This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 002470 
 
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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Sharon's Disengagement Plan 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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All media highlighted the Likud vote on PM Sharon's 
disengagement plan, which will take place on Sunday at 
polling places around the country.  Maariv and Yediot 
carried similar headlines: "The Fight of His [Sharon's] 
Life."  All media reported concerns that Israel will 
suffer a blow in the U.S. if Sharon fails.  The right- 
wing Jewish-American group Zionist Organization of 
America (ZOA) publishes a full-page paid ad in Yediot: 
"The U.S. will continue to support Israel regardless of 
the referendum's results."  All media reported that 
Sharon and his aides have launched a high-pressure 
offensive to shore up collapsing support in the party. 
Ha'aretz quoted senior Likud members as saying that 
only FM Silvan Shalom, Education Minister Limor Livnat 
and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who only 
recently proclaimed their support for the plan, can 
save it.  Leading media reported that Thursday Sharon 
told his close associates in Likud not to waste time 
thinking about the "day after" the referendum. 
However, commentators say that he is aware of the 
political consequences of a defeat.  Some commentators 
believe that a national referendum is now needed -- 
Maariv also quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as 
voicing this opinion.  Jerusalem Post notes that 
Sharon's allies have already begun fighting with each 
other amid polls predicting a setback: 
 
Polls: 
-A Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll conducted last 
night for Yediot finds that 47 percent of voters in the 
referendum are opposed to the plan (same as Wednesday); 
40.5 percent support it (40.5 percent on Wednesday): 
-The Dialog Institute poll commissioned by Ha'aretz: 43 
percent against the plan (40 percent on April 21); 36 
percent for the plan (47 percent on April 21); 14 
percent are undecided (13 percent on April 21). 
-A Globes poll shows a 1 percent edge in favor of the 
plan's opponents (46 to 45 percent). 
 
Israel Radio reported that Quartet representatives (the 
United States' A/S William Burns, the EU's Marc Otte, 
the UN's Terje Roed-Larsen and a still unidentified 
Russian representative) will meet today at the U.S. 
Embassy in London to prepare a discussion on the 
situation of the road map.  The talks precede a meeting 
in New York which AP says will be hosted by UN 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on May 4, and is expected 
 
SIPDIS 
to be attended by the EU's foreign policy chief Javier 
Solana, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of 
State Colin Powell. 
 
Israel Radio reported that an audio tape purportedly 
from suspected Al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, 
and broadcast on Al Arabiya-TV, said his group had 
intended to attack Jordanian intelligence, but that it 
denied the Jordanian government's accusation they 
planned a chemical attack.  Israel Radio quoted Al- 
Zarqawi as saying that had Al Qaida possessed chemical 
weapons, it would not have hesitated using them against 
Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv or Eilat. 
 
Leading media reported that Thursday the IDF admitted 
accidentally killing Dr. Yasser Abu Laimum, a lecturer 
in hospital management at the Arab-American University 
of Jenin, over the weekend. 
 
Leading media reported that Jewish leaders "won a major 
victory" (Jerusalem Post) Thursday with the 
announcement by the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that Israel's actions do 
not legitimize anti-Semitism.  According to the Yediot 
correspondent at the Berlin conference, pressure from 
Muslim states resulted in the conference's final 
declaration condemning attacks motivated by religious 
hatred, without taking into account Muslim anti- 
Semitism and the new anti-Semitism's anti-Zionist 
character.  Jerusalem Post and Hatzofe actually 
highlighted a sentence in the declaration which bears a 
different connotation: "Anti-Semitism, following its 
most devastating manifestation during the Holocaust, 
has assumed new forms and expressions, which along with 
other forms of intolerance, pose a threat to democracy, 
the values of civilization, and, therefore, to overall 
security in the OSCE region and beyond." 
 
Israel Radio reported that Thursday the Defense 
Ministry and the U.S. Army successfully carried out a 
test of the joint Nautilus laser weapon project. 
 
Maariv cited an announcement by Casablanca Mayor 
Mohamed Sajid that he will come to Tel Aviv in early 
May to attend the proclamation by UNESCO of the 
inclusion of Tel Aviv's Bauhaus buildings on its World 
Heritage List. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that International Technologies 
Lasers (ITL), which is based in Rishon Lezion, has 
developed a device that can remotely detect explosives, 
drugs or other materials. 
 
The media reported on the latest developments in Iraq 
and on the questioning of President Bush and Vice 
President Cheney by the September 11 commission. 
 
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Sharon's Disengagement Plan: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Those who support peace cannot be partners in a 
government that does not have the political power to 
take a hesitant step in the direction of peace." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one 
of popular, pluralist Maariv: "Anyone seeing Sharon 
struggling with the settlers and their rabbis, their 
religious rulings and their messianic fervor, has to 
rub his eyes." 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
Maariv: "Sharon deserves this: for the security fence, 
the erection of which he put off for so long; for the 
important secondary role he played in toppling Abu 
Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]; and for the corruption that has 
spread like a cancer." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"Sharon has made the mistake which tripped up the 
greatest commanders in history -- underestimating the 
enemy." 
 
Former minister of foreign affairs and former minister 
of defense Moshe Arens wrote in Ha'aretz: "Will 
rejection of the [disengagement] plan by the Likud 
membership cause a rift with the U.S.?  Such a 
suggestion completely underestimates the strength and 
solidity of the U.S.-Israel relationship." 
 
Extreme right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote on 
page one of conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: 
"Sharon's plan differs from Oslo in that it overtly 
calls for the destruction of Israeli communities.... In 
spite of Sharon's statements to the contrary, those who 
oppose the plan on its merits are not extremists.  They 
are merely people who have learned from the past." 
 
Nationalist Hatzofe editorialized: "Let us hope ... 
that a great majority of registered Likud voters will 
say 'no' to Ariel Sharon." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Referendum as a Turning Point" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (April 
30): "Three days before the Likud referendum, opinion 
polls are showing an increasing erosion of support for 
the plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip and four 
settlements in the northern West Bank.... Apparently 
the settlers' entreaty and the ideological fixation 
among many Likud members are counterbalanced by support 
for their leader and the support that the President of 
the United States granted Sharon's disengagement 
plan.... In recent days, however, those close to Sharon 
and the Prime Minister himself have started hinting 
that a vote by Likud members against the plan is 
equivalent to a vote of no confidence in the party 
chairman.... Attaching important ramifications to the 
disengagement initiative, in diplomatic, economic and 
security terms, has caused the referendum to become a 
critical test of the [government] coalition.... The 
Israeli political landscape after the referendum cannot 
be the same as it is now.  Whatever the result, there 
will be significant repercussions within the internal 
power structure.  Those who support the settlements 
cannot be partners in a government that disengages from 
the settlements.  Those who support peace cannot be 
partners in a government that does not have the 
political power to take a hesitant step in the 
direction of peace." 
 
II.  "Only in Israel" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one 
of popular, pluralist Maariv (April 30): "Up until now, 
only leaders of the left wing had become accustomed to 
such sights: appeals from the rabbis, a religious 
ruling by the doyen of the mystics, Rabbi Ovadia 
Yosef's Saturday night sermon, thousands of ultra- 
Orthodox Jews at road junctions, flags, sandals, and 
women with their hair covered, and The Land of Israel 
for the Jewish People, and what is 'good for the Jews,' 
and demonstrations, and shouting, and women being 
dragged on the road, and threats.  Yitzhak Rabin, until 
he was murdered, got to know this from personal 
experience.  Shimon Peres knows it by heart.  So does 
Ehud Barak.  And now the melody returns.  You, the 
composer, the originator and the first founder, Ariel 
Sharon.  You of all people, this time, the lonely, 
battered man, facing this swelling tide almost alone, 
helpless, not knowing how or why, who or how many, from 
where it fell on you or where it is going.  Anyone 
seeing Sharon struggling with the settlers and their 
rabbis, their religious rulings and their messianic 
fervor, has to rub his eyes.... The Prime Minister is 
in the middle of a maelstrom.... So what will he do? 
He could ignore the referendum (the Americans have been 
spreading hints to that effect in the past few days). 
He could submit the disengagement plan to the 
government and the Knesset.  He could drop the plan 
temporarily... He could try to initiate elections by 
complex coalition maneuvers and other tricks.  And most 
important, he can draw the appropriate conclusions and 
learn, by bitter experience, not to count his chickens 
before they are hatched." 
III.  "The Day After" 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
Maariv (April 30): "What kind of prime minister will 
Ariel Sharon be if he wakes up in 72 hours to a dawn of 
defeat in the Likud members' referendum on his 
disengagement plan?.... Sharon deserves this: for the 
security fence, the erection of which he put off for so 
long; for the important secondary role he played in 
toppling Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]; and for the 
corruption that has spread like a cancer.... Sharon 
knows that were he to lose, he would have to resign. So 
would Ehud Olmert, as well as Defense Ministry Shaul 
Mofaz, who enlisted with such public valor in the 
campaign for disengagement from the Gaza Strip. 
Indeed, Mofaz won't be able to continue sending 
soldiers to [the isolated Gaza Strip settlement of] 
Netzarim and justify to the ears of bereaved parents 
the killing of their sons in Kfar Darom.... 'No' to 
disengagement constitutes a domestic disaster.  It is a 
step toward a rift in the country that could bring mass 
legitimacy to refusal to serve in the IDF.  Those who 
oppose [the plan] state in their propaganda: 'If you 
vote in favor, you get (Shimon) Peres.'  They must be 
warned: 'If you oppose the plan, you get apartheid.' 
Israel will be isolated and forlorn for years, a leper 
in an anti-Semitic world that is yearning for this." 
 
IV.  "Last Call For Mr. Comeback" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz 
(April 30): "It's hard to believe our eyes with the 
polls on the Likud referendum.  Prime Minister Ariel 
Sharon, the man who beat the Egyptians and locked up 
Yasser Arafat, who twice won elections and became the 
darling of the U.S. Administration, who stood steadfast 
in the face of terror attacks, crises and police 
interrogations, is about to lose out to Uzi Landau, the 
minister he sat at the far end of the cabinet table. 
The polls predict a defeat but Sharon, it must be 
remembered, is Mr. Comeback.... [Still], Sharon has 
made the mistake which tripped up the greatest 
commanders in history -- underestimating the enemy.... 
Sharon's close aides are still hoping for a last-minute 
win, if only with a tiny majority.... But even then it 
is clear that Sharon's leadership has suffered a 
painful blow, while Landau, who insisted on fighting 
him to the finish, will now have to be upgraded in the 
Likud ranks." 
 
¶V.  "Tempest in a Tea Cup" 
 
Former minister of foreign affairs and former minister 
of defense Moshe Arens wrote in Ha'aretz (April 30): 
"Will rejection of the [disengagement] plan by the 
Likud membership cause a rift with the U.S.?  Such a 
suggestion completely underestimates the strength and 
solidity of the U.S.-Israel relationship -- a 
relationship based on common ideals, common values and 
common interests.  Under no circumstances, and 
certainly not when facing a tough election, would the 
President of the U.S. be looking for a quarrel with 
Israel.  Nor is the government likely to fall.  The 
present government is the most stable government that 
Israel has had in a long time.... So Likudniks can go 
to the polls on May 2, unencumbered by irrelevant 
considerations, considering only the central question: 
is a unilateral withdrawal likely to encourage 
Palestinian terrorists?  The answer seems obvious." 
 
VI.  "Foreseeable Consequences" 
 
Extreme right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote on 
page one of conservative, independent Jerusalem Post 
(April 30): "What the last 42 months of Palestinian 
terror have shown is that regardless of the 
provocation, Israel will never garner international 
support for offensives against Palestinian terrorism. 
Sharon has promised that after the withdrawal, Israel 
will be able to sit in its truncated form for years. 
Yet this cannot be true.  Arafat will continue causing 
chaos to prevent that from happening.  As Arafat's 
foreign minister [sic] Farouk Kaddoumi said this week: 
'Let the Gaza Strip be South Vietnam.  We will use all 
available methods to liberate North Vietnam'.... 
Sharon's plan differs from Oslo in that it overtly 
calls for the destruction of Israeli communities.  In 
so doing, it poses a danger to the vitality of Israeli 
society as a whole.... If a majority of Likud voters 
reject Sharon's plan, they will be working to save 
Israel from disaster.  In spite of Sharon's statements 
to the contrary, those who oppose the plan on its 
merits are not extremists.  They are merely people who 
have learned from the past." 
 
VII.  "Likud Majority Says 'No to Sharon'" 
 
Nationalist Hatzofe editorialized (April 30): "Sharon 
is endeavoring to present a picture according to which 
President Bush is standing by his policy, as it were. 
Among other things, he offers remarks by the President 
of the U.S. that some of Bush's pronouncements will be 
brought to Congress for approval, turning them into 
[commitments] binding the [U.S.] Administration, 
regardless of who heads it.... One can only regret the 
fact that the Prime Minister, who only a year ago sided 
with the settlers, suddenly changed his mind and has 
now, for some reason, adopted the PLO's policy, acting 
to evacuate the Gaza Strip and parts of Judea and 
Samaria [the West Bank].  Let us hope that the results 
of the referendum, which is predicted to bring a 
majority to the opponents of the evacuation of settlers 
from the Strip, will find their expression in Sunday's 
vote, and that a great majority of registered Likud 
voters will say 'no' to Ariel Sharon." 
KURTZER