Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TELAVIV4255
2005-07-08 10:54:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

Tags:  IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

081054Z Jul 05
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:
--------------------------------

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