DATE=03/28/02

TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST

TITLE=THURSDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-125622

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=YES

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The American press has been quick to respond with outrage to the latest Palestinian terrorist attack -- a Passover seder bombing that has killed at least 20 people in Israel. The Arab summit in Beirut, Lebanon, and the Saudi peace plan introduced there are also grabbing editorial attention.

On the domestic front, the release of Bush energy policy data is hailed; as is the latest word on world population. The Afghan earthquake draws some response; as does President Bush's pledge of increase foreign aid; and a new Pentagon terrorist response plan that includes the possible use of nuclear weapons. Now, here is ______________with a closer look and some quotes in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: The latest Palestinian suicide bombing, which took the lives of at least 20 mostly elderly Israelis at the seaside town of Netanya is drawing the ire of American newspapers. In Pennsylvania, Allentown's Morning Call asks:

VOICE: What is the solution to the never-ending violence…? As Jews celebrated Passover, and Arab leaders convened for a summit in Beirut, Lebanon, to hear a peace proposal, a suicide bomber walked into a seder meal in an Israeli hotel, killing [20] innocent people and wounding more than 100. … Is peace possible despite such hatred? The bombing seems purposely intended to distract from the peace proposal offered at the summit by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

TEXT: Today's Washington Times says of the blast:

VOICE: In the dimly lit rubble of the hotel, it was again clear that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was incapable of stopping the violence. Meanwhile, the Arab League's proposed communiqué from the … Beirut summit … showed that the violence brought against Israeli civilians is blessed by most of the Arab League.

TEXT: The Detroit [Michigan] News says that President George Bush must stop offering what it calls "carefully measured heartbreak and outrage" against Yasser Arafat. The paper wants to see a more clearly defined message from the Bush administration on what repercussions Mr. Arafat might face in light of more massacres.

VOICE: On Wednesday, Israelis were cleaning up the debris and counting the bodies after the bombing ... What was the Bush administration doing? Blindly embracing the potential of a wispy peace proposal placed on the table by Saudi crown Prince Abdullah … in Beirut. …Israel's response … is a promise of harsh and sweeping measures to bring Palestinian terrorism under control.

… This time, [Mr.] Bush should at the very least remain silent while Israel does what must be done. … The Palestinian Authority …deserves to be treated as the Taleban was treated in Afghanistan. It's time [Mr.] Bush made [Chairman] Arafat understand that.

TEXT: Sentences from an unusually long Detroit News editorial. And in today's Chicago Tribune, there is this.

VOICE: For Jews and Israelis gathering at Passover Seders this week, one line in the Haggadah, the seder liturgy, has a chilling resonance. "In every generation someone rises up to destroy us," it reads. … After 18 months of bloody conflict with Palestinians … yet another one was hardly surprising. But the extent of the death toll, the timing and even the venue … was shocking.

TEXT: Missouri's Saint Louis Post-Dispatch offers this:

VOICE: Even before the bombing, it was hard to imagine serious peace talks occurring in the current tumult of the Middle East. Palestinians believe they are gaining ground with terrorism. … The United States is laying the groundwork for an attack on Iraq. Iran is shipping weapons to the Palestinians… In that setting, the Saudi peace plan offered a flicker of hope - - one that seemed all but extinguished after the Passover bombing.

TEXT: Regarding the Summit itself, Pennsylvania's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says of the Saudi peace proposal:

VOICE: Even though its full potential for resolving the now 54-year-old conflict between the Arabs and … Israelis was undercut by continued violence and unfortunate moves on both sides, this initiative by the most religiously correct and richest of the Arab states is still significant.

TEXT: Charleston's [South Carolina] Post and Courier writes that the Saudi plan "has come so late," suggesting that both Palestinian President Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have become trapped by events that are spinning out of control.

Domestically, the Bush administration is being criticized for its reaction to the latest act in the fight over energy policy documents. The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch says:

VOICE: Responding, sort of, to a court order, the Energy Department has released 11-thousand pages of documents relating to how the Bush administration developed its energy policy last year. Among the revelations: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met with 109 energy industry representatives and zero public interest groups. The administration's reaction? Big deal. [Editors: slang, in this setting "of little consequence"]

TEXT: The Omaha [Nebraska] World-Herald says of the difficulty in obtaining the documents: "this newspaper has previously expressed concern about a public-be-damned attitude on the part of the administration when it comes to… disclosure laws. Heavy editing of [Vice President Dick] Cheney's energy consultations adds to the pile of evidence justifying concern."

Some good news on the world population front draws this from today's Tulsa [Oklahoma] World: "new studies predict that… the world's population might actually be beginning to moderate. … Here's hoping the trend continues. Fewer people … means a better … future for everyone."

This week's killer earthquake in already ravaged Afghanistan, which left hundreds dead and many towns totally destroyed, draws this suggestion from The Day in America's submarine capital, New London, Connecticut:

VOICE: U-S concern and leadership in the relief efforts, including the use of troops if they are requested, would go a long way toward making Afghanistan more receptive to outside help in restoring law and order to the land.

TEXT: A new, detailed report in The New Yorker magazine on the poison gassing by Saddam Hussein of several Kurdish villages in the late 1980s draws this comment from today's Providence [Rhode Island] Journal:

VOICE: … the gassing was much worse than previously known. Hundreds of villages were snuffed out ... with men in biohazard suits [later examining] the disposition of bodies in relation to exploded canisters of toxic agents. Even now, 14 years later, babies with terrible deformities are being born ... If this were a better world, we would be more than rhetorically concerned about Saddam's operation against the Kurds…

TEXT: With respect to President Bush's recent pledge to double U-S foreign aid within the next few years, today's Fresno [California] Bee is pleased, but skeptical.

VOICE: The promised boost ... is welcome, even though it would still leave this country far behind other aid donors in per capita terms. And there is no certainty the promise will become a reality… [since it] still must pass muster in Congress, which tends to undercut foreign aid's beneficial effects with protectionist trade measures that often do more harm than good…

TEXT: Today's Wall Street Journal is sharply critical of international banking experts who forced Argentina to float the peso, which continues to shrink, as the nation's economic crisis worsens.

In Baltimore, The Sun is critical of a new Pentagon study proposing a possible small, nuclear counterattack if this country suffers another terrorist attack. Nuclear weapons are, writes The Sun, "in some emotional way" out of bounds. And on that perilous note, we conclude this editorial sampling of Thursday's U-S press.

NEB/ANG/SAB