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 002189 
 
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: 
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Sharon Visit April 14 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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All media underscored PM Sharon's expected meeting with 
President Bush at the White House today.  Media like 
Yediot and Israel Radio say that Bush will reject the 
right of return for Palestinian refugees and state that 
eventually Israel will not return to its 1949 borders. 
However, Ha'aretz notes that there were still some last- 
minute gaps between what Sharon wants and what the Bush 
administration is ready to grant him less than 24 hours 
before the slated meeting.  Ha'aretz reported that the 
U.S. is only ready to offer vague language on the 
recognition of large blocs of settlements in the West 
Bank.  The newspaper quoted Israeli sources in Sharon's 
entourage as saying that the language agreed upon so 
far is "reasonable" and justified Sharon's trip, and 
that the gaps that remain are not significant. 
Jerusalem Post cited optimism expressed by senior 
officials traveling with Sharon that he will receive 
the commitments from Bush to pass the disengagement 
plan through the Likud referendum.  Hatzofe bannered: 
"Theater at the White House." 
 
This morning, Israel Radio reported that Secretary of 
State Colin Powell spoke in the past few hours with 
representatives of the Quartet, UN Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan and the foreign ministers of Germany and 
Russia.  He also spoke with the foreign minister of 
Jordan. The radio quoted Annan as telling reporters 
that he hoped that Israel's withdrawal would be within 
the framework of the road map and would not prevent the 
establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. 
 
All media reported that the Likud referendum over 
Sharon's disengagement was pushed back three days to 
May 2, because of the Final Four basketball tournament 
scheduled on April 29, which could have caused a low 
turnout at the vote.   Ha'aretz reported that, upon his 
return from Washington, Sharon will take part in two 
debates against Minister Uzi Landau, who is leading the 
campaign within the Likud against the disengagement 
plan. 
 
Leading media reported that Tuesday IDF troops and 
settlers scuffled on the outskirts of Kiryat Arba, near 
Hebron, as yet another attempt was made to evacuate the 
wildcat outpost of Hazon David.  Ha'aretz reported that 
the settler leaders are considering giving orders to 
evacuate willingly, or with minor resistance, outposts 
slated for dismantling in the next few days. 
 
Leading media reported that the police have recently 
discovered a cell of smugglers, who passed weapons from 
Egypt to terrorist groups in the Palestinian 
territories through the Negev.  Israeli Bedouins were 
among those arrested. 
 
Leading media reported that Tuesday clashes pitting 
Palestinian demonstrators and anti-fence activists 
against IDF soldiers continued at Biddu village, 
northwest of Jerusalem. 
 
All media reported that the Hungarian authorities have 
thwarted an apparent attempt by Arab terrorists to blow 
up a Holocaust Memorial Museum in Budapest which was 
due to be inaugurated by President Moshe Katsav on 
Thursday.  Initial, unsubstantiated reports asserted 
that the three suspects arrested -- a Hungarian dentist 
of Palestinian origin and two Syrian men -- had 
intended to assassinate Katsav at the museum's opening 
ceremony. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the defense establishment 
has decided to give up temporarily a shipment of Hummer 
jeeps from the U.S. so that they can be used in Iraq. 
The station quoted Israeli security sources as saying 
that they understand the United States' operational 
needs. 
 
Hatzofe cited the Spanish daily El Mundo as saying that 
the Islamic terrorists who carried out the March 11 
Madrid bombings had intended to blow up Jewish targets 
around Madrid. 
 
Jerusalem Post carried a full-page paid ad presented by 
the Committee to Return Pollard Home upon the occasion 
of Sharon's meeting with Bush. 
 
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Sharon Visit April 14: 
---------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The boundaries 
of [Clinton's] outline are precisely those that Sharon 
presented in his speech ... on the eve of his departure 
for Washington, as the guarantees that he wishes to 
obtain from Bush." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote from 
Washington in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The chances 
of the disengagement plan gaining political acceptance 
in Israel depend on the Americans, who depend on the 
UN." 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the 
lead editorial of Yediot Aharonot: "The 'lame' Bush can 
lend [Sharon] a shoulder, an open and generous hand, 
the support that Sharon so badly needs.  But the United 
States has been consistent since 1967." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"The question ... is not what to 'give' Sharon, but 
when will Bush return to his bold vision of refusing to 
give in to Arab radicalism." 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Such a bewildered Bush makes 
easy prey for Sharon, who possesses animal-like 
political senses." 
 
In an "open letter" to President Bush, conservative 
columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in Maariv: "Don't agree 
to serve as an extra in the Sharon family's survival 
show and don't let Ariel Sharon weaken Israel." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Irony of History" 
 
Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (April 14): "The 
'President Clinton outline' for an Israeli-Palestinian 
arrangement, the final product of the negotiations held 
during the term of the Barak government at the end of 
2000, is probably not a particularly well-liked term by 
President Bush or Prime Minister Sharon, each for his 
own reasons.  But the boundaries of the outline are 
precisely those that Sharon presented in his speech in 
Ma'aleh Adumim, on the eve of his departure for 
Washington, as the guarantees that he wishes to obtain 
from Bush on the shape of the final status arrangement 
that will follow in wake of the disengagement from the 
Gaza Strip.  The Barak government was the first and 
only of Israel's governments that obtained American 
presidential recognition of the principle of settlement 
blocs, thereby changing the traditional U.S. policy of 
viewing the settlements as an 'obstacle to peace,' to 
recognizing the settlements as a vital element in 
defining the map of peace between Israel and the 
Palestinians.  Bush and Sharon do not have to make an 
effort to reinvent the wheel.... If we, the negotiators 
on behalf of Barak's government, have a part, even the 
smallest part, in this copyright, we too are willing to 
waive it for the sake of the matter -- as long as the 
Likud government finally makes the transition from the 
heights of wordy ideology to the simple logic of what 
it is really possible to obtain in order to put an end 
to the bloody conflict and provide Israel with security 
within improved borders." 
II.  "Until the Last Moment" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote from 
Washington in popular, pluralist Maariv (April 14): 
"The main problem at the present time is the Americans' 
desperate need to harness the rest of the world, 
particularly the United Nations, to Sharon's plan.... 
The chances of the disengagement plan gaining political 
acceptance in Israel depend on the Americans, who 
depend on the UN.... Bush is prepared to turn a blind 
eye to the fence ... but he isn't prepared to walk the 
'extra step' that would allow Sharon to wave a clear 
declaration and to tell the Right: 'I told you so' 
while sending the Palestinians to hell.  The American 
approach isn't a uniform one -- the contrary is true. 
As time goes by, there is a growing difference between 
State Department officials, from Colin Powell on the 
left, and National Security Council hawks, from Elliott 
Abrams on the right -- count in the chums Cheney and 
Rumsfeld.... Tonight ... Bush and Sharon will try to 
square the circle ... to please Israel without angering 
the Arabs." 
 
III.  "Return in Peace" 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the 
lead editorial of Yediot Aharonot (April 14): 
"Undeniably, Sharon made an extremely large and 
dramatic step from his personal standpoint, when he 
chose to follow the path of disengagement.  The 'lame' 
Bush can lend him a shoulder, an open and generous 
hand, the support that Sharon so badly needs.  But the 
United States has been consistent since 1967, and if it 
budges in one direction or another, it is always an 
inch to here, an inch to there.  The U.S. is good with 
intricate phrasing, verbal acrobatics and ambiguities, 
but when it comes down to brass tacks, it remains the 
same U.S.: obstinate and uncompromising in its peace 
plans, which refuse to recognize the settlements and 
calling for an end to the 'occupation.'  Therefore, we 
must believe, hope and pray that the Prime Minister of 
Israel, the prime minister of us all, will bring 
something real and tangible from the president of the 
U.S. and return in peace (and with the very beginnings 
of the peace process) from his visit to the man who is, 
almost, master of the world." 
 
IV.  "Bush and Sharon" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(April 14): "The choice is not between the road map and 
Sharon's plan, but between disengagement and Bush's 
original plan: Palestinian regime change.... Sharon's 
plan does not challenge Arafat's immunity, and 
therefore postpones the day of reckoning with the de 
facto Palestinian terror state.  This is hardly how the 
road map was supposed to proceed, let alone Bush's 
original vision.  But all Sharon is really doing is 
showing Bush a mirror of how the Palestinians have been 
allowed to distort his vision.  The question then, is 
not what to 'give' Sharon, but when will Bush return to 
his bold vision of refusing to give in to Arab 
radicalism.  Such a return to boldness would begin by 
ruling out any Palestinian 'return' to Israel as a 
matter of principle, not just through a supposed 
Israeli veto over the number of Palestinian immigrants. 
It is a sad commentary on the sate of the West that, to 
begin to fight terrorism in earnest, Bush had to defy 
almost all of enlightened world opinion.  We hope that 
Bush rediscovers in himself such reservoirs of 
defiance, which are perhaps most necessary when it 
comes to the destroy-Israel corner of the global war. 
If he does, we are confident that he will not only make 
more decisive progress on the ground, but remind 
Americans why they had such confidence in his 
leadership." 
 
¶V.  "Bush's Last Chance" 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 14): "The memory of the 
thousands of votes that threatened [Bush's] election 
four years ago is a nightmare that now forces him to 
walk between the drops, that may even be drops of blood 
from our local conflict.  As such, Bush has been the 
most negligent president in handling the conflict -- a 
weak shadow of Carter, Bush Sr. and Clinton.  Such a 
bewildered Bush makes easy prey for Sharon, who 
possesses animal-like political senses.... This is a 
problematic time frame from a political perspective -- 
both in Washington and here.  But this is also the last 
chance of a mediocre American president to snatch 
success from the jaws of his failures.  Success would 
mean compelling Sharon, for a change, to carry out his 
current promise on an accelerated schedule, and to 
anchor it with a link to a wider accord.  If starting 
from tonight Bush misses his chance, Israel's well- 
wishers will not be able to forgive him." 
 
 
 
VI.  "Forward American Outpost" 
 
In an "open letter" to President Bush, conservative 
columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in Maariv (April 14): 
"Associating with losers isn't exactly what you need at 
this time.... Even if the suicidal move that Sharon is 
concocting for Israel isn't your chief concern, you had 
better caution yourself about him, in view of the 
lesson learned in Iraq.  It turns out that we know how 
to handle quagmires much better than you.... More 
importantly, as far as you are concerned, Israel now 
serves as an advanced outpost on the front against the 
hostile Islamic civilization, which is threatening to 
rise up against the entire West.... As George Keegan, 
former head of intelligence of the USAF, has said, 
Israel equals five CIAs.  But Israel will continue to 
be an asset only as long as it remains strong.  Loss of 
territory, of intelligence capabilities and mainly of 
its deterrent image, will once more turn that asset 
into a burden.  Thus, don't agree to serve as an extra 
in the Sharon family's survival show and don't let 
Ariel Sharon weaken Israel.  Explain to him in your 
tongue that one shouldn't surrender to terror or 
renounce strategic assets.  If not for us, at least for 
it for yourselves." 
 
LEBARON