VZCZCXRO5752
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #0112/01 0131346
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131346Z JAN 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4153
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 000112 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ELA, NEA/PPD, IIP/GNEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KPAO KMDR JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: JANUARY 13 MEDIA REACTION TO GAZA 
 
AMMAN 00000112  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Gaza news coverage by Jordanian media outlets on 
Tuesday described Israel's "methodical destruction" and the fierce 
battles between Palestinian militants and IDF units.  Arab and 
international diplomatic efforts also received attention, 
specifically King Abdullah's consultations with Egyptian President 
Mubarak, Arab League maneuvers, and the condemnation by the UN Human 
Rights Council.  Local coverage highlighted attempts to organize a 
boycott of American and Israeli products.  Op-ed commentary weighed 
the risks of "bold political stances against Israeli criminality" 
and, by association, U.S. interests.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. Major media outlets in Jordan sustained their extensive news 
coverage of Gaza and related developments.  In general, newspapers 
led with the latest developments in Israel's military operations, 
describing their "methodical destruction" in Gaza and the "fierce" 
battles between Palestinian militants and IDF units.  Front-page 
summaries also reported the telephone conversation between King 
Abdullah and Egyptian President Mubarak on Arab and international 
efforts to end Israel's offensive and address the humanitarian needs 
in Gaza.  Also on the front pages were Qatar's call for an emergency 
Arab summit meeting on January 16 and the Arab League's invitation 
to an emergency Arab foreign ministers meeting in Kuwait the same 
day.  All papers published international wire service accounts of 
the UN Human Rights Council's decision in Geneva to condemn the 
Israeli incursion into Gaza and "to stop the serious violations" 
there.  Reports focused on the vote count. 
 
¶3. A front-page report in Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper quoted an 
unnamed senior government official as ruling out the possibility 
that Jordan would annul the Wadi Araba treaty and would expel the 
Israeli ambassador as "a response to the Israeli aggression on 
Gaza."  The official cited Jordan's "higher national interests." 
 
¶4. Al-Ghad newspaper reported that the conflict in Gaza is now 
spawning campaigns to boycott Israeli and American products. 
Several civil society organizations are urging consumers to boycott 
"Zionist" products through rallies and advertisements.  One such 
organization named Itharrak ("Do Something") aims to recruit young 
people into boycott efforts by staging a sit-in later today in front 
of a Starbucks coffeehouse in Amman's Sweifieh district. 
 
¶5. Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Cancelling Treaties and Relations" 
 
Columnist Sameeh Al-Ma'aitah in the January 13 edition of the 
independent Arabic daily Al-Ghad observes, "With every season of the 
Zionist aggression on Palestine or others, political, popular, and 
parliamentary voices rise, calling for cancelling the 
Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty.  This, from the political and legal 
viewpoint, is legitimate, because the treaty is a political case 
that any party can reject or accept.  Sometimes such calls are 
necessary in order to make the Zionist entity feel that what it is 
doing is deepening feelings and rejection of, even those countries 
that have treaties.  These calls are not pressure on the government, 
but rather a helping hand to allow it to expand in space for 
maneuvering and expression.  Maybe we in Jordan must agree and 
cooperate, so that these calls constitute pressure on the occupation 
entity, and not a reason for domestic friction....  Maybe we should 
formulate a single Jordanian context, regardless of our differences 
in evaluating the feasibility of and need for this relationship. 
Israel must feel that it is a heavy burden, that relations with it 
are costly to those who believe in them, and that it must pay the 
price if it wants to maintain these official relations....  We hope 
for a united Arab stand that punishes Israel and makes it pay the 
cost of its aggression.  This is because there a state of distrust 
in Arab relations that forces each party to think about its own 
interests and makes it fearful about taking a step for which it 
would end up paying the price alone, not only with Israel, but also 
with America and Europe and a number of other Arab countries." 
 
-- "Pulling the Rug From Under Barack Obama's Feet" 
 
Columnist Hani Hourani in the January 13 Al-Ghad asserts, "President 
Obama is required not only to abandon the silence that he continues 
to exercise vis-`-vis the 60-year-old Middle East conflict, but also 
to announce forcefully and explicitly the beginning of an American 
approach that would be different from that we have known over the 
decades....  The approach that Palestinians and Arabs dream about 
does not involve calling on the United States to abandon its 
friendship with Israel or its commitment to Israeli security.  These 
matters have long been outside the realm of their expectations and 
even their dreams.  The longed-for approach has to do with the 
United States regaining a sense of justice and fairness and 
seriously seeking to play its role as the honest broker....  But the 
most important wish as far as the Arab world is concerned is to 
prevent Israel's friends from pulling the rug from under the feet of 
the dream for change, which Obama launched and won on its basis. 
For the Middle East to change, its people need to see a core change 
in the mentality and behavior of the American White House." 
 
 
AMMAN 00000112  002 OF 002 
 
 
-- "Withdrawing the Ambassador: Arguing About the Open Options with 
Israel" 
 
Managing editor Fahed Khitan in the January 13 edition of the 
independent, opposition Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm comments, "At 
this stage and with the expectation of an imminent conclusion of the 
aggression on Gaza, many officials believe that the government will 
settle for a 'half-step,' mainly asking Ambassador Ali Al-Ayed not 
to return to his position in Tel Aviv.  The popular and 
parliamentary pressure on the government will continue towards 
adopting a diplomatic measure against Israel, and the government 
will continue to maneuver to avoid such an option for well-known 
political considerations.  The most important thing, however, is to 
adopt bold political stances against Israel criminality....  There 
is conviction that Jordan does have an extensive margin to escalate 
its opposition to the Israeli policy on the local and foreign 
levels.  If expelling the Israeli ambassador is not viable, then 
allowing demonstrations and protests in front of the Israeli embassy 
is possible and required." 
 
BEECROFT