hamas's Regime" 
 
Professor Eyal Zisser, the Chairman of the Department of Middle 
Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, wrote on the Nana website 
(www.nana10.co.il) (6/16): "This week marks the first anniversary of 
Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip.... In the near future a truce 
will be achieved that will allow Hamas to entrench itself further, 
organize its troops, and advance its arsenal of rockets.  It seems 
that the people who turned a blind eye to the rocket fire... will 
continue to turn a blind eye even if Hamas begins to fire rockets at 
Ashdod and Kiryat Gat....  Israel, therefore, is waking up to a 
reality in which a hostile entity that is not interested in a peace 
process and historic reconciliation with it has been formed on its 
southern border.  This entity is prepared to have a truce with 
Israel, but similar to the quiet (or should we say truce) that 
exists on Israel's northern border with Hamas's twin sister, 
Hizbullah, it seems that in this case we are talking about a 
temporary state of calm that is not going to lead Israel and the 
entire region in a positive direction." 
 
¶V.  "The Roadmap Can Work" 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information (IPCRI), wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (6/16): "Are the basic national demands 
of both sides reconcilable?  I believe that they are.  The major 
Israeli demands and needs concern security.  It seems to me that if 
Israel is convinced that the Palestinians are truly committed to 
removing the language of violence and armed struggle from their 
side, and they see it actually happening on the ground (as Abbas is 
proving daily), Israel would be much more forthcoming concerning 
territorial issues.... As long as there is a government in Jerusalem 
and in Ramallah there is a mandate to negotiate.  Any agreement 
reached will have to be brought back to the people on both sides. 
If Olmert and Abbas fail to reach an agreement, I believe that 
history will judge that failure as criminal.  The time has come for 
the leaders to begin to wrap up the negotiations.  They've done a 
very good job at keeping the negotiations secret.  It is now time to 
begin to show the publics that progress is being made and that hope 
is still alive." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "As he 
considers the legacy he is about to leave behind, it will hopefully 
occur to the President that the only way to leave the world more 
secure is to match his policies towards Iran to his rhetoric." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Bush's Rhetoric, Bush's Policies" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (6/16): "Bush 
tried to place a wedge between the Iranian regime and the Iranian 
people by arguing -- correctly -- that the Iranian people are 
suffering under the mullahocracy's jackboot.  But he has also taken 
toppling the Iranian regime off the table.  So the oppressed Iranian 
people have no reason to believe that were they to risk their lives 
in an attempt to free themselves of their leaders, the U.S. would 
support them.... Throughout much of his presidency, and especially 
since 2006, what has been most notable about Bush's rhetoric is that 
it has been completely disconnected from his policies.  As he 
considers the legacy he is about to leave behind, it will hopefully 
occur to the President that the only way to leave the world more 
secure is to match his policies towards Iran to his rhetoric." 
 
JONES