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Viewing cable 04TELAVIV2063, ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
04TELAVIV2063 2004-04-05 11:58 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Tel Aviv
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 002063 
 
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 
 
 
Please note: no Israel Media Reaction Tuesday, April 6, 
Passover holiday. 
 
-------------------------------- 
SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT: 
-------------------------------- 
 
1.  Mideast 
 
2.  Campaign Against Terrorism 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
PM Sharon was quoted as saying in a Passover-eve 
interview with Israel Radio: "Those who kill Jews and 
order to kill Jews because of the fact they are Jews 
deserve to die.  Any self-respecting country facing 
murderers and their dispatchers must defend itself -- 
exactly like the U.S. and any country respecting 
itself."  He was reiterating the view he expressed in 
the weekend newspapers that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat 
does not have insurance from assassination.  During the 
weekend, leading media quoted Deputy Secretary of State 
Richard Armitage as saying Friday: "Our position on 
such questions -- the exile or assassination of Yasser 
Arafat -- is very well known.  We are opposed and we 
have made that very clear to the government of Israel." 
Sharon also said in the interview that it will be 
easier to understand his disengagement plan once the 
U.S. has given something in exchange for it, a gesture 
which he said would be presented during his upcoming 
meeting with President Bush. 
 
Sunday, Ha'aretz reported that Israel and the U.S. have 
nearly completed the formulation of the official notes 
that Sharon and Bush will exchange during their meeting 
on April 14.  The newspaper quoted diplomatic sources 
in Jerusalem as saying, "only words and a few emphases" 
are left open.  The newspaper says that Sharon will 
declare his intention to bring his disengagement plan, 
as has been presented by the media, to the cabinet for 
approval, and express his commitment to the road map. 
According to Ha'aretz, in Bush's note, the U.S. will 
declare its commitment to the road map.   The newspaper 
quoted Israeli sources as saying that it will guarantee 
there will be no alternative plan and no diplomatic 
progress if the Palestinians do not tackle terrorism. 
Ha'aretz further reported that Bush will also promise 
Israel support in the war against terror and aggressive 
action, if the attacks from the evacuated territories 
persist.  Ha'aretz reported that at this time the U.S. 
refuses to deal with the issue of a permanent 
agreement.  Sunday, Maariv reported that the U.S. has 
launched an initiative to turn Sharon's disengagement 
plan into an international plan to which the UN, the 
EU, the Quartet and Arab states (Egypt and Jordan) are 
party, and which will be implemented in close 
coordination with the Palestinians.  Maariv reported 
that in an attempt to promote this plan, talks are 
underway to coordinate a meeting between Sharon and UN 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan (which may be held in 
 
SIPDIS 
April in New York).   Maariv said that Israeli 
officials would like to obtain UN recognition of its 
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as the "end of the 
occupation" of the Gaza Strip, and the U.S. has 
enlisted to help achieve that goal. 
 
Leading media reported that Sunday, at the cabinet 
meeting, Sharon lashed out at right-wing cabinet 
ministers Effi Eitam and Benny Elon, who are opposed to 
the disengagement plan.  Sunday, Yediot reported that 
the government will offer a basket of benefits to 
settlers who are evicted from their homes as a result 
of the disengagement plan, provided they choose to 
resettle in the Negev. 
 
Maariv quoted Sharon as saying that Israelis "cannot 
take two tracks."  Sharon was explaining the absolute 
veto he put on the possibility of renewing negotiations 
with Syria, in contrast to the opinion of the security 
establishment.  The newspaper reported that, 
officially, however, Israel conveyed a message to Syria 
last week that it is willing to renew negotiations 
without preconditions, with an emphasis on terror in 
the first part of the talks. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported that over 40 
Palestinians were wounded during altercations on Friday 
at the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem.  Leading media 
reported that the unrest started when a preacher at the 
Al Aqsa mosque incited against Israel. 
 
Sunday, all media led with the killing on Saturday 
morning of a settler  -- a father of six -- by a 
terrorist in Avnei Hefetz (West Bank).  Hamas and 
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the murder, 
saying it was in retaliation for the assassination of 
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin two weeks ago. 
 
Leading with the situation in Iraq, Jerusalem Post 
reported, as did the other media, that anti-coalition 
demonstrations evolved into gun battles on Sunday in 
Iraq, leaving at least 15 people dead and over 200 
people wounded, leading some Iraqi Governing Council 
officials to fear civil war.  The media reported that 
eight U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq during the 
weekend. 
 
Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard was quoted as saying in 
a "first, face-to-face" interview with Yediot's Shimon 
Shiffer that Israel had betrayed him. 
 
Jerusalem Post featured a long interview with the Irish- 
American writer Frank McCourt, the author of the 
Pulitzer-winning memoir "Angela's Ashes."  McCourt 
recently visited Israeli as part of a State Department- 
sponsored "cultural ambassador" program. 
 
During the weekend, all media reported that former 
minister of security affairs in the PA Cabinet called 
for Arafat's resignation in interviews with the 
international media.  Some Israeli media reported that 
he recanted. 
 
Sunday, Jerusalem Post reported that Thursday British 
PM Tony Blair offered a defense of Israel's 
assassination of Yassin, though he did not excuse it 
wholeheartedly. 
 
Sunday, Yediot reported that Israeli cabinet ministers 
and other senior figures are required to remove their 
shoes and undergo body searches at airports in the 
United States.  The newspaper quoted sources close to 
Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres as saying that he did 
not regard the search as humiliating and that he has no 
problem with it.  Former prime ministers Ehud Barak and 
Binyamin Netanyahu have been subjected to the same 
treatment.  Yediot quoted another minister, speaking on 
condition of anonymity, as saying that that if 
Secretary of State Colin Powell or any member of the 
 
SIPDIS 
U.S. cabinet were treated in this way at Ben-Gurion 
airport, there would be an uproar.  The newspaper 
quoted a source at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv as 
saying that said there is no procedure making such 
searches obligatory, and that the problem lies in lack 
of communication between the body that invited the 
Israeli VIP and the authorities at the airports. 
 
All media reported that Sunday Attorney-General 
Menachem Mazuz decided not to charge Vice PM Ehud 
Olmert for bribery in the "Greek island" affair, in 
which Sharon is allegedly involved. 
 
Sunday, Maariv and other media cited Powell's admission 
Friday that the "most dramatic" claim in his speech to 
the UN Security Council weeks before the war -- that 
Iraq had mobile biological laboratories -- appeared to 
have been based on faulty information. 
 
------------ 
1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized: "The 
knowledge that the most detailed plans may be 
overthrown by a deadly terrorist attack must fill the 
government of Israel with greater urgency toward making 
a combined move to fulfill its obligations." 
 
Senior op-ed writer Uzi Benziman opined in Ha'aretz: 
"Sharon ... has stirred suspicions that, just as he 
doesn't hesitate to bandy about empty threats to kill 
Arafat, despite his promise to Bush, he is capable of 
entangling the president of the U.S. in a far-ranging 
diplomatic initiative that he has no real intention of 
carrying out." 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "[The 
Likud rank-and-file] will have to ask themselves 
whether they really agree to the Likud's implementing 
the program of 'Peace Now.'" 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
I.  "Distracting the Public" 
 
Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (April 
5): "Sharon's attempt to deflect the attention of the 
public from his legal troubles and political failings 
by drawing attention to the negative role of Arafat, 
and by threatening to harm the Palestinian Authority 
leader, is quite ludicrous.  It's an empty threat 
because Sharon has promised Bush no harm will come to 
Arafat.  If there were any doubts about the binding 
nature of this commitment, American spokespeople, both 
senior and official, have declared that Washington is 
opposed to killing Arafat, or to his expulsion, and 
that Israel is aware of this opposition.... The Bush 
administration is willing to bypass him, but not take 
his head. Sharon is expected to know this and he shows 
no respect for the citizens of Israel with his 
exaggerated war cries that contradict the reality.  The 
knowledge that the most detailed plans may be 
overthrown by a deadly terrorist attack must fill the 
government of Israel with greater urgency toward making 
a combined move to fulfill its obligations -- finding 
security for Israelis by, among other things -- the 
security fence following as closely as possible the 
delineation of the Green Line; the evacuation of 
illegal outposts and settlements, whose removal is 
already supposedly acceptable to Sharon; improving the 
conditions of the innocent Palestinian population that 
is not involved in terrorist activities; and 
approaching moderate Palestinian groups.  If Israeli 
policy were handled this way, it is perfectly possible 
that the national mood could be much improved by 
Passover next year." 
 
II.  "So What If Sharon Said It?" 
 
Senior op-ed writer Uzi Benziman opined in Ha'aretz 
(April 4): "Sharon's behavior raises the possibility 
that he'll be willing to gamble about Bush's support, 
even as he involves the U.S. president with his 
separation plan.  At first glance, the separation plan 
seems to have emerged in the security-diplomatic 
sphere, and it is in this context that Sharon seeks the 
U.S. government's cooperation; but Sharon's current 
unbridled, reckless rhetoric creates suspicions that 
perhaps the separation initiative was also a ruse, 
designed to create a facade of a major diplomatic 
maneuver while its true purpose was to improve Sharon's 
own personal position, as he faces the police and the 
attorney general.  In fact, statements are being made 
today in Israel about how the corruption case against 
Sharon ought to be ignored, in view of the 'historic 
policy' that is to be enacted in the Gaza pullout. 
Sharon himself has stirred suspicions that, just as he 
doesn't hesitate to bandy about empty threats to kill 
Arafat, despite his promise to Bush, he is capable of 
entangling the president of the U.S. in a far-ranging 
diplomatic initiative that he has no real intention of 
carrying out." 
 
III.  "'Peace Now' Supporting Sharon" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (April 4): 
"At the end of the week, Ha'aretz reported that the 
extremist left-wing movement 'Peace Now' has decided to 
launch a public campaign in support of Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.  It is not so many 
years since that movement held a demonstration holding 
posters with the slogan 'Sharon is a Murderer.'  Ariel 
Sharon has already closed the circle.  In the past few 
months he has become the darling of the Israeli left. 
'Peace Now,' which is the most extremist, deluded, 
element of the extreme left, has warmly welcomed 
Sharon's plan.  In effect, judging by the platform of 
that movement, Sharon has outflanked it  -- and also 
Beilin's Geneva initiative -- on the left.... Beilin is 
reportedly demanding that the Likud, in its paid-up 
members' referendum, should vote not only on Sharon's 
disengagement plan but also on his [Beilin's] Geneva 
plan.... When the Likud rank-and-file come to vote on 
the Sharon plan, they will have to stop and think for a 
moment.  They will have to ask themselves whether they 
really agree to the Likud's implementing the program of 
'Peace Now.'  Think about it, Likud members.  Was it 
for this that you joined this movement?  To realize the 
world view of 'Peace Now' the most extremist left-wing 
movement in Israel?" 
 
------------------------------- 
2.  Campaign Against Terrorism: 
------------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Fortunately, the Uzbek leadership has responded [to 
terrorist attacks] with the kind of resolve that Spain 
has avoided.... [But] it is one thing to fight an 
Islamism whose declared goal is the restoration of 
medieval theocracy.  It is an entirely different thing 
to delay the arrival of political modernity." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Trouble in Turkestan" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(April 4): "International terrorism barged last week 
[in Uzbekistan], with a series of bombings that have 
killed more than 40 people in Tashkent and Bukhara, and 
wounded dozens more.  For the terrorists, the aim here 
is obvious.  Uzbekistan, under the leadership of 
communist-era boss Islam Karimov, has allowed the 
establishment of American military bases on its soil, 
thus offering the U.S. a vital springboard into nearby 
Afghanistan.  As they have done in Spain last month, it 
seems that America's enemies are out to attack its 
allies in the war on terrorism.  Fortunately, the Uzbek 
leadership has responded with the kind of resolve that 
Spain has avoided, making it plain that it will meet 
the terrorists in the battlefield rather than seek ways 
to understand and appease them.... [But] it is one 
thing to fight an Islamism whose declared goal is the 
restoration of medieval theocracy.  It is an entirely 
different thing to delay the arrival of political 
modernity." 
 
LEBARON