ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 000482

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD

WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT
SUBJECT: ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast


2. Syrian-Lebanese Track

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Key stories in the media:
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Leading media reported that newly confirmed Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice met with FM Silvan Shalom at
the White House on Wednesday. Israel Radio reported
that Secretary Rice intends to be more active than her
predecessor in efforts to resolve the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. Leading media reported that
Secretary Rice will come to Jerusalem in one month.

SIPDIS
Israel Radio reported that she is due to meet with
Sharon's adviser Dov Weisglass during the weekend.
Jerusalem Post and the radio reported that Secretary
Rice and FM Shalom discussed the creation of a U.S.-
mediated mechanism that would be applied in case of
disagreements or crises between Israel and the PA.
Shalom reportedly raised Israel's demand that the
Palestinians act to put an end to terrorism and not be
content with a cease-fire. The radio said that during
the meeting, Shalom also raised the issue of the
Iranian threat, asking the U.S. to make efforts to get
the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran.
Israel Radio quoted Shalom as saying that if the Shas
party does not enter PM Sharon's coalition, the
government will have fewer chances of surviving.
Leading media reported that Israel expects to obtain
U.S. aid in funding the implementation of the
disengagement plan, and that earlier this week Foreign
Ministry D-G Ron Prosor and Israel's Ambassador to
Washington Danny Ayalon have discussed the issue with
U.S. officials. Ayalon was quoted as saying in an
interview with Ha'aretz that the U.S. will help Israel
cover the expenses involved in transferring its forces
from bases in Gaza to new ones inside Israel, and that
Jerusalem has yet to make any formal request in this
regard. Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli officials as
saying that the White House would announce any new
funding for Israel.

Leading media reported on the beginning of A/S William
Burns's visit to Israel. Ha'aretz and Israel Radio
reported that last night Burns, Vice Premier Shimon
Peres, EU envoy Marc Otte, and the World Bank's
representative in the territories, Nigel Roberts,
discussed the removal of checkpoints and other economic
issues concerning the Palestinians. Israel Radio
reported that Burns will meet with Sharon today.
Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that Peres will meet
with PA Finance Minister Salam Fayyad at the World
Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland,
on Friday to begin discussing economic cooperation in
the framework of the disengagement plan.
All media reported on current progress in Israel-PA
relations. PM Sharon was quoted as saying in an
interview with Shimon Shiffer of Yediot: "Abu Mazen has
undoubtedly started to work. I am very pleased by what
I am hearing on the Palestinian side, and I am very
interested in furthering the moves with him." Ha'aretz
reported that Sharon will meet with PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei (Abu
Ala) in about two weeks and present a package of steps
and goodwill gestures to help strengthen the new
leadership and encourage them to continue efforts to
prevent terror. Israel Radio reported that a joint
Israeli-Palestinian tourism exhibit is currently on
show in Madrid.

Ha'aretz reported that in a preparatory meting on
Wednesday, between aides of Sharon, Abbas, and Qurei,
the Palestinians emphasized the importance of freeing
prisoners. The Israelis said they understood the
Palestinian position, and that they would examine the
request in the context of progress made in achieving
quiet on the ground. Maariv reported that Israel has
acceded to Abbas's request that senior wanted
Palestinians Tawfiq Tirawi and Rashid Abu Shabak be
granted freedom of movement. Leading media reported
that PA security official Muhammad Dahlan will meet
with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz next week to resume
hudna discussions that began in the summer of 2003
about the IDF quitting the West Bank's city centers,
which would take place once the Palestinians hand over
a detailed security plan and say they can take
responsibility. Ha'aretz notes that the Israelis have
been much more serious in discussing their security
plans than they were in 2003. Leading media reported
that Wednesday the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened
to resume their attacks against Israel, following the
killing by IDF forces of two of their members in
Qalqilya.

Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that on Wednesday Attorney
General Menachem Mazuz decided that all land managed by
the Israel Lands Administration, including land owned
by the Jewish National Fund, will be marketed without
discrimination or limits including to non-Jews.

The media continued their extensive coverage of the
60th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of
the death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where dozens of
world leaders, including U.S. Vice President Dick
Cheney and President Moshe Katsav, will attend a
ceremony this afternoon. The media reported that at a
special Knesset session Wednesday, Sharon warned
against "new anti-Semites" who are focusing on Israel
and portraying it as "Nazi" in its war against
Palestinian terror. Jerusalem Post quoted Katsav as
saying that there are no guarantees against another
Holocaust "in future generations." Leading media cited
a proclamation issued by President Bush on Tuesday,
stating that the occasion is an opportunity to pass
along lessons of the Holocaust to the future.

Leading media reported that a 3-year-old Palestinian
girl was killed by IDF fire in the center of the Gaza
Strip on Wednesday. The IDF claims she was killed by a
Qassam rocket.

All media reported that some 100 settlers from the
Katif Bloc violently disrupted a meeting Wednesday
afternoon between IDF officers and Palestinian police
officers at the crossing near Khan Yunis. Yediot
headlined: "The Palestinians Came to Fight Terror and
Were Attacked by Settlers." Leading media reported
that Likud Knesset members, activists of the party's
central committee, and settler leaders Wednesday urged
Sharon to hold a national referendum before the
disengagement. Israel Radio noted that fewer people
than expected attended the meeting.

Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that at a gathering
in Jerusalem on Wednesday, dozens of mostly religious
soldiers and officers, settlers, and those identifying
with religious Zionism publicized their firm promise
not to refuse orders.

All media reported that the courts have permitted
publication of the main suspicions against Iyad Khaled
al-Ashwah, the Lebanese-born Danish citizen who was
arrested on January 6 on suspicion of having been sent
to Israel by Hizbullah to gather intelligence about
security installations and to recruit Israeli Arab
agents. Maariv quoted Mofaz as saying at a press
conference in London Wednesday that Hizbullah possesses
missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv.

Yediot reported that "senior Americans" have conveyed a
suggestion to Syrian President Bashar Assad that he
return to Israel the remains of MIA Zecharia Baumel, an
AmCit who disappeared during the 1982 Lebanon War, so
that he can tell the Arab public that he returned the
body of an American, which could be interpreted as a
confidence-building measure.

Ha'aretz reported that under pressure by Jewish groups,
Columbia University announced on Wednesday that it was
postponing "indefinitely" a conference on the renewal
of the Middle East peace process, scheduled to have
taken place today. The newspaper quoted officials in
New York as saying that the timing of the conference
was suspect, because the university promised to publish
at this time findings of the inquiry into accusations
of racist comments by professors of Middle Eastern
origin against Jewish students. The Jewish officials
were quoted as saying that the conference, which was
initiated by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, was a
"transparent attempt to deflect attention away from the
severity of the accusations." Ha'aretz and Jerusalem
Post reported that Ambassador Ayalon pulled out of the
conference before the postponement announcement.




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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "It now turns out, in a totally predictable
manner, that the only IDF that the settlers recognize
is an aggressive and occupying IDF, not an IDF that
dares to reach agreements with the enemy."

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The
decision by ... the IDF ... to disperse soldiers from
the hesder yeshivas [in which yeshiva students combine
military service with religious studies] throughout the
army ... was correct and courageous."

Liberal columnist Meron Benvenisti wrote in Ha'aretz:
"In a reversal of roles, the Left is now nurturing the
paranoia of the 'demographic demon' and writing its own
charm for it: a withdrawal from populated territories
while continuing to discriminate collectively against
the Arab citizens of Israel."

Block Quotes:
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I. "The Skin is Coming Off"

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (January 27): "As the date for the
implementation of the disengagement plan draws near,
the sides are shedding their skin.... On Wednesday
settlers from the Katif Bloc attacked Palestinian
police who came to hold a coordination meeting with IDF
commanders prior to transferring responsibility over
the southern Gaza Strip to them. After that they also
clashed with the police who came to disperse their
violent demonstration. The rioters did not conceal the
fact that although this was the implementation on the
ground of an agreement between the IDF and the
Palestinian Authority, at the orders of the political
echelon, this did not change a thing in their eyes.
They thus made it clear that the state's institutions
exist on condition -- the condition being that they
serve their worldview.... And it now turns out, in a
totally predictable manner, that the only IDF that the
settlers recognize is an aggressive and occupying IDF,
not an IDF that dares to reach agreements with the
enemy.... It is very unlikely that the Gaza Strip
settlers are winning any political converts by this
manner of combat, but it appears that they have long
since moved beyond a political battle.... From now and
until the implementation of the plan, the battle is
actually over the government's ability to enforce its
decisions. On Wednesday we received a clear hint that
this battle will not only be waged by democratic
means."

II. "Dismantling the Arrangement"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(January 27): "The decision by Maj. Gen. Elazar Stern,
commander of the IDF Manpower Branch, to disperse
soldiers from the hesder yeshivas [in which yeshiva
students combine military service with religious
studies] throughout the army and not allow them to
continue serving in religiously homogeneous companies
and regiments was correct and courageous. Over the
years, the hesder yeshivas have changed from an
instrument used to encourage religious youth to enlist
in the army to a separatist, inegalitarian phenomenon
that could even be dangerous for the army and
society.... The decision is particularly appropriate
now, before the disengagement, and in light of letters
from individuals and groups in the religious Zionist
community promising that they will refuse orders to
take part in the disengagement, and calls by some
rabbis to refuse orders."

III. "Beware the Demographic Demon"

Liberal columnist Meron Benvenisti wrote in Ha'aretz
(January 27): "Every now and then, with inexplicable
timing, we suddenly encounter rumors that the
demographic demon -- the one that lies in the recesses
of the Arab woman's womb -- has raised its head once
again and is threatening to wipe out, God forbid, the
entire Zionist enterprise.... The right-wing circles
have discovered that the demographic demon had been
abducted from them, and is being used by others to
justify the evacuation of the Gaza Strip; and if the
demon doesn't serve the purposes of the right, one has
to pretend that it doesn't exist. In a reversal of
roles, the Left is now nurturing the paranoia of the
'demographic demon' and writing its own charm for it: a
withdrawal from populated territories while continuing
to discriminate collectively against the Arab citizens
of Israel."
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2. Syrian-Lebanese Track:
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Summary:
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Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "For the first
time since coming to power, Bashar Assad must decide
quickly which direction to take: a confrontation or an
arrangement with Israel and his new neighbor, the U.S.
in Iraq. Any delay is liable to hurt him first, his
credibility and the chances of his survival."

Block Quotes:
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"The Syrian Split Personality"

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (January 27):
"Fear has become the dominant component in the past two
years in making decisions in Syria, and in recent
weeks, it has bordered on obsession. The Syrians are
convinced that in the next few months there will be a
military attack on them from either the U.S. or
Israel.... The more pragmatic stream in the Syrian
leadership -- for example, the person designated to be
foreign minister, Walid el-Mualem, or chief of staff
Ali Habib, who knows exactly just how unprepared his
army is for war -- advocate appeasing the Americans and
urgently embarking on some sort of diplomatic process
with Israel. Such negotiations, even if they never
come to fruition, are meant to provide a bridge to the
future, and immunity from an American attack. An
important question in this regard has to do with the
role of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in
Damascus, and the answer is unknown. Both these
approaches do not reflect a real change in Syrian
policy. There is no possibility for such change as
long as the separatist and unpopular Alawite minority
rules by force of might over the Sunni minority, and as
long as in neighboring Iraq a change is taking place at
this very moment that will turn the ruling minority
into being ruled themselves. Nonetheless, for the
first time since coming to power, Bashar Assad must
decide quickly which direction to take: a confrontation
or an arrangement with Israel and his new neighbor, the
U.S. in Iraq. Any delay is liable to hurt him first,
his credibility and the chances of his survival."
KURTZER