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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 002259 
 
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.  Release of Mordechai Vanunu 
 
¶3.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The major Hebrew media bannered the release of nuclear 
whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, which will take place 
tomorrow.  Several media reported that Monday Interior 
Minister Avraham Poraz signed an injunction forbidding 
him to leave the country for one year.  Ha'aretz 
reported that Thomas Graham, former U.S. president Bill 
Clinton's special envoy to the Nuclear Non- 
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) talks, and Avner Cohen, 
author of "Israel and the Bomb," which details the 
country's nuclear capabilities, published an article in 
the May-June issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic 
Scientists, which calls on Israel to give up its 
nuclear ambiguity policy and join the NPT. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the UN Security Council is 
convening an emergency session to discuss the 
assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.  The 
station reported that the Palestinian representative 
blamed the U.S. for emboldening Israel to assassinate 
Rantisi by vetoing a Security Council resolution 
condemning last month's "extrajudicial execution" of 
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.  The PLO representative also 
linked the assassination with the letters exchanged 
between President Bush and PM Sharon, which he said 
contravened international law.  The radio notes that 
the U.S. is expected to veto the resolution. 
 
All media reported that Monday FM Silvan Shalom 
expressed his support for Sharon's disengagement plan. 
Yet, Ha'aretz cited the concern of Sharon's advisers, 
led by his son, Knesset Member Omri Sharon, that Sharon 
will not win a decisive victory in the May 2 referendum 
of Likud rank-and-file voters.  The newspaper also 
reported that Sharon is intensifying efforts to gain 
the Russian vote in the party. 
 
The media reported that eight Israeli civilians were 
wounded, one seriously, by Qassam rocket fire Monday at 
the settlement of Nissanit in the Gaza Strip.  An IDF 
soldier was wounded in clashes south of Nablus, while 
an unarmed Palestinian was killed by IDF gunfire south 
of Hebron.  Maariv cited the suspicions of the defense 
establishment that Sunday's shooting incident in the 
Galilee, in which border police killed an Israeli Arab, 
could be linked to Hizbullah activity in Israel. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the PA is considering 
canceling the post of Palestinian PM and returning all 
attributes of authority to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. 
Jerusalem Post reported that Arafat phoned several 
senior Hamas officials in the last 24 hours in an 
attempt to persuade them to resume inter-Palestinian 
talks about the establishment of a joint leadership. 
Ha'aretz reported that a memorandum of understanding 
issued by the leadership of Palestinian prisoners in 
Israel under the patronage of jailed Tanzim leader 
Marwan Barghouti calls for a total end to armed 
struggle emanating from Gaza if a series of conditions 
are met.  The conditions detailed in the document, or 
"proposal," sent to Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, 
includes "complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, 
including the "Philadelphi Route" on the Israeli- 
Egyptian border; full Palestinian sovereignty over the 
Strip, including the sea and air ports; and the release 
from Israeli prisons of all Gaza residents.  In 
exchange for fulfilling the conditions, "the armed 
forces in Gaza will be obligated not to conduct any 
armed actions from Gaza," according to the document. 
 
All media reported that Monday the High Court of 
Justice handed down stiffer sentences than a district 
court for Yitzhak Pas and Matityahu Shvu, two members 
of the militant group of settlers known as the "Bat 
Ayin underground." 
 
Leading media reported that Monday Bush appointed John 
Negroponte, currently the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, 
Ambassador to Iraq.  As he commented on American and 
British efforts to turn Iraq into a stable and 
prosperous democracy, Michael Ancram, the British 
Conservative Party's "shadow foreign secretary," was 
quoted as saying in an interview with Ha'aretz: 
"Attempts to impose Western models in the Middle East 
could lead to unwanted, even much worse consequences." 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio quoted Jewish officials as 
saying in New York Monday that Iraqi Jews who fled 
their homeland in the 1950s will receive from the 
French insurance company AXA compensation for the 
insurance policies they purchased when they were still 
Iraqi citizens and still owners of assets and property 
there.  Ha'aretz quoted Ilan Steinberg, the Director- 
General of the World Jewish Congress, as saying Monday: 
"This is a breakthrough and justice has been done in an 
area that has been neglected for years." 
 
Yediot reported that California Governor Arnold 
Schwarzenegger will meet with Sharon on May 2, the day 
the referendum will be held in the Likud. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Monday New Zealand PM Helen 
Clark and senior officials in her government toned down 
remarks regarding the affair involving two Israelis 
arrested on suspicion of attempting to obtain fake 
passports.  Yediot reported that the New Zealand 
government acknowledged that the detainees are Israeli 
envoys.  Citing the New Zealand Herald, Maariv quoted 
Clarke as saying that the Israelis will be entitled to 
a fair trial. 
 
Jerusalem Post led with, and other media reported on, 
an affair involving Transportation Minster Avigdor 
Lieberman.  He allegedly used his Russian connections 
to help extricate Bank Austria Creditanstalt, the 
largest bank in Austria, from a sharp drop in the 
Russian ruble in 1998.  Lieberman had stepped down 
months before as D-G of the Prime Minister's Office 
under Binyamin Netanyahu. 
 
 
 
 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus, the 
first journalist whom Prime Minister Sharon apprised of 
his withdrawal plan, wrote in independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: "Terror must not be allowed to torpedo the 
first political initiative in years to offer a small 
glimmer of hope for a better future." 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Shragai wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"The main difference between all the previous 
presidential declarations and the one given by Bush is 
that no Israeli prime minister in the past ever 
considered initiating a unilateral withdrawal, and 
certainly not during a war, just to win such a 
statement from the U.S." 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in the lead editorial of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: " The 
Palestinians' initial responses to the exchange of 
letters between Bush and Sharon were furious and 
bordered on the hysterical....  But insult is 
mendacious diplomatic counsel." 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "It is possible that in the 
year 2005 it will be Netanyahu who is called upon to 
implement the disengagement.... Netanyahu too knows 
that Sharon's disengagement plan is the minimum 
reasonable offer with which he can visit the capitals 
of the world and the region, for he has not forgotten 
his days at Wye Plantation." 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Don't Let Terror Ruin Things" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus, the 
first journalist whom Prime Minister Sharon apprised of 
his withdrawal plan, wrote in independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz (April 20): "Bumping off Rantisi was 
justified.  I doubt that even the heads of the 
Palestinian Authority, including Dahlan, shed a tear 
over his death.... [Anyway], Hamas wants to reap the 
fruit of Israel's unilateral withdrawal and evacuation 
of settlement in Gaza, presenting it as a victory for 
the group.  Israel must be on its guard not to get 
sucked into this game.... Sharon has launched a 
dramatic initiative to withdraw Israeli forces and 
clear out 20 settlements in the Gaza Strip -- a move 
that President Bush has described as an historic about- 
face and the first stage in implementing the road map 
on the way to establishing a Palestinian state.  We 
must take care that terror -- of which there will be 
more -- and our disproportionate responses to it, do 
not endanger the disengagement plan or cause the Sharon 
administration, which is not bowled over by the plan in 
any case, to turn against it.... Now is the time for 
Sharon the statesman to eclipse Sharon the general, and 
the forum of five to act like a political cabinet 
rather than a subsidiary of the General Staff.  Terror 
must not be allowed to torpedo the first political 
initiative in years to offer a small glimmer of hope 
for a better future." 
 
II.  "Disengagement Illusions" 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Shragai wrote in Ha'aretz 
(April 20): "The political graveyard in which the 
minister of history buries friendly statements by 
American presidents to Israel, is already populated by 
quite a few ... watersheds.  Bill Clinton, for example, 
provided Ehud Barak with exactly the same merchandise 
that Bush is now giving Sharon.  Bush, how 
embarrassing, even made sure to say in his letter to 
Sharon that the fact that he doesn't expect Israel to 
withdraw to the 1967 borders is practically an 
historical fact: "All previous efforts to negotiate a 
two-state solution have reached the same conclusion," 
wrote Bush.  The main difference between all the 
previous presidential declarations and the one given by 
Bush is that no Israeli prime minister in the past ever 
considered initiating a unilateral withdrawal, and 
certainly not during a war, just to win such a 
statement from the U.S." 
 
 
III.  "The Palestinians' Turn" 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in the lead editorial of mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (April 20): "An 
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza without disengagement 
places the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a 
crossroads. Gaza after the withdrawal is liable to 
become a giant Palestinian ghetto.... A Gaza like that 
will be a humanitarian disaster and a terrorist powder 
keg.  But that very same Gaza Strip after the Israeli 
withdrawal could also be a cornerstone for a new 
reality, a stepping stone to the establishment of an 
independent and democratic Palestine, which was cited 
explicitly as 'Palestine' in the letter Sharon gave to 
President Bush.  For that, the Palestinians are going 
to need the world's help, Israeli good will and, above 
all, Palestinian national resolve.... The Palestinians' 
initial responses to the exchange of letters between 
Bush and Sharon were furious and bordered on the 
hysterical, which only became more pronounced with the 
insult of the Rantisi assassination.  But insult is 
mendacious diplomatic counsel.  The Palestinians have 
not lacked for mendacious counsel of that kind in the 
past number of decades.  What they have wanted for was 
truthful counsel." 
 
IV.  "Netanyahu's Astuteness" 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (April 20): "Netanyahu has 
moved his political address from Against Disengagement 
Alley to Support Disengagement Avenue, because he is 
smart, because he is moving to the middle ground in 
preparation for the battle of succession, and because 
he has no choice.... The advantage of Sharon's plan is 
that Likud supporters are capable of swallowing it, 
because it can be fed to them in small doses.  First 
there was the road map.  Now there is the withdrawal 
from Gaza and four settlements in Samaria [the northern 
West Bank].  For this alone Netanyahu cannot unravel 
the unity of the Likud.... Moreover, the most important 
thing is still ahead of us and it is two-pronged. 
First of all there are some grounds for believing that 
the disengagement plan will never be implemented, and 
this is a subject for a separate discussion.  Secondly, 
it is possible that in the year 2005 it will be 
Netanyahu who is called upon to implement the 
disengagement.  This will be when it is clear whether 
John Kerry will be the next occupant of the White 
House, and whether the cases of the straw companies and 
Cyril Kern have sent Sharon back to his farm and his 
sons to the dock, and in such a case Netanyahu could be 
the next prime minister.  So will he appear as the 
leader of the opposition on such a central issue?  It 
is not worth his while, because if he becomes prime 
minister he will have to go to Washington and stand 
before the Arab world with something more than empty 
hands.  Netanyahu too knows that Sharon's disengagement 
plan is the minimum reasonable offer with which he can 
visit the capitals of the world and the region, for he 
has not forgotten his days at Wye Plantation." 
------------------------------- 
¶2.  Release of Mordechai Vanunu: 
------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Israel is a law-abiding country.  Vanunu served his 
sentence.  Any further extraordinary efforts to silence 
him will only perpetuate both his status as a symbol 
and the campaign that has grown around him." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"A Damaging Over-Reaction" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (April 
20): "It is entirely possible that the ongoing over- 
reaction to Vanunu has damaged Israel much more and 
longer than the one-time publication in the Sunday 
Times.  Given the two obsessions that have become 
focused on Vanunu -- keeping him silent or making him 
divine -- it is no wonder that his release from prison 
tomorrow, after serving all 18 years of his prison 
sentence, has turned into a particularly charged 
moment.... Presumably, after his release, Vanunu will 
continue to serve -- willingly, and with the support of 
those around him -- as an instrument with which to 
attack Israel and its policies.  The defense 
establishment's desire to continue to control what he 
says is understandable even if it is not at all clear 
what further damage could be caused by someone who has 
been cut off from any security secret for the last 20 
years.  But Israel is a law-abiding country.  Vanunu 
served his sentence.  Any further extraordinary efforts 
to silence him will only perpetuate both his status as 
a symbol and the campaign that has grown around him." 
 
--------- 
¶3.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"If one were to write a recipe for failure in Iraq, 
putting the UN in charge would probably be the place to 
start." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
"How to Lose Iraq" 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(April 20): "One might think, looking at all the 
troubles in Iraq, that the place is a hopeless mess. 
Actually, in broad terms, the situation is surprisingly 
promising.  The basic Western interest is that Iraq 
enjoy a stable and representative non-despotic 
government that serves the interests of all three major 
groupings: the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi'ites.  All three 
groups have a fairly strong incentive to support a 
system with sufficiently robust checks and balances 
that no one group will be able to dominate the 
others.... Let's assume that Bush and Blair, having 
been burned by the UN in the run-up to the war in Iraq, 
are not entirely naive about just how the UN might try 
to shape Iraq's post-war future. And let's say that, in 
an ideal world, the UN could provide a patina of 
legitimacy and even logistical and troop support for a 
hitherto controversial allied effort.  But the big 
question here is who is fooling whom. The UN ... has a 
long and corrupt history with Iraq.... The UN 
bureaucracy, France and Russia have a huge incentive to 
cover up their own complicity in Saddam's pillaging of 
Iraq, as does the Arab bloc in preventing a successful 
Iraqi regime from arising. The UN is the ideal vehicle 
for all these anti-democracy forces. Indeed, if one 
were to write a recipe for failure in Iraq, putting the 
UN in charge would probably be the place to start." 
 
KURTZER