ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 002189 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM NSC FOR NEA STAFF 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: -------------- Sharon Visit April 14 -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media underscored PM Sharon's expected meeting with President Bush at the White House today. Media like Yediot and Israel Radio say that Bush will reject the right of return for Palestinian refugees and state that eventually Israel will not return to its 1949 borders. However, Ha'aretz notes that there were still some last- minute gaps between what Sharon wants and what the Bush administration is ready to grant him less than 24 hours before the slated meeting. Ha'aretz reported that the U.S. is only ready to offer vague language on the recognition of large blocs of settlements in the West Bank. The newspaper quoted Israeli sources in Sharon's entourage as saying that the language agreed upon so far is "reasonable" and justified Sharon's trip, and that the gaps that remain are not significant. Jerusalem Post cited optimism expressed by senior officials traveling with Sharon that he will receive the commitments from Bush to pass the disengagement plan through the Likud referendum. Hatzofe bannered: "Theater at the White House." This morning, Israel Radio reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke in the past few hours with representatives of the Quartet, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the foreign ministers of Germany and Russia. He also spoke with the foreign minister of Jordan. The radio quoted Annan as telling reporters that he hoped that Israel's withdrawal would be within the framework of the road map and would not prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. All media reported that the Likud referendum over Sharon's disengagement was pushed back three days to May 2, because of the Final Four basketball tournament scheduled on April 29, which could have caused a low turnout at the vote. Ha'aretz reported that, upon his return from Washington, Sharon will take part in two debates against Minister Uzi Landau, who is leading the campaign within the Likud against the disengagement plan. Leading media reported that Tuesday IDF troops and settlers scuffled on the outskirts of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, as yet another attempt was made to evacuate the wildcat outpost of Hazon David. Ha'aretz reported that the settler leaders are considering giving orders to evacuate willingly, or with minor resistance, outposts slated for dismantling in the next few days. Leading media reported that the police have recently discovered a cell of smugglers, who passed weapons from Egypt to terrorist groups in the Palestinian territories through the Negev. Israeli Bedouins were among those arrested. Leading media reported that Tuesday clashes pitting Palestinian demonstrators and anti-fence activists against IDF soldiers continued at Biddu village, northwest of Jerusalem. All media reported that the Hungarian authorities have thwarted an apparent attempt by Arab terrorists to blow up a Holocaust Memorial Museum in Budapest which was due to be inaugurated by President Moshe Katsav on Thursday. Initial, unsubstantiated reports asserted that the three suspects arrested -- a Hungarian dentist of Palestinian origin and two Syrian men -- had intended to assassinate Katsav at the museum's opening ceremony. Israel Radio reported that the defense establishment has decided to give up temporarily a shipment of Hummer jeeps from the U.S. so that they can be used in Iraq. The station quoted Israeli security sources as saying that they understand the United States' operational needs. Hatzofe cited the Spanish daily El Mundo as saying that the Islamic terrorists who carried out the March 11 Madrid bombings had intended to blow up Jewish targets around Madrid. Jerusalem Post carried a full-page paid ad presented by the Committee to Return Pollard Home upon the occasion of Sharon's meeting with Bush. -------------- Sharon Visit April 14: -------------- Summary: -------------- Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The boundaries of [Clinton's] outline are precisely those that Sharon presented in his speech ... on the eve of his departure for Washington, as the guarantees that he wishes to obtain from Bush." Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote from Washington in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The chances of the disengagement plan gaining political acceptance in Israel depend on the Americans, who depend on the UN." Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the lead editorial of Yediot Aharonot: "The 'lame' Bush can lend [Sharon] a shoulder, an open and generous hand, the support that Sharon so badly needs. But the United States has been consistent since 1967." Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The question ... is not what to 'give' Sharon, but when will Bush return to his bold vision of refusing to give in to Arab radicalism." Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Such a bewildered Bush makes easy prey for Sharon, who possesses animal-like political senses." In an "open letter" to President Bush, conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in Maariv: "Don't agree to serve as an extra in the Sharon family's survival show and don't let Ariel Sharon weaken Israel." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Irony of History" Former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (April 14): "The 'President Clinton outline' for an Israeli-Palestinian arrangement, the final product of the negotiations held during the term of the Barak government at the end of 2000, is probably not a particularly well-liked term by President Bush or Prime Minister Sharon, each for his own reasons. But the boundaries of the outline are precisely those that Sharon presented in his speech in Ma'aleh Adumim, on the eve of his departure for Washington, as the guarantees that he wishes to obtain from Bush on the shape of the final status arrangement that will follow in wake of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. The Barak government was the first and only of Israel's governments that obtained American presidential recognition of the principle of settlement blocs, thereby changing the traditional U.S. policy of viewing the settlements as an 'obstacle to peace,' to recognizing the settlements as a vital element in defining the map of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush and Sharon do not have to make an effort to reinvent the wheel.... If we, the negotiators on behalf of Barak's government, have a part, even the smallest part, in this copyright, we too are willing to waive it for the sake of the matter -- as long as the Likud government finally makes the transition from the heights of wordy ideology to the simple logic of what it is really possible to obtain in order to put an end to the bloody conflict and provide Israel with security within improved borders." II. "Until the Last Moment" Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote from Washington in popular, pluralist Maariv (April 14): "The main problem at the present time is the Americans' desperate need to harness the rest of the world, particularly the United Nations, to Sharon's plan.... The chances of the disengagement plan gaining political acceptance in Israel depend on the Americans, who depend on the UN.... Bush is prepared to turn a blind eye to the fence ... but he isn't prepared to walk the 'extra step' that would allow Sharon to wave a clear declaration and to tell the Right: 'I told you so' while sending the Palestinians to hell. The American approach isn't a uniform one -- the contrary is true. As time goes by, there is a growing difference between State Department officials, from Colin Powell on the left, and National Security Council hawks, from Elliott Abrams on the right -- count in the chums Cheney and Rumsfeld.... Tonight ... Bush and Sharon will try to square the circle ... to please Israel without angering the Arabs." III. "Return in Peace" Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the lead editorial of Yediot Aharonot (April 14): "Undeniably, Sharon made an extremely large and dramatic step from his personal standpoint, when he chose to follow the path of disengagement. The 'lame' Bush can lend him a shoulder, an open and generous hand, the support that Sharon so badly needs. But the United States has been consistent since 1967, and if it budges in one direction or another, it is always an inch to here, an inch to there. The U.S. is good with intricate phrasing, verbal acrobatics and ambiguities, but when it comes down to brass tacks, it remains the same U.S.: obstinate and uncompromising in its peace plans, which refuse to recognize the settlements and calling for an end to the 'occupation.' Therefore, we must believe, hope and pray that the Prime Minister of Israel, the prime minister of us all, will bring something real and tangible from the president of the U.S. and return in peace (and with the very beginnings of the peace process) from his visit to the man who is, almost, master of the world." IV. "Bush and Sharon" Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (April 14): "The choice is not between the road map and Sharon's plan, but between disengagement and Bush's original plan: Palestinian regime change.... Sharon's plan does not challenge Arafat's immunity, and therefore postpones the day of reckoning with the de facto Palestinian terror state. This is hardly how the road map was supposed to proceed, let alone Bush's original vision. But all Sharon is really doing is showing Bush a mirror of how the Palestinians have been allowed to distort his vision. The question then, is not what to 'give' Sharon, but when will Bush return to his bold vision of refusing to give in to Arab radicalism. Such a return to boldness would begin by ruling out any Palestinian 'return' to Israel as a matter of principle, not just through a supposed Israeli veto over the number of Palestinian immigrants. It is a sad commentary on the sate of the West that, to begin to fight terrorism in earnest, Bush had to defy almost all of enlightened world opinion. We hope that Bush rediscovers in himself such reservoirs of defiance, which are perhaps most necessary when it comes to the destroy-Israel corner of the global war. If he does, we are confident that he will not only make more decisive progress on the ground, but remind Americans why they had such confidence in his leadership." ¶V. "Bush's Last Chance" Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 14): "The memory of the thousands of votes that threatened [Bush's] election four years ago is a nightmare that now forces him to walk between the drops, that may even be drops of blood from our local conflict. As such, Bush has been the most negligent president in handling the conflict -- a weak shadow of Carter, Bush Sr. and Clinton. Such a bewildered Bush makes easy prey for Sharon, who possesses animal-like political senses.... This is a problematic time frame from a political perspective -- both in Washington and here. But this is also the last chance of a mediocre American president to snatch success from the jaws of his failures. Success would mean compelling Sharon, for a change, to carry out his current promise on an accelerated schedule, and to anchor it with a link to a wider accord. If starting from tonight Bush misses his chance, Israel's well- wishers will not be able to forgive him." VI. "Forward American Outpost" In an "open letter" to President Bush, conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in Maariv (April 14): "Associating with losers isn't exactly what you need at this time.... Even if the suicidal move that Sharon is concocting for Israel isn't your chief concern, you had better caution yourself about him, in view of the lesson learned in Iraq. It turns out that we know how to handle quagmires much better than you.... More importantly, as far as you are concerned, Israel now serves as an advanced outpost on the front against the hostile Islamic civilization, which is threatening to rise up against the entire West.... As George Keegan, former head of intelligence of the USAF, has said, Israel equals five CIAs. But Israel will continue to be an asset only as long as it remains strong. Loss of territory, of intelligence capabilities and mainly of its deterrent image, will once more turn that asset into a burden. Thus, don't agree to serve as an extra in the Sharon family's survival show and don't let Ariel Sharon weaken Israel. Explain to him in your tongue that one shouldn't surrender to terror or renounce strategic assets. If not for us, at least for it for yourselves." LEBARON