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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005868 
 
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 
 
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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
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In its lead story, Jerusalem Post reported that PM 
Sharon told Likud ministers on Tuesday that he intends 
to continue guiding the Likud ideologically in a 
different direction from the party's traditional ideal 
of maintaining as much as possible of the Land of 
Israel.  Speaking on Israel Radio this morning, Eyal 
Arad, a senior strategy advisor to Sharon, said that if 
the diplomatic deadlock with the Palestinians 
continues, Israel may consider turning unilateral 
disengagement into government policy, including 
annexation of West Bank territory and withdrawal to 
what the Jewish state would set as its permanent 
border.  Israel Radio later quoted the Prime Minister's 
Office as saying in response, "There is no plan for a 
further unilateral withdrawal." 
 
All media, except Jerusalem Post, led with Israel's 
ongoing confrontation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 
All media quoted Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying 
on Tuesday that Israel will target senior Hamas leaders 
if the organization continues to launch Qassam rockets 
into Israel.  Yediot and Israel Radio reported that for 
the first time since 1967, IDF cannons bombarded open 
spaces in the Gaza Strip.  Ha'aretz quoted Israeli 
defense officials as saying on Tuesday that certain 
Hamas cells in the West Bank -- at least in Ramallah 
and Hebron -- have resumed trying to carry out attacks 
against Israeli targets, even though the organization's 
leadership remains officially committed to the "lull" 
in the violence.  Also reporting on this trend, Israel 
Radio cited an intelligence report that reached the PA, 
according to which Syrian President Bashar Assad met 
with Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives, urging 
them to step up attacks against Israel.  The radio, 
which says that Assad is trying to promote PLO 
hardliner Farouk Kaddoumi at the expense of PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas, reported that Assad's wooing 
of the extremist Palestinian groups prompted Egyptian 
President Hosni Mubarak to tell Assad that he could 
lose power if he continued supporting terror. 
The media reported that Hamas released a videotape 
recorded shortly before the death of the Israeli Sasson 
Nuriel, who urged the government, in Arabic, at his 
captors' demand, to release all Palestinian prisoners 
held by Israel.  The media cited Hamas as saying that 
it would abduct other Israeli citizens.  Israel Radio 
reported that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni canceled a 
meeting scheduled for Thursday with PA Minister for 
Prisoners' Affairs Sufian Abu Zaida, saying that the 
abduction and murder of Nuriel, and the release of the 
videotape, were not a way to have prisoners freed. 
 
Yediot reported that pressure by the IDF and Gaza Strip 
residents on the terrorist organizations made all 
Palestinian factions in Gaza decide on Tuesday to stop 
launching Qassam rockets and return to the 'tahdiya' 
(lull) while reserving the right to respond to Israeli 
actions.  The newspaper reported that the decision was 
preceded by the firing of two rockets into Sderot, 
including one that landed in the middle of a 
residential neighborhood. 
 
Yediot cited a police announcement that the Shin Bet 
and police have arrested Yaqub Abu-Assab, a senior 
Hamas official who served as liaison between the 
group's branch in Saudi Arabia and its HQ in the West 
Bank. 
 
Israel Radio quoted IDF Intelligence head Maj. Gen. 
Aharon Zeevi-Farkash as saying that international 
efforts have created conditions in which Iran could 
reach nuclear capability only in two years' time. 
 
Results of Ha'aretz and Maariv polls found that 
Sharon's narrow victory in the Likud Central Committee 
on Monday has caused a dramatic turnabout in the 
balance of power between Sharon and his main rival, 
Knesset Member Binyamin Netanyahu: 
-Ha'aretz published the results of a survey conducted 
last night among Likud party members by the Amanet 
Group's Dialogue Institute: if the party's leadership 
primary were held today, Sharon would beat Netanyahu by 
47.6 percent to 33.8 percent.  Three weeks ago, the 
situation was reversed: Netanyahu edged out Sharon by 
six percentage points (44 percent to 38 percent).  And 
two weeks before that, Netanyahu would have won in a 
landslide, with 47 percent of the vote, compared to 30 
percent for Sharon. 
-Maariv printed the results of a TNS/Teleseker Polling 
Institute survey conducted on Sunday among members of 
the Likud's Central Committee: 
-"Whom do you intend to vote for in the Likud 
leadership primaries?"  Sharon: 44 percent; Netanyahu: 
22 percent; MK Uzi Landau: 16 percent. 
-"If only Sharon and Netanyahu competed?"  Sharon: 50 
percent; Netanyahu: 36 percent. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that, during a lecture at Bar- 
Ilan University on Tuesday, French Ambassador to Israel 
Gerard Araud belittled efforts to have Hizbullah placed 
on the EU's list of terrorist organizations as "feel- 
good diplomacy" that "wouldn't make the slightest 
difference." 
 
Jerusalem Post lengthily described the ceremony in 
which Ambassador Richard H. Jones presented his 
credentials to President Moshe Katsav on Monday.  The 
newspaper reported that Jones' inscription in the 
visitors' book read: "With all my heart and soul I 
pledge to use my office to strengthen the ties that 
bind our countries together and to help this holy land 
to find peace for the benefit of its people." 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Israel's 
representative to the UN Danny Gillerman met with 
fellow members of the Western Europe and Others group 
on Monday and told them that Israel intends to submit 
its candidacy as a member of the UN Security Council. 
Ha'aretz writes that the official request will be 
submitted within a few days. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that John Dugard, UN Special 
Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian 
Territories, included the idea of a binational solution 
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his annual 
report.  The newspaper cited the Foreign Ministry's 
expression of shock at Dugard's comments. 
 
Leading media reported that on Tuesday, for the first 
time, archeologists found an artifact -- a seal -- 
apparently from the First Temple period, in rubble that 
the Muslim Waqf had removed from the Temple Mount's 
Solomon Stables area. 
Yediot and Jerusalem Post reported that Natanel Levitt, 
the investigator acting on behalf of the Civil Service 
Commissioner, left for Washington for a repeat probe of 
the alleged affairs involving Israeli Ambassador to the 
U.S. Danny Ayalon, his wife, his personal secretary 
Liran Petersil, and FM Silvan Shalom.  Yediot reported 
that Ayalon had complained that the first investigation 
was conducted in the presence of a senior Foreign 
Ministry official. 
 
Maariv and Ha'aretz's web site reported that on Monday 
(Ha'aretz: on Tuesday), the Russian border control 
refused entry to Russia to the chief rabbi of the 
Moscow Choral Synagogue, Pinchas Goldschmidt, after he 
flew in from Israel.  Maariv cited assessments that 
Goldschmidt, who served in his position for 17 years, 
either fell victim to infighting between Jewish 
organizations or that the Russian authorities suspected 
him of cooperation with U.S. intelligence. 
 
Maariv reported that Pope Benedict XVI has apologized 
to Israel over the fact that, in an address around one 
month ago, he omitted its name from the list of 
countries stricken by terror. 
 
Yediot reported that Sharon last night, at a farewell 
gathering in honor of Defense Ministry Director-General 
Amos Yaron, told him that he (Yaron) was "not to blame 
for those matters."  Sharon was referring to the affair 
of drone sales to China, over which the U.S. had 
reportedly demanded that Yaron be fired. 
 
Yediot reported that Israeli billionaire businessman 
Eyal Ofer is building the most expensive residential 
project in Manhattan -- two towers of 20 and 43 floors 
between 61st and 62nd Streets, at the corner of Central 
Park West and Broadway. 
 
Leading media cited an announcement by American and 
Iraqi forces that Abu Azzam, thought to be Al-Qaida's 
No. 2 man in Iraq, was killed on Sunday. 
 
Yediot reported that the U.S. Treasury, the Federal 
Reserve, and the Secret Service are expected to 
announce jointly today the launching of a new, 
multicolored 10-dollar bill. 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "This morning, exactly five 
years ago, Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount.... In 
view of the use of artillery batteries and Mofaz's 
threats, Israel again appears to be playing with fire." 
 
Arye Green, who was an advisor to former cabinet 
minister Natan Sharansky, wrote in Ha'aretz: "A 
[Palestinian] state can be established, but it needs 
international support, to be made conditional upon true 
democratic reforms." 
 
Hebrew University history teacher and Likud Central 
Committee member Guy Ma'ayan wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "As historians have repeatedly 
pointed out, 'maximalists' have only been successful in 
the short term." 
 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Terror Moves to a New Front" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 28): "After two days 
of massive Israeli pressure, it seemed for a moment 
this week that the Palestinian organizations were 
raising a white flag.... But Hamas is also driven by 
internal political considerations, mainly its 
understanding that public opinion in Gaza objects to 
renewing the fighting with Israel.  On Tuesday, hours 
after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz threatened to wipe 
out Hamas leaders, the organization responded with its 
own horrifying propaganda.  It released a videocassette 
of abducted civilian Sasson Nuriel, filmed shortly 
before he was murdered by his kidnappers in Ramallah. 
The film not only indicates that Hamas intends to 
continue with the kidnappings, but also that the main 
terror activity is moving from the Gaza Strip to the 
West Bank.... Israel's first response to the cassette's 
release was that this is an 'Iraqi-style' terror act. 
But Palestinian organizations have been abducting 
people since the '70s.... Meanwhile, the army is 
continuing with operation First Rain.  For two days 
there have been no assassinations, but in contrast the 
air force is continuing its strikes in Gaza and the 
army is rounding up people in the West Bank.  Cannon 
shells were fired for the first time at Beit Hanoun on 
Tuesday.  This is intended to make the Palestinian 
public turn against the Hamas, which started the 
present round of violence.  This morning, exactly five 
years ago, Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, 
triggering a series of hostilities that few had 
anticipated. In view of the use of artillery batteries 
and Mofaz's threats, Israel again appears to be playing 
with fire." 
 
II.  "Palestinian Democracy Is Possible" 
 
Arye Green, who was an advisor to former cabinet 
minister Natan Sharansky, wrote in Ha'aretz (September 
28): "After the cloud of the withdrawal from Gaza 
scatters, the Israeli public will find itself exactly 
at the very point where it stood before the 
disengagement.  After the two major illusions that had 
led Israeli politics -- the dream of Greater Israel and 
the chimera of peace in our time -- crashed, the 
Israeli public is looking for a direction, a vision, 
and a hope.... One must help the Palestinians create a 
free and democratic state.... According to [Natan 
Sharansky's book, The Democracy Advantage], three to 
five years will be needed to build the necessary 
civilian infrastructure: a free market, an education 
free of incitement to violence, the creation of 
political parties and organizations enjoying freedom of 
speech and association, and, of course, the total 
cessation of terrorist actions, and the dismantling of 
the terror groups.  Only after this infrastructure is 
built, will elections take place.  The leader who will 
be chosen in them will enter negotiations with Israel 
over the state's permanent borders, the status of 
Jerusalem, and the other contentious issues.  The 
January [2006] elections are important as one step on 
the path, but they do not meet that test, especially if 
Hamas's participation is allowed without the group 
being disarmed.... Such a state can be established, but 
it needs international support, to be made conditional 
upon true democratic reforms.  The very recognition of 
[Palestinian] statehood, economic support, and the 
handing over of land, must be directly linked to 
progress in democratization.  What is perhaps the most 
important should be to encourage those in Palestinian 
society who are attempting to promote democratic 
reforms." 
 
III.  "Beware of a Pyrrhic Victory" 
 
Hebrew University history teacher and Likud Central 
Committee member Guy Ma'ayan wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (September 28): "Sharon's victory is 
that of the moderate line within Likud.  If the 
approval of the Labor Party's joining [the cabinet] 
around one year ago was seen as the initial approval of 
the disengagement plan, the rejection of the 
postponement of the primaries represents an expression 
of trust in the Prime Minister's moderate course.  It 
grants a seal of approval to his speech at the UN 
General Assembly, to the Foreign Minister's efforts to 
translate the disengagement into diplomatic gains, and 
is evidence that the applause in New York was heard 
loud and clear at the Likud Central Committee's 
convention.... I have often claimed on these pages that 
the disengagement wasn't a passing whim, but the 
outcome of a long-drawn-out process, in which the 
Israeli public is increasingly inclined to move in the 
direction of the political center, to abandon 
ideological margins, and to adopt realistic positions 
in the fields of foreign policy and security.... This 
stance has been strengthened following the relative 
ease with which the disengagement was implemented, and 
the lack of secular protest against it.  As a popular 
party, Likud ... has understood that that diplomatic 
wisdom is no guarantee for remaining in power.... As 
historians have repeatedly pointed out, 'maximalists' 
have only been successful in the short term." 
 
JONES