ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 001237 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. Lebanese-Syrian Track ¶2. Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Leading media cited, and Ha'aretz bannered, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's comment to ABC News in London Tuesday: "There is evidence that Islamic Jihad, headquartered in Syria, was in fact involved with the planning of those attacks in Tel Aviv. And so the Syrians have a lot to answer for." Citing AP, Ha'aretz reported that in Budapest on Tuesday, FM Silvan Shalom ruled out the possibility of an Israeli military strike against Syria in the aftermath of Friday's bombing. Leading media cited remarks made by Syrian President Bashar Assad to Time Magazine, that the Syrian troops will leave Lebanon in a few months. Ha'aretz says that Secretary Rice was "evasive" at the London Meeting on Supporting the Palestinian Authority, when asked about whether the Israelis and Palestinians are already involved in the road map's first phase. She was quoted as saying: "We are trying to lay a foundation for a successful movement through the road map to a two-state solution." Israel Radio reported that at the conference, the donor countries promised to give the Palestinians USD 1.25 billion, and quoted Secretary Rice as saying last night that Washington SIPDIS will do everything possible to bring peace to the Middle East and that it is willing to send a mission to supervise the reforms in the PA. Ha'aretz quoted senior British sources as saying Tuesday they do not accept PM Sharon's position that the Palestinians must fulfill a series of obligations before implementation of the road map can begin. Leading media say that the GOI reiterates that there will be no progress in the diplomatic process as long as the PA does not act against terror and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. Israel Radio quoted Vice PM Ehud Olmert as saying that the London conference was a "missed effort" because it supported the Palestinians without their having to cope with terror. However, the station cited Sharon's bureau as saying that Israel welcomes any international effort that would help the Palestinians build institutions that will allow orderly government. Leading media reported that on Tuesday, Sharon informed the chairman of the Likud Central Committee, Tzachi Hanegbi, that he accepts the compromise that Hanegbi proposed on the matter of a national referendum on the disengagement plan, which the committee will vote on tomorrow in Tel Aviv. According to the compromise, the committee will call on members of the Likud faction in the Knesset to take steps for the immediate promulgation of a referendum law, something Sharon objects to vigorously. Ha'aretz quoted Sharon associates as saying Tuesday that Sharon's willingness to compromise is based on the facts that the proposal does not have a majority in the Knesset, and that he sees no point to any unnecessary conflict. However, Yediot quoted Sharon aides as saying last night that the PM had not changed his mind. Maariv led with the meeting that was held Tuesday between officials from the Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories and Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra. The settler leadership said no violence would be used against the police and IDF troops who were sent to evacuate the settlers in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, but insisted on their right to resist and to demonstrate. Yediot led with the contention of police station commanders that they will "collapse" during the disengagement move -- a claim denied by Minister Gideon Ezra on Israel Radio this morning. Yediot and Jerusalem Post quoted Shin Bet officials as saying Tuesday that the security service has undercover agents in the far Right. Leading media quoted Disengagement Administration head Yonatan Bassi as saying before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that some 800 of 1,700 families living in the Katif Bloc and northern West Bank have already expressed willingness in principle to leave their homes under the disengagement plan and negotiate financial compensation. Bassi said that he believed that 600 of the remaining 900 families would begin negotiating in the months before the disengagement is set to begin. The media quoted right- wing Knesset members as saying that Bassi is distorting facts, lying, and conducting psychological warfare. All media reported that Islamic Jihad terrorists in Jenin planned a series of attacks on Israeli targets, including the firing of rockets at the city of Afula and a shooting attack inside a Jerusalem school. The attacks were foiled by Israeli security forces before they could advance beyond the planning stage. The details of the planned attacks came to light during the interrogation of Jibril Zubeidi, an Islamic Jihad operative in Jenin and the brother of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander in Jenin, Zacharia Zubeidi. Jibril Zubeidi was arrested on December 30. Ha'aretz quoted central activists from Islamic Jihad in the territories as saying that the group is beset by internal strife, as even key leaders of Islamic Jihad only knew about the Tel Aviv attack after the fact. Israel Radio reported that last night, security forces uncovered a Hamas weapons factory in Jenin that manufactured Qassam rockets. The station reported on an increased state of alert in Jerusalem this afternoon, following information about a would-be suicide bomber. Jerusalem Post quoted Vice Premier Shimon Peres as saying that Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip is boosting investment and tourism, and that it may push 2005 economic growth in Israel as high as 6 percent two years after the country emerged from recession. Maariv banners the government's negotiations with the Shas party, 29 days before the deadline for the final Knesset vote on the 2005 state budget. -------------- ¶1. Lebanese-Syrian Track: -------------- Summary: -------------- Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The Golan Heights remain a 'deposit' for a future peace agreement, in which the final border between Israel and Syria will be determined and the two states will have normal relations. That would be Israel's contribution to the new order in the north." Block Quotes: -------------- "Refreshing Scenes in Beirut" Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (March 2): "The fall of the Lebanese government in the wake of mass protest demonstrations against the ongoing Syrian occupation was a refreshing surprise. Israel cannot be indifferent to the developments in the region, which could have an enormous influence on its national security. The developments over the northern border oblige Jerusalem to reconsider its policy of many years that silently agrees to Syrian control of Lebanon.... Bashar Assad's regime suffers from internal weakness and external isolation in terms of both the U.S. and Europe. Israel need not rescue it in its difficult hour. But Israel must make clear that its refusal to speak with an isolated, collapsing government that has allied itself with the elements most hostile to Israel -- Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinian rejectionist front -- is not just an excuse to freeze the peace process and annex territories. The Golan Heights remain a 'deposit' for a future peace agreement, in which the final border between Israel and Syria will be determined and the two states will have normal relations. That would be Israel's contribution to the new order in the north." -------------- ¶2. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "If Sharon wishes for political life in a new term, he and all his supporters should seek other political options. There are very few grains left in the Likud's hourglass." Block Quotes: -------------- "Control by the Likud Central Committee" Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (March 2): "This week, the Likud Central Committee will convene. A large majority, with or without [a] compromise, will likely support the notion of a referendum before the evacuation of settlements. When Sharon receives the results of their vote, he will send away the messenger, as if he were a bothering fly.... If Sharon wishes for political life in a new term, he and all his supporters should seek other political options. There are very few grains left in the Likud's hourglass.... The end of Sharon's political life in the Likud apparently is only a matter of time. It is not politics, and certainly not the dream of Greater Israel, that are being debated. It is the disrespect and the intolerable humiliation. The [Likud] Central Committee members won't forgive him." KURTZER