VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1617/01 2101059
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281059Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7704
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RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 4508
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RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 4185
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 2508
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 4943
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1799
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0011
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RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001617 
 
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 reported that after a five-year battle, the defense 
establishment has finally agreed to dismantle a 2.4-kilometer 
stretch of the separation fence north of Qalqilya. The move will 
return 2,600 dunams (around 643 acres) of agricultural land to its 
Palestinian owners.  The dismantled stretch will be replaced by 4.9 
kilometers of fencing closer to the Green Line, at a cost of more 
than 50 million shekels.  The new route largely follows the one 
proposed years ago by the Council for Peace and Security  The change 
apparently stemmed in part from the views of IDF Chief of Staff Gabi 
Ashkenazi, who believes that the government, not the IDF, should 
determine the precise route of the fence.  The fence in this area 
was built in 2003, and residents of several nearby Palestinian 
villages promptly petitioned the High Court of Justice against it. 
They won several legal victories over the years: The court ordered 
the fence be moved closer to the Green Line around Bil'in, Alfei 
Menashe and Tzufin. 
 
Yediot reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who left Israel 
last night for a visit to Washington, will try to convince the heads 
of the U.S. administration not to remove a military option against 
Iran.  Maariv reported that FM Livni and Transportation Minister 
Shaul Mofaz will also visit the U.S. this week. The Jerusalem Post 
cited speculation by Israeli defense officials on Sunday that recent 
talks that the U.S. held with Iran are aimed at creating legitimacy 
for a potential attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials have expressed doubt 
over claims by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday 
that his country now possesses 6,000 centrifuges. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice is pressuring Israel and the PA to try to 
agree on a document of understanding by September, ahead of the UN 
General Assembly.  The sources were quoted as saying that Rice wants 
to be able to present the document to the General Assembly to show 
progress in the talks.  The document would include agreed-upon 
points particularly on borders, an issue where, according to an 
Israeli diplomat, the gap is not significant.  According to 
Palestinian sources, the gap regarding a right of return for 
Palestinian refugees has also narrowed.  The Jerusalem Post reported 
that yesterday, speaking at a Kadima rally in Jerusalem that was 
closed to the press, FM Tzipi Livni came out against American 
efforts to have Israel reach an interim agreement with the 
Palestinians before the end of President Bush's term. 
 
On Friday Israel TV reported that PM Ehud Olmert is seriously 
considering quitting the premiership following the mid-September 
Kadima leadership race if the winner can form a new government. 
Israel Hayom quoted a senior police official as saying yesterday: 
"Out of all the Olmert affairs, the Rishon Tours [travel agency] 
affair is the most advanced from the evidentiary standpoint."  The 
official noted that the detectives had gathered enough evidence to 
warrant a first indictment of the PM.  Former chief of the police's 
National Fraud Unit investigator Boaz Guttman was quoted as saying 
in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that the spate of media 
leaks in relation with PM Ehud Olmert's interrogation is an attempt 
by elements working for the premier to signal other suspects in the 
probe currently wiretapped by law enforcement to keep silent. 
 
Over the weekend the media reported on extensive Hamas-Fatah 
violence in Gaza and Hamas's numerous arrests of Fatah activists in 
the Strip. 
 
Major media reported that Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin told the 
cabinet yesterday that East Jerusalem neighborhoods on the "other" 
side of the security fence are fast becoming Hamas hotbeds and more 
"problematic" security-wise than much of the West Bank. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak is considering 
purchasing or borrowing several Phalanx automated cannons from the 
U.S.  The cannons intercept mortar shells and short-range rockets, 
and would be used to defend Sderot and other Negev town from rocket 
fire from Gaza.  Barak is expected to ask Defense Secretary Robert 
Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen to appraise the Phalanx's performance. 
Ha'aretz reported that the defense establishment is divided on the 
issue. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates as writing in the 
latest issue of Parameters, the U.S. Army War College quarterly, 
that a war with Iran would be "disastrous." 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted John McCain as saying on CNN on Friday he 
would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem if he were 
 
elected president. 
 
Leading media reported that Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan is expected 
to announce at a press conference today that he will join Likud. 
Dayan founded the Tafnit movement, which failed  in its bid to be 
represented in the Knesset in the last general elections.  Dayan is 
considered an advocate of clean government, and supported a demand 
by reserve soldiers for a government commission of inquiry into the 
Second Lebanon War. 
 
The media reported that yesterday border policemen and soldiers 
killed Shihab Natshe, a top Hamas bomb maker who had masterminded a 
suicide bombing in Dimona earlier this year. 
 
Ha'aretz cited Reuters as saying BG, formerly known as British Gas, 
announced at the end of last week that it had resumed talks with 
Israel on developing its gas field off the Gaza Coast, but that both 
Israeli reluctance to pay world prices for gas and political 
problems made a deal difficult. 
 
Over the weekend the media reported that a mysterious explosion 
occurred in Iran on July 19 in the middle of a military convoy 
apparently meant for Hizbullah.  On Sunday Maariv quoted Israeli 
intelligence sources as saying that they do not believe that the 
Mossad would waste operational capability in Iran for a weapons 
shipment to Hizbullah, unless they were new weapons introduced in 
the arena, such as anti-aircraft missiles.  On Sunday Maariv cited 
the belief of Israeli officials that Hizbullah will try to focus its 
efforts on attacking IAF planes in Lebanese skies. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel is not planning a partial withdrawal 
this week from the village of Ghajar, which straddles the 
Israel-Lebanon border.  The denial came in response to a report 
published yesterday by the Saudi newspaper Okaz.  Yediot reported 
that the IDF will allow Jews to pray at the grave of Rav Ashi, a 
4th-5th century Talmudic scholar, which bestrides the Israel-Lebanon 
border.  Maariv cited the Israeli-Arab web site Panet as saying that 
a group of Israelis has requested Syria for permission to visit the 
grave of Rabbi Haim Vital near Damascus. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
 
Veteran journalist and anchor Dan Margalit wrote in the independent 
Israel Hayom: "The government must not act on the basis of a 
momentary gut feeling.  Certainly not in a country that paid a high 
price for six years of tahdiya [truce] on the northern border, which 
evaporated in the Second Lebanon War." 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[The story of East Jerusalem's Arabs is 
that] of utter neglect, based on the wishful thinking that the city 
could be united without all its residents being integrated into its 
fabric." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Don't Be Blinded by the Calm" 
 
Veteran journalist and anchor Dan Margalit wrote in the independent 
Israel Hayom (7/28): "Yesterday, among other security issues, the 
cabinet discussed the respite on the Gaza-Sderot front.  Ehud Barak 
stated his opinion that it was good for Israel.  The natural 
inclination is to join his opinion.... But the government must not 
act on the basis of a momentary gut feeling.  Certainly not in a 
country that paid a high price for six years of tahdiya [truce] on 
the northern border, which evaporated in the Second Lebanon War. 
Three issues should be examined:  Is the respite bringing the Hamas 
regime closer to its end?  Not at all.  On the contrary, it is 
bringing Israel closer to the point where it will withdraw its 
demand to return the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority.  Due 
to Israeli weakness, American and European pressure has collapsed. 
Has the accumulation of offensive weapons in the hands of Hamas in 
Gaza been curbed?  On the contrary, tons of weapons of various types 
have been added.... Is the tahdiya facilitating the release of Gilad 
Shalit?  Certainly not.  Clearly, the opposite is true.  Mossad 
Director Meir Dagan was right when he opposed the truce without 
effecting Shalit's release first.  Israel now remains without the 
main bargaining chip for achieving a release under difficult but 
reasonable conditions.  Now they will be very difficult, to the 
point of endangering the Shalit deal.  What, then, is working in 
Israel's favor at this time, when all its citizens without exception 
want to see the Qassam rocket and mortar shell fire at the Negev 
stop?  Anyone who says this [i.e. argues in favor of the truce] 
should remember the fine, shining, sunny, calm morning in July 2006, 
which put an end to the illusion in one fell swoop and turned the 
Middle East upside down." 
 
II.  "A Story of Neglect" 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
and former Minister of Defense Moshe Arens wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (7/28): "[Since the Six-Day War], Jerusalem 
was officially enlarged and united, but has in large measure 
remained divided to this day.... The challenge of integrating 
Jerusalem's Arab residents into the city cannot be overestimated, 
and the directions that need to be taken are obvious: equalizing the 
municipal services provided to Arab and Jewish neighborhoods, as 
well as welfare, health-care and educational services.... All this 
could probably have been done only gradually, but in fact almost 
nothing was done during the past four decades.  This is a story of 
utter neglect, based on the wishful thinking that the city could be 
united without ll its residents being integrated into its 
fabri.... These reflections have been provoked by the tree recent 
acts of terror committed by Arab resients of Jerusalem.... It is 
well known that the quivalent of the Islamic Movement, Hamas, is at 
tis time active and popular among the Jerusalem Ara population, 
and no doubt encourages them to vioence against Israel.  But it is 
equally clear tht had progress been made over the years in properl 
absorbing the Jerusalem Arab population into Isrel, the task facing 
the Palestinian extremists would have been more difficult.... Those 
who believe that Jerusalem should not be divided, and mean by that 
that the Arab neighborhoods should not be separated from the city, 
should be the first to insist that an active policy be adopted by 
the government and the municipality to improve the lot of local Arab 
residents.  Barring that, Jerusalem will continue to remain a 
divided city." 
 
MORENO