ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 004255 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. July 7 London Bombings ¶2. Israel-China Relations -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media led with, and extensively reported on, Thursday's terror bombings in London, in which at least 37 people were killed and 700 others were wounded. Banners in Yediot: "London's Nightmare," Maariv: "Jihad in London," Jerusalem Post: "Al-Qaida Blamed as London Blast Kills Dozens," and Hatzofe: "Terror Blitz in London." Yediot quoted sources at the Israeli Embassy in London as saying that they received "intense warnings" of an attack on Wednesday. Jerusalem Post says that the Foreign Ministry rejected a report that Israel had received an advance warning. Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli academic Moti Cristal as saying that, due to legal and cultural constraints, British security did not go deep enough in its search for sleeping cells. Leading media reported that PM Sharon has instructed his cabinet not to make any comments on the attacks and to refrain from making statements that would equate the terror in Britain with that in Israel. Jerusalem Post notes that on Thursday, FM Silvan Shalom and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu conveyed messages -- but only to the Hebrew media -- that global terror and terror against Israelis were a common cause. Leading media reported that Sharon told British Ambassador to Israel Simon McDonald that the world must "unite in the war against terrorism." The media cited the responses of President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the attacks. Israel Radio reported that in Damascus on Thursday, leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP rejected PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas's offer to join a Palestinian unity government. The station said that Hamas representatives proposed establishing a joint national committee to monitor the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but that the proposal was rejected. The radio quoted Abbas's adviser, Jibril Rajoub, as saying that after the meeting that the Palestinian Authority would be the legitimate authority in the territories, and that there would be no committee or parallel authority that would rule the Gaza Strip. The radio reported that Abbas will hold meetings with political figures in Beirut today. Ha'aretz reported that, following a ruling by a High Court Justice, the IDF has given settlers in Amuna 48 hours to evacuate nine homes recently occupied at the illegal West Bank outpost. Israel Radio reported that IDF troops clashed with armed Palestinians last night in Jenin. The radio also reported that seven Palestinians were arrested at dawn in Hebron, including three Islamic Jihad activists. Some of the apprehended men were in possession of weapons. Yediot cited an announcement issued during a meeting between Vice Premier Shimon Peres and senior defense establishment officials, according to which the cost of upgrading the Erez Crossing passage between Israel and the PA is assessed at USD 500 million. Yediot (Nahum Barnea) reported that the Defense Ministry is building "under the Americans' nose," 6,000 housing units in Geva, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, which will be connected by a "huge bridge" to the nearby the settlement of Adam, on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem. All media reported that on Thursday, Al-Qaida announced that it killed Egyptian Ambassador-designate to Iraq Eyhab el-Sharif, who the organization claims admitted to collaborating with Israel. Yediot cited concerns among Israel's defense and intelligence community that el-Sharif passed on to his jailers information about Israel, which could help Al-Qaida carry out attacks in Israel. Yediot, Maariv, and Jerusalem Post reported that on Thursday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved the nomination of O/C Southern Command Maj. Gen. Dan Harel to the post of defense attache in Washington. Harel is currently in charge of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Ha'aretz cited new research by the United States' military intelligence, according to which the U.S. mistakenly assessed that Iraq would launch missiles at Israel early during the 2003 Iraq War, and that Israel would not exercise self-restraint. -------------- ¶1. July 7 London Bombings: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The radical organizations could fully realize the tactical capability of their flexible structure." Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "A year ago, we predicted here that the terror attacks in Europe would continue. They will continue as long as the Europeans continue to ... ignore the fanatic Islamization of large parts of Europe." Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "The attackers would, of course, like gullible Westerners to think that they struck because of Britain's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan." Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in Ha'aretz: "We must now wait and see how Thursday's events will influence the European stance." Editor-in-Chief Gonen Ginat ironically addressed the British in nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe: "You must recognize the limits of force, and renounce sovereignty over London's [Muslim] neighborhoods." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "The New Terror Front Is Europe" Senior Middle East affairs analyst Zvi Bar'el wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (July 8): "The bombings in London and the announcement from an organization calling itself Al-Qaida Jihad Europe indicate that the organization has adopted a new strategy -- to export the war from Iraq to states it sees as its rivals for the control of Iraq.... This new strategy in Europe could result in the operation of two terror systems -- one in Iraq, headed by the Iraqi network, and another on the international front, wherever a bombing could be carried out. Thus the radical organizations could fully realize the tactical capability of their flexible structure. On the one hand, they could operate as local groups poised to establish radical fundamentalist regimes in Muslim states, and on the other hand, serve as branches of a universal ideology and its leadership.... It is difficult to detect the two terror systems because international terror organizations, unlike local ones, do not necessarily depend on local community infrastructure, Arab or Muslim. Instead they have developed independent logistic systems.... [Thus,] the European intelligence services have difficulty in detecting these cells, apparently because they are cut off from the local Muslim communities that are under surveillance." II. "Out of Europe the Evil Shall Break Forth" Chief Economic Editor and senior columnist Sever Plotker wrote in mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (July 8): "There is a clear connection between the terror offensive and the British involvement in the war in Iraq, and the unceasing -- yet imperfect -- pursuit of Muslim terrorists living throughout Britain. This pursuit, it is already clear, has failed. Terrorism overcame the indifference, the lack of concern, and particularly the ineffectuality employed by the London municipality against the fanatic Muslim underground that formed within the city. Friendship was cultivated with the Muslim fanatics, in a useless attempt to appease them. A year ago, we predicted here that the terror attacks in Europe would continue. They will continue as long as the Europeans continue to close their eyes, shut their ears and ignore the fanatic Islamization of large parts of Europe. If the elites of Europe, which are so busy condemning Israel, had only read the report of the special commission that investigated the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, they would have seen that the idea of mass terror attacks in the West was born in the circles of Arab fanatics in Germany, Spain and Britain. That is where the nests of terror are located. It was out of there that the evil broke forth." III. "A Global Test" Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (July 8): "The threat posed by Islamist fanaticism is to the very fabric that keeps the international system together.... The remedy must therefore constitute a long-term effort that only begins with the world's leading secret services and armies. Even more fundamentally, the peoples who languish under the thumb of dictators who support terrorism must see that they are not alone.... The attackers would, of course, like gullible Westerners to think that they struck because of Britain's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in both countries the people have been given a chance to express their own views, in the kind of free elections that the Islamists are fighting against. In turning out massively for both elections, Afghanis and Iraqis have effectively told the world that in the war between terror and life, they, the Muslim masses, are on the side of life. Sooner or later they will be joined in that reckoning with those in the West who have yet to understand where history has now arrived. Only then will the end of this world war's beginning have arrived." IV. "Will Europe's Reluctance Towards the All-Out U.S. War on Terror Continue?" Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman wrote in Ha'aretz (July 8): "Even Britain, the United States' closest ally, has proven, in its attitude toward Iran and the Palestinians, that it isn't prepared to adopt an 'all or nothing' approach. Europe insists on seeing hues of gray, while the U.S. views the struggle against terror in black and white. We must now wait and see how Thursday's events will influence the European stance: will they cause the European states to beat their chests -- for not having been forceful enough against terror elements -- or will they strengthen those who believe that an all-out wart only invites responses and further loss of life?" ¶V. "Dear British: Allow Us to Remind You There Is No Military Solution to Terror" Editor-in-Chief Gonen Ginat ironically addressed the British in nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe (July 8): "You must look forward, not sink in the hatreds of the past. It won't be a surrender to terror if you do exactly as it tells you and pull out the British army from the land of the Iraqi people, which hasn't wronged you.... You must recognize the limits of force, and renounce sovereignty over London's [Muslim] neighborhoods.... How can it be that for years you have demanded of Israel what you have no intention of demanding of yourselves?" -------------- ¶2. Israel-China Relations: -------------- Summary: -------------- Shalom Salomon Ward, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, who authored a book on China and the Jewish people, wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "How can Israel preserve its vital relationship with America without destroying the goodwill it enjoys with the next great power? Israel has a lot at stake here." Block Quotes: -------------- "China Is the Next Great Power" Shalom Salomon Ward, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, who authored a book on China and the Jewish people, wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (July 8): "Although Israel cannot afford to upset its only major ally, Jews must not forget that in less than 20 years China will directly and substantially affect the external fate of the Jewish people. First, China's thirst for oil will make it the second, if not the first, foreign economic power in the Middle East.... [Second,] Chinese intellectuals express respect for Jewish civilization, its great age, and its influence on world history. Many see a communality between the two peoples because both has suffered humiliation, occupation, and persecution, yet both emerged from their predicaments.... How can Israel preserve its vital relationship with America without destroying the goodwill it enjoys with the next great power? Israel has a lot at stake here. The Chinese have long memories. A senior Chinese policy adviser said late in 2003: 'We are grateful to Israel to this very day because you recognized us so early, before most others.' How often do Jews hear that somebody is 'grateful' to them?.... America is confused and not sure how to deal with China and, worse, its own fears of China.... America will have to come to grips with China's emergence by more imaginative and cooperative policies than military and technological commitment." KURTZER