Damascus Media Reaction: Israeli Operation in Lebanon

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003602

SIPDIS



SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR PA, NEA/ARN, INR/IC/CD, INR/S:STHIBEAULT AND
JMCCARTER, VOA NEWS CA, NEA/PPD:CBOURGEOIS, DBENZE AND
AFERNANDEZ, IIP/G/NEA-SA RWINCHESTER
WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC
CENTCOM FOR CCPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMDR PREL KPAO OPRC SY
SUBJECT: Damascus Media Reaction: Israeli Operation in Lebanon
(7/21-23)



1. Summary: Syrian newspapers continued to report on the
Israeli operation in Lebanon. All papers reported that Bashar al-
Ja'afari, Syria's Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, called on the UN Security Council "to shoulder
responsibility in putting an immediate end to the Israeli
aggression against the Lebanese and Palestinian people."
Speaking before a UN Security Council session on the Middle
East, Mr. Ja'afari said "Syria, which has always stressed
readiness to establish a comprehensive and just peace as well as
stability and security in the region, urges the Council to
exercise pressure on Israel to cease fire immediately." He
added that "Syria also calls on the Council to shoulder
responsibility in getting Israel to stop this aggression and
compensate for the casualties and damages inflicted by its
aggression." The Syrian diplomat stressed that instability in
the region is "due to Israel's continuing occupation of Arab
lands and the immunity it takes from some influential world
powers, as if Israel is above the law at the expense of our
legitimate rights in Palestine, Lebanon and the occupied Syrian
Golan." Mr. Ja'afari criticized the superpowers' double-
standard policy in dealing with the Middle East and their bias
towards Israel. He also accused the superpowers of minimizing
the Arab-Israeli conflict and ignoring the fact that the problem
lies in the occupation and settlement in the occupied Arab
territories since 1967 and displacing people from their homes.
He stressed that "Israel's brutal aggression on Lebanon doesn't
only aim at destroying Lebanon or world peace and security, but
also at undermining the credibility of the UN." He added that
Israel has so far ignored more than a thousand UN resolutions
calling on Israel to abide by international resolutions.

Syrian papers reported that Egypt and France have demanded a
quick cease-fire in Lebanon, stressing the necessity for the
intensification of diplomatic efforts on regional and
international levels. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu-Ghait
said in a joint press conference with his French counterpart,
Philippe Douste-Blazy, that no one could imagine allowing the
destruction of the infra-structure of Lebanon to continue.
The Syrian press also quoted the Lebanese Daily As-Safir, which
reported that the Lebanese intelligence services have arrested a
spying network that has been working for Israel for years. "The
confession of suspects could lead to the exposure of a number of
sleeper spy cells working for Israel on Lebanese soil." As-Safir
quoted a well-informed source as saying that activities of this
spy network exceeded what the already uncovered Mahmoud Rafa
network did. "Members of the network, using developed
technologies and communication apparatuses, facilitated selection
of certain goals in Beirut's southern suburb with signs guiding
Israeli aircraft to those targets," the papers indicated. "One of
the prominent figures in the network confessed that Israel had
put itself on alert four days before the arrest of the two
Israeli soldiers and provided its sleeper spies with cell phones
with directives and technologies to target centers and
headquarters of Hizbollah in all Lebanese territories,
particularly in Beirut's southern suburb."
End of summary.


2. Selected Headlines:

"Syria calls on UNSC for an immediate halt of Israeli aggression:
Instability in the region is caused by the continuing Israeli
occupation and the immunity granted to Israel" (Government-owned
Al-Thawra, 7/23)

"President Asad reviews Russian efforts to halt the Israeli
aggression against Lebanon with Sultanov" (Government-owned Al-
Thawra, 7/21)

"Israeli aggression targets eyewitnesses. Israeli warplanes shell
the satellite antennas of Lebanese TV channels and mobile phone
networks to cover up its massacre. The Israeli army occupies the
UNIFIL positions. The national resistance repels Israeli land
infiltrations and shells Israeli settlements" (Government-owned
Tishreen, 7/23)

"An Israeli espionage network arrested in Lebanon" (Government-

owned Tishreen, 7/23)

"America confirms its direct partnership in the aggression
against Lebanon by accelerating an urgent shipment of laser-
controlled bombs to Israel" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 7/23)
"Demonstrations in Tel Aviv protesting the bloody Israeli
campaign against Lebanon" (Government-owned Tisrheen, 7/23)

"The Higher Popular Committee for Supporting the Steadfastness of
the Lebanese People discusses mechanisms of branch committees in
the governorates throughout Syria for providing services to the
Lebanese brothers in Syria. A second Syrian humanitarian aid
convoy heads to Lebanon" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/23)
"Israel attacks all its targets in Lebanon, threatens general
mobilization and escalates its aggression. Timid and non-serious
international efforts encourage the aggressors. The resistance
responds inflicting casualties on Israeli settlers" (Government-
owned Tishreen, 7/22)
"SecGen of Hizbollah Nasrallah is discontent with those who stand
by the executioner against the victim: Our steadfastness is part
of victory.... Every Israeli failure is a success for the
resistance. We absorbed the first shock; now we are taking the
initiative and preparing for more surprises" (Government-owned
Tishreen, 7/22)
"US Secretary of State Rice thanks Israel, rejects a cease-fire
before ending Hizbollah and speaks about the birth of a new
Middle East" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/22)
"The heroism of the Resistance continues for the ninth day.
Inability and confusion characterize statements by Israeli
leaders and generals. Nasrallah confirms: The hand-over of the
two Israeli soldiers will only be through indirect negotiations
and a prisoner swap. Resistance fighters kill and wound 23 enemy
soldiers, destroy three tanks and damage a helicopter"
(Government-owned Al-Thawra, 7/21)


3. Editorial Block Quotes:

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"Blood and Oil"

--------------

Dr. Abdul-Karim Abdul-Samad, an op-ed writer in government-owned
Tishreen, said (7/22): "Since the beginning of the Israeli
aggression Syria has made humanitarian efforts, on the popular
and official levels, to ease the suffering of the Lebanese
people through border entry facilities, shipment of food and
medicine to Lebanon, and a national blood donation campaign for
wounded Lebanese....

"What brings the Syrian and Lebanese people together is bigger
than all American and Israeli conspiracies.... The relations
between the two peoples grow stronger at times of hardship....
When brothers share their blood and food in the battle for the
defense of the homeland, and when their efforts and sweat are
mixed in the construction process, no force on earth can drive
them apart....

"While Syria is providing blood and humanitarian relief
materials to the Lebanese, the US is supplying Israel with
special fuel for the warplanes that are bombing Lebanon....
Syrians, who are donating their blood, wonder about the source
of this American fuel. They hope the source is not Arab, so that
the picture will not be gloomier and so that the Arab public,
which has not yet had its say, will not say: Syria is offering
the blood of its sons in support of Lebanon while they other
Arabs are offering their oil to support the aggression...."

--------------

"US Field and Israeli Threshing Ground"

--------------


Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen,
commented (7/22): "The attempt to implement Security Council
Resolution 1559 by force is not the only objective of the
Israeli war on Lebanon....

"In addition to this tactical objective, there are strategic
objectives: The massive military strikes on Lebanon are part of
similar strikes against the Palestinians and the Iraqis. All
these strikes, or hostile wars, seek to rearrange the region in
accordance with Zionist and American plans, which cannot see
light except in the shadow of what they call creative
instability and amid destruction and sectarian wars that the
occupiers in Iraq feed and the Israelis are trying to ignite in
Lebanon and the region in general....

"In light of this, we are not surprised that the rejection of a
cease-fire comes from Washington, not from Tel Aviv. For this is
an American war using Israeli tools. The resistance will foil
the American-Israeli plans...."

--------------

"Larsen's Mission"

--------------

Samir al-Shibani, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen,
wrote (7/22: "News reports have circulated that an international
conference will be held to find new mechanisms to implement
Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for disarming
Hizbollah....

"Many Lebanese agree that the resolution cannot be implemented,
because it torpedoes national unity and coexistence in fraternal
Lebanon and threatens its unity, sovereignty and dignity, for
whose sake the Lebanese paid seas of tears and rivers of
martyrs' blood....

"This international scurring to implement UN Resolution 1559 is
surprising. It raises many questions about the multiple visits
by Arab and international envoys to the region.... Such visits
are quite exposed to the Arab masses, who will continue to be
active and impressive in the Arab street despite the intensive
assaults against the Arab nation.... The Arab street can easily
distinguish between the banner of resistance and the white
banner of surrender...."

--------------

"Don't Ask Wherefrom"

--------------

Hanan Hamad, a columnist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote
(7/22): "Don't ask wherefrom this Israeli zeal to carry out UNSC
resolutions... Why has the UNSC remained silent about Israel's
refusal to carry out other UNSC resolutions for six decades...?

"While the international organization has failed to force Israel
to implement any of its resolutions on the Arab-Israeli
conflict, it has permitted Israel to work to implement
Resolution 1559 through its destructive weapons, which spare no
child, woman, or elderly person....

"The international community is now held hostage by the United
States, and indirectly by Israel, which is now assigned to
fulfill the wishes of the American master....

"Today, Israel is not only enjoying Western support as well as
some 'Arab' support -- which is the most painful thing -- but it
is also doing the job for which it was created, as a forward
base for the strategic Western plan in the region...."

--------------

"Attorney for Satan"


--------------

Ahmad Burghul, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawrah,
commented (7/21): "The brutal Israeli aggression against Lebanon
is placing the entire region at a real crossroads that might
lead it to the unknown....

"The release of the captured Israeli soldiers can be achieved
only through a prisoner swap, not through the destruction of
Lebanon....

"Israel is a criminal, a killer, an enemy that does not hesitate
to commit the most heinous crimes with or without reason.
Hizbollah did not launch an aggression, as some Arab voices
claim. The capture of the two Israeli soldiers was an act of
self-defense and was aimed at releasing the Lebanese prisoners
in the Zionist prisons....

"Any attempt to cast doubt on the resistance and its objectives
amounts to bias toward Israel and an encouragement for it to
persist in its aggression, brutality, and crimes....

"Those who stand against the resistance today, or even hesitate
to support it, work on behalf of Israel, the historical enemy of
Lebanon, Arabs, and Muslims. Rights are regained through
resistance and steadfastness, not through humiliation,
submission, and begging. The Resistance's deterrence of the
aggression today is a source of pride for all of us, requiring
that we offer support and backing."

Seche