VZCZCXRO4060
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #0075/01 0110545
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 110545Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4135
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 000075 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ELA, NEA/PPD, IIP/GNEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KPAO KMDR JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: JANUARY 8 MEDIA REACTION TO GAZA SITUATION 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Beneath photos of Palestinian family members grieving 
over civilians killed in Gaza, Jordan's major media outlets led 
today's coverage with news of the Israeli security cabinet's 
decision to extend its military offensive into urban areas.  Inside 
papers were also choked with paid advertisements announcing new 
demonstrations, most notably that of the Islamist community's 
"festival of anger."  Commentators ran with King Abdullah's 
conspiracy warning of yesterday, anticipating political moves in the 
coming days and weeks.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  All major newspapers published today and other Jordan-based news 
outlets maintained singular focus on events surrounding the conflict 
in Gaza, employing banner headlines, large color photos of grieving 
family members, and extensive details over several inside pages. 
Coverage led with the Israeli security cabinet's decision to 
continue the military offensive into Gaza's urban areas, 
highlighting Israeli threats to destroy the city of Rafah.  All 
papers also focused on King Abdullah's telephone conversation with 
the Moroccan monarch about developments in Gaza, and conflicting 
reports on Israeli and Hamas reactions to the French-Egyptian 
ceasefire initiative. 
 
¶3.  All major newspapers today carried multiple advertisements by 
different parties calling for public participation in tomorrow's 
"Day of Anger" in the form of demonstrations in many parts of 
Jordan.  The papers published a half-page advertisement paid for by 
Jordan's Islamist community inviting the public to a "festival of 
anger" in the Tabarbour area tomorrow.  The Jordan Press Association 
paid for another ad inviting its members to a protest at its 
premises on Saturday.  Labor unions and opposition political parties 
paid for ads inviting the public to a demonstration today in Amman's 
Shmeisani district.  Orange and Zain telecom companies paid for 
full-page ads urging citizens to make charitable donations via SMS. 
Tkiyet Um Ali, Normina Television, and Mazaj Radio announced they 
would host "a day of solidarity with Gaza."  The Society for Medical 
Assistance to Palestinians urged people to donate "before it is too 
late." 
 
¶4.  Major newspapers also carried many other advertisements 
expressing moral support for Palestinians in Gaza.  A local 
furniture shop named Midas paid for a large, black-shrouded ad 
declaring "Our Hearts Are With You Gaza."  The family of George 
Habash, the late PFLP leader, paid for an announcement in the 
obituary section of Jordan's two largest independent dailies, 
Al-Ghad and Al-Arab Al-Yawm, of a memorial mass on Saturday in 
Amman's Sweifieh neighborhood.  The announcement noted that the 
first anniversary of the passing of Habash is coinciding with the 
"brutal Israeli attack against Gaza," and hailed the "legendary 
steadfastness" and the "heroic resistance of the people of Gaza." 
On the same note, Al-Arab Al-Yawm carried a report about local 
artists' forms of solidarity with the Gazans, including the reported 
planting of headstones near the Israeli embassy in Amman for each 
Gazan killed. 
 
¶5.  All papers reported on a meeting between a delegation of 
political and civil society figures from Jordan and Hamas political 
supremo Khaled Misha'al in Damascus the day before yesterday. 
Reports stated the meeting was an expression of support for the 
people of Gaza and a protest against Israel's aggression.  Reports 
focused on Misha'al's "expression of appreciation for Jordan's stand 
and assistance to the Palestinians." 
 
¶6. Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Do Not Underestimate the Warnings" 
 
Columnist Jamil Nimri in the January 8 edition of the independent 
Arabic daily Al-Ghad comments on the King's warning of a 
"conspiracy" against the Palestinian people.  He writes, "The truth 
is that the conspiracy has a central feature of an Israel backed and 
supported by the most extreme and Zionist circles in the United 
States.  This is clear in the Washington Post article written by 
former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, in which 
he talks about bypassing the two-state solution and dividing the 
remains of the Palestinian homeland between Egypt and Jordan.... 
Meanwhile, there are some who are yelling about igniting the West 
Bank front.  This is as if the West Bank did do so  during the 
second armed Intifada and has not paid the full price for that.... 
Indeed, the West Bank and Gaza are together on fire and this will 
not change the balance of powers but will rather open the road to 
literally completing the scenario of destruction, which would lead 
to "the three-state" solution, i.e. dividing the remains between 
Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.  Nimri concludes, "Jordan is now warning 
against this very conspiracy and, hence, any political project to 
end the aggression against Gaza must take confronting this scheme 
into consideration." 
 
-- "The Israeli Conspiracy: A Danger That Goes Beyond Worries" 
 
Managing editor Fahed Khitan in the January 8 edition of the 
independent, opposition Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm observes, "The 
 
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King's statements to Al-Jazeera channel the day before last go 
beyond all fears and worries, reaching the point of admitting the 
existence of 'an Israeli agenda' and an Arab and international plan 
to swiftly move to stop this agenda....  As a first step, officials 
must present further explanations to the King's statements vis-`-vis 
the nature of the Israeli agenda as it is certain that in his 
statements to Al-Jazeera, the King did not rely on press reports or 
studies conducted by research centers but rather on facts and 
documented information provided to his majesty by the state 
institutions....  The King referred to an Arab and Western plan, the 
details of which we await in the coming days.  However, there is a 
need for a domestic plan and an effective role played by the 
Jordanian social and political powers on all levels in the battle to 
defend Jordan and the Palestinian people's right to their 
independent state....  Maintaining the solidarity of the domestic 
front is the decisive element in confronting the Zionist scheme. 
Achieving this objective requires thought about political moves at 
more than one level, foremost of which is political reform, 
enhancing the role of the state and its institutions, adhering to 
the policy of diversifying regional options as well as not 
hesitating to get into a confrontation with any party that 
collaborates with the Israeli scheme....  On the Arab level, Jordan 
should decide its stance towards the issue of an Arab summit and 
announce its approval of holding it because the case requires Arab 
support in this fateful battle." 
 
-- "The Conspiracy Against Palestine and Jordan Together" 
 
Columnist Oraib Rantawi in the January 8 edition of the 
government-aligned, pro-Palestinian Arabic daily Ad-Dustour asserts, 
"The war on Gaza has finished off the already fragile and exhausted 
Palestinian Authority.  The war on Gaza will enter its fourteenth 
day after tomorrow while President Abbas' term would have ended [by 
then]. The war on Gaza has finished off the Annapolis track and has 
cut off the road to the option of an independent Palestinian state. 
The war on Gaza has opened the appetite of John Bolton to talk about 
'the three-state' solution instead of the 'the two-state for two 
peoples' solution.  Those three states are Israel, Jordan, and 
Egypt, which is a 'humiliating' return to the pre-1967 situation 
minus what Israel will take for itself from the West Bank 
territories and the blood, dignity, and rights of the people.... 
Those are the features of the conspiracy against the Palestinian 
people and their future, which requires all of us to be responsible, 
brave, and alert in standing against its objectives.  And because 
this is an exceptional conspiracy in its objectives and a dirty one 
in the way it is being implemented, the response to it also needs to 
be exceptional....  This should include a reassessment of the 
relationship with Israel and putting the latter not just in the 
category of 'threats to the national security' but at the top of 
list of such threats.  The Jordanian-Israeli peace - in the form of 
a treaty, embassies and arrangements - is no longer a wall that 
protects our national security....  A state that has decided to 
build its deterrent capacity over the bodies of the children and 
women of Lebanon and Palestine and has officially and finally 
announced that it stepped out of the humanity club and positioned 
itself inside the Fascism and Nazism club - in the form of a state, 
an ideology, and an entity - cannot be trusted with its promises, 
obligations, and commitments." 
 
-- "The Occupation Gangs Resort to Prevarication and Delay" 
 
The main editorial in today's Ad-Dustour opines, "At a time when the 
Zionist gangs are claiming their acceptance of the Egyptian 
initiative and are sending their delegation to Cairo to discuss it 
with Egyptian officials, we find them resorting to the escalation of 
the heinous aggression and to warning the people of Rafah to flee 
their city to pave the way for its bombardment.  This affirms that 
they are resorting to prevarication and playing for time so as to 
achieve their goals of striking at the resistance and getting the 
Palestinian people to kneel down....  This puts the ball in the Arab 
order's court for the second time, perhaps prompting it to stand up 
and make a bold unanimous decision that would save the people of 
Gaza from the holocaust and reconsider relations with the Israeli 
entity after it has been proven that it is an entity not any 
different from the Nazi entity except by name." 
 
-- "So That We Would Not Lose the Round" 
 
Former Information Minister Saleh Qallab in today's edition of the 
leading, government-owned Arabic daily Al-Rai reasons, "Because 
there is an Arab foreign ministerial delegation in New York fighting 
bravely to pass a draft resolution that was unanimously approved 
during the recent meeting in Cairo, there is no need for any new 
Arab draft resolutions or initiatives that could be exploited - and 
some of which have already been exploited - to delay and postpone 
the issuance of an anticipated UN Security Council resolution in 
order to give the Israelis more time to complete their war against 
Gaza....  Any Arab or Palestinian party has the right to voice its 
opinion and defend it with the need to always take into 
consideration that what exists on the ground reflects itself over 
the bargaining table.  [But any] further delay and procrastination, 
 
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and the continued aggression in such an excessively harsh and 
heinous manner would cause the Arabs to lose more cards from the 
little cards they have." 
 
BEECROFT