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 003538 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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All media led with events and statements related to 
Tuesday's intensive shelling of Israeli targets in the 
Gaza Strip and the western Negev.  Three workers (two 
Palestinians and a Chinese citizen) were killed by a 
Qassam rocket in the Gaza Strip settlement of Ganei- 
Tal.  Five other Palestinian workmen were injured.  All 
media (banners in Maariv and Jerusalem Post) quoted IDF 
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz as saying that Israel's 
patience is waning.  The media also quoted him as 
saying: "I suggest we not behave like terrorists."  For 
their part, Ha'aretz and Yediot highlighted statements 
by IDF officials, according to which Israel will 
refrain from responding to the rocket and mortar 
attacks, saying that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas needs to be given some time to restore calm in 
the Gaza Strip. 
 
Israel Radio reported that PM Sharon will convene a 
ministerial committee today to discuss the issue of 
disengagement. 
 
Leading media quoted visiting British FM Jack Straw as 
saying that the UK will establish contacts with Hamas 
if the group puts an end to violence and recognizes 
Israel.  The media quoted him as saying that British 
Foreign Office representatives met twice with Hamas 
members. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted a GOI source in Jerusalem as saying 
that Palestinian officials deliberately created a 
crisis when they refused to accept a dossier containing 
major maps about Israeli infrastructure in the Gaza 
Strip at a joint coordination meeting Monday.  The 
Palestinians claimed that the information on offer was 
insufficient. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. administration has 
asked the GOI to reduce the authority of the Defense 
Ministry to authorize Israeli security exports to 
countries Washington deems "problematic." 
 
Yediot quoted a senior PA official who is in charge of 
the water and sewage infrastructure in the Gaza Strip 
as saying several days ago, at a meeting with U.S. 
officials and Israeli Foreign Ministry officials, that 
the PA is examining the possibility of moving half a 
million Palestinians from Gaza to the West Bank.  The 
newspaper reported that the senior official told the 
Americans that the PA is requesting that the U.S. 
assist it in implementing the idea; the Americans 
reportedly did not respond, while Israeli political 
sources said that this is the first time the 
Palestinians have raised such an idea. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the leaders of the Geneva 
Initiative accused Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz of 
preventing, for political reasons, the convening in 
Jericho on June 9 of members of the movement -- 
including Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz, 
Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei, and the initiative's 
founders Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo.  The 
newspaper cited a response by the defense establishment 
that Israelis are not allowed to enter PA-controlled 
areas. 
 
Yediot quoted Kurdish-Iraqi leader Massud Barzani as 
saying in an interview published today in the London- 
based Al-Hayat that having links with Israel does not 
constitute a crime. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. Justice 
Department is opening the Office of Justice for Victims 
of Overseas Terrorism, which will be aimed at 
intensifying the effort to capture and prosecute 
Palestinian terrorists who have killed Americans 
abroad.  The opening of the office, announced last 
month by U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales, was 
mandated by the passage last December of the Koby 
Mandell Act, named for the 13-year-old Israeli-American 
boy who was killed along with a friend while spelunking 
in the West Bank in 2001. 
 
Yediot, Maariv and Jerusalem Post cited a comprehensive 
survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League in 12 EU 
countries: 
-43 percent of polled Europeans believe that Jews are 
more faithful to Israel than to their own country. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Were Israel to go 
deep into the Gaza Strip, it would not necessarily stop 
the Qassam attacks ... but it would most likely cause 
the collapse of what is left of the PA's hold there." 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page one 
of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Just 
as the PA, the Americans, the Europeans, and Egypt 
still have an interest in calm -- Hamas too has an 
interest.  And as long as this interest exists, Israel 
will take care not to make a move that could shut off 
the oxygen." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Both the Bush administration and Hamas members seem to 
understand that winning elections does not by itself 
legitimize those who continue to support terrorism." 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe ironically editorialized: 
"[Extremist Islamic] groups have certain demands, and a 
superpower like the United States can certainly agree 
to them." 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Jackie Hoogie wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "The media elite in the Arab 
world is normalizing relations with Israel over the 
heads of the conservative governments.  .... The Saudi 
royal family, which is accused of encouraging the Osama 
bin Laden brand of fundamentalism, is gradually 
introducing different thinking into the consciousness 
of the Arab masses." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Restraint -- For Now" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (June 8): "The 
tension in the Gaza Strip rises every two weeks or so, 
and then seems to subside.  This is probably what will 
happen again this time.  Basically all sides have an 
interest in keeping the relative quiet.  Despite its 
threats, Hamas is very much in favor of disengagement 
and does not want to be accused by the Palestinian 
public of torpedoing the pullout.  Israel, for its 
part, needs the PA as a partner, albeit a very limited 
one, for coordinating the withdrawal. And disengagement 
is still the top item on the Israeli agenda.  Were 
Israel to go deep into the Gaza Strip, it would not 
necessarily stop the Qassam attacks (previous campaigns 
did not), but it would most likely cause the collapse 
of what is left of the PA's hold there." 
 
II.  "Walking on Tiptoe" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote on page one 
of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (June 
8): "The real motive for the fire [from the Gaza Strip 
on Tuesday] -- which the Palestinians are not even 
denying -- is the PA's decision to postpone the 
parliamentary elections.... For [Hamas], opening fire 
is the way to obtain better payment from the PA in 
return for agreeing to postpone elections.  The fire 
enables Hamas to portray the Palestinian Authority in a 
ridiculous light and to make Abu Mazen and his security 
services look helpless.  If Abu Mazen wants the fire to 
stop, let him pay.  And the price could be, for 
example, turning over to Hamas property that Israel 
will evacuate, or increasing its future share in the 
government and the like.... Israeli officials take 
comfort in two facts.  First: fire of this sort does 
not usually last for long.  Second: the convergence of 
interests, which is the oxygen tank of the expiring 
'tahdiya,' still exists.  Just as the PA, the 
Americans, the Europeans, and Egypt still have an 
interest in calm -- Hamas too has an interest.  And as 
long as this interest exists, Israel will take care not 
to make a move that could shut off the oxygen." 
 
III.  "Don't Talk to Hamas" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(June 8): "Nowhere is it written that democratization 
must be dumb.... Both the Bush administration and Hamas 
members seem to understand that winning elections does 
not by itself legitimize those who continue to support 
terrorism.  Israel should not undermine this 
understanding even with 'practical' cooperation that 
lets Hamas keep its arms and its radical positions, and 
deliver for its constituency with Israel's help.   From 
the U.S. perspective, continuing to shun Hamas makes 
even more sense.  First, any contact with the U.S. is 
necessarily of a political nature. Second, the Bush 
administration rightly decided that, in Yasser Arafat's 
case, being 'elected' was not enough to warrant 
contact.... Before terrorists can even claim to be 
reformed, they must first disarm and disavow terrorism 
-- something Hamas and the myriad Palestinian militias, 
including those aligned with Fatah, are far from doing. 
Only then should democracies begin to treat them as 
legitimate players on the democratic field." 
 
IV.  "Negotiations With Al Qaida Too" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe ironically editorialized 
(June 8): "The news agencies report that U.S. 
administration officials are seriously considering 
holding negotiations with Hamas.  This is because of 
the political success of the terrorist organization in 
the local elections in the Palestinian Authority.  They 
should also consider negotiations with the Muslim 
Brotherhood in Egypt, the Chechen independence 
movement, and -- not as a last option -- with al Qaida. 
These groups have certain demands, and a superpower 
like the United States can certainly agree to them.... 
At long last people in the United States are beginning 
to come to their senses.  Instead of dealing with the 
so-called moderates, it is better to begin talks with 
the extremists, to find out what they want --- for they 
are not committing terrorism just for the hell of it. 
Behind their conduct there is a reasoned ideology and 
it is only fair that the U.S. should take it into 
account, and it is a pity that it did not do so before 
going to war in Afghanistan.  Why should the United 
States not make some small concession to Islam, which 
is trying to expand its influence?.... The U.S. ought 
to learn from Israel, which is giving territory to the 
Palestinians and getting nothing in return, in the 
belief that this will bring a better future.... 
Terrorism in the western world is emasculated and 
barren, and with the influence of the sick, worldwide 
left wing it will win in any case, so why not begin 
talks with the terrorists today?" 
 
¶V.  "The Double Arab World" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Jackie Hoogie wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (June 8): "Two ostensibly 
unrelated events took place last week.  Outgoing chief 
of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon gave an interview, the 
first of its kind, to a popular Arab newspaper.  That 
evening, the chair of Egyptian satirist Ali Salem 
remained empty, after he was invited to receive an 
honorary doctorate at Ben-Gurion University.  The 
Egyptian authorities refused to permit him to travel to 
Israel.  The two events happened on the same day, both 
represent the convoluted relations between Israel and 
its neighbors....  The Egyptian course of action in the 
Ali Salem affair represents the world of yesterday. 
The bold interview with Bugi [Ya'alon] is an expression 
of the world of tomorrow.  The media elite in the Arab 
world is normalizing relations with Israel over the 
heads of the conservative governments.  What is even 
more surprising is the venue: Asharq al-Awsat, a 
leading Arab daily, which is published in London by a 
Saudi publisher.  Behind him stands Prince Salman Bin 
Abdul Aziz, the governor of Riyadh and the brother of 
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.  The interview with Bugi is 
not the only case.  The Al-Arabiya station, a leading 
news channel owned by a Saudi investor associated with 
the royal palace, has made interviews with senior 
members of the IDF General Staff part of its reporting 
routine.  The channel, which operates outside of Saudi 
Arabia for good reason, frequently promotes issues 
related to women's status, democratization and an open 
economy in the Arab world.  There is a clear attempt 
here to stage a revolution through the back door.  The 
Saudi royal family, which is accused of encouraging the 
Osama bin Laden brand of fundamentalism, is gradually 
introducing different thinking into the consciousness 
of the Arab masses.  Ali Salem will yet write a comedy 
about it." 
 
KURTZER