ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 002120 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: -------------- In reaction to extensively covered remarks President Bush made yesterday on freezing construction in the settlements, Ha'aretz cited assurances senior Israeli officials issued yesterday that a controversial plan to expand Ma'aleh Adumim to reach Jerusalem, thereby preventing territorial contiguity for a putative Palestinian state, would not overshadow the Crawford, Texas summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush next week. Sharon aide Dov Weissglas, the prime minister's diplomatic adviser Shalom Turgeman, and Israel's Ambassador to Washington, Danny Ayalon, held two meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday where they discussed Sharon's upcoming trip. Housing Minister Isaac Herzog, who discussed the plan with U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams in Washington this week, said the plan is still in its preliminary planning stages, and his office is not dealing with it. However, Herzog said it would be necessary to find a solution that will enable territorial contiguity between both Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem and the northern and southern sections of a Palestinian state. In a related development, Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres left Tuesday for Washington where he is expected to ask for US financial assistance for development in the Negev and Galilee, rather than to pay for disengagement. Israeli officials have been saying for months the US would be reluctant to give financial assistance to pay compensation to Gush Katif settlers because of its long-standing opposition to the settlement enterprise. Peres is slated to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney, Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. All leading media reported on the meeting between settler representatives and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Ha'aretz reported that the PM met with a dozen settlers due to be evacuated, who expressed "cautious optimism" after the meeting. The parties discussed settler demands that residents of the Katif Bloc be 
moved en bloc and more generous compensation. Sharon told the settlers that he'd consider relocating the entire settlement bloc to the Nitzanim area, adding that he would do everything to advance such a plan in the event the settlers agreed on it. The Nitzanim plan came under bitter attack yesterday from Green organizations. Minister of Environment Shalom Simhon warned "against mortgaging the future of Israel's landscape just because of a difficult political problem." Ha'aretz and other media reported that the general staff is planning to evacuate settlements continuously, with the exception of the Sabbath. The action is expected to begin in the last week of July and last a month, with a deadline set for Rosh Hashanah. The IDF is expected to remain in the evacuated settlements for awhile, based on instructions it receives from the political echelon. The withdrawal will simultaneously begin on two Gaza fronts -- the northern settlement blocs of Eli Sinai, Dugit, Nissanit and Netzarim, and the southern bloc of Kfar Darom, Gush Katif and Morag. Evacuation of the four settlements around Jenin - Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur and Homesh -- will begin later. While this evacuation is expected to take place during the same period as the Gaza withdrawal, much depends on the number of forces required for the mission. Ha'aretz carried a report on a briefing by a "senior IDF officer" according to which the IDF expects that the relative calm in the territories to last until after the disengagement this summer. This calm will help pave the way for coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over the evacuation, the officer said yesterday. The officer, a member of the general staff, said there has been a noticeable drop lately in Hezbollah pressure on Palestinian groups to conduct terror attacks. He said the calming trend serves the interests of most Palestinian factions. He said it did not signify an overall change in the Lebanese organization's policy, but rather a reduction in the number of directives and amount of funding that has flowed into the hands of activists in the territories. Syria is also seen pressing Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian rejectionist organizations operating from Syrian territory to lower their profiles. Ha'aretz reported that Israel and the United States are conducting large-scale missile defense exercises aimed at combining systems from both nations, military officials announced yesterday. The tests include integrating the Israeli-made Arrow anti-ballistic missiles with the U.S. Patriot system to create a multi- layer air defense system. This is the third time the two countries have conducted the joint exercise, which is held every two years. Major media cited a report by the Central Bureau of Statistics published yesterday that Israel's population will reach 9.3 million in 2025, an increase of 45 percent compared to 6.4 million at the end of 2000,. Seventy percent, or 6.5 million, of Israel's residents in 2025 will be Jewish. The Arab population is expected to reach 2.3 million, or 25 percent. All media reported that a resident of Shirat Hayam, a Gush Katif settlement, was shot yesterday in the stomach as he worked on the fence around the greenhouses at Morag in southern Gaza. He was presumed to have been shot by a Palestinian sniper. His condition was determined serious, but not critical. The Jerusalem Post said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas on Monday vowed to put an end to lawlessness and anarchy and said he needed more time to reconstruct the PA security forces. He said that if he failed to achieve his goals, he would not remain in his position even for one day. Speaking to Palestinian journalists and editors in his Ramallah office, Abbas denied that he had ordered the expulsion of Fatah gunmen from the Mukata compound last week. He also pledged to fight corruption in the PA and disclosed that he had established a special committee to look into the personal fortunes of top PA officials. In response to reports that he was considering postponing his planned visit to the US, Abbas said no final date had been set for the trip. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "When Prime Minister Sharon arrives at U.S. President Bush's farm, he will be received with a big American hug. With one hand, Bush will give Sharon a hamburger in a roll, and with the other hand, he will present the payable commitment: no more construction in the territories, without tricks, without bulldozers on the ground." Defense commentator Reuven Pedhazur opined in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The nuclear policy-makers in Israel should exploit the possible opening of the doors of the nuclear club to India and Pakistan, and lobby the American administration and the international community also to be admitted to the club. The time has come to put an end to the fiction of nuclear ambiguity and to get on the bandwagon that the Americans are leading for India and Pakistan." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Without Tricks" Washington correspondent Orly Azolai wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (April 6): "When Prime Minister Sharon arrives at U.S. President Bush's farm, he will be received with a big American hug. With one hand, Bush will give Sharon a hamburger in a roll, and with the other hand, he will present a payable bill: no more construction in the territories, without tricks, without bulldozers on the ground.... The White House estimated that Sharon and his cabinet members are toying with the American kindness. The Oval Office became even more enraged when the Bush bureau presented last year's Bush letter to justify the construction works. A senior White House official said last week that the Israeli Government has actually pushed the President with his back against the wall. Furthermore, it cheated him. Next week in Crawford, after a brief dialogue between the two ranchers, Bush will start talking business. He will be friendly and speak gently, but will use no uncertain terms: That sympathy is there does not mean there is no pressure." II. "In the Footsteps of India and Pakistan" Defense commentator Reuven Pedhazur opined in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (April 6): "Israel should be paying very close attention to the nuclear developments in south Asia. After seven years during which India and Pakistan were at least formally under a regime of sanctions -- imposed by the American government because of nuclear testing by the two countries -- the tide has turned.... President George ¶W. Bush is in effect inviting India and Pakistan formally to join the nuclear club, which so far includes only the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. So, the very person who initiated an all-out war against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction -- and even sent his army to conquer Iraq on the grounds that it was developing nuclear arms -- has in effect accepted the 'nuclearization' of the subcontinent.... Israel should exploit these developments.... The nuclear policy- makers in Israel should exploit the possible opening of the doors of the nuclear club to India and Pakistan, and lobby the American administration and the international community also to be admitted to the club. The time has come to put an end to the fiction of nuclear ambiguity and to get on the bandwagon that the Americans are leading for India and Pakistan." KURTZER