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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002246 
 
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 
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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 
 
Please note: There will not be a Tel Aviv Media Reaction report 
Tuesday and Wednesday, September 30-October 1, 2008, due to the Rosh 
 
Hashanah (Jewish New Year) holiday.  Also: Israel will move to 
Winter 
(Standard) Time on Sunday, October 5, 2008.  Between October 5 and 
November 2 the time difference between Israel and EDT will be six 
hours.   After November 2, it will return to the usual seven-hour 
difference. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The most important interview that PM Ehud Olmert granted the pre- 
Jewish New Year Holiday media is the one with Yediot, in which he 
declared that Israel must withdraw from almost all Palestinian 
territories and from the Golan.  He was quoted as saying that one 
hill and 100 meters are not what will change 
 
In a front-page article in Maariv Noam Shalit, the father of Gilad 
Shalit, tells Olmert that the responsibility for Gilad's fate will 
always be his. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Olmert told the cabinet yesterday 
that Israeli democracy has been threatened by right-wing extremists, 
 
who lightly wounded left-wing academic Zeev Sternhell last week by 
setting a pipe bomb outside the door of his Jerusalem apartment. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that while Fatah's security professionals seek 
conflict with Hamas, the movement's political faction wishes to 
reconcile with Hamas and redirect the anger at Israel. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that PM Olmert will discus the issue 
of 
Iran's nuclear program with the Russian leaders during his visit to 
 
 
Moscow next week. 
 
Over the weekend leading media reported that last week EUCOM 
positioned a radar system in Israel, which Makor Rishon-Hatzofe says 
 
is meant to signal Israel's leaders that now is not the time to 
embark upon a military operation against Iran.  The Jerusalem Post 
reported that an IDF request to operate the radar has been denied. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the infiltration of a border 
community or an attack on an IDF outpost are some of the scenarios 
for which Northern Command is preparing as intelligence assessments 
 
point to the possibility that Hizbullah may take advantage of the 
holiday season to avenge the assassination of Imad Mughniyah. 
Leading media reported that Syria has eventually ruled out Israel's 
 
involvement in Saturday's bombing in Damascus.  Yesterday Ha'aretz 
quoted MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List - Ta'al) as saying on 
Saturday 
that Syria is serious in its intention to conduct negotiations with 
 
Israel.  His remarks came after a meeting with Syrian FM Walid 
Muallem on Thursday in New York. 
 
Yesterday Yediot reported that Tzipi Livni has offered Shaul Mofaz 
the post of deputy PM and foreign minister.  Yesterday Makor 
Rishon- 
Hatzofe reported that Mofaz would prefer the position of interior 
minister.  Ha'aretz quoted a source close to Labor Party Chairman 
Ehud Barak as saying yesterday that Labor is threatening to push for 
 
elections if Kadima continues to fail to meet its demands in 
coalition talks. 
 
All media reported that the cabinet recommended on Sunday that 
Police 
Commissioner David Cohen be reprimanded for accusing Justice 
Minister 
Daniel Friedmann of "arrant irresponsibility" for reportedly 
accusing 
the police of effectively ousting Olmert.  Associates of Friedmann 
say he never made the comment to which Cohen objected. They said the 
statement had been wrongly attributed to Friedmann in the past, but 
 
the matter had since been clarified.  Cohen apologized to Friedmann 
 
and the other ministers yesterday, sending them letters saying he 
was 
sorry if they were hurt by his remarks. 
 
Yesterday major media reported that, in a last-minute bid to pass 
Iran sanctions legislation before the end of the congressional 
session, the House of Representatives approved a bill late on Friday 
 
tightening trade restrictions and asset freezes on the Islamic 
Republic.  The Jerusalem Post said that the bill's fate was 
uncertain. 
 
The media expressed concern about the rise of the far Right in 
Sunday's legislative elections in Austria. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media reported that the police opened an 
investigation yesterday into the murder of an 18-year-old 
Palestinian 
shepherd whose bullet-riddled body was found last night outside a 
Jewish settlement in the West Bank. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas is planning to challenge a 
bid 
by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to extend his term. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted former Shas leader Aryeh Deri, who asked a court 
this 
week to allow him to run for Jerusalem mayor, as saying that 
conditions on the ground suggest that the capital is already 
divided. 
"The pledge not to divide Jerusalem is empty talk," the former 
interior minister told Ha'aretz in a recent interview. 
 
Yediot reported that FBI investigators have arrived in Israel in an 
 
attempt to complete the testimony of Morris Talansky in Israel. 
They 
will check whether his deposition could hurt him following 
suspicions 
against him in the U.S. 
Yesterday Ha'aretz reported that yesterday three directors of the 
Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian environmental organization Friends of 
 
the Earth - Middle East have been chosen a Time Magazine's Heroes of 
 
the Environment 2008. 
 
Yesterday Ha'aretz reported that three airlines flying to Israel are 
 
to shortly begin using the pilot identification system known as Code 
 
Positive to prevent terror attacks using airplanes. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon 
Abramovitch is leaving the political service and that he will quit 
the ministry in November.  Media had predicted that Livni would 
appoint him to an important post. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
 
Liberal columnist Doron Rosenblum wrote in Ha'aretz: "The new 
[Jewish] year will be a test not only of Livni's suitability for the 
 
job, but also of Israel's suitability for a role in which it has 
never before been cast: a quasi-normal nation." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Enough Talk" 
 
Left-wing columnist Gideon Levy wrote in the independent, left- 
leaning Ha'aretz (9/28): "If the new [Israeli] government is headed 
 
for peace -- and this is extremely doubtful -- it must start with 
actions, not talks.  It is very easy to change the occupation's road 
 
map.  Just take a few steps like a mass release of prisoners and 
taking down all internal roadblocks and taking down all internal 
roadblocks to signal that the government intends to make peace. 
This 
would advance the political process more than all the talks, as 
daring as they may be.  If I were a Palestinian leader, I'd tell the 
 
new government: You know what our positions are, as we know yours. 
 
Let's not start everything over again.  If you are sincere, start 
acting, even before the first photo-op between Livni and Abbas. 
This 
is even more apt when it comes to peace with Syria -- we know what 
the conditions are, there is nothing to talk about, only to decide. 
 
Enough talk.  It's time to act." 
 
II.  "Tzipi and the Expectations" 
 
Liberal columnist Doron Rosenblum wrote in Ha'aretz (9/29): "There 
is 
... a daring innovation in having a woman like Livni standing on the 
 
threshold of the Israeli premiership, because her advocacy of 
moderation, her integrity, her caution, and her femininity 
constitute 
a kind of challenge against everything that has been popular, 
beloved 
and admired in Israeli leadership.  It is possible that this will 
spark a counter-reaction, an opposition, from both inside and 
outside.  It is possible that in her, too, we will discover facets 
with which we are not yet familiar.  On the other hand, it is 
possible that a change will take place in the style of leadership 
with which we are familiar.  In any case, the new year will be a 
test 
not only of Livni's suitability for the job, but also of Israel's 
suitability for a role in which it has never before been cast: a 
quasi-normal nation." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist and Jewish World Review's Washington correspondent Douglas 
 
¶M. Bloomfield wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: 
 
"To hear McCain tell it, remove the earmarks and you eliminate the 
deficit and are halfway home to rescuing the economy.... One of the 
 
first victims of the McCain policy would be aid to Israel." 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Christmas Comes on the Jewish New Year" 
 
Columnist and Jewish World Review's Washington correspondent Douglas 
 
¶M. Bloomfield wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
 
(9/29): "McCain, the Republican nominee, has made zero tolerance a 
centerpiece of his campaign; Obama has vowed to reduce but not 
eliminate them.  To hear McCain tell it, remove the earmarks and you 
 
eliminate the deficit and are halfway home to rescuing the 
economy.... One of the first victims of the McCain policy would be 
aid to Israel, an earmark of $3 billion in annual security 
assistance, pus millions more in other programs in the defense, 
foreign operations, and other parts of the federal budget.  From 
time 
to time administrations have tried to remove the Israel earmark to 
pressure or punish Israel.  Even a popular president like Ronald 
Reagan had to back down in the face of strong bipartisan opposition 
 
from the Congress." 
 
CUNNINGHAM