Yemen's president is running out of options
"Is it mere lust for power, megalomania or delusion that is making the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, cling to power this adamantly?" asked Abdul Rahman al Rashed, a columnist with the London-based Asharq al Awsat newspaper.
Mr Saleh faces tough challenges on so many fronts that he won't be able to come out of them all unscathed. "If, for instance, he manages to overcome the current state of civil disobedience in his country, he won't be able to dodge international prosecution eventually," the columnist said.
"His status will tumble from that of president to war criminal. He will face inescapable charges, even if he hides out in the most rugged mountains of Yemen. If he would only learn the lesson from former Serb leaders!"
Mr Saleh is fighting a losing domestic and international battle with "wooden swords". Why would he go down this path and turn down a golden exit plan offered by the Gulf Cooperation Council states?
"Why is he intent on risking everything when he still has a good option, one that wasn't offered to Egypt's Mubarak, is not being offered to Libya's Qaddafi and will never be offered to Syria's Assad?"
Mr Saleh must do the maths: his friends will disappear once he runs out of money, and he will gain immunity if he decides to step down.
France will fall flat in bid for Mideast Peace
There is little reason to be optimistic about the visit by the French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, to the Middle East tomorrow, during which he will hold separate talks with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad, according to Randa Taqiyeddin, a columnist with the Palestinian Al Quds newspaper.
Pumped up on the overly enthusiastic show of support by the US Congress, Mr Netanyahu doesn't need to show flexibility on any matter up for discussion.
Mr Juppe and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, want to restart the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians before September, the time when the Palestinian Authority is planning to officially seek recognition for an independent state at the UN General Assembly.
But American and European members of the Security Council want to spare themselves the embarrassment of having to vote for or against the full-fledged membership of Palestine at the UN.
Mr Sarkozy has said before that the Israeli-Palestinian status quo is not acceptable, but French diplomacy is unlikely to change it.
"If there is any value to Mr Juppe's visit, it may be in that he will have a chance to listen closely to the Palestinian side," the columnist said. Other than that, Mr Netanyahu has made clear that his position can be summed in a whole bunch of "Nos".
New draft of Moroccan constitution ready
The consultative committee appointed to revise the Moroccan constitution has finished working on the final draft of a new constitution on Wednesday, reported the online Moroccan newspaper Hespress, citing a reliable source.
The royal counsel Mohammed Moatassim, who oversees the process of drafting the new constitution, is due to present the draft in the course of this week before the political parties to discuss the various articles and amendments.
Morocco has seen an eruption of peaceful pro-democracy protests across the nation since February 20, when a group of young Moroccans took to the streets and voiced their demands for radical reforms and an end to corruption, nepotism and police repression. In a landmark speech in March, the Moroccan king Mohammed VI announced a set of reforms, including the creation of a committee to revise the constitution.
According to Hespress, various sources have confirmed that a popular referendum on this draft constitution is expected to take place early in July, while early legislative elections are due in the first week of October.
The online newspaper said the parliament will remain in session until next parliamentary elections in order to pass all legislation related to the electoral process.
Three scenes from post-revolution Egypt
In an opinion article for the Emirati Al Bayan newspaper, Egyptian columnist Saleh Abdelazim listed three scenes he saw on Egyptian television which called to his mind the colossal task of rebuilding that still lies ahead.
The first scene had to do with a school teacher arrested after being caught on tape brutally beating children. "While beating children in school is common practice across the Arab world, the striking thing in this particular instance was the staunch support the parents showed for the schoolteacher."
The second scene was a representation of the typical left-wing self-righteous rejection of conservative trends. Farida al Shobabi, an otherwise brilliant journalist, excoriated Egyptian female flight attendants who wear hijab while on duty. Ms al Shobabi was unwittingly denying these women a basic human right.
The last scene was from an Egyptian television show that featured three Muslim clerics who all agreed that the principles of secularism are foul, simplistically denouncing the Western political systems as inherently faulty. The show was inherently biased.
"These forms of violence that we force against each other and against ourselves may be the most dangerous thing to this revolution," the columnist concluded.
* Digest compiled by Achraf el Bahi