US President Barack Obama acknowledged his failure to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. However, that was not the only setback that the peace process witnessed this week. The latest shuttle by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region also failed to restart negotiations. Osama Al-Sherif questioned what Mitchell wanted from his tours in the region: personal glory for himself and his bosses or fair and comprehensive peace or a political settlement that would appeal to his allies? "Today, he appears like a peddler rather than an astute politician. He is trying to sell second-hand goods that nobody wants to buy," Al-Sherif wrote in the Jordanian independent political daily Addustour. Mitchell threw himself, as the writer elaborated, into a major and complicated problem and now he cannot walk away. If he is after an unconditional return to the negotiating table, that is a victory for Israel but political suicide for the Palestinians. He does not side with the victim. Instead he is ready to listen to the aggressor and find excuses for him. Both Mitchell and Obama dream of a better future, but they are not ready to rebel against the US establishment, Al-Sherif summed up. The repeated Israeli statements that an Israeli attack against Lebanon is imminent was another setback to peace in the region. The editorial of the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Bayan argued that the statement of the Israeli State Minister Yossi Belin that a war against Lebanon was inevitable and that it was only a matter of time was a clear warning of an imminent aggression. That statement should be taken seriously because it came after several other similar official statements. "The recent Israeli threats against Lebanon are reminiscent of the threats that preceded its aggression against Lebanon in 1982 and 2006," the edit added. Recent reports confirm that possibility. Lebanese reports expressed fear over possible war and Western reports questioned the timing rather than the possibility of such an attack. Thus, the edit called on Lebanon to fortify its internal front before Israel takes it by surprise. While writers sympathised with earthquake-hit Haitians they seem to sympathise more with Gaza which has been suffering from a man-made disaster for years. Buthayna Shaaban compared the Israeli reaction to the Haiti earthquake to the continuous Palestinian suffering. An Israeli writer explained in Haaretz the discrepancy between the public relations campaign that the Israeli officials waged to save the victims of Haiti and their indifference to the daily death of children and the elderly in Gaza because of the stifling economic blockade that has led to a shortage in drugs and food. The Sunday Times published an analysis of how Israel used the catastrophe in Haiti to wage a public relations campaign in order to cover up for the crimes it committed in Gaza and was included in the Goldstone Report. The newspaper concluded that the earthquake in Haiti is a natural disaster, while the suffering of Gazans from hunger and destruction is a man-made catastrophe caused by the blockade that Israel imposed on the Strip. Shaaban wrote that one should shed light on the discrepancy in the official Israeli stand on any natural disaster, from Rwanda to Haiti, and that of the victims of the Gaza blockade. While Haiti's suffering is due to a natural disaster, the Gazans' suffering is directly caused by the Israeli demolition of Palestinians houses, hospitals and schools and throwing phosphorous bombs atop them. The suffering of people in Jerusalem is due to a racist settlement policy carried out by the Israeli authorities which is practising the worst form of racism against Palestinians, imposing unprecedented blockades on them and stopping the media from reaching them and reporting their suffering to the world. In the meantime, the world and the media talk about the duties of the Palestinians and Israelis towards peace while they seem to ignore the fact that the Palestinians are living under a racist occupation imposing the worst forms of blockade and genocide, Shaaban wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat. Like Shaaban, Nicola Nasser wrote that the natural disaster in Haiti compares to the man-made disaster Gazans have been enduring for years. The comparison shows the double standards in the humanitarian and political stands of the US and other developed states. It also shows a series of discrepancies, the first of which is on the Palestinian level. The Palestinian government formed a special committee to collect aid for the victims of Haiti but failed to launch a similar initiative in Gaza even after the Israeli military earthquake that struck the Strip a year ago. The other discrepancy is on the Arab level. The Arab states sent more than $2 billion in aid to Haiti at a time when Gaza is still waiting for an Arab medical team like the one sent by the Arab league to Haiti, or when the Strip still waits for the billions that Arab donors promised to send to Gaza to help rebuild it after the Israeli earthquake. On the international level, an international political and military intervention in Haiti is welcomed for humanitarian reasons while the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade is not enough for an immediate and quick international intervention against those who imposed that blockade. "It is clear that the Haiti disaster was a PR opportunity for the US and Israel to distract attention away from the humanitarian crises in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan which they are responsible for causing," Nasser wrote in the independent political daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Khaled Al-Haroub criticised the Arab and Islamic deficiency in helping Haiti, describing it as a scandal. He wrote that not only Arab governments, but wealthy Arab individuals, charities and non-governmental organisations, as well as the Arab media, were absent in the Haiti crisis. Some may argue that all Arab aid should be directed to Gaza and its people suffering from the blockade. Al-Haroub did not agree. "Our support to Gazans should not lessen our sense of support for others especially if their catastrophe is far graver than ours," Al-Haroub wrote in the London-based independent political daily Al-Hayat. While the writer said he does not want to belittle the suffering of the Gazans, he warned against playing the role of the narcissist victim and closing our eyes to the suffering of others. He added that there are 132 dead for every Palestinian killed in last year's Israeli attack against Gaza and more than 200 houses destroyed in Haiti for each Palestinian house destroyed by the Israeli occupation.
