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Lucia A Keegan  08/10/2006 09:30:31 AM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Middle East - U.S. Policy - 
Lebanese Conflict 
PARIS - Wednesday, August 09, 2006 
 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Middle East - U.S. Policy - Lebanese Conflict 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
Israel's expanded ground offensive, despite Lebanon's offer to 
deploy troops in Southern Lebanon remains the lead international 
story. TF1 opened its evening newscast on the intensification of the 
aerial strikes in South Lebanon, emphasizing the insulation of the 
region. Every network mentioned that Tsahal is getting ready for a 
massive attack in the South, "to weaken Hezbollah before the 
cease-fire", said a FR2 reporter. Liberation's front page reads: 
"Tyr Under Siege," while Le Figaro headlines: "Israel Preparing New 
Ground Offensive." In its editorial, Liberation contends that 
"Israel has fallen into the trap set by Syria and Iran." (See Part 
C) 
 
Popular France Soir devotes its lead to France's participation in an 
international force: "Should it or Shouldn't It?" asks the headline. 
France Soir interviews Pascal Boniface, director of the Institute of 
International and Strategic Relations, about sending French troops 
to Lebanon. While Boniface says France's military and diplomatic 
capacities make sending troops "tempting," he claims a ceasefire and 
a political accord are prerequisites to any international force. 
Boniface advises against placing the force under NATO's command: 
"For many, that would pass for an alignment with the American 
policy, which is not well regarded at this moment in the region." 
 
Liberation analyzes the "tug of war between the U.S. and France at 
the UN" and contends that on the French side, "there is little 
optimism" after President Bush's remarks from Crawford that "asking 
Israel to withdraw was out of the question." France, says 
Liberation, "must now stretch its position in order to stay in tune 
with Washington, all the while retaining some credibility with 
Beirut." Liberation quotes Francois Gere of the Institute of 
Strategic Analysis: "France wanted to play a key role, it is now 
caught between a rock and a hard place." 
 
Liberation also carries an open letter signed by famous French 
Jewish intellectuals entitled "We, Jews Against Israel's Strikes." 
On the same page a Liberation opinion penned by the editor in Chief 
of the Jewish Radio station 'Radio Communaute Juive' comments: "The 
conflict is described as an army against civilians ... but in truth 
this is a war pitting one army against another: Hezbollah." 
 
Le Figaro carries an op-ed by Parliamentarian Pierre Lellouche on 
Iran's new strategic positioning in the Middle East, while Le Monde 
carries two opinion pieces analyzing U.S. policy in the Middle East. 
(See Part C) 
 
Oliver Stone's film on 9/11, "World Trade Center" is prominently 
featured on the cover of Le Figaro's cultural section, calling it a 
"tribute to the victims" which "avoids controversy." The main 
editorial in Le Figaro is devoted to "Hollywood and 9/11." For 
Nicolas Barre, the five year hiatus since the tragedy, "for a nation 
that excels in telling its own story, illustrates the magnitude of 
the trauma." Barre finds it is "indicative that Stone is using the 
traditional American myth of ordinary men to tell this story." Barre 
also explains how 9/11 has marked the beginning of America as 
"vulnerable." "What good is America's supremacy if it cannot protect 
it from attacks on its own soil?" Barre concludes by saying that 
"far from the U.S., it is difficult to assess the impact of the 
tragedy on America." Baree also adds: "America's soft power is no 
longer what it used to be. We can see this in the Middle East... And 
the world unfortunately is no better for it." 
 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Middle East - U.S. Policy - Lebanese Conflict 
 
"Into the Trap" 
Pierre Haski in left-of-center Liberation (08/09): "A Lebanese 
deployment will not put an end to the conflict... The problem is 
that while diplomacy moves at a snail's pace, Israel continues to 
escalate its ground offensive... This escalation is the result of 
Israel's initial failures and the lack of military training of 
Olmert and Peretz, who have led Israel into a dead end and fallen 
into the trap set by Damascus and Tehran... Israel has managed to 
shift, in the eyes of the world, from victim to aggressor and to 
turn Hezbollah into an ambiguous hero, re-instating Syria in the 
Lebanese equation." 
 
"Siniora Wants Tsahal to Pull Out" 
Georges Malbrunot in right-of-center Le Figaro (08/09): "Fouad 
Siniora's offer to deploy his troops and impose an Israeli pullout 
is a proposal saluted by France. But Washington and London do not 
see it as justification enough for Tsahal to withdraw... Hezbollah's 
acceptance of the Lebanese offer is the first indication since the 
start of the conflict that Hezbollah is putting the local situation 
before its own agenda with Iran." 
 
"A Strategic Revolution in the Middle East" 
Parliamentarian Pierre Lellouche in right-of-center Le Figaro 
(08/09): "The present situation is nothing less than a strategic 
revolution in which the Lebanese war is a rehearsal for a much more 
general and fundamental conflict... Iran has operated a strategic 
revolution in the region... And it is the tug of war between Iran 
and the international community that served as detonator to the 
conflict with Hezbollah. Iran's strategy has been successful since 
it is reaping the most benefits from the conflict... While a 
ceasefire is essential for humanitarian reason, it or a UN presence 
is sufficient for lasting peace without disarming Hezbollah. 
Anything less than that is preparing ourselves for serious 
consequences." 
 
"Does Islamism Equal Totalitarianism" 
Daniel Vernet in left-of-center Le Monde (08/09): "For G.W. Bush the 
offensive against Hezbollah is part of the 'war against 
terror...'For Bush, and Blair, this new Middle East confrontation is 
perceived as 'an episode in the confrontation between the democratic 
and liberal West and fundamentalist Islam... This view is shared by 
many 'liberals' in the U.S., not just a handful of neo-cons... The 
fear of a clash between civilizations prevails among Europeans and 
Americans alike, who want to avoid a political and moral 
confrontation with Islam... But although fundamentalist Islam is a 
totalitarian ideology, which at times uses terrorism, and must be 
fought, we cannot compare it to the totalitarian states of the 20th 
century... Traditional means will not overcome fundamentalism and 
its ambitions. To make an error in diagnosis means to give out the 
wrong medication, which will lead to new catastrophes. Like Iraq." 
 
"President Bush's Failed Strategy" 
Gilles Kepel of Science Po in left-of-center Le Monde (08/09): "The 
simultaneous wars in Lebanon and Gaza demonstrate the failure of the 
policy led by the U.S. in the Middle East and its inability to 
secure the region, through the use of unilateral force, and on the 
heels of the Iraqi fiasco... Israel fears that the road to Haifa and 
Tel Aviv passes through Tehran and that the U.S., mired in Baghdad, 
is unable to guarantee its security... To this disaster in America's 
security policy in the Middle East one must add the failed 
democratic engineering which was supposed to spread from Iraq to 
Palestine and from Egypt to Saudi Arabia... Recent Islamic electoral 
victories are the illustration of the people's rejection of 
America's unilateralism... This is why democratization is no longer 
Washington's priority... The irony is that Lebanon, the only country 
where Islamists were not elected to power, feels abandoned by the 
U.S. ... Iran has the most to gain from the present conflict... Only 
a European initiative can help stop the spiral of violence." 
STAPLETON