ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 005542

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


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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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Leading media (banner in Maariv) reported that the IDF
is accelerating its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. At
noon, the station reported that the IDF closed the
Rafah border crossing, in preparation for the army's
pullout and the transfer of the Philadelphi road to
Egyptian forces. Israel Radio reported that at a
meeting between Israeli representative Amos Gilad and
the PA's Muhammad Dahlan and Ghassan Khatib in Jordan
on Wednesday, the Palestinians expressed their
objection to Israel's proposal that the Rafah crossing
should be closed for a six-month renovation period, and
that a passage should be set up at Kerem Shalom. The
radio says that the Palestinians feel confident in the
matter because they sense that the international
community is siding with them. Leading media reported
that at his meeting with senior ministers Wednesday, PM
Sharon agreed to third-party monitoring at the Rafah
border crossing; Jerusalem Post writes that Sharon thus
becomes the first Israeli leader to agree to
international supervision on its borders. Israel Radio
quoted visiting French FM Philippe Douste-Blazy as
suggesting today that customs officials from the EU be
responsible for controlling the Gaza Strip's borders.

Israel Radio reported that the U.S. is demanding that
the PA do all it can to keep law and order, and that it
welcomes PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas's
announcement that he will bring those responsible for
Moussa Arafat's assassination to justice and dismantle
the terrorist infrastructure. Israel Radio reported
that the Popular Resistance Committees revoked their
claim of responsibility for the murder. Leading media,
which cite humiliating orders given by Moussa Arafat to
shave the beards of Hamas activists during a 1996
crackdown, view Hamas as being behind the
assassination. Jerusalem Post quoted sources close to
Abbas as saying that the assassination of Moussa Arafat
could trigger bitter fighting between rival security
chiefs and their organizations in the Gaza Strip.
Ha'aretz reported that, following the assassination,
Abbas canceled his planned trip to New York.
Maariv and other media reported on IDF plans to respond
to Palestinian terror in proportion to the number of
Israelis hurt in attacks. The media quoted IDF Chief
of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz as saying before the
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
Wednesday that the army should implement a tougher
policy of retaliation against terrorism following the
withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem Post quoted a "senior Western diplomatic
official" as saying Wednesday that Israel is mistaken
in believing that, by withdrawing from Gaza, the
international community will tolerate all types of
military retaliation against rocket fire originating
from Gaza.

Yediot led with a comment by a "senior source at the
Defense Ministry" that the IDF will do everything --
including thwarting terrorist attacks -- in order to
help Sharon win the Likud primaries.

Ha'aretz reported that Israel is demanding that Hamas
disarm and abrogate its charter, which calls for the
destruction of Israel, as a condition for participating
in the elections for the Palestinian National Council,
scheduled to take place in January 2006. The newspaper
quoted senior Israeli diplomatic sources as saying that
the international community is deaf to Israel's pleas.
Ha'aretz writes that the only action currently being
taken by Israel is raising the issue during diplomatic
contacts.

Ha'aretz reported that an analysis of the confidential
medical report on Yasser Arafat's death reveals three
main possibilities as to the cause: poisoning, AIDS, or
an infection. The newspaper quoted Israeli and foreign
doctors who have seen the report as saying that the
details not lead to a conclusive determination on what
caused his death. An Israel Radio anchor said that
there does not seem to be anything new in the report.
The station later cited a New York Times story as
saying that Arafat's medical records show that he died
from a stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder
caused by an unidentified infection.

Israel Radio quoted petitioners to the High Court of
Justice in the matter of the Gaza Strip synagogues as
saying that Israel's request that the Palestinians
maintain the synagogues in place was discussed
accidentally, when a senior PA minister and Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz simultaneously visited Ambassador
Dan Kurtzer's residence to offer their condolences over
his mother's passing.

Israel Radio reported that the results of the Egyptian
presidential elections have not yet been made public.
The station also says that the turnout in the vote is
still unknown, and that, were it to be small, this
could negatively affect the standing of President Hosni
Mubarak, who the radio believes will win the elections.

Israel Radio reported that Germany, France, and Britain
are expected to turn over the handling of Iran's
nuclear program to the UN Security Council, short of
asking the Council to impose sanctions on Iran.

Yediot notes that the timing of Sharon's address to the
UN General Assembly on September 15 (at 20:00 Israel
Time) turns it into an "election speech." In an
interview conducted Wednesday with Jerusalem Post, Vice
Premier and Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres firmly
ruled out establishing a formal partnership with Sharon
to run jointly in the next general elections,
essentially quashing speculation over a "big bang"
realignment of Israeli politics before the country next
goes to the polls.

Israel Radio reported that Jordan Valley settlements
have offered relocation to their communities to
settlers who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip.

Citing AP, Ha'aretz cited a statement issued Wednesday
by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, which says that
Pakistan's talks with Israel last week were aimed at
persuading Israel to resolve the Palestinian issue but
did not imply recognition.

Yediot and Jerusalem Post cited a travel advisory
issued by the counterterrorism department of Israel's
National Security Council, which warns Israelis against
visiting Morocco, Tunisia, and Pakistan, among other
destinations.

Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that the IDF has demanded
the resignation of the head rabbis of two hesder
yeshivas (in which students combine military service
with religious studies) who called on their soldier-
students to refuse orders during the disengagement.
Leading media reported that Baruch Ben-Menachem (born
Bret Taback),a new immigrant from the U.S., who set
himself ablaze last Wednesday in protest over Israel's
pullout from Gaza, died of his wounds on Tuesday.

Jerusalem Post reported that Bar-Ilan University and
the Hebrew University have joined Tel Aviv University
in offering students from Tulane University in New
Orleans a chance to study in Israel.

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Mideast:
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Summary:
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Territories correspondent Arnon Regular wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "Wednesday's
killing joins a series of blows suffered by the
'revolutionary' camp associated with Yasser Arafat,
which refused to accept the option of an end to the
Intifada."

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "Israel must
abandon the perception from the nineties, which
reasoned that we must beg every Arab tyrant to meet
with us.... Israel must demand an immediate payment for
every such encounter."

Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular,
pluralist Maariv: "The future danger is of an epidemic
of [smuggling] tunnels."

Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in Ha'aretz: "It is
... all too possible that if the terror continues ...
the officers of the next generation will tell the new
team assigned to update the national security doctrine
that since Israel is the most dangerous place for a Jew
to live, it would be ... safer ... to build a Jewish
state in America, say in the empty state of Wyoming."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Moussa Arafat's Killing Strengthens Moderates"

Territories correspondent Arnon Regular wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 8): "It
is impossible to say who carried out the hit on Moussa
Arafat.... The only question that can be answered now
is who gains the most from the assassination. And the
answer is Palestinian Minister for Civilian Affairs
Muhammad Dahlan, the patron of the Preventative
Security apparatus, and its head, Rashid Abu-Shabak,
who for the past two years have been waging a
sophisticated war to the death against Moussa Arafat
and his late patron, Yasser Arafat.... But the matter
is not merely a personal one between Dahlan and Abu-
Shabak, and Moussa Arafat. Wednesday's killing joins a
series of blows suffered by the 'revolutionary' camp
associated with Yasser Arafat, which refused to accept
the option of an end to the Intifada.... The killing is
also another stage in the consolidation and
strengthening of the central stream in the PA that
recognizes the importance of putting an end to the
Intifada, embarking on a political struggle and
implementing the reforms in the PA in an effort to make
progress on the road map peace plan."

II. "Pointless Signs of Relations"

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (September 8):
"Arab and Muslim states have always taken advantage of
Israel in order to establish better relations with the
U.S.... They have no real interest in Israel, her
economy, or people.... Since public opinion in the Arab
and Muslim worlds is so hostile to Israel, no Arab
leader will dare endanger his stability and come to
Israel itself or to establish formal diplomatic ties
with it. Israeli readers have no idea how big hatred
for Israel is in the Arab street, and how badly the
Palestinians have turned their public opinion against
Israel during five years of Intifada. When will an
Arab leader come to Israel or make peace with her?
Only when things become critical and this is the last
option left for their survival.... Israel must abandon
the perception from the nineties, which reasoned that
we must beg every Arab tyrant to meet with us, and
understand that Pakistan isn't doing Israel a favor
when it exacts a price for a photo-op.... Israel must
demand an immediate payment for every such encounter,
in the form of full diplomatic relations or in exchange
for another political gesture. Israel has always
volunteered to care for others in the first place,
without understanding that the opposite is true in the
Middle East -- as in the famous Arabic proverb: 'People
won't respect those who don't respect themselves.'"

III. "Tomorrow's Tunnels"

Nationalist writer Uri Dan commented in popular,
pluralist Maariv (September 8): "The IDF may have had
no alternative to relinquishing the Philadelphi axis
and handing over its protection from smuggling to the
Egyptian army {'Border Guard') that would deploy along
the border. But no claim is more stupid and more
miserable than the assertion: 'What does it matter?
Smuggling took place when we were in Jericho, and will
take place when the Gaza harbor opens, too.' This
would be similar to the police claiming it has no means
to fight the carnage on the roads, because traffic
accidents would occur anyway.... The Palestinians have
already turned the [smuggling] tunnels into a strategic
weapon. Their success along the Philadelphi axis
encourages them to go on digging tunnels beyond the
Gaza Strip in the direction of Israeli communities in
the south of the country, and ... everywhere throughout
Israel.... The future danger is of an epidemic of
tunnels."

IV. "Cheaper and Safer in Wyoming"

Settler leader Israel Harel wrote in Ha'aretz
(September 8): "'The territory of Judea and Samaria
[i.e. the West Bank], and the Golan as well, has no
security importance.' The statement appears in not
just another original revelation, or new post-Zionist
manifesto. This statement, Maariv reported in an
exclusive story last Friday, is the conclusion reached
by a high-ranking forum that is redrafting the security
conception of Israel.... The new narrative is the
embodiment of Israel's transition from a value-based
ideological society to a materialistic, impatient
society that charts its route on the basis of numerical
data and balances of power. It is therefore all too
possible that if the terror continues -- and when you
run away from it, there is no reason it will not
intensify -- the officers of the next generation will
tell the new team assigned to update the national
security doctrine that since Israel is the most
dangerous place for a Jew to live, it would be cheaper,
and most certainly safer -- as one American statesman
once half-joked -- to build a Jewish state in America,
say in the empty state of Wyoming. This would once and
for all end the problem the Jews make for themselves
and the world by their (temporary) insistence on having
their state in, of all places, the Land of Israel."

KURTZER