AMMAN, Jordan, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Dec. 11:
The Palestinian al-Quds commented in its editorial Monday on the Palestine Liberation Organization's recommendation to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to call for early elections after dialogue with Hamas came to a deadlock. The mainstream daily said the decision by the PLO Executive Committee, dominated by Abbas' Fatah faction, should be accepted by rival parties if the political crisis is to be resolved. Disagreement, it added, will only keep the crisis in place as each side -- Fatah and Hamas -- continue to stick to their positions; "and the biggest loser from this will be the Palestinian people who are paying a price for these differences." The Jerusalem-based paper, which describes itself as independent but is closer to Fatah, argued if the interests of the Palestinian people were the primary priority for the factions, the government crisis could have been resolved before it grew. It asked whether early legislative elections can be held when there are deep differences over the issue. It stressed that instead of resorting to early elections, it is better to persuade Hamas that the current situation cannot continue in terms of the (international) blockade on the Palestinians and that it is Hamas' responsibility to improve the conditions of the population.
Egypt's al-Gomhuriya commented that stopping the Palestinian dialogue over forming a national unity government poses a serious threat to the "struggle of the Palestinian people that has been based on unifying ranks and forbidding internal fighting." The semi-official daily warned in its editorial that ending the Fatah-Hamas dialogue opens the doors for sedition sought by the "enemies of the Palestinian struggle, i.e. Israel and its allies." The mass-circulation daily called on the resumption of negotiations among the Palestinian rivals and to stop issuing decisions, such as that taken by Fatah to hold early elections, insisting this further enflames the feelings of anger by Hamas. "The negotiations over a national unity government have indeed taken a long time, but their continuity is much better than completely closing the door to unity and opening the doors of sedition wide open," it said.
The United Arab Emirates' al-Khaleej said the Arab foreign ministers' decision last month to break the sanctions imposed on the Palestinians was quickly followed by a U.S. rejection as Washington insisted on continuing to impose "collective punishment" against the Palestinian people. The pro-government daily remarked in its editorial the United States intended to "starve" the Palestinian people to make them surrender to the realities that Israel is seeking to impose on them. "It was hoped the Arab states would have stuck to their decision by challenging the American-Israeli blockade and accelerating financial and economic assistance to the Palestinian people regardless of Washington's reaction," it stressed, "but it seems verbal courage is one thing and action is another." It asked why the Arab countries would issue any decision if they cannot translate it into action, especially when they know the Bush administration will reject it. The daily complained the Arab foreign ministers' decision to break the sanctions imposed on the Palestinians and not implementing it one month after it was taken represents Arab impotence.
Jordan's al-Rai said it is difficult to predict whether President George W. Bush will accept the recommendations by the Iraq Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton. The mass-circulation daily added in a commentary it is not clear if the Bush administration is ready to pay a price to accept the recommendation to launch dialogue with Iran and Syria to find an American exit from Iraq. "Will paying the price include canceling the Arab identity of Iraq, sacrificing the independence of Lebanon and allowing Iran to spread its dominance on moderate Arab states?" it asked. The paper, partially owned by the government, also asked how Bush would accept to resort to one of the "axis of evil, and how will the ayatollahs cooperate with the Great Satan." Whatever the case, it argued, both sides might find a way to start talking, but neither will do so without pre-conditions that will be at the expense of third parties, mainly Iraq, Lebanon and moderate Arabs. The Syrians, it analyzed, will demand ending its Arab and international isolation, closing the file of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and restoring its power in Lebanon. It questioned whether America "will once again prove its readiness to abandon its friends and allies, as well as its publicized principles."
Syria's al-Thawra blasted what it said was the campaign launched against former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for his new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," in which he spoke of bold Israeli discrimination against the Palestinians. The state-owned daily said in a commentary the motives of the "unjust" campaign led by Jewish lobby in the United States against Carter and his book stem from "hatred towards Carter for revealing a part of the disease in American policy that made Israel an exception to exercise Apartheid against the Palestinians." It insisted that Carter had revealed a truth that had been forbidden inside the United States because of the Israeli-U.S. policies and the "political terrorism of the Jewish lobby against all those who dare to say that Israel is a racist entity." What the former U.S. president is trying to do, it opined, is to rectify U.S. policy and consolidate the logic of rights and justice in order to lift the injustice imposed on the Palestinian people and show Israel's true colors.
