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 -------------- SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: -------------- ¶1. Mideast ¶2. Paris Riots -------------- Key stories in the media: -------------- 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. -------------- ¶1. Mideast: -------------- Summary: -------------- 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." -------------- ¶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