SWITZERLAND
SWITZERLAND
Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Zurich, Sept. 16: It is understandable that the Israeli public and Sharon's government have had enough from Arafat and long for him to disappear from the political stage.
Since the latest bloody attacks by the terror organization Hamas last week, Sharon's Security cabinet has decided in principle to deport Arafat from his half-destroyed residence in Ramallah -- where the Israeli army has kept him under house arrest for 11/2 years. .
The decision has met strong criticism not only in Israel itself but also in other countries mainly because it demonstrates psychological and diplomatic insensitivity and even more a lack of political thinking.
Deputy Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert increased the political damage when he declared during the weekend that not only expulsion but also an "attack" on Arafat would be a legitimate option for the government.
Olmert's supporters defended his foolish statement by noting that the United States had more or less openly tried to kill Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. That's correct. But it shows little ability to differentiate politically and militarily to place mass murderer Saddam Hussein, who controlled the totalitarian apparatus of an extensive country, on the same level as Arafat, sitting under house arrest in Ramallah, where he can be caught at any moment by the Israeli army.
Sharon's political instinct also gets a poor grade because he apparently no longer recoils from letting the controversy over Arafat's fate develop into an open quarrel with the Bush administration.
DENMARK
Posten, Copenhagen, Sept. 16: The World Trade Organization is in crisis after 146 member countries failed to agree on a free trade agreement Sunday in the Mexican holiday resort of Cancun.
During the four days of talks, the superpowers -- the European Union and the United States -- were obviously surprised that a joint coalition of middle-income and developing countries stood firmly together.
Noteworthy was that the EU's representatives showed up with a mandate that was not geared to tackle the poor countries' insistence to become a "power player" in the talks.
The frightening scenario for the EU, as well as global trade, is that the United States has decided to distance itself from the WTO, focusing instead on making bilateral agreements with trading partners.
GREAT BRITAIN
The Daily Telegraph, London, Sept. 16: There was something pathetic about the African countries' whoops of delight at the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun. True, they were registering disgust at the paltry offers of the European Union and America on cutting agricultural subsidies. But any setback in the Doha Round, which was launched in 2001 to reduce import barriers and farm aid, will leave them in an even weaker position than at present.
Big economic powers such as the E.U., America and China are likely to turn instead to regional and bilateral free trade agreements; Washington has already concluded one with Singapore, and another, with Australia, is due by the end of the year. In such dealing outside the framework of the WTO, poor, weak nations have next to no say.
If African rejoicing was premature, the stance of the E.U. and America was insultingly mean.
JORDAN
Jordan Times, Amman, Sept. 16: To receive a couple of cheers during his Iraq trip, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had to go to Kurdish areas, actually to Halabja, where Saddam Hussein unleashed his murderous folly against thousands of innocent men, women and children.
But the very special circumstances and factors that prompt equally special reaction in Iraq's Kurdish towns -- a deep-rooted tradition and autonomy, unique socio-economic dynamics partly due to the presence of some of the world's largest oil reserves -- should not make anyone forget what the atmosphere is like in the rest of the country.
For, in all other parts of Iraq, Powell cannot expect to be cheered.
It is not because Iraqis miss the brutal regime of Saddam. Indeed, reports that many Iraqis are grateful to U.S. forces for having rid them of decades-long dictatorship are not all Western propaganda.
The simple reality is that ordinary Iraqis of all religions and political creeds loath foreign occupation, including U.S. occupation.
While Powell was visiting the mass graves of thousand of Kurds killed in chemical attacks ordered by Saddam, an Iraqi minister, hand-picked and appointed by Washington and its longa manus in Baghdad, the Coalition Provisional Authority, was denouncing U.S. presence and the behavior of the U.S. troops in Iraq.
Leaving aside the attitude of U.S. forces, people's perception of American soldiers on their on their soil will not change until Washington proves in deeds, not only in words, that what it really wanted was the liberation of Iraq.