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 003399 
 
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.  Democracy in Mideast 
 
¶3.  Russia: Yukos Verdict 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media (banner in Jerusalem Post) reported that 
the planned meeting between PM Sharon and PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas was finalized Wednesday for 
June 21.  The media reported that Abbas underwent a 
heart procedure in Amman Wednesday. 
 
Israel Radio reported that 398 Palestinian prisoners 
were released this morning.  The media reported that on 
Wednesday, the High Court of Justice rejected an appeal 
seeking to block the release before it takes place. 
The petition was filed by a group of Israeli citizens 
who were wounded or had relatives killed in attacks by 
Palestinian terrorists. 
 
Yediot quoted a senior IDF source as warning that the 
army is unprepared for violent resistance against the 
disengagement move, including cases of suicide, mass 
refusals to serve in the army, the use of arms, and 
causing a confrontation with Israeli Arabs.  The source 
was quoted as saying that veterans of elite units, who 
"know exactly where they are going," will lead the 
opposition to disengagement.  Jerusalem Post and Yediot 
reported that on Wednesday, incoming IDF C-o-S Dan 
Halutz promised to carry out the disengagement move 
with "determination and sensitivity." 
 
Leading media (banners in Ha'aretz and Hatzofe) 
reported that a double suicide bombing planned to take 
place in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood this morning 
was foiled by security forces and police.  Five Islamic 
Jihad activists have been arrested in connection with 
the affair; security forces have also seized the two 
explosive devices that were to be used in the attack. 
 
Jerusalem Post and other media quoted Sharon as saying 
Wednesday that the deadline has now passed for Gaza 
settlers who want to join the group that will temporary 
settle in the Nitzan and north Ashkelon area while 
their permanent homes are being built. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Deputy Housing Minister Ruhama 
Avraham told the Knesset Wednesday that the demolition 
of homes in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem 
could lead to unrest among residents of the area, but 
that the government has no intention of "capitulating 
to law-breakers." 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that some 50 members of the 
PA's Military Intelligence Force on Wednesday blocked 
main roads and stormed public buildings in the Gaza 
Strip in protest against the PA's decision to 
reconstruct the Palestinian security forces. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that at the present rate of 
trade, by the end of this year Israel will have 
exported about USD 1 million in Israeli goods to Iraq, 
according to statistics published Wednesday by the 
Israel Export Institute (IEI).  The IEI also said there 
had been an overall increase of 8.3 percent in exports 
to Arab states compared with last year, totaling USD 42 
million.  Jerusalem Post writes that the IEI report 
fails to show that exports to most Arab countries are 
still lower or nonexistent compared to pre-Intifada 
levels, the only exception being Jordan. 
 
All media reported that Finance Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu presented on Wednesday a five-year program of 
tax cuts designed to benefit those with low incomes and 
to increase workforce participation, including among 
mothers. 
 
Channel 2-TV reported last night that Israel's 
Ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, allegedly tried 
to influence witnesses to give evidence in his favor in 
the investigation being conducted against him.  Ayalon 
is also suspected of charging unrecognized expenses, 
such as the organization of his daughter's bat-mitzvah 
party, to the state budget.  Maariv and Israel Radio 
cited Ayalon's denial of the allegations against him. 
Leading media reported that Civil Service Commissioner 
Shmuel Hollander has asked A-G Menachem Mazuz to send a 
representative of the state prosecution to Washington 
to join the commission's investigator examining 
possible misdemeanors on the part of the Ambassador and 
his wife. 
 
Citing the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jerusalem Post 
reported that on Tuesday, President Bush named Jeffrey 
Berkowitz, 26, the White House liaison to the Jewish 
community.  Berkowitz is a reform Jew. 
 
Maariv cited a new report drafted by the Interior 
Ministry's Population Authority, which establishes that 
nearly half of the new immigrants who moved to Israel 
since 2000 by virtue of the Law of Return are not Jews. 
 
Yediot reported that Ambassador of the Philippines to 
Israel Antonio Modena, in an interview with Al 
Hasharon, the newspaper's local supplement in the 
Sharon area, compared the behavior of the Immigration 
Police to that of the Nazis toward the Jews. 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"[Outgoing IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon] says that 
this burning was to no avail, and that we are destined 
to an eternal war.... Israel has yet to try the only 
solution acceptable to the Palestinians, most Israelis 
and the entire world -- the solution of a withdrawal 
from the occupied territories and the dismantling of 
the settlements." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Prophesying the State's Destruction" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (June 
2): "[Outgoing IDF chief of staff] Moshe Ya'alon took 
time out to give a prophetic interview on the 
destruction of the state to Ha'aretz's weekend 
magazine.  Ya'alon will be remembered as a chief of 
staff who believed in burning into the consciousness of 
the Palestinians, by means of force, that terror 
doesn't pay.  In his farewell interview, he says that 
this burning was to no avail, and that we are destined 
to an eternal war.... One can treat the former chief of 
staff's statements as the opinion of security expert 
No. 1, lose hope, and sit hidden away in bomb shelters 
in anticipation of the next wave of terror that he 
predicts.  Regrettably, one can also say that it is, in 
fact, Israel -- and first and foremost the former chief 
of staff -- which has proved that it understands only 
force.  Israel has yet to try the only solution 
acceptable to the Palestinians, most Israelis and the 
entire world -- the solution of a withdrawal from the 
occupied territories and the dismantling of the 
settlements.... The disengagement must be perceived as 
Israel's choice to cut itself off from the ongoing 
attempt to flee reality.... The question of what will 
happen the day after the pullout depends less on 
Mahmoud Abbas and more on whether Ya'alon's pessimistic 
theories continue to rule the roost and whether the 
captains of the disengagement see it as the end of the 
story.... The State of Israel has already been 
established, and does not require Palestinian approval. 
On the other hand, Israel doesn't have to give the 
Palestinians an independent state, but to try, finally, 
to burn it into its consciousness." 
 
------------------------- 
¶2.  Democracy in Mideast: 
------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Should 
[President Bush] pull out, the isolated buds of 
democracy that have sprouted here over the past two 
years would wilt.  The United States must clarify 
whether it is willing to continue its hefty 
investments." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Mubarak, For the Fifth Time" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (June 2): 
"Something wrong is taking place in Egypt.  Egyptian 
security forces have thwarted the visit to Israel of 
the liberal Egyptian playwright Ali Salem, who was to 
receive an honorary doctorate from Beersheva [Ben- 
Gurion] University.... Those who oppose the 
continuation of the Mubarak presidency are being 
monitored and threatened.  Paradoxically, the more the 
demand for democratization is increasing in Egypt, the 
more democratization is shrinking.  The peak of this 
trend is an amendment to the Egyptian Constitution, 
which has turned the demand for democratization into a 
farce.... The U.S. understands that this is a joke, 
but, given its entanglement in Iraq, it apparently 
prefers not to worsen relations with the Egyptian 
government.  The problem perhaps lies here.... Thus, 
the problem lies not with Mubarak and his Arab 
counterparts, but with President Bush.  If he is indeed 
committed to the vision of democratization in the Arab 
world, he must continue his forceful and demanding 
policy in the region.  Should he pull out, the isolated 
buds of democracy that have sprouted here over the past 
two years would wilt.  The United States must clarify 
whether it is willing to continue its hefty 
investments.  If it doesn't intend to do so, it had 
better proclaim this now, lest it deceives despondent 
human right activists in the Arab world, who will 
eventually be the only ones paying the price of the 
[United States'] inconsistent policy." 
 
 
-------------------------- 
¶3.  Russia: Yukos Verdict: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"When the Russian people increasingly see the benefits 
of free societies and free markets in the surrounding 
states, the calls for reform and not repression from 
the Kremlin will grow louder." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Putin's Trials" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(June 2): "The conviction of Russian-Jewish businessman 
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his sentence to nine years 
imprisonment by a Moscow court Tuesday has rightly 
given the world another reason for increasing concern 
about the acts and intentions of President Vladimir 
Putin.... Make no mistake, the Khodorkovsky conviction 
by itself will generate its own punishment for Russia 
in the chill it will send through the international 
business community, and a likely subsequent reluctance 
by that community to invest in a country where the 
markets no longer look truly free and fair.  But that 
is not enough.  Nor is the admirable rhetoric employed 
by U.S. President George W. Bush last month in his 
visits to the Baltic States and Georgia, where he 
lauded and offered reassurances for their freedom and 
independence from Russian domination.   Bush was right, 
though, that given the West's limited ability to effect 
internal reform and democratization in Russia, the best 
way to curtail Putin's ambitions is to do just that in 
its neighboring countries, bringing them into the 
Western sphere of influence.  This will require more 
than words.... When the Russian people increasingly see 
the benefits of free societies and free markets in the 
surrounding states, the calls for reform and not 
repression from the Kremlin will grow louder.  That is 
the best way to ensure that everyone in Russia --- 
including Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- gets the fair trial 
they deserve." 
 
KURTZER