MEDIA REACTION ON THE MIDDLE EAST

UNCLAS AMMAN 003739 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 THE MIDDLE EAST Summary -- The lead story in all papers today, May 13, highlights the "heroic" Palestinian counter-attack against an Israeli attack in Gaza, killing 6 Israeli soldiers. Front-page reports continue to highlight developments in Iraq, particularly the repercussions of the beheading of an American civilian contractor. Editorial Commentary -- "The Day of Decapitations!" Daily columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (05/13): "Once again, there is a mix up between the legitimate, noble and heroic Arab resistance to occupation and aggression on one hand and barbarism, mutation and haphazard killings on the other.. In the first case, six Israeli soldiers got what they deserved as they were invading a land that was not theirs, bombing and destroying and killing innocent Palestinians. The heroic resistance left those soldiers in pieces in the land of Gaza.. That same day in Iraq, a group that calls themselves the resistance decapitated an American civilian and took pride in this `heroic' operation of killing an unarmed prisoner, thus giving a very ugly and bad image of the Iraqi resistance. No one in the world can accept the decapitation of a civilian for just being an American in response to the torture conducted by American soldiers in Iraq. In one, the ugliness of what happened in Iraq nullified the heroism of what happened in Palestine. There became a congruence between the two actions in the minds of international public opinion, despite the huge difference in the circumstances: one being a heroic operation in defense of the land and the other being a cowardly and ugly execution that is unacceptable religiously and morally." GNEHM