MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST

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