Sunday, January 08, 2006

Some Arab reaction to Sharon

From a BBC News report, "Arab media ponder Sharon legacy":
The extensive coverage the Arab media have devoted to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's battle for survival has reflected his key role in the Arab-Israeli conflict over the past 50 years. [....] Palestinian loathing of Mr Sharon has also been widely expressed, with some of those interviewed in Palestinian towns or refugee camps regretting not that Mr Sharon appears close to death but that his fate has not been more painful and extreme.
The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, an independent newspaper with a fiercely anti-American and anti-Israeli line, has room in its headline for the detail that Palestinians are distributing sweets as they rejoice over Mr Sharon's illness. [....] "It is not surprising that some frustrated Palestinians celebrate Sharon's stroke... the man was a horrible and bloody nightmare for them, inside and outside the Occupied Territories," the paper's editorial reads.
On the other hand:
One Palestinian listed what he described as Mr Sharon's crimes and then said he wished the Arab world had a leader like him.
Several Arab papers sound a similar note.
"Courage and objectivity require us to admit that Ariel Sharon has lived all his life for his people's benefit," a commentary in Jordan's al-Dustur reads.
"If he were an Arab leader and behaved as he has done in Israel, he would have been the idol of the masses from the Atlantic to the Gulf."