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DE RUEHTV #2002/01 2471029
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P 031029Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002002 
 
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: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media quoted Syrian President Bashar Assad as saying 
yesterday in an interview with France 3-TV that indirect 
negotiations with Israel have brought the "possibility of peace," 
although the two countries still have quite a way to go toward that 
goal.   Assad was also quoted as saying that he believed that Israel 
"could try to launch different attacks, maybe against Iran, and 
maybe also against Lebanon, and of course it could launch an attack 
on Syria."  He warned that such attacks would have "catastrophic 
results."  Israel Radio reported that indirect talks with Syria will 
be possible when Yoram Turbowicz returns to conduct them even after 
his resignation from the post of PM Ehud Olmert's chief of staff. 
The radio later quoted the London-based Al-Hayat as saying that the 
talks will resume on Sunday. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli officials as saying that a story 
reporting that Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal has left 
Damascus at Syria's request was simply "not true." 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Olmert met yesterday with FM Tzipi 
Livni and DM Ehud Barak to discuss the negotiations with the PA, but 
that diplomatic officials downplayed the significance, saying that 
such meetings are routine and do not presage any breakthrough. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Egypt opposes an Israeli-Palestinian partial 
agreement because Cairo doesn't think such a deal would end the 
conflict in the region, and Jordan fears that such an agreement 
would force it to take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian 
refugees.  The Egyptian and Jordanian position is encouraging to the 
PA, which also opposes an "agreement in principle."  Ha'aretz quoted 
former Lebanese PM Omar Karameh and a Hizbullah-associated daily as 
saying yesterday that for the first time Egypt has invited Hizbullah 
leaders for talks.  Israel Radio quoted the Kuwaiti newspaper 
Al-Qabas as saying that Egypt has decided to open the Rafah crossing 
more often. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli officials as saying that no 
decisions have been made regarding withdrawal from the northern side 
of the village of Ghajar, despite unconfirmed media reports 
indicating that Israel has expressed willingness to do so. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media quoted DM Barak as saying yesterday that 
there have been quite a few alerts about Hizbullah attacks abroad in 
the last few weeks, and that there were "several very important 
deflections of planned attacks." 
 
Leading media cited a Reuters story as saying that the Nation's 
Army, an extremist Palestinian group affiliated with Al-Qaida, is 
training in Gaza with the aim of fighting against Israel.  The 
report said that Hamas is allowing the group to train in Gaza 
provided it does not interfere with Palestinian politics and it does 
not impose its ideology on the Palestinians. 
 
The media reported that yesterday the High Court of Justice issued a 
temporary injunction against plans to demolish parts of the home of 
Palestinian terrorist Ala Abu Dhaim, who killed eight people at the 
Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem last March. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted freed Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar as 
saying yesterday that PA President Mahmoud Abbas  had asked for the 
recent meeting between the two that has angered Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that yesterday two border policemen 
were convicted of manslaughter for their part in the 2002 kidnapping 
and wrongful death of a Hebron teen. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel is still likely to boycott 
the so-called "Durban II" conference set for 2009 in spite of a plea 
made by the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, 
that it reconsider. 
 
Maariv reported that a UNESCO resolution granting the title of 
"capital of Arab culture" to Jerusalem for 2009 might turn into an 
anti-Israel campaign in the eastern part of the city. 
 
Yediot reported that on Sunday Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann 
will propose a bill that will define when the High Court of Justice 
is entitled to overturn laws and how the Knesset can circumvent the 
Court. 
 
The Jerusalem Post and other media quoted Attorney General Menachem 
Mazuz as saying yesterday that the Justice Ministry's party 
registrar will compile a list of people who are members of both 
Likud and Kadima after the two parties asked for their lists to be 
examined. 
 
Major media reported that former Shas leader Aryeh Deri is 
considering running for mayor of Jerusalem.  Ha'aretz reported that 
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has promised to support his 
ex-protege.  (Israel Radio quoted Deri as saying that he and the 
Rabbi have not spoken about the issue.)  Deri was convicted in the 
past of accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust, offenses for 
which he spent two years in prison.  His criminal record may make 
him ineligible to run in the elections, since his offenses were 
deemed as having involved moral turpitude, and by law that bars him 
from running for public office for a defined period of time. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that President Shimon Peres and DM Barak 
broke Israel's boycott of Aljazeera-TV when they each granted 
interviews to the network.  However, Foreign Ministry officials were 
quoted as saying that no agreement has been reached in negotiations 
taking place between the ministry and the network. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media reported that the supply of natural gas 
from Egypt to Israel was halted on Friday and has yet to be resumed. 
 Concern is mounting in Jerusalem, where sources believe that Egypt 
is struggling to supply all its clients and has chosen to cut back 
supplies to its neighbors, including Israel, some of which pay 
especially low prices for the fuel.  Israel receives Egyptian gas 
through the Egyptian-Israeli consortium EMG. 
 
Yediot reported that yesterday Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense 
Systems Ltd. signed a one-billion shekel (around $275 million) deal 
with the Indian Defense Ministry.  The newspaper says that this may 
reduce expenses for two missile defense systems -- the Iron Dome and 
the missile protection from Hizbullah missiles.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that, implementing the lessons of the Second Lebanon War, 
Israeli Military Industries has designed a mortar shell that uses a 
satellite guidance system to accurately hit its target. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that thousands of African refugees in Israel are 
not vaccinated against tuberculosis, although regulations obligate 
them to undergo testing after their release from detention centers. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Conservative Jewish affairs correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[Prime Minister Olmert's] 
willingness to bring the members of the Quartet into the 
negotiations over Jerusalem (even as 'advisors') opens the door to 
internationalizing the conflict over the city, and that is 
tantamount to public suicide." 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized: "The 
public, media-oriented, and fashionable campaign to release Gilad 
Shalit does not bring his freedom closer but rather removes it 
further." 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "Just as the Palestinians will have to acknowledge 
the Jewishness of Israel, Israel will have to acknowledge its part 
in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem." 
 
Liberal columnist Avirama Golan wrote in Ha'aretz: "Livni has a 
chance to be elected as the head of a 'faux centrist' right-wing 
party.  And when this happens, and Labor is finally swallowed up 
into Kadima, it will finally make room for a real leftist 
movement." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "False Oaths of Allegiance" 
 
Conservative Jewish affairs correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (9/3): "Ehud Olmert lacks any 
legitimacy to negotiate over Jerusalem, not only because of the 
heavy cloud of criminal suspicions that hangs over him and because 
his days in office are numbered, but mainly because no one ever 
authorized him to hand over the treasure of the Jewish people and 
smash one of the foundation stones of the Zionist movement.  [The 
key Israeli cabinet ministers] understand that Mahmoud Abbas is not 
the sole custodian of Jerusalem on the Arab side, and that Jordan, 
Egypt, Morocco and perhaps Saudi Arabia also need to be brought into 
the picture.  However, they do not understand that it is not the 
sole custodian of Jerusalem for the Jewish people.  This group is 
'democratic' when it comes to Arab countries, but would never dream 
of bringing representatives of the Jewish people and the Jewish 
religion into the talks, not to mention taking the most elementary 
step -- a referendum that would make clear the significance of 
dividing the city.  The implications of such a move are completely 
lacking from the discourse over the historic snatch Olmert is now 
trying to bring about.  His willingness to bring the members of the 
Quartet into the negotiations over Jerusalem (even as 'advisors') 
opens the door to internationalizing the conflict over the city, and 
that is tantamount to public suicide.... [Incidentally], Dore Gold, 
Israel's former ambassador to the UN, recently noted that the more 
Israel concedes in Jerusalem, the more the American position 
regarding our status in the city erodes.  He still remembers how the 
U.S. used its veto power in the Security Council to reject 
Palestinian initiatives to condemn Israeli construction in 
neighborhoods like Har Homa.  Today, not only is it difficult to 
conceive of such a veto, but the Americans are those who initiate 
complaints over Israeli construction in Jerusalem." 
 
II.  "A Campaign against Shalit's Interests" 
 
The nationalist, Orthodox Makor Rishon-Hatzofe editorialized (9/3): 
"The public, media-oriented, and fashionable campaign to release 
Gilad Shalit does not bring his freedom closer but rather removes it 
further; it doesn't serve Shalit's interests, but Hamas's.... 
Hamas's regime in Gaza pretends that it can afford to drag its feet 
forever, but this is not true.  It is not only in Israel that time 
is vanishing.... A cruel war of nerves is raging between the sides, 
as both are pressed and eager to reach an achievement, and each of 
them knows that it can't show its impatience or its keenness.  This 
war of nerves, the civilian pressure on the Israeli government to 
hasten and surrender, encourages a stiffening of Hamas's positions, 
increases its demands, and brings us further from an agreement." 
 
III.  "Peace: From Concepts to Realities" 
 
Gershon Baskin, Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine Center for 
Research and Information, wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (9/3): "To reach a package agreement, both sides will 
have to make substantive concessions.  Just as the Palestinians will 
have to acknowledge the Jewishness of Israel, Israel will have to 
acknowledge its part in the creation of the Palestinian refugee 
problem.  Israel does not bear full responsibility for that issue, 
but it certainly does have partial and even significant 
responsibility.  Acknowledging Israel's partial responsibility is 
necessary for the Palestinians to accept the principle that the 
'right of return' will be implemented primarily to the state of 
Palestine and not to Israel.  Acknowledgement by both sides of these 
fundamentals is what is required to reach an agreement that could 
enable real and lasting reconciliation.  Both sides will also have 
to recognize that Jerusalem will be the capital of both states with 
the requisite division of sovereignty, including the division of 
control or sovereignty over the holy places.  Both sides could also 
implement substantive steps immediately that would provide a 
stronger foundation for the statements of acknowledgement listed 
above.... There is no reason to wait for a final agreement and its 
ratification by the people to begin to implement steps that will 
build peace on the ground while implementing specific clauses that 
will become central themes of the peace treaty.  Peace is not built 
solely by reaching agreements on paper -- this is necessary, but not 
enough. Peace must be built on the ground -- from the bottom up.  We 
must begin to transform words and concepts into new realities." 
 
IV.  "Neither Left nor Right" 
 
Liberal columnist Avirama Golan wrote in Ha'aretz (9/3): "If Livni 
is elected, forms the next government, and manages to rule wisely -- 
a task she appears capable of -- it will mark the final victory of 
the new politics, the apolitical politics.  Like Angela Merkel and 
Nicolas Sarkozy, who attracted many voters from the left, Livni has 
a chance to be elected as the head of a 'faux centrist' right-wing 
party.  And when this happens, and Labor is finally swallowed up 
into Kadima, it will finally make room for a real leftist movement, 
a social democratic party whose economic, social and cultural views 
would naturally compliment a dovish diplomatic stance.  One may hope 
that Labor, whose fingerprints are historically on the settlement 
enterprise, and Meretz, which has turned into a sectarian 
mini-faction, will exit the stage.  The forces that seek to shackle 
Livni from the right (economically and diplomatically) will be 
balanced by a new political force that is genuinely left-wing." 
 
CUNNINGHAM