US embassy cable - 04AMMAN2366

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002366 
 
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 THE CANCELLATION OF THE 
ARAB SUMMIT 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead story in all papers today, March 29, 
highlights the decision to "indefinitely" postpone the 
Arab summit, focusing on the resulting "frustration of 
the Arab people", and Egypt's offer to reconvene the 
summit in Cairo on April 16.  All papers give 
prominence to King Abdullah's interview with the 
London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, in which he noted his 
"shock" at Israel's assassination of Sheikh Yassin and 
his emphasis that reform is an internal issue.  Front 
pages also highlight the Parliament's decision to 
approve a rise in the sales tax from 13% to 16% in 
Jordan. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The `folkloric tradition' of convening Arab 
summits" 
 
Daily columnist Urayb Rintawi writes on the back page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/29):  "For the past twenty years, the writer of 
these lines has had the opportunity to witness a large 
number of Arab summits - comprehensive and small-scale 
ones, ordinary and emergency ones - only to get a 
feeling of suffocation towards the folklore of these 
summits and their traditions.  In addition to the same 
old faces at every summit - not only with respect to 
rulers, but also with respect to ministers, 
counselors, and media delegations - there exists a 
repetitious and rhetorical address that has no effect 
on anyone anymore.  It neither brings harm nor 
benefit..  And when the summit fails to provide 
complete and comprehensive answers, we - the masters 
of the Arabic language - as usual, resort to beautiful 
prose along the lines that the mere convening of an 
Arab summit is a national gain not to be 
underestimated. 
 
--- "The farce" 
 
Daily columnist Basem Sakijha writes on the op-ed page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/29):  "The farce that is trying desperately to get 
the audience laughing will not find a place to 
convene.  The landowner does not want it to take place 
on his own land, and he has every right to do that. 
Tunis, which embraced the Arab League when it 
temporarily left Egypt, does not want to be the place 
where the coup de grace is administered to the horse 
that never won a race and was always behind.  Why 
would an Arab summit convene when it is already known 
that the level of representation would not be summit- 
level, that core issues would not be discussed, and 
that a clear stand followed by a clear action vis-- 
vis the issues that are facing the Arab nation could 
not be adopted.?  It is a summit doomed to fail even 
as it opens.  The Arab countries evaded the 
responsibility by pointing an accusing finger at Tunis 
because of its bold decision - typical of the Arab 
habit of coming up with conspiratorial explanations. 
But this will not harm Tunis, the only country that 
agreed to embrace the Palestinian resistance when it 
was kicked out of Lebanon." 
 
-- "Convening the summit is a pan-Arab necessity" 
 
Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(03/29) editorializes:  "We do not need to list the 
dangers that would evolve around us if we display our 
helplessness in creating a stand vis--vis the Israeli 
measures against the Palestinian people and against 
the peace process and vis--vis the situation in Iraq, 
and even vis--vis the reform project that is being 
planned externally, or if we come to believe that the 
the 
Arab League and its pan-Arab programs are over and 
done with.  We view what happened in Tunis as merely a 
passing problem, since the Arabs have become aware of 
the need to work towards convening the summit as soon 
as possible." 
 
-- "The summit, the failure, the success and the 
cancellation" 
 
Daily columnist Yaser Za'atreh writes on the op-ed 
page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al- 
Dustour (03/29):  "The `indefinite' postponement of 
the Arab summit is an expression for the wide gap that 
exists between prevailing positions..  We are not 
saying this because we are depending on the summit. 
However, maintaining the minimum level of Arab 
solidarity or let us say an Arab understanding on the 
basics is a requirement to serve Arab interests, 
particularly when we live in a time where such 
solidarity is to be erased from the Arab dictionary by 
the American and Zionist parties..  What happened in 
Tunis is very regrettable.  If some people say that 
the blood of Sheikh Yassin has contributed to the 
failure of the summit, then it would be better to say 
that his blood was not sufficient to bring about a 
stand that would be better than the current frailty. 
The postponement was the best way to avoid 
embarrassment before the people who are at the height 
of their anger because of what happened." 
 
-- "The Tunisian event" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(03/29):  "The decision to postpone the summit was 
exceptional in the history of Arab summits because it 
was a unilateral decision issued by the host country 
and without any consultation with the Arab leaders. 
This leads to the conclusion that the Arab regime, as 
represented by its highest-ranking institution, namely 
the summit institution, has become frail and is 
collapsing..  The number of those who are crying the 
demise of the summit will shrink in number, because 
what happened is difficult to fix and because it is 
conclusive proof that the Arab regime are on the edge 
of collapse and that what history destroyed cannot be 
fixed." 
GNEHM