A regularly updated roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers.
US strategy for Iraq offers nothing new
The Jordan Times commented in its December 1 editorial on President George W. Bush's defense of his administration's strategy in Iraq and on the White House "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" document.
The English-language daily, partially owned by the government, argued that Washington is not closer today than it was in 2003 to securing a stable Iraq "that does not need a $6 billion-a-month American military force to fail to maintain security for the average Iraqi citizen ... nor is it closer to a clear strategy for how to make that happen."
Jordan's only English-language daily said that the strategy might sound easy on paper, but it does not offer anything new, nor does it suggest that a "strategy that has so far failed to secure even the safety of humanitarian aid workers will start to work by simply persevering with it".
However, the paper said, it is not clear what Washington should do, though withdrawing immediately from Iraq was the right decision due to the "spurious, downright fabricated grounds upon which the war was fought in the first place".
US dreams of controlling the world
The December 1 editorial of the United Arab Emirates' Al Khaleej said that the Bush administration was in an awkward position before its people as pressure grows on Washington to schedule a withdrawal from Iraq.
The pro-government daily added that the administration must now persuade the American people of a successful plan for the future of their forces in Iraq, saying that ensuring the success of the plan must entail indications that conditions in Iraq are improving.
That is why, it opined, the mainstream US media is now talking about better security conditions in Iraq, adding that "it seems the hawks in the American administration are trying to pull out a large number of the forces while preserving a presence, since they have no intension to leave" the country.
Withdrawing from Iraq would be a huge blow to the neoconservatives "because it is not easy to abandon their plan for the 'greater Middle East' and their dreams of controlling the world", it insisted.
Arab regimes must wake up from 'deep slumber'
The London-based Ash Sharq Al Awsat said in a December 1 commentary that the substantial gain for the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt's parliamentary elections does not seem to bother the United States, which it insisted might even be satisfied with the results.
The Saudi-owned daily said that is why Arab regimes should "wake up from their deep slumber and stop relying on appeasing the United States with bribes and political concessions".
It argued that in light of the Middle Eastern reality and the absence of secular parties that can fill the vacuum, the United States is "forced to return to an understanding with political Islam, which was its weapon in the face of the leftist, nationalist movements" during the Cold War.
The paper blamed the rise of the Islamic movement on the repression of the Arab regimes and their refusal to bring development and reforms. It also blamed the United States for "adopting impulsive policies in dealing with this very sensitive and important region".
A turning point
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi on December 1 published an article by the managing director of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel, Waddah Khanfar, in which the latter outlined the series of "harassments" that the network has faced from Arab regimes and the US administration since its inception in 1996.
Khanfar wrote that the Arab channel believed that all the harassment - including the bombing of its offices in Kabul and Baghdad that killed its reporter, Jordanian Tarek Ayoub - as well as the arrest of some of its staff members, occurred "because of our professional commitment in searching for the truth and broadcasting it from the ground".
But the issue was taken to another level, Khanfar wrote, when the British Daily Mirror reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President George W. Bush against bombing Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha last year.
He said that if the report that Bush contemplated bombing the channel was true, "this constitutes a turning point in the relationship between the authority and free media".
Ball is in the court of Syria's foes
Jordan's Ad Dustour on November 30 commented on the Syrian witness who said that he lied to international investigators looking into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
It said that whether Husam Husam was lying or whether he was a planted agent for Syrian intelligence designed to confuse the investigation's mission, his claims still discredit the international commission's report to the United Nations.
The mass-circulation daily, partially owned by the government, said that Husam's claim "pulled the rug from under the UN Security Council resolution" that demanded Syria's full cooperation with the investigation.
It insisted that the ball was now in the court of Syria's foes in Lebanon and the international community to absolve themselves from Husam's accusations that he was promised a bribe by Hariri' son, Saad Hariri, to give the commission false testimony on Syria's involvement in his father's assassination.
The threads of conspiracy against Syria
Egypt's semi-official Al Gumhuriya said in its November 30 editorial that Husam Husam's televised account of having lied to UN investigators reveals the level of involvement of "local and international parties to topple Syria like the Iraqi model".
The mass-circulation daily said that these parties "did not stop adopting unethical methods such as bribery and fabricating lies like the lie of weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein's regime hid".
It asked whether the "threads of conspiracy against Syria" will stop at the confession of Mehlis' primary witness, or whether the conspirators will find another witness who will accept a bribe and sell lies to "speed up the wheel of choking Syria".
UN inquiry confused
Syria's state-owned Al Thawra said in a November 30 commentary that regardless of Husam Husam's credibility, his televised account of having lied to international investigators shows the confusion in the inquiry.
It argued that the fact that the UN commission into the Hariri assassination confirmed that it had questioned Husam, who freely said that he was a Syrian intelligence agent, without verifying his testimony, was enough to show how poor its information was.
The paper said that this witness' information requires a practical response from the international probe, not a political response from politicians.
Otherwise, it warned, this investigation will continue to be a "hostage of empty words covering the truth with a noisy cover".
Addressing chief investigator Detlev Mehlis, the paper said that Hariri's assassination in an explosion does not resemble in any way the bombing of a Berlin club in the 1980s, which he investigated.
Does Syria's fate lie in hands of a confessed liar?
The United Arab Emirates' Gulf News daily commented in its November 30 editorial that the international investigation commission's confirmation that Husam Husam was one of their witnesses raises troubling questions.
The English-language paper said that whether the man was lying to the commission or lied about being bribed, "he is a confessed liar", adding that this alone "casts a great deal of doubts on the credibility of the Mehlis report ... upon which hangs the fate of Syria".
The Dubai-based daily wondered how many other fake testimonies made their way to the commission's report, saying that it was "hard to believe the increasingly isolated country [Syria] is being threatened with severe consequences on the basis of fake testimonies".
It insisted that it was the UN commission's responsibility to "come clean" on that issue, adding that the credibility of its report must be beyond questioning.
The mass-circulation paper accused Mehlis of having gone "against all principles of a proper criminal investigation" by "setting his eyes on one suspect, Syria, and has been employing every means to implicate its officials".
Enemies of democracy win in West Bank
The Palestinian Al Hayat Al Jadeeda daily on November 30 commented on the suspension of the mainstream Fatah faction's first primary elections in the Palestinian territories, saying that the "enemies of democracy and transparency have won".
The mainstream paper complained of widespread fraud, noting that one man claimed that he was "tired of repeated voting because he cast his ballot 30 times, for which he deserves the title of the world champion of fraud".
The West Bank daily said that while those involved in fraud, stealing ballot boxes or burning them believed that they deserve to win, "the truth is they are stabbing the mother movement [Fatah] in the heart while they claim the principles of democracy and trick the voters".
It said that everyone must realize that democracy is not just a slogan, but behavior and practice, adding that "we have badly failed in practice".
A desperate regime
Lebanon's anti-Syrian An Nahar daily on November 29 blasted Syrian intelligence services for the televised testimony of an alleged Syrian witness in the investigation into former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri's assassination.
The mass-circulation paper was commenting on Husam Husam, who claimed on November 28 on state-run Syrian TV and later in a news conference to have been bribed by Hariri's son Saad to give false testimony to international investigators that would implicate the Syrians in the assassination.
The daily said that the televised testimony was a desperate attempt orchestrated by the Syrian Baath regime, which it said continues to play a negative role in the Middle East.
The Lebanese paper asked why the regime in Damascus "lies to its people by portraying the investigation as an American-Zionist scheme against Syria's steadfastness and defiance, while the issue is the probe in a terrorist crime of which the Syrian people know the regime is not innocent".
The commentary said that the Arabs, before the West, have become tired of such behavior, adding that these actions have completely stripped the Syrian regime of any friends.
"It is a desperate regime that creates desperate witnesses like Husam Husam," the paper said.
Reinstating the truth
The Lebanese As Safir daily on November 29 said that the UN report on the investigation into former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's murder relied on two witnesses, one of whom has turned from witness to defendant, and Husam, who claims to have been bribed to give false testimony to investigators.
Husam's televised account, it insisted, should "reinstate the truth ... not through silence and ignoring or denying" the witness's claims, but by introducing "clarity, transparency and detailed response to verify or refute every word".
The paper argued that knowing the truth about why an accused witness turned into a defense witness was important, adding that if this does not happen, "we will really be standing before settling political scores that will do nothing but reflect the political balance of power and pushing it toward more
imbalance".
Justice for Palestine
The United Arab Emirates' Al Khaleej said in its November 29 editorial that finding and punishing the perpetrators of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's killing was a duty, as was trying toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The pro-government daily added that it was equally important to bring international justice to Palestine, "where the terrorist Zionists kill, destroy, swallow up more land and desecrate holy shrines".
The paper described Israel as the "biggest example in the world of terrorism in all its forms and of violating international legitimacy and all its resolutions".
Justice and integrity absent in Saddam's trial
Qatar's Ash Sharq daily on November 29 commented on the previous day's trial proceedings of Saddam Hussein and his former aides, saying that it was a "new act in this play in which the Kurdish Iraqi presiding judge maintained his cool as he has been trained to do so by the Americans so that he is portrayed as a fair judge leading a fair trial."
The pro-government paper said that the judge's response to giving the defendants what they asked for showed a "humanitarian image and gave the impression of justice, integrity and transparency".
But this image, it argued, was destroyed when the occupation forces cut off, censored and edited the recorded broadcast of the trial. "This only means that justice and integrity are absent in this trial," the paper opined.
It went on to say that a "bombshell" fell in the "Green Zone" outside the courtroom from Adnan Pachachi, one of the Iraqi figures "who came on top of the American tanks", when he said that "Saddam Hussein is a prisoner-of-war".
Such a statement coming from a former official in post-Saddam Iraq, the paper argued, confirms that Saddam's trial is "null and illegitimate because a war prisoner under international law cannot be tried under occupation".
Stop politicians from muzzling the press
The Bahrain Tribune commented in its November 29 editorial on a British newspaper report suggesting that Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President George Bush against bombing Al Jazeera headquarters in the Qatari capital, Doha, last year.
The English-language daily said that Bush's "bizarre bomb threat" based on a transcript of a meeting between the two leaders in Washington brought a stereotypical denial from the White House and Downing Street.
"But still," the pro-government paper said, "what we find astonishing is that both the White House and Downing Street have publicly responded thus - given the fact that top leaders from both Western nations are so fond of posturing as vigorous champions of a free press."
It argued that making matters worse was the fact that British newspapers now faced the risk of being taken to court and prosecuted for leaking a "Top Secret" government memo.
"This is precisely the kind of case where the international fraternity of professional journalists must initiate some concerted action to ensure that powerful political establishments are not able to muzzle the press so easily," the paper stressed.
A blow to democracy
Egypt's semi-official Al Ahram daily on November 28 criticized the way that the first two rounds of the country's general elections were conducted.
The mass-circulation paper said that the violence, bribery and administrative foul play during the polling were a blow to transforming the country into a modern democracy that respects human rights and pluralism.
The paper complained that such acts not only undermine the credibility of the elections, but might lead the nation to "an unethical, political destruction".
If the integrity and neutrality of elections became institutionalized, there would be no need for anyone to resort to violence or corruption during the voting, the paper noted.
When elections revolve around political ideas and programs, it added, "it will be impossible to buy votes the way it happened in this election in broad daylight and before the cameras of the world".
Egyptian parliament a 'breach of legitimacy'
Egypt's opposition Al Wafd daily on November 28 also criticized "the buying of votes and of thugs and supporters" in the elections. The new Parliament will be short-lived because it is the result of "a breach of any legitimacy", it said.
Candidates who bought votes and paid thugs did not deserve to represent the people in the National Assembly, added the paper, owned by the liberal opposition Al Wafd Party.
It said that the fact that less than 20 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots was enough to put in doubt the legitimacy of the new Parliament.
"It is enough that the conspiracy, by all sides, succeeded in pushing aside the legitimate political parties" from representation, the paper added. This was an obvious reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, whose representatives grabbed enough votes in the rounds to become the biggest single opposition group and second largest bloc after the ruling National Democratic Party.
No space for liberalism and secularism
Jordan's Ad Dustour newspaper said in a November 28 editorial that the Egyptian elections raise the question of the real extent of political Islam in the Arab world.
The mass-circulation daily said that despite "all the wars" waged against the Muslim Brotherhood, it still has "full control" on the ground.
The paper added that the results show "divisions within society between the ruling parties, which own all the tools of authority, and the Islamic movement, which has the tools of moral influence on the street. Yet we don't see even a small space between the two for other forces which support liberalism and secularism."
It said that the Egyptian elections also reflected the level of the "democratic performance" in Arab societies, where the ruling authorities "fail to behave according to the rules, using thugs and refusing to recognize the existence of political opposition, while the Islamic movement fails to behave according to the minimum rules of democratic dialogue".
US responsibility to Iraq
The London-based Al Hayat on November 28 said that the Bush administration wanted to give the impression that there will be no withdrawal from Iraq without consensus.
"It is as if [President George W.] Bush came up with the idea of withdrawal, just like he came up with the idea of the war, invasion and occupation," the Saudi-financed daily commented. But talk of withdrawal comes as a result of growing internal and external pressure against the US policy in Iraq, it said.
It added that while the news of an American withdrawal from Iraq was good, "the bad news is that the occupation forces did nothing on the ground to pave the way for a pullout. On the contrary, the Americans planted and encouraged all the elements of sedition."
Having removed a tyrannical regime in Iraq, the paper concluded, the US was responsible for bringing "to Iraq a ferocious terrorist organization".
If the Americans fail to bring national reconciliation to Iraq, the US withdrawal "will be worse than its occupation".
Allawi's important admission
Another London-based daily, Al Quds Al Arabi, commented on November 28 that former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi's statement that human rights conditions in his country were perhaps worse than those under the toppled Saddam Hussein's regime was an "important admission".
The independent Palestinian-owned paper said that such a "confession" reconfirms that "American-British-led liberated Iraq is not better off, as President George Bush insists on claiming, since the fall of Baghdad."
It added that Allawi, whom it said had been among the most prominent Iraqi figures to have facilitated the American invasion of his country, even admitted that Iraqis are now "longing for Saddam Hussein's days that we fought because of these very same misdeeds".
If such a "courageous testimony" had been given by any Arab writer or official, he would have been accused of lying and of supporting "a dictatorship, mass graves, chemical weapons against innocent civilians and lavish palaces".
But coming from Allawi, such statements might be a turning point for self-criticism and comprehensive review of all the mistakes that have been made since Saddam's overthrow.
Review of Arab editorials
TOOLBAR
To add a comment,
Please log in:
Don't have an account?
Register now to comment on stories and stay up to date on important events and issues in the Middle East with our newsletter.