European press review

The continent's press attacks Europe's "spectator role" in the Mideast crisis and anti-Semitism in France. One paper rejects comparisons between the Basque issue in Spain and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and a Russian company takes Tolkien fans to court.

Mid-East spectators

The Frankfurter Rundschau says it is high time the international community gave up its "spectator role" in the Middle East. "Israelis and Palestinians will not find their way to peace alone," it says.

International mediation is in European and especially German interests, "because of the historic responsibility for Israel's guaranteed existence", the paper points out.

Germany's Handelsblatt says no one seems to have any idea what kind of Middle East strategy the European Union's foreign policy envoy Javier Solana stands for.

Pronouncements by French diplomats, that "the EU is too weak to intervene in this dramatic situation" make Mr Solana's mission more difficult, the paper says.

According to the paper, Mr Solana's negotiating partners increasingly subscribe to the French position that "Europe's ambitions ... are proportional to our possibilities".

Poor comparison

Copenhagen daily Information describes comparisons between Basque separatists and Palestinian as absurd.

The collective psychosis that terror provokes in the Basque Country leads to such tragic incidents

El Pais

The Danish paper says ETA and its political wing, Batasuna, have repeatedly attempted to present their struggle as that of an oppressed people like the Palestinians.

Information explains that "where the Israeli leader employs the military, missiles and tanks against the Palestinians and their legitimate leader with a brutal hand, the Spanish leader uses the constitutional state and the police to fight terrorism".

Meanwhile, the front pages of Spain's newspapers are filled with a dramatic accident in the Basque city of San Sebastian on Tuesday, in which a local councillor's private security guard was killed in a shoot-out.

The security guard had mistaken two plainclothes police officers chasing criminals for gunmen from the separatist organisation ETA.

Spain's El Mundo blames the "collective psychosis that terror provokes in the streets of the Basque Country" for the tragic incident.

El Pais agrees that "the atmosphere of terror created by ETA in the Basque Country" was the "ultimate cause" of the accident as "it is obvious that the pressure the men of violence put on the whole of society increases the risk of fatal incidents".

Anti-Semitism in France

"The fact that a synagogue has been reduced to cinders in 21st century France is worse than a crime," an editorial in Paris's Le Monde, says of the recent spate of attacks on Jewish interests in France.

The paper says that the Jewish community's concern about the increase in such acts over the last year must be shared by the whole nation.

"Whatever their origins were," the paper says, "the flames which destroyed the Or Aviv synagogue, in the Marseille district of Caillols, have also burnt France."

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung urges vigilance in the face of the anti-Jewish attacks in France.

"No other European country is going through a comparable experience," it notes.

It says the incident proves that anti-Semites are strengthened, not just by strong reaction in the media, but also when their crimes are played down," the paper warns.

Russians held in Cuba

In Russia, the papers ask whether the three Russian al-Qaeda prisoners in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay will receive their "infinite justice".

The tactic of using oil as a weapon can be catastrophic if carried out.

Izvestiya

The leading daily Izvestiya runs a headline announcing that "America will judge our Taleban", despite assurances from the Deputy Prosecutor-General that Russia will insist on extradition.

The pro-government Rossiyskaya Gazeta is equally sceptical about the prospects for extradition.

History, the paper suggests, is not on the side of the Russians. Extradition is "the issue which most often trips our justice system up".

At any rate, the paper adds, "the Prosecutor-General's Office couldn't remember whether the USA had ever handed over even a single criminal".

Oil - an effective weapon?

Izvestiya reports on "threats" by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, commenting that the "tactic of using oil as a weapon is an effective one" could be catastrophic if carried out.

The paper however doubts the "political will" of Arab countries, who "are wary of sparking political instability by responding to calls from Baghdad and Tehran for an oil boycott".

The paper suggests that Arab states will not agree to a boycott, because there is discord and division amongst them.

"Traditionally, Iran doesn't get on so well with its Arab neighbours," the paper says. "And the Arabs themselves rarely manage to agree on anything. Even their common hatred of Israel might not work here."

Ukrainian elections

Ukraine's opposition paper, Ukrayina Moloda rejoices at the news that the opposition bloc leader, Viktor Yushchenko, won the elections: "The true opposition proved that it was needed, and it has overcome all imaginable obstacles on its way to parliament."

The Fakty i Kommentarii tabloid assures its readers that international observers said they had not noticed any threats to democracy and future friendship between Ukraine and the West.

Hobbits with bad habits

The Russian paper, Izvestiya, reports that a local forestry business has brought a lawsuit against a local children's club, whose members are fans of the works of J R R Tolkien.

The company accused the children of felling 61of its trees, with the intention of building Hobbit-dwellings, such as those featured in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

The club denied the accusations, and refused to pay 80,500 roubles ($2,600), which the company demanded in compensation.

The judge ruled that the company did have grounds for a claim, but threw the case out of court anyway.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.