Disregarding Gaza

Doaa El-Bey notes that Arab pundits busied themselves with the less pressing issues of the week

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Not many Arab commentators seem to focus on the fact that another year passed without finding a settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Meanwhile, many others engage themselves with the impacts and significance of the shoes that were hurled at United States President George W Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last week.

Walid Shoqeir, for instance, believes that the Palestinian Israeli conflict and the inter-Palestinian differences would be the most pressing issue on the table of the United States President-elect Barack Obama. However, what awaits the Palestinians in Gaza and other places cannot only be ascribed to the Israeli intransigence or the US continuous support for Tel Aviv, but to the unprecedented Palestinian division as well.

"The year's incidents proved that the Palestinian division provided Israel with more security and yet another pretext to shed the Palestinian blood. This was so especially after the claim of supporting terrorism was not any more acceptable to the world as an excuse for the Israelis to fight Palestinians," Shoqeir wrote in the London-based independent political daily Al-Hayat.

However, he expected that next month could face a further escalation of Palestinian divisions when Mahmoud Abbas's presidency terminates. Abbas is likely to call for new elections which Hamas would reject and that would simply lead to more Palestinian division and consequently tighter Israeli control of Gaza.

The Saudi and Egyptian efforts for reconciliation and dialogue were thwarted resulting in negative regional repercussions. "The gap of the Palestinian differences is widening at the time when the Turkish mediation in the Israeli-Syrian track is going on and Obama is ready for a détente with Iran. The reconciliation would be linked to the developments in the other two issues," Shoqeir added.

Jawwad Al-Bashity questioned whether the Palestinian interest is in extending or not extending the truce with Israel. The first option would lead to a resolution of the issue via negotiations and the second via resistance. He added that their interest is not in either options, but in ending the blockade.

Al-Bashity also questioned whether Arabs should support any of the two options. Although there is no definite answer for that question, he believed that most of the Palestinians prefer to restart military attacks against Israel if that proved to be the only way to lift the blockade and in that case the means would justify the end. Meanwhile, as he argued, the Palestinian authorities seem to prefer the second option.

The right scenario for resolving the conflict, according to the writer, is to deal with Gaza according to the fact that it is an occupied area. Thus declare that Israel, as the occupying force, is responsible for the Strip. In the light of that fact, all forms of Palestinian authority in the Strip should be dissolved including Hamas and Gaza declared as an occupied territory that should witness all forms of resistance against the occupier. However, if Israel insists that it is not occupying Gaza any more, then it should sit with the Palestinian authorities and reach UN-sponsored agreements to end all form of air, land and sea blockade in return for a Palestinian pledge to stop any military attacks against Israel. In that case, a temporary authority can be declared in Gaza and could negotiate the conditions for establishing the Palestinian state.

"Palestinians need to end the Israeli occupation first and then choose a temporary authority for the territories before they start negotiations in order to reach a peace treaty with Israel," Al-Bashity wrote in the Jordanian political daily Al-Arab Al-Yom.

Mohamed Salah noted how some Arab media was busy following how the Palestinians and Israelis fail to renew the truce that was in effect for the last six months. But the majority of the media focussed on the issue of shoes that Muntadhar Al-Zaidi, an Iraqi reporter, hurled at President Bush. Some hailed Al-Zaidi as a hero who threw the shoes though he knew that this act would not pass without punishment for him and probably for his country. Others regarded his act as a sign of disrespect for the criteria that govern his job and a folly that deserves punishment. A third group criticised all those who did not support Al-Zaidi's act and a fourth group attacked those who supported him.

"If the efforts to extend the truce between the Palestinian factions and Israel failed, the Arab media should focus on more important issues than the shoes," Salah wrote in Al-Hayat. Namely, trying to patch up the differences between the Palestinians or to take a united stand against the Israeli government.

Jaber Habib Jaber wrote that an Arab businessman offered $10 million to buy Al-Zaidi's shoes. He satirically added that businessman was not moved by the major events in Iraq during the last five years to spend that amount of money in building hospitals or schools or on scientific research. Instead he chose to waste his money on that shoes that he regarded as the symbol of "Arab freedom".

Jaber seemed to be frustrated that some Arab syndicates hurried to support Al-Zaidi not because he wrote a useful report that revealed important information, but because he decided to go into history barefooted after he gave away all the values and principles of his occupation.

"The Arab syndicates supported Al-Zaidi with zealousness and were not that enthusiastic in defending journalists. Many Arab journalists are still in jail as a result of a word or a report they wrote in order to fight corruption or do their job in the right sense of the word," he wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

Hoda Al-Sarhan, who participated in a protest march organised by The Alliance Against War in London last week, wrote that the march aimed to make the voice of all the Iraqis including women and children heard. In a show of support for Al-Zaidi, the participants, who included writers and journalists, put their shoes in a box. They took the box to the US Embassy and asked for it to be handed to the ambassador together with a written protest against the war in Iraq and Al-Zaidi's detention.

Al-Sarhan enthusiastically called on all the Arab syndicates and trade unions to show support for Al-Zaidi who is facing a campaign waged by the writers who work in US institutions in order to mislead the public by denouncing Al-Zaidi.

"At the time when we see protests in London against the US occupation and Al-Zaidi's detention, the Arab writers who previously hailed that occupation are now trying to tarnish Al-Zaidi's image or cast doubt on his mental or psychological state," she wrote in Al-Arab Al-Yom.

Samir Said satirically wrote that the "shoes" seem to be the international language of protest or rejection of the military and political plans drawn by the world superpowers. After the success of Al-Zaidi's shoes in Iraq, a Ukrainian reporter threw his shoes at a top official to record his protest against the NATO penetration of his country. However, he added in the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Khaleej, that unlike Al-Zaidi, the Ukrainian journalist was not jailed or punished in any way.