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Brooke F Adams  08/06/2006 02:06:50 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Brooke F Adams

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UNCLAS        CAIRO 04605

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CXCAIRO:
    ACTION: AID
    INFO:   PA OMC DAO POL ECON DCM

DISSEMINATION: AID
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: PA:HMAHONEY
DRAFTED: PA:RLERNER
CLEARED: ECPO:YLEMPERT

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PP RUEHC RUEHXK
DE RUEHEG #4605/01 2081210
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 271210Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0167
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 004605 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
NEA/PPD FOR ROBIN SMITH AND DAVID BENZE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR KPAO OPRC PGOV PTER AG AL EG IZ
SUBJECT: EGYPT MEDIA TRENDS FOR JULY 26, 2006 
 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified.  Not for internet distribution. 
 
¶1.  Summary:  As we have witnessed repeatedly since the 
outbreak of the 
current Israel-Lebanon crisis the Egyptian opposition and 
independent 
press demonstrated once again today, through words and 
photos, strong 
bias against Secretary Rice and her efforts thus far to 
achieve a 
cease-fire.  Commentators continued to criticize  Secretary 
Rice,s 
efforts regarding the crisis, although  a few voices 
published some 
criticism of Hezbollah.  The sarcastic tone in many 
commentaries 
reflected the public frustration toward the ongoing crisis 
and the Arab 
leaders, perceived inability to stop it.  End Summary 
 
¶2.  Breaking news:  Al-Manar,s exclusive interview with 
Hezbollah 
Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, during which he stated 
 
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that he is 
preparing an "after-Haifa" stage of attack "at the right time 
and 
place," were aired continuously on all pan-Arab, satellite 
and 
terrestrial Egyptian news outlets.  While Egyptian Television 
only 
aired parts of the interview without any analysis, Al-Jazeera 
and Al- 
Hurra analysts claimed that this statement was intended to 
offer 
psychological support to Hezbollah followers, and to indicate 
that 
Hezbollah remains stronger than most people know. 
 
¶3.  In the headlines:  Opposition daily, Al-Wafd showed a 
photo of 
Secretary Rice with Israeli Foreign Minister Livni, with the 
 
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headline 
from Rice to Livni, "The War Is Up To You, My Dear." 
Al-Masry Al-Yom, 
a well-respected independent daily, placed a photo of 
Secretary Rice 
 
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seated at a table in discussion, next to a photo of a 3-year 
old 
Lebanese girl, crying and holding a Lebanese flag.  The 
headline read: 
"From Rice:   It,s High Time For a Peaceful and Democratic 
Middle 
East.," Independent daily, Nahdet Misr, showed a photo of a 
woman 
injured and crying in a man,s arms next to a photo of severe 
destruction of residential buildings on the outskirts of 
Beirut, with 
one headline reading, "Rice Defiant:  I say to those who 
reject the new 
Middle East, we will be victorious." Sensationalist, 
independent daily, 
Al-Dostour, went after Arab leaders in its headlines, with a 
photo of 
Nasrallah on one side and Arab leaders on the other, using 
profanities 
against the Arab leaders.  In contrast, the large 
pro-government 
papers, such as Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar refrained from 
attacking the 
U.S. and focused on Mubarak,s statements for a ceasefire and 
documented 
Israeli attacks. 
 
¶4.  In the commentaries:  Columnists in Al-Wafd wrote that 
Rice,s 
sympathy toward the Lebanese people was "a great act," that 
embracing 
Siniora was "the kiss of death for the Arabs," and that when 
the Sheikh 
of Al-Azhar criticized Nasrallah, he showed himself to be "an 
obedient 
government servant." A senior columnist in Al-Masry-Al-Yom 
predicted 
that, as Saudi Arabia is resolved to be the "major player" in 
the 
"Israeli-American criminal war against Lebanon," the KSA,s 
oil funds 
"will be used to divide the Sunni and Shia, and turn the 
entire region 
into terrorist den" so that the "Zionist state would be the 
only 
enlightenment in the region."  The editor-in-chief of 
staunchly pro- 
government daily, Rose-al-Youssef, denied that Egyptians, as 
Sunni, 
only support Lebanese Sunni, and stressed that Egypt,s 
sympathy of all 
sides of Lebanon "is why it is against Hezbollah and Iranian 
intervention." Columnists in pro-government dailies, 
Al-Akhbar and Al- 
Gomhouriya, went on the attack against Secretary Rice. 
According to 
one senior columnist in Al-Akhbar, the "western concept that 
democratic 
countries do not go to war with each other is nave and the 
fact that 
"Israel, the castle of democracy in the Middle East" is at 
war with 
Lebanon and Palestine "while Iraq is drowning in violence and 
terrorism" shows how "little the Americans understand about 
this unique 
part of the world." 
RICCIARDONE