ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 006367

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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1. Mideast


2. Paris Riots

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Key stories in the media:
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Israel Radio quoted PM Sharon as saying before the
Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this
morning that Hamas members will not be able to walk
free in the streets of Palestinian cities during
elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. The
Jerusalem Post reported that, just three days after
Mofaz said that Israel would not interfere with the
upcoming Palestinian elections, Sharon told the cabinet
on Sunday that Israel rejects Hamas's participation in
the elections. The newspaper also quoted Sharon as
saying that the election would not prove that the PA
was democratic.

Israel Radio reported that the Palestinians are not
prepared to hand over to Israel closed-circuit
television pictures from the Rafah crossing between
Egypt and the Gaza Strip in real time, but only 24 or
48 hours later.

The political situation dominates the headlines: Sharon
is slated to present three ministers -- Ehud Olmert as
permanent finance minister, as well as Zeev Boim and
Roni Bar-On -- for the Knesset's approval today, in
what Ha'aretz says "is proving a crucial test of
Sharon's ability to control his own faction." Ha'aretz
quoted Sharon associates as saying that if the
appointments are defeated, "it will not pass without a
response." However, the newspaper writes that they
declined to day what that response might be.

Leading media reported that on Sunday, Minister-Without-
Portfolio Matan Vilnai withdrew from the race for Labor
Party chairmanship, and that party chairman Shimon
Peres offered him the position of number 2 in the
party, which could theoretically grant him the defense
portfolio in the government.

On Sunday, Maariv reported that the GOI has authorized
the PA's procurement of ammunition through Egypt --
with U.S. funding. Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post
quoted EU officials as saying Sunday that the EU plans
to announce the launch of a three-year mission today to
help the PA build a credible police force. The
officials were quoted as saying that the decision by
the EU foreign ministers will not mean European police
officers patrolling the streets of Palestinian cities.
Instead, the EU plans to provide 33 law-enforcement
experts to advise the PA on police matters.

This morning, Israel Radio quoted Nigel Roberts, World
Bank Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza, as
saying on the radio's Arabic-language service that
Israel must prevent the situation in the PA from
deteriorating.

The Jerusalem Post reported that, in a leaflet
distributed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the armed
group of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, voiced
full support for Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's statements in which he said that Israel
"must be wiped off the map." The newspaper writes that
PA officials condemned the leaflet and told The
Jerusalem Post it did not reflect the stance of the PA
or its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas. Yediot, Maariv and
Israel Radio quoted Defense Ministry Shaul Mofaz as
saying in an interview with Newsweek that Israel would
not act militarily against Iran, but that the situation
might change as Iran support terror against Israel and
tries to procure nuclear weapons. Israel Radio quoted
Mofaz as saying in the interview that Iran was behind
the Palestinian weapons ship Karine-A that was seized
by the Israel Navy, in exchange for which Mofaz said
that Yasser Arafat promised his support for terror
groups that Iran would dispatch to the area.

Ha'aretz cited an AP story that reported that the
Italian Foreign Ministry stated on Sunday that Iran was
isolating itself with its call for the destruction of
Israel. On Sunday, Ha'aretz cited a report in the
German weekly Focus, according to which Syria and Iran
are getting German technology through middlemen posing
as representatives legitimate Russian industrial
companies who send to both countries equipment
initially being legally exported to Moscow.

On Sunday, all media cited a report on Dutch television
as saying that a Dutch citizen of Moroccan origin
arrested last month allegedly hoped to shoot down an El
Al airliner at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

During the weekend, Ha'aretz and other media cited
several European newspapers as saying that Israel is to
give the Vatican control over the Room of the Last
Supper (the Cenacle) on Mount Zion. In exchange,
Israel would gain control of a 12th-century synagogue
in Toledo, Spain, which became the Santa Maria la
Blanca Church. Ha'aretz reported that the Foreign
Ministry has dismissed the reports as "nonsense," but
that they have already aroused stormy reactions from
religious factions warning against a change in the
fragile status quo in relations among Christians, Jews,
and Muslims. Ha'aretz reported that GOI government
sources called the Catholic proposal "insulting and
unreasonable" and that they said an Israeli
investigation indicated that the Vatican does not even
own the Toledo church.

On Sunday, all media cited a U.S. announcement that
Israel has been reinstated to the group of countries
taking part in the program to develop the next-
generation combat plane, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The newspapers wrote that the reversal followed a
meeting in Washington between Mofaz and U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

SIPDIS

The Jerusalem Post reported that Mofaz has pledged to
demolish by January 2006 nine new permanent homes in
the 30-family unauthorized outpost of Arnona in Judea
(southern West Bank). The newspaper writes that his
decision is in response to a High Court of Justice
filed in July by Peace Now.

On Sunday, the media (banner in The Jerusalem Post)
reported that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan canceled
his scheduled trip to Tehran following Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments calling for
the annihilation of Israel.

The Jerusalem Post cited the French daily Le Monde as
reporting that Abbas has apparently asked French
President Jacques Chirac to intervene in the
construction of the Jerusalem light rail project
because the route includes the "conquered territories"
of Pisgat Zeev and French Hill. The Jerusalem Post
says that according to Le Monde, Chirac said he would
look into the matter, but that according to the French
Foreign Ministry, CGEA-Connex and Alsthom, the two
companies building the project, are private companies
and that the French government is not involved in the
project in any way.

On Sunday, major media reported that a mosaic and the
remains of a building uncovered on the Megiddo prison
grounds may belong to the earliest church in the world,
according to preliminary excavation by the Israel
Antiquities Authority.

All media reported that the family of Ahmed al-Khatib
from Jenin, a 12-year-boy fatally shot last week by IDF
troops who mistook his toy gun for a real rifle, has
donated his organs "for the sake of peace between
peoples."

Leading media reported that Genia Polis has died of her
wounds from the October 26 Hadera suicide bombing,
raising the death toll to six.

On Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Israel's Ambassador
to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, will be forced to resign his
post shortly, according to GOI officials who have
looked over the Civil Service Commission's report on
his affairs.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post printed a Jewish
Telegraphic Agency story, according to which Saudi-
backed textbooks in the U.S. teach anti-Israel, anti-
Jewish bias. The report says that most U.S. taxpayers
do not know they are funding those materials.

During the weekend, all media reported on the
continuation of the riots in France. Leading media
cited the State Department's warden message telling
Americans to avoid those areas where violence may
occur. Maariv's banner on Sunday read: "The French
Intifada."

Ha'aretz reported that on Sunday, a U.S. citizen who is
wanted by the FBI was arrested in Eilat by the
Immigration Police. The newspaper writes that the 47-
year-old man, whose name was withheld by the police at
the FBI's request, is suspected of serious sex crimes
against several relatives, including his granddaughter.
The man arrived in Israel in 1997.

The Jerusalem Post printed the results of a survey
conducted by the right-wing National Union, which show
that a possible merger between the National Religious
Party and the National Union into a joint religious
Zionist list would create the second-largest party in
the Knesset. According to the poll, if Sharon leaves
the Likud to form a new centrist party, such a new bloc
would win 21 seats; alternatively, should Sharon stay
on as Likud leader, it would win as many as 26 seats.

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1. Mideast:
--------------

Summary:
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Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning,
independent Ha'aretz: "Nothing could be further from
Yitzhak Rabin's worldview than the substitution of
dictates for dialogue."

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "Shaming Hamas brings domestic praise, but
only harms the real scene of events."

Gerald M. Steinberg, the director of the Program on
Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University and the
Editor of "NGO Monitor," wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post: "The Palestinians now know
that despite all of the constraints, Israel was able to
defeat Arafat's war.... Another full-scale Palestinian
terror campaign is unlikely."

Zuhair Andrawus, Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic-language
newspaper Kul Al-Arab, wrote in Yediot Aharonot: "If
Israeli Arabs participate in the armed struggle they
will lose their legitimacy in Israeli eyes. Therefore
we must not under any circumstances become part of that
struggle."

Block Quotes:
--------------

I. "Who Needs Abu Mazen"

Senior op-ed writer Akiva Eldar opined in left-leaning,
independent Ha'aretz (November 7): "If anyone should
have been upset by Deputy Prime Minister and Acting
Finance Minister Ehud Olmert's statement that the Oslo
Accords helped to 'sober up the public,' which in turn
paved the way for the disengagement from the Gaza
Strip, it was not the 'Likud rebels,' who opposed the
unilateral withdrawal. Olmert's words should have
outraged the leaders of the Labor Party, who claim to
be following in the footsteps of the prime minister who
paid with his life for seeking a peace agreement with
the Palestinians. Nothing could be further from
Yitzhak Rabin's worldview than the substitution of
dictates for dialogue. Even in the darkest days of the
suicide bombings, he viewed slamming the door in Yasser
Arafat's face as giving in to terror."

II. "Cheap Words Exert a High Price"

Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (November 7): "No emotion is more popular in
Israel than hatred for Hamas.... All the experts on the
subject say that the rise of Hamas stems from
Palestinian desperation, the corruption and impotence
of the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas's status as a
clean organization, which sacrificed the largest number
of casualties in the war with Israel.... Should Israel
want to fight Hamas in a political war -- and it must
do so -- it should ask itself how it can create hope
and insert it in the Palestinian consciousness, in Abu
Mazen, and in its own diplomatic course. Shaming Hamas
brings domestic praise, but only harms the real scene
of events."

III. "The Yasser Arafat War Is Over"

Gerald M. Steinberg, the director of the Program on
Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University and the
Editor of "NGO Monitor," wrote in the conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (November 6): "The four-plus
years of Palestinian terror were planned and
implemented under conditions that no longer exist....
Whatever comes next will be quite different, and
requires appropriate policies. One key difference is
leadership, and, in particular, the end of the Arafat
era.... [Mahmoud] Abbas also lacks the power to unite a
divided and disheartened Palestinian population, as
required in order to start another long and painful
confrontation with Israel. And if Abbas is replaced by
someone else, the result will be similar. The age of
all-powerful Arab dictators -- such as Saddam, Assad
and Arafat - is over. In addition, the broad
international support that the Palestinians enjoyed for
five years and was necessary for the terror campaign,
has been seriously eroded.... Finally, the Palestinians
now know that despite all of the constraints, Israel
was able to defeat Arafat's war.... For all of these
reasons, another full-scale Palestinian terror campaign
is unlikely. This does not mean that periodic
carefully planned attacks will end -- these have been
endemic to the Palestinian rejectionist ideology for
decades. Until this core rejectionism and incitement
is finally abandoned, the accompanying violence will
also continue, but this is not the same as the waves of
mass terror during Arafat's war. This may be of little
comfort, but the threat should not be exaggerated
unnecessarily."



IV. "Not Brothers in Arms"

Zuhair Andrawus, Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic-language
newspaper Kul Al-Arab, wrote in Yediot Aharonot
(November 7): "All of us [Israeli Arabs] agree that
successive Israeli governments intentionally
discriminated against the Israeli Arabs and treated
them as a foreign body, which perhaps explains the
bleak situation to which we have come. It is no
accident that 50 percent of Israeli Arabs live below
the poverty line (according to data of the [Israeli
government's] Central Bureau of Statistics). If
Israeli Arabs participate in the armed struggle they
will lose their legitimacy in Israeli eyes. Therefore
we must not under any circumstances become part of that
struggle. Our special situation as citizens who do not
enjoy full equality in this country makes it imperative
to avoid such acts. Our struggle on behalf of our
brothers, the Palestinians, must be conducted strictly
in accordance with Israeli law. Any departure from this
rule will provide a pretext for right-wing elements in
Israel to demand our expulsion from our homeland....
Leaders of the Arab public in Israel are under an
obligation to show responsibility and leadership and to
declare that if an Israeli Arab joins one of the
Palestinian organizations, this is an evil act which
will bring nothing but trouble to the Arabs in this
country. Remaining silent on this issue is by far even
worse."

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2. Paris Riots:
--------------

Summary:
--------------

Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker opined in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "Will the vision of a united democratic
Europe succeed in incorporating the Islam of the
immigrants and their children? It is highly doubtful."





Block Quotes:
--------------

"Intifada in Paris"

Chief Economic Editor Sever Plotker opined in the
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (November 6): "Muslim neighborhoods in the
large European cities -- London, Hamburg, Madrid, Rome,
Amsterdam, Paris -- serve today as incubators for
fanaticism and terrorism, fertile ground for jihad and
planning attacks against Israel. The old-time
community leadership, which advocated assimilation, has
lost its authority and been replaced by various kinds
of extremist religious preachers.... Fanatic Islam,
wrote theorist Prof. Francis Fukuyama in 'The Wall
Street Journal' this weekend, tells the children of the
immigrants who they are: they are honored members of
the nation of Islam, despite the fact that they live
among the heretics. Will the vision of a united
democratic Europe succeed in incorporating the Islam of
the immigrants and their children? It is highly
doubtful. The existence of a militant Muslim minority
was not taken into account in its planning. Prof.
Fukuyama states: European democracy, which is currently
one of the main battlefields against Islamic terrorism,
can therefore be expected to meet great trouble in the
near future. But it is already in trouble: the
terrorism in London, the terrorist cells in Amsterdam
and the Intifada in the suburbs of Paris are only the
beginning, not the end."

JONES