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

291033Z Aug 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005302 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM 
NSC FOR NEA STAFF 
 
SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA 
HQ USAF FOR XOXX 
DA WASHDC FOR SASA 
JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA 
USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR 
COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD 
COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 
 
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 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media highlighted the suicide bombing that occurred 
outside Beersheva's central bus station on Sunday 
morning.  Two security guards were seriously wounded 
and 61 other people were treated for shock.  Israel 
Radio reported that the suicide bomber has not been 
identified, but that Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa 
Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. 
Leading media highlighted the fact that southern Israel 
is not protected by a security fence.  This morning, 
the electronic media reported that an IDF soldier was 
lightly wounded when Palestinians opened fire on the 
car in which he was driving in the Gaza Strip. 
Ha'aretz says that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar 
Suleiman, who is arriving today for a visit to Israel 
and the PA, will try to restore the calm. 
 
Leading media reported that during the weekend, 
President Bush demanded that the Palestinians respond 
to Israel's disengagement by cracking down on 
terrorism.  The media say that this is the President's 
strongest such statement since the withdrawal. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that despite the signing 
of a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the 
U.S. to end the dispute over Israel's sale to China of 
spare parts for attack drones, U.S. sanctions continue. 
 
Speaking on Israel Radio this morning, FM Silvan Shalom 
said that Israel would consider using the disengagement 
as a positive model for future moves, should long-term 
calm be achieved with the Palestinians. 
 
All media reported that on Sunday, the cabinet approved 
the agreement with Egypt to deploy some 750 Egyptian 
border guards on the Philadelphi route between the Gaza 
Strip and Sinai.  Eighteen ministers voted for the 
agreement and only two against: the Likud's Limor 
Livnat and Tzachi Hanegbi.  On Sunday, Yediot and 
Maariv reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak 
might visit Israel in November. 
 
On Sunday, leading media reported that on Saturday, 
Hamas released a video showing bomb-maker Mohammed 
Deif, who tops the list of militants wanted by Israel, 
celebrating the Gaza Strip pullout as a victory for 
armed resistance and urging the destruction of Israel. 
Today, Jerusalem Post quoted sources in Ramallah and 
the Gaza Strip as saying that tensions are mounting 
between the PA and Hamas following the release of the 
tape. 
 
Citing AP, Ha'aretz reported that Egyptian FM Ahmed Ali 
Abu el-Gheit turned down a request from the 
International Atomic Energy Agency to sign the 
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, saying Israel 
should first join a separate agreement calling for a 
halt to the spread of nuclear weapons. 
 
Maariv reported that the defense establishment has 
decided that 15 settler families that reside in 
Hebron's wholesale market will be forcibly evacuated by 
the end of the year. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv cited a military document 
investigating Thursday's killing of five Palestinians 
by IDF troops in Tulkarm.  The document reported on 
irregularities, including the fact that a Palestinian 
youth was killed mistakenly.  However, Maariv cited the 
IDF as saying that the operation was conducted 
properly. 
 
Yediot reported that a rocket-like device has recently 
been found near PM Sharon's Sycamore Ranch.  The 
newspaper reported that the Shin Bet and police have 
not determined the factors behind the device. 
 
The leading news web site Ynet reported that the 
increase in the West Bank settler population is mostly 
a result of jump in the number of residents in ultra- 
Orthodox communities, home to about quarter of all 
settlers, who seek cheaper accommodation. 
 
All media reported that Sharon's son, Knesset Member 
Omri Sharon, was indicted Sunday on counts of flouting 
campaign finance laws, forging corporate documents, 
perjury, and various offenses related to the 1999 Likud 
primaries.  The state prosecution has requested that 
Omri Sharon serve time in prison. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the head of Israel's National 
Security Council, Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, has 
advised PM Sharon that he intends to resign from his 
post by the end of the year. 
 
Yediot on Sunday presented what it says is the PA's 
development plan for "Gaza 2015."  On Sunday, Hatzofe 
reported that Palestinians have assigned the names of 
"Arafat" and "Yassin" to abandoned Gush Katif 
settlements. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat 
as saying Sunday that the PA will continue to work 
toward moving Yasser Arafat's tomb to the Al Aqsa 
Mosque in Jerusalem.  Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark 
Regev was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Jerusalem Post that, from the Israeli perspective, the 
issue is not on the agenda. 
 
On Sunday, Yediot reported that Danny Ayalon, Israel's 
Ambassador to the U.S., refuses to release to the 
State's Attorney's Office recordings of senior Foreign 
Ministry officials that revealed that FM Shalom and his 
wife demanded that Ayalon's personal assistant be 
dismissed because he didn't arrange a meeting between 
them and Madonna. 
 
All media reported that in Frankfurt on Sunday, 
prominent Israeli author Amos Oz received the Goethe 
Prize, which some media described as second in 
importance to the Nobel Prize.  Oz, who talked about 
the painful disengagement from the Gaza Strip and 
northern West Bank, said that Germany and the rest of 
Europe must lend a supportive hand to Israel and to 
peace, without coming out for or against either Israel 
or the Palestinians. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that 20 Bedouin families -- all 
Israeli citizens -- from the Gaza Strip village of 
Dahaniyeh, who have assisted the defense establishment, 
will move today to new homes in Tel Arad, in the 
eastern Negev. 
 
Maariv reported that the IDF has dismantled the unit of 
the IDF Intelligence Branch that collected information 
about Jews.  (It was established ahead of the 
disengagement.) 
 
The advance of Hurricane Katrina toward New Orleans 
dominated this morning's broadcasts in the electronic 
media. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "The ... insight [that] only a light at the 
end of the Palestinian tunnel, a state in the making 
with Israeli support, could help reduce terror -- this 
insight has not yet dawned on the decision makers in 
Jerusalem." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Having praised the terrorists to the hilt and credited 
them with pushing Israel out of Gaza, Abbas continues 
to campaign resolutely to make sure they are armed to 
the teeth." 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: 
"Egypt needs this new agreement to succeed, which is 
why President Hosni Mubarak acquiesced to Israel's last- 
minute request to add a new clause to the agreement." 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar wrote in Ha'aretz: "The 
time for indulging [Sharon] is now over.  Sharon's good 
deeds will be counted in his favor, while his bad deeds 
will be chalked up against him." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "There Is a Connection, There Is No Connection" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (August 29): "Common sense -- and public 
Palestinian sources, such as public opinion polls -- 
say that the Palestinians have learned from 
disengagement that Israel understands nothing but 
force.  What other conclusion could be drawn, after 
years in which every Israeli administration declared 
that there would be no negotiations or territorial 
concessions under fire?.... However, no one can say 
whether this indeed brought about an increase in 
terror, and certainly no one can prove a connection 
with the terror attack in Beersheva or any other local 
action.... The change can only be made by a 
[Palestinian] government that is capable of giving its 
people hope -- and a clear Israeli message of 
supporting this hope.  Unilateral steps, which the 
Prime Minister insists to this day constitute a 
punishment to the Palestinians (although no one besides 
him understands what kind of punishment this is), do 
not contribute a thing to creating this kind of body on 
the other side.  Israel has long since relinquished its 
habit of bombing PA targets after terror attacks, 
perhaps because the absurdity of these steps was 
painfully obvious and perhaps because there were no PA 
targets left to bomb.  But the opposite insight -- only 
a light at the end of the Palestinian tunnel, a state 
in the making with Israeli support, could help reduce 
terror -- this insight has not yet dawned on the 
decision makers in Jerusalem." 
 
II.  "Hudna, Shmudna" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(August 29): "Suicide bombing isn't an individual 
undertaking; it is the culmination of a carefully 
orchestrated effort.  The bomber is the agent of an 
entire terror infrastructure.  It is this 
infrastructure that the Palestinian Authority has been 
called upon to dismantle, time and again.... Abbas 
promised just prior to yesterday's Beersheva blast that 
the truce he committed the Palestinian side to long ago 
-- a 'hudna,' which was in fact never genuinely 
enforced -- would be of unlimited duration.... 
Meanwhile, having praised the terrorists to the hilt 
and credited them with pushing Israel out of Gaza, 
Abbas continues to campaign resolutely to make sure 
they are armed to the teeth.  This is the dangerous 
subtext of his demands that Israel forfeit all controls 
on incoming land, air and sea traffic into Gaza.... 
Were he sincere about eradicating terror he'd have put 
Hamas master bomb-maker Muhammad Deif behind bars 
instead of allowing him to remain at large within his 
fiefdom to dispatch taped messages exhorting 
Palestinians to greater bloodshed in order to wrest 
Jaffa, Safed, Nazareth and Ashkelon from Israel. 
Deif's in-your-face harangues are emblematic of what is 
wrong with the PA." 
 
III.  "Egypt Needs Success" 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(August 28): "The uniqueness of the Philadelphi 
agreement with the Egyptians lies not in the deployment 
of 750 Egyptian border guards along the 14-kilometer 
stretch between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Rather, it 
lies in the direct involvement of Egypt in Palestinian- 
Israeli security, largely with the aim of preventing 
the activity of Islamic extremist groups that could 
spill over from Gaza into Egypt.... In the past, 
Egypt's involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict 
consisted mainly of giving advice and criticizing 
Israel.  Egypt needs this new agreement to succeed, 
which is why President Hosni Mubarak acquiesced to 
Israel's last-minute request to add a new clause to the 
agreement.... A formula was found that indirectly deals 
with a prohibition against selling or giving Egyptian 
weaponry to the PA." 
 
IV.  "An Insufficient Remedy" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar wrote in Ha'aretz 
(August 29): "The disengagement from Gaza was a 
necessary but insufficient remedy for the prevention of 
a binational reality, if not a binationalist-religious 
one.  A state where 40 percent of the residents under 
its control are not Jewish cannot be called a Jewish 
state.  The disengagement plan justifiably gave Sharon 
parliamentary immunity against initiatives of the 
extreme right to foil the pullout of the civilians and 
the soldiers who risked their lives needlessly.  The 
time for indulging him is now over.  Sharon's good 
deeds will be counted in his favor, while his bad deeds 
will be chalked up against him." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior Likud member and former ambassador to the U.S. 
Zalman Shoval wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot: "China's accelerated economic growth 
is causing an increase in demand for Middle East oil 
and more active political activity by Beijing in our 
region -- a reality that Washington cannot ignore." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Friendship Dependent on Black Gold" 
 
Senior Likud member and former ambassador to the U.S. 
Zalman Shoval wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist 
Yediot Aharonot (August 29): "Those who want to, can 
spot certain clouds that have recently appeared in the 
blue skies of Israel's relations with the U.S.  For 
example, the U.S. administration has delayed its 
announcement of the 'disengagement grant' -- and it was 
said that the proposed sum will reach half of what was 
requested by Israel.  Is this a diplomatic step hinting 
at American expectations for the post-disengagement 
stage -- or perhaps 'merely' further proof that Israel 
has not yet learned the complex rules of requests for 
special aid from the Americans?.... But what should 
raise more in-depth thought on our part are possible 
trends in U.S. foreign policy for the long term.  The 
name of the game is oil.  If Washington had hopes that 
its military victory in Iraq would assure an orderly 
supply of the black gold, those were disproved. 
Moreover: China's accelerated economic growth is 
causing an increase in demand for Middle East oil and 
more active political activity by Beijing in our region 
-- a reality that Washington cannot ignore.... In the 
present situation, greater weight should be given to 
the opinion that after the abandonment of Gaza, we 
should actually strengthen our hold on the settlement 
blocs in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank].  What 
will the Americans say?  There will probably be 
criticism, but we may have to remind them that we hold 
an explicit commitment by President Bush, with the 
support of both houses of Congress, which means that 
these blocs will remain in Israel's hands." 
 
CRETZ