ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 005945 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 Please note: no Tel Aviv Media Reaction report Tuesday- Wednesday, October 4-5, 2005, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) holiday. -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- Leading media (banner in Maariv: "Positive Signal From Abu Mazen") reported that, after weeks of lack of contact, PA Chairman [President] Mahmoud Abbas called PM Sharon to congratulate him upon the occasion of the Jewish New Year. Yediot led with comments made by Sharon in a holiday interview with the newspaper: "Next [Jewish] Year We'll Make a Giant Step Toward Peace." Ha'aretz quoted a high-ranking GOI source as saying, after the telephone call between the two leaders, that Sharon will meet Abbas before the latter's trip to Washington on October 20. Other media filed similar reports. Talking on Israel Radio in a pre-Jewish New Year interview this morning, Vice PM and Acting Finance Minister Ehud Olmert stated his belief that in the coming year Israel would have to expand a "path that could lead to significant advancements toward peace." On Sunday, Ha'aretz and other media (banners in the ultra-Orthodox press) quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying on Friday that Hamas cannot remain an armed organization and participate in the political process in the PA. However, the newspaper also quoted Secretary Rice as saying that the Palestinians must be given time to arrange their internal political affairs. Several media cited the GOI's satisfaction over Secretary Rice's remarks. During the weekend, the media noted that although Fatah won more seats than Hamas in the PA's municipal elections on Thursday, Hamas was victorious in the larger communities. On Sunday, Jerusalem Post quoted Palestinian sources in Gaza City as saying that Egypt has decided to host another round of talks between the Palestinian factions to discuss extending the unofficial truce with Israel. On Sunday, Hatzofe reported that one month ago, Foreign Ministry officials drafted a "road map to the Roadmap." The report allegedly proposes concessions on the issues of Palestinian prisoners and crossing points, and assesses that there will be no U.S. pressure on Israel after the EU presents its own demands. In Ha'aretz's lead story, GOI sources are quoted as saying that, in recent conversations with their Israeli counterparts, senior American officials have expressed interest in Israel's assessments of Syrian President Bashar Assad's possible successors, asking who Israel thought could replace him and still maintain Syria's stability. The newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying that their impression from those conversations was that Israel would prefer to have a weakened Assad, vulnerable to international pressure, remain in power, and that it is unenthusiastic about the possibility of a regime change in Syria. Ha'aretz writes that the Israelis' impression was that the United States' main concern is the flow of terrorists into Iraq via Syria, rather than the threat posed by the Syrian-backed Hizbullah organization in Lebanon. The newspaper says that both the U.S. and Israel are awaiting the result of the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, and will not decide what do to about Syria until the findings have been published. Ha'aretz quoted the GOI sources as saying that Israel expects the conclusions to prove extremely embarrassing for Syria and put Assad's regime in a difficult situation. Leading media reported that three Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded on Monday in clashes between PA and Hamas militants in Gaza. On Sunday, the major Hebrew-language media led with a warning by the security services that terrorist organizations plan to attack Israeli tourists in the Sinai during the holiday season beginning this week. Today, leading media reported that hundreds of Israelis have returned from the Sinai and that thousands of others have canceled their trips there. Maariv reported that on Sunday, a senior Iranian delegation met in Damascus with the heads of the rejectionist Palestinian organizations for a discussion on the "struggle against the enemies -- the U.S. and Israel." Today, Israel Radio reported on talks between the Iranian delegation and the highest levels of the Syrian government. On Sunday, Maariv reported that in recent contacts with the U.S., Israel has demanded that the activity of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon be reduced, due to Israel's "harsh disappointment" about its achievements. Jerusalem Post reported that South African businessman Cyril Kern, believed to have served as a conduit for a suspected bribe given to Sharon, has recently been questioned by investigators from the South African National Prosecution Authority, who have allegedly received new evidence from Kern. During the weekend, all media reported that at least 25 people were killed and over 100 were wounded in a series of bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali on Saturday. Leading media reported that the IDF will open a Military Police investigation into the killing on Friday of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus. Jerusalem Post quoted one of the aides of Ahmed Jibril, the head of the PFLP-Popular Front, as saying on Sunday that Jibril is planning to move from Damascus to the Gaza Strip. Former Defense Ministry DG Amos Yaron was quoted in an interview with Yediot as saying that the U.S. owes him an apology, but he doubts whether "high-ranking officials at the most powerful defense department in the world will openly admit to having erred regarding officials in a small country like Israel." On Sunday, Yediot reported that the Ministry of Construction and Housing is investigating the disappearance of 400 mobile homes in the West Bank. The state had spent 34 million shekels (approx. USD 7.4 million) on the trailers, which were transferred to settler communities. On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Jennifer Miller, 24, the daughter of former U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller, has just written a book entitled "Inheriting the Holy Land -- An American's Search for Hope in the Middle East." On Sunday, Jerusalem Post reprinted a Washington Post feature on Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes. Ha'aretz (English Ed.) and other media published a paid ad for a concert to be held in Tel Aviv Saturday night "with the support of the Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv" in memory of Daniel Pearl, the U.S. journalist kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002. -------------- Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- Columnist and TV celebrity Yair Lapid wrote on page one of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "I'm telling you it will be a good year.... The disengagement is behind us. The fratricidal civil war was cancelled for lack of evidence. The primaries will reach us with a fashionable delay." Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "We should demand that [Sharon] apply his belated diplomatic understanding without winking or playing for time.... When a politician leads rather than is dragged, his chances of victory increase." Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein wrote in Ha'aretz: "An exclusively military campaign would not help. On the contrary, it would weaken Fatah and Abu Mazen and would fortify his opponents." Security and intelligence affairs commentator Amit Cohen wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The next few days will prove which side [the PA or Hamas] is more determined, who is more hungry for victory." Block Quotes: -------------- ¶I. "It All Depends On Us" Columnist and TV celebrity Yair Lapid wrote on page one of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (October 3): "I'm telling you it will be a good year.... It will be good because we so much want it to be good.... The disengagement is behind us. The fratricidal civil war was cancelled for lack of evidence. The primaries will reach us with a fashionable delay. It has been a long time since there was such a hunger for something good. The Palestinians, as usual, are nothing to write home about, but there is some movement even on that front. The economy is recovering.... The most popular Israeli leader in our times, Bill Clinton, invented the method. He inherited an America which was depressed and in the doldrums, and he spent the next two years saying 'look what a wonderful country we have, look how strong and beautiful and successful we are. We are unbeatable.' The economy recovered first, followed by national pride. The psychological subterfuge worked like a charm. And admit it -- we too have a little charm. As the number 2 man in the Chinese government said: 'We come to you because the Jews are the most clever people in the world.' A billion Chinese can't be wrong. We are smart and gifted, and we have built in the Third World a wily western country that is sometimes entitled -- let's say at [Jewish] New Year -- to be proud of itself too. It's not only pleasant. It's also a good technique to help us to live well. So believe me, it will be a good year, if we only want it enough." II. "The Year of the Turnabout" Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (October 3): "Many years were wasted until Sharon -- the leading provocateur against the left, the man who torpedoed every attempt to stop construction in the settlements, and extracted budgets from every nook and cranny of every ministry in which he served in order to nurture this unnecessary enterprise, the man who stood in the forefront of those who incited against Yitzhak Rabin and the Oslo Accords -- reached this conclusion himself. There is no point in demanding regret or soul- searching over those lost years, but we should demand that he apply his belated diplomatic understanding without winking or playing for time.... This was the year of the turnabout, the year of the disengagement, and the year of the fence.... The question of what Sharon will do in the coming months is a political one.... When a politician leads rather than is dragged, his chances of victory increase." III. "Helping Hamas" Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein wrote in Ha'aretz (October 3): "Hamas clearly is the ascendant power among the Palestinian public. The movement is deeply rooted in public life.... Mass arrests such as those of last weekend, and the targeted assassinations, of course, make Hamas move backward, and strengthen its extremist wing. Since it is a movement that has won the admiration and respect of the masses, Israel's struggle against it must not take on a solely military character. An exclusively military campaign would not help. On the contrary, it would weaken Fatah and Abu Mazen and would fortify his opponents." IV. "Inevitable Conflict" Security and intelligence affairs commentator Amit Cohen wrote in popular, pluralist Maariv (October 3): "Senior Palestinian officials admit that Hamas is better equipped than most of the security agencies.... Therefore the aspiration of the heads of these agencies was to rehabilitate their forces quickly, to rebuild the command structure, to recruit new personnel, and -- most important -- to obtain arms and ammunition. Only after this had been achieved did they intend to go to war. But the Palestinian Authority was overtaken by events. The explosion at the Hamas demonstration in [the Gaza refugee camp of] Jabalya, the inflammatory rhetoric of Hamas, the Israeli military operation and the way in which Hamas backed down, led the Palestinian Authority to conclude that it was time to tighten the rope a little. A few days ago the Palestinian police received a clear order to arrest every armed person who was not in uniform. On Sunday, in contrast to many times in the past, an attempt was made to implement the decision on the ground, even at the price of a conflict. Hamas, for its part, proved once again that it is not afraid of a fight, so long as it is fighting only the Palestinian Authority, not the whole of Fatah. The next few days will prove which side is more determined, who is more hungry for victory." JONES