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DE RUEHTV #1591/01 2061026
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241026Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7656
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RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1789
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001591 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
In interviews with all major media, Barack Obama was quoted as 
saying that he will pursue a two-state solution and do everything in 
his power to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.  He was quoted 
as saying that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, but that its 
status should be determined by both sides.  Israel Radio reported 
that both presidential candidates vowed to stop the Iranian nuclear 
program. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli diplomatic officials told 
the newspaper this week that the U.S. is interested in having Israel 
and the Palestinians codify the progress in their talks up to now so 
there will be a lasting  document to serve as the basis for further 
negotiations following the changeover of governments in Washington 
and -- possibly -- in Jerusalem.  According to the officials, 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will convene a trilateral 
meeting in Washington on July 30 or 31 with FM Tzipi Livni and the 
PA's chief negotiator, Ahmed Qurei.  According to the officials, the 
document would be in lieu a finished "shelf agreementQ that 
President Bush had said at the Annapolis Conference he hoped to see 
before he left office in January 2009. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported on an expected report by U.S. security 
coordinator to Israel Gen. (ret.) James Jones.  Contrary to earlier 
media reports claiming that the document will slam Israel for its 
policies in the territories, Israeli defense and diplomatic 
officials told The Jerusalem Post that the report would instead 
reflect supposed tension between Jones and another American security 
envoy operating in the region -- Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton.  According 
to the defense official, the report would focus on the failure to 
establish an effective PA security apparatus and as a result would 
likely conclude that the chances of reaching a peace deal with the 
Palestinians by the end of 2008 were slim. 
 
Maariv and Israel Radio reported on GOI plans to partially revive 
the Jordan Valley settlement of Maskiot, which were frozen a year 
and a half ago following U.S. pressure.  The radio noted that the 
project still needs the Defense Minister's approval. 
 
Israel Radio quoted the London-based Al-Hayat as saying that a 
breakthrough will soon be reached in the Israel-Syria talks.  The 
radio quoted Syrian adviser Samir al-Taki as saying in Washington 
yesterday that his country has decided to reach a land-for-peace 
agreement with Israel.  Al-Taki was quoted as saying that Syria 
could not ignore Israel.  He conveyed similar message in an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post.  The radio cited the Saudi 
newspaper Al-Watan as saying that the talks will resume next week. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that information recently obtained by 
the Mossad and IDF Intelligence indicates that global jihad elements 
are working to recruit European and American nationals who have been 
indoctrinated with radical Islamic ideology to carry out attacks 
inside Israel. 
 
Maariv recorded that in 2007 the settler population has increased by 
around 5.5% (15,000 people), as opposed to a 1.8% increase among 
Jews in Israel. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that an elite IDF unit operating in 
Jenin on Tuesday found a large bomb planted in a car that was likely 
on its way to explode in an Israeli city. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday a polygraph test 
supported an officer's claims that he did not order the shooting of 
a handcuffed Palestinian two weeks ago. 
 
Maariv reported that the IDF has removed the soldiers who guarded 
the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.  The move occurred after the 
local brigade commander decided to suspend the settlement's defense 
coordinator in the wake of the attempted firing of a rocket at a 
Palestinian village by a yeshiva student. 
 
Leading media reported that PM Ehud Olmert and his team have 
informed Attorney General Menachem Mazuz that they are willing to 
pass a lie detector test concerning the leaks of transcripts in the 
Talansky affair. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted military experts as saying that the Iron Dome 
anti-Qassam rocket system will be ready in 2012. 
 
Ha'aretz and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that yesterday the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved granting 
more powers to the head of the National Security Headquarters 
(currently Danny Arditi).  The proposal implements recommendations 
stemming from the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the 
Anti-Defamation League condemned numerous cartoons that have 
appeared recently in the Arab press, portraying presumptive U.S. 
presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, as 
lackeys controlled by Israel and by American Jews. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Construction and Housing Minister Zeev 
Boim as saying yesterday that American Jewish groups who lobby for 
increased immigration of the Falash Mura -- Ethiopians whose Jewish 
ancestors converted to Christianity -- to Israel are doing so "to 
earn money, collect donations and justify their existence," but are 
unwilling to bring these Ethiopians to their own communities in 
America. 
 
Maariv reported that Likud MK Gilad Erdan has withdrawn a bill 
proposal forcing judges to ban publications in the media. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "To survive as 
a Jewish and democratic state, Israel needs an American leader who 
does not fear the reaction of American Jews and non-Jews who do not 
believe in dividing the land to reconcile its two peoples." 
 
Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel's National Security Council, 
wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The only 
way to prevent another war is to make it clear that if it should 
break out, Lebanon could be destroyed to the very foundation." 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"[Israel] must ... insist that if the UN and its members are serious 
about preventing a further degradation of the rule of international 
law, if international law is to regain any authority, the blatant 
anti-Israel bias must be dropped." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "An Agenda for a Friend of Israel" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (7/24): "Barack 
Obama came to Jerusalem to deliver an old message on the need to 
'reaffirm the historic and special relationship between the United 
States and Israel, one that cannot be broken.'  The hope is that 
Obama left Jerusalem and Ramallah with a deeper understanding of the 
need to shelve the flowery statements that his Jewish affairs 
advisors had devised for him, if he is to truly be a 'friend of 
Israel.'  One should keep in mind that the interests of the Israel 
lobby in America do not always jibe with Israel's interests. 
Instead of talking about a 'united Jerusalem,' he needs to become 
involved in finding a realistic solution for Israel's torn and 
bleeding capital.  To survive as a Jewish and democratic state, 
Israel needs an American leader who does not fear the reaction of 
American Jews and non-Jews who do not believe in dividing the land 
to reconcile its two peoples.  A friend of Israel, for example, 
would be a president who brings Syria and Israel to the negotiating 
room, and pours some real substance into Bush's statement about 
wanting to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." 
 
II.  "Who's the Real Enemy?" 
 
Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel's National Security Council, 
wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (7/24): " 
Israel declared war on the wrong enemy and, therefore, it did not 
win.  It is impossible to beat an effective guerrilla organization 
when: (A) it operates from the territory of another country; (B) it 
enjoys the support and full backing of that country; (C) the country 
(Lebanon) is immune from Israeli reaction.  If these are also the 
characteristics of the next war, we will lose.  We will lose, 
because we will have agreed to take part in a game whose rules serve 
everyone: Hizbullah, the Lebanese government, the UN, France -- but 
not us.  What is truly th reality in Lebanon?  The reality is that 
Hizbulah and its 'opponents' are very coordinated in preenting a 
false facade, in which Hizbullah represets the 'bad guys' and the 
Lebanese government reresents the 'good guys.'  If there is a war, 
Isrel will be 'permitted' only to fight the 'bad guys' but it will 
 
be forbidden for it to damage the interests of the 'good guys.'  The 
problem is that it will be almost impossible to harm the 'bad guys' 
alone, and the 'good guys' are immune from us.  The 'good guys' and 
the 'bad guys' cooperate happily.  The Lebanese government (and the 
people) have let Hizbullah become the ruler.... The only way to 
prevent another war is to make it clear that if it should break out, 
Lebanon could be destroyed to the very foundation.... If anyone had 
any doubt about the Lebanese governmentQs position, we can recall 
how the murderer Samir Kuntar was received by the Lebanese President 
and his cabinet ministers.  Is this the message that Israel conveyed 
to the president of France during his last visit to Israel?  It is 
doubtful.  I presume that our senior representatives preferred to 
agree with the guest that Hizbullah are the 'bad guys' and the 
Lebanese government is the 'good guys.'  As long as this is the 
message, we should not be surprised when we lose next time." 
 
III.  "Falk's Law" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (7/24): 
"[Richard Falk, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Occupied 
Palestinian Territories], has ... agitated for economic sanctions 
against Israel in the form of divestment campaigns; has charged that 
'Israel is seeking to obliterate the existence of the Palestinian 
people'; and has said that Israeli policies vividly express a 
'deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to 
subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of 
utmost cruelty.'  Falk has moreover rejected the characterization of 
Hamas as a terrorist organization, and has defended Palestinian 
terrorism as a 'right of resistance enjoyed by an occupied people 
when the occupying power ignored international law and refuses to 
withdraw.'  None of this is new, of course.... But it is a mistake 
to pretend indifference; doing so only allows sour enemies ... to 
seize on international law as a club with which to beat Israel.... 
Israel cannot afford to ignore men like Falk....  It must instead 
insist that if the UN and its members are serious about preventing a 
further degradation of the rule of international law, if 
international law is to regain any authority, the blatant 
anti-Israel bias must be dropped." 
 
MORENO