ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 004097 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. Iran ¶3. Guantanamo Detainees ¶4. U.S.-Israel Relations -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media led with disengagement-related issues. Ha'aretz reported that the army will soon declare the Gaza Strip a closed military area, due to fears of further escalation by right-wing extremists holed up in the Gush Katif settlement bloc. The media highlighted the blockage of roads throughout the country, which is scheduled to take place at 5:00 p.m. today. This morning, anti-disengagement activists threw oil and nails at two points on the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, sparking anger among mainstream opponents of the pullout plan, including the blockage organizers. The media reported that PM Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz conveyed tough statements in response to pro-disengagement protests. All media quoted former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon as saying, before a Knesset panel Tuesday, that he was briefed on the disengagement after it was reported in the media and after the U.S. had been consulted about it. Yediot quoted Sharon associates as saying that Ya'alon is lying. Israel Radio quoted Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as saying at the annual "Caesarea Conference," which opened in Jerusalem Tuesday, that he does not intend to join any anti-disengagement initiative that would cause him to quit the government. He was quoted as saying that the disengagement, which he said was a mistake because it will bring Hamas to the fore, will cost Israel at least 10 billion shekels (around USD 2.2 billion in present terms) in three years. Ha'aretz quoted Netanyahu as saying at the conference that Israel's growth is more important than that of Europe and even that of the U.S. All media reported that right-wing activists, who took over a Palestinian house on Monday near the beach in Gush Katif, clashed violently Tuesday with Palestinians living nearby. The media reported that Cpl. Avi Bieber, the IDF soldier who on Sunday refused to remove settlers who were disrupting the demolition of abandoned houses in Gush Katif, was sentenced at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday to 56 days in military jail -- the maximum possible sentence. Israel Radio reported that the U.S. and Israel have still not reached an agreement about security exports during talks in Washington. Yediot reported that the office of Vice Premier Shimon Peres, in coordination with the Finance Ministry and officials in the U.S. Embassy to Israel, has prepared the Israeli request for the aid package to strengthen the Negev and Galilee. The newspaper says that Israel is asking for aid that will serve to relocate seven IDF bases to the Negev, rehabilitate seven Bedouin villages, build new industrial zones, tend to environmental issues, primarily Ramat Hovav, establish hi-tech and industrial parks, and develop infrastructure, roads and railways. Leading media reported that Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei announced on Tuesday that his cabinet is sitting in emergency sessions until the completion of Israel's pullout from Gaza. Qurei also said he was ready to form a cabinet that would include Hamas. Leading media reported that Hamas rejected the offer. Hatzofe reported that Gen. Yosef Mishlav, the coordinator of GOI activities in the territories, told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that anarchy prevails in the PA, that Fatah is collapsing, but that there has been some improvement in the PA's economic conditions. Jerusalem Post quoted Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the IDF's Intelligence Corps research division, as saying on Tuesday at a meeting of the Knesset Forum on the Middle East, that Iran is committed to building a nuclear bomb, which would help it spread the Islamic revolution across the Middle East. Jerusalem Post quoted Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's Jerusalem-based Director of Interreligious Affairs, as saying that top Israeli Jewish religious leaders have refused to attend the Qatar interreligious conference opening in Doha today because they were not allowed to be on a panel or listed as participants on the program. Yediot writes that Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi and former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau and Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen were among those invited to the event. Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that the Moscow prosecution announced Tuesday that it has decided not to open an official investigation of a Russian translation of the Shulhan Arukh, a fundamental code of Jewish religious law, in reversal of its earlier position. Vice PM Ehud Olmert welcomed the decision. Maariv reported that 200 people attacked, and almost killed, two Palestinians who intended to break into houses in Moshav Ahiezer, near Ben Gurion Airport, on Tuesday night. Former U.S. ambassador to Israel and former A/S Martin Indyk was quoted as saying, in an interview with Jerusalem Post, that Israel might find itself slapped with UN Security Council sanctions if it continues its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Yediot cited a "secret FBI document," according to which local police knew about the possibility that a terrorist attack could be carried out against El Al targets at Los Angeles' LAX airport on July 4, 2002, but that they failed to act. Yediot reported that A-G Menachem Mazuz instructed the police to start an investigation against MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash-Ta'al),following his May trip to Lebanon, an "enemy country," which was not authorized by the Interior Ministry. Jerusalem Post cited the results of a poll conducted by the University of Haifa: - 41.8 percent of Israeli Jews believe that no settlements should be dismantled as part of a peace agreement. - 20.4 percent of Israeli Jews said they were willing to block roads or highways to thwart a government policy they consider to be dangerous, while 46.9 percent defined the settlers' protests as violent. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, argued in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The true, tough test [of disengagement] lies in its security aspect -- mainly in the fate of the Philadelphi route." Block Quotes: -------------- "Forsaken to Egypt's Mercy" Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir, argued in popular, pluralist Maariv (June 29): "When he invented disengagement, Sharon apparently thought he would do away with some of the damage caused by the Oslo Accords. The belief that the disengagement would produce diplomatic achievements has ended up unfounded. The true, tough test lies in its security aspect -- mainly in the fate of the Philadelphi route.... After the IDF's withdrawal [from Gaza], territorial continuity would be formed from the very heart of Egypt, via the north of the Sinai peninsula, until the outskirts of Ashkelon. Tomorrow or the day after, another leader, whose attitude toward Israel will be different, will rule Egypt. The Gaza Strip could soon turn into a sword directed at central Israel.... If Gush Katif is destroyed, the Philadelphi route would be the last obstacle before an invasion of the Land of Israel [Israel, including the territories.]" -------------- ¶2. Iran: -------------- Summary: -------------- Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "Israel must continue its diplomatic efforts to neutralize the Iranian threats. However it is important that Israel ... remain behind the scenes and leave center stage to the great powers." Block Quotes: -------------- "Facing the Reality in Tehran" Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (June 29): "Last weekend's election of the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran is an important regional development. His positions are liable to increase Iran's hostility toward Israel even further, but they also create an opportunity to increase pressure on the Iranian regime to change its behavior.... He cannot be presented as a moderate who needs to be encouraged and strengthened. Immediately after his election, he pledged to continue Iran's nuclear program, expressed contempt for the U.S., and said that Israel's existence was 'illegal.' These positions could also have practical implications: for instance, accelerating the nuclear program or encouraging Hezbollah not to disarm. Israel hopes, rightly, that such statements will help expose the true face and intentions of the Iranian regime and thereby help to drum up international support against it. It will be easier to muster support against the extremist rulers in the absence of Khatami's moderate fig leaf. European diplomats say that it is necessary to wait and see how Ahmadinejad behaves, and that overly harsh sanctions would only push Iran into irresponsible behavior. Moreover, it will be difficult to impose economic sanctions on such a large oil exporter when global oil prices are so high. But Israel must continue its diplomatic efforts to neutralize the Iranian threats. However it is important that Israel not position itself at the front: it should remain behind the scenes and leave center stage to the great powers." ¶3. Guantanamo Detainees: Summary: -------------- Columnist Mark Steyn wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "[Guantanamo] is the first gulag in history where the torture victims put on weight." Block Quotes: -------------- "Steady On, Gitmo Is Not Belsen" Columnist Mark Steyn wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (June 29): "The world divides into those who feel the atrocities at Gitmo 'must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - - Pol Pot or others' (in the widely quoted words of [Democratic] Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois),and the rest of us, for whom the more we hear the specifics of the 'atrocities' the funnier they are.... Where the anti-Gitmo crowd went wrong was in expanding its objections from the legal status of the prisoners to the treatment they're receiving. By any comparison -- i.e. not just with Hitler -- they're getting better than they deserve. It's the first gulag in history where the torture victims put on weight.... The Democrats flopped in 2002 and 2004 because they were seen as incoherent on national security issues. Explicitly branding themselves as the "terrorists' rights" party is unlikely to improve their chances for 2006." -------------- ¶4. U.S.-Israel Relations: -------------- Summary: -------------- Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in an editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Now, in Washington, the Americans are drafting the terms of surrender for the Israelis.... Our dependence on America is total." Veteran columnist Yosef Goell wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "Over the past six decades Israel ... has attracted more love and support from Americans than any other foreign nation.... [But] today Israel is loosely identified with Bush Junior and his administration, broadly hated on campuses." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "The Mouse that Roared" Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in an editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (June 29): "An [Israeli] security delegation is presently in the U.S. with the aim of ending the dispute between the great United States and small Israel with regard to arms sales. The Americans were angry and set us straight, and now, in Washington, the Americans are drafting the terms of surrender for the Israelis. From now on, we will tell Uncle Sam all the secrets of our defense wares. We will report every SIPDIS bolt sold to the Galapagos Islands, from now on all the safes are cracked, all the secrets are open, and if the uncle from the Pentagon shakes an admonishing finger at us, we will fold and plead: forgive us, expiate our sins. That is what happens when a country like Israel is dependent on a world power like the United States. They are capable of grounding our entire Air Force within a short period of time, denying us 80 percent of the bread we eat, forcing us to the floor with our hands in the air. We are a protectorate, and the Defense Ministry will no longer be able to run wild at the expense of the American defense industries. That is what every prime minister who enters office ... is beginning to understand. Our dependence on America is total. We, at most, are a mouse that is trying to roar." II. "A Many-Splendored Thing" Veteran columnist Yosef Goell wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (June 29): "We have to learn to neutralize our nagging Jewish penchant for seeking love from all and sundry. It's a sickness. The overwhelming majority of people in the world don't 'love' other people; they have more important targets for their emotions. I would say that over the past six decades Israel has been an exception to that rule, especially in the U.S., and she has attracted more love and support from Americans than any other foreign nation. The flip side has been that the Israel- Palestinian conflict has also come in for greater emotional involvement, both positive and negative, than all the other, bloodier, conflicts raging throughout the world at the same time. In 1967, the anti-Israel positions on graduate campuses were strongly influenced by the Vietnam War and by Israel's identification with the hated Johnson administration. Today Israel is loosely identified with Bush Junior and his administration, broadly hated on campuses." KURTZER