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 001935 
 
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 
SIPDIC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON JERICHO PRISON RAID 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The Jericho option" 
 
Daily columnist Jawad Bashiti writes on the op-ed page 
of independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al- 
Yawm (03/16):  "Israel in the era of Sharon and Olmert 
decided to close the door of negotiations once and for 
all.  Its strategic interests dictated that it 
unilaterally resolve all its problems that stem from 
its long struggle with the Palestinians.  All the 
Palestinians must now wipe away from their brains the 
illusion that the solution they wanted and that enjoys 
international legitimacy is still possible through 
political negotiations.  After all, they are being 
invited by Israel and the international community and 
even the Arabs, not to fulfill the conditions for 
restarting the negotiations, but to fulfill the 
conditions whose only result would to put a stop to 
the resistance themselves..  Fatah and Hamas and the 
rest of the Palestinian factions can then agree on 
rebuilding the Palestinian Liberation Organization 
(PLO) in all aspects and as the sole legitimate 
representative of the Palestinian people.  After that, 
the PLO can dissolve the Palestinian Authority, cancel 
all agreements that were signed with Israel, and 
backtrack from its recognition of Israel's right to 
live in security and peace, because this recognition 
is meaningless and worthless if it is not accompanied 
by Israel's recognition of the Palestinian people and 
their internationally acknowledged national rights. 
The two recognitions either live together or die 
together.  Do the Palestinians have anything to lose 
if they do that?  No, all they have to lose are their 
illusions.  Let Israel have its unilateral ways and 
let the Palestinians have theirs." 
 
-- "Thuggery and thievery" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Odwan writes on the back-page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/16):  "The government of Israel is a government of 
thugs, brutes and thieves.  Ehud Olmert wants to prove 
to voters that he is the good student of Sharon.  If 
the unconscious former prime minister destroyed the 
country in Ramallah and poisoned Arafat and, as a 
result, won the love and support of the Israelis, then 
would he not do the same thing.  That is why he sent 
his forces to destroy the government complex in 
Jericho and arrest Ahmed Saadat.  It is an evident 
Machiavellian electioneering game, where the end 
justifies the means, and the end here is campaign to 
win the imminent elections, but it is a game devoid of 
morality and political characteristics..  Moreover, 
the Olmert government is a government of thieves. 
While his troops were raiding the Jericho prison, he 
was in Ariel settlement celebrating linking the 
settlement with Israel and declaring the settlement of 
part of Israel.  This is a clear lie, because the 
settlement is part of the occupied Palestinian 
territories and its land belongs to the Palestinians. 
This is another form of a state founded on thievery 
and stealing other peoples' lands and claiming them as 
part of Israel eternal land.  Highway robbers and 
thieves.  The Palestinians and the Arabs, along with 
the world public opinion, tried ever since the Madrid 
conference to believe that the rulers of Israel want 
peace, that they are not after other people's land, 
that Israel is country that respects the laws and the 
agreements, and that they want only to leave side by 
side with the Arabs in the region!  For 15 years, 
everyone tried to believe that the rulers of Israel 
want peace and that they are tired of the struggle, 
but all they got in return for the good intentions and 
the extended hands was more aggression, killing and 
land usurpation..  From the Jericho prison through the 
Ariel settlement to the separation wall, there was a 
fact that slapped the face of every Arab and 
Palestinian..  The fact is that the occupation still 
stands on every inch of Palestine, and that all that 
is being said and done on the basis of the presence of 
peace is but an illusion, and the first illusion is to 
believe that there is a Palestinian Authority and a 
Hamas government and a legislative council!  I tell 
Hamas and Fateh: put away your papers and go resist 
and restore your lands and your right in the same 
manner and in that same legitimate manner which all 
peoples had used in the face of occupiers." 
 
-- "Thwarting the settlement and embarrassing the 
Authority and the Arabs" 
 
Daily columnist Rakan Majali writes on the back-page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/16):  "When Israel raids one of the Authority's 
prisons, one must wonder about any authority that is 
left for the Palestinian Authority, particularly when 
the arrest of Saadat in Jericho prison was done in 
accordance with an agreement guaranteed by Britain and 
America.  The incident was nothing more than a 
terrorist operation in the context of the war of 
extermination and destruction being waged against the 
Palestinian people.  It has become clear that Israel 
meant to thwart the settlement process once and for 
all..  The strange thing is that America and Britain 
declared their implicit and explicit approval of this 
provocative and terrorist crime.  This declaration is 
not astonishing because it falls in the heart of the 
pre-emptive war and the hostile military campaign that 
started with the occupation of Iraq, and it is part of 
the political and economic pressures and striking Arab 
communities from within in the name exporting 
democracy and human rights, for which the Jericho 
prison raid provides the practical model of the 
American and western understanding of human rights! 
Clearly, America is dealing with the region in the 
same language of force and it is encouraging Israel to 
use that same language and to use organized 
terrorism..  Israel did not mean to embarrass the 
Palestinian National Authority only, but also the Arab 
regimes, especially those that have made peace with 
Israel.  It has aborted any Arab wager on reaching a 
just and comprehensive solution and on achieving 
stability and security in the region." 
 
-- "Carte Blanche to spurn law" 
 
Centrist, influential among the elite English daily 
Jordan Times (03/16) editorializes:  "Israel has been 
harassing the Palestinian Authority for years to 
arrest and prosecute people engaged in armed 
resistance against the illegal Israeli occupation.  It 
is astonishing gall that when the PA does arrest 
people and keep them incarcerated, Israel takes the 
first best chance, violently and at the cost of three 
lives, to break in and remove these people to Israeli 
jails.  It was, in addition, an enormous blow to the 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who has been 
trying to convince Palestinians in general, and the 
incoming Hamas-led government in particular, that a 
negotiated process with Israel is the only way 
forward..  Those incarcerated are accused of 
assassinating an Israeli political leader. 
Notwithstanding the extremely unpalatable nature of 
the leader in question, assassinations of political 
leaders are unacceptable.  But Israel has never held 
back from murdering Palestinian political leaders. 
That it does not hold itself up to the standards it 
holds Palestinians to is not surprising.  That the 
international community does not is inexcusable.  The 
role of the international community, particularly 
Britain and the United States, must be called into 
question here..  Why does Washington insist on 
protecting Israel?  Has it not dawned on policy makers 
in the Untied States that protecting Israel willy- 
nilly is tantamount to giving Israel carte blanche to 
ignore, reject and belittle international law, as it 
has done for nearly four decades by maintaining its 
illegal, belligerent military occupation at the cost 
of thousands of lives?  And does it not occur to 
Washington that for as long as Israel feels safe that 
big brother is watching out for it, no amount of 
verbal warnings or admonitions will have any effect?" 
HALE