Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TELAVIV1021
2005-02-18 14:07:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

Tags:  IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 001021 

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:
--------------------------------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 001021

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:
--------------


1. Mideast


2. Syria-Iran "Common Front"

--------------
Key stories in the media:
--------------

All media quoted President Bush as saying at a news
conference on Thursday: "If I was the leader of Israel
and I listened to some of the statements by the Iranian
ayatollahs ... that regarded [the] security of my
country, I'd be concerned about Iran having a nuclear
weapon, as well. And in that Israel is our ally, and
in that we've made a very strong commitment to support
Israel, we will support Israel if ... their security is
threatened."

All media reported that on Thursday, Attorney General
Menachem Mazuz announced an indictment against PM
Sharon's son, Knesset member Omri Sharon, and to close
for lack of evidence the investigation against PM
Sharon in the case of the straw companies allegedly set
up to raise and disburse funds for Ariel Sharon's 1999
primaries campaign. The media write that Omri Sharon
could face a jail sentence.

All media reported that the cabinet is expected to
approve two significant decisions on Sunday -- the
evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the
northern West Bank, in accordance with the
disengagement plan, and fixing the new route for the
separation fence in the West Bank, in the wake of
changes ordered by the High Court of Justice.
-The fence will include the Etzion Bloc, Ariel, and,
for the first time, Ma'aleh Adumim -- altogether 7
percent of the West Bank. Jerusalem Post
reported that the Defense Ministry told the Knesset's
Defense Budget Committee on Thursday that the fence
will be completed only in mid-2006, a year later than
scheduled, because of petitions to the High Court of
Justice that required changes to the route.
-Yediot notes that the first settlement will be
evacuated between April 30 and May 2.

Leading media reported that Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz Thursday ended the policy of demolishing houses
belonging to terrorists' families.

Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday, Sharon told Lt. Gen
William Ward, the new U.S. security envoy, that reform
of the Palestinian security services is paramount to
the revival of Middle East peacemaking. The newspaper

cited Sharon's office as saying that Ward told Sharon
that he intended to focus on security reform, and that
he hoped to create a PA security apparatus that would
be "both capable of and committed to fighting terrorism
and its infrastructures." Jerusalem Post quoted a
senior Israeli diplomatic official as saying on
Thursday, following the Sharon-Ward meeting, that Ward
will serve as a barrier keeping the Europeans from
sending military personnel to boost the PA's security
apparatus. Yediot captioned a picture of Ward with
Sharon: "The Middle East's New Cop."

Senior PA security official Muhammad Dahlan told Israel
Radio that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian PM
Ahmed Qurei are determined to ensure that Israel's
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip takes places quietly.
Dahlan also said that Israel has not yet carried out
the easing measures it has committed itself to, and
hinted that if Israel does not pull out from the
Philadelphi route along the Gaza-Egypt border, attacks
would occur there. Leading media reported that Mofaz
announced Thursday that 20 Palestinians who were among
the 39 exiled to Europe and the Gaza Strip as part of a
deal to end the standoff in Bethlehem's Church of the
Nativity in May 2002 will be permitted to return once
the Palestinians receive security control of Bethlehem.

Channel 2-TV reported Thursday that Mohammed al-
Alabbar, a property magnate from the UAE, is interested
in buying the assets left in the Gaza Strip settlements
for USD 56 million if Israel refrains from demolishing
them. The station said that al-Alabbar visited Israel
and met with Sharon following a meeting with Abbas.
Israel Radio said that in the past al-Alabbar met
several times with Prime Minister's Office D-G Ilan
Cohen. Labor Knesset Member Ephraim Sneh told Channel
2-TV that he was the intermediary between al-Alabbar
and Sharon's office. However, Ha'aretz quoted GOI
sources as saying that Sharon is determined to knock
all the homes down. Conversely, Vice Premier Shimon
Peres told Israel Radio this morning that Sharon has
not ruled out the deal.

Globes web site reported that this week Union of Local
Authorities Chairman Adi Eldar and four deputies
visited Israel for a secret meeting with the heads of
Palestinian local authorities, in order to promote
peace and cooperation.

Jerusalem Post reported that Israel is removing
hundreds of Bedouin families squatting just beyond the
perimeter fence of its main Negev air base because it
fears that they may acquire antiaircraft missiles and
it wants to distance them from the IAF planes.

Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli and Palestinian
human rights groups on Thursday appealed to Abbas to
rescind his decision to ratify death sentences passed
against scores of Palestinians, including suspected
"collaborators" with Israel.
Yediot reported that for the first time since 1979, an
Egyptian newspaper (Al-Ahram) interviewed Sharon.

Dan Senor, the former spokesman for the U.S. occupation
government in Iraq, was quoted as saying Thursday in an
interview with Jerusalem Post that Ahmed Chalabi is
likely to emerge as Iraq's leader, as originally
envisioned by the U.S.

Globes reported that during a debate at the Israel-
America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM),its President,
Zalman Shoval, said that the deficit in trade relations
with the U.S. and the fact that it has not decreased in
the past several years, is detrimental to the bilateral
relations.

Leading media reported that on Thursday, President Bush
named Ambassador John Negroponte the United States'
first national intelligence director.

Yediot cited a Gallup poll conducted in the U.S.
February 7-10, which found that 69 percent of the U.S.
public, the highest level in nearly six years, regard
Israel positively. More Americans -- 29 percent --
have a positive view of the PA than in any previous
poll, although 62 percent still have a negative view of
it.

--------------

1. Mideast:
--------------

Summary:
--------------

Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The settlers are
playing with fire.... Failure to carry out the
disengagement plan will mean that Israel wants the
occupation to continue."

Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "Even
after the Disengagement Plan Implementation Law has
been approved, one should strive to have it canceled."

President of the (U.S.) Council on Foreign Relations
Richard N. Haass, who served as director of policy
planning in the State Department during the first term
of George Bush's presidency, wrote in Ha'aretz: "The
U.S. should not ... make the establishment of a full
Palestinian democracy a prerequisite for territorial
return and peace."

Block Quotes:
--------------

I. "Intifada III"
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (February 18): "The
sun has barely set on the Sharm el-Sheikh summit that
officially ended the Al Aqsa Intifada, and Intifada III
has already erupted. Only this time, it's the settlers
who are at it -- Jews against Jews. An extremist
minority is clashing with a Jewish majority, trying to
sabotage the Sharm accord or any other agreement that
brings the occupation to an end.... The settlers are
playing with fire. They want to create a trauma that
will wreck any chance of an agreement.... The real
danger lies in the plans of the extremists to paralyze
the country and create such havoc that Israel's leaders
may have second thoughts. What we're talking about is
a hair-raising spectacle of provocation, death threats
and insurrection that could balloon to monstrous
proportions if not nipped in the bud.... [The
extremists] have resources and a pile of money. They
have the power to upset life in Israel and create a
situation that the law enforcement authorities can do
nothing about. If this homegrown Intifada wins, the
State of Israel in its democratic configuration will no
longer exist. Failure to carry out the disengagement
plan will mean that Israel wants the occupation to
continue. Not only will America withdraw its support
of our right to maintain settlement blocs in the West
Bank and our objection to a Palestinian right of
return, the whole world will justify Intifada IV -- an
all-out war that the Palestinians are bound to declare
on Israel. If this homegrown Intifada wins, no heir of
Sharon will be able to put the pieces back together."

II. "Breakdown of the Disengagement Plan
Implementation Law"

Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (February
18): "On Wednesday, [the Knesset] passed the
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law. The road has
been paved for the expulsion of the Jewish settlers
from the Katif Bloc and some settlements in the
northernmost West Bank.... It would be difficult to
view the withdrawal policy as one from which peace
would sprout.... It is a fact that referring to an
arrangement with Israel, Palestinian Authority Abu
Mazen said that he is not satisfied with an Israeli
pullout from the Gaza Strip. He stated it was a
requisite condition'.... Even after the Disengagement
Plan Implementation Law has been approved, one should
strive to have it canceled. It must be amended as soon
as possible. This is what Jewish logic says. Let us
learn from the Baltic states."


III. "Abbas Should Get a Letter From Bush, Too"

President of the (U.S.) Council on Foreign Relations
Richard N. Haass, who served as director of policy
planning in the State Department during the first term
of George Bush's presidency, wrote in Ha'aretz
(February 18): "What Palestinians would need to pledge
in return [for guarantees by President Bush regarding
the establishment of a Palestinian state] is to reject
violence and terror, once and for all time. The U.S.
should not, however, make the establishment of a full
Palestinian democracy a prerequisite for territorial
return and peace. To delay negotiations until
Palestinian democracy has matured would only persuade
Palestinians that diplomacy was a ruse and give many
reasons to turn to violence. After more than half a
century of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians,
translating opportunity into reality will be difficult
enough without introducing new requirements that,
however desirable, are not essential."

--------------

2. Syria-Iran "Common Front":
--------------

Summary:
--------------

Columnist Orly Halpern wrote on page one of
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "This week
the two outcasts [Iran and Syria] decided to form a
club. Russia is an integral supporter; the U.S. and
Israel are the bullies to be kept out."

Block Quotes:
--------------

"Outcasts Iran and Syria Deepen Their Alliance"

Columnist Orly Halpern wrote on page one of
conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (February 18):
"Lebanon, in Syria's backyard, is filled with people
calling Syria names and accusing it of murder. The
Iraqi neighbors are accusing Syria of supporting the
Iraqi insurgency. The Jordanians and Turks are
neutral, not wanting to upset their big U.S. patron
because, although Syria is not on the official U.S.
'Axis of Evil' list, as is Iran, it is undoubtedly an
honorary member. And the Israelis are -- well,
Israelis. The only one in the neighborhood willing to
befriend the local outcast is Iran, itself not one of
the most popular kids on the block, because of its
development of nuclear capabilities. This week the two
outcasts decided to form a club. Russia is an integral
supporter; the U.S. and Israel are the bullies to be
kept out."
KURTZER