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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