US embassy cable - 04AMMAN1302

UNCLAS AMMAN 001302 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR, 
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN 
USAID/ANE/MEA 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH 
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST, U.S. 
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- The lead story in all papers today, February 23, is 
Monday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 
eight people and wounded numerous others.  Another 
major story highlights U.S. Defense Secretary 
Rumsfeld's visit to Kuwait and his remarks about Al- 
Qa'eda operating in Iraq. 
 
          Editorial Commentary on Middle East 
 
-- "The wall trial and the bus bombing: who is lurking 
for whom?" 
 
Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (02/23) 
editorializes:  "It is time to put a stop to these 
operations that have no political benefit and only 
contribute to increasing the siege against and the 
killing of Palestinians, as well as increasing the 
international silence with regard to Israel's crimes. 
Today's hearing on the wall would have been an 
opportunity to expose Israeli measures, but these 
operations only waste such opportunities." 
 
  Editorial Commentary on U.S. Presidential Elections 
 
-- "John Kerry in the face of George Bush" 
 
Columnist Yaqoub Jaber writes on the op-ed page of 
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(02/23):  "It is nearly certain that John Kerry will 
win the nomination of the Democratic Party to compete 
against George Bush in the U.S. presidential elections 
this year.  The question is whether Kerry can defeat 
Bush, who is supported by the right-wing forces who 
consider him the most capable to implement their plans 
and serve their objectives that can only be described 
as extremely hostile.  George Bush's popularity is in 
a state of continuous decline and John Kerry, if he 
manages his elections battle intelligently and focuses 
on his opponent's mistakes inside and outside the 
United States, can beat the president who lied and 
cheated and brought enmity to the United States from 
all the people of the world.  The other question is 
what is the level of change that Kerry would bring 
about to the U.S. policy on Iraq and the Palestinian 
issue, which is what we are concerned about as Arabs.. 
It is known that Kerry voted in favor of the war on 
Iraq when he was in Congress, but he says that he did 
so based on the lies that were told by the Bush 
administration with regard to the Iraqi weapons of 
mass destruction.  As for the Middle East and the 
Palestinian Israeli struggle, Kerry has so far avoided 
talking about it, as if he does not want to stir a 
battle that he is unprepared yet to wage..  Most 
likely he will have to talk about the Middle East 
issue, probably in a manner that would please Israel 
and the Jewish Lobby and not hurt the feelings of the 
Arab constituents, once his nomination is confirmed. 
We already know that there has been no American 
president since Eisenhower who managed to twist 
Israel's arm and make it do something that it did not 
want to do.  Having said that however, we notice that 
Democrat presidents were closer than their Republican 
counterparts to attempts to resolve the struggle on 
bases that steer away from Israel's expansionist 
aspirations and measures that reflect neither morality 
nor logic..  We must not pin any hopes on this or that 
president.  Yet, the world certainly needs a different 
president, who would probably be more open-minded and 
more understanding that the current president." 
GNEHM