MEDIA REACTION ON ISRAELI ASSASSINATION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 003461

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR,
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN
USAID/ANE/MEA
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON ISRAELI ASSASSINATION
ATTEMPT AGAINST HAMAS' RANTISI


Summary

-- Lead story in all papers today, June 11, highlights
Israel's failed assassination attempt against the life
of Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantisi in Gaza yesterday.
Some reports feature President Bush's reaction to the
attempt; while all reports featured the Palestinian
Authority's denunciation of the assassination attempt
and Hamas' "promise" to retaliate.

Editorial Commentary

-- "An attempt to assassinate Rantisi or the peace
efforts?"

Daily columnist Mohammad Amayreh writes on the op-ed
page of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai
(06/11): "Right from the beginning, we said that it
is difficult to be reassured by Sharon's promises or
by his intentions towards implementing the roadmap.
The Israeli army, yesterday, tried to assassinate one
of the Hamas leaders in Gaza. This assassination
attempt, for which Israeli helicopters were used, was
undoubtedly sanctioned by Sharon. Even though the
Israeli government categorizes this attempt as part of
combating terrorism, the outcome contradicts
everything that was agreed upon, including the truce
or ceasefire agreement and the promise to grant the
Palestinian prime minister the opportunity to deal
with the Palestinian factions to try to convince them
to stop the so-called `violence'. This assassination
attempt, which is not the first of its kind,
constitutes a clear Israeli effort to impede the
implementation of the roadmap. It is a crime to be
added to Sharon's already full record of bloody crimes
against the Palestinian people and their combatant
forces."

-- "Assassinating Rantisi or Abu Mazen?"

Daily columnist Sultan Hattab writes on the op-ed page
of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai
(06/11): "Why would Sharon put Abu Mazen in this
corner? Why would he want to abort Abu Mazen's
mission and not allow him the chance to do the
necessary on the part of the Palestinians to fulfill
the roadmap? The issue therefore is not an issue of
searching for security, stability and calm. Rather,
the Israeli right-wing is trying to impose their own
vision and conditions in order to eliminate the pulse
of the Palestinians and to destroy the infrastructure
of the Palestinian resistance, leading to uprooting
the Palestinian people."

-- "The Palestinian struggle is not a charitable
organization!"

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(06/11): "The assassination attempt against the life
of Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantisi in Gaza yesterday
shows once more that the problem in the Middle East is
not the `terrorism' of the Palestinians, but the
terrorism of the Israeli state. The American
complicity in these assassinations perpetrated by the
Sharon government, when Palestinian resistance
operations are looked upon as terrorism and aggression
is regrettable and degrading. Sharon's criminal act
in Gaza, and not Hamas' rejection of dialogue with Abu
Mazen, is the indication of the future that awaits the
roadmap. The extremist Israeli government is going to
take advantage of the roadmap to escalate its
provocations and aggression against the Palestinian
people. Israel is the one that is encouraging
violence, pouring oil on an already raging fire every
time there is a sign of hope for getting out of the
vicious circle of killing and destruction. Sharon's
operation yesterday must not be a reason to stop or
suspend dialogue among the Palestinians. If there are
any priorities on the Palestinian agenda now,
maintaining the Palestinian national unity should be
top of that priority list.. If there is to be a
Palestinian political response to the assassination
attempt, it should that which stresses the Palestinian
dialogue and emphasizes the option of resistance,
because the resistance is the main card that the
Palestinians have as long as the occupation exists..
The criminal Gaza operation shows that Sharon views
the roadmap as a means to ignite Palestinian civil
war, nothing more and nothing less."
-- "Attempting to assassinate the roadmap"

Daily columnist Urayb Rintawi writes on the op-ed page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(06/11): "Israel's assassination attempt against
Abdul Aziz Rantisi was nothing but an attempt to abort
the roadmap and this opportunity to achieve just and
lasting peace.. Israel would not have gone this far
in its insane war against the Palestinian people and
in its bloody targeting of the peace process and with
it Palestinian rights and lives, had it not been for
America's silence about these crimes and the
encouragement that the extremist and blood-thirsty
right-wing Israelis receive from the U.S.
administration. Washington placed the war criminal on
a pedestal, and it is up to it alone to bring him down
from it, if it really wants to give peace a chance."

-- "Who blames Sharon?"

Centrist, influential among the elite English daily
Jordan Times (06/11) editorializes: "It just does not
sink in with Ariel Sharon that violence breeds
violence. Hamas is indeed an obstacle to both the
implementation of the roadmap and prospects for peace
and stability in the entire region. But bombing
Gaza's residential and most densely populated areas,
killing three innocent Palestinians and injuring
scores of people in an attempt to take the life of one
of Hamas' most popular leaders is only going to
undermine, not help, the cause of peace. It would be
no exaggeration to say that no one is more eager than
the Palestinian National Authority to see Hamas
relegated to the fringes of Palestinian politics. But
political assassinations or attempts on the life of
leaders such as Abdul Aziz Rantisi only strengthen
Hamas and play in the hands of extremist groups..
This umpteenth episode of Israeli state terrorism is
bound to be echoed by more terrorist operations by
Hamas. The circle of violence has been activated.
What was a truce has ended in another terrible
military escalation against Palestinian civilians..
For peace to get a chance, at some point, someone will
have to put the blame where it belongs."
GNEHM