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

031155Z Oct 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 005945 
 
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 
 
 
Please note: no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report Tuesday- 
Wednesday, October 4-5, 2005, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New 
Year) holiday. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Leading media (banner in Maariv: "Positive Signal From 
Abu Mazen") reported that, after weeks of lack of 
contact, PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas called 
PM Sharon to congratulate him upon the occasion of the 
Jewish New Year.  Yediot led with comments made by 
Sharon in a holiday interview with the newspaper: "Next 
[Jewish] Year We'll Make a Giant Step Toward Peace." 
Ha'aretz quoted a high-ranking GOI source as saying, 
after the telephone call between the two leaders, that 
Sharon will meet Abbas before the latter's trip to 
Washington on October 20.  Other media filed similar 
reports.  Talking on Israel Radio in a pre-Jewish New 
Year interview this morning, Vice PM and Acting Finance 
Minister Ehud Olmert stated his belief that in the 
coming year Israel would have to expand a "path that 
could lead to significant advancements toward peace." 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz and other media (banners in the 
ultra-Orthodox press) quoted Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice as saying on Friday that Hamas cannot 
remain an armed organization and participate in the 
political process in the PA.  However, the newspaper 
also quoted Secretary Rice as saying that the 
Palestinians must be given time to arrange their 
internal political affairs.  Several media cited the 
GOI's satisfaction over Secretary Rice's remarks. 
During the weekend, the media noted that although Fatah 
won more seats than Hamas in the PA's municipal 
elections on Thursday, Hamas was victorious in the 
larger communities.  On Sunday, Jerusalem Post quoted 
Palestinian sources in Gaza City as saying that Egypt 
has decided to host another round of talks between the 
Palestinian factions to discuss extending the 
unofficial truce with Israel. 
 
On Sunday, Hatzofe reported that one month ago, Foreign 
Ministry officials drafted a "road map to the Roadmap." 
The report allegedly proposes concessions on the issues 
of Palestinian prisoners and crossing points, and 
assesses that there will be no U.S. pressure on Israel 
after the EU presents its own demands. 
 
In Ha'aretz's lead story, GOI sources are quoted as 
saying that, in recent conversations with their Israeli 
counterparts, senior American officials have expressed 
interest in Israel's assessments of Syrian President 
Bashar Assad's possible successors, asking who Israel 
thought could replace him and still maintain Syria's 
stability.  The newspaper quoted U.S. officials as 
saying that their impression from those conversations 
was that Israel would prefer to have a weakened Assad, 
vulnerable to international pressure, remain in power, 
and that it is unenthusiastic about the possibility of 
a regime change in Syria.  Ha'aretz writes that the 
Israelis' impression was that the United States' main 
concern is the flow of terrorists into Iraq via Syria, 
rather than the threat posed by the Syrian-backed 
Hizbullah organization in Lebanon.  The newspaper says 
that both the U.S. and Israel are awaiting the result 
of the investigation into the assassination of former 
Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, and will not decide what do 
to about Syria until the findings have been published. 
Ha'aretz quoted the GOI sources as saying that Israel 
expects the conclusions to prove extremely embarrassing 
for Syria and put Assad's regime in a difficult 
situation. 
 
Leading media reported that three Palestinians were 
killed and dozens were wounded on Monday in clashes 
between PA and Hamas militants in Gaza. 
 
On Sunday, the major Hebrew-language media led with a 
warning by the security services that terrorist 
organizations plan to attack Israeli tourists in the 
Sinai during the holiday season beginning this week. 
Today, leading media reported that hundreds of Israelis 
have returned from the Sinai and that thousands of 
others have canceled their trips there. 
 
Maariv reported that on Sunday, a senior Iranian 
delegation met in Damascus with the heads of the 
rejectionist Palestinian organizations for a discussion 
on the "struggle against the enemies -- the U.S. and 
Israel."  Today, Israel Radio reported on talks between 
the Iranian delegation and the highest levels of the 
Syrian government. 
 
On Sunday, Maariv reported that in recent contacts with 
the U.S., Israel has demanded that the activity of 
UNIFIL in southern Lebanon be reduced, due to Israel's 
"harsh disappointment" about its achievements. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that South African businessman 
Cyril Kern, believed to have served as a conduit for a 
suspected bribe given to Sharon, has recently been 
questioned by investigators from the South African 
National Prosecution Authority, who have allegedly 
received new evidence from Kern. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported that at least 25 
people were killed and over 100 were wounded in a 
series of bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali on 
Saturday. 
 
Leading media reported that the IDF will open a 
Military Police investigation into the killing on 
Friday of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus. 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted one of the aides of Ahmed Jibril, 
the head of the PFLP-Popular Front, as saying on Sunday 
that Jibril is planning to move from Damascus to the 
Gaza Strip. 
 
Former Defense Ministry DG Amos Yaron was quoted in an 
interview with Yediot as saying that the U.S. owes him 
an apology, but he doubts whether "high-ranking 
officials at the most powerful defense department in 
the world will openly admit to having erred regarding 
officials in a small country like Israel." 
 
On Sunday, Yediot reported that the Ministry of 
Construction and Housing is investigating the 
disappearance of 400 mobile homes in the West Bank. 
The state had spent 34 million shekels (approx. USD 7.4 
million) on the trailers, which were transferred to 
settler communities. 
 
On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Jennifer Miller, 24, 
the daughter of former U.S. diplomat Aaron David 
Miller, has just written a book entitled "Inheriting 
the Holy Land -- An American's Search for Hope in the 
Middle East." 
 
On Sunday, Jerusalem Post reprinted a Washington Post 
feature on Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Karen 
Hughes. 
 
Ha'aretz (English Ed.) and other media published a paid 
ad for a concert to be held in Tel Aviv Saturday night 
"with the support of the Office of Public Affairs, U.S. 
Embassy, Tel Aviv" in memory of Daniel Pearl, the U.S. 
journalist kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002. 
 
-------- 
Mideast: 
-------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Columnist and TV celebrity Yair Lapid wrote on page one 
of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "I'm 
telling you it will be a good year.... The 
disengagement is behind us.  The fratricidal civil war 
was cancelled for lack of evidence.  The primaries will 
reach us with a fashionable delay." 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "We 
should demand that [Sharon] apply his belated 
diplomatic understanding without winking or playing for 
time.... When a politician leads rather than is 
dragged, his chances of victory increase." 
 
Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein wrote in 
Ha'aretz: "An exclusively military campaign would not 
help.  On the contrary, it would weaken Fatah and Abu 
Mazen and would fortify his opponents." 
 
Security and intelligence affairs commentator Amit 
Cohen wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The next few 
days will prove which side [the PA or Hamas] is more 
determined, who is more hungry for victory." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "It All Depends On Us" 
Columnist and TV celebrity Yair Lapid wrote on page one 
of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (October 
3): "I'm telling you it will be a good year.... It will 
be good because we so much want it to be good.... The 
disengagement is behind us.  The fratricidal civil war 
was cancelled for lack of evidence.  The primaries will 
reach us with a fashionable delay.  It has been a long 
time since there was such a hunger for something good. 
The Palestinians, as usual, are nothing to write home 
about, but there is some movement even on that front. 
The economy is recovering.... The most popular Israeli 
leader in our times, Bill Clinton, invented the method. 
He inherited an America which was depressed and in the 
doldrums, and he spent the next two years saying 'look 
what a wonderful country we have, look how strong and 
beautiful and successful we are.  We are unbeatable.' 
The economy recovered first, followed by national 
pride.  The psychological subterfuge worked like a 
charm.  And admit it -- we too have a little charm.  As 
the number 2 man in the Chinese government said: 'We 
come to you because the Jews are the most clever people 
in the world.'  A billion Chinese can't be wrong.  We 
are smart and gifted, and we have built in the Third 
World a wily western country that is sometimes entitled 
-- let's say at [Jewish] New Year -- to be proud of 
itself too.  It's not only pleasant.  It's also a good 
technique to help us to live well.  So believe me, it 
will be a good year, if we only want it enough." 
 
II.  "The Year of the Turnabout" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(October 3): "Many years were wasted until Sharon -- 
the leading provocateur against the left, the man who 
torpedoed every attempt to stop construction in the 
settlements, and extracted budgets from every nook and 
cranny of every ministry in which he served in order to 
nurture this unnecessary enterprise, the man who stood 
in the forefront of those who incited against Yitzhak 
Rabin and the Oslo Accords -- reached this conclusion 
himself.  There is no point in demanding regret or soul- 
searching over those lost years, but we should demand 
that he apply his belated diplomatic understanding 
without winking or playing for time.... This was the 
year of the turnabout, the year of the disengagement, 
and the year of the fence.... The question of what 
Sharon will do in the coming months is a political 
one.... When a politician leads rather than is dragged, 
his chances of victory increase." 
 
III.  "Helping Hamas" 
 
Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein wrote in 
Ha'aretz (October 3): "Hamas clearly is the ascendant 
power among the Palestinian public.  The movement is 
deeply rooted in public life.... Mass arrests such as 
those of last weekend, and the targeted assassinations, 
of course, make Hamas move backward, and strengthen its 
extremist wing.  Since it is a movement that has won 
the admiration and respect of the masses, Israel's 
struggle against it must not take on a solely military 
character.  An exclusively military campaign would not 
help.  On the contrary, it would weaken Fatah and Abu 
Mazen and would fortify his opponents." 
 
IV.  "Inevitable Conflict" 
 
Security and intelligence affairs commentator Amit 
Cohen wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (October 3): 
"Senior Palestinian officials admit that Hamas is 
better equipped than most of the security agencies.... 
Therefore the aspiration of the heads of these agencies 
was to rehabilitate their forces quickly, to rebuild 
the command structure, to recruit new personnel, and -- 
most important -- to obtain arms and ammunition.  Only 
after this had been achieved did they intend to go to 
war.  But the Palestinian Authority was overtaken by 
events.  The explosion at the Hamas demonstration in 
[the Gaza refugee camp of] Jabalya, the inflammatory 
rhetoric of Hamas, the Israeli military operation and 
the way in which Hamas backed down, led the Palestinian 
Authority to conclude that it was time to tighten the 
rope a little.  A few days ago the Palestinian police 
received a clear order to arrest every armed person who 
was not in uniform.  On Sunday, in contrast to many 
times in the past, an attempt was made to implement the 
decision on the ground, even at the price of a 
conflict. Hamas, for its part, proved once again that 
it is not afraid of a fight, so long as it is fighting 
only the Palestinian Authority, not the whole of Fatah. 
The next few days will prove which side is more 
determined, who is more hungry for victory." 
 
JONES