MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST

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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON MIDDLE EAST


Summary

-- Lead story in all papers today, February 4,
highlights Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's
announcement of an initiative to "evacuate" Israeli
settlements in Gaza and "exchange" territories with
the Palestinians. Another lead story highlights
decisions by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair
to authorize investigations into pre-war intelligence
reports about WMD in Iraq.

Editorial Commentary


-- "Withdrawing from Gaza: a test or a political
tremor?"

Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (02/04)
editorializes: "It would not be an exaggeration to
say that Sharon's mysterious proposal for withdrawing
from the Gaza Strip, unilaterally, has caused a
political tremor throughout the Israeli and
Palestinian arenas that is likely to extend to the
entire region and the international arena should
Washington intervene and support the move.. It may be
too early to discern the potential success of Sharon's
plan, assuming that it is genuine and truthful.. Yet,
the way Sharon is reading the current Palestinian,
Israeli and international status quo encourages such a
risky but calculated maneuver in order to appear as a
`man of peace' and avoid political downfall.. There
is plenty of time to figure out the response to
Sharon's plan, but so far it is clear that Sharon is
holding the reins again and is able, through his
proposal, to negotiate with everyone in the Israeli
and Palestinian arenas as well as the regional and
international arenas."

-- "The unilateral separation plan"

Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(02/04) editorializes: "One cannot view the
unilateral separation plan, the details of which are
now being divulged by Israeli Prime Minister Sharon,
in isolation of the political timing and the difficult
circumstances that Sharon is going through.. The
Israeli Prime Minister wants to reshuffle the cards
and get everyone into an illusionary whirlpool that
portrays him as the one with the vision for the
solution with the Palestinians.. It is natural for
the Palestinian Prime Minister to welcome the
dismantling of the settlements in Gaza. It is
inevitable. Everyone may also welcome Israel's
intention to isolate itself behind barricades of its
choice. But this approach is nothing more unilateral
measures that have nothing to do with the peace
process that should be founded on ending the
occupation, withdrawing from all territories occupied
in 1967, inclusive of East Jerusalem, and establishing
an independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the
West Bank and Gaza Strip. Anything other than that
would not be a peace project. Thus, what is to be
understood of the separation plan is that it means
turning Israel into a state living behind a wall, with
all the inherent difficulties that poses of
communicating with it on anything."

-- "A new maneuver or a link in the chain of Israel's
final-status solution?"

Daily columnist Urayb Rintawi writes on the op-ed page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(02/04): "Sharon has the habit of announcing measures
to improve the life of Palestinians before every visit
to the U.S., which allows the Americans to assure us
that he is working for peace, and both then forget
about implementing the measures once the visit is
over. This may be another such scenario. But it is
more likely a genuine attempt to force a unilateral
settlement based on Sharon's vision, by which the
Palestinian territories would be reduced to Gaza and
about 42% of the West Bank, which lies outside the
apartheid wall. This will not satisfy the nationalist
aspirations of the Palestinians, but they would not be
able to prevent the implementation of the program, nor
would they make an effort to prevent Israel from
leaving any Palestinian territory. However, the plan
cannot succeed because Israelis themselves would
reject such territorial concessions, inadequate as
they may be."
-- Sharon's new proposals"
Daily columnist Jamil Nimri writes on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(02/04): "It is as if Sharon is racing with time.
All this dynamic activity and strategically inclined
projects indicate that the man wants to specify the
direction in which the final solution is heading
before he leaves, or is forced to leave his post. On
the other hand, the policy of impeding the solution
and continuing confrontation has been exhausted.
Sharon succeeded in freezing the roadmap and rendering
all initiatives before it a failure. He has also
neutralized all international powers and therefore has
nothing to worry about in terms of pressures, not even
(were he to order) the expelling of Arafat, which now
seems not to be advantageous to Israel anyway.. And
so, he arrived at the initiative of unilateral
disengagement as well as the establishment of the
racist separation wall.. We wrote more than once
saying that Sharon's plan is frighteningly realistic
and that he does have the means to implement it.
Unfortunately, we never saw a counterpoint Palestinian
strategy. Sharon seems not to want to miss this
opportunity of getting everything he wants, for he has
come up with the idea of resolving the demographic
problem that has been keeping the Jewish entity awake
at night in the same deal. He suggested annexing some
Arab villages in Israel to the Palestinian entity
within the framework of `the exchange of
territories'.. What is this ingenuity of employing
the concept of exchanging territories in this manner!
More confiscation of Arab lands and liberation of
Israel of Arab inhabitants! We will assume that this
just another one of Sharon's tests. However, let us
not forget that his maneuver is based on the genuine
anxiety that is common to all political powers in
Israel, the country's demographic future. And let us
not forget that what sounded like a far-fetched
illusionary proposal in the past was made possible by
the Israelis."
GNEHM