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 003121 
 
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 (banners in Yediot, Maariv, and Jerusalem 
Post) reported on PM Sharon's speech before hundreds of 
Jewish leaders at the Baruch College in Manhattan 
Sunday.  The media quoted Sharon as saying that the 
disengagement move will take place as scheduled, and 
nothing, including Palestinian fire, will stop it.  (On 
Sunday, Maariv had led with statements by senior IDF 
officers that the move would be postponed by six 
months, because the set date for disengagement, plays 
into the hands of the Palestinians.)  The media noted 
the warm welcome the leaders gave to Sharon.  However, 
he was heckled by protesters, hundreds of whom -- 
including many ultra-Orthodox -- also demonstrated 
outside the hall. 
 
Leading media reported that anti-American Muslim 
protesters heckled First Lady Laura Bush as she visited 
the Temple Mount on Sunday, while dozens of Jewish 
demonstrators called for the release of imprisoned spy 
Jonathan Pollard during her visit to the Temple Mount. 
The media reported on the conviviality of the Fist 
Lady's visits to the Western (Wailing) Wall, the 
President's Residence, and Yad Vashem.  In today's 
Maariv, Labor Party Knesset Member and former minister 
Yuli Tamir accuses the organizers of Mrs. Bush's visit 
in Israel of having arranged meetings for her only with 
the wives of senior Israeli officials, and not with 
women active in peace or social reform groups. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. 
administration is divided on what sort of gesture to 
make to PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas during 
his visit to the White House.  Today, Israel Radio 
reported that the PA has asked the pro-Israel lobby 
AIPAC not to thwart in Congress the promised direct 
U.S. aid to the Palestinians, amounting to USD 200 
million.  Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. 
administration does not intend to circumvent 
Congressional restrictions during Abbas's upcoming 
visit to Washington. 
 
Israel Radio reported that PA Minister of Civilian 
Affairs Muhammad Dahlan told Vice PM Ehud Olmert and FM 
Silvan Shalom Sunday at the at the World Economic Forum 
(WEF) at the Dead Sea, Jordan (WEF), that the 
Palestinians will not fire at Israel from the Gaza 
Strip after the Israeli withdrawal.  The radio cited 
Olmert's promise that Israel would remove roadblocks 
and take economic steps to improve the situation of the 
population in the Gaza Strip, while Shalom reportedly 
said the Palestinians had to stop the violence first, 
before receiving concessions.  Ha'aretz quoted Olmert 
as saying at the meeting that Israel is willing to 
gradually give up control of the Rafah crossing between 
Egypt and the Gaza Strip, eventually handing the area 
over to Egypt a few months after completion of the 
disengagement plan. 
 
On Sunday, Israel Radio quoted U.S. Senator Gordon 
Smith (R-OR) as saying at the WEF that the U.S. will 
not risk its prestige in order to establish a 
Palestinian state.  He said that the U.S. is committed 
first and foremost to Israel's security, and the 
establishment of a Palestinian state is not a top 
priority for the administration.  Smith added that the 
leaders of Arab states would be better off dealing with 
policy problems in their own countries before they 
worry about the Palestinians. 
 
Leading media reported that Infrastructure Minister 
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met with Iraqi FM Hoshair Zebari 
at the WEF.  Jerusalem Post cited the Tourism Ministry 
as syaing that Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson met 
with UAE Minister of Economy and Planning Lubna Al 
Qasimi on Sunday in Amman to discuss ways to promote 
tourism in the region.  The newspaper also quoted Seif 
al-Islam Qadhafi, the son of the Libyan leader, as 
saying at the WEF that his country has no problem 
talking to Israelis. 
 
Yediot and Israel Radio reported that on Sunday at the 
Hawara roadblock near Nablus, the IDF captured a 14- 
year-old Palestinian youth who was carrying explosives 
on his body.  The radio also reported that a charge 
exploded next to an IDF jeep in Dura, west of Hebron. 
There were no casualties.  Israel Radio reported that 
the army arrested a young Palestinian carrying dummy 
explosives in his clothes at a roadblock near Bethlehem 
this morning.  The station quoted IDF officers as 
saying that this appears to be an attempt to check 
soldiers' alertness. 
 
During the weekend, all media highlighted renewed 
exchanges of fire with Hizbullah on Saturday. 
 
Israel Radio quoted Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi as 
saying that the police are not prepared for all 
possible developments during the disengagement process, 
in particular an attack on the Temple Mount or an 
assassination attempt against the PM. 
 
Leading media quoted AIPAC executive director Howard 
Kohr as saying Sunday, as the opening of the 
organization's annual convention, that AIPAC would come 
out of the Larry Franklin affair safely, and that its 
employees' work for Israel both in Congress and the 
administration had not been harmed. 
Yediot reported that the Foreign Ministry has decided 
that Israeli embassies around the world will no longer 
issue passports, due to the increase in forgeries. 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "Unilateralism is an overtly Israeli 
aspiration.... [But] despite everything, we are not 
alone." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Our advice to the American Jewish Right and its 
Christian allies is: accept the changed realities. 
Rather than opposing disengagement, strengthen the 
government's hand in securing ... the ... 'consensus' 
settlements." 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Those who have longed for 
independence for years cannot give it up when it is 
laid at their doorstep because of a dubious bowl of 
lentils." 
 
Terrorism expert Dr. Boaz Ganor wrote in Yediot 
Aharonot: "Even if different departments ... of ... 
[Hamas] engage in activities of welfare, charity, 
religion, education or legitimate political activity -- 
this does not legitimize an organization that engages 
in terrorism." 
 
Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein wrote in 
Ha'aretz: "The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, whose 
political continuation is not clear to anyone, may yet 
turn out to be a step that ... is a symbol of 
exhibitions of hostility and hatred, of which the fate 
of the settlers' homes is an example." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "We Are Not Alone" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (May 22): "One cannot separate all the firing 
this past week, both in the Gaza Strip and along the 
northern border, from the preparations being made by 
all parties for the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza 
Strip.... One thing is true, either way: the unilateral 
nature of the withdrawal, in which Ariel Sharon took so 
much pride when he sold the initiative to the public, 
is wind in the sails of everyone who wants to clip 
coupons from the withdrawal.  Hamas, which is perceived 
by the Palestinian public as the one that expelled the 
Jews from the Gaza Strip with blood and fire, now wants 
to strengthen that impression in the weeks leading up 
to the evacuation.  Hizbullah has taken into account 
that the withdrawal has created an internal divide in 
Israel and assumes that this will deter the IDF from 
responding with full force and heating up another 
sector....   Unilateralism is an overtly Israeli 
aspiration.  It stems from the belief, which is shared 
by many in the leadership and the public, that there is 
no other side.  The Arabs, irrespective of whether we 
are talking about the Palestinians or a Lebanese 
organization, are irrational and unreliable.  To count 
on them is to make a mistake that will surely end in 
catastrophe.  Therefore, we need to do, without an 
agreement, what is right for us and to impose a new 
reality on the entire region.  Sometimes, that line of 
thinking leads to courageous and correct steps.  Other 
times, the other side insists on demonstrating its 
rationale and reminds us that, despite everything, we 
are not alone." 
 
II.  "To Israel's Supporters" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(May 23): "Spearheaded by the Zionist Organization of 
America, Americans for a Safe Israel and certain 
Orthodox leaders, the Jewish Right promised to rally 
against 'Sharon's deportation plan.'  Disengagement, 
say its American opponents, is a continuation of Oslo, 
the result of delusional thinking by Israelis under 
siege.  That is where the U.S. Jewish Right is most 
mistaken.  Disengagement is not Oslo redux.  The plan, 
though abysmally articulated by Sharon, doesn't promise 
a New Middle East, or even an end to hostilities. 
Indeed, disengagement is a reaction to post-Oslo 
realities.... Most Israelis across the political 
spectrum accept that the presence of 8,000 Jews among 
one million hostile Palestinians does not serve 
Israel's interests.  Moreover, far from seeing 
disengagement as a defeat of the settlement enterprise, 
many see it as the best chance to save as much of it as 
possible, thereby expanding Israel's eventual permanent 
borders beyond the pre-1967 lines without threatening 
the nation's democratic character.... Our advice to the 
American Jewish Right and its Christian allies is: 
accept the changed realities.  Rather than opposing 
disengagement, strengthen the government's hand in 
securing Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and the other 
'consensus' settlements.... The U.S. Jewish Right and 
its evangelical supporters need to stop undermining 
Ariel Sharon and invest their energies in holding Abbas 
to account and encouraging Bush to go beyond his April 
letter in bolstering Israel's position." 
III.  "Who's Afraid of Independence?" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (May 23): "The disengagement plan 
actually pulls the rug out from under the Israeli 
argument that the withdrawal means an end to the 
occupation in the region.... It is difficult to think 
of a more powerful symbol of occupation than a foreign 
country's control over the border passages of its 
neighbor, whether via land, sea or air.... It is 
difficult to blame the Palestinians of paranoia.  Quite 
a few Israelis really do believe that 'Gaza first' is 
'Gaza last.'  But those who have longed for 
independence for years cannot give it up when it is 
laid at their doorstep because of a dubious bowl of 
lentils.  For many years, Gaza got along without an 
'economic envelope,' and as for the fears that the 
economic separation will turn into political separation 
-- that will only happen if and when the independent 
Palestinian government turns the Gaza Strip into a 
terror state." 
 
IV.  "What To Do With the Elected Hamas Officials" 
 
Terrorism expert Dr. Boaz Ganor wrote in Yediot 
Aharonot (May 23): "Even if different departments or 
activists of the organization [Hamas] engage in 
activities of welfare, charity, religion, education or 
legitimate political activity -- this does not 
legitimize an organization that engages in terrorism. 
On the basis of this principle, Israel should refuse to 
maintain any contact with the elected officials of 
Hamas until one of the following two scenarios takes 
place: either Hamas declares its cessation of terrorist 
activity, is disarmed and ceases terrorist activity in 
practice; or the elected official declares his 
disengagement from Hamas and announces himself to be an 
independent elected official.  Even if the declaration 
is no more than lip service, it will prevent the 
international legitimacy that could be granted the 
terror organization without it.  If both scenarios fail 
to materialize, Israel should coordinate its activity 
with the local council solely through the agency of an 
appointed committee, or through a third party such as 
the Red Cross." 
 
¶V.  "Palestinians' Mass March on Netzarim" 
 
Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein wrote in 
Ha'aretz (May 23): "In Gaza they are talking about the 
fact that tens of thousands will raid the settlements 
in order to destroy them, down to their foundations. 
In other words, they will raid the homes of the 
settlers not to loot them, but for the purpose of 
revenge.... The PA knows this, and its members are 
afraid that it will be impossible to prevent the attack 
of the masses.  The entire world will then witness the 
pictures of destruction, and will speak of the 
Palestinians as uncultured vandals.  That is why they 
prefer to have the State of Israel destroy 
everything.... The preparations for the Israeli 
withdrawal from Gaza are accompanied by an atmosphere 
of hostility and hatred, mutual suspicion and violence. 
The root of the evil is the unilateral nature of the 
move.  The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, whose 
political continuation is not clear to anyone, may yet 
turn out to be a step that contains no message of 
reconciliation and calm -- but, on the contrary, is a 
symbol of exhibitions of hostility and hatred, of which 
the fate of the settlers' homes is an example." 
 
KURTZER