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Viewing cable 05TELAVIV3032, ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
05TELAVIV3032 2005-05-18 10:02 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Tel Aviv
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 003032 
 
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.  Israel-U.S. Relations 
 
2.  Russia: Yukos Trial 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Yediot and Jerusalem Post quoted White House Press 
Secretary Scott McClellan as saying Tuesday that the 
 
SIPDIS 
First Lady's visit to the region is "an opportunity for 
Mrs. Bush to reinforce our commitment to promoting 
freedom and supporting women and girls in the Middle 
East." 
 
All media reported on incoming Shin Bet head Yuval 
Diskin's first meeting with the members of the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee 
Tuesday.  Maariv led with his warning that Israeli 
airliners are being targeted.  The media also cited his 
warning of a rise in Jewish terror and quoted him as 
saying: "Israel will not bear another political 
assassination."  Diskin also warned that Hamas was 
showing restraint and not carrying out attacks at the 
moment because it wanted to "make it through" the PA 
elections, "but that does not mean it will not change 
afterward."  Israel Radio cited press agencies as 
saying that IDF forces killed a Hamas activist near 
Rafah, along the border with Egypt.  The station 
reported on exchanges of fire in the area overnight. 
Yediot reported that Palestinian demonstrators and IDF 
forces clashed Tuesday in the town of Dura, near 
Hebron.  Leading media quoted Defense Minister Shaul 
Mofaz as saying Tuesday that the greatest threat on the 
northern border at present are attempts to abduct IDF 
soldiers. 
 
As all media continued to report that one quarter of 
the Katif Bloc (Gush Katif) residents have signed on to 
the Nitzanim relocation plan, the media cited mounting 
pressure from the government on the settlers in the 
area to join the plan, including an implied warning 
that if an insufficient number of people sign up, the 
entire plan to move the settlers en bloc will be 
canceled.  Ha'aretz says that the government's position 
on negotiating with the settlers on the issue will be 
discussed in a session of the ministerial committee on 
disengagement, headed by PM Sharon, this morning. 
Sharon, who visited the Nitzanim area on Tuesday, 
complained about the slow activity of building 
contractors of the site.  Some media quoted contractors 
as saying that the government has not presented any 
valid plan of action.  Ha'aretz reported that Sharon's 
visit to New York on Sunday is expected to bring to a 
head the raging controversy in the American Jewish 
controversy between those for and against Sharon and 
the disengagement. 
Ha'aretz reported that Sharon advisor Dov Weisglass and 
the deputy director of the Finance Ministry, Joseph 
Bachar, are slated to visit Washington next week to 
discuss American aid for development projects in the 
Negev and the Galilee.  Israel is seeking millions of 
dollars for the projects, as well as to move army camps 
from the Gaza Strip as part of the disengagement. 
Jerusalem Post quoted Gen. Yosef Mishlav, the 
coordinator of GOI activities as saying at a meeting 
last week with Vice Premier Shimon Peres, officials 
from the World Bank and the Quartet countries, and the 
U.S. envoy and adviser on economic affairs to the PA, 
that he foresees a booming economy in Gaza after 
disengagement.  Israel Radio reported that Peres is due 
to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Petra today. 
Yediot reported that senior Israeli and Syrian 
officials could meet at the Davos Economic Conference 
in Jordan, which will convene during the weekend. 
 
Citing Reuters, Ha'aretz reported that on Tuesday, U.S. 
security envoy Gen. William Ward praised the PA for 
reshaping often rival security services, whose mission 
he said must include keeping militants in check. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that some 100 survivors of terror 
attacks, relatives of those killed, Magen David Adom 
(Red Shield of David) paramedics, and volunteers of 
Zaka, which works in rescue and recovery assignments 
following terrorist attacks, will testify in what 
Ha'aretz says U.S. authorities regard as the most 
important trial in the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks. 
The trial of four Arab-Americans belonging to Islamic 
Jihad and raising funds to finance terror attacks, 
including some that took place in Israel, is due to 
start in Tampa, Fla., on June 6. 
 
Afghan Minister of Women's Affairs Massouda Jalal was 
quoted as saying in an interview with Jerusalem Post 
that took place in Kabul that Afghanistan supported 
ties with "the countries in partnership with the U.S., 
and Israel is one of those countries."  However, Afghan 
FM Abdullah Abdullah told Jerusalem Post that official 
relations between Afghanistan and Israel could start 
only following a comprehensive peace in the Middle 
East. 
 
Jerusalem Post cited the UN mission in Jerusalem as 
saying that Israel will support Qatar's bid for 
temporary membership on the UN Security Council.  The 
newspaper had reported last month on Qatar's petition 
to Israel on the matter. 
 
Leading media reported that Jonathan Pollard was 
"disappointed and disgusted" by his first meeting ever 
with an Israeli ambassador (Danny Ayalon), which took 
place at the Butner, N.C., federal prison Tuesday.  The 
media quoted Pollard as saying that the GOI should stop 
lying and act vigorously for his release.  Jerusalem 
Post quoted a GOI official in Jerusalem as saying that 
raising Israel's interest in freeing Pollard was linked 
to the disengagement plan, which the U.S. wants to see 
succeed, and which it believes has the potential to go 
a long way toward changing the Middle East.  Jerusalem 
Post quoted Pollard's lawyer Larry Dub as saying: 
"There are many who believe that Pollard is one of the 
trump cards that Americans are dangling in front of 
Israel to complete the disengagement plan."  Likewise, 
Dub said that Sharon was using Pollard -- and the 
prospects that he may be freed -- as a way of softening 
up right-wing opposition to the plan.  Ha'aretz reports 
that Pollard has rejected attempts at an Israeli- 
American deal linking his release to the implementation 
of the disengagement plan, to which he is opposed. 
 
Maariv reported that Moni Micha, the son of Israeli 
Consul for Consular Affairs in Miami Shmuel Micha, is 
working illegally in the U.S. 
 
Leading media reported that FM Silvan Shalom is slated 
to appear before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and 
Defense Committee next week to discuss the 
deterioration of relations between him and Ambassador 
Ayalon, as well as allegations that Shalom's wife, Judy 
Nir-Moses-Shalom, intervened in ministry appointments. 
 
Citing Malaysia's national news agency Bernama, 
Jerusalem Post reported that Malaysia's Deputy PM Najib 
Razak called Israel's refusal to let his country's 
former PM Mahathir Mohamad enter Jerusalem Tuesday 
"arrogant."  Mohamad had said during an anti-Semitic 
diatribe in 2003 that Jews rule the world by proxy. 
 
Ha'aretz published the results of the monthly Peace 
Index Poll, conducted on May 2-3:  56 percent of the 
Jewish public support the disengagement plan, while 38 
percent oppose it and 6 percent are undecided.  A month 
ago, support was at 59 percent and opposition at 36 
percent, and in February the figures were 62 percent 
and 29 percent respectively. 
 
-------------------------- 
1.  Israel-U.S. Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv: "Silvan Shalom ... is strong in the [Likud's] 
Central Committee and weak in Washington, and ... 
[Ambassador] Danny Ayalon ... is strong in Washington 
but is a nonentity in the Central Committee.  Thus, 
Ayalon can start packing." 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The 
way to free Pollard is paved with restraint and 
modesty, his and that of the state he wants to reach 
[i.e. Israel]." 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote in conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post: "No one can doubt [AIPAC's] 
invaluable contribution in making Israel's case in the 
halls of Congress, and one can only hope this affair 
will have no lasting impact on its effectiveness." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
I.  "Ambassador Ayalon Can Start Packing" 
 
Columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote in popular, pluralist 
Maariv (May 18): "Sharon could not care less about the 
Likud's Central Committee on key matters, such as 
Palestinian statehood and disengagement.  He himself 
does not depend on the committee's members, because he 
was elected in primaries.   But if the Likud organizes 
its next [internal] elections in the present form, and 
its Knesset members are chosen by the committee's 
members and not in primaries, Sharon will need them 
badly in order not to find himself in a small minority 
within his faction after the elections.  So, those who 
need the committee's members also critically need 
Silvan Shalom, who is strong in the Central Committee 
and weak in Washington, and not [Ambassador] Danny 
Ayalon, who is strong in Washington but is a nonentity 
in the Central Committee.  Thus, Ayalon can start 
packing." 
 
II.  "The Way to Free Pollard" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (May 
18): "Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew once employed 
by U.S. naval intelligence who then spied for pay on 
behalf of Israeli intelligence, lost his freedom nearly 
20 years ago.... There are various elements responsible 
for Pollard's suffering.  First, there is Pollard 
himself, who risked the delicate relationship Israel 
(and the Jewish communities in his country) have with 
the defense establishment and the administration in 
Washington, with an adventurism that included elements 
of cynicism and greed.  A braggart, Pollard refused to 
express regret.  If he had behaved differently in the 
first half of the 1980s, the entire affair never would 
have taken place.  When it did, if he had behaved 
differently, he might have already been free by now. 
Next in line of responsibility for Pollard's pain is 
the U.S. defense and intelligence establishment, which 
suffered a wave of humiliations the year of Pollard's 
arrest in 1985, as spies were uncovered in the 
intelligence agencies.  That establishment was 
influenced by the personal hostility from then-defense 
secretary Casper Weinberger toward Israel, and objected 
 
SIPDIS 
to the special, preferential treatment given Israel. 
Those two elements were outside Israel's control, but 
Israeli governments -- the third element responsible 
for Pollard's plight -- should have behaved more 
wisely: not to provoke the Pentagon with periodic 
scandals, and not to make Pollard into a national hero, 
whose freedom would be trumpeted here as if he were a 
redeemed prisoners.  The way to free Pollard is paved 
with restraint and modesty, his and that of the state 
he wants to reach." 
 
III.  "The Challenge For AIPAC" 
 
Columnist Calev Ben-David wrote in conservative, 
independent Jerusalem Post (May 18): "Next week the 
[American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)] 
holds its annual conference in Washington under one of 
the darkest clouds in its history.  Two senior AIPAC 
employees -- policy director Steve Rosen and analyst 
Keith Weissman -- are under investigation by the FBI 
for allegedly receiving classified material passed to 
them by Defense Department intelligence analyst Larry 
Franklin.  Franklin was arrested by the FBI earlier 
this month; Rosen has reportedly told people he also 
expects to be indicted in the near future.  AIPAC 
dismissed Rosen and Weissman last month.  Whether 
justified or not, the timing of that dismissal was 
unfortunate....  Right now ... Steve Rosen and Keith 
Weissman need and deserve AIPAC's public backing, and 
AIPAC needs and deserves the support of both the 
American-Jewish community and Israel.  No one can doubt 
its invaluable contribution in making Israel's case in 
the halls of Congress, and one can only hope this 
affair will have no lasting impact on its 
effectiveness.  But it's also time for AIPAC to focus 
on that mission -- while also heeding Rabin's words to 
resist the temptation to become 'shtadlanim' 
[lobbyists] in those places in Washington, and 
elsewhere, where it is more the business of the Israeli 
government to take the lead." 
 
 
 
------------------------ 
2.  Russia: Yukos Trial: 
------------------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in an editorial of mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The tragic staged trial of 
the Yukos owners has triggered immense anger among 
democracy-lovers around the world -- but not in Israel: 
not a single voice of protest has been heard here." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Show Trial in Moscow" 
 
Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever 
Plotker wrote in an editorial of mass-circulation, 
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (May 18): "Last year, Michael 
Khodorkovsky, 41, a Russian businessman of Jewish 
origin, was the key shareholder in the oil and energy 
corporation Yukos.  His wealth was then assessed at 
around USD 15 billion.  He is now awaiting the 
conclusion of the verdict in the crowded hall of 
Moscow's municipal courthouse, imprisoned in a barred 
cage and without hope of a minimally fair trial.... The 
tragic staged trial of the Yukos owners has triggered 
immense anger among democracy-lovers around the world - 
- but not in Israel: not a single voice of protest has 
been heard here.  Stories about 'Jewish oligarchs from 
Russia,' who supposedly transfer billions of 'Russian 
Mafia' dollars to Israel -- notions that are totally 
unfounded, even metaphorically -- have blurred and 
blinded Israeli public opinion's discernment about 
what's good and what's evil in Russia, between a fair 
trial and the travesty of justice in Moscow." 
 
KURTZER