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Latest update: 31/12/2008
- Gaza Strip - Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In the papers
FRANCE 24 journalists present a daily round-up of the world's newspapers.
La Stampa (Italy)
“Gaza, nuovi raid israeliani”
Papers round the world have been leading on Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the images are doing much of the talking. The front page of the Italian paper La Stampa shows a Gaza resident crawling in agony.
The Independent on Sunday (Britain)
“Israeli air strikes kill 200 and leave 700 injured”
Britain’s Independent on Sunday shows the extent of the devastation in Rafah on Saturday.
Haaretz (Israel)
The centre-left Israeli paper Haaretz says the attack on Gaza is much along the lines of what the Americans termed “shock and awe” during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. It says that as in the US assault on Iraq five years ago “little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians.”
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
The Jerusalem Post also says that the Israeli army’s goal is to shock and awe. To that it adds a third word: deception. It suggests the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak tricked Hamas by first announcing an opening of the Gaza crossings and then by leaking to the press that there would be another cabinet meeting on Sunday to decide whether to attack. This created the perception that Israel was holding off when it was in fact fuelling and arming its aircraft.
Al Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Al Riyadh, the Saudi paper, says that Israel is determined to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure and does not care about international opinion. But the main point, it argues, is that Palestinians are divided among themselves. It says Arab leaders will meet and talk and condemn the attacks but are not in a position to do anything as long as the Palestinians are not united.
Awan (Kuwait)
An article by the internationally known Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan appears in Kuwait’s Awan paper. On seeing Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announcing attacks on Hamas while in Egypt, he said he was astonished to see the Egyptian Foreign Minister sitting beside her looking as if the conflict was as far removed as it would be for a Costa Rican or Swedish diplomat. The writer says Egypt would never have allowed Hamas to make such a belligerent statement on Egyptian soil.
L’Express.fr (France)
“Mort de Samuel Huntington, auteur du 'Choc des civilisations' ”
Obituaries aplenty have been written for the political scientist Samuel Huntington, who has died at the age of 81. The French online magazine L’Express.fr points out that while Huntington is known for his book "The Clash of Civilizations", he continued to draw controversy with a book in 2004 entitled “Who Are We” in which he said the influx of Mexican migrants into the United States was a threat to its national identity.
The New York Times (United States)
The New York Times obituary for Samuel P. Huntington looks at the "Clash of Civilizations" theory which states that conflicts stem from the competing identities of seven or eight civilizations. It says Huntington’s emphasis on religious empires gained cachet after the 9/11 attacks. The paper quotes a critic of Huntington – Edward W. Said of Columbia University – who said the "Clash of Civilizations" theory perpetuated a West Against the Rest mentality.
Daily Mail Online (Britain)
“Death by Jaffa cakes: the horse killed with kindness after passers-by fed him ‘treats’”
The Daily Mail Online has a salutary tale about a horse – Kamal the Arabian Stallion – killed by the kindness of well-meaning passers-by. The stallion’s owner says people in West Malling in Kent gave the horse colic by feeding it dog biscuits and Jaffa cakes. The horse became ill and died. The story serves as a post-Christmas warning about the dangers of too many sweet treats.
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