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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST AND IRAQ 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead reports and commentaries over the past few 
days, February 27-March 1, focus on a variety of 
developments related to the Middle East and Iraq, as 
well as the issue of the UAE role in the management of 
US ports. 
 
          Editorial Commentary on Middle East 
 
-- "'Transformational Diplomacy' and the deficiency of 
Arab stances" 
 
Freelancer Lamis Andoni writes on the op-ed page of 
centrist, independent Arabic daily Al-Ghad (02/27): 
"The call of the [U.S.] Secretary of State for 
Lebanon's independence in the same tour that aimed to 
isolate a Hamas-led elected Palestinian government, 
and in addition to the fact that she represents an 
occupying force in Iraq, is fit to be a comedy scene, 
except that it is a very serious scene.  The U.S. 
policy's lack of moral standards and its dependence on 
military power is nothing new.  The problem, however, 
lies in how official and non-official Arab 
institutions deal with Washington.  The occupation has 
become acceptable and the official and non-official 
institutions are competing for the American financial 
support under the motto of democracy and reform 
without any care or concern for the repercussions of 
implementing policies and programs that fall within 
America's anti-Arab causes vision.  On the eve of her 
tour in the region, Condoleezza Rice announced the 
start of what she called Transformational Diplomacy 
that aims to create changes in the Arab region through 
diplomacy.  Rice did not clarify this new diplomacy, 
but it seems that America, stuck in the Iraqi quagmire 
and endless scandals, wants to focus on a combination 
of diplomatic pressures and financial support 
increases for the opposition in Iran and other 
unapproved of Arab countries to create internal 
changes that lead to the rise of pro-US policy 
governments..  It is known that American governmental 
institutions have increased their expenditure on civil 
society institutions and research centers in Lebanon 
in the past two years, just as they did in Venezuela 
and even Serbia after the downfall of Milosevic.  But 
the American government did not allow the Serbian 
people to elect their representative freely and 
without intervening by strengthening certain parties 
in the elections.  The lesson that the American 
government learned is that it is necessary to control 
both the opposition and the government, and even 
create the opposition and the government if need be, 
so that the democratic process does not put forth 
parliaments and governments that are out of its reach. 
The results of the Palestinian elections confirm this 
American approach.  That is why Washington is trying 
now to isolate Hamas, not out of fear of its religious 
extremism, but in order to strike any Palestinian 
opposition to the Israeli conditions..  Going back to 
Lebanon, anti-Syrian forces there are playing the same 
game in the relationship with Hezbollah.  American has 
an interest in seeing a comprehensive change in 
Lebanon that feeds the sectarian division and takes 
Lebanon out of the Arab mass conscience, inclusive of 
the stand vis--vis Israel.  Some anti-Syrian Lebanese 
parties definitely do not agree with America's 
objectives, but they nevertheless believe that the 
intersection of interests with America will resolve 
the problem with Syria.  They are not looking at the 
repercussions of this short-term policy for Lebanon 
and the entire region.  The same situation applies to 
Arab civil society institutions.  Each one believes, 
or kids himself into believing, this idea of 
intersecting interests with America, but at the end of 
the day, they all fall within the framework of the 
American strategy, knowingly or not." 
 
 
             Editorial Commentary on Iraq 
-- "No solution except through secularism" 
 
Former Minister of Information and regular columnist 
Saleh Qallab writes on the back-page of semi-official, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (02/27):  "There is no 
solution to the Iraqi crisis that has escalated a 
great deal after the recent Samarra crime except to go 
back to establishing the regime on the secular bases 
that essentially does not deal with people on the 
basis of their sect, religion or race, but on the 
basis of their political and economic commitments and 
stances.  Otherwise, the civil war that is already 
knocking at the doors will inevitably break out.. 
What is going on in Iraq today is neither strange nor 
eventful in view of the sectarian, religious and 
ethnic mobilization that started since the collapse of 
the Iraqi state about three years ago that was in 
itself a reflection of expansionist regional 
aspirations towards this targeted country..  Iraq 
cannot avoid the destructive civil war except by 
selecting a government that is national and secular 
and that has nothing to do with this sectarian and 
religious ranting that has pushed this country in a 
dark tunnel..  There is a conspiracy that we have 
talked about so many times before that aims to divide 
up the region on the basis of sectarian and religious 
aspects in order to preoccupy it with itself control 
it and then bleed it dry economically and politically. 
What is going on in Iraq, Lebanon and other Arab 
countries confirms that the climate is now ready for 
this conspiracy to take place, unless, that is, 
patriotism awakens and the secular nationalist feeling 
is revitalized." 
 
-- "The damage done" 
 
Centrist, influential among the elite English daily 
Jordan Times (02/27) editorializes:  "An inclusive 
political process which paves the way for the 
participation of all factions in a really 
representative government provides the only guarantee 
for Iraq's unity, and therefore security and 
stability.  But the tragic bloodshed, which is the 
result of the sectarian violence of the past few days, 
makes these goals appear more and more distant, if 
attainable at all.  What Jordan has been warning 
against all along . is materializing with all its 
horrific potential: civil war..  So much for the 
experts who, three years ago, swore that a Sunni- 
Shiite conflict was highly unlikely because of factors 
such as nationalism, high rates of intermarriage and 
the moderating influence of prominent Shiite clerics. 
One single most important element was capable of 
annulling the influence of all these and many other 
factors that could keep Iraq away from the brink of 
civil war: the US-led occupation.  The rage of 
insurgency was fed by the many unkept promises of 
reconstruction, the failure to put sound development 
projects in place, to restore public confidence in the 
system and the economy, and to grant average Iraqis at 
least the minimum necessary to pick up the pieces of 
their shuttered lives.  Gross abuses and human rights 
violations did the rest..  As the universally 
recognized occupying power, the United States has to 
accept responsibility for all this.  Little matters 
that today American troops sit in Iraq at the request 
of a new government: the damage has already been 
done." 
 
Editorial Commentary on UAE Role in US Port Management 
 
-- "The migration of Arab investments" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back-page of 
independent, mass appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/01):  "The story of the Dubai Ports Company with 
the American Congress restates questions about the 
American-Arab relationship, and the first conclusion 
presupposes the need to reconsider the migration of 
Arab investments to western countries and especially 
the United States..  The story began with the Dubai 
company reached a deal for managing six of America's 
ports . but Congress leaders opposed the deal on the 
pretext that it constitutes a threat to national 
security.  America's Arab friends are going to feel 
very embarrassed about this, because if this is the 
way that America's leaders look at Arabs , their 
countries and their money, as if they are all Taliban, 
then we are facing a fact that says: terrorism is just 
a Trojan Horse hiding a racist viewpoint against the 
Arabs, as the UAE Ittihad newspaper put it.  Moreover, 
this issues raises questions about the concept of 
globalization and free trade agreements, and it even 
hurts the status of America' economy in the world, 
being the foundation of free economies on this planet. 
In fact, the most serious issue that could be deduced 
from the Dubai company issue is the growing tendency 
towards political fanaticism among the American 
leaderships..  Such a tendency, which is based on 
animosity towards all that is Arab, could be felt in 
President Bush's State of the Union address and the 
repeated call on Americans to abandon their reliance 
on Middle East oil..  The Dubai company's issue must 
not be looked at as a specific trade incident, rather 
it must be taken as part of the general climate of the 
Arab American relations and the Arab West relations." 
 
-- "When Bush is more reasonable than the majority of 
Americans!" 
 
Columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page of 
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(02/28):  "The American message in this regard is 
clear: any Arab and Muslim, be it Osama bin Laden or a 
well-known investor, is accused of terrorism until 
proven innocent, and the American public opinion 
cannot trust Arabs or hand them the management of 
American ports even if this was in the context of free 
trade.  Is this not the top of racism?  Bush was 
reasonable when he said that this position sends a 
wrong message, namely that the United States refuses 
investments for ethnic and religious reasons and that 
it adopts a this position against all the Arabs and 
not just the few who support terrorism..  I can 
understand the American position, but the Arabs and 
Muslim must conduct themselves with dignity, and the 
Arab and Muslim community must undertake a campaign 
similar to that undertaken against Denmark in terms of 
threatening to withdraw all Arab investments from the 
United States..  The relationship of the Arab world 
with the United States is like that of a masochist 
wife married to a sadistic husband: he beats her daily 
but she continues to love him.  We lash out against 
the United States day in and day out, but our foremost 
ambition is to get the visa and immigrate to the 
United States . while they look at us all as if we are 
terrorists, so much so that President Bush seems to be 
more reasonable than the Congress, the media and the 
American public opinion." 
HALE