ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 004387 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. Global War on Terrorism -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All media reported that on Thursday afternoon, a 22- year-old Israeli woman was killed and her boyfriend was slightly injured in a shelling attack on Moshav Netiv Ha'asara, one km north of the Gaza Strip. Hamas and Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the shelling. This morning, Israel Radio reported on incessant shelling on settlements and Israeli communities within the Green Line. Hatzofe cited an announcement by Sharon's bureau that the PA is responsible for the woman's death because it does not act to stop terror. Leading media reported that last night, IAF helicopters struck four Hamas targets in the Strip. The IDF split the Strip into three parts. Israel Radio quoted a State Department spokesman as saying Thursday that, in a telephone conversation she conducted with PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told him that the Palestinian leadership needs to take immediate actions to find those who were responsible for the Netanya bombing and bring them to justice. The spokesman was quoted as saying that Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch conveyed a similar message during a meeting he held with Abbas on Wednesday. Leading media reported that the PA declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip following the killing of the Israeli woman. The media reported that the state of emergency was declared on the backdrop of fierce clashes between PA police and armed Hamas men in the northern part of the Strip. This morning, Israel Radio reported that two Palestinian youths were killed and 25 other people were wounded in the clashes. All media reported that an IDF soldier died Thursday from wounds sustained in the Netanya bombing. He was the fifth victim of the attack. Ha'aretz reported that the Palestinian killed by the IDF in Nablus Thursday was a wanted, but unarmed, militant. All media reported that, in a renewed comparison of the Gaza pullout to the Holocaust, Gush Katif residents are writing their identity card numbers on their arms to protest the closure of the Gaza Strip to non-resident Israelis. Ha'aretz reported that the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories condemned the tactic, but that the far-right Jewish Leadership faction of the Likud reserved its condemnation for the closure imposed Wednesday, saying: "The Prime Minister of Israel and the Defense Minister signed an order the likes of which were last signed in German." Israel Radio quoted Israeli sources in Washington as saying that the CNN/USA Today poll aired this week, according to which 94 percent of respondents are opposed to U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for Israel's pullout from Gaza, was not scientific and came in the wake of a biased news report. Ha'aretz reported that the USG is demanding that Israel use the financial aid package it is set to receive from the U.S. to help the Bedouin in the south of the country and the Druze in the north. The newspaper quoted senior Israeli officials involved in the talks as saying that Israel has agreed to the demand. Ha'aretz quoted Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, as saying before a convention of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) in Washington last week that if the terror from Gaza continues after the disengagement, Israel will return to the Strip. The newspaper, as well as Israel Radio, cited a ZOA statement that Ayalon "also made clear that all of the Israelis who live on the wrong side of the security fence in towns like Beit El, Kadima, and Kiryat Arba will never be removed." Ha'aretz reported that on Thursday, the Beersheva District Court charged a young settler with attempted murder and another with aggravated assault for throwing rocks at an unconscious Palestinian on June 29 in what the army called an "attempted lynching." All media reported that the body of Anat Rosenberg, the Israeli woman who was missing in the bombing of the No. 30 bus in London, was identified. Maariv reported that Andrei Muchalov, who was until last Saturday first secretary at the Russian Embassy to Israel, was an intelligence agent whom the Shin Bet monitored ever since he arrived in Israel. A Maariv/Teleseker poll conducted this week: -55 percent of Israelis support the disengagement (54 percent two weeks ago); 31 percent are opposed (34 percent two weeks ago). -"Do you believe that, after the disengagement is carried out, terror from Gaza aimed at Israelis will increase?" "It will increase": 39 percent; "it will remain at the same level": 32 percent; "it will weaken": 20 percent. A Yediot/Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll conducted Wednesday among Gush Katif and northern West Bank settlers: -64 percent said they would not let themselves be evacuated (76 percent in a previous poll); 34 percent said they would (17 percent in a previous poll). -"How do you intend to act when soldiers and police come to evacuate you?" "I won't resist": 47 percent; "I'll resist passively": 30 percent; "I'll resist forcibly": 6 percent. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "This week it became clear that there is no essential difference between Islamic Jihad and Israel's nationalist rabbis. Both are out to destroy the State of Israel." Military correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "Israel will continue to exercise self-restraint .... [so] that the process of evacuating the settlements is carried out with maximum coordination with the Palestinians." Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev Schiff wrote in Ha'aretz: "It is impossible to tell the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that they are free and to keep them bottled up in solitary confinement." Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "The Americans are wondering.... Is Israel building a real border with the Palestinians or is it trying to have it both ways - - -- to separate from the latter and to remain in their territories at the same time?" Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach commented in Yediot Aharonot: "It is clear that nobody except Blair [will intervene]. If the president of the world doesn't do so, the [Middle East] will be on its own." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Good Morning, Disengagement" Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (July 15): "This week it became clear that there is no essential difference between Islamic Jihad and Israel's nationalist rabbis. Both are out to destroy the State of Israel -- one by terror attacks and the other by gnawing away at the democratic foundations of the state.... No one can take away from Sharon and Mofaz their courageous decision to evacuate Gush Katif and leave Gaza for good. But neither Sharon nor Mofaz has conveyed the message that beyond this planned move, a brutal and bitter battle is being waged against the elected government by the Greater Israel anarchists. Neither of them has conveyed the enormity of the danger that lies in store if these homegrown enemies gain the upper hand." II. "Between Gaza and Lebanon" Military correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (July 15): "With all due respect to the Palestinian attempt to imitate Hizbullah all the way, they should remember that they have already erred once in a big way. This happened shortly after the completion of the withdrawal from the security zone [in southern Lebanon], when quite a few Palestinians were tempted to believe the words of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah that Israel is as weak as a cobweb. It took them four and a half years of terrorism and suffering to realize that Israeli society was willing to battle in a much more determined fashion when the terror attacks were close to home, than to insist on outposts ... in Lebanon, which no one can remember any longer. Israel will demonstrate the same determination in the war of terror if Netiv Ha'asara [just north of the Gaza Strip] is attacked after disengagement. But until disengagement, the situation, meanwhile, is much more complicated. Israel will continue to exercise self- restraint to the best of its ability in the face of attacks such as Thursday, if only to fully exhaust the chance that the process of evacuating the settlements is carried out with maximum coordination with the Palestinians. Therefore, even after such a severe attack [on Netiv Ha'asara], in which a young woman was killed, the response will be low-key. A low-key response is not promised, however, by the IDF against Islamic Jihad for the terror attack in Netanya, for which the account has not yet been settled." III. "The Conditions For Israel's Withdrawal" Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev Schiff wrote in Ha'aretz (July 15): "It is impossible to disengage from the Gaza Strip and then afterwards to continue the siege on land, in the air and on the sea. If the siege by the IDF continues after the disengagement, this will be a continuation of the occupation because it is a belligerent act on Israel's part. The siege, including the siege along the Philadelphi route, had military logic to it as it was intended to prevent arms smuggling, especially long- range weaponry that could hit Israeli cities far from the Gaza Strip, such as Ashkelon. From the moment it becomes a matter of disengagement coordinated with the Palestinians and in cooperation with Egypt, the aim must be to end the military siege of the Gaza Strip. It is impossible to tell the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that they are free and to keep them bottled up in solitary confinement." IV. "The Red Lane" Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (July 15): "The Israelis are convinced that the passages they are currently building alongside the fence are a wonderful example of a humanitarian act of charity. Instead of spending half a day in an exhausting line in front of a soldier, instead of waiting for a week until goods are released, the pedestrian will wait one or two hours at the crossing -- and the freight no longer than one day. For this purpose, Israel is investing two billion shekels [around USD 440 million] in new, spacious, sophisticated, and civilian crossings. What Israelis see is a crossing; what Palestinians see is an obstacle.... The Americans are wondering what this really means. Is Israel building a real border with the Palestinians or is it trying to have it both ways - - to separate from the latter and to remain in their territories at the same time?" ¶V. "The Boss's Pal" Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach commented in Yediot Aharonot (July 15): "[Throughout the Western World] Bush is the symbol of everything that's bad in America. In most countries, his reelection worsened hatred for the superpower. Blair ... is the opposite: where Bush is perceived as a man of power, self-righteous, and an ignoramus, Blair is seen as tolerant, attentive, and intelligent.... What Blair advocated [following the London bombings] was what Bush has refrained from doing for almost five years: active intervention, combined with an international plan and international authority, in order to rescue this region, which will not be rescued.... It is doubtful whether Bush, who promised peace in the Middle East for 2005, knows what he wants to do on the day after disengagement. He is bogged in domestic problems: the war in Iraq refuses to end.... Blair is now the addresss. At the G-8 conference, he led a move of huge economic aid for the Palestinian Authority -- USD 9 billion.... It is clear that nobody except Blair [will intervene]. If the president of the world doesn't do so, the region will be on its own." -------------- ¶2. Global War on Terrorism: -------------- Summary: -------------- Deputy Managing Editor and extreme right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post: "The global economy is fueled by oil, which is controlled by the same forces that stand at the foundations of the current war against the Jews and Western civilization.... It is the duty of the State of Israel ... to point out this inconvenient reality to the rest of the world." Block Quotes: -------------- "The Beginning of the Reckoning" Deputy Managing Editor and extreme right-wing columnist Caroline B. Glick wrote in conservative, independent Jerusalem Post (July 15): "One of the most difficult challenges for a democratic society is facing up to the presence of an enemy fifth column in its midst. Aside from this, the fact of the matter is that the global economy is fueled by oil, which is controlled by the same forces that stand at the foundations of the current war against the Jews and Western civilization. Much easier than contending with these realities is to engage in the politics of denial.... It is the duty of the State of Israel (much ignored by its own leadership today) to point out this inconvenient reality to the rest of the world. And it is the duty and responsibility of all who treasure freedom and the right to live without fear to accept this reality in spite of its convenience. Refusing to do so is not simply a matter of cowardice. It is a recipe for suicide." KURTZER