A roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers October 4.
Rice tour timely
Egypt's Al Ahram said that the meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, and Jordan in Cairo Tuesday was very significant toward efforts to revive the Mideast peace process.
The semi-official daily added in its editorial that the meeting came at an important time because the situation in the Palestinian territories continues to deteriorate and threatens to have serious repercussions.
This requires international and regional efforts to calm down the situation and to bring back the rivals to the negotiating table, it argued, saying that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas needs more support to achieve his "moderate vision to reach peace with Israel, as Rice said."
In addition, the mass-circulation paper said, the security and political conditions in Iraq are quickly heading toward a real civil war, adding that it was time to end the violence and reunite the Iraqis behind a strong government that imposes its sovereignty, influence, and security.
"Rice's tour and the Cairo meeting affirm the importance that the United States places on achieving stability and security in the region," the paper stated.
Arabs must reject US 'instructions'
Bahrain's Al Wasat said that Rice was in the region to dictate to the "moderate Arabs" how to "stand against the extremist forces in the region," including Iran, Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah organization, and other anti-Israeli forces.
The pro-government daily, which describes itself as independent, added in a commentary that Washington is trying to gather Arab political and possibly financial support to resist Iran by portraying the Islamic republic as a threat to the Arab Gulf region.
"The Americans want to achieve their interests in our region, to exploit and steal our resources and allow the Zionists on our lands," it complained, "but where are our interests in standing with them when it will only lead us to more weakness and divisions?"
Iran, it noted, borders the Arab Gulf region, but nothing "ties us to America except animosity and hatred our people have for the Americans," adding that the oil-rich Arab countries would be making a huge mistake if they accepted the American "instructions."
The paper opined that Rice and other figures from the US administration are hated by the Arab masses because of the size of the American hatred toward the Arabs, saying that it wished that the leaders of these masses would stand by their own people to achieve the "strength we want."
Faulty American democracy
Lebanon's Al Nahar said that when Rice delivered a lecture in July 2005 at Cairo University on the need for democracy in the Arab world, she upset Washington's traditional Arab friends because she was clearly criticizing the Egyptian and Saudi regimes.
Today, it added, she returns to Cairo to meet eight of her Arab counterparts, describes them as "moderate forces" in the region, and consults with them on how to confront the "extremist forces" that came to power through democratic elections in Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon.
"The Bush administration returned to the regimes it had criticized as being undemocratic to discuss with them stability at the expense of democracy," the anti-Syrian paper argued.
The mass-circulation daily said that reasons for the American shift were obvious: The democracy that America promoted had elected its rivals in Palestine, consolidated the Islamic positions in other countries, and caused sectarian chaos in Iraq.
US, corrupt regimes partners in crime
Algeria's Al Khabar said that it doubted that a recent report by 16 US intelligence agencies showing the invasion and occupation of Iraq has increased terrorism would lead to a change of US policy in the region.
The mass-circulation daily said that all indications prove that the Bush administration will persist in its policies despite the setbacks suffered by the Arabs from these policies and despite the absence of an American vision for the future of the region.
It predicted that the White House will "remain confined to military force alone," adding that Rice's Middle East tour and meeting with eight Arab ministers suggests that Washington "continues to define the future policy of the region based on worn-out tools."
The paper said that Rice should remember that the leader of the strongest country in the region, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, "did not win the presidential election except with 23 percent of the Egyptian voters."
What has changed, since previous American reports found that violence was a result of, and a natural reaction to, corrupt Arab dictatorships, the paper questioned, adding that the US still uses these "corrupt regimes as tools and partners to build the future of the Arab countries."
Nothing has changed in terms of the Arab leaders and the logic of the White House, the paper said, "which means the violence that was caused by the corrupt regimes and American policies will recur in the future."
Palestinian power struggle to grow
A commentary in the London-based Asharq Al Awsat said that the street battles between Fatah and Hamas followers in Gaza were embarrassing, unjustifiable, and cannot be defended under any circumstances.
The commentary in the Saudi-owned daily said that the fighting was nothing more than a power struggle, whether it is carried under the name of unpaid salaries, Israel, or the "new democracy."
It complained that the Palestinians were fighting over an impoverished, troubled, and weak government, blaming Hamas because it is a government that was elected legitimately, yet refuses to be clear and honest with its people over two main issues.
These issues, the paper said, are its administrative commitments on the domestic front and its political "games" regarding the Palestinian Authority's peace agreements signed with Israel.
The opinion piece in the paper, distributed in many Arab capitals, also blamed Fatah because it refuses to accept its defeat in the Palestinian elections and "conspires as it exploits the crises and seeks a coup d'état to return to a power it lost because of its mismanagement and corruption of senior officials."
The Palestinians and the Arabs, it argued, are being held hostage to a struggle between an organization that seeks power but rejects its commitments and an opposition that seeks power by instigating battles.
It said that a national unity government initially seemed to be an acceptable solution, but even such a plan will not hold. "It seems [more] confrontations are imminent," it predicted.
Review of Arab Editorials
TOOLBAR
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