Palestinian Anger Won’t Go Away, Says France’s Le Monde

By Lucy Jones

The European press criticized both Hamas and Israel for the explosion of violence in Gaza which has left hundreds of people dead.

“If Israel wants a two-state solution, it should exercise some restraint,” said Britain’s Financial Times Jan. 7. “Overwhelming force is an understandable military response, provided it is used against a recognizable military enemy. To use it inside a densely populated and blockaded urban arena, where civilians make up the majority of casualties, is disproportionate.”

“Israel has exercised its legitimate right to self-defense and to destroy the military power of Hamas,” editorialized the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph two days later. “But there comes a point beyond which an operation of this sort becomes counter-productive and morally unjustifiable. And now we have reached that point.

“The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is so severe that a cease-fire is essential, irrespective of whether Israel feels it has achieved its military objectives. It goes without saying that there will always be civilian casualties in urban warfare; but the deaths of hundreds of people, including scores of children, cannot be countenanced,” continued the newspaper, which previously had sympathized with Israel’s reasons for its attack.

“Barack Obama’s chances of making a fresh start in U.S. relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza,” warned Simon Tisdall in the U.K.’s Guardian of Jan. 4. “That seems hardly fair, given the president-elect does not take office until Jan. 20. But foreign wars don’t wait for Washington inaugurations.

“Obama has remained wholly silent during the Gaza crisis,”Tisdall continued. “His aides say he is following established protocol that the U.S. has only one president at a time…But evidence is mounting that Obama is already losing ground among key Arab and Muslim audiences that cannot understand why, given his promise of change, he has not spoken out.”

“Israel wants to radically change the reality in southern Israel,” Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten wrote Dec. 29, two days after the Israeli offensive began. “But it remains questionable whether the massive military strike can accomplish this. Israel should not launch a war only against extremists. It also needs to make peace with moderates.”

“The deaths of hundreds of people, including scores of children, cannot be countenanced.”

France’s l’Humanité of the same day described the attacks as “Israel’s war crime.” The left-wing newspaper charged that “Tel Aviv is provoking a potential blood-bath,” and blamed Washington “warmongers” for blocking a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire.

Also in France, the center-left Libération on Jan. 5 described the conflict as “a war behind closed doors,” as Palestinians have no easy access to world press and the Israelis are doing little talking to media outlets. The newspaper also accused Obama of lacking the courage to call Israel to order.

“The current tragedy began in 2005, when former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided on a unilateral Jewish withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” Le Monde commented in a Jan. 5 editorial. “That withdrawal, without any input from the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, along with the impact of the blockade which has been in place since 1994, first led to the election victory of Hamas in 2006 and, more recently, to the rocket attacks on Israel which Israel says are behind the current invasion,” the newspaper said.

“Hamas’ strategy appears to be to entice the Israeli army into the towns and cities, in the hope of winning an urban guerrilla struggle where the technological supremacy of Israel will be less effective,” it continued. “Though when the dust settles there’ll be no winners: Israel may gain a few weeks or months of calm, but their angry neighbors, and the reasons for their anger, won’t go away,” it concluded.

However, in Germany, Handelsblatt opined on Dec. 29 that “there have been years of provocation,” by the Palestinians. “Even after Israel finally removed the last settlers and all soldiers from the Gaza Strip, the radical Islamist Hamas did not keep quiet. Hamas had only one goal: to defeat Israel. And it is not shrinking away from using Palestinians in Gaza as hostages. It does not get any more cynical,” the newspaper said.

In France, Le Figaro of Dec. 29 said Hamas had taken a “hard-line policy against all Western influence in the region” and said finding a way back to the path of peace “rests in large part on the actions to come from Obama.”

According to Luxembourg’s Wort of the same day, “radical Islamist Hamas” threatens “the survival of both Israel and other moderate regimes in the region.” The newspaper also saw the swift attacks as sending a signal to Iran about Israel’s strength. “The military operation was aimed in particular at Tehran in order to increase Iranian respect for the logistics and military capabilities of the Israeli air force,” the newspaper said.

Britain’s Guardian Calls Basra “Mission Unaccomplished”

“In what sense is the job in Basra done?” asked The Guardian newspaper in a Dec. 11 editorial. “Britain’s six-year occupation of southern Iraq…will end in June next year [2009],” said the newspaper. “For years we were told our troops would only leave when the job was done. If the job of transferring control to Iraqi forces has been done, why will Britain’s 400,000 troops at Basra airport need to be replaced with a large force of U.S. troops who will take over the job of securing supply lines and backing up Iraqi forces?” it inquired. “The Basra that Britain is leaving behind is rubbish-strewn, divided and impoverished. Its open sewers and sporadic power supply are beyond the capacity of local authorities to deal with. The provincial governor is at war with Baghdad,” noted the newspaper. “So when British forces leave next year it will be not out of a conviction that they will have accomplished their mission. It will be with their fingers crossed that they can leave with their military reputation intact,” the newspaper concluded.

Echoed a London Times editorial on Dec. 18: “They numbered, at their peak, more than 45,000. They have been fighting in Iraq for longer than the duration of the Second World War, at a cost to the taxpayer of £5 billion [$7.5 billion]. But when the last contingent of 4,100 British troops pulls out…they will leave behind a war that has taken a heavy toll on Britain’s standing in the Middle East, on Anglo-American relations and on the reputation of Britain’s Armed Forces.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s attempt to present the accelerated timetable for withdrawal “struck a false note,” The Times continued. “In no way is this ‘mission accomplished.’ It is, at best, a face-saving exit from an engagement that has been condemned at home, brought little credit to the troops and has left Basra still mired in poverty, instability and feuding.”

The No. 1 Muslim Ladies Cycling Club

Despite opposition from members of their community, increasing numbers of Muslim women in East London are riding into new cultural territory with their cycling club, the London Times reported Nov. 27.

Women from other backgrounds have taken part in the club, which was formed in 2005, but most members are religiously observant Muslims and wear full Islamic dress. The women take part in group rides in Hyde Park and past the Houses of Parliament, using bikes with low crossbars to accommodate traditional garments.

They have had to put up with barbed remarks from other London Muslims. “[Women] are bad enough in cars,” a man was quoted as saying. One woman cycled in secret because she feared her father’s disapproval.

“There’s nothing in the Qur’an to say that women shouldn’t have bikes,” Narjahan Khatun, who founded the club, told the newspaper.

Egyptian Launches Muslim Version Of “Second Life”

An Egyptian based in Finland has launched an Internet virtual world, similar to “Second Life,” for Muslims, the British-based Guardian reported in its Dec. 11 technology section.

Muxlim Pal (<pal.muxlim.com>) is the brainchild of Mohamed El-Fatatry, who has an impressive track record for tailoring technology to the Islamic diaspora in innovative ways.

“Second Life” has degenerated into an ethically ambiguous playground devoted to random sexual encounter, violence and the behavioral excesses largely denied in “first life,” said the Guardian author.

However, El-Fatatry says, on Muxlim Pal there will be values “keeping things polite.” There will be no technology for sexual encounters, as he wants the experience to be family-friendly. Fundamentalists would have their accounts removed, he said, adding, “They would find more freedom to go and express their views on You Tube.”

Fury Over Invitation of Leading British Architect to Help Re-envision Mecca

The architect Norman Foster, who designed the Gherkin building in London and the new Beijing airport, is embroiled in religious and political controversy over a project to redevelop Mecca, reported the London Times of Dec. 6. The plan, which has the blessing of the Saudi monarch, was recently leaked to the press.

Leading Saudi architect Sami Angawi, an expert of architecture in Mecca and Medina, was quoted by The Times as saying: “You cannot redesign such a place without a deep feeling and knowledge of it. When you design a mosque, you need to be able to experience it.”

Lord Foster is among a group of “starchitects” reportedly invited by King Abdullah to re-envision Mecca, which would include an extension around the central Haram mosque that would enable it to accommodate up to three million pilgrims.

Lucy Jones is a free-lance journalist based in London.