MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT

UNCLAS AMMAN 005363

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 MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT

Editorial Commentary

?Reconsidering priorities and alliances in the face of
the explosion?

Columnist Fahd Khitan writes on the inside page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(07/17): ?As far as the Jordanian officials are
concerned, an explosion in the region was expected,
but the surprise is the confrontation started in
Lebanon between Hizbollah and Israel and not between
Washington and Iran?. The aggression against Lebanon
has become comprehensive and destructive with Israeli
bombs falling on Syria's borders. Syria threatens to
retaliate without limits and Israel is ready for all
solutions and is not planning to pass on the
opportunity to settle all the issues. After all,
Hizbollah cannot be fought in the south while Hamas is
left a thorn in its side. The moment to impose
Olmert's plan without any care or concern for the
interests of neighbors or treaties might be at hand.
What does that mean for Jordan? It means that
priorities need to be revisited. The ongoing
explosion in the region cannot be faced with
proposals, projects and predisposed ideas. Trusting
too much Washington's stand and the intimate treaty
with Olmert are not going to do us any good on the day
of the raid. Parties like Israel and AMERICA think
only of their interests in cold blood and do not any
care for the fate of others. There must now be a
movement to create an Arab front that would be
completely independent from the American-Israeli
alliance in order to protect Jordan from the Israeli
monster and to protect Syria from aggression and
Lebanon and Iraq from division.?

-- ?Not Iranian?

Columnist Nahed Hattar writes on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(07/17): ?Linking between Hizbollah's conflict with
Israel on the one hand and easing pressures on Iran
over the nuclear issue on the other might, in theory,
be logical, but this logic soon dissipates once we
think about whether Tehran wants to hurry up the
American war against it. The answer to that is no.
The Iranian ruling regime seeks to strike a deal with
the United States and believes that it has some strong
ace cards to play, including Hizbollah. Yet,
Hizbollah becomes neither an ace card nor a tool if it
starts the attack itself?. Hizbollah's initiative to
attack actually stems from a non-Iran related motive,
rather from the necessity dictated by the interests of
the Arab Shi'aism which was detrimentally harmed as a
result of Iran's pragmatic connections since 2001, the
conspiratorial understanding between the Iranian
regime and the United States in Afghanistan, and most
of all, in Iraq, where Iran's expansion policy in
cahoots with the Americans turned the Iraqi Shi'a from
people qualified to lead the country into a 'base' for
the American project. This greatly harmed the
reputation, the capacity and the role of Arab Shi'aism
at the Arab level, and led to the rise of the
phenomenon of Sunni-Shi'a division that is almost

turning into a civil war in Iraq. The biggest loser
from the Iranian policy in Iraq was Hizbollah?. The
inertness, even political vacuum, at the Arab level,
the possibility of reconciliation between Iran and
America, the sectarian crisis suffered by the Iraqi
resistance ? followed by the heavy Israeli strike
against the Hamas government in the context of the
Israeli project to liquidate the Palestinian cause;
all of that was bothering Hizbollah and warning it of
the possibility of strategic exposure and the decay of
its position and role in Lebanon.?

-- ?Priority is for supporting the Lebanese government
and protecting the Lebanese people?

Columnist Batir Wardam writes on the op-ed page of
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(07/17): ?The regional formula is quite clear.
Lebanon is the only one that is going to pay the
price. The Iranian President allies with the American
imperialism in Iraq and opposes in theory in Lebanon,
and declares that he is ready to defend Syria if it is
attacked by Israel ? but he does not defend Lebanon,
and none of those who got Lebanon into this crisis and
cheer it on are going to defend the Lebanese people.
The Arab stand must be stronger and more severe and
must be directed at supporting the Lebanese
government. Otherwise, all the keys to the game will
end up in the hands of Hizbollah and the aggressive
Israel and anyone else planning an escalation in the
region. The Arabs must work hard against the Israeli
aggression and the American foolishness in order to
protect the Lebanese people from turning into fuel for
a new war in the Middle East.?

-- ?The war has what is beyond?

Columnist Abu Yazan writes on the op-ed page of
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(07/17): ?We are before a war that is happening in
Lebanon but its parties, accounts and fallout will
affect the entire region, and will have what is beyond
it in terms of results and affects on the balance of
power in each country, specifically between the
regimes and the Islamic movements, Sunni and Shi'a?.
We are willing risk saying that the dust of this
battle, once it settles, will uncover an effective
presence for the Arab Islamic trend, Sunni and Shi'a.
The Arab official regimes were never good at, and in
fact have failed miserably in waging the 'peace
battle'?. As for Arab citizens, mesmerized in front
of TV screens watching the scenes of the great crime
unfold in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, they are no
longer impressed by anything and their longing and
thirst for pride, dignity and vengeance is no longer
quenched except by the images of Hassan Nasrallah and
the Palestinian and Iraqi resistance. Whoever listens
to the bitter sarcasm by which Arab citizens comment
about current events would realize all too well the
widening gap between the citizen and the ruler?. I
wonder now whether the question "why do they hate us"
will be asked by the Arab leaders, as the Americans
have done following the 9/11 attacks??

-- ?Inside the box?

Centrist, elite English daily Jordan Times (07/17)
editorializes: ?Not only the Lebanese and Arabs but
any educated, broad-minded person equipped with the
necessary tools that do not allow him to succumb to
the mighty propaganda machine have, over the past few
days, all the reasons to be furious at the coverage by
major US networks of the tragedy unfolding in
Lebanon?. Taking the notion of bias to new extremes,
some newscasters have gone to the extent of censoring
Israeli officials? declarations, omitting from their
reports those passages that betrayed the brutality and
disproportion of Israel?s military retaliation.
Utmost effort is being exerted to present Israel?s
attacks as specifically targeted against Hizbollah,
even when bridges and airports are bombed?. All
means, subtle or overt, are exploited to relay the
magnitude of Hizbollah attacks and Israeli suffering,
but Lebanese suffering and Israeli attacks are not
treated in the same way. On one American news
channel, the correspondent from Israel sported a thick
bulletproof vest, while his colleague from Beirut was
wearing only his shirt. It is immediately known when
there are women and children amongst the Israeli dead.
But the Lebanese dead are just numbers?. Yeah,
American media are free. Free to parrot Israeli
propaganda.?

?How do the Arabs deal with Hizbollah's 'adventure'?

Columnist Fahd Khitan writes on the inside page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(07/16): ?Hints of a comprehensive confrontation are
looming in the region. People see in it a way out of
the state of humiliation that has afflicted the Arab
body, despite the pains and horrors that wars entail.
The official Arab leaderships are almost outside the
picture. There is talk, maybe truthful, about an
Iranian interest in what is going on. But where is
the counter Arab interest in all of this? In the
current status quo and in light of the official Arab
stand, Israel is the only beneficiary. What I want to
say is that rallying public opinion around a stance
that is skeptical and doubtful of Hizbollah's motives
and objectives of starting a confrontation does the
Arabs no good, unless the Arab leaderships provide a
convincing alternative for the people in the face of
the American and Israeli arrogance. The game of just
and comprehensive peace ended up, as far as Israel is
concerned, into a 'a Palestinian capsule' known as the
state, as political thinker Adnan Abu Odeh had said,
and freedom in Iraq after the elimination of the
'tyrant', as the Americans state, is an operation that
is nearing a tragic conclusion for the Iraqis and the
Arabs. In this scene, how can others be stopped from
looking for a way out? True, what Hizbollah is doing
is an adventure, and Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged
that. The next weeks may see difficult days. All the
players are egging for a confrontation that would be
similar to the World Cup Soccer final. But can the
Arabs do anything other than condemn Hizbollah and
then Iran? If their action is limited to that
condemnation, then Israel will be very happy with them
indeed.?

-- ?The absence of an Arab solution is disastrous?

Chief Editor Taher Odwan writes on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(07/16): ?We have reached the stage of sorting
stances and alliances, because Hizbollah's military
initiative and the comprehensive war it started with
Israel has put the Arab regimes before two options:
either support Hizbollah and practically stand in the
Iranian camp, or stand by Israel and of course
America. It is something that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and
Jordan tried not to be dragged into, as they chose to
adopt a completely different stand, or a third option,
namely condemning the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,
calling on the international community to intervene,
and at the same time blaming Hizbollah for the
'adventure', describing it as part of a regional
scenario that does not serve Lebanese and Arab
interests. Such an Arab political stand, which is
completely different to previous ones vis--vis
Israeli aggressions, is not enough, because it is a
weak political stand when faced with the heat of
battles and the sorting of alliances?. Such an Arab
stand that refuses to choose between the camp of Tel
Aviv and Washington on one hand and the camp of
Hizbollah-Damascus-Tehran on the other will ultimately
serve the American-Israeli camp?. What is required is
an Arab solution that convinces the Arab people first
and foremost that their countries are capable of
protecting them from American-Israeli-Iranian
aggressions?. What is happening in Lebanon, Palestine
and Iraq is the result of the vacuum in the region
that was created by the Arab absence when all the eggs
were placed in the American basket.?
HALE