A regularly updated roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers.
Thugs in Gaza are Palestinian suicide
The Palestinian Al Ayyam daily on January 5 criticized in a commentary what it described as a shift from a Palestinian revolution to armed gangs that rule the streets. The mainstream paper said these gangs were behaving as if they "own the world with some weapons they carry in childish parades and behaving with authority, reflecting the doors of hell".
It differentiated between the "weapons of the resistance" and the use of weapons by thugs, blasting the kidnappings of foreign civilians, storming institutions and terrorizing the people as "Palestinian suicide".
The West Bank-based paper said the internal situation can change through a popular movement and with the emergence of a new "charismatic leader with the desire to build institutions". It added that while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has had "good intentions" since he was elected, the intentions alone are not enough because a forceful shift was needed to bring about change. "Force is the key to order, security and stability," the daily argued, saying that such power needs an "aware leadership that is not drowned in its personal interests."
New, strange culture of kidnappings in Gaza
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi commented on January 5 the security chaos in the Gaza Strip does not serve the legitimate Palestinian aspirations in establishing an independent state. The independent Palestinian-owned daily sharply criticized the kidnappings of foreigners, the latest of which was an attempt to abduct Americans, including the father of Rachel Corrie, a peace activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in March 2003. "The culture of kidnappings that is spreading in a horrifying way is a strange culture for the people of the occupied territories," it said.
The paper blamed the Palestinian Authority and "its corrupt services", as well as the Israeli occupation, for fueling such activities and consolidating chaos. It warned the Gaza Strip was quickly turning into "another Somalia", saying the area has turned into a large prison for 2.5 million people, and a "big warehouse for poverty, frustration and deprivation." It insisted that as long as the Gaza Strip remains this way, noting a 60 percent unemployment rate, the chaos will continue.
Four factors in Palestinian elections
Lebanon's Daily Star said in its editorial on January 5 that four political factors needed to be clarified if the Palestinian legislative elections are to be held on time on January 25. The independent English-language daily added there was tension within the mainstream Fatah movement over the polls, between Fatah and Hamas, and between Israel and the Palestinians as a whole over the issue of Jerusalem Palestinians participating. The fourth element, it said, is the issues that separate the Palestinians from the international Quartet Committee, which "is supposed to shepherd Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to a successful conclusion in the coming years".
The Lebanese paper said while these are separate issues, they overlap in many cases, particularly "when it comes to the expectation ... that Hamas will secure a good number of seats and might share power in a new government". It added the transition of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from violence to peaceful political engagement and co-existence would be "significantly speeded by a more forceful and even-handed posture by the Quartet, which in turn would influence the principal actors in the field". It said signs for a balanced and strong international commitment to the rights of both [the Palestinians and Israelis] were still "thin and sporadic.... Now is the time to make them thick and torrential."
Israel threatening Al Aqsa Mosque
Egypt's Al Gumhuriya daily blasted on January 5 what it said was Israel's continued threats against Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest shrine, by seeking to build a temple underneath it. The semi-official paper's editorial accused the Israelis of continuing to "Judaize" Arab Jerusalem and changing its demographic and geographic nature with the aim of confiscating the rights of the Palestinian people to make the city the capital of their future state.
It insisted the Israelis were undermining the sentiments of hundreds of millions of Muslims and Christians around the world who consider Jerusalem as their holy city and "not a monopoly for the Jews alone". The mass-circulation daily blamed the international community and its organizations for remaining silent over these plans and for not trying to stop them. But at the same time, it complained, these very same organizations "make a huge fuss against similar statements" made by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on the "myth of the holocaust, which are statements related to disputed historic events".
Iraqi family killed over miscalculation
Qatar's Al Watan daily blasted the US forces for the recent bombing of a house that killed an entire Iraqi family because of miscalculation, just as it had invaded Iraq "based on the lie of the weapons of mass destruction". The pro-government paper asked if the US-led occupation forces "found the bomb, of which the Americans claimed that three people were trying to plant along the road".
It blasted the US military for failing to mention in its statement on the incident that it had "committed a crime against an entire family of 14, including women and children". It opined that while the American forces "committed this crime", Iraqi politicians were too busy struggling for power and ministerial positions to think about condemning this act. The paper said that an Iraqi investigation should be carried out into the bombing to punish those responsible, because the Americans "cannot continue to kill without accountability".
A good time for Syria's Assad to clean up house
Syria's state-owned Al Thawra daily said in a commentary on January 4 that former Syrian vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam's statements in his interview with Al Arabiya TV channel would have serious repercussions, but that they are also an opportunity to fight corruption. The paper said this provided a "golden opportunity" for Syrian President Bashar Assad to uproot corruption within Syria and in its relations with Lebanon. "It is an opportunity for the clean hands to wipe out the front and back lawn of the regime," the paper argued.
The newspaper asked why the members of Syria's National Assembly and ruling Baath Party, who blasted Khaddam and accused him of treason and corruption following his televised statements, did not take into consideration that people in Syria and Lebanon "have been asking where these they were when Khaddam and his likes were shoveling money from the people ".
Syrian woes not new, nor surprising
Jordan's Al Rai commented on January 4 that what Khaddam said against the Syrian regime in his televised statements was not new and neither was the Syrian parliament's accusations that Khaddam was corrupt.
The mass-circulation daily said the vice president would have become president after the death of ex-president Hafez Assad, yet he was prevented his constitutional right, the paper added, by certain people who amended the constitution to instal Assad's son, Bashar. "These measures hurt Khaddam's feelings ... and he was distanced from the [Baath] party leadership in elections whose results were predetermined," it said.
The semi-government paper opined that Khaddam decided now to turn against the regime. Syrian reaction labeling Khaddam as a corrupt traitor was expected, especially that his statements "added insult to injury as the regime faces internal and external pressures to change." The daily suggested the proper Syrian reaction is not in cursing the former vice president, but by introducing democratic reforms.
Do not humiliate the Syrian state
Egypt's semi-official Al Ahram said in its editorial on January 4 that the request by the UN probe commission into Hariri's assassination to question Syrian President Bashar Assad and foreign minister Farouk Sharaa is a shock to the Syrians and a violation of the "red lines by the commission, which does not consider the dignity of the state and its symbols".
The mass-circulation added that, as expected, the US strongly supported the request of the commission and that it expected the Syrian government to comply totally with the request without conditions.
It noted that Syria had turned down the request, saying the investigation team could have received full cooperation from Damascus if it had "not resorted to humiliating the Syrian state." It insisted the international commission should resort to professional rather than political means to reach the truth over Hariri's murder, warning that "political considerations will lead to more tension with Syria to serve the interests of the big nations that seek revenge" from Damascus.
What is needed, the paper stressed, is a professional and accurate investigation to reach the truth, without humiliating the Syrian state, and to be flexible, "away from creating crises".
Palestinian elections are 'vital'
The Jordan Times warned in its January 3 editorial against postponing the Palestinian legislative elections due later this month, saying that those actively opposing the polls are acting against Palestinian interests and the interests of peace and stability.
The country's only English-language daily argued that as the Palestinian Authority (PA) is losing its credibility among its people, elections are "absolutely vital to keep the PA alive".
The paper said that Palestinian elements within and outside the mainstream Fatah movement were seeking a delay in the elections because they might turn out against their interests.
It urged them to "reflect that without elections it is very possible the PA will fade into oblivion, taking with it any hopes of a political settlement in the foreseeable future".
The daily complained that US and European "grumbling" over Hamas participation in these polls are also unproductive because "without Hamas, the PA can do nothing", and it warned that a continued political stalemate with Israel and in terms of the security chaos "leads only further down the spiral of degeneration of the Palestinian situation".
The essence of terrorism
The Palestinian Al Ayyam on January 3 commented on the growing trend of kidnapping foreign civilians in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Yemen, saying that such abductions for political and financial gains were "the essence of terrorism".
The mainstream daily said that the tribal problems in Yemen cannot be resolved by abducting innocent tourists, and that kidnapping "anyone and everyone in Iraq will not lead to Iraq's liberation as much as it will distort the image of the Iraqi resistance by labeling it as terrorist, which is what the enemies of the Iraqi people want".
It blasted the series of kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza over the past 10 days, in which all of the hostages were eventually released.
The West Bank-based paper said that it was "unfortunate that some Palestinians would turn into enemies of their people's struggle".
Khaddam's bombshell
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi said on January 3 that former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam's testimony against the Syrian regime on Al Arabiya news channel last week had "exploded the bomb that shook the foundations of this regime and perhaps sped up its collapse".
The independent Palestinian-owned daily said that Khaddam's service to the UN-appointed commission probing former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri's assassination was "invaluable and more important than all the investigations conducted" by the commission in the past three months.
"For Mr. Khaddam is a royal witness who was in the midst of authority in a high position at the time of the crime," the paper remarked.
It argued that the former vice-president had decided to talk only after he became sure that the Syrian regime was on the verge of collapsing and to present himself as an alternative leader, thinking that Washington was looking for a "Syrian Ayad Allawi", in reference to the former Iraqi prime minister.
The paper blasted Khaddam for saying that the Syrian people were eating out of garbage cans without specifying "who brought these people to this situation ... Who brought these people into poverty except the security regime that Mr. Khaddam was at its forefront?"
Path of no return
Another London-based daily, Ash Sharq Al Awsat, said on January 3 that former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam must have known he had chosen a "path of no return" for himself and for the Syrian regime when he gave his interview to Al Arabiya channel.
The Saudi-owned paper predicted that he would not return to his country after his lengthy testimony to the channel because of the angry reaction in Syria to what he said.
It said that Khaddam's statements raise many questions and pose serious possibilities for Syria "because what is now being sought is the neck of the regime itself if it does not respond to the demands of the investigation" into Hariri's assassination.
It added that this required a different and more serious approach by Damascus, "away from the protest demonstrations and rallies, because there are real interests for the people and nation in the balance".
Review of Arab editorials
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