A Critical Photo Op
Ha'aretz complained Wednesday about the lack of support
within Israel's coalition government for Prime Minister Ehud Barak's peace
negotiations with Syria. He went to Washington "without a hearty send-off from
all his political partners," the paper said in an editorial. "Three parties represented in the government
temporarily joined the opposition, which refused to place its trust in the
prime minister who promised that he would 'do everything to achieve the best
agreement possible for Israel.' " The editorial concluded, "If they don't trust
him enough to give him a hearty send-off, they don't belong in the government."
The Jerusalem
Post 's editorial criticized the desire of "considerable numbers of
Israelis" to negate the influence of Israeli Arab votes in an eventual
referendum on the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. "It is wrong … to
single out any group as somehow disqualified to influence decisions, even
critical ones, that are being decided democratically," the paper said.
In
another alarm about the peace negotiations, the Jerusalem Post predicted that
Iran will step up terrorist activities around the world in order to foil a
settlement. This was the conclusion of an Israeli intelligence assessment
delivered Tuesday to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, it
said. The general tone of the Israeli press remained positive, however. An
analysis in Ha'aretz by Aluf Ben said that Israel regards
the public handshake between Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara as
the principal achievement of the Washington summit. "The photo of them together
will become the Rubicon from which there is no turning back," Ben wrote. "That
was always the main card that the Syrians held closest to their chest in the
poker game of peace negotiations. … Barak won his photo-opportunity, even at
the relatively low level of the Syrian foreign minister, on the basis of secret
understanding with the Syrians and Americans--and without having to announce
his withdrawal lines."
In a
report
from New York, the Jerusalem Post said there are problems deciding who
will benefit from Germany's agreement to disburse $5.1 billion in compensation
to slave laborers of the Nazi regime. The paper said that approximately 130,000
Jewish survivors will be eligible to draw from the fund but that a distinction
between slave and forced laborers is "a sore point" with central and eastern
European governments. It quoted an unnamed Czech official involved in the talks
as saying that while no one denies that the slave laborers, who were in
concentration camps, suffered more than the forced laborers, the latter "should
get compensation that is dignified." The Czech official said infighting among
different sets of victims has already begun, and he dreads the talks on
allocating the funds. "I have heard things I really didn't want to hear," he
said. "The most unfortunate thing would be if it became a fight between Jewish
and non-Jewish victims. But this approach--to set up a lump sum--really asks
for it."
The
deal received little play in the German press--and seemingly none at all in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung , which led its front page Wednesday with Russian troops closing
in on the Chechen capital, Grozny. Also leading on the Chechen war, the
Guardian
of London reported, "The damage the Chechen campaign is wreaking on Russia's
relations with the West was accentuated by criticism of the West by the Prime
Minister, Vladimir Putin, while Javier Solana, the European Union security
policy supremo and former Nato Secretary-General, said publicly that President
Boris Yeltsin was not in his right mind." His comment on Catalan TV was widely
noted across Europe as the most outspoken yet by a western official. "Yeltsin
is not in possession of all his faculties," Solana said. "We've seen it on
television across the world, and nobody can hide it." Le Monde of Paris also led
Wednesday on Chechnya, but with an opinion poll showing that a majority of
French people want economic sanctions imposed on Russia, and 60 percent of them
think its behavior in Chechnya is much the same as that of Slobodan Milosevic
in Kosovo.
In
Russia, the St. Petersburg
Times reported that Joseph Stalin is making a comeback in the
parliamentary elections next Sunday. His name will be on the ballot, and his
picture is on posters and billboards all over the city, it said. A party called
the Stalinist Bloc for the USSR is hoping to break through the 5 percent
barrier that would give it members of the Duma. A recent opinion poll showed
that if Stalin were alive, 7 percent of the Russian people would choose him as
president.
As
Portugal prepares to hand over its colony Macau to the Chinese, the South China Morning Post of
Hong Kong forecast a new area of disagreement between China and the United
States. In a report from Washington Wednesday, the paper said that next
spring the Clinton administration will redouble efforts to get Congress to pass
the Macau Policy Act, which will formalize American support for Macau's
freedoms, culture, and autonomy. But it quoted the Chinese Embassy in
Washington as saying, "We will brook no foreign intervention. … [T]he issue of
Macau and the affairs of Macau will be purely China's domestic affair."
In an
editorial, the SCMP said it was a pity that the
Macau Policy Act wasn't passed before the Christmas recess, because that would
have ensured the continuance of the territory's vital textile exports to the
United States. It also warned Congress, when it reconvenes, not "to slant the
act too heavily on political issues. China has not intervened directly in Hong
Kong's domestic affairs. There is reason to suppose it will pursue the same
policy with Macau. A non-confrontational approach is the best way to support
Macau as it moves into a new era." The SCMP also reported Wednesday that China and the Vatican have finally
reached an understanding on establishing diplomatic ties. Quoting unidentified
sources, it said the Vatican has agreed to break diplomatic relations with
Taiwan as part of the deal.
All the British newspapers
ran photographs of former Beatle Paul McCartney performing at the tiny Cavern
Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles began and where he last appeared 36 years
ago. The event even made the front page of Le Figaro of Paris under the headline "Liverpool's
Heart Beats for Paul McCartney." The Daily Mirror of London reported
that around 500 million Beatles fans tried to watch the concert on the
Internet, but many found it jammed.
