'Netanyahu forming war government'

Arab newspapers interpret new Netanyahu-Mofaz alliance as preamble for war

by Roi Kais

Newspapers across the Arab world could not ignore Israel's political drama and the declaration of a unity government on Tuesday. Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz were described as conniving war mongers and corrupt politicians as editorials declared war was looming.

"Netanyahu is forming a war government," al-Quds al-Arabi's headline cried. "No one knows what goes on through the mind of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on many regional issues these days. One can predict that this man is scheming and planning wars after murdering the peace process with the settlement policy in the occupied Arab territories," the London-based paper said.

The UAE paper al-Bayan printed an editorial titled "A government challenges peace." The headline in Saudi Arabia's al-Madina paper read: "Israel prepares for war."

The paper analyzed Netanyahu as a statesman and ruled he was "concerned about his status in Israeli history and wants to be remembered as the leader who destroyed the Iranian nuclear program and solidified Israel's nuclear monopoly in the region."

Lebanon's popular as-Safir newspaper chose to address the political drama from a different perspective. Titled "Israeli recklessness," its editorial explained that the "news (of early elections) turned out to be random fraud but it captured the attention of the entire world and became the focus of analyses and estimates that war is looming."

"The country once described as the only democracy in the Middle East is slowly emerging to be nothing more than a yard-sale, not just because some of its Arab neighbors are trying to establish true democratic models but because its current statesmen are behaving like crime bosses."