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P 231047Z OCT 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002374 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR IS
 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Global War on Terror 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
While Yediot reported that PM-designate Tzipi Livni has offered Shas 
1 billion shekels (around $ 260 million), Maariv reported that Livni 
signaled to Shas that she can no longer wait for the party to enter 
the coalition (major media reported that Shas rejected LivniQs offer 
of 700-800 million shekels (around $ 182-209 million)).  Maariv 
reported that Livni will hold a crucial meeting with Shas 
representatives today.  Israel Radio quoted a Kadima source involved 
in the negotiations as saying that ShasQs terms are irresponsible. 
Maariv quoted Livni associates as saying that Transportation 
Minister Shaul Mofaz will not vote against a narrow-based 
government.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Meretz MK Zehava 
Gal-On told the newspaper that Kadima is willing to meet most of 
MeretzQs demands. 
 
Maariv cited the IDF Intelligence assessment that Syrian President 
Bashar Assad is serious about making peace.  The newspaper quoted a 
senior Foreign Ministry official as saying that Assad is following 
Anwar SadatQs course. 
 
Israel Radio reported that yesterday hundreds of people visited the 
abandoned West Bank settlement of Homesh. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday the IDF agreed to the 
deployment of about 500 Palestinian policemen in the coming days to 
participate in a PA-backed crackdown on Hamas infrastructure in 
Hebron. 
 
HaQaretz reported that the Chief Military Rabbinate has recently 
expanded its educational activities in IDF combat units, and in 
doing so has entered areas previously served only by the Education 
Corps.  Many commanders accept offers of such programs since the 
rabbinate pays for these activities, while the units must foot the 
bill for events run by the Education Corps.  HaQaretz reported that 
a senior officer told the daily that the Chief Military Rabbinate's 
behavior "harms the delicate fabric of relations between the 
nonreligious and religious in the IDF.  In a number of cases it is 
religious brainwashing and, indirectly, also political 
[brainwashing]."  IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, 
ordered an investigation of the matter this week and requested to 
redraw the "borders" between the rabbinate and Education Corps. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Israel's intelligence community has drawn up 
a list of dozens of former senior security officials who may be 
targets of Hizbullah attacks.  The list was prepared in response to 
Hizbullah's threats to avenge the assassination of its "operations 
officer," Imad Mughniyah, last February.  Hizbullah blames Israel 
for the killing.  Leading media quoted the Iraqi Web site Almalaf 
Yon as saying yesterday that Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah was 
poisoned last week and that Iranian doctors were rushed to Lebanon 
to treat him, saving his life.  The report quoted "western 
diplomatic sources" as saying that Israel was apparently behind the 
assassination attempt, adding that the Shiite group has launched an 
investigation into the incident.  Israeli media said that a senior 
Hizbullah figure called the report a "fabrication", saying "I 
havenQt seen Nasrallah in a week, but I know he is in good health." 
Maariv and The Jerusalem Post reported that dozens of cocaine 
smugglers and money launderers were arrested in Bogota last week on 
suspicion of transferring part of their income to Hizbullah. 
 
Leading media reported that DM Ehud Barak has put forward a new 
proposal aimed at pressuring Hamas back into negotiations about 
Gilad Shalit.  The proposal centers on limiting the visitation 
rights Israel awards Palestinian inmates belonging to, or associated 
with, Hamas. Barak has submitted the proposal to Attorney General 
Menachem Mazuz for review, asking him to cut back on the visiting 
hours allotted to inmates.  Israel Radio quoted official Egyptian 
sources as saying that Israel is going back on its agreement to 
release 1,500 Palestinians in three stages in exchange for Shalit, 
and that there is no agreement on the PalestiniansQ identity. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Olmert associate MK Otniel 
Schneller told the newspaper yesterday that Olmert is striving to 
reach a diplomatic agreement if a new government is not formed. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning in Jerusalem a Palestinian 
stabbed and seriously wounded two Israelis.  HaQaretz and other 
media reported that yesterday an IDF soldier was lightly wounded in 
clashes with settlers near the West Bank settlement of Otniel, while 
three border policemen were lightly wounded in clashes with Israeli 
leftists and Palestinians near the West Bank town of Na'alin. 
 
Yediot reported that next month Queen Elizabeth will bestow 
knighthood on President Shimon Peres. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Agence France Presse as saying that 
yesterday the U.S. signed an agreement to give $150 million to the 
government of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has fallen in the rankings 
of the World Press Freedom Index, published each year by the 
non-profit, Paris-based, Reporters without Borders.  The group 
singled out IsraelQs treatment of journalists on the other side of 
the Green Line. 
 
Yediot reported that Ehud OlmertQs diplomatic aide Shalom Turgeman 
is a leading candidate for the post of ambassador to Jordan. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv and former Knesset 
member Yael Dayan will soon leave City Hall, ending 16 years of 
public service. 
 
Yediot cited a report issued by the Dutch Foreign Ministry according 
to which the incident in which Yediot reporter Tzadok Yehezkeli was 
seriously wounded while reporting from Gori, Georgia, was the result 
of Russian use of cluster bombs in a civilian area.  Russia denies 
using this weapon. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that the campaigns of John McCain and 
Barack Obama have enlisted expatriate Americans in Israel, 
particularly those hailing from Florida.  The newspaper also 
reported that American expatriates in Israel will send 42,000 
ballots for the elections, including thousands in Ohio and Florida. 
 
The media highlighted the deaths of a veteran IAF pilot and of a 
cadet -Q the son of an immigrant family from the U.S. -- in the 
prestigious PilotQs Course yesterday when their training plane 
crashed in the Negev. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday, the USG transferred to 
the Jerusalem MagistrateQs Court its request to extradite the two 
Abergil brothers and three other criminals wanted by U.S. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday an Al-Qaida-associated Web 
site endorsed Sen. John McCain. 
 
The media reported on the strong showing of the U.S. dollar on the 
Israeli money market. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot: QBy restoring some sort of Jordanian option to the 
picture Israel will begin to advance towards a final status 
arrangement with the Palestinians. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"WhatQs So Bad About a Hamas Regime?" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Dr. Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the 
Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (10/23): QSome people in Israel have been 
circulating Qhorror scenariosQ lately in which Hamas seizes control 
of Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] as it did in the Gaza 
Strip. Is that outcome truly terrible for Israel?  Arguably, it 
could be a desirable outcome from IsraelQs perspective.    That will 
bring about an end to the fictional and dangerous negotiations with 
Fatah and the Palestinian national movement, as if it were possible 
to resolve the problem of the refugees, Jerusalem and so forth.  We 
need to admit after the rivers of blood that have flown here that 
those issues cannot be resolved and only an irresponsible person 
would stick his head back into that lionQs mouth, as was done at 
Oslo.... And here is the ... most important point of all: it 
behooves Israel to open the border between the West Bank and the 
East Bank, to wit, Jordan, in coordination with the Jordanians. 
Just as the Rafah border crossing is going to be opened with the 
Egyptians, which will herald the renewed Egyptian involvement in 
administering Gaza affairs, the same thing needs to be done with the 
Jordanians, and they know that.  Jordan will be better than Israel 
at supervising the border -- what and who gets into Judea and 
Samaria -- a point that will begin to mark a solution to the refugee 
problem: Gaza will be placed under Egyptian responsibility, 
Palestinian Judea and Samaria will be placed under Jordanian 
responsibility.    By restoring some sort of Jordanian option to the 
picture Israel will begin to advance towards a final status 
arrangement with the Palestinians: the security fence will separate 
them from Israel and there will be increased Egyptian responsibility 
in Gaza and increased Jordanian responsibility for the Arab parts of 
Judea and Samaria.    What will the Egyptians or the Jordanians do 
with the deposit that is going to be returned to them for the first 
time since 1967?  Israel needs to aspire for that to be their 
problem. If they establish a state or not (the Egyptians and 
Jordanians arenQt going to let that happen) -- as far as we are 
concerned, that isnQt our problem. 
 
------------------------- 
¶2.  Global War on Terror: 
------------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QIn a 
telling interview three years before September 11, 2001, [bin Laden] 
observed that, clearly, America had lost the will to fight.  It has 
since costs thousands of American lives to disabuse him of this 
notion.  Would it not have been better to do so from the start? 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Iwo Jima Redux" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (10/23): 
Q[Since HizbullahQs attacks on the Marine barracks in Beirut in 
1983], America, and especially Europe, have sought to avoid an 
unpleasant, even painful confrontation with Iran.  And anyway, there 
was business to be done.  There was, moreover, the delusion that the 
mullahs, once Qengaged,Q could be cajoled into being good world 
citizens.  Consequently, both Iran and Hizbullah have grown ever 
more assertive.  One works to build nuclear weapons; the other 
dominates Lebanon's polity.   Offstage, meanwhile, a little-known 
Sunni fanatic, Osama bin Ladin, watched America's feeble response to 
Iranian and Hizbullah aggression.  In a telling interview three 
years before September 11, 2001, he observed that, clearly, America 
had lost the will to fight.  It has since costs thousands of 
American lives to disabuse him of this notion.  Would it not have 
been better to do so from the start? 
 
CUNNINGHAM