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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON LEBANON 
 
Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Diplomacy of assistance and assisting diplomacy" 
 
Columnist Oraib Rantawi writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/24):  "Every time there is a 
conflict or a struggle, the Arab countries rush to send conveys of 
assistance to the devastated folk and brethren in Palestine and 
Lebanon and, before that, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan.  The matter so 
far is desired and required....  But when the assistance becomes a 
replacement to politics with all its stances, measures and steps and 
when the assistance becomes the very beginning and end of politics, 
then that is the worst disaster.  The Arabs, who no longer have a 
designated role or distinguishable presence even when issues have to 
do with them, have replaced politics and 'historical stances' with 
conveys of assistance.  When their conveys call for help as they are 
subjected to American-Israeli bombing, the Arabs do nothing and 
settle for insisting on exercising the 'diplomacy of assistance' 
that has become their 'only strategic option' after the fall of 
their only peace option." 
 
-- "A responsible and honorable position" 
 
Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/24) 
editorializes:  "Jordan's stances that King Abdullah expresses are 
responsible and honorable and do not take to improvisations and 
explanations because they are not wordy stands, but rather are 
accompanied by action and movement.  These days, Jordan's stances 
vis-`-vis Lebanon are expressed clearly through beneficial 
consultations, effective movement and urgent assistance.  That is 
the different between those who talk and act and those who just 
talk." 
 
-- "Rice bears good tidings of prolonged killing and destruction" 
 
Columnist George Haddad writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/24):  "U.S. Secretary of 
State, Ms. Condi, told the people of this region, that is afflicted 
with aggression, occupation and all forms of random killing, savage 
destruction, oppression, displacement and extermination, the good 
tidings that all that is happening in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine is 
but the 'labor pains of the birth of the new Middle East'!  The 
strange thing - if there is anything left to be thought of as 
strange in the conduct of such 'civilized' barbarics - is that the 
'civilized' lady says this without a twitch of remorse.  Could any 
person of sane mind and body who has even the simplest of 
humanitarian and moral standards actually make the destruction of 
life a condition for the birth of life?!  Why would the killing of 
thousands of innocent people and civilians, the burning of children 
and the 'civilized' endeavor to exterminate every breath of 
non-Jewish life be just 'labor pains' for the birth of the new 
Middle East where only the Star of David would be shining in its 
sky...?  Rice and her 'civilized' boss, as well as the people in his 
administration, its gangs and mafias, are not only rejecting a 
ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners in Lebanon, but also their 
'civilized' humanitarianism is egging them to provide the state of 
usurpation and terrorism with a shipment of advanced weapons and 
laser bombs ... thinking that such savagery and barbarism is going 
to make Lebanon and the Lebanese surrender in fear." 
 
-- "We and Lebanon" 
 
Columnist Basem Sakijha writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (07/24):  "If what is going on 
in Lebanon constitutes the labor pain that will give birth to a new 
Middle East, then we must all expect the repetition of Lebanese 
massacres in our own countries.  If Palestine was first, Iraq was 
second, Lebanon was third and Syria will be the fourth, then we must 
expect that the massacres to reach each and every Middle East 
country.  It is clear that the American-Israeli project is founded 
on the idea of disarming all the countries of the region.  They 
start with what is called illegal armament and then move on to take 
the weapons of armies that might be a threat to Israel some day.  We 
are not talking about an illusion or political fantasy, and we are 
not adopting one of those traditional conspiracy theories.  What is 
happening on the ground confirms this.  The Lebanese experience must 
constitute a reality check for everyone.  The Israeli-American 
advancement cannot be thwarted except by rethinking the stances. 
The reality we see before us and experienced since the signing of 
the treaties says that Israel is moving on with its plans ... and 
that if we have any care or concern for the future for our children 
and our homelands, then now is the time to make a stand.  Let the 
expulsion of the [Israeli] ambassador be the first of the Jordanian 
steps, closing the [Israeli] embassy the second, and nullifying the 
Wadi Araba treaty the third.  After all, we do not want the Israeli 
to salute us with his right hand and kill us with his left." 
 
-- "On the state and its sovereignty: the case of Hizbollah" 
 
Columnist Fahd Khitan writes on the inside page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (07/24):  "Of the many 
criticisms directed against Hizbollah is that his latest operation 
against Israel caused the start of a war between Lebanon and Israel. 
 These critics argue that the decision of war and peace belongs only 
to the state and that no organization or party is entitled to rob 
the state of that right.  These critics also say that the solution 
in Lebanon lies in the prevalence of the state's sovereignty on all 
the land and the disarmament of Hizbollah.  According to 
international and legal logic, this perspective is very correct, but 
in the Arab and Lebanese situations it is not accurate at all.  The 
international powers and the United States in specific do not care 
about the state's stature and standing, but rather Israel's 
security....  The discrepancy in the theory of the state's 
sovereignty is the fact that it is adopted by Arab parties who are 
crying over Lebanon and its sovereignty today but who forget that 
the sovereignty in their own countries has been completely 
usurped....  The forces and the intelligence apparatus of the United 
States today control the decision-making process in most of the Arab 
countries.  Lebanon was actually under Syria's control and has been 
set free.  Ever since then, the United States and Israel have been 
trying to subject it to another hegemony, and the opportune point of 
entry for that is the pretext of Hizbollah's weapons and its 
influence in the South.  That is why it has to be broken so that 
that the Lebanese state can prevail and cast its control the 
American way and so that Lebanon becomes a northern 'backyard' for 
Israel....  The Arabs can accuse Hizbollah of many things, including 
its relationship with and role in favor of Iran and its connections 
with Syria, but as far as sovereignty and state prevalence are 
concerned, then they must beg our pardon." 
 
-- "The Arab option" 
 
Columnist Jamil Nimri writes on the back-page of independent, 
centrist Arabic daily Al-Ghad (07/24):  "Just as the U.S. 
administration saw in the Iraq war a point of entry for achieving 
'certain' arrangements for the Greater Middle East neatly organized 
as Bush and his administration imagined, the same is happening in 
Lebanon now according to what Rice said so confidently.  She does 
not want a ceasefire because it is a 'false promise' and a return to 
the old Middle East, when the purpose of this war is to create the 
new Middle East! How will that be achieved on the ground?  This is 
the problem that America and Israel are facing now, just as they had 
always starting with the Palestinian situation; namely the lack of 
even the smallest level of objective, wise and just vision.  The 
Arabs must be careful and must not look at Hizbollah as just an 
Iranian tool.  There is an Arab option that must rebel against the 
American foolishness and the Israeli arrogance.  This is possible 
because the American-Israeli project is not realistic and is going 
to lead to neither stability nor peace.  There is not a single 
moderate Arab that will tow this American-Israeli line." 
HALE