One step forward, one step backwards. One step to the right, one step to the left. This is how Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party is going about the resignation of the government as the only acceptable prelude to a serious dialogue followed by actual change, said the columnist Hazem Saghiyya in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
“It is no secret that the stalemate is due to several differences within the Tunisian Brotherhood movement itself,” he said.
The side that wants to make real concessions is aware of the realities that have become difficult to camouflage: in addition to the political and economic failures of Ennahda’s rule in Tunisia, there is the collapse of the Brotherhood in Egypt and the setbacks that befell them in Turkey. The same applies to president Omar Al Bashir’s Islamists in Sudan, who are finding it increasingly difficult to keep their own ruling party united.
“These considerations, as important as they are, aren’t sufficient motive for the party, which exaggerates the popular mandate it was given, to relinquish some of its authority,” he wrote.
“Although such concessions by the Tunisian Brotherhood would eventually help in saving the Brotherhood. They are, after all, a solid part of the representation in a number of Arab countries. Saving them from themselves is an essential requirement for political stability at the delicate transition phase,” he added.
Should they intend to, the Tunisian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood could save the Arab Spring itself as it suffers one setback after the other in Egypt, Syria and Libya. Moderate powers seem to be losing ground before more radical groups that have taken the Arab revolutions out of their original context.
Tunisia may be the most favourably placed Arab Spring country to carry out this role. The birthplace of Arab revolutions was also, at one point, the theatre for the first modernisation efforts in the region. Tunisia under former president Bourguiba was the first Arab country to legitimise women’s rights; it expanded the middle classes and support the role of unions. Another factor that plays in its favour is that Tunisia is geographically removed from regional tension centres such as Israel and Iran, which have tremendous power to morph revolutions into regional crises.
Compared to Egypt and the bloody events that followed its revolution, Tunisia and its branch of the Muslim Brotherhood enjoy another winning characteristic, which is the role of the military. It has never played a big role in Tunisian politics.
This is an enticing aspect because it means the Brotherhood can be removed from power without a military coup.
“Should this option become reality, Tunisia would have presented a praiseworthy model of transition to the world including the hesitant Brotherhood,” he concluded.
Israeli aggression still imperils peace talks
Israel’s occupation forces are continuing to violate the basic human rights of Palestinians, telling a world that will not listen that they could not care less about peace, the Dubai-based newspaper, Al Bayan, said in its editorial yesterday.
Efforts by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, to push for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis are being scuttled every day by the practices of the Israeli forces, which provide protection for increasing numbers of groups to enter Muslim holy sites. This includes Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which Muslim groups perceive as an act of desecration and aggression.
“In a clear illustration of double standards, the international community simply looks on, motionless, as the Israeli occupation puts all of its arrogance into practice,” the newspaper said.
Thousands of Palestinians are also being abused in Israel prisons while others are being evicted from their homes and dispossessed of their lands – a situation that international human rights watchdogs should be making a lot of noise about, it added.
Yet the suffering of the Palestinians is somehow put on mute.
One should not expect comprehensive peace in the Middle East, even if the Syrian conflict is eventually contained, the paper warned. Without a Palestinian people living in peace in their home country, nothing in this region can be sustainably resolved, Al Bayan concluded.
Al Assad aims to hide Syria’s ‘declawing’
Since the chemical massacre in the suburbs of Damascus in August, president Bashar Al Assad has been generous with interviews with western, even Turkish, media. As Tariq Al Homayed asked in his column in the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat: Who is Al Assad addressing and what exactly does he want to say?
Most of the Syrian president’s talks revolve around the same rhetoric: the West lies, Turkey will regret its position, Russia is his regime’s ally, he would stand for the next elections should he receive the people’s blessing and his war is against Al Qaeda and terrorism in general.
“Nothing new there other than the fact that specialised teams have already begun destroying his chemical arsenal while his Iranian allies are busy negotiating with the West, namely the US,” the writer said. “Interestingly, Al Assad only talks of his Russian friends now. Iranian official visits to Damascus have stopped completely following president Rouhani’s visit to the US.”
But there is little international action to resolve the Syrian crisis and Al Assad is trying to divert attention from the fact that his regime is being declawed by losing its chemical weapons.
Al Assad’s prolific interviews are to hide his powerlessness under the influences of Russia and the military order of Hizbollah.
* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk
translation@thenational.ae
