Arabic Newspapers discuss Israeli strikes and Moroccan festival boycott

Arabic newspapers comment on Egypt's Gaza crossing and GCC Yemen talks

Israel still behaves like the regional thug

"Israel is the only state in the world that considers its own security a worldwide concern and takes its living space to be boundless. In fact, that was the view adopted by the Nazis in their heyday when they saw the whole of Europe as their living room," the Emirati Al Khaleej newspaper stated in its editorial yesterday.

Under the pretext of defending its national security, Israel has "practiced assault, terrorism and expansionism", even if that entails violating the sovereignty of other nations.

Last week, Israeli fighter jets raided a car near the city of Port Sudan, killing two people, one Sudanese and the other unidentified. Sudan's foreign minister, Ali Ahmed Karti, publicly accused Israel of carrying out the air strike.

"This is a most blatant example of Israel's frenzied behaviour. Here is a country that could not care less about anybody's sovereignty; it simply sees itself above the law.

"We've never heard of a state in this world, whose fighter jets travel thousands of kilometres, in violation of other countries' airspace, to target one single person, or one single boat, or a car or an opposition leader."

In 1988, Israel assassinated the Palestinian leader Khalil al Wazir in Tunisia, and in 2010, it attacked the Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters.

"Only Israel does these things, and no one holds it accountable."

Rally online against Moroccan festival

A petition for the cancellation of Mawazine, the Moroccan capital's landmark international music festival, has been circulating on Facebook for several days now, as the festival's organisers are launching the advertising campaign ahead of the event slated for May, according to a report in the London-based Al Quds al Arabi daily.

The petitioners, led by the February 20 pro-democracy and civil rights youth movement, are calling on the authorities to invest the budget allocated for the annual event in outreach initiatives that benefit the needy.

In its statement, the February 20 Movement said "large sums of money are squandered on the organisation of Mawazine festival, while a number of Moroccan children succumb every year to the mildest cold winds blowing from the Atlas mountains, due to poor road accessibility and nonexistent heating resources". The group called for a boycott of the festival.

A local media source declared that the anti-Mawazine petition has collected 13,000 signatures so far. The man in charge of the festival is said to be Mounir al Majidi, the Moroccan king's chief of staff.

Members of the February 20 Movement took to the streets of the capital Rabat on Friday - which coincides with the start of the spring parliamentary session - demanding the dissolution of parliament and the sacking of the government.

New stance on Gaza hints at a new Egypt

The Israeli government considers Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt, an impediment to fighting arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. "The Field Marshall chalked that one up; it's actually a compliment to his patriotism," the pan-Arab Al Quds al Arabi newspaper stated in its editorial yesterday.

This supposed shift in Egypt's border crossing policy shows that the country is indeed changing, and regaining its regional status "by supporting legitimate causes".

The Egyptian military institution, which has preserved its nationalistic identity for decades, has always managed to politely distance itself from the presidential palace. That is part of the reason why the Israelis were very sceptical about Field Marshall Tantawi taking the driver's seat in steering the country through the post-revolution phase.

"Israelis did all they can to stop that from happening," the newspaper said.

The Gaza Strip is just "a natural extension" of Egypt's national security. Historically, up until occupation, it was ruled by an Egyptian Governor-General.

Now, in post-Mubarak Egypt, the newly appointed foreign minister, Nabeel al Arabi, warns Israel that Egypt will not allow any repetition of the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2008. His predecessor would have never dared utter such a thing.

GCC source: talks with Yemeni FM key

The Gulf Cooperation Council initiative proposed last week to defuse the crisis in Yemen "did not yet start" and key talks are being currently undertaken between the Yemeni foreign minister, Abu Bakr al Qirbi, and his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh, a GCC source in Sanaa told the pan-Arab Asharq al Awsat newspaper.

The initial response of the Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh - which has been construed as a rejection of the GCC proposal - may have been a reflex reaction to the statement by the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, last Thursday in New York, the source added.

Sheikh Hamad had declared that the Arabian Gulf states are pushing for an arrangement whereby the Yemeni president will leave.

Until now, GCC states consider that their proposal is "welcomed" by Yemen's officialdom, as expressed by Yemen's foreign minister who noted that it was under review. "That is the strongest Yemeni response we've had so far," the source stressed.

In the meantime, the Emirati state news agency, WAM, reported yesterday that the GCC proposal "has finally been accepted by the opposition coalition, the Joint Meetings Party."

* Digest compiled by Achraf El Bahi