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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 001940 
 
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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¶1.  Gaza Withdrawal Plan 
 
¶2.  Greater Middle East Initiative 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that last night PM Sharon promised 
at the Likud convention that registered Likud members 
would get to vote on his Gaza disengagement plan. 
Ha'aretz says that Sharon's pledge "came under a hail 
of scathing criticism from the right as well as the 
left."  Yediot published the results of a Mina Zemach 
(Dahaf) poll taken last night among register Likud 
members:  51 percent support disengagement; 36 percent 
are opposed to it.  A concurrent Maariv poll finds 51 
percent in support of Sharon's plan, 39 percent opposed 
to it, while 10 percent are undecided. 
 
Israel Radio quoted GOI sources in Jerusalem as saying 
that following Sharon's talks in Washington, the U.S. 
will recognize Israel's security needs, but not 
settlement blocs in the West Bank.  Yediot filed a 
similar report based on "the draft" of an Israeli- 
American document.  Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli 
diplomatic officials as saying that Israel's request 
that the U.S. formally reject the Palestinian demand 
for refugee repatriation in exchange for disengagement 
is likely to be finessed by a U.S. declaration for two 
states -- one for Jews, and one for Palestinians. 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel has asked the U.S. to 
provide official endorsement of the separation fence 
route, as part of the "benefits basket" which is to be 
provided in exchange for the implementation of the 
disengagement plan.  The newspaper reported that this 
request was submitted as part of an attempt to satisfy 
conditions upon which Finance Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu has predicated his support for the separation 
plan.  Ha'aretz further reported that Thursday the 
three U.S. envoys -- William Burns, Elliott Abrams and 
Steve Hadley -- will finalize details of the compromise 
with Sharon.  The newspaper reported that the USG is no 
longer lobbying for changes in the barrier's planned 
route.  Ha'aretz reported that the compromise proposal 
was submitted by Defense Ministry D-G Amos Yaron in 
discussions with the U.S. envoys. 
 
Jerusalem Post featured the story of a 15-year-old 
Palestinian, one of four Nablus boys to whom Islamic 
Jihad promised heaven in exchange for martyrdom as 
suicide bombers. 
 
Leading media reported that Tuesday and today hundreds 
of members of the security forces clashed with settlers 
during the evacuation the Hazon settler outpost in the 
vicinity of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron.  IDF Radio and 
Israel Radio reported that this morning six policemen 
were injured by stones thrown during disturbances that 
broke out after members of the Ateret Kohanim movement 
entered homes they had purchased in the Palestinian 
village of Silwan (East Jerusalem). 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Tuesday cabinet minister 
Natan Sharansky wrote to the BBC that it employs a 
"gross double standard to the Jewish state" that smacks 
of anti-Semitism.  He was reacting to its coverage of 
the IDF's arrest of a 16-year-old would-be suicide 
bomber last week, which the British corporation 
portrayed as "Israel's cynical manipulation of a 
Palestinian youngster for propaganda purposes." 
 
All media, except the ultra-Orthodox newspapers, 
reported that the Euroleague basketball championship 
will be played in Israel as planned next month despite 
security concerns.  The media had reported on 
significant protests in Israel about the possibility 
that the games could be moved to Spain. 
 
Ha'aretz cited a Bank of Israel report released 
Tuesday, according to which the Intifada has cost 
Israel between 31 billion shekels (around USD 6.9 
billion) and 40 billion shekels (around USD 8.85 
billion) so far, but not including defense costs.  The 
amount comes to between 6.2 percent and 8 percent of 
the GDP.  Maariv also cited the document. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that, in response to a petition 
signed last week by Palestinian intellectuals and 
activists calling for a peaceful intifada, 81 
Palestinians issued a statement on Tuesday urging the 
Palestinians to continue the fight against Israel until 
they achieve all their rights. 
 
All media reported that Tuesday the Haifa District 
Court charged Jewish terror suspect Eliran Golan with 
the attempted murder of Arab Knesset Member Issam 
Makhoul and at least three other people in the Haifa 
area.  The court also charged Alex Rabinovitch with 
assistance in attempted murder, conspiracy and 
supplying Golan with bomb-making equipment.  However, 
Golan denied that Rabinovitch had abetted him. 
 
All media reported that Tuesday thousands of people 
took part in Land Day protests in the Israeli Arab 
sector, which came to pass without incidents. 
 
Jerusalem Post quotes former Sharon adviser David 
Spector as saying that audio tapes, allegedly in the 
possession of Sharon's son Gilad, will incriminate his 
father and himself, and will strengthen the draft 
indictment against them once they are handed over to 
investigators, as demanded by the High Court of 
Justice. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that, following the assassination of 
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the hosts of a scientific 
conference on desert dunes, which was supposed to be 
held in Layoun, Morocco, in ten days asked the three 
would-be Israeli participants not to come to the event. 
The European organizers of the conference and its 
French financial sponsors subsequently canceled it, 
citing their objection to discrimination. 
 
Ha'aretz reported on a poll conducted by the 
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research just 
before the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin: 
-53 percent of Palestinians support terrorist attacks 
against Israeli civilians (up from 48 percent last 
December). 
-27 percent support Hamas; 20 percent support Fatah; 40 
percent refused to state a preference between the two 
movements. 
-"Are you in favor of Hamas conducting negotiations 
with Israel?"  54 percent are opposed, while 41 percent 
support the idea. 
 
------------------------- 
¶1.  Gaza Withdrawal Plan: 
------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the 
lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "From the moment the United States enters the 
picture, accepts the plan and supports it, it is also 
an American plan." 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote on 
page one of independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Sharon 
... will have to resign if his own party members reject 
his diplomatic initiative." 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of 
Yediot Aharonot: "Sharon is presently at a low.  The 
comfort is that he can only rise from here." 
 
Conservative columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "It is extremely doubtful whether 
there is any point in Sharon traveling as a half-lame 
duck to meet the president of the U.S., in order to 
present a plan to him that could be erased from the 
public agenda within a few weeks along with its 
originator." 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "We Will Meet on the Barricades" 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the 
lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (March 31): "Commentators will say: Sharon 
believes that the wishes of the registered Likud 
members are identical to the wishes of the general 
population of voters in Israel, who will support the 
disengagement plan en masse, according to public 
opinion polls.  At the same time, the 3,000 Central 
Committee members are more militant and many of them 
are opposed to the disengagement plan.  In other words, 
the Likud party members will carry out a 'bypass 
operation' on the Central Committee members.   Sharon 
will then win and implement his plan.  And if the Likud 
voters reject the plan at the polls?   Then too, the 
plan will be implemented.  Because from the moment the 
United States enters the picture, accepts the plan and 
supports it, it is also an American plan.  In that 
case, no Israeli leader will dare stand up in the Oval 
Office and say: 'I am sorry, my constituency did not 
agree.'  There will not be such a leader, because 
anyone who has ever reached the Prime Minister's Office 
and is familiar with the situation -- Israel's complete 
dependency on the U.S. from the standpoints of defense, 
foreign affairs and economic affairs -- knows that the 
Israeli leader has (almost) never been born who said 
'no' to America, and the last one who behaved this way, 
Yitzhak Shamir, was sent into early retirement by the 
Americans with the support of the Israelis." 
 
II.  "Conceived in Sin" 
 
Political parties correspondent Yossi Verter wrote on 
page one of independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (March 
31): "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to hold a 
vote among Likud members about his separation plan was 
reached in the usual faltering, belated manner.  This 
time, however, there was a new twist.  This time, 
Sharon's initiative was conceived in sin.... There were 
no counter-proposals, nor was there even an agenda. 
Senior Likud politicians who sat on the dais were 
stunned.  'I thought I knew a thing or two about 
politics,' said Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin last 
night. 'But there's always something new to be 
learned'.... The timetable for the referendum dovetails 
with the diplomatic and legal schedules.... Should 
Sharon dodge an indictment, and win majority support 
among Likud members for his separation plan, the 
pullout proposal would go to the government and Knesset 
for approval, and a unity government will come into 
existence.  But should [Attorney General Menachem] 
Mazuz decide to indict Sharon, everything would be 
frozen.  The same would happen if Sharon lost in the 
Likud poll -- he will have to resign if his own party 
members reject his diplomatic initiative." 
 
III.  "The Arbel Effect" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote on page one of 
Yediot Aharonot (March 31): "Sharon is a prime minister 
under duress.  Aside from targeted killings, everything 
he has done on the Palestinian issue was done against 
his will: that is the way he built the fence, supported 
the road map and arrived at the withdrawal from Gaza. 
He knew he would have to get past President Bush, the 
Knesset, the cabinet, and perhaps the general 
electorate as well.  He scorned the institutions of his 
party.  But today's Sharon is not the man he used to 
be.  That is the result of the Edna Arbel effect.  [NB: 
Arbel is the country's State Attorney, who has 
recommended that Sharon be indicted.]  He can pass 
political plans, with a tailwind from the United 
States, but the ability to scorn has been taken from 
him.... Sharon is presently at a low.  The comfort is 
that he can only rise from here.  A sample scenario: he 
travels to the U.S., does not receive many commitments 
... but his encouraging photographs with the president, 
in rolled-up sleeves, in shirts open at the neck, in 
the rural landscape of Camp David, gladden the nation. 
Then comes a sweeping victory in the referendum, 
followed by the case being closed, accompanied by 
petitions to the High Court of Justice and a 
continuation of investigations in the Cyril Kern 
[corruption] affair, but is still a dynamic of victory. 
The Likud hears the voice of the people and remains 
united.  With a little luck, the right wing ministers 
are also persuaded to stay (and if not, there is always 
Shimon Peres)." 
 
IV.  "Sharon's Time Is Up" 
 
Conservative columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (March 31): "It is extremely doubtful 
whether there is any point in Sharon traveling as a 
half-lame duck to meet the president of the U.S., in 
order to present a plan to him that could be erased 
from the public agenda within a few weeks along with 
its originator.  What is clear beyond a doubt is that 
even if he goes to Washington and receives Bush's 
blessing, Sharon will not be able to bring his plan 
before the cabinet for a vote before [Attorney General 
Menachem] Mazuz has spoken his piece.  He is now the 
boss who determines the schedule, and in fact the 
future of the diplomatic initiatives in the region.  He 
and not Sharon, he and not Bush.... There is no longer 
confidence [among the Israeli public] in the man 
himself, as the polls show, apparently due to these 
[alleged corruption] affairs.... In its present 
situation, Israel needs a prime minister with a clean 
head and even cleaner hands." 
----------------------------------- 
¶2.  Greater Middle East Initiative: 
----------------------------------- 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"The more forcefully the Bush administration advocates 
[reforms in the Arab world], the more it will put 
repressive Arab regimes on the defensive, and the more 
courage it will give to the best elements in Arab 
society." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Arab Reform Now" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(March 31): "It strikes us [The Jerusalem Post] as 
strange, to say the least, that the establishment of an 
effective and representative legislature in, say, 
Yemen, hinges on developments in Israel.  It is said 
that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provides Arab 
regimes with an alibi not to reform.  Perhaps, but that 
would seem to suggest an interest among Arab despots in 
perpetuating the conflict, not resolving it.  At any 
rate, why should the political freedoms of Arab peoples 
be captive to what arch-enemy Israel does or does not 
do?.... Among the conclusions the Bush administration 
drew from September 11 was that the risks of inaction 
outweighed the risks of action; that advocating 
stability above freedom in the Middle East was 
counterproductive, hypocritical, and unworthy of the 
United States; and that reforming the Arab world was a 
sine qua non for defeating terrorism.  We believe these 
conclusions are correct.  The more forcefully the Bush 
administration advocates them, the more it will put 
repressive Arab regimes on the defensive, and the more 
courage it will give to the best elements in Arab 
society.  As policy goes, this may be simplistic, but 
it's the only approach that's likely to succeed." 
 
KURTZER