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 001021 
 
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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¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Syria-Iran "Common Front" 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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All media quoted President Bush as saying at a news 
conference on Thursday: "If I was the leader of Israel 
and I listened to some of the statements by the Iranian 
ayatollahs ... that regarded [the] security of my 
country, I'd be concerned about Iran having a nuclear 
weapon, as well.  And in that Israel is our ally, and 
in that we've made a very strong commitment to support 
Israel, we will support Israel if ... their security is 
threatened." 
 
All media reported that on Thursday, Attorney General 
Menachem Mazuz announced an indictment against PM 
Sharon's son, Knesset member Omri Sharon, and to close 
for lack of evidence the investigation against PM 
Sharon in the case of the straw companies allegedly set 
up to raise and disburse funds for Ariel Sharon's 1999 
primaries campaign.  The media write that Omri Sharon 
could face a jail sentence. 
 
All media reported that the cabinet is expected to 
approve two significant decisions on Sunday -- the 
evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the 
northern West Bank, in accordance with the 
disengagement plan, and fixing the new route for the 
separation fence in the West Bank, in the wake of 
changes ordered by the High Court of Justice. 
-The fence will include the Etzion Bloc, Ariel, and, 
for the first time, Ma'aleh Adumim -- altogether 7 
percent of the West Bank.  Jerusalem Post 
reported that the Defense Ministry told the Knesset's 
Defense Budget Committee on Thursday that the fence 
will be completed only in mid-2006, a year later than 
scheduled, because of petitions to the High Court of 
Justice that required changes to the route. 
-Yediot notes that the first settlement will be 
evacuated between April 30 and May 2. 
 
Leading media reported that Defense Minister Shaul 
Mofaz Thursday ended the policy of demolishing houses 
belonging to terrorists' families. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday, Sharon told Lt. Gen 
William Ward, the new U.S. security envoy, that reform 
of the Palestinian security services is paramount to 
the revival of Middle East peacemaking.  The newspaper 
cited Sharon's office as saying that Ward told Sharon 
that he intended to focus on security reform, and that 
he hoped to create a PA security apparatus that would 
be "both capable of and committed to fighting terrorism 
and its infrastructures."  Jerusalem Post quoted a 
senior Israeli diplomatic official as saying on 
Thursday, following the Sharon-Ward meeting, that Ward 
will serve as a barrier keeping the Europeans from 
sending military personnel to boost the PA's security 
apparatus.  Yediot captioned a picture of Ward with 
Sharon: "The Middle East's New Cop." 
 
Senior PA security official Muhammad Dahlan told Israel 
Radio that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian PM 
Ahmed Qurei are determined to ensure that Israel's 
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip takes places quietly. 
Dahlan also said that Israel has not yet carried out 
the easing measures it has committed itself to, and 
hinted that if Israel does not pull out from the 
Philadelphi route along the Gaza-Egypt border, attacks 
would occur there. Leading media reported that Mofaz 
announced Thursday that 20 Palestinians who were among 
the 39 exiled to Europe and the Gaza Strip as part of a 
deal to end the standoff in Bethlehem's Church of the 
Nativity in May 2002 will be permitted to return once 
the Palestinians receive security control of Bethlehem. 
 
Channel 2-TV reported Thursday that Mohammed al- 
Alabbar, a property magnate from the UAE, is interested 
in buying the assets left in the Gaza Strip settlements 
for USD 56 million if Israel refrains from demolishing 
them.  The station said that al-Alabbar visited Israel 
and met with Sharon following a meeting with Abbas. 
Israel Radio said that in the past al-Alabbar met 
several times with Prime Minister's Office D-G Ilan 
Cohen.  Labor Knesset Member Ephraim Sneh told Channel 
2-TV that he was the intermediary between al-Alabbar 
and Sharon's office.  However, Ha'aretz quoted GOI 
sources as saying that Sharon is determined to knock 
all the homes down.  Conversely, Vice Premier Shimon 
Peres told Israel Radio this morning that Sharon has 
not ruled out the deal. 
 
Globes web site reported that this week Union of Local 
Authorities Chairman Adi Eldar and four deputies 
visited Israel for a secret meeting with the heads of 
Palestinian local authorities, in order to promote 
peace and cooperation. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Israel is removing 
hundreds of Bedouin families squatting just beyond the 
perimeter fence of its main Negev air base because it 
fears that they may acquire antiaircraft missiles and 
it wants to distance them from the IAF planes. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli and Palestinian 
human rights groups on Thursday appealed to Abbas to 
rescind his decision to ratify death sentences passed 
against scores of Palestinians, including suspected 
"collaborators" with Israel. 
Yediot reported that for the first time since 1979, an 
Egyptian newspaper (Al-Ahram) interviewed Sharon. 
 
Dan Senor, the former spokesman for the U.S. occupation 
government in Iraq, was quoted as saying Thursday in an 
interview with Jerusalem Post that Ahmed Chalabi is 
likely to emerge as Iraq's leader, as originally 
envisioned by the U.S. 
 
Globes reported that during a debate at the Israel- 
America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), its President, 
Zalman Shoval, said that the deficit in trade relations 
with the U.S. and the fact that it has not decreased in 
the past several years, is detrimental to the bilateral 
relations. 
 
Leading media reported that on Thursday, President Bush 
named Ambassador John Negroponte the United States' 
first national intelligence director. 
 
Yediot cited a Gallup poll conducted in the U.S. 
February 7-10, which found that 69 percent of the U.S. 
public, the highest level in nearly six years, regard 
Israel positively.  More Americans -- 29 percent -- 
have a positive view of the PA than in any previous 
poll, although 62 percent still have a negative view of 
it. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The settlers are 
playing with fire.... Failure to carry out the 
disengagement plan will mean that Israel wants the 
occupation to continue." 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "Even 
after the Disengagement Plan Implementation Law has 
been approved, one should strive to have it canceled." 
 
President of the (U.S.) Council on Foreign Relations 
Richard N. Haass, who served as director of policy 
planning in the State Department during the first term 
of George Bush's presidency, wrote in Ha'aretz: "The 
U.S. should not ... make the establishment of a full 
Palestinian democracy a prerequisite for territorial 
return and peace." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
¶I.  "Intifada III" 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (February 18): "The 
sun has barely set on the Sharm el-Sheikh summit that 
officially ended the Al Aqsa Intifada, and Intifada III 
has already erupted.  Only this time, it's the settlers 
who are at it -- Jews against Jews.  An extremist 
minority is clashing with a Jewish majority, trying to 
sabotage the Sharm accord or any other agreement that 
brings the occupation to an end.... The settlers are 
playing with fire.  They want to create a trauma that 
will wreck any chance of an agreement.... The real 
danger lies in the plans of the extremists to paralyze 
the country and create such havoc that Israel's leaders 
may have second thoughts.  What we're talking about is 
a hair-raising spectacle of provocation, death threats 
and insurrection that could balloon to monstrous 
proportions if not nipped in the bud.... [The 
extremists] have resources and a pile of money.  They 
have the power to upset life in Israel and create a 
situation that the law enforcement authorities can do 
nothing about.  If this homegrown Intifada wins, the 
State of Israel in its democratic configuration will no 
longer exist.  Failure to carry out the disengagement 
plan will mean that Israel wants the occupation to 
continue.  Not only will America withdraw its support 
of our right to maintain settlement blocs in the West 
Bank and our objection to a Palestinian right of 
return, the whole world will justify Intifada IV -- an 
all-out war that the Palestinians are bound to declare 
on Israel.  If this homegrown Intifada wins, no heir of 
Sharon will be able to put the pieces back together." 
 
II.  "Breakdown of the Disengagement Plan 
Implementation Law" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (February 
18): "On Wednesday, [the Knesset] passed the 
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law.  The road has 
been paved for the expulsion of the Jewish settlers 
from the Katif Bloc and some settlements in the 
northernmost West Bank.... It would be difficult to 
view the withdrawal policy as one from which peace 
would sprout.... It is a fact that referring to an 
arrangement with Israel, Palestinian Authority Abu 
Mazen said that he is not satisfied with an Israeli 
pullout from the Gaza Strip.  He stated it was a 
requisite condition'.... Even after the Disengagement 
Plan Implementation Law has been approved, one should 
strive to have it canceled.  It must be amended as soon 
as possible.  This is what Jewish logic says.  Let us 
learn from the Baltic states." 
 
 
III.  "Abbas Should Get a Letter From Bush, Too" 
 
President of the (U.S.) Council on Foreign Relations 
Richard N. Haass, who served as director of policy 
planning in the State Department during the first term 
of George Bush's presidency, wrote in Ha'aretz 
(February 18): "What Palestinians would need to pledge 
in return [for guarantees by President Bush regarding 
the establishment of a Palestinian state] is to reject 
violence and terror, once and for all time.  The U.S. 
should not, however, make the establishment of a full 
Palestinian democracy a prerequisite for territorial 
return and peace.  To delay negotiations until 
Palestinian democracy has matured would only persuade 
Palestinians that diplomacy was a ruse and give many 
reasons to turn to violence.  After more than half a 
century of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, 
translating opportunity into reality will be difficult 
enough without introducing new requirements that, 
however desirable, are not essential." 
 
------------------------------ 
¶2.  Syria-Iran "Common Front": 
------------------------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Orly Halpern wrote on page one of 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "This week 
the two outcasts [Iran and Syria] decided to form a 
club.  Russia is an integral supporter; the U.S. and 
Israel are the bullies to be kept out." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Outcasts Iran and Syria Deepen Their Alliance" 
 
Columnist Orly Halpern wrote on page one of 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (February 18): 
"Lebanon, in Syria's backyard, is filled with people 
calling Syria names and accusing it of murder.  The 
Iraqi neighbors are accusing Syria of supporting the 
Iraqi insurgency.  The Jordanians and Turks are 
neutral, not wanting to upset their big U.S. patron 
because, although Syria is not on the official U.S. 
'Axis of Evil' list, as is Iran, it is undoubtedly an 
honorary member.  And the Israelis are -- well, 
Israelis.  The only one in the neighborhood willing to 
befriend the local outcast is Iran, itself not one of 
the most popular kids on the block, because of its 
development of nuclear capabilities.  This week the two 
outcasts decided to form a club.  Russia is an integral 
supporter; the U.S. and Israel are the bullies to be 
kept out." 
KURTZER