Press in Region Alarmed by Israel’s Elevation of Sharon

Newspapers in Lebanon and Syria expressed dismay Saturday at the appointment as Israel’s foreign minister of hawkish former general Ariel Sharon, a man whose name stirs memories of the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut refugee camps.

“The mere announcement that he will lead the [Israeli peace] negotiations is tantamount to disaster,” said An Nahar newspaper in a front-page editorial headlined “Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and the Bulldozer.”

A leading opponent of surrendering more Israeli land to Palestinians, the 70-year-old Sharon was appointed Israel’s foreign minister Friday. He was Israeli defense minister during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and, a year later, was forced to quit after an Israeli inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the killing of hundreds of Palestinians by Israeli-backed Christian militiamen at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

Syria’s official press described the appointment of Sharon as an anti-peace move and predicted a further deterioration in Arab-Israeli negotiations.

“Netanyahu has crowned his continued war against peace with the appointment of Sharon as foreign minister,” said the official daily Tishrin, which reflects government thinking.

“We will certainly see during the next few weeks more plans by the Netanyahu-Sharon pairing that are designed to destroy the chances of peace in the region,” the paper said.

Beirut’s As Safir newspaper underscored Sharon’s hard-line policies, saying the key question is whether he will shake hands with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat during a Middle East summit scheduled to open in Washington on Thursday.

Arafat told reporters Friday at the end of a brief visit to Finland that the appointment of Sharon is an internal matter of the Jewish state.

“It is a purely internal Israeli affair,” Arafat said, adding that he is prepared to shake hands with Sharon.

For his part, Sharon was quoted before his appointment as saying that he would not shake hands with Arafat should he become foreign minister.