ElBaradei's retreat from presidential race is a loss because Egypt badly needs skilled hands
Mohamed ElBaradei's unexpected decision to drop out of Egypt's presidential race "must be taken most seriously," the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi said in an editorial.
Mr ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said he was leaving the race because in his view suitable democratic conditions were not yet in place for the type of presidential elections he would want to take part in. He was referring to the domination of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) over Egypt's post-revolution politics.
"To be sure, life will go on in Egypt after Dr ElBaradei's withdrawal from the political battlefield," the newspaper said. "But when a man of his stature, weight and experience makes this kind of decision, it must mean that something is really wrong."
Mr ElBaradei's move shocked many and prompted mixed interpretations. "His opponents said he changed his mind about running for president because he realised his chances of winning were very slim," the paper noted. "Others said he did the right thing, given that the prospects for democracy … have fallen far short of the hopes of Tahrir Square protesters."
In his statement, Mr ElBaradei implied that his main issue was with the Scaf, which has been in effect ruling the country since the departure of Hosni Mubarak. The situation in Egypt after the revolution, Mr ElBaradei said, is like that of a boat whose captain is still "following old routes, as if the revolution had never happened."
Indeed, the army council is still trying to preserve the structure of the old regime, with "a superficial cosmetic touch," Al Quds Al Arabi said.
Mr ElBaradei stopped short of saying explicitly that the Scaf basically wants to stay in power, the paper noted. Nor did the generals say they intend to achieve that by imposing their will on the drafting of the country's new constitution and by grooming their own candidate for the presidency.
Mr ElBaradei wanted to take Egypt down a liberal route all the way to economic stability. "But, it's true, when the ballot boxes showed the conservatives to have a clear majority, his ambitions went up in smoke," the paper conceded. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis have won the majority of parliamentary seats in Egypt's first free elections in decades.
Of course, at the end of the day, Egyptians will have to use their free right, in the coming months, to choose a president from among a number of candidates. It's just that Egypt right now needs the most experienced and cosmopolitan candidates available, the newspaper said.
"And Mr ElBaradei was probably the most prominent in this regard" His departure from the race must therefore be seen as "a major loss for Egypt."
Libya volatility reveals legacy of tribalism
The most recent hostilities in the Libyan capital Tripoli come on the heels of even more savage clashes last November, indicating a continuing and deep-rooted "malfunction" that may take an unknown amount of time to fix, columnist Hazem Saghiya wrote in the London-based newspaper Al Hayat.
It's hard to list all the reasons why such a structural malfunction persists, he said. Most pressingly, there are differences over how to treat the 7,000 jailed supporters of the old regime in a context of mutual distrust between the central government and the various militias.
In fact, some militias have publicly refused to hand over their weapons to the central authority, even though Osama Al Jawali, commander of the Zintan militias, was appointed defence minister in the interim government, and Fawzi Abdul Ali, commander of the Misurata militias, was named interior minister.
But on a deeper level, continuing instability in Libya hearkens back to the deep tribal rifts that the defunct regime of Col Muammar Qaddafi had exacerbated.
Throughout the country, tribal alliances forged during the uprising are falling apart. For instance, the alliance of the Zintan tribes and the ethnic Amazighs is already fraying.
Libyan factions are going back to the tribal polarisations on which the Qaddafi regime fed for so long. "Clan affiliation still takes precedence over reason."
Israeli extremism divides even the Jews
Forms of extremism and racism in Israel are taking a toll on Israelis themselves, let alone the Palestinians, the West Bank newspaper Al Quds said editorially.
There is the extremism of "Salafi Jews", the paper said, who want to segregate Israeli men and women in public, including buses and schools. (The Arab word "salafi", from the word for ancestor, denotes anything favouring ancestral methods.
"There are constant clashes between practicing Jews and secular Jews," the paper added, "in addition to a well-known discrimination between Western Jews (Ashkenazim) and Oriental Jews (Sephardim), most of whom came from Arab countries."
With such manifestations of fanaticism and prejudice found among Israelis themselves, one can only imagine what the Palestinians can be subject to.
Only last week, racism against Palestinians took a legal form when Israel's Supreme Court ruled that Palestinians who marry Israelis would not be eligible for legal status in Israel. The court rejected appeals by rights groups who denounced the ruling as an endorsement of a human rights violation.
Not too long before this, an Israeli law denied Palestinians the right to commemorate Nakba (calamity) Day, the day Israel was created on confiscated Arab land.
* Digest compiled by Achraf El Bahi