Hard to get far
Concerns about the future of Iraq and outrage over Israeli atrocities against Palestinians once again dominated Arab headlines this week, writes
Gamal Nkrumah
The London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, like many other Arab newspapers, gave wide coverage to the Israeli raid in Gaza. "The martyrdom of 14 Palestinians as Israel delivers a 'pre-emptive strike' in Gaza", ran the paper's front page headline on Monday. "Israel will pay a dear price for the slaughter," the paper quoted Palestinian officials as saying.
Arab papers reflected the current mood of resigned indignation in much of the Arab world. Al-Hayat quoted local sources in Gaza as saying that Israeli occupation forces had used Palestinian civilians as human shields.
In a strongly-worded opinion piece, "And what about Israeli reform?" in Al-Hayat, Yemeni writer Ali Mohsen Hamid said, "Zionism is the only ideology that has survived intact in today's world. It is not an internationalist ideology -- it is the ideology of a minority who have exploited religion and money successfully in order to realise their goals. It has woven a global web of alliances with international powers. It has created the Israel that we know today."
Reeling from the horrors of the massacre of Shia pilgrims and worshippers during the festival of Ashura, the holiest day of the Shia year, the future of Iraq hit the headlines of most Arab newspapers. There was much speculation that Iraq teetered dangerously on the brink of civil war.
The press focussed on how Shia members of the Iraqi Governing Council had struck a deal on an interim Iraqi constitution without the full consent of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Husseini Al- Sistani, Iraq's top Shia cleric. Al-Sistani and other Shia religious and political leaders were eager to participate fully in the Iraqi process of national reconciliation but were in disagreement over how to do so. Al-Hayat reported that Al- Sistani was unhappy about the interim constitution but the Shia members of the council were keen not to be seen as spoiling for a fight against the Sunni Arabs and Kurds of Iraq.
The influential Shia cleric apparently had grave reservations about certain aspects of the interim constitution including the Kurdish veto power. The London-based daily Al-Quds Al- Arabi quoted Al-Sistani as saying that the constitution lacked legitimacy and credibility and was a hindrance to peace and democratisation in Iraq.
Al-Hayat noted that while Kurds make up a fifth of Iraq's 26 million people, the Shia constitute 60 per cent of the country's population. Kurds, Al-Hayat reported, had expressed fears of a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq being dominated by the country's Shia majority. "Kurds insist on their right to veto in order to thwart any attempt at imposing a 'dictatorship of the majority'," ran an Al-Hayat front page headline on Sunday.
Shia members of the 25-member council, including Ahmed Chalabi and the current president of the council, Mohamed Bahr Al-Uloum, gave their seal of approval to the constitution which is regarded as a key facilitator of the smooth handing over of power to the Iraqis by the US occupation authorities scheduled to take place at the end of June.
Like most other Lebanese and other Arab papers, both An-Nahar and Al-Anwar gave prominence on their Tuesday edition to Al-Sistani's dissatisfaction with the interim constitution. Al- Anwar published a commentary by the distinguished Lebanese columnist Rafiq Khouri who stressed the importance of "guaranteeing the rights of the minorities in Iraq".
Lebanon's As-Safir, splashed the sensationalist headline, "Kurds burn the Iraqi flag". The paper highlighted both Turkey's and Al-Sistani's disapproval of the interim constitution and ominously forecast the beginnings of civil war in Iraq.
Attacks on US targets in Iraq received wide coverage in the Arab press this week. Developments in Afghanistan also attracted the attention of press pundits. "Afghanistan: The fearful spread of opium production", trumpeted the headline of a full page report in Al-Hayat. The paper noted that three-quarters of the world's opium is now produced in Afghanistan.
The occasion of the 41st anniversary of Ba'th Party rule in Syria was a rather low-key affair, ignored by most of the Arab media save Syria's official papers. The anniversary of the 8 March 1963 revolution was marked this year by uncharacteristic introspective observations. "Syria's re-evaluation of the situation in Lebanon does not signal a change in the political equation," warned Mohamed Shoqair in Al-Hayat.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi also highlighted the protests and detentions in Syria in remembrance of the "41st anniversary of the declaration of a state of emergency in the country".
An-Nahar covered extensively the rally in Damascus to mark the Ba'thist anniversary. The paper reported that the distinguished Syrian writer Yassin Al-Haj Saleh was among the protesters detained by the Syrian authorities.
Syria's Al-Thawrah commented on another current pet hate subject of the Arab press: the United States-inspired Greater Middle East Initiative. "Arab and international criticism of the project aimed at curtailing the independence and freedom of Arab states," the official Syrian daily warned.
"What is the difference between the Greater Middle East Initiative envisaged by the United States and the 2002 and 2003 UN human development reports?" asked Khaled Al-Harroub, a Palestinian writer and researcher based in Cambridge, England, in an opinion piece in Al- Hayat. "The US plan depends on correcting the failures in the region, which have been expounded in the 2002 and 2003 human development reports, and in particular the three glaring shortcomings: the acute scarcity of freedom; of knowledge; and of empowering women. There is no need to wait and find out what the intentions of the US really are. It is enough to observe what is happening at present to understand the plan."
Sudanese newspapers spotlighted the unexpected return of Sudanese Vice-President Ali Othman Mohamed Taha to Khartoum for consultations with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Beshir. Taha, engaged in peace talks with the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, John Garang, in Naivasha, Kenya, was reported in the Sudanese official daily Al-Ra'i Al-Aam as saying that he was optimistic about the chances of concluding a peace treaty in the near future.
Yemen also featured prominently in Al-Hayat. The televised appearance of Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the son of the Yemeni president, was covered in the paper. Rumours had circulated in the Yemeni capital Sana'a that Saleh was severely injured in an assassination attempt and had been rushed to Jordan for treatment.
Other papers picked up the story. "The envious spread malicious rumours about attempts to assassinate me," Saleh was quoted as saying in the London-based Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat
