US embassy cable - 04AMMAN3739

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MEDIA REACTION ON THE MIDDLE EAST

Identifier: 04AMMAN3739
Wikileaks: View 04AMMAN3739 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Amman
Created: 2004-05-13 12:59:00
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Tags: KMDR JO
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS AMMAN 003739 
 
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 MIDDLE EAST 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- The lead story in all papers today, May 13, 
highlights the "heroic" Palestinian counter-attack 
against an Israeli attack in Gaza, killing 6 Israeli 
soldiers.  Front-page reports continue to highlight 
developments in Iraq, particularly the repercussions 
of the beheading of an American civilian contractor. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The Day of Decapitations!" 
 
Daily columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page 
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(05/13):  "Once again, there is a mix up between the 
legitimate, noble and heroic Arab resistance to 
occupation and aggression on one hand and barbarism, 
mutation and haphazard killings on the other..  In the 
first case, six Israeli soldiers got what they 
deserved as they were invading a land that was not 
theirs, bombing and destroying and killing innocent 
Palestinians.  The heroic resistance left those 
soldiers in pieces in the land of Gaza..  That same 
day in Iraq, a group that calls themselves the 
resistance decapitated an American civilian and took 
pride in this `heroic' operation of killing an unarmed 
prisoner, thus giving a very ugly and bad image of the 
Iraqi resistance.  No one in the world can accept the 
decapitation of a civilian for just being an American 
in response to the torture conducted by American 
soldiers in Iraq.  In one, the ugliness of what 
happened in Iraq nullified the heroism of what 
happened in Palestine.  There became a congruence 
between the two actions in the minds of international 
public opinion, despite the huge difference in the 
circumstances: one being a heroic operation in defense 
of the land and the other being a cowardly and ugly 
execution that is unacceptable religiously and 
morally." 
GNEHM 

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