DATE=04/30/02
TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST
TITLE=TUESDAY'S EDITORIALS
NUMBER=6-125650
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: The conference last week between Saudi Arabia's crown prince and President George W. Bush is apparently bearing some fruit in the Middle East, and U-S newspapers have plenty to say about that and other related matters. The split-up of the Immigration and Naturalization Service is also drawing comment; as is the on-going pedophile problem in the American Catholic Church. The German school massacre draws sympathy. Now, here is ______________ with a closer look and some quotes in today's U-S Editorial Digest.
TEXT: We begin with The New York Times which says that Israel has done itself more harm than good by keeping Yasser Arafat besieged in his Ramallah compound for the past month.
Mr. Arafat exploited his captivity to raise his flagging prestige across the Arab world. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepted an American-sponsored compromise …that will free Mr. Arafat to travel within Palestinian-controlled areas while American and British wardens monitor the continued custody of six men who had been inside the Arafat compound.
TEXT: The Saint Louis [Missouri Post-Dispatch] calls the deal to free Mr. Arafat "a concrete, if modest, achievement" for President Bush, but the Boston Herald says:
VOICE: President Bush's deal … makes sense only as a setup to helping exile [Chairman] Arafat when the deal breaks down. Break down it will. All of [Mr.] Arafat's history points that way.
TEXT: And a clearly angry Providence [Rhode Island] Journal follows up that view this way:
VOICE: Last week, the leader of one of the most corrupt regimes, an oil-rich kleptocracy that cultivates hatred of America and produced most of the September eleventh terrorists, lectured President Bush about U-S support of Israel. Mr. Bush responded with finicky diplomacy, paying Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia the tribute of bringing him to his [Texas] ranch … It is galling to see America being lectured by this dictator, propped up only because of his vast wealth and because the U-S halted Iraq in the Gulf War.
TEXT: New York's Newsday from Long Island is a bit more upbeat, saying that:
VOICE: President …Bush won a major concession from Israel in the deal to lift the siege … on [Mr.] Arafat's compound. It is a fair compromise to overcome a thorny obstacle.
TEXT: But the paper worries that U-S troops may be pulled into the crisis. Connecticut's The Day in New London calls the agreement "a hopeful sign," but USA Today, the national paper published just outside Washington, like Newsday, worries about "a new level of involvement, however limited … that is both potentially hazardous and promising." It refers to the use of U-S and British troops as wardens for the Palestinian prisoners. Writing under a headline reading, "A Good Start in Ramallah," the Los Angeles Times adds this:
VOICE: The Bush administration's sharpened focus on the Middle East has produced its first breakthrough, an artful compromise that frees Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in exchange for letting U-S and British monitors keep guard over [the] six [wanted Palestinians]. … Outsiders need to pull Israelis and Palestinians apart and keep applying pressure to end the violence.
TEXT: However in Minnesota, The Minneapolis Star Tribune says of the deal:
VOICE: We would be applauding full force if it did not appear that [President] Bush made a bad deal to secure [Chairman] Arafat's release. … it is on the issue of [the] Jenin [Palestinian refugee camp] that this deal smells. Both American and Israeli officials said Monday that in return for freeing [Mr.] Arafat, the United States agreed to stand by Israel in its high-stakes confrontation with the U-N Security Council …[over the makeup of the] U-N fact-finding team [evaluating] what happened in Jenin.
TEXT: Today's Detroit [Michigan] News suggests that when the U-N team ends its investigation of Israel's actions at Jenin:
VOICE: … this would be a good time to get to the bottom of the suicide bombings and sniper attacks that have killed more than 700 Israelis during the last 20 months. For some reason, the United Nations has never found those massacres worthy of examination. Yet it was more than eager to rush to Jenin at the first hint of alleged Israeli atrocities.
TEXT: On a related note, today's Houston Chronicle says that differences in culture make U-S-Saudi friction unavoidable.
VOICE: For decades, the relationship … has been based on the U-S desire to have cheap and abundant crude oil and Saudi Arabia's wish to sell as much oil as possible at a price low enough to keep the customer from developing alternative energy sources. Aside from this mutual interest, the two nations hold almost no other truths to be self-evident. … In Saudi Arabia there is no democracy, no equality for women… no religious tolerance…and religious institutions that foster hatred and intolerance.
TEXT: Turning to domestic developments, there is more comment on the move in Congress to split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two separate agencies. The Denver Post says:
VOICE: No longer will one I-N-S be expected to provide services for our nation's growing immigrant population while trying to enforce U-S immigration laws. The proposal backed by President Bush, splits the agency in two, dividing responsibility so that the same operations and people are not being applied to two missions that seem conflicting. … The overhaul … is not going to be easy …however. Critics fear the two agencies may develop too much independence and fail to coordinate with each other.
TEXT: In the words of Florida's Fort Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel, this pending split is "one good thing to come out of the September eleventh tragedy…" The paper adds:
VOICE: The proposed breakup is a good first step. But it should not be seen as the cure-all for what troubles the I-N-S. Whether ... one agency or two, the I-N-S's bureaucratic culture needs to change.
TEXT: The pedophile scandal rocking the American Catholic Church continues to draw attention, in the wake of a two-day Vatican conference on the matter. With reference to the Catholic catechism and the seven deadly sins, the Forth Worth Star-Telegram talks about pride. Pride, says the paper:
VOICE: …was on infuriating display last week in Rome, where the most compelling tableau was the row of empty chairs at a Vatican news conference. Only two of the 12 American cardinals there bothered to attend. As American Catholics waited and prayed for a glimmer of humility, the princes of the church strutted off to what one … official called "other obligations," as if there were something more pressing than the rape of children.
TEXT: In New Jersey's capital, The [Trenton] Times expresses regret that the Rome declaration made no mention of "zero tolerance" for any Roman Catholic priest considered guilty of sexually abusing minors. It cites one analyst's view that the statement was quote "an exercise in damage control" that probably had been vetted by the church's lawyers beforehand. By contrast, clear and forceful declarations by church leaders, including a commitment to zero tolerance, seem essential if Catholics are to regain … confidence in their church…
TEXT: Kentucky's Louisville Courier-Journal laments the massacre of 17 people at a German school by an expelled student, saying, quote: "guns in the hands of violent, disturbed individuals pose a lethal danger." And in Florida's Orlando Sentinel there is a call to extend U-S military assistance to Colombia as it confronts what the Sentinel calls "an increasingly desperate and violent internal rebellion." On that note, we conclude this editorial sampling of Tuesday's U-S press.
NEB/ANG/SAB