ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 001683

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

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast


2. Iran: Nuclear Program

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Key stories in the media:
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Ha'aretz reported that Deputy National Security Advisor
Elliott Abrams, who holds the "Israeli-Palestinian
portfolio" in the White House, and David Welch, the
"head of the State Department's Middle East desk," will
visit Israel and the PA on Wednesday to prepare next
month's Washington visits by PM Sharon and PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas. The newspaper says that among other
issues, the two U.S. envoys will be discussing the
progress of the disengagement plan, which Ha'aretz says
the White House views as "the only game in town." The
newspaper writes that for this reason, the U.S.
administration has quietly agreed to Sharon's foot-
dragging on evacuating illegal outposts in the West
Bank.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz bannered the completion of an
extensive aerial photography operation detailing the
location and expansion of each settlement and outpost
in the West Bank. The survey revealed that there has
been extensive building in recent months.

Nigel Roberts, World Bank country director for the West
Bank and Gaza, was quoted as saying in an interview
with Jerusalem Post that Israel and the PA have not
started discussing the final dispensation of homes and
infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, even as the time
needed to deal with the complex issues involved in
transferring these assets is quickly running out.

Leading media reported that Israel and the PA failed to
reach an agreement last night on the handover of
security responsibility for Tulkarm to the PA, which
was scheduled to take charge there today. Israel
rejected the demand for control of nearby villages,
which is says should be returned gradually and are the
basis for attacks on Israeli targets. On Monday,
Yediot reported that Shin Bet Director Avi Dichter
secretly met in Amman on Friday to discuss the security

SIPDIS
talks between Israel and the PA so as to pave the way
for the continued transfer of security responsibility
over the West Bank cities to the Palestinian security
forces. Abbas apprised Dichter of the understandings
that were reached with the Palestinian factions in the
Cairo summit meeting and presented the Palestinian
demands that were being made of Israel so as to
preserve these understandings. Jerusalem Post quoted
Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip as saying that his
group has decided to participate in next July's
election for the Palestinian Legislative Council in
order to destroy the Oslo Accords and fight corruption
in the PA.
On Sunday, Jerusalem Post quoted a source close to
Sharon as saying that he decided over the weekend to
move up the vote on the 2005 state budget from March 31
to March 30, or possibly even the day before, to avoid
falling prey to a political ambush.

On Sunday, all media reported that only about 10,000
people attended a rally in support of disengagement on
Saturday night in Tel Aviv. Contrary to expectations,
organizers did not manage to bring out either their
groups or speakers who are not identified with the
peace camp.

Ha'aretz reported that residents of the Katif Bloc
settlements in Gaza have given the security services
the names of several extremists whom they believe might
use violence during the evacuation this July, and that
they asked the services to remove these people from
their settlements. Yediot reported that A-G Menachem
Mazuz has instructed that disengagement opponents who
breach the law be punished more severely, proposing a
sentence of up to 20 years imprisonment for highway
obstructers. Leading media quoted senior defense
sources as saying that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
will turn the Gaza Strip into a closed military area
before Passover (April 23). Jerusalem Post quoted a
senior police officer as saying that settler attacks on
Palestinians in Hebron are on the rise and that they
are expected to escalate as the evacuation from the
Gaza Strip draws closer. Ha'aretz reported that Sharon
has rejected a proposal by Agriculture Minister Yisrael
Katz that Israel announce that it does not intend to
evacuate settler outposts set up before March 2001, in
exchange for the Likud "rebels'" removing their
opposition to the state budget. Israel Radio reported
that the collaborators' village of Dahaniyeh in the
southern Gaza Strip is to be evacuated and destroyed,
and most of the collaborators will be moved to
communities in Israel. The decision was taken at a high
level meeting last week after a poll conducted in
Dahaniyeh showed that most of the residents wished to
leave the Gaza Strip. A senior source told the radio
that the government will not abandon those who helped
Israel over the years.

Yediot reported that the GOI has launched a plan to
build thousands of homes to link Ma'aleh Adumim to the
Green Line and Jerusalem (the E-1 corridor),as part of
a giant plan under Sharon's personal supervision. The
daily says that in the past few days the plan has
passed from the theoretical to the practical stage.
Jerusalem Post quoted Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, the incoming
EU Ambassador to Israel, as saying Sunday that a short-
term lull was insufficient and that for peace to
flourish, the Palestinian leadership had to be
"proactive" in the battle against terrorism. On
Sunday, Ha'aretz quoted EU sources as saying that the
EU intends to offer Israel economic benefits in
exchange for relieving the restrictions on the
Palestinians.

Ha'aretz quoted Jordanian FM Hani al-Mulki as saying
Sunday that Jordan's King Abdullah will not attend the
upcoming Arab League Summit, scheduled to begin today
in Algeria. The newspaper says that the reason for the
King's decision is related to the Arab League's refusal
to adopt his proposal, by which the Arab states would
normalize relations with Israel prior to a
comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. On
Sunday, Yediot headlined: "Abdullah Presents: 'Peace
Now.'" Jerusalem Post quoted senior diplomatic
officials as saying Sunday that the Arab world is
unlikely to take bold steps to normalize relations with
Israel until it sees Jerusalem take "irreversible"
steps. On Sunday, Jerusalem Post quoted PA officials
in Ramallah as saying that the Palestinians are
strongly opposed to Jordan's plan. On Sunday, Maariv
reported that at a meeting in Geneva last week between
Moroccan FM Mohammed Benaissa and FM Silvan Shalom,
Benaissa told Shalom that Morocco is considering
resuming its relations with Israel. Maariv also writes
that last weekend officials in Vice Premier Shimon
Peres's bureau hinted that talks are being held
regarding a trip by Peres to Morocco.

Jerusalem Post cited harsh criticism of the PA by
senior PA officials and academics, which has become
commonplace among Palestinians following the death of
Yasser Arafat.

On Sunday, Maariv cited optimistic forecasts for 2005
by IDF Intelligence officials.

On Sunday, major media cited reports published last
week in the U.S. press, according to which Iran
purchased long-range Cruise missiles from Ukraine in

2001.

Ha'aretz cited a denial by the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of a Maariv report Friday that it has any
tangible information regarding the sale of its lands in
the Old City's Jaffa Gate plaza in Jerusalem.

Leading media reported that four IDF soldiers who
mistakenly ventured into the Al-Amari refugee camp
north of Jerusalem were wounded, two of them seriously.
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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning,
independent Ha'aretz: "If the day after the
disengagement it turns out that 'Gaza-first' is also
'Gaza-the end,' the Europeans will once again attack
us, the Arabs will recall their ambassadors, and the
extremists of both nations will once again reign in the
territories. Everything now depends on the President
of the U.S., the only person with an influence on
Sharon."

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the lead
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "Ariel Sharon marketed [disengagement] as an
obligatory step, but his motives and plans for the day
after are still not entirely clear."

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in an
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "The current U.S. administration's
unqualified support for Israel's actions in the past
several years ought not blind Israelis from seeing the
danger inherent in a situation in which all of our
political eggs are in a single basket."

Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, Committee
for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, wrote
in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "A review
of [National Public Radio's] coverage in early 2005
offers few signs of positive change."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Now It's All Up To Bush"

Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning,
independent Ha'aretz (March 21): "Since U.S. President
George W. Bush was sworn in for his second term, some
of his greatest critics (including this writer) are
wondering whether they were mistaken when they
prophesied that the 43rd president would barely rate a
footnote in American history, not to mention a place in
world history. A recent series of appointments -- or
to be more precise, the 'kicking upstairs' that has
taken place in the top echelons of the administration -
- seem to testify that the president no longer adheres
to the neoconservative approach, which holds that what
doesn't work by force, will work by greater force....
Even the Europeans who belittled Bush's vision of the
Palestinian state, and the Arabs who believed that his
demand for democratization in their countries was only
a way out of realizing that same vision, are having
second thoughts. Whether out of a desire to join the
group that is turning out to be the victor, or whether
from a desire to grasp the Bush vision, in the European
Union and the Arab League there is a growing tendency
to adopt the President's line.... If the day after the
disengagement it turns out that 'Gaza-first' is also
'Gaza-the end,' the Europeans will once again attack
us, the Arabs will recall their ambassadors, and the
extremists of both nations will once again reign in the
territories. Everything now depends on the President
of the U.S., the only person with an influence on
Sharon. On April 12, the day after the meeting with
Sharon on the Texas ranch, we will know whether we have
to apologize to George W. Bush."

II. "The Empty Square"

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the lead
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (March 20): "What conclusion can be drawn from
the meager turnout at the demonstration in support of
the disengagement plan Saturday night in Tel Aviv?....
Perhaps, and only perhaps this is what it is: despite
all the talk about an historic initiative, the
disengagement plan is not a vision being implemented.
Ariel Sharon marketed it as an obligatory step, but his
motives and plans for the day after are still not
entirely clear. The plan will be executed because
Sharon has enlisted the strongest mechanisms in Israel
to that end. A majority of Israelis support it as a
default choice, particularly after it has already
gotten under way and the entire world stands behind it.
But for a default choice and the operation of
mechanisms only few people want to leave home on a
Saturday night."

III. "World Importance"

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in an
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (March 20): "[President Bush's] candidate for
American ambassador to the UN John Bolton, a
neoconservative ... once said: There is no such thing
as the United Nations, there is the international
community that sometimes is subject to the leadership
of the only superpower left in the world, and that, of
course, is the U.S. Of all possible Americans, this is
the man who Bush thinks will most faithfully represent
the importance that the U.S. confers on the
international organization, whose headquarters it hosts
on its soil.... Israel perceives that organization as a
kind of debate club that is devoid of any real content,
to which we need to send our representatives with the
best spoken English so as to deliver impassionate
speeches. The U.S., conversely, is the master of our
fate, a redeemer and a savior that needs to be shown
the respect the peasant pays to his feudal lord. This
view is something we ought to contemplate seriously,
precisely when it seems that the United States' power
is at its zenith. In the next few years a number of
new powers will rise that will challenge the American
hegemony: China, Russia, India and Europe, each with
its own unique reasons for its economic and political
might. Soon enough even the U.S. will not be able to
do as it sees fit, and international coalitions will
not be a luxury but a necessity. The current U.S.
administration's unqualified support for Israel's
actions in the past several years ought not blind
Israelis from seeing the danger inherent in a situation
in which all of our political eggs are in a single
basket."

IV. "More Static on American Public Radio"

Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, Committee
for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, wrote
in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (March 20):
"It's fundraising season at America's National Public
Radio.... NPR has earned a reputation for both the
quality of its programs and for a long-standing bias
against Israel. But is that now beginning to change? A
review of its coverage in early 2005 offers few signs
of positive change. Instead, the tilt toward the Arab
narrative continues. Gestures of accountability,
including sporadic corrections and quarterly self-
examinations of its Middle East reporting amount to
little more than PR damage control.... Americans who
care about factual, balanced and unbiased reporting
should keep this in mind when they're asked to send a
check."




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2. Iran: Nuclear Program:
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Summary:
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Aviation affairs correspondent Arye Egozi wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The U.S.
administration is no less worried than Israel regarding
Iran's Cruise missiles.... The Iranians can use them to
strike the U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East."

Block Quotes:
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"The Americans Should Be Worried, Too"

Aviation affairs correspondent Arye Egozi wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (March 20):
"Israel has every reason to be worried about the
Iranian-Ukrainian missile deal: this is an upgrade of
delivery systems in advance of the day Iran will have
nuclear capability.... The U.S. administration is no
less worried than Israel regarding Iran's Cruise
missiles.... The Iranian Cruise missiles change the map
of regional threats. The Iranians can use them to
strike the U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East."

KURTZER