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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 002120 
 
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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In reaction to extensively covered remarks President 
Bush made yesterday on freezing construction in the 
settlements, Ha'aretz cited assurances senior Israeli 
officials issued yesterday that a controversial plan to 
expand Ma'aleh Adumim to reach Jerusalem, thereby 
preventing territorial contiguity for a putative 
Palestinian state, would not overshadow the Crawford, 
Texas summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and 
U.S. President George W. Bush next week.  Sharon aide 
Dov Weissglas, the prime minister's diplomatic adviser 
Shalom Turgeman, and Israel's Ambassador to Washington, 
Danny Ayalon, held two meetings with U.S. Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice yesterday where they discussed 
Sharon's upcoming trip.  Housing Minister Isaac Herzog, 
who discussed the plan with U.S. Deputy National 
Security Adviser Elliott Abrams in Washington this 
week, said the plan is still in its preliminary 
planning stages, and his office is not dealing with it. 
However, Herzog said it would be necessary to find a 
solution that will enable territorial contiguity 
between both Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem and the 
northern and southern sections of a Palestinian state. 
 
In a related development, Vice Prime Minister Shimon 
Peres left Tuesday for Washington where he is expected 
to ask for US financial assistance for development in 
the Negev and Galilee, rather than to pay for 
disengagement.  Israeli officials have been saying for 
months the US would be reluctant to give financial 
assistance to pay compensation to Gush Katif settlers 
because of its long-standing opposition to the 
settlement enterprise.  Peres is slated to meet with 
Vice President Dick Cheney, Rice and National Security 
Adviser Stephen Hadley. 
 
All leading media reported on the meeting between 
settler representatives and Prime Minister Ariel 
Sharon.  Ha'aretz reported that the PM met with a dozen 
settlers due to be evacuated, who expressed "cautious 
optimism" after the meeting.  The parties discussed 
settler demands that residents of the Katif Bloc be 
moved en bloc and more generous compensation.  Sharon 
told the settlers that he'd consider relocating the 
entire settlement bloc to the Nitzanim area, adding 
that he would do everything to advance such a plan in 
the event the settlers agreed on it.  The Nitzanim plan 
came under bitter attack yesterday from Green 
organizations.  Minister of Environment Shalom Simhon 
warned "against mortgaging the future of Israel's 
landscape just because of a difficult political 
problem." 
 
Ha'aretz and other media reported that the general 
staff is planning to evacuate settlements continuously, 
with the exception of the Sabbath.  The action is 
expected to begin in the last week of July and last a 
month, with a deadline set for Rosh Hashanah.  The IDF 
is expected to remain in the evacuated settlements for 
awhile, based on instructions it receives from the 
political echelon.  The withdrawal will simultaneously 
begin on two Gaza fronts -- the northern settlement 
blocs of Eli Sinai, Dugit, Nissanit and Netzarim, and 
the southern bloc of Kfar Darom, Gush Katif and Morag. 
Evacuation of the four settlements around Jenin - 
Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur and Homesh -- will begin later. 
While this evacuation is expected to take place during 
the same period as the Gaza withdrawal, much depends on 
the number of forces required for the mission. 
 
Ha'aretz carried a report on a briefing by a "senior 
IDF officer" according to which the IDF expects that 
the relative calm in the territories to last until 
after the disengagement this summer.  This calm will 
help pave the way for coordination between Israel and 
the Palestinian Authority over the evacuation, the 
officer said yesterday.  The officer, a member of the 
general staff, said there has been a noticeable drop 
lately in Hezbollah pressure on Palestinian groups to 
conduct terror attacks.  He said the calming trend 
serves the interests of most Palestinian factions.  He 
said it did not signify an overall change in the 
Lebanese organization's policy, but rather a reduction 
in the number of directives and amount of funding that 
has flowed into the hands of activists in the 
territories.  Syria is also seen pressing Hamas, 
Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian rejectionist 
organizations operating from Syrian territory to lower 
their profiles. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel and the United States are 
conducting large-scale missile defense exercises aimed 
at combining systems from both nations, military 
officials announced yesterday.  The tests include 
integrating the Israeli-made Arrow anti-ballistic 
missiles with the U.S. Patriot system to create a multi- 
layer air defense system.  This is the third time the 
two countries have conducted the joint exercise, which 
is held every two years. 
 
Major media cited a report by the Central Bureau of 
Statistics published yesterday that Israel's population 
will reach 9.3 million in 2025, an increase of 45 
percent compared to 6.4 million at the end of 2000,. 
Seventy percent, or 6.5 million, of Israel's residents 
in 2025 will be Jewish.   The Arab population is 
expected to reach 2.3 million, or 25 percent. 
 
All media reported that a resident of Shirat Hayam, a 
Gush Katif settlement, was shot yesterday in the 
stomach as he worked on the fence around the 
greenhouses at Morag in southern Gaza.  He was presumed 
to have been shot by a Palestinian sniper.  His 
condition was determined serious, but not critical. 
The Jerusalem Post said Palestinian Authority Chairman 
Mahmud Abbas on Monday vowed to put an end to 
lawlessness and anarchy and said he needed more time to 
reconstruct the PA security forces.  He said that if he 
failed to achieve his goals, he would not remain in his 
position even for one day.  Speaking to Palestinian 
journalists and editors in his Ramallah office, Abbas 
denied that he had ordered the expulsion of Fatah 
gunmen from the Mukata compound last week.  He also 
pledged to fight corruption in the PA and disclosed 
that he had established a special committee to look 
into the personal fortunes of top PA officials.  In 
response to reports that he was considering postponing 
his planned visit to the US, Abbas said no final date 
had been set for the trip. 
 
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Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
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Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot:  "When Prime 
Minister Sharon arrives at U.S. President Bush's farm, 
he will be received with a big American hug.  With one 
hand, Bush will give Sharon a hamburger in a roll, and 
with the other hand, he will present the payable 
commitment: no more construction in the territories, 
without tricks, without bulldozers on the ground." 
 
Defense commentator Reuven Pedhazur opined in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz:  "The nuclear 
policy-makers in Israel should exploit the possible 
opening of the doors of the nuclear club to India and 
Pakistan, and lobby the American administration and the 
international community also to be admitted to the 
club. The time has come to put an end to the fiction of 
nuclear ambiguity and to get on the bandwagon that the 
Americans are leading for India and Pakistan." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
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¶I. "Without Tricks" 
 
Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (April 6): 
"When Prime Minister Sharon arrives at U.S. President 
Bush's farm, he will be received with a big American 
hug.  With one hand, Bush will give Sharon a hamburger 
in a roll, and with the other hand, he will present a 
payable bill: no more construction in the territories, 
without tricks, without bulldozers on the ground.... 
The White House estimated that Sharon and his cabinet 
members are toying with the American kindness.  The 
Oval Office became even more enraged when the Bush 
bureau presented last year's Bush letter to justify the 
construction works.  A senior White House official said 
last week that the Israeli Government has actually 
pushed the President with his back against the wall. 
Furthermore, it cheated him.  Next week in Crawford, 
after a brief dialogue between the two ranchers, Bush 
will start talking business.  He will be friendly and 
speak gently, but will use no uncertain terms:  That 
sympathy is there does not mean there is no pressure." 
 
II.  "In the Footsteps of India and Pakistan" 
 
Defense commentator Reuven Pedhazur opined in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 6): "Israel 
should be paying very close attention to the nuclear 
developments in south Asia.  After seven years during 
which India and Pakistan were at least formally under a 
regime of sanctions -- imposed by the American 
government because of nuclear testing by the two 
countries -- the tide has turned.... President George 
¶W. Bush is in effect inviting India and Pakistan 
formally to join the nuclear club, which so far 
includes only the five permanent members of the United 
Nations Security Council. So, the very person who 
initiated an all-out war against the proliferation of 
weapons of mass destruction -- and even sent his army 
to conquer Iraq on the grounds that it was developing 
nuclear arms -- has in effect accepted the 
'nuclearization' of the subcontinent.... Israel should 
exploit these developments.... The nuclear policy- 
makers in Israel should exploit the possible opening of 
the doors of the nuclear club to India and Pakistan, 
and lobby the American administration and the 
international community also to be admitted to the 
club.  The time has come to put an end to the fiction 
of nuclear ambiguity and to get on the bandwagon that 
the Americans are leading for India and Pakistan." 
KURTZER