LITHUANIA

LITHUANIA

Lietuvos Rytas, Vilnius, Jan. 7: The cold front in Europe was accompanied by worrying news from the East. Russia and Ukraine have faced off in a conflict over natural gas, while others watch anxiously as pressure in the pipe drops.

For some European Union members, there’s no time to wait and see who is right and who is wrong in the dispute. Slovakia, for instance, is about to declare state of emergency due to the dramatic shortage in gas supplies.

Surprise

The outcome is vague, but one thing is clear: Europe was taken by surprise by Moscow and Kiev’s row, although the Old World faced a similar situation a few years ago. The lesson was not learned.

The European Commission is demanding that gas supplies be renewed. There are hints of an EU, Russia, Ukraine summit, but hasty announcements seemed to have made no impression on Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

Even worse, there are signs that the EU has acted ridiculously slowly in this crisis, not only unable to solve it but even to grasp its seriousness. On Monday both the commission and the Czech Republic, which is presiding over the rotating presidency, brushed the situation off as “Moscow’s and Kiev’s commercial quarrel,” saying that the EU would not meddle.

ISRAEL

Jerusalem Post, Jan. 6: How do Israelis feel when our artillery strikes a UN-run school building, killing dozens of people? The answer is: deeply shaken, profoundly distressed, sorrowful at the catastrophic loss of life.

But we do not feel guilt. We are angry at Hamas for forcing this war on us; for habitually using Gaza’s civilians as human shields; and — in this latest outrage — for transforming a center where people had sought refuge into a shooting gallery and weapons depot.

To paraphrase Golda Meir, there may come a time when we will forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, “but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.”

Propaganda

Images of carnage take on a momentum of their own, and it requires a certain amount of savvy to realize that, sometimes, a picture is not worth 1,000 words. Images that jumble people’s thinking and distort reality are less than worthless — they’re propagandistic.

Too many news outlets have allowed their coverage of Gaza to be agenda-driven, to willfully disregard the duty of presenting news and images in context.

Cynically thrusting pictures of dead toddlers at readers and viewers obfuscates truth, bedevils news consumers, and robotically demonizes those “who could do such a thing.”

FINLAND

Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki, Jan. 6: The war in Gaza has revealed a vacuum in international diplomacy. As the attacks by Israeli forces continue in the Gaza strip the complicated international links to the tragic events become increasingly apparent.

The political and diplomatic web may appear a secondary consideration while increasing information reveals civilian casualties. But in the end, negotiations are the only means to achieve a cease-fire and the possibility that life could be lived without violence in the Palestinian areas and Israel.

Chief negotiator

In order to break the spiral of violence we need tough international efforts and the return of the United States as a chief negotiator. The new president-to-be Barack Obama clearly will not outline his policy on the Middle East before he takes office, and outgoing President George W. Bush has neither the opportunity nor will to urge Israel to a cease-fire.