Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TELAVIV961
2005-02-17 11:57:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

Tags:  IS KMDR MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 000961 

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:
--------------------------------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TEL AVIV 000961

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:
--------------


1. Mideast


2. Lebanon Bombing

--------------
Key stories in the media:
--------------

All media highlighted Wednesday's approval by the
Knesset, 59-40, with 5 abstentions, of the
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law, empowering the
government to pay 3.8 billion shekels (about USD 870
million) to 9,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip and
northern West Bank and begin evacuating them in five
months. The opponents included 17 Knesset members.
While the mainstream media hail the vote as "historic,"
pro-settler Hatzofe banners: "Zionism's Black Day."
The cabinet vote to give settlers notice of the
evacuation is scheduled on Sunday. Jerusalem Post
quoted a source in the Prime Minister's Office as
saying that PM Sharon was not likely to issue the
evacuation orders for at least another month. Although
the media stressed the significance of the vote, they
say that if the Knesset does not pass the state budget
by March, the government would fall and the
disengagement plan would not go ahead.

This morning, Israel Radio cited a Fatah web site as
saying that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and senior PA
security official Muhammad Dahlan are expected to sign
a document of understandings in a few days. Ha'aretz
reported that the 500 Palestinian prisoners who will be
released by Israel in the coming days include 44 Fatah
members who were convicted of involvement in shooting
or bombings. This is the first time since the Intifada
began that people convicted of such offense have been
released early.

Israel Radio reported that this morning a Qassam rocket
was fired at a southern Gaza Strip settlement. Near
Nablus, Palestinians shot at Israelis from a passing
vehicle. There were no casualties.

Yediot cited the belief of IDF Intelligence that
Hizbullah assassinated former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri,
as a signal to Syrian President Bashar Assad that this
is the fate of those who meddle with the Shi'ite
organization. The army branch had initially assessed
that Syria stood behind the hit. A "Syrian analyst"
was quoted as saying in an interview with Jerusalem
Post that Damascus is unmoved by the bombing, and that,
knowing Syria's leaders, the start of an immediate

withdrawal from Lebanon is unlikely to happen. Israel
Radio reported that speaking to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice blamed Syria for having undermined
stability in Lebanon.
Israel Radio reported that U.S. security coordinator
Lt. Gen. William E. (Kip) Ward will meet today with
Sharon, Mofaz and IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon.
Leading media reported that Ward met with PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
Maariv cited the Committee of Settler Rabbis as saying
following Wednesday's Knesset vote that the law paves
the way in the future for the expulsion of Arabs from
their homes in exchange for financial compensation.
"The passing of the law is a legal precedent and a
legal basis that establishes that in Israel it is legal
to expel citizens from their homes in exchange for
compensation," read the rabbis' statement, "even after
the vote in the Knesset, that has no validity based on
our sacred Torah."

Ha'aretz reported that a military committee appointed
by Chief of Staff Ya'alon to examine the policy of
house demolitions has recommended stopping them.

Leading media reported that newly appointed Jordanian
ambassador to Israel Marouf al-Bakhit is expected to
arrive in the country on Sunday.

Yated Ne'eman reported that Abbas has approved the
application of the death penalty for Palestinians who
were convicted of collaborating with Israel.

Jerusalem Post reported that John Dugard, the UN
Special Rapporteur on human rights in the territories,
Wednesday told the Knesset's Constitution, Justice and
Law Committee that the IDF has destroyed 4,170
Palestinian homes since September 2000.

Major media reported on false alarms in Iran about an
attack against the Bushehr nuclear reactor, and cited
Israel's denial. Yediot quoted GOI spokesmen as saying
that Israel "would not have missed" the reactor.

Ha'aretz reported that since 1967, tens of thousands of
dunams (one dunam equals 0.22239 acres) of land have
been purchased by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in
areas of strategic importance in the West Bank, near to
the Green Line, which will be up for negotiations in
the event of an Israeli withdrawal to the 1949-1967
armistice lines. According to its official policy, the
JNF does not purchase lands beyond the Green Line.

Citing AP, Jerusalem Post reported that NATO Secretary-
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will visit Israel next
week, the first trip here by a leader of the Western
military alliance.
Ha'aretz reported that the annual Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
opened in Jerusalem Wednesday amid criticism by the
president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric
Yoffie, as well as other American Jewish officials and
conference members, over the group's position regarding
the disengagement plan. Yoffie said that the
conference does not represent the majority of American
Jews as long as it refrains from expressing unequivocal
support for the plan. Jerusalem Post featured the
gradual change of view of leading politically
conservative American Jews towards acceptance of the
disengagement plan and Palestinian statehood.

All media reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz
is expected today to announce an indictment against
Sharon's son, Knesset member Omri Sharon, and to close
the investigation against PM Sharon in the case of the
straw companies allegedly set up to raise and disburse
funds for Ariel Sharon's 1999 primaries campaign.

All media dealt with ongoing squabbling in the military
and among politicians following Defense Minister
Mofaz's decision not to extend the tenure of IDF Chief
of Staff Moshe Ya'alon.

Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian sources in
Amman quoted Yasser Arafat's widow Suha, who lives in
Tunis, as saying that the Tunisian security forces have
thwarted at least five attempts on her life since her
husband's death. Suha Arafat reportedly claimed that
senior PA officials were behind the attempts to kill
her, but that she did not elaborate.

A Maariv/Teleseker poll:
-"In your opinion, was Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon a
successful chief of staff?" Yes: 75 percent; no: 10
percent.
-"In your opinion, was the decision made by Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
to terminate Ya'alon's service justified or not?"
Justified: 17 percent; unjustified: 64 percent.

--------------

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

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

Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in
popular, pluralist Maariv: "Even if there are 10,000
people who disobey orders, opposite them will be
hundreds of thousands of people who, with a heavy
heart, will execute the disengagement orders."
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized:
"This newspaper has warily supported the disengagement
plan and does not see a referendum as necessary....
Nevertheless, we recognize and respect the democratic
right of those who oppose the disengagement plan."



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


I. "Reconciliation is Already Here"

Liberal op-ed writer Yael Paz-Melamed commented in
popular, pluralist Maariv (February 17): "The Right has
accepted many things about which the Left used to rant
and rave, the Left has accepted the indisputable
leadership of Ariel Sharon. No, not all of the Right,
and no, not all of the Left. On the fringes, wide as
they may be, the rift is becoming deeper, but it is no
longer between Right and Left, but between the extreme
Right and the Left and Right, and between the extreme
Left and the Left and Right. Contrary to all forecasts
about how the people would be gripped by unbearable
polarity, the opposite process has occurred. It is
enough for us to remember what things looked like in
the period between 1993, when the Oslo accords were
conceived, and the Rabin assassination in 1995, and in
the years to follow. Back then there was a real rift
between the people, separating it into two halves.
Israel back then was, for all intents and purposes, two
states for two people, when each 'people' was seething
with mounting anger towards the other.... All that has
changed now, and will continue to change the closer
disengagement draws, and most certainly after it is
completed.... And even if there are 10,000 people who
disobey orders, opposite them will be hundreds of
thousands of people who, with a heavy heart, will
execute the disengagement orders. Members of the Left
and Right as one, with a single, common goal, and with
the fraternity of citizens carrying out the political
echelon's decisions, understanding that this is the
basis of our lives here."

II. "The Due Process of Disengagement"

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized
(February 17): "This newspaper has warily supported the
disengagement plan and does not see a referendum as
necessary given the Knesset's well-established position
under Israeli law as the sovereign representative of
the popular will. Nevertheless, we recognize and
respect the democratic right of those who oppose the
disengagement plan, or believe it would be better
carried out as the result of a direct vote by the
general public, to campaign within the bounds of the
law as fervently as they desire for a national
referendum.... Opinion polls have shown most Israelis
support disengagement, although this does not mean
those numbers would translate into a referendum
victory. Sincere supporters of a referendum must first
convince this majority -- including us -- that a direct
popular vote on this issue is the best way to continue
on with this process, rather than it simply being used
by those who oppose disengagement as a delaying tactic,
or as an excuse to justify violent resistance against a
legitimate government decision. So far, referendum
supporters haven't made that convincing case -- and
their time is running out fast."

--------------

2. Lebanon Bombing:
--------------

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

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot: "There is zero
tolerance in the only superpower around, under
President George Bush's leadership, for Syria's
unbridled terrorist behavior."

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

"The Syrians Forgot That 2005 Isn't 1976"

Middle East affairs commentator Guy Bechor, a lecturer
at the Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in mass-
circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot (February 17):
"By assassinating Hariri, Syria informed the Lebanese
that it was the one that put an end to the civil war in
exchange for a clearly noted price and, if that reward
were taken away from Syria, the state of anarchy in
Lebanon might mysteriously return. But the Syrians
forgot that 2005 is not 1976. Back then their army
invaded Lebanon (and has stayed there to this very
day). Back then Syria was a regional power that
enjoyed the support of a nuclear superpower, the USSR.
President Hafez Assad was in his prime and Lebanon was
at its nadir. Syria used sophisticated methods of
personal terrorization, exploited the conflicts between
the various sects and enjoyed a substantial extent of
world immunity. And the international media were still
in the pre-satellite era. But there is zero tolerance
in the only superpower around, under President George
Bush's leadership, for Syria's unbridled terrorist
behavior. Damascus is at a nadir now in terms of its
military might and its regional status, Bashar Assad
evinces weakness in every direction, and violent
tyrants who oppress their own peoples and their
surroundings, as in the Iraqi case, are no longer
deemed legitimate. The seizure of Lebanon was always
the greatest success chalked up by the Syrian regime,
which was hung like a medal on its chest. Not any
more. The definers of power, which have changed in the
world towards democracy and human rights, are likely to
turn Lebanon into the burial ground of the regime in
Damascus."

KURTZER