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 09 TEL AVIV 005672

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

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SUBJECTS COVERED IN THIS REPORT:
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1. Mideast

2. Muslims in European Society

3. UN Reform

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Key stories in the media:
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All major media highlighted the meeting between
President Bush and PM Sharon at the UN on Wednesday,
following the President's address to the UN General
Assembly. Yediot and Maariv front-paged a handshake
between the two leaders. Leading media noted that
while in New York, Bush only met with Sharon, British
PM Tony Blair, and China's President Hu Jintao.

The media reported that Bush told Sharon that he knew
disengagement "was hard, but I admire your courage."
Bush was quoted as saying: "Now is the time for
Palestinians to come together and establish a
government that will be peaceful with Israel. And Gaza
is a good chance to start." Commentators wondered if
that sentence also implied that further steps were
required of Israel. Bush also told Sharon he was sure
he would win the elections. Leading media quoted Bush
as saying: "I am not interfering [in Israeli politics],
but I am sure that if Gaza is quiet, it will help you."
Jerusalem Post led with Sharon's comment to Bush that
there will be no further steps in the diplomatic
process if Gaza is not quiet. The media quoted Sharon
as saying that Israel will not return to the
Philadelphi route. Ha'aretz reported that Sharon told
reporters after his meeting with the President that
Bush has agreed that if the PA does not assert control
over the Gaza Strip, the peace process will be unable
to continue.

Leading Israeli news web sites, Israel Radio, and IDF
Radio reported that this morning, the High Court of
Justice unanimously upheld a petition submitted by
Palestinian residents of several West Bank villages and
ruled that the state must reconsider within reasonable
time an alternative route for the separation fence in
the area of the northern West Bank settlement of Alfei
Menashe. A nine-justice panel headed by Supreme Court
President Aharon Barak said the IDF must come up with
new solutions that would not adversely affect the
quality of life of Palestinian residents as severely as
the current route does. IDF Radio cited the
satisfaction of a representative of the Association for
Civil Rights in Israel over the ruling. Fourteen
months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
released its ruling on the fence, the High Court was
expected to say whether it accepts the Hague ruling as
binding on Israel and define the ramifications of the
ICJ decision for the High Court. Israel Radio said
that the High Court's expected decision would
facilitate its ruling on 44 pending petitions against
the construction of the fence. The leading web site
Ynet and Israel Radio reported that the High Court
sharply criticized the ICJ ruling. The justices said
that the ICJ's conclusion regarding the issue of the
separation fence in the West Bank is not a 'res
judicata' (a judged matter) and does not necessitate
the determination that all parts of the fence are
contrary to international law. The radio quoted Chief
Justice Aharon Barak as saying that it was rendered on
an incomplete factual basis. The station quoted
Barak's deputy, Justice Mishael Cheshin, as saying that
the ICJ demonstratively and strangely ignored the
security and terror problems that afflicted Israel. In
a different context, Jerusalem Post quoted outgoing
Defense Ministry Director General Amos Yaron as saying
that the fence will be completed by the end of the
year.

Jerusalem Post reported that PA Chairman [President]
Mahmoud Abbas issued a stiff warning Wednesday to
various armed militias responsible for the growing
state of anarchy and lawlessness in PA-ruled
territories. Yediot reported that the PA promised on
Wednesday to close the opening in the fence along the
Philadelphia road. Israel Radio quoted an Israeli
military source as saying that Egypt will eventually
seal the Gaza-Egypt border, and that the PA is aware
that the present situation is not conducive to
progress. Ha'aretz cited the IDF's concern about not
only massive arms smuggling into Gaza, and consequently
into the West Bank, but also, and particularly, about
Al-Qaida operatives being able to enter Gaza freely.
Yediot reported that Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas's leader in
the Gaza Strip, told the Italian daily Corriere Della
Sera that some Al-Qaida operatives have already
infiltrated the Strip.

Leading media reported that Sharon met at the UN with
Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he
discussed the Iranian nuclear program, and with Turkish
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ha'aretz reported that the
U.S. also lobbied the UN against Iran's nuclear
ambitions. Sharon also shook hands and briefly talked
with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Israel
Radio quoted Sharon as saying he has been invited to
visit Tunisia for a long time, but that the visit has
not taken place because the Tunisians refuse to admit
Sharon's armed bodyguards.

Leading media reported that, during the night, dozens
of youths infiltrated the evacuated northern West Bank
settlement of Sa-Nur, and that the police subsequently
evacuated them.

Major media reported that former IDF chief of staff
Moshe Ya'alon has decided to cancel a visit to London
scheduled for next week, following an arrest warrant
issued against him on charges of "war crimes."

Israel Radio reported that in a speech before the
Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Qatari FM
Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani praised Israel's
decision to withdraw from Gaza, and called on the Arab
states to make gestures toward Israel and to hold talks
with the U.S. and Israel to advance chances of peace in
the region. The minister warned that if the PA is
unable to control events in the Gaza Strip, no progress
could be made in the diplomatic process.

Jerusalem Post reported that on Wednesday, the
Palestinian Religious Scholars Society issued a fatwa
forbidding normalization with Israel. The fatwa came
in response to a surprise ruling earlier this week by
Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar
Mosque University, in favor of normalization with
Israel.

Hatzofe printed a picture of Internal Security Minister
Gideon Ezra bidding farewell to U.S. Ambassador to
Israel Dan Kurtzer.
Leading media reported that President Bush has rejected
Sharon's request that he pardon convicted spy Jonathan
Pollard.

Ha'aretz, Yediot, and Jerusalem Post reported that the
tourism ministers of Israel, the PA, Egypt, and Jordan,
who met in the Egyptian resort of Hurghada on
Wednesday, called on the U.S. and additional countries
to rescind their travel warnings on the region.

Jerusalem Post reported that Iraqi politician Mithal al-
Alusi returned to Israel this week to speak about the
importance of standing firm against terror. Although
he escaped an assassination attempt in Iraq, his two
sons were killed in a similar attack.

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1. Mideast:
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Summary:
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Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote from New York on
page one of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot
Aharonot: "On Wednesday, [Sharon] heard from President
Bush exactly what he wanted to hear -- that Gaza is the
test."

Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in independent, left-leaning
Ha'aretz: "The exclamation point that Ariel Sharon
placed at the gates of Gaza has been replaced by an
unprecedented Palestinian question mark."

Very liberal columnist Yehuda Litani wrote in Yediot
Aharonot: "Now, as the fog of disengagement dispels, we
see that the spirit of Sheikh Yassin still rules
between Gaza and Rafah, and very soon, also between
Jenin and Hebron."

Yediot Aharonot editorialized: "[Some Israelis] think
that a good Arab is a dead Arab, and [others] think
that full guilt for the conflict between us and the
Palestinians rests on our shoulders."

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

I. "Gaza in New York"

Senior columnist Nahum Barnea wrote from New York on
page one of mass-circulation, pluralist Yediot Aharonot
(September 15): "The Palestinians cross Philadelphi
Road freely while the Palestinian and Egyptian police
are helpless, they plunder what remains of the Gush
Katif settlements, allow masked men to display their
guns in public and do their best to carry out what
Sharon assessed would happen from the beginning.
Sharon placed the Gaza trap at the Palestinians'
doorstep, and as things look now from the prime
minister's perspective, they fell right into it.... And
he saw the Gaza trap working. On Wednesday, he heard
from President Bush exactly what he wanted to hear --
that Gaza is the test. If Abu Mazen fails there, he
can expect nothing in the West Bank. America will
avoid putting pressure on Israel to get moving in the
West Bank as long as it is displeased by the
Palestinian Authority's performance in Gaza. In
Sharon's view, disengagement created a situation in
which he couldn't lose, a 'win-win-win' situation....
Abu Mazen will not be going to New York. In general,
the Arab representation at the current UN General
Assembly is sparse and low-profile. The stage is
almost solely given to Sharon, and no wonder he is
enjoying every minute."

II. "Now, It's the Palestinians' Turn"

Columnist Ari Shavit wrote in independent, left-leaning
Ha'aretz (September 15): "Now, after the last Israeli
has come home, the disengagement has ceased to be an
Israeli event.... Now, after the gate of the Kissufim
checkpoint has been locked, the disengagement has
become a Palestinian event. The exclamation point that
Ariel Sharon placed at the gates of Gaza has been
replaced by an unprecedented Palestinian question
mark.... The Palestinians are trying to blur this
decisive fact. They are behaving as if nothing has
happened. They continue to use the old, anachronistic
rhetoric that has become so nauseatingly familiar.
They continue to claim that the Israeli withdrawal is
incomplete and insufficient. They continue to declare
that the struggle will continue until every bit of
Palestinian land has been liberated. And even worse:
by torching the synagogues and storming the Philadelphi
route, they are signaling that they do not intend to
behave as a responsible state.... But precisely if the
Palestinians do want to advance toward further Israeli
withdrawals, they must quickly ... change their
ethos.... If they choose life, order and
neighborliness, the sky is the limit. If they choose
death, chaos and victimhood, the road to hell is short.
But either way, this time, the Palestinians will not be
able to blame anyone else. The choice is in their
hands. Following the disengagement, it is the
Palestinians who bear principal responsibility for
their own fate, their own future and their own
actions."

III. "Sheikh Yassin Returns to Gaza"

Very liberal columnist Yehuda Litani wrote in Yediot
Aharonot (September 15): "Now, after disengagement,
there is an interim situation, where on the face of it,
the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud
Abbas, rule. However, the real rulers, both in the
Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, are Hamas
militants. Abu Mazen, who fears them, knows deep down
that he is incapable of disarming them even though he
declared two days ago that he would do this immediately
after elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council
early next year.... After the thorny path of the
moderate Palestinian option, the Jordanian option and
the PLO option, we now face the only option left: Islam
zealots who believe that the entire land, from the
Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, must be
liberated from any Israeli presence. Even if in public
they present more moderate positions in the next while,
in their hearts they believe that the entire land is
Wakf, a sacred trust that cannot be conceded by even
one centimeter. And while a majority of Israelis are
now willing to make considerable concessions, the
majority of Palestinians more and more support
extremist Hamas positions. Now, as the fog of
disengagement dispels, we see that the spirit of Sheikh
Yassin still rules between Gaza and Rafah, and very
soon, also between Jenin and Hebron."

IV. "Seekers of Absolute Justice"

Yediot Aharonot editorialized (September 15): "The love
that the members of [the Israeli peace group] Yesh Gvul
have for their country is so great that they cannot
bear its flaws. Only a perfect country can match the
power of their love. When they find a defect that is
not immediately rectified, they go looking for
foreigners to bring the country back to the straight
and narrow. The courts to which Yesh Gvul submits its
complaints, do not dwell in countries free of any moral
stains. Each of them has a long track of crimes against
humanity, and perhaps for this reason, they wish to
cleanse their crimes by means of putting others on
trial. This argument is of no interest to the patriots
from Yesh Gvul. For them, even those whose hands are
soaked in blood are fit to scrub our sins and to put
our leaders to a standard of behavior that is
impossible in the real world. In the real world, there
are people who aspire to achieve their political goals
at any price, even at the price of mass murder.
Sometimes there is no choice but to kill them, and
frequently it is not possible to fish them out of the
surroundings that provide them with shelter and support
for their acts.... Two kinds of wise people have ready
answers to all [related] questions: those who think
that a good Arab is a dead Arab, and those who think
that full guilt for the conflict between us and the
Palestinians rests on our shoulders, because withdrawal
from the occupied territories will turn the
Palestinians into innocent lambs, and until that time,
all the terrorists and those who send them must be
considered freedom fighters. This appears to be the
view of Yesh Gvul. This explains their lawsuits to
[Israel's] Supreme Court, and this explains their
desire to put IDF officers in foreign jails."

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2. Muslims in European Society:
--------------------------------

Summary:
--------

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized:
"Europeans should know ... that the fundamentalist
Muslim community in Europe which seeks to delegitimize
Jews and the Jewish state is the same community that
evidently spawned the murderous bombings in Madrid and
London."

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

"Muslim Intolerance"

Conservative, independent Jerusalem Post editorialized
(September 15): "It is obvious that values the West
holds dear, such as fairness, equality, and cultural
pluralism are simply thrown out the window when
resisting the intolerance of a billion Muslims is
weighed against offending a few million Jews. Further,
it is assumed that compromising Western values at the
Jews' expense is simply that -- a Jewish problem. It
is not. The intolerance shown toward Jews can be and
is shown toward Christians, such as the recent rampage
against Palestinian Muslims against Palestinian
Christians in Bethlehem. The massacres of Christians
in Sudan are another example, as is the destruction by
the Taliban of the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001.
Europe is hardly immune from such predations, as the
continent is belatedly discovering.... Across Europe,
governments have refused to admit the extent to which
fundamentalist Muslims have been responsible for anti-
Semitic violence. Similarly, they have been reticent
to confront the increasingly brazen fundamentalists
within their midst. Europeans should know, however,
that the fundamentalist Muslim community in Europe
which seeks to delegitimize Jews and the Jewish state
is the same community that evidently spawned the
murderous bombings in Madrid and London. The fight for
freedom from Islamist terrorism begins with basic
insistence on the rights of all non-Muslims, including
the Jewish people. The alternative, appeasement, has
not worked well in the past, and is likely to invite
even more Muslim intolerance in the future."

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3. UN Reform:
--------------

Summary:
--------

Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz: "There is no other
country that shares with the U.S. such an unequivocal
interest in UN reforms."
Block Quotes:
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"Drawing Up a New World Order"

Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner wrote in
independent, left-leaning Ha'aretz (September 15):
"Here's an opening sentence that could be used by
rivals of both Israel and the United States, but at its
foundation is a fact that cannot be avoided: if the
American maneuvering succeeds and it manages to find
agreement for sweeping UN reforms, no country will gain
from it as much as Israel. Moreover, there is no other
country that shares with the U.S. such an unequivocal
interest in UN reforms.... For some years, the U.S. has
felt that this organization, which it hosts, is
isolated and blocked. Therefore, and not because of
Israel, it began such a sweeping drive, so obviously
necessary, to correct it.... After 60 years, the UN is
going back to the drawing board, while in its corridors
float the innocent ideas raised by Wilson, who
envisioned an institutional spirit that would reflect
the 'moral position of humankind.' It's not a steering
committee of global superpowers that the Americans
want, but an organization that will advance values that
are not shared right now by all its members: democracy,
human rights, equality. Or maybe they simply want to
destroy the UN. It's possible to suspect that, too,
passed through their minds."

KURTZER

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