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 000043 
 
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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Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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All media led with reports of scuffles between settlers 
and IDF troops who came to evacuate two caravans at the 
West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, including an incident 
in which a soldier fired warning shots at settlers as 
they tried to strip him of his rifle.  Ha'aretz cited 
the belief of the IDF General Staff that the time has 
come to start cracking down on Israelis who use 
violence against soldiers and policemen in the 
territories.  Leading media reported that Monday dozens 
of settlers built protest tents near the Knesset. 
 
This morning, Israel Radio reported that seven 
Palestinians were killed by a shell fired by an IDF 
tank in Beit Lahiya near the Erez Crossing, following 
the launching of a rocket at a bus transporting Israeli 
children.  The radio cited Palestinian claims that five 
of the slain people were children aged 12 to 17, and 
IDF allegations that the killed Palestinians were older 
Hamas militants. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli military sources as 
saying that, thanks to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief 
architect of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, either Syria, 
Egypt or Saudi Arabia now has the potential to achieve 
a "significant nuclear leap."  The quote comes days 
after Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy expressed fear that 
one of those countries might have acquired some kind of 
nuclear capability via an illicit weapons trafficking 
network run by Khan. 
 
All media reported that defying condemnation from Hamas 
and other radical factions in the Gaza Strip, PLO 
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday reiterated a demand 
for an end to rocket attacks against Israeli targets. 
Some media said that Abbas's remarks were spurred by a 
statement made Sunday by Secretary of State Colin 
Powell that he found Abbas's failure to distance 
himself from the radical al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades 
"disturbing."  The media also reported that Monday 
Abbas promised Palestinians refugees that they will be 
able to return home one day, and that he vowed not to 
take up arms against militants. 
 
All media reported that right-wing activists are making 
use of a 1994 interview in which Sharon urged soldiers 
not to obey orders that go against their conscience. 
The activists have been distributing a recording of 
Sharon's remarks to IDF conscripts. Hatzofe reported 
that Monday the National Religious Party decided to 
offer Shas and National Union the option to join its 
efforts against the disengagement plan. 
Jerusalem Post reported that officials from Pakistan, 
Yemen, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, all Muslim countries 
without diplomatic ties with Israel, will arrive by the 
end of the week to take part in the international team 
monitoring the PA election.  The newspaper quoted Amir 
Maimon, the Foreign Ministry official in charge of 
coordination for the election monitors, as saying they 
will be part of an 80-person team put together by the 
U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI), the foreign 
policy arm of the Democratic Party.  Jerusalem Post 
also cited an IDF denial of Palestinian claims that 
Rizik Ziad Musleh, a high school student campaigning 
for Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a candidate in the upcoming 
PA chairmanship elections, was killed by soldiers last 
Thursday near Rafah. 
 
Turkish FM Abdullah Gul was quoted as saying Monday in 
an interview with Ha'aretz that Turkey believes that 
Syria is serious about making peace with Israel, and 
that that Ankara hopes to receive a positive response 
from Jerusalem to the message Gul is bringing with him 
from Damascus. 
 
Yediot reported that Lakhdar Brahimi, Special Adviser 
to the Secretary-General of the UN, has told a Belgian 
Senate delegation that Sharon is a murderer.  The 
newspaper reported that the Foreign Ministry has 
instructed the Israeli Representative to the UN to 
present a strong protest to Secretary-General Kofi 
Annan, and that has it also instructed the U.S. Embassy 
in Washington to raise the issue with the State 
Department. 
 
Yediot cited the GOI's confirmation that FM Silvan 
Shalom will visit Jordan this month.  Yediot quoted the 
Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm as saying Sunday 
that during Shalom's visit, Israel will release several 
Jordanian prisoners. 
 
Yediot reported that, following the Iranian nuclear 
threat and concerns about world terror, the Mossad has 
requested additional funding from the Knesset's secret 
services subcommittee. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Foreign Ministry has opened 
a bank account for private contributions for the 
victims of the South Asian tsunami, and that it is 
considering sending around 20 mobile water purifiers to 
the countries that were hit by the disaster.  Leading 
media reported that IsraAid, a coordinating body of 
Jewish organizations worldwide and NGOs based in 
Israel, is spearheading the Israel Campaign For 
Southeast Asia Disaster, a global Jewish relief 
campaign to aid the victims of the disaster. 
 
Yediot and Maariv cited the results of a poll conducted 
in the UK by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph: 
-"Which country do you hate most?"  Israel: 37 percent 
of respondents; India: 29 percent; Egypt and China: 24 
percent.  (Cited in Maariv.) 
-Respondents found the most dangerous country to be: 
U.S.: 37 percent; Israel: 33 percent; Egypt; 21 
percent.  (Cited in Yediot.) 
 
Jerusalem Post cited a street survey conducted in 
Orlando, FL, by the International Society for Sephardic 
Progress: 63 percent of respondents did not know what 
Auschwitz-Birkenau was. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
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Columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote on page one of popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Monday's struggle [at the West Bank 
settlement of Yitzhar], from the perspective of the 
settlers ... was not over ... two patently illegal 
trailers.... Kingdoms have already fallen because of 
civil war." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Israel must ... immediately take steps that will prove 
... that it truly intends the Palestinian Authority 
election to be free and open to all." 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
Maariv: "Mahmoud Abbas ... is dancing with the 
wolves.... The thinking on the worst-case scenario 
should already have been done.  Withdrawal must be done 
with eyes wide open." 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "[In both Iraq and the Palestinian 
Authority], existing ideologies and political 
structures are in conflict with democratic processes, 
while the big problems and difficult choices remain to 
be confronted after Election Day." 
 
Liberal columnist B. Michael wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "What to do, disengagement 
is a typical Sharon bluff.  There indeed is no way but 
to support it, be it only in order to expose the cheat. 
But there's no reason to enthuse about it." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Blood Is Going To Be Spilled" 
 
Columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote on page one of popular, 
pluralist Maariv (January 4): "Let it be clear, 
Monday's struggle [at the West Bank settlement of 
Yitzhar], from the perspective of the settlers who 
clashed with the police and the soldiers, was not over 
those two patently illegal trailers stuck out there on 
some desolate hilltop.  It was over the settlements in 
the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.  And it sent a 
message that is unequivocal, terrible and causes 
despair: when the time comes for the big evacuation, if 
we get there, there is going to be gunfire, blood is 
going to be spilled, and all the institutions in Israel 
will collapse.  Kingdoms have already fallen because of 
civil war.  And, terrifyingly enough, there isn't 
anyone who is capable of preventing it.  Maybe just 
that old rabbi [United Torah Judaism party mentor Rabbi 
Yosef Shalom Elyashiv], who is shut in his house in 
Jerusalem right now, deliberating whether to breathe 
life into the Sharon government and the disengagement 
plan, or to force early elections that will delay and 
may even dash the big evacuation and, by so doing, the 
plague of fire and blood that threatens us." 
 
II.  "Free and Open to All" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(January 4): "Five days before the Palestinian 
Authority's election day, one gets the impression that 
Israel is uncertain that this is truly its heart's 
desire.... The elections, say the Palestinians, with 
the backing of international monitors, must be free in 
the fullest sense of the word.  What such freedom means 
is that every person must be able to come to the polls 
without fear or pressure in order to exercise his right 
to vote.  But it is doubtful that Palestinians fearful 
of IDF gunfire or lengthy delays at checkpoints will 
want to leave their houses to participate in the 
elections.  Israel ought to have a keen interest in the 
political legitimacy that Abu Mazen is seeking.... 
Those who are demanding a new diplomatic program from 
the Palestinians -- an end to incitement and the 
disarming of the militias and gangs -- should know that 
this cannot be achieved via a Palestinian leadership 
that lacks public support.   To achieve this result, 
Israel must cease the political miserliness that has 
characterized it to date and immediately take steps 
that will prove -- not only to the Palestinians, but 
also to the Israeli public and international observers 
-- that it truly intends the Palestinian Authority 
election to be free and open to all." 
 
III.  "Dancing With Wolves" 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
Maariv (January 4): "Mahmoud Abbas -- a.k.a. Abu Mazen 
-- is dancing with the wolves. He fraternizes with 
Hamas, snuggles up to Islamic Jihad and promises the 
terrorists that he will not disarm them.  Just the 
opposite, he says he will protect them.  Israel is 
giving him credit, which boils down only to election 
PR.  When the polls close on January 9, his romance 
with terror is meant to come to an end....  After all, 
the candidate for the Palestinian Authority leadership 
rejected the armed conflict at the beginning of the 
Intifada in 2000.  We have to hope. But we also have to 
ask ourselves what will happen if this doesn't take 
place.  Abu Mazen has a biography of weakness in the 
face of Palestinian terror.... In the lack of an 
agreement with Abu Mazen and with terror continuing, 
the IDF will not be able to withdraw from the Gaza 
Strip along with the settlers.... To evacuate Gush 
Katif under fire, Israel must announce to itself that 
the Gush Katif bloc is more of a liability than an 
asset.  Will a Likud-headed government, even one that 
has already gone a long and dramatic way from what 
Sharon promised in the elections to what he is 
proposing now, be capable of doing this?  It is too 
early to know.  The chances are still good that Abu 
Mazen will come to his senses and distance himself from 
terror after the Palestinian polling booths close.  An 
orderly transfer of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority 
serves the interests of all sides, except for the 
terrorists.  But when Sharon brings the issue of 
disengagement to his cabinet this month for a decision, 
the thinking on the worst-case scenario should already 
have been done.  Withdrawal must be done with eyes wide 
open." 
 
IV.  "Two Arab Elections" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (January 4): "Strange but revealing: the 
two fairest elections in Arab history are about to be 
held due only to foreign pressure and presence.  They 
also say a great deal about the direction of Arab 
politics and likely developments during 2005.  In both 
cases the fact that Iraqi and Palestinian leaders will 
be determined via a ballot box is encouraging, 
signaling a growing interest in democracy, human 
rights, and moderation.... [Still,] the [Iraqi] 
election may lay the basis for a civil war, or at least 
heightened ethnic antagonism and strife.  The 
Palestinian situation is somewhat parallel. Fatah is 
the dominant party and Abu Mazen will be elected 
because he is its candidate.  That powerful (though 
undisciplined) organization is still in the hands of 
hard-liners, who are not ready for a real peace with 
Israel, or for genuine democracy.  At the same time, 
Fatah is ready to make deals with other forces -- its 
own young insurgents and Hamas -- that will block any 
real change or hopes for peace.... The possibility of a 
popular regime exists in both cases, as well as a 
stable government in Iraq and a cease-fire for the 
Palestinians.  Yet existing ideologies and political 
structures are in conflict with democratic processes, 
while the big problems and difficult choices remain to 
be confronted after Election Day." 
 
¶V.  "Sharon Is Already Reaping Rewards" 
 
Liberal columnist B. Michael wrote in mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (January 4): "Those who have 
refused to understand by themselves the purpose of the 
disengagement [plan] received another chance to do so. 
In an interview granted by Atty. [Dov] Weisglass to 
Ha'aretz, he almost childishly detailed with frankness 
and pride the truth hiding behind the Sharon plan.... 
Sharon's true inclination can be uncovered when one 
compares the various aspects of his activity concerning 
disengagement.  'Activity' in the full meaning of the 
word is taking place in the West Bank: bulldozers are 
crushing, trees are being uprooted, fences are jumped 
over, houses are being built, roads are being paved, 
millions of shekels are being buried among the rocks. 
On the other hand, regarding disengagement, Sharon has 
(so far) taken care of its verbal ... part.... No 
budget allocated to the settlements has been cut.... 
What to do, disengagement is a typical Sharon bluff. 
There indeed is no way but to support it, be it only in 
order to expose the cheat.  But there's no reason to 
enthuse about it.  However, God willing -- or God 
forbid -- should it be implemented, one wouldn't know 
whether it would then cause even greater harm." 
 
KURTZER