Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
02AMMAN5511
2002-09-25 05:47:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Amman
Cable title:  

"FRIENDS OF AMERICA" DECRY LACK OF PUBLIC U.S.

Tags:  PREL KPAL IZ JO 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 005511 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2012
TAGS: PREL KPAL IZ JO
SUBJECT: "FRIENDS OF AMERICA" DECRY LACK OF PUBLIC U.S.
CONDEMNATION OF MUQATAA SIEGE, U.S. FOCUS ON IRAQ TO THE
EXCLUSION OF ISRAEL


Classified By: Amb. Edward W. Gnehm for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D)

--------------------------------------------- ---
WHY NO U.S. CONDEMNATION OF MUQATAA DESTRUCTION?
--------------------------------------------- ---

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 005511

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2012
TAGS: PREL KPAL IZ JO
SUBJECT: "FRIENDS OF AMERICA" DECRY LACK OF PUBLIC U.S.
CONDEMNATION OF MUQATAA SIEGE, U.S. FOCUS ON IRAQ TO THE
EXCLUSION OF ISRAEL


Classified By: Amb. Edward W. Gnehm for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D)

-------------- ---
WHY NO U.S. CONDEMNATION OF MUQATAA DESTRUCTION?
-------------- ---


1. (C) A group of self-described "Friends of America"
representing the Amman World Affairs Council called on the
Ambassador and PolCouns September 22 to deliver a letter from
the WAC to President Bush (excerpts in para 7 below). The
group members said that they had all lived and studied in the
U.S. and admired the "honesty, sincerity, and hopefulness" of
average Americans, as well as the open democratic U.S. system
of governance. However, U.S. policy in the region in recent
months had caused them to "lose confidence in the principles
of U.S. life and government." According to one group member,
"it is a difficult time for people who support the U.S."


2. (C) The group expressed dismay that, unlike most of the
rest of the world, there had been no strong public U.S.
criticism of the Israeli destruction of much of PA Chairman
Yassir Arafat's Muqataa compound in Ramallah, and only
limited U.S. pressure on Israel to stop its actions. One
group member said "the U.S. can stop Israel when it wants to
-- Eisenhower did it" (during the Suez Crisis of 1956). What
is frustrating for Jordanians regarding this situation is,
they argued, that "the U.S. can do something to restrain
Israel but chooses not to."

--------------
NOT ONLY WEAPONS CAUSE MASS DESTRUCTION
--------------


3. (C) The group expressed a lack of understanding of the
U.S. preoccupation with the urgency of the threat from Iraqi
WMD. They noted a "contrast between U.S. policy on Iraq and
on Israel" regarding both WMD and enforcement of UNSCRs.
They argued that Israeli actions against Palestinians --
"especially the Israeli curfew and blockade" -- are a more
imminent cause of mass destruction, and the threat is current
and on-going. For example, the city of Nablus, they argued,
has been under nearly continuous curfew for more than 80
days. People cannot go out to shop for food or other basic
necessities. The sick cannot see doctors or go to hospitals.
Most people cannot go to work, or children to school.

Israeli incursions into Nablus have caused not only the
destruction of police and security infrastructure, but also
the British era government center and health, education, and
land offices, where irreplaceable records were destroyed.
"Israel is trying to dismantle the infrastructure of daily
life in Palestine, as well as Palestine's history and its
future."


4. (C) Given the "existential" nature of the targets that
Israeli forces have been destroying in the West Bank, the
group continued, more and more Jordanians were beginning to
believe that Ariel Sharon might even attempt to force the
transfer of Israeli Arabs into the West Bank, or even the
transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan.
"Last year," one visitor commented, "I would have considered
myself paranoid for thinking this way. Now I do not."

-------------- --------------
"WE ASK FOR JUSTICE, NOT THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL"
-------------- --------------


5. (C) World Affairs Council Executive Director and group
organizer, Fakhri Abu Shakra, concluded by saying that
Israeli actions are hurting the "70 percent" of Palestinians
who are peace-loving. The actions of the Israeli government
and Palestinian terrorists, he argued, reinforce each other
and will prevent a solution -- unless the U.S. steps in. He
asked that the U.S. put greater pressure on Israel to improve
the conditions for average Palestinians, and to reduce
actions that provoke a violent Palestinian response. In the
end, Jordanians are asking "for justice, not the destruction
of Israel." He cited the Arab League initiative and Quartet
roadmap as concrete ideas the U.S. must work with.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


6. (C) This conversation was unexceptional, but drew
together the most commonly heard threads of Jordanian public
and elite opinion on the MEPP. Despite loud public criticism
of U.S. policy, this conversation, like most with educated
Jordanians, concluded with a plea for continued (and even
increased) U.S. involvement in the MEPP.

--------------
EXCERPTS OF WAC LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
--------------

7. (U) The group had earlier sent a two-page letter
critical of U.S. policy in the region addressed to President
Bush and dated September 10, 2002. Following are excerpts
from that letter.

Mr. President,

We the undersigned represent a group of intellectuals, men
and women, Muslem and Christian, from different walks of
Jordanian society. We cherish the values of freedom, human
rights, democracy, good governance, and political pluralism.
We believe in the basic rights and freedoms of man, including
his right to live free from oppression and persecution.

Few weeks ago (sic),you called upon all nations to stop
terrorist killings.... However, when an Israeli F16 missile
attack on Gaza killed fourteen innocent civilians, nine of
them children, and wounded and maimed 180 other civilians in
one night, you were far less engaged, simply describing as
"heavy handed" the death and devastation caused by the
Israeli use of American arms.

Sharon deliberately chose to launch that attack on the very
day Palestinian leaders of various factions were about to
sign a pledge to suspend violence, and Hamas leaders had
spoken publicly about ending suicide bombings....

US policy has stripped Palestinian violence of its context,
failing to appreciate that it is the response of a desperate
and horribly oppressed people against the appalling weight of
decades of military occupation.... Such unconditional support
for Israeli actions is heading to become the source of major
regional and global disorder.

Yet the Palestinians remain the natural allies to your yet to
be realized vision, Mr. President, to move the region away
from mutual assured destruction, toward just and lasting
peace which future generations of Palestinians and Israelis
can accept and protect. Such a vision will materialize into
reality when the relevant U.N. and Security Council
resolutions, combined with the Arab Summit Beirut initiative,
are articulated within a short term time-table for Israeli
withdrawal from all the Palestinian and Arab territories
occupied in 1967, the total dismantling of Israeli
settlements in East (Arab) Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza
Strip and the establishment thereon of the sovereign State of
Palestine.

Mr. President

You are a leader of a great and powerful country at decisive
times....Responsible statesmanship requires listening to the
proposed solutions of rational humanists rather than the
loose cannons of the military industrial complex warned
against by President Eisenhower.

The world does not have to be made up of enemies, Mr.
President. You are in a position to make the difference.

(the letter was signed by 38 members of the World Affairs
Council including several former Ministers, Members of
Parliament, academics, and prominent businessmen)

end text of letter.

GNEHM