VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #0334/01 0431447
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 121447Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5454
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 0282
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 3192
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 7274
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 7458
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 6692
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0029
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 7558
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 4307
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 2532
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 1184
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 8719
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 3718
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 7688
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 9791
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH PRIORITY 2510
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 3721
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT  PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000334 
 
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.  Iran 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has decided that after it 
presented its report about Operation Cast Lead to the U.N. earlier 
this month, there is no need to set up an independent inquiry 
committee.  Maariv quoted Olmert as saying that he was the only one 
to seek victory and an end to the Hamas regime during Operation Cast 
Lead and that DM Ehud Barak and other politicians exaggerated the 
number of casualties that would result from an Israeli takeover of 
Gaza. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked 
U.N. envoy Tony Blair to assist U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East 
Peace George Mitchell in reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. 
The radio reported that Blair acceded to MitchellQs request. 
 
The media cited Iranian President Mahmoud AhmadinejadQs boast at a 
mass rally in Tehran yesterday that Iran already is a nuclear 
nation.  Media quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that Israel must be 
destroyed Qonce and for allQ if it strikes.  Some media quoted him 
as saying that he asks for SyrianQs assistance for that purpose. 
The media noted the lack of effectiveness of protests in Iran 
yesterday, mostly due to preventive measures taken by the regime. 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli officials as saying that IranQs 
nuclear bragging will persuade the world of the danger posed by the 
Iranian nuclear program.  Israel Hayom quoted the U.S. as saying 
that Iran is exaggerating regarding its capability to enrich 
uranium.  Israel Radio quoted Gerard Araud, the French Ambassador to 
the U.N., as saying at Columbia University that one must wait until 
ChinaQs position is heard before imposing sanctions on Iran. Yediot 
quoted Iranian opposition sources as saying that IsraelQs threats 
against Iran are only causing them damage. 
 
HaQaretz, Israel Hayom, and other media reported that Kadima Knesset 
Member Shaul Mofaz told associates yesterday that he will form a 
separate faction if his partyQs primaries are not moved up.  Israel 
Hayom quoted a supporter of KadimaQs chair Tzipi Livni as saying 
that Mofaz and MK Eli Aflalo are Qcancerous tumorsQ in the party. 
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Likud members as saying that they do not 
want Mofaz in the party. 
 
Major media reported that two months ago, while seven GOI ministers 
were discussing the conditions of the Shalit deal, a Hamas terror 
cell tried to infiltrate Israel through Egypt and kidnap an IDF 
soldier.  The plan was to kill the soldier, bury his body, and 
negotiate over its return.  The cellQs five members were caught with 
explosives and a gun with a silencer. 
 
HaQaretz translated a New York Magazine feature on President ObamaQs 
Kenyan relatives. 
 
 
HaQaretz quoted the think tank ReQut Institute as saying that Israel 
is facing a global campaign of delegitimization.  The institute 
called on the Israeli Government to treat the matter as a strategic 
threat.  Israel Radio quoted Baroness Tonge, a Liberal Democrat 
Member of the U.K.Qs House of Lords, as saying a few days ago that 
the Israeli rescue team harvested organs in Haiti.  The radio noted 
that MP Nick Clegg, her party leader, failed to condemn her 
assertion.  Talking on the radio, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan 
Sharansky said that this was a modern blood libel.  Media reported 
that French Ambassador to Israel Christophe Bigot told reporters 
yesterday that anti-Semitism is a problem not just for French Jews 
but for the entire French Republic and the world as a whole.   Bigot 
said that IDF actions are being exploited by extremists. 
 
Media reported that, two years after a High Court ruling on the 
matter, work has started on a new route for the security fence in 
the BilQin area -- 1,700 m. from the original one. 
 
HaQaretz and Israel Radio reported that a nine-justice panel of the 
Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a law allowing courts to remand 
people suspected of security offenses in absentia contravenes the 
Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty and that it is, therefore, 
unconstitutional.  The court said the law causes disproportional 
harm to the suspect's right to be present during deliberations on 
whether to keep him in jail.  The East Jerusalem man referenced by 
the decision had planned to assassinate former Jerusalem Mayor Uri 
Lupolianski.  Media said this was the seventh time the High Court 
has overruled a law passed by the Knesset. 
 
Channel 10-TV and other media reported that excerpts of the 
stationQs report on corruption in the PA were broadcast all over the 
Arab world.  The media quoted the PA as saying that it is an Israeli 
plot. 
 
Maariv quoted the defense periodical JaneQs as saying that Egypt is 
developing long-range missiles. 
 
Yediot reported that PM Benjamin Netanyahu is setting limits to the 
proposed absentee voting law: eligibility will be limited to those 
Israelis who have been abroad for less than five years and have 
maintained a link with Israel during that period.  100,000-200,000 
Israelis would now be eligible under these conditions, instead of 
500,000 as foreseen by the initial proposal. 
 
The media reported on former U.S. President Bill ClintonQs chest 
pains and the subsequent catheterization he underwent. 
 
Yediot ran a feature on Avinadav Begin, the grandson of the late PM 
Menachem Begin and the son of Likud Knesset Member Benny Begin. 
Avinadav Begin is quoted as saying that he is neither Jewish nor 
Israeli, that he does not respect the symbols of the state, and that 
his grandfather did not change anything in IsraelQs relations with 
Egypt. 
 
--------- 
¶1.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QBreak the Iranian Program -- There Is No Other Way 
 
Veteran journalist and television anchor Dan Margalit wrote on page 
one of the independent Israel Hayom (2/12): QA democracy under the 
Iranian threat and the neighboring states wavering between placing 
an obstacle to Tehran and getting closer to it have no time to 
hesitate.  The debate isnQt between sanctionssolely on the 
Revolutionary Guard and sanctions on the entire Iranian nation, but 
about the need to make a strong-minded decision to make that Iranian 
nuclear project disappear -- as Cato repeatedly vituperated against 
Cartago.... [This project must be broken] through economic sanctions 
or by military force, in a joint operation or by a superpower -- 
Ahmadinejad cannot be allowed to enrich uranium, either at 80 
percent or at less.... There is no alternative when facing TehranQs 
evil regime. 
 
II.  QThe Eleventh Hour 
 
The conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (2/12): 
QSome say tough sanctions [on Iran] will send the masses into the 
arms of the governent and undermine the opposition.  But 
yesterdays rally showed that the regime doesnQt have a problem 
putting on a show of support; and that the opposition is weak, 
fragmented, and under siege.  The prospects of the opposition are 
unpredictable, regardless of what happens on the sanctions front. 
Pretending otherwise strikes us as a lame excuse for doing nothing. 
We also understand that sanctions on gasoline could enrich the IRGC 
[Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps], which already controls IranQs 
black market in commodities.  Still, the debilitating impact on the 
regime of endless lines at petrol stations should not be 
underestimated.  Dawdling by two U.S. administrations and by an 
international community preoccupied with immediate economic 
gratification has brought the world to this eleventh hour.  It may 
already be too late for the real sanctions option.  But given the 
stark alternative -- isnQt it worth a try? 
 
 
III.  QIs the Administration Off-Target with its Focus on the 
IRGC? 
 
Washington correspondent Hilary Leila Krieger wrote in The Jerusalem 
Post (2/12): QConcerns that current broad-based sanctions 
legislation pending before Congress would deeply hurt the general 
[Iranian] population -- an undesirable circumstance in and of 
itself, but also because the U.S. is hoping to strengthen rather 
weaken the popular reform movement opposing the regime Q have been 
cited in the administrationQs lukewarm response to the measure.  If 
the bill passes, the U.S. would sanction foreign companies providing 
refined petroleum to Iran, essentially trying to bar IranQs access 
to gasoline.  Yet the administrationQs use of targeted sanctions 
against the IRGC [Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps] and other regime 
elements might not be as different from broad-based measures such as 
CongressQ as the administration implies.  ThatQs because nearly a 
third of IranQs economy is estimated to be controlled the IRGC. 
 
IV.  QDelicate Sanctions 
 
Columnist Shmuel Rosner, who was HaQaretzQs correspondent in 
Washington, wrote in the popular, pluralist Maariv (2/12): QWhat the 
[U.S] administration plans is harming the Iranian economy with a 
surgical scalpel -- harm the regime, but not the public-at-large; 
impair the Revolutionary Guard, but not the reformist protesters. 
This has understandable, even good reasons -- mainly for those who 
believe that the Iranian regime is swiveling to the point of 
near-collapse.  But such surgical sanctions require thin-rope 
acrobatics, the result of which may lack drama.  This week Prime 
Minister Netanyahu demanded that foreign ambassadors impose 
Qcrippling sanctions on Iran.Q  But the United States wants 
crippling sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard -- not Iran. 
There is a big difference between the two. 
 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
 
¶I.  QAn Unacceptable Fight against Protest 
 
The independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (2/12): 
QIsraeli security forces have recently intensified their fight 
against peace activists from here and abroad who seek to protest 
against the occupation and identify with the Palestinian 
inhabitants.... It could be expected that a country that has ruled 
another nation for many years would show tolerance toward 
manifestations of unarmed protest against the occupation and its 
ills.  The state should also respect the right of other countries' 
citizens to show solidarity with the local people and join protests 
alongside Israeli and Palestinian activists.  The harassment of 
individuals who do not toe the line and posters in the streets that 
incite against human rights groups should arouse concern in the 
heart f every Israeli.  The suppression of public protes under the 
transparent guise of protecting state ecurity does not augment 
Israel's international tanding. Such a policy gives a bad name to 
the Qnly democracy in the Middle East.Q  Officials at te top of 
government must instruct the security forces and the Interior 
Ministry to immediately stop these heavy-handed attacks on 
nonviolent protest. 
 
II.  QSarah PalinQs Friendship 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick 
wrote in the conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (2/12): 
QLiberal Democratic Jewish voices, like Leon Wieseltier at The New 
Republic, are aware that there is a problem with the rampant 
anti-Semitism in their camp.  And they fear that as a consequence, 
American Jews may take a second look at Palin with her Israeli flag 
lapel pin.  As Wieseltier wrote this week, QA day does not go by 
when I do not do my humble part to prevent such a transformation [of 
American Jewry from liberals to conservatives] from coming to pass. 
 The fact of the matter is that for IsraelQs sake such a 
transformation canQt happen quickly enough.... Sarah PalinQs 
emergence as the mouthpiece of populist opposition to Obama presents 
IsraelQs supporters -- and particularly IsraelQs Jewish supporters 
-- with an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary challenge. 
 PalinQs coupling of support for Israel with her populist domestic 
agenda marks the first time that support for Israel has been treated 
as a core, populist issue.  The opportunity this presents for 
American Jews who care about Israel is without precedent.  But of 
course, to make the best use of this opportunity, American Jews who 
support Israel have to disappoint Wieseltier.  They have to 
acknowledge that the Left has rejected their cause and increasingly 
rejects them.... PalinQs future in politics is unknowable.  But what 
is clear enough is that today hers is the strongest single American 
voice opposing ObamaQs foreign policy and the loudest advocate for 
supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons.  For this she 
deserves the thanks and support of American Jewry. 
 
CUNNINGHAM