SWEDEN

SWEDEN
Expressen, Stockholm, June 30: The Islamic Militants Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Sunday declared a three-month truce. At the same time, Israel began to withdraw from the Gaza strip.
But as usual, the setbacks are waiting just around the corner.
The risk that the Sharon regime will bump off a high Hamas activist, and thus undermine the cease-fire, is immediate. It is also unclear how the stubbornly Islamic groups will uphold the demand that Palestinian prisoners held by Israel be released.
Business as usual
In other words, its business as usual, but the fact that the United States is more engaged than anyone would have predicted even a month ago, conveys hope.
EGYPT
Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, July 1: It is of great significance for Egypt that Israel should show real commitment to the Middle East peace process, rather than praise Egypt's key role in brokering a truce between Palestinian resistance groups to pave the way to implementing the U.S.-sponsored "roadmap" peace plan.
Having voluntarily assumed its historic responsibilities for the Palestinian cause for 55 years, Egypt wants only mutual commitment by the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Palestinian detainees
Egypt expects the U.S. to continue promoting the peace process. Meanwhile, Israel should release all Palestinian detainees, freeze settlement building, lift the siege on the Palestinian territories in accordance with Oslo Accords, and withdraw from the occupied territories.
Consequently, the Palestinians will regain trust in the Israelis and realize that their neighbors truly want peace.
ITALY
La Repubblica, Rome, July 2: If the pace of Anglo-American losses continues, the postwar period could cost more in human lives than the war itself. Yet it is useless to draw parallels with Vietnam, which often gets inappropriately cited in comparison. That conflict should be remembered only insofar as it proved military superiority is not enough to impose a durable political model.
In Iraq, the Americans have not begun to build the promised democracy. To a large extent, the country the Americans have freed has proven itself hostile.
No plan
What's amazing is that beyond the military invasion, a technical success, a plan intended to deal with the most urgent problems has not been prepared. What amazes us is the gap between military efficiency and political intelligence. What do we make of the decision to print banknotes still portraying the former dictator's face? Can one imagine the Italian lira or the German mark with Mussolini's and Hitler's faces printed on them? How should we read the inability of the freeing superpower to deliver water and light to inhabitants of the capital?
Marines can defeat a dictator, but it's more difficult to install a pax americana.
SWITZERLAND
Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Zurich, July 1: The Americans now need quick, concrete progress on the "Road Map." At stake is the credibility of U.S. arguments that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would clear the way for solutions to the Palastanian-Israeli conflict. Practical progress is now being made with the Israeli withdrawals from the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem. But the "Road Map" also demands the Israeli retreat from all regions occupied since 2000; a stop to construction of settlements and to the expropriation and destruction of Palestinian houses and land.
Declared ceasefire
Progress in the quest for peace would not have been possible without the recently declared ceasefire. But this is far from guaranteeing the success of the "Road Map," whose vision contradicts with Sharon's and the Israeli Right's ideas of the Jewish promised land, and with the extremists' demands for the complete liberation of Palestine. Both sides have more than once demonstrated their readiness to sabotage the peace process since the Aqaba summit.