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

291248Z Dec 05

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 007090 
 
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.  Iraq 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio and leading Israeli Internet news web 
sites reported that this morning, a suicide bomber 
approached a roadblock in Jabara village near the West 
Bank town of Tulkarm and blew himself up.  The media 
reported that an Israeli and three Palestinians were 
killed and three Israelis were wounded in the bombing. 
Some media reports mentioned two suicide bombers.  The 
media quoted Israeli security sources as saying that 
the incident prevented a large-scale terrorist attack 
in Israel.  Leading media cited the belief of 
Palestinian sources that Islamic Jihad was behind the 
attack. 
 
Leading media reported that last night the IDF carried 
out aerial strikes and used artillery fire in the Gaza 
"no-go" zone imposed by Israel.  Israel Radio quoted 
IDF sources as saying that the no-go policy will 
continue until Palestinian fire stops.  The radio 
reported that the PA warned Israel not to harm members 
of its security forces in the buffer zone. 
 
Israel Radio reported that Lebanese PM Fuad Siniora 
strongly condemned the Katyusha rocket attacks against 
Israel, and quoted him as saying that the IAF fire and 
overflights of Lebanon are destabilizing his country. 
The radio reported that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan 
condemned the rocket attacks and called on the Lebanese 
government to deploy its troops in southern Lebanon. 
 
Israel Radio and The Jerusalem Post reported that on 
Wednesday, the Quartet urged all participants in the 
PA's legislative elections to condemn terror, recognize 
Israel's right to exist, and disarm.  The Jerusalem 
Post reported that the Quartet called on the PA to 
issue a "code of conduct" on the issue. 
 
Israel Radio said that Annan's Lebanon statement and 
the Quartet's comments on the PA elections show an 
important U.S. influence on the UN. 
 
In its lead story, Yediot wrote that IDF Intelligence 
chief Maj. Gen Aharon Zeevi-Farkash told the newspaper 
that during a clash along Israel's border about one 
month ago, Hizbullah launched sophisticated rockets 
that had been sent from Moscow to Damascus.  Zeevi- 
Farkash was quoted as saying that this exposed the 
"ugly face" of Russia and Syria. 
 
Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that on Wednesday, 
Kadima's Knesset faction approved the party platform, 
which says that the existence of a sovereign, Jewish, 
and democratic state necessitates relinquishing parts 
of the Land of Israel (i.e. Israel, including the 
territories).  The platform does not detail the areas 
to be evacuated and the extent of the withdrawal in the 
framework of a permanent-status agreement.  The 
platform also includes an assent in principle to the 
establishment of a Palestinian state. 
 
Maariv bannered a call by Labor Chairman Amir Peretz on 
former party chairman Shimon Peres to leave Sharon's 
party Kadima and come back home.  The newspaper cited 
internal Labor Party polls that show that the party's 
ratings have dropped to 17 percent. 
 
Yediot reported that Iran recently warned Turkey not to 
serve as an aerial base for Israeli attacks against 
Iran's nuclear installations.  The newspaper reported 
that the visit of IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to 
Turkey last week only fueled Iran's concerns.  Yediot 
reported that the Russian press is also highlighting 
the issue of a possible Israeli aerial offensive 
against Iran.  The Jerusalem Post reported that a high- 
ranking diplomat told the newspaper this week that 
Russia has no interest in Iran obtaining nuclear 
weapons. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the Justice Ministry told the 
newspaper on Wednesday that Attorney General Menachem 
Mazuz will examine, together with the Prime Minister's 
Office, a systematic way to determine in what 
circumstances the prime minister would be judged 
"incapacitated." 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that "in an unprecedented 
move," the Christian Coalition of America, a major 
conservative Christian advocacy group in the U.S., will 
include the voting records of American legislators on 
Israel in its annual National Voter Guide. 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday, former 
O/C Southern Command, Maj. Gen. (reserves) Yom-Tov 
Samia warned that a section of the fence route near 
Mevaseret Zion (a western Jerusalem suburb) would 
enable snipers to hit cars on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv 
highway.  Samia was speaking during a High Court of 
Justice hearing on a petition submitted by Mevaseret 
Zion residents against a section of the fence. 
 
Over the past few days, the media reported that the 
Shin Bet has prohibited Israeli Arab author and 
journalist Antoine Shalhat from leaving the country 
until the end of the month for fear he may harm state 
security.  The media said that the measure raised angry 
reactions in the Arab community. 
 
Yediot reported that the U.S. Senate has recently 
passed a law imposing higher fines on employers of 
illegal foreign workers.  The newspaper wrote that 
hundreds of young Israelis in the U.S. could be 
affected by the new law. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that the leader of the northern 
branch of Israel's Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, 
has called for work to stop on the museum of Tolerance 
in Jerusalem, arguing that part of it is to be built on 
top of a Muslim cemetery. 
 
Maariv quoted senior officials involved in the 
investigation of Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Danny 
Ayalon, as saying that the probe was biased.  The 
newspaper, which noted that the affair started with 
mutual accusations between Ayalon and FM Silvan Shalom, 
reported that the State Attorney's Office rejects most 
of the "special investigator's" recommendations. 
 
Israel Radio reported that a Federal judge in Cleveland 
ordered the deportation of John Demjanjuk, the 
convicted former Nazi concentration camp guard, to 
Ukraine. 
 
All media reported that Danny Rebuck, 36, originally 
from London, emigrated from the U.S. on Wednesday. 
Rebuck outran Hurricane Katrina by riding his bike 40 
km to catch the last flight from New Orleans, where he 
lost his home and most of his possessions. 
 
Leading media cited statistics released on Wednesday by 
the GOI's Central Bureau of Statistics, according to 
which Israel counts 6,986,300 residents, 76 percent of 
whom are Jews, 20 percent Arabs, and 4 percent "others" 
-- mostly non-Arab Christians. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted an organizer of a tour to Iraq as 
saying that a group of Iraqi Jews who were born in Iraq 
are planning a spring trip to the Kurdish-controlled 
zone, and that they hope to at least approach Mosul, 
the city where many of them lived.  The report is 
reprinted from an AP dispatch. 
 
Yediot cited the suspicion of the New York Police 
Department that an unnamed Israeli man, whose body was 
found Tuesday in his apartment after a fire broke out, 
was murdered. 
 
Channel 10-TV and Ha'aretz published the results of a 
survey conducted by Prof. Camille Fuchs of the Amanet 
Group's Dialogue Institute among Likud party members of 
the Likud's Central Committee.  The poll shows that MK 
Gideon Sa'ar is the most popular figure in the 
committee (after Knesset Member Binyamin Netanyahu and 
FM Silvan Shalom, whose spots are guaranteed). 
 
The Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday, PM 
Sharon's adviser Eyal Arad presented to the Kadima 
faction a report claiming that immigrants from the 
Former Soviet Union will support Kadima more than any 
other party.  The poll found that 38 percent of Russian 
immigrants intended to vote for Kadima, 25 percent for 
Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu, and just 12 
percent and 6 percent respectively for the two parties 
that received the most support from Russian immigrants 
in the last elections, Likud and Shinui. 
 
------------ 
¶1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Continued attacks 
[along Israel's northern border], as well as the clear 
fingerprint of the Damascus-based Islamic Jihad on the 
Qassam rockets coming from Gaza in the direction of 
Ashkelon may put Israel and Syria on a collision 
course." 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in 
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Why does no one employ 
expulsion warrants from the West Bank against those who 
time after time, with a big smile on their faces, 
sabotage olive trees and their crops?" 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the 
late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "While it is at its strongest, Israel is 
finding itself under an almost existential threat.... 
In any case, Israel shouldn't be envied." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
¶I.  "Collision Course in the North" 
 
Military correspondent Amos Harel wrote on page one of 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (December 29): 
"Iran's potential to create a nuclear bomb and 
Palestinian Qassam rockets top the political agenda, 
and too little time is being spent on another threat. 
Under certain circumstances it might have greater 
impact on the elections in Israel: Katyusha rockets 
coming from Lebanon.  The bombardment of Kiryat Shmona 
and Shlomi on Tuesday are worrying reminders.... The 
danger of escalation in the north also reflects events 
involving Syria.  The report of United Nations 
investigator Detlev Mehlis on the murder of former 
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri left Syria less 
battered than it feared, and the German investigator 
left the region rather quickly.... Three months before 
elections in Israel, the situation on the northern 
border is more explosive than it has been in a long 
time.  Syrian President Bashar Assad may think after 
the Mehlis report that violence pays off.  But 
continued attacks, as well as the clear fingerprint of 
the Damascus-based Islamic Jihad on the Qassam rockets 
coming from Gaza in the direction of Ashkelon may put 
Israel and Syria on a collision course." 
 
II.  "And We Are All Silent" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in 
popular, pluralist Maariv (December 29): "Two days ago, 
the Construction and Housing Ministry published tenders 
for the construction of 230 housing units in the West 
Bank... Worst of all: some settlers, mostly young 
extremists, are making a laughingstock of the state, 
the rule of law and the law-enforcement authorities, 
and they have good reasons for behaving that way.  The 
connection between these three facts: the settlers in 
the West Bank were and remain the lords of that land, 
beyond the fence, beyond the laws of Israel, even 
beyond our own eyes, which are tightly shut to what is 
going on in the West Bank.  Hooliganism runs rampant 
there, with no appropriate response from the IDF and 
the police, and we are all silent.  These days 
political leadership is drawing up party platforms, 
without providing the slightest response to the rising 
vandalism and violence of Jews towards Palestinians.... 
Is it any wonder if what we see today in the West Bank 
is the massive strengthening of Hamas at Fatah's 
expense?.... Why does no one employ expulsion warrants 
from the West Bank against those who time after time, 
with a big smile on their faces, sabotage olive trees 
and their crops?  How did 500 Jews manage to turn 
thousands of Palestinian residents of Hebron into 
haters of Israel to the last drop of their blood.  It's 
true that we can entirely despair of the police.  But 
where is the army?  Where is the GSS?  Where are all of 
us?  At this time the image of the country is being 
shaped for at least the next few years.  The Labor 
Party, headed by Amir Peretz, must insert in its 
platform a promise to handle these settlers with a 
strict hand, as well the dozens of illegal outposts, 
all of which began like a summer camp and ended like a 
cancer.  We have to expropriate the West Bank from the 
settlers and restore managing relations between us and 
the Palestinian to Israel's political leadership." 
 
III.  "2006" 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the 
late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in the lead 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (December 29): "The year that will die this 
week has not been beneficial to Israel, which still 
bends under the yoke of fighting against the 
Palestinians and finds it hard to shape its character 
as a developed society and matures in a hostile world. 
Today, more than ever, when it seems that Israel has 
reached records in the strategic and security domains 
and that, for the first time in its history, it has no 
serious enemies, an existential strategic threat that 
Israel has never known is dawning toward the new year 
2006: nuclear bombs from Iran, a crazy country.  This 
is an irony of fate: while it is at its strongest, 
Israel is finding itself under an almost existential 
threat.  In 2006, Israel will have to overcome the 
Iranian hurdle with the help of the U.S. and the 
European countries, through the diplomatic option and 
conceivably through the military one.  In any case, 
Israel shouldn't be envied." 
 
--------- 
¶2.  Iraq: 
--------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the 
late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in an 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "The President of the U.S. will be eager to 
obtain any kind of diplomatic achievement during the 
upcoming year; Israel often must pay the price for an 
American president's hunger." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"2200" 
 
Eytan Haber, veteran op-ed writer and assistant to the 
late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, opined in an 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (December 29): "The President of the United 
States would have liked 2005 to be erased from the 
calendar ... and not to be remembered.... Two thousand 
two hundred caskets draped in the Stars and Stripes, 
the faint sound of trumpets, salvos of honor, and the 
tears of widows and orphans have upset the support [for 
Bush].... Not only is he now a 'lame duck,' but he is 
worse off than that.  Why is this important to us 
Israelis?  It is because any American sneezing causes a 
cold in Israel, and also -- perhaps -- because the 
President of the U.S. will be eager to obtain any kind 
of diplomatic achievement during the upcoming year; 
Israel often must pay the price for an American 
president's hunger." 
 
CRETZ