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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 007023

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. Iran: Nuclear Program

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

Israel TV and Israel Radio reported that Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice praised PM Sharon's courageous
moves in an interview with CNN, as, in the words of
both stations' Washington correspondent Yaron Dekel,
"she knows well that he stands for reelection in
Israel."

Yediot (lead story) and other media reported that on
Tuesday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz instructed the
IDF to prepare for an expected wave of terror from the
Gaza Strip. Yediot quoted Mofaz as saying: "The PA
does not function. There is no guiding hand [there]."
Israel Radio quoted him as saying that the situation
will worsen. Major media (banner in Ha'aretz) reported
that on Sunday, after a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza
landed not far from an Israel Electric Corporation
plant south of Ashkelon, Israel told the PA that it
planned to shut off power in Gaza for two hours early
Monday morning, as a warning of things to come if the
Qassam fire did not stop. However, implementation was
indefinitely postponed to give the main Palestinian
hospital in Gaza time to purchase emergency generators.
The media reported that one of the Qassam rockets fired
on Tuesday landed on an army base in Israel. Ha'aretz
reported that the IDF has promised that the industrial
zone south of Ashkelon will be connected to the Red
Dawn rocket launch warning system within two weeks.
Israel Radio reported that at a meeting with Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman today, Mofaz was
expected to ask him to pressure the PA to act against
the terror organizations. Israel Radio reported that
an IDF soldier was lightly wounded during a clash with
Palestinians in Jenin this morning.

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Israel Radio reported that this morning, newly elected
Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu told the Likud's
Knesset faction that he would ask the party to place FM
Silvan Shalom as No. 2 on the Likud's Knesset list.
Israel Radio reported that the Likud's Knesset faction
will meet today to determine the date of the party's
withdrawal from the government. Leading media reported
that Netanyahu tends to accept the Likud ministers'
wish to stay in the government until January 3, the
date of the internal elections in the Likud. The media
(Maariv's banner) quoted Netanyahu as saying in the
last few days that he will look into ways to oust Moshe
Feiglin, the head of the far-right Jewish Leadership
faction in the party, from the Likud. The media also
quoted Netanyahu as saying that he would strive to free
the party from criminal elements that infiltrated it.

The Jerusalem Post reported that, marking a shift in
Israel's position on Hamas's participation in the
Palestinian legislative elections in January, a senior
Israeli diplomatic official told the newspaper on
Tuesday that Israel will likely pull troops back from
West Bank cities and lift roadblocks even if Hamas
takes part in the elections. Ha'aretz reported that
senior Israeli officials have told Veronique de Keyser,
who heads a delegation of European election observers,
that Israel will not enable voting for the PA's
legislative elections to take place in East Jerusalem
because of Hamas's participation. The newspaper quoted
the officials as saying this week that because Israel
objects to Hamas's participation in the elections, it
is not willing to allow voting to take place in
sovereign Israeli territory. Ha'aretz cited the belief
of Israeli officials that the PA may use Israel's
opposition to balloting in East Jerusalem as a pretext
for postponing the elections, as PA Chairman
[President] Mahmoud Abbas is already under growing
pressure from his own party to do so. Leading Israeli
news web sites and Israel Radio quoted PA Information
Minister Nabil Shaath as saying this morning that the
PA will cancel the elections if Israel goes ahead with
its plan to bar Jerusalem Palestinians from voting.

Leading media cited a GOI statement that President Bush
told Sharon in a phone conversation on Tuesday to eat
less, work less, and exercise more. The media also
reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called
Sharon on Tuesday. Yediot and Maariv reported that
talking with foreign reporters on Tuesday, Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi invited Sharon to rest in his
Sardinian holiday home Maariv quoted Berlusconi as
saying that he succeeded in totally changing Italy's
attitude toward Israel.
Ha'aretz quoted IDF Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon
Zeevi-Farkash as saying on Tuesday before the Knesset's
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that tensions
along the northern border could escalate in the coming
months and lead to artillery barrages and attempts to
abduct Israeli soldiers. The Jerusalem Post quoted him
as saying that Iran posed a substantial threat to
Israel's security, and that the U.S. was "stuck in the
mud" in dealing with the situation. Major media quoted
Zeevi-Farkash as testifying to the committee that Iran
has procured 12 3,000-km range cruise missiles capable
of carrying nuclear warheads. Yediot and other media
reported that Iran has recently purchased 18 North
Korean-made missiles, and that it is upgrading their
range to 2,500 to 3,500-km. Yediot cited German
intelligence as the source for its report. Ha'aretz
reported that Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the right-
wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told a group of Ha'aretz
reporters on Tuesday that a committee of inquiry should
be established to investigate the government's behavior
with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat. Lieberman
was quoted as saying that Israel could have stopped the
Iranian plan "in one blow" in 2001, but that it may be
too late today.

Israel Radio and leading news web sites reported that
this morning, Palestinian gunmen abducted two foreign
citizens -- Belgian and Dutch nationals -- teaching at
the American School in Gaza.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Sharon wants to
appoint five new ministers from Kadima to his cabinet
as early as Sunday, but that he is waiting first to see
when Netanyahu intends to force Likud ministers to
quit.

Israel Radio reported that two Shin Bet investigators
will visit the U.S. in four months in order to testify
in the case of Muhammad Salah, who is suspected of
smuggling money to Hamas. Israel deported Salah to the
U.S. seven years ago after he spent five years in an
Israeli jail.

The Jerusalem Post quoted the head of the Disengagement
Authority, Yonatan Bassi, as saying on Tuesday that the
cost of the disengagement program from Gaza is likely
to be 1 billion shekels (around USD 217.5 million) less
than expected.

Leading media reported that the Labor Party decided on
Tuesday that the party's more than 100,000 registered
voters will vote for the party's Knesset list on
January 17. The media reported that the convention
overwhelmingly rejected a change in the voting method
that would have allowed the 4,000 convention delegates
to choose the party's list of candidates. Ha'aretz
reported that Labor Party supporters in New York intend
to invite Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz to the U.S.
to introduce him to the local Jewish community.

Maariv reported that 1.3 million web surfers -- mostly
from Germany, France and Japan -- have visited the
Foreign Ministry's web site since the beginning of the
year.

Maariv reported that during the weekend, customs and
tax officials in Jerusalem arrested Tel Aviv resident
Itai Benzino [phon.], who is suspected of having led a
ring of smugglers of steroids and pharmaceuticals to
the U.S. The investigators found in his possession USD
500,000 in cash.

Ha'aretz cited an American Jewish Committee-
commissioned survey of American Jews, which found that
some 59 percent of U.S. Jews have never visited Israel.
While half of those who have never visited Israel said
the trip's cost has been the main deterrent, 20 percent
said they avoided the country for fear for their own
safety, and 18 percent said it was due to "lack of
interest."

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

Summary:
--------

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized:
"Moderates should not remain in the Likud, thereby
lending a hand to obscuring the picture that is finally
becoming clear."

Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized: "If
Netanyahu could have 'made disappear' the bunch of
[extremists] from the TV screens, and tried to sell the
more moderate Knesset members [to the public], his task
would have been easier."

Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in Ha'aretz:
"[Hamas's] self-confident participation in the general
election is based on three lies."

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

I. "The Likud Is Not Their Home"

Independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz editorialized
(December 21): "Binyamin Netanyahu's victory in the
Likud leadership primary positions this party close to
the extreme right of the political map, very close to
National Union, Yisrael Beiteinu and the National
Religious Party -- the parties that opposed Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate Gaza and the
northern West Bank, which enjoyed the support of a
large majority of the Israeli public.... [Netanyahu's]
platform won -- both his economic platform and, perhaps
even more, his diplomatic platform, which rejects
progress toward a compromise between Israel and an
independent Palestinian state, at the price of a large
withdrawal from the West Bank. A majority of Israelis
support such a compromise. But three out of every five
Likud members, if you combine Moshe Feiglin's
supporters with those of Netanyahu, oppose it, thereby
distancing the party from the public center of
gravity.... It is therefore not clear what Silvan
Shalom is doing in such a party.... During his three
years as foreign minister, Shalom played a positive
role, primarily in conducting diplomatic relations
between Israel and the world outside the White House.
The improvement in Israel's position was achieved
largely thanks to its willingness to withdraw from
Gaza, and to talk with the Palestinian leadership
following Yasser Arafat's death.... The main benefit of
the recent political 'big bang' has been a more
accurate reflection of fundamental positions. Thus
moderates should not remain in the Likud, thereby
lending a hand to obscuring the picture that is finally
becoming clear."

II. "Netanyahu's Problems"

Ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman editorialized (December
21): "The Likud knows that the only way to bring an
increasing number of voters to the party is to place it
at the center of the [political] map, with a slight
leaning to the right -- no more. In a process that
might perhaps only be explained by psychology, it is
actually the withdrawal from Gaza -- with all the
related problems that appear daily -- that a growing
public from the classical 'Right' detached itself [from
the Likud].... If Netanyahu could have 'made disappear'
the bunch of [extremists] from the TV screens, and
tried to sell the more moderate Knesset members [to the
public], his task would have been easier."

III. "On the Three Lies of Hamas"

Palestinian affairs correspondent and far-left
Palestinian sympathizer Amira Hass opined in Ha'aretz
(December 21): "[Hamas's] self-confident participation
in the general election is based on three lies. The
first lie Hamas has disseminated is that the Gaza Strip
has been liberated.... The second lie is that Gaza was
'liberated' thanks to the Palestinian armed struggle,
especially that of Hamas, and that this is the surefire
formula for the West Bank as well.... The third lie is
that the upcoming elections, in contrast to the 1996
elections in which Hamas refused to participate, have
already been cut off from the Oslo framework and are
therefore 'kosher.' But it was the Oslo Accords that
determined that Palestinian leadership elections would
take place in Gaza and the West Bank (and not, for
instance, among the Palestinian Diaspora as well). It
was the Oslo process -- even if not the language of the
agreement -- that defined the PA council as a
'government.' And it was negotiations with Israel --
which Hamas refuses to recognize -- and the mediation
of donor nations that led to the establishment of
governmental institutions, whose positions the Hamas
movement is now planning to fill."

--------------------------
2. Iran: Nuclear Program:
--------------------------
Summary:
--------

Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the
University of California, Davis, and at Tel Aviv
University, wrote in independent, left-leaning
Ha'aretz: "Israel could bring real international
pressure to bear if it were to initiate nuclear
disarmament. It is mature enough and strong enough to
consider the principle of 'he who dares, wins' not only
by means of military initiatives, but also in the
matter of diplomatic initiatives."

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

"Toward a Different Nuclear Policy"

Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the
University of California, Davis, and at Tel Aviv
University, wrote in independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz
(December 21): "The contradiction inherent to the
Israeli nuclear policy -- stoking the image of a
nuclear deterrent capacity to whose effectiveness
Israel itself does not subscribe -- requires a profound
reexamination of the internal logic of this policy.
The time has come to begin relating to Israel's nuclear
image as a negotiating chip, and to seriously consider
if a Middle East disarmed of weapons of mass
destruction would not be preferable to a nuclear Middle
East, or to a Middle East in which Israel possesses a
nuclear monopoly. Israel could bring real
international pressure to bear if it were to initiate
nuclear disarmament. It is mature enough and strong
enough to consider the principle of 'he who dares,
wins' not only by means of military initiatives, but
also in the matter of diplomatic initiatives."

CRETZ

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