ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 000059 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA, NEA/IPA, NEA/PPD WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE, SIT ROOM NSC FOR NEA STAFF 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: -------------- Mideast -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- 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. -------------- Mideast: -------------- 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: "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: -------------- ¶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