European press review
In Tuesday's European press, a leading French
daily sees a hidden agenda in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's appeal to
French Jews to move to Israel to escape the threat posed by
anti-Semitism.
German papers reflect on the 60th anniversary of
a failed plot by army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
And army officers are also in the news in Russia,
where the papers are keen to interpret President Putin's decision to sack some
of the country's top brass.
Sharon 'not welcome'
"What," asks France's Le Monde, "is Ariel Sharon
trying to obtain?"
The Israeli prime minister, the paper reminds its
readers, has been told by President Jacques Chirac that he is no longer welcome
in France, after he urged Jews living there to emigrate to Israel in order to
escape anti-Semitism.
The image has been set, in the United States as in Israel, of an anti-Semitic country at the heart of Europe
The image has been set, in the United States as in Israel, of an anti-Semitic country at the heart of Europe
Le Monde
Yes, the paper concedes, France "was slow to
recognise the gravity of the problem of increasing anti-Semitic
acts".
"But it has taken measures to combat this
scourge, measures which Mr Sharon himself acknowledges," the paper
argues.
Despite this, the Israeli prime minister's
remarks will be difficult for the French to dismiss.
"The image has been set, in the United States as
in Israel, of an anti-Semitic country at the heart of Europe."
What really lies behind Mr Sharon's comments, the
paper maintains, is his desire to exclude Europe from the Middle East peace
process.
In Israel's eyes, France is "at the forefront of
Europe's pro-Arab policy".
And what Mr Sharon is hoping for, it concludes,
is a Europe "stained by its pro-Arab position, and relegated to the role of
banker".
Hitler plot remembered
Sixty years on from an unsuccessful attempt by
German army officers to kill Adolf Hitler, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
observes that public perceptions of the plot have changed sharply in the
intervening years.
In the early 1950s, the paper says, most Germans
took a dim view of the failed coup. Now, almost 75% of Germans recognise its
symbolic significance.
"However, this positive image of the 'officers'
revolt'... does not correspond to that held in neighbouring European countries,
where interest is at best focused on Hitler," the paper
ventures.
The Germans have always had a difficult relationship with liberation movements during their history
The Germans have always had a difficult relationship with liberation movements during their history
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
In countries occupied by the Nazis, it argues,
officers who helped those persecuted on racial and political grounds are more
likely to be commemorated than the 20 July plotters.
Even so, it says, both groups deserve "the
gratitude and recognition of their contemporaries as well as of later
generations".
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung notes that it took a
long time for other members of the German resistance to receive public
recognition.
"The Germans have always had a difficult
relationship with liberation movements during their history, partly because the
20 July plot failed and freedom had to be fought for from outside," it
says.
And while the plotters may have harboured
illusions about Germany's greatness, the paper says they should be understood as
a product of their time.
"Their historical contribution is that they
demonstrated that individuals are responsible for their actions, in a system
which had made irresponsibility the guiding principle."
Fallen generals
President Vladimir Putin's decision to sack some
of Russia's most senior army officers on Monday was widely expected, and the
Moscow daily Izvestia offers a very simple explanation for the
move.
"This reshuffle," the paper says, "falls into the
general scheme of army reform."
In short, it adds, the army "needed to be led by
other people".
Both the troops and the public received the news with the sort of approval rarely seen in such circumstances
Both the troops and the public received the news with the sort of approval rarely seen in such circumstances
Trud
Two other papers, however, are convinced that the
dismissals are linked to a series of rebel raids a month ago in the southern
republic of Ingushetia, in which at least 80 people were killed.
"This," insists Gazeta, "is payback for their
inaction during the bloody events in Ingushetia."
"This string of high-profile dismissals is the
result of the unsatisfactory situation in the Caucasus," says Rossiyskaya
Gazeta, "where the last straw was the rebel attack on Ingushetia."
"The president has removed all the generals
responsible for the situation throughout the Caucasus."
But Nezavisimaya Gazeta thinks that the officer
cull, which claimed army chief of staff Gen Anatoly Kvashnin among others, had
been in the pipeline for some time.
"It is obvious," it asserts, "that the mistakes
in the Caucasus were only a pretext, the last straw but not the main reason for
Kvashnin's dismissal."
Whatever the reasons may be, Trud thinks the
sackings will do President Putin's ratings no harm at all.
"Both the troops and the public received the news
with the sort of approval rarely seen in such circumstances," it
remarks.
The European press review is compiled by BBC
Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early
printed editions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3908703.stm
Tuesday's European papers tackle the Israeli-French row, an important German anniversary and a Russian army reshuffle.
