What citizens of other countries are reading about the Middle East.
By COMPILEDTHE MEDIA LINEA member of the Saudi border guards force stands guard next to a fence on Saudi Arabia’s northern borderline with Iraq last month.(photo credit: REUTERS)Israel wins and Hamas loses Makkah, Mecca, July 24To be clear, I have been pro-Palestinian since birth and love Palestine, says writer Zuhair al-Kutbi. However, it is now time to acknowledge Hamas’s mistakes in jeopardizing a whole nation to achieve partisan gains.Although Hamas felt victorious after the Schlalit swap deal, it needs to understand the power of the IDF. With primitive technology, Israel is capable of destroying Hamas. Hamas gave Israel the opportunity to destroy the infrastructure and achievements of the innocent Palestinian people. Israel didn’t spare a chance to kill children, women and old people, destroying whatever it could from homes and hospitals to police stations.With a growing number of deaths every day, Hamas needs to avoid provoking Israel. I also understand the Egyptian position of supporting hitting Hamas for its participation in killing the Egyptian people. The result of this war is clear: Hamas has lost, and Israel has won.A much-needed intifada Al-Ayyam, Ramallah, July 28Gaza is not the only entity undergoing historical change. The Palestinian future as a whole will undergo a change if a third intifada breaks out, says writer Khaled al-Hroub. The intifada will turn things upside- down and return the situation to where it belongs: a nation revolting against a militant colonial occupation.Such an uprising would confuse the current militant Israeli strategy, which benefits from the calm period provided by the ineffectual Oslo agreement.Years of security coordination with Israel might make such a revolution difficult in the West Bank, but it is not impossible. The third intifada can exploit a rare opportunity of national unity, strengthened by the important steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance.The other thing an intifada could do is return the Palestinian cause to the regional and Israeli agenda.Palestine wins and Israel loses Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, July 27The Arab regimes are clearly not intending to break the Arab and Israeli sieges on Gaza, says writer Mutee Safadi. This is not only to punish Hamas, but because the freedom of Gaza would lead to the establishment of a democratic independent Palestinian state. Israelis don’t want the Palestinians to have a state of their own as a result of their public struggle. The Arab nations are another reason to be disappointed, especially when Palestinians have split – leaving Arabs confused as whom to support. However, the resistance has proven its validity; the end of the Israeli siege will come soon.Then, it will be followed by breaking free from all tyrannies, including the local ones. The attack on Gaza has united all Palestinians, and Israel’s collective killing of innocents is the last resort for the Jewish state. It exposes the state’s weakness amid the growing powers of resistance.Boycott between commitment and reaction Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, Doha, July 25 In their exercise of popular resistance against Israel, Palestinians are conducting an economic boycott of Israeli products. Activists say purchasing Israeli goods funds weapons used to kill them. Some $4 million in Israeli goods coming into Palestine can be affected.Such a move can achieve two goals at once – to stop making the Israeli occupation profitable, and to support the Palestinian national products Israel is targeting.Israeli control over the borders of the Palestinian state and the prevention of access to resources are contributing to a less competitive Palestinian product.Efforts to spread the boycott and make it a part of Palestinian national identity have been underway since 2008, during the (previous) Israeli war on Gaza.The movement of economic resistance has been on the rise since the Palestinian Authority’s decision to boycott settlement products has caused the Israeli economy more than $50 million dollars in losses every year.Iraqi chaos poses serious challengesAn-Nahar, Beirut, July 27 The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threats are leading Iraq to a problematic geopolitical position in which it threatens signs of normalcy in the region, says writer Khalil Hanawe. The cluster of risks intensifies as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict goes on, and the contest between Russia and Ukraine deepens. These developments have the potential to take the world, and particularly the region, into uncertainty. The increased volatility, unless the various geopolitical conflicts are settled soon, could draw a dark regional picture of destruction and killing. Overall, ISIS’s presence in the region is largely linked to developments in Syria and Iraq. As soon as these two wartorn countries regain their security and stability, removing leaders like Syria’s Bashar Assad and Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki, they will definitely head towards destroying ISIS’s caliphate. In addition, freedom is a must for Palestinians to stop the damaging escalation. People and governments need to act soon, before things spin out of control.
