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PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1696/01 2181048
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 051048Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001696 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi 
told a group of new armored and engineering corps recruits at the 
army's induction center yesterday that Israel is "making every 
effort at all levels to return Gilad Shalit.  We know he is alive, 
and we know where he is being held and by whom, and I hope we will 
bring about an end to this affair."  Maariv noted that Israel has a 
detailed list of men involved in the abduction.  The media wondered 
if Ashkenazi's remark might jeopardize an IDF operation in Gaza. 
Israel Radio quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying that those 
who long for a military operation in Gaza will be satisfied -- it 
will come.  The radio cited the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan as saying 
that the PA is demanding the release of high-profile prisoners such 
as Marwan Barghouti and PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat, unconnected with 
Shalit's release. 
 
Israel Radio and the leading news web site Ynet reported that the 
U.S. has cancelled the entry visas of four Palestinians who had won 
stipends to study in the U.S., apparently on security grounds, even 
though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice personally interceded on 
their behalf.  According to Israel Radio, at first Israel refused to 
allow these students and three others to leave the Gaza Strip for 
interviews at the U.S. Consulate-General in Jerusalem.  However in 
response to Rice's pressure a few of them were allowed to go to 
Jerusalem, and American diplomats went to the Gaza Strip to 
interview the others.  Two months ago the four students received 
their entry visas to the U.S.  But in the past few days the State 
Department in Washington intimated that a decision had been made to 
reject the visas, because new information on their cases had been 
received.  A senior official involved in the affair was quoted as 
saying that the information was concerned with security, and was 
connected with IsraelQs refusal to allow them to leave Gaza. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted senior GOI officials as saying yesterday in 
Jerusalem that the question of whether the U.S. will open an 
interests section in Tehran will be decided by President Bush 
himself in the coming month. The newspaper quoted a GOI source in 
Jerusalem as saying: "Israel is surprised at the need to open an 
interests section and about the timing of the American move."  The 
newspaper quoted another GOI source, who is close to the Iranian 
question, as saying: "We don't really know what the Americans are 
planning.  We receive reassuring messages from the Americans, but on 
the other hand questions arise in light of the intention to open an 
interests section." 
 
Israel Radio quoted senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as 
saying that PM Ehud Olmert and PA President Mahmoud Abbas will meet 
tomorrow in Olmert's Jerusalem residence. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday the High Court of Justice left 
open the possibility that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz might be 
able to declare PM Olmert incapable of fulfilling his duties should 
the PM obstruct the criminal investigations against him. 
 
The media reported that yesterday Kadima Knesset members decided 
that FM Tzipi Livni will not be required to declare her loyalty to 
Kadima if she loses in the party primaries. 
 
Leading media quoted Col. (res.) Ilan Katz, the lawyer of the 
soldier suspected of firing a rubber bullet at a handcuffed 
Palestinian in the northern West Bank village of Na'alin, as saying 
yesterday: "If only the soldier is indicted and not his battalion 
commander, we will petition the High Court of Justice. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted an Israeli defense source as saying that Israel has 
offered to help Egypt build a technologically advanced wall along 
the Gaza border. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Ministry of Defense backed down 
from submitting a $400 million bid to develop and manufacture a new 
tank for the Turkish Armed Forces due to concerns that competing 
with American-backed defense industries would endanger Israel-U.S. 
relations. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Brig. Gen Yoav Mordechai, head of the 
Civil Administration as saying yesterday that Israel does not fear 
amajor terror escalation with the transfer of the Hlles clan from 
Gaza to Jericho.  Talking to Isral Radio, Fatah leader Hussein 
Al-Sheikh thanked Israel in the name of Mahmoud Abbas and 
Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad for letting the men out of Gaza. 
However, the radio noted that Al-Sheikh was critical of Israel in 
the Arab media. 
Ha'aretz reported that the Homesh First Movement is expected to 
announce today that settlement groups are planning to return to 
settlements in Gush Katif evacuated during the August 2005 
disengagement from Gaza.  Boaz Haetzni, one of the leaders of the 
movement, explained to Ha'aretz that the core settlement groups hope 
to return the minute it is acceptable from a security standpoint 
(i.e. when the IDF enters Gaza). 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Sky News-TV as saying that contrary to various 
speculations, Israel denied any involvement in the assassination of 
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Suleiman, Syrian President Bashar Assad's right 
hand man.  Israel Radio quoted the London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat 
as saying that Syrian authorities have arrested several suspects in 
the affair. 
 
Ha'aretz's web site reported that the Pentagon has admitted in an 
internal report that it wrongly accused an army engineer from 
Michigan of spying for Israel because he was a Jew.  David Tenenbaum 
of Southfield is an Orthodox Jew and fluent in Hebrew.  The Defense 
Department put him on paid leave in 1997 while it and the FBI 
investigated his ties to Israel. 
 
Leading media quoted former Soviet dissident and former Israeli 
cabinet minister Natan Sharansky as saying Monday that accusations 
of anti-Semitism ought not overshadow the fact that Alexander 
Solzhenitsyn, who passed away on Sunday, had "changed the lives of 
millions of people." 
 
Leading media reported that the last immigrants from Ethiopia 
(Falash Mura -- Ethiopians whose Jewish ancestors converted to 
Christianity) will land today in Israel.  Altogether 120,000 
Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to the country. 
 
The media reported that the Environmental Protection Ministry warned 
in a special report released yesterday that Israel is unprepared for 
the coming climate crisis, and could fail to meet the country's 
water needs.  Maariv reported that yesterday the "social cabinet" 
approved a proposal that was put forward jointly by the Industry, 
Trade and Labor Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Environmental 
Protection Ministry, and the National Infrastructure Ministry 
regarding the research and development of technologies for producing 
electricity with renewable energies (solar, wind and so forth).  The 
program set as its goal an overall investment of at least 350 
million shekels (almost $100 million) over the years. 
 
-------- 
 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "This murderous regime [Hamas] is becoming the 
darling of the 'forces of progress.'" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Now 
that Lebanon stands poised to adopt Hizbullah's anti-Israel crusade 
as national policy, it would be ludicrous to treat Lebanese airspace 
as sacrosanct." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Hate Ship" 
 
Conservative Op-Ed Page Editor Ben-Dror Yemini wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (8/5): "The Hamas regime in Gaza decided over the 
weekend to show the world what it knows how to do.  Not that we did 
not know, but the timing was astonishing.  During their seizure of 
the Gaza Strip they forced their prisoners to lie down and massacred 
them.  If someone raised his head they shot him again to make sure 
he was dead. The leading television channels in the world did not 
screen these pictures.  It is interesting to speculate why.... This 
murderous regime is becoming the darling of the 'forces of 
progress'.... The alliance between the forces of progress with mass 
murderers has now found another expression.  They will not support 
the Palestinian side which is perceived as supporting reconciliation 
and agreement.  They are with Hamas.  They are partners on the ship 
of hatred which is due to set out today from Nicosia in Cyprus for 
the Hamas kingdom in Gaza.... If we were talking about the tiniest 
extremist fringe, it might not matter so much.  But at a certain 
stage it was reported on a Palestinian website that the Jimmy Carter 
Center supports the ship that supports the murderous regime." 
 
II.  "Lebanon Tipping-Point?" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (8/5): 
"Israel is sounding the alarm: The fragile balance of force in 
Lebanon is unraveling.  And the world is playing deaf.  The 
Israeli-Lebanese relationship is reaching another critical 
turning-point; and not just over how Lebanon and Hizbullah are 
melding into a single new entity, with Beirut set to formally confer 
upon Hizbullah the right to 'liberate or recover occupied lands' -- 
meaning any territory it defines as 'occupied,' whether Mount Dov 
(the Sheba Farms) or Galilee.  Lebanon is metamorphosing from 
hapless bystander to willing Hizbullah enabler, a transformation 
certain to have devastating consequences.  The even more immediate 
crisis is that unless Hizbullah's runaway arms-struggling is 
checked, the Islamists may soon possess weapons that could force 
Israel into preemptive military action to protect this country's 
deterrence.... While Resolution 1701 demanded the 'disarmament of 
all armed groups in Lebanon,' Hizbullah has never been better armed. 
 While it called on Lebanon to support the cease-fire, Beirut now 
explicitly threatens.  And while it demanded that 'no sales or 
supply of arms and related material' reach Lebanon -- Syria, Iran 
(and, less brazenly, Russia) are systematically flouting 1701..... 
Now that Lebanon stands poised to adopt Hizbullah's anti-Israel 
crusade as national policy, it would be ludicrous to treat Lebanese 
airspace as sacrosanct.... Responsible actors in the international 
community need to take Israel's warnings with the utmost seriousness 
and act to close the spigot spewing weapons into Lebanon." 
 
MORENO