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P 031030Z OCT 08
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STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The media reported that the index of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange 
dropped by 4.5% yesterday.  Both Yediot and Maariv listed the losses 
sustained by the richest Israelis.  Maariv bannered: QThe black day 
of IsraelQs wealthy.Q  The media noted that the rate of the dollar 
rose on the Israeli money market, while that of the euro plummeted. 
Leading media quoted the Anti-Defamation League as saying yesterday 
that the worldwide financial meltdown has triggered an uptick in 
anonymous anti-Semitic comments blaming Jews for the crisis on 
mainstream Web site message boards. 
 
HaQaretz and Maariv cited the London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, which 
quoted senior Israeli military officials as saying yesterday that 
Syria has resumed its nuclear program, and that last weekQs car 
bombing in Damascus, which killed 17 people, was aimed at a senior 
official involved in that program.  The Israeli officials were also 
quoted as saying that Jerusalem would use force to halt the 
program's progress.  The Arabic-language paper quoted the Israelis 
as saying that Syria is following the Iranian model by spreading its 
nuclear development across several sites.  The program is based on 
knowledge obtained from North Korea, the report added, and a team of 
North Korean nuclear experts visited Syria recently to help with the 
project.  The Jerusalem Post cited the views of at least two Syria 
experts skeptical of the Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat report.  In another 
development, HaQaretz quoted Colonel (ret.) Timothy J. Geraghty, the 
commanding officer of the Marine unit devastated by the suicide 
bombing of its barracks near Beirut in 1983, as saying that the 
assassination of senior Hizbullah operative Imad Mughniyah in 
Damascus in February was "long overdue justice."   In an article in 
Proceedings Magazine, the flagship publication of the U.S. Naval 
Institute, Geraghty said that Mughniyah was a key organizer in the 
two devastating suicide bombings that day. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior Israeli diplomatic official as 
saying yesterday that Jerusalem has no problem with the U.S. 
engaging in dialogue in Damascus.  The official was responding to 
questions regarding two U.S.-Syrian meetings held on the margins of 
the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week. 
 
Maariv reported that over the next two months the IDF will build two 
giant antennas near Dimona as part of the defense plan against 
potential Iranian aggression.  Their planned height will be around 
400 m. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday the Tel Aviv District Court, 
following a plea bargain, sentenced the key witness in the trial of 
former finance minister Abraham Hirchson to four years and eight 
months in prison for theft and fraud.  Ovadia Cohen, a Hirchson 
confidant, admitted stealing 10 million shekels (around $ 2.86 
million).  The State Prosecutor's Office is also demanding a 
similarly severe sentence for Hirchson if convicted. 
 
Yediot reported that Israeli citizens may soon be exempted from the 
need to obtain a visa for travel to the U.S., provided Israel meets 
certain conditions, including the issuance of biometric passports. 
The newspaper reported that yesterday Interior Minister Meir 
Sheetrit reached an agreement on the issue with Homeland Security 
Secretary Michael Chertoff and Deputy Secretary of State John 
Negroponte. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin 
defended Israel with equal vigor during last nightQs 
vice-presidential debate. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday outgoing PM Ehud Olmert 
refused to answer police investigators' questions about the 
double-billing case, saying he had not been informed of their intent 
to continue collecting evidence in this matter.  The case involves 
suspicions that Olmert, in his previous posts as minister of 
Industry, Trade and Labor and Mayor of Jerusalem, financed private 
flights for himself and his family by double-billing several 
nonprofit agencies for the same work-related flight. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel will be Qcarefully watching 
Friday's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency General 
Conference in Vienna to see whether the UN's atomic watchdog will 
admit Syria to its Board of Governors.  Syria's bid got a boost when 
Iran dropped out of the running on Wednesday, apparently after 
realizing that its chances of winning a seat were slim. 
 
HaQaretz, The Jerusalem Post, and Israel Radio cited police 
suspicions that right-wing extremists set fire to two Palestinian 
olive groves near the northern West Bank village of Kadum yesterday. 
The fires broke out shortly after the security services demolished 
two structures in the nearby illegal outpost of Shvut Ami B.  Police 
arrested two young men, both residents of settlements in the 
southern West Bank, on suspicion of starting the blaze.  The men had 
taken refuge in the house of former Kedumim mayor Daniella Weiss, 
who was herself detained for allegedly striking a police officer. 
She and her husband were also questioned on suspicion of abetting 
the arsonists. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, out of concern that Israel could 
be labeled a proselytizing nation, the Justice Ministry this week 
asked Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar to stop converting citizens 
of foreign countries, but that Amar is reluctant to agree. 
 
Leading media reported that a Qrickshaw paradeQ will take place in 
Bangkok today to demand the release of Gilad Shalit. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Al Jazeera-TV as saying that chief 
Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei said last Friday that he does not 
believe that Fatah can reconquer Gaza from Hamas. 
 
Major media reported that Aryeh Deri, the charismatic former Shas 
chairman, who had high hopes of returning to political life by 
winning next monthQs Jerusalem mayoral elections, was told yesterday 
by the Jerusalem District Court that he cannot run.  Maariv quoted 
associates of incumbent Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky as saying 
that, following the ruling, rabbis are again considering supporting 
him in the mayoral race. 
 
Yediot reported that dozens of organizations seeking peace in the 
Middle East recently convened in Pisa, Italy, with the goal of 
creating confidence.  The newspaper noted that the spirit of the 
meeting was: no politicians, no Americans. 
 
Yediot reported that Israeli supporters of Barack Obama have created 
a clip on YouTube to Qfight lies disseminated by Republicans among 
Jewish voters in the U.S., which present Obama as bad for Israel. 
 
HaQaretz reported that recently declassified CIA documents reveal 
that the PLO and the U.S. used diplomatic channels in Kuwait and 
Beirut to discuss a possible political settlement in the Middle 
East, 25 years before official negotiations began. 
 
HaQaretz (English Ed.) reported that a small but growing number of 
Jewish Israeli women are traveling to the U.S. to donate their eggs 
to infertile Jewish couples undergoing in vitro fertilization Q a 
trend that some say strengthens Jewish continuity but also raises 
serious moral questions about the commercialization of fertility. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QAlthough the two presidential 
candidates want the Jewish vote, they will not put the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the top of their foreign policy 
agendas.  That makes it doubly important for us to have a stable 
government capable of putting forward a serious peace plan.  What we 
don't do, nobody is going to do for us.  We must get ready for a 
year without America. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"A Year without America" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/3): QWith the approach of the 
U.S. presidential elections next month, America's order of 
priorities is liable to change. The next man in the White House 
will devote himself first and foremost to the economic crisis and 
its repercussions.  Another matter high on the new president's 
agenda will be making good on promises to pull American soldiers out 
of Iraq and Afghanistan.  And now, as the government of nuclear 
Pakistan totters and a hotel belonging to the American Marriott 
chain was blown sky high, even Obama has made it clear that the U.S. 
Army will fight the Taliban on the Pakistani border if necessary. 
Although the two presidential candidates want the Jewish vote, they 
will not put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the top of their 
foreign policy agendas.  That makes it doubly important for us to 
have a stable government capable of putting forward a serious peace 
plan.  What we don't do, nobody is going to do for us.  We must get 
ready for a year without America. 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QWhat it 
can do is draw world attention to key threats, and demand concerted 
international focus.  That is precisely what it is now doing in the 
case of Iran. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Sounding the Alarm" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/3): 
QThe IAEA has been trying to establish the true nature of Iran's 
nuclear program for the past six years, without definitive success. 
Its mission, always complicated, was made still harder when Iran 
limited IAEA inspectors' access to its nuclear facilities after the 
matter was referred to the UN Security Council two years ago.  Iran 
is now threatening to limit IAEA access still further, following the 
latest Security Council demand that it suspend its uranium 
enrichment process.... Resisted by the regimes its inspectors 
attempt to probe, the IAEA is fighting an uphill battle as it bids 
to prevent rogue nations from achieving their nuclear goals. What it 
can do is draw world attention to key threats, and demand concerted 
international focus.  That is precisely what it is now doing in the 
case of Iran. 
 
CUNNINGHAM