All the papers give frontpage coverage to the war in the Middle East. 'All-out war' is the headline in GAZETA WYBORCZA. 'Invasion in Gaza' says RZECZPOSPOLITA.
Press reviewed by Michal Kubicki.
In an editorial headlined ‘Holy War Came to Europe’, DZIENNIK observes that the demonstrations across Europe against the conflict are not politically impartial. They have taken on a new tone, one of anti-semitism that hides behind the label of anti-zionism. The daily notes that the demonstrations in Paris and London are very similar to those in Jakarta or Tehran. These are not demonstrations of the West’s leftist groups but of Muslims sympathetic with Hamas. This clearly shows that peace in the Middle East is the prerequisite for a peaceful Europe.
DZIENNIK continues that in order to determine who is fully responsible for the latest wave of violence in the Middle East, we have to answer the question – what did the Palestinians do with their autonomy? It was to have been a prelude to their own state and a civilian Palestinian society. If the experiment had succeeded, Israel would have had no argument to oppose the idea of creating a fully independent Palestinian state in the occupied territories. The autonomy, however, proved a fiasco, DZIENNIK says, concluding that the only sensible demonstration against the terror is diplomatic efforts, no matter by which state, that are able to result in a cease-fire, leading to a lasting peace.
RZECZPOSPOLITA recalls that three and a half years ago, Israel made a gesture towards the Palestinians by pulling out of the Gaza Strip and allowing them to live their – hoping that that would create some peace for southern Israel as well. And while the country has the right to protect itself against terrorism, the paper claims, for every civilian that dies in the current conflict, Israelis lose some sympathy from the international community.
Moving on to Poland’s domestic scene, RZECZPOSPOLITA looks at the results of a survey on how Poles view the country’s modern history. According to 56 percent of the respondents in a survey by the IMAS Institute, the last two decades, since the collapse of communism, is the best period. Twenty seven percent of Poles look at People’s Poland with nostalgia. In a similar survey conducted seven years ago, as many as 42 percent of the respondents gave the highest mark to the communist period. RZECZPOSPOLITA quotes sociologist Andrzej Rychard as saying that it has taken some time for Poles to see the benefits of the political transformations. The findings of the survey is good news for the politicians. The daily also interviews the historian Antoni Dudek who says that the current decade has been very good in terms of building the nation’s historical consciousness. The young generation are highly critical of the communist period, even if their knowledge is based solely on the feature films portraying that time.
On the arts pages, GAZETA WYBORCZA sets the scene for tomorrow’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s 'The Queen of Spades' at Warsaw’s National Opera. With the famous Valery Giergiev at the conductor’s podium, it is the first in a series of star-studded events which are to enhance the prestige of the National Opera.