ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 000059

SIPDIS

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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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The major media led with stories related to the right
wing's opposition to PM Sharon's disengagement plan.
Reporting on testimony Shin Bet head Avi Dichter gave
before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee Tuesday, Maariv bannered: "The Black
Prophesy" and Yediot: "Nightmare Scenario." Dichter
envisaged, among other possibilities, a situation in
which armed settlers would fake shooting by soldiers
during the evacuation of a settlement in order to
create panic, to which settlers would respond by firing
live shots at IDF soldiers. Israel Radio reported that
Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz have called for
punishing people who would harm or threaten members of
the security forces. Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post
reported that right-wing extremists, who Ha'aretz says
are close to the outlawed Kach movement, called on
reserve soldiers Tuesday to help thwart the
disengagement planned for this summer. Ha'aretz
reported that Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim asked A-
G Menachem Mazuz to look into indicting the extremists.
Ha'aretz reported that the residents of the Katif Bloc
(Gush Katif) have adopted the color ORANGE as the
symbol of their fight, comparing the revolution they
want to generate to the ORANGE Revolution in Ukraine.

The media also quoted Dichter as saying that abandoning
the Philadelphi route would turn the Gaza Strip into a
new South Lebanon.

Leading media quoted senior IDF officers as saying that
organizers of petitions against the disengagement plan
being circulated among soldiers should be arrested.
However, Dichter and some officers were quoted as
saying that arrests of opponents of disengagement --
Dichter was asked about a group planning to attack the
Temple Mount -- might not meet legal requirements.

All media reported that PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Mazen) branded Israel the "Zionist enemy" Tuesday,
during an election tour of the Gaza Strip. Abbas was
responding to the killing of seven Palestinians in the
northern Strip Tuesday by fire from an IDF tank.
Nonetheless, Jerusalem Post quoted senior officials in
the Prime Minister's Office as saying that Sharon hopes
to meet Abbas soon after his expected election as
Palestinian leader on January 9.

Israel Radio reported that a terrorist who infiltrated
the Erez Crossing this morning was killed and that his
companion escaped. Hamas and Islamic Jihad jointly
claimed responsibility for the action. Leading media
reported on continued shelling of Israeli targets in
the western Negev and the Gaza Strip Tuesday and this
morning. (Israel Radio and leading Israeli web sites
reported that 12 IDF soldiers were wounded this morning
in a Qassam rocket attack on a northern Gaza Strip
outpost.) Leading media reported that Tuesday the army
closed Ramallah following unconfirmed reports of
soldiers' abductions.

Israel Radio cited a statement released by "Free People
of the Galilee," a hitherto unknown group, claiming to
have kidnapped AmCit Dana Bennet in the summer of 2003.
The group allegedly wants Israel to release 1,000
Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about
Bennet's fate.

Jerusalem Post cited an announcement by the "cash-
strapped" Jerusalem Municipality Tuesday that it has
set up 15 bulletin boards in East Jerusalem at a cost
of 20,000 shekels (about USD 4,500) to allow candidates
for the PA election to post ads. Leading media
reported that, in a televised ad sponsored by the
international organization One Voice, which will be
broadcasted starting today on Palestinian TV and Arabic
satellite channels, the American actor Richard Gere
urges Palestinians on behalf of the "entire world" to
participate in the elections.

Leading media reported that Sharon associates warned
United Torah Judaism (UTJ) on Tuesday that if UTJ does
not join the coalition soon, Shinui could rejoin
instead and a secular national unity government could
be formed.

Jerusalem Post reported that no date has been set for
FM Silvan Shalom's planned visit to Jordan. The
newspaper quoted Israeli officials as saying that one
of the obstacles to the visit and to a warming up of
ties with Amman is Jordan's demand that Israel release
some two dozen Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails,
including four "with blood on their hands."

Yediot, Maariv and Jerusalem Post reported that
diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) have told AP that Egypt conducted a series of
secret nuclear tests -- mostly in the 80s and 90s --

SIPDIS
which continued until six months ago. Yediot quoted a
spokesman for the Egyptian government as saying that
Egypt's nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

Israel Radio reported that the U.S. administration is
considering imposing new economic measures against
Syria over its reported assistance to the Iraqi
opposition. Jerusalem Post reported that visiting
Turkish FM Abdullah Gul will take a message from Sharon
to Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel will
negotiate with Syria once it takes concrete steps to
stop supporting anti-Israel terror. Yediot reported
that Assad has recently rejected Israel's request to
return the remains of Israeli spy Eli Cohen as a
confidence-building measure.

Ha'aretz and Israel Radio reported that today the State
Department will publish its first report ever on anti-
Semitism around the world, which will focus on the rise
of anti-Semitism in Europe.

Israel Radio reported that Israel has acceded to Sri
Lanka's request for physical and mental health teams
following the tsunami disaster. Jerusalem Post
reported that Israelis have "come out in full force"
for a four-day nationwide campaigning at the nation's
supermarkets to collect food to be sent to the tsunami
disaster zone in South Asia. The mobilization was
organized by Magen David Adom (MDA) with backing by
MDA's American support organization, American Magen
David for Israel. Jerusalem Post reported that the
Indian military has been using Israeli-made drones
around the clock to search for victims and survivors of
the tidal waves that swept their coast last week.
Jerusalem Post printed a Letter to the Editor by the
editorial secretary of L'Osservatore Romano saying that
on December 29, Jerusalem Post distorted a story in the
Vatican's newspaper, which had only noted Sri Lanka's
initial refusal to receive an Israeli assistance
delegation.

Tel Aviv University's Peace Index poll:
-75 percent of respondents favor the resumption of
negotiations with the Palestinians; however, only 32
percent of respondents believe that there are good
chances of reaching an agreement with an Abbas-headed
government.
-"Do you believe that other settlements will be
evacuated after disengagement is implemented?" 67
percent: Disengagement is only the first step; 19
percent: no more settlements will be evacuated; 14
percent are undecided.
-"Do left-wing soldiers have the right to refuse
service in the territories?" No: 68 percent; yes: 27
percent; 5 percent are undecided.
-"Do right-wing soldiers have the right to refuse
service in the territories?" No: 76 percent; yes: 18
percent; 5 percent are undecided.
-8 percent of Israeli Jews support the right to a
violent civilian rebellion.

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Mideast:
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Summary:
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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: "The opponents [of disengagement] believe
that ... chaos will topple Sharon, and they will be
saved.... We may be facing a great disaster."

Senior op-ed writer Uzi Benziman opined in independent,
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The struggle of the Yesha
Council [of Jewish Settlements in the Territories] is
hopeless. It will not succeed in torpedoing the
disengagement plan, and if it does, it will be seen as
responsible for the collapse of law and order and the
shattering of the state's authority."

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized:
"Sharon is right. Some of disengagement's opponents
are playing a very dangerous game."

Settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein wrote in Jerusalem
Post: "Nonviolent civil protest against immoral actions
on the part of our government is the democratic right
of all those privileged enough to live in a democratic
country."

Conservative columnist Yosef Harif wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv: "Abbas is the prisoner of a delusion
that the U.S., which is interested in expanding its
influence in Iraq, Syria and other places in the Middle
East, will press Israel to make significant concessions
to the Palestinians."

Block Quotes:
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I. "Israel's Tsunami, 2005"

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 (January 5): "The riots on Monday against the
security forces in Shalhevet, a neighborhood in the
settlement of Yitzhar, are the first shock waves of the
Israeli tsunami, which are being detected mainly by
seismologists. They will be followed by the deluge.
One can understand the settlers: for 30 years they were
deceived, taught that 'Judea will stand forever,'
luxurious houses were built for them, all their demands
were met, they were called upon to be the pillar of
fire before the camp -- and they, in their naivety,
followed the voices.... The settlers whose world (and
home) has been ruined, will do everything --
everything! -- to demolish Ariel Sharon's rule. They
learned from the sad experience of Yitzhak Rabin's
death, to which they were not even partners, that in
Israel everything depends on one person: the prime
minister. His removal from office also means the
elimination of the nightmare of 'disengagement'... The
opponents believe that ... chaos will topple Sharon,
and they will be saved. Sharon and others also know
that the first reactions by him and the security forces
will be what will determine the nature of the battle in
future. Sharon knows that his opponents are lying in
wait for a moment of weakness. Therefore, it appears
that he will make no concessions and compromises
already from now. The single gunshot fired on Monday
in Yitzhar is a bad harbinger. The coming period may
bring violence with it, and also -- woe is to the eyes
that read this -- bloodshed as well. We may be facing
a great disaster, and may we be proven wrong. Israel,
January 2005, the tsunami is on its way."

II. "Kiev and Jerusalem"

Senior op-ed writer Uzi Benziman opined in independent,
left-leaning Ha'aretz (January 5): "The role that the
settlers' leaders are playing these days is dubious and
dangerous. They organize -- with funding deriving from
the state treasury as well -- a sit-down strike
opposite the Knesset under the slogan: We will do in
Jerusalem what the Ukrainians did in Kiev. That is to
say, Viktor Yanukovich's election fraud is compared to
the system Ariel Sharon is using to make the cabinet
and Knesset decide in favor of the disengagement plan.
This is a groundless comparison. The situation is
actually the other way around: the settlers are the
minority that has been imposing its will on the
majority for 37 years.... The struggle of the Yesha
Council [of Jewish Settlements in the Territories] is
hopeless. It will not succeed in torpedoing the
disengagement plan, and if it does, it will be seen as
responsible for the collapse of law and order and the
shattering of the state's authority. The settlers must
internalize the fact that they are perceived as a
minority group that is enforcing its whims on the
majority. The Yesha council must realize that it
cannot coerce the state to keep the Gaza Strip, and if
it could, the price of the coercion would be too high."



III. "A Dangerous Game"

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized
(January 5): "Our democracy is facing a supreme test.
We can see as well as anyone the tortuous and, in some
sense, troubling path by which the disengagement plan
has reached its current stage, but it cannot be argued
that decisions approved by the cabinet and the Knesset
are illegal.... Sharon is right. Some of
disengagement's opponents are playing a very dangerous
game.... The irony is that, as the prospect of violent
resistance grows, the settler leaders and the radicals
they won't stand up to are driving all of us, the
people of Israel, into a corner. They are forcing a
choice between anarchy and democracy. And they are
drowning out legitimate questions about disengagement,
such as [Shin Bet head Avi] Dichter's warning this week
that Samaria [the northern West Bank] could become like
Gaza in the wake of a withdrawal. Even if democracy
ultimately wins out, the result of such a terrible
choice could be that we will all lose."

IV. "Why We've Chosen Civil Disobedience"

Settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein wrote in Jerusalem
Post (January 5): "Were anyone to suggest a transfer of
Arabs from the tiniest of villages for the most
important of security reasons, there would be an
immense outcry, shaking the very heavens. But those
who consider themselves the guardians of human rights
seem to exempt Jews in Judea, Samaria and Gaza [i.e.
the territories] from their patronage. I've called
the 'Evacuation and Compensation Law' immoral. Let me
explain why. This draconian law was pushed through
the Knesset using Stalin-like methods. It provides for
refusing compensation to any Jews who protest being
uprooted from their homes; it calls for three years'
imprisonment for anyone who remains in his or her home
once the evacuation call has been made. This law is
immoral, first and foremost, because it attempts to
legalize a crime which should never be repeated: the
expulsion of Jews from their homes.... It is my opinion
that thousands of soldiers will not find it within
themselves to be partners in this endeavor. The damage
Sharon and his government will have inflicted on
Israeli society by placing them in this untenable
position will require decades to repair. Nonviolent
civil protest against immoral actions on the part of
our government is the democratic right of all those
privileged enough to live in a democratic country."


V. "Still No Partner"

Conservative columnist Yosef Harif wrote in popular,
pluralist Maariv (January 5): "In a recent discussion
of Middle East affairs at the National Security Council
in Washington, it was said that political leaders must
be strong enough to make compromise possible. Can
anyone view Abu Mazen as a strong man? I am talking
about a compromise acceptable to Sharon and the Likud,
not just about to Peres and most of his friends, who
are prepared for a withdrawal almost to the 1967 lines
and to the division of Jerusalem. In the meantime it
is becoming clear that the Palestinians believe that
time is on their side and that they therefore won't
compromise. Abbas is the prisoner of a delusion that
the U.S., which is interested in expanding its
influence in Iraq, Syria and other places in the Middle
East, will press Israel to make significant concessions
to the Palestinians. Washington has promised Abu Mazen
a visit to the White House after he is elected as the
Palestinians' leader. This will be a proper
opportunity to check his true intentions and to let
them face reality."

KURTZER