US embassy cable - 04AMMAN2195

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002195 
 
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 ISRAEL'S ASSASSINATION OF 
HAMAS' SHEIKH YASSIN 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Jordanian papers published today, March 23, are 
almost in their entirety dedicated to Israel's 
assassination of Hamas' Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.  Front 
pages carry extensive reports highlighting the Arab 
people's "anger", the Palestinian "promise of 
vengeance" and the international reaction.  Front 
pages also focus on Jordan's official reaction as 
stated by King Abdullah, the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs and the government's official spokesperson. 
Front pages also highlight the demonstrations that 
took place around Jordan condemning the assassination. 
Reports carry the U.S. official reaction to the 
assassination, highlighting remarks made by the U.S. 
National Security Advisor and the White House 
spokesman.  Entire inside pages are dedicated to 
reports about Sheikh Yassin's life, details of 
reactions from members of the local and international 
community as well as demonstrations in Arab countries 
denouncing the assassination.  The majority of 
commentaries in today's paper strongly denounce 
Israel, and Sharon in particular, for the 
assassination.  Most declare the demise and the 
meaninglessness of any peace efforts with Israel. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Assassinating peace" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/23):  "The Arab people are waiting for revenge 
against Israel in retaliation for the crime of 
assassinating Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, which means the 
anticipation of a martyrdom operation in the streets 
of occupied Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.  This reaction by 
the people is not only expressed among Palestinians, 
but also among the broad swaths of the Arab people.. 
Sharon's actions, crimes, assassinations and walls are 
the main source for hatred and grudges and the feeder 
for the spirit of violence and the desire for 
vengeance that beats in the heart of every Arab.  If 
revenge against Sharon's crimes comes by means of a 
martyrdom operation that would be called terrorism in 
Washington, then this `terrorism' has earned popular 
support.  It has become not just a religious and 
patriotic ideology but rational logic to declare that 
if you are surrounded by a criminal who wants to kill 
you, destroy your home and wipe out your people, then 
what is left to you but turn your body into bomb? 
Sharon is not a man of peace, as described by the 
sponsor of his crimes, President Bush, neither is he 
qualified to be a partner in any peace process.  This 
criminal . is today more dangerous, not because he 
doubled the amount of bloodshed, but because he has 
supporters among the Israelis and because behind him 
stands the American occupation force with its big 
armies in Iraq and the Gulf.  Assassinating the Sheikh 
is the assassination of peace and declaration that the 
peace process with Israel has reached a dead end and 
that the conflict has gone back to the original 
slogan: a conflict about survival not of borders." 
 
-- "Going back to the negotiating table: is this still 
an option for the Palestinian Authority and the Arab 
political regime?" 
 
Analyst Samih Ma'aytah writes on the inside page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/23):  "One of the most superficial analyses is the 
one that says that Sharon directed the assassination 
[of Sheikh Yassin] as a message to the Arab summit 
scheduled in a few days.  Sharon, like the Arab people 
on the street, does not care about such Arab 
protocols.  He knows that they are nothing more than a 
political market to practice speech and rhetoric. 
There is one issue on Sharon's agenda and that is to 
implement his security program that is based on 
criminality and killing.  He is not concerned with any 
noise about it, because the key lies in the hands of 
Washington, which is dealing the order of the day to 
capitals..  The major story is not the martyrdom of 
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, but the conviction that some 
within the Palestinian Authority maintain that 
negotiations remain necessary and must resume, as if 
what happened to Sheikh Yassin was a car accident and 
not a criminal aggression, as if what Sharon is doing 
on daily basis does not indicate the fact that he has 
turned his back to everything related to settlement. 
Sharon, who killed the Sheikh and kills the people of 
Palestine every day, is not concerned with political 
reactions.  He knows that his aggressive security 
program has an easy path towards implementation. 
After what the Sharon government has carried out over 
the past years, it is a political requirement for the 
Palestinian Authority and the Arab political 
establishments to find an answer to the question 
`what's the alternative?'  This question tells the 
Palestinian and Arab decision-makers to stop the 
meaningless rhetoric about resuming negotiations and 
reviving the roadmap and other initiatives.  What do 
these decision-makers have to say to the people after 
more than ten years of negotiations, agreements and 
dialogues?" 
 
-- "Sheikh Yassin's assassination and the illusions of 
peace" 
 
Daily columnist Ibrahim Al-Absi writes on the op-ed 
page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al- 
Dustour (03/23):  "After the assassination of Sheikh 
Ahmad Yassin, the founder of the Islamic Resistance 
Movement, Hamas, and its spiritual leader - under the 
direct and declared supervision of the butcher of 
Sabra and Shatilla and the prominent racist, fascist 
and blood-thirsty leader in the Zionist entity, Ariel 
Sharon - there is no more room for illusions of peace 
and peace projects and peace initiatives with this 
Zionist entity.  Moreover, there is nothing more that 
Washington can hide behind in talking about terrorism 
and terrorists, when it, itself, was party to 
committing this very ugly crime when it gave Sharon 
the green light to assassinate Sheikh Yassin by virtue 
of the fact that it did not add to its reaction 
anything other than call on the Palestinians to 
exercise restrain and calm, as if it is telling them 
to die silently and quietly and to restrain themselves 
as they are being slaughtered." 
 
-- "The assassination crime and its role in American 
Israeli schemes" 
 
Daily columnist George Haddad writes on the op-ed page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/23):  "This almost complete congruency between 
American and Israeli schemes for the Middle East 
region is no secret.  Therefore, any serious and 
genuine reading of the situation and these 
developments would be incomplete, in fact wrong, if it 
does not take this alliance into consideration. 
Everything that Israel is doing at this stage is being 
done in consultation and in coordination with its 
biggest ally, the United States, and of course this 
ally is not going to approve any Israeli action that 
is not in line with its own schemes.  All the talk and 
the statements mean nothing.  A major operation that 
entails serious repercussions such as assassinating 
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin cannot happen without the prior 
approval of America.  As for the statement of the 
White House and that of the National Security Advisor 
Rice denying knowledge of or approval for the 
operation, they mean nothing.  A question then poses 
itself: why would the Americans approve an operation 
that they know very well would have costly 
repercussions and would not serve to calm things down 
and move towards peace?  The answer is simply that the 
operation, with its repercussions, plays a role in 
redirecting and developing events regionally and thus 
can be used to bring out American schemes that aim at 
redrawing a new map for the region, where American 
interests are secure." 
GNEHM