World Media Watch for April 1, 2002

BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not.

http://www.buzzflash.com/mediawatch

Interesting direct links:

//Palestine News Agency
http://www.arab2.com/n/newspaper/palestine-News-Agency.htm
Still operational as of Sunday night, 3/31/2002

//Israel News Agency
http://www.israelpr.com/distortednews.html
"The IINA / Israel News Agency, an accredited Israeli news media outlet, clears all news
items relating to Israeli security with the Israel Government Press Office." It bills itself as the only government accredited web news organization. The Israel Government Press Office at http://www.gpo.gov.il/ appears to be not carrying current news releases this time.

Links to articles:

1//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--ANALYST PREDICTS GLOOMY FUTURE ("Thus world politics have been hijacked by religious fanatics and under the circumstance all what one can see is disaster all around which can even lead to the tactical use of nuclear weapons.")

2//Ha'aretz, Israel--ANALYSIS: PM TRYING TO WIN TIME BEFORE INT'L INTERVENTION (It will not be possible to keep the reservists mobilized for an extended period of time, because of the damage it will cause to the economy and to civilian society. The mobilization of reserves indicates that Sharon wants to change the strategy of attrition he has conducted until now, and is aiming to use military might to end the war, and force the Palestinians into asking for a cease-fire.)

3//Stratfor Strategic Forecasting, TX, USA--ISRAEL PREPARING FOR DRAWN-OUT CAMPAIGN (However, although the actions appear similar to earlier Israeli sweeps in the occupied territories, the government's decision to mobilize thousands of reservists indicates a substantial increase in the scope and length of the operations.)

4//The Jordan Times, Amman, Jordan--ARAB TV OUSTS CNN TO BRING PALESTINIAN TORMENT INTO MIDEAST HOMES AND HEARTS (The drama of unfolding events is entering Arab homes and hearts as never before as the Middle East watches the Israeli offensive against Arafat's headquarters minute by minute…"CNN's monopoly over coverage of events in the Arab world is over," said a journalist in Dubai, a new media centre where CNN itself recently opened a small office.)

//The Guardian/Observer, UK--AS TWO WEAK MEN ACT TOUGH, THE EXTREMISTS IMPOSE THEIR WILL (But the key to the increasing ferocity of the last few weeks is to be found in the weakness of both Sharon and Arafat. It has been the strange conundrum of this unfolding crisis over 18 months that, as both sides have talked and acted ever tougher, both leaders have been personally weakened by their ever hardening positions, prey to the extremists.)

* * *

1//Gulf News Online 31-03-2002
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=45973

ANALYST PREDICTS GLOOMY FUTURE
Bahrain |By Latheef Farook | 31-03-2002

Lamenting the lack of unity or a contingency plan in the Arab and Muslim world to deal with the unfolding disaster, well known political analyst and researcher Dr Majeed Al Alawi predicted "public anger all over the Arab world as demonstrated on Friday in many capitals of the world."

He said chances are that the current situation may even lead to the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the region.

Speaking in an interview with Gulf News yesterday on U.S. threats to strike Iraq, Israel's brutal invasion of Ramallah and the dismantling of Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Dr Majeed said: "It is wrong to assume that the current developments in the region are aimed at crippling and cooling the Palestinian issue to heat up the Iraqi issue.

"My reading is that they - the U.S.-Zionist axis - will strike Palestinians and Iraq because Ariel Sharon is desperate as the Palestinians have successfully pricked Zionist pride by managing to penetrate the much boasted Israeli security barriers and caused considerable damage.

(SNIP)

"But what is the Arab strategy to deal with the unfolding disaster? Even the peace initiatives put forward by the Arab leaders in last week's Beirut summit were rejected by Israel. So what next?" Dr Majeed predicted a gloomy future not only for the region but the whole world.

(SNIP)

"But contrary to this, Sharon represents U.S. policy and he is doing everything the Americans want him to do. Since September 11, U.S. policy has undergone a radical change replacing diplomacy with military means to deal with countries and issues.

"The U.S. considers this as their legitimate right. Thus military strikes have become a tool for the U.S. What the Muslims have failed to understand is that there are forces emerging behind all these developments.

Since September 11, there emerged a coalition of Christian evangelicals in America which is fully behind U.S. President George W. Bush, Jewish religious fanatic groups in Israel and the West and Hindus fascists in India forming a deadly "axis of evil" against the Muslim world and blaming Muslim fanatics for everything.

"Thus world politics have been hijacked by religious fanatics and under the circumstance all what one can see is disaster all around which can even lead to the tactical use of nuclear weapons."

2//Ha'aretz Monday, April 01, 2002 Nisan 19, 5762 Israel Time: 02:36 (GMT+3)
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?
itemNo= 147180&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2

ANALYSIS: PM TRYING TO WIN TIME BEFORE INT'L INTERVENTION
By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Correspondent

The diplomatic hour-glass on Israel's military operation in the territories began running with the vote on United Nations resolution 1402 on Saturday, which calls for an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. The goal of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in his contacts with the U.S. administration, is to win time for the IDF's operation in the territories, before international intervention brings it to a halt.

The need to win time has become critical because of the extensive reserve call-up, which is one of the last cards the government has left to play in the conflict with the Palestinians. It will not be possible to keep the reservists mobilized for an extended period of time, because of the damage it will cause to the economy and to civilian society. The mobilization of reserves indicates that Sharon wants to change the strategy of attrition he has conducted until now, and is aiming to use military might to end the war, and force the Palestinians into asking for a cease-fire.

At present, Sharon is enjoying a comfortable diplomatic environment. U.S. President George Bush expressed support Saturday for Israel's right to "self-defense" in the face of terror, and demanded that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Arab world denounce the suicide attacks inside Israeli cities.

Arafat does not have many friends in Washington, especially after he effectively thumbed his nose at Dick Cheney, when he ignored the conditions set by the vice president for a meeting between the two men. The only card he has left to play with the Americans, is the fact that the Bush administration wants Saudi support for a possible offensive against Iraq.

(SKIP)

The "diplomatic horizon" of the IDF operation is a cease-fire, along the lines of the bridging proposal presented by U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni. Government officials in Jerusalem estimated Saturday that the Americans view Israel's military action as a means of pressuring Arafat to accept Zinni's truce plan. Israel, they say, embarked on its operation with clean hands, after it accepted the ex-marine general's proposal.

(SNIP)

Officials in Jerusalem were unhappy with the accelerated debate at the UN, pointing out that the security council had not met when dozens of people were being blown up in Israel, and only acted after the IDF entered Ramallah.

The U.S. supported the UN resolution after it added several amendments, which mentioned the right to self-defense and the suicide bombings. The resolution does not call for the immediate withdrawal of the IDF, and in the foreign ministry they are sticking to the order of the clauses in the decision - first a cease-fire, and only then withdrawal.

Ultimately, it will be the U.S. which determines how the resolution is interpreted, and when it has to be implemented.

3//Stratfor Strategic Forecasting 29 March 2002
http://www.stratfor.com/fib/topStory_view.php?ID=203715

ISRAEL PREPARING FOR DRAWN-OUT CAMPAIGN

Summary

Israel stepped up military operations in the West Bank March 29 in response to devastating Palestinian suicide bombings this week. However, although the actions appear similar to earlier Israeli sweeps in the occupied territories, the government's decision to mobilize thousands of reservists indicates a substantial increase in the scope and length of the operations.

Analysis

(SNIP)

But one thing separates this offensive from earlier operations -- the mobilization of Israeli military reserves. Reservists on regular rotation have been used during the current intifada since it began in 2000, but now the Sharon government has approved the mobilization of an unknown number of reserves who were not scheduled to see action, something that the Israeli military does only in time of war.

No firm numbers have been announced, but local media reports suggest numbers ranging from 10,000 to 20,000. This is the largest such call-up for Israel since the Persian Gulf War, and in comparison about 70,000 troops were mobilized in 1967 when the West Bank was originally occupied by Israel.

Draft centers for reservists are set up at Israeli high schools, currently closed for the Jewish holiday of Passover. Buses, which the army presses into service during emergencies, lined the streets outside the schools, ABC news reported. The fact that the call-up is taking place despite the Passover holiday underscores the depth and urgency of Israel's current campaign.

We do not anticipate a shift in Israeli military tactics but rather an increase in the breadth and length of Israeli operations. Longer operations running several weeks and covering more cities at once appear to be the order of the day.

4//The Jordan Times Sunday, March 31, 2002
http://www.jordantimes.com/Sun/news/news5.htm

ARAB TV OUSTS CNN TO BRING PALESTINIAN TORMENT INTO MIDEAST HOMES AND HEARTS

By Taieb Mahjoub
Agence France-Presse

DUBAI - Arab satellite television channels have become a major player in the Arab-Israeli conflict broadcasting 24 hours a day to an audience particularly sensitive to brutal images of dead Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.

"I prefer to die than to be taken prisoner or be killed," by the Israeli occupation army, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said over and over to various Arab television news programmes who called him directly in his besieged Ramallah heaquarters on Friday.

The drama of unfolding events is entering Arab homes and hearts as never before as the Middle East watches the Israeli offensive against Arafat's headquarters minute by minute.

When Arafat hung up angrily on a star CNN reporter, the leading position of the Arab-language satellite channels looked confirmed.

"CNN's monopoly over coverage of events in the Arab world is over," said a journalist in Dubai, a new media centre where CNN itself recently opened a small office.

"Arab satellite station offer the Arabic public a more realistic and more objective coverage," he claimed.

Trail-blazing Al Jazeera satellite channel of Qatar, followed by Abu Dhabi TV in the United Arab Emirates, the Saudi-owned MBC and other stations braodcasting from Europe such as Orbit, today provide continuous news coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The coincidence of an Arab summit-backed peace offer to Israel and the offensive Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unleashed against the Palestinian leadership had Arab viewers riveted.

The Arab channels have no truck with Western reluctance to expose the audience to the horrors of war, mixing scenes of death agonies with Arafat's defiant statements under shell-fire.

A couple from North Africa, in Dubai this weekend for the emirates' annual shopping festival, could not pull themselves away from the television.

"We spent the whole day Friday following the live broadcasts of the Arab stations about the Israeli military offensive against Arafat's offices," said the husband.

"The pictures were overpowering. It is as if you are there," he added.

(MORE)

5/The Guardian/Observer Sunday March 31, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,676671,00.html

AS TWO WEAK MEN ACT TOUGH, THE EXTREMISTS IMPOSE THEIR WILL

It began with teens throwing rocks. Now war looms. Peter Beaumont in Ramallah asks how this crisis could happen

(SNIP)

But the key to the increasing ferocity of the last few weeks is to be found in the weakness of both Sharon and Arafat. It has been the strange conundrum of this unfolding crisis over 18 months that, as both sides have talked and acted ever tougher, both leaders have been personally weakened by their ever hardening positions, prey to the extremists.

Arafat's position has been subtly eroded by the months of intifada that have given renewed power and strength to those radical Palestinian organisations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad that Arafat himself has felt most threatened by and tried for so long to suppress.

For Sharon too, the problems have become equally pressing. Faced with a collapse in confidence in the ability of the 74-year-old former general to deliver on his election pledge to bring security, Sharon has at each turn opted for more extreme retaliation.

And hovering in the wings is the figure of Sharon's great rival Binyamin Netanyahu, now openly advocating the expulsion of Arafat and the reconquest of the West Bank and Gaza to force a separation of Israelis and Palestinians.

These dangerous weaknesses are a recipe for a deepening disaster.

* * *

© 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
insight@zianet.com

More Stuff at: http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

* * *