Not overly impressed by the snail's pace of the Middle East peace talks, Doaa El-Bey turned to the very fluid events surrounding swine flu Conflicts are growing in the Middle East and any attempt to bridge the gap between conflicting parties hits a hard wall. Writers ruled out that the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell's fifth visit to the region would bridge the gap between Palestinians and Israelis. The Qatari daily Al-Watan wrote that there were only two items on Mitchell's agenda: reaching an agreement with Israel to temporarily freeze the construction of more settlements in the West Bank and persuading the Arab states to take steps towards normalisation with Israel in return. But the main problem is that Israel banks on its supremacy in dealing with the Palestinians whereas the Palestinian leadership has nothing to depend on except the US being a fair mediator. "Mitchell's tour will not be different from previous tours. He will beforehand adopt an Israeli stand by asking the Arab states to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Then Israel would continue procrastinating on issues related to the final negotiations phase," the newspaper editorial read. Thus there is no reason for optimism regarding the tour, the edit added. Ezzeddin Al-Darwish predicted that the situation in the region will remain the same if not worse even if Mitchell paid 20 visits. He wrote that after five tours in the region, the peace process is at a standstill, settlement construction and judaising Palestinian lands are continuing and Israeli intransigence has reached provocative levels as a result of the presence of the racist, extremist bloody government of [Binyamin] Netanyahu and [Avigdor] Lieberman in office. The problem in short, as the writer outlined it, is that Israel does not want just peace and the US knows it. As a result, Mitchell will keep coming to the region and it will remain on the verge of exploding. What is amazing is that the US, which is aware of the Israeli rejection of peace, is pressing on the Arab states to take comprehensive steps towards normalisation with Israel as if their promises to the Palestinians will not lead to an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories and establishing a Palestinian state. But they aim to give Israel as much as possible at the expense of the Arabs and their rights. "Peace needs genuine will and responsible stands and decisions on the basis of the principle of 'land for peace'. And neither the Israelis nor the US can offer that at present," Al-Darwish wrote in the official Syrian political daily Tishreen. The eighth anniversary of 9/11 was this week. Mohamed Salah questioned how the world changed during these eight years, whether the Americans had gotten over the earthquake, whether they forgave the Muslim and Arabs and whether Arabs and Muslims had reached a way to restructure their relationship with the Americans and the world. The world was divided into two fronts after 11 September and it was not easy to bridge the gap between them although some attempts were made. Perhaps the most obvious was US President Barack Obama's address to the Arab and Islamic world from Cairo in which he acknowledged the mistakes of the previous US administration and called for leaving the past behind. However, the repercussions of 9/11 showed that we are in need of more than one US address from an Arab capital to resolve them. "In his speech in Cairo, Obama launched an initiative to the Arab and Islamic world. But it was not followed by policies or actions on the ground. Would his initiative remain pending until the world wakes up one day to another attack as lethal as 9/ 11?" he asked in the London-based independent political daily Al-Hayat. The situation in Lebanon is far from being resolved. The gaps between the political parties are too wide to bridge in order to form a national unity government. Hassan Ezzeddin wrote that the latest developments and the failure to form a government proved anew the depth of the crisis that Lebanese society is facing. Ezzeddin ascribed the failure to a clear imbalance in society caused by the same political selfishness that does not lead to the creation of a quiet political atmosphere for peace and national reconciliation. That imbalance is also caused by the adventurous policies that hamper any attempts at reconciliation; in addition to the discriminatory policy that aims to prompt each party to reject the other rather than support it in the hope of building a sound state. The writer found it perplexing that the parties involved in the formation of the government insist on dividing themselves into coalitions of majority and minority or supporters ( muwalat) and opposition. Such divisions simply lead to more tension and differences. Ezzeddin suggested that the parties should show some flexibility in the hope of starting a new phase of political life free from rooting coalitions. Perhaps some parties should move to the political middle, a position that is far from the confrontation of coalitions, Ezzeddin wrote in the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Bayan The dream of unity has turned into a nightmare because it failed to unite the various groups and tribes under one state. Hassan Shobokshi wrote that the crisis in Yemen is leading to an imminent explosion. Yemen is becoming a state that is internally eating itself. The radical wing of Al-Houthi group had had political aims which transformed into secessionist targets. Their difference with the government led to a confrontation that killed many innocent civilians. The Iranian government is clearly supporting Al-Houthi with money, weapons and training. In addition, the south of Yemen, especially Aden and Hadramawt are witnessing another secessionist move because citizens there are suffering from discrimination. The writer also pointed to Al-Qaeda whose influence is growing in Yemen like cancerous cells. It is also getting support from Iran which wants to increase its circle of influence in the region. All these conflicts indicate acute erosion in the authority of the central state and the growth of the influence of tribes and militias. "The parliament, governors, ministers, army and media failed to deal with the dangers of division and penetration in the united Yemen because they failed to root the principles of equal participation of citizens and the rights of citizenship in a serious manner. As a result, the unity project has become a project for anarchy at present," Shobokshi wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat . Iran managed to ignite sectarian strife in Yemen because a united Yemen failed to unite the tribes into one state, he concluded.
