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

081015Z Sep 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 005542 
 
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: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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Leading media (banner in Maariv) reported that the IDF 
is accelerating its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.  At 
noon, the station reported that the IDF closed the 
Rafah border crossing, in preparation for the army's 
pullout and the transfer of the Philadelphi road to 
Egyptian forces.  Israel Radio reported that at a 
meeting between Israeli representative Amos Gilad and 
the PA's Muhammad Dahlan and Ghassan Khatib in Jordan 
on Wednesday, the Palestinians expressed their 
objection to Israel's proposal that the Rafah crossing 
should be closed for a six-month renovation period, and 
that a passage should be set up at Kerem Shalom.  The 
radio says that the Palestinians feel confident in the 
matter because they sense that the international 
community is siding with them.  Leading media reported 
that at his meeting with senior ministers Wednesday, PM 
Sharon agreed to third-party monitoring at the Rafah 
border crossing; Jerusalem Post writes that Sharon thus 
becomes the first Israeli leader to agree to 
international supervision on its borders.  Israel Radio 
quoted visiting French FM Philippe Douste-Blazy as 
suggesting today that customs officials from the EU be 
responsible for controlling the Gaza Strip's borders. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the U.S. is demanding that 
the PA do all it can to keep law and order, and that it 
welcomes PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas's 
announcement that he will bring those responsible for 
Moussa Arafat's assassination to justice and dismantle 
the terrorist infrastructure.  Israel Radio reported 
that the Popular Resistance Committees revoked their 
claim of responsibility for the murder.  Leading media, 
which cite humiliating orders given by Moussa Arafat to 
shave the beards of Hamas activists during a 1996 
crackdown, view Hamas as being behind the 
assassination.  Jerusalem Post quoted sources close to 
Abbas as saying that the assassination of Moussa Arafat 
could trigger bitter fighting between rival security 
chiefs and their organizations in the Gaza Strip. 
Ha'aretz reported that, following the assassination, 
Abbas canceled his planned trip to New York. 
Maariv and other media reported on IDF plans to respond 
to Palestinian terror in proportion to the number of 
Israelis hurt in attacks.  The media quoted IDF Chief 
of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz as saying before the 
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee 
Wednesday that the army should implement a tougher 
policy of retaliation against terrorism following the 
withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. 
Jerusalem Post quoted a "senior Western diplomatic 
official" as saying Wednesday that Israel is mistaken 
in believing that, by withdrawing from Gaza, the 
international community will tolerate all types of 
military retaliation against rocket fire originating 
from Gaza. 
 
Yediot led with a comment by a "senior source at the 
Defense Ministry" that the IDF will do everything -- 
including thwarting terrorist attacks -- in order to 
help Sharon win the Likud primaries. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel is demanding that Hamas 
disarm and abrogate its charter, which calls for the 
destruction of Israel, as a condition for participating 
in the elections for the Palestinian National Council, 
scheduled to take place in January 2006.  The newspaper 
quoted senior Israeli diplomatic sources as saying that 
the international community is deaf to Israel's pleas. 
Ha'aretz writes that the only action currently being 
taken by Israel is raising the issue during diplomatic 
contacts. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that an analysis of the confidential 
medical report on Yasser Arafat's death reveals three 
main possibilities as to the cause: poisoning, AIDS, or 
an infection.  The newspaper quoted Israeli and foreign 
doctors who have seen the report as saying that the 
details not lead to a conclusive determination on what 
caused his death.  An Israel Radio anchor said that 
there does not seem to be anything new in the report. 
The station later cited a New York Times story as 
saying that Arafat's medical records show that he died 
from a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder 
caused by an unidentified infection. 
 
Israel Radio quoted petitioners to the High Court of 
Justice in the matter of the Gaza Strip synagogues as 
saying that Israel's request that the Palestinians 
maintain the synagogues in place was discussed 
accidentally, when a senior PA minister and Defense 
Minister Shaul Mofaz simultaneously visited Ambassador 
Dan Kurtzer's residence to offer their condolences over 
his mother's passing. 
 
Israel Radio reported that the results of the Egyptian 
presidential elections have not yet been made public. 
The station also says that the turnout in the vote is 
still unknown, and that, were it to be small, this 
could negatively affect the standing of President Hosni 
Mubarak, who the radio believes will win the elections. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Germany, France, and Britain 
are expected to turn over the handling of Iran's 
nuclear program to the UN Security Council, short of 
asking the Council to impose sanctions on Iran. 
 
Yediot notes that the timing of Sharon's address to the 
UN General Assembly on September 15 (at 20:00 Israel 
Time) turns it into an "election speech."  In an 
interview conducted Wednesday with Jerusalem Post, Vice 
Premier and Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres firmly 
ruled out establishing a formal partnership with Sharon 
to run jointly in the next general elections, 
essentially quashing speculation over a "big bang" 
realignment of Israeli politics before the country next 
goes to the polls. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Jordan Valley settlements 
have offered relocation to their communities to 
settlers who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip. 
 
Citing AP, Ha'aretz cited a statement issued Wednesday 
by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, which says that 
Pakistan's talks with Israel last week were aimed at 
persuading Israel to resolve the Palestinian issue but 
did not imply recognition. 
 
Yediot and Jerusalem Post cited a travel advisory 
issued by the counterterrorism department of Israel's 
National Security Council, which warns Israelis against 
visiting Morocco, Tunisia, and Pakistan, among other 
destinations. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that the IDF has demanded 
the resignation of the head rabbis of two hesder 
yeshivas (in which students combine military service 
with religious studies) who called on their soldier- 
students to refuse orders during the disengagement. 
Leading media reported that Baruch Ben-Menachem (born 
Bret Taback), a new immigrant from the U.S., who set 
himself ablaze last Wednesday in protest over Israel's 
pullout from Gaza, died of his wounds on Tuesday. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that Bar-Ilan University and 
the Hebrew University have joined Tel Aviv University 
in offering students from Tulane University in New 
Orleans a chance to study in Israel. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Territories correspondent Arnon Regular wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Wednesday's 
killing joins a series of blows suffered by the 
'revolutionary' camp associated with Yasser Arafat, 
which refused to accept the option of an end to the 
Intifada." 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel must 
abandon the perception from the nineties, which 
reasoned that we must beg every Arab tyrant to meet 
with us.... Israel must demand an immediate payment for 
every such encounter." 
 
Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The future danger is of an epidemic 
of [smuggling] tunnels." 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in Ha'aretz: "It is 
... all too possible that if the terror continues ... 
the officers of the next generation will tell the new 
team assigned to update the national security doctrine 
that since Israel is the most dangerous place for a Jew 
to live, it would be ... safer ... to build a Jewish 
state in America, say in the empty state of Wyoming." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Moussa Arafat's Killing Strengthens Moderates" 
 
Territories correspondent Arnon Regular wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 8): "It 
is impossible to say who carried out the hit on Moussa 
Arafat.... The only question that can be answered now 
is who gains the most from the assassination. And the 
answer is Palestinian Minister for Civilian Affairs 
Muhammad Dahlan, the patron of the Preventative 
Security apparatus, and its head, Rashid Abu-Shabak, 
who for the past two years have been waging a 
sophisticated war to the death against Moussa Arafat 
and his late patron, Yasser Arafat.... But the matter 
is not merely a personal one between Dahlan and Abu- 
Shabak, and Moussa Arafat.  Wednesday's killing joins a 
series of blows suffered by the 'revolutionary' camp 
associated with Yasser Arafat, which refused to accept 
the option of an end to the Intifada.... The killing is 
also another stage in the consolidation and 
strengthening of the central stream in the PA that 
recognizes the importance of putting an end to the 
Intifada, embarking on a political struggle and 
implementing the reforms in the PA in an effort to make 
progress on the road map peace plan." 
 
II.  "Pointless Signs of Relations" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (September 8): 
"Arab and Muslim states have always taken advantage of 
Israel in order to establish better relations with the 
U.S.... They have no real interest in Israel, her 
economy, or people.... Since public opinion in the Arab 
and Muslim worlds is so hostile to Israel, no Arab 
leader will dare endanger his stability and come to 
Israel itself or to establish formal diplomatic ties 
with it.  Israeli readers have no idea how big hatred 
for Israel is in the Arab street, and how badly the 
Palestinians have turned their public opinion against 
Israel during five years of Intifada.  When will an 
Arab leader come to Israel or make peace with her? 
Only when things become critical and this is the last 
option left for their survival.... Israel must abandon 
the perception from the nineties, which reasoned that 
we must beg every Arab tyrant to meet with us, and 
understand that Pakistan isn't doing Israel a favor 
when it exacts a price for a photo-op.... Israel must 
demand an immediate payment for every such encounter, 
in the form of full diplomatic relations or in exchange 
for another political gesture.  Israel has always 
volunteered to care for others in the first place, 
without understanding that the opposite is true in the 
Middle East -- as in the famous Arabic proverb: 'People 
won't respect those who don't respect themselves.'" 
 
III.  "Tomorrow's Tunnels" 
 
Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (September 8): "The IDF may have had 
no alternative to relinquishing the Philadelphi axis 
and handing over its protection from smuggling to the 
Egyptian army {'Border Guard') that would deploy along 
the border.  But no claim is more stupid and more 
miserable than the assertion: 'What does it matter? 
Smuggling took place when we were in Jericho, and will 
take place when the Gaza harbor opens, too.'  This 
would be similar to the police claiming it has no means 
to fight the carnage on the roads, because traffic 
accidents would occur anyway.... The Palestinians have 
already turned the [smuggling] tunnels into a strategic 
weapon.  Their success along the Philadelphi axis 
encourages them to go on digging tunnels beyond the 
Gaza Strip in the direction of Israeli communities in 
the south of the country, and ... everywhere throughout 
Israel.... The future danger is of an epidemic of 
tunnels." 
 
IV.  "Cheaper and Safer in Wyoming" 
 
Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in Ha'aretz 
(September 8): "'The territory of Judea and Samaria 
[i.e. the West Bank], and the Golan as well, has no 
security importance.'  The statement appears in not 
just another original revelation, or new post-Zionist 
manifesto.  This statement, Maariv reported in an 
exclusive story last Friday, is the conclusion reached 
by a high-ranking forum that is redrafting the security 
conception of Israel.... The new narrative is the 
embodiment of Israel's transition from a value-based 
ideological society to a materialistic, impatient 
society that charts its route on the basis of numerical 
data and balances of power.  It is therefore all too 
possible that if the terror continues -- and when you 
run away from it, there is no reason it will not 
intensify -- the officers of the next generation will 
tell the new team assigned to update the national 
security doctrine that since Israel is the most 
dangerous place for a Jew to live, it would be cheaper, 
and most certainly safer -- as one American statesman 
once half-joked -- to build a Jewish state in America, 
say in the empty state of Wyoming.  This would once and 
for all end the problem the Jews make for themselves 
and the world by their (temporary) insistence on having 
their state in, of all places, the Land of Israel." 
 
KURTZER