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P 311029Z OCT 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002427 
 
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 
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JERUSALEM ALSO ICD 
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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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  U.S. Elections 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post cited a Post/ Smith Research poll, which found 
that the Rightist bloc led by Likud will defeat the Left, led by 
Kadima and Labor, by eight Knesset seats (see below).  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz is not likely 
to accept the chairmanship of KadimaQs election campaign that Livni 
offered him yesterday.  HaQaretz reported that Likud Chairman 
Benjamin Netanyahu intends to reserve a secure spot in his party 
list for former justice minister Dan Meridor, a moderate, despite 
reservations in Likud.  Maariv reported that moderate MK Rabbi 
Michael Melchior, who chairs the Education, Culture, and Sports 
Committee and the Social-Environmental lobby in the Knesset and has 
been a faithful ally of the Labor Party since 1999, may join Kadima. 
  HaQaretz reported that leaders of the four right-wing factions 
making up the National Union-National Religious Party (NRP) list -- 
NRP, Tekuma, Achi, and Moledet's religious wing -- are expected to 
announce their formal merger into a party next week.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe reported that procedural hitches are impeding the 
merger process.  HaQaretz reported that a group of Israeli Arab 
politicians seeks to establish a new party that would represent all 
members of their fragmented community in the upcoming general 
elections.  Maariv and other media reported that Science, Culture, 
and Sports Minister Raleb Majadele (Labor) might join a new Arab 
party. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that Senator Barack Obama has told 
Israeli public figures whom he met recently that he has devised an 
outline for his Middle East policy as president that is based on 
recognition that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 
is necessary to the resolution of the Iranian problem.  HaQaretz and 
The Jerusalem Post cited an exit poll released yesterday as saying 
that American citizens who voted in the U.S. presidential elections 
via absentee ballots from Israel favored Sen. John McCain. 
Seventy-six percent of those polled by the Jerusalem-based firm 
Keevon said they voted for the Republican candidate, while 24 
percent said they cast their ballots for Democratic candidate Barack 
Obama.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Mitchell Barak from Keevon 
immediately acknowledged that the poll had Qover sampledQ voters 
from the Orthodox community. 
Under the pretext of a phone call to his wife, the late PM Yitzhak 
RabinQs assassin Yigal Amir granted interviews to Channel 2-TV and 
Channel 10-TV, which were broadcast last night.  When asked about 
who influence him at the time of the assassination, Amir named 
former PM Ariel Sharon, the late cabinet ministers Rafael Eitan and 
Rehavam Zeevi, and all those who said that the Oslo Accord was a 
disaster.  The interviews reopened the media debate over the 
assassination. 
 
HaQaretz quoted a senior GOI official as saying that PM Ehud Olmert 
intends to resume indirect, Turkish-mediated negotiations with Syria 
soon.  The official added that talks between the Prime Minister's 
Bureau and the bureau of Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be 
held next week to try to coordinate an agreed-on date for what would 
be the fifth round of indirect talks with the Syrians.  Yediot 
reported that Olmert has conveyed a message to Syria that the talks 
may be resumed.  Meanwhile, HaQaretz reported that FM and Kadima 
chairwoman Tzipi Livni called for increased international pressure 
on Syria.  Israel Radio quoted Likud as saying that Olmert has no 
right to engage in diplomatic negotiations. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted an Egyptian security official as saying 
yesterday that police have discovered eight missiles in an 
underground bunker in the northern Sinai. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. Middle East security 
coordinator Gen. James L. Jones, long expected to produce a document 
spelling out IsraelQs security needs after the creation of a 
Palestinian state, will not in the end present the Bush 
administration with a large-scale report. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday ultra-Orthodox legislator and 
Jerusalem mayoral candidate Meir Porush promised that if he won the 
municipal elections, he would promote the construction of Jewish 
neighborhoods in the city's eastern quarter. 
 
HaQaretz reported that, with just minutes to spare in a 24-hour time 
frame granted by High Court justices, Hebron settlers submitted, in 
the form of an audio tape, what they called new and dramatic 
evidence in the case regarding a disputed house in the city that is 
 
claimed by both settlers and Palestinians.  The Jerusalem Post also 
reported on the settlersQ claim. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Rabbi David Rosen, director of the 
American Jewish CommitteeQs Department for Interreligious Affairs, 
told the newspaper that Pope Benedict XVI may reconsider moving 
ahead with the beatification process that would prepare 
Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII for beatification. 
 
Major media reported that yesterday PM Olmert resolved the higher 
education crisis by ordering that 515 million shekels (about $ 139 
million) be transferred to the universities. 
 
Leading media reported that a 3,000-year-old ceramic shard, 
containing five lines of proto-Canaanite script, may the oldest 
Hebrew inscription ever found.  The shard, discovered near the Elah 
Valley, could confirm the existence of a Jewish kingdom in Israel 
between 1,000 and 975 BCE.  Also, a unique seal from the First 
Temple period, 1,006-586 BCE, was found recently in JerusalemQs Old 
City, bearing a Hebrew name and decorated in the Assyrian style. 
 
Leading media reported that veteran broadcast journalist Ram Evron 
died yesterday at the age of 73. 
 
The Jerusalem PostQs poll conducted on Wednesday found that Israelis 
would vote as follows (results in Knesset seats): Likud: 27; 
Kadima:27;  Labor Party: 14: Yisrael Beiteinu: 11; Shas: 11; Arab 
parties: 10;  National Union Party and National-Religious Party:9; 
United Torah Judaism: 6; Meretz:5. 
 
 
 
 
------------------- 
¶1.  U.S. Elections: 
------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QObama is the great black hope 
of humankind, after two terms of disappointment and a sense of 
betrayal.... Only one state is still interested in McCain's services 
-- Israel. 
 
Columnist Jonathan Rosenblum wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: QAn America that more closely resembles Western 
Europe will not be good for Israel. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Favor Bush Did Obama" 
 
Columnist and former Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Sarid wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (10/31): QBush did Obama a favor 
by preceding him.  Now Obama is the great black hope of humankind, 
after two terms of disappointment and a sense of betrayal.  His 
candidacy could only grow out of such deep, frightening despair, 
while the candidacy of the Qnatural heirQ -- John McCain -- became 
intolerable.  Four or eight more years of Republican hegemony mean 
continuing the same policy.... Only one state is still interested in 
McCain's services -- Israel.  Only Israel insists on continuing to 
live in a bubble.  It is wrong, as usual.  Bush was bad for the 
world and especially for us.  America's ongoing wallowing in Iraq 
and its loss of deterrence power are bad for Israel, which isn't 
pulling out of anywhere.  Israel is staying here, in the Middle 
East.  Bush has forgotten us and the Palestinians.  He refused to 
advance the talks with Syria and ignored -- like us -- the pan-Arab 
peace initiative lying on the table since 2002.  McCain will be 
another such friend, whose friendship ensures calamity.  Nobody can 
say what kind of president Obama will be, but at least he has the 
benefit of the doubt.  McCain, on the other hand, does not bring new 
hope.  Not even dubious hope. 
 
 
 
 
II.  "The End of the Special Relationship?" 
 
Columnist Jonathan Rosenblum wrote in the conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (10/31): QObama presented himself to Europeans last 
summer as a citizen of the world, one of them.... He shares the 
EuropeansQ contempt for the terminology of good and evil.... And he 
expresses understanding for the grievances of the perpetrators of 
evil Q- Hamas, Hizbullah, even the perpetrators of 9/11, which he 
characteristically portrayed as part of an Qunderlying struggle 
between worlds of plenty and worlds of wantQ (despite the affluent 
background of the attackers).  He voted against a Senate bill to 
designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist 
organization.... An America that more closely resembles Western 
Europe will not be good for Israel.  Western Europeans consistently 
rate Israel the greatest threat to world peace.  And they are 
remarkably cavalier about IsraelQs defense of its own existence. 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QOlmert does not regret his part in 
breaking the boycott of Syria, but he fears that if the talks should 
reach a stalemate, Israel will lose what it was supposed to receive 
in exchange. 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: QIt would be 
better to leave Jerusalem in the hands of a responsible 
ultra-Orthodox man than to give it to a man of the right who lacks 
political wisdom. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Syrian Bridegroom" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (10/31): QWhen the new administration 
enters the White House, American policy will change as well.  The 
crisis that erupted this week between the two countries, after 
American helicopters attacked a target within Syria, will not 
prevent the thaw.  Perhaps the opposite: if Syria swallowed the 
attack on the nuclear reactor and the assassination of Mughniyah, 
there is no reason for it not to swallow the American attack. 
Olmert does not regret his part in breaking the boycott of Syria, 
but he fears that if the talks should reach a stalemate, Israel will 
lose what it was supposed to receive in exchange.  A stalemate on 
IsraelQs part opens the door to all kinds of dangers: Hizbullah 
could go back to work.  The border with Syria could heat up.  We 
should remember that both countries have each other by the throat. 
Israel can turn Syria into a heap of ruins.  Syria can turn life 
here into hell.  It would only take five rockets per day, in 
sensitive places.  When Rabin gave the deposit to [Warren] 
Christopher and Netanyahu gave his deposit to [Ronald] Lauder, the 
decision was not brought up for a vote in the cabinet or in the 
security cabinet or reported to the public.  When the government 
functions as a transitional government, the situation changes 
substantially.  The Israelis, including those who are willing to 
cede the entire Golan Heights, will respond uncomfortably.  Many of 
them will tell Olmert: You have no mandate. 
 
II.  "Vote QNoQ on Barkat" 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (10/31): QMany 
secular Jerusalem residents, among the voters for center and even 
left-wing parties, have chosen to ignore [secular candidate Nir] 
Barkat's right-wing style under the assumption/hope that his 
rhetoric will pry Jerusalem government out of ultra-Orthodox hands. 
Therefore Labor and Meretz are calling on the secular public to vote 
for Barkat for mayor over [ultra-Orthodox] rival Meir Porush.... A 
few days ago Barkat toured the East Jerusalem village of Anata, 
accompanied by two proponents of the plans for Jewish settlement in 
the heart of Arab neighborhoods.... Barkat promised that if he wins, 
he will promote his companions' initiative to establish a Jewish 
neighborhood in Anata, already named Eastern Gate.  With utter scorn 
for voter intelligence, the leading secular candidate explained that 
building the neighborhood will solve the city's Qshortage of housing 
for students and young people.Q  A glance at a map reveals that this 
is yet another plan to tighten the QJewish continuumQ between 
Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim while provoking the Palestinian 
leadership and violating the state's promises to the U.S 
administration.... The secular minority remaining in the city faces 
an unenviable choice between Barkat, Porush, and [controversial 
oligarch] Arkady Gaidamak.  Given the options, it would be better to 
leave Jerusalem in the hands of a responsible ultra-Orthodox man 
than to give it to a man of the right who lacks political wisdom. 
 
CUNNINGHAM