VZCZCXYZ0023
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1702/01 2191536
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061536Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7869
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001702 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR KPAL KDEM IS
SUBJECT:  MOURNING BECOMES MOFAZ 
 
REF: Tel Aviv 1632 - "THE LIVNI CAMPAIGN MANTRA" 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE TREAT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  The morning after the festive Jerusalem launch 
of his campaign for the leadership of the Kadima party, Transport 
Minister Shaul Mofaz received lead-story status in two major Hebrew 
language dailies.  The August 6 headlines, however, captured a 
negative storyline regarding possible campaign improprieties and 
Palestinian pessimism about his candidacy.  The electronic media all 
but ignored the Mofaz campaign messages on security and Jerusalem, 
giving him barely ten seconds of prime time news coverage to his 
pledge to maintain a united Jerusalem.  In fact, all four of the 
presumed candidates have yet to formally announce their candidacies 
within the Kadima Party - despite press appearances, political 
mantras and prolific polling that suggest otherwise.  Formal 
registration of candidates for the Kadima primary does not begin 
until August 11 - after the nine-day mourning period ("Tisha B'Av") 
commemorating the destruction of the Jewish temples is over. 
Candidates must present 10,000 NIS and 300 signatures to the party 
before August 24 when the list formally closes, according to retired 
Judge Dan Arbel, Chairman of the Kadima Elections Committee.  End 
Summary. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
MEDIA SPINS NEGATIVE STORIES ABOUT MOFAZ 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Rather than focus on the substance of the ten-minute 
prepared text he delivered to some 300 supporters at the Mount Zion 
Hotel in view of the Old City walls in Jerusalem, Ha'aretz coupled 
the Mofaz declaration that "If elected PM I will personally handle 
negotiations with the PA" with the PA rejoinder "A Mofaz victory in 
the Kadima Primaries will be disastrous for the peace process." 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Mass-circulation Ma'ariv, true to its tabloid format, 
pictured Mofaz and FM Tzipi Livni, the front-runner in the Kadima 
race, under the caption "the battle for the succession."  In a giant 
banner headline, Mofaz is quoted as alleging: "Livni has a team 
dedicated to hunting me down but I am not fazed by it. I too can 
hire someone to run a negative campaign but I don't."  Livni's 
office was reported this morning to have dismissed the allegations 
by Mofaz as "nonsense." 
 
¶4.  (U) Not to be outdone, Israel's most popular newspaper, Yediot 
Ahronoth, went one step further with a report that a working visit 
to Eilat port by Mofaz several months ago turned into a political 
rally and was attended, during working hours, by a number of Eilat 
port workers who had joined Kadima.  They later attended a political 
event in a local city hotel - also on work time.  A port worker who 
had signed up colleagues for membership in Kadima is quoted by 
Yediot as saying: "It's important to help Mofaz now. He will help us 
later on." 
 
-------------------------------------- 
THE MOFAZ CAMPAIGN - WHAT'S THE HURRY? 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The first nine days of the Jewish month of Av falls in 
August this year, and mark a period of lamentation for the 
destruction of the First and Second Temples.  Mofaz referred to them 
in his August 5 speech in Jerusalem:  "In this place before the 
walls of the Old City, whose destruction we are marking these days, 
I promise to maintain a united Jerusalem as Israel's eternal 
capital." 
 
¶6.  (U) Some commentators were mystified as to what Mofaz hoped to 
achieve by lobbying Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef during 
this period of Jewish mourning when he paid him a courtesy call -- 
presumably to seek his blessing -- shortly before making his 
campaign speech.  Interviewed August 6 by Israel Radio about the 
meeting with the Shas leader, Mofaz had little to say except to deny 
that the subjects of child allowances, welfare or other budgetary 
issues related to coalition politics were raised. 
 
¶7.  (U) Pressed on his political action-plan if elected leader of 
Kadima, Mofaz told Israel Radio he would seek to form a broad-based 
government and that he believed this was preferable to elections. 
Asked to name his preferred coalition partners, Mofaz was 
non-committal saying all the Zionist parties would be welcome to 
join but that the initial approach would be made to current 
coalition members.  While Mofaz was at pains last night to emphasize 
his wealth of experience in the field of security -- hammering home 
the word "security" some 22 times -- he is clearly betting that his 
security credentials are his most effective means of compensating 
for of his lack of experience in the field of coalition politics. 
 
-------------------------- 
MOFAZ AND THE PALESTINIANS 
-------------------------- 
¶8.  (U) Anticipating Palestinian hostility to the mere notion of his 
leadership of Kadima, Mofaz last night did his best to soothe the 
anxieties of a Palestinian partner in future dialogue when he 
declared "I want to remind people that the one who signed the Wye 
Accord and carried it out was me, as head of the IDF Planning 
Administration. I spent nights with them and solved security, 
economic and humanitarian issues, both as chief of staff and as 
defense minister...They know me...Mahmoud Abbas, Salam Fayyad and 
Saeb Erekat. They'll say that everything I promised I delivered." 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Comment:  According to polls, Mofaz lags behind Livni in 
the leadership race and given Livni's relentless campaign on the 
theme of transparency in governance (REFTEL), Mofaz can ill-afford 
the negative press he received in the last 48 hours.  Mofaz chose to 
launch his Kadima primaries campaign during a period in which it is 
traditional, even among Jews who are not Orthodox, to refrain from 
embarking on a new project, inaugurating a new position or office, 
dedicating a new institution or signing any agreement.  Jumping out 
ahead of the other three Kadima contenders came at the expense of 
violating a tradition, a move that his other rival, Likud Party 
Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, deftly avoided on August 2 when he 
joined the Shas spiritual leader at a "Torah Scholarship 
Conference." 
 
MORENO