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Viewing cable 05TELAVIV6075, ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
05TELAVIV6075 2005-10-14 10:24 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Tel Aviv
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

141024Z Oct 05
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 006075 
 
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.  Syria 
 
2.  Mideast 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The three major Hebrew-language newspapers bannered the 
issue of the fate of the Syrian regime following the 
"mysterious" suicide of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi 
Kanaan on Wednesday.  Yediot reported that over the 
past few weeks, U.S. administration representatives 
have held talks with senior officials from Arab 
countries to find out who could replace President 
Bashar Assad as Syria's leader (the newspaper banners: 
"U.S.: End of Assad Regime Near").  Maariv bannered 
Assad's comment to CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he is 
"not afraid of America," and highlighted his remark in 
the interview: "We don't think this government in 
Israel is serious about the peace process.  So, in the 
near future, we don't see any hope.  But in the long 
term, there must be peace.  There is no other option." 
Ha'aretz quoted FM Shalom as saying on Wednesday that 
he hoped Kanaan's suicide would not make him a 
scapegoat for Assad.  Ha'aretz quoted Shalom as saying: 
"The Syrians feel the noose tightening around their 
necks," Shalom said. "The [UN investigator Detlev] 
Mehlis report is closing in on direct Syrian 
involvement in [Rafiq] Hariri's murder." 
 
Jerusalem Post led with an AP story about the bloody 
standoff between Islamic hostage-takers and Russian 
security forces in the Russian city of Nalchik. 
 
Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra was quoted as 
saying in an interview with Jerusalem Post that extreme 
far-right activists still seek to plan attacks against 
PM Sharon or the Temple Mount. 
 
Jerusalem Post cited statistics released by the PA, 
according to which the number of Palestinians killed in 
internal strife is higher than those killed by the IDF 
in the first five months of 2005.  The ministry points 
out that Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs 
Brigades, was largely responsible for the continued 
state of lawlessness and anarchy. 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Vice Premier 
Shimon Peres will met with chief PA negotiator Saeb 
Erekat at his Tel Aviv offices today to discuss 
operating procedures for the Rafah border crossing 
between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.  Ha'aretz quoted a 
diplomatic source in Jerusalem as saying that Israel 
has not yet taken a position on a plan prepared by 
Egypt and the World Bank, according to which the PA and 
Egypt would jointly operate the crossing.  Israel Radio 
quoted Jibril Rajoub, the PA's National Security 
Adviser, as saying that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz 
will travel to Egypt to discuss the border issue with 
senior Egyptian officials. 
 
Hatzofe reported that citing anarchy in the PA, Israel 
has secretly allowed the Palestinian forces in Tulkarm 
to carry Kalashnikov rifles. 
 
Hatzofe reported that the "National Palestine 
Solidarity Committee" has written to Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice, demanding that the U.S. release 
Professor Sami Al-Arian and three other persons, who 
are on trial in Florida for supporting terror. 
 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was quoted as saying in 
an interview held in Kabul with Yediot's Orly Azolai 
that he would be pleased to meet Sharon. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that despite an American Jewish 
Congress press release on Tuesday saying that Pakistan 
will accept aid from Israel and American Jewish groups, 
Jerusalem still has not heard from Islamabad whether it 
is interested in Israeli assistance. 
 
Ha'aretz printed a Reuters story, according to which 
some U.S. Protestant churches are turning their backs 
on the idea of dumping investments in companies 
profiting from Israel's West Bank occupation. 
 
Maariv lengthily reviewed "Kill!  Kill!  Kill!," a book 
published in Paris by former Staff Sergeant Jimmy 
Massey, a 12-year Marine veteran, in which he accuses 
the U.S. of genocide in Iraq.  Maariv notes that 
American publishers "did not hurry" to print Massey's 
book. 
Alexander Haig, who served as the late U.S. president 
Richard Nixon's chief of staff during the Yom Kippur 
War, was quoted as saying in an interview with Maariv 
that U.S. intelligence "failed disgracefully" at the 
time. 
 
Leading media cited the Health Ministry's assessment 
that 3,000 Israelis could die from avian influenza if 
the epidemic reaches the country. 
 
Ha'aretz published the results of a survey conducted 
early this week among Labor Party members by the Amanet 
Group's Dialogue Institute: 
-"Should Labor quit the cabinet by the end of 2005, or 
remain in it until the 2006 elections?"  Stay: 76.5 
percent; quit: 15.8 percent; 7 percent were undecided. 
 
Maariv printed the results of a TNS/Teleseker Polling 
Institute survey conducted this week: 
-"If elections were held today, whom would you vote 
for?" (in Knesset seats - in parentheses: results of 
2003 Knesset elections): Likud (headed by Sharon): 38 
(40); Labor (headed by Peres): 24 (22); Shinui: 9 (15); 
National Union 8 (4); Yisrael Beiteinu: 6 (3); Meretz: 
6 (6); National Religious Party: 4 (6); United Torah 
Judaism: 5 (5); Arab parties: 8 (8). 
 
 
 
---------- 
1.  Syria: 
---------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Israel will try to 
avoid being drawn into the crisis of its northern 
neighbor." 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote on 
page one of Ha'aretz: "If any government directive to 
eliminate Hariri existed, Kanaan certainly knew about 
it." 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Jackie Hoogie wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Hariri and Kanaan have 
taken to their graves many secrets related to the 29- 
year-long Syrian chapter in Lebanon." 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Israel, say 
sources close to the issue, is pleased with the status 
quo and with a situation in which Assad is under 
constant measured pressure." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
 
I.  "Assad Is Good For the Golan" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (October 14): "The 
United States, which in the past keenly supported the 
talks with Syria, has let it go in recent years.  In 
the present state of affairs, Assad is good for the 
Golan and he also preserves the silence on the northern 
border.  He conducts his war with Israel indirectly, by 
sponsoring Hamas and other terror organizations' 
headquarters in Damascus.... Israel will try to avoid 
being drawn into the crisis of its northern neighbor. 
It will try to delay any negotiations on the Golan 
Heights for as long as possible, but it will also be 
careful not to contribute to any serious upheavals in 
Damascus that could endanger the quiet on its own 
northern border." 
 
II.  "Who Benefits From Kanaan's Death?" 
 
Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote on 
page one of Ha'aretz (October 14): "[Syrian Interior 
Minister Ghazi] Kanaan knew the history of Syrian 
control in Lebanon, under both the late president Hafez 
Assad and his son Bashar, and carried the facts in his 
head and in his documents.  Bashar appointed him 
interior minister and internal security chief and if 
any government directive to eliminate Hariri existed, 
Kanaan certainly knew about it.... Will Kanaan's death 
affect the probe of Hariri's murder?  That depends on 
where the inquiry stands.... If the commission intends 
to question senior Syrian officials in the next two 
weeks on the basis of information from Kanaan, it may 
now hit a brick wall, as those suspects can pass the 
blame to the dead Kanaan." 
 
III.  "Assad's Gain" 
 
Arab affairs correspondent Jackie Hoogie wrote in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (October 14): "It is widely 
believed that Ghazi Kanaan was the most serious threat 
to Assad among the Alawites.... Syria withdrew from 
Lebanon half a year ago; since then, the Lebanese scene 
has not stopped bleeding from bombings and bodies. 
Hariri and Kanaan have taken to their graves many 
secrets related to the 29-year-long Syrian chapter in 
 
SIPDIS 
Lebanon.  The way they disappeared teaches that the 
presence in Lebanon may have been Syrian, but the 
tragedy was of a Greek nature." 
 
IV.  "Solving the Riddle of Bashar Assad" 
 
Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in 
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (October 14): 
"The lack of alternative to Bashar Assad leads the U.S. 
to a policy of preferring 'behavior change,' as a 
senior administration official put it, instead of 
'regime change.'  The U.S. is looking to coerce him 
into cooperating, rather than trying to overthrow him. 
The Israeli view, as it is presented by diplomats to 
the U.S. administration, is rather surprising.  While 
publicly Israel criticizes the regime in Syria, in 
private Israeli representatives have made it clear to 
the U.S. that regime change of any kind in Damascus is 
not in Israel's interest.  Israel, say sources close to 
the issue, is pleased with the status quo and with a 
situation in which Assad is under constant measured 
pressure.  Just enough pressure to make him cautious 
about his moves, but not too much so as not to push him 
into a corner that might lead him to take desperate 
actions against Israel, either in the Golan Heights or 
along the Lebanese border." 
 
------------ 
2.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "An 
Arab country, Qatar, is helping to strengthen the bonds 
between the State of Israel and its Arab minority." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
 
"Qatar's Stadium" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(October 14): "The USD 6-million donation offered by 
Qatar to the municipality of [the Israeli-Arab town of] 
Sakhnin will be enough to complete construction of the 
local stadium, with change left over.  This is the 
stadium that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised to 
build a year and a half ago, after Sakhnin's soccer 
team won the State Cup.  The donation will turn the 
stadium into a unique Arab-Israeli project, the fruit 
of open cooperation, not between Israeli and Arab 
individual business people but rather between 
governments.... If in the past, the popular slogan 
spoke of Israeli Arabs as a bridge between the country 
and the Arab states, it now appears that the 
established order has been turned on its head: an Arab 
country, Qatar, is helping to strengthen the bonds 
between the State of Israel and its Arab minority.  The 
need of Israeli-Arab institutions for aid from Arab 
states mainly because of their low ranking on the 
Israeli government's list of priorities should not 
diminish the significance of Qatar's action.... In its 
games at home and abroad, Bnei Sakhnin [the town's 
soccer team] represents Israel, not Qatar or any other 
Arab state, and its fans are Israeli citizens.  This is 
how they are seen in Arab countries, whose attitude 
toward Israel is determined not by Israel's policy 
regarding its Arab population but rather by its policy 
toward the Palestinians in the territories.  This 
innovation, where for the first time ever an Arab 
country has taken a clear interest in Israeli citizens 
based on apolitical, altruistic interests rather than 
political ones, brings with it an additional blessing. 
It obligates Israel, at least in terms of Qatar, to 
make amends on its policies, not only toward the 
Palestinians but also toward the Israeli Arabs." 
 
JONES