This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TEL AVIV 002441 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Leading media quoted White House Press Secretary Scott 
McClellan as saying Monday that the U.S. will seek 
clarifications from the GOI regarding an Israeli 
announcement that 50 new homes will be built in the 
West Bank settlement of Elkana.  McClellan was quoted 
as saying: "Israel should not be expanding 
settlements."  Maariv reported that McClellan added: 
"The Palestinian leaders need to act to dismantle 
terrorists' organizations."  Maariv quoted him as 
saying that Sharon is moving forward on the 
disengagement plan.  Israel Radio quoted a senior 
political source in Jerusalem as saying that he does 
not know which 50 houses are concerned.  Hatzofe quoted 
Yehuda Cohen, the head of the Elkana local council, as 
saying that he has received an approval to build 700 
houses in his settlement, in addition to the 50 houses 
in question. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted PM Sharon as saying Monday that he 
plans to participate in the annual AIPAC conference in 
Washington next month. 
 
All media reported that due to the mourning period in 
the Jewish calendar associated with the fall of both 
Jerusalem temples, Sharon expressed his readiness 
Monday to postpone the evacuation of Gaza settlements 
until August 15.  Leading media cited severe criticism 
by senior IDF officers regarding logistical problems 
involved in the postponement. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv reported that Finance Ministry D-G 
Yossi Bachar would meet senior U.S. officials this week 
to discuss U.S. aid for the Negev, the Galilee, and the 
disengagement plan, subsequent to promises President 
Bush gave Sharon during his visit to the U.S.  The 
proposed USD 1 billion assistance to Israel would 
extend over four years. 
 
All media reported that a non-commissioned officer was 
moderately wounded and an Israeli civilian lightly 
wounded by Palestinian sniper fire at construction 
workers along the Philadelphi Route on Monday 
afternoon.  Israel Radio reported that Israel protested 
to the PA over the incident. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel has halted the 
construction of the separation fence in the area of 
Ariel in the northern West Bank, and quoted defense 
establishment sources as saying that the area is "wide 
open" to infiltration by terrorists. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Finance Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu warned, at a pre-Passover event in Ness Ziona 
Monday, that if Israel did not insist on reciprocity in 
the disengagement process, the result could be a repeat 
of the tragic results of Oslo.  The newspaper quoted 
him as saying that Abbas "is not Arafat in that he is 
not ordering terrorist attacks himself, but he is also 
no Sadat and he is not King Hussein."  Netanyahu said: 
"He is not doing anything to dismantle the terrorist 
organizations." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that residents of the settlements of 
Ganim and Kadim in the northern West Bank have recently 
told Disengagement Administration Director Yonatan 
Bassi that they are interested in moving en masse to 
Afula.  Maariv quoted Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar 
as saying Monday that Shas party mentor Ovadia Yosef 
has ruled, despite his opposition to the disengagement 
plan, that evacuation orders should not be opposed and 
that one should not call for disobedience of orders. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Vice Premier Shimon Peres met 
Monday in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac 
and FM Michel Barnier, who proposed hosting an 
international conference on assisting the PA, akin to 
last month's International Donors Conference on Haiti. 
The newspaper reported that Peres suggested focusing on 
economic measures, warning that political content would 
reintroduce the issues of Jerusalem and refugees, and 
stop the peace process before it had even begun. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Likud MK Uzi Landau as saying Monday 
that Iran would undoubtedly launch a nuclear attack on 
Israel if the Islamic republic knew that it could get 
away with it unharmed.  Landau also said he might run 
for Likud candidate for PM against Sharon in the 
planned 2006 elections.  Maariv reported that former 
IAF commander Eitan Ben Eliyahu told an audience at the 
Netanya Academic College Monday that the Iranian 
nuclear problem can be resolved through a joint 
international attack on Iran's nuclear installations, 
in which Israel would participate. 
 
Ha'aretz reviewed meetings held in Beirut in late March 
between U.S. Mideast experts and Hamas and Hizbullah 
leaders, which the newspaper says shed light on the 
Islamists' intentions. 
 
Yediot reported that the Egyptian Film Actors Guild has 
displayed a billboard opposite Cairo's Ben Ezra 
synagogue, portraying Sharon, Ehud Barak, Netanyahu, 
and the late Moshe Dayan, as "killers."  The right-wing 
Internet site Arutz Sheva (Arutz-7) reported that the 
Egyptian authorities have declined to remove the 
poster. 
 
Maariv and Jerusalem Post reported that Turkish PM 
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Israel in early May -- 
according to Maariv, in an effort to mend the bilateral 
relationship.  Ha'aretz reported that a joint Israeli 
Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems has won a 
tender to supply unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the 
Turkish military, beating out competition from the U.S. 
company General Atomic and France.  The supply 
contract, which was signed Monday, is worth USD 200 
million. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
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Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "At 
this stage, the practical question facing Israel is not 
what can Abbas do for it, but what can it do for 
Abbas.... If Abbas is not strengthened now, Hamas will 
increase in power, and Israel will find itself handing 
over Gaza to a militant and uncompromising Islam, and 
not to a moderate secular administration." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"The settlers did vote overwhelmingly for Sharon, but 
even if they had not, it should not be necessary to 
explain to him that he must act as their prime 
minister, too." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"The real challenge posed by an Arab democracy will be 
its continued striving against the legitimacy of a 
Jewish state." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Tighten Rules of Engagement" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (April 
19): "Abbas is still a far cry from fulfilling his part 
of the deal offered to him by the U.S. administration: 
maintain control over the security mechanisms, fight 
terror, clean up the Palestinian Authority 
administration, and receive Israel's return to the road- 
map track.  The main difficulty facing Abbas is not 
American or even Israeli, but an internal one.  Abbas 
is caught between the Fatah rock and the Hamas hard 
place.... At this stage, the practical question facing 
Israel is not what can Abbas do for it, but what can it 
do for Abbas.  A tightening of the rules of engagement 
in the direction of broader risk margins would be one 
step in the right direction.  Another step would be the 
release of additional Palestinian prisoners.  Such a 
release is expected following the evacuation of Gaza, 
out of concern that doing it now could bolster the 
pullout opponents in Israel.  But if Abbas is not 
strengthened now, Hamas will increase in power, and 
Israel will find itself handing over Gaza to a militant 
and uncompromising Islam, and not to a moderate secular 
administration." 
 
II.  "The Settlers' PM" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(April 19): "Implementing disengagement with a minimum 
of trauma requires thinking out of the box, the more so 
because time is short, as well as acting with 
efficiency, alacrity and generosity.  When Sharon was 
in the U.S., he set the wrong tone when he spoke of 
concerns about civil war. Disengagement opponents who 
have hinted at endorsements of violence, publicly 
called for refusing IDF orders and generally denied the 
legitimacy of government decisions should indeed be 
condemned.  But the government should also be focused 
on how to treat with the utmost consideration those who 
will, however reluctantly but peacefully, abide by its 
decisions.... Encouragingly, Sharon has now set up a 
ministerial committee, with himself at its head, to 
oversee the issue of relocating Gaza's Jews.  It is to 
be hoped that the man who oversaw Israel's astounding 
success in absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jews from 
the former Soviet Union at the turn of the 1990s can 
prove successful again.  Disengagement should not mean 
disenfranchisement.  Israel is disengaging from the 
Gaza Strip, not from the Israelis whom governments of 
every stripe sent there.  Our newly elected leaders, in 
good democratic tradition, always stress that they 
intend to be the 'prime minister of everyone,' 
including those who did not vote for them.  The 
settlers did vote overwhelmingly for Sharon, but even 
if they had not, it should not be necessary to explain 
to him that he must act as their prime minister, too." 
 
III.  "The Disturbing Aspect of Arab Democracy" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in Ha'aretz 
(April 19): "The 'Bush Doctrine' to advance democracy 
in the Arab world ... draws scant attention here in 
Israel, an unfortunate situation.  Any change in Arab 
regimes will impact Israel enormously.  In Jerusalem, 
however, this is being ignored, with the concept being 
treated as if it were merely a naive American 
fantasy.... Israel has contrasting interests: on one 
hand, democratic neighbors will be less threatening and 
will reduce the danger of war; on the other hand, 
Israel will lose its unique character in the region. 
The 'shared values' that tie it to America will belong 
to other countries, as well.  Many Israelis fear that 
if the Arabs are given the freedom to choose, they will 
elect extreme Islamists to power. But the real 
challenge posed by an Arab democracy will be its 
continued striving against the legitimacy of a Jewish 
state.  A very ominous sign for the future can be found 
in the Report on Arab Human Development, the third in a 
series authored by a group of intellectuals from Arab 
countries under the sponsorship of the United Nations 
Development Program....  [In contrast to the previous 
ones], the new report repeats the old claims and places 
considerable blame on Israel and the U.S. as obstacles 
to regional development.... [Israel's] Foreign Ministry 
said of the report: 'The Arab scorpion has once again 
stung itself.'  This criticism is on the mark, but the 
problem goes beyond the diplomatic sparring.  Israel's 
cumbersome efforts to court the existing regimes in the 
Arab region are not enough.  A far-reaching soul- 
searching is necessary on the question of how Israel 
will be affected by political reforms in the region and 
what it must do to become part of the process, rather 
than be perceived as an enemy of change." 
 
KURTZER