ARAB PRESS

Al-Mustaqbal (Beirut)
Commenting on the revocation of Tariq Ramadan's work visa by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Islamic scholar Radwan al-Sayyed said the DHS's decision against Ramadan, who was scheduled to begin teaching a seminar on Islamic ethics at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, is an example of the suffering of Muslims in the West, and demonstrates that Washington's "war on terror" is a "comprehensive war against Islam."
Sayyed asked: If the Swiss-born Egyptian Ramadan, professor at the College of Geneva and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, famous as the "Muslim Martin Luther" and considered a "deviant scholar by radical Muslims," was not tolerated by the United States who would be?
Sayyed added that Western authorities are daily arresting Muslim youth in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Australia, and that books which criticize Islam and Muslims are also published everyday.
Daniel Pipes, director of the pro-Israel advocacy group Middle East Forum and founder of "Campus Watch," which monitors allegedly radical pro-Muslim scholars at American colleges, was involved in the revocation of Ramadan's visa by the DHS, according to Sayyed.
He added that Ramadan, who was born in Geneva in 1962, was recently harassed by French authorities because he opposes the French ban on Islamic headscarves.
Washington's and Paris' stance against Ramadan, Sayyed said, is similar, in one way or another, to the attitude of those radical Muslims who have recently kidnapped two French journalists in Iraq in order to pressure French authorities to revoke the ban on headscarves.

As-Safir (Beirut)
Commenting on the United Nations resolution sought by the United States and France to curb Syrian influence in Lebanon, senior columnist Sateh Nouriddine said that such developments portend that the coming three years of President Emile Lahoud's extended term will be full of political tensions that will affect all countries involved in this debacle.
However, Nouriddine added that if Washington and Paris succeed in drafting a UN resolution against Syria, such a resolution may be just "ink on paper," like resolution 520 that was passed in 1982 following the Israeli invasion of Beirut, and calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon.
Yet, he said, the US-French joint move demonstrates Washington's and Paris' wrath against Damascus for extending Lahoud's term.
"The US-French joint move is a psychological war against Syria that responds diplomatically to Damascus' bid to keep Lahoud in office," Nouriddine said.
He added that while the UN resolution may be the flashpoint of a Western campaign against Syria, Lebanon will not spearhead such a campaign because the Lebanese are divided, and the country may implode - something neither the West nor Syria wants.

An-Nahar (Beirut)
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, by getting three additional years in office, is on the threshold of a grand entry into history as a victor over America and Europe, which had objected to a constitutional amendment extending his mandate, editor in chief Ghassan Tueni wrote.
This leaves the Lebanese faced with one choice: drafting a plan that would "salvage, democratically, the democracy" in Lebanon, Tueni said.
"After all, the greatest democracies are the product of oppression similar to what Lebanon is experiencing nowadays," he added.
"Opposition to amending the Constitution is the natural outcome of a 'no' outcry," he said, adding that such a protest has already taken place in the streets of Lebanon and "continues to resonate," despite the gathering Syrian-inspired push to keep Lahoud in power.
"But it would be better to wait for a second, more sober and more disciplined, outcry in the Lebanese Parliament when it convenes soon to debate the draft resolution that would allow an extension of Lahoud's mandate," Tueni said.
He said Lebanese MPs who had already voiced objection to a constitutional amendment ought not to change their minds under pressure as this would lead to "more blatant oppression and kindle an upheaval."
Tueni added that opponents of a constitutional amendment should be warned against traps that would "lure them to the streets or to arenas of violence."
"Schisms in the social fabric have, in the past, sparked wars and counter-wars which were fought - by proxy - on behalf of others and with foreign weapons," he said, alluding to foreign influences during the Lebanese civil war.
Opponents of a constitutional amendment, Tueni said, are the only hope left to "defend the integrity of the Constitution."
"Let us defend the purity of the opposition," he said, concluding that supporters of a constitutional amendment had been coaxed by "promises from the oppressors of a share in a polluted regime."

Al-Hayat (London)
Syria's policy of "facing changes with rigidity" will lead to failure, the way late Russian President Leonid Brezhnev's stiff policies in the 1960s led to the collapse of the former Soviet Union, senior columnist Hazem Saghieh said.
Saghieh said Brezhnev's policies, which were intended to rebut any change in communist Moscow, led to the establishment of a strong military, but a corrupt Soviet state.
"The debacles of Afghanistan and Poland in the late 1977, reflected the faltering Soviet policies that Brezhnev enacted and which led to several secession movements all over the former Soviet Union," Saghieh said.
While Brezhnev died in 1982, leaving behind him an aging Soviet state, Saghieh said, the young Syrian President Bashar Assad inherited an aging regime that ruled for 41 years.
This faltering Baath regime in Damascus is making the young president age fast, because the Syrian leader is facing US and French pressures over Lebanon with old Soviet tactics, Saghieh added.
Damascus, which is supposed to be looking for allies to face Israel, is instead making enemies by insisting on keeping Lahoud in office for three more years against Western wishes, Saghieh said.
"Is it possible that the mighty former Soviet Union could change but not Syria?" Saghieh asked.

Ash-Sharq al-Awsat (London)
The recent kidnapping of French journalists in Iraq was such a harsh lesson to be learned by those who believed that it is possible to be neutral regarding the war on international terrorism, columnist Ahmed Rabhi said on Tuesday.
"France believed that terrorism will not target it because of its stance on Iraq, and its opposition to US policies in Iraq. However, the result was that international terrorism treated France no differently from the staunchest supporters of the 'war on terror,'" he said.
International terror reveals its democratic characteristics when it insists on targeting everyone with no distinctions between Muslims or Christians, pro-US or anti-US, Arabs or foreigners, and French or American, Rabhi said.
"International terror has no goal but to kill and kill more, and this time it demands that France cancel a law prohibiting the wearing of the Muslim headscarves in schools and governmental institutions," he said.
However, the terrorists are mistaken if they believe France would cast aside its democratic traditions and annul a law it issued for the sake of saving two of its French citizens," Rabhi added.
On the other hand, "this terror is not to defend Islam as the terrorists claim, for its victims in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, etc. ... are more abundant than its victims in non-Islamic countries," he said.
Maybe the kidnapping of those French journalists is a lesson for whoever wants to know the truth, which is quite obvious now: Courting terrorism does not bear any fruits, and the only solution is to confront terrorism with force and resolution, Rabhi concluded.

As-Siyassah (Kuwait)
Syria's conflict with the United States concerns only Syria and has nothing to do with Lebanon or any other Arab country. However, Syria's attempts to drag Lebanon into this conflict shows that it is afraid of something about to happen but doesn't know when, where or how, editor in chief Ahmed Jarallah said.
Assertions that Lebanon should stand by Syria against the US are immature because Lebanon has no problems whatsoever with Washington, he added.
Iraq under former President Saddam Hussein tried this trick by calling on Arabs to defeat the US, but nobody heeded its call and the only loser was Saddam, Jarallah said.
Subsequently all the Arabs joined the international community by approving the liberation of the Iraqi people and this includes Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, who raised some empty slogans defending the former regime before receiving the new Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari, Jarallah added.
The current stand of Syria, which controls Lebanon, is disliked by the Europeans, Americans and many different sectors within Lebanese society, he said.
The whole world is against Syria's policy toward Lebanon, and one wonders what Syria would win if it lost the entire world by insisting on extending the term of its ally Lahoud, Jarallah said.
Syria is miscalculating its steps in Lebanon and tragic results will affect the Syrian regime just like what happened to the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, he added.
The conflict in Lebanon is between Syria and America just like the confrontation in Iraq is between the US and Iran, Jarallah said.
The misadventure of Syria in trying to gain control of Lebanon is ill-advised. Who, he asked, in their right mind in the Arab world will come to the rescue of Syria if it is attacked by the United States?
It is clear Damascus is expecting an attack, and when the attack comes, Syria will find nobody on its side, he said.
"Only it doesn't know where the attack will come from, whether from the Americans, Israelis or the Lebanese," Jarallah said.

IRANIAN PRESS

Iran (Tehran)
To the same extent that one can see the formation of Iraq's interim parliament as a sign of movement by the Iraqis toward the creation of new political-governmental structures, the recent Najaf battles, despite their conclusion, can also be seen as a sign of danger that Iraq could become engulfed in national rebellion and warfare, columnist Morad Veysi said.
The Najaf and Fallujah crises have forced Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government to confront a serious challenge, he said.
Just as Allawi knows that he needs the American military forces to put down armed resistance, especially in the cities, he knows that his government's excessive closeness to the Americans is also considered a point of weakness, Veysi said.
The recent attacks on Fallujah and Najaf were conducted along with Iraqi security forces and police and in reality are pitting Iraqi against Iraqi, which could sharply reduce the legitimacy of Allawi's government, he said.
On the other hand if Allawi does not control and manage future crises, the public will see this as a demonstration of inadequacy, showing that the government cannot succeed in the long run and cannot be trusted in the coming elections, Veysi added.
On the other hand, although the interim parliament is closely aligned with the Allawi government, it is also considered a new power in opposition to the Allawi government, Veysi said.
During the last few months when Iraq did not have a parliament Allawi made decisions for both the government and the parliament, but he is now faced with a parliament in which there are many powerful Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni figures. It cannot be seen as a parliament hand-picked by the Allawi government, Veysi said.

ISRAELI PRESS

Haaretz (Tel Aviv)
Exposing the recent espionage affair in the US - if such an affair even exists - without presenting clear proof may raise the suspicion that interested parties in Washington are looking for a scapegoat, the daily said.
A Pentagon official by the name of Larry Franklin is suspected of passing on apparently classified information to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a Jewish lobby in Washington, which in turn, it is claimed, passed it on to Israel, it said.
Israel and the United States have understandings going back many years not to operate spies, the daily said.
There are also elements in the Middle East region with an interest in disrupting the relationship between Israel and the United States, just as certain American political elements would happily do damage to US President George W. Bush's reelection campaign by ostensibly casting aspersions on his Israel policy, it added.
There is nothing like an espionage affair to meet the objectives of all of these groups, the daily said.
The administration, and especially the White House, should have a prime interest in presenting its proof publicly and bringing the accused to trial, it added.
"But if this is a malicious leak, an unfounded suspicion and an effort to move the finger of blame from the Pentagon to Israel, American officials at the most senior level are called upon, immediately, to stop this foul wave," the daily concluded.