A day after the new ‘Spying Affair’ [1] exploded in the U.S. media, Middle Eastern newspapers were quick to respond.
The strong ties between America and Israel are viewed by the Middle Eastern regimes to a large extent as a zero-sum game: what is good for Israel is bad for the Arabs. So when a juicy story like this falls into their laps, the Arabs are not likely to let it pass unnoticed.
The information the papers got was mainly taken from that which was already published in the American reports. What the editors did with the information, and the headlines they gave to the story, revealed their stand towards it.
“New Israeli spy in the Pentagon? – The Jewish Lobby suspected of aiding the collaborator,” wrote the Palestinian daily Al-Quds as its top front-page headline. Although the editor was cautious enough to put a question mark after his headline, he answered immediately using the term ‘collaborator’.
Much harsher language was used by the Saudi daily Al-Watan: “Larry Franklin is a new Pollard. Tel Aviv infiltrates the Pentagon to steal confidential documents on Iran,” wrote the paper on its front page, though not as its top headline. The paper wrote that it spoke to some Palestinian analysts who doubted the Israeli denial. As if the Saudis expected to get a different response from the Palestinians…
The Emirates daily Al-Khalij also showed exactly what it thinks regarding whether or not Franklin was indeed collaborating with Israel: “Franklin stole important information and gave it to Israel,” its top headline on the front page stated.
In Egypt and Jordan – the only Arab countries to have signed peace agreements with Israel – official newspapers were somewhat cautious in their headlines and reporting. “An Israeli spy discovered in the Pentagon,” reported the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, but was quick to add, “The spy is suspected [TML bold] of transferring secret documents to Israel regarding Iraq and Iran.”
In a similar way, the Jordanian daily A-Dustour entitled its report: “An Israeli spy in the Pentagon”, but wrote in the first paragraph: “The Americans are investigating the possibility [TML bold] that a spy transferred information to Israel.”
In contrast to the Arab papers, the Israeli papers headlined their extensive reports on the subject in a very different way. “Allegations: An Israeli ‘mole’ in the Pentagon,” wrote Haaretz as its top headline. “Suspicion in the U.S.: Senior in the Pentagon transferred information to Israel,” Yediot Aharonot entitled its report, adding in a second headline: “Israel: The spying affair is a lie, Jerusalem estimates the Pentagon itself leaked information to Israel through AIPAC in order to encourage Israeli pressure to attack Iran.”
The affair covered the first five pages of the Israeli Yediot Aharonot, the country’s most popular paper. All the analysts were unanimous – after the Pollard affair, Israel would not have made the same mistake. “It is all part of the conspiracy theory about the Jews, who navigate the world to disaster,” wrote one of its analysts.
Another Israeli paper, which took a different approach from the two aforementioned papers, was the new Israeli-Arab daily, named Al-Fajr Al-Jadid (The New Dawn). This paper used AFP’s report, and entitled it: “FBI investigates, Israel denies: An Israeli spy in the Pentagon!” Israeli Arabs have their own agenda regarding the Israeli government, so such a headline (note the exclamation mark) is also not surprising.
Whether or not Larry Franklin is guilty of spying, it seems the Middle Eastern media has already made up its mind – less on the basis of facts, and more on the basis of past sentiments.