BRITAIN

BRITAIN

The Daily Telegraph, London, Oct. 27: He is a highly effective British politician with a global profile, the goodwill of the United States and a peerless array of international contacts. For all these reasons, Tony Blair is unlikely to emerge as the first full-time President of the European Council. The 27 heads of government who will gather in Brussels tomorrow find it hard to agree on anything. But leaders like President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who would be a strutting emperor if this were not ruled out by his physique, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and the obscure prime ministers of Europe’s smaller countries will probably unite around one proposition: they will not wish to be overshadowed by a President Blair.

Spurn Blair

For once, we rejoice in the small-mindedness of Europe’s leaders. When they eventually come to select the luminary who will chair the European Council of presidents and prime ministers and this may not happen until December they would do us all a favor if they spurned Mr. Blair. ... The case against Mr. Blair is twofold: as our prime minister, he broke his promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which creates the very post he apparently aspires to hold.

The second objection is still more important. The powers of this new post are exceedingly vague. Under the Lisbon Treaty, the president will chair the European Council and attend G8 and G20 summits. In theory, he will be a delegate of the 27 EU leaders, conveying their views to the world. In Mr. Blair’s hands, however, this job would inevitably be enlarged and aggrandized.

SWEDEN

Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Malmo, Oct. 27: Slobodan Milosevic, a Serb president and instigator to a number of wars on the Balkans during the 1990’s, died in March 2006, just before the international war tribunal in The Hague could announce its verdict. Through repeated delays and postponements, he dragged on the rights process for more than four years.

It’s uncertain whether Radovan Karadzic is aiming for the same fate, but it’s clear he is intending to use similar tactics,

Karadzic has previously threatened to boycott the process. He’s made it clear that he will handle his own defense and needs more time to prepare — about another two years.

It is indeed a dire task Karadzic has taken upon himself, especially with regard to him swearing his innocence.

Genocide

The prosecution is massive. It can be summed up in 11 points and includes genocide, crime against humanity as well as crime against the rules of war.

But Karadzic hasn’t been lacking time. He has been jailed in The Hague for almost 15 months. Before that, he managed to stay away from the law for 13 years.

Trials against Karadzic and other war criminals on the Balkans are necessary to be able to map out the questions of guilt and responsibility.

Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell in The Hague before the verdict fell.

In the Radovan Karadzic case, justice will hopefully reach him before death.

JORDAN

Jordan Times, Amman, Oct. 28: Tension flared up again recently in Al Aqsa Mosque compound, in the Holy City of Jerusalem, when Israeli security forces clashed with Palestinian worshippers, injuring some and forcing scores of others to take refuge in the mosque.

News that some ultra-orthodox Jewish groups plan to worship in the Noble Sanctuary that houses one of Islam’s holiest places, in a bid to lay claim to the Islamic holy sites, no doubt angers the Palestinians.

Intifada

Continued Israeli excavations in and around the Islamic holy places is only adding to the tension and threatens the eruption of another bloody wave of clashes like the Intifada that was ignited by the visit of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to Al Aqsa compound almost nine years ago.

Under these circumstances, convening a special international conference on Jerusalem would be the right thing to do.

The Arab League should spearhead calls for a meeting on Jerusalem before the situation there gets out of control.

Solving the crisis in the Holy City could be the key to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The sooner the international community takes affirmative action on it the closer the parties could get to a peaceful resolution of their broader conflict.

ISRAEL

Jerusalem Post, Oct. 26: It’s a dilemma for mainstream Israelis: How to resist capitulating to Arab violence on the Temple Mount - driven by irrational fears of Zionist plots against it - while not encouraging marginal Jewish groups who feverishly yearn to make the Arabs’ worst nightmares come true?

Israel’s “Third Templars” don’t seem to care about the consequences of stoking an apocalyptic religious war with Islamic civilization — 56 countries, 1.57 billion faithful, most of them currently on the sidelines of the Arab-Israel conflict.

Solomon’s Temple

Jewish tradition holds that the Mount, site of Solomon’s Temple (and the Ark of the Covenant) and later the Temple built by the returnees from the Babylonian exile, retains an intrinsic holiness. Disagreements among Torah authorities over which, if any, sections of the Temple plateau may be traversed without treading on the sacred ground of the Holy of Holies date back centuries.

Therein our dilemma: Step back from the Temple Mount, and Arab intimidation wins. Assert Jewish rights, and risk heartening a band of Jewish extremists high on a toxic potion of piety and politics.

Given the Palestinians’ endemic intransigence and quick resort to violence ... it is easy to be dismissive of all their grievances over Jerusalem. But sometimes, more sensitivity could be applied. The Palestinians are not always wrong to complain that municipal authorities are placing unreasonable demands on them in seeking building permits while facilitating scatter-site Jewish housing (with no security value) in densely populated Arab neighborhoods.

In the final analysis, Israeli sovereignty is best manifested by providing the same level of municipal services to all taxpaying Jerusalemites - and by insisting on the same adherence to the law from all.