VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #0023/01 0061155
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061155Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9881
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHQA/HQ USAF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEADWD/DA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CNO WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 4813
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 1412
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 5243
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 5619
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 4845
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 3277
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 5619
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 2456
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0681
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 9402
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 6895
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 1842
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 5905
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 7896
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 0733
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 1129
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000023 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Gaza Operation 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Most media led with a case of Qfriendly fireQ in Gaza last night: 
Three IDF soldiers were killed and 23 were wounded, one critically, 
by a tank shell.  Electronic media reported that an IDF officer was 
also killed by friendly fire in the northern Gaza Strip, near Beit 
Hanun.  It is estimated that nearly one hundred Palestinians died in 
clashes yesterday. 
 
HaQaretz and other media reported that yesterday Egyptian President 
Hosni Mubarak told a delegation of European foreign ministers in a 
closed conversation that Hamas must not be allowed to win its 
conflict with the IDF.  The comment occurred even as Hamas, for the 
first time since the fighting began, sent representatives to Cairo 
to discuss a cease-fire.  Following a meeting with Egyptian 
intelligence officials, Hamas officials said they had received an 
Egyptian proposal and would consider it.  HaQaretz wrote that the 
Egyptian cease-fire proposal would require Israel to end its 
military operation and withdraw from Gaza, while Hamas would have to 
end rocket fire into Israel.  The border crossings into Gaza would 
reopen, but PA officials would be stationed at the Rafah crossing 
with Egypt. 
 
PM Ehud Olmert told French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was 
visiting Jerusalem, that Israel would not honor a cease-fire imposed 
by the UN Security Council without its consent.  Arab states are 
currently pushing for a Security Council resolution calling for an 
immediate cease-fire.  Sarkozy, who also met with President Shimon 
Peres and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, was here to push France's 
proposal for a 48-hour "humanitarian" cease-fire, during which 
negotiations on a permanent cease-fire would begin. However, Olmert, 
DM Ehud Barak and FM Tzipi Livni agreed yesterday that for now, the 
diplomatic efforts should proceed in parallel with the ongoing 
ground operation in the Gaza Strip.  HaQaretz reported that Israel 
is mainly pinning its hopes on the U.S. and France to thwart the 
Arab effort in the Security Council. However, it has sent messages 
to several Security Council members informing them that Israel will 
not accept an imposed cease-fire, and especially that it will not 
accept any resolution that places Israel and Hamas on the same level 
by calling for both to cease their fire impartially.  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that EU leaders arrived without a concrete proposal to 
stop the fighting  and quoted diplomatic official as saying that the 
meetings were intended to give Europeans a sense that their leaders 
are involved, while the Qdiplomatic heavy liftingQ is happening 
elsewhereQ (in Cairo) .  The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday 
Ulrich Wilhelm, the spokesman of German Chancellor Angela Merkel 
reiterated the position of her government: A sustained cease-fire is 
only possible when IsraelQs security can be ensured. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Turkish Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin as saying 
in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday that "Israel is the world's greatest 
terrorist provocateur. The war on terror cannot succeed as long as 
Israel continues its provocations."  He was followed on Sunday by 
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, during a visit to Saudi 
Arabia, blamed Israel for the outbreak of fighting.  "Hamas observed 
the truce for six months, but Israel did not honor the agreement to 
lift the embargo on Gaza," he said.  "People in Gaza live in a sort 
of prison. Essentially, all of Palestine is a prison."  The 
Jerusalem Post reported that ErdoganQs QtoxicQ comments on Sunday 
that IsraelQs actions in Gaza would lead to punishment from Allah 
and IsraelQs Qself-destructionQ drew a protest from the Foreign 
Ministry, which told TurkeyQs ambassador to Israel that these words 
were QunacceptableQ among friendly nations. 
 
HaQaretz quoted Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi as saying on 
Sunday that Jordan was liable to reconsider its relations with 
Israel in light of the Gaza operation. The Jerusalem Post reported 
that Jordan and Egypt are striking a delicate balance between ties 
with Israel and their angry publics.  The Jerusalem Post and other 
media reported that Israel was looking into -- but could not confirm 
-- reports that Mauritania is recalling its ambassador from Israel 
in response to the Gaza operation. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that yesterday DM Barak and other 
security officials warned the KnessetQs Foreign Affairs and Defense 
Committee that there were many challenges ahead before Operation 
Cast Lead could be concluded.  Maariv reported that yesterday Brig. 
Gen. Yossi Baidatz, the head of IDF Intelligence's research 
department, told the committee that Hamas has enough missiles and 
rockets for a month. 
 
Yediot and other media reported on the plight of several Gazan 
families that have lost multiple members in since the operation 
began. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the IDF as saying yesterday that security 
threats are keeping foreign journalists out of Gaza.  The Foreign 
Press Association, which represents foreign journalists in Israel 
and the Palestinian territories, suggested that Israel was mixing 
genuine security concerns and games.  Leading media reported that an 
Arab reporter from East Jerusalem who works for an Iranian TV 
channel and his producer were arrested by police over suspicions 
that he violated a censorship decree and reported on the entrance of 
IDF ground forces into Gaza, hours before the media were permitted 
to mention the ground operation. 
 
Major media reported on growing tension along the Israel-Lebanon 
border.  Israel Radio said that some Lebanese leaders are trying to 
cool the atmosphere. 
 
HaQaretz reported that 530 people have been arrested in anti-war 
demonstrations in Israel. 
 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that for the fist time the World 
Movement of Conservative Judaism has appealed to President Bush to 
consider pardoning convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. 
 
Leading media reported on President-elect Barack ObamaQs appointment 
of Leon Panetta as CIA Director.  Media noted that he has no 
military background. 
 
 
 
 
--------------- 
Gaza Operation: 
--------------- 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: QThe solution for the day after 
[the military operation] is not a Qstate of calmQ that Hamas can 
violate whenever it sees fit, but a full cease-fire with 
international teeth and a mechanism for halting weapons-smuggling 
into Gaza. 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QThe Israeli message to 
the United States has been translated into direct and firm American 
pressure on the Egyptian government.  There are other political axes 
of activity, but that is the decisive axis at present. 
 
Prominent liberal author A. B. Yehoshua wrote on page one of the 
popular, pluralist Maariv: Q[After the operation] we will know that 
we are not continuing to fight for a goal that is impossible and 
would only bring more blood and destruction which will weigh on the 
memory of the children of our neighbors that will never leave. 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker wrote in 
Yediot Aharonot: QThe Israeli perception whereby a Hamas that is 
defeated on the battlefield ... will be subjugated, submissive and 
very interested in an extended truce on terms that Israel dictates 
-- is not based on fact. 
 
Conservative columnist and Jewish affairs writer Nadav Shragai 
opined in HaQaretz: QIf fate has decreed that this is the team that 
is now leading us into war, the minimum we can ask from it is to 
bury plans that would lead us to similar catastrophes in other 
places and to focus on a single mission: eradicating Hamas and 
removing the threat hanging over the people of Israel. 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QTurkey 
needs to choose between bridging the gap between East and West and 
flacking for the kind of dead-end Islamist policies championed by 
Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas -- policies that threaten to destabilize 
the entire region. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Reflections on the Day After" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in the 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (1/6): QWhile we would love Hamas 
to disappear, that is not very likely.  With the entry of our ground 
forces, we have bisected the Gaza Strip, but no matter what we once 
thought, we cannot rely on military might alone.  The crisis is not 
going to blow over without international intervention.  A local 
agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is not going to do the 
trick.  Same goes for the Hamas proposal to go back to a truce that 
isn't worth the paper it's written on.... The solution for the day 
after is not a Qstate of calmQ that Hamas can violate whenever it 
sees fit, but a full cease-fire with international teeth and a 
mechanism for halting weapons-smuggling into Gaza.  We will not go 
back to the way things were before.  Hamas needs its wings clipped 
and must be brought to its knees in an imposed accord, but no 
agreement will be complete without provisions for the release of 
Gilad Shalit. 
 
II.  "Wanted: Victory" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (1/6): QThe dilemma [of 
the three principal Israeli cabinet members] might best be described 
as follows: they feel that they have to be able to present at the 
end of this operation an achievement of which they can be proud. 
Otherwise the operation won't end with a sense of victory.  An 
achievement of that sort is supposed to be the product of either the 
ground activity, the diplomatic activity, or a combination of the 
two.  If there is no such achievement, they fear, the deterring 
effect in whose name Israel launched this operation will not be 
achieved.  The catch is that the more Israel expands its ground 
operation, the more its soldiers become vulnerable.  Casualties 
immediately have an impact on the sense of victory.  That is what 
Barak said on the eve of the operation with respect to the relations 
between cost and gain.  The international activity is being pursued 
mainly by means of the American channel.  Israel has made it clear 
to the United States that it will not stop its ground offensive in 
Gaza until the Egyptians undertake to change the situation along 
Philadelphi Road.  The Israeli message to the United States has been 
translated into direct and firm American pressure on the Egyptian 
government.  There are other political axes of activity, but that is 
the decisive axis at present.  The danger at this stage is that the 
operation might lead Israel into making mistakes that have worked to 
its detriment in the past -- first of all, the expansion of a 
limited operation into an expanded operation only because of 
inertia.  The illusion is that what hasn't been achieved by force 
might still be achieved by greater force. 
 
III.  "Neighbors, after All" 
 
Prominent liberal author A. B. Yehoshua wrote on page one of the 
popular, pluralist Maariv (1/6): QWe must not forget one basic and 
substantive thing if we wish to live in the long term.  Gaza is not 
Vietnam, nor is it Iraq or Afghanistan, Gaza is not even Lebanon. 
Gaza is part of the common homeland we share with the Palestinians, 
a homeland that we call the Land of Israel, and they call 
Palestine.... These Gazans are first and foremost neighbors, and 
will also be neighbors in the future, and we must therefore be very 
careful in the type, quality, intensity, and scope of the war we are 
now waging against them. There is no chance of uprooting the Hamas 
regime from Gaza, just as there was no chance of uprooting the PLO 
from the Palestinian people.... We must realize that the Arabs are 
not metaphysical creatures, but rather human creatures, and people 
change.  We too are changing; we are shifting positions and relaxing 
positions and opening up to new ideas.  We should therefore, as soon 
as possible, shrug off the false illusion of destroying Hamas and 
uprooting it from Gaza, and work cautiously and wisely by means of a 
good and thorough agreement on a quick cease-fire to effect change 
in Hamas-this is possible and it can be done, and it has happened in 
the course of human history time and again.  Even if we begin to 
work seriously, from today, on a cease-fire agreement, some 
difficult days of war and missiles still await us and them, but at 
least we will know that we are not continuing to fight for a goal 
that is impossible and would only bring more blood and destruction 
which will weigh on the memory of the children of our neighbors that 
will never leave. 
 
IV.  QHamas and the Doctrine of Perpetual Revolution 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker wrote in 
Yediot Aharonot (1/6): QHamas challenged the Camp David accords 
between Israel and the PLO and caused them to be paralyzed and 
collapse. It launched a wave of suicide terror in 1993 and then 
again in 2001. Its suicide bombers changed the political map in 
Israel and in Palestine.... The Israeli perception whereby a Hamas 
that is defeated on the battlefield -- and it will be defeated in 
Operation Cast Lead, just as it was militarily defeated in the past 
-- will be subjugated, submissive, and very interested in an 
extended truce on Israel-dictate terms -- is not based on fact.  In 
light of Hamas's acts up until now, we at least should examine 
another possibility, whereby Hamas does not want any sort of stable 
agreement with Israel, even at the price of temporarily losing 
administrative control of the Gaza Strip -- even at the price of 
expulsion from Gaza.  At any price.... Hamas's belligerent behavior 
has now led to a pan-Arab front being formed against it to which 
Israel is a party.  This front is scared of Hamas, it considers it 
the disaster of the Palestinian national movement, and wants to get 
rid of its inflammatory presence, its fanatic ideas, its 
never-ending belligerence.  It may succeed in this, it may be that 
all is not lost.  And it may already be lost. 
 
¶V.  "How We Got Here" 
 
Conservative columnist and Jewish affairs writer Nadav Shragai 
opined in HaQaretz (1/6): Q[A] reminder of the colossal failure 
known as the QdisengagementQ is necessary because, absurdly, there 
are those who would use the results of the war against Hamas to 
promote additional uprootings and withdrawals in Jerusalem and in 
Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank].... Kadima, Labor, and even 
Likud have not thoroughly taken to heart the main lesson of the Oslo 
Accords and the Gaza disengagement: that not even the slightest 
fragment of our security can be given into Palestinian hands, not to 
Hamas, and not even to the Palestinian Authority, whose future is in 
grave doubt.  They were also a full partner during many different 
periods of terror against us and their interest in peace is 
conditioned upon the constant erosion of our vital interests.... If 
fate has decreed that this is the team that is now leading us into 
war, the minimum we can ask from it is to bury plans that would lead 
us to similar catastrophes in other places and to focus on a single 
mission: eradicating Hamas and removing the threat hanging over the 
people of Israel. 
 
VI.  QTurkey Chooses Sides 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (1/6): 
QIsrael's founders had high hopes that the Jewish state, isolated in 
a sea of Arab hostility, could align itself informally with Iran and 
Turkey -- Muslim countries which had their own differences with the 
Arabs.... Since the IDF began hitting back at Hamas in Operation 
Cast Lead, both the government and people of Turkey have lined up 
behind the Islamists.... The human tragedy in Gaza, it transpires 
[from comments made this week by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip 
Erdogan], is entirely Israel's fault: QHamas abided by the truce. 
But Israel failed to lift embargoes. In Gaza, people seem to live in 
an open prison.  In fact, all Palestine looks like an open prison 
Turkish President Abdullah Gul adds: QWhat Israel has done is 
nothing but atrocity.Q Erdogan can find absolutely nothing wrong 
with anything Hamas has done since it grabbed power in Gaza.... On 
balance, we're not convinced that Turkey has earned the right to 
lecture Israelis about human rights.  While world attention focuses 
on Gaza, Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish positions in northern 
Iraq.  Over the years, tens of thousands of people have been killed 
as the radical PKK pursues its campaign for autonomy from Turkey. 
Kurdish civilians in Iraq complain regularly that Ankara's air force 
has struck civilian areas where there is no PKK activity.  The next 
Israeli government should weigh whether Israel can accept as a 
mediator a country that speaks, albeit elliptically, of our 
destruction.  Meanwhile, if Turkey persists in its one-sided, 
anti-Israel rhetoric, the Foreign Ministry might consider recalling 
our ambassador in Ankara for consultations.  Turkey needs to choose 
between bridging the gap between East and West and flacking for the 
kind of dead-end Islamist policies championed by Iran, Hizbullah and 
Hamas -- policies that threaten to destabilize the entire region. 
 
CUNNINGHAM