MEDIA REACTION ON TEL AVIV BOMBING

UNCLAS AMMAN 002771 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 TSOU SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR JO SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON TEL AVIV BOMBING Editorial Commentary -- "The occupation and the despondency are the reason" Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (04/18) editorializes: "Not once have we allowed ourselves to find justification for any attack that targets civilians, all civilians. Yet, every time the Palestinians and the Israelis were subjected to mass murder, due to Israel's organized terrorism and the Palestinian reaction that stems from their anger, desperation and despondency, we would hold responsible the Israeli leadership that continues to occupy the lands of the Palestinian people and to attack them on a daily basis.. There is nothing uglier than this racist Israeli occupation in modern history.. Yes, we feel angry and sad about those who fell victim to the terrorist operation that was perpetrated by a very young Palestinian man, who would not have put himself, nor his organization would have put him, in this situation had the occupation forces packed up and left when the doors of peace were open.. We shout at the top of our lungs: those who refuse to acknowledge the rights of the Palestinian people, steal their land, kill them in all ways and means, build the silly wall, talk of final borders and unilateral measures are solely responsible for all this bloodshed, because they are the ones who are able to put an end to the conflict in the context of the easiest and the clearest of formulas: full withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967 and the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital, followed by the finalization of the other peace tracks in line with the Arab peace initiative that will stop the Arab Israeli conflict and allow for the start of normal relations." -- "No to Targeting civilians" Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (04/18) editorializes: "Such operations increase the Israeli society's tendency towards extremism and hard-line approaches, and give the hawks in Israel further justifications for continuing to target the Palestinian people and committing more crimes against them under the pretext of fighting terrorism. It is time for those who mess with the interests of the Palestinian people to stop their operations that serve no one but the extremists in Israel.. True, the unilateral plan of withdrawal is not going to lead to peace, and the Israelis are misleading and creating illusions if they think that imposing a de facto policy on the ground is going to achieve peace.. But, in any case, such operations will not achieve any of the just Palestinian objectives; rather they only harm and damage the interests of the Palestinian people. All those who close their eyes to the reality of this damage that is affecting their people must refer to the events of the past four years." -- "More useless death born of despondency" Centrist, influential among the elite English daily Jordan Times (04/18) editorializes: "Yesterday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was horrific, but hardly unexpected. Indeed, the only surprising thing about it was that it was so long in coming. Suicide bombings are morally repugnant and strategically useless. They do not aid the Palestinian cause nor do they damage Israel's military capabilities. They do, however, express the level of exasperation and hatred Palestinians feel for Israel, and are directly related to the level of despair Palestinians feel about their future. That level has now reached almost unspeakable dimensions. In addition to maintaining the illegal and belligerent occupation of Palestinian land; in addition to having stated that this theft will carry on through force and coercion; in addition to bombarding the Gaza Strip daily, invading West Bank cities nightly, and disposing of Palestinian lives at will and brutally; in addition to all of this, Israel has persuaded the international community to starve the Palestinians.. The hypocrisy continues. No one holds the Israeli government responsible for the actions of its army that in the last ten days has led to the murder of 16 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilian, three of them children younger than 15.. As long as the international community lets it, Israel will continue its unilateral policy of theft and dispossession. As long as that policy continues, it will do so over the dead bodies of Palestinians and Israelis. As this is Easter, it might be worth noting a parallel. The international community can and must not only judge, as it has done with its international resolutions; it must act to see that justice is done. There is no washing your hands of this, because that spot will never disappear." HALE