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Cablegate: Israel Media Reaction

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 TEL AVIV 004097

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

3. Guantanamo Detainees

4. U.S.-Israel Relations

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

All media led with disengagement-related issues.
Ha'aretz reported that the army will soon declare the
Gaza Strip a closed military area, due to fears of
further escalation by right-wing extremists holed up in
the Gush Katif settlement bloc. The media highlighted
the blockage of roads throughout the country, which is
scheduled to take place at 5:00 p.m. today. This
morning, anti-disengagement activists threw oil and
nails at two points on the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem
highway, sparking anger among mainstream opponents of
the pullout plan, including the blockage organizers.
The media reported that PM Sharon, Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz, and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz conveyed
tough statements in response to pro-disengagement
protests. All media quoted former IDF chief of staff
Moshe Ya'alon as saying, before a Knesset panel
Tuesday, that he was briefed on the disengagement after
it was reported in the media and after the U.S. had
been consulted about it. Yediot quoted Sharon
associates as saying that Ya'alon is lying.

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Israel Radio quoted Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
as saying at the annual "Caesarea Conference," which
opened in Jerusalem Tuesday, that he does not intend to
join any anti-disengagement initiative that would cause
him to quit the government. He was quoted as saying
that the disengagement, which he said was a mistake
because it will bring Hamas to the fore, will cost
Israel at least 10 billion shekels (around USD 2.2
billion in present terms) in three years. Ha'aretz
quoted Netanyahu as saying at the conference that
Israel's growth is more important than that of Europe
and even that of the U.S.

All media reported that right-wing activists, who took
over a Palestinian house on Monday near the beach in
Gush Katif, clashed violently Tuesday with Palestinians
living nearby. The media reported that Cpl. Avi
Bieber, the IDF soldier who on Sunday refused to remove
settlers who were disrupting the demolition of
abandoned houses in Gush Katif, was sentenced at a
disciplinary hearing on Tuesday to 56 days in military
jail -- the maximum possible sentence.
Israel Radio reported that the U.S. and Israel have
still not reached an agreement about security exports
during talks in Washington.
Yediot reported that the office of Vice Premier Shimon
Peres, in coordination with the Finance Ministry and
officials in the U.S. Embassy to Israel, has prepared
the Israeli request for the aid package to strengthen
the Negev and Galilee. The newspaper says that Israel
is asking for aid that will serve to relocate seven IDF
bases to the Negev, rehabilitate seven Bedouin
villages, build new industrial zones, tend to
environmental issues, primarily Ramat Hovav, establish
hi-tech and industrial parks, and develop
infrastructure, roads and railways.

Leading media reported that Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei
announced on Tuesday that his cabinet is sitting in
emergency sessions until the completion of Israel's
pullout from Gaza. Qurei also said he was ready to
form a cabinet that would include Hamas. Leading media
reported that Hamas rejected the offer. Hatzofe
reported that Gen. Yosef Mishlav, the coordinator of
GOI activities in the territories, told the Knesset's
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that
anarchy prevails in the PA, that Fatah is collapsing,
but that there has been some improvement in the PA's
economic conditions.

Jerusalem Post quoted Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser,
head of the IDF's Intelligence Corps research division,
as saying on Tuesday at a meeting of the Knesset Forum
on the Middle East, that Iran is committed to building
a nuclear bomb, which would help it spread the Islamic
revolution across the Middle East.

Jerusalem Post quoted Rabbi David Rosen, the American
Jewish Committee's Jerusalem-based Director of
Interreligious Affairs, as saying that top Israeli
Jewish religious leaders have refused to attend the
Qatar interreligious conference opening in Doha today
because they were not allowed to be on a panel or
listed as participants on the program. Yediot writes
that Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi and former Ashkenazi Chief
Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau and Haifa Chief Rabbi
Shear Yashuv Cohen were among those invited to the
event.

Ha'aretz and Maariv reported that the Moscow
prosecution announced Tuesday that it has decided not
to open an official investigation of a Russian
translation of the Shulhan Arukh, a fundamental code of
Jewish religious law, in reversal of its earlier
position. Vice PM Ehud Olmert welcomed the decision.

Maariv reported that 200 people attacked, and almost
killed, two Palestinians who intended to break into
houses in Moshav Ahiezer, near Ben Gurion Airport, on
Tuesday night.
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel and former A/S Martin
Indyk was quoted as saying, in an interview with
Jerusalem Post, that Israel might find itself slapped
with UN Security Council sanctions if it continues its
pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Yediot cited a "secret FBI document," according to
which local police knew about the possibility that a
terrorist attack could be carried out against El Al
targets at Los Angeles' LAX airport on July 4, 2002,
but that they failed to act.

Yediot reported that A-G Menachem Mazuz instructed the
police to start an investigation against MK Ahmed Tibi
(Hadash-Ta'al), following his May trip to Lebanon, an
"enemy country," which was not authorized by the
Interior Ministry.

Jerusalem Post cited the results of a poll conducted
by the University of Haifa:
- 41.8 percent of Israeli Jews believe that no
settlements should be dismantled as part of a peace
agreement.
- 20.4 percent of Israeli Jews said they were willing
to block roads or highways to thwart a government
policy they consider to be dangerous, while 46.9
percent defined the settlers' protests as violent.

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

Summary:
--------

Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir,
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv: "The true, tough
test [of disengagement] lies in its security aspect --
mainly in the fate of the Philadelphi route."

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

"Forsaken to Egypt's Mercy"

Yossi Ben-Aharon, who was director-general of the Prime
Minister's Office under former PM Yitzhak Shamir,
argued in popular, pluralist Maariv (June 29): "When he
invented disengagement, Sharon apparently thought he
would do away with some of the damage caused by the
Oslo Accords. The belief that the disengagement would
produce diplomatic achievements has ended up unfounded.
The true, tough test lies in its security aspect --
mainly in the fate of the Philadelphi route.... After
the IDF's withdrawal [from Gaza], territorial
continuity would be formed from the very heart of
Egypt, via the north of the Sinai peninsula, until the
outskirts of Ashkelon. Tomorrow or the day after,
another leader, whose attitude toward Israel will be
different, will rule Egypt. The Gaza Strip could soon
turn into a sword directed at central Israel.... If
Gush Katif is destroyed, the Philadelphi route would be
the last obstacle before an invasion of the Land of
Israel [Israel, including the territories.]"

---------
2. Iran:
---------

Summary:
--------

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized:
"Israel must continue its diplomatic efforts to
neutralize the Iranian threats. However it is important
that Israel ... remain behind the scenes and leave
center stage to the great powers."

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

"Facing the Reality in Tehran"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized (June
29): "Last weekend's election of the conservative
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran is an
important regional development. His positions are
liable to increase Iran's hostility toward Israel even
further, but they also create an opportunity to
increase pressure on the Iranian regime to change its
behavior.... He cannot be presented as a moderate who
needs to be encouraged and strengthened. Immediately
after his election, he pledged to continue Iran's
nuclear program, expressed contempt for the U.S., and
said that Israel's existence was 'illegal.' These
positions could also have practical implications: for
instance, accelerating the nuclear program or
encouraging Hezbollah not to disarm. Israel hopes,
rightly, that such statements will help expose the true
face and intentions of the Iranian regime and thereby
help to drum up international support against it. It
will be easier to muster support against the extremist
rulers in the absence of Khatami's moderate fig leaf.
European diplomats say that it is necessary to wait and
see how Ahmadinejad behaves, and that overly harsh
sanctions would only push Iran into irresponsible
behavior. Moreover, it will be difficult to impose
economic sanctions on such a large oil exporter when
global oil prices are so high. But Israel must
continue its diplomatic efforts to neutralize the
Iranian threats. However it is important that Israel
not position itself at the front: it should remain
behind the scenes and leave center stage to the great
powers."
3. Guantanamo Detainees:

Summary:
--------

Columnist Mark Steyn wrote in conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post: "[Guantanamo] is the first gulag in
history where the torture victims put on weight."

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

"Steady On, Gitmo Is Not Belsen"

Columnist Mark Steyn wrote in conservative, independent
Jerusalem Post (June 29): "The world divides into those
who feel the atrocities at Gitmo 'must have been done
by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -
- Pol Pot or others' (in the widely quoted words of
[Democratic] Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois), and the
rest of us, for whom the more we hear the specifics of
the 'atrocities' the funnier they are.... Where the
anti-Gitmo crowd went wrong was in expanding its
objections from the legal status of the prisoners to
the treatment they're receiving. By any comparison --
i.e. not just with Hitler -- they're getting better
than they deserve. It's the first gulag in history
where the torture victims put on weight.... The
Democrats flopped in 2002 and 2004 because they were
seen as incoherent on national security issues.
Explicitly branding themselves as the "terrorists'
rights" party is unlikely to improve their chances for
2006."

--------------------------
4. U.S.-Israel Relations:
--------------------------

Summary:
--------

Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in an
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "Now, in Washington, the Americans are
drafting the terms of surrender for the Israelis....
Our dependence on America is total."
Veteran columnist Yosef Goell wrote in conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post: "Over the past six decades
Israel ... has attracted more love and support from
Americans than any other foreign nation.... [But] today
Israel is loosely identified with Bush Junior and his
administration, broadly hated on campuses."

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

I. "The Mouse that Roared"

Veteran op-ed writer and the late prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin's assistant Eytan Haber opined in an
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot (June 29): "An [Israeli] security delegation
is presently in the U.S. with the aim of ending the
dispute between the great United States and small
Israel with regard to arms sales. The Americans were
angry and set us straight, and now, in Washington, the
Americans are drafting the terms of surrender for the
Israelis. From now on, we will tell Uncle Sam all the
secrets of our defense wares. We will report every

SIPDIS
bolt sold to the Galapagos Islands, from now on all the
safes are cracked, all the secrets are open, and if the
uncle from the Pentagon shakes an admonishing finger at
us, we will fold and plead: forgive us, expiate our
sins. That is what happens when a country like Israel
is dependent on a world power like the United States.
They are capable of grounding our entire Air Force
within a short period of time, denying us 80 percent of
the bread we eat, forcing us to the floor with our
hands in the air. We are a protectorate, and the
Defense Ministry will no longer be able to run wild at
the expense of the American defense industries. That
is what every prime minister who enters office ... is
beginning to understand. Our dependence on America is
total. We, at most, are a mouse that is trying to
roar."

II. "A Many-Splendored Thing"

Veteran columnist Yosef Goell wrote in conservative,
independent Jerusalem Post (June 29): "We have to learn
to neutralize our nagging Jewish penchant for seeking
love from all and sundry. It's a sickness. The
overwhelming majority of people in the world don't
'love' other people; they have more important targets
for their emotions. I would say that over the past six
decades Israel has been an exception to that rule,
especially in the U.S., and she has attracted more love
and support from Americans than any other foreign
nation. The flip side has been that the Israel-
Palestinian conflict has also come in for greater
emotional involvement, both positive and negative, than
all the other, bloodier, conflicts raging throughout
the world at the same time. In 1967, the anti-Israel
positions on graduate campuses were strongly influenced
by the Vietnam War and by Israel's identification with
the hated Johnson administration. Today Israel is
loosely identified with Bush Junior and his
administration, broadly hated on campuses."

KURTZER

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