VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #5352/01 1981150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171150Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2329
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0371
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE 1295
RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUMICEA/USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA// IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS AMMAN 005352 
 
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 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO
 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT 
 
Editorial Commentary 
 
"Reconsidering priorities and alliances in the face of the 
explosion" 
 
Columnist Fahd Khitan writes on the inside page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (07/17):  "As far as the 
Jordanian officials are concerned, an explosion in the region was 
expected, but the surprise is the confrontation started in Lebanon 
between Hizbollah and Israel and not between Washington and Iran.... 
 The aggression against Lebanon has become comprehensive and 
destructive with Israeli bombs falling on Syria's borders.  Syria 
threatens to retaliate without limits and Israel is ready for all 
solutions and is not planning to pass on the opportunity to settle 
all the issues.  After all, Hizbollah cannot be fought in the south 
while Hamas is left a thorn in its side.  The moment to impose 
Olmert's plan without any care or concern for the interests of 
neighbors or treaties might be at hand.  What does that mean for 
Jordan?  It means that priorities need to be revisited.  The ongoing 
explosion in the region cannot be faced with proposals, projects and 
predisposed ideas.  Trusting too much Washington's stand and the 
intimate treaty with Olmert are not going to do us any good on the 
day of the raid.  Parties like Israel and America think only of 
their interests in cold blood and do not any care for the fate of 
others.  There must now be a movement to create an Arab front that 
would be completely independent from the American-Israeli alliance 
in order to protect Jordan from the Israeli monster and to protect 
Syria from aggression and Lebanon and Iraq from division." 
 
-- "Not Iranian" 
 
Columnist Nahed Hattar writes on the back-page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (07/17):  "Linking between 
Hizbollah's conflict with Israel on the one hand and easing 
pressures on Iran over the nuclear issue on the other might, in 
theory, be logical, but this logic soon dissipates once we think 
about whether Tehran wants to hurry up the American war against it. 
The answer to that is no.  The Iranian ruling regime seeks to strike 
a deal with the United States and believes that it has some strong 
ace cards to play, including Hizbollah.  Yet, Hizbollah becomes 
neither an ace card nor a tool if it starts the attack itself.... 
Hizbollah's initiative to attack actually stems from a non-Iran 
related motive, rather from the necessity dictated by the interests 
of the Arab Shi'aism which was detrimentally harmed as a result of 
Iran's pragmatic connections since 2001, the conspiratorial 
understanding between the Iranian regime and the United States in 
Afghanistan, and most of all, in Iraq, where Iran's expansion policy 
in cahoots with the Americans turned the Iraqi Shi'a from people 
qualified to lead the country into a 'base' for the American 
project.  This greatly harmed the reputation, the capacity and the 
role of Arab Shi'aism at the Arab level, and led to the rise of the 
phenomenon of Sunni-Shi'a division that is almost turning into a 
civil war in Iraq.  The biggest loser from the Iranian policy in 
Iraq was Hizbollah....  The inertness, even political vacuum, at the 
Arab level, the possibility of reconciliation between Iran and 
America, the sectarian crisis suffered by the Iraqi resistance ... 
followed by the heavy Israeli strike against the Hamas government in 
the context of the Israeli project to liquidate the Palestinian 
cause; all of that was bothering Hizbollah and warning it of the 
possibility of strategic exposure and the decay of its position and 
role in Lebanon." 
 
-- "Priority is for supporting the Lebanese government and 
protecting the Lebanese people" 
 
Columnist Batir Wardam writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/17):  "The regional formula 
is quite clear.  Lebanon is the only one that is going to pay the 
price.  The Iranian President allies with the American imperialism 
in Iraq and opposes in theory in Lebanon, and declares that he is 
ready to defend Syria if it is attacked by Israel ... but he does 
not defend Lebanon, and none of those who got Lebanon into this 
crisis and cheer it on are going to defend the Lebanese people.  The 
Arab stand must be stronger and more severe and must be directed at 
supporting the Lebanese government.  Otherwise, all the keys to the 
game will end up in the hands of Hizbollah and the aggressive Israel 
and anyone else planning an escalation in the region.  The Arabs 
must work hard against the Israeli aggression and the American 
foolishness in order to protect the Lebanese people from turning 
into fuel for a new war in the Middle East." 
-- "The war has what is beyond" 
 
Columnist Abu Yazan writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/17):  "We are before a war 
that is happening in Lebanon but its parties, accounts and fallout 
will affect the entire region, and will have what is beyond it in 
terms of results and affects on the balance of power in each 
country, specifically between the regimes and the Islamic movements, 
Sunni and Shi'a....  We are willing risk saying that the dust of 
this battle, once it settles, will uncover an effective presence for 
the Arab Islamic trend, Sunni and Shi'a.  The Arab official regimes 
were never good at, and in fact have failed miserably in waging the 
'peace battle'....  As for Arab citizens, mesmerized in front of TV 
screens watching the scenes of the great crime unfold in Lebanon, 
Palestine and Iraq, they are no longer impressed by anything and 
their longing and thirst for pride, dignity and vengeance is no 
longer quenched except by the images of Hassan Nasrallah and the 
Palestinian and Iraqi resistance.  Whoever listens to the bitter 
sarcasm by which Arab citizens comment about current events would 
realize all too well the widening gap between the citizen and the 
ruler....  I wonder now whether the question "why do they hate us" 
will be asked by the Arab leaders, as the Americans have done 
following the 9/11 attacks?" 
 
-- "Inside the box" 
 
Centrist, elite English daily Jordan Times (07/17) editorializes: 
"Not only the Lebanese and Arabs but any educated, broad-minded 
person equipped with the necessary tools that do not allow him to 
succumb to the mighty propaganda machine have, over the past few 
days, all the reasons to be furious at the coverage by major US 
networks of the tragedy unfolding in Lebanon....  Taking the notion 
of bias to new extremes, some newscasters have gone to the extent of 
censoring Israeli officials' declarations, omitting from their 
reports those passages that betrayed the brutality and disproportion 
of Israel's military retaliation.  Utmost effort is being exerted to 
present Israel's attacks as specifically targeted against Hizbollah, 
even when bridges and airports are bombed....  All means, subtle or 
overt, are exploited to relay the magnitude of Hizbollah attacks and 
Israeli suffering, but Lebanese suffering and Israeli attacks are 
not treated in the same way.  On one American news channel, the 
correspondent from Israel sported a thick bulletproof vest, while 
his colleague from Beirut was wearing only his shirt.  It is 
immediately known when there are women and children amongst the 
Israeli dead. But the Lebanese dead are just numbers....  Yeah, 
American media are free. Free to parrot Israeli propaganda." 
 
"How do the Arabs deal with Hizbollah's 'adventure'" 
 
Columnist Fahd Khitan writes on the inside page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (07/16):  "Hints of a 
comprehensive confrontation are looming in the region.  People see 
in it a way out of the state of humiliation that has afflicted the 
Arab body, despite the pains and horrors that wars entail.  The 
official Arab leaderships are almost outside the picture.  There is 
talk, maybe truthful, about an Iranian interest in what is going on. 
 But where is the counter Arab interest in all of this?  In the 
current status quo and in light of the official Arab stand, Israel 
is the only beneficiary.  What I want to say is that rallying public 
opinion around a stance that is skeptical and doubtful of 
Hizbollah's motives and objectives of starting a confrontation does 
the Arabs no good, unless the Arab leaderships provide a convincing 
alternative for the people in the face of the American and Israeli 
arrogance.  The game of just and comprehensive peace ended up, as 
far as Israel is concerned, into a 'a Palestinian capsule' known as 
the state, as political thinker Adnan Abu Odeh had said, and freedom 
in Iraq after the elimination of the 'tyrant', as the Americans 
state, is an operation that is nearing a tragic conclusion for the 
Iraqis and the Arabs.  In this scene, how can others be stopped from 
looking for a way out?  True, what Hizbollah is doing is an 
adventure, and Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that.  The next weeks 
may see difficult days.  All the players are egging for a 
confrontation that would be similar to the World Cup Soccer final. 
But can the Arabs do anything other than condemn Hizbollah and then 
Iran?  If their action is limited to that condemnation, then Israel 
will be very happy with them indeed." 
 
-- "The absence of an Arab solution is disastrous" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Odwan writes on the back-page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (07/16):  "We have reached 
the stage of sorting stances and alliances, because Hizbollah's 
military initiative and the comprehensive war it started with Israel 
has put the Arab regimes before two options: either support 
Hizbollah and practically stand in the Iranian camp, or stand by 
Israel and of course America.  It is something that Saudi Arabia, 
Egypt and Jordan tried not to be dragged into, as they chose to 
adopt a completely different stand, or a third option, namely 
condemning the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, calling on the 
international community to intervene, and at the same time blaming 
Hizbollah for the 'adventure', describing it as part of a regional 
scenario that does not serve Lebanese and Arab interests.  Such an 
Arab political stand, which is completely different to previous ones 
vis-`-vis Israeli aggressions, is not enough, because it is a weak 
political stand when faced with the heat of battles and the sorting 
of alliances....  Such an Arab stand that refuses to choose between 
the camp of Tel Aviv and Washington on one hand and the camp of 
Hizbollah-Damascus-Tehran on the other will ultimately serve the 
American-Israeli camp....  What is required is an Arab solution that 
convinces the Arab people first and foremost that their countries 
are capable of protecting them from American-Israeli-Iranian 
aggressions....  What is happening in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq is 
the result of the vacuum in the region that was created by the Arab 
absence when all the eggs were placed in the American basket." 
HALE