Avoiding the devastating news from Palestine is impossible. Dina Ezzat finds no escape "Olmert determined to move with full force in Gaza", read the headline of the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the paper reported on its front page, has given orders to his army to do everything possible to impose Israeli rules over the already suffocating and impoverished Strip. "I told the army that nobody in Gaza should be able to get any sleep," the paper quoted Olmert as saying. What about the Arab reaction to such an aggressive statement and behaviour? Nothing to be found in the Arab press. This week, the press carried devastating news from Gaza but as usual provided testimony to declining Arab interest (with the exception of the mediation of Cairo and the hopeless pan-Arab attempts by the secretariat of the Arab League) to the bewilderment of Palestinians under occupation. It was letters to the editor, however, that offered a few sympathetic voices to the Palestinians. "I do not think that Palestinians are worried anymore about the Israeli threats. Every Palestinian now knows that it is martyrdom they must seek. After all, artillery bombardment and death have become daily facts of lives for those in Gaza," wrote Mohamed Shakib Al-Nabulsi from Saudi Arabia in Asharq Al-Awsat 's letter to the editor on Monday. Commentators, as usual, were ready with their divided views, some blaming the Palestinians for having elected Hamas and others cursing the so-called international community for its shameful failure to respond to the Israeli aggression. There were few commentators who dared criticise the embarrassingly flagrant apathy demonstrated by the Arab capitals. Moreover, not much attention, support or even rejection was accorded to the Sunday press about a proposed Arab League compromise to get Palestinians to release the kidnapped Israeli soldier in return for the release of Palestinian officials and some Palestinian prisoners held hostage by Israel. This said, some, including no other than the pro-American commentator Maamoun Fendi, addressed Israel. Writing under "An open letter to Mr Olmert", again in Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday, Fendi criticised the Israeli raids against Gaza and the early signs of an attempted reoccupation as "a violation of international rules" and asked: "What message, Mr Olmert, do you think you are sending this week to the Arab countries? Are you telling them that the Israeli air force is capable of flying over every single Arab capital and every single residence of Arab rulers? I do not think that this serves your interests as such," Fendi wrote. Making no secret of his dislike for the Hamas movement (stating the obvious for his regular readers), Fendi appealed to Olmert to refrain from further pursuing attacks on Gaza. He also appealed to the Israeli prime minister to come to terms with the fact that his unilateral plans would never bring about stability or for that matter an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Meanwhile, no matter how Arab capitals try to disassociate themselves from developments in Palestine, some are closely attached to these developments whether they like it or not. Cairo's involvement is always portrayed in the press -- and fairly so -- as that of a mere mediator that attempts to contain the now endless waves of anger and fury. When it comes to Damascus, it is a different story, especially that Hamas is now in office in Palestine. On Sunday, some Arab papers gave prominence to statements made by the US permanent representative to the UN, the ultra-hawkish John Bolton, fuming his traditional anti-Syrian sentiments. "Bolton calls on Damascus to arrest Meshaal and holds it responsible for the serious developments in Palestine," reported the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam on Sunday morning. The fact that the US ambassador is making an illegal request to an independent state to arrest Meshaal, the Damascus-based senior Hamas figure, was given the least attention by the Kuwaiti daily that quoted Bolton as saying, "had it not been for the support of Syria to the terrorists (his hostile reference to the members of Hamas) the situation would not have deteriorated so much." It was, therefore, interesting to turn to the opinion page of Al-Rai Al-Aam on Sunday, to the article of Shaaban Aboud, a Syrian commentator, who stressed that his country's search for closer relations with the rising political and economic powers of Asia will not undermine the keen interest of Damascus to pursue closer ties with Paris, as well as other European capitals, in hope for an exit out of the current corner it seems to be painted into by Washington. "I would argue that despite our differences and misunderstandings with some European capitals, we still need them as a balancing, not confrontational, force to that of the US that has been working since the first election of George Bush -- and the subsequent ascension to power by the neo-cons -- to take control of the Middle East which is one of the most crucial geopolitical spots in the world," wrote Aboud. And as usual, at least within the current Arab political context, what goes for Syria goes, one way or the other, for Lebanon. And if Ghassan Salama, the leading writer and founder of the prestigious Lebanese daily An-Nahar said it, then it is true. Lebanon, Salama argued in his Monday front-page article, should have acted promptly to bring the current Israeli aggression against the Palestinians to the immediate attention of the UN Security Council. This, he explained, is not just about the traditional Lebanese interest in developments in Palestine but certainly about the impact the developments in Palestine are bound to have on Lebanon for so many reasons, not least of which is the significant presence of Palestinian refugees in this small Arab country. However, Salama notes, this Lebanese reaction is now handicapped by the deep internal crisis that has befallen the country that has failed for long to agree on the legitimacy of its current president among other bewildering political matters. "Had Lebanon had the courage to speak up it should have reminded the Arab world of the domino effect they are bound to suffer should any Arab country be undermined to the point of elimination." But Lebanon, Salama concludes, is not in a position to speak up. And other Arab countries, their press reveals, are also unable to speak up.
