This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 000746 
 
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 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead stories in all papers published today, 
February 1, continue to focus on the aftermath of 
Hamas' victory in the Palestinian legislative 
elections.  Majority of writers today seem to focus on 
the impact of this victory on Jordan as they explore 
and analyze the relationship between the Muslim 
Brotherhood in Jordan and Hamas on both sides of the 
River. 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Is Hamas' win a dilemma or an opportunity?" 
 
Former Jordanian Ambassador to the UN Hassan Abu 
Ni'mah writes on the op-ed page of centrist, 
independent Arabic daily Al-Ghad (02/01):  "Not much 
is left to say about Hamas' landslide victory in the 
Palestinian elections.  The Palestinian voter punished 
the Authority for its corruption and incompetence and 
punished Fatah for its hegemonic ruling over 
Palestinian politics for four decades.  This said, it 
should not nullify the other factors, most important 
of which is the fact that the Authority's incompetence 
and the spread of corruption stems in the first place 
from the failure of the so-called peace process. 
Responsibility for this lies on the shoulders of more 
than one party.  The United States is involved as it 
encouraged Israel to impede all peace efforts and 
transferred peace projects into tranquilizing and time- 
gaining tools so that Israel can implement settlement 
and expansion plans and fix the new facts on the 
ground before allowing any serious negotiations to 
even begin..  Responsibility for the desperation that 
prevailed among the Palestinian people is also shared 
by the European Union that agreed to be a member of 
the 'Quartet' and to finance the Palestinian National 
Authority not to build Palestinian institutions and 
infrastructure, but to enable the Authority to become 
a security and administrative agent for the occupation 
and for the occupier in order to ease the latter's 
burden as it continued to entrench its illegitimate 
gains on the ground..  Also sharing the responsibility 
is the United Nations and its Secretary General who 
succumbed and agreed to turn an organization that 
represents more than 190 world countries into a mere 
member in the Quartet committee who task is to inject 
the region with tranquilizers and present illusionary 
peace projects only to make believe that there is a 
peace process..  We heard the cries of pain everywhere 
following Hamas' win, because it is 'a terrorist 
organization' that wants to destroy the state of 
Israel.  We also heard threats of cutting assistance 
from the Palestinians if Hamas takes part in the 
government.  If Hamas were a terrorist organization 
and as such received all this legitimate democratic 
and electoral support from the Palestinians, then the 
Palestinian people are terrorists too and may have 
become so because the occupation that goes back to 
1967 turns people into terrorists!  Why have we not 
heard a single word about the occupation and the need 
for it to end in line with relevant international 
resolutions?  Why have we not heard a single word 
about the violation of Palestinian rights, the 
confiscation of their lands, the despicable wall, the 
settlements, the arrests, the check points, the siege 
and the daily attacks?  We understand fully that 
Hamas, as a resistance organization, is not and should 
not be Hamas, the elected government.  We understand 
that Hamas' participation in the elections means its 
implicit acceptance of the general framework for 
establishing authority, and we also understand that 
Hamas must accept and declare its commitment to peace 
in line with international resolutions and the Arab 
initiative.  What we do not understand is this 
language of threats, conditions and boycott that 
prevailed even before the official results were 
announced, before a government is formed, and before 
that government announces its policies..  Hamas' 
election is a Palestinian decision that we ought to 
respect and deal with in the spirit of democracy that 
is continuously called for.  Let this development be 
an opportunity to set straight the peace path, not to 
continue on the same path that has led the region 
towards conflict and violence and absolute failure. 
Cooperation from everyone inside and outside Palestine 
is required at this point for the sake of Palestinian 
interests." 
 
-- "Hamas is qualified for the position of authority" 
 
Columnist Ibrahim Gharaibeh writes on the op-ed page 
of Al-Ghad (02/01):  "Of course Hamas is not expected 
to achieve miracles.  It will not liberate Palestine 
even to the 1967 borders.  It will not regain 
Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem.  It will not 
bring back home the Palestinian refugees.  But it will 
be able to achieve a certain level of security and 
political stability and resume the public, economic 
and educational life.  Moreover the Palestinians are 
depending a great deal on Hamas in fighting 
corruption, and it may succeed in freeing some or many 
of the prisoners.  Of course, it will stand up to 
every military action against Israel and it will 
arrest anyone who does or tries to do a military 
action against Israel, and it does have popular and 
historical legitimacy that qualifies it to make bold 
decisions.  Hamas' rule is not going to be a shift or 
a turn in the Palestinian, Arab and international 
scene, but it is going to be a shift in old policies 
and alliances and a signaling of a new political stage 
where Islamic movements rule with western, and 
Israeli, coordination and where major western 
interests and strategies do not change, which is all 
right as long as there is a certain degree of freedom, 
justice, anti-corruption and a reformulation of 
centers of influence." 
 
-- "The first official contact between the government 
and the Movement" 
 
Columnist and political analyst Fahd Kheetan writes on 
the inside page of independent, opposition Arabic 
daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (02/01):  "The government waited 
a few days before it congratulated the Hamas movement 
on its victory in the elections.  A good step that 
undoubtedly casts aside all skepticism about the 
Jordanian stand..  Obviously, the Jordanian government 
chose [to contact] Hamas in the Palestinian 
territories for two reasons.  The first is the tense 
relations it has with the movement's leaders outside 
the territories, mainly with Khaled Mish'al, and the 
second is that the people concerned with arrangement 
in the upcoming stage are the Hamas leaders in Gaza 
and the West Bank.  The most significant development 
in Jordan's position vis--vis developments in the 
Palestinian arena is represented by what King Abdullah 
said during his meeting yesterday with the Palestinian 
President.  The King explicitly declared his support 
for the choice of the free Palestinian people and 
indicated Jordan's readiness to continue coordination 
with the Palestinian side, in addition to adopting a 
supportive stand of the Palestinian people in the face 
of international threats to cut off assistance 
following Hamas' win as the King said that the price 
of such a measure would only be paid by the 
Palestinian people.  It was known right from the 
beginning that Jordan cannot ignore Hamas after its 
victory in the elections.  While Hamas is required to 
be realistic and to surpass the stage of slogans and 
mottos now that it is in a ruling position, Jordan is 
also required to overcome the past and flip a new page 
with Hamas.  Jordan's role in the upcoming stage will 
focus on helping Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas 
convince Hamas of the need to deal with the facts on 
the ground and to resume the peace process that has 
been unilaterally frozen by Israel.  In other words, 
Jordan is going to try to cooperate with Abu Mazen to 
train the Hamas movement on slowly entering the maze 
of the peace process..  Jordan fears that the peace 
process would be frozen once extremists from both 
sides take over..  Jordan will then be in a difficult 
regional position.  That is why observers says that 
guaranteeing Jordan's security interests is going to 
be the lead topic of King Abdullah's discussions with 
U.S. administration officials next week." 
 
-- "The Islamic Action Front and Hamas" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back-page of Al- 
Arab Al-Yawm (02/01):  "It is a mistake to move the 
issue of Hamas' victory from Palestine to Jordan and 
turn it into an internal issue with the Muslim 
Brotherhood and the Islamic Action Front.  What 
happened across the River had its conditions and 
circumstances that are completely different from the 
political climate in Jordan..  Reading into Hamas' 
victory must not go beyond its natural borders of the 
Palestinian context and the people's struggle for 
liberation.  Hamas is not and will not be the 'Islamic 
revolution in Iran' to be exported to the outside.. 
Of course, there are connections and mutual impacts 
between the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and the 
Brotherhood in Palestine, including the Hamas 
movement.  But the formula of this relationship has 
always revolved around Hamas' need for the support of 
the Brotherhood in Jordan as being a resistance 
movement against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, 
a pivotal and central cause for all the Arabs.  I do 
not believe that Hamas' win is going to change this 
formula..  On the other hand, any wrong reading on the 
part of any party in Jordan of Hamas' victory . is 
going to stir fears and worry amidst many nationalist 
parties, something that might encourage the enemies of 
democracy and reform to take advantage of these fears 
in order to postpone reform and impede the progress 
towards democracy.  It is the right of the Islamic 
Action Front to work towards attaining governmental 
positions.  After all, it does have its national 
program, and, moreover, that is the point of democracy 
and the objective of reform." 
RUBINSTEIN