MEDIA REACTION; ISRAEL'S WAR; BRAZIL'S INCORPORATION INTO

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000887 SIPDIS STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, WHA/EPSC CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION; ISRAEL'S WAR; BRAZIL'S INCORPORATION INTO THE OECD; RUSSIA'S MANIPULATION OF THE MEDIA; 05/07/07; BUENOS AIRES ¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT Weekend international stories include the outcome of Israel's war against Hezbollah; Brazil's incorporation into the OECD; and Russia's prevailing manipulation of the mass media. ¶2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS - "The lives of others" Daily-of-record "La Nacion's" international columnist Jorge Elias writes (05/06) "... Israel won the war against Hezbollah just like the US won the war against Iraq - without success. In the eyes of the Arabs, Hezbollah maintained intact its ability to defy Israel.... Based on this hypothesis, Hezbollah may not have won the war, but it seduced the minds and particularly the hearts of the Arabs... "The war had an unforeseen side damage, which neither Olmert nor Bush was able to predict. Israel's power in the region was based on its overwhelming military power... In a jiffy, Nasrallah, a marginal leader, showed Israel's shortfalls in coincidence with another war, the war against Hamas in the Palestinian territories... "... (Israeli PM) Olmert was accused of negligence and irresponsibility for having declared war... "... The punishment of civilians in the vain hope that they would then repel both Hamas and Hezbollah acted against Israel. In a way, Bush created a reward/punishment system through his pre-emptive war... Did Olmert have the margin not to act as Sharon would have, regardless of his own lack of prudence and lack of experience? The committee investigating his administration's performance concluded that he had not measured consequences. Just as in Iraq, the lives of others and the consequences did not matter." - "Brazil joins the OECD" Centrist "Perfil" newspaper (05/06) carries an opinion piece by contributor Jorge Castro, who writes "Brazil will start its incorporation into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)... "... Brazil was the Latin American country receiving the largest amount of Foreign Direct Investment in 2006... "Its international reserves went up to 110 billion dollars... "Under these circumstances, Brazil has now decided to join the OECD, the US-led association gathering the most advanced countries in the world from an economic, financial and technological point of view... A country's international participation does not necessarily coincide with its foreign policy. A specific decision to join could involve more than one foreign policy (e.g., a system of regional or international alliances)...Last month, Brazil signed a strategic deal with the US to jointly develop a world bio-fuels policy. Now, it will join the OECD. "Brazil's decision to join the OECD was made public last week, while President Hugo Chavez announced Venezuela's withdrawal from the WB and the IMF, to which he could add the abandonment of the OAS if it condemns the Chavist regime for the withdrawal of RCTV's license. "Seemingly, South America has two options related to the region's insertion into the world - one bets on isolation and rejects globalization and its power structure. The other one reinforces its ties to advanced capitalism through increasing its exports and systematically seeking FDI and an increased productivity rate." - "Russia manipulates the media" Daily-of-record "La Nacion" editorializes (05/07) "The prevailing opinion is that authoritarianism is back in the Russia of Vladimir Putin. An elite in the president's entourage, which seems to have formerly belonged to the KGB, has already taken hold of the most important mass media in an attempt to form and maintain a favorable opinion of the president... "The news manipulation has long been a classic instrument of authoritarianism, which is aimed at making whatever the government does appear very positive while hiding its failings or shortcomings in a thousand ways. This is frequently accompanied by the demonization of the opposition leaders... This perverse and always dangerous prescription inevitably leads to the loss or restriction of essential individual freedoms." To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website at: http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires WAYNE