European Press Review: Diplomatic Impotence

"Diplomatic impotence has rarely been as evident as it was in Rome yesterday," wrote Britain's Daily Telegraph. "The so-called core group of advisers on Lebanon spent much of the morning in the Italian foreign ministry, debating whether to attach the adjective 'immediate' to its call for a cease fire," which is eventually decided against, "for fear of ridicule." Looking at Condoleezza Rice and the other delegates, concluded the paper, "it was hard to avoid the impression of futility. In Rome, of all places, the world fiddled while the Levant burned."

The conference in Rome "birthed a mouse," wrote the French paper Liberation, "although there hadn't been any illusions attached to it from the beginning." The failure of the conference, "which Israel was not invited to," continued the paper, "gives Israel a bit more elbow room and it is not the warnings of the Europeans, in light of accumulating blunders, that seem to be making an impression."

"A miracle was not to be expected from this international conference," wrote Italy's La Repubblica. "After all, it took place just as the bloodiest battle since the beginning of the war rampaged in Lebanon and shortly after Kofi Annan uttered his horrible suspicion that Israel had killed four UN observers." The paper concluded more optimistically that "it is almost comforting that, for the first time, Americans, Arabs, Europeans and Russians have agreed to the idea of sending a multinational troop to Lebanon -- or, better said: to internationalize the Arab-Israeli conflict."

"It really would have been unrealistic to expect a breakthrough in Rome," wrote Luxembourg's Luxembourger Wort, calling the resulting ceasefire appeal "the smallest common denominator." The logic of war continues to dominate, continued the paper, "but everyone involved knows that the logic of politics has to gain a foothold again. The former Switzerland of the Middle East must be politically stabilized to keep the explosive mix in the crisis region from getting completely out of control."

"It is unacceptable that Israel still has to fight for its existence in the 21st century," wrote Germany's Hamburger Abendblatt. "This understanding and the conflict's potential for escalation brought an impressive coalition to the table in Rome, even if its appeal for a ceasefire was movingly helpless. Does anyone believe that Hezbollah…will voluntarily put away their weapons? Never." Only Iran and Syria are able to restrain Hezbollah, commented the paper, "but Iran and Syria weren't invited. What a mistake."