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 002615 
 
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.  Syrian-Lebanese Track 
 
¶3.  Iraq 
 
¶4.  Iran: Nuclear Program 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio quoted security sources as saying that 
Israel will hand over Qalqilya to PA security 
responsibility next week if the Palestinians abide by 
their pledge to collect weapons from wanted Palestinian 
activists.  The media reported that mortar shells and 
Qassam rockets were launched at Israeli targets Tuesday 
-- attacks which Israel Radio says were condemned by PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas.  Israel Radio 
reported on a heightened state of alert in Jerusalem 
this morning.  The station reported that this morning 
two Palestinian youths carrying explosives were 
captured at a roadblock near Jenin. 
 
Both Maariv and Ha'aretz bannered the mass rally 
expected to take place in the Gaza Strip's Katif Bloc 
today.  Ha'aretz reported that police expect up to 
80,000 people to take part in the demonstration. 
Yediot reported that the Ashkelon Municipality has 
offered to resettle Katif Bloc evacuees in villas to be 
built on a private beach.  The newspaper cited the 
municipality as saying that the Prime Minister's Office 
has approved the plan.  Ha'aretz quoted GOI sources as 
saying that they are not negotiating a deal with 
settlers from Gadim and Kadim from the northern West 
Bank over an early evacuation date. 
 
Yediot reported that PA Negotiations Minister Saeb 
Erekat attended the funeral service for former 
president Ezer Weizman Tuesday. 
 
Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday 
Abbas promoted Rashid Abu Shabak to the PA's overall 
security chief.  Jerusalem Post describes him as a 
"Palestinian commander responsible for a ruthless 
campaign against suspected 'collaborators' in the Gaza 
Strip." 
 
All media highlighted the arrival of Russian President 
Vladimir Putin to Israel today for a "historic" visit 
that will include talks on Iran's nuclear program, 
Russia's sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, the 
issue of rising anti-Semitism in Russia, and the 
question of fugitive Russian Jewish oligarchs in 
Israel.  A Yediot headline reads: "The Czar's Visit." 
Over the past few days, the media noted the fact that 
Putin's visit originally coincided with the expected 
guilty verdict of Russian Jewish oil tycoon Mikhail 
Khodorkovsky.  (It was postponed today by three weeks.) 
 
Israel Radio reported that the U.S. Defense Department 
has informed the U.S. Congress that Israel has 
requested to purchase 100 laser-guided bombs that can 
penetrate fortified underground targets, for a sum of 
USD 30 million.  The radio cited the Pentagon as saying 
that the sale of the bombs, which are manufactured by 
Lockheed Martin and can be carried by F15 fighter 
planes, will not affect the balance of power in the 
region.  The station reported that American experts 
told Reuters that Israel could use the bombs against 
Iran's nuclear installations. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Construction and Housing 
Ministry continues to make plans for the E-1 corridor 
linking Ma'aleh Adumim to Jerusalem, despite a 
declaration by Construction and Housing Minister 
Yitzhak Herzog that this construction is not in the 
plan for 2005. 
 
All media reported that the IDF soldier who was run 
over by a taxi near Hebron Monday night was probably 
killed by friendly fire. 
 
Ha'aretz says that there has been talk in the defense 
establishment about ending IAF overflights in Lebanese 
air space after the Syrian troops depart, but that the 
decision so far is to continue the overflights on the 
grounds that they are vital for operational reasons. 
 
In Yediot, Prof. Eytan Gilboa writes that the newly 
released CIA report that denies the existence of WMD in 
pre-war Iraq is dramatic, but that it will not change 
anything. 
 
In a report from Dubai, Jerusalem Post featured 
Abdulaziz Sager, the initiator of the think tank Gulf 
Research Center (GRC), who urges dialogue with 
Israelis, but has also castigated U.S. pro-Israel 
activists as "hate-mongering forces." 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "It was the Americans who told the 
Israelis in talks in Texas the simple truth: Abu Mazen 
is the only horse on the ground." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
"It All Starts Now" 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (April 27): "In Abu Mazen's case, the 
first 100 days are less important than the second 100 
days, which are starting now.  This second 100 days 
will include disengagement and will determine Abu 
Mazen's fate, the fate of the peace process, the fate 
of disengagement and the chances for a certain amount 
of stability in the region in its wake.  The way Abu 
Mazen's administration weathers disengagement, if he 
succeeds in weathering it calmly, if he succeeds in 
preventing violence, if he takes over land and property 
in an orderly manner and ensures quiet in Gaza in its 
wake -- all these will determine the future of the 
Palestinian leader and perhaps also the political 
future of Ariel Sharon, as well as ours.... Abu Mazen's 
real allies are in Washington.  On the eve of Sharon's 
last visit to the U.S., Sharon's aides described Abu 
Mazen as irretrievably dead.  On the way back they 
already spoke differently.  It was the Americans who 
told the Israelis in talks in Texas the simple truth: 
Abu Mazen is the only horse on the ground, and he must 
be given all the time in the world and all the patience 
that can be mobilized, because there is nothing behind 
him.  Sharon, as of now, is toeing the line.  He will 
soon met with Abu Mazen, and hear from him face to face 
how he plans to weather disengagement in peace.  And 
afterwards, we will cross our fingers." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  Syrian-Lebanese Track: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "The international coalition that joined the 
U.S. in its unequivocal demand for a Syrian pullout 
could now stare straight into President Bush's eyes and 
tell him that he should ask of Israel what he had 
requested from Assad." 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The Syrian 
withdrawal from Lebanon, ostensibly completed yesterday 
... is far from being satisfactory to the U.S." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "A New Hope in Lebanon" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (April 27): "Five years after the last IDF 
soldier left the soil of Lebanon, Syria is completing 
its withdrawal from there after dozens of years of 
occupation and exploitation.  These are amazing sights, 
which would have been inconceivable one or two years 
ago.... First of all, one may hope that war-torn 
Lebanon, which during the past three decades has mostly 
known occupying forces that fought their wars on its 
soil, will be able to find the golden path despite 
ethnic and religious strife in its society.... What is 
really important is not the fact that the U.S. is just 
beyond [Syria's] border, and has already shown its 
resolve to forcefully intervene in countries whose 
regimes don't please it.  No less important is the 
enlistment of the entire international community, 
including countries on whose empathy Syria had counted, 
in the elimination of the Syrian occupation of 
Lebanon.... Israel can be happy about Assad's 
[eventual] downfall.... But it is not certain that 
those who are convinced that the U.S. administration -- 
a half-ton gorilla that set the rules of the game as it 
wishes -- will want (or be able) to ignore an 
occupation in a less easy spot for the U.S. than 
Lebanon.  The international coalition that joined the 
U.S. in its unequivocal demand for a Syrian pullout 
could now stare straight into President Bush's eyes and 
tell him that he should ask of Israel what he had 
requested from Assad." 
 
II.  "Troops Out, But U.S. Doesn't Trust Assad" 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 27): "The 
Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, ostensibly completed 
yesterday and marked by a ceremony in the Bekaa, is far 
from being satisfactory to the U.S.  As far as 
Washington is concerned, Syrian President Bashar Assad 
remains a problematic and dangerous leader in the 
region, even if he obeyed the explicit American demand 
to withdraw his troops from Lebanon by the deadline. 
The U.S. list of complaints against Syria is long and 
detailed, beginning with the issue of the Iraqi-Syrian 
border.... The terror issue makes up a major component 
on the American list of complaints.... Beyond those 
complaints, Washington simply does not trust Assad.... 
As far as the [U.S.] administration is concerned, Assad 
at best is unreliable, and at worst is an incorrigible 
conniver who should not be engaged until he has met all 
the U.S. demands.  And the U.S. says Assad is far from 
doing so.  The withdrawal from Lebanon only erases one 
article from the list of complaints.  Only when Assad 
erases each and every one of the complaints will it be 
possible to accept him as a legitimate partner for 
dialogue." 
--------- 
¶3.  Iraq: 
--------- 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Ben-Gurion University political scientist Niv Gordon 
wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The 
current [U.S.] administration has adopted [in Iraq] the 
model of 'democratic occupation' ... which Israel has 
developed in the West Bank and Gaza." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"The Occupier's Subcontractor" 
 
Ben-Gurion University political scientist Niv Gordon 
wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 27): 
"Israel is the key to understanding President Bush's 
strategy in Iraq.  This isn't because it influenced in 
any way the decision-making process that led to the 
second Gulf war, but because the current [U.S.] 
administration has adopted the model of 'democratic 
occupation' -- as [former communist Knesset member] 
Tamar Gozansky has dubbed it -- which Israel has 
developed in the West Bank and Gaza.... Following 
protracted negotiations, the Palestinian Authority was 
established -- as an entity that took upon itself the 
daily organization of the occupied territories' 
residents, whereas Israel retained control of 80 
percent of the land reserves.  Within a few months, the 
civil institutions ... were transferred from Israel to 
the hands of the young authority, which received a 
limited type of sovereignty.  Thus, without renouncing 
its right to rule in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel 
handed over responsibility over the residents to a kind 
of subcontractor -- the PA -- abruptly reduced the cost 
of the occupation.... The Bush administration found 
that strategy particularly suitable to the narrative of 
the 'dissemination of freedom' in the Middle East." 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶4.  Iran: Nuclear Program: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Former senior Mossad official Uri Ne'eman wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Israel must not arouse a 
new enemy against itself and create a direct conflict 
with the Iranian state and people, with which it may be 
possible to maintain normal relations, given a 
different regime in Tehran." 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Don't Bomb Iran" 
 
Former senior Mossad official Uri Ne'eman wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (April 27): "Iran will have 
nuclear weapons, and Israel must prepare to reduce the 
threat this embodies to a tolerable or even negligible 
minimum.  However, Israel must also avoid a direct 
bloody conflict with Iran, and must remove from its 
agenda all thoughts of an offensive violent Israeli 
action against Iran and its nuclear installations, with 
the aim of obstructing its nuclearization process.... 
Iran is a regional power, with everything this implies. 
The present Iranian regime wishes for the elimination 
of the State of Israel, and harasses it through its 
emissaries.  However, there is no direct conflict 
between Iran and Israel.... Israel must not arouse a 
new enemy against itself and create a direct conflict 
with the Iranian state and people, with which it may be 
possible to maintain normal relations, given a 
different regime in Tehran.... Only the U.S. ... can 
land massive and ongoing overwhelming blows on Iran and 
maintain them operationally over time.  The U.S. is 
also capable of preparing properly against possible 
Iranian reactions, including terror attacks around the 
world against its interests and installations, and also 
withstand the burden of international criticism and 
outcries that will arise.  Israel is as far from these 
capabilities as a small country is far from a 
superpower.  It will never have such capabilities. 
There is no point in entertaining the illusion that 
Israel can prevent, on its own and with its own 
strength, Iran's nuclearization, not only today and 
tomorrow but from here on, not to say until the end of 
time." 
 
KURTZER