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Diana T Fritz  08/26/2006 04:49:55 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Search Results

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UNCLAS        ABU DHABI 03110

SIPDIS
CXABU:
    ACTION: PAO
    INFO:   ECON POL AMB DCM

DISSEMINATION: PAO
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: PAO:WROBERTSON
DRAFTED: PAO:SANDERSON
CLEARED: PAO:THAMDI

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OO RUEHC RUENAAA RUEKJCS RUEHZM RUEHLO RHRMDAB
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DE RUEHAD #3110/01 2131141
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 011141Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6398
RUENAAA/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1079
RHRMDAB/COMUSNAVCENT
RHWSMRC/MCF01 SACCS USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 003110 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B; 
RRU-NEA 
IIP/G/NEA-SA 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC 
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA 
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD 
LONDON FOR MCKUNE 
PITRANSGRESS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC
SUBJECT:  SPECIAL MEDIA REACTION: CRISIS IN LEBANON 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Editorials continued to portray the United States as 
responsible for the ongoing conflict in Lebanon.  One columnist in 
"Al-Khaleej" attributed recent comments by a fringe Israeli group as 
attempts to assuage the American conscience.  Another in "Emarat 
Al-Youm" urged Arabs to take a stand against the true aggressor, the 
United States.  A female Emirati columnist in "Al-Bayan" attributed 
both U.S. and U.K. actions to a historical pattern of cultural 
liquidation.  Finally, an Emirati columnist in "Al-Ittihad" 
questioned why certain Islamic figures have chosen to support 
Al-Zarqawi's sectarian war in Iraq while banning support for the 
Lebanese resistance.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  Under the headline "Rabbis of death", columnist Mustafa Magdi 
wrote the following in a 08/01 editorial in the Sharjah-based 
Arabic-language daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000): 
 
"If either party had a conscience to begin with, the Zionist rabbis 
have now freed the Americans' from any remorse over the elimination 
of Lebanon.  Killing women, children and civilians, the destruction 
of their houses over their heads, is allowed and even required 
according to Zionist law, which notes that 'there are no innocents 
among the enemy' and that talking about morality only 'weakens the 
morale of the Israeli army.'  Washington's pursuit of this 'fatwa' 
comes as no surprise, given their persistent refusal to recognize 
the barbaric massacre of the people of Qana, labeling it not as a 
war crime, but as something within 'the right of each country to 
defend itself.'  We would be repeating ourselves to say again that 
this heinous war is a war of American-Zionism, executed by Israelis 
with American weapons and Zionist rhetoric.  They make a bath of the 
blood torn from  young flesh even as they decorate the shoulders of 
Zionist neo-conservatives in the White House, who look for the road 
towards the final battle of Armageddon, even as President Bush prays 
for it nightly.  He prevented the Security Council from issuing any 
condemnation of Israel to advance this Armageddon.  And of course 
there is no chance of an immediate cease-fire, as Bush intends for 
this conflict to produce the worst possible situation: 
Armageddon..." 
 
¶3. Under the headline "Who is the monster?" Emirati columnist Adel 
Mohammed Al-Rashid, wrote the following in a 08/01 editorial in the 
Dubai-based Arabic-language daily "Emarat Al-Youm" (circulation 
15,000): 
 
"Israel is not the monster.  It is just a claw on the hand of the 
huge monster raising its face towards the whole world.  This monster 
is 'America'... If there is anywhere that voice needs to be 
directed, it must be towards the Americans, and if any stand must be 
taken, it should be taken against the United States.  They are the 
ones who have inflicted this pain upon Arabs and Muslims alike, 
under the pretext of aiding them!  It is America whose sorrow over 
the victims of Qana's massacre prevented the United Nations from 
issue even a verbal condemnation of the Zionists' heinous crime." 
 
 
¶4. On 08/01, female Emirati columnist Aisha Ibrahim Sultan wrote the 
following in her daily column in the Dubai-based Arabic-language 
daily "Al-Bayan" (circulation 85,000): 
 
"I don't want to write of the Israeli atrocities and crimes in the 
region, because I don't need to repeat what has already been said. 
I don't want to write about the atrocities and crimes of Americans, 
either.  U.S. and British support for Israel does not surprise me. 
The three have the same doctrine and history, focused on eradicating 
those different from them... The false tears from Bush and Rice only 
serve to remind us of a quote from an activist of the Sioux Indian 
tribe: 'Our history is written with white ink.  The first thing the 
victor does is erase the history of the loser.  The victors cry much 
over the bodies of their victims.'" 
 
¶5.  On 08/01, Emirati columnist Abdullah Rasheed wrote the following 
in his daily editorial in the Abu Dhabi-based semi-official 
Arabic-language daily "Al Ittihad" (circulation 65,000): 
 
"When I read the fatwas prohibiting support for Lebanon and 
Hezbollah, I was reminded of similar fatwas issued by the same 
people that urged support for the killing of Shi'a by Al-Zarqawi in 
Iraq.  I wrote an article about those fatwas, noting that Islamic 
organizations and scholars should put an end to fatwas with so much 
potential for harm, and so little for good... Similarly today, under 
the pretext of sectarian differences, we see fatwas which ban 
support for the Lebanese even as they suffer under Israeli 
gunfire." 
 
¶6. Under the headline "U.S. and Britain share Israel's culpability," 
British-born journalist Linda Heard wrote the following in a column 
on 08/01 in the prominent English-language daily "Gulf News" 
(circulation 95,000): 
 
"It's with a heavy heart that I pen this week's column. What I would 
really like to say isn't publishable... [I]t's hard for me to cast 
emotion aside." 
 
"What was done to Qana for the second time in 10 years is a war 
crime but Israel isn't the lone perpetrator.  The killing would have 
stopped days ago if it wasn't for the tacit and material support 
Israel has received from the U.S. President George W. Bush and my 
own British Prime Minister Tony Blair." 
 
"How ironic that the Lebanese are dying from American-made missiles 
and bombs that are transported from the U.S. to Israel by planes 
that refuel in Scotland, while other U.S. planes carry food and 
medicines." 
 
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