The Middle East remains at the centre of the attention of the main European dailies. “War and diplomacy” is the main headline of the Herald Tribune (10/4), which reports on the mission of American Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East. “Ariel Sharon speaks of peace and wages war”, is the headline carried by La Croix of 9/4. Its editor in chief, Bruno Frappat, who signs the editorial of the French Catholic daily, speaks of a “state of emergency” and repeats that to put an end to the violence in the Middle East “there are no other ‘third party’ mediators other that the famous ‘international community'” which “was able to intervene” effectively in other tragedies, as in Bosnia and Kosovo. “ Its no longer enough Frappat continues to beg America to wake up from her lethargy. It’s necessary that the European Union, Russia, and all the nations that aspire to global security place their services and their troops at disposal, under the aegis of the UNO. Against terrorism, against war”. “Ariel Sharon is continuing his war”, is the headline in Le Monde of 9/4, which dedicates its editorial to the demonstrations that have taken place in various cities in France in reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the paper calls them “a sign of vitality of the democratic debate”, though accompanied by “other signals that could mark a regression”. When “some gestures of solidarity”, declares the French daily, “are accompanied by acts of intolerance and brutality, they run the risk of defeating their stated purpose”. What is needed, according to Le Monde, is rather “a shared demonstration for peace”, for it alone is able to avert the spectre of hatred “from both sides in the conflict” and to permit “those who are far from the battlefields to set an example of tolerance and brotherhood”. “The Vatican forcefully denounces the injustice and humiliation of the Palestinian people” is the headline carried by La Vanguardia of l 4/4, just as El Correo does on the same day: “The Vatican reproves the humiliations imposed on the Palestinian people”. Also according to El Periódico, “The Vatican accuses Israel of humiliating the Palestinians”. On 5/4 the Spanish press relayed the Pope’s appeal for a day of prayer for the Middle East. La Vanguardia recalls that “the Pope speaks of an unstoppable spiral of cruelty”, while according to La Razón John Paul II deplores the “obstinate determination with which both sides persevere in the pursuit of reprisal and revenge”. César Vidal, in an article published in El Mundo of 7/4, tries to find “explanations for the madness that has spread in a land where many are waiting for the Messiah”. El País in un article by Andrés Ortega of 8/4 declares that “the European Union, and not only Arafat, has been humiliated by Sharon, who not only does not want Europe to interfere in his affairs, but simply ignores it, sure as he that Washington will never abandon him”. There is wide coverage of the situation in the Holy Land in the weekly Spiegel of 8/4. The headline on its front cover reads: “ An eye for an eye The biblical war“. The magazine also contains an interview with Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, minister for development aid, on the German responsibility for the escalation of violence in the Middle East. To the question whether “Israel will not permit a European peace mediation“, the minister replies as follows: “ It’s a provocation towards Europe, which Europeans should not take lying down“. And she declares: “The European Union must define a clearer profile of its foreign and security policy and, consequently, become more incisive” because, she concludes, “ without a mediation, the two sides will not be in a condition to find a political solution“. A comment signed K.F. on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 10/3, recalls that “ there exists a peace plan put forward by Saudi Arabia, there’s also an American one” and “now there also exists a German one” and this, in the view of the author, “ betrays the gravity of the situation” because “ it would be interesting to know what Powell thinks of Fischer’s initiative, given the active role that the German foreign minister envisages for himself in it“. In this plan, according to Fischer, “peaceful co-existence should be guaranteed by America, the EU, Russia and the UNO“, but then, observes the journalist, “ it’s strange, to put it mildly, to imagine German troops taking part in it“.
