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 002950 
 
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 
 
 
Please note: no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report 
Thursday, May 12, 2005, Israel's Independence Day 
holiday. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Israel's 57th Independence Day 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported on events related to Remembrance Day 
for the Fallen of Israel's Wars, and Israel's 57th 
Independence Day, which will be celebrated tonight 
through Thursday night.  The IDF has imposed a full 
curfew in the territories from this morning through 
Saturday night.  The media cited GOI statistics, 
according to which the population of Israel has reached 
some 6,900,000, of whom 5,260,000 (76 percent) are 
Jews.  Numbering 1,350,000, the Arab population 
constitutes 20 percent of the population.  Another 
290,000 (4 percent) are immigrants not registered as 
Jewish.  20,368 soldiers were killed in Israel's wars 
since the establishment of the state -- 169 over the 
past year.  Jerusalem Post reported that the 
Palestinians are planning to mark Israel's Independence 
Day -- commemorating what they call the Nakba, or 
catastrophe -- by sounding a siren as an expression of 
mourning. 
 
In an interview with Jerusalem Post, Finance Minister 
Binyamin Netanyahu delivered a "stinging assault" on PM 
Sharon's disengagement plan, asserting that it helps 
fuel a Palestinian perception that Israel can 
ultimately be destroyed altogether under unrelenting 
terrorist assault.  However, Netanyahu also told the 
newspaper that he accepts disengagement as a done deal 
that reflects popular will.  Leading media reported 
that the plan to relocate settlers from the Katif Bloc 
(Gush Katif) to the Nitzanim dunes located between 
Ashdod and Ashkelon received a boost on Tuesday when 
the National Council for Planning and Construction 
ordered the drawing up of a detailed master plan for 
the area. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the PA has not collected 
weapons held by militants in Tulkarm and Jericho, 
despite assurances by PA leaders that this has been 
carried out and instructions handed down by PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas.  The radio also cited 
criticism by Abbas of Sharon's postponement of the 
disengagement move, and of FM Silvan Shalom's remarks 
that a Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections would 
forestall the implementation of disengagement.  Israel 
Radio also quoted Palestinian FM Nasser al-Kidwa as 
saying that the peace process will be discontinued if 
Israel does not abide by the Sharm el-Sheikh 
understandings. 
 
Ha'aretz and other media reported that the U.S. and UN 
are looking into the possibility that an international 
force would replace Israel in the Sheba Farms area in 
exchange for Hizbullah's disarming and becoming a 
political party.  The media reported that Terje Roed- 
Larsen, the outgoing UN envoy to the Middle East peace 
process, met a few days ago with Lebanese government 
officials in New York and told them that recognition of 
the Sheba Farms area as Lebanese would require a new 
border agreement between Lebanon and Syria, ratified in 
both parliaments, and then registering the new border 
lines with the UN.  Israel Radio quoted senior GOI 
officials as saying that reports that Israel has agreed 
to such a deal are unfounded.  The station quoted a 
senior Lebanese official as confirming that Roed-Larsen 
told him that Israel will return the Sheba Farms area 
to Syria next month. 
 
Ha'aretz (Aluf Benn) points out differences between the 
U.S. and Israel regarding Iran's nuclear "point of no 
return." 
 
Ha'aretz recalls that U/S John Bolton, President Bush's 
candidate for the post of U.S. representative at the 
UN, has had poor relations with senior State Department 
colleagues, notably on the issue of Israel's use of 
U.S.-supplied arms.  The newspaper evokes a report in 
which Bolton wrote that the assassination of Salah 
Shehadeh, in which 14 other Palestinians were killed, 
did not constitute a violation of the rules of use of 
American weapons.  Bolton's paper contradicted the 
conclusions of another State Department document. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that 12 reservists belonging to 
Battalion 925 of the IDF's Armored Corps have announced 
that they will refuse to serve, because they are 
involved in the struggle to prevent the evacuation of 
the Katif Bloc. 
 
Ha'aretz cited a High Court of Justice petition filed 
on Tuesday, stating that the state has still not given 
Palestinians who own agricultural lands in Jerusalem 
permits to enter and work on their land, despite a 
ruling by A-G Menachem Mazuz that the 1950 Absentee 
Property Law does not apply to them. 
 
Yediot reported that the Kuwaiti security services have 
recently arrested Dr. Salam Abu Shaaban, a Kuwaiti 
citizen of Palestinian origin, because he wrote a pro- 
Israeli article in a Kuwaiti newspaper.  He and his 
wife were dismissed from their jobs, and his property 
was nationalized.  Yediot reported that Shaaban told 
the Foreign Ministry, which he contacted through its 
web site, that fundamentalists were behind those moves, 
but that he will not give up his faith in peace. 
 
Yediot reported that the PA and the Arab League plan to 
establish a sister-city alliance between Nablus and the 
German city of Nuremberg.   The newspaper quoted 
official Israeli sources in Berlin as saying that the 
choice of Nuremberg is shocking because of that city's 
past. 
 
All media reported on the dedication Tuesday of 
Germany's new national holocaust memorial in Berlin. 
Yediot reported that the EU has recently included the 
denial of Israel's right to exist in its definition of 
anti-Semitism. 
 
Leading media reported that Jewish Agency Chairman 
Sallai Meridor told Sharon on Tuesday that he will step 
down at the end of June.  Ha'aretz quoted a senior 
source in the Jewish Agency as saying that Meridor's 
departure was meant to allow Sharon to block the 
appointment to the chairmanship of Natan Sharansky. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a committee headed by Interior 
Minister Ophir Pines-Paz is formulating a new 
immigration policy for Israel that is expected to be as 
severe as any in Europe. 
 
Ha'aretz retraces the involvement of U.S. foreign 
policy and intelligence in Israel's Independence and 
Six-Day wars. 
 
------------------------------- 
Israel's 57th Independence Day: 
------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "If 
every further evacuation is perceived as a trauma and 
not as a building block for peace, an historic 
opportunity, nearly the last opportunity to be a truly 
free nation, will have once again slipped out of our 
hands." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"When put in perspective all [of Israel's] problems are 
dwarfed by what has been achieved here since 1948.... 
Strategically, Israel is ahead of most countries in 
tackling the post-Cold War era's biggest menace -- 
terror." 
 
Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized: "The 
celebrations of the State of Israel's independence ... 
symbolize the decline of the Israeli nations under the 
leadership of Zionist ideology." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
¶I.  "It's In Our Hands, and In Our Power" 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (May 
11): "Fifty-six years ago, the War of Independence 
ended with the armistice agreements, thus achieving the 
goal we celebrate today on the 57th Independence Day: 
the establishment of an independent state for the 
Jewish nation in the Land of Israel.... This 
Independence Day there is nothing more optimistic and 
important to strive for than the repartition of the 
Land of Israel, by agreement and not through war, into 
the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, and to 
do so with sense and goodwill, on the assumption that 
if our neighbors benefit, perhaps so will we.... The 
disengagement from Gaza must be the first stage on the 
way to a logical partition of the country, an 
opportunity to create two independent entities, which 
through cooperation could bring prosperity while 
pettiness will lead to their destruction.  Since Israel 
is more powerful and prosperous than its nascent 
neighbor, it can allow itself some calculated 
concessions.... If the entire intent in the departure 
from Gaza is to temporarily calm things down, 
neutralize international pressure and buy time, while 
looking for new subterfuges with which to grab more 
land with the help of the flexible route of the 
separation fence; if every outpost in the West Bank 
turns into 'the rock of our existence'; if every 
further evacuation is perceived as a trauma and not as 
a building block for peace, an historic opportunity, 
nearly the last opportunity to be a truly free nation, 
will have once again slipped out of our hands." 
 
II.  "Plenty to Celebrate" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(May 11): "Fifty-seven years after David Ben-Gurion 
declared its establishment, the State of Israel's daily 
affairs seem, on the face of it, as tiresomely familiar 
as those of most others.  The Jewish state is deeply 
embroiled in diplomatic intrigue, in regional conflict 
and in far-flung arms deals, and its politicians are 
shoulder deep in struggles with judges, generals, and 
fellow politicians.  Despite its genuine desire to 
realize Isaiah's visions of social justice, Israel also 
has its unfair share of poor, jobless and otherwise 
disenfranchised people.... Still, when put in 
perspective all these problems are dwarfed by what has 
been achieved here since 1948.... In fact, Israel's 
accomplishments are today impressive not only when 
viewed through such historic prisms, but also when 
compared with current global trends.  Strategically, 
Israel is ahead of most countries in tackling the post- 
Cold War era's biggest menace -- terror.... 
Economically, in a developed world in which even 
veteran economies like Germany's and France's are 
struggling to achieve viable growth rates, Israel has 
managed to restore its economic growth even after being 
momentarily debilitated by a vicious terror war.... As 
we celebrate our independence tonight, we should take 
stock of all this and remember that with all the flaws, 
setbacks and hardships that involve our existence here 
-- it's worth the effort." 
 
III.  "No Holiday, No Independence" 
 
Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized (May 11): 
"Aren't all the deeds of the Zionist leadership, when 
it comes to uprooting Judaism ... a sufficient reason 
for knocking off balance the festive character of this 
day?.... One may assume that those who support the 
celebrations this year would have had second thoughts 
if the issue of transferring all the territories, 
including East Jerusalem, to the Palestinian enemies, 
had been part of those festivities.... The celebrations 
of the State of Israel's independence ... symbolize the 
decline of the Israeli nation under the leadership of 
Zionist ideology -- which had dreamed of turning the 
House of Israel [i.e. the Jewish people] into a nation 
like all others." 
 
KURTZER