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P 221031Z JUL 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001574 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Major media (lead story in The Jerusalem Post) reported that PM Ehud 
Olmert will be replaced as Kadima leader in mid-September, barring 
unforeseen circumstances, after the Kadima council received the 
necessary votes yesterday to initiate a party leadership primary. 
Channel 2-TV reported that Olmert allegedly called FM Tzipi Livni in 
private a "backstabbing liar," due to his reported belief that she 
lied to the Winograd Commission that investigated the Second Lebanon 
War.  Yediot quoted the State Prosecutor's Office as saying that 
Olmert will soon be indicted.  Maariv cited the belief of Kadima 
members that Olmert will resign before he is indicted.  Ha'aretz and 
other media cited the police's suspicion that Olmert may have paid 
for dozens of family flights with money he received via the Rishon 
Tours travel agency. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. security coordinator for the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, retired Maj. Gen. James Jones, is 
preparing a critical report of Israel's policies in the territories 
and its attitude toward the Palestinian Authority's security 
services. However, American and Israeli sources were quoted as 
saying that Jones also had some criticism for Washington saying that 
U.S. efforts to reform the PA security services fell short and that 
USG agencies are not coordinating their assistance for these forces. 
 In addition, he reportedly concluded that the PA forces are not yet 
capable of effectively enforcing the law in the West Bank.  Ha'aretz 
said that the harsh criticisms contained in the executive summary 
are reportedly upsetting the Bush administration.  According to 
Ha'aretz, some senior U.S. officials are demanding that the full 
report not be published, so as not to create a storm in advance of 
the presidential elections.  Jones, however, is apparently insisting 
that his full report be published, just as the report he issued last 
year on the Iraqi security forces was.  Ha'aretz reported that 
officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv declined to comment. 
Ha'aretz also quoted Israeli officials as saying that senior 
officials in the State Department, including Secretary of State 
 
Condoleezza Rice, have repeatedly complained to Israel recently over 
"relatively minor" Palestinian issues that would have been ignored 
until a few months ago. 
 
Leading media reported that this week Assistant Secretary of State 
David Welch will meet with Riad Daoudi, the Syrian Foreign 
Ministry's legal counselor and lead Syrian negotiator for the 
ongoing indirect talks with Israel, as well as fellow Syrian 
advisers and analyst during their visit to Washington.  The 
Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli diplomatic official as saying that 
any U.S. interest in establishing contact with Syria was likely 
linked to the fact that Syrian President Bashar Assad had broken out 
of his isolation.  The official also suggested that contacts with 
the Syrians could be connected to the U.S. elections. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday, during the fourth day of his 
cross-examination, prosecution witness Morris Talansky told Olmert's 
lawyer, Navot Tel-Tzur, that he could not remember the details of a 
$400,000 transfer only a few months after the event.  The media 
reported that it was one of many lapses of memory that Talansky 
claimed to suffer.  Yediot reported that Olmert's defense team 
hinted that Talansky may have laundered money through a trustee 
account held by former Olmert associate Attorney Uri Messer. 
Talansky hinted that Messer may have kept the money to himself.  The 
media reported that yesterday Olmert lodged a complaint with 
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz after details of the police 
investigation into his finances were leaked to the press. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin as saying that Hamas 
is taking advantage of the truce to build rockets that could reach 
Kiryat Gat and probably Ashdod. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the IDF soldier who was filmed shooting a 
bound and handcuffed Palestinian with a rubber bullet at point blank 
range two weeks ago was released.  The media reported on a 
controversy surrounding whether his commander had ordered him to 
shoot. 
 
Maariv reported that yesterday explosions caused by one or two 
rockets were felt in the vicinity of West Bank Palestinian illages. 
  It is suspected that rockets were fird by settlers. Yesterday, at 
about 14:00, there as a report of two rockets that hit fruit trees 
long the road south of the Hawara roadblock. 
 
In n interview broadcast last night on Channel 2-TV, ohn McCain 
pledged that the U.S. will not allow  second Holocaust.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Israel's leaders will pressure Barack 
Obama to promise during his one-day visit to act against Iran. 
 
Major media quoted the London-based Al-Hayat and other Arab sources 
as saying Egyptian sources as saying that Israel is prepared to free 
Fatah/Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti, but not PFLP leader Ahmad 
Saadat, in exchange for Gilad Shalit.  Israel Radio cited Israel's 
denial of the report. 
 
All media reported that in the first-ever Knesset address by a 
British prime minister, Gordon Brown condemned Iranian President 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel as 
"abhorrent," and vowed that Tehran's bid to acquire nuclear weapons 
would not be allowed to pass.  The media noted Brown's exceptionally 
Israel-friendly speech 
 
Major media reported that today, for the fist time ever, President 
Shimon Peres will host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in his official residence. 
Maariv reported that they will discuss the advancement of the 
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the geopolitical conditions in 
the region, and the implementation of joint economic initiatives to 
strengthen the peace process. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday in the Knesset the government 
coalition was defeated in three Shas-backed no-confidence votes. 
However, they were not supported by majorities of 61 Knesset members 
and therefore did not qualify to topple the government.  Ha'aretz 
reported that the Knesset will vote tomorrow on a bill that will 
allow the Knesset plenum to require the suspension of the Prime 
Minister for reasons of illness or police investigations.  Ha'aretz 
nonetheless reported that there is no chance that the bill will be 
passed into law before the Knesset recesses next Wednesday for its 
summer vacation. 
 
Yediot quoted the German weekly Der Spiegel as saying that Hizbullah 
is activating sleeping cells against Israeli targets in North and 
South America. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that following an appeal by 170 
Jordanian public figures, Jordan's King Abdullah II is considering 
pardoning the terrorist who killed seven schoolgirls at Naharayim 
along the border with Israel in May 1996. 
 
Maariv reported that a symposium on the history of Lebanese Jewry 
took place in Beirut yesterday.  Muslim scholars also attended the 
meeting. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday in Jerusalem, Bank of 
Israel Governor Stanley Fischer told a group of British business 
executives led by Trade Minister Digby Jones that a slowdown in the 
rate of manufacturing growth in the March-May period is the first 
indication that economic expansion is beginning to ease. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that the State Prosecutor is leaning 
toward indicting former president Moshe Katsav on two counts of 
rape, according to sources in the prosecution. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The American public currently has no taste 
for another war, and the army is opposed to opening a 'third front' 
in Iran, after Afghanistan and Iraq.... Jerusalem must now also 
change its approach." 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"An American Slap in Israel's Face" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/22): "Israel was caught unprepared as the 
United States' Iran policy shifted.  The Bush administration did not 
consult Israel before it decided to bring a senior American diplomat 
to the talks that the Europeans conduct with the Iranians, and did 
not let Israel share its initiative to open an interests section in 
Tehran.... Israel's leadership still hopes that not all is lost, 
that this is a tactical move -- a diplomatic bait doomed in advance 
to an early failure in order to pave the road to an offensive.  But 
this is an illusion.  The American public currently has no taste for 
another war, and the army is opposed to opening a 'third front' in 
Iran, after Afghanistan and Iraq.... Jerusalem must now also change 
its approach.  Instead of delving in false hopes about bombing Iran, 
it would be worthwhile to see the positive sides of the American 
dialogue with Iran and to insist on maintaining Israel's interests 
-- first and foremost, preventing any linkage between the disarming 
of Iran's nuclear capability and the closing of the Dimona reactor 
as well as the harming of Israeli deterrence.  Furthermore, one 
should demand the absolute termination of the centrifuges, and in 
case Iran manages to duck out of it, security compensation from the 
U.S. and advanced anti-missile technologies.  Contrary to fighter 
pilots, diplomats do not get medals of valor, but they must be 
granted a chance to prevent Iran from going nuclear, as was done 
with Libya and North Korea." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker opined in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel must play the mind games against 
Hamas with completely open cards and capitalize on its advantage as 
an open democracy.  Only by doing so will we regain the initiative 
and Hamas will have to respond." 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Negotiations by Daylight" 
 
Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker opined in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/22): "In the negotiations to release 
Gilad Shalit, ideas and proposals from the Egyptian government, from 
former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, from the European Union, and 
from Hamas, are given prominent coverage.  But what does Israel 
propose?.... Official Israel has imprisoned and handcuffed itself in 
the mistaken concept of conducting secret negotiations whose details 
do not reach the public until everything is sewn up, and sometimes 
even not then.... Let's even assume that the negotiations with 
Hizbullah required a degree of secrecy; this is not the case for 
Gilad Shalit.  Israel must play the mind games against Hamas with 
completely open cards and capitalize on its advantage as an open 
democracy.  Only by doing so will we regain the initiative and Hamas 
will have to respond.  Practically, Israel must make it clear to all 
parties involved in the negotiations for Gilad Shalit's release that 
all concrete proposals for a 'deal' be reported and placed before 
Israeli, Palestinian and world public opinion.  Nothing must be done 
any longer in secrecy, far from the eyes of the media.  At the end 
of every round of talks, the person conducting negotiations on the 
Israeli side should hold an international press conference and 
divulge the smallest details of the talks and the proposals. 
Keeping the negotiations on Shalit transparent will serve Israel and 
put it in a position of strength -- because in this case, 
transparency is power.  We have nothing to hide here. Hamas does.... 
The talks in the dark have failed.  From now on, only the light of 
the sun will return Shalit home." 
 
II.  "Good for Israel" 
 
Peres Center President and Oslo Accords architect Uri Savir wrote in 
Yediot Aharonot (7/22): "Democratic Party presidential candidate 
Barack Obama is to arrive in Israel this evening.... It took George 
Bush and the U.S. administration seven years to be involved in the 
peace process with the Palestinians, and to this day, they are not 
involved in the peace process with Syria.... Israel needs an 
American president who will follow the peace process closely, and 
this includes setting timetables for progress on a final status 
arrangement, holding summits and appointing a permanent envoy to the 
Middle East, as Dennis Ross was.  Israel needs active American 
involvement on the Syrian track.  Today there is a real chance of 
starting to crumble the unholy alliance between Syria, terror, and 
Iran, and reaching an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement that would be a 
basis for regional peace.  Despite our neutrality as Israelis toward 
the U.S. elections, there is no question that our interest is in the 
Middle East external policy of the next administration.  Based on 
the Republican record of recent years, on the one hand, and on 
Obama's world view on foreign policy, security, and the Middle East 
on the other hand, it seems that our interests, mainly in the 
context of the peace process, will be served very well by the 
Democratic candidate.  Moreover, ObamaQs election to president will 
be a positive turning point in the United States' world image, 
including in our region.  We must therefore relate seriously to his 
upcoming visit to Israel." 
 
MORENO