ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 005518 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM NSC FOR NEA STAFF SECDEF WASHDC FOR USDP/ASD-PA/ASD-ISA HQ USAF FOR XOXX DA WASHDC FOR SASA JOINT STAFF WASHDC FOR PA USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL FOR POLAD/USIA ADVISOR COMSOCEUR VAIHINGEN GE FOR PAO/POLAD COMSIXTHFLT FOR 019 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. Hurricane Katrina ¶3. Egypt -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Israel Radio reported that PM Sharon and his senior ministers decided this morning that the IDF would withdraw from the Gaza Strip on September 12 through ¶15. The decision has to be approved by the cabinet on Sunday. At the same time, Egyptian border guards will deploy along the Philadelphi road. Israel Radio reported that the ministers accepted [in practice] an Egyptian compromise proposal on border control at the Gaza-Egypt frontier after the completion of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Under the terms of the proposal, Egypt will announce the closure of the current border crossing at Rafah for renovations that will last between six and nine months. During this period, the border crossing for people and goods between the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza will be relocated to a new terminal Israel is to build at Kerem Shalom. Ha'aretz quoted an IDF source as saying that Israel is to transfer responsibility for most of the area it evacuated in the northern West Bank to the PA. The source told Ha'aretz that the IDF would enter the area only if intelligence information indicated a terror attack was being planned there. All media reported that a Palestinian was killed and three others were wounded by IDF soldiers in Gush Katif on Tuesday, when they failed to heed warnings and climbed onto an Israeli tank at the evacuated settlement of Neve Dekalim. Palestinians subsequently fired Qassam rockets into Israeli territory. The media say that Israel sent a sharp message to the PA last night demanding that it meet its commitment to prevent mass parades into Gush Katif before the departure of the IDF. Major media (lead story in Yediot) quoted senior Israeli military sources as saying that the IDF must leave the Strip now. Israel Radio and leading Israeli news web sites reported that dozens of gunmen stormed the Gaza City home of former Palestinian security chief Moussa Arafat before dawn this morning, dragged him into the street and shot him dead. His son was abducted. A Palestinian militant coalition, the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility for those acts. Israel Radio quoted Vice Premier Shimon Peres as saying that the anarchy prevailing in the Gaza Strip constitutes a test for the PA, which must respect its promise of 'one gun and one vote' in its territory. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer was quoted as saying in an interview with Maariv's Ben Caspit that it is hard to understand the delay in the U.S. response to the New Orleans disaster, and that many questions will have to be answered. Kurtzer was also quoted as saying that nobody had ever imagined that the U.S. would face such a tragedy All media reported on Egypt's presidential elections, which are taking place today. Ha'aretz reported that an investigation by the newspaper and the human rights group B'Tselem repudiates the army's version of events concerning the August 24 operation in which five Palestinians were killed by IDF fire in the refugee camp of Tulkarm. While the IDF claimed that five terrorists were killed in the incident, the investigation found that the three teenage boys killed are not known members of any organizations, and that the two adults killed were low- ranking militants who were not armed at the time. Jerusalem Post quoted Construction and Housing Minister Isaac Herzog (Labor) as saying Tuesday that Education Minister Limor Livnat and other right-wing Likud ministers are harming the country's international image by issuing statements about strengthening its hold on the territories. Maariv reported that construction continues at illegal settler outposts, and that Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz instructed on Tuesday that 15,000 dunams (3345 acres) of land be fenced for two flocks of sheep in the southern Hebron hills. Leading media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the commanders of the IDF brigades in the West Bank on Tuesday that the army should thoroughly check the Palestinians at roadblocks, even if this causes traffic jams and anger among the setters. Over the past few days, the media have been reporting on discussions concerning the possible fate of the synagogues still standing in the evacuated Gaza Strip settlements. The media reported that, on Tuesday, the High Court of Justice asked Sharon to check with the PA and international bodies into the possibility of leaving the synagogues in place. This morning, Israel Radio reported that the PA is demanding that Israel destroy the synagogues or remove them from the Strip. Israel Radio reported that an Israeli delegation led by Maj. Gen. Chezi Levy, head of the IDF's Medical Corps, will leave for New Orleans this morning in order to coordinate humanitarian assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Yediot reported that the "Israeli solidarity plane" will leave for the U.S. Thursday with 90 tons of humanitarian supplies on board. Israel Radio reported that 15 tons of food, medicine, and emergency equipment donated by the Kibbutz Movement will be flown to New Orleans tomorrow. Yediot quoted Shas party mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as saying Tuesday that Hurricane Katrina was a divine retribution to President Bush "for what he did to Gush Katif." Jerusalem Post cited a report published by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW),which revealed that that after having signed a deal with the U.S. for USD 50 million to help with housing and infrastructure, PA officials called to launch attacks against U.S. soldiers and portrayed the U.S. as an "enemy." PMW noted that in recent days PA religious officials in radio and television sermons described the U.S. as the "most heretic" among countries and as an enemy who is trying the Islamic world. One of the officials allegedly called to intensify terror acts against U.S. soldiers in the presence of PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas. All media reported that Knesset Member Binyamin Netanyahu has decided to rethink his strategy in coming weeks, after his advisors have concluded that he stands to lose the vote on early primaries in the Likud Central Committee meeting on September 26. Citing Pakistan News Wire, Ha'aretz quoted Pakistani FM Mahmood Kasuri as saying on Monday that his country has had secret contacts with Israel for at least the past decade. Ha'aretz published the results of Tel Aviv University's Peace Index poll, conducted August 30-September 1: an overwhelming majority of 71.5 percent of the Jewish public thinks the unilateral disengagement from Gaza is not the end of the story, but only a first step toward an extensive evacuation of West Bank settlements in the context of a final agreement with the PA. A very small minority (15.8 percent) does not believe there will be further evacuations, and the rest (12.7 percent) are undecided. However, when asked for their position on an extensive evacuation of West Bank settlements, 34.3 percent said they would support it only in the framework of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, 13.5 percent would favor it even on a unilateral basis, and 41.8 percent said they would not support a far- reaching evacuation in the West Bank under any conditions. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The Bush administration thinks that it is best to defend its precious Sharon ... so that he can defeat Netanyahu in the [Likud] primaries. But the White House ... fails to comprehend Israeli politics." Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "[Education] Minister [Limor] Livnat, who continued to sit at the cabinet table when Gush Katif was being destroyed ... elicits laughter in both right and left wing circles when she talks about 'not succumbing to American dictates.'" Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Bush Is Also Wrong About the Israeli Hurricane" Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 7): "In the most banal way, the Bush administration thinks that it is best to defend its precious Sharon and even internationalize his protection so that he can defeat Netanyahu in the [Likud] primaries. But the White House ... fails to comprehend Israeli politics. If Sharon wins the primaries because of promises not to advance the peace process in any way, it would be better that he's not elected. And Washington is wrong if it thinks that even Sharon can toss aside such pre-election promises after the vote. A wise administration would have tried to get Sharon to stick with his earlier statements, and would have prepared for two possibilities that are both preferable to what it chose. One is that Sharon will win despite sticking to his new policy line. The other possibility is that Sharon will fail and let Netanyahu tie the noose of diplomatic recalcitrance around his own neck. If this happens, then even the most junior translator of the Israeli media at the embassy in Tel Aviv would know that Sharon would embark on a new and fascinating political path." II. "Empty Words" Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (September 7): "Education Minister Limor Livnat showed determination and courage by defying the U.S. administration -- truly the pinnacle of heroism.... Minister Livnat, who continued to sit at the cabinet table when Gush Katif was being destroyed and its residents were being exiled ... elicits laughter in both right and left wing circles when she talks about 'not succumbing to American dictates.' The minister, who succumbed to the amenities of government and did not follow in the footsteps of her colleague, Binyamin Netanyahu, taught all of us what value words have when she and her fellow Likud ministers are the ones who utter them." -------------- ¶2. Hurricane Katrina: -------------- Summary: -------------- Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Make no mistake: this is Bush's America, the Republicans' America, which rates its citizens only based on their achievements." Block Quotes: -------------- "In the Distant United States" Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in the lead editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (September 7): "[President Bush's] clumsy and uncaring attitude in the affair of the Katrina disaster has won him even more enemies than the many he had.... America sealed its ears, its eyes, and its heart to that latest catastrophe. But make no mistake: this is Bush's America, the Republicans' America, which rates its citizens only based on their achievements. The bad luck of those who remained on the sidelines and in the storm condemned them to weakness and worthlessness -- to human powder. The United States is a superpower that knows the concept of 'compassion' only from the dictionary.... It's a country devoid of compassion." -------------- ¶3. Egypt: -------------- Summary: -------------- Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: "Any Egyptian dictator will always need Israel as an external enemy to distract the people from his misrule.... Our best long-term hope for security is the spread of freedom in the Arab world." Block Quotes: -------------- "Egypt 'Votes'" Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized (September 7): "The essence of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power following an authentic expression of the popular will.... The only Arab country that can see such a democracy on the horizon, despite the plague of terrorism unleashed by neighboring dictatorships against it, is Iraq. The irony is that Egypt, though ostensibly much safer and more 'stable' than Iraq, is nowhere near to achieving Iraq's freedom of the press, to the authenticity of the Iraqi election in January, and to the current dynamism in Iraqi politics.... Israel, for its part, need not care who rules Egypt, but very much which system does. We should realize that, despite the peace treaty, normalization with Egypt has much less to do with the Palestinian problem than with the democracy problem. Any Egyptian dictator will always need Israel as an external enemy to distract the people from his misrule. Let no one be confused: elections are tools that can be used to subvert or advance freedom and democracy. No true democracy has ever threatened its neighbors. Our best long-term hope for security is the spread of freedom in the Arab world." KURTZER