NORWAY

NORWAY

Dagsavisen, Oslo, Feb. 25: The split between Fatah and Hamas is deeply tragic for the Palestinian people. Reconciliation and the immediate creation of a unity government is absolutely necessary to get started with effective humanitarian aid. But a precondition is that the outside world is willing to relate to and cooperate with such a coalition, even if it includes Hamas.

Hamas must face the demand that agreements with Israeli must be respected, as Abbas points out. Hamas must accept a Palestinian state existing alongside an Israeli one. But on these points, there is conflict within Hamas. The leaders who live in Gaza and see the acute needs close up are more willing to compromise than those living in their safe, prosperity in Damascus.

No strong government

The chance of a reasonable compromise is also weakened by Israel being in a transition phase without a strong government. There is clearly disagreement in Ehud Olmert’s outgoing government about the realities that would quickly come to pass after a permanent cease-fire.

When Benjamin Netanyahu takes over, it won’t be easier to achieve results.

BRITAIN

The Independent, London, Feb. 25: In a statement issued on his return from Guantanamo Bay, Binyam Mohamed said his worst moment was when he realized that “the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence”. The very people “who I had hoped would come to my rescue ... had allied themselves with my abusers.” The truth, he said, needed to be known.

‘Drip, drip, drip’

His plea was echoed yesterday by Mike Gapes, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee, who said that the U.S. ought to reveal its information on Mr. Mohamed’s treatment, lest the issue drag on “drip, drip, drip”. The shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, made a similar demand for openness at Foreign Office questions. The Foreign Secretary himself, though, sailed serenely on, insisting for the umpteenth time that the British Government abhors torture, and neither orders nor condones it.

Which does not answer Mr. Mohamed’s charge. He did not claim that British intelligence was actually doing the dirty work, but that it was complicit at one or more removes.