Palestinians Spurn American-led Democratization of Mid-East
By Michael Widlanski 2 February 2005

As US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice prepares to visit the Middle
East following the Iraqi and Palestinian elections, the Palestinian
Authority (PA) and its media outlets are scoffing at American ideas for
regional democratization, often depicting American officials as
blood-thirsty ghouls.

A cartoon in today's Al-Ayyam newspaper, controlled by the Fatah faction
of PA president Mahmoud Abbas, shows President George Bush sitting on top of
a pile of skulls next to a ballot box draped in a bloody American flag and
propped up by the bones of many people.

In the cartoon, President George Bush, wearing an Arab kafiyyeh
headdress, flashes a "V for Victory" sign while dancing on the skulls.
www.al-ayyam.com/znews/site/template/caricature.aspx?cid=239

Al-Ayyam Jan 31-Feb. 2, 2005

Al-Ayyam is heavily subsidized by the PA and the Fatah movement of PLO
leader and PA president Abbas, along with the two other Palestinian dailies,
Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda (also a Fatah paper) and Al-Quds, which is nominally
independent but heavily subsidized and controlled by the Palestinian
leadership.

Two cartoons today on the Al-Quds internet site also paint America's
democratization efforts in bloody colors.

One cartoon shows a shell-shocked American soldier in the background as
one Iraqi says to another near the ballot box: "What's louder the sound of
the votes or the explosions?" (See: www.alquds.com/pics/char.jpg )
Al-Quds--internet Feb. 2, 2005

A second cartoon at Al-Quds depicts Saddam Hussein's flag of Iraq-with the
words Allahu Akbar (God is Great)-drenched in blood.

Al-Quds--internet Feb. 2, 2005
www.alquds.com/pics/char1.jpg

A further cartoon in Al-Quds's print and PDF edition shows a bewildered
Iraqi facing a maze after the election.
(http://pdf.alquds.com/2005/2/2/page32.pdf.)

Another cartoon on the Al-Ayyam website today, entitled "What's Behind
the Elections," shows George Bush in a cowboy hat releasing a pestilence on
the region via an oil well.
(See
http://www.al-ayyam.com/znews/site/template/caricature.aspx?Date=2/2/2005.)

Al-Ayyam Feb. 2, 2005

Another cartoon from Al-Ayyam this week shows America as a mean dentist
peering into the mouth (ballot box) of an Iraqi with the words "Open Wide"
as if America is trying to force democracy down the throat of the Arabs.
(See www.al-ayyam.com/znews/site/template/caricature.aspx?cid=240.)

Al-Ayyam Jan. 31, 2005

These cartoons are only a small sampling of the daily dose of
anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda that has re-surfaced in the
Palestinian press following the election of Abbas during whose two-week
election campaign these messages were not shown or tempered greatly.

Since the Palestinian election, the United States and Israel have both
offered aid or economic and security concessions to the new PA regime headed
by Mahmoud Abbas who visited Russia this week, but even as the US and Israel
made their offers the Abbas government has toughened its media profile
against them.

In addition to the strong symbolic message of the cartoons, the
broadcast media of the Palestinian Authority-Voice of Palestine Radio and
PBC television-steadfastly refer to American forces in Iraq as "The American
occupation army," while those attacking American forces and the election
stations continue to be called "quwat al -muqawwima al-Iraqiyya"--"the
forces of the Iraqi resistance"-a highly positive connotation in Arabic.
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Dr. Michael Widlanski teaches political communication at the Rothberg School
of Hebrew University. His doctorate, "Palestinian Broadcast Media In the
Palestinian State-Building Process: Patterns of Influence and Control,"
was based on eight years of research involving more than 7,000 hours of
monitoring Palestinian radio in Arabic as well as television and newspaper
surveys. Widlanski was the NYTimes campus correspondent at Columbia
University, 1974-1976, a reporter-researcher in the NYTimes Jerusalem
bureau, 1980-82, Middle East Correspondent for The Cox Newspapers/Atlanta
Constitution/Boston Globe, 1982-89.