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UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003602 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PA, NEA/ARN, INR/IC/CD, INR/S:STHIBEAULT AND 
JMCCARTER, VOA NEWS CA, NEA/PPD:CBOURGEOIS, DBENZE AND 
AFERNANDEZ, IIP/G/NEA-SA RWINCHESTER 
WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC 
CENTCOM FOR CCPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR PREL KPAO OPRC SY
SUBJECT: Damascus Media Reaction: Israeli Operation in Lebanon 
(7/21-23) 
 
 
¶1.  Summary: Syrian newspapers continued to report on the 
Israeli operation in Lebanon. All papers reported that Bashar al- 
Ja'afari, Syria's Permanent Representative to the United 
Nations, called on the UN Security Council "to shoulder 
responsibility in putting an immediate end to the Israeli 
aggression against the Lebanese and Palestinian people." 
Speaking before a UN Security Council session on the Middle 
East, Mr. Ja'afari said "Syria, which has always stressed 
readiness to establish a comprehensive and just peace as well as 
stability and security in the region, urges the Council to 
exercise pressure on Israel to cease fire immediately."  He 
added that "Syria also calls on the Council to shoulder 
responsibility in getting Israel to stop this aggression and 
compensate for the casualties and damages inflicted by its 
aggression." The Syrian diplomat stressed that instability in 
the region is "due to Israel's continuing occupation of Arab 
lands and the immunity it takes from some influential world 
powers, as if Israel is above the law at the expense of our 
legitimate rights in Palestine, Lebanon and the occupied Syrian 
Golan."  Mr. Ja'afari criticized the superpowers' double- 
standard policy in dealing with the Middle East and their bias 
towards Israel. He also accused the superpowers of minimizing 
the Arab-Israeli conflict and ignoring the fact that the problem 
lies in the occupation and settlement in the occupied Arab 
territories since 1967 and displacing people from their homes. 
He stressed that "Israel's brutal aggression on Lebanon doesn't 
only aim at destroying Lebanon or world peace and security, but 
also at undermining the credibility of the UN." He added that 
Israel has so far ignored more than a thousand UN resolutions 
calling on Israel to abide by international resolutions. 
 
Syrian papers reported that Egypt and France have demanded a 
quick cease-fire in Lebanon, stressing the necessity for the 
intensification of diplomatic efforts on regional and 
international levels. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu-Ghait 
said in a joint press conference with his French counterpart, 
Philippe Douste-Blazy, that no one could imagine allowing the 
destruction of the infra-structure of Lebanon to continue. 
The Syrian press also quoted the Lebanese Daily As-Safir, which 
reported that the Lebanese intelligence services have arrested a 
spying network that has been working for Israel for years. "The 
confession of suspects could lead to the exposure of a number of 
sleeper spy cells working for Israel on Lebanese soil." As-Safir 
quoted a well-informed source as saying that activities of this 
spy network exceeded what the already uncovered Mahmoud Rafa 
network did. "Members of the network, using developed 
technologies and communication apparatuses, facilitated selection 
of certain goals in Beirut's southern suburb with signs guiding 
Israeli aircraft to those targets," the papers indicated. "One of 
the prominent figures in the network confessed that Israel had 
put itself on alert four days before the arrest of the two 
Israeli soldiers and provided its sleeper spies with cell phones 
with directives and technologies to target centers and 
headquarters of Hizbollah in all Lebanese territories, 
particularly in Beirut's southern suburb." 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"Syria calls on UNSC for an immediate halt of Israeli aggression: 
Instability in the region is caused by the continuing Israeli 
occupation and the immunity granted to Israel" (Government-owned 
Al-Thawra, 7/23) 
 
"President Asad reviews Russian efforts to halt the Israeli 
aggression against Lebanon with Sultanov" (Government-owned Al- 
Thawra, 7/21) 
 
"Israeli aggression targets eyewitnesses. Israeli warplanes shell 
the satellite antennas of Lebanese TV channels and mobile phone 
networks to cover up its massacre. The Israeli army occupies the 
UNIFIL positions. The national resistance repels Israeli land 
infiltrations and shells Israeli settlements" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 7/23) 
 
"An Israeli espionage network arrested in Lebanon" (Government- 
 
owned Tishreen, 7/23) 
 
"America confirms its direct partnership in the aggression 
against Lebanon by accelerating an urgent shipment of laser- 
controlled bombs to Israel" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 7/23) 
"Demonstrations in Tel Aviv protesting the bloody Israeli 
campaign against Lebanon" (Government-owned Tisrheen, 7/23) 
 
"The Higher Popular Committee for Supporting the Steadfastness of 
the Lebanese People discusses mechanisms of branch committees in 
the governorates throughout Syria for providing services to the 
Lebanese brothers in Syria. A second Syrian humanitarian aid 
convoy heads to Lebanon" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/23) 
"Israel attacks all its targets in Lebanon, threatens general 
mobilization and escalates its aggression. Timid and non-serious 
international efforts encourage the aggressors. The resistance 
responds inflicting casualties on Israeli settlers" (Government- 
owned Tishreen, 7/22) 
"SecGen of Hizbollah Nasrallah is discontent with those who stand 
by the executioner against the victim: Our steadfastness is part 
of victory.... Every Israeli failure is a success for the 
resistance. We absorbed the first shock; now we are taking the 
initiative and preparing for more surprises" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 7/22) 
"US Secretary of State Rice thanks Israel, rejects a cease-fire 
before ending Hizbollah and speaks about the birth of a new 
Middle East" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/22) 
"The heroism of the Resistance continues for the ninth day. 
Inability and confusion characterize statements by Israeli 
leaders and generals. Nasrallah confirms: The hand-over of the 
two Israeli soldiers will only be through indirect negotiations 
and a prisoner swap. Resistance fighters kill and wound 23 enemy 
soldiers, destroy three tanks and damage a helicopter" 
(Government-owned Al-Thawra, 7/21) 
 
¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
--------------- 
 
"Blood and Oil" 
 
--------------- 
 
Dr. Abdul-Karim Abdul-Samad, an op-ed writer in government-owned 
Tishreen, said (7/22): "Since the beginning of the Israeli 
aggression Syria has made humanitarian efforts, on the popular 
and official levels, to ease the suffering of the Lebanese 
people through border entry facilities, shipment of food and 
medicine to Lebanon, and a national blood donation campaign for 
wounded Lebanese.... 
 
"What brings the Syrian and Lebanese people together is bigger 
than all American and Israeli conspiracies.... The relations 
between the two peoples grow stronger at times of hardship.... 
When brothers share their blood and food in the battle for the 
defense of the homeland, and when their efforts and sweat are 
mixed in the construction process, no force on earth can drive 
them apart.... 
 
"While Syria is providing blood and humanitarian relief 
materials to the Lebanese, the US is supplying Israel with 
special fuel for the warplanes that are bombing Lebanon.... 
Syrians, who are donating their blood, wonder about the source 
of this American fuel. They hope the source is not Arab, so that 
the picture will not be gloomier and so that the Arab public, 
which has not yet had its say, will not say: Syria is offering 
the blood of its sons in support of Lebanon while they other 
Arabs are offering their oil to support the aggression...." 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
"US Field and Israeli Threshing Ground" 
 
-------------------------------------- 
 
 
Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, 
commented (7/22): "The attempt to implement Security Council 
Resolution 1559 by force is not the only objective of the 
Israeli war on Lebanon.... 
 
"In addition to this tactical objective, there are strategic 
objectives: The massive military strikes on Lebanon are part of 
similar strikes against the Palestinians and the Iraqis. All 
these strikes, or hostile wars, seek to rearrange the region in 
accordance with Zionist and American plans, which cannot see 
light except in the shadow of what they call creative 
instability and amid destruction and sectarian wars that the 
occupiers in Iraq feed and the Israelis are trying to ignite in 
Lebanon and the region in general.... 
 
"In light of this, we are not surprised that the rejection of a 
cease-fire comes from Washington, not from Tel Aviv. For this is 
an American war using Israeli tools. The resistance will foil 
the American-Israeli plans...." 
 
------------------ 
 
"Larsen's Mission" 
 
------------------ 
 
Samir al-Shibani, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, 
wrote (7/22: "News reports have circulated that an international 
conference will be held to find new mechanisms to implement 
Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for disarming 
Hizbollah.... 
 
"Many Lebanese agree that the resolution cannot be implemented, 
because it torpedoes national unity and coexistence in fraternal 
Lebanon and threatens its unity, sovereignty and dignity, for 
whose sake the Lebanese paid seas of tears and rivers of 
martyrs' blood.... 
 
"This international scurring to implement UN Resolution 1559 is 
surprising. It raises many questions about the multiple visits 
by Arab and international envoys to the region.... Such visits 
are quite exposed to the Arab masses, who will continue to be 
active and impressive in the Arab street despite the intensive 
assaults against the Arab nation.... The Arab street can easily 
distinguish between the banner of resistance and the white 
banner of surrender...." 
 
--------------------- 
 
"Don't Ask Wherefrom" 
 
--------------------- 
 
Hanan Hamad, a columnist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(7/22): "Don't ask wherefrom this Israeli zeal to carry out UNSC 
resolutions... Why has the UNSC remained silent about Israel's 
refusal to carry out other UNSC resolutions for six decades...? 
 
"While the international organization has failed to force Israel 
to implement any of its resolutions on the Arab-Israeli 
conflict, it has permitted Israel to work to implement 
Resolution 1559 through its destructive weapons, which spare no 
child, woman, or elderly person.... 
 
"The international community is now held hostage by the United 
States, and indirectly by Israel, which is now assigned to 
fulfill the wishes of the American master.... 
 
"Today, Israel is not only enjoying Western support as well as 
some 'Arab' support -- which is the most painful thing -- but it 
is also doing the job for which it was created, as a forward 
base for the strategic Western plan in the region...." 
 
------------------- 
 
"Attorney for Satan" 
 
 
------------------- 
 
Ahmad Burghul, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawrah, 
commented (7/21): "The brutal Israeli aggression against Lebanon 
is placing the entire region at a real crossroads that might 
lead it to the unknown.... 
 
"The release of the captured Israeli soldiers can be achieved 
only through a prisoner swap, not through the destruction of 
Lebanon.... 
 
"Israel is a criminal, a killer, an enemy that does not hesitate 
to commit the most heinous crimes with or without reason. 
Hizbollah did not launch an aggression, as some Arab voices 
claim. The capture of the two Israeli soldiers was an act of 
self-defense and was aimed at releasing the Lebanese prisoners 
in the Zionist prisons.... 
 
"Any attempt to cast doubt on the resistance and its objectives 
amounts to bias toward Israel and an encouragement for it to 
persist in its aggression, brutality, and crimes.... 
 
"Those who stand against the resistance today, or even hesitate 
to support it, work on behalf of Israel, the historical enemy of 
Lebanon, Arabs, and Muslims. Rights are regained through 
resistance and steadfastness, not through humiliation, 
submission, and begging. The Resistance's deterrence of the 
aggression today is a source of pride for all of us, requiring 
that we offer support and backing." 
 
Seche