A regularly updated roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers.
Palestinian frustration
The Palestinian Al Hayat Al Jadeeda said on November 17 that the agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on Gaza's borders did not remove a sense of general frustration from the Palestinians.
The mainstream daily said that no Palestinian, including Abbas, was "comfortable" with the conditions in the territories. It added that the only happy party was "the one that opens fire at us every day, sits in the watchtower observing all our moves and closes off the roads whenever he wishes".
The paper complained that there was frustration for all Palestinians "after the political horizon closed and turned our dream into one about opening a crossing that was not closed since the occupation and removing a checkpoint we used to cross on foot under the bullets".
It said that Palestinian objectives had shrunk and asked "where are our grand objectives for which we have sacrificed, where is our national unity and our struggling factions, where is our diplomacy that has collapsed"?
Slipping down an inhuman slope
Egypt's Al Ahram said in its November 17 editorial that Iraqi defense minister Saadoun Al Dulaimi's recent threats to demolish the homes of the insurgents "on the heads of their women and children" were unacceptable.
The semi-official daily said that the minister might have not realized that he "has slipped down the inhuman slope of collective punishment of innocent people and families".
It said that when the same Iraqi minister remarked without evidence that Syria was the source of booby-trapped cars used in Iraq, he was merely serving the American and Western campaign against Syria by fabricating such accusations.
"If Syria is the source of the booby-trapped cars in Iraq, is it also the source of these cars in Afghanistan?" the mass-circulation paper asked.
"The occupation and government authorities must realize that ending the violence and explosions in Iraq fundamentally depends on ending the occupation and respecting the will of the Iraqi people in choosing their political forces without excluding any faction," it concluded.
The challenge before the Cairo meeting
Bahrain's Akhbar Al Khaleej said on November 17 that although the Arabs had moved too late to save Iraq from losing its Arab identity and left room for the occupation to do as it pleased, the preparatory meeting of Iraq's political forces under the Arab League umbrella in Cairo was nevertheless very important.
The pro-government daily said that the national reconciliation conference sponsored by the Arab League could prevent divisions and sectarian struggles in Iraq.
It said that the mere fact that the Arab organization was organizing this gathering was in itself an "affirmation of Iraq's Arab identity and the ties that don't distinguish between the Iraqi and Arab people".
The Bahraini paper continued to say that it would be a big accomplishment if the participating Iraqi forces in the reconciliation conference agreed to end all sectarian-based calls and limit efforts to divide Iraq.
It said, however, that for the conference to have positive results for the Iraqis, all the country's forces must be represented, adding that this was the "greatest challenge" for the preparatory meeting in Cairo.
Al Qaeda's failing strategy
Kuwait's Al Rai Al Aam said on November 16 that when Al Qaeda failed to strike against the United States after 9/11, it began a new policy of targeting civilians in the Arab world.
The pro-government daily said that this created chaos showing that Arab states were unable to protect their own people, and speculated that Al Qaeda believes that this failure will contribute to shaking up these countries.
The Kuwaiti paper argued that Al Qaeda's operations against civilians in Iraq and its execution of hostages in front of cameras has distanced many Muslims from the organization and had turned its reputation into a criminal one.
"One can safely say that Al Qaeda's strategy of trying to win over the sympathy of the Muslim masses is failing every day," it said.
Syria's lost opportunities
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi said on November 16 that Syrian policy seems to be "sinking into an era of lost opportunities" because its leaders have "lost their sense of reality".
The independent Palestinian-owned daily outlined Syria's "lost opportunities" since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 to the present date, saying that the regime had failed to form new internal and foreign policies and had held on to the "options of the past era in a different international, Arab and local environment".
It criticized the Syrian regime for refusing to renew and reform, adding that Syria ignored its society and many in its ruling party because "it has lost connection with reality and has no other task except to swim against the tide of the times, although [this] will have a very high price for Syria and its people".
Defending Syria
The United Arab Emirates' Al Bayan said on November 16 that the US administration's attitude toward Syria had nothing to do with the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
Rather, the pro-government paper said, the US wanted to "break [Syria's] will and sovereignty, to give up its right over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and to end its pan-Arab nationalist role in the Arab struggle against the Zionist expansionist scheme".
Therefore, it said, defending Syria now was not just defending its regime or individuals, but defending the "third fort in the Arab triangle that includes Palestine and Lebanon".
Defending Syria is also defending the Lebanese and Syrian people, the paper argued, "so how can we accept threats of oncoming economic sanctions to starve and subdue the Syrian people"?
However, the paper said that Damascus should remove any pretexts for Washington and proposed that Syria positively cooperate with the international team probing Hariri's assassination by providing it with all the information at its disposal.
Not in Bush's lifetime?
Qatar's Al Watan on November 16 commented that although US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken recently to the Palestinian leadership on the need for Israel to stop obstructing the peace process, Washington was not likely to convert its criticism into practical pressure on Israel.
The pro-government daily said that past experience showed that the US was not willing to freeze economic support and military cooperation with the Jewish state and would continue to be biased in favor of Israel.
It argued that Washington has often threatened to withhold aid to the Palestinians and to isolate the Palestinian leadership if it did not eliminate "terrorism" and disarm the Palestinian factions.
"Yet the Israeli government constantly announces its intention to expand its settlements in the West Bank and continues building the apartheid [separation] barrier," the paper complained.
It said that the real American problem in the peace process is that its condemnations and pressure move in only one direction, "which explains what [President George] Bush recently said that a Palestinian state will not see the light of day while he is in power, but perhaps he meant during his lifetime".
When extremism becomes self-destruction
The London-based Al Hayat daily on November 15 said that the shifting of suicide bombings from Iraq to neighboring countries was a mistake by all standards on the part of Al Qaeda.
The Saudi-financed paper argued that terrorism was activated when elements of a sovereign, stable state applying the rule of law were missing.
"But when terrorism tries to jump outside its natural environment, it becomes more than an enemy," it commented, adding that the world has lost its balance as US troops and terrorists alike kill innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
It said that more serious than the victims of suicide bombings in Jordan and elsewhere is that "weapons are aimed where they are not meant to be aimed, whether they are the weapons of resistance or as an expression against domination".
The paper, distributed in most Arab capitals, added that when extremism turns into self-destruction, it becomes "sedition against human existence, for it reflects an image that contradicts family solidarity".
Exporting violence
Bahrain's Akhbar Al Khaleej on November 15 said that North Africans who take boats to immigrate to Europe should abide by European laws once there and assimilate in European society.
The pro-government daily said that the problem with some of these immigrants is that they seek to work in France, for example, yet they hate French society, adding that most of the petty criminals in Paris are originally North Africans who are illegal residents.
It said that the French who had stood up to protect the rights of immigrants have now turned against them, although they continue to maintain fairness and insist on their proper treatment.
"When we compare this [mentality] with that in our Arab societies, we discover we are 10 years behind in this forgiving spirit," the paper opined, adding that religious extremism in the Arab world was predominant.
It said that "instead of importing knowledge, culture, arts and technology from Europe to develop our Arab societies, we are exporting violence to them and presenting them with free gifts of explosions".
Balance needed
The United Arab Emirates' Al Khaleej said in its November 15 editorial that Arabs should not rely on a US role in the Middle East as long as the current American administration continues to "defend and support Zionist terrorism and sees Palestinian self-defense as terrorism".
The pro-government daily said that Israel had turned the "liberation of Gaza" into a cosmetic step after it imposed a siege on the area and asked what US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did in her visit to "occupied Palestine to stop the siege, the daily aggression and to end the crimes that prevent the Palestinians from breathing".
It said that Washington cannot regain its credibility in the Arab world, especially when it "promotes the slogans of freedom and democracy, reform, development and a bright future, while it prevents any steps in this direction through its support of the occupation".
The paper insisted that all that was needed from America was balance, adding that under the current US administration, it was impossible to bet on such a balanced position regarding Middle East issues.
A challenge for the Arab League
Lebanon's Daily Star said on November 15 that the Arab League's announcement that 100 Iraqi leaders will attend a national reconciliation conference in Cairo this weekend offers a "rare cause for optimism about the future prospects of Iraq's troubled political process".
The independent English-language paper said that the announcement restores hopes that the Arab organization can play an active and effective role in resolving the region's problems.
It argued that while this conference was no guarantee for a way out of the Iraqi crisis that might ignite a civil war, bringing representatives from all Iraq's communities to agree to come to the negotiating table has been a "huge challenge".
The daily added that reconciling Iraq's "fractured communities" was among the most important challenges to face the Arab League in 15 years.
Condemning terror in all its forms
Jordan's independent Al Ghad daily said on November 14 that the Jordanian government's plan to formulate a new anti-terror national strategy would succeed if a mass cultural movement is launched to "reject any attempt to justify terrorism, its objectives and motives".
It insisted that the success of a national strategy against terror required eradicating any "cultural environment where there is sympathy with terrorists who have persuaded some that they were working in the services of the just Arab causes".
It is time, the paper argued, to form a national position, with consensus, that condemns terrorism in all its forms and regardless of the declared motives of its perpetrators and its victims.
The paper, owned by independent investors, said that this position should reject every effort to justify violence "carried in the name of Arab causes, which are innocent of terrorism".
It insisted that "terrorism starts with an idea and ends with deadly hatred", saying that fighting it should also start with a thought that "will be the basic foundation of a common culture that believes in the nation, the just Arab causes and which rejects the idea of killing innocents in their name".
No culture of extremism in Jordan
Another Jordanian daily, Al Rai, said on November 14 that it comes as no surprise that the suicide bombers of three hotels in Amman were Iraqis and not Jordanians.
The paper, partially owned by the government, asked if Iraq had now become an exporter of terrorism. It said that Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda was created from violence and blood and was sponsored by American administrations when they needed it.
It added that Jordan, since its establishment, had never taken part in violence "and we did not teach our children hatred and blood-shedding, and we are not supporters of the culture of extremism".
It added that when King Abdullah promises to track down the terrorists and bring them to justice, "he is confident in the country's ability to take control of matters without anyone's help, and that the chaos in the region will not spill into our borders, for it has no supporters and followers here".
Sharon should leave Jordan alone
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi on November 14 warned that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer to cooperate with Jordan against terrorism after the Amman attacks could retract the overwhelming condemnation of terror on the streets of Jordan.
The paper said that Israel does not face terrorism but legitimate resistance against a "brutal occupation" and said that it was wrong to place the resistance "in one hand with the bloody suicide attacks in Jordan".
The independent Palestinian-owned daily said that Sharon's cooperation with Jordan against terror will be a burden on the Jordanian government and people and serves "those who work in the dark to destabilize Jordan, its people and economy".
It insisted that Jordan, with all the grass-roots support that it has, does not need Israel's or any other country's help, adding that the best assistance that Sharon can give Jordan is to leave it alone.
The paper said that the people of Jordan "cannot look at Sharon except as an enemy who occupies land and holy shrines, regardless of the peace treaty" between the two countries.
Criminalizing sympathy for terrorists
Egypt's semi-official Al Ahram daily said in its November 14 editorial that the Amman bombings had prompted a reconsideration of Jordanian public opinion, part of which sympathized with the ideas of Al Qaeda, especially those calling for an end to occupations.
The mass-circulation paper argued that Jordanians had realized after the Amman attacks that Al Qaeda was just a terrorist organization that commits crimes against innocent people in different places that have nothing to do with occupations.
It said that King Abdullah was clear against tolerating terrorists and anyone who sympathizes with their ideas and justifies their actions.
"And it is high time for Arab public opinion to move to revealing the truth about these terrorist organizations and to criminalize any sympathy or justification for their acts anywhere, as long as they target innocent civilians," the Egyptian paper insisted.
Cultural revolution required
Qatar's Al Watan commented on November 14 that while Arab regimes always condemn violence, they do not admit that their countries have certain people who cannot take a clear position against terrorism.
The pro-government daily opined that this might be due to their frustrations toward "what they think is a conspiracy led by America aimed at weakening the Arabs and to control them for Israeli interests".
That is why when the bombings target hotels and tourist sites in the Arab world, the paper continued, they are confused as to why the targets were not military nor had clear political significance.
It said that the situation requires a "real cultural revolution drilled in societies that terrorism that targets civilians, Arabs or otherwise, cannot be acceptable under any circumstances".
The paper added that this needed collective efforts by religious scholars, educational institutions and the media "to avoid mixing ideas and to eradicate confusion when they hear an explosion rocked a hotel in Amman, a train in Madrid or the metro in London".
Review of Arab editorials
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