VZCZCXYZ0006
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSO #0692 3651306
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 301306Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8823
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 9980
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 8964

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000692 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP XM XR XF BR
SUBJECT: Media Reaction - Mideast -  Gaza, Arab-Israeli engagement; 
Sco Paulo 
 
A new year with the old conflicts in the Mideast 
 
Editorial in business-oriented Valor Econtmico (12/30) says: "The 
disproportionate response to the attacks [by Hamas]...should be 
cause for great discomfort in the international community.... All 
signs point to the fact that Israel is trying to take advantage of 
the internal Palestinian divisions...and counts on the discontent of 
the population, which has been suffocated by the embargo imposed by 
Tel Aviv.  More than that, [Israel] is keeping an eye on the 
February 10th elections and on the polls that show former prime 
minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from the right-wing Likud Party, in 
clearly ascending.  So far, the isolation imposed by Israel, the 
U.S. and the European Union on Hamas has, indeed, strengthened those 
nations' preferred partner in Palestine, the Fatah.... The 
disproportionate military reaction and the ever more precarious 
living conditions...have a great chance of causing among the 
Palestinians something they themselves have not been able to 
achieve: uniting internal adversaries.... The trend, by the way, is 
that not only that the Palestinians unite, but that Arab countries 
work together to deter the escalation of violence in the region." 
 
Immediate cease-fire 
 
Lead editorial in liberal Folha de S.Paulo (12/30) states: "The 
attacks perpetrated by the Palestinian extremist group Hamas against 
Israel merit repudiation. But the brutal reaction by Israel...has to 
be condemned, as well.... The offensive against Hamas, in Gaza, 
looks like an attempt by the ruling coalition to avoid the victory 
of Benjamin Netanyahu in the February elections.... The rightward 
leaning tendency on the part of Israeli voters also seems to be a 
reaction to the Mideast policy announced by Barack Obama. The U.S. 
President-elect has promised a broad diplomacy and does not rule out 
negotiating with Iran, which Israel regards as the major strategic 
threat to the Jewish State.... The hard-line platform that emerges 
from the confluence of these factors brings well-known traps...[But] 
Without a political solution that really grants autonomy and 
economic feasibility to a Palestinian State in the Mideast, the 
substratum that favors the spiral of hostilities will remain intact. 
The most important issue right now, however, is to secure an 
immediate cease-fire between Hamas and Israel." 
 
Massacre in the Gaza Ghetto 
 
Column by Clovis Rossi in Folha de S.Paulo (12/30) says: "The West 
finds it enormously difficult to condemn Israel, even when it 
deserves it. This can only be explained by a guilty conscience. 
After all, the Holocaust, one of the most nefarious crimes in 
History, was not the act of Arabs or religious fundamentalists, but 
that of Aryan Europeans.... In truth, Israel has been committing 
crimes against Palestinians for many, many years.... But it is in 
the Gaza Strip that the violence reaches the peak.  This year Israel 
blocked access to Gaza, turning the area into a 362-square-kilometer 
ghetto where 1.5 million people are piled up one on top of 
another.... The risks Israel is subject to are not to be 
minimized.... But adopting a collective form of punishment is 
intolerable and ineffective.... There is no point in trying to 
asfixiate Hamas..... Unless one believes that Hamas won [the 
elections] because all the Palestinians from Gaza are terrorists. 
Those who believe in this hypothesis will end up proposing a 'final 
solution' to the Gaza ghetto." 
 
Fire over Gaza 
 
Main editorial in center-right O Estado de S.Paulo (12/30) states: 
"Former Prime-Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu, the main opponent of [current Israeli 
Prime-Minister] Ehud Barak... in the February elections, has been 
demanding a decisive military action from the government against 
Hamas. So, the shower of Hamas rockets targeting Israel provided the 
excuse.... For at least a week, Israeli diplomacy sought the support 
of major powers and its main allies for the upcoming offensive. The 
goal...was to create "an international umbrella...." The umbrella of 
support for Israel did not open.  From all sides, except from the 
Bush admnistration, the offensive was harshly criticized, not 
because Israel should be denied the right to defend itself, but 
because its reaction was brutal and indiscriminate." 
 
WHITE