Cablegate: Israel Media Reaction

VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1996/01 1800914
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 290914Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2005
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 2393
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS PRIORITY 9110
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 2423
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3201
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 2415
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0339
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 3153
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0026
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0498
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 7093
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 4509
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH PRIORITY 9421
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 3595
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 5538
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 7268
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT PRIORITY

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001996

SIPDIS

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

-------------------------
Key stories in the media:
-------------------------

All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, led with news on
the plea bargain agreement for President Moshe Katsav. As a result
Katsav resigned this morning. The media reported that Attorney
General Menachem Mazuz faced a barrage of criticism and calls for
his resignation. In a live appearance on all TV channels, "A.," a
high-profile plaintiff in the case, described what she claimed were
sexual assaults by Katsav when she was an assistant in his office.
Yediot's banner consists of an article by its senior columnist Nahum
Barnea: "Disgraceful Deal." Katsav told Maariv: "This was an awful,
terrible persecution." Women's groups will demonstrate on Saturday
night at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square.

Israel Radio reported that in Rhode Island on Thursday, President
Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq, saying
the US goal there is not to eliminate attacks but to enable a
democracy that can function despite violence. The radio termed the
President's comparison "strange."

Leading media reported that President Bush has officially named his
choice for the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy
Admiral Mike Mullen.

Israel Radio cited a Jordanian newspaper as saying that the Egyptian
and Jordanian FMs will come to Israel next week as representatives
of the Arab League.

Leading media reported that the IDF found a weapons store and
arrested militants in Nablus. Two Israeli officers were seriously
wounded and three other soldiers suffered lesser injuries. Israel
Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying that IDF troops killed an
unarmed taxi driver. The Jerusalem Post's Web site reported that
the slain man was an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades traveling in the cab.

The Jerusalem Post reported that on Thursday Israel unilaterally
reopened the Karni crossing to Gaza to avert a shortage of flour in
the Strip. Makor Rishon-Hatzofe cited the EU's criticism of the
Israeli policy to isolate Hamas.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Fatah is being torn apart by
infighting.

Yediot reported that Iran is purchasing missiles on Syria's behalf.
Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that the Syrian Army is training with
the lessons of the Second Lebanon War in mind and that the IDF has
reopened a course for commanders of army groups.

The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Israeli defense officials
told the newspaper on Thursday that Lebanon's refusal to sign an
agreement brokered by UNIFIL is delaying the final withdrawal of IDF
troops from the town of Ghajar, which straddles the Israeli-Lebanese
border.

Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that on Wednesday FM Tzipi Livni
criticized the UN Human Rights Council at an event marking Canada
Day in Ramat Gan.

The media published many features on the Second Lebanon War as its
first anniversary approaches.

Yediot and Maariv quoted Prof. Uriel Reichman, a leading founder of
the Kadima Party, as saying that PM Ehud Olmert should be replaced.
Reichman noted that Kadima has fallen fell in public opinion polls,
to the extent that if an election were held today, it would only win
8 Knesset seats, down from 40.

Ha'aretz quoted former Mossad head Zvi Zamir as saying that reports
in Israel about Dr. Ashraf Marwan, Israel's Egyptian agent who
warned of the pending outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, led to his
death.

Ha'aretz (English Ed.) quoted Ruth Messinger, President of the
American Jewish World Service, an international development
organization, as saying during a visit to Israel this week that the
genocide in Darfur has forced the American Jewish community to
expand its foreign policy interests beyond just Israel. Messinger,
the former borough president of Manhattan, was one of the leading
forces behind the creation of the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance
of over 100 organizations working to end the genocide in Sudan. The
Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, she lost to Rudy Giuliani
in the 1997 elections.

Ha'aretz reported that the candidate preferred by the daily's panel
of experts examining the upcoming US presidential elections in light
of US-Israel relations is Rudolph Giuliani. The panel said the
Henry Kissinger was the secretary of state who best understood the
Middle East, with a score of 4.5 -- on a 1-10 scale -- regarding the
Middle East and 4.625 regarding Israel. Condoleezza Rice scores
under 3 on both counts. Kissinger and Rice scored similarly on the
question of how well secretaries of state realized administration
policy in the region.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe reported that PM Olmert rejected a warning by
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer of an impending deficit in
Israel's state budget.

Makor Rishon-Hatzofe quoted Prof. David Zaslavsky, Chairman of
Israel's National Research and Development Council, as saying that
Israel is losing its technological edge.

The Jerusalem Post reported that following an inquiry from the
newspaper, CNN has corrected a feature on its Web site that failed
to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital and which had instead
listed it as "Jerusalem, null."

Yediot and The Jerusalem Post reported that the brothers David and
Ed Milliband, whom incoming British PM Gordon Brown appointed
Foreign Secretary and Minister of the Cabinet Office (respectively),
are the sons of Holocaust survivors.

Yediot presented the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute)
poll: 69 percent are opposed to the plea bargain reached by Katsav.
Forty-two percent of the public believe that A-G Mazuz should resign
in view of the gap between the indictment writ draft and the pea
agreement; 47 percent believe he should not resign; 11 percent are
undecided.

Ha'aretz reported that some 45 percent of high school students who
immigrated from the former Soviet Union (FSU) do not believe they
have a future in Israel, according to the preliminary results of a
study conducted over the past two months by the Forum for Immigrant
Parents and due to be published in a few months. Only 65 percent
would define themselves as Israeli, the study found. However, 88
percent would accept a hyphenated definition, such as
Israeli-Russian.

------------
1. Mideast:
------------

Summary:
--------

Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post: "The concern ... is ... that the reality
on the ground will dictate that the IDF officers at the border
crossings will have no choice, if they want to let food and medical
supplies into Gaza, than to deal with the person on the other side
of the crossing. And that person will be from Hamas."

Deputy Managing Editor Anshel Pfeffer wrote in The Jerusalem Post:
"The composers [of Hamas's message] were totally tapped in to the
public mood in Israel, and every detail in the message was aimed at
its raw nerves."

Block Quotes:
-------------

I. "Summit Summary"

Diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (6/29): "Abbas made clear, according to
Israeli officials, that his strategy was simple: Let the West Bank
bloom economically and politically, to show the Gazans that they
have lost by throwing their lot in with Hamas, and then tempt them
with what they could gain if they would just repudiate the
organization. Abbas couldn't put things in such bald terms, so
Olmert did it for him.... The concern, [an Israeli] official said,
is not over a political decision that will be made in Jerusalem to
permit functional dealing with Hamas -- something Abbas doesn't
think will happen -- but rather that the reality on the ground will
dictate that the IDF officers at the border crossings will have no
choice, if they want to let food and medical supplies into Gaza,
than to deal with the person on the other side of the crossing. And
that person will be from Hamas.... Two weeks after Hamas surprised
itself, Israel, the Arab world, and the international community by
effortlessly plucking control of the Gaza Strip, a senior European
diplomat succinctly summarized the new emerging policy towards the
Palestinians as follows: 'The West Bank first, and Gaza will follow
-- somehow.' It's the 'somehow' that's the killer. The rough
contours of how the main players view the 'somehow' started to
appear this week: Make the West Bank blossom, and then hope, pray,
and try to ensure that the Gazans will want those petals as well."

II. "Hamas Presses Israel's Buttons"

Deputy Managing Editor Anshel Pfeffer wrote in The Jerusalem Post
(6/29): "Sometimes an idea's timing is so accurate, pressing all the
correct buttons, that even if it's broadcast in the crudest and most
blatant manner, the normally sophisticated and cynical press just
swallow it hook, link, and sinker. It doesn't matter that it's
totally transparent and that everyone understands exactly what's
going on: It still does the trick. The perfect PR coup. And that's
exactly what Hamas achieved on Monday when it sent out the 72-second
recording of Gilad Shalit's voice, one year to the day he was
captured... The composers [of the message] were totally tapped in to
the public mood in Israel, and every detail in the message was aimed
at its raw nerves."

---------
2. Iran:
---------

Summary:
--------

Professor David Menashri, the Director of the Center for Iranian
Studies at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Recent events [inside Iran] are a
further signal of increased public discontent in general, and of
disappointment in Ahmadinejad's two years [in power] in
particular."

Block Quotes:
-------------

"Despairing of Ahmadinejad"

Professor David Menashri, the Director of the Center for Iranian
Studies at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (6/29): "[Iranian] citizens have been
quoted as saying that rationing fuel in a country awash in oil is
inconceivable.... Ahmadinejad, who was elected two years ago after
promising to improve the lot of the disadvantaged classes, is being
accused of not delivering the goods. While Iran is proud of its
assistance to radical movements outside its borders (Hamas and
Hizbullah, e.g.), the plain citizen is being worn down.... Recent
events are a further signal of increased public discontent in
general, and of disappointment in Ahmadinejad's two years [in power]
in particular."

JONES

© Scoop Media