US embassy cable - 02HARARE1081

UNCLAS HARARE 001081 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND 
SCHLACHTER, AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR 
JENDAYI FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ZI, PREL, PHUM 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT MEP; HARARE 
 
 
1.   Under headline "Unconscionable U.S. complicity in 
   Israeli atrocities" the May 6 edition of the 
   independent daily "The Daily News" carries an op-ed by 
   Tajudeen Abdul Raheem criticizing the United States' 
   Middle East policy.  Excerpts: 
 
2.   "The Butcher of Sabra and Shatilla and current 
   Genocidaire of Jenin continues his relentless campaign, 
   with impunity, to finish 'the unfinished dirty business 
   of Zionism' by withdrawing from one part of the 
   Palestinian bantustan one day (as a sign of compromise) 
   and at the same time moving his murderous troops into 
   other parts of the bantustan with the world looking on. 
   Ariel Sharon knows that the only disapproval that 
   matters to him is that of Israel's principal patron, 
   protector, and defender: the USA.  He is assured that 
   whatever comes out of that government by way of 
   criticism is not meant for him, but for the consumption 
   of the hapless world crying: 'Do something!'  One 
   cannot escape feeling that even the mild criticisms 
   coming from the U.S. administration are cleared with 
   Tel Aviv first if not written from the template of its 
   propagandists.  How can one explain President George W. 
   Bush sending his spineless Secretary of State, Colin 
   Powell, to the Middle East without wishing him any 
   success and doing anything to make his job easier? 
   They just needed to get him out of Washington so that 
   his timid moral qualms do not get in the way of the 
   hawks led by another African-American, Condoleeza Rice, 
   Donald Rumsfeld and Bush himself. . . 
 
SULLIVAN