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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TEL AVIV 001384 
 
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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All media reported that the security forces have 
imposed total closure on the territories until Tuesday. 
This is the first time such a measure has been taken 
for the holiday of Purim. 
 
Maariv quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying in 
recent defense establishment meetings that Israel will 
withdraw from the Gaza Strip only after the U.S. 
presidential elections.  Leading media reported that 
Thursday PM Sharon resumed his efforts to persuade 
recalcitrant right-wing ministers to accept his 
unilateral disengagement plan.  He met with Education 
Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) and Transportation 
Minister Avigdor Lieberman (National Union).  Ha'aretz 
reported that next week the Yesha Council of Jewish 
Settlers in the Territories will intensify its protests 
against Sharon's plan. 
 
Maariv and Globes published new revelations regarding 
Elchanan Tenenbaum.  Maariv reported that Kayes Obeid, 
the Israeli Arab and Hezbollah agent who set up 
Tenenbaum's Dubai trip was a Shin Bet agent prior to 
Tenenbaum's abduction.  Sharon's son Gilad, Tenenbaum 
and Shimon Cohen, the father of Tenenbaum's estranged 
wife were involved in a 1992 land deal.  Maariv asserts 
that a senior associate of Sharon explicitly threatened 
its reporters investigating the affair.  Globes 
reported that the friendship between Sharon and Shimon 
Cohen went on until at least March 1991.  Maariv cited 
the response of Sharon's bureau that his family is not 
linked to the land deal and that Gilad does not know 
Tenenbaum. 
-Leading media reported that Thursday Knesset members 
on the Right expressed outrage at reports that Sharon 
associates blamed the Right for Wednesday's revelations 
in Maariv. 
-All media reported that Tenenbaum is now being 
investigated under tougher conditions, as crime, not 
security, becomes the focus of the probe.  Ha'aretz 
reported that the police will give him another 
polygraph test, after they have finished interrogating 
him about alleged criminal offenses. 
-Thursday, the High Court of Justice declined to debate 
the plea bargain reached between the state and 
Tenenbaum. 
 
All media (banners in Ha'aretz and Hatzofe) reported 
that Eliran Cohen, a 22-year-old Jew from Haifa, was 
arrested on suspicion of having carried out nine 
attacks against Arabs in the Haifa area, including a 
bombing attempt of the car of Hadash Knesset Member 
Issam Makhoul in October 2003.  Eliran's father, Meir 
Cohen, is suspected of having provided him with weapons 
and explosives.  Israel Radio reported that a 22-year- 
old IDF soldier, who is a resident of Ashdod, was 
arrested last night on suspicion of involvement in the 
case.  Makhoul was quoted as saying that Jewish 
terrorism, which reached its peak with the 
assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, is 
"alive and kicking." 
Ha'aretz reported that the IDF recently conducted a 
simulation "war game" about what could happen the day 
after PA Chairman Yasser Arafat passes away.  The 
exercise examined several scenarios and how Arafat's 
death -- by natural causes -- would influence the 
domestic situation in the PA and its relations. 
Security sources told Ha'aretz that the exercise was 
not a result of any new information about the state of 
Arafat's health. 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Thursday the 
High Court of Justice postponed the evacuation of six 
illegal outposts by 10 more days. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a planned new IDF committee will 
apply the same criteria to both genders seeking army 
deferrals because of pacifism. 
 
Leading media reported that next week FM Silvan Shalom 
will hold talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni 
Mubarak and Egyptian FM Ahmed Maher.  Yediot reported 
that Shalom will propose a deal in which Azzam Azzam, 
an Israeli jailed for spying in Egypt, would be 
released.  This will be Shalom's first visit to Egypt. 
 
All media reported that Thursday at a press conference 
held at the Prime Minister's Office, Internal Security 
Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced the replacement of 
the current security system for public transportation, 
which he said had failed, with a new USD 7-million 
plan, sponsored by the Chicago-based International 
Fellowship of Christians and Jews.  The group donated 
an initial sum of USD 1 million to Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Thursday the High Court of 
Justice rejected a petition filed against the IDF's 
plan to demolish 20 Palestinian houses in Hebron, but 
decided to accept the army's revised request to raze 
only two of the houses. 
 
Ha'aretz (Zvi Bar'el) presented negative and positive 
views of intellectuals and politicians from various 
Arab countries regarding the Greater Middle East 
Initiative. 
Jerusalem Post reported that Victor Marrero, a federal 
judge in New York, "shot down the PA's legal defense 
strategy" in a USD 500 million terrorism lawsuit, 
declaring that the Palestinian claim of sovereign 
immunity does not hold up in U.S. courts. 
Noted American Middle East expert Professor Bernard 
Lewis predicted, in an interview with Yediot, that a 
revolution will take place in Iran in two to three 
years. 
Ha'aretz reported on a Health Ministry decision, in 
principle, to approve cloning human embryos for 
scientific research and producing embryonic stem cells. 
 
Yediot published the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf 
Institute) poll: 
-66 percent of Israelis do not trust the government. 
-59 percent of respondents believed that Sharon's 
motives for having Tenenbaum freed were untainted. 
-53 percent believe that Sharon should reign because of 
the affairs currently under police investigation. 
-"If Sharon quits, whom would you like to replace him 
as PM?"  Shaul Mofaz: 30 percent (41 percent among 
Likud voters); Binyamin Netanyahu: 26 percent (37 
percent among Likud voters); Ehud Olmert and Silvan 
Shalom: 8 percent each; none of the proposed choices: 
24 percent (3 percent of Likud voters). 
 
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Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
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Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe: "Sharon wouldn't be able 
to commit himself to an evacuation from the Gaza Strip, 
while Bush would find it hard to provide him with 
financial grants before the elections." 
 
Extreme right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote on 
page one of conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: 
"What is happening is no less than a revolution, albeit 
a tentative one, in the way the U.S. views its Middle 
East policy." 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: 
"The Americans, and the other forces that are aiding 
them in Iraq, have also defined themselves as an army 
of occupation, but they repeatedly stress that this is 
to last for only a relatively short time.  The IDF has 
had this reality forced upon it for decades and there 
are no real signs of a substantial change in the 
foreseeable future." 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Where Is He Running To?" 
 
Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe (March 5): "In 
Washington, people are aware of the disputes taking 
place in Jerusalem around Sharon's unilateral 
evacuation plan from Gaza.  Not everyone [in 
Washington] is prepared to accept his belief that he 
can implement his plan.  Many people are expecting a 
government crisis.  President Bush's close advisers ... 
are suggesting that the confrontations concerning the 
Gaza Strip be postponed until after the presidential 
elections.  Some have even proposed that Sharon's visit 
be put off until after the elections.  Bush considers 
himself committed to meeting Sharon in the near future. 
Some people say that it would happen no later than 
early April, perhaps even earlier.  They say that the 
meeting would be purely formal, without real 
commitments.  Sharon wouldn't be able to commit himself 
to an evacuation from the Gaza Strip, while Bush would 
find it hard to provide him with financial grants 
before the elections.  Both sides understand each other 
well, say Israeli government and Capitol Hill 
officials.  Sharon isn't prepared to admit at this 
juncture that his Washington visit will be purely 
formal.  He is still pinning great hopes on it." 
 
II.  "Lessons of the Latest Debacle" 
 
Extreme right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote on 
page one of conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
(March 5): "What is happening is no less than a 
revolution, albeit a tentative one, in the way the U.S. 
views its Middle East policy.  If in the past, 
consecutive U.S. administrations have swallowed the 
Arab propaganda line that no reforms of their 
dictatorships were possible until the Israeli- 
Palestinian conflict was resolved, today the Bush 
administration is rejecting this lie.  Speaking in 
Cairo this week, Undersecretary of State Mark Grossman 
said, 'The effort for reform in Arab countries does not 
have to wait until there is a full peace.'  And what is 
Israel doing in the face of this welcome and courageous 
American policy?  Our government is rejecting it, by 
deed if not by word.  By courting Mubarak while he 
leads the charge against the U.S. initiative to bring 
freedom to the Arab world we are strengthening Mubarak 
and his authoritarian government that has made Egypt 
the epicenter of Arab anti-Semitism and the gravest 
conventional threat to Israeli security.... And where 
is the Israeli media?  Aside from laconic reports of 
the American initiative, buried in the back pages of 
the newspapers and at the tail ends of news broadcasts, 
never to be repeated, there has been no media 
discussion of the strategic ramifications of the 
American initiative." 
III.  "What Makes the IDF Unique" 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(March 5): "The IDF is a disciplined army that is under 
democratic civilian authority and at this time, this 
democracy, even if it wanted to, cannot free itself of 
the control over another people.  This, more than 
anything else, is what makes the IDF unique today. 
This is a negative distinction that the world is 
witnessing.  It is inconceivable that this is not 
affecting the IDF and that it will not ultimately erode 
its morality.  The Americans, and the other forces that 
are aiding them in Iraq, have also defined themselves 
as an army of occupation, but they repeatedly stress 
that this is to last for only a relatively short time. 
The IDF has had this reality forced upon it for decades 
and there are no real signs of a substantial change in 
the foreseeable future." 
 
KURTZER