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Middle East newspaper cuttings

Daniel Brett | 31.10.2001 14:31

From the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU)

Please note: The latest edition of Prospect Magazine ahs a CD with the complete Holy Qur'an and an up-to-date History of Islam, edited by Trevor Mostyn.

Daily Telegraph

1) Leader- The long haul
Do The Telegraph really want peace in the Middle East? Leader telling Blair to not be so involved - "Mr Blair should curtail his shuttle diplomacy" Yet despite saying the US can't be an honest broker, it also says " there is little he can effect in the Middle East during the present climate".
 http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006435151631500&rtmo=wKfi5efb&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/10/31/dl01.html

2) The Government must win back our hearts and minds By Iain Duncan Smith
 http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006435151631500&rtmo=wKfi5efb&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/10/31/do01.html

(Being mischievous - could you substitute the words Tory party for Government)

3) What has become of the British patriot? By Daniel Johnson
 http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006435151631500&rtmo=wKfi5efb&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/10/31/do02.html

He harks back to patriotism and the empire we've lost. Extracts: "Not so very long ago, when Britain was an imperial power, dominating the entire Indian subcontinent and vast tracts of the Islamic world besides, young Muslims who had never seen this country still flocked to the colours, ready to die in distant wars for an empire they respected. Today, after generations of extirpating imperialism and all its works, after the experiment of multiculturalism, young British Muslims still volunteer -
but to fight for our enemies."
"I am now used to the nightly diet of anti-American and anti-Israeli editorialising from reporters who seem determined to make us ashamed of our allies and ourselves."

Johnson also has a go at the two cricketers for not touring to India - perhaps Mr Johnson should show how courageous he is and go and report from Afghanistan.
But the good news was: Janet Daley is away.

The Times

1) Leading article - A Syrian song
Extracts:
"It is only a fortnight since the order went out from Damascus, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) headquarters there, to murder the Israeli Cabinet minister, Rehavam Zeevi". (it was only yesterday that an order went out to assassinate a Palestinian from...)
"It will produce neither men nor information until this nasty regime decides that its survival depends on co-operating. That choice has yet to be forced on it."

 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,56-2001375141,00.html

2) Blair's Arab trip leaves no room for small talk by MICHAEL BINYON
 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,248-2001375133,00.html

3) Leading article - Call reinforcements
 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,56-2001375142,00.html

The Guardian

1) There is blood on our hands but the Taliban are worse by Polly Toynbee extract: "Hard liberals who support the government on the war will indeed have blood on their hands if all ends with millions of civilians dead, the Taliban insufficiently removed, a new government barely better than the old and a domino of disasters across the Islamic world. "
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,583871,00.html

2) Wrong tool for the job by Jonathan Freedland extract: "if you can't catch the fish, you can at least drain the sea in which they swim. In Bin Laden's case, that means the sea of grievances he's so adroitly exploited"
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,583794,00.html

Financial Times
A new paradigm for the Middle East by Shlomo Ben-Ami
 http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3GEKK3GTC&live=true

A point in case why the Israeli so-called left is often more dangerous than the right.

Extracts: "Yassir Arafat has made clear that even if all the occupied territories are returned to the Palestinians, Israel will not attain peace"

(this recites myth of the magical offer - 3 west bank cantons - 2 for gaza-Halutza etc)

"The peace process did not fail because of disputes over territory; Israel was throughout ready to "end the occupation". It fell victim to two extremely powerful founding myths over which the Palestinian leadership was unwilling to compromise: refugee-ism, the insistence on the "right of return" (tantamount to undermining the moral right of a Jewish state to exist); and Islamic fundamentalism, the thrust of which is denial of any Jewish claim to the holy places."


The Independent
1) Leader - British citizenship is not compatible with fighting for the Taliban regime
 http://argument.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?story=102348

2) Declaring war on the press will not help beat bin Laden by Anne McElvoy
Extract: "The trailing of Mr Blair's speech yesterday as an "unashamedly emotional" performance played on the suspicions of those who believe that this war is being fought out of a hot-headed desire for revenge after the 11
September attacks"
 http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/anne_mcelvoy/story.jsp?story=102353

Daniel Brett
- e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk
- Homepage: www.caabu.org