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02/09/2005:

"Violence and scepticism follow ceasefire"

Street violence and media hostility today underlined the obstacles to peace in the Middle East, a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared a ceasefire in the four-year conflict.

..."Maybe this time," read the headline in today's Maariv Israeli daily over a picture of Sharon and Abbas smiling and shaking hands.

But Arab commentators were sceptical, saying Israel took more than it gave at the meeting. Newspapers across the Middle East criticised Tuesday's summit at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort for harming - not helping - the Palestinian cause.

"The whole world classifies him (Sharon) as a war criminal, and yet he was welcomed and given a place at a round table as if his hands were clean of Palestinian blood," wrote Abdul-Wahab Badrakhan of the widely read pan-Arab Al Hayat daily.

Lebanon's leftist As-Safir newspaper ran the headline: "Sharm el-Sheik summit crowns Sharon a man of peace ... for nothing."
Full Article: guardian.co.uk