Beirut newspapers regretted Monday that the decisions adopted at the Arab summit in Cairo were only "verbally very harsh" against Israel, but lacked concrete measures to sanction the Jewish state.
"The Arab summit adopted very harsh verbal positions toward Israel and very favorable toward the Palestinians, but failed to adopt practical measures to confront the Israeli aggression, namely regarding the peace process and the threat to cut ties with Israel," said the leading An Nahar.
The pro-Syrian As Safir newspaper said the summit was "minimalist" compared to people's expectations and "maximalist ... because it was all the cowards meeting in Cairo could do."
As-Safir however said it was "important that the Arabs had met over Palestine, despite hostile American pressures to prevent them from adopting radical positions."
"Harsh words, but weak measures," said the front-page headline of the independent Nida' al-Watan, which highlighted the "punishment that (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak has imposed on the Arabs by freezing the peace negotiations."
The pro-Syrian Ash-Shark daily also said the Arab summit was only "verbally firm" as it failed to "adopt concrete measures ... a matter that relieved the Americans and the Israelis while provoking a deception among the Palestinians."
The French-language L'Orient-Le Jour was more sarcastic, with a bold headline reading: "A billion dollars to buy a clear conscience in Cairo."
"It is for a sum of one billion dollars for the Palestinians that the Arab kings and heads of state bought a clear conscience in Cairo in a summit which was only extra-ordinary by name," it said.
The Ad-Diyar daily wondered "why Egypt had weakened the decisions ... which caused a deception in the Arab street that did not consider them up to the level of the tragedy, but mere verbal resolutions with no acts" -- BEIRUT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
