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 003517 
 
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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Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Israel Radio reported that Israel's National Security 
Adviser Giora Eiland has written a confidential letter 
to all branches of the government, saying that it is 
not certain whether the government is prepared for the 
disengagement.  Eiland reportedly wrote that the 
situation was a "mess."  A senior official in the 
Construction and Housing Ministry was quoted as saying 
in an interview with Jerusalem Post that almost half of 
the Jewish families in Gaza are willing to relocate to 
the Nitzan and northern Ashkelon area.  All media 
quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying Monday 
that if settlers refuse to hand over their army-issue 
weapons to the IDF ahead of the evacuation, there will 
be no choice but to take them by force.  Leading media 
reported that Michael Eitan (Likud), the chairman of 
the Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, 
announced Monday the opening of a hotline to address 
settler complaints about the violation of their human 
rights as they protest the evacuation.  The media 
reported that Yahad Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On told 
Eitan he was making political use of his position. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel has offered the PA to lay 
a rail line linking the Gaza Strip and West Bank that 
would enable passage between the two areas after the 
disengagement.  According to the proposal, the tracks 
would run from the Erez checkpoint in the northern part 
of the Gaza Strip to the Tarqumiya crossing near 
Hebron. 
 
Israel Radio reported that James Wolfensohn, the 
special envoy for the Quartet on the Gaza 
disengagement, will arrive today for a 5-day visit, in 
which he will discuss coordination of the disengagement 
with the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships.  The 
radio reported on the failure last night of Israeli- 
Palestinian talks, quoting Palestinian sources as 
saying that Israel refused to hand over to the PA maps 
detailing the location of settlements and settlement 
infrastructure in Gush Katif. 
 
Maariv bannered a report authored by senior Foreign 
Ministry officials, which recommends that Israel should 
start negotiations with Syria after the implementation 
of the disengagement.  The officials reportedly cited 
signals from Damascus, according to which Israel could 
reach an arrangement with Syria without fully 
withdrawing from the Golan.  The Foreign Ministry team 
also recommended that Israel name an ambassador to the 
PA and that a multinational force be stationed in the 
areas from which Israel will pull out during the 
disengagement.  Yediot also mentions the report. 
 
Israel Radio and IDF Radio reported that three or four 
Qassam rockets fell on Sderot this morning.  Hamas 
claimed responsibility for the firing.  Leading media 
reported that this morning Marouh Kamil, a senior 
Islamic Jihad commander in the Jenin area, was killed 
and an IDF soldier was lightly wounded during a fire 
exchange near Jenin.  A second Palestinian was killed 
in the shootout. IDF rejected claims made by 
Palestinian sources according to which he was an 
innocent passer-by. 
 
Citing an appendix to Attorney Talia Sasson's report on 
the settler outposts, Ha'aretz reported that the 
Construction and Housing Ministry allocated at least 70 
million shekels (at current rates, about USD 16 
million) to build infrastructure and erect public 
structures in 82 illegal outposts in the West Bank 
during the prime ministerial terms of Binyamin 
Netanyahu (1996-1999) and Ariel Sharon (2001-2004). 
Ha'aretz reported that on Monday, Interior Minister 
Ophir Pines-Paz slammed government policy on illegal 
outposts, following the report in Ha'aretz of defense 
establishment figures showing that illegal construction 
is ongoing. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Monday, U.S. Ambassador 
to Israel Daniel Kurtzer awarded the Victor J. Goldberg 
International Institute of Education Prize for Peace in 
the Middle East to professors Dan Bar-On and Sami 
Adwan, for their project, "Learning Each Other's 
Historical Narrative," which engaged Israeli and 
Palestinian teachers and teenagers to study each 
other's pasts. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Knesset Member Effi Eitam 
(National Religious Zionist Renewal Party) arrived in 
Israel on Monday with a delegation of some 100 Gush 
Katif supporters from the U.S. 
 
Citing news agencies, Yediot reported that the 
Venezuelan authorities announced on Monday that they 
have seized five Israel-bound missiles.  The newspaper 
cited Venezuela's state prosecution as saying that the 
missiles apparently arrived from Colombia, and quoted 
Venezuelan sources as saying that they are intended to 
be installed on F-16 and Mirage fighter planes. Yediot 
reported that the Foreign Ministry declined to comment 
on the affair. 
 
Major media reported that the Foreign Ministry is 
organizing an emergency rescue mission for Israelis in 
La Paz, Bolivia, which is beset by internal strife. 
-------- 
Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The disengagement plan is not 
perfect.... [But] the entire world awaits it.... Sharon 
is the only one who is capable of doing this type of 
task." 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
Maariv: "While one can accept [outgoing IDF chief of 
staff Moshe Ya'alon's] opinion that Israel needs to 
teach its sons that they were born into an embattled 
society and that the establishment of a Palestinian 
state must be prevented, other alternatives should also 
be examined 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning, 
independent Ha'aretz: "The Americans have realized that 
in reply to the 'no' to what is outside the line [i.e. 
the boundaries of the settlements], there will be those 
who will say 'yes' to what is inside the line, and see 
in this a historical recognition by the United States 
of the entire settlement project." 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "Often, delay is used in Middle East 
politics to ensure that something is forgotten." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "The Jerusalem Municipality 
plans to demolish approximately 90 Arab homes that were 
built without permits in Silwan.... A decision by the 
mayor to demolish homes would undoubtedly cause a major 
uproar and constitute an obstacle in the face of the 
attempts to renew the peace process." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Easiest Thing To Do Is To Criticize" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (June 7): "The disengagement plan is 
not perfect.... [But] there is no alternative to it. 
It has become a fait accompli; the entire world awaits 
it.... Sharon is the only one who is capable of doing 
this type of task.  It is his final historic role to 
play.  He understands that.  All of the others are 
going to have to make do with an essay in a book [by 
Ha'aretz columnist Ari Shavit] and a headline in the 
newspaper.  The most infuriating of all is the newest 
doomsday prophet, Moshe (Nostradamus) Ya'alon.... Let's 
remind everyone what we had here up until a few months 
ago.  Blood was flowing in the streets. Depression.  A 
sense of hopelessness.  The economy was in deep 
recession.  The streets were empty.  In the meantime 
the economy has begun to recover, the malls are full, 
the beaches are teeming, the new terminal at Ben-Gurion 
Airport is collapsing under the sheer weight of 
passengers both arriving and departing.  Israel's 
international standing is flourishing at unprecedented 
levels.  Terrorism, even in global figures, has 
decreased.  All of that, no matter what anyone says, 
and with all due respect to Netanyahu and Ya'alon and 
even the foreign minister, are the products of 
disengagement.... There is the so painful, agonizing 
human issue at stake as well.  It is not easy to 
decide, it is not easy to carry out, it is not entirely 
clear what the end result will be.  But that is what 
the leaders are for: for those kinds of decisions.  For 
criticism and advice we have all the rest." 
 
 
II.  "Generals Make Mistakes" 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in 
Maariv (June 7): "The dire view of the Palestinian 
front as it is perceived by Moshe Ya'alon is worth 
being examined.  What the outgoing chief of staff 
explained to Ari Shavit from Ha'aretz is, essentially, 
that Israel is going to have to live by its sword for 
all of eternity.  His opinion is immensely 
important.... [But] while one can accept his opinion 
that Israel needs to teach its sons that they were born 
into an embattled society and that the establishment of 
a Palestinian state must be prevented, other 
alternatives should also be examined.... A peace- 
seeking nation must sit with its sabers ready and use 
them while entrenched behind a defensive shield, but it 
must also feel willing to discuss every course of 
action to reduce the volume of violence, beginning with 
a unilateral step that is born of want of any other 
choice, via the Oslo accords, Camp David 2000, the 
Geneva agreement and the road map.  Each one of those 
options is preferable to Ya'alon's scenario.  But, more 
than that: inherent in each of them is the possibility 
of fixing Ya'alon's vision, even if at this juncture in 
time it is a most reasonable analysis of the current 
political reality." 
 
III.  "No Oversight in Sight" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning, 
independent Ha'aretz (June 7): "American Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice, who will be coming to Israel in 
a few days' time, will be able to form up-close 
impressions of the building momentum in the 
settlements.  It is not certain she will want to.  Rice 
was still national security adviser when she agreed 
with Weisglass on the dispatch of a team of American 
experts to define the boundaries of the settlements.... 
Two sources who are involved in the issue, among them a 
fairly senior minister, propose the following 
explanation for the cancellation of the surveyors' 
visit: the Americans have realized that in reply to the 
'no' to what is outside the line, there will be those 
who will say 'yes' to what is inside the line, and see 
in this a historical recognition by the United States 
of the entire settlement project.  The celebrations 
surrounding the interpretation of President George W. 
Bush's recognition of the concentrations of Jewish 
population in the West Bank sufficed for them." 
 
IV.  "Delay and Deception" 
 
The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global 
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist 
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (June 7): "Abbas may be making the 
mistake of thinking he can use the kind of tricks that 
work in dealing with the West: forgetfulness and 
deception.  Often, delay is used in Middle East 
politics to ensure that something is forgotten.... [For 
example,] those accused of the attack [on a U.S. convoy 
in Gaza in October 2003] were allowed to 'escape' from 
a Palestinian jail.  No action has apparently been 
taken since then by the Palestinian Authority to 
apprehend or punish them.  Abbas goes to the White 
House and gets USD 50 million in direct aid.  This is 
typical of the whole story of how terrorism goes 
unpunished, is forgotten and its lessons are ignored. 
Hamas, however, has a longer memory than America and is 
not going to let Abbas postpone the Palestinian 
elections forever.... Rather than act against 
terrorists or challenge the prevailing Palestinian 
worldview, Abbas once again wants Israel to solve his 
problem by withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.  He hopes 
this will be perceived by Palestinians as a victory for 
his leadership.  Hamas, for its part, will seek to 
present the withdrawal as a victory for its terrorist 
campaign and a reason to support its candidates." 
 
¶V.  "Political Destruction" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (June 7): "The Jerusalem 
Municipality plans to demolish approximately 90 Arab 
homes that were built without permits in Silwan 
([Hebrew:] Kfar Hashiloah), south of the Old City's 
walls. The homes constitute an entire neighborhood ... 
that is home to some 1,000 residents.  The story first 
broke in Ha'aretz a week ago, and Deputy Interior 
Minister Ruhama Avraham said in response that while 
razing the homes may indeed lead to unrest in East 
Jerusalem, 'The government has no intention of 
capitulating to law-breakers'.... For years, settlers 
have tried, with great success, to acquire Arab assets 
in the area and create a Jewish neighborhood there.... 
The issue is, first and foremost, a political one.  A 
decision by the mayor to demolish homes would 
undoubtedly cause a major uproar and constitute an 
obstacle in the face of the attempts to renew the peace 
process.  This is the principal consideration that the 
mayor must take into account." 
 
KURTZER