US embassy cable - 02AMMAN4377

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 004377 
 
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 
USCINCCENT//CCPA, USCENTCOM REAR MACDILL AFB FL 
STATE PASS TO AID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST AND IRAQ 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead story in all papers today, August 6, focuses 
on Israel's increased measures of isolation against 
Palestinian towns and cities, and highlight Israel's 
bombing of Gaza in response to the Palestinian suicide 
bombing.  Front-page reports also highlight the 
Security Council's deliberation regarding Iraq's 
invitation for a visit by the inspectors.  The same 
reports highlight Washington's rejection of Iraq's 
similar invitation to Congress to visit Baghdad. 
 
          Editorial Commentary on Middle East 
 
-- "Who convinces Bush of his responsibility for the 
violence" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(08/06):  "President Bush alone has the power to drive 
the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation out of this 
cycle of murder and violence and towards just and 
peaceful solutions.  This fact means that the 
President of the United States bears the 
responsibility of the consequences of his Middle East 
policy.  By adopting policies that support Sharon's 
military operations and political objectives, 
President Bush has pushed the Palestinians into a spot 
where life and desperation are one and the same.  The 
Palestinians' belief in the justice of their cause and 
their struggle has nothing to do with the nature of 
the ruling regime.  Their struggle with Israel and its 
occupation has everything to do with defending the 
identity, the land and the homes.  It has everything 
to with their right to live like human beings, to 
determine their own destiny on their own soil, as 
opposed to giving in to the invaders who want to 
uproot them altogether from geography and history." 
 
-- "Israeli measures reflect the Sharon government's 
political bankruptcy" 
 
Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Ra'i 
(08/06) editorializes:  "The iron-fist measures 
adopted by the Sharon government against the 
Palestinian civilians reflect more a political and 
military bankruptcy rather than a vision towards 
seriously reviving the peace process or towards 
learning the lessons from events over the past few 
months.  All these measures have proven futile in 
breaking the will of the Palestinian people and in 
forcing them to surrender and give up their national 
rights.  Israel's insistence on continuing to use 
force, oppression, destruction and arrests means that 
it is firing a fatal bullet into the peace process and 
thwarting all efforts, without actually providing an 
alternative or a political project that can be 
adopted." 
 
-- "It is the Palestinian people's expensive war for 
independence" 
 
Daily columnist Sultan Hattab writes on the semi- 
official, influential Arabic daily Al-Ra'i (08/06): 
"the Palestinian war for independence continues. 
Sharon is responsible for the killing of Israelis and 
Palestinians, because he is entrenching his occupation 
with blood and is denying the Palestinians their 
freedom and security.  We could differ in opinion 
about the type and usefulness of Palestinian 
operations, but that is a minor detail.  The 
Palestinian people's war for independence continues. 
Those who can do anything to bring this day closer 
must do, and those who cannot must shut up.  The 
Palestinian path to independence is hard and requires 
support and encouragement, and not people who stand in 
the way.  As long as there is occupation, there is 
either humiliation or blood.  I believe the 
Palestinians have already opted for the second." 
             Editorial Commentary on Iraq 
 
-- "Legal concerns" 
 
If the United States is to launch a war against Iraq 
soon, what legitimizes such an attack from both 
national and international perspectives?  U.S. 
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised the specter 
of the legality of waging war against Iraq without 
congressional consent.  Internationally, an attack by 
any U.N. member state against another must reckon with 
the U.N. Charter.  None of the existing U.N. Security 
Council resolutions on Iraq offers a legal basis for a 
fresh attack on Baghdad.  What complicates and even 
clouds the issue of whether to start a war against 
Iraq is the incoherence of the rationale offered to 
explain the urgency of such a war.  For national and 
international purposes, one wonders what really is the 
ultimate objective of a U.S. war on Iraq.  Is it the 
toppling of the Iraqi regime led by Saddam Hussein? Or 
is it the elimination of all real or imaginary weapons 
of mass destruction existing on Iraqi soil?  Better 
still, Washington could very well be aiming to achieve 
the two goals simultaneously.  In either case, before 
the U.S. president is able to seek and obtain 
congressional consent to go to war against Iraq, he 
must first articulate his purpose to the House and 
Senate.  And if Bush succeeds in convincing the U.S. 
Congress that his justifications for going to war are 
legitimate, he will still have to reckon with 
international authority.  Against these backdrops, the 
United States would remain ill put to rationalize and 
legitimize an attack against Iraq." 
 
GNEHM