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UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000405 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
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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 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that on Sunday night 35 right-wing activists, 
including National Union Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari, illegally 
entered Jericho, prayed at the ancient NaQaran synagogue, and placed 
an Israeli flag on its roof.  There were arrested yesterday by 
security personnel.  Media quoted the IDF as saying that the action 
was a Qtotally unnecessary provocation that risked lives.Q  This 
morning Israel Radio reported that the police released all the 
militants, except a minor. 
 
The media continued to highlight the aftermath of the assassination 
of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 20. 
 The European Union is expected to issue a statement Monday 
condemning the use of European passports -- some of them forged -- 
during the operation.  HaQaretz quoted a senior European diplomatic 
source as saying that the statement will not directly cite Israel, 
nor is it expected to link Israel with the assassination or the 
forging of passports.  The diplomat was quoted as saying that EU 
ambassadors had been summoned for consultations by Foreign Ministry 
officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. 
During the meeting, Abu Dhabi officials requested that EU foreign 
ministers, who will convene in Brussels today for a conference, 
issue a communiqu over the use of European passports in the Mabhouh 
operation.  The UAE is also demanding an explicit EU statement 
supporting the Emirates' authorities who are investigating the case. 
HaQaretz quoted the European source as saying that the UAE 
Government did not blame Israel for carrying out the assassination 
nor did it request that Israel be cited in the EU statement.  The 
source added that senior officials from Germany, France, Britain, 
Ireland, and the EU met yesterday to agree on the language of the 
statement. Ireland is advocating the ardest line among all EU 
members by demanding tht the statement explicitly refer to Israel. 
Isral Radio quoted a senior Israeli diplomatic source as saying 
that the Dubai incident is not likely to affect Israeli-European 
relations.  Media reported that FM Avigdor Lieberman will come to 
Brussels today to Qface tough questions from his EU counterparts. 
Aside from Irish FM Micheal Martin, he is also scheduled to meet 
with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has requested 
clarifications over whether Israel is responsible for the 
assassination.  Israel HayomQs top story consists of an op-ed by its 
senior columnist Dan Margalit who affirms that all countries 
intelligence branches use forged passports.  Maariv reported that 
Hamas is looking for a mole. 
 
Yesterday Maariv reported that the Israeli Government is dispatching 
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer to China in order to explain 
the necessity of imposing sanctions on Iran.  The newspaper quoted 
an Israeli diplomatic source saying that the character of sanctions 
being economic, Fischer might have a real influence on the Chinese 
decision.  Yediot wrote that Vice PM Moshe QBoogieQ YaQalon will 
lead the Israeli delegation to Beijing.  Leading media reported that 
Russia has eventually decided to abide by its commitment to sell 
Iran S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. 
 
PM Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying in an interview with Ari 
Shavit of HaQaretz that there are signs that the Palestinians have 
started to climb down the tall tree of intransigence and that the 
negotiations will be able to resume in the near future. 
 
HaQaretz reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a 
senior figure from the Persian Gulf that bombing Israel with a 
nuclear weapon will kill more Palestinians than Israelis.  He was 
further quoted as saying that the nuclear capability of the U.S. and 
Israel can annihilate Iran and that it is therefore illogical for 
Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. 
 
The media quoted PM Netanyahu as saying yesterday that the Cave of 
the Patriarchs in Hebron and RachelQs Tomb on the outskirts of 
Bethlehem will be included in the list of national heritages sites 
slated for preservation.  While right-wing politicians applauded the 
PMQs move, left-wing legislators condemned it.  HaQaretz and other 
media quoted Meretz Chairman Haim Oron as saying: "This is another 
attempt to blur the lines between the State of Israel and the 
occupied territories.  Just a little pressure from the right and 
Netanyahu immediately toes the line.  This decision casts the Prime 
Minister's Bar-Ilan University declaration of two states for two 
peoples in a ridiculous light."  In another development, media 
reported that Peace NowQs Secretary-General sent a protest letter to 
Netanyahu over the Information and Diaspora MinistryQs planned 
campaign to turn Israeli tourists abroad into goodwill ambassadors 
for their country, which the group says contains propaganda 
contradicting IsraelQs commitments in the peace process and the 
two-state solution. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) 
told the newspaper that President ObamaQs decision to reappoint an 
ambassador to Syria was a Qmistake.Q  Engel was the sponsor of a 
2003 bill calling for sanctions against Syria if it does not end 
support for terrorism and leave Lebanon. 
 
Electronic media reported that last week Palestinian security forces 
delivered to Israel a Qassam rocket that had been assembled in a 
West Bank village.  The rocket was ready for launch.  Intelligence 
on the matter was obtained by the PA. 
 
The media reported that early on Sunday an improvised explosive 
device was thrown at the Shaare Shamayim synagogue in Cairo, causing 
no casualties or damage.  HaQaretz quoted IsraelQs Ambassador to 
Egypt, Yitzhak Levanon, as saying that based on what was told by 
local authorities, there was no certainty the synagogue was the 
target. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli officials as saying a French 
recognition of a Palestinian State -- as hinted Sunday by French FM 
Bernard Kouchner in an interview with the French magazine Le Journal 
du Dimanche -- would hurt chances of talks with the Palestinians. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry 
official told the daily yesterday that the pro-peace lobby J Street 
lied about an alleged boycott by Deputy FM Daniel Ayalon of the 
congressional delegation it recently brought to Israel and about 
Israel apologizing to the group for the slight. 
 
Last night Israel TV reported that a huge banner was displayed in 
Turkey -- QshowingQ President Shimon Peres bowing to Turkish PM 
Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a reminder of the Qlow chairQ incident in 
Jerusalem.  Maariv quoted Israeli diplomatic sources as saying this 
is a Qbothering and revolting scandal. 
 
Maariv reported that Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Ltd will set 
up a joint venture for developing advanced missile systems with a 
government-owned Indian company, Bharat Electronics Ltd. 
 
All media reported that IsraelQs public broadcasting service is in 
crisis.  In early January Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) 
management decided on a series of unprecedented cuts.  Today Maariv 
front-paged an appeal by prominent journalists from the commercial 
stations Channel 2-TV and Channel 10-TV to save public broadcasting. 
 Israel Hayom reported that PM Netanyahu is expected to intervene in 
the IBA crisis. 
 
The media reported that ultra-Orthodox politician Rabbi Menachem 
Porush passed away yesterday at the age of 94.  He served as an 
Agudat Yisrael parliamentarian from 1955 through 1994 and as a 
Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in the Q80s and Q90s. 
 
HaQaretz reported that according to a new Gallup poll released over 
the weekend, Israel ranks fifth among the countries viewed most 
favorably by Americans, behind Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and 
Japan.  Israel is the only country that received more favorable 
views from Republicans.  The PA, in contrast, received more support 
from Democrats. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  QStart a Secret Track with the Palestinians 
 
Former Meretz leader, former Justice Minister, and chief Israeli 
promoter of the Geneva Initiative, Yossi Beilin, wrote in the 
independent Israel Hayom (2/22): QSince proximity talks are 
cumbersome and problematic to all sides, it is important that Israel 
and the Palestinians enter a direct and secret track that will 
include true discussions while the elder Senator [U.S. Envoy George 
Mitchell] shuttles between the hotels of the delegations.  If 
someone is seriously interested in the positions of the other side 
and if someone intends to push the diplomatic process forward, not 
just to prove to Obama that he is behaving, this is the only way. 
The Turkish road [i.e. the indirect track] had better be left 
empty. 
 
II.  QThe Shalit Syndrome 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar commented in the independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (2/22): QThe Mabhouh case has knocked the 
bottom out of the argument that Israel will be safer if the worst of 
the freed terrorists are exiled to Damascus as part of a deal for 
Shalit.  The huge effort put into assassinating Mabhouh in Dubai and 
the diplomatic and security risks -- surely calculated ones -- taken 
by whoever did it are indications of the man's standing in the world 
of terrorism.  Exile, it transpires, can be an ideal hothouse for 
breeding arch-terrorists.... Assassinating exiled terrorists will 
not defeat Hamas and thwarting a prisoner exchange will not have a 
long-term impact on the balance of power in the Palestinian 
territories.  The right way to tackle Hamas is to create a real 
political alternative to its violent and uncompromising course.  In 
the absence of such an alternative, operations taken from James Bond 
movies that the foreign media attribute to Israel make this country 
look like a neighborhood thug and divert attention from the specter 
of apartheid crouching at the gate. 
 
 
 
 
III.  QA Duty to Protest 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (2/22): QSome 1,000 people took part in last 
Friday's demonstration against the separation fence in the village 
of Bil'in west of Ramallah, marking the fifth anniversary of weekly 
protests at the site.... Bil'in has become a symbol of a civic 
struggle devoid of terrorism.  Such persistent, ongoing protest 
action is remarkable.... Actually, last Friday's rally was 
relatively peaceful: the presence of Palestinian Prime Minister 
Salam Fayyad and numerous journalists made the IDF and Border Police 
behave less violently than usual.  Only when the protesters began 
causing damage to the barrier itself did the security forces react, 
but even then they used riot-control measures rather than firearms. 
This is how it ought to be, every Friday.  The protests in Bil'in 
are legitimate.  They must be allowed.  Protesters must be permitted 
unobstructed access to the site and so should security forces, as 
long as they act with restraint.  Shooting at demonstrators -- as 
has happened in Bil'in all too often -- is an act perpetrated by 
only the most nefarious regimes.  Protesting in Bil'in is not just a 
right.  It is a duty. 
 
IV.  QWho Is Stymieing Economic Projects in the PA? 
 
Regional Development Minister and former Foreign Minister Silvan 
Shalom (Likud) wrote in Israel Hayom (2/21): QConstruction of the 
new Palestinian city to the north of Ramallah, Rawabi, is advancing 
at present.  This is the Palestinian AuthorityQs flagship project in 
the realm of civil development.... Contrary to reports, Israel has 
not stymied progress on this important project.  Israel has declared 
on numerous occasions that it regards economic peace as an important 
component on the way to political peace.  The gain that will be 
accrued by the Palestinian citizen from economic cooperation is most 
important for advancing the political peace process.  Improving the 
quality of life there will help reduce the advantages of clashes, 
will promote moderation, will allow for the gradual construction of 
trust, and will provide a horizon of hope.  Economic cooperation 
will contribute not only to the creation of trust, understanding, 
and cooperation in other areas.  At the end of the day, that 
cooperation serves as a generator of growth.  We are doing our 
utmost, but continued advancement of the project is contingent upon 
the Palestinians and the developer.... We have no conflict with the 
Palestinians, but only with their leadership.  We try to draw a 
distinction and to remain firmly committed to our political, 
security, and settlement principles, while allowing the Palestinians 
to lead normal lives.  But for the Rawabi project, like many others 
that we are trying to promote, it takes two to tango.  Unless the 
Palestinians make a courageous strategic decision to be in touch 
with us so as to promote projects whose purpose is to improve the 
Palestinian economy, we are going to continue to run into obstacles. 
 It is a shame that while there are some people who work hard to 
make something, there are others who work equally hard to destroy. 
We look forward to finding a solution in the near future to the 
problem of the access road [to Rawabi]. 
 
¶V.  QOut of Date and out of Touch 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global Research in 
International Affairs Center, columnist Barry Rubin, wrote in the 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (2/22): QAnyone who 
actually lives in Israel knows -- whether they like it or not -- 
that Israel is ready to make big concessions and take reasonable 
risks to achieve peace.  They know, whether or not they agree, that 
the overwhelming majority is ready to accept an independent 
Palestinian state, as long as it is willing to end the conflict and 
live side by side in peace.  Outside Israel, far fewer people 
understand this reality.  And that includes journalists, academics, 
and politicians.  If they address the issue at all, they presume 
that Israel is asking the Palestinians to make some huge or 
unreasonable concession.  Often, as noted above, their understanding 
of Israeli views is more than 20 years out of date.... But the 
Palestinians especially and Westerners generally know even less 
about Israel's own demands.... These include security guarantees, 
non-militarization of a Palestinian state, an end to the conflict, 
and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Palestine.  The 
above observations can produce a simple definition of the difference 
between moderates and radicals.  The radicals, both among the 
Palestinians and their Western sympathizers, know -- even if they 
pretend otherwise -- that they want all the land from the Jordan 
River to the Mediterranean Sea along with Israel's elimination. 
This is true whether they seek it through a two-stage process, the 
dispatch of a million or two Palestinians to Israel in a peace 
agreement, a one-state solution, or a temporary binational state. 
Consequently they are indifferent to what Israel actually offers 
except to distort it for propaganda purposes.  A moderate is someone 
who actually thinks the Palestinians today want a two-state solution 
and is genuinely fooled by the ploys outlined above. Consequently, 
the moderates -- few as they are among Palestinians, more numerous 
in the West -- can have the facts explained to them.  But the 
radicals know precisely what they are doing and don't care about any 
chance for compromise. 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
QThis Will Be a Historic Moment 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the late Prime 
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (2/21): QBibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, whom even 
their current political opponents view as experts, as opposed to IDF 
Chief of Staff [Gabi Ashkenazi], who may be quite right in 
depositing the final decision [about attacking Iran] at their feet, 
cannot look back and look for someone upon whom to rely for making 
that decision -- for better and for worse, they are the ones.  To 
envy them, one must be from another planet. 
 
CUNNINGHAM