Excerpts of editorials from newspapers around the world:
Asahi Shimbun
Spain’s Iraq withdrawal
TOKYO — The unity of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of just over 30 countries that have sent military troops to Iraq in support of the U.S. occupation, has begun to unravel.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered the withdrawal of the Spanish troops, making good on a campaign promise for the general election in March.
Uneasiness has been spreading to other members of the coalition because, on top of turmoil in Iraq, there is no hope of stability in sight after the transfer of power to the Iraqis themselves.
Mr. Zapatero insists that the United Nations should take the initiative, even in the military field. However, it is unlikely the countries of the world would easily agree on a joint plan to keep law and order in a country that has become so dangerous.
Everybody wants stability in Iraq and reconstruction put on a track. But conditions in the country have made either moving ahead or turning back losing propositions.
Spain’s rebellion appears to represent the international community’s frustration with the U.S. government, which refuses to significantly alter its Iraq policy.
Ha’aretz
Killing Abdel Aziz Rantisi
JERUSALEM — Saturday’s assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi was the product of intelligence work and operational calculations. The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet knew exactly when Rantisi would be exposed to an attack that would cause minimal harm to innocent Palestinians near him. While Israel might still face years of armed struggle waged by radical, hostile elements that cannot accept its existence alongside a Palestinian state …, there can be no lack of respect for Saturday’s show of professional expertise and strength by Israel’s defense establishment.
Yet those who are encouraged to see that Israel’s military is on target cannot avoid doubts about the integrity of the motivations of those who order uniformed soldiers to squeeze the trigger. Ariel Sharon’s positions, and his behavior in IDF roles and in politics, are such that he faces the burden of proof — it cannot be automatically assumed that the order to assassinate Rantisi was motivated purely by the desire to serve the state’s interests. …
Knocking off Hamas leaders is not, in itself, policy. If these acts aggravate risks faced by the state of Israel and its citizens, they are wrong. Conversely, if they are likely to restrain Hamas and lead it toward … a cease-fire … then the assassinations should not be ruled out. …
The Sunday Mirror
U.S. endorsement of Israel
HARARE, Zimbabwe — President George W. Bush last Wednesday broke with four decades of official U.S. diplomacy by endorsing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan. He dispensed with the pretense that Washington is committed to a negotiated settlement of the Middle East conflict, and aligned the U.S. government publicly and unequivocally with Israeli aggression and the dispossession of the Palestinian people.
The unilateral deal announced by Bush and Sharon calls for the dismantling of a relative handful of fortified Israeli enclaves in the Gaza Strip and evacuating some 7,500 settlers in return for the U.S. supporting Israel’s “right” to permanently annex a vast portion of the West Bank territory that it seized in its 1967 war with neighboring Arab states. Zionist settlements in this territory house some 240,000.
Palestinian representatives were summarily excluded from the talks leading to this illegal land grab; the announcement of the U.S.-Israeli deal was made in a manner that suggested the Palestinian people and their historic grievances do not even exist. The policies pursued by Washington and Israel are destabilizing the entire region and creating the conditions for revolutionary upheavals.
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