ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 004238 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. G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- At midday, Israel Radio reported on a series of explosions in London, and that Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was supposed to participate in a conference near the location of the first blast. Yediot reported that the directors-general of the Prime Minister's Office and the Finance Ministry, who are leaving tonight for the U.S., are expected to ask for at least USD 500 million to develop the Galilee and Negev, and the relocation of settlers to be evacuated during the disengagement. Hatzofe quoted an Israeli source close to military talks with the PA as saying that the Palestinians made their demand that Israel also withdraw from Netiv Ha'asara, north of the Gaza Strip, well with the goal of reaching a 'land swap' agreement with Israel. This deal would give them an extra-territorial Palestinian road through the Negev, from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, in return for 'conceding' their demand for an Israeli withdrawal from the Netiv Ha'asara area. Jerusalem Post quoted chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying that there are presently no plans to arrange a meeting between Abbas and Sharon, although there is an urgent need for such a summit ahead of the disengagement. Ha'aretz led with threats made Wednesday in an interview with a local Gaza news agency by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, of both confrontation with the PA and continued attacks on Israel from Gaza after the disengagement. Al-Zahar reportedly said that Hamas had "lost faith" in PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas. Israel Radio reported that, for the first time, one of the two command centers that are to participate in evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip will conduct this morning a comprehensive training exercise in preparation for the disengagement. Leading media reported that on Wednesday, the rabbis of the settlements urged disengagement opponents to start marching toward Gush Katif today. Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz reported that on Wednesday, in the hope of avoiding additional High Court petitions on the security fence and speeding up its construction, PM Sharon accepted a revision to the route aimed at easing the lives of Palestinians. The new route, proposed by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, envisions two "fingers" enveloping the settlements of Ariel and the Emmanuel-Kedumim bloc in place of one wider expanse encompassing them all. Jerusalem Post quoted National Security Adviser Giora Eiland as saying that the security fence around Jerusalem could be completed within months and "Jerusalem can be closed as originally intended," provided all legal hurdles are overcome. Israel Radio reported that the IDF identified and shot at two armed men in the Nablus refugee camp of Balata, killing one of them. They reportedly were preparing to shoot at a bus of Israeli worshipers en route to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Ha'aretz reported that one Palestinian gunman was killed and a second man was wounded on Wednesday in an exchange of fire with an IDF force in the southern Gaza Strip. Echoing other media reports, Jerusalem Post writes that Israel has apparently decided to adopt a "zero tolerance" stance regarding any attempts to infiltrate the border from Lebanon. The newspaper quoted a UN source as saying: "It looks like this is a very firm approach by the IDF, and we have no reason to believe anything to the contrary." Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post reported that last night, Mofaz ordered the establishment of a special administration that would coordinate all the work related to the setting up and operating of the various border crossings between Israel and the PA in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Jerusalem Post quoted Romanian FM Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, who wrapped up a visit to Israel, as saying Monday that in the larger EU, his country will be an "honest broker" in the Middle East. Jerusalem Post pictures FM Silvan Shalom and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer shaking hands following the signing of a new extradition treaty. The last such compact was signed in 1962. Jerusalem Post reported that 21 American academics, who are here for a week to participate in the Brandeis University Summer Institute for Israeli Studies, have been exposed to the "good, bad, and ugly view of Israel." A Jordanian official was quoted as saying in an interview with Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that Amman is reconsidering a promise last month to send an ambassador to Iraq. Maariv reported that Al-Qaida has threatened to kill Egyptian Ambassador to Baghdad Eyhab el-Sharif, because he served as charge d'affaires at the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv between 1999 and 2003. All media reported on the visit of Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos to Israel. Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying that Angola is looking to Israel to help its economic recovery. Yediot says that Israeli businessmen in the diamond trade are pressuring Angola to grant them mining rights. Ha'aretz reported that a software pirate from northern Israel was arrested last Wednesday as part of a worldwide operation run by the FBI and Interpol. In another article, the newspaper wonders whether the U.S. is supervising the moves of web surfers on the global Internet. Ha'aretz published the results of Tel Aviv University's monthly Peace Index, conducted June 28-30: -54 percent of Israeli Jews support disengagement (57.5 percent in the previous month's survey); 41 percent are opposed (35 percent in the previous month's survey). -56 percent of Israeli Jews feel there is no danger of a civil war; 40 percent believe there is such a danger. -51 percent of Israeli Jews see the assassination of pro-disengagement political leaders as a real danger; 43 percent are not afraid of it. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The disengagement of Israeli policy from its religious fuel is the real disengagement currently on the agenda." Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Many 'average' Protestants are truly interested in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach a fair settlement to the conflict. It is with them, and not with officials blinded by anti-Israel political and ideological agendas, that Israel and the Jewish community need to engage." Correspondent Dov Kontorer wrote in conservative, Russian-language Vesty: "There is no place for dialog and civil harmony ... in Sharon's new scheme, which is totally oriented toward scaring the disengagement opponents." Foreign News Editor Adar Primor wrote in Ha'aretz: "Whether or not Japan uses [its involvement in the disengagement] as a jump-off point to the desired seat on the Security Council -- it would seem that Israel has nothing to lose from Japanese activeness. On the contrary, Israel is likely to benefit from it." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "The Real Disengagement" Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (July 7): "Israeli society is paying for the deliberate confusion that secular politicians created for their own convenience between security and the sanctity of the land, and for the use they made of the religious Gush Emunim movement to realize their secular policy goals. The disengagement of Israeli policy from its religious fuel is the real disengagement currently on the agenda.... The real question is who sets the national agenda, and when the state will wake up and begin to look into what students learn at the yeshiva in [the West Bank settlement of] Nahliel. The [planned] mass march to Gush Katif, like the scale of refusal by religious soldiers, will determine not only the future of the hesder yeshivas [in which students combine military service with religious studies], but primarily whether religious Zionism in its current incarnation is not a Trojan horse that has infiltrated Zionism in order to destroy it from within." II. "Talk to the Laity" Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (July 7): "Add the United Church of Christ to the list of Protestant churches riding the anti-Israel bandwagon.... Engaging Protestant leaders in dialogue has not succeeded in preventing political attacks on Israel.... It is time, then, for organizations like the AJC, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Anti- Defamation League to stop wasting their breath on high- level meetings with Protestant leaders and turn instead to the laity and the local leadership. It is from within those ranks that voices of dissent have come, as ministers and concerned churchgoers have begun to say to the anti-Israel activists: you don't speak for us. It would be wrong, too, to give up on Protestants as potential sympathizers, relying only on Evangelical Christians for support. Many 'average' Protestants are truly interested in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach a fair settlement to the conflict. It is with them, and not with officials blinded by anti-Israel political and ideological agendas, that Israel and the Jewish community need to engage." III. "Repression and Incitement -- Instead of Elections and a Referendum" Correspondent Dov Kontorer wrote in conservative, Russian-language Vesty (July 7): "The emergency atmosphere being spread in Israel is intended to make up for the decision regarding the deportation of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria [the northern part of the West Bank], which obviously lacks legitimacy.... Ariel Sharon demands that an even tougher suppression of the growing resistance movement.... There is no place for dialog and civil harmony ... in Sharon's new scheme, which is totally oriented toward scaring the disengagement opponents. The latter, who made a conscious choice in favor of a non-violent opposition to the Israeli government's destructive plans, are facing ... open repression and a biased coverage in the local and international press." IV. "A Japanese Sun in the Middle East" Foreign News Editor Adar Primor wrote in Ha'aretz (July 7): "[Current] Japanese efforts to help the Palestinians are combined with their vigorous wooing of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.... Koizumi's Japan is demanding a new status in the international arena. According to American philosopher Robert Kagan, in the existing world order, 'the United States cooks the meal, and Europe washes the dishes.' Japan's role, add the cynics, is to pay for the culinary event. But Japan is tired of the status of global sucker.... It is currently entirely preoccupied with fulfilling a supreme goal: obtaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Japan believes that being involved in the disengagement will give it international stature, which UN representatives in New York will not be able to ignore. Israel's attitude to the Land of the Rising Sun is liable to recall its attitude toward Europe: more nudniks who want to play with the big boys and who get underfoot. Whether or not Japan uses it as a jump-off point to the desired seat on the Security Council -- it would seem that Israel has nothing to lose from Japanese activeness. On the contrary, Israel is likely to benefit from it." -------------- ¶2. G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland: -------------- Summary: -------------- Chief economic editor Sever Plotker opined in the editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The first world can, and must, help the third world stand upright. But ... poverty isn't preordained, and the West isn't to blame for it; local politicians are responsible for it." Block Quotes: -------------- "The Rich People's Money and the Poor People's Politics" Chief economic editor Sever Plotker opined in the editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (July 7): "When the G-8 leaders go home, the following truth will remain: wise economic assistance can rescue a country from backwardness and poverty, but it can't produce miracles single-handedly. The poor, and nobody else in their stead, must want to free themselves from corrupt and tyrannical regimes, self- indulgent elites, and economic policies protecting the interests of a few people at the expense of many. They must abandon their apathy and their resignation to their condition, and challenge the latter. The first world can, and must, help the third world stand upright. But the third world must first of all raise its head and view reality as it is: poverty isn't preordained, and the West isn't to blame for it; local politicians are responsible for it." KURTZER