VZCZCXRO9353
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #0018/01 0041530
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041530Z JAN 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4075
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 000018 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ELA, NEA/PPD, IIP/GNEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KPAO KMDR JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: JANUARY 4 MEDIA REACTION TO GAZA SITUATION 
 
AMMAN 00000018  001.4 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: Over the New Year's holiday weekend, developments in 
Gaza continued to dominate front and inside pages as well as op-ed 
pages of Jordanian media outlets.  Coverage gave equal treatment to 
Jordanian public demonstrations and to efforts by King Abdullah and 
government officials to stop Israel's military offensive. 
Statements by the President and the Secretary have been accurately 
and prominently reported.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  Over the local holiday weekend and Sunday, developments in Gaza 
dominated front and inside pages of all major news outlets and other 
Jordan-based media.  Like last week's coverage, weekend coverage 
relied heavily on international wire service accounts of events on 
the ground in Gaza.  Unlike like week, public demonstrations 
received equal and, at times, greater attention than the ongoing 
efforts by King Abdullah and government officials in seeking a stop 
to Israel's military offensive. 
 
¶3.  In the largest public event of the weekend, approximately 50,000 
Jordanians gathered in Amman's Sports City stadium on Friday to 
express anger at Israel and solidarity with the people of Gaza. 
Saturday editions of all newspapers led with large color photos and 
stories on the stadium event, along with reports of demonstrators 
confronting riot police near the Israeli embassy.  All papers 
published photos depicting a stadium demonstrator burning the 
Israeli flag.  Secretary Rice's statement of January 2 were also 
reported in the foreign news pages of all major Arabic dailies 
published Saturday. 
 
¶4.  Sunday's newspapers led with King Abdullah's reaction to 
Israel's ground invasion.  He is quoted as saying that "the 
humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has deteriorated to an 
extent that cannot be tolerated," during a telephone conversation 
with Quartet envoy Tony Blair on Saturday.  In a statement issued by 
the Jordan News Agency, Foreign Minister Bashir called on the 
international community "to shoulder its responsibility towards this 
humanitarian catastrophe," and renewed Jordan's condemnation of 
Israeli actions. 
 
¶5.  Al-Arab Al-Yawm on Sunday placed a report on President Bush's 
weekly radio address on its front page.  The President's statements 
characterizing the rocket attacks against Israel as "acts of terror" 
and remarks on the conditions of a ceasefire were reported 
accurately.  The newspaper also published on its front page part of 
a letter sent by Amnesty International to Secretary Rice.  The 
letter accuses the U.S. of "taking an unbalanced stand toward 
Israel's aggression on the Gaza Strip." 
 
¶6.  All print outlets on Sunday published inside-page ads by several 
not-for-profit organizations based in Jordan inviting the public to 
support Palestinians in Gaza through donations.  The Jordanian 
Hashemite Charity Organization, Professional Associations, Jordan 
Chamber of Industry, and "Tkieyt Um Ali" each placed ads calling on 
Jordanians to help their "brothers" in Gaza with cash or in-kind 
donations.  The relief efforts are reportedly part of a nationwide 
campaign to provide humanitarian help for noncombatants in Gaza. 
 
¶7. Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Gaza Alone Decides" 
 
Columnist Fuad Abu Hejleh in January 4 edition of the independent 
Arabic daily Al-Ghad comments, "Gaza will not fall despite the 
bombing and the killing and despite the silence about the crime, 
which is a silence equal to active participation.  What Gazans say 
with their steadfastness is not a slogan or a motto, but rather a 
fact that Israel knows very well, having opted to withdraw from Gaza 
as if running from hell....  Khaled Misha'al and Ahmad Jibreel can 
speak from Damascus, accusing others of betrayal and inaction. 
Hassan Nasrallah can speak from Beirut.  Mahmoud Abbas can launch 
warnings about the adventure, while he himself gambles on the 
feasibility of negotiations that have brought nothing but 
destruction to Palestinians and can visit the departing president at 
the White House in search of something that does not exist in 
America.  Yet, all these and their allies in Arab and foreign 
countries do not decide what happens in Gaza; only the people of 
Gaza know what they have to do." 
 
-- "Prevalent Questions and the Arab Regime" 
 
Columnist Mohammad Abu Rumman in the January 4 Al-Ghad opines, "I 
believe it is a drastic mistake that some political trends commit 
when they belittle the movement of the Arab street and its message 
against the Gaza aggression and render as mere shouting and empty 
noises without any genuine political weight.  I categorically 
disagree with these trends.  The movement of the street today puts 
the Palestinian cause back on its right course, especially that the 
peace settlement track has gone bankrupt.  Gaza is creating, within 
the Arabs everywhere, a new struggling spirit, with which the 
Palestinian cause regains its respectable position....  We will gain 
nothing if we continue to blame Hamas.  The required approach for 
our political and media rhetoric is to make this historical moment 
 
AMMAN 00000018  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
one of stern criticism of the miserable reality of the Arab citizens 
and one that highlights the responsibility of the Arab official 
regime for that."  Abu Rumman then focuses on the position of 
moderate Arab governments, asking, "If the official Arab regime has 
placed all its eggs in the basket of the peace settlement, has 
proposed the peace initiative as the maximum level of compromise 
possible, has depended so much on President Bush and found nothing 
of benefit in the face of Israel's intransigence, what is the 
replacement for the Arab regime today?  Does Hamas' end and 
dismantling in Gaza strengthen the Arab balance of power or does it 
serve the Israeli stand?  If there are Arab regimes that fear Iran 
more than Israel, why do they not then support Hizbollah and Hamas 
instead and create a new reality?  Does the Arab regime today lack 
completely any means of pressure on Israel other than going to the 
U.S. to beg?  Why does the Arab regime not adopt the project of the 
'third peaceful intifada' and promote the Palestinian cause 
internationally and politically against the occupation?" 
 
-- "In Defense of the Demonstrations' 'Venting' Role" 
 
Columnist Ahmad Abu Khalil in the January 4 edition of independent, 
opposition Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm observes, "With every wave 
of demonstrations, people engage in a discussion about their 
usefulness and meaning and a position that regards them as mere 
'venting' becomes prevalent.  In reality, venting is a natural thing 
for man and it is the result of 'congestion,' which is also natural 
for man....  Yet, at the national level, the responsibility of 
striking a balance between venting and congestion lies with the 
decision-makers, and when it comes to venting via demonstrations, 
determining the usefulness of the venting becomes the 
decision-maker's responsibility.  This is because the national 
decision at the end of the day is a form of national 'venting,' 
basically an expression of a position that represents the people, 
their interests and their emotions.  Positive venting that occurs 
via demonstrations should play a role in determining the national 
decision.  There would be a problem if the decision-maker simply 
allowed the venting to occur and took his decision regardless of the 
content and direction of that venting." 
 
-- "Punishing Gaza in Vain" 
 
Daily Star editor at large and Jordan-born journalist Rami Khouri 
commented in the January 2 edition of the elite, small circulation 
English daily Jordan Times:  "God punished the arrogance and hubris 
of the Hebrews in the Old Testament by making them wander the 
wilderness for 40 years before allowing a later, more humble, 
generation to enter Canaan. The current generation of Israeli Jews 
is not as proficient at learning these 40-year lessons, it seems, to 
judge from Israel's current ferocious attack on Gaza.  It was 
exactly 40 years ago to the day - December 28, 1968 - that Israeli 
commandos raided Beirut airport and destroyed 13 Lebanese civilian 
aircraft, in retaliation for a Palestinian attack against an Israeli 
airliner in Athens. Israel aimed to inflict a revenge punishment so 
severe that it would shock the Arabs into preventing the 
Palestinians from fighting Israel.  Today, 40 years and countless 
attacks and wars later, Israel again uses massive retaliatory and 
punitive force to pummel the Palestinians of Gaza into submission. 
Hundreds of Palestinians have died in the first 24 hours of the 
Israeli attack, and several thousand might die by the time the 
operation ends....  The biblical 40-year time span between Israel's 
attack on Beirut airport on December 28, 1968, and its war on Gaza 
on December 27, 2008, is eerily relevant. It is time enough for 
frightened and arrogant Israelis to learn that in all these years 
their weapons have promoted neither quiescence among neighboring 
Arabs nor security along Israel's borders. The exact opposite has 
happened, and it will happen again now. 
 
BEECROFT