US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV3891

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 003891 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, KWBG, SOCI, IS, GAZA DISENGAGEMENT, GOI INTERNAL 
SUBJECT: GAZA DISENGAGEMENT: RIBBONS SHOW ISRAELIS' TRUE 
COLORS ON DISENGAGEMENT 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Norman Olsen for reasons 1.4 (b,d). 
 
1.  (SBU) In recent months, some Israeli motorists who oppose 
Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan have taken to 
tying orange ribbons on their vehicles to denote their 
opposition.  Up until about a week ago, orange was the only 
color streaming from car -- and truck -- antennas, bumpers 
and door handles.  Not so today.  Some disengagement 
supporters have started streaming blue ribbons from their 
cars, and Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer told Poloff 
June 20 he had little time to talk, as he was busy launching 
a formal blue ribbon pro-disengagement campaign.  The 
anti-disengagement movement has been for two months visible, 
with bumper stickers, billboards, and roadside banners in 
noticeable numbers on the main highways.  In Jerusalem, home 
to a large number of religious Jews who support the 
settlements, anti-disengagement banners are pervasive. 
Oppenheimer hopes to change that. 
 
2.  (C) Oppenheimer said he has 100,000 blue ribbons to 
distribute over the next two weeks, and 500,000 in total, 
through a grass-roots campaign to show support for 
disengagement.  In response to Poloff's question whether 
people may decide not to display blue ribbons out of fear 
that fervent disengagement opponents might vandalize their 
cars, Oppenheimer assessed that most disengagement supporters 
will display the ribbons regardless.  He noted that if they 
are afraid of vandalism, they can remove the ribbon once they 
park their cars.  "To be silent," Oppenheimer stressed, "is 
the most terrible thing to do.  It means you don't care." 
 
3.  (SBU) Oppenheimer has only several weeks to make progress 
on his campaign before leaving it in other activists' hands 
as he will be leaving for two-and-a-half weeks of military 
reserve service beginning July 17.  He made the news June 15 
when word go out to the press that the left-wing peacenik 
will perform his reserve duty guarding settlement outposts in 
the southern Etzion bloc.  He will serve with a battalion 
that will replace a regular Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit 
that will participate in the evacuation of settlements in 
Gaza.  Oppenheimer told Poloff, as he had told Ma'ariv, that 
he is "happy to be going to help the cause of disengagement." 
 
 
 
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Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv 
 
You can also access this site through the State Department's 
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KURTZER