Sharon, Arafat under press scrutiny

Sharon and Arafat are facing pressure from their own supporters

Israeli and Palestinian newspapers on Thursday explore what they see as the serious challenges now facing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Both men are facing renewed pressure from among their own political supporters.

On Wednesday, Mr Sharon's Likud Party voted against a coalition with Israel's opposition Labour Party and Mr Arafat admitted that the Palestinian Authority had made "unacceptable mistakes".

The political crisis will not end with this. It will begin. The violent struggle over the disengagement will tear the ruling party apart. It will not put Sharon at its head again.

Editorial in Israel's Yediot Aharonot

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Sharon was defeated yesterday. Even if he manages somehow blatantly to disregard the decision, as he did before with the Likud referendum, he cannot ignore his party forever. He is walking on thin ice.

Commentator Nahum Barnea in Israel's Yediot Aharonot

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The little satisfaction Sharon felt yesterday stems from the (non-official) real results of the ballot box of the elected representatives - 24 Likud Knesset members supported the prime minister's draft resolution, only 11 opposed it and one abstained... What a pity these results did not seep through to the members themselves who massacred Sharon in their hundreds.

Commentator Ben Kaspit in Israel's Maariv

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The defeat Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered yesterday at his party's conference proved that Sharon, even before he disengages from one caravan, from one settlement, has finally disengaged from his party.

Commentator Yossi Verter in Israel's Haaretz

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Ariel Sharon will lick his wounds over the next few days. It is not important whether he accepts the conference decisions but whether he succeeds in healing the rifts in his party.

Commentator Sima Kadmon in Israel's Yediot Aharonot

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As for Sharon, he may emerge a little scathed from yesterday's vote, but within a week the wound will barely show. Meanwhile, the Likud's Central Committee is consigning itself to irrelevance. What a strange thing for it to do.

Editorial in the Jerusalem Post

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Arafat's speech yesterday before the Legislative Council can become the solid foundation for the call to launch real reforms that support our people in the battle for freedom and independence. However, the steps so far, according to his speech, are not good for anything since they are not related to the faults but are due to external pressure.

Commentator Adli Sadiq in the Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jaddiah

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There is nothing new in the vocabulary of Arafat's speech... Washington and London formally boycott the besieged president but make sure to deliver advice and warnings via an army of advisers that surround him.

Commentator Hasan al-Batal in the Palestinian al-Ayyam

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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.