From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's on the media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. The news this week coming out of the Middle East jolted, many observers accustomed to hearing the usual sound bites from the usual suspects in the Israel-Palestinian

conflict. The media here made much of Ariel Sharon's first ever utterance of the O word, occupation, to describe Israel's presence in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

But writers in the Arab press were less impressed.

Peter Valenti, contributing editor for the World Press Review, closely watches the news being reported in the Arabic press.

He says many of the op-eds reflect an underlying pessimism,

not only about President Bush's commitment to the fragile new peace process,

but about Sharon's willingness to see the so-called roadmap succeed.

A really interesting op-ed that came out of Jordan's El-Rai on the 28th, written by

Faiz Rashid, was entitled, the Israeli Ness, which means no and yes, combined together.

Sharon is sending signals where it sounds like he's saying, yes, yes, I want peace, I want to negotiate,

but at the same time he's sending signals covertly or not so covertly that say, no, I don't want it.

It's sort of a wink, nod, you know what I mean kind of situation.

Also, numerous writers point to the fact that this is the man Sharon, that is, who never voted for any peace

treaty with Jordan, with Egypt, or with the PLO.

Let's move to the Persian Gulf. In the wake of the war in Iraq, there's been some nerves

about the United States increasing bellicose language with respect to Iran,

the latest accusing Iran of harboring al-Qaeda terrorists.

What is the buzz in the Arab press about these developments?

Arab writers in general have rushed to the defense of Iran.

You have an op-ed coming out of Jordan's Dostor,

...