Skip to content or view screen version

Middle East Newspaper cuttings 1/11

Daniel Brett | 01.11.2001 12:51

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

The Daily Telegraph

1) its Front page of the Web-edition has a picture of coffins draped Israeli flags with the comment - "Symbolic coffins are laid out to mourn a year of violence in Israel".

2) They may be traitors, but it's not their fault By Boris Johnson
Classic Boris-
" Following the deaths of Aftab Manzoor and Afzal Munir, both 25, there is some corner of Afghanistan that is for ever Luton"
 http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006444214904880&rtmo=wKl00Qnb&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/11/1/do02.html

3) Leader - Bad bargain in Syria
Mr Blair's mission seems to have been based on the unsustainable distinction between "good" and "bad" terrorists: it was ill advised, and it has weakened the allied campaign.
 http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006444214904880&rtmo=wKl00Qnb&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/11/1/dl01.html

The Independent
1) Peter Mandelson: My verdict on Syria's young leader: a decent man doing a difficult job. Makes some good points about Assad, but much weaker on Israel:
Extracts: "Bashar no more needs his people polarised into rival Islamic camps - divided over support for the infidel Americans or the crazy bin Laden - than he needs a hole in the head."
"the behaviour of Israeli settlers did not constitute an expansionist policy of the state as a whole"
 http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=102505

2) Mark Steel: We're going wobbly (and the Taliban are cheating)
Extracts:
"Tony Blair had another explanation. "The Taliban do quite deliberately make sure that they have their military hardware in areas where there are bound to be difficulties to bomb." The cheating bastards. If they had any decency
they'd put all their military hardware in an airship and float it over the US navy, and their troops in a fairground under a sign saying "Kill a fundamentalist and win a beach ball."
"Throughout this, the enthusiasts for war maintain one consistent line - what would you do? So columnists insist we mustn't lose our resolve. What resolve is that then? The resolve to write a column. Halfway through there's the temptation to watch Call My Bluff instead, but they stiffen their resolve and see it through to the last paragraph."
"Instead, right now in the Middle- East there will be someone howling:
"They've bulldozed our houses, murdered our children, supported dictators, now they're bombing civilians. It's all very well you condemning bin Laden - but what would you do."
 http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/mark_steel/story.jsp?story=102532

3) Donald Macintyre: We must win hearts and minds in the Middle East
 http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/donald_macintyre/story.jsp?story=102527

4) Leader- Mr Blair's trip to Syria reveals the hypocrisy of this 'war on terrorism'
 http://argument.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?story=102514


The Times
1) Hurrah for recession, recovery will follow ANATOLE KALETSKY
 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,248-2001380392,00.html

The Guardian
1) No parallel with the Kosovo war by Jonathan Steele
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,584567,00.html

2) The west must kick its oil habit by Dan Plesch
"In the present crisis, the oil factor narrows military and political options."
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,584506,00.html

The Mirror(not a broadhseet I know)
BLAIR GETS MAULED
 http://mirror.icnetwork.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11399217&method=full

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