NORWAY

NORWAY

Aftenposten, Oslo, June 24: Zimbabwe is now paying the price for Western and African indifference about a champion of independence (President Robert Mugabe) who became dictator and steered the country into the ditch.

No one spoke up in time. Neighboring African countries are still having trouble speaking out strongly enough. That applies, not in the least, to South Africa, where many from Zimbabwe have sought refuge. Many of them suffer violence from poor South Africans who see them as threat to their jobs.

Stronger measures

The only hope is that the SADC (Southern African Development Community) nations ... use stronger measures against the Mugabe regime and lay the groundwork for the time after he is gone.

At some time or another, his time will be over. That time is approaching fast.

BRITAIN

The Times, London, June 25: Like two feuding branches of a family that fell out badly a few generations ago, but which now sense that the time has long passed to bury the hatchet, Japan and China are again straining to be friends. Relations between Asia’s two giants blow hot and cold, whatever Hu Jintao, China’s President, might say about Sino-Japanese ties now entering an “everlasting warm spring”.

Diplomatic warmth

The latest test of this new diplomatic warmth came yesterday afternoon when the first Japanese warship to visit China since the Second World War docked in a southern Chinese port, laden with relief supplies for victims of last month’s Sichuan earthquake. And also a band, which will perform “friendship” concerts during the destroyer’s five-day stay.

The symbolism is not lost on the authorities in Beijing, who launched this latest round of diplomatic ping-pong by sending a Chinese missile destroyer to visit Japan in November — the first Chinese ship to do so since 1891.

Maybe that everlasting warm spring has finally sprung.

ISRAEL

Jerusalem Post, June 22: The “Jerusalem Pride and Tolerance March for Infinite Love” is scheduled to take place. ... Starting out at Independence Park, participants will parade down King David Street, winding up at the Liberty Bell Garden, where they will hold a rally to demand equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Gay pride parade

What appeared last week to make this year’s gay pride parade different from its predecessors was the surprising decision on the part of the Edah Haredit, the ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, to ignore — rather than protest — the event they consider so abhorrent. Haredi insiders say spontaneous demonstrations could still erupt, but there will be no call on the part of the Edah Haredit to prevent the LGBTs from marching.

The haredi decision does not constitute a newfound tolerance for homosexuality. Rather, it was tactical: based on the fact that this year’s parade is local in nature, unlike the 2006 “World-Pride” event, which drew participants from other countries. Furthermore, haredi leaders have had second thoughts about exposing yeshiva students, even if in protest, to the “depraved” gay scene.

Taking his cue from extremist counterparts in the United States, Rabbi Moshe Sternbach, one of the senior rabbinical leaders of the Edah Haredit, last week rejected the decision by the organization not to stir up trouble before or during the parade, asserting it a duty to “prevent the abomination.”

But there is a larger issue at stake here. Though Jerusalem may be the city of the Kotel and the Kolel, the Stations of the Cross and the Aksa Mosque, it is also the vibrant ... international capital.