TFLE01: KUWAIT MEDIA REACTION - LEBANON - QANA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 003072 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, NEA/PI, INR/NESA, R/MR, I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA LONDON FOR TSOU PARIS FOR ZEYA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO XF KU MEDIA REACTION SUBJECT: TFLE01: KUWAIT MEDIA REACTION - LEBANON - QANA Block Quotes -------------- Tuesday, August 1, 2006 -- "Kuwaiti Demonstration Against America and Britain" is Khalil Haydar's column in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Watan (8/1): "Yesterday's protests in front of the American embassy, where demonstrators demanded the closure of the Embassy and the expulsion of the American Ambassador and hurled epithets against President Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Rice, will only help to damage the Lebanese cause as well as the cause of the victims of the Qana massacre. Emotional and extreme slogans, that express the opinions of a small minority of Kuwaitis, especially Hezbollah supporters, will rebound negatively on the Lebanese cause... participants in such demonstrations are well aware there are limits to expressing opinions. Damage to Kuwait's interests will benefit neither political parties nor democracy." -- "State Terrorism Toward Children" Khudair Al-Enezi wrote in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Qabas (8/1): "Qana's massacre is an extension to terrorism that the Israeli war machine is sowing in the Middle East. It is also the source of nourishment for terrorism around the world... the United States has given Israel the green light to continue the Zionist state terror against Lebanon. Syrian President Asad was correct to describe the war as state terror. It is not Hezbollah who is creating terrorism, Hezbollah is simply defending the dignity of the nation, and it is legally justified in ridding Lebanese lands from the occupiers. America alone bears the moral and ethical responsibility before the whole world." -- "War on Lebanon" is former Ambassador Ahmad Ghaith's piece in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Qabas (8/1): "Through this war Israel is trying to provoke the Lebanese people to rebel against Hezbollah. It is on this premise that its aggression encompassed the whole of Lebanon and the targeting of its infrastructure. Unfortunately for Israel, the Lebanese have rallied around Hezbollah and condemned the war as an aggression toward all the Lebanese people... This war has shown that fighters armed with faith and love for their country can withstand the Israeli war machine... They have taught Israel a lesson -- Lebanon is strong because of its people. " -- "Israel Must Pay Lebanon in Compensation" is Yousef Al-Mubaraki's comment in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Qabas (8/1): "We are witnessing Israeli revelry in Lebanon with the blessing of the United States. These crimes that are inflicted on Lebanon -- the demolishing of the infrastructure, the killing of Lebanese people, and the destruction of the environment -- are deliberate war crimes and they are punishable by international law. The Lebanese government must demand that the UN issue a resolution awarding Lebanon compensation for Israeli destruction, similar to the UN resolution awarding compensation to Kuwait for the Iraqi invasion in 1990... The UNSC must force Israel to pay compensation so that this kind of destruction will never again occur." -- "Where Does Qana Stand in the Dictionary of the Geneva Conventions?" is the title of Columnist Faisal Al-Zamel's piece in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Anba (8/1): "The second Qana massacre confirms the absence of the international conscience toward Gaza or Lebanon. The United States is in a coma while Israel roams free shedding Arab and Muslim blood. We know that opening the war front in Lebanon is in Israel's interest as evinced by their rush to exploit this opportunity in the bloodiest way possible." -- "The Conniving New World Order" is how Dr. Jassem Al-Fuhaid commented in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Rai Al-A'am (8/1): "Through its ineffectiveness the UN is slowly taking the path of its predecessor the League of Nations ... The UN has shown that it can make decisive decisions only when they fall in the interest of the United States... The UN's impotence was exposed recently when, in response to Israel's bombing of a UN observation post killing four UN observers, it was unable to issue a resolution condemning this criminal act... The scandalous manner in which the U.S. and her savage child [Israel] dominate the UN has completely erased what little credibility it once enjoyed." KUWAIT 00003072 002 OF 002 -- "Khomaini and Hasan Nasrallah" is how Khalid Al-Raqeeb commented in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Watan (8/1): "We all remember why Khomeini famously ordered a cessation of war with Iraq; because he realized at the time that America stood behind Iraq and there was no balance of power between Iran and America. At the time Iran realized that it was in the interest of its people to stop the war with Iraq... Doesn't Nasrallah realize that the balance of power is on the side of Israel, America and Britain? No matter how long he keeps shelling Israel, America and Britain will rally to help their ally. Why can't Nasrallah have the courage and announce a stop to the war with Israel." -- "Olmert... Averwhelmed, Afraid and Regretful" columnist Mohammed Zein wrote in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Seyassah (8/1): "How much more time does Mr. Olmert need to finish his mission and achieve his goals? It seems, he comes up with new missions on an hourly basis; during the first day of the aggression he demanded from Hezbollah to hand over the two Israeli soldiers, then he demanded Hezbollah's disarmament, then he said he was fighting the war on terror... It has been twenty days and the Israeli shelling of Lebanon has not ceased... The Israelis never expected that their war with the Lebanese resistance would take this long and be accompanied with the death of so many Israeli soldiers and the destruction of many of their tanks... Olmert does not want a ceasefire... He asked for fourteen days to achieve his goals; however this long period of time does not correspond with the might of his sophisticated military machine." -- "Don't Beat the Snake's Tail" Ahmad Al-Jarallah editor in chief's piece in the moderate Arabic daily Al-Seyassah (8/1): "Right now, the war in Lebanon is an extension of the disputes between Syria and Iran against the United States. Therefore we call on the United States to beat the snake's head Iran, and not its tail represented by Iraq and Lebanon... Iran ignored the threat of having its nuclear program referred to the UNSC, therefore America must change the course of its political objective and beat the snake's head directly in Tehran. America will not succeed in turning Lebanon into another Iraq, and Tehran and Damascus will not succeed in jeopardizing the international will to contain this war." ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * TUELLER