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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 000582 
 
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.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Under the banner "The Stick and The Carrot," Maariv led 
with a report that the U.S. administration has conveyed 
messages to the GOI, according to which a Palestinian 
state would be established, and President Bush would do 
everything to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear 
capability.  The newspaper cited the GOI's expression 
of concern regarding the United States' determination 
vis-a-vis Iran, but its concern about developments as 
regards the Palestinians, especially in view of the 
high regard in which PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu 
Mazen) is held by the U.S. Administration.  Jerusalem 
Post reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 
is considering reviving the role Anthony Zinni played 
in 2001 as a security go-between to prod the PA and 
Israel into implementing the Tenet cease-fire plan. 
Jerusalem Post quoted diplomatic officials as saying 
that Secretary Rice's visit Sunday is an indication 
that the "U.S. is back in this in a big way," and that 
this will be manifest in a greatly enhanced security 
role for the U.S.  Israel Radio reported that Monday, 
before her meeting with the team of senior Sharon aide 
Dov Weisglass, Secretary Rice stressed the importance 
of territorial continuity and a viable Palestinian 
state for the success of the diplomatic process. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz 
last night told Palestinian security official Muhammad 
Dahlan last night that there would be no transfer of 
West Bank cities to the PA without a total cessation of 
mortar fire into the settlements of Gush Katif.  Israel 
Radio says that a new security meeting is slated for 
Sunday.  The station cited the Palestinian newspaper Al- 
Quds as saying that Weisglass will meet with Dahlan and 
chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday to 
prepare the Sharon-Abbas meeting.  Israel Radio quoted 
a Palestinian official as saying that Israel has 
toughened its position and that it is demanding that 
even small groups, such as the PFLP, be disarmed.  The 
media reported on nine launchings of mortar shells at 
Gaza Strip settlements on Monday, and on isolated 
bombing incidents in the West Bank.  The media also 
reported that Hamas blamed the IDF for the death under 
still undetermined circumstances of a 10-year-old 
Palestinian girl in Rafah, and that the shelling was a 
response to that incident. 
 
Leading media reported on, and Yediot led with, a 
threat by the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in 
the Territories that it would harden its anti- 
disengagement moves, including starting a hunger 
strike. 
Leading media (banner in Ha'aretz) reported that 
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz informed the 
Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) Monday 
that the cabinet's decision to apply the Absentee 
Property Law to East Jerusalem was made without Mazuz's 
knowledge or consent.  Leading media reported that 
Mazuz will announce to the government today that he is 
acting to have the decision rescinded. 
 
Maariv reported that a senior minister from a 
neighboring Arab country has recently approached his 
Israel counterpart -- a senior minister -- offering his 
country's mediation between Israel and Syria.  The 
proposal reportedly includes a "road map" comprising 
stages and agreement by both sides.  Maariv says that 
PM Sharon rejects any diplomatic track with Syria. 
Yediot reported that during the weekend, three Israeli 
WMD control experts secretly met in Cairo with a senior 
adviser of President Bashar Assad and two Iranian 
academics. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Vice Premier Shimon Peres is 
promoting a proposal to pay a monthly allowance of USD 
100 to every Palestinian living below the poverty line. 
The newspaper says that the idea came up during 
discussions between Peres and A/S William Burns, who 
visited Israel last week.  The money is slated to come 
from the donor countries, which provide aid to the PA. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Dan 
Halutz as saying before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs 
and Defense Committee on Monday that the disengagement 
plan will cost the IDF 1.9 billion shekels (around USD 
433.5 million).  The newspaper also reported that the 
police have been recruiting hundreds of civilians over 
the past month who are slated to help with the evacuees 
of the Gush Katif (Katif Bloc) settlements. 
 
Yediot, Maariv and Jerusalem Post reported that Shas 
party head, MK Eli Yishai, will visit Egypt next week 
and meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar 
Suleiman, as well as with other senior Egyptian 
officials, who will try to convince him to support the 
disengagement plan.  Ha'aretz quoted MK Yuval Steinitz, 
chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense 
Committee, as saying on Monday: "Egypt is the only 
country in the region that is preparing for the 
possibility of a military confrontation with Israel." 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Peace Now Spokesman Yariv 
Oppenheimer as saying that hoping to show that the 
"majority has decided," disengagement supporters are 
planning a big rally in Tel Aviv on February 19. 
Citing AP, Ha'aretz reported that the EU on Monday 
called on Israel and the PA to use a moment of relative 
good will to make a major move in the Mideast peace 
process by the end of February. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the police are trying to stop PA 
involvement in East Jerusalem's business sector. 
 
Citing AP, Jerusalem Post reported that in Abu Dhabi on 
Monday, U/S John Bolton repeated U.S. allegations about 
an Iranian weapons program and said Israel might attack 
Iran's nuclear sites because it has a history of such 
actions. Jerusalem Post reported that Iranian news 
agencies and media have recently claimed that the 
Holocaust was a Zionist plot. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that reportage in the U.S. media on 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has declined slightly, 
and that during 2003 the National Public Radio (NPR) 
ombudsman received no fewer than 17,000 complaints 
about coverage of the conflict -- in 2004, that number 
dropped to a few thousand. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the German government is holding 
up the signing of a contract for the sale of Dingo 
armored cars to Israel for fear that the IDF will use 
them against the Palestinians. 
 
All media reported that the government decided Monday 
that the last 20,000 Falash Mura [Ethiopian Jews who 
were converted to Christianity] who are eligible to 
immigrate to Israel will be brought here by the end of 
¶2007. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday, exactly two 
years after Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and his six 
American colleagues met their deaths aboard the 
Columbia shuttle, Tel Aviv University Professor of 
Atmospheric Sciences Colin Price will present the 
findings of an Israeli dust experiment that Ramon 
conducted on the shuttle. 
 
All media (banner in Globes) cited an announcement by 
Eastman Kodak on Monday that it would pay USD 980 
million in cash for the Canadian-Israeli digital 
printing company Creo. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Veteran liberal author Yoram Kaniuk wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Since the 
crisis in the [2000] Camp David talks, many people 
realized that it was impossible to reach a peaceful 
solution.  This is no longer true." 
 
Yahad party head and Geneva Accord co-initiator Yossi 
Beilin wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "When we are 
the sovereign faction, we have no right to discriminate 
the minority with tools that we created when we were a 
persecuted people." 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote on page one of 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe: " Israel must make it 
clear that there is no more 'tolerable' fire.  No fire 
is tolerable." 
 
Correspondent Yakov Shaus wrote in conservative Russian- 
language Vesty: "Sharon should be flexible -- on one 
hand he must show his willingness to negotiate with the 
Palestinians, and on the other hand he must insist that 
the U.S. require the disarming of Hamas and Islamic 
Jihad." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Sharon and Abu Mazen Are Holding Hands" 
 
Veteran liberal author Yoram Kaniuk wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (February 1): 
"Since the crisis in the [2000] Camp David talks, many 
people realized that it was impossible to reach a 
peaceful solution.  This is no longer true.  The 
Israeli Right grasped the century-old problem inherent 
in the conflict, but not the solutions.  The Left 
understood the solutions but not the problem.  Now, 
they are joining as Sharon and Abu Mazen are in 
unison.... Both old men have understood that both the 
Left and the Right have been wrong and that a new 
structure must be built so that our grandchildren can 
resolve the old structure's crooked ways.... On the 
fringes of the Left and the Right, people are always 
100 percent right; therefore, they know no moment of 
doubt ... No attempt to see the other side ... or to 
think differently.  The come with formulas, so they can 
dress them up." 
 
II.  "A State that is Jewish But Belongs to All Its 
Citizens" 
 
Yahad party head and Geneva Accord co-initiator Yossi 
Beilin wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (February 1): 
"The decision of Attorney General Meni [Menachem] Mazuz 
to prevent discrimination in marketing Jewish National 
Fund land has made things easier for many of us, who do 
not want to see Zionism linked with such blatant damage 
to the equality of frights between Jewish and Arabs 
citizens of Israel.... What was just and appropriate 
when the Jews were a small minority in the Land of 
Israel [historical Palestine] and before the 
establishment of the state, is unacceptable after 57 
years of independence.  When we are the sovereign 
faction, we have no right to discriminate the minority 
with tools that we created when we were a persecuted 
people, with no legal possibility of immigrating to the 
Land of Israel and settling here.  All we did then was 
to make ploys in order to survive." 
 
III.  "Israel Being Dragged Into Hizbullah-Style 
Fighting in Gaza Strip" 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote on page one of 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe (February 1): "The Hamas 
organization sent a clear message in all directions on 
Monday, mainly to Sharon and to Abu Mazen: we are 
adopting Hizbullah's style of action in the last years 
of the IDF in Lebanon.... It decided that the ten year- 
old girl in Rafah was killed by IDF fire, and it 
decided on the pattern of response -- about ten mortar 
shells at Gush Katif.... Israeli restraint plays 
straight into the hands of Hamas policy.  An Israeli 
response follows the game rules that Hamas planned: a 
response for the attack on a Palestinian civilian while 
maintaining a level of fire that is 'tolerable' and 
Israeli restraint.  Israel must not be dragged into 
this cyclic pattern of action.  Israel must make it 
clear that there is no more 'tolerable' fire.  No fire 
is tolerable.  The IDF's response does not have to be 
in the same place and in the same time.  Freezing 
gestures for a long time, for example, or completely 
stopping any transfer of security responsibility over 
the Judea and Samaria [West Bank] cities (unlike the 
civilian responsibility that will remain in Palestinian 
hands) could also be a very fitting response." 
 
IV.  "Looking Forward to American Visitors" 
 
Correspondent Yakov Shaus wrote in conservative Russian- 
language Vesty (January 31): "The Israeli leaders 
forgave Arafat too much....  A new attempt to reach a 
compromise with the Palestinians must be accompanied by 
extremely tough demands of the PA.   Prime Minister 
Sharon has said that Israel insists not only on a 
complete of eradication of terror, but also on ... 
putting an end to the anti-Israeli propaganda.... 
Incoming U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will 
visit Israel before the Sharon-Abu Mazen meeting   She 
is known to be much more intolerant towards terror than 
was her predecessor Colin Powell....  However, 
Washington is very interested in moving the peace 
process out of a deadlock.  Sharon should be flexible - 
- on one hand he must show his willingness to negotiate 
with the Palestinians, and on the other hand he must 
insist that the U.S. require the disarming of Hamas and 
Islamic Jihad, which the U.S. has already included in 
its list of ... terrorist organizations". 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "What we saw on Monday in Iraq was 
the power of democracy.  We saw people smiling broadly 
on the way to the ballot boxes." 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "Most Iraqis will ultimately be better 
off than they were under Saddam.... At the same time, 
the Bush administration will fall far short of its 
goals and the dream of a truly democratic Iraq.   Like 
most events in the Middle East, the outcome will not be 
so clear-cut." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Smiling On the Way to the Ballot Box" 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (February 1): "What we saw on Monday 
in Iraq was the power of democracy.  We saw people 
smiling broadly on the way to the ballot boxes -- 
something that is reminiscent of the smile of a child 
whose parents allow him to cross a road for the first 
time without being escorted by an adult.  The smile of 
a person who suddenly feels the joy and the distress of 
responsibility.  I saw it a decade ago in South Africa, 
when the Blacks were allowed to vote for the first time 
in their lives.... The show of freedom, and the 
yearning to influence, which we saw this week in Iraq, 
must instill a bit of modesty into those who claim that 
there are human societies in the world for which 
freedom and democracy are less important than to us." 
 
II.  "Free For All, For Now" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (February 1): "Iraq's election is one of 
the most important events in modern Middle East history 
and, as always happens with important events in the 
region, too much energy is being expended on partisan 
debates -- is U.S. policy succeeding or not? -- and too 
little on what is actually happening.... The result 
will most likely be a Shi'ite-dominated regime which 
will make a deal with the Kurds against the Sunnis. 
The rulers will have a vested interest in getting along 
with the U.S. (even while increasingly criticizing it); 
create a system more Islamic than that in Egypt or 
Jordan though far less so than Iran's; view both Iran 
and Syria as hostile, and be somewhat more democratic 
than Egypt and Jordan while far less so than the U.S. 
would hope.... Nevertheless, the more Iraq actually 
does gain self-government the less will a U.S. presence 
be able to cope with its issues.... Most Iraqis will 
ultimately be better off than they were under Saddam, 
while the insurgents are most certainly not going to 
win, and neither will the Iranians.  At the same time, 
the Bush administration will fall far short of its 
goals and the dream of a truly democratic Iraq.   Like 
most events in the Middle East, the outcome will not be 
so clear-cut.  Problems do not yield way to clear 
solutions." 
 
KURTZER