US embassy cable - 04AMMAN10178

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 010178 
 
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 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST ISSUES 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead story in all papers today, December 27, 
focuses on reports about the earthquake and resulting 
tsunami that caused deaths and destruction throughout 
 
SIPDIS 
Asia.  Other stories highlight domestic issues as well 
as reports about the Palestinian elections. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The secrets of the buried Arab development report" 
 
Columnist Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page of 
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(12/27):  "Thirty Arab researchers and intellectuals, 
who wrote the third annual Arab human development 
report for 2004 - which was stopped through American 
blackmail, are currently meeting in Beirut to discuss 
the possibility of publishing the report through an 
organization independent of the United Nations.  No 
doubt, stopping the publication of the report 
constitutes a huge scandal for the United States.  The 
report editor, Nader Farjani had scored big and 
destroyed completely all of the false claims made by 
the U.S. administration with regard to reform in the 
Arab world when he took his case to the international 
media and exposed the American conspiracy..  This 
American conduct stirred a great deal of resentment 
among commentators and intellectuals in the west, 
including Thomas Friedman..  But for the genuine free 
and liberal Arab intellectuals, who have not sold 
themselves to the Pentagon, this issue marks the 
beginning of a successful intellectual battle against 
both the United States and backwardness in the Arab 
world for the first time ever in a clear manner and 
without fear of being accused of treason." 
 
-- "The required Syrian scapegoat" 
 
Columnist Haidar Rashid writes on the op-ed page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(12/27):  "There has to be a scapegoat to carry the 
blame for the security collapse in Iraq.  After, the 
battle in Fallujah and the exhaustion of Zarqawi and 
his group of foreign terrorists as the scapegoats in 
Iraq, there is an urgent need to find a new scapegoat 
on which to pin all these defeats.  Prior to the 
American invasion and occupation, the honor fell to 
international terrorists and chemical weapons.  After 
that came the fighters from outside Iraq, Zarqawi and 
others.  Now, as some pro-American Iraqis are saying, 
there are attempts to involve Syria and its 
intelligence services in what is going on in Iraq.. 
Syria has no interest in being directly involved in 
what is going on in Iraq, despite the fact that its 
interests do not coincide with the presence of the 
American forces and the continuation of the 
occupation.  A direct involvement on its part, 
however, would make it a target and would increase 
America's motivation to attack it..  A new scapegoat 
is required in order to explain the Iraqi-American 
failure of imposing security and taming the Iraqi 
people.  The need for such a scapegoat increases as 
the elections draw near.  Yet, this issue is one thing 
and choosing Syria as the new scapegoat is another. 
Events on the ground suggest that such a choice will 
not be acceptable and the Americanized people in Iraq 
must begin looking for another scapegoat." 
 
-- "The disciplinary London conference" 
 
Lamis Andoni writes on the op-ed page of independent 
Arabic daily Al-Ghad (12/27):  "Do not misunderstand: 
America and Israel are refusing to take part in the 
London conference next month, but they do support the 
meeting itself if its purpose is to `rehabilitate the 
Palestinian Authority'.  In other words, now that the 
leader Yaser Arafat, the `major obstacle in the path 
to peace', is gone, Washington and Tel Aviv are 
seeking to snip the wings of the Palestinian regime as 
a precondition for resuming negotiations..  It is 
known that America and Israel had pressured London to 
cancel the conference if the imprisoned Palestinian 
leader Marwan Barghouti did not withdraw his 
nomination for the presidential elections. 
Democratizing the Palestinian regime would start with 
the nomination of the acceptable candidate, namely 
Mahmoud Abbas, whose stances, I'm sure, would not be 
respected if he did not succumb to Israeli and 
American demands.  No wonder then that Washington and 
Tel Aviv would support the London conference with 
specific definitions and tasks that would guarantee 
Abbas' abidance by positions and policies that 
otherwise would not go through if it was left up to 
the Palestinian people.  Halting the Intifada and 
placing the security apparatus under a unified 
leadership is not designed to put an end to security 
violations but to stop them from taking part in 
resisting the Israeli occupation.  In this context, 
the London conference aims to `tame the Palestinian 
regime'." 
HALE