This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

200949Z Jul 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TEL AVIV 004508 
 
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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Gaza Disengagement 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Jerusalem Post quoted senior diplomatic officials as 
saying that the Prime Minister's Office is hoping that, 
in addition to pressing the PA to rein in the 
escalating violence, Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice will also give PM Sharon a domestic boost by 
reaffirming the letter President Bush gave him in 2004 
in response to the disengagement plan. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted FM Silvan Shalom as saying 
Tuesday that Palestinian terrorism could disrupt 
disengagement. 
 
The major story in the media: On Tuesday, thousands of 
police officers, soldiers, and Border Police officers 
encircled the village of Kfar Maimon in the Negev, 
where police estimated 7,000 anti-disengagement 
protesters spent the night (according to other 
assessments, up to 20,000 demonstrators are at the 
site).  Hatzofe banners: "Kfar Maimon -- Capital of 
Orange."  Leading media quoted leaders of the Yesha 
Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories as 
saying they would resume the pullout protest march 
toward the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif, 
which police have prohibited.  This morning, Israel 
Radio reported that the Yesha Council settlers and the 
police reached an agreement, according to which the 
sides would not resort to violence.  The radio cited an 
announcement by the Yesha Council, according to which 
most demonstrators would leave and only a few hundred 
would remain on the site. 
 
Leading media reported that the Knesset will vote today 
on a one-month delay of the disengagement.  The media 
reported that Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has 
decided to absent himself from the vote, and that two 
Knesset members of the government coalition's United 
Torah Judaism will vote in favor of the postponement. 
Major media say that the bill is not expected to pass. 
Ha'aretz quoted Yuval Steinitz (Likud), chairman of the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as 
saying that he will continue to support the 
disengagement weakly, but that he believes Israel now 
needs to retake the Gaza Strip. 
 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that several thousand people 
jammed a busy midtown Manhattan street Tuesday 
afternoon for a prayer, song, and protest rally against 
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.  The demonstration was 
organized largely by the Lubavitch youth organization. 
 
Leading media reported that on Tuesday, the IDF shot 
dead two senior Islamic Jihad militants, the brothers 
Ibrahim and Warad Abanrah, who had been wanted for four 
years. 
Israel Radio reported that two mortar shells were 
launched at a southern Gaza Strip settlement this 
morning. 
 
Ha'aretz and Maariv quoted Uzi Rubin, former head of 
the Defense Ministry department responsible for 
ballistic missiles, as saying Tuesday before the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that 
the Arab countries surrounding Israel have some 1,000 
missiles that can fire a total of some 500 tons of 
explosives at any spots in the country. 
 
Leading media quoted Shin Bet head Avraham Diskin as 
saying at a closed session of the Knesset's Interior 
Committee that 11 percent of the Palestinians involved 
in terror entered Israel through the process known as 
family unification. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the left-wing forum Mate 
Harov ("Majority's Coalition") will post pro- 
disengagement PR teams at 200 junctions around the 
country. 
 
Israel Radio reported that, under Egyptian mediation, 
Fatah and Hamas have decided to bring their clashes in 
the Gaza Strip to an end.  The media reported that 15 
to 23 Palestinians were wounded in the confrontations 
between the factions on Tuesday. 
 
Leading media reported that A-G Menachem Mazuz insists 
that Sharon's son, MK Omri Sharon, spend time in prison 
over his involvement in the 1999 Likud primaries 
affair. 
 
Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz reported that a 
representative of the Shi'ite Hizbullah and Amal 
factions (the independent Fawzi Salukh, according to 
Jerusalem Post) will be named foreign minister in 
Lebanon's new government.  Jerusalem Post says that the 
cabinet includes one Hizbullah member, Muhammad Fneish, 
who will be the new energy minister. 
 
Ha'aretz, Yediot, and Jerusalem Post quoted prominent 
Syrian journalist Ali Jamalo, director of the Damascus- 
based Champress Web site (www.champress.net) as saying 
on Tuesday that the Hebrew version of the site would be 
available for surfers within six weeks.  Jerusalem Post 
says that Jamalo has close links to the Syrian 
government. One of the new site's stated purposes is to 
"fight the great ignorance among Hebrew speakers 
regarding all aspects of Syria." 
Leading media quoted London Mayor Ken Livingstone as 
saying on Tuesday, in an interview with the British Sky 
News-TV, that Likud and Hamas are "two sides of the 
same coin."  He expressed understanding for the 
motivations of Palestinian suicide bombers.  Jerusalem 
Post quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev as 
saying: "It is a pity he made no differentiation 
between murderous terrorists and between those trying 
to protect innocent civilians against the terrorists." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Gaza Disengagement: 
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                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "It's 
better for the police and IDF to realize there is only 
one way to implement their decisions: with force, 
determination, and all the means available to them. 
Just as the police and armies of other democratic 
countries do when the rabble threatens to topple them." 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the 
lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "Just one hasty decision by either the 
demonstrators or the security forces is enough to lead 
the genie, which has already been let out his bottle, 
to civil war, brother against brother.  God save us." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Whatever Sharon's failings, the onus today is on his 
opponents." 
 
Matti Golan, former editor-in chief of Ha'aretz and 
business daily Globes, maintained in Globes: "We ought 
to hear ... an explicit, clear statement that whatever 
may happen, Israel won't return to Gaza." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Let the Police Win" 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (July 
20): "Less than a month before the withdrawal from 
Gaza, it's hard to hold out hope that the security 
forces are indeed capable of implementing the 
meticulously developed operational plans.  But this 
should not divert attention away from the mass 
violation of the law [by disengagement opponents] that 
took place on Tuesday.  The participation of thousands 
of declared criminals in an event the police proscribed 
does not make it legal, but rather a display of rabble 
that adopted for itself, out of habit, supremacy over 
the law.... The government of Israel doesn't have the 
right to allow such public, caustic crushing of its 
orders and authority.  The illusion that it's possible 
to preserve democracy via negotiations with known 
criminals has once again dissipated.  The sight of 
police officers standing empty-handed across from a 
hostile mob is one that Israeli society, in this most 
delicate situation, must not permit itself.  It's 
better for the police and IDF to realize there is only 
one way to implement their decisions: with force, 
determination, and all the means available to them. 
Just as the police and armies of other democratic 
countries do when the rabble threatens to topple them." 
 
II.  "A Tragedy Unfolding Before Our Eyes" 
 
Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister 
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the 
lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (July 20): "Now [Ariel Sharon's] best students 
are rising up against their rabbi, justifying the 
excellent grades they received on their report 
cards.... In this fulminating atmosphere, with the 
emotional temperature continuing to rise, someone is 
going to die.  If, heaven forbid, it is a member of the 
security forces, all of the dams will burst and then 
one would be better off not even accidentally being in 
the settler camp.  A disaster of that kind will result 
in a complete divorce of the secular camp from those 
who are convinced that they are the best of the younger 
generation.  If, heaven forbid, one of the 
demonstrators and/or settlers should die, the 
disengagement plan could die -- and then we will all 
pay a high international price.  There is no need for a 
series of mistakes (which have already been made) to 
heat up the atmosphere.  Just one hasty decision by 
either the demonstrators or the security forces is 
enough to lead the genie, which has already been let 
out his bottle, to civil war, brother against brother. 
God save us." 
 
III.  "Marching on Gaza" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(July 20): "As this newspaper has been stressing for 
many months, no small amount of blame for the 
escalating level of internal dissent falls on the Prime 
Minister himself.... Yet whatever Sharon's failings, 
the onus today is on his opponents.... A minority of 
disengagement opponents are prepared to do whatever it 
takes.... It is not too late for wisdom to prevail. The 
Council [of Jewish Settlements in the Territories] kept 
the marchers in place in Kfar Maimon through the day 
Tuesday....  Hopefully, this step may allow cool heads 
to prevail, and responsible voices -- public figures as 
well as spiritual leaders, particularly those who 
either oppose or are unenthusiastic about disengagement 
-- to emphasize and reemphasize the insistence that the 
anti-disengagement struggle must not deteriorate into 
violence.  They must clearly define the limits of civil 
disobedience, and insure that it does not veer into the 
all-out confrontation and lawlessness that would tear 
apart the social cohesion and the democracy that are 
integral to the very existence of Israel." 
 
IV.  "Back to Gaza?" 
 
Matti Golan, former editor-in chief of Ha'aretz and 
business daily Globes, maintained in Globes (July 20): 
"Everything we are observing now -- the demonstrations, 
the clashes, the unrest, the huge financial 
expenditures -- could be in vain.  Is this the 
government's policy indeed?.... If terror takes place 
after the disengagement, is there a possibility that 
Israel could return to the [Gaza] Strip?  It currently 
is key question.... If this possibility does exist, it 
would be important to know about it.  This is 
definitely something that could change many people's 
opinion regarding the merit of the disengagement 
plan.... If this is not true, we ought to hear about it 
-- in an explicit, clear statement that whatever may 
happen, Israel won't return to Gaza.  If we don't hear 
this, even before the disengagement, the public will 
know it has fallen victim to deception by politicians, 
who act out interests that have nothing to do with the 
good of the state and its citizens." 
 
CRETZ