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 005818 
 
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.  Likud Infighting 
 
¶2.  Gaza Violence 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio quoted Ambassador Richard H. Jones as 
saying this morning, upon presenting his credentials to 
President Moshe Katsav at the Residence of the 
President in Jerusalem: "My arrival coincides with a 
time of extraordinary change and opportunity in the 
region.  We applaud Israel for the courage it has 
demonstrated through Gaza disengagement, and encourage 
Israel and the Palestinian Authority to seize this 
opportunity to advance prospects for a just and lasting 
peace through implementation of the agreed Roadmap. 
The Bush administration's commitment to the vision of 
two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side 
in peace and security is steadfast."  Yediot quoted 
Ambassador Jones as saying on Sunday at a get-to-know- 
you meeting with FM Silvan Shalom that the U.S. 
administration understands Israel's need to respond to 
fire from the Gaza Strip, and that he empathizes with 
the Israeli families that were harmed by Qassam fire 
during the weekend.  Yediot reported that FM Shalom 
told Ambassador Jones, whom he called a true friend of 
Israel, that he was arriving at a time when there is a 
potential for peace and at the same time increased 
violence on the part of the Palestinians. 
 
The two dominant media stories during the weekend were 
the escalation of the military situation in and around 
the Gaza Strip, and turbulent developments at the Likud 
Central Committee meeting. 
 
Today, all media led with Sharon's departure from the 
Likud meeting last night after the microphone stopped 
working as he was about to deliver his speech.  Many 
commentators suggested this was an act of sabotage. 
The media reported that the Sharon camp and its 
opponents blamed one another for the incident.  Yediot 
reported that cabinet ministers Limor Livnat and Danny 
Naveh announced on Sunday that they would vote to move 
up the party's primaries, because Sharon refrained from 
stating he was staying in the party.  The media 
reported that, before the incident, polls indicated a 
narrow majority for Binyamin Netanyahu in today's 
committee vote. 
 
Yediot, Maariv, Jerusalem Post, and Ha'aretz printed 
the text of, or excerpts of, the speech Sharon was to 
deliver, in which he lists his achievements in creating 
the Likud and making it thrive and states that if 
Israel insists on the dream of Greater Israel being 
realized, "we could lose absolutely everything."  In 
his own address, Netanyahu said that the party did not 
belong to him or Sharon. 
 
All media reported on the chain of events in the Gaza 
Strip.  On Friday evening, a mysterious explosion shook 
a Hamas parade in the Jabalya camp north of Gaza City, 
in which 15 to 19 Palestinians were killed.  While 
Hamas blamed Israel for the act, the PA exonerated it. 
Hamas responded by firing about 40 rockets into Israel 
where five people were wounded.  The IDF resumed its 
targeted killings, taking the lives of four Hamas 
members and wounding three other Palestinians, massed 
troops along the Gaza border, and on Saturday, for the 
first time, used artillery it had deployed around the 
border, firing shells into open areas.  Last night, 
senior Islamic Jihad activist Muhammad Latif Sheikh 
Khalil and his bodyguard were killed in an IAF strike 
in southern Gaza.  Leading media quoted senior Hamas 
leader Mahmoud Zahar as saying that his organization 
would stop launching rocket and other attacks against 
Israel from Gaza.  This morning, Israel Radio reported 
that Hamas agreed to a cease-fire following PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas's threat that the PA would 
confront Hamas head on.  However, leading media cited 
an announcement by Islamic Jihad that it would continue 
its actions.  Israel Radio reported that the security 
forces arrested over 200 Hamas and Islamic Jihad 
militants during the weekend. 
 
On Sunday, Israel Radio reported that Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone the previous 
night with Abbas and urged him to act to prevent 
deterioration in the situation and to work towards a 
return to calm. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that Israel canceled Sharon's meeting 
with Abbas, which was scheduled for next Sunday. 
Israel Radio cited chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat as 
saying that that the timing of the meeting was being 
discussed again. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Finance Ministry Director-General 
Yossi Bachar as saying on Sunday in Washington that 
Israel has not yet decided if and when to renew its 
request for financial aid from the U.S.  He was quoted 
as saying that the GOI would make such a decision.  On 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that the Iranian 
nuclear threat, and Israel -U.S. defense relations 
would be on the agenda when members of Knesset Foreign 
Affairs and Defense Committee travel to Washington this 
week to meet with U.S. defense officials. 
 
On Sunday, leading media reported that King Abdullah II 
of Jordan would visit Israel and the PA in the coming 
days.  Ha'aretz wrote on Sunday that the previous day, 
Kuwait denied reports it is to join Bahrain in lifting 
the economic embargo against Israel.  Yediot brought 
contradictory reports on the matter. 
 
Yediot reported that, in talks he held with Syrian 
President Bashar Assad in Cairo on Sunday, Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak told Assad that, were he to 
continue supporting terror, he could lose power. 
According to the newspaper, Mubarak also urged Assad to 
strengthen Abbas.  On the other hand, Jerusalem Post 
reported that Egypt publicly denounced Syria's 
isolation in the Arab world. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that 4,000 people attended 
the Peace Now/Geneva Initiative peace rally opposite 
Sharon's Jerusalem residence on Saturday.  Around one 
thousand Palestinians attended a similar demonstration 
in Ramallah. 
 
Maariv reported that, according to post-9/11 
procedures, only the PM -- and in his absence the 
defense minister and the chief of staff -- is empowered 
to down civilian airliners that have strayed from their 
route. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that "Hawala," an ancient 
Eastern way of transferring money without banks, will 
be one of the subjects under discussion by Arabs of 14 
countries at a conference in Beirut today to stop 
terror funding. 
Israel Radio reported that an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who 
is an AmCit, has been arrested over alleged security 
offenses.  Evidence of his having sojourned in Arab 
countries was reportedly found in his belongings.  The 
radio said he would be evicted from the country. 
 
Yediot quoted Karen AbuZayd, the Commissioner-General 
of the UN Relief and Works Agency, as saying at the 
Palestinian Center in Washington that 30,000 
Palestinians lost their homes during the Intifada. 
AbuZayd was also quoted as saying that the UN would 
rebuild the homes of those Palestinians. 
 
The media reported that only several hundred people 
attended Sunday's rally opposite Sharon's office in 
Jerusalem to reject the decision of the Justice 
Ministry's Police Investigations Department not to 
prosecute any policemen or officers over the killing of 
13 Israeli Arabs in the October 2000 riots. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that several Israel-based 
Christian groups were feted Sunday at President Moshe 
Katsav's residence for their unequivocal support for 
Israel. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv quoted former Sephardi chief rabbi 
Shlomo Eliyahu as saying during the weekend that 
Hurricane Rita is retribution for President Bush's 
support of the disengagement from Gaza.  Eliyahu was 
quoted as saying the Hurricane Katrina struck Secretary 
Rice's home state -- Alabama -- while Rita hit Bush's - 
- Texas. 
 
--------------------- 
¶1.  Likud Infighting: 
--------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The 
Likud will decide today not only on a date for its 
leadership primary and whether to shorten Sharon's term 
of office, but primarily on whether it adheres to the 
policy of continued rule over another nation." 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Gewirtz wrote in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "On Sunday, the Likud lost its legitimacy as 
a party worthy of ruling." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "Some called Sharon's speech to the 
UN General Assembly a writ of divorce from the Likud. 
Polls showed this wasn't so.  The writ of divorce was 
given last night. It should be handed by the Israeli 
public to its thuggish ruling party." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "What the Likud Committee Is Voting On" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(September 26): "The Likud will decide today not only 
on a date for its leadership primary and whether to 
shorten Sharon's term of office, but primarily on 
whether it adheres to the policy of continued rule over 
another nation, or whether the need to change the 
party's path has already filtered down to the ranks of 
its activists.  The 'not one inch' policy that 
characterized the Likud and the right for generations 
is by now so irrelevant and unpopular that even Landau 
and Netanyahu have turned their backs on it.  Even they 
know that there is no majority among the Israeli public 
for continuing the occupation, and it is doubtful that 
such a majority even exists among Likud voters.  A 
withdrawal from additional settlements is only a matter 
of time, and the Likud candidates are now debating 
among themselves over a policy that has become 
obsolete.... If Sharon loses today's vote on advancing 
the primary, the Likud will apparently split into two 
parties.  It could be that the historic Likud will 
thereby pave its way into the opposition, and Netanyahu 
and Landau will learn at the ballot box that their 
victory in the party's central committee was 
meaningless in terms of both public opinion and 
reality." 
 
II.  "Catch 22 at the Likud" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Gewirtz wrote in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (September 26): "The fact that the [Likud] 
Party's domestic affairs have taken over the State of 
Israel's agenda and drawn the Prime Minister, the 
ministers, and the Knesset members, into exhausting all 
their energy and reason in inferior political lobbying 
-- like passengers on a plane that was skyjacked from 
its course -- should dismay all of us.  On Sunday, the 
Likud lost its legitimacy as a party worthy of 
ruling.... By booby-trapping itself to death, the Likud 
Central Committee resolutely and very publicly 
clarified on Sunday where exactly the real, most 
dangerous booby-trap is concealed." 
 
III.  "Only the Likud Could Have Done It" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (September 26): "On the one hand it is 
not reasonable to assume that Netanyahu was behind the 
silencing of Sharon's microphone [at the Likud Central 
Committee meeting on Sunday night].  There are 50 less 
unpleasant ways of committing suicide. On the other 
hand -- who knows?  And what about Sharon?  For he will 
quit the Likud as a victor.  If he wins today he can do 
whatever he wants.  So, was it Sharon who gagged 
himself and played the mother of all tricks on Bibi? 
It's hard to believe.... On Sunday, the entire world 
watched Sharon sitting and getting up, standing and 
sitting down, in vain.  The world was certainly asking 
itself what more that crazy little state is capable of 
inventing.... What we will remember from this night is 
the speech that was written, rewritten, edited, typed 
and even distributed, but not spoken.  We will remember 
the fragments of culture and democracy that rolled on 
the ground of [Tel Aviv's] Exhibition Grounds [the 
meeting's venue].  Some called Sharon's speech to the 
UN General Assembly a writ of divorce from the Likud. 
Polls showed this wasn't so.  The writ of divorce was 
given last night. It should be handed by the Israeli 
public to its thuggish ruling party." 
 
------------------ 
¶2.  Gaza Violence: 
------------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"The international community should realize that the 
road map cannot move forward while Israel is under 
attack and that if the PA won't take action, Israel 
will." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Assertive security dialogue with the PA is the main 
weapon Israel should use, without compromise or 
concessions." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Deterrence" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(September 26): "What is at stake is whether Israel's 
withdrawal from Gaza leads to a reduction in tension 
and the bolstering of a viable Palestinian entity with 
whom it is possible to discuss conflict management, or 
whether disengagement is seen as flight under fire and 
leads to Palestinian rejectionists using violence 
against Israel whenever internal Palestinian politics 
dictate.... The real problem is the feebleness of PA 
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has neither the stomach nor 
the ability to rein in the rejectionists.  Therefore, 
in the post-disengagement era Israel needs to 
rehabilitate its deterrence capabilities.  That 
requires making enemy attacks prohibitively costly, 
especially to the terrorist chieftains who orchestrate 
them.  The goal is not only to halt strikes against the 
Negev, but to make the Palestinians think twice before 
turning the West Bank into a launching pad against 
Israel.  The international community should realize 
that the road map cannot move forward while Israel is 
under attack and that if the PA won't take action, 
Israel will." 
 
II.  "Assertive Security Dialogue" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(September 25): "The explosion during the Hamas parade 
in Jabalya on Friday, in which 17 Palestinians were 
killed and some 140 injured, immediately became a test 
of the Palestinian Authority and the unwritten 
agreement between it and Israel over maintaining quiet 
on the border.  Unfortunately, that quiet was not 
maintained.... Now that the withdrawal is completed and 
the border crossings have become de facto international 
ones, Israel must treat attacks launched from the PA 
like attacks from any other country -- which becomes an 
enemy state the moment such an action happens.  We 
cannot accept excuses such as the lack of control by 
those who have accepted control over the entire Gaza 
Strip.  The fact that we are talking about a kind of 
Palestinian state makes both the missile attacks and 
the response to them even more significant in terms of 
the mutual harm to sovereignty.  Just as it is 
difficult to accept attacks from the PA on Israel, it 
is equally difficult to accept the IDF's automatic 
entry into Gaza every time the quiet is violated. 
Assertive security dialogue with the PA is the main 
weapon Israel should use, without compromise or 
concessions." 
 
JONES