ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 006655 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: -------------- The tsunami disaster continued to dominat all major media. The Israeli angle: 22 Israelis are still reported as missing. Jerusalem Post quotes Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert as saying that Israel will need to carry out a large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank after the initial disengagement from the Gaza Strip. According to Olmert, this should happen whether or not there is a viable peace partner on the Palestinian side. Kol Israel cited sources in PM Sharon's bureau as saying that they reject Olmert's talks about another disengagement and that the only plan that PM Sharon is obliged to follow is the road map. All media reported that Defense Ministry Director- General Amos Yaron refused to provide details on the rift between the defense establishment and the Pentagon over Israel's weapons deal with China in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on Wednesday. His refusal caused a storm among the members of the committee and some left the meeting in protest. Jerusalem Post reported that China's senior foreign policy official, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, has told the U.S. to stay out of its Harpy drone aircraft deal with Israel. Ha'aretz reported that the cabinet will view the new fence route after the PA elections. The paper notes that the route's approval might spark a conflict between Israel and the new Palestinian leadership as it penetrates deeply into the West Bank. Israel Radio this morning reported that the IDF has started an operation in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip in order to halt mortar and missile fire at settlements. Three Palestinian militants were killed during the operation. Leading media reported that according to IDF figures released on Wednesday, 118 Israelis were killed in the war with the Palestinians in 2004, 445 fewer than in the previous year. The media reported that a new coalition is unlikely to be established next week due to difficulties in negotiations with United Torah Judaism and the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice committee's ongoing discussions on the so-called Peres bill. Maariv reported that 13 Likud members sent a letter in which they announced that they will not support the government. Leading media reported that according to a new law that was passed by the Knesset on Wednesday, anyone who gives money to the family of someone who committed a terror attack will be considered a terrorist financer and face a prison sentence of 7 to 10 years. Jerusalem Post reported that a group of anti- disengagement MKs proposed that Jews and Israelis abroad have the right to vote in the Israeli elections. Leading media reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with the IDF Brigade Commanders Forum on Wednesday. In the meeting the PM was told that the settlers are preparing for a fight during the implementation of the disengagement plan. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in left-leaning, independent Ha'aretz: "The Israeli determination to disengage and the Palestinian readiness to change make the year 2005 a year of rare opportunity. In order to capitalize on this opportunity, however, we have to move from politics to diplomacy. We must domesticate the wild idea of the disengagement and make it into part of an overall Israeli plan." Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, pluralist Maariv: "Suicide terrorists still stand waiting, willing to try and flood Israel with new waves of terror, and only the GSS and the IDF are stopping them. Whoever believes that Abu Mazen and his gang will block these trends in 2005 is deluding himself and his people ... Eventually he will be overwhelmed by these waves just like in Phuket." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶1. "Year of Truth" Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in left-leaning, independent Ha'aretz (December 30): "The two events that best define the outgoing year took place toward its end: On Tuesday, October 26, the Israeli parliament adopted the disengagement plan, and on Monday, November 12, the Palestinian people buried Yasser Arafat. In so doing, within a span of 20 days or so, the face of the country was changed, as was the face of the Middle East. The Jewish national movement decided in organized and democratic fashion to begin the long process of ending the occupation, while the Palestinian national movement separated in spontaneous, chaotic and perhaps temporary fashion from the ethos of terror of its founder. In so doing, without us even noticing, the war as we knew it ended. In so doing, without us having even rendered our opinion, a new peace process was launched.... The Israeli determination to disengage and the Palestinian readiness to change make the year 2005 a year of rare opportunity. In order to capitalize on this opportunity, however, we have to move from politics to diplomacy. We must domesticate the wild idea of the disengagement and make it into part of an overall Israeli plan." ¶2. "The Year of the Tsunami" Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular, pluralist Maariv (December 30): "There is no reason to party: 2005 is going, most probably, to be the year of the tsunami, internationally, regionally and locally. The waves of terror and war will threaten the lives of innocent people the same way the waves of the sea took the lives of thousands of people from Indonesia up to Somalia.... The Palestinian tsunami: it seeps and breaks through the smuggling tunnels to the Gaza Strip.... Suicide terrorists still stand waiting, willing to try and flood Israel with new waves of terror, and only the GSS and the IDF are stopping them. Whoever believes that Abu Mazen and his gang will block these trends in 2005 is deluding himself and his people ... Eventually he will be overwhelmed by these waves just like in Phuket." KURTZER