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P 031141Z NOV 08
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 002446 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
¶3.  U.S. Elections 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media reported that Shin Bet security service chief Yuval 
Diskin warned at yesterday's cabinet meeting that a government 
decision to evacuate more territory may lead to a large-scale 
violent conflict with settlers, complete with live fire.  Diskin 
hinted that another political assassination could take place.  The 
meeting ended with the ministers voting to end all government 
support, both direct and indirect, for illegal outposts. 
 
Yesterday major media quoted the Lebanese Army as saying that 
LebanonQs military intelligence has captured two members of a spy 
network suspected of working for the Mossad since the 1980s.  The 
military also said that the men were involved in intelligence 
gathering ahead of the assassination of HizbullahQs 
second-in-command, Imad Mughniyah 
 
All mainstream media led with the U.S. elections.  Maariv quoted 
official Israeli sources as saying privately that they are concerned 
about Barack Obama conducting too conciliatory a policy towards 
Iran.  The ultra-Orthodox Yated NeQeman reported that young Jews are 
rushing to old-age homes to convince their grandparents to vote for 
Obama.  Mideast advisor Dennis Ross was quoted as saying in an 
interview with The Jerusalem Post that the reason why he is working 
to get Obama elected is that the U.S. needs a comprehensive 
strategy, not just a military approach. 
 
All media reported that former cabinet minister and Likud Knesset 
member Benny Begin is set to announce his return to politics and to 
Likud, and his intention to run in the party primary for the next 
Knesset list.  Former IDF Spokeswoman Brigadier-General (Res.) Miri 
Regev already announced yesterday that she is joining Likud.  Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe reported that former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. 
(res.) Moshe YaQalon will soon join Likud.  Major media reported 
that Knesset Member Effi Eitam announced yesterday that he is 
ditching the merging National Union-National Religious Party for 
Likud.  The media also reported that Meretz MK Ran Cohen, who has 
served in parliament for 24 years and is a former Industry and Trade 
Minister, is leaving the Knesset   The Jerusalem Post reported that 
ultra-Orthodox left-wing activist Zvia Greenfeld will be a new MK 
for Meretz.  The Jerusalem Post reported that Kadima seeks to enlist 
Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski to its Knesset List in the 
upcoming elections. 
 
HaQaretz reported that defense lawyers told a federal appeals court 
last week that the defense of former pro-Israel lobbyists Steven 
Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are accused of illegally obtaining and 
disclosing American national security secrets, will argue that some 
of the data the men allegedly conspired to reveal came directly from 
the Israeli government and was not truly secret. 
 
Leading media reported that Jerusalem mayoral candidate MK Meir 
Porush of United Torah Judaism said over the weekend that within 10 
years no city in Israel will have a secular mayor.  He later said 
that he meant areas with an ultra-Orthodox population trend. 
 
Yesterday The Jerusalem Post quoted Kadima leader Tzipi Livni as 
saying that her transition government should not talk with Syria. 
The media quoted DM Ehud Barak as saying that this was the Qlast 
opportunity to talk with Syria.Q  Yesterday HaQaretz quoted a GOI 
source in Jerusalem as saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad 
transmitted a message to Israel that he wants to renew indirect 
talks through Turkey.  Leading media reported that yesterday 
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled that there were no legal 
obstacles preventing Israel from proceeding with negotiations with 
Syria even as the government approaches the end of its term.  The 
Jerusalem Post quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying that PM 
Ehud OlmertQs intention to push forward indirect talks with Syria 
three months before the country goes to the polls is motivated by a 
desire to keep the heat on Iran. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian government officials and 
political experts dismissed comments made over the weekend Q in an 
interview broadcast on Saturday on Channel 2-TV -- by Yisrael 
Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman suggesting that Cairo is merely 
waiting for an opportunity to start a war with Israel.  However, the 
sources acknowledged that LiebermanQs comments have raised ire among 
government officials. 
 
HaQaretz and Yediot reported that Livni and Ahmed Qurei are 
scheduled to give a rare joint Israeli-Palestinian briefing on the 
state of peace talks at a Mideast summit in Egypt next week. 
 
Yesterday The Jerusalem Post and other media reported that 
Palestinians fired two anti-tank missiles at IDF soldiers at the 
Kissufim crossing on Friday. 
 
HaQaretz quoted the East Jerusalem daily Al-Quds as saying yesterday 
that Ofer Dekel, the chief negotiator for Gilad Shalit, met recently 
with senior Hamas figures incarcerated at the Hadarim prison. 
 
HaQaretz and other media reported that Israelis placed in a witness 
protection program will be able to have cosmetic surgery to change 
their appearance but will not be allowed to claim that they have a 
new religious identity or to undergo a sex change, according to a 
bill to be brought before the Knesset plenum for its second and 
third readings this week. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday international credit ratings 
agency Standard & PoorQs changed IsraelQs outlook to Stable from 
Positive, disappointing Israeli economic and banking officials. 
 
Yesterday The Jerusalem Post reported that US Airways will start 
commercial flights on the Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route in July 2009. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning HaQaretz: QThe distance from hitting and 
kicking soldiers and policemen to a political assassination is 
shorter than it seems. 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
QTogether, [Labor and Meretz] could present a center-Left 
alternative favoring religious tolerance, pluralism, civil liberties 
and a passionate concern for the downtrodden. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Dire Possibilities" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of the 
independent, left-leaning HaQaretz (11/3): QThe Shin Bet confirms 
that a political assassination is one of three main possibilities 
that [its head Avraham] Diskin foresees.  The others are attacks on 
Arabs and attacks on members of the security services.... What has 
changed since [the Annapolis Summit, when Shin Bet assessments of 
settler violence were low]?  Primarily, the Qprice tagQ policy 
launched by extremist settlers has become a major factor in 
developments in the West Bank.  The policy's roots lie in the August 
2005 disengagement from Gaza and the subsequent destruction of nine 
houses in the West Bank outpost of Amona about six months later. 
Ever since then, the extreme right has sought to establish a 
Qbalance of terror,Q in which every state action aimed at them -- 
from demolishing a caravan in an outpost to restricting the 
movements of those suspected of harassing Palestinian olive 
harvesters -- generates an immediate, violent reaction.  Even if 
this reaction cannot stop an evacuation, the theory goes, the damage 
it causes -- whether the victims are Palestinians or IDF soldiers -- 
will cause the government to think twice before ordering additional 
evacuations.... Even though settlers still see no great likelihood 
of settlements being evacuated in the near future, the fact that 
senior government officials such as outgoing prime minister Ehud 
Olmert, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and Labor leader and Defense 
Minister Ehud Barak all speak constantly of the need for such an 
evacuation increases the sense of being under pressure.  And the 
distance from hitting and kicking soldiers and policemen to a 
political assassination is shorter than it seems.  Moreover, 
elections are coming up in February, and campaigns always lead to 
verbal escalation -- on both sides.  And sometimes, verbal 
escalation can lead to violence as well. 
 
II.  "A Place for Meretz" 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (11/3): 
QSome see the distinctions nowadays between the major parties and 
Meretz as merely ones of rhetoric.  Yet Likud and Kadima arrived at 
their yet-to-be-explicitly-defined land-for-peace positions as a 
result of changes on the ground.  These were wrought by Oslo and the 
second intifada. Labor is moving toward the Likud and Kadima by 
shedding some of its illusions about the nature of a Palestinian 
polity, and in a common determination to nail-down details of any 
deal with the Palestinians rather than rely on mutual good-will.  So 
Meretz's inability to internalize the lessons of the second intifada 
sets it apart from the Zionist mainstream. Whatever its internal 
machinations, we believe that Israel's body-politic would be best 
served with fewer, and less ideologically strident, parties.  Were 
Meretz to join forces with Labor, the smaller party could 
reinvigorate the latter's social-democratic credentials while Labor 
could rein in Meretz's more immoderate security positions. 
Together, they could present a center-Left alternative favoring 
religious tolerance, pluralism, civil liberties and a passionate 
concern for the downtrodden. 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QWe must hope and believe that this will 
be the finest hour of Israeli diplomacy, and that it will know how 
to use the specific status that the Iranian leadership has granted 
Israel to turn a bad situation into a good one. 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
"Tehran: The Key Is in Our Hands" 
 
Former Mossad director Ephraim Halevy wrote in the mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (11/3): QIt appears that the more the 
debates between the United States and Iran ... discuss not only the 
United StatesQ demand of Iran but also IranQs demands of the new 
president in the White House, [the more] both sizes will realize 
that the road from Washington to Tehran (and vice-versa) goes 
through Jerusalem.... The coming and last (?) year before the 
implementation of TehranQs nuclear program, will also significantly 
see a rapprochement between the entire world and the Iranian regime. 
 We must hope and believe that this will be the finest hour of 
Israeli diplomacy, and that it will know how to use the specific 
status that the Iranian leadership has granted Israel to turn a bad 
situation into a good one. 
 
------------------- 
¶3.  U.S. Elections: 
------------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QNeither [Israeli right- or left-wing] 
fantasy will materialize.  The new U.S. president will pay the 
required lip service -Q he will announce his support for the 
Qtwo-state solutionQ and criticize the Iranian nuclear drive. 
 
Former Consul-General in New York Alon Pinkas wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv: QAny ignoring that is due to despair and to the 
recognition of the uselessness of the Israeli-Palestinian process is 
not serious.  But this could happen if the Obama administration is 
persuaded that Israel is not serious, that the Palestinians are 
incapable, and that everything together does not help the 
president. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Next President WonQt Fulfill Our Fantasies" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (11/2): QItQs the ultimate leftist fantasy. 
After being elected president of the United States on Tuesday, 
Barack Obama places the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at the top of 
his agenda.... The rightQs fantasy would have John McCain elected. 
He then places the annihilation of the Iranian nuclear program ... 
at the top of his agenda.... Neither fantasy will materialize.  The 
new U.S. president will pay the required lip service -Q he will 
announce his support for the Qtwo-state solutionQ and criticize the 
Iranian nuclear drive.... If Obama is elected, he will become part 
of the Israeli election campaign.  Tzipi Livni will try to convince 
voters that Benjamin Netanyahu is bound to get into a serious 
confrontation with the American administration because of his 
resistance to the peace process and his support for striking 
Iran.... A win for McCain would have less impact over here. 
 
II.  "So WhoQs Better for the Jews?" 
 
Former Consul-General in New York Alon Pinkas wrote in the popular, 
pluralist Maariv (11/3): QUnlike [IsraelQs recent leaders] who ... 
improved IsraelQs situation a thousand fold, Barack Obama is still a 
question mark. Israel needs a strong America.  Israel needs the 
U.S. to be a superpower. A United States that radiates power, 
ability and deterrence, economic intellect, military might, 
ideological self-confidence. Israel needs a US different from the 
one from 2003-2008. There is a political-ideological basis to the 
contention that Bush wanted IsraelQs good and believed that Israel 
and the U.S. stood side by side on the same side of the historical 
divide. At the same time, there is political-ideological proof that 
Bush was perhaps not all that good for Israel.  Does this sound 
heretical?  Reverse logic?  Not really. Who was a bigger threat to 
Israel, Iraq or Iran? What is a bigger threat to Israel, one state 
for two peoples or American recognition of the cosmic guilt of the 
Palestinians for the failure of the negotiations?   LetQs be 
practical.  The best thing or the worst -- in the eyes of the 
observer -- is America ignoring Israel.  To the best of my judgment, 
this would be a negative and destructive development, but let the 
reader judge.  This cannot happen in a blatant way because the 
United StatesQ commitment to Israel is genuine, supported by 
Congress and by public opinion, and its ideological opponents, 
despite their arguments that are gaining acceptance and credibility, 
are still far from the mainstream.  Beyond this, the American 
interest in the Middle East is still substantial and real, so that 
any ignoring that is due to despair and to the recognition of the 
uselessness of the Israeli-Palestinian process is not serious.  But 
this could happen if the Obama administration is persuaded that 
Israel is not serious, that the Palestinians are incapable, and that 
everything together does not help the president. 
 
CUNNINGHAM