BRAZIL

Jornal do Brasil, Brasilia, Oct.21: The assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavan Zeevi brings back the terrorist tactics spanning across the whole Middle East's recent history. Every time a possible understanding between Israeli and Palestinians looms in the horizon, terrorists move into action to postpone peace. The profession of terrorists is to conduct terrorist acts without which groups such as Al Fatah or Islamic Jihad would lose their reason to exist.
A formula repeats itself: Israel negotiates only when the Palestine Authority controls terrorists, and terrorists strike every time they feel cornered by the peace process.
Palestine state: Many Israelis understand that the creation of a Palestine state is inevitable and that Israel will have to withdraw from almost all the territory conquered in the 1967 war. But under the current violence, the Israeli public opinion is traumatized by insecurity. Equally, the Palestine public opinion is traumatized by the the casualties resulting from the Intifada.
SOUTH AFRICA
The Star, Johannesburg, Oct. 22: The attacks in the U.S. have showed us that the democracies of the West may not be the safe havens of media freedom we assume.
Nothing exposed this as much as the reaction to an Arab satellite channel broadcasting from the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar.
Powell's intercession: As the only channel with a bureau in Kabul, Al-Jazeera has been broadcasting tapes of the U.S. bombardments, and televised statements by Osama bin Laden. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell urged the emir of Qatar to instruct the station to tone down its coverage of Afghanistan. And Tony Blair told British broadcasters to stop running unedited "propaganda" from bin Laden.
Already the only news on the U.S. war on Afghanistan available to the greater part of the world comes via the Pentagon. We have to take their word that the pictures they spoon-feed us are indeed of bin Laden training camps. It's not for us to question anything. To do so is to be labeled anti-American.
While we support a war on terrorism, media restrictions smack of a cover-up. That's why Al-Jazeera's contribution is so necessary.
SPAIN
El Mundo, Madrid, Oct. 24: With the IRA's decision to give up its weapons, the European Union is left with only one terrorist organization, which has always considered itself the Irish Republican Army's blood brother: ETA, Spain's outlawed Basque separatist group. We have always rejected comparisons between the conflict -- which Northern Ireland's Catholic population has with the Protestant community and the British government -- and the so-called Basque problem.
It has been the ETA, its political branch the Batasuna political party and the Basque region's ruling Basque Nationalist Party which have compared the situations. Following their logic and keeping in mind that the Basque region possesses more autonomy than Ulster, ETA should follow the IRA's example and Batasuna that of Sinn Fein.
Neck shot: However, but one can't be too optimistic because in the radical Basque sector developments have always been the reverse of those in Ireland -- the hard-liners, advocates of a shot in the back of the neck, have always overruled those who, albeit timidly, have inclined toward a political solution.
ITALY
La Repubblica, Rome, Oct. 24: One solution gaining popularity in diplomatic circles is that of declaring Kabul a neutral zone to be occupied by United Nations troops. This solution could be approved by both Pakistan and the Northern Alliance. However, the top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, Lakdhar Brahimi, one of the few mediators trusted by both the West and the Islamic world, doesn't fully agree with the proposal. Afghans, he maintains, would be reluctant to accept any foreign military presence on their soil.
Brahimi has also made several appeals to U.N. Secretary general Kofi Annan to pressure the United States to stop the bombing campaign so that aid can be brought to the civilian population.
Ramadan: It seems that Washington is unlikely to back down, and will continue the attacks into the winter, including over the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, arguing that the Taliban should not be given time to reorganize. Yet as the conflict continues, Arab world's messages are sounding less reassuring for the Americans.