US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV4472

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TEL AVIV 004472 
 
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.  Gaza Disengagement 
 
2.  Global War on Terrorism 
 
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Key stories in the media: 
------------------------- 
 
The major media reported that the police last night 
allowed tens of thousands of anti-pullout demonstrators 
to sleep at Kfar Maimon, five km west of Netivot, where 
the march toward Gush Katif started.  Settler leaders 
promised earlier in the day that there would be no 
"infiltration" of activists into the Gaza Strip during 
the night.  Ha'aretz reported that the Yesha Council of 
Jewish Settlements in the Territories vowed to continue 
the march today, but Internal Security Minister Gideon 
Ezra told Israel Radio this morning that the police 
will not let them do so.  The media cited the right 
wing's anger at police restrictions against the 
marchers, which it views as civil rights violations. 
 
Israel Radio reported that a foreign worker was 
slightly wounded this morning in a mortar attack on a 
Gush Katif settlement.  Jerusalem Post reported that 
the IDF is investigating Palestinian allegations that a 
14-year-old boy was killed by IDF gunfire near the Gush 
Katif junction on Monday afternoon. 
 
Ha'aretz (Akiva Eldar) reported that, following an 
inquiry by the newspaper, FM Silvan Shalom announced 
Monday that he would demand that the PA disqualify the 
Hamas list in the PA's legislative elections.  Ha'aretz 
found that Hamas's candidacy contravenes the terms of 
the second Oslo agreement.  "The nomination of any 
candidates, parties or coalitions shall be refused, and 
such nomination or registration once made will be 
canceled," states Article II of Annex II, if they 1. 
"commit or advocate racism" or 2. "pursue the 
implementation of their aims by unlawful or non- 
democratic means." 
 
Maariv reported that PM Sharon has invited world 
leaders -- including President Bush, former U.S. 
president Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni 
Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and King Mohamed 
VI of Morocco -- to the 10th anniversary commemoration 
of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in November.  The 
newspaper cited the Rabin Center for Israel Studies' 
hope that the leaders' visits will help restore 
optimism to the region. 
 
----------------------- 
1.  Gaza Disengagement: 
----------------------- 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "In this country, 
most people support the pullout.... The actions of the 
Palestinians, with their bombings and their mortar 
shells, only strengthen the fanatics in Israel." 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe 
Arens wrote in Ha'aretz: "Israel's original position, 
that dismantling the Palestinian terrorist 
infrastructure precede any steps toward an 
accommodation with the Palestinians, was logical, and 
it enjoyed the support of Washington.... We [now] seem 
to be moving in the wrong direction." 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one 
of popular, pluralist Maariv: "It will take a great 
deal of responsibility, lots of experience and no small 
measure of wisdom to prevent the clash that is expected 
over the coming days from being one that will expose us 
all to harsh sights." 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized: "[Influential rabbis] are to 
blame for the ... tragic enfeeblement of the 
foundations on which the national home stands." 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot: "Even the language that the settler leaders 
use is repulsive.... [But] the police decision to stop 
the organized bussing of right wing demonstrators at 
their points of departure was an undemocratic act and a 
bad public mistake." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
I.  "Get Down From the Rooftops" 
 
Senior columnist and longtime dove Yoel Marcus wrote in 
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (July 19): "At this 
stage of the game, both parties must subdue the 
extremist and rejectionist forces in their camps.  But 
there is no symmetry between the home conflicts of the 
two peoples.  In this country, most people support the 
pullout, and in a solid democracy like Israel, the will 
of the majority counts, no matter how much the 
extremists demonstrate and threaten civil war.  The 
army will carry out its mission even if the craziest of 
the crazies try to drag the country into a bloody 
standoff.... The difference between the Palestinians 
and us is that every time their organizations get into 
an argument, they shoot at the Jews.... The actions of 
the Palestinians, with their bombings and their mortar 
shells, only strengthen the fanatics in Israel. 
Sharon's standing in his party could suffer, leading to 
his ouster and the onset of Intifada III.  Is that what 
the Palestinians want?  How many more times do these 
poor people intend to screw themselves?" 
 
II.  "Terrorism Can Wait" 
 
Former Ambassador to the U.S., former Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, and former Minister of Defense Moshe 
Arens wrote in Ha'aretz (July 19): "Israel's original 
position, that dismantling the Palestinian terrorist 
infrastructure precede any steps toward an 
accommodation with the Palestinians, was logical, and 
it enjoyed the support of Washington.  The government 
made a mistake when it abandoned that position and let 
up on Israel's war on Palestinian terror just when we 
were close to inflicting on them a decisive defeat. 
The recent relaxation of the IDF's control in 
Palestinian cities in Samaria [the northern West Bank] 
may have been responsible for the latest suicide 
bombing in Netanya.  After finally taking the offensive 
in the war against Palestinian terrorism, we seem to be 
moving in the wrong direction." 
 
III.  "Burst of Energy" 
 
Diplomatic correspondent Ben Caspit wrote on page one 
of popular, pluralist Maariv (July 19): "On Monday 
evening there were four, perhaps five kilometers that 
separated Ariel Sharon, ensconced in the Sycamore Farm, 
from his thousands of denouncers, who gathered in [the 
town of] Netivot.... In reality, these adversaries are 
separated by millions of light years, oceans of bad 
blood, abysses of alienation and vast differences in 
worldview.  The loyalists of the land versus the head 
of state.  The Land of Israel versus the State of 
Israel.  Sovereignty versus messianism.  Knesset and 
cabinet resolutions versus Torah and rabbinical 
commandments.  Israel has lived under the shadow of 
this problematic equation since its inception.  Now it 
is coming to the fore.... [The demonstrators'] energy 
has now been gathered, the passion, the fire in the 
eyes, from all corners of the country and assembled in 
the Negev, at the gates of Gush Katif, praying for 
Sharon's failure, wishing for his end.... It will take 
a great deal of responsibility, lots of experience and 
no small measure of wisdom to prevent the clash that is 
expected over the coming days from being one that will 
expose us all to harsh sights." 
 
IV.  "Toward the Edge of the Abyss" 
 
Ha'aretz editorialized (July 19): "The call by two 
former chief rabbis, Mordechai Eliyahu and Avraham 
Shapira, for soldiers to refuse obeying the military 
order to prevent pullout opponents from entering the 
Gaza Strip is not a halakhic [rabbinical] ruling.  It 
is a blatant act of incitement and political sedition 
that is prompting many soldiers to violate the state's 
laws.... The Chief Rabbinate was established as an arm 
of the state.  It was defined as an entity that is 
supposed to function subject to the democratic 
structure adopted by the country, to represent and 
serve all of Israel's Jewish citizens.  Within this 
framework, the rabbis were supposed to tone down the 
inherent conflict between religion and state and, in 
contrast, to express a consistent desire for the 
synthesis between statehood and tradition.... They [and 
other influential rabbis] are to blame for the even 
more tragic enfeeblement of the foundations on which 
the national home stands." 
 
V.  "Anti-Democratic, Not Smart" 
 
Liberal op-ed writer Ofer Shelach opined in the 
editorial of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot 
Aharonot (July 19): "A relatively small number of 
demonstrators required a concerted effort of hundreds 
of IDF, police and Border Police forces two days ago to 
stop their advance toward the fence separating Israel 
from the Gaza Strip.... Even the language that the 
settler leaders use is repulsive.  Those who are 
shocked when they are linked to those who have chosen 
unlawful means, are quick to say, on the other hand, 
'stopping the protest will lead to violence'.... And 
even so, the police decision to stop the organized 
bussing of right wing demonstrators at their points of 
departure was an undemocratic act and a bad public 
mistake.... The pictures of detained buses only 
sharpened the message of the protestors." 
 
---------------------------- 
2.  Global War on Terrorism: 
---------------------------- 
 
                       Summary: 
                       -------- 
 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized: 
"Only when Muslims themselves, as a polity, come to 
understand that the toxicity of suicide bombing is 
having a blowback effect on their own world will this 
evil instrument of war become as antiquated as poison 
gas." 
 
                     Block Quotes: 
                     ------------- 
 
"Today's Poison Gas" 
Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized 
(July 19): "In 1925, six years after World War I ended, 
the civilized world outlawed the use of poison gas.... 
Anti-civilian warfare waged by Islamists will not turn 
the tide of war any more than poison gas turned the 
tide of World War I.... Targeting civilians inevitably 
backfires.... The international community is moving, 
albeit glacially, toward banning terrorism.... Yet 
international organizations and sovereign states can do 
only so much. In the final analysis, it is up to Muslim 
leaders worldwide to denounce the Islamists -- 
unconditionally.  They must excommunicate the fanatics, 
or stand by as Islam becomes synonymous with the stench 
of scorched flesh and acrid explosives.   Only when 
Muslims themselves, as a polity, come to understand 
that the toxicity of suicide bombing is having a 
blowback effect on their own world will this evil 
instrument of war become as antiquated as poison gas." 
 
CRETZ