MEDIA REACTION ON ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH COMBAT

UNCLAS AMMAN 005743 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 ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH COMBAT Editorial Commentary -- "Qana must be our point of reference" Columnist Bater Wardam writes on the inside page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/31): "When we see the children martyrs in Qana, how can we think of peace, coexistence and tolerance? Who do we tolerate? The prime minister who ordered the war? The defense minister who led the army? The soldier who fired the rocket? The government's spokesman who is trying to justify the crime and the lies? The media outlets that promote Israeli viewpoints? The United States that provides political and military cover for the Israeli crime? Let Qana be our point of reference for everything. When we are overtaken by the illusion that Israel wants peace, let us remember Qana. When we talk about normalization and coexistence, let us remember the children martyrs. When we listen the U.S. lies, let us remember Qana.... When the Arab regime fails to rein in Israel, the people will move towards extremism, and when the international community fails to achieve justice, the Arabs and Muslims will move towards the so-called terrorism.... Every time we write about the logic and importance of peace, Israel comes along and kills off every hope and every illusion of the possibility of having peace. We can no longer talk about democracy and coexistence in view of these crimes. We can no longer justify to the angry masses that abiding by international legitimacy and fighting terrorism will achieve security and justice for the Palestinian and Lebanese people. I do not care if Hezbollah is implementing a Lebanese or Iranian policy. I do not care if Hassan Nasrallah is a Shiite, Sunni, Buddhist or even an atheist. But as long as they have become the only weapon that this nation has to retrieve part of its dignity and seek revenge against the Israeli criminals, then we are with Nasrallah and with Hezbollah and against any plan or project that seeks to disarm them.... We curse Israel and we ask for forgiveness and mercy for the Qana martyrs. And before the martyrs of Qana, I go down on my knees and apologize for every word I had written about the possibility of achieving coexistence with Israel." -- "The embassy of criminality must shut down" Columnist Basem Sakijha writes on the op-ed page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Ad-Dustour (07/31): "Let the embassy of criminality shut down and let that despicable flag that is flying in our country go to hell. There is no more room for them on our land, and they have no more justification in view of this flagrant scene of the bloodshed of our folks in Lebanon and Palestine.... The ugly crime, as the King described it, must have a Jordanian response. The dirty war, right from the beginning, should make us adopt a decisive and conclusive stand. If the fragile peace that was established between us and the Israeli entity came about out of embarrassment and the tying of our hands, then it must go to hell. Amman is sad about what has been going on since day one, and it boils over with every piece of news that comes from the southern parts of Lebanon and Palestine. But yesterday with the news of the second Qana massacre, a new type of anger is added to the sadness, and we stand today facing ourselves wondering about this begrudging historical enemy to whom we gave peace with good intent, only to receive from it killing after killing after killing.... We regret that there is still an embassy and ambassador that act as a thorn in our side and prevent us from even speaking out. We regret even more that Jordan, the Arab and nationalistic country, is put in an awkward position because of the presence of the embassy and the ambassador." -- "New Nazis launch the 'final solution'" Columnist Mahmoud Rimawi writes on the op-ed page of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (07/31): "Rice expressed her feelings by what she called deep sadness over the victims of the Israeli attack. She should have expressed shame, since her administration supported this dirty war and quickly provided Olmert and his gang with advanced American bombs.... The organized massacres that the Hebrew state has been committing over the past era, which started with Sharon's rule, proves that the people and countries of the region, as well as the humanity and the world, are now facing new Nazism that is focused on military armament and manufacturing, the spread of a culture of racism, organization of racial extermination campaigns, and complete contempt for the rest of the world including the allies in Washington." -- "Qana 2006" Chief Editor Ayman Safadi writes on the back-page of independent, centrist Arabic daily Al-Ghad (07/31): "Do we call it a massacre? Do we call it a slaughter? Do we pin it in our Arab memories as another Israeli crime that thwarts all proposals for peaceful coexistence with a barbaric racist enemy? Do we consider it a result of the shameful Arab reality? Do we consider the United States an accomplice in the crime? Do we condemn the frailty of the United Nations? All that we can do, but we are still ashamed of this helplessness to preserve the lives of children whose bodies were torn by the Israeli terrorism tools in a shelter where they escaped anyway from the Zionist war. We are angry that Israeli flags rise in Amman and Cairo while the voices of the victims of Israel's terrorism rise in the skies of Lebanon and Palestine.... We remember all the Israeli killing and we form the genuine image of Israel: a rogue country built on hatred and resentment; a country whose children sign the rockets of destruction that kill the Lebanese children; a country that takes life from death. It is not the Arabs who raise their children on hatred and glorification of death, but Israel. It is not the Arabs who justify terrorism, but the President of the United States of America, George Bush. He supports the terrorism of the Israeli state and justifies its taking of innocent lives as legitimate self-defense.... Israel's criminality will not produce a new and safe Middle East. Let America stop belittling the minds of Arabs and offending their feelings as it promises this new Middle East. The outcome of the Israeli criminality and American complicity is an environment where only violence is created and where only the desire for vengeance is grown.... Meanwhile, Israel's ambassadors must not stay in Cairo and Amman, and Jordan and Egypt's ambassadors must not stay in Tel Aviv. Let the Jordanian and Egyptian anger at the Israeli crimes be manifested, at least in protest, by the withdrawal of the ambassadors." HALE