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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005163 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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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.  Gaza and Northern West Bank Disengagement 
 
¶2.  Rocket Attacks on Aqaba and Eilat 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The electronic media reported that this afternoon in 
the settlement of Netzarim, the IDF and police are 
completing their evacuation of all Gaza Strip settlers. 
(The Netzarim residents will be living in the West Bank 
town of Ariel through the end of October.)  Seven 
settlements were evacuated on Sunday.  In addition, 
security forces are completing preparations for 
tomorrow's evacuation of Sa-Nur and Homesh, two of four 
northern West Bank settlements from which Israel will 
withdraw under the disengagement plan.  On Sunday, the 
cabinet approved the evacuation of the West Bank 
settlements and of three northern Gaza Strip 
settlements.  Likud ministers Limor Livnat, Danny 
Naveh, Yisrael Katz, and Tzachi Hanegbi opposed the 
move.  The media reported that security forces expect 
major clashes in the West Bank, especially after seven 
people were wounded Sunday in clashes between anti- 
pullout protesters and security forces.  All media 
reported that on Sunday, the Defense Ministry started 
destroying settlers' houses in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Israel Radio reported that on Friday, PM Sharon told 
the commanders of the evacuating forces in Gaza that 
Israel will negotiate with the PA under the road map 
only after it dismantles the terror organizations and 
puts an end to Palestinian attacks.  Jerusalem Post 
reported that on Sunday, in an unspecified context, 
Sharon vowed to build inside the West Bank settlement 
blocs.  Referring to the controversial E-1 plan that 
would connect Ma'aleh Adumim to Jerusalem, and which 
the Palestinians argue would split the West Bank in 
two, the newspaper quoted Sharon as saying, "This will 
not cause the cutting-off of Judea and Samaria [i.e. 
the West Bank]." 
 
Leading media reported on, and Maariv bannered, the 
arrest of two young Rehovot residents, associated with 
the "hilltop youth" of the West Bank, who tried to set 
huge cooking gas tanks on fire in Rehovot during the 
weekend.  On Sunday, Maariv headlined: "Jewish Terror 
Against Jews."  Maariv reported that the administrative 
detainee Yehonatan Hakimi, who was arrested three days 
ago on suspicion that he planned to attack Palestinians 
and Israeli security forces, refused to fly to his 
parents' in New York, as had been proposed in legal 
debates about his case on Sunday. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel and Egypt have concluded 
the drafting of an agreement on the deployment of 
Egyptian border guards in the area of the Philadelphi 
route in Rafah.  Ha'aretz notes that the agreement has 
yet to be presented to the cabinet and Knesset for 
approval in light of an Israeli demand that Egypt 
undertake not to transfer arms and ammunition to the PA 
in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Prime Minister's Office has 
come up with a proposal for the "reestablishment" of 
the largest Gaza settlement in the Gush Katif, as part 
of a plan to expand the town of Nitzan north of 
Ashkelon. 
 
On Sunday, Yediot reported that the U.S. will grant 
Israel USD one billion in special aid to finance the 
disengagement -- half of what Israel requested.  The 
paper reported that President Bush is expected to 
announce in a few days that he is presenting the 
"supplemental budget request" to Congress. 
 
Citing AP, Ha'aretz quoted A/S David Welch as saying 
Sunday, during a meeting with Palestinian leader 
Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City, that Israel's pullout will 
reenergize the road map.  During the weekend, the media 
wondered whether "shahids" meant "martyrs" (suicide 
bombers) or "victims," when Abbas said on Friday that 
the "Israeli withdrawal was obtained thanks to the 
shahids, the wounded, and the prisoners."  Abbas was 
also quoted as saying that the "big jihad is starting." 
On Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian FM 
Nasser al-Kidwa told Egyptian reporters on Saturday 
that Israel's disengagement was a defeat and that 
Israel would remain an occupying force even after the 
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that Sharon 
will speak before the UN General Assembly next month. 
Ha'aretz says that FM Silvan Shalom will also attend 
the assembly session.  Yediot reported that, according 
to intelligence reports, hopes of the Foreign Ministry 
that the disengagement would lead to a breakthrough in 
relations with various Arab countries will not 
materialize.  However, Yediot says that those reports 
foresee "diplomatic quiet" for Israel until at least 
the PA's legislative elections (in January 2006) and 
Israel's Knesset elections (early 2006).  Yediot cited 
assessments in Jerusalem that Sharon will use that 
quiet to "turn rightwards" and regain the Right's 
support. 
 
Citing AP, Ha'aretz reported that the Democratic Front 
for the Liberation of Palestine announced it will 
participate in the Palestinian parliamentary elections 
in January, which AP says comes in support of the PA 
and its current government by bringing one of the 
radical "rejectionist" groups into the political 
process.  The report also cited a visit on Sunday by 
Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei to Damascus, where he 
discussed with Syrian President Bashar Assad the 
Israeli pullout from Gaza and Palestinian arrangements 
for the post-withdrawal period. 
 
Leading media reported that on Sunday, the Israel 
Broadcasting Authority announced a boycott of the Al- 
Arabiya satellite channel after a Foreign Ministry 
official was taken off the air Thursday. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that dozens of musicians from Israel, 
the PA, Syria, and Lebanon gathered in Ramallah in 
recent days to perform works by Mozart and Beethoven. 
Directed by the Israeli Daniel Barenboim, the concert 
took place Sunday and was broadcast by the European 
ARTE-TV. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported that, during his 
visit to a Cologne synagogue on Friday, Pope Benedict 
XVI expressed his concern about rising anti-Semitism. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that the Israeli 
businessman Yossi Meiman and his Egyptian partner, 
Hussein Salem, are initiating the construction of a 
billion-dollar power plant in El Arish, which would 
supply electricity to Israel and the PA. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son 
in the Iraq War and is picketing President Bush's ranch 
in Crawford, Tex., has made anti-Israel comments. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶1.  Gaza and Northern West Bank Disengagement: 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Veteran columnist Yaron London wrote in the editorial 
of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: 
"[Israel's] policy should not be based on the slim 
chance that this road map will result in a stable 
agreement." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The 
way in which the disengagement has been conducted until 
now provides a message according to which it is still 
possible to establish a life shared by the vast 
majority of the religious public and the secular 
majority." 
 
Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime 
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, 
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The U.S. isn't 
our partner in an agreement with our neighbors; it 
isn't our neighbor; and it doesn't have common borders 
with Israel." 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Yaacov Ahimeir wrote in 
Maariv: "In the very days when Israel is carrying out a 
unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, one could 
have thought that [some U.S.] churches would have 
blessed [the disengagement] -- but this isn't the case 
at all." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "What Next?" 
 
Veteran columnist Yaron London wrote in the editorial 
of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (August 
22): "The chances of holding substantive negotiations 
will not increase much in wake of disengagement. Sharon 
-- as the trustworthy Dov Weisglass interprets his 
intentions -- will not budge an inch.  The 'big bang' 
[in Israeli politics] is a mirage.  After wallowing in 
sterile negotiations, Israeli politics will once again 
be enslaved to settler rhetoric and the manipulations 
of the Settlers' Council.... The Palestinian Authority 
is shaky.... The immediate meaning of the 
democratization of Palestinian society is the greater 
influence of the fundamentalists.... The road map 
should still be adhered to because the world, mainly 
its American patron, is pinning all its hope on it, and 
because we should not despair of the aspiration to 
peace, but our policy should not be based on the slim 
chance that this road map will result in a stable 
agreement.... We should not expect that recognition of 
the necessity of another and much tougher disengagement 
will take root quickly.  First, all the myths and 
longings, scare tactics and dirty tricks have to be 
defeated, but slowly and surely we will face reality. 
Opposition from the Left could speed up this coming to 
grips, but where is it?" 
 
II.  "From Messianism to Sanity" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(August 22): "Using ... spiritual terrorism, the rabbis 
and their spokesmen terrorized the entire country. 
They said blood would be spilled, promised that the 
evacuation would be violent -- and worst of all, 
assured the public as a whole that its pure prayers 
would stop the government and the army.... And now, a 
few days after the disengagement has started, it has 
become clear that it will be.  Virtually no refusal has 
been recorded; bloody violence has been directed, as 
usual, at the Arabs.  The messianic leadership has 
disappointed, not just deceived.... Most of the 
religious public in Israel does not want to disengage 
from the Zionist state and is not planning to turn it 
into a theocratic state by means of a demographic 
victory.  The way in which the disengagement has been 
conducted until now provides a message according to 
which it is still possible to establish a life shared 
by the vast majority of the religious public and the 
secular majority.  The revelation of the emptiness and 
the lies of the radical messianic vision leaves other 
religious leaders -- more realistic and more moderate - 
- to make their voices heard bravely and to lead this 
important public back to the bosom of Zionistic 
sanity." 
 
III.  "Descent Into Perdition" 
Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime 
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, 
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv (August 21): "In 
one of the interviews he has given, Sharon provided a 
sort of explanation for his plan.  Since the 
Palestinians aren't reliable, he decided to forge an 
agreement with the United States, which would determine 
Israel's borders.  People with a smidgen of knowledge 
about international relations and their history will 
agree that this is a unprecedented, foolish ... idea. 
I served in the U.S. for years and I admire the 
alliance between our two countries.  But the U.S. isn't 
our partner in an agreement with our neighbors; it 
isn't our neighbor; and it doesn't have common borders 
with Israel.  President Bush has justly said that even 
if he, too, approves the continuation of Israel's 
holding on to settlement blocs, the determination of 
Israel's borders is conditioned upon an agreement with 
the Palestinians.  Thus, this is about an expression of 
goodwill by the President, which carries no diplomatic 
weight.  The Palestinians haven't been impressed by 
Bush's promises to Sharon.  The view the pullout as yet 
another victory in their attrition war against us, and 
an encouragement to continue it." 
 
IV.  "The Christian Boycott" 
 
Veteran print and TV journalist Yaacov Ahimeir wrote in 
Maariv (August 21): "If the following had caused us to 
adopt a demagogical statement, we might have said: at 
this very time, some U.S. churches are preparing the 
ground for a 'crusade' against Israel: the target of 
this new campaign isn't the liberation of the Holy 
Sepulcher and the Holy Land from the chains of the 
infidels (or Muslims) ... but hurting the pockets of 
the Jewish residents of Israel, or the economy of 
Israel, so that it changes its policy.... In the very 
days when Israel is carrying out a unilateral 
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, one could have thought 
that those churches would have blessed that step -- but 
this isn't the case at all.... What will you achieve 
with these decisions?.... Isn't the unhappy history of 
Christian-Jewish relations sufficient?  This isn't an 
entreaty to those churches' leaders, but an attempt to 
cry out.  Perhaps those U.S. churches could learn -- 
however late -- from another Christian, a Catholic, 
though, the 'Vicar [of Christ]' ... the deceased Pope 
John Paul II." 
 
-------------------------------------- 
¶2.  Rocket Attacks on Aqaba and Eilat: 
-------------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The main problem, 
which is not only Jordan's, is Iraq.... Weapons ... 
make their way to other countries in the region, 
including Jordan and Egypt, thus solving an important 
logistics problem for [local] terror organizations." 
 
Terrorism expert Dr. Boaz Ganor wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Whether our Arab neighbors are 
willing to recognize this or not, global jihad 
organizations are becoming a strategic threat to the 
entire region." 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Jordan Is Another Base of Operations For Al-Qaida" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (August 21): "The 
Jordanian report that Egyptian and Iraqi nationals, 
along with a Syrian, were arrested undermines a 
Jordanian official's evaluation [in comments to 
Ha'aretz] and raises concerns that Jordan, in spite of 
the excellent record of its intelligence forces, is 
becoming an arena for Al-Qaida operations.... The main 
problem, which is not only Jordan's, is Iraq.  Since 
the end of the war, Iraq has become the chief supplier 
of weapons and explosives to every gang.  Large 
quantities of weapons and ammunition are smuggled from 
Iraq to Saudi Arabia, and thus Iraq has replaced the 
previous 'exporter,' Yemen.  These weapons then make 
their way to other countries in the region, including 
Jordan and Egypt, thus solving an important logistics 
problem for [local] terror organizations." 
 
II.  "Warning Sign to the Security Establishment" 
 
Terrorism expert Dr. Boaz Ganor wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (August 21): "Israel is not world 
jihad's and Al-Qaida's main target, and the reasons 
these organizations give for their terror attacks, 
ostensibly because of the suffering of the Palestinian 
people, are nothing more than lip service of the last 
few years.  But  ... Israel was and remains a good 
target for terror from the perspective of these 
organizations.  A terror attack in Israel sends a 
symbolic message that is immediately understood among 
the masses of their activists and supporters in various 
Muslim communities.... Jordan's eastern neighbor [Iraq] 
is a magnet for Muslim terrorists from all over the 
world, led by arch-terrorist Al-Zarkawi, who comes from 
Zarka in Jordan.  Bin Laden's pupil aspires, like his 
teacher, to undermine any Muslim regime that is not 
radical, as part of its overall campaign to establish a 
radical Islamic republic throughout the world.  Whether 
our Arab neighbors are willing to recognize this or 
not, global jihad organizations are becoming a 
strategic threat to the entire region.  The Katyusha 
rocket in Eilat and the terror attacks in Egypt are the 
first swallows that herald the autumn." 
 
KURTZER