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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 002777 
 
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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¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  NPT Review Conference May 2-27 New York 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Most major media led with various aspects of the 
disengagement plan.  Ha'aretz (banner) and other media 
quoted Justice Minister Tzipi Livni as saying Tuesday 
after meeting with settler representatives that the 
scope of the plan to resettle Gush Katif (Katif Bloc) 
evacuees in the area between Ashdod and Ashkelon will 
depend on how may settlers sign onto the plan.  Maariv 
says that the government will create a "town" in 
Nitzanim.  All media reported that in a "marathon" 
hearing Tuesday, the High Court of Justice debated 12 
petitions against the disengagement plan.  Chief 
Justice Aharon Barak said that the settlers' pleas 
before the court "penetrated the heart, but the court 
will not render a ruling according to the heart only." 
The media quoted influential Justice Mishael Cheshin as 
saying: "The people decided to disengage, the people 
must pay."  Cheshin also commented: "The Evacuation- 
Compensation Law viewed the data in a cold manner and 
did not relate to the human dignity of the settlers." 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that in a "marked reversal", PM 
Sharon hinted at a meeting with senior ministers 
Tuesday that he is opposed to the destruction of houses 
to be left behind in Gaza.  Yediot says that Sharon 
told his ministers that he is still hesitant on the 
matter.  The cabinet will vote on the matter on Sunday. 
Several media reported that Finance Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu is the only minister who has spoken out 
clearly in favor of a "scorched earth" policy.  Labor 
Knesset Member Haim Ramon told Israel Radio this 
morning that Netanyahu's comments are meant to thwart 
disengagement. 
 
Yediot quoted James Wolfensohn, special envoy for the 
Quartet on the Gaza disengagement, as saying Tuesday 
that starting next week the World Bank will dispatch 
teams to Israel to assist Israeli-Palestinian 
coordination of the civilian and economic aspects of 
disengagement. 
 
Israel Radio reported that on Tuesday, the Subcommittee 
for Intelligence and Secret Services of the Knesset's 
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sent an urgent 
letter to the members of the diplomatic security 
cabinet, in which it warned against the deployment of 
Egyptian forces along the Philadelphi route.  The 
subcommittee's members wrote that the Sinai's 
demilitarization is a basic principle of Israel's 
security and that Egypt's insistence on positioning 800 
troops -- not policemen -- in the area may be aimed at 
violating the principle of full demilitarization. 
Speaking on Israel Radio this morning, Finance Minister 
Binyamin Netanyahu said that the Egyptian positioning 
of forces in the area could bring about the end of the 
peace treaty with Egypt. 
Speaking on Israel Radio this morning, Foreign Minister 
Silvan Shalom stressed the importance of his visit to 
Mauritania on Tuesday. (Demonstrations took place in 
that country during the visit.)  He said that he told 
the Mauritanian leaders that the disengagement will 
take place in mid-August.  Ha'aretz and Yediot reported 
that Mauritanian President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya 
told Shalom that all Arab countries want peace. 
Ha'aretz quoted Taya as saying that additional Arab 
countries will join the peace process as relations 
between Israel and the Palestinians improve.  Yediot 
quoted Taya as saying that he is proud of his country's 
relations with Israel. 
 
Leading media reported that the PA has released one to 
three men (reports varied) from a suspected Hamas squad 
which it had arrested after a gun battle in the Gaza 
Strip.  Yediot and Jerusalem Post reported that PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas released one of the 
suspects following pressure from Egypt.  Jerusalem Post 
cited a Shin Bet report published on Tuesday, according 
to which there was a 54 percent increase in attacks in 
the territories in April compared to the previous 
month. 
 
Jerusalem Post and other media quoted the Jerusalem 
police as saying that on Tuesday, they raided the 
offices of Revava, an ultra-nationalist organization 
that was working against the planned disengagement of 
the Gaza Strip. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday, the PA 
condemned the intention to upgrade the status of the 
College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel (West Bank) to a 
university and called on the U.S. to block the move. 
The media reported that heads of leading Israeli 
universities sharply criticized the move. 
 
All media reported that the Labor Party's five 
leadership candidates kicked off their race on Tuesday 
with mutual accusations, a police investigation, 
clashing polling figures, and an attempt by former PM 
Ehud Barak to prevent Knesset Member Amir Peretz, the 
Histadrut Labor Federation's Secretary-General, from 
running.  The party's primary will culminate on June 28 
at the polls. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. Jewish groups mostly 
support John Bolton's nomination as U.S. representative 
to the UN, but they are doing very little in the way of 
lobbying for the appointment.  The newspaper recalls 
that Bolton was instrumental in getting the "infamous" 
1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism 
repealed. 
 
All media reported on Holocaust Memorial Day events, 
which will start tonight and continue through Thursday 
night.  The media reported that Sharon will join the 
"March of the Living" in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 
Thursday. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted a senior officer in the IDF's 
Northern Command as saying Tuesday that contrary to 
rumors, a serious escalation along Israel's northern 
border coinciding with the pullout from the Gaza Strip 
is unlikely. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Iranian FM Kamal Kharazi as saying 
that Israel's weapons arsenal endangers the world.  The 
radio quoted IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon as saying 
that although Iran does not pose an immediate threat, 
its nuclear program should worry Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted former ambassador to Israel and 
assistant secretary of state Martin Indyk as saying 
that the idea that the U.S. is opposed to extremism, 
not to Islam, is gaining acceptance in the Muslim word. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning an anarchist 
group is trying to prevent the felling of an olive 
grove near the West Bank village of Bil'in. 
 
Maariv, Jerusalem Post, and Hatzofe reported that Azzam 
Azzam, the Israeli Druze who was released from Egyptian 
jail five months ago, spoke in favor of Jonathan 
Pollard at a Jerusalem rally Tuesday.  Maariv quoted 
Azzam as saying: "What I suffered is nothing compared 
to what he must be suffering."  Jerusalem Post reported 
that at the meeting, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger 
described Pollard as a "strong, proud Jew" who was 
suffering tremendous hardship at the hands of his 
incarcerators. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The 
government decision to turn the college in [the 
settlement town of] Ariel into a university is one of 
those decisions meant to demonstrate the kind of 
political determination that eventually turns out to be 
a stupid provocation and ends up being costly and 
damaging for future generations." 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "Abu Mazen 
is a big trickster who very shrewdly deceives Israel 
and the Western states, and does nothing of what he 
promised in order to eliminate terrorism." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"As [Natan] Sharansky is rightly saying, in order to 
give peace a chance, the cause of freedom next door 
mustn't become a vacuous mantra but, rather, should be 
placed high on our national agenda and pursued in 
earnest." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Stuck in the Throat" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (May 
4): "The government decision to turn the college in 
[the settlement town of] Ariel into a university is one 
of those decisions meant to demonstrate the kind of 
political determination that eventually turns out to be 
a stupid provocation and ends up being costly and 
damaging for future generations.  That distinction is 
also true regarding the establishment of Ariel itself 
and its neighboring settlements.  The government 
intended to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian 
state next to Israel.  Now, after even the political 
right has recognized the need to divide the country 
between the two nations, the government is trying to 
use subterfuge to make the illogical situation that has 
been created in the territories permanent, acting 
against the interests of both the State of Israel and 
its own policies.... Any further development of Ariel 
by exploiting the fact that the world is expecting the 
Gaza disengagement, and therefore, is being careful 
about applying any further pressure on the government, 
is a sign of continued blindness when it comes to the 
settlements.  Any solution involving the annexation of 
settlement blocs to Israel is not an opening to 
unrestrained actualization of the term 'bloc.'" 
 
II.  "Again -- Rockets at Sderot" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (May 4): 
"On Monday afternoon, terrorists launched Qassam 
rockets in the direction of the city of Sderot.... 
Residents of Sderot and the adjacent areas are made to 
pay the price of a peace that will not exist.  They are 
the victims of the fact that Abu Mazen is a big 
trickster who very shrewdly deceives Israel and the 
Western states, and does nothing of what he promised in 
order to eliminate terrorism.... Only through divine 
providence have disasters recently been prevented when 
terrorists were caught on their way to carrying out 
suicide bombings; it is not clear why [Israel's] 
government and defense establishment don't treat this 
as if those acts had in fact been committed.  Are 
Sharon and his defense minister waiting to act until 
Jewish blood is spilled?" 
 
III.  "Sharansky's Message" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(May 4): "What [Natan] Sharansky had to say in his 
resignation letter cuts across the usual stale debate 
and goes to the heart of our unending struggle for 
security and peace.  Sharansky's basic argument is that 
disengagement ought to be linked to democratization 
among the Palestinians and that failure to hinge it on 
fundamental reforms in fact undermines the likelihood 
of change and underpins terror.  While we do not 
endorse the absolute conditioning of Israeli policies 
and actions on Palestinian change, that's no reason to 
ignore Sharansky's fundamental orientation -- the same 
thinking that he personally outlined to Bush six months 
ago, to great presidential interest and sympathy. 
Israel ought to be no less interested than the American 
president.... There is every reason to assert that 
Israel, the U.S. and other democracies still can 
pressure the Palestinians to clean up their act.  So 
far we've had a surfeit of lip service but inordinate 
readiness to fall for what palpably are PA ploys and a 
facade of freedom.... Democracy must be inculcated as a 
sociocultural mind-set, accompanied by a genuinely free 
press, independent judiciary, incitement-free education 
and a free market.  Above all, there must be freedom 
from fear.... Crucially for Israel's interests, only a 
truly free society can make a truly lasting peace.  And 
so, as Sharansky is rightly saying, in order to give 
peace a chance, the cause of freedom next door mustn't 
become a vacuous mantra but, rather, should be placed 
high on our national agenda and pursued in earnest.  We 
owe it to someone of Sharansky's international stature 
to pay attention to his message.  We also owe it to 
ourselves." 
 
 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶2.  NPT Review Conference May 2-27 New York: 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "By 
focusing on Israel, the Egyptians are ignoring flagrant 
violations by others." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Low Profile Vs. Activist Approach" 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (May 
4): "Israel may not be at the center of the debate of 
the conference, which is to examine the validity of the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).... However, the 
Egyptians are making an effort to put Israel at the 
center of the discussions on the grounds that it is the 
only Middle Eastern country that is not a signatory to 
the NPT, and that a committee should be formed to apply 
constant pressure on it.  By focusing on Israel, the 
Egyptians are ignoring flagrant violations by others: 
The argument with the Iranians over their nuclear 
activity continues, after having misled the IAEA over 
the last 18 years.  Egypt also has forgotten Dr. Abdul 
Qadeer Khan, 'the father of the Pakistani bomb,' who 
sold his country's nuclear secrets.  In any case, the 
current assessment is that if Egypt tries to push its 
anti-Israeli proposals, the United States and other 
countries friendly to Israel will prevent passage of 
decisions that include sanctions." 
 
OLSEN