MEDIA REACTION ON PALESTINIAN ISSUE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 005470

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TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON PALESTINIAN ISSUE


Summary

-- Lead story in all papers published today, September
23, focuses on recent developments in the Palestinian
issue. Story highlights Israel's "stranglehold" on
Arafat and the destruction of buildings within his
headquarters complex. Stories also highlight the
Palestinian people's demonstrations in support of
Arafat, in what some papers called "the new Intifada,"
crediting the demonstrations for bringing
international pressure on Israel to halt its actions.

Editorial Commentary

--"The dangers in the `Bush doctrine'"

Centrist, influential among the elite English daily
Jordan Times (09/23) editorializes: "As the Middle
East has yet again been ignited by the brutality
unleashed by Ariel Sharon, the inadequacy of
Washington's Middle East policy is underlined by the
devastation and bloody violence raging in the West
Bank. The world has been almost unanimous in
condemning the latest Israeli aggression against
Palestinian President Yaser Arafat. But only a mild
call for `restraint' has so far come from Washington.
The Bush administration has at best shied away from
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, when it has not
blatantly supported Sharon's policies. After
September 11, Bush . only read the Mideast conflict in
the language of the `war on terror', unable to
identify the root causes of the problem. His `vision'
for a two-state solution lacked a vital element: a
strategy. The `Bush doctrine' is essentially a
security doctrine. And a threat to international law.
The Security policy of the Bush administration is
based on preemptive military strikes against any
perceived enemy. Today it is Iraq. Who is next?"

-- "The tables will turn"

Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(09/23) editorializes: With arrogance, the Sharon
government continues its crazy war against Palestinian
legitimacy, and with aggression and racism, Israel's
war machine destroys the presidential headquarters and
opens fire on the Palestinian people. Instead of
weakening President Arafat and the legitimate
Palestinian leadership, the outcome was different.
The tables have turned. What the Palestinian cities
witnessed over the past two days was as good as a
referendum about the Palestinian leadership, a vote in
favor of Palestinian legitimacy and a rejection of the
U.S-backed Israeli plans of aggression. It is a
national responsibility for Arabs to adopt a more
effective move to put a stop to the new aggression and
its objectives."

-- "The `Bush Palestinian state' trick

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(09/23): "We are watching the collapse of the
Palestinian Authority under the duress of Israeli
weaponry that is strongly backed by American policies.
What Sharon's tanks are destroying is not only the
Oslo accords, but also the foundations of peace that
were established in the Madrid conference. President
Bush's talk about a Palestinian state to exist next to
the Israeli state must not fool anyone. Sharon's
right-wing government did not respect the interim Oslo
accords, let alone Bush's Palestinian state.
Destroying the Palestinian Authority does not mean
opening the road to Bush's Palestinian state. It
rather holds a plan to legalize the Zionist occupation
and settlements, to reject the establishment of a
Palestinian state over Palestinian soil, and to turn
the Palestinian issue into a game played by the two
Israeli parties, who both believe in the transfer and
the establishment of a Palestinian state outside
Palestine."
GNEHM