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DE RUEHTV #1370/01 1781023
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P 261023Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001370 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that yesterday PM Ehud Olmert "embarrassed" the 
Labor Party when he announced from the Knesset podium that he 
intends to run for reelection as Kadima chairman despite the deal 
reached overnight Tuesday in which Labor gave up its effort to 
initiate an early election.  Maariv reported that Vice PM Haim 
Ramon, until now a staunch Olmert supporter, is quietly forging an 
alliance with FM Tzipi Livni.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Shas 
is said to be the key to the government's survival. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel and Hizbullah have a written agreement 
on a prisoner exchange that the cabinet will deliberate on Sunday 
and possibly approve.  If approved, Israel will sign the deal that 
will then be taken to Beirut by the German mediators for Hizbullah's 
signature.  The media reported that politicians and rabbis are 
fighting about a possible declaration that the two Hizbullah 
abductees are dead.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Miki Goldwasser, the 
mother of captive reservist Ehud Goldwasser, as saying that Defense 
Minister Ehud Barak personally called last night to tell her that 
the IDF could not honor her request to halt the process of 
determining whether her son should be considered KIA.  The media 
reported that yesterday IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Ashkenazi also 
rejected a request by Olmert to halt the KIA process. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that today Israel will present Egyptian mediators 
in Cairo with new formulas that it hopes will result in progress in 
the case of Gilad Shalit.  Israel Radio reported that yesterday 
Israel agreed to free prisoners "with blood on their hands," 
provided they do not return to the Palestinian territories.  The 
radio reported that Egypt turned down this condition. 
 
All media reported that yesterday the families of MIA Ron Arad and 
of the two IDF soldiers kidnapped to Lebanon attended a rally in 
Mitzpeh Hilah, Shalit's Galilee community, marking two years since 
the day he was captured by Hamas.  The media quoted Ron Arad's 
brother Chen as saying at the event: "Dear Shalit family, don't let 
them sacrifice Gilad." 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted defense officials as saying yesterday that 
they planned to open the crossings between Gaza and Israel on Friday 
if there were no more violations of the cease-fire.  Israel Radio 
reported that Islamic Jihad promised that it would better coordinate 
its moves with Hamas. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday the Quartet decided to promote the 
convening of a peace conference in Moscow in the next few months. 
Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli diplomatic source as saying that the 
conference will take place in November and might produce a joint 
announcement for the future of the negotiations in 2009 or even the 
signature of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited AP quoting an Egyptian security official as 
saying yesterday that border guards discovered seven underground 
smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border. 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited AP quoting Olli Heinonen, a senior IAEA 
inspector, as saying yesterday that an initial probe of U.S. 
allegations that a Syrian site hit by Israeli warplanes was a 
secretly built nuclear reactor is inconclusive and that further 
checks are necessary. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that in the past six weeks there has been a marked 
drop in stone-throwing aimed at Israeli vehicles traveling on roads 
near the West Bank town of Qalqilya.  The newspaper quoted a 
Palestinian liaison officer as saying that Palestinian police forces 
warned pupils that throwing stones at cars will be met by a harsh 
response.  The paper reported that dozens of dirt barriers in the 
area have lately been removed to ease the Palestinians' daily 
lives. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday Finance Minister Roni Bar-On 
agreed to cancel a controversial plan to tax savings in 
advanced-training funds, bowing to pressure from the Histadrut Labor 
Federation and economic organizations that had threatened a general 
strike in the public sector. 
 
The media reported that the Chords Bridge at the entrance to 
Jerusalem designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was 
inaugurated yesterday in a controversial ceremony attended by 20,000 
people. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a contingent of about 300 Messianic 
Jews from the U.S. will protest this weekend in Jerusalem against 
what they call Israel's discriminatory immigration policy against 
Jews who believe that Jesus is the messiah. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted associates of Olmert as saying yesterday that Morris 
Talansky's July cross-examination will not create a sensation. 
 
Yediot reported that yesterday at an international conference in 
Berlin, former deputy Iranian FM Mohammad-Javad Larijani delivered 
an "anti-Semitic," hate-filled speech calling for the cancellation 
of the "Zionist project."  The daily wrote that the meeting was 
sponsored and funded by the German government. 
 
Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll 
among registered Kadima voters: 
 
If Talansky's cross-examination shows that the suspicions against 
Olmert are less severe, how will you vote [in the party primaries]? 
Olmert: 30%; Tzipi Livni: 26%; Shaul Mofaz: 19%: Avi Dichter: 9%; 
Meir Sheetrit: 6%; 10% were undecided. 
 
If Olmert does not compete [in the Kadima primaries], who will you 
vote for? 
Tzipi Livni: 40%; Shaul Mofaz: 30%: Avi Dichter: 12%; Meir Sheetrit: 
9%; 9% were undecided. 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "When 
Palestinian leaders find the courage to finally reconcile their 
people to the Jewish nature of the State of Israel; when they lead 
the way in replacing Palestinian victimization with a sense of 
self-reliance -- only then will the self-determination that 
Palestinians seek and Israelis can live with be realized." 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: "It would make some sense if in return for strategic, 
moral and political folly in the North and South we would at least 
receive [the IDF abductees] Shalit, Regev and Goldwasser alive and 
well.  But to sow the seeds of the next kidnappings -- and at an 
exorbitant price -- is intolerable folly and loss of wisdom." 
 
Political and parties columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "If the Prime 
Minister's defense attorneys should succeed in undermining 
TalanskyQs testimony, Olmert can certainly think about running for 
another term in KadimaQs leadership." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "If Talansky's testimony caused a collective 
sense of shame, and if in its wake Olmert's leadership became 
untenable -- then, perhaps, this indicates a change in direction." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Palestinian Track" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (6/26): 
"It may be true, as Secretary Rice said at a conference in Berlin on 
Tuesday, that Palestinians seeking to build transparent institutions 
'cannot succeed without the international community's support.' 
But, ultimately, they must themselves bring about the conditions for 
statehood.  [Also], given that the rejectionist impulse has 
consistently prevailed, it is especially urgent for Palestinian 
leaders -- President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, or 
others yet to emerge -- to prepare their people not only for the 
transition to statehood, but also to abandon the intransigence that 
has served them so poorly; to ready them for realistic concessions. 
To this end, Palestinians must, in any accord, recognize the 
sovereign rights of Israel as a Jewish state.  Yet no preparatory 
effort has been made in the Palestinian street, which still views 
Israel as 'illegitimate.'  If an agreement is to be viable, it must 
enjoy the support not merely of official negotiators but of a 
substantial majority of citizens on both sides.  Abbas, who has 
insisted time and again that the 'right of return' remains 
non-negotiable, gives little sign of encouragement on this score. 
When Palestinian leaders find the courage to finally reconcile their 
people to the Jewish nature of the State of Israel; when they lead 
the way in replacing Palestinian victimization with a sense of 
self-reliance -- only then will the self-determination that 
Palestinians seek and Israelis can live with be realized." 
 
II.  "When a Nation Loses its Wisdom" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (6/26): "One of the main reasons why Ehud Olmert embarked 
on the Second Lebanon War was to prove to Hizbullah and the other 
terror organizations that the era of Israel's acceptance of the 
kidnapping of soldiers and civilians, and payment of an unacceptable 
price for their return, was over.  He also wanted to restore 
Israel's power of deterrence, and to prove that there is no truth to 
the famous statement by Hassan Nasrallah to the effect that Israel's 
tolerance for suffering is like a spider web, or that its end, 
according to the prophecy of Palestinian intellectuals, will be like 
that of the Crusaders, due to imminent polarization and 
demonstrations of weakness.  The IDF and civil society did not pass 
the test of determination and did not give the political echelon -- 
first in Lebanon and later vis-a-vis Hamas -- the achievement that 
would have made it possible to prove to the enemy that Israeli 
society is in fact strong in body and soul, and that their attacks 
are no more than insect bites that the Israelis will easily 
withstand.  Even worse: The outcome of the war, both on the 
battlefield and on the home front, only strengthened the enemy's 
basic assumptions.... It would make some sense if in return for 
strategic, moral and political folly in the North and South we would 
at least receive [the IDF abductees] Shalit, Regev and Goldwasser 
alive and well.  But to sow the seeds of the next kidnappings -- and 
at an exorbitant price -- is intolerable folly and loss of wisdom." 
 
III.  "It Is Too Early to Write Him Off" 
 
Political and parties columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/26): "The most 
interesting figure [in the political poll among registered Kadima 
voters published today in this paper] appears in the question: What 
would happen if, after the cross-examination, it were to turn out 
that the allegations against Olmert were not as severe as they now 
appear?  How would the registered members of Kadima then vote in a 
party primary in which Olmert also ran?  It looks like the 
registered members of Kadima are only waiting for such a 
possibility.  In that case, if the Prime Minister's defense 
attorneys should succeed in undermining TalanskyQs testimony, Olmert 
can certainly think about running for another term in KadimaQs 
leadership.  Thirty percent of all the registered members promise 
him their votes.  Livni will then have to give up the position that 
now seems so close, and remain with 26 percent of the vote.  And 
Mofaz?  He drops to only 19 percent.  One wonders whether, when 
Barak forced Kadima to hold a party primary, he took into account 
that this could be the result." 
 
IV.  "Talansky's Contribution" 
Ha'aretz editorialized (6/26): "There is no telling what will happen 
after Olmert leaves: whether a stable government will be 
established, and whether the candidate elected by Kadima will be 
able to form the same coalition and run the country.  Ultimately, 
however, a solution has been reached, one that does not involve a 
compromise on what really matters.  Labor and Kadima have agreed 
that the Prime Minister, who is suspected of serious bribery 
offenses, will be replaced within three months.  This may be the 
beginning of a new era in Israel's attitude toward corruption among 
public officials.... Olmert did not invent the corruption, but it is 
his misfortune to be prime minister just when it was decided to stop 
treating such phenomena as a decree of fate.  The law has always 
been clear and sharp on the matter, but the atmosphere was more 
forgiving toward the hedonism of the powerful.  The public came to 
believe that all politicians were corrupt to some degree, until it 
seemed that replacing one prime minister with another was of no 
consequence, since the latter would presumably also be caught doing 
wrong.  If Talansky's testimony caused a collective sense of shame, 
and if in its wake Olmert's leadership became untenable -- then, 
perhaps, this indicates a change in direction." 
 
JONES