ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION


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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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Mideast

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Key stories in the media:
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All media led with reports of scuffles between settlers
and IDF troops who came to evacuate two caravans at the
West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, including an incident
in which a soldier fired warning shots at settlers as
they tried to strip him of his rifle. Ha'aretz cited
the belief of the IDF General Staff that the time has
come to start cracking down on Israelis who use
violence against soldiers and policemen in the
territories. Leading media reported that Monday dozens
of settlers built protest tents near the Knesset.

This morning, Israel Radio reported that seven
Palestinians were killed by a shell fired by an IDF
tank in Beit Lahiya near the Erez Crossing, following
the launching of a rocket at a bus transporting Israeli
children. The radio cited Palestinian claims that five
of the slain people were children aged 12 to 17, and
IDF allegations that the killed Palestinians were older
Hamas militants.

Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli military sources as
saying that, thanks to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief
architect of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, either Syria,
Egypt or Saudi Arabia now has the potential to achieve
a "significant nuclear leap." The quote comes days
after Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy expressed fear that
one of those countries might have acquired some kind of
nuclear capability via an illicit weapons trafficking
network run by Khan.

All media reported that defying condemnation from Hamas
and other radical factions in the Gaza Strip, PLO
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday reiterated a demand
for an end to rocket attacks against Israeli targets.
Some media said that Abbas's remarks were spurred by a
statement made Sunday by Secretary of State Colin
Powell that he found Abbas's failure to distance
himself from the radical al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
"disturbing." The media also reported that Monday
Abbas promised Palestinians refugees that they will be
able to return home one day, and that he vowed not to
take up arms against militants.

All media reported that right-wing activists are making
use of a 1994 interview in which Sharon urged soldiers
not to obey orders that go against their conscience.
The activists have been distributing a recording of
Sharon's remarks to IDF conscripts. Hatzofe reported
that Monday the National Religious Party decided to
offer Shas and National Union the option to join its
efforts against the disengagement plan.
Jerusalem Post reported that officials from Pakistan,
Yemen, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, all Muslim countries
without diplomatic ties with Israel, will arrive by the
end of the week to take part in the international team
monitoring the PA election. The newspaper quoted Amir
Maimon, the Foreign Ministry official in charge of
coordination for the election monitors, as saying they
will be part of an 80-person team put together by the
U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI),the foreign
policy arm of the Democratic Party. Jerusalem Post
also cited an IDF denial of Palestinian claims that
Rizik Ziad Musleh, a high school student campaigning
for Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a candidate in the upcoming
PA chairmanship elections, was killed by soldiers last
Thursday near Rafah.

Turkish FM Abdullah Gul was quoted as saying Monday in
an interview with Ha'aretz that Turkey believes that
Syria is serious about making peace with Israel, and
that that Ankara hopes to receive a positive response
from Jerusalem to the message Gul is bringing with him
from Damascus.

Yediot reported that Lakhdar Brahimi, Special Adviser
to the Secretary-General of the UN, has told a Belgian
Senate delegation that Sharon is a murderer. The
newspaper reported that the Foreign Ministry has
instructed the Israeli Representative to the UN to
present a strong protest to Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, and that has it also instructed the U.S. Embassy
in Washington to raise the issue with the State
Department.

Yediot cited the GOI's confirmation that FM Silvan
Shalom will visit Jordan this month. Yediot quoted the
Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm as saying Sunday
that during Shalom's visit, Israel will release several
Jordanian prisoners.

Yediot reported that, following the Iranian nuclear
threat and concerns about world terror, the Mossad has
requested additional funding from the Knesset's secret
services subcommittee.

Ha'aretz reported that the Foreign Ministry has opened
a bank account for private contributions for the
victims of the South Asian tsunami, and that it is
considering sending around 20 mobile water purifiers to
the countries that were hit by the disaster. Leading
media reported that IsraAid, a coordinating body of
Jewish organizations worldwide and NGOs based in
Israel, is spearheading the Israel Campaign For
Southeast Asia Disaster, a global Jewish relief
campaign to aid the victims of the disaster.

Yediot and Maariv cited the results of a poll conducted
in the UK by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph:
-"Which country do you hate most?" Israel: 37 percent
of respondents; India: 29 percent; Egypt and China: 24
percent. (Cited in Maariv.)
-Respondents found the most dangerous country to be:
U.S.: 37 percent; Israel: 33 percent; Egypt; 21
percent. (Cited in Yediot.)

Jerusalem Post cited a street survey conducted in
Orlando, FL, by the International Society for Sephardic
Progress: 63 percent of respondents did not know what
Auschwitz-Birkenau was.







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Mideast:
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Summary:
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Columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote on page one of popular,
pluralist Maariv: "Monday's struggle [at the West Bank
settlement of Yitzhar], from the perspective of the
settlers ... was not over ... two patently illegal
trailers.... Kingdoms have already fallen because of
civil war."

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized:
"Israel must ... immediately take steps that will prove
... that it truly intends the Palestinian Authority
election to be free and open to all."

Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in
Maariv: "Mahmoud Abbas ... is dancing with the
wolves.... The thinking on the worst-case scenario
should already have been done. Withdrawal must be done
with eyes wide open."

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post: "[In both Iraq and the Palestinian
Authority], existing ideologies and political
structures are in conflict with democratic processes,
while the big problems and difficult choices remain to
be confronted after Election Day."

Liberal columnist B. Michael wrote in mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "What to do, disengagement
is a typical Sharon bluff. There indeed is no way but
to support it, be it only in order to expose the cheat.
But there's no reason to enthuse about it."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Blood Is Going To Be Spilled"

Columnist Avraham Tirosh wrote on page one of popular,
pluralist Maariv (January 4): "Let it be clear,
Monday's struggle [at the West Bank settlement of
Yitzhar], from the perspective of the settlers who
clashed with the police and the soldiers, was not over
those two patently illegal trailers stuck out there on
some desolate hilltop. It was over the settlements in
the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. And it sent a
message that is unequivocal, terrible and causes
despair: when the time comes for the big evacuation, if
we get there, there is going to be gunfire, blood is
going to be spilled, and all the institutions in Israel
will collapse. Kingdoms have already fallen because of
civil war. And, terrifyingly enough, there isn't
anyone who is capable of preventing it. Maybe just
that old rabbi [United Torah Judaism party mentor Rabbi
Yosef Shalom Elyashiv], who is shut in his house in
Jerusalem right now, deliberating whether to breathe
life into the Sharon government and the disengagement
plan, or to force early elections that will delay and
may even dash the big evacuation and, by so doing, the
plague of fire and blood that threatens us."

II. "Free and Open to All"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(January 4): "Five days before the Palestinian
Authority's election day, one gets the impression that
Israel is uncertain that this is truly its heart's
desire.... The elections, say the Palestinians, with
the backing of international monitors, must be free in
the fullest sense of the word. What such freedom means
is that every person must be able to come to the polls
without fear or pressure in order to exercise his right
to vote. But it is doubtful that Palestinians fearful
of IDF gunfire or lengthy delays at checkpoints will
want to leave their houses to participate in the
elections. Israel ought to have a keen interest in the
political legitimacy that Abu Mazen is seeking....
Those who are demanding a new diplomatic program from
the Palestinians -- an end to incitement and the
disarming of the militias and gangs -- should know that
this cannot be achieved via a Palestinian leadership
that lacks public support. To achieve this result,
Israel must cease the political miserliness that has
characterized it to date and immediately take steps
that will prove -- not only to the Palestinians, but
also to the Israeli public and international observers
-- that it truly intends the Palestinian Authority
election to be free and open to all."

III. "Dancing With Wolves"

Veteran print and TV journalist Dan Margalit wrote in
Maariv (January 4): "Mahmoud Abbas -- a.k.a. Abu Mazen
-- is dancing with the wolves. He fraternizes with
Hamas, snuggles up to Islamic Jihad and promises the
terrorists that he will not disarm them. Just the
opposite, he says he will protect them. Israel is
giving him credit, which boils down only to election
PR. When the polls close on January 9, his romance
with terror is meant to come to an end.... After all,
the candidate for the Palestinian Authority leadership
rejected the armed conflict at the beginning of the
Intifada in 2000. We have to hope. But we also have to
ask ourselves what will happen if this doesn't take
place. Abu Mazen has a biography of weakness in the
face of Palestinian terror.... In the lack of an
agreement with Abu Mazen and with terror continuing,
the IDF will not be able to withdraw from the Gaza
Strip along with the settlers.... To evacuate Gush
Katif under fire, Israel must announce to itself that
the Gush Katif bloc is more of a liability than an
asset. Will a Likud-headed government, even one that
has already gone a long and dramatic way from what
Sharon promised in the elections to what he is
proposing now, be capable of doing this? It is too
early to know. The chances are still good that Abu
Mazen will come to his senses and distance himself from
terror after the Palestinian polling booths close. An
orderly transfer of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority
serves the interests of all sides, except for the
terrorists. But when Sharon brings the issue of
disengagement to his cabinet this month for a decision,
the thinking on the worst-case scenario should already
have been done. Withdrawal must be done with eyes wide
open."

IV. "Two Arab Elections"

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Center's Global
Research in International Affairs Center, columnist
Barry Rubin, wrote in conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post (January 4): "Strange but revealing: the
two fairest elections in Arab history are about to be
held due only to foreign pressure and presence. They
also say a great deal about the direction of Arab
politics and likely developments during 2005. In both
cases the fact that Iraqi and Palestinian leaders will
be determined via a ballot box is encouraging,
signaling a growing interest in democracy, human
rights, and moderation.... [Still,] the [Iraqi]
election may lay the basis for a civil war, or at least
heightened ethnic antagonism and strife. The
Palestinian situation is somewhat parallel. Fatah is
the dominant party and Abu Mazen will be elected
because he is its candidate. That powerful (though
undisciplined) organization is still in the hands of
hard-liners, who are not ready for a real peace with
Israel, or for genuine democracy. At the same time,
Fatah is ready to make deals with other forces -- its
own young insurgents and Hamas -- that will block any
real change or hopes for peace.... The possibility of a
popular regime exists in both cases, as well as a
stable government in Iraq and a cease-fire for the
Palestinians. Yet existing ideologies and political
structures are in conflict with democratic processes,
while the big problems and difficult choices remain to
be confronted after Election Day."


V. "Sharon Is Already Reaping Rewards"

Liberal columnist B. Michael wrote in mass-circulation,
pluralist Yediot Aharonot (January 4): "Those who have
refused to understand by themselves the purpose of the
disengagement [plan] received another chance to do so.
In an interview granted by Atty. [Dov] Weisglass to
Ha'aretz, he almost childishly detailed with frankness
and pride the truth hiding behind the Sharon plan....
Sharon's true inclination can be uncovered when one
compares the various aspects of his activity concerning
disengagement. 'Activity' in the full meaning of the
word is taking place in the West Bank: bulldozers are
crushing, trees are being uprooted, fences are jumped
over, houses are being built, roads are being paved,
millions of shekels are being buried among the rocks.
On the other hand, regarding disengagement, Sharon has
(so far) taken care of its verbal ... part.... No
budget allocated to the settlements has been cut....
What to do, disengagement is a typical Sharon bluff.
There indeed is no way but to support it, be it only in
order to expose the cheat. But there's no reason to
enthuse about it. However, God willing -- or God
forbid -- should it be implemented, one wouldn't know
whether it would then cause even greater harm."

KURTZER