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

261101Z Aug 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005275 
 
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STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
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HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
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USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
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JERUSALEM ALSO FOR ICD 
LONDON ALSO FOR HKANONA AND POL 
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ROME FOR MFO 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported that the U.S. is urging Israel 
and the PA to exercise restraint and not to miss the 
historic opportunity for peace in the region.  Visiting 
U.S. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MI) was quoted as 
saying in an interview with Jerusalem Post that an 
Israeli-free Gaza is now the laboratory where the 
Palestinians will need to prove that they can govern. 
Ha'aretz reported that Rev. Jesse Jackson telephoned 
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, to 
convey his congratulations to Sharon on the 
implementation of the disengagement plan.  The 
newspaper reported that, "in a surprising move," 
Jackson said that now that the disengagement has been 
carried out, the burden of proof is on the 
Palestinians. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that a senior Israeli official 
praised the "most positive EU statement in years."  The 
statement issued by Britain, which currently holds the 
rotating EU presidency, read that the EU welcomed the 
"historic progress made on Israel's withdrawal from 
Gaza and parts of the West Bank," and salutes the 
courage of Sharon and his government. 
 
Ha'aretz cited the IDF's fears that violence might 
escalate in the coming weeks following the army's 
killing of five Palestinians in Tulkarm Wednesday.  On 
Thursday, rockets were fired at Sderot.  Ha'aretz cited 
the IDF's belief that the firing of a rocket across the 
Lebanese border on Thursday was unintentional.  The 
media reported that PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud 
Abbas slammed the killings and accused Israel of 
causing a deliberate provocation in order to undermine 
his efforts to maintain calm.  Israel Radio reported 
that a Palestinian stabbed and slightly wounded a 
border policeman in Hebron this morning.  The attacker 
was arrested. 
 
Israel Radio reported that, following a debate PM 
Sharon held with senior defense officials last night, 
Israel will soon ask Egypt to deploy forces along the 
Philadelphi route.  Ha'aretz and the radio reported 
that Israel insists on the Palestinians crossing from 
Egypt through a point other than Rafah.  Ha'aretz says 
that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz made that proposal. 
Israel Radio says that, should the Palestinians insists 
on the Rafah crossing point, Israel would undo its 
customs agreement with the PA, which would cost the 
latter hundreds of millions of dollars annually.  The 
station and other media reported that the cabinet will 
vote on the agreement with Egypt on Sunday, and the 
Knesset on Wednesday. 
 
Maariv cited Interior Ministry statistics, according to 
which the number of Israelis living in the West Bank 
has increased by close to 13,000 over the past year -- 
exceeding that of the settlers evacuated during the 
disengagement.  Over 250,000 Israelis now reside beyond 
the Green Line.  Jerusalem Post reported that the vast 
majority of the Gaza Strip's Jewish residents have 
elected to end their settlement enterprise in the lands 
Israel won in 1967, despite the initial push of the 
settlement movement to absorb them into West Bank 
communities.  Still, the newspaper reported that 
private American investors have pledged USD 5 million 
to build 60 housing units in four West Bank settlements 
for Gaza evacuees. 
 
Israel Radio reported on the meeting Justice Minister 
Tzipi Livni held with Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice on Thursday.  Livni told the radio that, as a 
terror organization, Hamas could not take part in the 
Palestinian Legislative Council elections.  Israel 
Radio quoted Abbas as saying that there is no reason 
why Hamas could not enter his government if it achieves 
good results in the elections. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted a source close to Sharon as 
saying that, facing a potential attempt by members of 
his Likud party to oust him as leader, Sharon would 
consider asking President Moshe Katsav to disperse the 
Knesset and initiate early elections.  Israel Radio 
says that the buzz in Israeli politics is of elections 
late in 2005 or early in 2006.  Leading media expect 
Binyamin Netanyahu to formally announce next week his 
candidacy for Likud chairmanship.  Yediot reported that 
Sharon severely attacked him on Thursday.  Speaking on 
Israel Radio this morning, Labor Party Secretary- 
General, Knesset Member Eitan Cabel expressed his 
belief that Labor will quit the government in November. 
Leading media reported that Meretz-Yahad party leader 
Yossi Beilin will support the move led by the right- 
wing factions to topple Sharon's government.  However, 
Ha'aretz notes that other senior Meretz-Yahad members 
do not agree with him. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the police have arrested a 
man and a woman who admitted to hurling a pig's head 
into the courtyard of a Jaffa mosque a few days ago. 
They reportedly acknowledged that they wanted to 
provoke the Israeli Arab public in the context of the 
disengagement.  The radio reported that the police are 
preparing for possible confrontations at the site this 
afternoon. 
 
Yediot reported that on Wednesday, for the first time, 
the Chinese Foreign Ministry officially responded to 
the U.S.-Israeli memorandum of understanding regarding 
the ban on sales of sensitive military equipment to 
China.  According to Yediot, the ministry wrote in a 
release "China and Israel are sovereign countries and 
they ought to conduct an independent policy as part of 
the development of relations between the countries," 
and that "the U.S. has no right to intervene in normal 
exchanges and cooperation between the sides." 
 
Maariv and other media reported that Abbas and other 
Palestinian officials have recently expressed their 
support for the relocation of Palestinian refugees from 
Lebanon to Gaza. 
 
Yediot and Maariv reported that, for the first time 
since the establishment of diplomatic relations between 
Israel and Egypt, the pro-government Egyptian daily Al- 
Ahram printed an article by an Israeli diplomat -- 
Ambassador Shalom Cohen, who explained the peace 
opportunity created by the disengagement.  The 
newspapers note that Al-Ahram attached an editorial 
comment of its own to Cohen's article, saying that the 
withdrawal from Gaza is only the first stage in a 
comprehensive pullout, that Israel must meet its 
commitments under the road map, and that Cohen ignored 
38 years of Israeli occupation in Gaza. 
 
Maariv cited a denial by Cindy Sheehan, who lost her 
son in the Iraq War and is picketing President Bush's 
ranch in Crawford, Tex., that she made any anti-Israel 
or anti-Semitic comments. 
 
Under the headline, "Saying Good-Bye," Jerusalem Post 
pictures FM Silvan Shalom presenting U.S. Ambassador to 
Israel Dan Kurtzer with a Jewish National Fund 
certificate recording the planting of trees in his 
name. 
 
Ha'aretz features efforts by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman 
Schultz (D-FL) to turn January into an official Jewish 
history month. 
 
Yediot bannered the results of a Mina Zemach (Dahaf 
Institute) poll conducted on Wednesday: 
-54 percent of Israelis favor the evacuation of West 
Bank settlements; 42 percent are opposed. 
-68 percent of Israelis support the evacuation of 
unauthorized settler outposts. 
-49 percent would like Sharon to continue his political 
life; 47 percent believe that he has concluded his 
historical role and that he should retire. 
 
According to a Ha'aretz/ Dialogue Institute poll 
conducted over the past two days, some 61 percent of 
Israelis believe that "Israel has been hurt and pained 
by the disengagement"; only 23.5 percent describe post- 
evacuation Israel as "a normal, civilized state." 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Israel's top priority right now should be resuming a 
dialogue with the PA, not provocative construction 
ventures." 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Egyptian 
Border Guard Force, which will deploy on Philadelphi 
Road, is not a force that will threaten Israel's 
security." 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in Yediot Aharonot: 
"The U.S. administration will prefer to embrace Sharon 
rather than to pressure him." 
 
Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe: "[President Bush] hasn't 
actually set a date [for Israel's withdrawal from the 
West Bank], but British Prime Minister hastened to 
state that pertinent talks would start as early as this 
year." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "A Poorly Timed Provocation" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(August 26): "Under American pressure, Sharon froze a 
plan to build 3,500 housing units in [the] E-1 
[corridor].  But Washington does not buy his 
explanation that it is possible to create 
'transportation contiguity' for the Palestinians via 
overpasses and tunnels that would connect the northern 
and southern West Bank.  Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice is more attentive to the Palestinians' fear that 
Israel seeks to divide the West Bank into isolated 
cantons.  It is hard not to view the decisions about 
the fence and the new construction near Ma'aleh Adumim 
as a poorly timed provocation.  They damage the efforts 
to rebuild trust with the Palestinian Authority and to 
strengthen its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, as a partner for 
future negotiations.... They erode the contribution 
that the successful disengagement made to reviving the 
diplomatic process and show that Sharon has returned to 
his evil ways in the settlements.  There is widespread 
agreement within Israel about keeping the settlement 
blocs, including Ma'aleh Adumim, under any final-status 
arrangement.  But this must be done through an 
agreement with the Palestinians that takes their needs 
into account as well, not by creating facts on the 
ground unilaterally, which will only make the tangle 
created by the spread of settlements in the West Bank 
even more complicated.  Israel's top priority right now 
should be resuming a dialogue with the PA, not 
provocative construction ventures." 
 
II.  "No Cause For Concern" 
 
Military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (August 26): 
"The Egyptian Border Guard Force, which will deploy on 
Philadelphi Road, is not a force that will threaten 
Israel's security.... The main question is whether the 
Egyptians will indeed succeed, with the aid of this 
force, in blocking the wave of smuggling into the Gaza 
Strip.  They are committed to do so in the agreement, 
but Israel has no ability -- apart from international 
pressure -- to supervise the quality of the Egyptians' 
activity and motivation.... The hope is that the 
Palestinian interest to keep the crossings open and the 
Egyptian interest to keep the calm will cause them to 
monitor the borders effectively.  Beyond this, Israel 
has no real influence.  The Egyptians currently face a 
problem of internal terrorism.  In cooperation with 
other countries, they are trying to battle terrorists 
and the smuggling.... Perhaps they will succeed in 
doing something [along the Philadelphi Road].  There is 
another great and important advantage to the deployment 
of the Egyptian force on Philadelphi Road: the presence 
of this force enables Israel to withdraw its soldiers 
from the road in a dignified manner.  That too is worth 
something in these troubled times.  The only problem 
with this force lies in the fact that it creates a 
precedent.  Stationing such a force does not conform to 
the spirit of the military appendices attached to the 
peace accords between Israel and Egypt.  It should be 
ensured that this precedent does not lead to a flood of 
breaches in the accords." 
 
III.  "Returning Home" 
 
Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in Yediot Aharonot 
(August 26): "Sharon believes that the world will give 
him a long break in the peace process.  The 
Palestinians will do their best to restrain terror. 
This time they are motivated not only by external 
pressure, but also by internal Palestinian public 
opinion.  They too have elections.  The U.S. 
administration will prefer to embrace Sharon rather 
than to pressure him.  They will neither remind him of 
the settlement outposts that have not yet been 
evacuated, nor of the requirements of the road map. 
Bush, in the very warm statements he made about Sharon 
this week, hinted that in effect he accepts Sharon's 
view, which holds that we are currently in the 'pre- 
road map' stage.  [But] the voters are cruel.  They are 
usually not grateful for what is not present -- not for 
the mortar shells that will no longer be fired at 
Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, nor for the 
economy that will improve as a result of the 
evacuation's success, nor for the quarrels that do not 
exist between Israel and Western Europe and the 
moderate states of the Arab world.  The evacuation is 
over.  Israel is apparently moving into a year of very 
intensive internal politics." 
 
IV.  "While the World Is Happy, Israelis Are Crying" 
 
Former editor-in-chief Moshe Ishon wrote in 
nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe (August 26): "Secretary 
of State Condoleezza Rice said last week ... that the 
withdrawal from Gush Katif doesn't constitute a 
conclusion.  When one of the journalists told her that 
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that this pullout was 
final, Rice answered: so, this is what he said. 
President Bush has expressed his hope that the 'road 
map' process would begin after the uprooting of Gush 
Katif.  He hasn't actually set a date, but British 
Prime Minister hastened to state that pertinent talks 
would start as early as this year.  It should be 
assumed that he coordinates his remarks with the 
'Quartet.'  The U.S. Secretary of State is also aware 
of those developments.  It is no secret that President 
Bush has already said upon previous occasions that 
Israel must withdraw from Judea and Samaria [i.e. the 
West Bank].  We should expect a transition period until 
the elections in the Palestinian Authority, which are 
supposed to be held during the second half of January 
¶2006.  Until then, Israel won't in fact be required to 
withdraw from Judea and Samaria.  If Hamas wins a 
majority in those elections, Israel would have a good 
reason to oppose the pullout.  On the other hand, if 
Fatah wins, Abu Mazen will be able to more vehemently 
demand an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. 
He also hopes to win the support of the United States." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and extreme right-wing columnist 
Caroline B. Glick wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post: "There has been no indication 
whatsoever that Washington cares about fostering 
peaceful relations between Israel and post-Saddam Iraq 
and as a result, it is simply irresponsible for Israeli 
leaders to consider withdrawing from our eastern border 
on the Jordan River." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"The End of Mythology" 
 
Deputy Managing Editor and extreme right-wing columnist 
Caroline B. Glick wrote in conservative, independent 
Jerusalem Post (August 26): "Since it toppled Saddam's 
regime, the U.S. has done nothing to discourage 
continued Iraqi rejection of Israel's right to exist 
and bellicose statements in favor of Israel's 
destruction which have been heard from all quarters. 
The best-case scenario for Israel from a post-U.S. 
withdrawal from Iraq is that Iraq will act in a manner 
similar to Saudi Arabia in its dealings with the Jewish 
state.... In any case, there has been no indication 
whatsoever that Washington cares about fostering 
peaceful relations between Israel and post-Saddam Iraq 
and as a result, it is simply irresponsible for Israeli 
leaders to consider withdrawing from our eastern border 
on the Jordan River." 
 
KURTZER