ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 TEL AVIV 005802 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. Likud Infighting ¶3. Six-Party Talks -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- All major media, except Jerusalem Post, led with PM Sharon's situation in the Likud. Leading media (banner in Ha'aretz) reported that on Wednesday, Sharon angrily rejected an ultimatum demanding his unconditional allegiance to the party, saying: "There is no limit to chutzpah." The ultimatum came from Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz and Likud whip Knesset Member Gideon Sa'ar, who said that if Sharon did not declare that he would remain in the Likud under any circumstances, they would vote in favor of bringing forward the party primaries. Senior Sharon associates were quoted as telling Maariv that Sharon intends to prevail at the Likud Central Committee and to compete in the primaries. However, the associates said that, were the committee to topple Sharon, he would leave the Likud. Yediot published the results of a Yediot/Mina Zemach (Dahaf Institute) poll conducted among the general public, which shows that a Sharon-led party would overwhelmingly overcome a party under Binyamin Netanyahu: a Sharon-led party would garner 36 mandates (27 in a poll two weeks ago),while a Netanyahu-led party would get 14 mandates (19 in a poll two weeks ago). The second most important party would be Labor. The full results of the survey will be printed on Friday. Major media (lead story in Jerusalem Post) quoted Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin as saying Wednesday, during a briefing with military reporters, that the PA is crumbling and "barely functioning," that its leader Mahmoud Abbas is too weak to enforce law and order, that his Fatah party is in disarray, and that Hamas is taking control of the Gaza Strip. Yediot cited Diskin's warning against Israel opening the Strip's 
borders as a gesture to the Palestinians. The media also quoted Diskin as saying that the Shin Bet failed to prevent Jewish terror. Hatzofe chose to highlight Diskin's comment that loyal citizens who contributed to Israeli society were uprooted from Gush Katif, which the newspaper says is a departure from official government lingo. Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday, the PA rejected an appeal from the Quartet to dismantle armed militias and called on the international community to stop meddling in the Palestinians' internal affairs. Israel Radio cited a similar plea by A/S David Welch, who noted on Wednesday that the PA has taken on governance in the Gaza Strip. Welch also called on Israel to curb settlement expansion and to put an end to illegal settler outposts. Israel Radio, Jerusalem Post, and the leading Internet news service Ynet quoted President Bush as saying, in an address to the Jewish Republican Coalition in Washington on Wednesday, that he considered Sharon an ally for peace. Ynet quoted him as saying that "the U.S. is committed to defend Israel's well-being and safety." The radio quoted Bush as saying: "Now there's an opportunity. And the opportunity rests with the Palestinian people to show that they can govern themselves in a peaceful way." Ha'aretz Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner found that polls among Americans reinforce the idea that "the Israeli-American romance is blooming." Ha'aretz reported that the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Unit failed to properly investigate the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs following the October 2000 riots. Leading media reported that on Wednesday, the defense establishment officially defined the roadblocks around the Gaza Strip as international border passages. Ha'aretz and Yediot reported that on Wednesday, Israel and the PA signed an agreement to establish a Joint Transport Office that will plan and build project benefiting both parties. The agreement was negotiated with the assistance of the EU, which has allocated 2.5 million euros to fund the office, and also has promised to consider providing funds for projects launched by the office. Israel Radio reported that this morning, IDF forces killed an unarmed 19-year-old Palestinian who tried to infiltrate the Dotan base in the northern West Bank, which is being dismantled. The radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying that the young man was looking for scrap iron. Ha'aretz quoted Prof. Mohammed Ghazal, Hamas's leader in the Nablus area, as saying Wednesday that his movement may one day amend its charter calling for the destruction of Israel and hold negotiations with it. The newspaper also quoted him as saying: "The charter is not the Koran." Ha'aretz quoted another senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, as saying in Gaza that Israel could not be recognized as "the legal owner of any part of Palestine," and that such theoretical debate served nobody. Citing Interior Ministry data from around 2002, according to which the ministry approved 21,000 family reunification applications from Palestinians in the last decades, Ha'aretz reported that in April 2005, the ministry's Population Administration presented data to the newspaper indicating that only 5,000 applications approved during the last 11 years are now being processed. Ha'aretz suggests that Israel's immigration policy might be based on "completely distorted statistics." Maariv reported that this week UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israel to consider pulling out from the Sheba Farms. The newspaper reported that Annan told Sharon that although Israel had withdrawn from the entire Lebanese territory, "the Sheba Farms area remain a thorn that must be removed." Yediot reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother, Col. Maher Assad, and brother-in-law, Syrian intelligence chief Gen. Assef Shawkat, are secretly being investigated in Damascus under suspicion that they were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri. Jerusalem Post featured "America's Syria problem." Yediot reported that FM Silvan Shalom has agreed with his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa, that he would soon visit Morocco. Citing the Israeli news agency Itim, Ha'aretz reported that Libya denied a Yediot story on Tuesday that an agreement had been made for Libyan Leader Muammar Qadhafi to make a surprise visit to Israel. The Yediot report also said that the visit would be made after the two sides had failed to arrange a visit by Sharon to Tripoli. Leading media reported that on Wednesday, the police questioned Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi (Hadash-Ta'al) over his visit to Lebanon earlier this year, which Israeli law views as an illegal visit to an enemy country. Jerusalem Post quoted Tibi, who had been invited by then Lebanese PM Najib Mikati, as saying: "Lebanon is not my enemy." Ha'aretz noted that, due to the Likud Central Committee's meeting, Vice PM and acting Finance Minister Ehud Olmert will not attend the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) annual meeting, which begins today in Washington. Ha'aretz and Yediot cited predictions by the IMF and the World Bank that the growth of the Israeli economy will drop by to 3.9 percent in 2006 compared to 4.2 percent in 2005. Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. interest rates are higher than Israel's for the first time, after the Federal Reserve raised U.S. interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on Tuesday. Maariv reported that the Civil Aviation Administration is seriously considering setting up an early check-in service in Nazareth for Israeli Arabs who reside in the area, in order to ease security checks for them and reduce the unpleasant treatment they face at Ben-Gurion Airport. Jerusalem Post reported that the Tel Aviv-based defense equipment company ODF Optronics has signed an agreement to exclusively sell its Eye Ball R1 optical device to the U.S. Army in a deal worth at least USD 10 million over the next year. Maariv reported that the Agriculture Ministry has declared a high alert over a possible avian flu epidemic. This morning's Israel Radio news bulletins led with the advance of Hurricane Rita toward Houston and Galveston, and President Bush's comment that all levels of government are ready to meet the storm. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "If Israel wants to fight Hamas, it must present the Palestinian public with an option of hope, which will stem from support for Abu Mazen and turning to the political path." Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The Israeli talent for ignoring the enormous destruction that we caused leads to the wrong political assessments." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Force Will Not Prevail" Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (September 22): "In the first months of 2004, Israel launched a major offensive against Hamas. Yassin was assassinated, as was his successor Rantisi. Israeli security officials viewed the offensive as a resounding success. It took about six more months, but only force, they explained to us, brought Hamas on its knees to the renewed calm, which preceded the implementation of disengagement. But Hamas, unfortunately, has refused to go.... The Palestinian public has desires and aspirations; it has a preference for organizations and parties. Israeli force can make its life miserable, but it cannot change its desires -- perhaps on the contrary.... Those who want to strengthen moderate forces should offer hope and not block the path of bodies that represent about a third of the Palestinian public. Physically blocking or arresting Hamas members will not only weaken Abu Mazen's rule, but will also renew the despair and the bitterness, which are the real soil upon which the terror organizations flourish. If Israel wants to fight Hamas, it must present the Palestinian public with an option of hope, which will stem from support for Abu Mazen and turning to the political path. It must support the democratic procedure and not presume to decide who will participate in it and who will not. We did not eliminate Hamas by the force of bombs, and we will not overcome it by the force of roadblocks." II. "A Talent For Destruction" Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 22): "If Israel continues a policy of allowing only the most minimal connection between the West Bank and Gaza, it will foil from the start any chance of economic recovery, which too often is presented as the basis for political progress or a necessary condition to fight terror.... The Israeli talent for ignoring the enormous destruction that we caused leads to the wrong political assessments. Ignoring it enables the IDF to continue destroying Palestinian territory in the West Bank.... The more the IDF destroys and damages the landscape, nature, the land, the more the Palestinians compare it to the foreign armies of invading crusaders.... Foreigners, history has proven, leave. Irrespective of the correctness of the conclusion, it holds the Palestinians steadfast against the plans for destruction for the sake of more settlements that the Israeli government envisions for the West Bank." -------------- ¶2. Likud Infighting: -------------- Summary: -------------- Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in popular, pluralist Maariv: "Electing Netanyahu as the Likud's candidate in the next election is the best thing that can happen to the center and the left wing of the political spectrum." Block Quotes: -------------- "I Hope Bibi Wins" Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in popular, pluralist Maariv (September 22): "The polls express not only the balance of forces at the time when they are conducted, but also a clear electoral trend with regard to Binyamin Netanyahu. He has his hard core of supporters, consisting of the extreme Right, but that is all, and even that hard core is following him mainly to take revenge on Sharon for disengagement, not because they really think Netanyahu will be a good prime minister. For they have already seen him in action, and they have already brought him down, as they have been doing for many years to right-wing prime ministers. As for the rest of the public -- according to the polls, the great, silent majority does not buy Netanyahu's new pose. They did buy it for a time, but Netanyahu, as always, managed to kick the jug of milk and spill it after having worked so hard to fill it. Most of the public, including those who elected him in 1996, already understand very well, in these moonstruck years, with whom it is dealing.... Electing Netanyahu as the Likud's candidate in the next election is the best thing that can happen to the center and the left wing of the political spectrum. It is hard to conceive of a situation in which the Likud will go into the opposition except with the generous assistance of Netanyahu." -------------- ¶3. Six-Party Talks: -------------- Summary: -------------- Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "[Following the agreement with North Korea], every Arab or Muslim leader understands that he needs a nuclear option -- only thus can he perpetuate his regime [and] ensure an absence of American attacks." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "Nuclear Weapons For Every Dictator" Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass- circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (September 22): "In exchange for a 'renouncement' of the nuclear option, the United States has declared that it will not attack or invade North Korea; the world pledged to help the latter economically; the North Korean leader's control has been ensured. In light of the preceding, every Arab or Muslim leader understands that he needs a nuclear option -- only thus can he perpetuate his regime, ensure an absence of American attacks, and enjoy generous economic assistance, recognition, and respect. This is the only conclusion that can be drawn from that scandalous agreement; this is how it is understood today in Damascus, Tehran, Cairo, and the other Arab countries. Thus, an international intent to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons could actually accelerate that option, particularly in our region. In light of North Korea's violations and that country lack of innocence, it is not too late to rescind the agreement and return to the previous system of zero-tolerance to a dictatorial regime. If this is not done immediately, those who blessed that agreement with North Korea will eventually curse it." JONES