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TAGS: KMDR JO
 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON GAZA INCURSION 
 
Editorial Commentary 
 
-- ""How I envy you, Shalit" 
 
Columnist Jawad Bashiti writes on the op-ed page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (06/28):  "This time, 
Palestinian 'terrorists' undertook a military action that made it 
difficult even for Israel and the United States describe it as a 
terrorist action.  This heroic Palestinian military action ... 
represents 100% legitimate Palestinian military resistance, and even 
those who look for 'terrorism' under the microscope will not dare 
list it as terrorism.  In other words, the operation was 
categorically and decisively above all suspicions....  Israel and 
the United States in particular are at a loss.  Both have shown 
inability to find a name or description for this action.... 
Nevertheless, it was decided that this action will be treated as a 
'crime', albeit not terrorist, committed by Palestinian terrorists 
against Israel and its army. As for the famous soldier, Gelad 
Shalit, he is being described as 'kidnapped' and not as a 
'prisoner'.  Israeli soldiers who fall into the hands of Palestinian 
fighters during battle are 'kidnapped' and not 'prisoners', and 
Palestinians who are in Israeli prisons are 'terrorists' and not 
'prisoners of war'!  Disaster is at hand.  Everything in terms of 
crimes against Palestinian children on the beaches and the streets 
that Israel committed before this is now forgotten....  Shalit is 
not the only prisoner.  His captivators are also prisoners.  The 
immediate and unconditional release of Shalit is something that the 
Palestinians must avoid.  We do support his release in return for 
the release of some of the Palestinian prisoners, and if the Olmert 
government rejects such a trade-off, then let the agreement be that 
Shalit is released in return for a comprehensive and mutual halt of 
military actions." 
 
-- "One Israeli is equal to ten thousands Palestinians!" 
 
Columnist Oraib Rantawi writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (06/28):  "Israel keeps ten 
thousand Palestinian prisoners in its prisons, including women and 
children under 18 ... some being held without trial and many others 
held during mass arrests.  And yet, now one moves or says anything. 
One soldier captured in a one hundred percent clean-cut military 
operation sends the entire world up in arms and brings condemnations 
and denunciations crashing down upon the heads of Palestinians.... 
Since the capture of the Israeli soldier, Israel has launched the 
ugliest form of attacks and arrest in the various Palestinian areas, 
sending tens of Palestinian citizens and activists to prison.  Not 
one paid any attention to these 'numbers'.  After all, the 
Palestinian is just a number or a member of the pack.  It does not 
matter if he is killed, arrested and rendered homeless.  It does not 
matter if his land is taken, if his home is destroyed or if his 
fields are burned.  The Palestinian, from the viewpoint of the lords 
of Tel Aviv and its masters, is only a target for bullets and 
rockets and bombs....  Israel lies, and so do we, if we talk about 
the link between the imminent aggression on Gaza and the continued 
capture of the Israeli soldier.  This is because the aggression has 
already been decided and set....  Israel lies when it claims that 
everything it is doing is in defense of its people.  Israel's war 
against the Palestinians never stopped, not for one second.  It was 
ongoing before Hamas victory and after, before the formation of the 
government and after, with Palestinian operation and without, with 
Hamas' moderation and without.  This war is designed to wipe out the 
'theory of the Palestinian partner' and it is aimed at nurturing the 
Israeli unilateral plan and making it the sole option on the 
negotiating tables of the region and the world.  Most of all, it is 
an extension of the 'mentality of massacres' in the Zionist 
political and security thought." 
 
-- "Resistance, not terrorism" 
 
Columnist Basem Sakijha writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (06/28):  "One Israeli soldier 
is kidnapped and the world goes up in arms.  On the other hand, an 
entire country is abducted, its people are killed and imprisoned and 
starved, and no one says a word.  The French Israeli [soldier] was 
not kidnapped from Tel Aviv or any part of the so-called Israel, but 
from the Gaza Strip, which is acknowledged by one and all as an 
occupied territory.  He is a soldier who was in his military 
barracks, not at a restaurant or home.  Yet, the image portrayed by 
the western media and unfortunately some Arab media is that this is 
a terrorist action and a departure from the agreements, despite the 
fact that all charters acknowledge the right those under occupation 
to resist the occupation.  Turning facts upside down is prevalent in 
this world when it comes to Israel....  It is as if the requirement 
is to keep silent about all the injustice." 
RUBINSTEIN