AMMAN, Jordan, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Aug. 21:
Lebanon's as-Safir said in a commentary Monday the Israeli air sorties above Lebanon did not stop after the cessation of hostilities with Israel, saying the "mock air strikes" seem to be preparation for another military confrontation.
Or perhaps, it said, it was an attempt to turn Lebanon into another Gaza Strip.
The independent daily, with Arab nationalist trends, argued that the balance of power cannot allow a confrontation with Israeli violations of Lebanon's air space, but that Security Council Resolution 1701 permits Israel to try to achieve its objectives without entering an all-out war.
The resolution, it opined, gives Israel a "security margin that was not present before July 12," when the war erupted.
The paper said Lebanese efforts should focus on ensuring there will be no repetition of another war, especially when the American and Israeli intention to renew the hostilities remains unhidden. Worse, it said, the two will not "forgive the idea that Hezbollah was able to confront them for 34 days and end up with the least possible military losses."
It said Hezbollah should expect that Israel is seeking another war and to impose on Lebanon and the Security Council its right to continue violating Lebanese air space.
"This is enough reason to move to the stage after 1701," the paper stressed.
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London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat commented on Syrian President Bashar Assad's speech in the aftermath of the Israeli-Lebanese war, asking: if Damascus is in favor of popular resistance, what prevents the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria from opening a front to liberate the Golan Heights?
The paper noted the head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood had already stated that the movement was ready to recruit and send 10,000 elements to fight against Israel.
The Saudi-owned daily argued there is not a single resistance group that would be more attractive than one liberating the Golan Heights. In a thinly veiled reference to Syria, it insisted the real challenge is for a great resistance group to emerge from an Arab country which has occupied territories and prisoners in Israeli jails, "and not just in Lebanon's sad territories, and not just Hezbollah to assume the popular resistance."
The paper insisted Arabs were merely waiting for an opportunity for a popular resistance to liberate the Golan Heights.
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Palestinian al-Quds noted in its editorial that Israel's arrest of top Palestinian legislators coincided with an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo that had sent a "new message of peace" and German calls for a new international Middle East peace conference.
The mainstream daily added that amid growing calls by Arab and European leaders to deal with the causes of conflict in the region, Israel continues to arrest and assassinate Palestinian leaders and persists in continuing its operations in Lebanon under different pretexts.
"This means the messages of peace and calls for reason to resume the peace process are totally different than what Israel is thinking and doing on the ground," the Jerusalem-based paper said.
This fact shows the main obstacle before all peace initiatives and efforts is Israel and its belief that it can impose its own unilateral solutions through military force, it argued.
The paper said this requires transforming initiatives into serious action that would add regional and international pressure on Israel to accept negotiations that would reach a just solution for all parties.
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Jordan's ad-Dustour said in a commentary that U.S. President George W. Bush, armed with his Christian-right ideology, continues to make "twisted summaries based on ignorance and lack of vision."
The mass-circulation daily added that Bush's explanation that Israel's war on Lebanon was just a round in the conflict between freedom and terrorism, or between good and evil, was naïve and superficial at best.
"These words the leader of the strongest country keeps repeating like a parrot in every place and every opportunity underrates the world's conflicts and wars... as he sinks into his ideological coma," it said.
The paper, which describes itself as independent but is partially owned by the government, added the American president praises the emerging democracies in Iraq and Lebanon because they came with collaborating forces that agree with his policies. But the more credible democracies that came in Palestine, it opined, are never mentioned because they did not come through Washington's policies.
Worse yet, the daily complained, the Arab dictatorship regimes allied with the United States remain silent over Israel's "crimes in Palestine and against the elected officials."
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Egypt's al-Ahram pointed out that one day before Iran was to reply to an offer by Western nations on its nuclear program, an Iranian government spokesman said his country will not stop enriching uranium.
The semi-official daily said this is a clear message to the U.N. Security Council that Iran will not abandon its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and that the "approach of the stick and threats with imposing sanctions will not change this position."
The mass-circulation's editorial argued that Tehran's nuclear program will enter a new and different stage, saying that the inflexibility from both sides increases the chance of confrontation and escalation.
This will complicate matters, the paper said, especially now that international sanctions have shown their inefficiency and only hurt the people, as was the experience with Iraq.
The paper insisted that only dialogue and negotiations between Iran and the West can resolve the crisis in a way that would allow Iran to advance its peaceful nuclear technology without allowing it to manufacture nuclear weapons.
