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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TEL AVIV 001246 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD 
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
PARIS ALSO FOR POL 
ROME FOR MFO 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  State Department Release of 2003 Human Rights 
Report 
 
¶2.  Alhurra TV Station 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli diplomatic officials as 
saying that the White House and State Department are 
not showing the same types of divisions regarding the 
disengagement plan that emerged in 2002 over the road 
map.  The newspaper quoted the officials as saying that 
the divisions that emerged during the debate over the 
road map between the White House, which was perceived 
to be pushing a policy more in tune with the Sharon 
government's policy, and the State Department, has not 
occurred during discussion on the US position on 
disengagement.  Jerusalem Post reported that the only 
place where some disagreement has emerged, according to 
these officials, is that the State Department seems a 
bit more determined than the White House that settlers 
evacuated from Gaza not be resettled in the West Bank. 
Jerusalem Post also reported that Israel is trying to 
derail a new European initiative to supplement the road 
map that the GOI feels will again let the Palestinians 
off the hook by presenting a plan that calls on them to 
do less than they were called to do under the road map. 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that in Dublin Friday 
FM Silvan Shalom embarked on a campaign to convince the 
international community that, even if the road map is 
not presently doable, the Palestinians still have 
responsibilities to fight terrorism. 
 
Yediot reported that Elchanan Tenenbaum told his 
Israeli interrogators that he had deceived Hizbullah 
and not betrayed Israel.  Sunday, leading media 
reported on Tenenbaum's admission that before being 
abducted he traveled to Dubai to complete a drug deal 
with Hizbullah.  Ha'aretz reported that this week the 
High Court of Justice is due to discuss a petition 
against his immunity deal, although a High Court 
justice has declined to issue a temporary injunction to 
stop the bargain from being implemented. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported on the killing 
Friday night of a couple in a shooting attack on the 
Lahav-Ashkelon road, along the Green Line, in the 
southern Hebron hills.  PFLP-CG claimed responsibility 
for the attack.  Sunday, leading media reported that 
three Islamic Jihad operatives were killed in an 
Israeli assassination attack in Gaza City. 
 
Leading media reported that construction of the 
security fence in northwestern Jerusalem has been 
halted for one week by order of the High Court of 
Justice and at the request of Palestinian villagers. 
Ha'aretz reported that 30 residents of Mevasseret Zion, 
a western Jewish suburb of Jerusalem, joined the 
petition, and that another 200 signed a letter of 
protest about the route of the fence.  This is the 
first time Israeli citizens living near the "seam line" 
between Israel and the West Bank joined a petition to 
the court over the fence's route.  The media reported 
that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and President Moshe 
Katsav implicitly condemned the court's decision. 
Mofaz was quoted as saying that the defense 
establishment hopes to start construction of the 
southern segment of the fence by the end of the year. 
 
All media reported that A/G Menachem Mazuz recommends 
that the next Knesset elections should be held in 2006, 
a year ahead of the planned date. 
 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that Saturday PA 
security men arrested a man suspected of involvement in 
last week's bus bombing in Jerusalem. 
 
Leading media reported that the members of the Fatah 
Revolutionary Council concluded their meeting by 
backing a cease-fire and the road map, but that they 
failed to decide on the issues of reforms and the 
disarming of militants.  The media reported that Friday 
Nablus Mayor Ghassan Shakah announced his resignation, 
accusing the PA of failing to rein in armed thugs who 
are terrorizing Palestinians in his city and other 
Palestinian communities.  An Israel Radio commentator 
said that Ghassan supports peace and cooperation with 
Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense 
Committee Chairman Yuval Steinitz as saying that the 
findings of the committee that looked into the 
preparations of Israel's intelligence branch with 
regard to an Iraqi missile attack on Israel could cause 
an upheaval in the intelligence community.  Sunday, 
Yediot cited The New York Times as saying that the 
Iraqi Governing Council has rejected initiatives to 
bring back Jews to Iraq "because of the Palestinian 
problem." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Israel Prison Service and 
the IDF are planning to transfer responsibility for 
more than 3,500 Palestinian security prisoners from the 
army to the prison authority. 
 
Leading media reported that over the weekend Iran and 
Syria signed a military cooperation agreement. 
 
Yediot reported that according to data presented by 
Defense Ministry D-G Amos Yaron to the Cabinet Sunday, 
Israeli security exports make up a tenth of all defense 
exports in the world.  According to the survey, Israel 
is among the five largest defense exporters in the 
world.  Leading media reported that Sunday the 
restricted diplomatic-defense cabinet approved the USD- 
1.1 billion deal with India, involving the sale of 
three Phalcon AWACS aircraft. 
 
Sunday, Maariv reported that Manal Bakher (or Bakr), 
the daughter of Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), 
who is married to an East Jerusalem physician, has 
requested Israeli citizenship. 
 
Maariv reported that the Jewish-Mexican millionaire 
Moshe Saba, who had tried to purchase Channel 10-TV, is 
under investigation in the U.S. for alleged stock 
fraud. 
 
A Maariv/New Wave poll shows that the left (mostly 
Meretz) would get five more seats in the Knesset if new 
elections were held today, mostly at the expense of 
Likud and Shinui. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶1.  State Department Release of 2003 Human Rights 
Report: 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Levy wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The leader of the free world is 
today imposing a dark regime in a number of spheres, 
both domestically and internationally, behavior that is 
deeply at odds with its enlightened image and its world 
role as a preacher.  This is bad news for the world, 
maybe even worse than the immoral portrait of Israel 
that emerges from the report." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"U.S. Has Lost Its Moral Right to Preach" 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Levy wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (February 29): "Look who's 
preaching to Israel: last Wednesday, the U.S. State 
Department released its annual report on the state of 
human rights around the world.  The chapter devoted to 
Israel makes the usual detailed and gloomy reading. 
Washington is critical of all the ills of the 
occupation, about which the human rights organizations 
and Israel have long since raised a hue and cry.... 
From this partial point of view, the report is 
important.  The other side, however, is that the United 
States has by its own hand lost its moral right to 
preach to any country in connection with human rights. 
To begin with, since 1976, no fewer than 820 people -- 
35 percent of them blacks -- have been executed in the 
United States.... Second, the State Department, which 
authored the report, represents a state that tramples 
human rights more than most others.... A country that 
is holding 660 Afghan detainees at Guantanamo without 
trial and depriving them of basic rights is in no 
position to criticize administrative detentions carried 
out by other countries.... As for the situation in 
Israel: the United States bears direct responsibility 
for the violations of human rights in this country.  If 
Washington truly wanted to, it could put an end to 
them, just as it could have long since brought the 
entire Israeli occupation to an end.... The leader of 
the free world is today imposing a dark regime in a 
number of spheres, both domestically and 
internationally, behavior that is deeply at odds with 
its enlightened image and its world role as a preacher. 
This is bad news for the world, maybe even worse than 
the immoral portrait of Israel that emerges from the 
report." 
 
----------------------- 
¶2.  Alhurra TV Station: 
----------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Palestinian journalist Daoub Kuttab wrote in 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Sponsoring 
foreign radio broadcasts has been a favorite tool of 
colonial European governments." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"America's Clumsy Outreach" 
 
Palestinian journalist Daoub Kuttab wrote in 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (March 1): "In 
a desperate effort to reverse America's negative image 
in the Arab world, a new Arabic-language television 
station called Alhurra ('the free one') has been added 
to the diet of existing government-sponsored 
broadcasting outlets in the Arab region.... Judging 
from the broadcast content of its first day, Washington 
has a long way to go to achieve its goals.  Alhurra 
operates with a USD 62-million grant from the U.S. 
government.  Judging from its first broadcast day, 
there is no hint it will ever become self-reliant. 
Listeners can only conclude that Alhurra will always be 
the instrument of the U.S. government.... Sponsoring 
foreign radio broadcasts has been a favorite tool of 
colonial European governments.... While some expected 
the new station to be an important addition to the 
plurality of opinions available to the Arab public, its 
first day of broadcasting confirmed what the skeptics 
have been saying all along: what the U.S. needs to do 
is change its policy, not its media strategy.... Bush 
started his exclusive interview with Alhurra saying he 
hopes to encourage the spread of freedom in the Middle 
East.  His definition of freedom was very clear: 'Open 
society, free parties, secular society and independent 
press.'  Of course, Bush didn't waste his time dealing 
with the mundane issue of freedom.  Rather he used his 
airtime to talk about his war on terror and what he 
considered his success in Iraq and Libya.... The 
interview conducted by Mowafq Harb, Alhurra's editor-in- 
chief, failed to challenge Bush on any of the issues 
being hotly debated in America.... The Arab audience 
was shocked that Harb didn't ask a single question 
about Israel's nuclear weapons when the president was 
talking ad nauseam about his efforts to free the Middle 
East from weapons of mass destruction." 
 
KURTZER