The European Press Views the Middle East: "Apocalypse," "Who? Why?" "A Declaration of War"; European Press Responds to Sept. 11 Attacks

The horrifying, now-familiar pictures of the World Trade Center's twin towers exploding covered Europe's front pages following Sept. 11's devastation. Some led with CNN's interpretation of events: "America Under Attack." London's Daily Mail flashed "Apocalypse" across its front page on Sept. 12, and London's Mirror warned of a "War on the World." On the same day, The Guardian and The Express in Britain opted for the more sober headline, "A Declaration of War," which appeared above photos of the smoke and destruction. Picturing a man walking among the World Trade Center rubble, the French Catholic daily La Croix of Sept. 12 simply asked, "Who? Why?" That same day the Italian La Stampa described the reciprocal moves as "a truce more credible than all those that preceded it." And it came about, the newspaper pointed out, "because this time the United States has brought huge pressure to bear" on both sides. [Yasser Arafat], the paper noted, "would not want to be cast among the enemies" of an international coalition, while Israel's [Ariel Sharon] "has agreed to step aside" because he "does not want to hinder the global antiterrorist war promised by the United States." It is "a difficult trick to bring off," the paper editorialized, but it will serve as "the first test of something we have heard so many times, namely that nothing will ever be the same again." The bickering in Europe continued after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suggested that Western civilization is superior to Islam. "Mr Berlusconi's diatribe," France's Liberation said on Sept. 28, "has aroused the anger of the Arab League," caused "consternation" and "embarrassment" among his fellow European leaders, and forced the European Union's current Belgian leadership "to step into the breach in an attempt to limit its disastrous impact." Berlusconi, the paper added, "stressed the need to Westernize the world precisely at a time when the European Union is rallying to avert a clash of civilizations with Islam."