Excerpts: Arab-Muslim support?Militant Islam 29 April 2006

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 29 April '06:"Editorial: Funding for Palestine"
QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"funds ...sent have amounted to almost nothing"
"Arabs and Muslim governments ...insufficient giving"
"World Bank to take over for paying Palestinian saleries is a dimunition
of Palestinian sovreignty"

A couple of months ago ... Hamas boldly predicted that it would find the
money elsewhere. ... whatever funds may have been sent have amounted to
almost nothing. The Palestinian state is now in precisely the crisis that
President Mahmoud Abbas predicted. Some 165,000 Palestinian
government-employees have not been paid salaries for weeks and have to beg
and borrow to survive.
the Palestinian Authority is the largest employer in the West Bank and
Gaza - cannot pay their bills ...The economy is in dire straits.
Doubtless there will be many Arabs, Muslims and friends of the Palestinians
incandescent with rage at the notion that the Americans and Europeans should
be able to "blackmail" the Hamas government. But far more appalling is that
the Palestinian Authority should have become so totally dependent on Western
aid. ...The lesson that the Palestinians need to take from this disaster is
...They cannot allow themselves to ever again slide into a state of
neocolonial economic dependency on the US and EU. It is bad politics and it
is bad economics. ...Arabs and Muslim governments are also complicit in this
disaster. Their insufficient giving is what has forced the Palestinians into
near absolute dependence on Western aid. Moral support is all very well, but
it does not pay salaries or feed mouths.
....The French president's proposal for the World Bank to take over
responsibility for paying Palestinian salaries is a diminution of
Palestinian sovereignty ... .
The onus is on Arab and Muslim governments. .... Palestinians... will not
easily forgive a lack of Arab and Muslim action at this desperate time.

+++THE DAILY STAR (Lebanon) 29 April '06:With God on their side, Islamists
don't often compromise" by David Ignatius, Daily Star staff

QUOTE FROM TEXT:
"For a theocratic regime that claims a mandate from God, the very idea of
compromise is
anathema"

" The same blockage is evident in other conflicts with Muslim groups"

"The West has placed its hopes on maturation of radical Islamic groups ...
there is little evidence to support
this hope."
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EXCERPTS:

It's a truism that all conflicts end eventually. But how do you resolve a
confrontation with an adversary that appears unable or unwilling to
negotiate a settlement? That's a common problem that runs through the West's
battles with militant Islam.
The most pressing instance is Iran's drive to become a nuclear power. ...
it wasn't really a negotiation at all. "The EU talked, and the Iranians
responded, but they never came back with counterproposals because they could
not agree on anything."
French analysts believe the Iranians displayed a similar refusal to
negotiate during their long and bloody war with Iraq in the 1980s. The
exhausted Iraqis made efforts to seek a negotiated peace, but the Iranians
rejected their feelers. ...t there was never a formal peace treaty and the
Iranians dragged their feet even on the exchange of prisoners.
The latest example of Iran's diplo-phobia was a statement this week by
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissing the U.S.-Iran talks over Iraq ... .
... For a theocratic regime that claims a mandate from God, the very idea of
compromise is anathema. Great issues of war and peace will be resolved by
God's will, not by human negotiators. Better to lose than to bargain with
the devil. Better to suffer physical hardship than humiliation.
This same blockage is evident in other conflicts with Muslim groups. Al-
Qaeda doesn't seek negotiations or a political settlement, nor should the
West imagine it could reach one with a group that demands that America and
its allies withdraw altogether from the Muslim world. The closest Osama bin
Laden has come to a political demarche was his January 19, 2006, offer of "a
long-term truce based on fair conditions," which weren't specified. His
deeper message was that Al-Qaeda would wait it out - waging a long war of
attrition ... adversaries would eventually grow tired and capitulate. ... .
The West has placed its hopes on political maturation of radical Muslim
groups, figuring that as they assume responsibility, they will grow
accustomed to the compromises that are essential to political life. But so
far, there is little evidence to support this hope. The Hamas government
appears to have nothing it wants to negotiate with Israel. Indeed, it still
refuses to recognize formally the existence of its adversary. In Lebanon,
Hizbullah has agreed to little compromises since it joined the Lebanese
government, but not big ones.
A word that recurs in radical Muslim proclamations is "dignity" ...
unyielding Yasser Arafat remained popular among Palestinians, despite his
failure to deliver concrete benefits. He was a symbol of pride and
resistance. Hamas, too, gains support because of its rigid steadfastness,
The Muslim demand for respect isn't something that can be negotiated ... .

Sue Lerner - Associate - IMRA