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260707Z Sep 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005802 
 
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.  Likud Infighting 
 
¶3.  Six-Party Talks 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
All major media, except Jerusalem Post, led with PM 
Sharon's situation in the Likud.  Leading media (banner 
in Ha'aretz) reported that on Wednesday, Sharon angrily 
rejected an ultimatum demanding his unconditional 
allegiance to the party, saying: "There is no limit to 
chutzpah."  The ultimatum came from Agriculture 
Minister Yisrael Katz and Likud whip Knesset Member 
Gideon Sa'ar, who said that if Sharon did not declare 
that he would remain in the Likud under any 
circumstances, they would vote in favor of bringing 
forward the party primaries.  Senior Sharon associates 
were quoted as telling Maariv that Sharon intends to 
prevail at the Likud Central Committee and to compete 
in the primaries.  However, the associates said that, 
were the committee to topple Sharon, he would leave the 
Likud.  Yediot published the results of a Yediot/Mina 
Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll conducted among the 
general public, which shows that a Sharon-led party 
would overwhelmingly overcome a party under Binyamin 
Netanyahu: a Sharon-led party would garner 36 mandates 
(27 in a poll two weeks ago), while a Netanyahu-led 
party would get 14 mandates (19 in a poll two weeks 
ago).  The second most important party would be Labor. 
The full results of the survey will be printed on 
Friday. 
 
Major media (lead story in Jerusalem Post) quoted Shin 
Bet chief Yuval Diskin as saying Wednesday, during a 
briefing with military reporters, that the PA is 
crumbling and "barely functioning," that its leader 
Mahmoud Abbas is too weak to enforce law and order, 
that his Fatah party is in disarray, and that Hamas is 
taking control of the Gaza Strip.  Yediot cited 
Diskin's warning against Israel opening the Strip's 
borders as a gesture to the Palestinians.  The media 
also quoted Diskin as saying that the Shin Bet failed 
to prevent Jewish terror.  Hatzofe chose to highlight 
Diskin's comment that loyal citizens who contributed to 
Israeli society were uprooted from Gush Katif, which 
the newspaper says is a departure from official 
government lingo. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday, the PA 
rejected an appeal from the Quartet to dismantle armed 
militias and called on the international community to 
stop meddling in the Palestinians' internal affairs. 
Israel Radio cited a similar plea by A/S David Welch, 
who noted on Wednesday that the PA has taken on 
governance in the Gaza Strip.  Welch also called on 
Israel to curb settlement expansion and to put an end 
to illegal settler outposts. 
 
Israel Radio, Jerusalem Post, and the leading Internet 
news service Ynet quoted President Bush as saying, in 
an address to the Jewish Republican Coalition in 
Washington on Wednesday, that he considered Sharon an 
ally for peace.  Ynet quoted him as saying that "the 
U.S. is committed to defend Israel's well-being and 
safety."  The radio quoted Bush as saying: "Now there's 
an opportunity.  And the opportunity rests with the 
Palestinian people to show that they can govern 
themselves in a peaceful way."  Ha'aretz Washington 
correspondent Shmuel Rosner found that polls among 
Americans reinforce the idea that "the Israeli-American 
romance is blooming." 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Justice Ministry's Police 
Investigations Unit failed to properly investigate the 
deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs following the October 2000 
riots. 
 
Leading media reported that on Wednesday, the defense 
establishment officially defined the roadblocks around 
the Gaza Strip as international border passages. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that on Wednesday, Israel 
and the PA signed an agreement to establish a Joint 
Transport Office that will plan and build project 
benefiting both parties.  The agreement was negotiated 
with the assistance of the EU, which has allocated 2.5 
million euros to fund the office, and also has promised 
to consider providing funds for projects launched by 
the office. 
Israel Radio reported that this morning, IDF forces 
killed an unarmed 19-year-old Palestinian who tried to 
infiltrate the Dotan base in the northern West Bank, 
which is being dismantled.  The radio quoted 
Palestinian sources as saying that the young man was 
looking for scrap iron. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted Prof. Mohammed Ghazal, Hamas's leader 
in the Nablus area, as saying Wednesday that his 
movement may one day amend its charter calling for the 
destruction of Israel and hold negotiations with it. 
The newspaper also quoted him as saying: "The charter 
is not the Koran."  Ha'aretz quoted another senior 
Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, as saying in Gaza that 
Israel could not be recognized as "the legal owner of 
any part of Palestine," and that such theoretical 
debate served nobody. 
 
Citing Interior Ministry data from around 2002, 
according to which the ministry approved 21,000 family 
reunification applications from Palestinians in the 
last decades, Ha'aretz reported that in April 2005, the 
ministry's Population Administration presented data to 
the newspaper indicating that only 5,000 applications 
approved during the last 11 years are now being 
processed.  Ha'aretz suggests that Israel's immigration 
policy might be based on "completely distorted 
statistics." 
 
Maariv reported that this week UN Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan called on Israel to consider pulling out 
from the Sheba Farms.  The newspaper reported that 
Annan told Sharon that although Israel had withdrawn 
from the entire Lebanese territory, "the Sheba Farms 
area remain a thorn that must be removed." 
 
Yediot reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad's 
brother, Col. Maher Assad, and brother-in-law, Syrian 
intelligence chief Gen. Assef Shawkat, are secretly 
being investigated in Damascus under suspicion that 
they were involved in the assassination of former 
Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri.  Jerusalem Post featured 
"America's Syria problem." 
 
Yediot reported that FM Silvan Shalom has agreed with 
his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa, that he 
would soon visit Morocco.  Citing the Israeli news 
agency Itim, Ha'aretz reported that Libya denied a 
Yediot story on Tuesday that an agreement had been made 
for Libyan Leader Muammar Qadhafi to make a surprise 
visit to Israel.  The Yediot report also said that the 
visit would be made after the two sides had failed to 
arrange a visit by Sharon to Tripoli. 
 
Leading media reported that on Wednesday, the police 
questioned Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi (Hadash-Ta'al) 
over his visit to Lebanon earlier this year, which 
Israeli law views as an illegal visit to an enemy 
country.  Jerusalem Post quoted Tibi, who had been 
invited by then Lebanese PM Najib Mikati, as saying: 
"Lebanon is not my enemy." 
 
Ha'aretz noted that, due to the Likud Central 
Committee's meeting, Vice PM and acting Finance 
Minister Ehud Olmert will not attend the International 
Monetary Fund's (IMF) annual meeting, which begins 
today in Washington.  Ha'aretz and Yediot cited 
predictions by the IMF and the World Bank that the 
growth of the Israeli economy will drop by to 3.9 
percent in 2006 compared to 4.2 percent in 2005. 
Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. interest rates are 
higher than Israel's for the first time, after the 
Federal Reserve raised U.S. interest rates by 0.25 
percentage points on Tuesday. 
 
Maariv reported that the Civil Aviation Administration 
is seriously considering setting up an early check-in 
service in Nazareth for Israeli Arabs who reside in the 
area, in order to ease security checks for them and 
reduce the unpleasant treatment they face at Ben-Gurion 
Airport. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that the Tel Aviv-based defense 
equipment company ODF Optronics has signed an agreement 
to exclusively sell its Eye Ball R1 optical device to 
the U.S. Army in a deal worth at least USD 10 million 
over the next year. 
 
Maariv reported that the Agriculture Ministry has 
declared a high alert over a possible avian flu 
epidemic. 
 
This morning's Israel Radio news bulletins led with the 
advance of Hurricane Rita toward Houston and Galveston, 
and President Bush's comment that all levels of 
government are ready to meet the storm. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "If Israel wants to fight Hamas, it must 
present the Palestinian public with an option of hope, 
which will stem from support for Abu Mazen and turning 
to the political path." 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The Israeli talent 
for ignoring the enormous destruction that we caused 
leads to the wrong political assessments." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Force Will Not Prevail" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (September 22): "In the first months of 2004, 
Israel launched a major offensive against Hamas. 
Yassin was assassinated, as was his successor Rantisi. 
Israeli security officials viewed the offensive as a 
resounding success.  It took about six more months, but 
only force, they explained to us, brought Hamas on its 
knees to the renewed calm, which preceded the 
implementation of disengagement.  But Hamas, 
unfortunately, has refused to go.... The Palestinian 
public has desires and aspirations; it has a preference 
for organizations and parties.  Israeli force can make 
its life miserable, but it cannot change its desires -- 
perhaps on the contrary.... Those who want to 
strengthen moderate forces should offer hope and not 
block the path of bodies that represent about a third 
of the Palestinian public.  Physically blocking or 
arresting Hamas members will not only weaken Abu 
Mazen's rule, but will also renew the despair and the 
bitterness, which are the real soil upon which the 
terror organizations flourish.  If Israel wants to 
fight Hamas, it must present the Palestinian public 
with an option of hope, which will stem from support 
for Abu Mazen and turning to the political path.  It 
must support the democratic procedure and not presume 
to decide who will participate in it and who will not. 
We did not eliminate Hamas by the force of bombs, and 
we will not overcome it by the force of roadblocks." 
 
II.  "A Talent For Destruction" 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 22): "If 
Israel continues a policy of allowing only the most 
minimal connection between the West Bank and Gaza, it 
will foil from the start any chance of economic 
recovery, which too often is presented as the basis for 
political progress or a necessary condition to fight 
terror.... The Israeli talent for ignoring the enormous 
destruction that we caused leads to the wrong political 
assessments.  Ignoring it enables the IDF to continue 
destroying Palestinian territory in the West Bank.... 
The more the IDF destroys and damages the landscape, 
nature, the land, the more the Palestinians compare it 
to the foreign armies of invading crusaders.... 
Foreigners, history has proven, leave.  Irrespective of 
the correctness of the conclusion, it holds the 
Palestinians steadfast against the plans for 
destruction for the sake of more settlements that the 
Israeli government envisions for the West Bank." 
 
--------------------- 
¶2.  Likud Infighting: 
--------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Electing Netanyahu as the 
Likud's candidate in the next election is the best 
thing that can happen to the center and the left wing 
of the political spectrum." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"I Hope Bibi Wins" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (September 22): "The polls 
express not only the balance of forces at the time when 
they are conducted, but also a clear electoral trend 
with regard to Binyamin Netanyahu.  He has his hard 
core of supporters, consisting of the extreme Right, 
but that is all, and even that hard core is following 
him mainly to take revenge on Sharon for disengagement, 
not because they really think Netanyahu will be a good 
prime minister.  For they have already seen him in 
action, and they have already brought him down, as they 
have been doing for many years to right-wing prime 
ministers.  As for the rest of the public -- according 
to the polls, the great, silent majority does not buy 
Netanyahu's new pose.  They did buy it for a time, but 
Netanyahu, as always, managed to kick the jug of milk 
and spill it after having worked so hard to fill it. 
Most of the public, including those who elected him in 
1996, already understand very well, in these moonstruck 
years, with whom it is dealing.... Electing Netanyahu 
as the Likud's candidate in the next election is the 
best thing that can happen to the center and the left 
wing of the political spectrum.  It is hard to conceive 
of a situation in which the Likud will go into the 
opposition except with the generous assistance of 
Netanyahu." 
 
-------------------- 
¶3.  Six-Party Talks: 
-------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "[Following the 
agreement with North Korea], every Arab or Muslim 
leader understands that he needs a nuclear option -- 
only thus can he perpetuate his regime [and] ensure an 
absence of American attacks." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Nuclear Weapons For Every Dictator" 
 
Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer 
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- 
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (September 22): 
"In exchange for a 'renouncement' of the nuclear 
option, the United States has declared that it will not 
attack or invade North Korea; the world pledged to help 
the latter economically; the North Korean leader's 
control has been ensured.  In light of the preceding, 
every Arab or Muslim leader understands that he needs a 
nuclear option -- only thus can he perpetuate his 
regime, ensure an absence of American attacks, and 
enjoy generous economic assistance, recognition, and 
respect.  This is the only conclusion that can be drawn 
from that scandalous agreement; this is how it is 
understood today in Damascus, Tehran, Cairo, and the 
other Arab countries.  Thus, an international intent to 
reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons could 
actually accelerate that option, particularly in our 
region.  In light of North Korea's violations and that 
country lack of innocence, it is not too late to 
rescind the agreement and return to the previous system 
of zero-tolerance to a dictatorial regime.  If this is 
not done immediately, those who blessed that agreement 
with North Korea will eventually curse it." 
 
JONES