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Preparing for a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic and how to deal with the Corona outbreak remains the main issue on which UK newspapers are concerned.
Problems related to the Middle East have also emerged, including the Palestinian response to recent agreements reached between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
We begin with a report by Oliver Holmes of the Guardian newspaper entitled “We Feel Lacked”, which discusses some of the Palestinian reactions to the normalization of Israel’s relations with the two Gulf states.
The author says that recent diplomatic developments between Israel and the Gulf states have exposed the divisions in relations between the Palestinian and Arab governments, and have raised questions about whether they can be relied on to defend the Palestinian cause.
Over the years, he says, Israel has sought strong ties with the Arab world, focusing on the powerful Gulf states with which it shares a common enemy, Iran.
And he adds that those efforts led Bahrain and the UAE to sign deals with Israel last week at a celebration at the White House.
The author says that while there have been undeclared relations between the two countries and Israel in the past, public relations broke Israel’s widespread isolation in the region, a policy that has lasted for decades and Palestinian leaders saw it as a vital lever in its struggle for independence.
“We certainly feel betrayed and disappointed,” a prominent Palestinian politician, Saeb Erekat, told the newspaper. He condemned the agreements, describing them as “a great encouragement for the Israeli government to continue its occupation”.
The author says that as part of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Arab countries declared that Israel would only obtain “normal” relations in exchange for establishing a state for the Palestinians and of the end of the occupation. The Palestinian ambassador to Britain warned that this long-standing policy was now undermined.
The author says that in the West Bank and Gaza, the normalization agreements were not a surprise, but painful nonetheless.
The newspaper quoted Shadi Abu Samra (35), a social worker from Ramallah, as saying: “Relations are based on pure self-interest … Nobody cares about the Palestinian cause.”
“I am not at all surprised. It was once expected. There are longstanding relations between Israel and the Gulf States,” he added.
Dalia Karazon, a math professor from the same city, told the newspaper that she understands the Gulf states want to build a front against Iran with Israel’s help and also to please Trump.
But what frustrated Dalia is that the UAE and Bahrain have claimed the deals will help the Palestinians, according to the Guardian.
Dalia added, “They can do whatever they want, but they shouldn’t tie it to our best interests, as our interest is to end the occupation and not come to terms with it.”
Divide on how to respond to a second wave
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We turn to Journal I and a report by Paul Gallagher, the journal’s health correspondent, on divisions among leading UK medical experts over how to respond to a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The writer says that with the onset of the second wave of the epidemic, a clear division has emerged among health experts, scientists, politicians and the public regarding shutdown measures and measures to precaution needed to avoid a repeat of what happened last spring when thousands of people died from infection with the coronavirus.
The writer says British officials have received two open letters from leading health experts explaining the extent of the polarization of views regarding the fight against the epidemic.
A group of doctors and academics believe the best way is to protect the most vulnerable groups and put more local or national lockdowns in place.
They point out that the vast majority (89%) of Corona deaths occur in people over 65 who already have health problems, and they want targeted measures such as protecting retirement homes to be a priority.
A second group of health experts say the government should continue its efforts to limit the spread of the virus to all groups and the general population, and not just provide support to the most vulnerable age groups to disease.
He says deaths from the virus have occurred in all age groups and ethnicities and among people without underlying illnesses.
Medieval techniques
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And in The Independent, we read a report on the process of rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was badly damaged by fire in 2019.
The newspaper says that with limitless precision and energy, a team of carpenters used medieval techniques to succeed by hand and without using innovative techniques in lifting a huge oak pillar weighing three tons in front of the cathedral, which the The crew seeks to reconstruct an exact replica of the pieces devoured by the fire.
The newspaper says that the carpenters and craftsmen used in full accordance the methods used 800 years ago to build wooden structures and buttresses in the cathedral.
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