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Viewing cable 04TELAVIV6200, ISRAEL MEDIA REACTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
04TELAVIV6200 2004-12-08 11:50 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 08 TEL AVIV 006200 
 
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.  Iran Nuclear Program 
 
------------------------- 
Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
Israel Radio reported that the U.S. has no information 
regarding the achievement of a framework agreement 
between Israel and the Palestinians, as indicated in 
reports coming out from Cairo -- through Egypt's Middle 
East News Agency (MENA)  -- that are cited in all major 
media.  Reporting that Israeli officials played down 
the reports from Cairo that progress was being made in 
behind-the-scenes negotiations, Jerusalem Post 
nevertheless quoted a source in Sharon's bureau as 
saying that elements in those reports are true.  Israel 
Radio quoted GOI sources as saying that the reports are 
meant to assuage frustration among the Egyptian public 
regarding the release of convicted spy Azzam Azzam, and 
to prepare Egyptian public opinion to the return of an 
Egyptian ambassador to Israel. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that during his current visit to 
Kuwait Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is trying to 
persuade Kuwaiti ruler Prince Jabber Ahmed el Sabah to 
open negotiations with Israel for diplomatic ties and 
to pressure Syria to demonstrate more daring diplomatic 
moves that will persuade Israel of Damascus's 
seriousness about renewing the diplomatic process with 
Israel.  Israel Radio cited Israel's acknowledgment 
that Egypt has launched a cease-fire initiative, but 
said that PM Sharon has set the first stage of the road 
map, i.e. the cessation of Palestinian terror, as the 
precondition for talks with the Palestinians.  The 
radio also quoted GOI officials as saying that Egypt is 
trying to convene a conference in Washington this 
summer with the participation of Israel, the 
Palestinians, the U.S., and Egypt.  Leading media 
quoted GOI sources as saying that Israel would respond 
to quiet with quiet. 
 
Maariv (Ben Caspit) reported that Elliott Abrams, 
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director 
of the National Security Council for Near East and 
North African Affairs, recently told Jewish leaders at 
a private meeting in Washington that the U.S. is 
concerned about recent reports about the conduct of IDF 
troops at roadblocks, that it is opposed to even the 
slightest delay in the disengagement calendar, and that 
it views any settlement beyond the separation fence as 
slated for evacuation. 
 
IDF Radio reported that the U.S. is accusing official 
Israeli representatives of trying to obtain 
technological and intelligence information in a way 
that can be termed spying.  The station quoted senior 
GOI sources as saying that the tension over this matter 
stems from cultural differences.   In another 
development, Jerusalem Post reported that members of 
the U.S. Congress have expressed anger and dismay over 
Sunday's report in the newspaper describing how the FBI 
set up the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.  Rep. Gary Ackerman 
(D-NY), who is one of the members of Congress whose 
demand for a briefing on the matter by the Justice 
Department has not been answered, was quoted as saying 
in an interview with Jerusalem Post: "I think it's very 
disconcerting to think that an investigating agency of 
the U.S., while investigating the alleged misdeeds of a 
[Pentagon] employee [Franklin], would look to cut some 
kind of deal with him if they believe he committed a 
crime and to give him a better deal if they could." 
Ackerman reportedly added: "They are trying at any 
length to disrupt the work of a very prestigious 
American organization that advocates American foreign 
policy in the Middle East for a better relationship 
with Israel." 
 
Leading media reported that jailed Tanzim leader Marwan 
Barghouti is considering withdrawing his candidacy for 
PA chairman. 
 
The media reported on disagreements in the IDF and 
Israeli society regarding the conduct of IDF troops in 
the territories.  Yediot led with a protest letter 
written by parents of soldiers serving in the elite 
naval commando (Sayeret): "Our Sons Are Not Murderers." 
Israel Radio quoted Sayeret reservists as saying that 
the "neighbor procedure," in which the IDF orders a 
Palestinian to instruct a person whom the army wants to 
arrest to leave his house, is still being carried out 
despite a ban by the High Court of Justice. 
 
The major media reported that Finance Minister Binyamin 
Netanyahu told Sharon Tuesday that he supports the plan 
to bring the Labor Party into the coalition, and that 
he has instructed his followers in the Likud Central 
Committee to vote in favor of the plan.  Ha'aretz 
reported on inactivity among anti-disengagement forces 
within the Likud, which expect Sharon to win the vote 
in the committee Thursday.  Ha'aretz also reported that 
Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres intends to convene 
the party's executive committee on Saturday night to 
obtain its approval to start coalition talks with the 
Likud, if the Likud's convention votes in favor of 
Labor's entry into the government. 
 
The electronic media reported that this morning, anti- 
tank missiles landed next to a kindergarten in the 
northern Gaza Strip settlement of Nissanit, and that a 
mortar shell was launched at a settlement in the 
southern strip.  Israel Radio reported that Hizbullah 
is attempting to recruit activists in the Gaza Strip, 
as it has done in the northern West Bank.  Hatzofe 
reported that for the first time the Palestinians have 
dug a tunnel from the Gaza Strip into Israel. 
Ha'aretz, Yediot and Jerusalem Post reported that the 
IDF is probing the killing of a 15-year-old Palestinian 
boy last March by troops who were on a hike in the Gaza 
Strip.  Jerusalem Post reported that the PA Police have 
refused to launch a joint investigation of the case 
with the Israeli authorities. 
 
Ha'aretz reported that security forces arrested 41 
Israeli left-wing activists who were participating in a 
demonstration against the separation fence Tuesday near 
the West Bank village of Budrus.  Leading media 
reported that the IDF prevented a delegation of Peace 
Now and left-wing Knesset members from completing their 
visit Tuesday to a street being paved between Jerusalem 
and the West Bank settlement of Nokdim, south of 
Bethlehem. 
 
Ha'aretz quoted official Iranian sources as saying that 
they have information about Pakistan and Saudi Arabia 
signing an agreement in 2003 in which Pakistan promised 
to help Saudi Arabia develop nuclear weapons and the 
missiles to deliver them. 
 
Israel Radio cited a Washington Post story citing the 
conclusion of U.S. military intelligence officials that 
the Iraqi insurgency is being directed from Syria to a 
greater degree than previously recognized, 
 
Jerusalem Post quoted Majde al-Khalidi, a senior PA 
Foreign Ministry official, as saying that the PA will 
be seeking to obtain USD 400 million from the 
international donor states about to convene in Norway, 
in order to reconstruct its security apparatus.  The 
newspaper also quoted senior PA officials in Ramallah 
as saying Tuesday that a high-level Palestinian 
delegation is expected to visit the Gulf region next 
week to ask for hundreds of millions of dollars in 
financial aid for the PA.  Israel Radio reported that 
PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Palestinian 
PM Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) will meet with the Lebanese 
leadership in Beirut today. 
 
Jerusalem Post reported that in a radical departure 
from years of French critical rhetoric, the French 
Ambassador to Israel, Gerard Araud, told the newspaper 
on Tuesday that he thought Israel "has tried to show 
the utmost restraint" in the course of the conflict 
with the Palestinians since 2000. 
 
Maariv, Jerusalem Post and Hatzofe reported that 
Tuesday the Knesset approved the granting of Israeli 
citizenship to former South Lebanon Army (SLA) fighters 
and their family members who live in Israel. 
 
Maariv reported that Tuesday Likud MK Ayub Kara 
presented a bill draft to the Knesset, according to 
which the state would compensate Azzam Azzam with 96 
monthly salary payments -- the number of months he 
served in an Egyptian prison.  If adopted, the law 
could be the basis for the compensation of people who 
were jailed abroad for being Israelis. 
 
 
------------ 
1.  Mideast: 
------------ 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz: "The right thing to do is well 
familiar to [Shimon Peres]: to change his mind by 
tomorrow and explain why he is in favor of supporting 
disengagement from outside the government, retreating 
from the problematic intention of joining the Sharon 
government." 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"We would like to hear Peres argue ... that the way to 
help the Palestinian leadership confront violence is to 
hold them to high standards, and that low standards 
actually fan the flames of radicalism." 
 
Moshe Elad, who was the first head of the joint 
security mechanism with the PA, writes in Ha'aretz: 
"The Israeli government has never tried to initiate a 
positive change in Palestinian society.  Maybe the time 
has come for it.... The instrument through which this 
can be done is the Palestinian elections for 
president." 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv: "The positive 'signals' received from 
the Arab states, which 'ambassador' Sharon will boast 
about at the Likud Convention, are akin to the 
satisfaction of a wolf that has just devoured a sheep." 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized: "Where is 
the only person of conscience among the Palestinian 
public who will speak about the 'purity of arms' [an 
Israeli military concept advocating limited force and 
the humane treatment of enemy prisoners and 
noncombatants]?" 
 
 
 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
I.  "Lose to Win" 
Liberal columnist Gideon Samet wrote in independent, 
left-leaning Ha'aretz (December 8): "The Labor Party's 
entry into the government under the current 
circumstances will be of no little shame for Peres and 
his party.  As ministers, they will be small pawns on a 
board on which Sharon is playing until he decides to 
checkmate them.... In the best of all possible cases, 
to please the international ear and the eye of the 
Israeli majority, the disengagement will start with 
something.  When it encounters its first anticipated 
difficulties, perhaps even blood on the TV screens, it 
will get stuck, together with the losers from Labor.... 
Say what you want about Peres, he's a serious, 
experienced man.  The right thing to do is well 
familiar to him: to change his mind by tomorrow and 
explain why he is in favor of supporting disengagement 
from outside the government, retreating from the 
problematic intention of joining the Sharon government. 
One thing is certain in this vote: He will surely come 
out a winner." 
 
II.  "Where's the New Peres?" 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(December 8): "There is ... a fundamental difference 
between the two leaders [Sharon and Peres], beyond 
their disputes on specific issues.  The difference is 
that Sharon, by proposing disengagement, embracing the 
goal of Palestinian statehood and calling the status 
quo 'occupation,' has dramatically changed course.... 
By contrast, there is no new Peres.... Peres has been 
defeated at the polls more times than perhaps any 
leader in our history.  Yet he has never shown any 
doubt as to the rightness of his path.... Some say the 
mistake of Oslo was the idea behind it, others blame 
only the bet on Yasser Arafat as a partner.  Without 
resolving this debate, there should be no obstacle to 
agreeing that it was a mistake, once it became clear 
that Arafat was not complying, to make excuses for him 
and accuse anyone who blew the whistle of 'weakening 
Arafat' and threatening peace.   We would like to hear 
-- not just from Sharon, but from Peres -- that that 
mistake will not be made again, that he will not say 
that demanding an end to terror and incitement 'weakens 
Abu Mazen.'  We would like to hear Peres argue the 
opposite: that the way to help the Palestinian 
leadership confront violence is to hold them to high 
standards, and that low standards actually fan the 
flames of radicalism.  We have a new Sharon.  Will we 
have a new Peres?" 
 
III.  "When the Likud Applauds Peres" 
 
Conservative columnist Nadav Haetzni wrote in popular, 
pluralist Maariv (December 8): "The actual significance 
of the package of achievements Sharon has arranged for 
Mubarak is a modification of the strategic balance in 
southern Israel.  God forbid, it could also brew the 
next war with Egypt: after the withdrawal from Katif 
[in the Gaza Strip], any Israeli retaliatory action 
against the launching of missiles from Gaza, could be 
viewed as a declaration of war against Egypt.... All 
told, the positive 'signals' received from the Arab 
states, which 'ambassador' Sharon will boast about at 
the Likud Convention, are akin to the satisfaction of a 
wolf that has just devoured a sheep.... Peres and 
Chamberlain have patented this formula.... Thus, on 
Thursday, after the members of the convention listen to 
the Prime Minister's listing of achievements, they will 
have to decide whether they will finally turn 
Jabotinsky House [the Likud headquarters] into another 
version of the Peres Center For Peace." 
 
IV.  "Time For a Positive Change" 
 
Moshe Elad, who was the first head of the joint 
security mechanism with the PA, writes in Ha'aretz 
(December 8): "The sounds of joy Israelis are making 
about 'seeing positive signs' in the Palestinian 
leadership, and particularly in the Islamic bloc, 
should be regarded with a considered degree of caution. 
It's not peace they are talking about over there, but 
about freedom for the prisoners, lifting the 
checkpoints, and work permits.... For clear reasons, 
mostly the continuing terrorism, the Israeli government 
has never tried to initiate a positive change in 
Palestinian society.  Maybe the time has come for 
it.... The instrument through which this can be done is 
the Palestinian elections for president.  Before the 
pressure on Israel begins to mount, before a 
spectacular terror attack by the association of 
opponents of peace torpedoes the last bit of 
willingness to turn a new page, it would be wise if at 
our own initiative we responded to those signals.  If 
there is any chance for a change in the position of the 
Palestinian public toward Israel and an end to 
terrorism, it does not go through Abu Mazen's office 
nor even Marwan Barghouti's cell.  It passes, whether 
we like it or not, through the gates of the Shata 
Prison and at the Hawara checkpoint." 
 
V.  "Purity of Arms" 
 
Nationalist, Orthodox Hatzofe editorialized (December 
8): "[IDF soldiers] have carried out exceptional deeds 
every few years; all those who took part in them are 
paying dearly and publicly for them, which represent 99 
percent of the cases perpetrated in the fight against 
an enemy who attacks in order to kill.... Hundreds of 
terrorists attend each funeral of a senior Hamas 
member.  Common and existential sense suggests that all 
those murderers be sprayed with weapon fire.  However, 
Israel will never do such a thing, which could have 
saved a considerable amount of Jewish blood.  In 
contrast to this humanism, mean Palestinian terrorists 
have not hesitated to open fire at mourners who had 
come to the [Gaza Strip] Gush Katif cemetery in order 
to honor the memory of the terror victims.  Where is 
the only person of conscience among the Palestinian 
public who will speak about the 'purity of arms' [an 
Israeli military concept advocating limited force and 
the humane treatment of enemy prisoners and 
noncombatants]?" 
 
------------------------- 
2.  Iran Nuclear Program: 
------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: 
"While the world is preoccupied with Iranian nuclear 
activity ... Iran says: 'You're only looking at us, but 
here are two friends of the United States who are 
working together through an accord to develop a nuclear 
program.'" 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Iran Attempts Distraction" 
 
Senior columnist and chief defense commentator Zeev 
Schiff wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz 
(December 8): "After the board of directors at the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently 
announced that the board welcomed Iran's decision to 
freeze all activities connected with uranium 
enrichment, a news item appeared in Tehran quoting 
official sources who claimed that Saudi Arabia and 
Pakistan had joined forces to develop a military 
nuclear program.... What prompted Iran to issue this 
piece of news?  While the world is preoccupied with 
Iranian nuclear activity, with the pressures that 
European countries are putting on Iran, with the 
American demands to transfer the issue to the United 
Nations Security Council, Iran says: 'You're only 
looking at us, but here are two friends of the United 
States who are working together through an accord to 
develop a nuclear program.'  Unlike the past, this time 
the Iranians did not accuse Israel -- falsely -- as the 
cause for their nuclear development, but rather two 
large Muslim countries.  Thus the message is that the 
U.S. is employing a double standard and wants to harm 
Iran's efforts to develop energy." 
KURTZER