Christmas Eve blues for Mid-East press

There is little sign of optimism in the Middle East press as Christmas Day fast approaches.

While Palestinian papers dwell on the Gaza raid by Israeli forces which killed at least eight people, the Israeli press frets about Libya's decision to scrap its weapons of mass destruction, an issue which also continues to interest Arab commentators.

The attack on the Egyptian foreign minister during his visit to Israel still attracts comment in both Israel and Egypt, while domestic issues concern the Iraqi press.

It is shameful the world stands with its arms crossed before the repeated Israeli aggressions Al-Quds

The Palestinian paper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah describes Israel's incursion into the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza as "a real massacre which is added to the list of massacres that our people are suffering in full view of the world".

"At a time the whole world is talking about the crimes against humanity committed in Iraq, Rafah is subjected to comprehensive destruction."

Another Palestinian paper, Al-Quds, also condemns what it sees as international silence over the killings.

"It is shameful the world stands with its arms crossed before the repeated Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people. If an Israeli city was bombed, resulting in innocent civilian casualties, Washington and the West would have bombarded the Palestinian authorities with condemnation."

Intelligence failures

Israel's largest-circulation daily Yediot Ahronot laments that "once again, Israel was taken by surprise" over Libya's announcement it was scrapping its WMD.

When it comes to political developments in the Middle East, we are becoming accustomed to finding ourselves being surprised Yediot Ahronot

"Gaddafi's political about turn is tantamount to a minor 'Yom Kippur war' for the Israeli intelligence organs. Once again, we did not know, we did not hear, we did not see, and worst of all, we were not informed.

"When it comes to political developments in the Middle East, we are becoming accustomed to finding ourselves being surprised. How come our American and British friends did not tell us that Gaddafi intends to return to the family of nations?" the paper asks.

However, a commentator in the liberal daily Haaretz is encouraged by the Libyan move, feeling "it will help make a Gaddafi-led Libya into one of the more sane and rational states in the region".

The United Arab Emirates' Al-Bayan takes both Britain and the US to task for making a big issue about Libya's move while ignoring "the need for Israel to emulate Libya's action of ridding itself of WMD".

Syria's Al-Baath also points the finger at Israel, complaining that "the main means of mass destruction in the region is the phenomenon of aggression and occupation".

Extremist elements do not represent the Palestinian people Al-Ahram

The attack on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher by angry Palestinians during a visit to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque continues to resonate in the region.

No room for extremists

Describing the attackers as "renegade traitors", Egypt's Al-Akhbar demands "a speedy trial of those criminals who committed this despicable act".

The influential Egyptian paper Al-Ahram counsels that "the extremist elements do not represent the Palestinian people, and what happened should not be perceived as a Palestinian stance. The majority of Palestinians support peace".

"As the Maher incident shows," Israel's Jerusalem Post tells the Egyptians, "all the bows to Islamic radicalism did not protect Egypt from attack".

"If [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak and Maher are genuinely interested in peace, they should campaign against such peace-impeding fanaticism. If instead they propose to abet, excuse, and cover it up, while redoubling their efforts to elicit concessions from Israel, they disqualify themselves as mediators."

Settling scores

In Iraq, Al-Dawah lambastes the former leader Saddam Hussein, threatening to "present enough documents to sentence him to death a thousand times, documents signed by the criminal himself when ordering the execution of the good people of this homeland".

Iraqis can no longer keep silent and see their beloved Iraq encumbered with new burdens Al-Dustur

"Saddam does not even deserve to be a prisoner of war. For those shedding crocodile tears in his defence we say: had Saddam been a man, he would not have gone into hiding in a hole, and would not have agreed to open his mouth like a child to the Americans."

And Al-Dustur worries that the Iraqi Governing Council is in danger of becoming "a forum for settling scores and striking political deals whose victim could be the entire nation".

"Iraqis can no longer keep silent, stand like spectators or wait and see their beloved Iraq encumbered with new burdens even heavier than before."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.