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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 001683 
 
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.  Iran: Nuclear Program 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Deputy National Security Advisor 
Elliott Abrams, who holds the "Israeli-Palestinian 
portfolio" in the White House, and David Welch, the 
"head of the State Department's Middle East desk," will 
visit Israel and the PA on Wednesday to prepare next 
month's Washington visits by PM Sharon and PA Chairman 
Mahmoud Abbas.  The newspaper says that among other 
issues, the two U.S. envoys will be discussing the 
progress of the disengagement plan, which Ha'aretz says 
the White House views as "the only game in town."  The 
newspaper writes that for this reason, the U.S. 
administration has quietly agreed to Sharon's foot- 
dragging on evacuating illegal outposts in the West 
Bank. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz bannered the completion of an 
extensive aerial photography operation detailing the 
location and expansion of each settlement and outpost 
in the West Bank.  The survey revealed that there has 
been extensive building in recent months. 
 
Nigel Roberts, World Bank country director for the West 
Bank and Gaza, was quoted as saying in an interview 
with Jerusalem Post that Israel and the PA have not 
started discussing the final dispensation of homes and 
infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, even as the time 
needed to deal with the complex issues involved in 
transferring these assets is quickly running out. 
 
Leading media reported that Israel and the PA failed to 
reach an agreement last night on the handover of 
security responsibility for Tulkarm to the PA, which 
was scheduled to take charge there today.  Israel 
rejected the demand for control of nearby villages, 
which is says should be returned gradually and are the 
basis for attacks on Israeli targets.  On Monday, 
Yediot reported that Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter 
secretly met in Amman on Friday to discuss the security 
 
SIPDIS 
talks between Israel and the PA so as to pave the way 
for the continued transfer of security responsibility 
over the West Bank cities to the Palestinian security 
forces.  Abbas apprised Dichter of the understandings 
that were reached with the Palestinian factions in the 
Cairo summit meeting and presented the Palestinian 
demands that were being made of Israel so as to 
preserve these understandings.  Jerusalem Post quoted 
Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip as saying that his 
group has decided to participate in next July's 
election for the Palestinian Legislative Council in 
order to destroy the Oslo Accords and fight corruption 
in the PA. 
On Sunday, Jerusalem Post quoted a source close to 
Sharon as saying that he decided over the weekend to 
move up the vote on the 2005 state budget from March 31 
to March 30, or possibly even the day before, to avoid 
falling prey to a political ambush. 
 
On Sunday, all media reported that only about 10,000 
people attended a rally in support of disengagement on 
Saturday night in Tel Aviv.  Contrary to expectations, 
organizers did not manage to bring out either their 
groups or speakers who are not identified with the 
peace camp. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that residents of the Katif Bloc 
settlements in Gaza have given the security services 
the names of several extremists whom they believe might 
use violence during the evacuation this July, and that 
they asked the services to remove these people from 
their settlements.  Yediot reported that A-G Menachem 
Mazuz has instructed that disengagement opponents who 
breach the law be punished more severely, proposing a 
sentence of up to 20 years imprisonment for highway 
obstructers.  Leading media quoted senior defense 
sources as saying that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz 
will turn the Gaza Strip into a closed military area 
before Passover (April 23).  Jerusalem Post quoted a 
senior police officer as saying that settler attacks on 
Palestinians in Hebron are on the rise and that they 
are expected to escalate as the evacuation from the 
Gaza Strip draws closer.  Ha'aretz reported that Sharon 
has rejected a proposal by Agriculture Minister Yisrael 
Katz that Israel announce that it does not intend to 
evacuate settler outposts set up before March 2001, in 
exchange for the Likud "rebels'" removing their 
opposition to the state budget.  Israel Radio reported 
that the collaborators' village of Dahaniyeh in the 
southern Gaza Strip is to be evacuated and destroyed, 
and most of the collaborators will be moved to 
communities in Israel. The decision was taken at a high 
level meeting last week after a poll conducted in 
Dahaniyeh showed that most of the residents wished to 
leave the Gaza Strip.  A senior source told the radio 
that the government will not abandon those who helped 
Israel over the years. 
 
Yediot reported that the GOI has launched a plan to 
build thousands of homes to link Ma'aleh Adumim to the 
Green Line and Jerusalem (the E-1 corridor), as part of 
a giant plan under Sharon's personal supervision.   The 
daily says that in the past few days the plan has 
passed from the theoretical to the practical stage. 
Jerusalem Post quoted Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, the incoming 
EU Ambassador to Israel, as saying Sunday that a short- 
term lull was insufficient and that for peace to 
flourish, the Palestinian leadership had to be 
"proactive" in the battle against terrorism.  On 
Sunday, Ha'aretz quoted EU sources as saying that the 
EU intends to offer Israel economic benefits in 
exchange for relieving the restrictions on the 
Palestinians. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Jordanian FM Hani al-Mulki as saying 
Sunday that Jordan's King Abdullah will not attend the 
upcoming Arab League Summit, scheduled to begin today 
in Algeria.  The newspaper says that the reason for the 
King's decision is related to the Arab League's refusal 
to adopt his proposal, by which the Arab states would 
normalize relations with Israel prior to a 
comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.  On 
Sunday, Yediot headlined: "Abdullah Presents: 'Peace 
Now.'"  Jerusalem Post quoted senior diplomatic 
officials as saying Sunday that the Arab world is 
unlikely to take bold steps to normalize relations with 
Israel until it sees Jerusalem take "irreversible" 
steps.  On Sunday, Jerusalem Post quoted PA officials 
in Ramallah as saying that the Palestinians are 
strongly opposed to Jordan's plan.  On Sunday, Maariv 
reported that at a meeting in Geneva last week between 
Moroccan FM Mohammed Benaissa and FM Silvan Shalom, 
Benaissa told Shalom that Morocco is considering 
resuming its relations with Israel.  Maariv also writes 
that last weekend officials in Vice Premier Shimon 
Peres's bureau hinted that talks are being held 
regarding a trip by Peres to Morocco. 
 
Jerusalem Post cited harsh criticism of the PA by 
senior PA officials and academics, which has become 
commonplace among Palestinians following the death of 
Yasser Arafat. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv cited optimistic forecasts for 2005 
by IDF Intelligence officials. 
 
On Sunday, major media cited reports published last 
week in the U.S. press, according to which Iran 
purchased long-range Cruise missiles from Ukraine in 
¶2001. 
 
Ha'aretz cited a denial by the Greek Orthodox 
Patriarchate of a Maariv report Friday that it has any 
tangible information regarding the sale of its lands in 
the Old City's Jaffa Gate plaza in Jerusalem. 
 
Leading media reported that four IDF soldiers who 
mistakenly ventured into the Al-Amari refugee camp 
north of Jerusalem were wounded, two of them seriously. 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning, 
independent Ha'aretz: "If the day after the 
disengagement it turns out that 'Gaza-first' is also 
'Gaza-the end,' the Europeans will once again attack 
us, the Arabs will recall their ambassadors, and the 
extremists of both nations will once again reign in the 
territories.  Everything now depends on the President 
of the U.S., the only person with an influence on 
Sharon." 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "Ariel Sharon marketed [disengagement] as an 
obligatory step, but his motives and plans for the day 
after are still not entirely clear." 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in an 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "The current U.S. administration's 
unqualified support for Israel's actions in the past 
several years ought not blind Israelis from seeing the 
danger inherent in a situation in which all of our 
political eggs are in a single basket." 
 
Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, Committee 
for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, wrote 
in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "A review 
of [National Public Radio's] coverage in early 2005 
offers few signs of positive change." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Now It's All Up To Bush" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning, 
independent Ha'aretz (March 21): "Since U.S. President 
George W. Bush was sworn in for his second term, some 
of his greatest critics (including this writer) are 
wondering whether they were mistaken when they 
prophesied that the 43rd president would barely rate a 
footnote in American history, not to mention a place in 
world history.  A recent series of appointments -- or 
to be more precise, the 'kicking upstairs' that has 
taken place in the top echelons of the administration - 
- seem to testify that the president no longer adheres 
to the neoconservative approach, which holds that what 
doesn't work by force, will work by greater force.... 
Even the Europeans who belittled Bush's vision of the 
Palestinian state, and the Arabs who believed that his 
demand for democratization in their countries was only 
a way out of realizing that same vision, are having 
second thoughts.  Whether out of a desire to join the 
group that is turning out to be the victor, or whether 
from a desire to grasp the Bush vision, in the European 
Union and the Arab League there is a growing tendency 
to adopt the President's line.... If the day after the 
disengagement it turns out that 'Gaza-first' is also 
'Gaza-the end,' the Europeans will once again attack 
us, the Arabs will recall their ambassadors, and the 
extremists of both nations will once again reign in the 
territories.  Everything now depends on the President 
of the U.S., the only person with an influence on 
Sharon.  On April 12, the day after the meeting with 
Sharon on the Texas ranch, we will know whether we have 
to apologize to George W. Bush." 
 
II.  "The Empty Square" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (March 20): "What conclusion can be drawn from 
the meager turnout at the demonstration in support of 
the disengagement plan Saturday night in Tel Aviv?.... 
Perhaps, and only perhaps this is what it is: despite 
all the talk about an historic initiative, the 
disengagement plan is not a vision being implemented. 
Ariel Sharon marketed it as an obligatory step, but his 
motives and plans for the day after are still not 
entirely clear.  The plan will be executed because 
Sharon has enlisted the strongest mechanisms in Israel 
to that end.  A majority of Israelis support it as a 
default choice, particularly after it has already 
gotten under way and the entire world stands behind it. 
But for a default choice and the operation of 
mechanisms only few people want to leave home on a 
Saturday night." 
 
III.  "World Importance" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in an 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (March 20): "[President Bush's] candidate for 
American ambassador to the UN John Bolton, a 
neoconservative ... once said: There is no such thing 
as the United Nations, there is the international 
community that sometimes is subject to the leadership 
of the only superpower left in the world, and that, of 
course, is the U.S.  Of all possible Americans, this is 
the man who Bush thinks will most faithfully represent 
the importance that the U.S. confers on the 
international organization, whose headquarters it hosts 
on its soil.... Israel perceives that organization as a 
kind of debate club that is devoid of any real content, 
to which we need to send our representatives with the 
best spoken English so as to deliver impassionate 
speeches.  The U.S., conversely, is the master of our 
fate, a redeemer and a savior that needs to be shown 
the respect the peasant pays to his feudal lord.  This 
view is something we ought to contemplate seriously, 
precisely when it seems that the United States' power 
is at its zenith.  In the next few years a number of 
new powers will rise that will challenge the American 
hegemony: China, Russia, India and Europe, each with 
its own unique reasons for its economic and political 
might.  Soon enough even the U.S. will not be able to 
do as it sees fit, and international coalitions will 
not be a luxury but a necessity.  The current U.S. 
administration's unqualified support for Israel's 
actions in the past several years ought not blind 
Israelis from seeing the danger inherent in a situation 
in which all of our political eggs are in a single 
basket." 
 
IV.  "More Static on American Public Radio" 
 
Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, Committee 
for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, wrote 
in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (March 20): 
"It's fundraising season at America's National Public 
Radio.... NPR has earned a reputation for both the 
quality of its programs and for a long-standing bias 
against Israel. But is that now beginning to change?  A 
review of its coverage in early 2005 offers few signs 
of positive change. Instead, the tilt toward the Arab 
narrative continues.  Gestures of accountability, 
including sporadic corrections and quarterly self- 
examinations of its Middle East reporting amount to 
little more than PR damage control.... Americans who 
care about factual, balanced and unbiased reporting 
should keep this in mind when they're asked to send a 
check." 
 
 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  Iran: Nuclear Program: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Aviation affairs correspondent Arye Egozi wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The U.S. 
administration is no less worried than Israel regarding 
Iran's Cruise missiles.... The Iranians can use them to 
strike the U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"The Americans Should Be Worried, Too" 
 
Aviation affairs correspondent Arye Egozi wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (March 20): 
"Israel has every reason to be worried about the 
Iranian-Ukrainian missile deal: this is an upgrade of 
delivery systems in advance of the day Iran will have 
nuclear capability.... The U.S. administration is no 
less worried than Israel regarding Iran's Cruise 
missiles.... The Iranian Cruise missiles change the map 
of regional threats.  The Iranians can use them to 
strike the U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East." 
 
KURTZER