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

011204Z Sep 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005363 
 
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.  Syrian-Lebanese Track 
 
¶3.  Iraq 
 
¶4.  U.S.-Israel Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
This morning, Israel Radio reported that FM Silvan 
Shalom is holding a meeting in Istanbul with his 
Pakistani counterpart Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri. 
The station cited Al Jazeera-TV as saying that the 
meeting's purpose is the establishment of diplomatic 
relations between the two countries. 
 
Leading media reported that Egyptian border guards will 
start deploying along the Philadelphi road on Sunday 
(banner in Yediot).  IDF troops will remain on the 
Israeli side of the route until September 15.  The 
Knesset approved the agreement with Egypt on Wednesday, 
53-28.  Israel Radio says that senior Israeli and 
Egyptian officers will sign the agreement today.  The 
station notes that there still is no agreement 
regarding the border crossings.  Ha'aretz reported that 
Israel will start building a new border crossing 
terminal at Kerem Shalom on the Israel-Egypt-Gaza Strip 
border next week, despite opposition from Egypt and the 
PA.   Israel Radio cited the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam 
as saying an Israeli-Palestinian agreement on border 
crossings has been reached through the mediation of 
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman: people would 
enter and leave the Gaza Strip at Rafah, and goods 
would pass through Dahaniyeh or Kerem Shalom.  Israel 
Radio reported that GOI sources denied that such an 
agreement has been achieved. 
 
Maariv cited secret contacts between Israel and Jordan 
toward a visit by King Abdullah II to Jerusalem next 
week.  Israel Radio cited a Jordanian denial of the 
report. 
 
All media (banners in Ha'aretz (Hebrew Ed.) and 
Jerusalem Post) reported on the killing of 
approximately 1,000 Shi'ites in Wednesday's stampede in 
Baghdad.  Ha'aretz cites concerns in Iraq that the 
Shi'ites might avenge the event, which was sparked by 
rumors.  An Israel TV commentator said that those 
appear to have been intentional. 
 
Leading media reported that Baruch Ben-Menachem (born 
Bret Taback), a new immigrant from the U.S., set 
himself ablaze on Wednesday in the yard of Ulpan 
Etzion, a Hebrew language school for new immigrants in 
the Bakaa neighborhood of Jerusalem.  He was seriously 
wounded.  Several media quoted him as saying that he 
did it to protest Israel's withdrawal two weeks ago 
from the Gaza Strip.  The media reported that Yelena 
Bosinova, 54, a right-wing activist from the West Bank 
settlement of Kedumim, died last Friday from injuries 
sustained when she set herself ablaze in the Negev city 
of Netivot two weeks earlier. 
 
All media continued to report on the devastation caused 
by Hurricane Katrina, and cited measures taken by 
President Bush to face it.  Jerusalem Post reported 
that FM Silvan Shalom sent Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice a letter offering sympathy for the 
desolation.   The newspaper notes that Shalom's letter 
was sent a day after a State Department spokesman said 
Rice had not received any calls from her colleagues 
abroad.  Maariv quoted rabbis in Israel and the U.S. as 
saying that the disaster was a punishment inflicted on 
the U.S. for its support of disengagement. 
 
Leading media reported that Palestinian TV interviewed 
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Wednesday.  He told the 
station that the PA must fulfill its commitment to 
Israel to fight terror.  The media quoted Mofaz as 
saying: "Israel carried out a painful move in the 
pullout plan, despite bitter criticism from within. 
Now we are calling on the Palestinians to do their 
part." 
 
All media reported that Knesset Member Binyamin 
Netanyahu toured the E-1 area between Jerusalem and 
Ma'aleh Adumim, as part of his campaign for Likud 
chairmanship.  Ha'aretz quoted Peace Now Secretary- 
General Yariv Oppenheimer as saying: "Netanyahu wants 
to sabotage the most sensitive spot in Israeli-American 
relations.  Building in E-1 means a fatal blow to the 
idea of two states for two nations and would break the 
contiguity between the northern and southern West 
Bank."  The media also reported that on Wednesday, 
Likud rebel Knesset Member Uzi Landau opened his 
campaign HQ. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. is trying to enlist the 
European countries against Syrian President Bashar 
Assad.  Yediot reported that Syria has allowed a German 
prosecutor representing the UN Security Council to 
interrogate five senior Syrian officials regarding the 
assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafic Hariri. 
Leading media cited reports that the Syrian and 
Lebanese presidents will not attend the UN General 
Assembly meeting because they fear of being harassed by 
the U.S. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. District Court in Rhode 
Island has frozen all assets held by the PA in the 
U.S., over the PA's refusal to compensate relatives of 
a couple killed in a Hamas terror attack. 
 
Maariv reported that Gideon Kutz, the special 
correspondent of Channel 2- TV, has been permitted to 
enter Iran and report from there.  His report will be 
screened this evening on the main newscast and tomorrow 
on the Friday news magazine. Kutz has had meetings with 
members of the local Jewish community and government 
officials.  Iran's former foreign minister told him 
that Iran is pleased with the disengagement and 
evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip and 
northern West Bank.  Another government representative 
said Iran does not rule out the possibility of 
restraining the terrorist organizations.  In interviews 
with Kutz, Iranian officials said Teheran is trying to 
solve the international crisis surrounding its nuclear 
reactor, and work on the nuclear program continues. 
Iran has the right to possess nuclear weapons, they 
said, and will defend itself if attacked by the U.S., 
or Israel. 
 
Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron, who will 
retire later this month, was quoted as saying in an 
interview Ha'aretz conducted with him on Wednesday: "I 
am convinced the crisis in U.S.-Israel relations [over 
Israeli arms deals with China] was predicated on 
mistaken information."  Yaron said that the whole 
affair is a "misunderstanding" that could have been 
ended quickly if the Americans had handled it 
differently.  In an interview with Yediot, Yaron summed 
up the affair by quoting former Secretary of State 
James Baker, who allegedly told the late PM Yitzhak 
Rabin: "We're right even when we're not right, because 
we're America." 
 
Citing The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), Jerusalem 
Post reported that Middle East analyst Kenneth Pollack, 
who was a staffer on President Clinton's National 
Security Council, is one of two USG officials 
referenced in the indictment against two former AIPAC 
staffers.  JTA quoted Pollack as saying he did not give 
the lobbyists any classified information, and that the 
information that Steve Rosen, AIPAC's former director 
of foreign policy issues, was accused of passing on to 
a reporter could not have come from him. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, 
head of the Defense Cooperation Security Agency in the 
Pentagon, will brief Indian officials next months and 
will try to convince India to purchase the U.S.-made 
Patriot PAC-3 missile system, considered the principal 
competitor to the Israeli Arrow system. 
 
The media reported that the annual State Comptroller's 
Report publishes findings that the defense budget has 
received some four to five billion shekels (around USD 
1 billion) each year beyond what the Knesset approved. 
The report also criticizes illegal building by the 
Civil Administration in the West Bank. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest 
bank, announced on Wednesday it has signed an agreement 
to buy the broker-dealer corporation company Investec 
(US), which is registered and operates in the U.S. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Hebrew University Professor of Political Science and 
former Foreign Ministry director-general Shlomo Avineri 
wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: 
"International figures, as well as circles in Israel, 
are talking about an attempt to return to the road map. 
There can be no greater mistake." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"No to the Road Map" 
 
Hebrew University Professor of Political Science and 
former Foreign Ministry director-general Shlomo Avineri 
wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot 
(September 1): "International figures, as well as 
circles in Israel, are talking about an attempt to 
return to the road map.  There can be no greater 
mistake.  The road map was never more than a list of 
aspirations, and the fact is that everything that took 
place on the ground -- an Israeli withdrawal of 
historical significance, relative calm on the part of 
the Palestinian terror organizations -- did not result 
from the road map, but rather from political wishes on 
both sides.  This is also what will happen in the 
future.... What can be done all the same?  Only a 
number of unilateral steps on both sides.  On Israel's 
side: to think seriously about the possibility of 
disengaging from close to 20 isolated settlements 
throughout the West Bank.  Such a move ... would give 
the Palestinians uninterrupted territorial contiguity. 
On the Palestinians' side: to consolidate the control 
of the Palestinian Authority over its security services 
and the armed militias, including Hamas.  Abu Mazen 
understands full well that no Israeli government will 
negotiate with him if he cannot control his own 
house.... Furthermore, to begin an internal Palestinian 
process, in which the leadership tells the refugees in 
the camps -- contrary to the propaganda with which they 
have been fed for the past 50 years -- that they will 
not return to Israel.... Anyone who says that this is 
difficult for the Palestinians will of course be right: 
the evacuation of Gush Katif was also difficult. 
Painful decisions are necessary -- but on both sides, 
not only on Israel's part.  Such moves will reduce 
friction, contribute to a reduction of violence and 
perhaps prepare the atmosphere for significant 
negotiations in the future.  Those who would rush into 
negotiations now are fated to fail, and such a failure 
-- as was demonstrated in Camp David -- is not a return 
to the starting point, but rather a deterioration into 
the abyss." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  Syrian-Lebanese Track: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Veteran columnist Yaron London wrote in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "What will Syria do under pressure?  It might 
go mad or surrender.  Attempts to foresee the behavior 
of tyrants are often disappointing, but we must prepare 
ourselves for the worst possibility." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Recipe For an Outburst" 
 
Veteran columnist Yaron London wrote in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (September 1): "Sunni Muslims represent around 
75 percent of [Syria's] population, but power is in the 
hands of the Alawites, who constitute no more than 10 
percent [of the population].  This is the recipe for a 
volcanic eruption, should Bashar Assad's regime 
collapse.... Sunni fundamentalists might take over 
Syria.  In 1982, Hafez Assad massacred tens of 
thousands of them in the city of Hama, but they will 
undoubtedly raise their heads as soon as the Ba'ath 
regime gets unhinged.... Should a clear connection be 
found between the presidential palace in Damascus and 
Rafic Hariri's assassins, the [UN] Security Council 
would most certainly impose sanctions on Syria, but it 
should be assumed that even a clumsy person like Assad 
Jr. wouldn't leave clear footprints.  What will Syria 
do under pressure?  It might go mad or surrender. 
Attempts to foresee the behavior of tyrants are often 
disappointing, but we must prepare ourselves for the 
worst possibility." 
 
--------- 
¶3.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Quite sincerely, one can understand 
the Iraqis who have recently demonstrated in favor of 
Saddam Hussein's return.... [Abu Musab al-]Zarqawi has 
never been closer to fulfilling his dream -- and our 
nightmare." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Longing For Saddam" 
 
Foreign News Editor Arik Bachar wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (September 1): "Wednesday's panic- 
stricken flight along the banks of the Tigris River 
added a large piece to the Iraqi puzzle, which, if 
completed, might turn out to be the nightmarish sight 
of civil war, which would cost human lives in all 
inhabited regions of the globe.... Quite sincerely, one 
can understand the Iraqis who have recently 
demonstrated in favor of Saddam Hussein's return.  At 
least he promised stability to all those whom he didn't 
kill in his cellars.  The lack of confidence felt by 
many Iraqis since the beginning of the war is gaining 
speed, and a disaster such as Wednesday's could produce 
a lot of added frustration, given the big American 
failure, as of now, to fulfill pledges of a new Iraq. 
The great current danger is that the members of the 
Shi'ite majority in Iraq, a horrendous number of whom 
drowned Wednesday in the river, would stop playing the 
political game, after the Sunni minority -- the 
stronghold of Saddam's regime -- rejected the offer of 
an agreed-upon constitution.  [Abu Musab al-]Zarqawi 
has never been closer to fulfilling his dream -- and 
our nightmare." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶4.  U.S.-Israel Relations: 
-------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "Sharon 
was already involved in such deals when he served as 
defense minister." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"The Wrong Person to Resign" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (September 
1): "As director-general of the Defense Ministry, Amos 
Yaron could not have advanced the [Harpy drone] deal 
with China without the active involvement of the 
Defense Minister and the Prime Minister.... Sharon was 
already involved in such deals when he served as 
defense minister.  He took part in the Skyhawk deal 
with Argentina via a third country -- Venezuela -- in 
order to deceive the Americans.  The Americans 
presently don't talk about that deal because the most 
important thing to them at this time is the expulsion 
of Jews from their homes.  Since Sharon is doing this 
job at a satisfactory pace as far as they are 
concerned, they don't mention past sins in the same 
spirit as the deal with China." 
 
KURTZER