Palestine's Unesco vote awkward for US

Arabic editorials also discuss demonstrations around the world and the situation in Syria.

Unesco Palestine vote puts US to shame

It is regrettable that the United States, Germany and Canada should so shamefully bend to Israel's will and be among the handful of countries that voted against the Palestinian motion to obtain full membership at Unesco, the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi said in an editorial yesterday.

Palestine was voted Unesco's newest member on Monday, despite US threats to cut off its annual funding to the UN institution. Only 14 states voted against membership, while 107 voted in favour and 52 abstained.

The US administration went out of its way to lobby against the Palestinian membership in this purely cultural and educational institution. Yet the arguments Washington presented to justify its position were far from "convincing", the newspaper said.

The argument that Palestinian membership would be "counterproductive" for the Middle East peace process meant little, "for where is this peace process the US is talking about?"

It has been 18 years, the newspaper went on, since the Palestinians made up their mind to follow the "path of negotiations" towards the establishment of their own independent state. So far, that path has offered them nothing but frustration.

And now, with this "Palestinian victory" at Unesco, the current US administration is made to endure one its most awkward moments.

Maliki adopts a policy of the double standard

In standing by the Syrian regime at the expense of the Syrian people, the destructive role of the Iraqi government seems to take on a larger scale, wrote Tareq Al Homayed, the editor in chief of the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat.

To know more about the seriousness of this orientation we should look into two important pieces of news, said the writer. The first says that 13 out of 14 internet monitoring devices sold by a US company to Baghdad have found their way into the hands of the Baath regime in Syria.

This violates the US sanction regimen imposed on Damascus, which stipulates that clients of American companies are not allowed to sell or give the Syrian regime any such equipment.

The second news item is that Iraq's government has arrested nearly 600 Iraqis accused of affiliation with the dissolved Baath party. Nouri Al Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said in a TV interview that the Baath party is banned because it has damaged the national sovereignty and badly affected the entire Iraqi people. It carried out mass massacres using chemical weapons. "The Baath embodies a mentality of conspiracy and coups," he said.

So, surprisingly, Maliki is chasing and vilifying Baath remnants in Iraq, but refrains from doing the same when it comes to Syria's ruling Baath party. The explanation is simple: as long as the Syrian regime is loyal to Iran, the Iraqi government will support it.

The Arab Spring has shaken the world

"Israel was not the only [non-Arab] country affected by the Arab Spring, when hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets to demand better living conditions," Mazen Hammad said in an opinion piece for the Doha-based newspaper Al Watan.

The Arab Spring was followed by large-scale protests in 80 countries around the world, including in the West. People protested against lack of liquidity, unemployment and social injustice.

Surprisingly, reports from North Korea, say that Pyongyang has put in place a pro-regime campaign, with the aim of stimulating young people through the official propaganda machine. It also aims to spare the leadership a fate like that of Muammar Qaddafi.

The plan, said some South Korean sources, showed to what extent the regime in the North was scared of "the ideological relaxation of young Korean people, who take interest in trends and developments from outside."

Accordingly, the regime has allegedly attempted to control hundreds of Koreans who used to reside and work in Libya and in other Arab countries that witnessed the Spring.

"We don't know how true is the report that Pyongyang has decided to prevent the return of many expatriate Koreans and their families, who spent years in the Middle East or North Africa, but we are sure that … the fallout of the Arab Spring will go beyond borders and will have far-reaching effects."

Syrian regime actions prompt intervention

"Even though the region is evolving in terms of politics and the use of power, some regimes are still hostage to traditional thought, which they have followed for many decades," the Saudi daily Al Jazeera pointed out in its editorial.

This is the case for the Syrian regime, which has used intimidation and terror against its own citizens and also against other countries and regimes that try to reform themselves.

As much as Syrian authorities insist that they must be excluded from development and change, they also threaten to set the whole region ablaze, should the world community intervene to stop the daily slaying of Syrian citizens.

Arabs gave the regime two weeks to enter into talks with the opposition, stop the killing and withdraw the army to barracks, but this call was not heeded at all. Instead, the regime has intensified its deadly campaign,

That Arabs failed to persuade Syria to change its policy has put Damascus's strongest allies, Russia and China, in an embarrassing situation.

These countries along with India, South Africa and Brazil might soon agree to provide direct protection to the Syrian people, especially if the Arab League supports international intervention.

* Digest compiled by Mostapha El Mouloudi