VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1483/01 1921003
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 101003Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7463
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 4107
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 0728
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 4410
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4899
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 4113
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 2414
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 4869
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1727
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 2174
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 8716
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 6204
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 1113
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 5226
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 7183
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 0047
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001483 
 
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.  Iran 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The three major Hebrew-language dailies and Israel Hayom led with 
the Morris Talansky affair and PM Ehud Olmert's political future. 
Maariv quoted an Israeli law-enforcement official as saying that 
Olmert will be indicted in the Talansky affair.  Yediot reported 
that Olmert will be probed in additional affairs.  Yediot reported 
that the police will apparently recommend that the case of the house 
on Jerusalem's Cremieux Street be closed.  Ha'aretz quoted Olmert's 
associates in Kadima as saying that he will not run for the Kadima 
leadership despite his statements to the contrary.  Media reported 
that last night Olmert agreed to allow the winner of September's 
Kadima primary to form a new government and immediately replace 
him. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that during the weekend of June 28, 
while Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen was 
in Israel for talks with senior defense officials, the U.S. Navy 
held an unprecedented exercise testing the communications network 
supporting the Aegis missile defense system across the Middle East. 
The Jerusalem Post reported that defense officials have said that in 
the event of a conflict with Tehran, the U.S. would deploy an Aegis 
system off Israel's coast to provide another layer of defense 
against Iranian ballistic missiles.  .  Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli 
specialist as saying that the long-range missile fired yesterday was 
an old version of the Shihab-3 that is only capable of reaching only 
1,300 km.  Revolutionary Guard Commanders said that the nine 
missiles tested were medium and long-range weapons including some 
that are capable of striking Israel 
 
Maariv reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to 
invite the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams to the State 
Department during the second half of July in order to produce a 
document showing all agreed-upon points, including an outline for 
the continuation and a declaration for the resumption of the talks 
during the next administration. 
Ha'aretz reported that Olmert wants to get the U.S. involved in any 
negotiations between Israel and Syria, to persuade President Bashar 
Assad to advance to direct talks.  Ha'aretz reported that Olmert 
told Italian FM Frattini on Tuesday that he can persuade President 
Bush to sponsor the talks. 
 
Israel Radio reported that last night the IDF killed an 18-year-old 
Palestinian man who crossed the Gaza border.  The radio reported 
that in a village near Jenin, undercover Border Police killed a 
wanted Hamas man, Talal Abed.  The radio also reported that last 
night the IDF was active in Nablus.  The Jerusalem Post reported 
that yesterday Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of waging a 
"dirty war" against Hamas.  He also accused the PA of 
"participating" in the Israeli campaign. 
 
Leading media reported that two Israeli Bedouin from the Negev town 
of Rahat, named by police as Taher Abu Sakut, 21, and Omar Abu 
Sakut, 22, were charged yesterday with plotting terrorist attacks 
via the Internet with al-Qaida members overseas and marking out 
civilian and military sites as targets. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday intelligence officials told the 
diplomatic-security cabinet that Hizbullah has 42,000 rockets. 
 
Leading media reported that in ten days IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. 
Gabi Ashkenazi will visit the U.S. -- for the second time in a 
month. 
 
Yediot reported that over 1,800 housing units will soon be built 
beyond the Green Line.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that hundreds 
of housing units will be built in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods 
of Pisgat Zeev and Har Homa.  Maariv reported that at its meeting in 
Japan the G8 demanded the freezing of construction in the 
settlements.  Maariv reported that the residents of the West Bank 
village of Bil'in will today sue in a Montreal court Canadian 
companies building in the Modi'in Illit neighborhood of Matitiyahu 
East to have 2,000 dunams (around 494 acres) of land returned to 
them. 
 
Maariv reported that the IDF has decided to close Nablus's 
prosperous mall, threatening merchants and buyers of five years 
imprisonment and saying that the earnings go to Hamas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the Knesset passed three 
bills in preliminary readings.  They are seeking to enforce stiffer 
measures against Israelis involved in terrorism. 
 
Ha'aretz reported on Ambassador Richard Jones' farewell visit last 
week to the Druze village of Beit Jann.  The newspaper reported that 
Jones acknowledged the existence of a communications channel between 
Israel's Druze community and the U.S., with the goal of assisting 
the Druze abroad -- in Syria and Lebanon. 
 
Leading media report that President Shimon Peres will head the 
Israeli delegation at the Beijing Olympic Games. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that this week the American Friends of 
the Hebrew University granted Bill Gates the Einstein Award. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday the Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa 
and Western Galilee entered UNESCO's World Heritage List. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Liberal columnist and anchor Ofer Shelach wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "For more than a decade we have been dealing with 
the Iranian threat, and there is still no answer to the question of 
whether Tehran is indeed determined to obtain a bomb, or whether it 
is just waiting for the right deal in order to give up the option." 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Blind in the Dark" 
 
Liberal columnist and anchor Ofer Shelach wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (7/10): "The U.S., Iran and Israel are beginning a 
critical year, in a common situation that can be compared to blind 
people groping in the dark: Yesterday, for example, on the same day 
that the Iranians fired Shihabs in the desert, Assistant Secretary 
of State for Near East Affairs William Burns said that Iran was 
farther from the bomb than it was thought.  How does Burns know?  Is 
he speaking on the basis of intelligence or signaling something to 
Israel, after other Americans have signaled different things by 
leaking the large aerial exercise recently staged by the IDF?  What 
does Iran understand from this, what does Barack Obama understand 
from this -- the man who may have to make the critical decision? 
For more than a decade we have been dealing with the Iranian threat, 
and there is still no answer to the question of whether Tehran is 
indeed determined to obtain a bomb, or whether it is just waiting 
for the right deal in order to give up the option.  How can we know 
this, while we don't even know who will sit in the White House or 
the Prime Minister's Residence on the day the decisions have to be 
made?  Only one thing is clear, because we have learned it from the 
history of democracies and dictatorships alike: The louder the 
rhetoric, the more the blind people wave the sword in the dark, the 
greater the chance for what the IDF called last summer (with regard 
to Syria) a 'miscalculation.'  Only in this case, a mistaken 
calculation will cost more than ever." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: " The 'beefed-up UNIFIL,' whose forces were augmented to 
prevent Iran's preparations for a missile attack on Israel from 
Lebanon, has become the guardian of Hizbullah -- the executor of the 
Iranian plan -- against an attempt by Israel to foil it with a 
preemptive strike." 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"The Sole Achievement Has Been Erased" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in the independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (7/10): "After Hizbullah smuggled into Lebanon some 40,000 
rockets, a few of which are capable, according to the Defense 
Minister, of reaching Dimona, Ehud Barak remembered this week to 
threaten, in the French Foreign Minister's presence, that 'Israel 
will not put up with the continuing erosion of Resolution 1701.'  It 
appears it is France's fault that Israel did not prevent Hizbullah, 
immediately on discovering the first signs of smuggling, from 
violating 1701.... In a missile attack from Lebanon on Tel Aviv, 
Dimona, and other strategic targets in the country -- by means of 
Hizbullah -- Israel's hands would be tied tighter than they were in 
the Lebanon war.  After all, the 'beefed-up UNIFIL,' whose forces 
were augmented to prevent Iran's preparations for a missile attack 
on Israel from Lebanon, has become the guardian of Hizbullah -- the 
executor of the Iranian plan -- against an attempt by Israel to foil 
it with a preemptive strike." 
 
JONES