Bottom lines

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"Were it not for President Mubarak's illness, the government would have been changed." -- Abbas El-Tarabili, Al-Wafd

"It is said there is a minister in the cabinet who cannot speak with anyone because he can only communicate in hieroglyphics." -- Ahmed Ragab, Al-Akhbar

"While Saddam Hussein succeeded in destroying the Iraqi society and the occupation came to destroy the state, internal divisions will also have a role in tearing the country apart unless loyalists in Iraq move to stop it." -- Fahmy Howeidy, Asharq Al-Awsat

"The worst-case scenario is that Iraq turns into a front-line state in the war on terrorism, and that it will not enjoy stability until the war ends -- something that the US said might take a century." -- Saleh Beshir, Al-Hayat

"Death (or martyrdom) is better than this life for thousands and thousands of Palestinians."-- Uri Avnery

"Military achievements can also induce complacency, for they create a sense that the army can win, and so we need not do anything else." -- Alex Fishman, Yediot Aharonot