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 002420 
 
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 three major newspapers (Ha'aretz, Yediot, and 
Maariv) led with various aspects of the disengagement 
move.  Ha'aretz reported that the latest, tentative 
version of the withdrawal blueprint says that three 
northern Gaza Strip settlements -- Elei Sinai, Dugit, 
and Nissanit -- will be the first to be evacuated by 
the army and police in the implementation of the Gaza 
disengagement plan.  The isolated settlement of 
Netzarim is also apparently due for evacuation in the 
first week of the withdrawal, in late July.  Yediot 
reported that Disengagement Administration Director 
Yonatan Bassi has asked PM Sharon to postpone the 
evacuation by three weeks, in order not to upset the 
sensitive period of mourning set in the Jewish calendar 
over the destruction of the two Jerusalem temples. 
Maariv reported that many residents of two northern 
West Bank settlements that are not included in the 
disengagement plan -- Hermesh and Mevo Dotan -- have 
asked the IDF to evacuate them as well.  On Sunday, 
Ha'aretz bannered the cancellation by the leaders of 
the Katif Bloc settlers on Saturday of a meeting 
scheduled for Sunday with Sharon.  The newspaper wrote 
that hard-liners want to keep up the appearance of 
fighting against the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. 
On Sunday, Maariv reported that Defense Minister Shaul 
Mofaz decided on Thursday to collect most of the 
weapons belonging to the settlers slated for 
evacuation, but that Internal Security Minister Gideon 
Ezra opposes the initiative, saying that the settlers 
must deal with the matter themselves. 
 
Leading media quoted Finance Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom at saying 
Sunday at pre-Passover holiday meetings that there will 
be no further disengagement. 
 
On Sunday, leading media reported that Israel and the 
PA are renewing talks this week over issues of mutual 
interest regarding the transfer of cities to the PA, 
the release of prisoners, and security matters. 
Hatzofe quoted PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas as 
saying Sunday following talks he held with Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak that the PA is prepared to 
coordinate the disengagement move with Israel.  On 
Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that the Bush 
administration's envoys Elliott Abrams and David Welch 
will be arriving in the region on Tuesday to assess 
Abbas's political status and find ways to shore up his 
regime. 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz quoted Israeli sources as saying 
during the weekend, following Sharon's U.S. visit, that 
Israel and the U.S. see eye-to-eye on an evaluation of 
Iran's nuclear plans, but that they divided on the 
question of when and how to bring the issue before the 
UN Security Council. 
 
All media cited a Shin Bet announcement Sunday that 
thee members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of 
Palestine from north and east Jerusalem wee recently 
arrested on suspicion of planning to assassinate Shas 
spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Yohanan Tsoref, a terrorism expert at 
the Interdisciplinary Center and a former consultant on 
Arab affairs for the GOI's Civil Administration in the 
territories, as saying that the release of prisoners is 
the best way for Abbas to distinguish himself from 
Yasser Arafat.  Yediot cited Sunday's cabinet 
announcement that Israel will release nine Jordanian 
security prisoners. 
 
Leading media reported that in the third incident of 
its kind in recent weeks, Fatah gunmen stormed the 
offices of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Jenin 
on Thursday, accusing the PA of failing to pay the 
families of security prisoners in Israel.  On Sunday, 
Jerusalem Post quoted Palestinian legislator Abdel 
Fattah Hamayel as saying during the weekend that 
members of the armed wing of Hamas, Izzadin Qassam, 
have express their readiness to join the PA's security 
forces.  Israel Radio cited a denial by Hamas. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv reported that a giant rally against 
disengagement will take place in New York's Central 
Park in June, from which a large delegation of 
thousands of American Jews will travel to the Katif 
Bloc for a "mission of solidarity" with the residents. 
 
On Sunday, in a report from Cairo, Jerusalem Post cited 
the confidence of Egyptian reformers that their cause 
is gaining momentum. 
 
Maariv reported that the World Organization of Jews 
from Arab Countries (WOJAC) is terminating its 
activities after 30 years.  The group says it is 
protesting the GOI's opposition to promoting the issue 
of compensation of Jews from Arab countries and North 
Africa. 
 
Ha'aretz cited a poll conducted by the U.S. Jewish 
organization Ameinu that found that most American Jews 
support the disengagement plan, in spite of doubts 
about whether it will make Israel safer.  The telephone 
survey found that 62 percent of respondents backed the 
plan, while 23 percent opposed it. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "Somebody here has understood that we will 
not be able to rest on our laurels on the day after 
disengagement.  The Americans will not let us." 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning, 
independent Ha'aretz: "It is difficult to believe that 
Sharon does not know that the cease-fire with Hamas and 
integrating that organization into the political 
process is considered one of Abu Mazen's most important 
achievements." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "U.S. Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice announced last week the appointment of 
James Wolfensohn as the special envoy for Gaza 
disengagement.... From now on, the Bush administration 
and its partners have two tools at their disposal to 
improve the odds of the evacuation's success." 
 
Ron Breiman, chair of the right-wing organization 
Professors For a Strong Israel, wrote in Ha'aretz: "If 
Bush were to understand, rather than being taken in by 
Sharon's charm or European pressure, he would not waste 
his second term on a problem that has no solution in 
the foreseeable future." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"It is strange and disturbing ... that the lack of 
Palestinian press freedom not only fails to top the 
Western agenda for democratic reform, but seems 
somewhere off the radar screen." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Real Message" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (April 18): "Israel [believed] that after 
disengagement, [it] would be able to take some 'time 
out' and enter a prolonged interim stage before the 
negotiations on a permanent settlement are resumed. 
However, these basic premises of Sharon proved to be 
wrong, one after the other, at his meetings with 
President Bush.  The Americans do not intend to send 
the Middle East on a two-year vacation.  It is even 
doubtful whether they will even allow us a break of a 
few months after disengagement is completed in 
September.... [The Americans] place much less emphasis 
on total dismantling of the terrorism infrastructure as 
a condition for continued progress in the road map.  We 
will not receive a pat on the shoulder on the morning 
after disengagement.... Shortly after disengagement 
Israel will find itself subjected to a concentrated 
American effort, coordinated as never before with the 
Europeans, to open a corridor to the permanent-status 
agreement.... The two American representatives for 
coordination of activity in the region, General Ward 
and James Wolfensohn, will be much more creative and 
dominant.   The report published by Yediot Aharonot 
that the second stage of the disengagement is already 
on the agenda at the Prime Minister's Office, shows 
that the American message has been heard, after all, by 
Israeli ears.  And that somebody here has understood 
that we will not be able to rest on our laurels on the 
day after disengagement.  The Americans will not let 
us.  This, in effect, was the main message that Israel 
was intended to absorb from the successful and so 
prestigious visit of the Prime Minister to the U.S. 
President's private ranch in Texas." 
 
II.  "There's No Partner" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning, 
independent Ha'aretz (April 18): "It is difficult to 
decide what is worse -- that the Prime Minister is 
unaware that every delay in fulfilling ... promises 
further weakens Abu Mazen and strengthens opponents of 
any compromise, or that he is aware of the bad 
influence of Israeli policies on Abu Mazen's situation, 
but finds it more convenient to have a weak Palestinian 
leader.  It is difficult to believe that Sharon does 
not know that the cease-fire with Hamas and integrating 
that organization into the political process is 
considered one of Abu Mazen's most important 
achievements.  Strange.  A politician who is afraid to 
evacuate dozens of outposts inhabited by lawbreakers 
and needs the opposition's help to survive is 
considered a strong leader.  A politician ready to sign 
a peace agreement between two states is considered a 
weak leader.  The important thing is that there's no 
partner." 
 
III.  "Coordinate the Evacuation" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (April 17): "U.S. Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice announced last week the 
appointment of James Wolfensohn as the special envoy 
for Gaza disengagement.  Wolfensohn, an investment 
banker, will end a decade as head of the World Bank in 
about six weeks.  He is to stay at his new post until 
the end of the year and has been given a two-fold task: 
to coordinate the civilian aspects of the handover of 
Gaza and the northern West Bank from Israel to the 
Palestinian Authority, and to jump-start the 
Palestinian economy after the evacuation.  Wolfensohn's 
appointment expropriates the evacuation from the sole 
province of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, where it was 
purported to be a unilateral issue, and transforms it 
into a multilateral one, overseen by the international 
community.  Wolfensohn, an American citizen, is first 
and foremost the representative of President George W. 
Bush and Rice.  But the three other members of the 
Quartet -- the UN, the EU, and Russia -- were also 
party to it.  Thus, Wolfensohn's activity is linked to 
the road map, as is the disengagement itself. It allows 
those who sent him to determine which of the parties -- 
the Israelis or the Palestinians -- has met its 
obligations, according to this plan, after evacuation. 
Wolfensohn has also been authorized to strengthen the 
ties between the two sides, to make it difficult for 
them to refuse to fulfill those obligations.  From now 
on, the Bush administration and its partners have two 
tools at their disposal to improve the odds of the 
evacuation's success.  On the security side, General 
William Ward is urging the chairman of the PA to 
streamline the clumsy and debilitated security forces 
that are supposed to answer to him.  On the civilian 
side, Wolfensohn will try to serve as a shock absorber, 
so that the transfer of Gaza leaves the PA with an 
asset instead of a burden." 
 
IV.  "What Bush Doesn't Understand" 
 
Ron Breiman, chair of the right-wing organization 
Professors For a Strong Israel, wrote in Ha'aretz 
(April 18): "If Bush were to understand that building a 
vision on the shaky foundation of expelling Jews and 
encouraging terror does not agree with his positive 
desire for democratizing the world and overcoming 
terror, he himself would turn to different channels. 
He wouldn't waste his time on unifying Abu Mazen's 
security services, which are nothing more than 
terrorists in uniform, but would demand their total 
removal from the western part of the Land of Israel 
[i.e. Israel, including the territories]; he wouldn't 
demand gestures from Sharon to establish the rule of 
Arafat's successor, in other words, a continuation of 
the approach of the Oslo Accords, which collapsed in a 
foreseeable manner, but would demand the total 
abolition of the PA... [Bush's] concern for Arab 
territorial contiguity means a lethal lopping off of 
Jewish territorial contiguity, and an existential 
threat to the only state the Jews have; he would 
understand that the attempt to bring about peace now is 
leading to 'war now'.... To sum up, if Bush were to 
understand, rather than being taken in by Sharon's 
charm or European pressure, he would not waste his 
second term on a problem that has no solution in the 
foreseeable future; he would exhibit the responsibility 
that the Prime Minister of Israel has lost, and stop 
Sharon on the eve of implementation of the act of 
madness that contradicts the values of Zionism, 
Judaism, democracy and the need for a global war 
against terror." 
 
¶V.  "Free the Palestinian Press" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(April 17): "A glimpse of the reality beneath the 
veneer of democratization in the Palestinian Authority 
was offered a few days ago in this newspaper in a 
troubling account ... on the plight of journalists next 
door to us.  The situation ... depicted, and to which 
many courageous reporters attested, belies the 
impression that the Palestinian leadership is 
internalizing the values of a free society.... As we 
reported, the picture is hardly one of progress. 
Indeed, the PA recently decided to subordinate all 
government-controlled media to the direct supervision 
of the Ministry of Information.  In a move widely 
regarded as a tightening of the authorities' grip on 
both the print and electronic media, these are now to 
be subjected to intensive review by the newly 
established 'Executive Media Council'.... Though some 
argue that a free press will be exploited by hate- 
mongers of the Hamas ilk, we should remember that the 
PA's government-controlled press continues to refer to 
suicide bombers as 'martyrs,' even though Mahmoud Abbas 
has presumably committed to ending incitement.  Without 
a free press, there is simply no hope for more moderate 
views to come to the fore.... It is strange and 
disturbing, therefore, that the lack of Palestinian 
press freedom not only fails to top the Western agenda 
for democratic reform, but seems somewhere off the 
radar screen.... Given the centrality of press freedom 
as a pillar of democracy, and that the United States, 
and even Europe, have put political reform at the 
center of their vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace, 
the almost complete lack of attention to this problem 
is a glaring anomaly.  Without independent newspapers 
and free Palestinian journalists, hopes for a better 
future for Palestinians and Israelis will be slim." 
 
KURTZER