MEDIA REPORT MEP; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 001081 SIPDIS AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND SCHLACHTER, AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ZI PREL PHUM SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT MEP; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "Unconscionable U.S. complicity in Israeli atrocities" the May 6 edition of the independent daily "The Daily News" carries an op-ed by Tajudeen Abdul Raheem criticizing the United States' Middle East policy. Excerpts: ¶2. "The Butcher of Sabra and Shatilla and current Genocidaire of Jenin continues his relentless campaign, with impunity, to finish 'the unfinished dirty business of Zionism' by withdrawing from one part of the Palestinian bantustan one day (as a sign of compromise) and at the same time moving his murderous troops into other parts of the bantustan with the world looking on. Ariel Sharon knows that the only disapproval that matters to him is that of Israel's principal patron, protector, and defender: the USA. He is assured that whatever comes out of that government by way of criticism is not meant for him, but for the consumption of the hapless world crying: 'Do something!' One cannot escape feeling that even the mild criticisms coming from the U.S. administration are cleared with Tel Aviv first if not written from the template of its propagandists. How can one explain President George W. Bush sending his spineless Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to the Middle East without wishing him any success and doing anything to make his job easier? They just needed to get him out of Washington so that his timid moral qualms do not get in the way of the hawks led by another African-American, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. . . SULLIVAN