US embassy cable - 05AMMAN4961

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 004961 
 
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 SECRETARY RICE'S VISIT TO 
JORDAN 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- The visit of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to 
Jordan and the region received extensive coverage in 
the Jordanian media.  All papers published today, June 
21, highlight excerpts from her speech at the American 
University in Cairo.  A number of editorial 
commentaries view her "positive" remarks on Jordan's 
reform efforts. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "The important visit of Mrs. Rice" 
 
Daily columnist Tarek Masarweh writes on the back page 
of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai 
(06/21):  "Mrs. Condoleezza Rice found in Jordan only 
the reassuring feeling of being among friends.  She 
found that she had no demands to make of Jordan, that 
she was offering a strategic alliance with Jordan, 
that she would not allow Jordan's security to be 
jeopardized in this region, and that her country is 
increasing its assistance to its strategic ally.  The 
politicians would say that the American talk has to do 
with American policies in the region.  This is true, 
but what could our country give to a country whose 
policy is to raid this region with its armies and to 
which everyone hurries to please?  Even if we argue 
that the United States needs Jordan, then there is no 
shame in that, because it means that we have something 
that America needs.  One who has a source of power 
should never apologize for it..  Mrs. Rice's visit to 
Jordan was very comfortable for her.  People heard her 
utter clear criticism of Israel's settlement policies, 
offer us a strategic alliance, and say that Jordan's 
reform is exemplary." 
 
-- "The `black American tulip'" 
 
Daily columnist Saleh Qallab writes on the back page 
of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai 
(06/21):  "When the U.S. Secretary of State praises 
Jordan's reform and considers it a model to be 
followed in the region, and when she says that her 
country refuses to have the interests of Jordan be 
jeopardized, she is not being courteous at all.  She 
is relaying the U.S. administration's point of view. 
There are those marginal groups of people who thought 
that Jordan is facing a crisis with Washington, and 
thus have doubled their instigation efforts by 
providing the American press with fabricated and fake 
reports with the aim of encouraging American pressure 
against this country to force it to give up its 
principles.  All campaigns launched by the American 
tabloids against Jordan are based on reports submitted 
by these marginal groups and parasitic persons who 
think that they can achieve their sickly dreams by 
inviting American pressures against Jordan and making 
it like some other Arab countries in the region.  What 
is disgusting about this is the fact that some of the 
names that appeared in the articles of these American 
tabloids are ones who market themselves as being the 
knights of the confrontation with the United States, 
the proponents of anti-normalization with America and 
the pioneers of boycotting America in everything.. 
These sources thought that the American `black tulip' 
is coming to unleash poisonous snakes against Jordan. 
These people should melt away in shame now that they 
have heard what Condoleezza Rice had to say." 
 
-- "Inspector Condoleezza" 
 
Daily columnist Sultan Hattab writes on the op-ed page 
of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai 
(06/21):  "When Rice links the American desired reform 
with the American efforts in Iraq towards a free Iraq 
and with the American efforts in Palestine towards a 
two-state solution, then Rice's words about reform 
would require tangible credibility, because the reform 
of this region cannot happen unless there is a just 
solution for the Palestinian-Israeli struggle.  In 
Palestine, Rice spoke about the roadmap.  Sharon, 
however, is on a different sheet of music as he talks 
about a different way of redeployment from Gaza, about 
a different viewpoint of settlements, and as he 
hinders all components for a possible and practical 
solution..  In Egypt, Rice discussed the Egyptian 
elections and spoke in detail about electioneering, 
maps, candidates and methods, as if she were setting 
an Egyptian elections law..  In Jordan, her evaluation 
for Jordan's achievements was very positive..  Rice's 
`certifications' are the important thing now.  Those 
she cited have won, and those she did not cite are 
waiting to pay a huge cost.  The regimes in the region 
are no longer able to run to the people, since the 
cost they must now pay is the very consequence of the 
way they have dealt with their people..  Rice knows 
Arab courteousness.  What she said in [Arab] capitals 
she visited was not marked by the same bluntness that 
she used in Moscow and China as she sought to speak to 
the people of these two countries through their 
regimes.  In the Arab capitals, she wanted to make her 
hosts listen, because she knows that the Arab people's 
stand is marked by hatred for the American policy; 
hatred caused by that policy's bias in favor of Israel 
and a policy that drove the people of this region away 
from their regimes.  So she opted to ease her 
criticism of the Arab internal policies . because when 
she goes back home, she will use American media to 
cast stones at the Arab regimes' glass.  Rice's words 
against the Arab regimes seems to be the harshest 
because she is finding that the dough of Arab regimes 
is beginning to form under American pressure, even if 
Iraq does not become free and Palestine does not 
become a viable state!" 
 
-- "Impetus needed" 
 
Centrist, influential among the elite English daily 
Jordan Times (06/21) editorializes:  U.S. Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region should 
provide impetus to the stalled peace process in the 
Middle East.  All signs indicate that the peace drive 
is not only stalled but threatened to cease entirely 
unless the projected talks between Israel Prime 
Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President 
Mahmoud Abbas bear fruit.  Sharon still insists that 
Abbas disarm all the Palestinian militant factions 
operating on Palestinian soil and destroy their 
infrastructure.  Abbas is on record as unwilling or 
unable to do that for fear that such a move against 
Palestinian militants would provoke a bloody civil 
war..  Hamas and other Palestinian hardliners declared 
their unwillingness to lay down arms until they see 
real progress on the ground.  It is a vicious circle 
that no side is willing break..  The search for a just 
and durable peace in the Middle East needs a powerful 
thrust and that, it is no secret, can only come from 
Washington.  It may, therefore, require more than a 
visit or two by the secretary of state to the region, 
and genuine desire and effort to help find a solution, 
before peace finally comes in our midst." 
HALE