Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05AMMAN6751
2005-08-22 11:11:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Amman
Cable title:  

MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST

Tags:  KMDR 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.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 006751

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

Summary

-- Lead story in all papers today, August 22,
continues to be the aftermath of the August 19 rocket
attacks in Aqaba and ongoing investigations. Another
lead story reports on developments related to Israel's
withdrawal from Gaza.

Editorial Commentary

-- "The American Middle Ages"

Daily columnist Nahed Hattar writes on the back-page
of independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-
Yawm (08/22): "The United States is leaning towards
accepting the establishment of a kind of a religious
state in Iraq. The Americans who are in a hurry to
leave the Iraqi quagmire are ready to abandon their
ideological objectives in return for maintaining the
minimum level of control over their interests in this
beleaguered country.. One must note, however, that
the `religious state' goes against the very essence of
Iraq's being. It is no wonder that the modern and
independent Iraq has moved, always, towards
secularism. This multi-ethnic country has always
sought to guarantee first its unity and second its
independence from regional powers, thus keeping it far
away from the reaches of the Wahhabism of the Sunni
Arabian Peninsula and from the Iranian Shiites. What
the Americans invaders did was that they broke the
Iraqi national status and handed Iraq over to Al-Qaeda
and the Mullahs of Iran.

-- "No major incident without `but'"

Under the penname of Abu Yazan, daily columnist Urayb
Rintawi writes on the op-ed page of center-left,
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (08/22): "It is
the right of any citizen or group of people to express
their opinion honestly about the government's domestic
and foreign policy. It is their right to criticize
Jordan's stand vis--vis Iraq and to call for
punishing the United States and to putting an end to
the normalization of relations with it. It is even
their right to criticize economic and social policies
and to blame the faltering political reform process.
But it is no one's right to list these demands or
criticisms at the end of a statement or article that
deals with the crime (ie: the attack in Aqaba) that
just targeted Jordan's security and stability and the
safety of its people. No one has the right to provide
terrorism and terrorists with pretexts and
justifications.. Rejecting and condemning what
happened in Aqaba is a duty without the shadow of a
doubt. Resorting to the use of `but' here would only
open the doors wide to the devil's work, and there are
many devils around waiting at every crossroads in the
life of this disturbed and ever-changing region."

-- "At the threshold of a new era"

Daily columnist and former Minister of Information
Saleh Qallab writes on the back-page of semi-official,
influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (08/22): "What
happened in Aqaba last Friday should convince those
who are hesitant that Jordan is being targeted and
that its survival and steadfastness in this dirty war
requires considering security the top priority..
Democracy does not mean chaos and hurting the state,
and it definitely does not mean targeting the security
forces. Democracy is a responsibility first and
foremost, and anyone raising the flag of democracy
with the aim of hurting the state or targeting the
image of the security forces is as good as the
terrorist who raises God's flag, slaughters women,
children, and innocent people, and burns and destroys
property. The situation in Jordan cannot remain the
same after what happened in Aqaba. Jordan has entered
a new era. This must not be understood as call for
backtracking from democracy, but rather as a call for
democracy to be exercised properly and not to be used
as means to glorify terrorism and promote it."

-- "The Iraqi constitution and scheduling the
withdrawal"

Columnist Khaled Mahadin writes on the op-ed page of
semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai
(08/22): "The Iraqi constitution is not being written
by this committee whose members were elected amidst
the boycott of a major and influential part of the
Iraqi people. It is being written by the status quo
and what is happening outside of the meeting halls.
If there are terrorists who stand against the
political process, as the Iraqi government says, and
if there are militants who do not want this process to
succeed, as Washington and London say, then no one can
claim that these terrorists merit any respect, but it
would be a grave mistake to claim that these
terrorists are not playing a role. The American and
British withdrawal from Iraq is a matter of time. The
timetable for their withdrawal will not be set by a
military or political entity in Washington and London,
because history has taught us that the owners of the
land and the rights are the ones who set the timetable
of the withdrawal of forces that invade their
countries."
HENZEL