The liberal daily Berlingske Tidende expresses cautious optimism after hearing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech. At least he mentioned the possibility of a Palestinian state, it notes: "One must seize the small opportunities if the peace process is to make progress. … Despite his reservations Netanyahu has shown courage in even mentioning the word Palestinian state. We can only hope that the [radical-Islamic] Hamas, the [terrorist organisation] Hezbollah and a number of Arab states give the same amount of recognition. But this is not to be expected. Therefore we must give Netanyahu our support, even if the speech was not what we had hoped for." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Middle East

The Israeli prime minister has at best brought things a tiny step forward with his speech, writes the left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau: "Benjamin Netanyahu did in fact say the words 'Palestinian state'. But the way he did it certainly nourishes scepticism as to whether Israelis and Palestinians will ever reach a two-state solution. And the reaction from the settlers' lobby has been correspondingly mild. The Israeli prime minister's speech was still to the right of the political spectrum and can meet with a broad consensus. Not least because he only dares to take a step forward when thickly wrapped in long-outdated Likud ideology. ... It takes a whole lot of blending out to search for the causes for the Middle East conflict solely among the Palestinians, and that's exactly what Netanyahu does. ... However even more decisive is what US President Barack Obama makes of the speech. Netanyahu may have only brought the peace process a tiny step forward, but for someone with his credentials he's made a huge leap ahead. In modern pedagogy every learning success is rewarded with a positive reaction - and that's exactly how to read the praise from Washington. A start has been made, but the way to peace is long and consistent pressure is needed." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » U.S., » Global, » Israel
All available articles from » Inge Günther

The keynote speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did little to bring about the hoped-for settlement between the Jews in Israel and their Palestinian neighbours, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes on a critical note: "Unrealistic is also Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians and all Arab-Israeli citizens recognise the Jewish state. More than a million Palestinians live in Israel and hold an Israeli passport. It is precisely because Israel wants to define itself as a Jewish state (rather than a state of all its citizens) that the prevailing constitutional conditions are in conflict with the modern idea of democracy. Palestinian Israelis are denied certain fundamental rights. To demand that they recognise the Jewish state is not only unrealistic; it is the cynicism of the strongman who lacks any understanding for the weak." (15/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Israel

Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar writes in the left-liberal online magazine Open Democracy that Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University will not further the aims of peace: "The [Israeli] prime minister's declaration that Jerusalem will remain the 'undivided capital' of Israel - only Israel - slammed the door before the entire Muslim world. His Hebron [in the West Bank], moreover, is solely the city of the Jewish patriarchs; the Arabs have no such rights at all. The Palestinians can have a state, but only if those foreign invaders show us they know how to eat with a fork and knife. Actually, without a knife. ... That's not how one brings down a wall of enmity between two nations, that's not how trust is built." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Middle East, » Israel
All available articles from » Akiva Eldar

The conservative daily Lidové Noviny reflects on the protests in Tehran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "For thirty years we have considered Iran a state of religious fanatics where everything is dictated by the Ayatollahs. To a certain extent Tehran itself is to blame. ... But behind all this it remains the case that Iranians decide their representatives through elections. That sounds banal, but in the region it's a true luxury. Saudi Arabia or Egypt may be allies with the West, but they have no experience with democratic competition. The Iranian opposition goes out onto the street, bans or no bans. Could that also happen in Saudi Arabia? There is no such thing as an opposition there. ... But as welcome as the Islamic democracy is, the problem is that even the demonstrators on the streets of Tehran believe Iran should have the atom bomb." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Social movements, » Elections, » Iran
All available articles from » Zbyněk Petráček

The Dutch right-wing populist Geert Wilders has said in an interview with Danish television sation DR2 that he favours expelling tens of millions of Muslims who have caused problems from Europe. For the daily Trouw the statements are downright dangerous: "History teaches Europe what the consequences of systematic disqualification of one part of the population can mean. ... With his absurd proposals Wilders has isolated himself politically. But the idea that Islam, or religion, is the problem is widespread. Unfortunately it is also gaining ground in parties like the [social democratic] PvdA and the [right-wing liberal] VVD, while the [Christian democratic] CDA is keeping its cards close to its chest. At a time when the world is growing smaller and people are increasingly dependent on each other, none of these parties has come out in favour of a pluralist society. Through this half-hearted, faceless attitude these parties, which should know better because of their principles, are helping this dangerous claptrap ... to gain acceptance." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Minorities, » Netherlands

The conservative news portal Gondola reflects on the strong results achieved by the extreme right-wing Jobbik party in the European elections: "On election night the body language of Jobbik's top candidate Krisztina Morvai spoke volumes. Her every gesture made it clear that if you eat from the pan you risk burning your mouth. ... The fact is it's far easier to shout directions from the sidelines than to score a goal yourself according to rules you barely know. ... Everything points to Jobbik having fallen into its own trap: the party has nothing concrete to show its radical and impatient voters. ... No sooner has it become a part of the Hungarian political establishment than it is already shifting responsibility onto other people's shoulders. Moreover the party scrupulously avoids saying anything it will have to defend later on. ... But sooner or later Jobbik will have to be accountable to its voters." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Hungary
All available articles from » Márton Koronics

On July 5 parliamentary elections will be held in Bulgaria. In a critical commentary the daily Standart writes that the parties of the Socialist-led ruling coalition are currently making a lot of pre-election promises in the hopes of winning: "Electricity will be cheaper, district heating companies will forego interest payments from their major debtors and the ministries will cut the salaries of the hated civil servants. It all sounds so good that you wish the three weeks until election day would never end. … But what will happen in autumn? Many experts predict that the recession will continue into the next quarter and people will end up on the street. Grim prognoses forecast double-digit unemployment figures. And after autumn will come an even harder winter. So we should be getting excited now about all the other promises that will come in the next three weeks before the elections." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Valeria Stoykova

The heads of government of the BRIC states - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are convening this week in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg for their first summit meeting. Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva comments on the background for the meeting in the left-liberal Spanish daily El País: "Are the rich countries prepared to accept supranational control of the international financial system to avoid the risk of a further global economic crisis? Are they prepared to give up their control over the decisions of the World Bank and the IMF? Will they be willing to bear the costs of the technical changes that are necessary to ensure that people in developing countries can profit from scientific progress without destroying the environment? Will they scrap the protectionist subsidies that are hindering modern agriculture in many developing countries and which put poor farmers at the mercy of raw materials speculators and generous donors? These are the questions the BRIC countries want to see answered." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Russia, » Global, » China, » Brazil, » India
All available articles from » Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio

Timothy Geithner und Lawrence Summers, both advisers to US President Barack Obama, express their views on the financial crisis in the Polish daily Polska. They remain determined but stress the scale of the problems to be faced: "Over the past two years, we have faced the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. The financial system failed to perform its function as a reducer and distributor of risk. Instead, it magnified risks, precipitating an economic contraction that has hurt families and businesses around the world. We have taken extraordinary measures to help put America on a path to recovery. But it is not enough to simply repair the damage. The economic pain felt by ordinary Americans is a daily reminder that, even as we labor toward recovery, we must begin today to build the foundation for a stronger and safer system. This current financial crisis had many causes. It had its roots in the global imbalance in saving and consumption, in the widespread use of poorly understood financial instruments ... . But it was also the product of basic failures in financial supervision and regulation." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Fiscal Policy, » Global
All available articles from » Timothy Geithner, » Lawrence Summers

Railway workers in Finland staged a 24-hour strike this week. The daily Helsingen Sanomat analyses the reasons for the strike: "There has been nothing like this in the past 50 years. This underlines the unusualness of the measure. … According to the trade unions the strike was aimed at protesting the state's increasing role in the running of the network. Employees have got it into their heads that there should be competitors and that VR [Finnish Railways] should perhaps be divided up. But the last straw was the suspension of 1,500 workers." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Economic Policy, » Social affairs, » Labour, » Finland

After the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania in 1945 a partisan movement continued fighting against the occupiers for several years. The weekly newspaper Atgimimas complains that the subject is often hushed up or even denied: "The partisan fight after the Second World War is an important chapter in our history and still has an impact on Lithuanian society today. At first glance the assessment doesn't seem that problematic, and hardly any historian disputes the events entirely. But there are often attempts to play them down as belonging to the distant past. The resistance of the Lithuanian people against the Soviet occupiers was justified and few eye-witnesses of those times saw it as anything but a battle between good and evil. … What should be done about this denial of the resistance? In such cases one must have the right, as in any democracy, to sue for libel." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Remembrance culture, » Lithuania, » Russia
All available articles from » Domininkas Burba

The weekly paper Dilema Veche writes that all political moves in Romania are justified with the argument that they are stipulated by the EU. The same holds for the education sector: "All manner of systems were invented to deal with doctorates and to promote teaching staff, all in the name of 'harmonisation with European standards'. Most are strictly bureaucratic and quantitative, but they are by no means applied consistently. ... Take Umberto Eco, for example. He couldn't be hired on a long term contract by a Romanian university - or only as a teaching assistant or reader - because he doesn't have a doctorate. ... The refrain 'that's what the EU demands' is just what Romanian bureaucrats, administrators and politicians need to justify their laziness, stupidity and lack of responsibility." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Italy, » Romania
All available articles from » Mircea Vasilescu

The Catholic daily La Croix analyses the significance of the Internet and new technologies for the political opposition in Iran: "Censorship is rampant in Iran. ... Very little information on the events makes it into the Iranian press. Several newspapers had to change their title pages on Saturday before before being allowed to go to press. ... The foreign media only recognised the momentousness of what was happening very late. CNN's reporting ... has been subject to criticism. ... Iranian Internet users have taken over the journalists' tasks. ... During the demonstrations in the Republic of Moldova in April 2009, some journalists even spoke of the first 'Twitter revolution'. ... What about Iran? The result is hardly brilliant. Twitter has only 359 registered users in Iran. ... So far events on the ground in Iran are moving faster than the revolution on the Net." (15/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Press freedom, » Iran

Several Greek blogs published the first exit polls for the EU elections even before the polling stations had closed. The daily To Vima comments: "The methods that some Greek blogs resorted to as regards the results of the exit polls and the EU election in general show how blogs and the Internet can influence media coverage. Are they information media or disinformation media and propaganda? How can they influence votes, and what interests do they serve? … Regardless of where the truth lies, the way the phenomenon has developed in our country has made the little blogosphere a rubbish bin for the mass media. … It's about a parallel world in which disinformation and populism reign supreme and in which the dreams and fantasies of the administrators are depicted as 'exclusive information'." (14/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Greece
All available articles from » D. Galanis