ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 006261 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: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media reported that the Likud Central Committee Thursday voted, 62 to 38 percent, in favor of the inclusion of the Labor Party and the two ultra-Orthodox parties (Shas and United Torah Judaism) in the government. Israel Radio reported that PM Sharon called Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres to invite Labor to unity talks. Both Yediot and Maariv banner: "'Yes' to Unity." Hatzofe's banner: "Sharon Won: Rigging Was Carried Out in Broad Daylight." Israel Radio Thursday reported that the Labor Party, reaching a compromise between the positions of Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak, decided to hold primaries in June 29, 2005. Maariv quoted Peres associates as saying that he might not run for Labor chairmanship. Jerusalem Post notes that Thursday, in radio interviews, Sharon suddenly started talking about the "plan to leave Gaza," instead of the "unilateral disengagement plan" as he had named his initiative until now. Yediot reported that Israel plans to transfer areas in the northern Gaza Strip to full security responsibility of the PA even before the disengagement in July 2005. One of the goals of the move is to examine the PA's ability to rein in the anarchy in these areas. Ha'aretz cited an AP story that Egypt confirmed Thursday that it will gain tariff-free access to the U.S. market for some key goods under a joint Israeli deal. Egyptian Charge d'Affaires in Israel Tareq al-Quoni was quoted as saying in an interview with Ha'aretz: "We are certain that the Syrians are serious in their intentions to renew negotiations and we believe the Israel should consider this favorably." Nahum Barnea of Yediot, who this weekend attended a Washington meeting organized by the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, reported that all present and past influential Americans who spoke at the gathering -- including former U.S. president Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- warned against Israel holding talks with Syria. Maariv reported that the Knesset has readied technical arrangements for a possible visit by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Jerusalem Post cited the Israeli defense establishment as saying that it can start building over 180 km of the security fence in the strategic West Bank. However, the newspaper says that Sharon is delaying the final approval of the route so as not to upset settlers. Ha'aretz cited the state's arguments in response to a petition by West Bank villages shut in a conclave by the fence: the state says that not only are they not harmed by the fence, but that they "benefit from it." Yediot cited a warning by the GOI's anti-terror HQ that Israelis traveling to Iraq are putting their lives at risk. Israel Radio reported that Thursday the EU ratified its European Neighborhood Policy, but that Israel still has to sign it. The radio says that Israel is expected to give up reservations on a WMD clause included in the treaty, in exchange for the many benefits provided in the agreement. In another development, French Ambassador to Israel Gerard Araud told IDF Radio Thursday that Israelis suffer from "mental disturbances" in their attitude toward France. He was protesting against what he said was anti-French sentiment in Israeli society and media. The media reported that the Foreign Ministry protested to France over Araud's remarks. Leading media reported that Thursday the IDF killed four Palestinians it claims were smuggling arms in the Gaza Strip, but that it failed in an attempt on the life of Jamal Abu Samhadana, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees in Rafah. Leading media reported that Thursday a column of 1,000 vehicles dubbed the "convoy of determination" made its way from Israel to the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip. Ha'aretz web site reported that settlers on Thursday uprooted 117 olive trees in the Palestinian village of Jayyus, adjacent to the Zufin settlement near Qalqilya. Leading media reported that an IDF investigation into the killing of Islamic Jihad activist Mahmoud Kmel by members of a naval commando ("Shayetet 13") has concluded that the actions of Shayetet 13 suffered from operational, not moral flaws. Ha'aretz quoted soldiers who shot the injured man from 40 meters as saying they thought he had a second weapon. Leading media reported that Wednesday a jury in a Chicago federal courthouse ordered four Islamic charities accused of raising money for Hamas to pay USD 156 million dollars in damages to the parents of David Boim, a teenager slain in the West Bank in May 1996. Jerusalem Post quoted four members of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee, who awarded the 1994 Prize to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, as saying that they had made the right choice, and that Rabin's assassination, rather than Palestinian terrorism, was the prime factor in the collapse of the Oslo process. In a feature about National Security Advisor and secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice, Hatzofe SIPDIS calls her the "jewel in the crown." All media reported that two Israeli scientists -- Profs. Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover -- will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in Stockholm today, along with the American Irwin Rose. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Jerusalem and settlements correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's victory in the Likud convention destroyed the strategy adopted in recent months by almost all of the disengagement's opponents." Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of popular, pluralist Maariv: "It seemed impossible, it was difficult, it went slowly, but it finally happened: the Prime Minister succeeded in taming his party." Political commentator Nehama Dueck wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (December 10): "The Likud took another step Thursday towards parting from the Greater Israel dream.... Yesterday's result showed that [Sharon's] strategy was correct." Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in Maariv: "Israel is now in a state of intoxication.... A world of hope has suddenly opened up.... One needs to pray that the government won't let this window of opportunity lock itself again." Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Egypt brings to the current situation two elements no one else has in the context of the Palestinian problem: regional leadership and available land." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Anti-Disengagement Strategy Collapses" Jerusalem and settlements correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (December 10): "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's victory in the Likud convention destroyed the strategy adopted in recent months by almost all of the disengagement's opponents.... The anti-disengagement activists are still pinning their hopes on the Likud rebels, but it is hard to believe that they would vote no confidence in Sharon, and force elections, after the party convention rejected this option.... If [persuasion activity among the ultra-Orthodox parties and the Likud] fails, the right wing will probably take the course outlined in the last edition of the settlers' publication Nekudah by the highly respected Rabbi Ya'akov Medan, of [the settlement of] Alon Shvut. Medan wrote 10 days ago: "Sharon has been shown as one who is afraid of the nation and wants a violent struggle. Now we must prepare for a physical struggle of tens of thousands of people who will stop the uprooting and destruction with their bodies." II. "Taming the Shrew" Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one of popular, pluralist Maariv (December 10): "It seemed impossible, it was difficult, it went slowly, but it finally happened: the Prime Minister succeeded in taming his party.... The shrewish party has been tamed, the twitching has receded and the body is slowly but surely beginning to accept the transplant.... Sharon will try to bring [the senior Labor Party members] in with portfolios, so that they will stay. Shas will receive a 'coordinated disengagement' speech on Thursday in Herzliya, in order to assist [its mentor] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to change his ruling and join as well. Sharon needs to finalize things this week quickly, firmly and elegantly, otherwise he will get bogged down again, perhaps for the last time. This is the time to work fast or to cease to be." III. "Now to Work" Political commentator Nehama Dueck wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (December 10): "The Likud took another step Thursday towards parting from the Greater Israel dream. The Central Committee authorized Sharon to bring the Labor Party into the government, and in fact gave him carte blanche to implement the disengagement plan. The significance is known and clear: dismantling settlements in Samaria [the northern West Bank] and a pullout from Gaza after three decades of Jewish settlement. Precisely a year ago, the Prime Minister launched the disengagement plan in a speech he gave at the Herzliya Conference. Next Thursday he will go to this forum once again. The speech is not yet ready, but the message is clear. Sharon marked a target, showed leadership and led. And even if the tactics were not always successful, yesterday's result showed that the strategy was correct." IV. "A Propitious Hour" Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in Maariv (December 10): "Contrary to the Left's claim, there had been no Palestinian negotiating partner since 2000, but the determined war against terror, which was based on the correct assumption that there's no one to talk to in Ramallah, produced a new reality in the Arab world -- that there is someone to talk.... The official Palestinian leadership is quietly asking the U.S. and Egypt to rein in the Iranians and Hizbullah in the West Bank and Gaza. The senior Israeli officials are well aware of this fact. It is particularly important.... Cairo and London are interested in an international conference. Washington is cautious about answering positively, but it doesn't completely reject the idea - - certainly not when Egypt took a hasty step by declaring, one day before the voting started at the Likud Central Committee, that it would convene an international conference that has not been agreed upon.... Israel is now in a state of intoxication.... A world of hope has suddenly opened up.... One needs to pray that the government won't let this window of opportunity lock itself again. ¶V. "The Egyptian Way" Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (December 10): "Egypt cannot be expected to retreat from its traditional demand that the Palestinian state be established mainly on lands previously ruled by Israel. However, it is no secret that even if and when the Palestinians obtain the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, it will be a tall order to contain within those small and disjointed areas a viable state and a functioning economy. This is where a newly conciliatory Egypt can come in. Egypt brings to the current situation two elements no one else has in the context of the Palestinian problem: regional leadership and available land.... Egypt certainly owes this to no one... [But] in the dunes where Israel once began developing the Yamit settlements, until they were demolished on the eve of their relinquishment to Egypt, Egypt can today offer to donate its own contribution to Palestinian statehood in the form of a coastal strip that would extend from the Gaza Strip toward Port Said. Such an out-of-the-box initiative would prod both Israel and the Palestinians to make concessions they might otherwise shun, and inspire foreign investors to develop the northern Sinai, so it can ultimately linchpin a vast Riviera stretching from Alexandria to Beirut. Perhaps the drama of Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem cannot be duplicated, but there are other ways Egypt might inspire the world with its dedication to the cause of peace." KURTZER