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DE RUEHTV #1326/01 1721001
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P 201001Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001326 
 
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 the truce continues to hold in and around 
the Gaza Strip.  Ha'aretz quoted military sources as saying 
yesterday that if the cease-fire holds, the army will begin to 
redeploy some of its troops to other sectors or for training.  At 
the moment, the troops are still on high alert.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted Hamas officials as saying yesterday that although the 
cease-fire does not include the West Bank at this stage, they have 
instructed their supporters there to act as if it does.  Israel 
Radio reported that Egypt has announced that the complete opening of 
the Gaza crossings will take place only after the prisoner swap 
between Hamas and Israel is completed.  The lead stories of Yediot 
and Maariv are composed of interviews with the families of the three 
Israeli abductees.  Electronic media reported that Defense Minister 
Ehud Barak has met with those families today. 
 
Leading media reported that PM Ehud Olmert is expected to leave for 
Egypt on Tuesday for discussions with President Hosni Mubarak on the 
truce, the prevention of arms smuggling to Gaza and explore 
accelerating talks for the release of Gilad Shalit.  Yediot reported 
that in an interview with the Australian newspaper The Sydney 
Morning Herald yesterday, Olmert said that the truce was Hamas's 
last chance to prevent an Israeli military operation in Gaza. 
Israel Radio quoted Olmert as saying in an interview with BBC Arabic 
Television that Israel is prepared to make dramatic concessions but 
that the Palestinians will also need to give ground.  On a different 
topic, Olmert said he would be willing to make compromises in order 
to reach a peace agreement with Syria, but there were "several 
issues" that needed to be resolved before such an agreement would 
materialize.  Ha'aretz quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying 
in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde that only the 
U.S. can help the Israeli-Syrian talks, adding that he believed that 
the U.S. would get involved. 
 
Israel Radio cited The New York Times as saying that Israel carried 
out a major military exercise earlier this month that American 
officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing 
attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.  U.S. officials were quoted as 
saying that over 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in 
the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean 
and over Greece during the first week of June. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Israel Radio cited ABC News as saying that 
U.S. and Canadian intelligence agencies warned yesterday that 
Hizbullah attacks on Jewish targets around the world -- in 
particular the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa and synagogues in Toronto 
-- could be imminent.  ABC News quoted intelligence officials as 
saying that Hizbullah had activated sleeper cells in Canada, and 
that top terror operatives had left Lebanon -- to the U.S., Canada 
and Africa.  According to the officials, Hizbullah wishes to avenge 
the assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyah in February, for 
which the Shi'ite group holds Israel accountable.  Israel has 
repeatedly denied the allegation. 
 
Leading media reported that a clash between settlers and police in 
the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar ended with 19 injuries yesterday 
after police came to tear down a mobile home built without a permit. 
 Maariv reported that a yeshiva student from Yitzhar built an 
improvised Qassam rocket and fired it at an Arab village.  Yediot 
reported that right-wing groups and settlers plan to blocks dozens 
of intersections in the northern West Bank to prevent attempts by 
the police and Civil Administration in the territories to pull down 
illegal buildings. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Likud leaders have warned Shas that the party 
will not be part of any future Likud government if it supports an 
alternative administration headed by Kadima. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Jordan prevented an Israeli delegation from 
crossing the Allenby Bridge on Sunday to attend an economic 
cooperation conference with Jordanian and Palestinian colleagues. 
What had been planned as a tripartite gathering to discuss economic 
issues concerning the Dead Sea became a bilateral, 
Jordanian-Palestinian parley only.  A would-be Israeli 
conference-goer was quoted as saying that the assumption is that the 
action was a sign from Jordan that it is not willing to cooperate 
with Israel on strategic projects at this stage. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that over the past few weeks Israel has been 
trying to thwart a $400 million arms deal between the U.S. and 
Lebanon.  The daily quoted Israel diplomatic sources as saying that 
the weapons would eventually reach hostile bodies.  Ha'aretz 
reported that the issue has sparked disagreements between the U.S. 
and Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that foreign investors engaged heavily in 
speculation in Israel's currency market in May, selling $870 million 
worth of dollars in net terms. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) 
poll: 
 
Do you favor or oppose the "tahdiya" agreement with Hamas? 
Favor: 56%; oppose: 39%: 5% are undecided. 
Do you believe that the truce with Hamas will hold? 
No: 64%; tend not to believe: 15%; tend to believe: 15%; yes: 5%; 1% 
are undecided. 
Should the truce agreement with Hamas have been made contingent upon 
Gilad ShalitQs release? 
Yes: 78%; no: 15%; 7% are undecided. 
As long as it is not known whether [Hizbullah abductees] Goldwasser 
and Regev are alive, do you favor an agreement in which [Lebanese 
terrorist Samir] Kuntar will be released? 
Favor: 65%; oppose: 27%; 8% are undecided. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The Israeli 
government's reasons for preventing the Shalit deal don't hold 
water, and it would do well to set aside the futile arguments it is 
clinging to.  Gilad Shalit must come home.  He is the national 
asset, not the Palestinian prisoners." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Israeli 
decision-makers have purchased temporary calm for the battered 
communities bordering Gaza.  The fear, underlined by bitter 
experience, is that it comes at the cost of a devastating storm 
brewing over the horizon." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Free Gilad Shalit" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (6/20): 
"Israel, having preferred, justifiably, to try out the cease-fire 
with Hamas rather than embark on a military operation, is now 
attempting to bite off more than it can chew.  It is linking the 
cease-fire and opening the Rafah crossing to Gilad Shalit's release 
-- two for the price of one, as though it were a special offer in a 
supermarket chain.  This approach may be suitable for gamblers, who 
are willing to pay the price of a failed negotiation, but not for a 
state that has learned a bitter lesson in POW exchanges -- a state 
that knows the price of a POW, dead or alive; a state that knows 
that the public does not forget the prisoners.  In spite of this, 
during the two years since Shalit -- whom every Israeli family has 
 
come to regard as its own son -- was taken prisoner, the government 
has offered a variety of excuses, forgetting the heart of the 
matter.  A state's prestige is not measured only by its military 
ability to deal with a terror organization or enemy state, and its 
might is not measured merely by its deterrent ability.  It leans on 
the public's confidence in its fairness, its ability to act 
compassionately and its willingness to pay a high price, as its 
citizens are required to.  The Israeli government's reasons for 
preventing the Shalit deal don't hold water, and it would do well to 
set aside the futile arguments it is clinging to.  Gilad Shalit must 
come home.  He is the national asset, not the Palestinian 
prisoners." 
 
II.  "The Brewing Storm" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (6/20): 
"We may be witnessing the establishment of a nascent Palestinian 
state uncompromisingly committed to the destruction of Israel.  With 
Gaza in its grip, the Islamists will turn their full attention to 
the West Bank. Hamas can now more easily send its gunmen for 
specialized training abroad, while foreign 'experts' will find it 
easier to infiltrate into the Strip.  Even if the Egyptians, using 
newly arrived American tunnel-detection equipment and limited but 
better-trained forces, make a strenuous effort to intercept the flow 
of arms -- and Cairo insists it is now genuinely committed to this 
goal -- chances are that anti-aircraft and anti-armor missiles, 
long-range rockets and sophisticated explosives will find their way 
into the Strip.  Finally, this cease-fire accelerates Hamas's 
ascendancy among Palestinians, and more broadly throughout the Arab 
world, even as the relative moderates associated with Mahmoud Abbas 
look ever-more impotent.  Yet so long as it ostensibly adheres to 
the cease-fire, there will be those in the international community 
who will push for engaging Hamas 'moderates.'  Israeli 
decision-makers have purchased temporary calm for the battered 
communities bordering Gaza.  The fear, underlined by bitter 
experience, is that it comes at the cost of a devastating storm 
brewing over the horizon." 
 
JONES