European press review

European matters take a back seat in today's front pages and editorial columns as the press comes to terms with the attacks on Israeli holidaymakers in Kenya and on civilians in the Israeli town of Bet Shean.

Arab quandary

Germany's Der Tagesspiegel believes that the Mombasa attacks bear the al-Qaeda imprint and suggest that the terrorist organisation has chosen a new strategy.

"By aiming at Israelis," it says, "Bin-Laden can be sure of earning the approval of many Arabs" who up to now eyed with suspicion his "nihilistic and merely destructive agenda".

With al-Qaeda waging "a concrete, rather than just verbal war on Israel", the paper adds, "the Arab regimes and media will not find it easy to condemn such attacks as firmly as they did the one in Bali".

The Austrian Der Standard too is in no doubt that al-Qaeda is behind the Kenya attacks.

The new Islamic anti-Semitism is using Israel as a catalyst.

Der Standard

"The novelty here," it says, is that al-Qaeda has "clearly and exclusively targeted Israelis", which "does not mean that Israel was not on Osama Bin Laden's agenda".

As the paper sees it "the unreal hate of the 'Zionist entity'... is being combined with the new Islamic anti-Semitism, which is using Israel, or rather Israeli politics, merely as a catalyst" for its deeds. "Unfortunately," it adds, "this attitude is not confined to the Islamic world."

Link unlikely

The French Liberation thinks it "not very likely" that the attacks in Mombasa and Israel had the same mastermind, "even though", it notes, "it is in the Israeli prime minister's immediate political interest, and in keeping with his logic, to suggest that they were".

"The Beit Shean killings," it believes, "are more than likely to be yet another in the long list of Palestinian acts of terrorism", while what is known of the Mombassa attacks "points towards an action planned by the upholders of international Islamism".

Vicious circle

The Russian liberal daily Vremya Novostey says that if the Boeing-757 had not escaped the two missiles launched by "the pals of the suicide bombers", the "African tragedy would have been comparable" to the 11 September attack on New York and the Bali bombing.

There is no place in the world where you can feel safe from the evil schemes of murderers.

Vremya Novostey

"It became clear beyond a shadow of doubt yesterday that the hackneyed cliche about terrorism having no borders contains a profound and bitter truth: there is no place in the world where you can feel safe from the evil schemes of murderers," it concludes.

The daily sympathises with "the poor Israeli holidaymakers" who mistakenly thought that "on Indian Ocean shores they could forget for a while about the troubled life in their homeland".

The paper predicts dire consequences for developing countries that rely heavily on tourism.

As "the epicentre of international terrorism shifts to calm resorts in the Third World", such countries are likely to lose a considerable part of their foreign currency revenues.

The fate that awaits them is rather gloomy, the daily says, because "this will further fuel the fire of terror: poverty begets despair, despair begets violence, and violence leads to even more horrendous penury and religious hatred".

Threat to air traffic

The Swiss Tribune De Geneve notes that the use of ground-to-air missiles is "a first" for what it calls "Islamist terrorism".

It points out that "after the car bombs, the use of airliners as flying bombs... an the recourse to boats loaded with explosives... the armoury of the terrorist movements has acquired a new weapon" that "may prove particularly fearsome as a threat hanging over the world's air traffic".

In Spain, Madrid's El Mundo sees the use of anti-aircraft missile-launchers as what it calls "a qualitative leap by the terrorists".

Our way of life depends on absolute international cooperation against terrorism.

El Mundo

"Before we have a repetition of the horrors of 11 September," it warns, "we need, once and for all, absolute international cooperation against terrorism." This must be done "with no hesitation nor cowardice", the paper adds, "for on it depends the survival of our models of society and way of life".

Iraqi obsession

Barcelona's El Periodico spreads responsibilities somewhat wider than most of its fellow dailies.

"While the Bush Administration pursues its obsession with Iraq and with its own oil interests," it says, "terrorism tries to justify its deeds with the war in Palestine, an unending war reflecting the bias of the dominating power, the shameful ineffectualness of Europe, and the failure of international order".

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