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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 002376 
 
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 
 
 
Please note: no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report Tuesday, 
April 27, 2004, Israel's Independence Day holiday. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Israel's 56th Independence Day 
 
¶2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media highlighted events related to Israel's 
Memorial Day (commemorated from last night through this 
evening) and Israel's 56th Independence Day (celebrated 
from tonight through Monday night).  Israel Radio 
reported that in his greetings to President Moshe 
Katsav, President Bush wrote that Israel can count on 
the friendship of the American people and on America's 
firm commitment to the well-being and security of 
Israel's citizens.  The radio also cited greetings from 
French President Jacques Chirac and Egyptian President 
Hosni Mubarak, who both expressed their wishes that the 
conflict be resolved (Mubarak mentioned the road map). 
All media cited data released by the GOI's Central 
Bureau of Statistics: Israel now counts 6.78 million 
residents -- 81 percent of them are Jews and 19 percent 
are Arabs. 
 
A remark made by PM Sharon in an interview with Channel 
2-TV Friday night dominated the headlines Sunday. 
Sharon told the TV station that he had informed Bush, 
during their meeting in Washington 10 days ago, that 
Israel was no longer bound by a pledge made three years 
ago not to harm PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.  The comment 
was widely construed as a wink to the Likud members who 
will participate in Sunday's scheduled vote on the 
disengagement plan.  All media reported that the U.S. 
Administration made clear over the weekend that it 
continues to oppose any Israeli action physically 
targeting Arafat.  The media reported that National 
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice called Sharon's 
bureau head Dov Weisglass, and cited responses by 
Secretary Powell and the spokesmen of the National 
 
SIPDIS 
Security Council and the State Department.  Maariv 
reported that Israel has conveyed a message to the PA 
that a terrorist attack on the scale of the 2002 
Passover bombing in Netanya could bring about the 
assassination of Arafat. 
 
All media reported that Sunday cabinet ministers 
Binyamin Netanyahu, Limor Livnat and Silvan Shalom 
refused to assist Sharon's campaign to muster support 
for his disengagement plan prior to Sunday's vote in 
the Likud.  Yediot reported that Ohad Kamin, a member 
of the Likud Central Committee, published an article on 
the Internet site of the extreme-right movement "Jewish 
Leadership," led by Moshe Feiglin.  Kamin's article 
contained an implicit call to take up arms against 
Sharon, "a most dangerous enemy of the Jewish people." 
Education Minister Limor Livnat has urged A-G Menachem 
Mazuz and Likud institutions to take steps against 
Kamin. 
All media reported that a border policeman was killed 
and two were wounded last night when shots were fired 
at their jeep near Idna in the southern Hebron Hills. 
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the 
attack, saying that it was in retaliation for the 
assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.  An 
hour later, and Israeli Arab was seriously wounded from 
shots fired at guards patrolling near the shooting 
range at Migdal Oz near Efrat in Gush Etzion.  Israel 
Radio cited the belief of defense sources that the 
second incident was not a terrorist attack.  All media 
reported that Friday the security forces arrested three 
alleged members of a terrorist cell who reportedly 
murdered university student George Khoury in the north 
Jerusalem neighborhood of French Hill, and wounded 
another student a week ago. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources familiar with the 
inner workings of Hamas as saying that Dr. Mahmoud A- 
Zahar has been elected leader of the movement in the 
Gaza Strip. Ismail Haniyeh has reportedly been 
appointed as A-Zahar's deputy, while the new No. 3 in 
the Hamas hierarchy is Said A-Siam.  Sunday, Maariv 
quoted Border Police commander David Tzur as saying 
that Israel has "excellent human intelligence" in the 
ranks of Hamas.  This morning, Israel Radio cited an 
announcement by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in 
Ramallah that they executed a Palestinian who had 
collaborated with Israel. 
 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post cited criticism by U.S. 
officials of the PA for failing to prevent the escape 
on Wednesday night of three Palestinians who were being 
held in a Gaza City prison of involvement in the attack 
on a U.S. diplomatic convoy last October. 
 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that a federal judge in 
Rhode Island denied a motion to dismiss a USD 250- 
million lawsuit against the PA and PLO for the 1996 
murder of Yaron Ungar, a U.S. citizen who was killed 
with his wife Efrat by Hamas.  In July, the court 
ordered Hamas to pay USD 116 million in damages. 
 
Sunday, Yediot quoted the UN's special Middle East 
envoy Terje Roed-Larsen as saying that the PA must 
start taking effective steps to stop violence and 
eliminate terror. 
Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post reported that Sunday the 
High Court of Justice ruled that Palestinian 
journalists with permits to work in Israel will be able 
to get press accreditation from the Government Press 
Office (GPO).  The ruling overturned a two-year-old 
government order denying press cards to Palestinian 
journalists. 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that last week in 
Dublin and Belfast Israeli lawmakers (from the Left and 
Shinui) and Palestinian leaders held separate meetings 
-- organized by the Irish Foreign Ministry -- with 
leaders from the Republic of Ireland and Northern 
Ireland.   The Palestinian participants reportedly said 
they were under orders not to meet with the Israelis or 
discuss reconciliation between the two peoples. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel has decided to ask U.S. 
Judge Edward Korman to defer a decision, originally 
slated to be handed down in the next few days, over how 
to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in 
reparations by Swiss banks to Holocaust survivors 
worldwide. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Jan Willem Van der Hoeven, 
director of the International Christian Zionist Center 
in Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of 
the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, as 
saying Sunday that evangelical Christians may be "very 
disappointed" in Israel's leaders if the country 
withdraws from part of the Land of Israel, but that 
they will not turn their back on Israel or the Jews. 
They were taking issue with remarks made by Herbert 
Zweibon, chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel, who 
had warned about a possible evangelical anti-Semitic 
backlash if Israel withdraws from the territories. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that California Governor Arnold 
Schwarzenegger will arrive in Israel on Saturday.  He 
will attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Simon 
Wiesenthal Center's Center of Human Dignity Museum of 
Tolerance in Jerusalem. 
 
----------------------------------- 
¶1.  Israel's 56th Independence Day: 
----------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Israel's willingness to adjust its own worldview -- to 
withdraw from territory and dismantle settlements -- is 
more than merely a message to the Palestinians, that 
they must also adopt a realistic world view." 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote on page one of mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Despite its age, Israel 
still lacks basic features of maturity.... Mainly: its 
residents do not have peace and quiet." 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Those who dismiss Israel as a temporary 'Crusader 
state' and assume that their brand of hatred and 
radicalism will outlast us do not understand a free 
society's strengths." 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Toward a Change in Outlook" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (April 
26): "The fact that Memorial Day, which honors the 
soldiers who fell in Israel's wars, is the day before 
Independence Day stems from the history of the State of 
Israel.  The longed-for independence exacted a high 
price in blood, which has been paid by thousands of 
soldiers and their families not only to achieve 
independence, but also to preserve it.  Indeed the 
Zionist idea of establishing a state for the Jews, 
which has been recognized by the world's nations, is 
still not self-evident, especially in the region where 
the state is located.... Even though [recent] 
declarations [by Ariel Sharon] still await actual 
implementation, they constitute an ideological 
revolution that holds out the possibility that by its 
57th Independence Day, Israel will stand at the dawn of 
a new era.... This is the reality that the Israeli- 
Palestinian conflict has been dictating already for 
decades. Its solution is complex, but not impossible. 
It must begin with a change in outlook by both sides. 
Israel's willingness to adjust its own worldview -- to 
withdraw from territory and dismantle settlements -- is 
more than merely a message to the Palestinians, that 
they must also adopt a realistic worldview.  The 
adoption of realistic policies by both sides -- 
policies that reject the old ideologies, which served 
mainly to foment war -- may be the great contribution 
that this Memorial Day makes to next year's Memorial 
Day." 
 
II.  "Clinging to Hope" 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote on page one of mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (April 26): "In another four 
years the State of Israel will be 60 years old.  Time 
for countries is not like time for people, but still, a 
60-year-old country is no kid any more.  It isn't an 
adolescent any more.  Its first gray hairs have begun 
to show.  Despite its age, Israel still lacks basic 
features of maturity.  It still does not have final and 
recognized borders.  It still does not have a capital 
city that is recognized by the world.  It still does 
not have a constitution.  And mainly: its residents do 
not have peace and quiet.  Israel at 56 is a country 
whose sons and daughters love it despite what it is, 
not because of what it is.  A year ago we were 
optimistic.  New winds were blowing.  Saddam Hussein 
had been easily defeated.  Arafat had been pushed aside 
by a realistic Palestinian leadership.... A year has 
passed, a lot has happened in it, and yet so little. 
Objectively, one can say that it was not a bad year. 
The economy began to grow again.  The critical section 
of the fence was built.... The terror organizations 
were dealt one blow after another....  But perhaps we 
need to change the definition of 'not a bad year.'  How 
can a year be not bad when 185 security personnel and 
137 civilians fell in a terrorist war?  How can it be 
not bad when unemployment reached a record high?  When 
poverty is record high?  How can a year be okay when a 
heavy cloud of suspicion of corruption and bribery 
hovers over the prime minister?  That is the paradox of 
Israel in its 56th year of independence: a country 
whose citizens are crazy about it, but where every 
second citizen believes it is heading in the wrong 
direction." 
 
III.  "Israel at 56" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(April 26): "Tonight, in that sharp transition that 
should earn Israel a patent, we switch from mourning 
our fallen soldiers to celebrating the nation they 
defended.  There is plenty to celebrate.   Israel is a 
success story.  Against all odds, the Jewish people has 
a country in its own land, after 2,000 years of 
exile.... The Jewish national project has flourished, 
while the Arab choice of enmity with Israel has been 
the primary cover for neighboring states not to 
confront their own political and economic failings.... 
Our greatest success -- however ironically, given the 
way we have been vilified -- is not material but moral. 
Our enemies are consumed by hatred of us, and have 
attacked us with such barbarity that to call it war is 
to dignify an offensive composed almost entirely of war 
crimes.  Yet we have not thrown our democratic values 
out the window in the name of security, as illustrated 
both by the elaborate judicial review imposed on 
security policies and by the freedom given Arab Knesset 
members to vilify their country and side with its 
enemies.  Most dramatically, we have sacrificed our own 
soldiers' lives to minimize civilian Palestinian 
casualties in ways that few, if any, democracies would 
under similar circumstances.... Those who dismiss 
Israel as a temporary 'Crusader state' and assume that 
their brand of hatred and radicalism will outlast us do 
not understand a free society's strengths." 
 
------------ 
¶2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Sharon's latest 
threat to strike at Palestinian Authority Chairman 
Yasser Arafat came at a convenient time for all the 
parties involved.... it is also convenient for the U.S. 
Administration, which wants to show its Arab and 
European friends that it can restrain the 'neighborhood 
bully.'" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Gewirtz opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "To the Americans, Sharon behaved like a bull 
in a china shop.... Right now they expect him to go the 
extra mile for them." 
 
Military correspondent Aryeh O'Sullivan wrote on page 
one of conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: 
"Whether or not Sharon is adopting the 'madman 
strategy' as a calculated policy or it comes naturally, 
the results have already borne fruit." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Matter of Timing" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 25): "Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon's latest threat to strike at 
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat came at a 
convenient time for all the parties involved.  It is 
convenient for Sharon, who must present a hard line 
ahead of the Likud referendum on the disengagement and 
prove to his party members that he is not a sucker who 
caves in to terror and retreats from Gaza under fire. 
It is convenient for Arafat, who loves the role of 
victim and martyr and uses it to enlist renewed support 
from the Palestinian public.  And it is also convenient 
for the U.S. Administration, which wants to show its 
Arab and European friends that it can restrain the 
'neighborhood bully' and does not automatically support 
Sharon's every bullying whim.... These restraints may 
loosen under certain conditions, especially if a 
serious terrorist attack occurs that can be tied to 
Arafat, for instance, it the Tanzim is held 
responsible.  In that case, pressure would mount in 
Israel to implement the resolution to remove Arafat. 
The political timing would be critical -- for example, 
if Bush loses the presidential elections in November 
and the administration enters a transition period of 
two and a half months until his successor enters 
office." 
 
II.  "A Private Hit" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Gewirtz opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (April 25): "The Prime Minister announced over 
the weekend that he told President Bush that he 
regarded himself as free of his commitment to refrain 
from harming Arafat physically.  This time, unlike the 
precedent of the assassinations of Yassin and Rantisi, 
the American response was quick, insulted and harsh. 
Sharon, according to the Americans, is crudely 
transgressing the rules of diplomatic discourse and 
also putting them at risk.... Beyond that, the 
Americans are saying angrily, after we went the extra 
mile for Sharon, we did not expect him to pay us back 
by making an announcement that increases even more the 
great risks we already cope with on an international 
level.   What kind of logic motivated Sharon now, after 
government spokesmen and the security establishment 
have already announced that no Palestinian leader 
Israel views as directly responsible for terror is 
immune anymore, to publicize such a declaration 
regarding Arafat and hang it like a millstone around 
the President's neck?  To the Americans, Sharon behaved 
like a bull in a china shop, kicking over the pitcher 
of milk he received from Bush with his statement. 
Right now they expect him to go the extra mile for 
them.  Dov Weisglass, who garnered praise for obtaining 
the understandings between Sharon and Bush and for 
Sharon's actual visit, which had been delayed for 
months, will need his full supply of verbal effects in 
order to ensure that both Sharon and Bush get out of 
this mess looking good." 
 
III.  "Trying Out Our 'Madman Theory'" 
 
Military correspondent Aryeh O'Sullivan wrote on page 
one of conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (April 
25): "If you are going to apply the madman theory, or 
try to convince the other side you are a 'loose 
cannon,' then you need to back it up with a true 
threat.... The manner in which the Sharon-Mofaz 
government has been behaving, with its unabashed 
willingness to assassinate and go anywhere, was 
creating the sense of a loose cannon in Jerusalem.  It 
appears to be working.  On Thursday rumors ran rampant 
in Ramallah that the IDF was planning to storm Arafat's 
battered headquarters where fugitives were hiding. 
Arafat quickly expelled 21 of the fugitives, who will 
likely be hunted down and arrested in the coming weeks 
by Israeli security forces.  The IDF has said that it 
is prepared to launch a raid against Arafat himself. 
All it needs are the orders.  Whether or not Sharon is 
adopting the 'madman strategy' as a calculated policy 
or it comes naturally, the results have already borne 
fruit." 
KURTZER