ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 003011

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. Democracy in Mideast


3. Israeli Ambassador to U.S. Danny Ayalon

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Key stories in the media:
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All media highlighted the blocking of 40 main junctions
across the country by disengagement opponents Monday
afternoon. Up to 350 protesters were arrested.
(Reports vary.) All media quoted police as saying
Monday that three Jewish extremists have been
questioned for allegedly planning to fire a missile at
Jerusalem's Temple Mount in an effort to halt the Gaza
Strip disengagement. The three men were part of a
group of nine suspects arrested over the last month in
two separate cases over alleged plans to attack the
Temple Mount. (Reports vary: Ha'aretz reported that
five Israeli Jews, who are members of a group
identified with the Bratslav Hasidic movement, had been
arrested.) All of the suspects have been released from
custody, with the State Attorney's Office deciding not
to press charges against any of the suspects due to
lack of evidence and the fact that they had second
thoughts about their plot even before they were
detained.

Ha'aretz (banner) and Jerusalem Post cited Gaza settler
circles (which are opposed to the official settler
leadership in the Katif Bloc, according to Ha'aretz) as
saying that several hundred families (450, according to
Jerusalem Post) from the Katif Bloc (Gush Katif) have
signed up for the plan to move to Nitzanim.

Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's
Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon is expected to lose
his battle with FM Shalom, despite PM Sharon's support
for him. Yediot quoted Ayalon as saying in private
conversations that he feels threatened.

Ha'aretz reported that the IDF and defense
establishment have decided to offer a financial reward
for information about any Israeli soldier missing in
action.

Leading media reported that for the first time,
outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon was
interviewed on the Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya-
TV.

Yediot reported that on Monday, the Tel Aviv District
Court recognized Haggai Shefi, an Israeli who was
killed in the attack on New York's World Trade Center,
as a victim of an act of terrorism legally included in
"hostile actions against Israel."

Instead of a regular banner, Maariv placed on its front
page an article by its Editor-in-Chief Amnon Dankner
and senior columnist Dan Margalit denouncing what they
view as phenomena of corruption in Israel. Public
figures cited in the article include FM Silvan Shalom's
wife Judy Nir-Moses-Shalom and MK Omri Sharon, PM
Sharon's son. Leading media reported that Attorney
General Menachem Mazuz has ordered an investigation
into political appointments at the Agriculture
Ministry. The media quoted Agriculture Minister
Yisrael Katz (Likud) that he was not involved in the
appointments.

Jerusalem Post quoted officials as saying that the
visit to Israel of Polish Minister for National Defense
Jerzy Smajdzinski is spawning deals worth millions of
dollars.

Under the headline, "Poll: 35 Million Anti-Semites in
U.S. Now," Maariv published the results of a recent
survey in the U.S. that found an increase in anti-
Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2004. The poll found
that close to 35 million Americans -- 14 percent of the
population -- hold clearly anti-Semitic views.



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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Liberal columnist Yair Lapid wrote on page one of mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The road
blocking will put the number [of right-wing protesters]
back in the area Ariel Sharon likes to see them.... [On
the other hand], the Israeli public finally understood
what it feels like to live with roadblocks."

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post: "The Palestinian leadership is
paralyzed.... The last peace process took seven years
to arrive at its bloody, depressing result. This round
seems likely to last less than one year."

Tel Aviv University political scientist Martin Sherman
wrote in Maariv: "How can [people such as Silvan
Shalom] accept a policy which not only deprives Israel
of the means to prevent the possibility of [a Hamas]
takeover, but also increase its probability?"
Block Quotes:
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I. "Somebody's Going to Die"

Liberal columnist Yair Lapid wrote on page one of mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (May 17): "More
than anything else, what stood out most on Monday was
the flippancy. The settler youngsters produced, at our
expense, a festival of self-adoration that to them
seemed to be truly revolutionary. On Monday, they stood
in Jerusalem and screamed 'police state.' For a
moment, it was impossible not to regret that they were
mistaken. In countries where the police are more
resolute and less exhausted -- like France or the
United States -- they would have been tossed out of the
street within three minutes. Settlers Council
officials had good reason for the exasperation they
felt Monday. Last week, support for disengagement
dropped. The road blocking will put the numbers back
in the area Ariel Sharon likes to see them. Nobody
likes to have thugs running their lives, certainly not
Israelis stuck in traffic. On the other hand, maybe
there is a valuable lesson to be learned here. The
Israeli public finally understood what it feels like to
live with roadblocks. Now we also have a sick old
lady, our kids won't get to school either, we also left
for work but will never get there. For a single moment
on Geha road [on the eastern outskirts of Tel Aviv], we
too were Palestinians."

II. "Hamas Victorious"

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post (May 17): "Let's not mince words: the
Hamas landslide victory in the recent Palestinian local
elections is a disaster for the Palestinians' hopes for
peace, and for Israel. It is a historical turning
point. The West will have to choose between
recognizing what is happening or veering onto some very
dangerous territory.... The essential issue is that if
Abu Mazen was too afraid to crack down on terrorists,
moderate Palestinian ideology or negotiate a compromise
peace with Israel when he had all the power, he will
now be even more timid.... No matter how many
concessions Israel makes by withdrawing and releasing
prisoners, or how much money and support the West gives
Abu Mazen, there will be no serious peace process. The
Palestinian leadership is paralyzed. Whether Hamas,
for its own purposes, lets the cease-fire continue or
not, any hope of a real breakthrough is finished....
Aside from its ideology, which has consistently
demanded Israel's destruction, why should Hamas abandon
a program so demonstrably appealing to Palestinians and
a strategy that is clearly working?.... So the problem
remains the same as before: a Palestinian movement
shaped by Arafat, extremism, terror and demonization of
Israel has not produced a moderate leadership or
ideology. Western forces, appeasing and even cheering
the extremists, ensure their intransigence. The last
peace process took seven years to arrive at its bloody,
depressing result. This round seems likely to last
less than one year."

III. "Prepare For the Establishment of 'Hamastine'"

Tel Aviv University political scientist Martin Sherman
wrote in Maariv (May 17): "The Israeli leadership ought
to know this: the moment the IDF leaves territories, it
will have neither legal, moral nor practical means to
determine what will happen in the abandoned areas and
who will rule there. Thus, if some people, like the
Foreign Minister, believe that the whole logical basis
of disengagement leans on the fact that elements such
as Hamas won't take over, how can they accept a policy
which not only deprives Israel of the means to prevent
the possibility of such a takeover, but also increase
its probability?"

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2. Democracy in Mideast:
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Summary:
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Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever
Plotker wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "No extremist Muslim regime was established
through democratic elections."

Block Quotes:
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"Ripe For Democracy"

Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever
Plotker wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (May 17): "A ghost is haunting the Arab and
Muslim states -- that of democratic elections. The
fright can be summed up in one sentence, which non-
democratic, anti-democratic and plainly dictatorial
leaders keep repeating: if we ask our nations whom they
want in power, they will elect sinister extremist
Islamists. But this assertion is basically a lie. No
extremist Muslim regime was established through
democratic elections -- neither that of Khomeini in
Iran, nor that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, nor the
bloody Sudanese regime.... [On the other hand], there
was a number of successful elections, which generated
moderate governments. This is the case of Afghanistan,
Iraq, Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia.... People should
not have to take preliminary lessons in democracy or to
suffer under authoritarian regimes in order to 'grow
up' and become 'ripe enough' to fulfill their basic
right to vote."

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3. Israeli Ambassador to U.S. Danny Ayalon:
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Summary:
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Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The
foreign minister has to recognize that the prime
minister is in charge of relations with the U.S."

Block Quotes:
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"The Lesson of Danny Ayalon"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (May
17): "The well-publicized quarrel between Danny Ayalon,
the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., and Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom is far from over, but its
negative effect on Israel's image in the world can
already be felt.... International embarrassment is only
part of the problem created by the fray. It is hard to
see how Israeli Ambassador Danny Ayalon can hold
serious talks with officials from the U.S. State
Department, the administration or Congress when
everyone knows the foreign minister has 'lost the
faith' of the ambassador, as the Israeli media reported
Shalom's associates saying. Beyond the elements of
gossip, which makes this conflict particularly
mesmerizing to the Israeli and the global media, is an
old quarrel between the Foreign Ministry and the Prime
Minister's Office over the question of who owns
diplomatic relations with the U.S.... Now Ayalon finds
himself at the center of the conflict between the Prime
Minister's Bureau and the Foreign Ministry over control
in Washington. As things look now, it seems he will
pay with his job. This is a good opportunity to put an
end to the ongoing rancor that has Israeli diplomacy
wallowing in the mud. The foreign minister has to
recognize that the prime minister is in charge of
relations with the U.S."

KURTZER