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

221251Z Dec 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 007046 
 
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.  Israel-Taiwan Relations 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice outraged Israeli politicians from 
across the political spectrum on Tuesday when she 
praised PM Sharon in an interview with CNN's Wolf 
Blitzer.  The newspaper wrote that the politicians 
accused Rice of unfairly helping Sharon's Kadima party 
win the March 28 elections.  The Jerusalem Post quoted 
the politicians as saying that Rice has continued an 
American tradition of interfering in Israeli elections. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Israel will carry out 
goodwill gestures to the Palestinians ahead of the 
Christmas holiday. 
 
The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior official in the 
Prime Minister's Office as saying Wednesday that no 
final decision has yet been made on whether Israel will 
allow voting for the January 25 PA legislative 
elections from East Jerusalem post offices as has been 
done in the past.  The Jerusalem Post reported that the 
Foreign Ministry's position is that the rules that 
applied during the 1996 PA presidential elections 
should apply this time as well.  Ha'aretz quoted PA 
Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas as saying Wednesday 
that the PA might have to delay elections in view of 
Israel's intention to bar East Jerusalem residents from 
voting. 
 
Leading media reported that in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, 
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with Egypt's 
intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, and asked him to try 
to calm matters in the Palestinian arena and stop the 
Qassam rocket fire on Israel.  Ha'aretz reported that 
Mofaz told Suleiman about Syria's role in conveying 
directives and funding to various organizations in the 
territories.  The two reportedly also discussed 
bilateral issues.  Ha'aretz wrote that Mofaz insinuated 
that Israel would continue militarily operations 
against the terrorist infrastructure despite the 
upcoming PA parliamentary elections.  Yediot reported 
that Suleiman advised Israel not to respond to Qassam 
attacks. 
 
Leading media reported that on Wednesday, Israel and 
the UN Development Program (UNDP) signed an agreement 
for removal of rubble from 21 Jewish settlements 
destroyed in Israel's summer pullout from Gaza.  The 
media reported that Israel will transfer USD 25 million 
to the UNDP, which will bring in Palestinian 
contractors to remove the rubble.  The media cited the 
satisfaction of Israeli officials over the fact that 
Israel would have spent much more for the rubble's 
removal if it had done it itself.  The Jerusalem Post 
quoted Yossi Tzemach, spokesman for the Israeli liaison 
mission with Gaza, as saying that much of the remains 
are to be crushed and used in construction projects in 
Gaza.  Leading media quoted Tzemach as saying that UN 
inspectors carried out an environmental check and found 
that there were no dangerous materials in the rubble. 
 
The three major Hebrew dailies led with internal 
arguments in the Likud, Kadima, and the Labor Party. 
 
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that a vote on the 
Likud's slate, which was to have taken place in the 
Likud's Central Committee on January 3, has been 
postponed to January 9, so as to prevent Moshe Feiglin, 
head of the far-right Jewish Leadership faction in the 
party, from running for a place on the party's Knesset 
list.  Maariv cited the subsequent anger of the Likud's 
right wing regarding Likud Chairman Binyamin 
Netanyahu's leaning to the center. 
 
Yediot (lead story) and other leading media reported 
that Vice PM Ehud Olmert and Justice Minister Tzipi 
Livni are vying for the No. 2 slot in Kadima.  Yediot 
quoted sources close to Sharon as saying Wednesday that 
Olmert has the best chances of taking the spot. 
 
Maariv cited claims by senior Labor Party members that 
Ben-Gurion University President Avishay Braverman 
intends to capture the party's chairmanship from Amir 
Peretz.  The newspaper reported that American polls 
advisor Stanley Greenberg has started working for the 
Labor Party. 
Maariv reported that Sharon was unconscious for an hour 
after having been being anesthetized at the Hadassah 
Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem on Monday and that his 
authority was not officially transferred. 
 
All media (banner in Hatzofe) reported that Rabbi 
Mordechai "Motti" Elon of Jerusalem, brother of former 
tourism minister MK Benny Elon, is considering 
accepting a proposal to head a joint list consisting of 
the National Religious Party and the National Union. 
 
Israel Radio reported that this morning, IDF troops 
killed the head of the PFLP in Nablus and two of his 
lieutenants.  The radio reported that later this 
morning, an IDF officer and four soldiers were slightly 
wounded south of Ashkelon by shrapnel from a Qassam 
rocket.  Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the 
attack.  Another Qassam rocket landed in Ashkelon's 
industrial zone.  The radio reported that the IDF 
responded with artillery fire. 
 
Yediot reported that in the early 1990s, Israel offered 
Iran USD 1 billion worth in benefits -- USD 5 billion 
in frozen Iranian assets in the U.S. and USD 5 billion 
from an unfinished Israeli-Iranian deal -- in exchange 
for the release of MIA Ron Arad. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Justice Ministry's Police 
Investigations Department has been investigating a 
complaint that border policemen tied a Palestinian's 
hands to a mule last week in the village of Nuaman, 
east of Bethlehem, and caused the animal to break into 
a gallop, which ultimately led to the man's death. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that Andrew MacDonald, a 
British citizen from Glasgow and member of the pro- 
Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, who was 
arrested a month ago after allegedly assaulting a 
soldier in Hebron, cannot be deported from Israel 
despite being considered a security risk.  He is 
currently being held at an Immigration Police detention 
facility. 
 
Major media reported that Channel 2-TV has delayed 
airing a story probing a near-crash of a plane of the 
Israeli airline Israir at John F. Kennedy International 
Airport, following an Israir demand to suppress the 
show. 
The Jerusalem Post extensively featured an interview 
with Ambassador Swanee Hunt, who came to Israel, among 
other purposes, to further the Women Waging Peace 
program.  Hunt is a former U.S. Ambassador to Austria 
and a major player in the American intervention in the 
Bosnian war, and since 1997, director of the Women and 
Public Program at the John F. Kennedy School of 
Government at Harvard University. 
 
Leading media quoted MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), the 
chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense 
Committee, as saying in a meeting with reporters that 
Mofaz made false presentations to the panel on the 
"Rafah Agreement" regarding border crossings, 
subsequently leading the committee astray.  Steinitz 
claimed that the crossings were actually opened without 
an agreement. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post quoted Latin Patriarch 
Michel Sabbah as saying in his annual pre-Christmas 
news conference that Hamas will only be strengthened by 
U.S. opposition to its participation in Palestinian 
elections. 
 
Leading media reported that on Wednesday, dozens of 
residents of the Palestinian village of Bil'in, near 
Ramallah, accompanied by Israeli and international 
activists, set out to place a mobile home on land 
adjacent to the settlement of Modi'in Ilit (west of the 
separation fence). 
 
Maariv quoted Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the right- 
wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, that he did not rule out 
the division of Jerusalem. 
 
Yediot reported that on Saturday, the Parliament of 
Norway's Trondelag County decided to boycott all 
Israeli products.  The newspaper reported that the move 
likely stems from Norway's perception that Israel 
oppresses the Palestinians. 
 
The media reported that the 16th Knesset concluded its 
last session on Wednesday.  The media note that Knesset 
Member Yossi Sarid left political life on Wednesday 
after 32 years as Knesset member in the Alignment 
(Labor-Mapam), the Civil Rights Movement, and Yahad- 
Meretz. 
 
Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post cited the results of a 
Hebrew University survey held in conjunction with the 
Palestinian Center for Policy and Public Opinion in 
Ramallah, according to which 50 percent of Israelis 
polled in mid-December would support talks with Hamas 
if this was necessary to reach a peace deal. 
 
Hatzofe cited the results of a recent poll conducted by 
Mada Al-Carmel, a Haifa social research institute, 
according to which 80 percent of Israeli Arabs support 
the right of return to Israel of Palestinian refugees, 
or granting compensation as a minimum solution.  The 
poll found that 42 percent of Israeli Arabs tie the 
issues of the right of return and compensation, while 
29 percent believe that the refugees should be given 
the choice between return and compensation. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Any 
Israeli intervention in the Palestinian election would 
be perceived as the occupying side's meddling in the 
democratic action of the occupied nation." 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in nationalist, 
Orthodox Hatzofe: "Contrary to all his predecessors ... 
Ariel Sharon has only been a 'yes man' of the U.S. 
administration." 
 
Lucy Nusseibeh, Director of Middle East Nonviolence and 
Democracy, a Jerusalem-based NGO, wrote in Ha'aretz in 
an article disseminated by the American NGO Search For 
Common Ground: "Israeli public opinion is one of the 
keys to peace, and one of the major keys to that public 
opinion is its perception of Palestinian public 
opinion." 
 
Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz: "Israeli 
citizens have a real choice.  Therefore, the decision 
they make on March 28 will be a binding decision.  It 
will be a decision that will give a clear moral mandate 
to the big division, which Netanyahu will criticize, 
Peretz will adopt and Sharon will lead." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "What Will We Talk to Hamas About?" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized 
(December 22): "The Hamas movement's sweeping victory 
in the elections for the local authorities could be an 
indicator of what results to expect in the January 
election for the Palestinian Legislative Council.... 
The demand made by Israel, the United States and Europe 
to disarm Hamas is not tactical but strategic, and is 
preliminary to any change in policy toward the 
organization.  The same goes for the demand that the 
organization recognize Israel.  Israel can do nothing 
but leave a door open to negotiations with Hamas, and 
regret its own continued contribution to weakening 
Mahmoud Abbas' movement to such an extent that Hamas 
has become the leading Palestinian movement.  At this 
stage, Israel can do little more than this.  Any 
Israeli intervention in the Palestinian election would 
be perceived as the occupying side's meddling in the 
democratic action of the occupied nation." 
 
II.  "Why Do Bush and Condoleezza Want Sharon So Much?" 
 
Senior columnist Haggai Huberman wrote in nationalist, 
Orthodox Hatzofe (December 22): "There's nothing new in 
U.S. intervention in Israeli election campaigns.... But 
in all previous cases, the United States' behavior was 
indirect. [During her recent interview with CNN], U.S. 
Secretary of State spoke openly, without making use of 
 
SIPDIS 
blurred formulas.  Ms. Rice addressed Sharon directly 
... and candidly heaped countless compliments on him. 
[In his December 20 article, Ha'aretz columnist Amir] 
Oren accurately pointed at the 'special relationship' 
between Bush and Sharon: the Israeli Prime Minister is 
totally enslaved to the Americans.  Contrary to all his 
predecessors, who knew how to uphold Israeli interests 
in the disagreements that did or didn't break out 
between Israel and its big friend overseas, Ariel 
Sharon has only been a 'yes man' of the U.S. 
administration." 
III.  "Fighting For Peace Means Ending Media-Fed 
Misperceptions" 
 
Lucy Nusseibeh, Director of Middle East Nonviolence and 
Democracy, a Jerusalem-based NGO, wrote in Ha'aretz in 
an article disseminated by the American NGO Search For 
Common Ground  (December 22): "Given the balance of 
power that so strongly favors Israel, Israeli public 
opinion is one of the keys to peace, and one of the 
major keys to that public opinion is its perception of 
Palestinian public opinion.  For the Israeli public to 
tilt towards peace, it needs to be convinced that there 
is a genuine and overwhelming desire for peace among 
the Palestinian public.... If the Israeli public can be 
encouraged to see not the pain of uprooting the Gaza 
settlements, but the potential for a more peaceful, 
less fearful life for themselves with disengagement as 
a first step, the Palestinian public, as well as the 
Palestinian leadership, might again feel engaged in a 
peace process, rather than seeing themselves as victims 
of a unilateral one.... Palestinian society has been 
undergoing a transformation over the past few years; 
there is a groundswell of interest in nonviolence, but 
how many people, in particular Israelis, know this? 
The influence of the negative stereotype of 
Palestinians as violent is one of the major influences 
on both Israeli and international publics.... The media 
can and should correct the misperceptions of publics by 
reporting on the common desires for peace and by 
assuaging rather than stirring up the level of fear; by 
giving credibility to the voices that speak out against 
violence and exploitation of the conflict; by above 
all, humanizing each side to the other in ways that 
they both can hear." 
 
IV.  "Finally, Israelis Have a Real Choice" 
 
Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in Ha'aretz (December 22): 
"On the political-diplomatic front, the conformist 
uniformity continues to dominate.  When no one listens 
anymore to Yossi Beilin and no one listens anymore to 
Uzi Landau, the result is an uncritical consensus that 
could very easily evolve into a dangerous conception. 
For this reason, Netanyahu is important.... The 
opposite position that Netanyahu knows how to represent 
is very much needed today, so that the fateful 
decisions on partitioning the Land of Israel [i.e. 
Israel, including the territories] will be made during 
the coming years in a conscious, intelligent and 
balanced way.... The placement of [Labor Party Chairman 
Amir] Peretz and Netanyahu at the head of the two 
ideological movements challenging Sharon is a blessing. 
It completes the big bang, balances it and makes it 
into a real democratic event.  Now, when the three 
different paths for the future of Israel have three 
different leaders, Israeli citizens have a real choice. 
Therefore, the decision they make on March 28 will be a 
binding decision.  It will be a decision that will give 
a clear moral mandate to the big division, which 
Netanyahu will criticize, Peretz will adopt and Sharon 
will lead." 
 
---------------------------- 
¶2.  Israel-Taiwan Relations: 
---------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Foreign News Editor Adar Primor wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "[Taiwan's] lovers hid her away, 
deep in the closet.  This is the way most of the 
world's countries behave today toward Taiwan.  For all 
its historic irony, Israel is also participating in 
this game.  It has become a secret lover itself." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"China's Wife, Israel's Concubine" 
 
Foreign News Editor Adar Primor wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (December 22): "Some ... call 
Taiwan the 'Israel of the Pacific Ocean' -- both of the 
small countries are vibrant democracies that share 
common values, are preoccupied with existential- 
security problems, are exposed to the threat of a giant 
external enemy, and are dependent on American 
assistance and protection.... During the decades in 
which Israel waged an exhausting campaign for 
international recognition, it learned to suffice with 
the role of the concubine.  Her lovers hid her away, 
deep in the closet.  This is the way most of the 
world's countries behave today toward Taiwan.  For all 
its historic irony, Israel is also participating in 
this game.  It has become a secret lover itself." 
 
CRETZ