US embassy cable - 02AMMAN5470

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 005470 
 
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 PALESTINIAN ISSUE 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- Lead story in all papers published today, September 
23, focuses on recent developments in the Palestinian 
issue.  Story highlights Israel's "stranglehold" on 
Arafat and the destruction of buildings within his 
headquarters complex.  Stories also highlight the 
Palestinian people's demonstrations in support of 
Arafat, in what some papers called "the new Intifada," 
crediting the demonstrations for bringing 
international pressure on Israel to halt its actions. 
 
                 Editorial Commentary 
 
--"The dangers in the `Bush doctrine'" 
 
Centrist, influential among the elite English daily 
Jordan Times (09/23) editorializes:  "As the Middle 
East has yet again been ignited by the brutality 
unleashed by Ariel Sharon, the inadequacy of 
Washington's Middle East policy is underlined by the 
devastation and bloody violence raging in the West 
Bank.  The world has been almost unanimous in 
condemning the latest Israeli aggression against 
Palestinian President Yaser Arafat.  But only a mild 
call for `restraint' has so far come from Washington. 
The Bush administration has at best shied away from 
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, when it has not 
blatantly supported Sharon's policies.  After 
September 11, Bush . only read the Mideast conflict in 
the language of the `war on terror', unable to 
identify the root causes of the problem.  His `vision' 
for a two-state solution lacked a vital element: a 
strategy.  The `Bush doctrine' is essentially a 
security doctrine.  And a threat to international law. 
The Security policy of the Bush administration is 
based on preemptive military strikes against any 
perceived enemy.  Today it is Iraq.  Who is next?" 
 
-- "The tables will turn" 
 
Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour 
(09/23) editorializes:  With arrogance, the Sharon 
government continues its crazy war against Palestinian 
legitimacy, and with aggression and racism, Israel's 
war machine destroys the presidential headquarters and 
opens fire on the Palestinian people.  Instead of 
weakening President Arafat and the legitimate 
Palestinian leadership, the outcome was different. 
The tables have turned.  What the Palestinian cities 
witnessed over the past two days was as good as a 
referendum about the Palestinian leadership, a vote in 
favor of Palestinian legitimacy and a rejection of the 
U.S-backed Israeli plans of aggression.  It is a 
national responsibility for Arabs to adopt a more 
effective move to put a stop to the new aggression and 
its objectives." 
 
-- "The `Bush Palestinian state' trick 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(09/23):  "We are watching the collapse of the 
Palestinian Authority under the duress of Israeli 
weaponry that is strongly backed by American policies. 
What Sharon's tanks are destroying is not only the 
Oslo accords, but also the foundations of peace that 
were established in the Madrid conference.  President 
Bush's talk about a Palestinian state to exist next to 
the Israeli state must not fool anyone.  Sharon's 
right-wing government did not respect the interim Oslo 
accords, let alone Bush's Palestinian state. 
Destroying the Palestinian Authority does not mean 
opening the road to Bush's Palestinian state.  It 
rather holds a plan to legalize the Zionist occupation 
and settlements, to reject the establishment of a 
Palestinian state over Palestinian soil, and to turn 
the Palestinian issue into a game played by the two 
Israeli parties, who both believe in the transfer and 
the establishment of a Palestinian state outside 
Palestine." 
GNEHM