This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 006232 
 
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 
 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
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Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Israel Radio reported that, commenting on reports from 
Cairo, Deputy State Department Spokesman J. Adam Ereli, 
said on Wednesday: "We're not party to any reported 
grant initiative, nor am I aware of any plans to host a 
conference or some other kind of multilateral ceremony, 
with respect to a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian 
question."  However, Ereli mentioned the United States' 
involvement in current regional developments in close 
cooperation with the Palestinians, with the Israelis, 
with the Egyptians and with others, notably on the 
issue of the upcoming Palestinian elections.  Israel 
Radio quoted Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Danny 
Ayalon as saying in Washington Wednesday that the 
convening of an international convention is a "failed 
idea," and that one should wait until it becomes known 
who will lead the PA after the elections there. 
 
The three major dailies bannered the political 
situation in Israel.  Ha'aretz quoted associates of PM 
Sharon as saying that Sharon hopes to present a new 
government to the Knesset within 10 days of today's 
meeting of the Likud Central Committee, which will 
decide whether the Labor Party will enter the 
government.  Maariv quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz 
as saying that he will vie for Likud chairmanship "in 
the post-Sharon era." 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has called reported 
accusations from the U.S. Wednesday that its defense 
officials were engaged in industrial espionage "a 
misunderstanding" based on chutzpa and general nosiness 
on the part of the Israelis.  Ha'aretz reported that 
the Defense Ministry delegation in New York is 
instructing army officers and representatives of the 
Israeli defense industries currently in the U.S. 
regarding working procedures in the U.S.  This 
activity, which is led by Defense Ministry D-G Amos 
Yaron, is a consequence of the allegations against 
Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian delegates at the 
international conference of donors in Oslo as saying 
Wednesday that the Palestinians are interested in 
resuming talks with Israel as soon as possible. 
 
Leading media (banner in Hatzofe) quoted Disengagement 
Administration Director Yonatan Bassi as saying 
Wednesday that settlers slated for evacuation will be 
compensated in a series of low payments.  Ha'aretz and 
other media reported that a number of Likud Knesset 
members who are opposed to Sharon's disengagement plan 
are pushing for an increase in state compensation for 
settlers to be evacuated under the pullout. 
 
Maariv reported that last May President Moshe Katsav 
contacted Syrian President Bashar Assad, offering to 
meet with him.  The newspaper reported that Assad 
accepted the suggestion, on condition Katsav represent 
the government.  The media cited contradictory 
responses by various Katsav associates. 
 
Leading media reported that talks took place in 
Brussels Wednesday between NATO and ministers from 
Israel and six Arab countries.  At the meeting, which 
dealt with terror, Israel was represented by Diaspora 
and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky. 
Ha'aretz quoted NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop as 
saying the alliance would agree to send peacekeepers to 
the Middle East only after an Israeli-Palestinian peace 
treaty is signed. 
 
Leading media reported that on Wednesday Sharon 
responded to allegations of immoral conduct within the 
IDF.  He told reporters: "IDF soldiers are the most 
moral in the world."  Jerusalem Post quoted supporters 
of Mustafa Barghouti, a candidate in the January 9 
Palestinian elections, as saying that he was beaten by 
soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint late Wednesday. 
Yediot reported that Foreign Ministry D-G Ron Prosor is 
coordinating PR efforts to improve the attitude of IDF 
soldiers towards the Palestinian population and members 
of international bodies seeking to cross roadblocks. 
The newspaper reported that, among other actions, the 
Foreign Ministry will brief officers serving at 
roadblocks, and present to them examples from the 
international media coverage about how unnecessary 
incidents in the territories harm Israel. 
 
Leading media cited figures released Wednesday by the 
IDF: at least 29 innocent Palestinians -- out of 148 
civilians -- have been killed during the course of the 
year; the IDF has killed 119 terrorists in the West 
Bank this year. 
 
Ha'aretz cited two new separate studies -- a joint 
research by a Hebrew University scholar and a Bethlehem 
University academic, and another one by a Hebrew 
University researcher -- that found that Israel's 
educational system is hardly better than the 
Palestinian one when it comes to inserting political 
messages in textbooks. 
 
Maariv (Ben Caspit) reported that next week at the 
Herzliya Conference Dr. Uzi Arad and two other 
strategic experts will propose a three-way solution to 
the Golan issue: Israel would evacuate about half of 
the Golan but retain its western part; in exchange, 
Jordan would transfer to Syria an area bordering the 
two countries, and receive a similar area of land from 
Israel in the Arava region. 
 
Leading media reported that the outgoing spokesman of 
the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Israel Tikochinsky, 
appeared on Egyptian TV this week for the first time. 
He was quoted as saying: "PM Sharon is serious in his 
intention... There is a golden opportunity for the 
Palestinians to prove that they are capable of acting 
responsibly." 
 
Ha'aretz quoted sources in the office of Hani al- 
Hassan, a member of Fatah's council who oversees the 
Fatah offices in the territories, as saying Wednesday 
that jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti is expected 
to announce "in the next 24 hours" that he will 
withdraw from the race for PA leadership if his 
political demands are met.  In contrast, Jerusalem Post 
cited a denial by Ahmed Ghanem, the newly appointed 
head of Barghouti's election campaign, that Barghouti 
had decided to withdraw from the elections. 
 
Leading media reported that Wednesday the private 
Israeli airline Israir filed an 8-million shekel (about 
USD 1.85 million) lawsuit against national carrier El 
Al for allegedly misusing its monopoly position on the 
Tel Aviv-New York route. 
 
Yediot reported that the Foreign Ministry will launch a 
campaign in the CIS to warn local women against being 
lured into a "fun job" in Israel, telling them they 
could become victims of trafficking in persons. 
 
Jerusalem Post cited a poll published Wednesday by the 
(Palestinian) Jerusalem Media and Communication Center: 
-59.3 percent of Palestinians feel optimistic regarding 
the future in general compared with 45.3 percent last 
June. 
-56.7 percent of Palestinians said they supported a two- 
state solution to the conflict compared with 44.5 last 
June. 
-51.8 percent said they were opposed to "military 
operations" against Israeli targets and consider them 
harmful to Palestinian interests, compared with 26.9 
percent last June.  Only 41.1 percent of the 
Palestinians believe that terrorist attacks should 
continue compared with 65.4 percent last June. 
 
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Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
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Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "A 
unity government is not generally advisable, and 
certainly not in a normal democracy, which needs an 
effective opposition as it needs air to breathe.  But 
in the face of the anomaly of the ongoing occupation, 
none of this matters." 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel must 
... stick to its original, unilateral disengagement 
plan, and implement it diligently, modestly and with a 
low profile, while holding security coordination on the 
ground with the Palestinians, no more." 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in Ha'aretz: "The 
disengagement is a moral and ideological victory -- in 
the Arab media, even in the 'moderate' Arab states, the 
festivities are already in full swing -- by terror over 
the Zionists, who are being forced to uproot 
settlements." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Mobilize For War" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(December 8): "In this war over the drawing of a new, 
reasonable, agreed-upon border for Israel, perhaps even 
more than in the Six-Day War when the first unity 
government was established, a stable emergency 
government is needed that will focus on the main goal 
and in which the political interests of its various 
elements will take a back seat to the shared goal of 
beginning to end the occupation.... Those who view the 
very establishment of a unity government as a serious 
democratic aberration should understand that there is 
no more serious aberration in Israel's democracy than 
its control over 1.5 million Palestinians to whom that 
democracy does not apply.  The values of Israeli 
democracy today barely reach the checkpoints, and 
beyond these checkpoints, acts are done in the name of 
democracy about which most of the public would rather 
not know.  A unity government is not generally 
advisable, and certainly not in a normal democracy, 
which needs an effective opposition as it needs air to 
breathe.  But in the face of the anomaly of the ongoing 
occupation, none of this matters.  The arguments 
against a unity government are valid for the moment 
after the withdrawal. But for the withdrawal itself, 
the public and its elected officials must mobilize as 
for a war and carry out the task with as many political 
forces as possible consolidated behind it." 
 
 
II.  "The Advantages of a Low Profile" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (December 8): 
"In the wake of Arafat's death and the changes in the 
Palestinian Authority, the Israeli disengagement plan 
is turning into a move that is no longer absolutely 
unilateral.... Israel's enemies in the Arab world can 
overlook a unilateral step taken by Israel, but not 
renewing the momentum of negotiations and recognizing 
Israel.  Elements such as Hamas, Iran or Islamic Jihad 
have no interest in the disengagement plan succeeding, 
and negotiations with the PA will only spur them to 
throw a wrench in the works to make it fail.   This is 
the paradox that Israel should have already learned to 
recognize from its past failed attempts: the 'much' is 
the enemy of the realistic 'little.'  Disengagement is 
a little, but it could develop into a lot, and relieve 
the Palestinian demographic density and lead to 
stability.  Anyone aspiring to much more than this is 
liable to lose even this little bit (the Americans in 
Iraq for example).  Israel has already understood this 
paradox in regard to Abu Mazen: leaving him alone for 
the next few months is the best help that Israel can 
give him..... Israel must therefore stick to its 
original, unilateral disengagement plan, and implement 
it diligently, modestly and with a low profile, while 
holding security coordination on the ground with the 
Palestinians, no more.  We must explain to our friends 
in the world that this disengagement will of itself 
create an opportunity for future negotiations, not the 
reverse.  The partying, the international conferences, 
the expectations and the symbols, if there is any need 
for them, can wait." 
 
III.  "Anti-National Unity" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in Ha'aretz (December 
8): "Those who warned against the Oslo disaster, and 
were right by any measure of the results, are now 
saying that the uprooting of settlements will lead to 
disaster.  This of course refers to the internal 
national-Zionist schism, but also -- and for this the 
Labor Party was sent packing -- to national security. 
The disengagement is a moral and ideological victory -- 
in the Arab media, even in the 'moderate' Arab states, 
the festivities are already in full swing -- by terror 
over the Zionists, who are being forced to uproot 
settlements.  The expected result, even if the Arabs 
offer a cease-fire for reorganizing, re-equipping and 
recharging their energies, is the continuation of the 
war of terror -- perhaps with even greater vigor.  The 
uprooting proves after all that when the Jews are 
badgered they capitulate, and if the badgering 
continues, they will continue to capitulate.  And the 
sea, if Allah wills it, is the limit." 
 
KURTZER