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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 006219 
 
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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The Israeli media lead with the aftermath of the Hadera 
bombing Wednesday. All media reported on the IAF 
missile strike in Northern Gaza last night, directed at 
the car of an Islamic Jihad activist which killed 
Islamic Jihad operative Shadi Mohanna, the Qassam`s 
engineer along with two of his aides and four 
civilians. 
 
Israel Radio reported this morning that in a large- 
scale ground operation in Northern Sumaria, 12 wanted 
Islamic Jihad operatives were arrested in the Villages 
of the Tulkam region and one in Jenin. 
 
Israel Radio and IDF Radio quoted State Department 
spokesman Sean McCormack as saying this morning that 
Israel has the right to defend itself, however it 
should consider the consequences of its actions. 
 
All media reported on the "twice postponed" meeting 
between PA's Mahmud Abbas and Ari'el Sharon, due to 
"the current environment." The postponement was 
announced during the meeting of PM Sharon and visiting 
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.  PM Sharon was also 
quoted as saying that, "If the PA doesn't take serious 
and real action against terrorism there will not be any 
diplomatic progress, and that would be a shame." 
According to The Jerusalem Post, Vice Prime Minister 
Shimon Peres told Minister Lavrov that Israel does not 
have a policy of expanding the settlements, and that it 
has committed itself to dismantling the unauthorized 
settlement outposts and moving forward along the road 
map.  At the same time, this could only occur if Abbas 
would wage a "determined war" against the "armed 
organizations." 
Yedi'ot Aharonot reported that after meeting President 
Mubarak in Cairo yesterday, Defense Minister Shaul 
Mofaz said: "I am not sure we could ever make a peace 
agreement with the current Palestinian leadership.  We 
will have to wait for the next generation.  The best we 
could hope for in the meantime is yet another interim 
agreement.  A Palestinian state, a permanent agreement? 
I cannot envision this in the coming years." 
Ha'aretz reported that "Jerusalem is furious" that 
Egypt has invited Islamic Jihad and Hamas to hold talks 
with Cairo, thereby essentially granting them equal 
status with the Palestinian Authority, at a time when 
the former is perpetrating suicide bombings in Israel 
and the latter is launching Qassam rockets at civilian 
targets inside the green line.  Jerusalem reportedly 
said Cairo has effectively accorded Hamas the same 
diplomatic status that it accords the PA. 
The US State Department stated that Israel has the 
right to defend itself, but must decide which steps to 
take out of all of the possibilities, Israel Radio 
reported. 
Fearing more attacks, the Israel Police remain on high 
alert, going up "to Level 3, one notch below a total 
state of emergency," the Jerusalem Post reported. 
The Jerusalem Post also reported that yesterday in the 
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange "shares declined after the IDF 
launched air strikes on Gaza Strip," with leading bank 
shares falling and the Tel Aviv-25 Index losing 1.1%. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that "Israel's Ambassador 
to the UN Dan Gillerman began trying to build a 
coalition Thursday in favor of expelling Iran from the 
UN, as governments around the globe condemned Iran for 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel 
should be 'wiped off the map,' though "UN mathematics 
indicate that no such coalition could possibly 
prevail."  The report further lists senior 
international officials denouncing the Iranian 
president's statement. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, according to remarks 
by the Likud's legal advisor yesterday, Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon did not break the law when a $10,000-a- 
plate dinner was hosted in his honor on September 19 in 
New York, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz and State 
Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss launched probes into 
the dinner investigating whether it was illegal for 
people who came to the dinner to be asked to donate 
$10,000 - more than the $7,894 limit set in the Israeli 
Election Law.  But Likud legal advisor Eitan Haberman 
revealed in campaign fundraising guidelines that he 
sent to the Likud leadership cabinet on Sunday that the 
limit had not yet taken effect.  Once the date is set 
for the primary, which can be held no later than April, 
each candidate will be limited to raising no more than 
NIS 36,472 ($7894) per person. 
 
Ha'aretz reports this morning on Defense Minister 
Mofaz's instruction to evict 15 families that have 
lived for the past few years in old buildings in 
Hebron's wholesale market. He has also instructed 
troops to destroy 12 permanent buildings at the Amona 
outpost near Ofra in the West Bank.  The Yesha 
Settlement Council fears that the decision, which was 
taken in principle a long time ago but only now is 
being made operative, is the beginning of the 
implementation of the promise given by Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon to the US Administration that Israel will 
evacuate some of the outposts. Also, all media report 
that in the past 24 hours, the IDF have evacuated five 
new outposts set up in the past two days by youth, 
reporting that the settlers used excessive force during 
these evacuations. Chief of Staff Dan Halutz condemned 
the youths' behavior, while Mofaz said that "the 
behavior of these hoodlums will not go unpunished." 
 
 
Ynet and Yediot report that the US has recently halted 
for an unlimited period of time all thea contracts to 
supply night vision equipment and electro-optic devices 
to the IDF.  It is reported that the reason is the 
Israeli failure to report loss of night vision devices. 
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Mideast 
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                       Summary: 
                     ------------- 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz carries commentary 
by senior columnist Yoel Marcus who writes, "it's not 
easy to preach restraint during this week of terror. 
But in the era of moving toward negotiations, the 
political echelon must stand up to the pressures from a 
military establishment that demands escalating our 
forceful reactions, and instead use a pair of tweezers 
on the Palestinians.. In this transition period between 
the disengagement and the implementation of the road 
map, the government must display more empathy toward 
the Palestinians." 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz carries commentary 
by diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn who writes, 
"Israel's biggest problem is not how Syria and Iran are 
treated, but the fact that the international community 
lost interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 
shoving it into the drawer of unresolved problems that 
should wait for the future., which is sure to give us 
more terror attacks and targeted eliminations." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Kaspit writes in popular, 
pluralist Ma'ariv:  "Should Israel overthrow Asad?  The 
majority in the Israeli political system believe we 
should not. We could close a deal with Syria and 
eliminate the northern front.  For that, we need Syria 
to be stable and well-led, one that can decide and act 
on it, one that we had until not so long ago. 
Otherwise, we will receive a new and upgraded model of 
the PA, and then we will spend our time screaming that 
'we have no partner.'  In the end, when we look at 
ourselves in the mirror, we will realize that we have 
no more partners because we had eliminated them." 
 
 
 
Block Quotes: 
------------- 
 
¶I.  "Despite Hadera" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz carries a commentary 
by senior columnist Yoel Marcus who writes, "With the 
opening of the winter session of the Knesset this 
coming Monday, a new Ariel Sharon will take the podium, 
a Sharon who made the ideological transformation from a 
man of war to a man of peace.  Above all, the man at 
the podium will be the person who foiled the plot by 
extremists in his party to topple him from power for 
the sin of the disengagement. He will deliver his state 
of the State speech with the new status of King of 
Israel. Or at least he is in the eyes of the majority 
of the public that believes that maybe, just maybe, he 
will be elected the leader of his party and its 
candidate for prime minister in the primaries, and will 
continue leading the country to an agreement with the 
Palestinians.. Disengagement opponents are convinced 
that they have been proven right. Look, they say, only 
10 weeks have passed since Gaza was evacuated and the 
intifadah is back.. It's not easy to preach restraint 
during this week of terror. But in the era of moving 
toward negotiations, the political echelon must stand 
up to the pressures from a military establishment that 
demands escalating our forceful reactions, and instead 
use a pair of tweezers on the Palestinians.. In this 
transition period between the disengagement and the 
implementation of the road map, the government must 
display more empathy toward the Palestinians. The 
return to limits on their transportation, checkpoints 
and passages is less effective than generosity. I would 
expect Sharon to say that Israel must not fall into the 
trap of the extremists on the other side, provoking us 
into an escalatory response.  Israel needs patience and 
a view to the further horizon. Palestinian society, due 
to its poverty and distress, will eventually be forced 
to impose its authority over its extremists. Although 
in the immediate calculation there are winds of 
disappointment among us, Sharon can sum up his 
political speech by saying that the future will prove 
that Israel's disengagement initiative was justified 
and eventually will lead to a far-reaching historic 
change." 
 
II.  "Bush Wants Democracy, There'll Be Democracy" 
Diplomatic correspondent Aluf Ben writes in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz:  "Last week's 
events were a grim reminder for Israel that the 
Palestinian intifadah is not over yet.  A year after 
Arafat's death and two and a half months after the 
disengagement, reality remained as violent as it was 
before, with the repeated ritual of a Palestinian 
suicide attack followed by a large-scale IDF operation 
in the territories..  The feeling that the Israeli- 
Palestinian conflict is happening in a bubble, far 
removed from events in the world, becomes stronger when 
examined against the dramatic changes all around us.. 
The Bush Doctrine for a democratic reform in the Arab 
world., and his foreign policy is showing results.  The 
new Iraqi constitution, that is supposed to serve as a 
democratic model for the Arab world, was approved last 
week; the UN Security Council started discussing a 
condemnation of Syria over the Rafik Hariri murder; and 
Iran is sweating ahead of another discussion of its 
nuclear policy..  It is hard to imagine a more 
favorable strategic situation for Israel..  As the 
international situation changes, no one is blaming 
Sharon and his activities in the territories for the 
rising oil prices..  The Israeli presence in the West 
Bank. is no longer viewed as a real strategic problem. 
It is hard to overestimate the importance of this 
change..  But Israel belatedly understood the nature of 
the new US stand.  Israel's declared interest was to 
leave the regimes in their thrones, only weaker and 
disarmed. because the alternatives might be a radical 
Islamic regime that might threaten Israel, or a 
supposedly Western regime, that would make the West 
press Israel on the Golan..  The Iranian president's 
call for a world without Zionism was seized by 
Jerusalem for a quick PR campaign. yet, even countries 
that may be willing to help dismantling the Iranian 
nuclear project would not be as enthusiastic if they 
are viewed as helping Israel.  Sharon understands that 
and thus keeps quiet and out of the events around us.. 
Sharon does not believe that the 'Arabs' can change, 
certainly not soon, nor does he share Bush's 
enthusiasm, but he was the first leader in the region 
who realized where President Bush was going, and chose 
to move with the US storm, not against it.  He chose 
the disengagement to secure the US support.  A 
Jerusalem official cautioned last week against 
euphoria, saying: '.the problem is that we don't know 
where the Americans are going.. "Still, Israel's 
biggest problem is not how Syria and Iran are treated, 
but the fact that the international community lost 
interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, shoving 
it into the drawer of unresolved problems that should 
wait for the future., which is sure to give us more 
terror attacks and targeted killings." 
 
III.  "The Asad Riddle" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Kaspit writes in popular, 
pluralist Ma'ariv:  "So what do we do with Asad?  .The 
man who was the big white hope of the West turned out 
weak, lazy, hardly thinking..  His Syria is a weak 
country, almost insignificant militarily, that feeds on 
past rumors..  Asad does not have a real center; there 
is nothing original about him..  He put Syria on a 
track where it turned into 'the sick man' of the Middle 
East, perhaps even of the world.  Still, it is asked: 
Should Israel overthrow Asad?  The majority in the 
Israeli political system believe we should not, with 
opinions divided between 'conservative' and 
'reformists.'  Strongly backed by Sharon and Mofaz, the 
majority of the senior Israeli defense establishment 
officials are 'guardians of the current situation'. 
claiming there is no reason to replace him for an 
unknown..  They maintain that the Americans, who sent 
the Middle East into frenzy with their irresponsible 
folly and picking on the weak instead of the dangerous, 
might leave behind them a scorched earth infested with 
Bin Ladens.  Incidentally, speaking off the record and 
very privately, Sharon too does not excessively believe 
in Bush's dream of Arab world democratization.  The 
theories of Bush and Natan Sharansky (one of them is 
even a good friend of Sharon) make him mock and laugh 
at them:  We will have an Iraqi democracy right away, 
and it will break out in Syria soon after -- yeah, 
right.  Against this background, the current situation 
is our- best option..  The price of peace with Syria is 
well known (it even slightly dropped recently).  It 
will put an end to the cycle of hostility around 
Israel, open it in every direction, and isolate the 
Palestinians.  Why did they not opt for that?  Who 
knows?  .Perhaps the threat of peace terrified the 
defense establishment, where tens of thousands make a 
living..  We could close a deal with Syria and 
eliminate the northern front.  For that, we need Syria 
to be stable and well-led, one that can decide and act 
on it, one that we had until not so long ago. 
Otherwise, we will receive a new and upgraded model of 
the PA, and then we will spend our time screaming that 
'we have no partner.'  In the end, when we look at 
ourselves in the mirror, we will realize that we have 
no more partners because we had eliminated them." 
JONES