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

281245Z Jul 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 004711 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Security Exports Crisis 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All major newspapers, except Yediot, led with PM 
Sharon's ongoing cordial visit to France.  Maariv 
bannered: "Embrace From France."  Ha'aretz and Israel 
Radio reported that Sharon urged French President 
Jacques Chirac to restrain Hizbullah during the 
disengagement move, and that Chirac stated that Syria, 
and not Iran, is the factor interested in escalation at 
the Israel-Lebanon border.  Still, the media reported 
that Chirac stressed the nuclear threat posed by Iran. 
Ha'aretz quoted Chirac as saying that the USG had asked 
him to bring up the issue of strengthening PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas's "defenseless" security 
forces with Sharon.  Ha'aretz reported that Chirac 
asked that Israel allow France to supply the 
Palestinian forces with ammunition. 
 
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted as saying in an 
interview with Ha'aretz that he hopes that the pullout 
from the Gaza Strip will take two, or at most three 
weeks.  Mofaz expressed his belief that the Gaza Strip 
settlers are beginning to come to terms with the idea 
of evacuating their settlements.  Yediot reported that 
a battalion of Egyptian border guards is supposed to be 
deployed along the Philadelphi route during the second 
week of August. 
 
Yediot led with secret efforts by settlers to thwart 
the disengagement.  The newspaper quoted Israeli 
defense sources as saying that, while the settler 
leaders have proclaimed a march from Sderot to Gush 
Katif on Tuesday, they are planning two other secret 
mass protests along other routes, in order to wear out 
the security forces. Yediot reported that the IDF and 
police fear that tens of thousands of right-wingers who 
intend to go to Sderot could stay in places considered 
within the closest range of the Qassam rockets.  Israel 
Radio reported that on Wednesday, security forces ran 
through the "abduction" of an IDF soldier by settlers 
during the disengagement.   Hatzofe disclosed that the 
Israel Navy has rented barges in a European country, 
which will transport buses carrying evacuated settlers 
from the Gaza coast to Ashdod, in order to bypass pro- 
settler land blocks. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the FBI is demanding that Naor 
Gilon, head of the political department at the Israeli 
Embassy in Washington, be interrogated in connection to 
the Pentagon spy case.  Israel 10-TV reported that FBI 
agents are planning to come to Israel.  Ha'aretz quoted 
Israeli sources as saying that no federal agents had 
arrived here.  The newspaper writes that the American 
request was discussed a few weeks ago at an 
interministerial meeting in Jerusalem.  Ha'aretz says 
that the consensus was that neither Gilon nor other 
officials should be allowed to undergo investigation by 
the FBI, but that Israel would be prepared to respond 
in writing to questions.  The newspaper says that the 
U.S. demand is the clearest indication that the U.S. 
believes Israel is involved in the Larry Franklin case, 
which until now has been presented as an internal 
American affair. 
 
Yediot reported that warning systems against Qassam 
rockets will be installed in Ashkelon following 
assessments that such weapons could soon reach the 
city.  Israel Radio reported that rockets were launched 
at Israeli communities in and around the Gaza Strip 
last night and this morning, causing no casualties. 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying that 
Israel Defense Forces troops killed a 17-year old 
unarmed Palestinian and wounded seven Palestinians, one 
seriously, during a gun battle in the West Bank city of 
Jenin on Wednesday. 
 
Maariv reported that on Wednesday, the Hadassah-Ein 
Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem refused to admit an 
ambulance carrying a severely ill Palestinian patient, 
in contravention of a law providing for universal 
treatment. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, as 
saying on Wednesday that the U.S. should not be able to 
extend its oversight of Israeli defense exports to 
third countries, such as India and Turkey, as it may 
harm Israel's military industries.  Steinitz's comments 
came in response to a report in Wednesday's Ha'aretz 
about the mounting crisis between the U.S. and Israel 
over Israel's sale of replacement parts for attack 
drones sold to China.  Steinitz was quoted as saying 
that this was the worst crisis in U.S.-Israeli 
relations. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that on Wednesday, the Knesset passed 
substantial, stringent amendments to the proposed 
"Intifada Law," which minimizes the ability of 
Palestinians injured in the Intifada to sue the state 
for damages.  The amended bill was approved in its 
final readings by 54 Knesset members from Likud, Labor, 
Shinui, National Religious Party, and National Union. 
It was opposed by 15 Knesset members from Meretz-Yahad 
and the Arab parties, as well as MK Yuli Tamir (Labor). 
Leading media also reported that the Knesset voted 59- 
12 on Wednesday to grant citizenship to Palestinians 
married to Israeli citizens only if the Palestinian men 
are 35 and older and if the women are 25 and older. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that a special delegation of UN 
experts met with representatives of the GOI and Israeli 
defense companies this week to investigate suspicions 
that Israeli businessmen and companies may have 
violated the UN Security Council embargo prohibiting 
arms sales to the Ivory Coast.  The newspaper says that 
this is the first time Israel has cooperated with a 
panel of this kind. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that, for the second time in 
less than two months, Israel was tapped Tuesday to fill 
a significant role inside the UN bureaucratic apparatus 
as deputy chair of the UN Disarmament Commission 
(UNDC).  Meir Itzchaki, the Foreign Ministry's deputy 
director for arms control, will take up the post and be 
part of the Commission's eight-member presidency. 
 
Yediot reported that the Foreign Ministry was surprised 
to hear that the UN General Assembly will once again be 
requested to condemn Israel's raid on Iraq's Osirak 
nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981.  The newspaper cited 
the ministry's belief that the new Iraqi government had 
raised the issue this year. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported on the role of the non-profit 
organization, Children of Abraham, which was honored at 
President Moshe Katsav's residence on Wednesday.  The 
organization was founded in 1996 by a group of 
Palestinian and Israeli educators. 
 
Maariv reported that NASA has asked the Tel Aviv-based 
company Fabo Web (phon.) to help fix a series of 
glitches discovered in the space shuttle Discovery 
before its launching. 
 
Yediot reported that a group of Chinese bankers and 
investors linked to the Chinese government, who are 
interested in competing for control of Bank Leumi, 
Israel's second largest bank, arrived in Israel last 
week and held talks with GOI officials. 
 
Yediot reported that the American International School 
in Kfar Shmaryahu was sold this week for USD 21 million 
to private entrepreneurs who intend to turn the plot 
into a housing project. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "This 
is a declaration of war on the part of a defined group 
of settlers against the regime and its democratically 
elected institutions." 
 
Liberal columnist Meron Benvenisti wrote in Ha'aretz: 
"The 'unilateralism' is an attempt to turn back the 
wheel to the period when Israel tried to rob the 
Palestinians of the ability to decide their future on 
the grounds that they were not a legitimate collective 
entity but rather 'terrorists.'" 
 
Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "There is a danger that the Arabists 
in Washington are returning to the position they held 
before the U.S. war campaign in Afghanistan, i.e. that 
there are two kinds of terror." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Too often where the region is concerned ... Paris has 
interpreted 'leadership' in terms of opposing the 
United States.  This is a shame, because France, with 
its particular history, ties and credibility in the 
Arab world, truly could play a much more prominent 
role." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Moving Toward War in Gush Katif" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (July 
28): "[Recent acts of defiance by disengagement 
opponents] can no longer be considered acts of protest. 
This is a declaration of war on the part of a defined 
group of settlers against the regime and its 
democratically elected institutions.  Such a 
concentrated series of violations of the law, 
provocations and hostility would not be permitted 
anywhere within Israel, and it is not necessary to use 
one's imagination to envisage what would happen to 
Palestinians or Israeli Arab citizens were they to 
trample the law so arrogantly.... Indeed the historic 
mission imposed on the IDF and the police, to evacuate 
and be evacuated from the Gaza Strip, will not end with 
the mere physical pullout.  It is necessary to try to 
limit not only the chance of a violent confrontation 
during the evacuation but also to make efforts not to 
leave scars that are too deep when the evacuees are 
resettled. Only a policy of an uncompromising iron fist 
toward relatively small groups of lawbreakers, rebels 
against the state, can assist in this." 
 
II.  "90 Years of Unilateralism" 
 
Liberal columnist Meron Benvenisti wrote in Ha'aretz 
(July 28): "It is clear why Ariel Sharon (and his yes- 
men) stress the 'unilateral' aspect, for in this way he 
destroys the last vestige of the Oslo process, which is 
based on recognition of the Palestinians as a 
legitimate entity that represents a collective with the 
right to determine its own needs and aspirations and 
the ways of obtaining them.  The 'unilateralism' is an 
attempt to turn back the wheel to the period when 
Israel tried to rob the Palestinians of the ability to 
decide their future on the grounds that they were not a 
legitimate collective entity but rather 
'terrorists'.... It appears that the slogan of 
'unilateralism' based on the "lack of a partner" is 
meant to free [groups that have traditionally espoused 
dialogue] of the need to wrestle with the legitimate 
claims of the other side and to justify the use of -- 
immeasurably greater -- force by the Israeli side." 
 
III.  "A Double Loss" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (July 28): 
"Astonishingly, it turns out that Israel's decision- 
makers have recently agreed to the opening of 
independent seaport and airport in the Gaza Strip.  At 
that very moment, the discussion about the Philadelphi 
route and the Egyptian security strip evaporated, since 
the Palestinians will no longer have a need to smuggle 
weapons in unfeasible ways through tunnels in the 
Sinai; they'll be able to do so directly, openly, and 
elegantly using their own planes and ships.  As far as 
Israel is concerned, this situation is absurd: Egypt 
has succeeded in eroding the demilitarization of the 
Sinai Peninsula in exchange for a promise to protect 
the Gaza Strip's southern exits -- bringing significant 
strategic damage to Israel for generations -- while the 
Palestinians will no longer need an exit route to 
Egypt.  Thus, Israel will pay a double price for its 
folly, and in the future reassume security 
responsibility for the Gaza Strip, in the absence of 
any other responsible element." 
 
IV.  "Peril of an American Trap" 
 
Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (July 28): "There is an unpleasant 
feeling of a concern of an American trap.  The 
administration knows well that Abu Mazen hasn't made 
any serious step against Hamas or the other terror 
groups.  Conversely, not only Abu Mazen, but also the 
United States, don't care whether a civil war erupts in 
Israel -- the important being that the disengagement 
takes place, because it apparently is the only 
achievement that the U.S. can present in its Middle 
East policy.... There is a danger that the Arabists in 
Washington are returning to the position they held 
before the U.S. war campaign in Afghanistan, i.e. that 
there are two kinds of terror: the international one -- 
against which the U.S. conducts an all-out war, 
including in Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- and the 
'national' one, such as the continuing one between 
Israel and the Palestinians.  That supposedly is a 
different type of terror, to which the Jews must 
surrender.... What is interesting is that when Rice 
served as national security advisor in the White House, 
she made sure that Israel wouldn't fall into the trap 
of the twisted conception advocating appeasement." 
 
¶V.  "The PM in Paris" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(July 28): "France has much it can contribute to 
contain the Islamist menace that threatens its own 
population as well as other Europeans.  Few countries 
are better positioned to press Lebanon to combat 
Hizbullah.  France is likewise in an excellent position 
to persuade Iran to desist from its nuclear ambitions 
before it's too late.  Too often where the region is 
concerned, and especially in the Israeli-Palestinian 
context, Paris has interpreted 'leadership' in terms of 
opposing the United States.  This is a shame, because 
France, with its particular history, ties and 
credibility in the Arab world, truly could play a much 
more prominent role if it were genuinely ready now to 
switch from the role of spoiler and onto a more 
constructive tack.   This would be genuinely 
appreciated by Israelis and would go much farther than 
the million-euro PR campaign Paris has announced to try 
and facelift its image in this country.  And apart from 
helping Israel and the cause of Middle East harmony, it 
would be rather good for France." 
 
 
 
 
---------------------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Security Exports Crisis: 
---------------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized: "At this 
time too, the Western power [the United States] is 
demanding that the Israeli government acknowledge ... 
that it not pretend to demonstrate independence in its 
foreign relations." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
"The Crisis With Washington" 
Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized (July 28): 
"Despite ... affirmations that it wouldn't give in to 
American demands, the Israeli government can't afford 
sanctions that would harm bilateral defense deals, 
joint projects, and information exchanges concerning 
advanced weapons systems, particularly when those 
sanctions would be directed at all of [Israel's] 
defense industries.... If someone thought that the 
implementation of the disengagement plan would ensure a 
forgiving attitude on Washington's part, it turns out 
that, at this time too, the Western power is demanding 
that the Israeli government acknowledge its proper 
place and that it not pretend to demonstrate 
independence in its foreign relations." 
 
KURTZER