MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST ISSUES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 010178

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

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST ISSUES

Summary

-- Lead story in all papers today, December 27,
focuses on reports about the earthquake and resulting
tsunami that caused deaths and destruction throughout

SIPDIS
Asia. Other stories highlight domestic issues as well
as reports about the Palestinian elections.

Editorial Commentary

-- "The secrets of the buried Arab development report"

Columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page of
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(12/27): "Thirty Arab researchers and intellectuals,
who wrote the third annual Arab human development
report for 2004 - which was stopped through American
blackmail, are currently meeting in Beirut to discuss
the possibility of publishing the report through an
organization independent of the United Nations. No
doubt, stopping the publication of the report
constitutes a huge scandal for the United States. The
report editor, Nader Farjani had scored big and
destroyed completely all of the false claims made by
the U.S. administration with regard to reform in the
Arab world when he took his case to the international
media and exposed the American conspiracy.. This
American conduct stirred a great deal of resentment
among commentators and intellectuals in the west,
including Thomas Friedman.. But for the genuine free
and liberal Arab intellectuals, who have not sold
themselves to the Pentagon, this issue marks the
beginning of a successful intellectual battle against
both the United States and backwardness in the Arab
world for the first time ever in a clear manner and
without fear of being accused of treason."

-- "The required Syrian scapegoat"

Columnist Haidar Rashid writes on the op-ed page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(12/27): "There has to be a scapegoat to carry the
blame for the security collapse in Iraq. After, the
battle in Fallujah and the exhaustion of Zarqawi and
his group of foreign terrorists as the scapegoats in
Iraq, there is an urgent need to find a new scapegoat
on which to pin all these defeats. Prior to the
American invasion and occupation, the honor fell to
international terrorists and chemical weapons. After
that came the fighters from outside Iraq, Zarqawi and
others. Now, as some pro-American Iraqis are saying,
there are attempts to involve Syria and its
intelligence services in what is going on in Iraq..
Syria has no interest in being directly involved in
what is going on in Iraq, despite the fact that its
interests do not coincide with the presence of the
American forces and the continuation of the
occupation. A direct involvement on its part,
however, would make it a target and would increase
America's motivation to attack it.. A new scapegoat
is required in order to explain the Iraqi-American
failure of imposing security and taming the Iraqi
people. The need for such a scapegoat increases as
the elections draw near. Yet, this issue is one thing
and choosing Syria as the new scapegoat is another.
Events on the ground suggest that such a choice will
not be acceptable and the Americanized people in Iraq
must begin looking for another scapegoat."

-- "The disciplinary London conference"

Lamis Andoni writes on the op-ed page of independent
Arabic daily Al-Ghad (12/27): "Do not misunderstand:
America and Israel are refusing to take part in the
London conference next month, but they do support the
meeting itself if its purpose is to `rehabilitate the
Palestinian Authority'. In other words, now that the
leader Yaser Arafat, the `major obstacle in the path
to peace', is gone, Washington and Tel Aviv are
seeking to snip the wings of the Palestinian regime as
a precondition for resuming negotiations.. It is
known that America and Israel had pressured London to
cancel the conference if the imprisoned Palestinian
leader Marwan Barghouti did not withdraw his
nomination for the presidential elections.
Democratizing the Palestinian regime would start with
the nomination of the acceptable candidate, namely
Mahmoud Abbas, whose stances, I'm sure, would not be
respected if he did not succumb to Israeli and
American demands. No wonder then that Washington and
Tel Aviv would support the London conference with
specific definitions and tasks that would guarantee
Abbas' abidance by positions and policies that
otherwise would not go through if it was left up to
the Palestinian people. Halting the Intifada and
placing the security apparatus under a unified
leadership is not designed to put an end to security
violations but to stop them from taking part in
resisting the Israeli occupation. In this context,
the London conference aims to `tame the Palestinian
regime'."
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