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P 291103Z JAN 09
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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000246 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that yesterday PM Ehud Olmert, DM Ehud Barak, and 
FM Tzipi Livni told U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell that Israel 
would respond to every Hamas violation of the cease-fire, be they 
rocket attacks, strikes along the border fence or smuggling through 
tunnels.  The media reported that Mitchell told Israeli officials 
that the new administration was committed to Israel's security, to 
the Roadmap, and to the 2004 letter by former President George Bush 
stating that Palestinian refugees would not return to Israel and 
that the border between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would 
take into consideration facts on the ground, meaning large 
settlement blocs would remain in Israeli hands.  HaQaretz quoted a 
GOI source in Jerusalem as saying yesterday that it was understood 
during talks with Mitchell that President Barack Obama expects 
Israel and the PA to renew diplomatic talks right after elections 
here.  The source was also quoted as saying that according to 
Mitchell, the U.S. administration is "very serious about the 
Palestinian issue" and wants to "accelerate the process" as much as 
possible.  All media reported that Olmert told Mitchell that Gaza 
border crossings will not open permanently for the passage of goods 
unless a deal is reached on kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.  Media 
quoted Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashal as saying that 
GiladQs release is only tied to the release of Palestinian 
prisoners.  However, Olmert said Israel would continue opening the 
crossings for humanitarian aid. 
 
Media reported that in a brief statement to the press, Mitchell said 
that consolidating the Gaza cease-fire was "of critical importance," 
and called for an end to the hostilities and smuggling and to open 
the crossings on the basis of the 2005 agreements.  Olmert told 
Mitchell that the stability f the cease-fire in Gaza would be 
determined by to parameters: a complete cessation of Qassam rockes 
and attacks along the fence and an end to armssmuggling by Hamas. 
Media quoted President Shimo Peres, who also met with Mitchell, as 
saying tht there was no contradiction between the positions of the 
U.S. and Israel.  "Like the U.S., Israel wnts peace," he was quoted 
as saying.  "They say the administration will pressure Israel but we 
are actually the ones who will pressure the United States to assist 
us in bringing peace and fighting terror." 
 
HaQaretz quoted Egyptian officials as saying they believe Hamas and 
Israel are close to an agreement on a temporary cease-fire of about 
18 months.  Egypt, which wants to be able to announce a new truce by 
February 5, has proposed that Israel and the Palestinians halt any 
military activity, and that Israel agree to a partial opening of the 
crossings.  According to the Egyptian proposal Hamas will receive 
assurances that the crossings will open fully in the future to bring 
in all goods, including some, such as iron and concrete, that Israel 
had prohibited because of concern it would be used for terror 
activities.  The Jerusalem Post reported that a delegation of 
Egyptian engineers has traveled to the American border with Mexico 
to learn techniques used by the U.S military to detect and destroy 
tunnels. 
 
The media reported that the first mortar shell to hit the Negev 
since Operation Cast Lead was fired last night at the Eshkol region, 
landing in an open area and causing no damage.  Another rocket 
landed outside Sderot this morning.  Electronic media reported that 
last night the IAF bombed arms smuggling tunnels and a Hamas weapons 
arsenal.  The media quoted IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan as 
saying yesterday that he doubted the long-term efficacy of Israel's 
bombing of the tunnels on the Philadelphi Route in southern Gaza. 
In the first remarks on the outcome of Operation Cast Lead by a 
member of the IDF General Staff, Nehushtan said he recommended 
focusing on all means of weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that EU foreign policy chief Javier 
Solana hinted in an interview with the newspaper that he does not 
rule out talks with Hamas. 
 
Yesterday Channel 2-TV quoted security officials as saying that a 
massive terror attack planned against an Israeli target in Europe 
was thwarted in recent weeks.  Intelligence sharing between Israel 
and an undisclosed European country was credited with averting the 
plot, which was linked to Hizbullah.  Israeli security officials 
expect attempts to hit Israeli targets abroad to intensify with the 
approach of the one-year anniversary of the February 14 
assassination of Hizbullah's second-in-command, Imad Mughniyah. 
 
FM and Kadima chair Tzipi Livni was quoted as saying in an interview 
with HaQaretz that she might join forces with Yisrael Beiteinu. 
Maariv reported that senior Kadima members are considering a 
campaign focused on a Kadima commitment to exclude Shas from a 
possible Livni-led government.  Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that 
Kadima is planning for a defeat at the polls and that if the party 
gets less than 22 Knesset seats, Livni will fall.  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu has accused 
Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman of being willing to divide 
Jerusalem.  However, Likud says there will be no Qbloody battle 
with Yisrael Beiteinu. 
 
HaQaretz reported that intelligence organizations in Israel will 
examine claims of careless use of classified information during the 
fighting in the Gaza Strip, carelessness that supposedly led to the 
loss of intelligence Qassets. 
 
Maariv reported former IDF chief of staff Amnon Lipkin Shahak, 
former Shin Bet director Yaakov Perry, and Maj. Gen. (res.) Danny 
Rothschild are calling on Israelis to adopt the Saudi peace 
initiative. 
 
Leading media reported that yesterday the Foreign Ministry announced 
that it had ordered the Venezuelan ambassador to leave the country 
this week.  HaQaretz quoted Venezuela's government as saying that it 
was proud that Israel has expelled its diplomatic envoys, calling 
Israel's leaders criminals while denying allegations of 
anti-Semitism at home. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Rebecca Caspi, senior VP and director 
general of operations of UJC (United Jewish Communities)-Israel, as 
saying that U.S. Jews expect Israel to accept more financial 
responsibility for its needs.  Caspi says that due to the economic 
crisis, Israel no longer was at the forefront of American Jews 
attention. 
 
HaQaretz reported that U.S. professors are copying their British 
counterparts, attempting to shut Israeli academics out of campus. 
In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, a group of American university 
professors has for the first time launched a national campaign 
calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. 
 
HaQaretz reported that yesterday the Israel Aerospace Industries 
board approved initial investment up to $50 million in a joint 
venture with Tata Advanced Systems, a subsidiary of the Indian 
conglomerate, Tata.  The two firms plan to invest up to $1 billion 
in defense-linked ventures. 
 
Channel 2-TV and HaQaretz published the results of a Dialog poll 
conducted on January 27-28.  For the first time Yisrael Beiteinu 
overtakes the Labor Party; the right-wing bloc has grown to 65 
Knesset seats while the left bloc has dwindled to 53: 
QHow will you vote?Q  (1/13 poll results in brackets): Likud 28 
(29); Kadima: 25 (25); Yisrael Beiteinu: 15 (12); Labor Party: 14 
(16): Shas: 10 (9); Meretz: 5 (7); Arab parties: 9 (10); United 
Torah Judaism: 5 (6); National-Religious Party-Jewish Home 3 (3); 
National Union 4 (3). 
 
Summary: 
-------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: QBasically, Olmert has 
put all the cards on the table.  All the understandings, the 
promises and the achievements in the negotiations held with the 
Palestinians are now also known to the new U.S. administration. 
 
Columnist Yoaz Hendel wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe: QAs Israel stops wars without guaranteeing that they 
wonQt resume in two years, AmericaQs support will turn into a 
question mark. 
 
Washington correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: QIn the Qbig pictureQ promised by Obama, 
Israel will remain smaller than it is used to view itself. 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: QAs he 
determines that they, together with Hizbullah, are incorrigible, he 
must inevitably conclude that Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah -- like 
al-Qaida -- need to be defeated. 
 
Washington correspondent Hilary Leila Krieger wrote in The Jerusalem 
Post: Qif Obama can gain Arab support without compromising any of 
Israel's core interests, [Israeli officials] can say, QHowdy 
pardner! 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in Yediot Aharonot 
(1/29): QAfter Al-Jazeera fed its audience around the clock, day 
after day, with horrifying pictures of children who were hurt in 
Gaza  the accusing finger is now pointed in another direction: You, 
Hamas  are responsible for the destruction and the casualties. 
Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz: QThe real reason many 
Israelis will vote for the right in 2009 is their deep 
disappointment with the center -- the center's leadership, party and 
cynicism. 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QOlmert's Legacy 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer wrote in the 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (1/29): QA moment before 
leaving the Prime Minister's Office, Ehud Olmert is shackling the 
person who comes after him: in a meeting with special envoy to the 
Middle East George Mitchell yesterday, he revealed the details of 
the negotiations he conducted with the Palestinians on the outline 
for the permanent status arrangement.... Olmert presented the envoy 
of President Barack Obama with his and Foreign Minister Tzipi 
Livni's commitments to the Palestinians in their talks on the final 
status arrangement.  QSixty thousand settlers out of the quarter 
million living in the territories will have to leave their place of 
residence,Q the Prime Minister told Mitchell about the 
understandings reached, Qand return to the Green Line in the 
framework of the permanent status arrangement with the 
PalestiniansQ.... Basically, Olmert has put all the cards on the 
table.  All the understandings, the promises and the achievements in 
the negotiations held with the Palestinians are now also known to 
the new U.S. administration.  Political officials believe that 
Olmert is Qin practice, binding the next governmentQ and committing 
all the candidates for prime minister to respond to the Obama 
administration on this detailed plan for an arrangement with the 
Palestinians.  It particularly commits the Kadima candidate, Tzipi 
Livni: she was a full partner to the negotiations with Abu Mazen and 
the understandings reached also commit her.  The American envoy was 
very cautious about making binding statements and stressed that he 
was in the region this time to listen and not to give opinions. 
However, Mitchell added that the Obama administration stands behind 
the commitment that President Bush gave in 2004 to Ariel Sharon 
whereby the U.S. would support an Israeli demand to annex settlement 
blocs in the framework of a future arrangement with the 
Palestinians.  The Prime Minister also reported to Mitchell on the 
details of the indirect talks held last year with top Syrian 
officials in Turkey.  In his estimate, in return for a peace 
agreement with Damascus, Israel would have to withdraw from the 
Golan Heights, and no other formula would be acceptable to the 
Syrians. 
 
II.  QIgnoring the Lessons of the Past 
 
Columnist Yoaz Hendel wrote in the nationalist, Orthodox Makor 
Rishon-Hatzofe (1/29): QThe current reason for [IsraelQs] abandoning 
the principles of the unilateral cease-fire is George MitchellQs 
visit.  The government doesnQt want to drag the region into another 
war as the cop on duty is arriving.  However, a renewed review of 
history will show that the U.S. has never stopped IsraelQs military 
responses. During the [Second] Lebanon War and the war in Gaza, the 
U.S. preserved Israeli interests on the international scene.  It 
supported [Israel] because it recognized the justness of its course 
regardless of the price.  But as Israel is unsure of itself, as 
Israel is the party that is giving up the principles that it set; as 
Israel stops wars without guaranteeing that they wonQt resume in two 
years, AmericaQs support will turn into a question mark. 
 
III.  QA Warrantless Declaration of Friendship 
 
Washington correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya wrote in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (1/29): QDuring the election campaign, Barack 
Obama preferred to play down his Muslim father.  In [this weekQs] 
interview with Al-Arabiya, he used this as a confidence-building 
asset.  QI have Muslim relatives; I lived in Muslim countries,Q he 
said, referring to the years he spent with his mother in Indonesia, 
his stepfatherQs land of origin.  Those who wonder what this means 
for Israel, even before the Right shouts QWe told you so,Q should 
remember the constraints facing the new American President.  Beyond 
the credit he earned thanks to the hope and symbolism inherent in 
his election, the unchanged tools for managing the United States 
global policy are at his disposal. Senior administration officials 
favor the use of the term Qsmart power,Q but AmericaQs adversaries 
know as well as it does that the two wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] 
impoverish and exhaust the superpower and that a significant new 
operation is almost impossible at this time.  This is eroding 
AmericaQs deterrence. The condition of the QcarrotsQ isnQt much 
better.  It can be assumed that without the fat checks that come 
with declarations of friendship, fewer countries will be willing to 
please America.  In order to lastingly preserve the momentum of 
goodwill that the world gave him, Obama will have to endeavor to 
please key regions,  at least on the rhetorical level.  If Israel 
agrees to this approach, it will mostly have to keep quiet and let 
him do the work, hoping it will be able to reap the fruits of the 
restoration of AmericaQs reputation in the region.  In the Qbig 
pictureQ promised by Obama, Israel will remain smaller than it is 
used to view itself. 
 
IV.  QObamaQs Islamist Challenge 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (1/29): 
QCan the new president undermine global jihad by reaching out 
directly to Muslim believers?  It's worth a try, so we applaud his 
decision to give his first interview as president, on January 26, to 
the Al-Arabiya TV station. Regrettably, in Muslim civilization the 
leadership choice is not between authentic secularists and religious 
fanatics, but between violent and non-violent Islamists.  So the 
best Obama can hope to do is help unlink Islam from brutality and 
drive a wedge between the two Islamist camps.  Both, lamentably, 
favor Shari'a law as a way of life.  But QgoodQ Islamists, for 
instance in Turkey, Iraq, Morocco and Egypt, operate peacefully. 
Their "fundamentalism liteQ is something the West can, at least 
theoretically, abide.  Yet for such an QunlinkingQ approach to work, 
Obama must stick to his principles and show zero tolerance for 
organizations that Qkill innocent civilians.Q  He might permit talks 
with Iran; he might allow discreet inquiries into Hamas's policies. 
But ultimately, as he determines that [Iran and Hamas], together 
with Hizbullah, are incorrigible, he must inevitably conclude that 
Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah -- like al-Qaida -- need to be defeated. 
 
 
¶V.  QA Kinder, Gentler Sheriff 
 
Washington correspondent Hilary Leila Krieger wrote in The Jerusalem 
Post (1/29): QObama has already made some inroads with his overtures 
in a region that prizes symbolism.  While Bush might have been the 
first U.S. president to enshrine a Palestinian state in America's 
foreign policy program, he got little credit for it because the Arab 
world hadn't believed he meant what he said.  QPeople did not take 
Bush seriously, because they took what he said in a different 
light,Q Gaith Al-Omari, advocacy director for the Washington-based 
American Task Force on Palestine said.  And, he continued, there was 
now a climate that made it easier for America's allies in the Arab 
world to work with the U.S. without being seen as betraying their 
people or values.  All of which works well from the Israeli 
perspective, where officials don't care much about the gestures 
America makes as long as its bedrock support for Israeli security 
needs stays intact.  In fact, if Obama can gain Arab support without 
compromising any of Israel's core interests, they can say, "Howdy 
pardner!" 
 
VI.  QQYou havenQt Won, Palestinian Brothers 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Smadar Perry wrote in Yediot Aharonot 
(1/29): QAfter Al-Jazeera fed its audience around the clock, day 
after day, with horrifying pictures of children who were hurt in 
Gaza and of thousand of new homeless, the accusing finger is now 
pointed in another direction: You, Hamas and the rejectionist 
organizations, not only have you not brought divine victory, but you 
are responsible for the destruction and the casualties; history will 
judge you; your government and your social institutions are 
destroyed; the members of your young generation are trampled, 
becoming drug addicts, and inclined to death worship and suicide. 
 
VII.  QThe Center that Disappointed 
 
Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz (1/29): QThe right's victory 
in the 2009 election is unavoidable.  Unless an all-out war breaks 
out next week and a surprise peace agreement is signed, Benjamin 
Netanyahu will be the next prime minister.  After three years of a 
center-left government, a center-right government will come to 
power.  The unlikely scenario is a Likud-Shas-Yisrael Beiteinu 
government, while the likely scenario is a Likud-Labor-Kadima one. 
Either way the agenda of dividing the country will give way to an 
agenda of national security.... At its core, the Israeli majority is 
what it was before: realistic and pragmatic.  It recognizes that the 
occupation is futile, but is looking for a safe way to end it.  It 
recognizes that the Greater Israel vision is finished, but fears 
having a Hamas state on the outskirts of [the central Israel city 
of] Kfar Sava.... The real reason many Israelis will vote for the 
right in 2009 is their deep disappointment with the center -- the 
center's leadership, party and cynicism.  Disappointment with the 
fact that the center did not turn its moderate-hard approach into a 
comprehensive worldview from which it derives a clear policy.... It 
is too late to change the results of February 10.  But it is 
important to realize that they will be the center's loss more than 
the right's victory.  The center will lose not because it is the 
center, but because it stopped being the center.  The center will 
lose because it did not keep its promise to be a third way. 
 
CUNNINGHAM