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Viewing cable 04TELAVIV1721, ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
04TELAVIV1721 2004-03-22 12:05 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Tel Aviv
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 001721 
 
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.  Assassination of Hamas Leader Ahmed Yassin 
 
2.  Mideast 
 
3.  Iraq: Anniversary of War's Outbreak 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio, followed by the other electronic media, 
reported that at around 5:30 this morning, Hamas leader 
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, one of his sons, and some of his 
bodyguards and associates, were killed in an IAF 
helicopter missile hit.  The radio reported that PM 
Sharon personally commanded the action.  The station 
reported on a number of subsequent incidents in Israel, 
East Jerusalem and the territories.  Israel Radio cited 
a gamut of responses to the action in the political 
arena, ranging from satisfaction on the Right to 
reservations, even condemnations on the Left.  The 
station quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying 
that Yassin had been "the Palestinian bin Laden." 
Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi said on Israel Radio that 
Yassin was more moderate than the Hamas leaders 
destined to succeed him.  Some senior Labor Party 
members, such as Ephraim Sneh, expressed their 
satisfaction over the deed.  Like many commentators, 
some Shinui ministers expressed their concern that 
Yassin's assassination will start a new wave of 
terrorism.  Israel Radio and IDF Radio reported that 
the U.S. State Department is urging all sides to 
exercise restraint. 
 
Yediot quoted PM Sharon as saying Sunday at his meeting 
with the Likud cabinet ministers that he will bring his 
disengagement plan for cabinet approval immediately 
after his meeting with President Bush.  All media 
(banners in Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post) reported that 
at the meeting Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set 
terms for backing Sharon's disengagement plan: all of 
the points of entry to the Gaza Strip must remain in 
Israeli hands; there must be a public and detailed U.S. 
rejection of the Palestinian demand for the right of 
refugees to return to Israel; and, the necessity to 
complete the security fence before withdrawal from Gaza 
begins, including building the fence around the Ariel, 
Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim settlement blocs, as 
well as around Route 443 from Modi'in to Jerusalem. 
(Leading media note that the U.S. has objected to the 
route of the fence dipping deep into the West Bank.) 
Leading media cited the disappointment of cabinet 
ministers on the Right about Netanyahu's view.  Maariv 
quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying at the 
meeting that the evacuation from Gaza would increase 
terrorism originating in the West Bank.  Yediot 
reported that Sharon decided to give up holding a 
referendum on the disengagement plan when he realized 
that legislative action was needed for such a move. 
Sunday, Yediot quoted Jordanian King Abdullah II of 
Jordan as saying that Sharon promised him Jordan would 
not be harmed by the disengagement. 
 
Leading media reported that seven Palestinians, 
including a woman, were killed in an IDF operation 
Sunday.  Ha'aretz and other media reported that more 
than 30 Palestinians and Israeli demonstrators were 
injured Sunday in clashes with security forces during a 
protest against the separation fence near the village 
of Harbata, north of Modi'in.  During the weekend, all 
media reported that Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades 
claimed responsibility for the shooting of 20-year-old 
"settler" George Khoury, a Christian Arab, in 
Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood.  The Brigades 
later apologized for their "mistake."  The PA also 
offered its apologies -- its Chairman Yasser Arafat did 
so in a personal call to Khoury's family. 
 
Sunday, Yediot led with a warning by the GOI's anti- 
terror control center that Israelis should not travel 
to Sinai, Istanbul, and selected destinations in the 
Arab and third worlds during the Passover (early April) 
holidays. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Sunday Hamas welcomed the 
PA High Court's decision to unfreeze the bank accounts 
of nine charities suspected of funding terrorist groups 
in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Leading media reported that five no-confidence motions 
will be brought to Knesset voting today. 
 
Sunday, Yediot reported that the sanctions President 
Bush will take next week, under the Syrian 
Accountability Act, are: a ban of flights to the U.S. 
by Syrian airliners; a ban on oil-related investments 
in Syria; and, a restriction of Syrian-bound exports to 
food and medicines only.  Sunday, Jerusalem Post 
reported that Saturday Secretary of State Colin Powell 
reiterated calls made one day earlier by the State 
Department for an end to the Syrian occupation of 
Lebanon, so that Lebanon can enjoy "full sovereignty." 
 
Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that the GOI was advised that 
an announcement will be made during Egyptian President 
Hosni Mubarak's visit to Washington in mid-April that 
the U.S. intends to grant Egypt special aid and loan 
guarantees.  Egypt will receive a USD 300-million 
special aid grant plus USD 2 billion in loan guarantees 
for 18 months.  Cairo will be able to raise the funds 
in three payments on the American stock market. 
Ha'aretz quoted central region prosecutor Avraham 
Pachter as saying that the U.S. and Israeli 
intelligence services prevented a 1997 indictment of 
Eli Cohen, who, together with Avihai Weinstein, is 
currently under investigation (Maariv's lead story 
Sunday) on suspicion of selling arms to Iran, for 
selling armored personnel carrier motors and other 
equipment to Iran. 
 
Yediot and Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF is 
holding in Tel Aviv a first-of-its-kind international 
congress on low-intensity warfare, at which Israel is 
presenting warfare methods it is using in the 
territories. 
 
Sunday, Yediot reported that a U.S. court has indicted 
Leib Cohen, 70, from Brooklyn, on charges of illegally 
exporting weapons to Israel, including electronic 
equipment for Phantom aircraft and missile guidance 
systems. 
 
Leading media noted that the two leading runners in the 
presidential elections in El Salvador, which are taking 
place today, are of Palestinian origin. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
1.  Assassination of Hamas Leader Ahmed Yassin: 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach commented on Ynet, a 
website affiliated to mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot: "Ahmed Yassin died because he who 
lives by the sword shall die by the sword.  In his 
death, he bequeathed us nothing but more death." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Illogical Assassination" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach commented on Ynet, a 
website affiliated to mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (March 22): "Every Israeli, and 
presumably every Palestinian, knew that Israel would 
eventually assassinate Sheikh Yassin, and not only 
because once it tried to half-heartedly.   The accursed 
cycle of terror and revenge, action and retaliation, 
had to play itself out.  And since Yasser Arafat has 
already been expelled orally countless times, but 
Israel did not dare to carry it out, only the Hamas 
leader remained.  After so many threats, after so many 
provocations, it was bound to happen.   It was bound to 
happen because both sides to this conflict have long 
since ceased to calculate cause and effect, benefit and 
damage....  Yassin indeed 'oversaw' terror, as the 
current IDF newspeak describes it.  He gave 
instructions to try to increase or reduce activity at 
certain times.  But the great contractors of terror did 
not receive missions and targets from him, and do not 
need him to act.... None of their capability to 
dispatch murderers has been impaired.  This is known by 
every Israeli, including the IDF commanders and the 
political echelon that authorized this operation.  But 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long since ceased 
to be about leadership and logic, control and 
decisions, cause and effect.  This conflict is 
currently a tribal war, ruled by feelings of vengeance 
and inability to tolerate killing without reacting. 
Ahmed Yassin died because he who lives by the sword 
shall die by the sword.  In his death, he bequeathed us 
nothing but more death." 
 
------------ 
2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "It is hard not to 
conclude that Israel has fought the Palestinians for 
three-and-a-half years in order to return to the exact 
point at which the Intifada broke out." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"If anything, Sharon's plan is a reversion to a 
bastardization of Washington's historic land-for-peace 
concept -- land without peace." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
I.  "Back to Clinton Plan" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (March 21): 
"Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, told Bush's 
staff: '[America] has already agreed to the settlement 
blocs [to be retained by Israel].'  But the Israeli 
plan can also be seen in the negative: if Sharon wants 
American recognition for the annexation of 5 percent of 
the West Bank, he is implicitly conceding the other 95 
percent.  His office denies this, saying that this will 
merely constitute the starting point for future 
negotiations, during which Israel will demand 
additional parts of the West Bank. But why would the 
U.S. agree to that in the future?  It is hard not to 
conclude that Israel has fought the Palestinians for 
three-and-a-half years in order to return to the exact 
point at which the Intifada broke out.  How else does 
one explain that after all the terror attacks, deaths, 
recession, reoccupation of the West Bank, and Yasser 
Arafat's confinement, Israel is asking for a renewed 
American commitment to the Clinton plan?  From Sharon's 
perspective, American recognition of the settlement 
blocs is meant mainly to pacify the Likud ministers, 
who are demanding 'something in exchange for the 
withdrawal.'  Bush's support is also meant to show the 
plan's opponents in the Likud that the American 
president does not view it as 'rewarding terrorism' -- 
a criticism that its local critics have frequently 
hurled at the unilateral pullback.  But Weisglass's 
main job during his trip to Washington this week will 
be to obtain assurances from the U.S. that Israel will 
not be expected to negotiate with the Palestinians 
until they change their leadership and halt terror.  In 
this way, Israel will effectively receive the 'long- 
term interim agreement' that Sharon has always wanted." 
 
II.  "Necessary Conditions" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(March 22): "The U.S. ... should not think of itself as 
an innocent bystander on whose lap a sticky plan has 
been dumped, but as a player whose many previous plans 
have come home to roost.  If anything, Sharon's plan is 
a reversion to a bastardization of Washington's 
historic land-for-peace concept -- land without peace. 
The U.S. cannot complain that Israel has not tried.  We 
tried Oslo, Camp David, Taba, and then we dutifully 
pretended, to this day, that the Palestinian Authority 
should be given endless chances to fight terrorism, 
rather than provide an umbrella for it.  It is in this 
context that the U.S. is being faced with the demands 
of Netanyahu's rebellious band of Likud ministers: that 
the U.S. explicitly reject the Palestinians demand of 
'return' to Israel, recognize Israel's right to 
permanently retain settlement blocs, and to temporarily 
control all Palestinians borders.... If anything, the 
Likud ministers should have made a fourth demand: that 
Washington fully blame the Palestinian Authority for 
its failure to combat terrorism, and force new 
elections and drastic reforms by depriving the PA of 
the international funding that keeps it afloat. 
Israel's demands all go to quarantining a terrorist 
regime, not preventing one from becoming further 
entrenched.  What is missing most from both 
Washington's and Jerusalem's thinking is how to 
transform the nascent terrorist state on the other side 
of the fence." 
 
---------------------------------------- 
3.  Iraq: Anniversary of War's Outbreak: 
---------------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"The enemy ... was intent long ago on fighting the West 
in its entirety -- first by dividing it." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"One Year On" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(March 21): "In toppling Saddam Hussein's regime, the 
U.S. sent the message that dictators cannot forever 
scorn the civilized world with impunity.  This is 
what's called 'demonstration effect,' and the world is 
better off for it.  The U.S. has also set in motion a 
mechanism aimed at delivering the Arab world's first- 
ever democracy.... Ironically, just as the invasion's 
anniversary came, Europe has itself been handed a 9/11- 
type of terrorist attack.  Depressingly, many Europeans 
lost no time blaming their victimization on America, 
mentioning Spain's dispatch of several hundred troops 
to Iraq.  Such critics would do well to recall that 
when America was attacked it had yet to invade Iraq and 
Afghanistan.  The enemy, in other words, was intent 
long ago on fighting the West in its entirety -- first 
by dividing it.  Here, then, is the challenge facing us 
all as we approach the next phase in the war on 
terrorism." 
 
KURTZER