Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2008, pages 38-39

European Press Review

Fair Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal Seen as More Likely With Tzipi Livni

By Lucy Jones

	At the Sept. 21 cabinet meeting at which he announced his resignation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (r) congratulates Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for her victory in the Sept. 18 Kadima party primaries (AFP Photo/Pool/Jim Holander).

THE EUROPEAN press was cautious in assessing Israel’s new Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni on track to succeed Ehud Olmert after she won leadership of the governing Kadima party on Sept. 18.

“A Livni government would continue the current talks with the Palestinians, which she supported strongly as foreign minister,” wrote the BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen on the same day.

“She is said to be ready to give up territory, to move Jewish settlers and, if she wants a deal, she will also have to allow Palestinians their own capital in Jerusalem,” he continued. 

But, warned Bowen, “even if Tzipi Livni were able to make an agreement with the Palestinians, there is no guarantee that she could sign it and stay prime minister long enough to deliver her side of the bargain.

“Most Palestinians anyway are deeply skeptical about any Israeli idea of a peace deal,” he added. 

The UK’s Independent of Sept. 19 agreed that Livni does not have the luxury of time. “She wants to break with the wheeler-dealing tradition of Israeli politics and restore public trust in the political process. She now has to strike a delicate balance between doing that and ensuring she can form an administration which will last long enough to present some serious progress on peace to the Israeli electorate at the next election in 18 months’ time,” it editorialized.

Nevertheless, the newspaper described Livni as “probably the best hope for peace among all the Israeli politicians.”

According to Germany’s Berliner Zeitung of the same day, many countries see huge promise in Livni. “In Europe in particular, she’s being treated like a new beacon of light in the Middle East peace process…If Livni were the lead singer of a band, it might be called ‘Tzipi and the Expectations,’” the newspaper quipped. “Despite the difficulties facing Livni, with her victory, the chance is now greater that those who want a fair peace deal will have greater say,” it added.

In Luxembourg, the Luxemburger Wort of Sept. 19 said Livni was right to say that she would approach the job of prime minister with “great reverence.” “Further reconciliation with the Palestinians, treatment of Iran’s increasing nuclear power, and normalization of relations with Syria are the three largest geo-strategic challenges facing Israel,” the newspaper opined.

“The long-term vitality of this high-tech nation sandwiched between the Golan Heights and the Red Sea depends on the clever handling of these dossiers,” it pointed out.

Britain’s Treatment of Iraqi Interpreters Called a Disgrace

“Few issues have more shamefully exposed petty, penny-pinching ingratitude by Whitehall bureaucrats than the fate of Britain’s Iraqi interpreters,” editorialized the London Times on Sept. 11. 

Alone among countries with forces in Iraq, the newspaper noted, Britain held out against any offer of relocation or asylum for the interpreters, drivers and other locally employed staff who risked abduction, torture and murderous reprisals by extremists bent on punishing collaborators.

Following an outcry, the government set up a “locally employed staff assistance scheme” which the newspaper described as designed to restrict applications for asylum with “petty-fogging regulations.”

“This case is a disgrace,” said The Times. “Where are the compassion, decency and honor? At stake are good faith and national honor. The British public understands this. Whitehall, willfully, does not.”

“Dangerous” Belief: Jury Came to Wrong Decision in British Terror Trial

There was regret in some British newspapers over the Sept. 8 conviction of three men of a massive terrorist conspiracy involving home-made bombs. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain’s convictions followed a huge terrorism inquiry, which led to sweeping airport restrictions. The three, along with an additional five men, were acquitted of charges of plotting to bomb transatlantic airliners.

“Despite the failure by a jury to convict eight men accused of plotting mass murder on board transatlantic aircraft, one of Britain’s biggest and most expensive terrorist investigations has yielded results as disturbing as they are important,” editorialized the London Times on Sept. 10.

“The police operation and the trial have revealed, in terrifying detail, the extent to which violent radicalism has established a hold over a few young British Muslims, the sophistication of the plots to commit mass murder, the close links with al-Qaeda and training camps in Pakistan and the callous brutality of extremists who, in various interlinked conspiracies, have been trying to kill their compatriots in the name of a twisted version of their religion,” continued the newspaper.

The Times said the failure to secure convictions on the main charge is “disappointing” but added that the “likely perpetration of multiple atrocities has been forestalled.”

“What must be avoided is any attempt to blame the Americans,” the newspaper warned. “Some resentful sources suggest that the conspiracy was interrupted prematurely at U.S. urging, before enough evidence had been gathered. Instead of recriminations, the trial should prompt greater efforts, especially among Muslims, to combat extremism,” it concluded.

The following day, Britain’s Independent described the assumption that the jury “somehow came to the wrong decision” as dangerous.

“The jury system is the foundation stone of our liberties; our bulwark against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. We cannot have people locked up merely on the grounds that the state believes they are guilty,” the newspaper argued.

“The terror threat from disaffected young Britons is real and serious. But the way to meet that threat is through the existing criminal justice system. This…trial result ought to be regarded as a vindication, not a condemnation, of that approach.”

Afghanistan’s Kajaki Dam Called a “Glorious but Dangerous Folly”

“Some of the bravest battles are fought for the most distracting of causes, and that, sadly, is true of the long struggle to rebuild Afghanistan’s Kajaki dam,” wrote Britain’s Guardian on Sept. 4.

The Kajaki dam is one of two major hydroelectric power dams in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. International troops have fought off the Taliban and re-opened road access in order to deliver a turbine which, once installed, should provide some prosperity to southern Afghanistan, the newspaper said.

However, the newspaper described the feat as “a glorious but dangerous folly,” noting that it had sapped strength from other smaller, better projects which may have brought relief by now.

“The dam is a political showpiece and always has been since it was built (but not fully completed) in the 1950s by the U.S. to compete with Soviet projects elsewhere in the country,” said the newspaper.

“Many lives have been required to get Kajaki even to today’s state—with only one working turbine,” it added. “Meanwhile, British and Canadian forces do not plan to hold the land across which the new turbine has just traveled and the power lines must one day be built. Peace cannot be turned on at the flick of a switch,”concluded the newspaper.

Palestinian Soap Opera Axed Over PLO Plot

“Matabb,” the first-ever Palestinian soap opera, was apparently taken off the air by the state broadcaster over its portrayal of the PLO, reported Britain’s Guardian on Sept. 16.

The drama focuses on the lives of Palestinians working in a non-governmental organization. It draws on everyday life in the West Bank capital of Ramallah, from passing through Israeli checkpoints, to having to depend on Western-backed organizations for employment. All 10 episodes were filmed for less than $240,000, with scenes shot on the streets of Ramallah.

Even before the first episode was screened, however, the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) axed “Matabb,” which means speed bump—referring to both the annoying humps that fill the streets of Ramallah and the obstacles in the character’s lives.

A PBC official said he objected to a scene he thought described the Palestine Liberation Organization as corrupt, the Guardian said. In fact, the scene shows the opposite, according to the newspaper: that the PLO investigated a corrupt arms dealer.

Farid Majari, the show’s executive producer, said “Matabb” was foremost about entertainment. “It’s a typical soap opera, it deals with burning social issues,” he told the Guardian. “It’s an opportunity to start a discourse without us saying what is right and what is wrong.”

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

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