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DE RUEHTV #1403/01 1831004
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P 011004Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001403 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz quoted sources in PM Ehud Olmert's bureau as saying 
yesterday that Olmert would like to speed up the negotiations to 
free Gilad Shalit.  Olmert has instructed all those involved to do 
what is necessary so that the talks can progress as soon as Hamas 
gives Israel a new list of prisoners it wants released. Ha'aretz 
quoted security and political sources as adding that after Israel 
releases those prisoners involved in the deal, others may also be 
freed as a gesture of goodwill toward PA President Mahmoud Abbas. 
Yediot reported that the cabinet is likely to approve the release of 
"non-dangerous" prisoners in the Gilad Shalit swap -- in a shift 
from the "blood on their hands" criteria.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that fears mounted in Israel yesterday that Hamas would 
toughen its stance in response to the cabinet's decision to approve 
the prisoner-swap deal with Hizbullah. 
 
Media reported that Israel and Syria will hold their third round of 
indirect negotiations in Istanbul today.  Ha'aretz quoted a senior 
GOI official as saying yesterday that senior Syrian officials claim 
that "they will not agree to hold direct talks until they receive a 
firm guarantee of deep American involvement in the talks."  Ha'aretz 
reported that last week Israeli officials met with Arab and European 
diplomats who had been updated on the details of the negotiations by 
the Syrian government.  According to information passed in last 
week's discussions, Syria feels that all the previous rounds of 
talks dealt mostly with technical issues and the framework of the 
negotiations -- not the heart of the issues.  The foreign diplomats 
emphasized that "there is a feeling that the Syrians are delaying 
until the new U.S. administration takes office."  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted diplomatic officials as saying yesterday that a meeting 
between Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad in late July is 
unlikely. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday the Knesset approved the 
referendum law, which mandates a national referendum or a two-thirds 
Knesset majority prior to any withdrawal from territory under 
Israeli control.  The law was approved in its first reading by a 
majority of 65 MKs to 18 and is meant to prevent withdrawal from the 
Golan.  The media reported that yesterday the Knesset passed the 
final stages of a law aimed at preventing those visiting Qenemy 
statesQ (Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia) from running 
for the Knesset. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has 
instructed that the Gaza crossings not be opened today, following 
the firing of a Qassam rocket at Israel yesterday.  Leading media 
reported that Egypt will open the Rafah crossing today for 
humanitarian reasons -- without Israel's consent.  The Jerusalem 
Post quoted EU defense official Lt. Gen. Pietro Pistolese as saying 
that this was only a temporary move, and did not represent the 
reopening of the crossing. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel has informed Hamas it will fire 
"warning shots" at Palestinians who enter an area west of the Gaza 
Strip border fence, extending for several hundred meters.  Egyptian 
officials told Hamas of the new procedure, which is expected to 
raise tensions between the two sides.  Ha'aretz reported that more 
extremist groups than Hamas are consolidating in Gaza. 
 
Major media reported that Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official 
responsible for negotiating for the release of Shalit, as well as 
the two IDF soldiers held by Hizbullah, is expected to travel to 
Germany this week in order to conclude the final arrangements for 
the prisoner swap with the Lebanese Shi'ite group.  Maariv reported 
that yesterday the families of 12 Iranian Jews who disappeared 
during attempts to immigrate to Israel between 1994 and 1997 
petitioned the High Court of Justice against the deal. 
 
The media reported on a visit to Israel by Adm. Michael Mullen, the 
chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss Iran and 
other regional issues.  Electronic media quoted ABC News that cited 
the belief of senior defense officials in Washington that Israel may 
attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of the year.  A top 
Pentagon official was quoted in the report as saying there is an 
"increasing likelihood" that Israel will carry out an attack, 
leaving Washington concerned that Iran would strike both the United 
States and Israel in retaliation. 
 
The media reported that Shmuel Levi, a former campaign manager for 
Labor Chair Ehud Barak, met with police investigators yesterday to 
give them what he describes as incriminating evidence against the 
politician, which pertains to donations Barak received for his 1999 
campaign for the premiership.  Maariv quoted a source conversant 
with the so-called "affair of the nonprofit associations," which was 
investigated years ago, as saying that the timing of Levy's actions 
is strange.  Israel Radio noted that Levy is an associate of Tal 
Zilberstein, a senior PR consultant who defected from Barak's camp 
to Olmert's and threatened Barak a few weeks ago. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Jewish Agency presented the Prime 
Minister's Office with a report a few days ago showing that all the 
Falash Mura -- Ethiopians whose Jewish ancestors converted to 
Christianity -- deemed eligible for immigration in 1999 have either 
arrived in Israel or have been declared ineligible by the Interior 
Ministry.  About 2,000 people on the 1999 list were never checked 
for eligibility because no request was made to bring them to 
Israel. 
 
Leading media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem as 
saying that the ministry had no knowledge of the case of the Iranian 
man who was sentenced to death by a Tehran court on charges of 
spying for Israel. 
 
Major media quoted visiting Massachusetts Democratic Senator John 
Kerry as saying that Barack Obama is a "100% supporter of Israel," 
and that if elected, he will bring new spirit to peacemaking 
efforts. 
 
The media reported that yesterday Labor MK Danny Yatom, a former 
Mossad director, announced his resignation from the Knesset, saying 
that he started losing his trust in Olmert during the Second Lebanon 
War.  He will be replaced by Russian immigrant activist Leon 
Litinsky. 
 
Yediot reported that Israeli and Syrian human rights groups 
cooperated to free a Russian woman who was forced to engage in 
prostitution in Syria. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that its journalist Yossi Melman received an award 
from the (American) Investigative Reporters and Editors association 
(IRE), for his report on a Palestinian-Jordanian who was held 
illegally by American, Israeli, and Jordanian security services. 
 
Leading media reported that Israeli authorities are alert to minor 
tremors in southern Lebanon, which might presage an earthquake in 
northern Israel.  The Jerusalem Post cited a report published by the 
NGO B'Tselem that Palestinians living in the northern West Bank 
drink one-third of the per capita water consumption recommended by 
the World Health Organization (WHO). 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker opined in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "What bogs us down are the cobwebs of 
lies that we tell ourselves, led first and foremost by our own 
government." 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "The fulfillment of Palestinian national aspirations 
is what will enable the ultimate fulfillment of Jewish national 
aspirations." 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in The Jerusalem Post: "From the earliest stages of Israel's 
war with Hizbullah two years ago, [Tzipi] Livni preached 
defeatism.... The nation can scarcely afford to be led by another 
weak-kneed sheep." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Lies We Tell Ourselves" 
 
Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker opined in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/1): "What bogs us down are the cobwebs 
of lies that we tell ourselves, led first and foremost by our own 
government.... The brambles of self-deception have become 
particularly thick lately.  We elevated our willingness to carry out 
an exchange deal ... to a level of ethical loftiness, of exemplary 
behavior that reflects the fact that we are the Chosen People, a 
community with a degree of social solidarity that is second to none 
in the world.  But anyone who knows anything about the long history 
of exchange deals involving POWs, kidnapping victims, and bodies 
knows that the saintly self-image that we've force-fed ourselves in 
order to prepare the emotional ground for this deal is completely 
baseless.  Anyone who says that we, the Israelis, are different from 
all other nations by virtue of the fact that we are a 'single 
family,' a 'single tribe,' and so forth, ought to look objectively 
at the celebrations that are being prepared for Samir Kuntar in 
Lebanon.  He ought to look and grit his teeth.  We lied to ourselves 
when we said, 'We won't capitulate and we won't reward terrorism.' 
We knew, after all, that we would reward it.... Hizbullah started 
the Second Lebanon War and it was defeated in it.  Despite that, 
Israel has been acting ever since the end of the war as if it had 
been defeated.  Our geopolitical situation in the north and the 
south has worsened dramatically under the reign of the Olmert 
government.  Hizbullah has greatly increased its 
political-governmental influence over Lebanon, and the Hamas regime 
in Gaza won Israeli legitimacy.  Two developments which, in the long 
run might or might not turn zealots into statesmen, but which 
utterly contradict the government's stated goals.  To topple Hamas 
was, evidently, just another mendacious decision by our 
government." 
 
II.  "The Mirror Image of Zionism Is Palestinian Nationalism" 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information (IPCRI), wrote in the conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (7/1): "Peacemaking is by definition 
taking risks.  Those risks must be assessed on the basis of 
interests and threat perceptions.  The greatest risk to the 
continuation of the Zionist enterprise today is the possibility that 
we may not be able to separate ourselves from the occupation of the 
Palestinian people.   There is a timeline on the viability and the 
feasibility of creating a Palestinian state next to Israel.   The 
future of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel has never before 
been so inextricably linked to the aspirations of the Palestinian 
people.  The fulfillment of Palestinian national aspirations is what 
will enable the ultimate fulfillment of Jewish national aspirations. 
 Our security is their security, their security is ours.  Time is 
running out for both of us, but there is still sufficient time to 
reach an agreement that will save both national movements from 
mutual destruction." 
 
III.  "Livni the Leader, or Livni the Lamb?" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in The Jerusalem Post (7/1): "On Sunday, [Foreign Minister 
Tzipi] Livni dutifully followed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in voting 
to approve the terrorists-for-dead-hostages deal with Hizbullah. 
Despite the government's best efforts to put a brave face on the 
decision, the deal with Hizbullah is arguably the most humiliating 
step ever taken by a government of Israel.... From the earliest 
stages of Israel's war with Hizbullah two years ago, Livni preached 
defeatism.... Over the past three years, Livni has introduced and 
implemented a new doctrine for Israeli foreign policy. Its central 
theme is Jewish powerlessness.  Livni has expressed this basic 
guiding notion in every major foreign policy address she has given 
since late 2005.... Livni is not the first empty shell to be 
proclaimed by Israel's media as the next great white hope. Others, 
such as former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. (ret.) Amnon 
Lipkin-Shahak and former Labor party leader Amram Mitzna, have also 
enjoyed that distinction.  After years of media build-up, both men 
were quickly exposed as followers [i.e. not leaders] once they were 
actually challenged to lead.  It can only be hoped that Livni will 
be similarly challenged and so exposed before she is propelled to 
Israel's top spot.  The nation can scarcely afford to be led by 
another weak-kneed sheep." 
 
JONES