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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 007023 
 
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.  Mideast 
 
¶2.  Iran: Nuclear Program 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel TV and Israel Radio reported that Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice praised PM Sharon's courageous 
moves in an interview with CNN, as, in the words of 
both stations' Washington correspondent Yaron Dekel, 
"she knows well that he stands for reelection in 
Israel." 
 
Yediot (lead story) and other media reported that on 
Tuesday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz instructed the 
IDF to prepare for an expected wave of terror from the 
Gaza Strip.  Yediot quoted Mofaz as saying: "The PA 
does not function.  There is no guiding hand [there]." 
Israel Radio quoted him as saying that the situation 
will worsen.  Major media (banner in Ha'aretz) reported 
that on Sunday, after a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza 
landed not far from an Israel Electric Corporation 
plant south of Ashkelon, Israel told the PA that it 
planned to shut off power in Gaza for two hours early 
Monday morning, as a warning of things to come if the 
Qassam fire did not stop.  However, implementation was 
indefinitely postponed to give the main Palestinian 
hospital in Gaza time to purchase emergency generators. 
The media reported that one of the Qassam rockets fired 
on Tuesday landed on an army base in Israel.  Ha'aretz 
reported that the IDF has promised that the industrial 
zone south of Ashkelon will be connected to the Red 
Dawn rocket launch warning system within two weeks. 
Israel Radio reported that at a meeting with Egyptian 
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman today, Mofaz was 
expected to ask him to pressure the PA to act against 
the terror organizations.  Israel Radio reported that 
an IDF soldier was lightly wounded during a clash with 
Palestinians in Jenin this morning. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning, newly elected 
Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu told the Likud's 
Knesset faction that he would ask the party to place FM 
Silvan Shalom as No. 2 on the Likud's Knesset list. 
Israel Radio reported that the Likud's Knesset faction 
will meet today to determine the date of the party's 
withdrawal from the government.  Leading media reported 
that Netanyahu tends to accept the Likud ministers' 
wish to stay in the government until January 3, the 
date of the internal elections in the Likud.  The media 
(Maariv's banner) quoted Netanyahu as saying in the 
last few days that he will look into ways to oust Moshe 
Feiglin, the head of the far-right Jewish Leadership 
faction in the party, from the Likud.  The media also 
quoted Netanyahu as saying that he would strive to free 
the party from criminal elements that infiltrated it. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that, marking a shift in 
Israel's position on Hamas's participation in the 
Palestinian legislative elections in January, a senior 
Israeli diplomatic official told the newspaper on 
Tuesday that Israel will likely pull troops back from 
West Bank cities and lift roadblocks even if Hamas 
takes part in the elections.  Ha'aretz reported that 
senior Israeli officials have told Veronique de Keyser, 
who heads a delegation of European election observers, 
that Israel will not enable voting for the PA's 
legislative elections to take place in East Jerusalem 
because of Hamas's participation.  The newspaper quoted 
the officials as saying this week that because Israel 
objects to Hamas's participation in the elections, it 
is not willing to allow voting to take place in 
sovereign Israeli territory.  Ha'aretz cited the belief 
of Israeli officials that the PA may use Israel's 
opposition to balloting in East Jerusalem as a pretext 
for postponing the elections, as PA Chairman 
[President] Mahmoud Abbas is already under growing 
pressure from his own party to do so.  Leading Israeli 
news web sites and Israel Radio quoted PA Information 
Minister Nabil Shaath as saying this morning that the 
PA will cancel the elections if Israel goes ahead with 
its plan to bar Jerusalem Palestinians from voting. 
 
Leading media cited a GOI statement that President Bush 
told Sharon in a phone conversation on Tuesday to eat 
less, work less, and exercise more.  The media also 
reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called 
Sharon on Tuesday.  Yediot and Maariv reported that 
talking with foreign reporters on Tuesday, Italian PM 
Silvio Berlusconi invited Sharon to rest in his 
Sardinian holiday home   Maariv quoted Berlusconi as 
saying that he succeeded in totally changing Italy's 
attitude toward Israel. 
Ha'aretz quoted IDF Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon 
Zeevi-Farkash as saying on Tuesday before the Knesset's 
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that tensions 
along the northern border could escalate in the coming 
months and lead to artillery barrages and attempts to 
abduct Israeli soldiers.  The Jerusalem Post quoted him 
as saying that Iran posed a substantial threat to 
Israel's security, and that the U.S. was "stuck in the 
mud" in dealing with the situation.  Major media quoted 
Zeevi-Farkash as testifying to the committee that Iran 
has procured 12 3,000-km range cruise missiles capable 
of carrying nuclear warheads.  Yediot and other media 
reported that Iran has recently purchased 18 North 
Korean-made missiles, and that it is upgrading their 
range to 2,500 to 3,500-km.   Yediot cited German 
intelligence as the source for its report.  Ha'aretz 
reported that Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the right- 
wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told a group of Ha'aretz 
reporters on Tuesday that a committee of inquiry should 
be established to investigate the government's behavior 
with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat.  Lieberman 
was quoted as saying that Israel could have stopped the 
Iranian plan "in one blow" in 2001, but that it may be 
too late today. 
 
Israel Radio and leading news web sites reported that 
this morning, Palestinian gunmen abducted two foreign 
citizens -- Belgian and Dutch nationals -- teaching at 
the American School in Gaza. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Sharon wants to 
appoint five new ministers from Kadima to his cabinet 
as early as Sunday, but that he is waiting first to see 
when Netanyahu intends to force Likud ministers to 
quit. 
 
Israel Radio reported that two Shin Bet investigators 
will visit the U.S. in four months in order to testify 
in the case of Muhammad Salah, who is suspected of 
smuggling money to Hamas.  Israel deported Salah to the 
U.S. seven years ago after he spent five years in an 
Israeli jail. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted the head of the Disengagement 
Authority, Yonatan Bassi, as saying on Tuesday that the 
cost of the disengagement program from Gaza is likely 
to be 1 billion shekels (around USD 217.5 million) less 
than expected. 
 
Leading media reported that the Labor Party decided on 
Tuesday that the party's more than 100,000 registered 
voters will vote for the party's Knesset list on 
January 17.  The media reported that the convention 
overwhelmingly rejected a change in the voting method 
that would have allowed the 4,000 convention delegates 
to choose the party's list of candidates.  Ha'aretz 
reported that Labor Party supporters in New York intend 
to invite Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz to the U.S. 
to introduce him to the local Jewish community. 
 
Maariv reported that 1.3 million web surfers -- mostly 
from Germany, France and Japan -- have visited the 
Foreign Ministry's web site since the beginning of the 
year. 
 
Maariv reported that during the weekend, customs and 
tax officials in Jerusalem arrested Tel Aviv resident 
Itai Benzino [phon.], who is suspected of having led a 
ring of smugglers of steroids and pharmaceuticals to 
the U.S.  The investigators found in his possession USD 
500,000 in cash. 
 
Ha'aretz cited an American Jewish Committee- 
commissioned survey of American Jews, which found that 
some 59 percent of U.S. Jews have never visited Israel. 
While half of those who have never visited Israel said 
the trip's cost has been the main deterrent, 20 percent 
said they avoided the country for fear for their own 
safety, and 18 percent said it was due to "lack of 
interest." 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: 
"Moderates should not remain in the Likud, thereby 
lending a hand to obscuring the picture that is finally 
becoming clear." 
 
Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized: "If 
Netanyahu could have 'made disappear' the bunch of 
[extremists] from the TV screens, and tried to sell the 
more moderate Knesset members [to the public], his task 
would have been easier." 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in Ha'aretz: 
"[Hamas's] self-confident participation in the general 
election is based on three lies." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "The Likud Is Not Their Home" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(December 21): "Binyamin Netanyahu's victory in the 
Likud leadership primary positions this party close to 
the extreme right of the political map, very close to 
National Union, Yisrael Beiteinu and the National 
Religious Party -- the parties that opposed Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate Gaza and the 
northern West Bank, which enjoyed the support of a 
large majority of the Israeli public.... [Netanyahu's] 
platform won -- both his economic platform and, perhaps 
even more, his diplomatic platform, which rejects 
progress toward a compromise between Israel and an 
independent Palestinian state, at the price of a large 
withdrawal from the West Bank.  A majority of Israelis 
support such a compromise.  But three out of every five 
Likud members, if you combine Moshe Feiglin's 
supporters with those of Netanyahu, oppose it, thereby 
distancing the party from the public center of 
gravity.... It is therefore not clear what Silvan 
Shalom is doing in such a party.... During his three 
years as foreign minister, Shalom played a positive 
role, primarily in conducting diplomatic relations 
between Israel and the world outside the White House. 
The improvement in Israel's position was achieved 
largely thanks to its willingness to withdraw from 
Gaza, and to talk with the Palestinian leadership 
following Yasser Arafat's death.... The main benefit of 
the recent political 'big bang' has been a more 
accurate reflection of fundamental positions.  Thus 
moderates should not remain in the Likud, thereby 
lending a hand to obscuring the picture that is finally 
becoming clear." 
 
II.  "Netanyahu's Problems" 
 
Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized (December 
21): "The Likud knows that the only way to bring an 
increasing number of voters to the party is to place it 
at the center of the [political] map, with a slight 
leaning to the right -- no more.  In a process that 
might perhaps only be explained by psychology, it is 
actually the withdrawal from Gaza -- with all the 
related problems that appear daily -- that a growing 
public from the classical 'Right' detached itself [from 
the Likud].... If Netanyahu could have 'made disappear' 
the bunch of [extremists] from the TV screens, and 
tried to sell the more moderate Knesset members [to the 
public], his task would have been easier." 
 
III.  "On the Three Lies of Hamas" 
 
Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left 
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in Ha'aretz 
(December 21): "[Hamas's] self-confident participation 
in the general election is based on three lies.  The 
first lie Hamas has disseminated is that the Gaza Strip 
has been liberated.... The second lie is that Gaza was 
'liberated' thanks to the Palestinian armed struggle, 
especially that of Hamas, and that this is the surefire 
formula for the West Bank as well.... The third lie is 
that the upcoming elections, in contrast to the 1996 
elections in which Hamas refused to participate, have 
already been cut off from the Oslo framework and are 
therefore 'kosher.'  But it was the Oslo Accords that 
determined that Palestinian leadership elections would 
take place in Gaza and the West Bank (and not, for 
instance, among the Palestinian Diaspora as well).  It 
was the Oslo process -- even if not the language of the 
agreement -- that defined the PA council as a 
'government.'  And it was negotiations with Israel -- 
which Hamas refuses to recognize -- and the mediation 
of donor nations that led to the establishment of 
governmental institutions, whose positions the Hamas 
movement is now planning to fill." 
 
-------------------------- 
¶2.  Iran: Nuclear Program: 
-------------------------- 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the 
University of California, Davis, and at Tel Aviv 
University, wrote in independent, left-leaning 
Ha'aretz: "Israel could bring real international 
pressure to bear if it were to initiate nuclear 
disarmament.  It is mature enough and strong enough to 
consider the principle of 'he who dares, wins' not only 
by means of military initiatives, but also in the 
matter of diplomatic initiatives." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Toward a Different Nuclear Policy" 
 
Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the 
University of California, Davis, and at Tel Aviv 
University, wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(December 21): "The contradiction inherent to the 
Israeli nuclear policy -- stoking the image of a 
nuclear deterrent capacity to whose effectiveness 
Israel itself does not subscribe -- requires a profound 
reexamination of the internal logic of this policy. 
The time has come to begin relating to Israel's nuclear 
image as a negotiating chip, and to seriously consider 
if a Middle East disarmed of weapons of mass 
destruction would not be preferable to a nuclear Middle 
East, or to a Middle East in which Israel possesses a 
nuclear monopoly.  Israel could bring real 
international pressure to bear if it were to initiate 
nuclear disarmament.  It is mature enough and strong 
enough to consider the principle of 'he who dares, 
wins' not only by means of military initiatives, but 
also in the matter of diplomatic initiatives." 
 
CRETZ