Cablegate: Media Report Mep; Harare

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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

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