Press disappointed by Paris conference

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Although one Palestinian daily hailed the donors' conference in Paris as a great success, the majority of Middle East commentators questioned how useful the money pledged would be in establishing peace or the Palestinian state.

Several Arab and Israeli papers said the international community needed to do more to help the peace process.

But the pro-Hamas Palestinian newspaper Filastin described the conference itself as flawed, saying it had used the stick and carrot approach to the Palestinians.

PALESTINIAN AL-QUDS

It is possible to say objectively that the donors' conference in Paris was a great success both in the pledged aid as well as in the political positions that many of the participants talked about, primarily French President Nicolas Sarkozy, regarding the establishment of the state and the conditions for that

NAHID MUNIR AL-RAYYIS in PALESTINIAN FILASTIN

The donors' conference in Paris was a carriage driven by the Zionist Sarkozy. The stick in his hand was American and the carrot was the aid the countries were asked to commit. As for the donkey, and here excuse my words, it was we the Palestinians

MUHANNAD ABD-AL-HAMID in PALESTINIAN AL-AYYAM

Will the 7.4 billion dollars of aid pledged in Paris enhance our separation from the occupation and settlement, and lead us towards the happy ending of independence? Will this aid support the state-building? These will be the decisive criteria for the success or failure of this aid

HASAN ASFUR in PALESTINIAN AL-AYYAM

For the second time in history, an economic conference to develop the Palestinian economy was held... It seems that the conference was a sign of political commitment to support the national Palestinian position towards building the state... However, we need an all-out commitment to reach our national goal

RONI SHAKED in ISRAEL'S YEDIOT AHARONOT

The billions of dollars will suffice for paying salaries to the inflated Palestinian bureaucracy, enable the security apparatuses to acquire vehicles and new camps and even finance a few infrastructure projects. The money will perhaps satisfy the greed and corruption of senior officials but it is impossible to buy peace with it

ISRAEL'S HA'ARETZ

Even if the Palestinian Authority receives all the funds it aspires to, unless restrictions imposed by Israel are lifted, economic growth may be negative

ISRAEL'S JERUSALEM POST

If Europe continues to drag its feet in sharply curtailing its trade with Iran... then no amount of aid will save the Arab-Israeli peace process from drowning in an increasingly radicalized region

GHAZI AL-DADA in SYRIA'S TISHRIN

The Palestinians have received a new promise to work for the establishment of a durable Palestinian state. The promise was made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy who said that he believes in the establishment of this state... Let's hope that France will invest its international political weight in working to restore Palestinian rights

TAHIR AL-ADWAN in JORDAN'S AL-ARAB AL-YAWM

The donors' pledges and the signing of agreements... will be worthless if a political and security breakthrough in the Palestinian territories has not been achieved

SAUDI AL-WATAN

The donors' conference represents a last chance to save the deteriorating conditions in Palestine... What is required from the international community... is to act swiftly to salvage the situation in the Palestinian territories

UAE'S AL-KHALIJ

What is needed is to offer the Palestinians, in addition to financial support, political support coupled with pressure on the Zionist entity in order to end its occupation, siege and terrorism and to abide by international law

SATI NUR AL-DIN in LEBANON'S AL-SAFIR

Donors were this time hesitant and reserved to some extent... They were worried that it was too soon for this Palestinian conference as Israel is not ready yet to transfer money to the Palestinian side. Also, the Palestinian Authority is not qualified to spend the money in an appropriate way

JAMIL AL-NUMARI in JORDAN'S AL-GHAD

The whole international community is put to the test of imposing its clear will to reach peace so that the money offered at the Paris conference will not be a kind of compensation for political cowardliness

ABD AL-BARI ATWAN in PAN-ARAB AL-QUDS AL-ARABI

We do not object to the provision of funds to the Palestinian Authority president Abbas in Ramallah, as long as it is not a bribe to relinquish some fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, or a preface for Israeli tanks in Gaza

<A href="http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk">BBC Monitoring</A> selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.