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Lucia A Keegan  07/31/2006 10:33:04 AM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - 
Lebanese Conflict - PM Blair in the US - Congo Elections 
PARIS - Friday, July 28, 2006 
 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Lebanese Conflict - Rome Conference 
Lebanese Conflict - The Role of Iran 
Lebanese Conflict - The Role of the EU 
PM Blair in the US 
Congo Elections 
 
(B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
Accusations that American Tour de France 2006 winner Floyd Landis 
used testosterone dominate today's headlines and electronic media 
stories. 
 
In French domestic news, the drop in unemployment - 1.2 percent in 
June - is widely reported and praised, although this drop has not 
been accompanied by the creation of new jobs. 
 
Popular right-of-center Le Parisien carries a lengthy interview of 
Health Minister Xavier Bertrand on the heat wave that has claimed 
the lives of some 64 people in France out of the 80 in Europe. 
 
The lead international story continues to be the conflict in Lebanon 
with an emphasis on Israel's difficulties in weakening Hizbullah. 
For right-of-center Le Figaro, Israel is: "Not getting anywhere" and 
for Le Monde the conflict is a "military failure." 
 
"Tsahal is put to the test with the battle if Bint Jbeil" according 
to right-of-center Le Figaro. "The battle tends to prove that the 
Hizbullah militia has not lost any of its pugnacity or the tactical 
capabilities that characterized it in the 90's... Contrary to a 
number of other movements, Hizbullah has, over the course of the 
years, acquired invaluable tactical military experience... with a 
guerilla that is efficient, well-organized and methodical." 
 
Catholic La Croix reports: "Hizbullah: A Difficult Target for the 
Israeli Army." The article cites Hassan Nasrallah as saying the 
"aggression of 1982" was the catalyst of Hizbullah's creation. 
Catholic La Croix further highlights the role of US-Israeli ties in 
the conflict: "If the Hebrew state, pushed by Washington, is 
interested in expanding the conflict via Iran and Syria, 
fundamentally the objective to wipe out Hizbullah remains the same." 
 
 
Popular right-of-center Le Parisien reports that the Israeli army is 
tightening its "stranglehold" on Hizbullah in southern Lebanon. 
Although Israel sees its "strategy of small steps" as efficient in 
terms of lives and psychologically, Le Parisien intimates that the 
tactic may play better towards Hizbullah's propaganda. 
 
Left-of-center Le Monde reports that the Israeli military is in the 
process of "defining a new strategy." Le Monde also carries a 
two-page account by Bernard Henri-Levy entitled: The War Seen From 
Israel." 
 
State-run FR3 television aired a report about the kidnapped 
soldiers' families who came in France to ask for help.  Foreign 
Minister Douste-Blazy met with them and later declared: "France 
continues to work to obtain their liberation."  FR3-TV also 
mentioned that President Abbas' statement about "an imminent 
solution for Gilad Salit" was contradicted by Hamas, which denied 
any agreement. Catholic La Croix carries a profile of the mother of 
one kidnapped Israeli soldier, Malka Goldwasser. The article 
summarizes Goldwasser's meeting yesterday with FM Douste-Blazy in 
which she pleaded for the French government's help in finding her 
son. Goldwasser cited France's "privileged ties with Lebanon" as her 
motivation for seeking help from Paris. 
 
In his right-of-center Le Figaro interview, Roed Larsen, Kofi 
Annan's envoy in Lebanon, says that he does not believe that a cease 
fire could be effective immediately. "A cease fire can only be 
effective if it has a political foundation... For the time being the 
two sides are too belligerent for this to be possible." Asked about 
the failure of the Rome Conference Roed-Larsen notes that it would 
have been naof to think that the crisis could be settled in a half 
day." 
 
Left-of-center Le Monde's editorial notes that Fouad Siniora, the 
Lebanese Prime Miniter, "must have felt very alone in Rome on 
Wednesday... he succeeded in 'moving' the participants... but not in 
being heard... Mr. Siniora incarnates the dignity and distress of 
Lebanon, but he is a voice in the wilderness." (See Part C) 
State-run FR2 television reported on the al-Jazeera broadcast of Bin 
Laden's right hand man, al-Zawahiri, calling for bomb attacks 
against Israel and its allies.  Privately-owned Europe 1 radio 
quoted al-Zawahiri as saying: "We can't look at those rockets 
raining on Lebanon and Gaza, and remain inactive and submissive." 
 
Le Figaro also reports on al Qaida's concerns as to Hizbullah's 
popularity and al-Zawahiri's video message in which he insists on 
the creation of an alliance of Muslim combatants that would 
transcend their sectarian differences.  "In this was al- Qaida is 
placing itself in the footsteps of the Egyptian Muslim 
Brotherhood...Al-Qaida's distress at being relegated faced with 
Hizbullah's rising star is not necessarily good news. To win its 
place back in the ranks of the 'true defenders of Islam' Ben Laden's 
organization could be tempted to raise the stakes through blood." 
The paper also reports President Bush's response to a recent al 
Qaeda video threatening Israel and its allies, saying he is "not 
surprised." 
 
The editorial in Le Figaro by Pierre Rousselin: "Everyone is acting 
as though the controversy over Iran's nuclear program and the war 
between Hizbullah and Israel are dissociated. But everyone knows 
that in truth they are linked and will be more and more." (See Part 
C) 
 
In the wake of Iraqi Prime Minister al Maliki's visit in Washington, 
left-of-center Le Monde calls al Maliki's speech before Congress 
"unconvincing" and notes that he was strongly criticized by Congress 
for "doublespeak: condemning terrorism but supporting Hizbullah." 
 
A report in left-of-center Liberation points out that Ankara is 
threatening "an Israeli-style operation in Northern Iraq." One 
Turkish journalist is quoted: "How can public opinion agree on the 
US's acknowledgement that Israel has the right to defend itself, and 
not grant that same right to Turkey." 
 
Catholic La Croix leads off with two pages about Congolese elections 
with the headline "The Democratic Republic of Congo Advances toward 
Democracy." The first free presidential and legislative elections 
since 1960 have "incalculable value," an article says. Despite the 
euphoria, there is also fear in the eastern part of the country that 
"the losers could refuse the ballot box's verdict." (See Part C) 
 
The failure of the Doha Round continues to be a subject of 
commentary and analysis. Right-of-center Le Figaro carries an op-ed 
by Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau in which he analyses the 
failure of the negotiations. "The negotiations were too focalized on 
agriculture... which was detrimental to the talks as well as to 
agriculture in the end... The US for its part continues its usual 
tactics. It asks for things that are totally unrealistic without, in 
exchange, any willingness to reform its agricultural policies. This 
attitude is in large part responsible for blocking the talks." 
Left-of-center Liberation carries an interview of Pascal Lamy in 
which he speaks of the failure of the negotiations as due to 
"economic colonialism..." 
 
 (C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Lebanese Conflict - Rome Conference 
 
"Lebanon's Solitude" 
The unsigned editorial in left-of-center Le Monde (07/28): "Lebanon 
today is caught in the trap of a war between Israel and Hizbullah. 
Israel is operating much more than a retaliation against the Shiite 
militia, it is determined to punish Lebanon. In Rome Fouad Sinioria 
could see for himself that there is no international consensus to 
call for a cease fire... And yet only a cease fire could prevent 
Lebanon from destruction and stop the spiral of war. It is easy to 
start a war, it is harder to stop it and since Israel and Hizbullah 
are engaged in a military escalation, only the international 
community can be counted on to find a solution. In Rome the 
international community failed, but it must quickly get past 
allegiances to such and such country and remember its 
responsibility." 
 
Lebanese Conflict - The Role of Iran 
 "Iran at the Heart of the Crisis" 
The editorial by Pierre Rousselin in right-of-center Le Figaro 
(07/28): "To acknowledge that the Iranian nuclear crisis and the 
Lebanese conflict are related would be a first step to shedding 
light on the current situation.... That Hizbullah... maintains a 
certain degree of autonomy with regard to Teheran does nothing to 
alter Iran's determination to be recognized as a major player in the 
Muslim world and therefore in the conflict with Israel. This 
ambition transcends the nature of the regime and the refusal to take 
this into account, especially on the part of the US, explains the 
current stalemate over the Iranian nuclear issue... By reinforcing 
its influence on Hizbullah, Iran has filled the gap that was left in 
Lebanon following the withdrawal of Syria. Iran helped Hizbullah 
grow politically and as we can see today militarily... What is the 
international community waiting for to question Teheran...? The 
policy of confrontation between Teheran and Washington has only 
served to strengthen the extremists. To pretend to ignore Iran is 
not the solution." 
 
"Baghdad-Beirut: A Round Trip Ticket" 
A column by economic right-of-center Les Echos' journalists notes 
that (07/28): "What the U.S. never expected, in spite of French 
appeals, is that the intervention in Iraq would offer a golden 
opportunity to Iran to enter history. When one takes this into 
account, recent events can be read like a children's book... The 
game started in Baghdad, today it is in Beirut. It is a safe bet 
that it will make its way back to Iraq where George Bush has just 
decided to reinforce the military contingent." 
 
Lebanese Conflict - The Role of the EU 
 
"The Union's Middle Eastern Dilemma" 
In an analysis piece in left-of-center Le Monde, Thomas Ferenczi 
writes (07/28): "Of all of the crises that the international 
community has had to deal with, the conflict in the Middle East is 
without a doubt then one that has mobilized European diplomacy the 
most... But faced with this conflict the EU confronts a painful 
dilemma. If it does nothing it proves its ineffectiveness and if it 
tries to act it demonstrates its weaknesses." 
 
PM Blair in the US 
 
"The Bush-Blair Tandem" 
Right-of-center Le Figaro's Guillemette Faure writes (07/28): "Just 
as was the case with Iraq, since the beginning of the conflict in 
Lebanon the British Prime Minister has adopted the role of the echo 
of the White House... The absence of an agreement at the Rome 
Conference proves that the Bush-Blair axis is still very much at the 
helm... Lacking results in Lebanon, Blair's visit to Washington will 
serve as a token of the British ally's loyalty following the 
departure of Silvio Berlusconi from the Italian government, of Jose 
Maria Aznar from the Spanish government and of Ariel Sharon in 
Israel. But Blair may get less attention than the visitors that will 
meet with the President after he leaves: the participants of the 
television show 'American Idol.'" 
 
Congo Elections 
 
"A Demand For Peace" 
The editorial in Catholic La Croix by Francois Ernewein (07/28): 
"Europe and the international community as a whole deployed an 
impressive array of means to ensure that the elections are carried 
out properly but also that the post-election period is smooth. The 
world is committed to promoting the development and stability of 
this country but this mobilization will serve no purpose if the 
Congolese people themselves are not working for peace."  STAPLETON