A roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers September 7.
Weak Arabs seeking UN help
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi blasted the Arab foreign ministers' decision to take the Middle East conflict to the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution, saying these efforts are doomed to fail.
The independent Palestinian-owned daily commented the Arab decision cannot work at a time when the general mood in the region is one of "war and instability, in addition to the US administration's preoccupation with more important issues, like the Iranian nuclear program and disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon."
Taking the issue to the Security Council from a position of weakness, it stressed, shows the "bankruptcy of the official Arab order and its escape from important issues to shift Arab public attention."
The daily, distributed in many Arab capitals, argued the events in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine are now beyond the peace road map and require real effective action, not just issuing statements and complaints to the Security Council. It stressed that the bloodshed in the region doesn't need new international resolutions or new peace initiatives, since there are hosts of resolutions and peace plans that have been ignored.
It called on Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to declare the death of the official Arab order, just as he declared the peace process dead, instead of trying to provide a cover for this "failure of an order."
The daily insisted the Arab masses want serious steps, like pulling out their ambassadors from Tel Aviv and to use the oil card to pressure Israel.
Victorious Arabs making surprise surrender
Kuwait's Al Qabas said in a commentary the Arab regimes have long adopted the attitude of surrender to Israel, abandoned the idea of resistance and are seeking peace that can only come from the Americans.
The pro-government daily said that Lebanon's Hezbollah victory over Israel in the recent war prompted the Arab masses to reawaken and support resistance. "But the unhappy surprise is the Arab regimes are once again returning to America and its peace through the Security Council, which has become of its international tools," the paper opined.
It described returning to the Security Council as a mistake because the American administration "blatantly stands behind Israel, supporting it with money, weapons and political positions; in fact, it encourages it to continue its aggression on the Arabs."
It asked what Arab governments expect from an American administration that only gave them a "new American-Zionist peace for Arab countries. And why do they want to foil all forms of resistance and even opposition to the Zionist schemes?"
Arabs turning blind eye once again
Oman's Al Watan commented that the continued Israeli detention of Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Aziz Dweik, as well as other legislators and officials from the Hamas government, was part of Tel Aviv's "fascist racism and a blatant violation of all international charters."
The pro-government daily blasted the Arabs for turning a blind eye and refusing to confront these Israeli measures. It said Arab parliaments should be holding collective protests against the international blockade against the elected Hamas government, adding the measures against the Palestinian government were hurting all the Palestinian people in their daily lives and livelihoods.
The paper said the Arab airline carriers should have resumed all their flights to Beirut to break the Israeli blockade against Lebanon, insisting if there was an Arab consensus on such a position, the "new Nazis in Tel Aviv would not dare confront civilian aircraft using their legitimate right to land in Beirut airport." It insisted the Arab-Israeli issue is one of survival for all Arabs and requires efforts to stop these violations of international and humanitarian laws.
Anti-Syrian Lebanese poisoning relations
Syria's Tishreen blasted the anti-Syrian Lebanese forces, the March 14 alliance, for consistently throwing accusations at Syria, trying to distort the country's image in the world and seeking to continue "poisoning" relations between the two countries.
The state-run daily said in its editorial the March 14 camp attempts cannot succeed because they go against the historic trends of the binds that tie Syria and Lebanon. It added that Syria was not surprised by statements and positions adopted by members of the March 14 alliance because Damascus "is convinced they are an Israeli product with an American stamp." Therefore, it opined, these Lebanese politicians cannot be the real representatives of the Lebanese people, saying they only say what Israel and America dictates directly or through mediators in the region.
The official paper claimed that members of the March 14 camp hold regular meetings with Israeli officials and their agents in Europe and the United States. Nevertheless, it asserted, the vast majority of the Lebanese and Syrians know the connections of this group, which it said "is not able to have real influence on national Lebanese issues, and they know themselves very well, for history has no mercy."
US image efforts doomed to fail
Egypt's Al Gumhuriya said in its editorial that no matter how hard the United States spends and tries to promote its image in the Arab world through "Sawa Radio" and "Al Hurra TV," these efforts will fail.
The semi-official daily added that as long as the US foreign policy remains hostile towards the Arabs and Muslims, and so long as it continues to "repeat false slogans that are painted with the blood of Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians and Lebanese," the United States cannot change its image in the region.
It complained the American foreign policy has for decades bet on Israel as the basis of this policy. It said that Washington has deliberately been destroying the advancement and progress of the Arab countries to keep them hostage to "American hegemony, which neither America nor Israel can continue forever, even with the force of weapons or the slogans of Sawa and Al Hurra."
Review of Arab Editorials
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