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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005319 
 
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.  Israel's Leadership 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All media reported that the Likud has started its 
process of toppling PM Sharon.  The party's Central 
Committee will vote on September 26 on a proposal to 
advance the Likud's leadership primaries, which could 
take place on November 22, followed by a February 21 
general election.  In an interview broadcast last night 
on Channel 10-TV, Sharon made an unprecedented attack 
against Binyamin Netanyahu, who Sharon said "is an 
anxious, tense man who deals poorly with pressure, 
panics, and loses his head."  Sharon added: "A man who 
panics and loses control cannot lead a country, 
particularly a special country like Israel with more 
difficult and complex problems than other countries. 
In order to run this country, you have to have good 
judgment and nerves of steel, and Netanyahu has 
neither."  Sharon sharply criticized Netanyahu's 
"irresponsibility" regarding the budget and the 
disengagement plan.  Sharon also said he would 
dismantle some settlements in the West Bank.  Israel 
Radio quoted Netanyahu associates as saying that Sharon 
is panicking. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted U.S. and Israeli officials as saying 
that Washington has rescinded its demand that Israel 
and the U.S. jointly mark the boundaries of settlements 
in the West Bank.  The newspaper says that neither side 
reportedly has an interest in marking the boundaries: 
for Israel, it would be an uncomfortable concession; 
for the U.S., it would legitimize the existing 
settlements.  Ha'aretz quoted U.S. officials as saying 
they are now making due with warning Israel to refrain 
from expanding the West Bank settlements. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that an interministerial committee, 
headed by a Defense Ministry official, decided Monday 
that the victims of the terrorist attack in Shfaram 
will receive a one-time compensation from the state, 
but will not be recognized as terror victims. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) reported that Adar Primor has 
been appointed its new editor.  He served as Ha'aretz's 
foreign news editor from 1994 until last month. 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that in Arizona on 
Monday, President Bush urged PA Chairman [President] 
Mahmoud Abbas to show the courage to crack down on 
terrorism.  The President praised Sharon's 
disengagement decision, saying: "It took political 
courage to make that decision.  And now it's going to 
take political courage by the Palestinians ... and 
Abbas to step up, reject violence, reject terrorism, 
and build a democracy."  Ha'aretz printed a Reuters 
dispatch, which cited a statement issued by the 
official PA News agency, according to which Abbas 
condemned the Beersheva bombing, calling it a 
"terrorist attack." 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Palestinian sources as saying that 
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who visited 
Gaza on Monday, proposed that Israel continue 
supervising the entrance of goods and people into Gaza 
following the pullout, but only for six months.  That 
would give Israel time to examine the PA's functioning 
in Gaza and also provide additional time for 
negotiations over a permanent solution.  The newspaper 
writes that unofficially, Palestinian officials did not 
rule out such a compromise.  Jerusalem Post reported 
that Suleiman urged Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop 
their attacks against Israel. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Israeli and Palestinian 
officers met Monday at the Erez Crossing to discuss the 
handover of security responsibility over the Gaza 
Strip.  The station quoted the Palestinians as saying 
that they thwarted an anti-tank missile attack against 
IDF troops on the Karni-Netzarim road on Monday. 
Leading media reported that the IDF uncovered a 20 
meter-deep weapons smuggling tunnel in the Philadelphi 
Corridor on Monday, the 30th such tunnel found in the 
last three months.  All media also reported that Monday 
at the Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank, IDF soldiers 
arrested Hassan Abu Khalifa, a 15-year-old Palestinian 
youth from Nablus, who was allegedly carrying pipe 
bombs. 
 
The EU's High Representative for Common Foreign and 
Security Policy Javier Solana, who is visiting Israel 
and the PA, was quoted as saying in an interview with 
Ha'aretz on Monday that Israel and the PA must take 
advantage of the momentum generated by the 
disengagement to move the peace process forward. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Defense Minister Shaul 
Mofaz has issued an order to evacuate "Rinat 
Shalhevet," which has been a controversial Jewish 
outpost in the heart of the Old City of Hebron since 
¶1994. 
 
Yediot reported that Tel Aviv University Professor 
Yitzhak Ben Israel was appointed chairman of the Israel 
Space Agency on Monday, replacing Prof. Yuval Ne'eman. 
 
Citing the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera, Ha'aretz 
reported that the Vatican has admitted that an 
inadvertence was the cause of the non-inclusion of 
Israel in a list of countries that have been victims of 
international terrorism. 
 
Hatzofe bannered the results of a Midgam Institute 
survey among registered Likud members, according to 
which Sharon would lose against a coalition of right- 
wing Likud leaders under Netanyahu, which would garner 
59 percent of the vote for party leadership. 
 
All media extensively covered the damage caused by 
Hurricane Katrina in several Gulf Coast U.S. states. 
Some TV stations held interviews with correspondents of 
U.S. TV networks -- live from disaster-struck areas. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Bush, with all his friendship 
for Sharon, is not offering any free lunches; the price 
for recognizing the end of the occupation in Gaza will 
be allowing freedom of movement in the West Bank and 
free passage between it and Gaza." 
 
Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime 
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, 
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv: "Abandoning the 
Philadelphi route to the Egyptians and the Palestinians 
constitutes dangerous gambling in the best case." 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe 
Arens wrote in Ha'aretz: "[Forcing citizens out of 
their homes] is certainly a concept foreign to Western 
democratic societies and most unlikely to be adopted by 
any other democratic government in this day and age." 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "The 
Secretary of State's signals that the withdrawal from 
 
SIPDIS 
Gush Katif 'is only the beginning' tell us that the 
major struggle is still ahead of us." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "No Free Lunches From Bush" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (August 30): "More than all the 
compliments, it is important for Sharon that the U.S. 
administration recognize Israel's departure from the 
Gaza Strip as the official end of the occupation in 
that area.  From there it is just a short way to a UN 
declaration that Israel no longer bears responsibility 
for what happens in the Gaza Strip.  So long as the 
international community, led by the U.S., does not 
recognize the withdrawal as the end of the occupation, 
it means Israel lost the communities there, ceded 
military control there and still continues to be seen 
as the occupier, with all the legal and political 
ramifications of that status.  Bush, with all his 
friendship for Sharon, is not offering any free 
lunches; the price for recognizing the end of the 
occupation in Gaza will be allowing freedom of movement 
in the West Bank and free passage between it and Gaza." 
 
II.  "A Danger at the Gaza Border" 
 
Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime 
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, 
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv (August 30): 
"Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Tantawi heads Al Azhar University. 
He is the supreme religious authority in Egypt -- and 
even more than that.  He has recently published a fatwa 
that states that 'a person who blows himself up should 
be considered as having committed suicide, except for 
acts of resistance in Palestine, whose executors are 
shahids [martyrs].'  One can imagine how that fatwa 
would influence an Egyptian officer posted along the 
Philadelphi route, who would discover a Palestinian 
smuggling missiles and explosive belts into Gaza. 
Furthermore, that officer and his subordinates are 
exposed daily to venomous attacks against Israel in the 
Egyptian media, and to reports about increasing 
Egyptian activity in the international arena.  This 
being considered, abandoning the Philadelphi route to 
the Egyptians and the Palestinians constitutes 
dangerous gambling in the best case." 
 
III.  "What Is Sharon Up To?" 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe 
Arens wrote in Ha'aretz (August 30): "More than anyone 
else, [Sharon] is responsible for the map of Israeli 
settlements and the absence of significant settlement 
blocs in Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank]. 
Settlement blocs were evidently not part of his dream. 
Sharon seems to have adopted a conception, which he 
shares with many Israelis, that any territory turned 
over to Palestinians, whether unilaterally or as part 
of an agreement, must first be cleared of any and all 
Jews living there.... It is high time that Israelis ask 
themselves whether forcibly evicting Jews from their 
homes in territories turned over to Palestinian control 
accords with the norms of a democratic society, or can 
really be viewed as an essential part of peacemaking in 
the Middle East.  It is certainly a concept foreign to 
Western democratic societies and most unlikely to be 
adopted by any other democratic government in this day 
and age." 
 
IV.  "Only the 'First Step'" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (August 
30): "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has 
repeatedly declared that the Israeli withdrawal from 
Gush Katif was only the 'first step' of Israel's 
pullout.  Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen 
subsequently proclaimed that Israel would later 
withdraw from Judea and Samaria [i.e. the West Bank], 
and Jerusalem.... According to some reports, the calm 
is not being preserved along the new line, despite 
promises and pledges by the PA.  [Israeli] defense 
sources believe that no quiet can be expected along the 
new border in the South -- or in Judea and Samaria. 
Everything indicates that tension will continue.  The 
Secretary of State's signals that the withdrawal from 
 
SIPDIS 
Gush Katif 'is only the beginning' tell us that the 
major struggle is still ahead of us." 
 
------------------------ 
¶2.  Israel's Leadership: 
------------------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Netanyahu is 
counting on the fears of the public; the dim hope 
Sharon offers is simply a different package for the 
product called 'vote for me.'" 
 
Political parties correspondent Sima Kadmon wrote in 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Contrary 
to expectations, Sharon did not veer to the Right." 
 
Political parties correspondent Nadav Eyal wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "If [Sharon] fails, his 
political future will be dealt a mortal blow.  Not 
surprisingly, so will the political future of the 
Likud." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Who Benefits From the Fear?" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (August 30): "Like 
insurance, Israeli politics also sells fear. Benjamin 
Netanyahu is building his campaign to return to the 
Prime Minister's Office on the public's fear of 
Palestinian terror.  He warns against a terrorist state 
arising in Gaza, al-Qaida bases and Qassam rockets 
landing in Ashkelon.  Experience has taught him that 
this works: in 1996, Netanyahu won the elections after 
a wave of terror, backed by a warning that 'Peres will 
divide Jerusalem'.... Palestinian terror is not a 
scarecrow.  It is alive and active ... and it is slowly 
and painfully folding Israel back to the Green Line.... 
Therefore, political declarations must be taken in 
proportion.  It is all a matter of marketing. 
Netanyahu is counting on the fears of the public; the 
dim hope Sharon offers is simply a different package 
for the product called 'vote for me.'" 
 
II.  "Disengaging" 
 
Political parties correspondent Sima Kadmon wrote in 
mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (August 
30): "If there was any lingering doubt about the Prime 
Minister's situation in his own party, the ruling 
handed down by the Likud court removed it: in its 
ruling Monday, the court authorized the party to begin 
the process of removing the Prime Minister from 
office.... And as if that weren't enough, the Prime 
Minister was given a second resounding slap in the face 
on Monday: a leak emerged from a private meeting that 
the Defense Minister held on Monday that Mofaz intends 
to remain in the Likud and, if Sharon were not going to 
run he, Mofaz, would seek the Likud leadership.  The 
Defense Minister, who executed the disengagement plan 
and who backed up the Prime Minister the entire way, 
the man who was supposed to be Sharon's chief partner 
in the splinter party-now has made everyone doubt 
Sharon's intentions or abilities....  Sharon said on 
Monday that he was staying in the Likud, but appealed 
to another camp, a large camp in the Center and the 
Left that supports him and expects him to continue with 
the process that he began.  His statements about the 
evacuation of additional settlements in Judea and 
Samaria [i.e. the West Bank] were not aired for the 
benefit of the Likud Central Committee members and, 
contrary to expectations, Sharon did not veer to the 
Right.  There's no urgency: he still has four weeks 
left to play on every court." 
 
III.  "Turn and Turnabout" 
 
Political parties correspondent Nadav Eyal wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (August 30): "We can imagine 
the picture.  Ariel Sharon stands, silent, facing the 
turbulent, shouting Central Committee of the Likud.... 
They will dismiss him, and he will be a regal, 
restrained, balanced prime minister -- a stable captain 
opposite the extreme Right.  Sharon's advisers say that 
this is a dream for the campaign of a Sharon party: the 
Likud's Central Committee, perhaps one of the most 
hated groups in Israel, dismisses one of the most 
popular prime ministers because he took Israel out of 
Gaza.  There will be no better way for Sharon to prove 
that the Likud has ceased to be a ruling party.  There 
will be no better way to announce the establishment of 
a new ruling party.... Nevertheless, and with all due 
respect to public support, Sharon's political future is 
in grave danger.  Right now he is losing the battle 
over the Likud, the only ruling party, his assets and 
power are slipping through his fingers, his rivals are 
attaining objectives while he has no choice but to 
retreat.... Anyone who wants to win in the party does 
not insult its members.  Sharon has completed the 
process of his emotional disengagement from the Likud 
even though he still hopes to turn things around and 
manage to survive.  If he fails, his political future 
will be dealt a mortal blow.  Not surprisingly, so will 
the political future of the Likud." 
 
KURTZER