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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 004097 
 
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.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran 
 
¶3.  Guantanamo Detainees 
 
¶4.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media led with disengagement-related issues. 
Ha'aretz reported that the army will soon declare the 
Gaza Strip a closed military area, due to fears of 
further escalation by right-wing extremists holed up in 
the Gush Katif settlement bloc.  The media highlighted 
the blockage of roads throughout the country, which is 
scheduled to take place at 5:00 p.m. today.  This 
morning, anti-disengagement activists threw oil and 
nails at two points on the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem 
highway, sparking anger among mainstream opponents of 
the pullout plan, including the blockage organizers. 
The media reported that PM Sharon, Defense Minister 
Shaul Mofaz, and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz conveyed 
tough statements in response to pro-disengagement 
protests.  All media quoted former IDF chief of staff 
Moshe Ya'alon as saying, before a Knesset panel 
Tuesday, that he was briefed on the disengagement after 
it was reported in the media and after the U.S. had 
been consulted about it.  Yediot quoted Sharon 
associates as saying that Ya'alon is lying. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 
as saying at the annual "Caesarea Conference," which 
opened in Jerusalem Tuesday, that he does not intend to 
join any anti-disengagement initiative that would cause 
him to quit the government.  He was quoted as saying 
that the disengagement, which he said was a mistake 
because it will bring Hamas to the fore, will cost 
Israel at least 10 billion shekels (around USD 2.2 
billion in present terms) in three years.  Ha'aretz 
quoted Netanyahu as saying at the conference that 
Israel's growth is more important than that of Europe 
and even that of the U.S. 
 
All media reported that right-wing activists, who took 
over a Palestinian house on Monday near the beach in 
Gush Katif, clashed violently Tuesday with Palestinians 
living nearby.  The media reported that Cpl. Avi 
Bieber, the IDF soldier who on Sunday refused to remove 
settlers who were disrupting the demolition of 
abandoned houses in Gush Katif, was sentenced at a 
disciplinary hearing on Tuesday to 56 days in military 
jail -- the maximum possible sentence. 
Israel Radio reported that the U.S. and Israel have 
still not reached an agreement about security exports 
during talks in Washington. 
Yediot reported that the office of Vice Premier Shimon 
Peres, in coordination with the Finance Ministry and 
officials in the U.S. Embassy to Israel, has prepared 
the Israeli request for the aid package to strengthen 
the Negev and Galilee.  The newspaper says that Israel 
is asking for aid that will serve to relocate seven IDF 
bases to the Negev, rehabilitate seven Bedouin 
villages, build new industrial zones, tend to 
environmental issues, primarily Ramat Hovav, establish 
hi-tech and industrial parks, and develop 
infrastructure, roads and railways. 
 
Leading media reported that Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei 
announced on Tuesday that his cabinet is sitting in 
emergency sessions until the completion of Israel's 
pullout from Gaza.  Qurei also said he was ready to 
form a cabinet that would include Hamas.  Leading media 
reported that Hamas rejected the offer.  Hatzofe 
reported that Gen. Yosef Mishlav, the coordinator of 
GOI activities in the territories, told the Knesset's 
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that 
anarchy prevails in the PA, that Fatah is collapsing, 
but that there has been some improvement in the PA's 
economic conditions. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, 
head of the IDF's Intelligence Corps research division, 
as saying on Tuesday at a meeting of the Knesset Forum 
on the Middle East, that Iran is committed to building 
a nuclear bomb, which would help it spread the Islamic 
revolution across the Middle East. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Rabbi David Rosen, the American 
Jewish Committee's Jerusalem-based Director of 
Interreligious Affairs, as saying that top Israeli 
Jewish religious leaders have refused to attend the 
Qatar interreligious conference opening in Doha today 
because they were not allowed to be on a panel or 
listed as participants on the program.  Yediot writes 
that Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi and former Ashkenazi Chief 
Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau and Haifa Chief Rabbi 
Shear Yashuv Cohen were among those invited to the 
event. 
 
Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that the Moscow 
prosecution announced Tuesday that it has decided not 
to open an official investigation of a Russian 
translation of the Shulhan Arukh, a fundamental code of 
Jewish religious law, in reversal of its earlier 
position.  Vice PM Ehud Olmert welcomed the decision. 
 
Maariv reported that 200 people attacked, and almost 
killed, two Palestinians who intended to break into 
houses in Moshav Ahiezer, near Ben Gurion Airport, on 
Tuesday night. 
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel and former A/S Martin 
Indyk was quoted as saying, in an interview with 
Jerusalem Post, that Israel might find itself slapped 
with UN Security Council sanctions if it continues its 
pursuit of nuclear weapons. 
 
Yediot cited a "secret FBI document," according to 
which local police knew about the possibility that a 
terrorist attack could be carried out against El Al 
targets at Los Angeles' LAX airport on July 4, 2002, 
but that they failed to act. 
 
Yediot reported that A-G Menachem Mazuz instructed the 
police to start an investigation against MK Ahmed Tibi 
(Hadash-Ta'al), following his May trip to Lebanon, an 
"enemy country," which was not authorized by the 
Interior Ministry. 
 
 Jerusalem Post cited the results of a poll conducted 
by the University of Haifa: 
- 41.8 percent of Israeli Jews believe that no 
settlements should be dismantled as part of a peace 
agreement. 
- 20.4 percent of Israeli Jews said they were willing 
to block roads or highways to thwart a government 
policy they consider to be dangerous, while 46.9 
percent defined the settlers' protests as violent. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime 
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, 
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The true, tough 
test [of disengagement] lies in its security aspect -- 
mainly in the fate of the Philadelphi route." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Forsaken to Egypt's Mercy" 
 
Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime 
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, 
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv (June 29): "When he 
invented disengagement, Sharon apparently thought he 
would do away with some of the damage caused by the 
Oslo Accords.  The belief that the disengagement would 
produce diplomatic achievements has ended up unfounded. 
The true, tough test lies in its security aspect -- 
mainly in the fate of the Philadelphi route.... After 
the IDF's withdrawal [from Gaza], territorial 
continuity would be formed from the very heart of 
Egypt, via the north of the Sinai peninsula, until the 
outskirts of Ashkelon.  Tomorrow or the day after, 
another leader, whose attitude toward Israel will be 
different, will rule Egypt.  The Gaza Strip could soon 
turn into a sword directed at central Israel.... If 
Gush Katif is destroyed, the Philadelphi route would be 
the last obstacle before an invasion of the Land of 
Israel [Israel, including the territories.]" 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iran: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Israel must continue its diplomatic efforts to 
neutralize the Iranian threats. However it is important 
that Israel ... remain behind the scenes and leave 
center stage to the great powers." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Facing the Reality in Tehran" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (June 
29): "Last weekend's election of the conservative 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran is an 
important regional development.  His positions are 
liable to increase Iran's hostility toward Israel even 
further, but they also create an opportunity to 
increase pressure on the Iranian regime to change its 
behavior.... He cannot be presented as a moderate who 
needs to be encouraged and strengthened. Immediately 
after his election, he pledged to continue Iran's 
nuclear program, expressed contempt for the U.S., and 
said that Israel's existence was 'illegal.'  These 
positions could also have practical implications: for 
instance, accelerating the nuclear program or 
encouraging Hezbollah not to disarm.  Israel hopes, 
rightly, that such statements will help expose the true 
face and intentions of the Iranian regime and thereby 
help to drum up international support against it.  It 
will be easier to muster support against the extremist 
rulers in the absence of Khatami's moderate fig leaf. 
European diplomats say that it is necessary to wait and 
see how Ahmadinejad behaves, and that overly harsh 
sanctions would only push Iran into irresponsible 
behavior.  Moreover, it will be difficult to impose 
economic sanctions on such a large oil exporter when 
global oil prices are so high.  But Israel must 
continue its diplomatic efforts to neutralize the 
Iranian threats. However it is important that Israel 
not position itself at the front: it should remain 
behind the scenes and leave center stage to the great 
powers." 
¶3.  Guantanamo Detainees: 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Mark Steyn wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "[Guantanamo] is the first gulag in 
history where the torture victims put on weight." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Steady On, Gitmo Is Not Belsen" 
 
Columnist Mark Steyn wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (June 29): "The world divides into those 
who feel the atrocities at Gitmo 'must have been done 
by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - 
- Pol Pot or others' (in the widely quoted words of 
[Democratic] Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois), and the 
rest of us, for whom the more we hear the specifics of 
the 'atrocities' the funnier they are.... Where the 
anti-Gitmo crowd went wrong was in expanding its 
objections from the legal status of the prisoners to 
the treatment they're receiving.  By any comparison -- 
i.e. not just with Hitler -- they're getting better 
than they deserve.  It's the first gulag in history 
where the torture victims put on weight.... The 
Democrats flopped in 2002 and 2004 because they were 
seen as incoherent on national security issues. 
Explicitly branding themselves as the "terrorists' 
rights" party is unlikely to improve their chances for 
2006." 
 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶4.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in an 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "Now, in Washington, the Americans are 
drafting the terms of surrender for the Israelis.... 
Our dependence on America is total." 
Veteran columnist Yosef Goell wrote in conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "Over the past six decades 
Israel ... has attracted more love and support from 
Americans than any other foreign nation.... [But] today 
Israel is loosely identified with Bush Junior and his 
administration, broadly hated on campuses." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Mouse that Roared" 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in an 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (June 29): "An [Israeli] security delegation 
is presently in the U.S. with the aim of ending the 
dispute between the great United States and small 
Israel with regard to arms sales.  The Americans were 
angry and set us straight, and now, in Washington, the 
Americans are drafting the terms of surrender for the 
Israelis.  From now on, we will tell Uncle Sam all the 
secrets of our defense wares.  We will report every 
 
SIPDIS 
bolt sold to the Galapagos Islands, from now on all the 
safes are cracked, all the secrets are open, and if the 
uncle from the Pentagon shakes an admonishing finger at 
us, we will fold and plead: forgive us, expiate our 
sins.  That is what happens when a country like Israel 
is dependent on a world power like the United States. 
They are capable of grounding our entire Air Force 
within a short period of time, denying us 80 percent of 
the bread we eat, forcing us to the floor with our 
hands in the air.  We are a protectorate, and the 
Defense Ministry will no longer be able to run wild at 
the expense of the American defense industries.  That 
is what every prime minister who enters office ... is 
beginning to understand.  Our dependence on America is 
total.  We, at most, are a mouse that is trying to 
roar." 
 
II.  "A Many-Splendored Thing" 
 
Veteran columnist Yosef Goell wrote in conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (June 29): "We have to learn 
to neutralize our nagging Jewish penchant for seeking 
love from all and sundry.  It's a sickness.  The 
overwhelming majority of people in the world don't 
'love' other people; they have more important targets 
for their emotions.  I would say that over the past six 
decades Israel has been an exception to that rule, 
especially in the U.S., and she has attracted more love 
and support from Americans than any other foreign 
nation.  The flip side has been that the Israel- 
Palestinian conflict has also come in for greater 
emotional involvement, both positive and negative, than 
all the other, bloodier, conflicts raging throughout 
the world at the same time.  In 1967, the anti-Israel 
positions on graduate campuses were strongly influenced 
by the Vietnam War and by Israel's identification with 
the hated Johnson administration.  Today Israel is 
loosely identified with Bush Junior and his 
administration, broadly hated on campuses." 
 
KURTZER