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 004203 
 
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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¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Global War on Terrorism 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Israel Radio quoted PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas as saying in an interview with the London-based 
Asharq Al-Awsat that he will meet with PM Sharon before 
the disengagement.  The radio reported that Defense 
Minister Shaul Mofaz and PA Interior Minister Nasser 
Yousef, who met on Tuesday to discuss coordination of 
the disengagement, expressed their satisfaction about 
the progress of preparations on the ground.  The 
station quoted Palestinian sources as saying that the 
two men have delegated responsibility for the transfer 
of Bethlehem to the PA to officers on the ground. 
Israel Radio also reported that on Tuesday, Maj. Gen 
Yitzhak Harel, the head of IDF planning, met with 
Palestinian Deputy Interior Minister Jamal Abu Zayd, 
and decided that joint patrols would operate ahead of 
the disengagement.  Speaking on Israel Radio this 
morning, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said that the 
decision to destroy the evacuated settlers' homes in 
Gush Katif should be rescinded, because no 
international body has yet expressed its willingness to 
fund the evacuation of the ruins. 
 
Leading media (banners in Jerusalem Post and Hatzofe) 
reported that, in what it described as the "opening 
shot" of disengagement, the Yesha Council of Jewish 
Settlements in the Territories on Tuesday summoned its 
supporters to a three-day march on Gush Katif beginning 
on July 18 to "cancel the expulsion."  Israel Radio 
reported that the government, fearing that many 
demonstrators will stay in the area to be evacuated, is 
considering closing the Gaza Strip to non-residents 
ahead of schedule.  Yediot says that a total of 63 
soldiers refuse to serve evacuation orders.  Israel 
Radio reported that National Religious Party Knesset 
Member Zvulun Orlev has postponed by two weeks his 
original request that the Knesset vote today on a delay 
of the disengagement, because he could not obtain a 
majority for his proposal. 
 
Leading media quoted Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as 
telling the Knesset plenum Tuesday that A-G Menachem 
Mazuz has yet to decide whether he thinks the Knesset 
should have to approve an Israeli-Egyptian deal that 
would see Egyptian security forces deployed along the 
Philadelphi route.  Jerusalem Post and other media 
quoted Mofaz as saying at the joint Knesset committee 
Tuesday that the fate of the Philadelphi route depends 
on how Egypt would manage a stationing of troops on the 
Sinai-Gaza border, and that Israel does not intend to 
change the status of the bilateral peace treaty. 
Maariv reported that Egypt's intelligence chief Omar 
Suleiman has recently promised senior Israeli officials 
that Egypt would act against Islamic Jihad if it does 
not put an end to its attacks against Israel. 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that PM Sharon will 
meet today with the heads of the defense establishment 
to discuss the progress of the separation fence.  The 
newspaper reported that on Tuesday, Mofaz ordered that 
construction of the fence be accelerated in the coming 
weeks, with top priority given to completing the fence 
in Jerusalem. 
 
Israel Radio reported that an Israeli delegation will 
leave for the U.S. over the weekend, in order to 
present Israel's request for military and civilian aid 
following the disengagement. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Qassam rockets and mortar 
shells were launched at some Gush Katif settlements 
last night.  There were no casualties.  Ha'aretz 
reported that IDF Intelligence head Maj. Gen. Aharon 
Zeevi-Farkash told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and 
Defense Committee Tuesday that terrorism will decline 
immediately after the disengagement, but that it is 
expected to rise again afterward unless the 
Palestinians have hope of an independent state.  The 
newspaper quoted Zeevi-Farkash as saying that no 
weapons were smuggled along the border with Egypt 
between April and June. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday, senior Israeli 
security officials denied Palestinian claims that an 
agreement has already been drawn up between Israel and 
the PA regarding safe passage for Palestinians between 
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 
 
Leading media reported that anti-disengagement 
activists have sent up a "tent city" in Sa-Nur, a 
northern West Bank settlement slated for evacuation. 
Maariv reported that most of the residents of Homesh, 
in the same area, have decided to initiate their own 
evacuation on August 14, one day before the official 
implementation date of the disengagement.  They intend 
to leave their settlement in a long convoy adorned with 
black flags.  Maariv reported that the Gush Katif 
leaders agreed on Tuesday to move en masse to the 
Nitzanim dunes area. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the state as saying Tuesday, in response 
to a petition to the High Court of Justice, that the 
IDF is considering the demolition of nine houses that 
were recently constructed in the illegal West Bank 
outpost of Amona. 
Citing Reuters, Ha'aretz quoted Israeli officials as 
saying that eight Palestinian houses and a gas station 
in East Jerusalem have been razed, after they were 
built without permits in areas slated for parks. 
Jerusalem Post also reported on the demolition. 
Jerusalem Post reported that Lebanon has officially 
asked the International Committee of the Red Cross for 
the return of the body of the Hizbullah gunman who was 
killed by IDF troops in clashes in the Sheba Farms 
region last week.  The newspaper quoted Sharon's media 
adviser Asi Shariv as saying on Tuesday that he doubted 
whether such an exchange would jumpstart negotiations 
with Hizbullah over the second stage of the prisoner 
swap. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that the Jewish Agency's Fund 
for Terror Victims, the foremost organization in 
providing financial assistance to families of victims, 
will be closing in December after four years of 
operation during which it distributed more than USD 18 
million to nearly 3,000 families. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday, during its 
biennial general synod in Atlanta, the United Church of 
Christ voted to adopt a resolution urging divestment 
from Israel. 
 
Maariv reported that, over the past few months, Druze 
residents of the Golan have undergone operations and 
organ implants in Syria rather than in Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the coordination center at Ben- 
Gurion Airport's new terminal will be named after 
Israel's first astronaut, Col. Ilan Ramon, who died in 
the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Many members 
of [Israel's] political and security leadership know 
the truth: Hamas will eventually be part of a future 
political arrangement -- or there will be no 
arrangement." 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "In the heart of 
every Israeli lives a little settler.  Therefore, 
today's criticism is narrowly focused and completely 
misses the real point, which is [Israel's] illegal and 
immoral colonization policy." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
¶I.  "The Terrorist Has Won" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (July 6): "Abu 
Mazen's offer to the Hamas movement, according to which 
it would join a Palestinian unity government, was 
received in Israel in a public shock, as those 
responsible for most lethal suicide bombings in Israel 
over the past decade are scheduled to be whitewashed. 
Under that jolt, many members of [Israel's] political 
and security leadership know the truth: Hamas will 
eventually be part of a future political arrangement -- 
or there will be no arrangement.  Historically, every 
Israeli leadership has demonized the enemy instead of 
adopting a composed approach in relation to it.  Hamas 
is but the latest example, after Arafat and the PLO, 
Nasrallah and Hizbullah, and many others.... This is 
perhaps the toughest nut to swallow: once again, those 
who tried to defeat us by force have only gained 
strength.  The precision-guided missile, which is the 
main tool of Israeli policy, may have hit its target, 
but it has accomplished the opposite effect.  In a war 
in which Israel has sworn to annihilate terror, it is 
eventually finding the terrorist on the victor's 
stand." 
 
II.  "There's a Settler in Every Israeli" 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (July 6): "The 
hunting season is at its height, and the settlers are 
the prey.  They have become a target for criticism in 
the media to an extent whose like is hard to 
remember.... The neighborhood's spoiled brat, who feels 
he should get it all, has suddenly lost his temper, and 
the neighbors are losing patience.  But the child is 
spoiled because the entire neighborhood has spoiled 
him, and he is convinced he should get it all because 
for years all the neighbors have proved through their 
actions that this is so.  It began with the tolerance 
displayed by all Israeli governments, as well as the 
legal establishment, for the settlers' behavior toward 
the Palestinians.... It was Israel's governments, ever 
since 1967, that charted the policy of colonizing the 
newly conquered territories.... Even those who do not 
intend to move to the settlements benefit from their 
existence.  The settlements ensure Israel's continued 
control over the West Bank and its water sources, 
thereby ensuring the continued unfair distribution of 
the land's water in a 7:1 ratio, to the Palestinians' 
detriment.  Therefore we, the Jews, can be wasteful, as 
if we lived in a land with abundant water.... In the 
heart of every Israeli lives a little settler. 
Therefore, today's criticism is narrowly focused and 
completely misses the real point, which is the illegal 
and immoral colonization policy.  This policy 
ultimately benefits an ever-growing portion of the 
Israeli public -- which is therefore not troubled by 
the question of what it is doing to the region's 
future." 
 
---------------------------- 
¶2.  Global War on Terrorism: 
---------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"A European shift toward the U.S. would greatly 
strengthen the West and hasten the victory over 
militant Islamism." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Europe's Real Self-Interest" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(July 6): "On Monday, the interior ministers of France, 
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain met to crack down on 
illegal immigration to Europe.... It is ironic that 
Europe, which is arguably even more threatened [than 
the U.S.] and sitting closer to the fault line between 
free and fear societies ... is still living in a pre- 
9/11 world in which countries like Iran are still 
treated as normal trading partners, and 'stability' 
still means tolerating whole regions of dictatorships. 
If anything, Europe should be egging the U.S. on to 
push harder and faster.  Why is it in Europe's interest 
to be seen as defending rogue regimes, largely out of 
narrow financial interests, rather than joining the 
U.S. as an inspiration to oppressed peoples?  Is Europe 
betting that these peoples will not only be forever 
powerless, but also have short memories?.... A European 
shift toward the U.S. would greatly strengthen the West 
and hasten the victory over militant Islamism -- a 
victory that is the only solution to many of the 
internal and external threats Europe faces.  The truth 
is that the only hope that rogue regimes like Iran and 
Syria have is to continue to divide Europe from the 
United States.  Monday's immigration summit should help 
raise European awareness that its enlightened self- 
interest lies not in high-minded fear and loathing of 
the U.S., coupled with low-minded financial dependence 
on aggressive tyrants, but on the pooling of Western 
diplomatic and economic power to advance freedom and 
democracy where it is missing most." 
 
KURTZER