AMMAN, Jordan, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Feb. 26:
Palestine's al-Hayat al-Jadeeda said Monday it was wrong to believe that Israel was only looking for recognition from Hamas, Fatah or the Palestinian government as a start to lift the sanctions on the Palestinians and give them back their rights. The West Bank-based daily said the Palestinians have a long and tough experience with the Israeli occupation and warned if the upcoming government recognizes Israel, the latter will invent more demands and conditions. A commentary predicted Israel will likely demand a "written recognition" from other Palestinian factions and perhaps every Palestinian individual in the territories and in exile. The paper, close to Fatah, insisted that Israel has always placed "impossible conditions," with U.S. support and now with the Quartet, in order to maintain the status quo of the occupation. It said the interim peace accords were signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and that all ruling systems in the world sign binding agreements even if the opposition does not approve and they would not be revoked if the opposition came to power afterwards. The daily said Hamas authorized the PLO to negotiate with Israel, "but it was still not enough for the world and Israel to accept and start serious negotiations and end the sanctions." It called for strengthening Palestinian unity and to prove to the world that "we are all searching for real and just peace and establishing the Palestinian state within international and Arab resolutions -- that we are peace-loving people, but not at the expense of our stolen rights and our right to resist in order to retrieve these rights."
Syria's official Tishreen commented on Western reports indicating that Israel has asked Washington for permission to fly over Iraq on its way to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, saying it shows the deep level of American-Israeli coordination in the aftermath of the occupation of Iraq. The state-run daily added in its editorial this also shows that Israel is a rogue nuclear state that violates all international law and wants to use its military muscles and American cover to "hit Iran's peaceful nuclear program." It complained it is all right for Israel to possess more than 200 nuclear warheads and all types of weapons of mass destruction to aim them at the Arab and Muslims. But it is forbidden by the Bush administration for Iran or any other regional Muslim country to even try to introduce nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. It said there is no reasonable explanation to understand such policies.
Saudi Arabia's Okaz blasted the U.S. "Terror-Free Oil Initiative" as the latest "Zionist fad supported by the mafia of the neo-cons that plays on the panic of the American street from terrorism, or terror phobia." The semi-official daily said in its editorial this issue was more than a question of Arab or Saudi oil, which constitutes only 11-13 percent of U.S. oil imports. "It is the deliberate distortion of everything that is Arab, even if this distortion clashes with reality and facts," it said. The paper asked where the Arab voice is in all this campaign, stressing that "this voice doesn't necessary only mean official action, but the participation of civil society and the intellectual elite in dealing with this terrorism phobia." It called for action to rectify the Arab image in American minds through an Arab and Islamic presence in the American street within a comprehensive plan coordinated with the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Conference. "The unofficial Arab voice is more capable in confronting this fierce attack, after which comes the responsibility and role of governments," it said.
Jordan's al-Rai said in a commentary there are attempts to separate democracy and stability. It referred to recent remarks by U.S. President George W. Bush's that past U.S. policy in the Middle East was focused on stability, and thus supported some dictatorships, while now it will give priority to democracy and stop supporting some undemocratic regimes. "From here came the theory of imposing democracy in the greater Middle East," the mass-circulation daily said. The paper, partially owned by the government, insisted that democracy in the Middle East is a demand in itself, whether it comes through domestic popular pressure or from the West. "But the problem is that the weapon of democracy does not emerge except in the face of the rebel regimes; so the aim is not democracy or stability, but hegemony and submission," it remarked. The paper suggested the real problem with democracy in the Middle East is that it brings about America's enemies to power. It stressed the popularity of the Islamic movements is not due to the models of the mullahs in Iran, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic Courts in Somalia or the military revolution in Sudan, but because of rejection of the current alternative of corruption, mismanagement and bowing to the foreigners. "Taliban rule is bad," it said, "but worse is the corruption of the mafia gangs that are now ruling under occupation" in Afghanistan.
