MEDIA REACTION: US, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE/IRAN

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 001538 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B; RRU-NEA IIP/G/NEA-SA WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC SECDEF FOR OASD/PA USCINCCENT FOR POLAD LONDON FOR MCKUNE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR AE KPAO TC SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: US, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE/IRAN ¶1. Summary: A columnist in "Al-Khaleej" states that the support and patronage of the United States supports Israel's campaigns against the Palestinians. "Al-Bayan" complains about the biased support the U.S. gives to Israel. An op-ed in "Al-Bayan" renounces the double-standard of U.S. nuclear policies. End Summary. ¶2. Under headline "Supporting aggression by preventing its condemnation", Sharjah-based pan-Arab daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 85,000) wrote 4/15 unsigned editorial: "The United States seizes each and every opportunity to show that it opposes the Arabs and Palestinians, and that it stands on Israel's side and sticks to its policies of aggressiveness, expansion and racism. The U.S. is effectively besieging the Palestinian people and starving them while pressuring other states to contribute to this crime and this is only the latest episode. Last Thursday the United States suspended the Security Council's resolution that demanded Israel cease overusing its power against Palestinians. John Bolton, the American ambassador in the United Nations, well known for his inclinations to Zionism and his support to this entity, behaved as if he were the Israeli delegate and justified his country's standpoint by saying that the resolution criticized the Zionist entity in an unbalanced way. With this he is saying that the proclaimed war against Palestine is a natural Israeli right and that calling to stop this war is unjust... This is the Israel who enjoys the support and patronage of the United States, the Israel that goes to war, invades countries and launches campaigns to justify its actions. It was for Israel that the occupation and invasion of Iraq occurred, the Great Middle East projects conducted, fake democratic slogans raised, and the decision to target Syria and Lebanon made. As for Israel, the Security Council is forbidden to demand it ceases its immoderate use of power against the Palestinians". ¶3. Under headline "The blind inclination", Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 90,000) wrote 4/15 editorial: "What is really regrettable about the latest American position is that John Bolton, the delegate from the United States, notified members of the Security Council that one of the reasons his government refused the project proposed within the presidential statement issued by the Security Council was that it described Palestinian lands as occupied, including Eastern Jerusalem, and that Israeli military actions expose Palestinian civilians to danger... Washington's biased support for the Hebrew state distracts it from it duties to protect the international law and deter those who violate it. Sorrowfully, the International Security Council will remain paralyzed and weak against Israeli aggression because the American position that does not observe justice and law wherever the Hebrew State is concerned, which is the biggest threat to the region's security." ¶4. Under headline "Why Iran?", a columnist, Ahmed Omarabi, Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 90,000) wrote 4/15 op-ed: "While India owns an arsenal of assorted nuclear weapons, American storms and hurricanes are instigated against Iran at the mere thought that it might in the future succeed in industrializing nuclear weapons. The reason for this is well known: Israel." SISON