Numerous comments appear in the European press about the results of the recent Palestinian elections. Writing in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (11/1), Wolfgang Lerch comments: “ Now it’s up to those directly involved to take intelligent initiatives to revive the already existing projects or develop new ones. The Israeli prime minister has already announced that he wants to meet Abbas as soon as possible; he already knows him from previous accords. The same goes for Abbas. The Americans will soon have to allocate generous aid. Arafat, to whom they denied it, is dead; and Israel, after the fall of its bitter enemy Saddam Hussein, which has cost Washington substantial losses and considerable troubles, must thank them“. Gemma Pörzgen writing in the Frankfurter Rundschau notes: “ For the USA and the Europeans, the Middle East represents a real challenge, because the attempts of mediation can only lead to success with a far-sighted synergy between all the protagonists. But… there are no good reasons for being optimistic, because even if the Bush government should once again turn its attention to the Middle East, its position would be partisan in favour of Israel. Hitherto, Europeans have remained in the secondary role of funding agents but must in the months ahead make efforts to play the more significant role in the region that they aspire to so much“. Jacques Schuster writing in Die Welt comments: “ Abbas may base himself on a solid electoral victory. He enjoys the confidence of the Americans, the Europeans and the Israelis. He has the determination and the sincerity that Arafat never had. This will be enough for the start. If everything goes well, the result will be better daily living conditions for the Palestinians, perhaps talks with Ariel Sharon and secret aid by the Israelis. But it is still too soon to hope in peace“. Reactions to the Palestinian elections are also voiced in the Spanish press. The victory of Mahmud Abbas in Palestine is commented on by ABC (10/1) as follows: “ Palestine has chosen Mahmud Abbas as Arafat’s successor but is looking through the corner of its eye at Sharon”. In the paper’s view “the candidate of al Fatah promised the end of the sufferings of his people and obtained the support of 66% of the electorate”. “Abbas hails the democratic spirit and dedicates his victory to Arafat”, writes Juan Cierco from Ramallah and Jerusalem. “ About the future we never can tell“; but the election of the new president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas is a “ repudiation of terrorism“, declares the editor of the French Catholic daily “ La Croix” (11/1) in welcoming the victory of Abbas on the front page of his paper. The election of the new president of Palestinian Authority writes the paper’s editor Bruno Frappat – “ marks one of the rare democratic achievements of a people that has been for too long deprived of a State and for whom democracy is a new idea. All this gives an enormous responsibility to the man elected: doing everything possible to ensure that the state of grace national and international he enjoys today may permit him to put his main thesis into practice: i.e. seeking a political solution, and not one with bombs. The duration of this state of grace clearly does not depend on him alone“. The extremists and fundamentalists present both in Palestine and Israel will undoubtedly lose no time in getting to work to curb this new wave of democracy. That’s why, in the view of the editor of La Croix “ the major powers, the wise men, must do all in their power” to help Abbas. For days there has been a lot of discussion in the Italian press about the publication of a historical document from the end of the war to the present day preserved in the Vatican Archives in which reference is made to Jewish children who were saved from the Holocaust by Catholic ecclesiastical institutions but then forcibly baptized and never restored to their communities of origin. Theologians and historians have intervened on the question. An editorial in the Catholic daily “ Avvenire” (12/1) comments as follows: “ Documents revealed in bits and pieces, in such a way as to demonstrate everything or its exact opposite. Personal opinions transformed into statements of fact, and statements of fact degraded to the rank of questionable opinions. … It’s a journalistic technique just like any other, it may be liked or not… But if the matter is delicate as is the plight of Jewish children during the Shoah we end up by giving rise to an infinity of misunderstandings, perhaps even serious ones, and instead of fostering knowledge we revive the spectres of non-communication and aggression”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1354 N.ro relativo : 3 Data pubblicazione : 15/01/05
