Arab fortune tellers claim they know what will happen in 2005 but it's only wishful thinking. Rasha Saad explains On New Year's eve Mohamed Al-Rumeihi from the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper was apparently following the Arab satellite stations. According to Al-Rumeihi, fortune tellers were hot items on most of the Arab satellite channels during that day, predicting what might happen in 2005. He was surprised not to find analysts or researchers hosted on that particular day. Instead crystal ball readers predicted the presidents who will be assassinated during 2005, the number of planes that will crash, the number of conflicts that will start and the catastrophes that will occur. "Unlike the Western media, the Arab media did not provide us with any rational or logical scenarios for 2005 by analysing what happened in 2004 for example. This leads to the conclusion that the Arab mentality adores looking to the future in an unscientific way that is based on nothing but wishes and hopes." The course of events in our age, Al- Rumeihi argues, should not depend on forecasting as much as on documented information and objective thinking. Al-Rumeihi thus warned of "the negative role of the Arab media in crippling the awareness of millions of Arabs glued in front of their TV sets." He also talked about the Asian quake. "Globalisation is rampant in Arab societies but some of us do not see its consequences and so nature decided to remind us about it at the end of the year. And so came the deadly undersea earthquake." The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi focussed on Colin Powell's concern over the warm welcome that Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who is running for the Palestinian presidency in elections on 9 January, was given by Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades during a visit he paid to the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah. The article claimed that the US secretary of state did not want any rapprochement between Abu Mazen and any Palestinian group (as the Brigades) that believes in armed resistance as one of the options it has to liberate Palestinian lands and recapture Palestinian rights. "He only wants rapprochement between Abbas and the Israeli government," the paper wrote. The article said Abu Mazen and the Brigades were in fact adopting different views. While Abu Mazen has said the militarising of the Intifada was wrong, and has sought to rid the resistance of its weapons, the Brigades have supported armed revolt. "No party is budging from its respective positions up until now. However, the first challenge for Abbas after the elections will concern his position on disarming resistance fighters and halting all operations against Israeli targets. Will he be able to do this through diplomatic means as he did when he succeeded in arranging for a two-month truce when he was prime minister, or will he choose to impose it by force?" The paper believes that it is thus the Palestinian side which should be worried, not Colin Powell. The Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper said Powell's statements were not very encouraging. "[The fact that] Powell gave himself the right to identify who Abu Mazen should meet is flagrant interference in internal Palestinian affairs." The paper wrote that Powell's statements came on the eve of a new Israeli aggression on Gaza and amidst ongoing attacks on the rest of the Palestinian territories. The paper was critical that Powell preferred to ignore the Israeli assault and focus instead on the meetings Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had with representatives of Jewish settlers who reject peace and the roadmap. "Why did Powell intentionally ignore the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian hand that is stretched out in peace and only see Palestinian youths who have vowed not to drop their legitimate right in resisting occupation? If Powell is betting on internal Palestinian fighting and the suppressing of any voice that calls for freedom and the end of occupation then the US loses its credibility in playing any role in establishing peace." The Qatari Al-Raya commented on the meeting of Iraq's neighbouring countries in Jordan this week, wondering about the futility of holding these sorts of gatherings (there have been four such meetings since the occupation of Iraq). "How do these meetings benefit Iraqis who are facing a security, political and economic catastrophe?" The paper wrote that these meetings did not offer any solution "but were only a gathering for these countries to escape being blamed for not attending and to show their presence in front of the cameras. "Despite the conflicting interests of participants and their hidden agendas," the paper wrote, "conference members provide one another with diplomatic courtesies translated in joint statements that are not related to the actual stream of events in Iraq." Commenting on the attacks in Riyadh last week, Ghassan Charbel wrote in Al-Hayat that they were part of "an old plan whose objectives are no longer hidden". According to Charbel, whoever goes back to the infamous 11 September realises that this programme was present at the time of the attacks on New York and Washington. "Of course, it was no coincidence for the world to discover that the majority of the perpetrators of these attacks were from the same country. Their recruitment was intentional and carefully conducted. In other words, it could be said that the 9/11 attacks targeted the symbols of success and power of the United States as well as US-Saudi relations. "Through these attacks, and the assailants being Al-Qaeda members, it was sought to establish a buffer zone between Saudi Arabia and the US because Al-Qaeda believed that the mutual atmosphere of uncertainty would isolate Saudi Arabia and throw its security in turmoil." For Charbel, Saudi stability is an obstacle in the face of those who give themselves the right to speak on behalf of Muslims. It is also an obstacle in the way of policies aimed at stoking the flames in Arab and Islamic societies against the West. "From this perspective, we can understand the nature of the latest terrorist attacks. However, the Saudi reaction shows their adherence to stability," Charbel wrote.
