VZCZCXYZ0021
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1870/01 2351010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221010Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 2639
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 5056
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1916
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001870 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media highlighted Syrian President Bashar Assad's visit to 
Moscow.  Israel Radio cited an official communique on Syrian TV 
denying the possibility that Russia will place missiles in Syria to 
counter Western weapons.  The Jerusalem Post reported that acting 
Russian Ambassador in Tel Aviv Anatoly Yurkov told the daily that 
Russia has no intention of placing the advanced, short-range 
Iskander missile system in Syria.  The Jerusalem Post quoted Russian 
FM Sergei Lavrov as saying, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency, 
that any weapons sold to Syria would be defensive and would "not in 
any way interfere with the strategic balance in the region." 
Ha'aretz cited Israel's belief that despite the tensions between 
Russia and the West, there is no crisis in relations between 
Jerusalem and Moscow.  Yediot reported that FM Ehud Olmert is 
leaving on an urgent visit to Moscow, and reported that Olmert told 
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a telephone call on Wednesday 
that it would be better for Syria to focus on the dialogue channel 
with Israel than wasting billions of dollars on weapons that Israel 
will eventually destroy.  Olmert reportedly said that the ball is in 
Assad's court, who will find in Israel a partner willing to reach an 
agreement.  This morning Israel Radio quoted the UAE newspaper 
Al-Bayan as saying that the U.S. has demanded that Israel and Turkey 
immediately desist from talks with Syria. 
 
Maariv reported on the role of Jewish-American businessman  Daniel 
Abrams as facilitator in Olmert's negotiations with PA Chairman 
Mahmoud Abbas.  Ha'aretz also featured Abrams. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday FM Tzipi Livni met with the 
foreign press in Israel and called for a national unity government 
that would be able to pursue the creation of Palestinian state 
living peacefully alongside Israel.  But she also sounded a warning 
note, saying that a Palestinian uprising could reignite if the 
international community piled too much pressure on the sides to 
paper over differences and rush into an agreement on statehood.  In 
her remarks, Livni played down Washington's timeline for a deal this 
year.  "What is more important is the content and the nature of the 
understanding," she said.  She was quoted as saying that she and her 
Palestinian counterpart in the negotiations, former PM Ahmed Qurei, 
were going beyond "vague ideas" about the percentage of West Bank 
land that Israel would yield.  "We need to line the borders on the 
map," she was quoted as saying.  Leading media reported that 
yesterday Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz came out against the 
government and Livni in particular, saying that Israel needs 
"resolute leadership." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Labor Party chief and Defense Minister Ehud 
Barak told several party veterans yesterday that he is not worried 
about being removed or replaced before the next Knesset elections. 
According to Ha'aretz, Barak told senior party members in a series 
of phone calls that the Labor Party does not depose its leaders. 
Nonetheless, Barak admitted that the party is going through tough 
times after opinion polls forecast a big defeat if general elections 
were held today. 
 
Major media cited the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily as saying 
that Egypt has warned Hamas of possible attempts by Israel to 
assassinate the group's leaders over their lack of progress in 
negotiations to free Gilad Shalit.  The report says the rift between 
Egypt and Hamas officials has deepened in recent weeks due to the 
group's inflexibility over a deal to release Shalit  Yediot quoted 
Israeli defense sources as saying that after the truce with Hamas, 
Israel will be faced with the threat of 100 Qassam rockets a day. 
 
Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, and Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that 
Olmert and DM Barak have decided to reroute the West Bank separation 
fence in an area near Jerusalem, to minimize how much the barrier 
encroaches on Palestinian land.  Yesterday the State Prosecutor 
notified the High Court of Justice of a state decision to move the 
fence near Ma'aleh Adumim westward, allowing 4,000 dunams (around 
990 acres) of Palestinian land to remain untouched. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the Jordanian Foreign Ministry has 
summoned Israeli Ambassador to Amman Jacob Rosen, saying that Israel 
must desist from any steps that would harm the holy sites in 
Jerusalem.  Various media reported on a squabble between Jews and 
Christians over construction at the site of the Last Supper 
monastery in Jerusalem. 
 
Israel Radio reported that a 23-year-old student from the Bedouin 
town of Tel Sheva was arrested on suspicion of intending to set up 
an Al-Qaida cell.  Senior Al-Qaida operative Omar Bakri was quoted 
as saying in an interview with Makor Rishon-Hatzofe that Hamas PM 
Ismail Haniyeh is a heretic whose government makes use of Shi'ite 
money. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and Maariv reported on the plea of an Israeli 
Bedouin for the return of his son, who has been detained in Egypt 
for eight years. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Saudi trade officials are warning 
against what they claim to be cancerous products made in Israel and 
other countries that are allegedly being smuggled into the kingdom. 
 
Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that the organization 
www.10million.org, which is interested in information about MIA Ron 
Arad, has arranged to have phone messages and SMS messages sent to 
Lebanese citizens. 
 
Israel Radio quoted a senior Hizbullah official as saying that his 
organization's "shocking" revenge for the death of its chief 
operative Imad Mughniyah will take place soon.  Maariv quoted the 
Italian daily Corriere Della Sera as saying that Russia has sold 
Hizbullah anti-aircraft missiles. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that U.S. Maj. Gen. Paul J. Selva will soon 
succeed Lt. Gen. William Fraser as Roadmap implementation 
supervisor. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF shut down BBC radio 
transmitters in Hebron on Wednesday, acting on orders of the 
Communications Ministry and citing interference with communications 
at Ben-Gurion International Airport. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media reported that human rights activists are 
planning to break Israel's blockade on Gaza by sailing this morning 
from Cyprus to Gaza in two yachts.   Israel plans to block the ships 
from reaching Gaza.  The activists were quoted as saying that they 
want to break the blockade, but even if they are stopped they will 
view it as an achievement, because they will have showed Israel is 
enforcing the blockade on civilians, too. 
 
Leading media cited an AP story that over 100 victims of terrorism 
in Israel filed a lawsuit yesterday against Bank of China Ltd., 
China's largest bank, accusing the institution of transferring money 
to terrorist groups.  The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior 
Court claims that the bank transferred millions of dollars to Hamas 
and Islamic Jihad, ignoring demands by Israeli counterterrorism 
officials to halt the practice.  The suit alleges that the money 
helped fund attacks between 2004 and 2007. 
 
Major media reported that the State Prosecutor's Office intends to 
ask U.S. authorities for a declaration that any further testimony by 
Morris Talansky in Israel would not be used as evidence against him 
in U.S. court. 
 
Yediot reported that shortly before his death this week Benjamin 
Gibli, who headed IDF Intelligence at the time of the so-called 
Lavon Affair -- the scandal over a failed Israeli covert operation 
in Egypt, in which Israeli military intelligence planted bombs in 
Egyptian, American, and British-owned targets in Egypt in the summer 
of 1954 -- admitted to "giving the order" for that operation. 
 
----- 
Iran: 
----- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Daniel Levy, the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative, 
wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Don't expect 
preventive diplomacy to be swift or simple -- but Israel would be 
making a terrible, even fatal, mistake if it attacked Iran." 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"There Are Better Options" 
 
Daniel Levy, the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative, 
wrote in the independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (8/22): "The good 
news [about responses to the Iranian nuclear program] is that there 
are better options.  For one, Israel should be leading, or at least 
contributing to, rather than retarding, a policy re-think on Iran. 
Instead, when the U.S. sends Under-Secretary of State William Burns 
to sit in on talks with Iran in Geneva or considers opening an 
interest section in Tehran, Israel takes umbrage.  The same is true 
when our back-channel mediators with Syria, the Turks, host Iran's 
leaders.  Israel needs to encourage this direct hard-headed 
diplomatic engagement between its friends and Iran -- contributing 
talking points of its own and suggesting the dialogue address a 
broad range of issues of concern to Israel. Israel might even 
wrong-foot its adversaries and advance a constructive regional 
dynamic by developing an offer occasionally hinted at by President 
Shimon Peres -- that Israel will support a Middle East free of 
weapons of mass destruction in the context of regional peace, mutual 
recognition and security guarantees.  Beyond that, Israel should 
de-emphasize its unilateral military options and stress confidence 
in its own deterrence capacity vis-a-vis Iran.... Don't expect 
preventive diplomacy to be swift or simple -- but Israel would be 
making a terrible, even fatal, mistake if it attacked Iran. It does 
no one, least of all itself, any favors with the parrot-like 
repetition of the 'threatener-in-chief' mantra." 
 
CUNNINGHAM