Troubled Franco-German joint venture Airbus has had a rough time of late. The company recently had to admit that production problems and delays with its A380 aircraft would cost the company around €2 billion. Already plagued with strategy problems in its plane model line-ups, the company must now transition itself through a major management shake-up both at Airbus and parent company EADS. Noel Forgeard the co-chief executive of EADS and Gustav Humbert, the boss at its subsidiary Airbus, were sent packing on Sunday. Forgeard was forced out over accusations of insider trading and poor managment , while Hubert took the fall over the A380 delays .

The executives' replacements reflect the Franco-German nature of the company, whose biggest investors are German autmobile manufacturer DaimlerChrysler and French media giant Lagardare. EADS has two co-chief executives and two boardmembers from Germany and France. Louis Gallois, head of French national railway SNCF, is to take over Forgeard's position. He will work with his German colleague at EADS Tom Enders who stays on as co-executive and who will now assume responsibility for the Airbus shareholder committee. Reporting to him will be Hubert's replacement at Airbus, Christian Streiff, a bilingual French and German speaker, and a former executive at French building materials group Saint-Gobain.

Forgeard has denied any wrongdoing following his sale of EADS shares in March. He says he didn’t know of the delays in the production of the Airbus A380 until April. When the delays were announced, shares in Airbus fell by 26 percent.

The reaction in the German press to the new appointments is far from enthusiastic. The seeming priority of maintaining a balance of French and German leadership over the need to overhaul the company's complicated structures comes in for some heavy criticism.

According to the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung, "Any other solution in a company that is ruled by political sensitivities would have required time. And that wasn’t available: Forgeard couldn’t stay on any longer." However, the paper continues, "little would indicate that the new solution is a good one." The paper writes that new Airbus chief Christian Streiff, is "a manager who has no proven experience in the aviation industry." The paper concedes that "sometimes a fresh pair of eyes from outside helps to discover and break up crumbling structures." However, it argues, "Airbus is in a critical phase. The problem with the A380 has to be speedily solved, and there are important decisions to be made about the construction of the smaller A350 long haul aircraft." The paper argues that a changeover at the top always takes up time. "United States competitor Boeing will be pleased," the paper concludes. "For EADS it is a sign of weakness that the company could not manage to develop top people to take over the leadership. The leadership infighting over the past few years left the management with too little time to do so."

According to financial daily, Handelsblatt, "the battle has been won. The power struggle over the leadership of EADS has been decided." The Frenchman Noel Forgeard and the German Airbus boss Gustav Humbert have to go. "They correctly took responsibility for the delayed delivery of the A380 Airbus." The paper argues that the main task of the new management "will be to win back trust." It writes that "customers, share holders and above all employees have had to bear a lot in the past few weeks, as each side passed the blame on to the other." The paper writes that a new start was not possible with Forgeard, and wonders whether one is possible at all. "The personnel are being changed while the structure remains the same. The major shareholders Lagadere and DaimlerChrysler want to leave the double leadership with a German and a Frenchman." The paper points out that with a major trade fair coming up in a couple of weeks the company will be on the defensive against Boeing. "The A380 can't afford another mishap. The A350 model has to be completely overhauled so that the Europeans can profit from this sector. German-French cooperation is required."

In an editorial titled "Cockpit Chaos," the left-leaning Frankfurter Rundschau asks whether it is a coincidence that "a Frenchman and a German had to resign at the same time? In any case the assignment of blame remains symmetrical. This seems to be more important than a structural solution." According to the paper, it seems that the lessons from the latest management crisis have not been learned. "The company has confined itself to personnel switching, when it needed fundamental reform of the decision-making procedures." The paper argues that the current control mechanisms are primarily designed "so that neither the Germans nor the French have the upper hand." "That doesn’t just show mutual distrust, it also shows that the 'national' aspect is to the fore. It is hardly surprising that the company doesn’t function well." The newspaper argues that it is more important than ever that the Airbus management get along because both private investors are increasingly less interested in the fate of Airbus: "Arnaud Lagardere, is more interested in his hobby horse, the French media, and DaimlerChrysler wants to concentrate on its automotive business."

-- Siobhá n Dowling, 11:45 a.m. CET

In a further escalation of the ongoing crisis over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants, the Israeli army attacked the office of the Palestinian prime minister on Sunday. Israeli aircraft blasted missiles into Ismail Haniyeh's office in the early hours of Sunday morning, sending a clear message that senior Hamas figures would be targeted if Cpl. Gilad Shalit was not released. Haniyeh called the attack "unacceptable" and President Mahmoud Abbas, surveying the damage, called it "a dirty, criminal act." Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military had been ordered to do "everything" to secure the release of the captured 19-year-old who has been in the hands of the Palestinians for over a week.

The German press regards the Israeli attack on the prime minister's office as a warning shot to the Hamas leadership, and as part of a wider agenda to remove the radical Islamist government.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung argues that the Israeli government is not just concerned about the lives of its soldiers and citizens, it also "wants to settle accounts with the Hamas Islamists." According to the paper, the attack on the Palestinian prime minister's office shows that the Israelis don’t want to kill Haniyeh for now. "They are sending a message: If the soldier is not freed, then the Hamas leadership will be targeted." However, the paper writes that Israel's options are limited. It believes that a prisoner exchange is unlikely, as the militants' demands "were absurdly inflated." And neither a rescue attempt by a special commando nor a rapid invasion would seem to offer much chance of success. The paper warns that "if the population suffers a military action it would rally behind the radical Hamas forces." The paper argues that the only perceivable reason for a military invasion would be that "Olmert wants to remove the Hamas government from office by military means." This is also why the pressure on Syria and on the Hamas leadership in exile in Damascus is also increasing, argues the Süddeutsche. It asks if Israel has a plan that is "politically thought through and militarily realistic." At the moment, it concludes, it looks as though the Israelis "are in danger of making a profound miscalculation."

The conservative Die Welt also interprets the attack on Haniyeh's office as a warning shot. "The Israeli message is: We are now in a position to find and kill the members of the radical Hamas government." According to the paper, "it was a carefully thought out and planned warning shot, that should end the Hamas masquerade: Suits and ties do not turn radical Palestinians into rational, responsible politicians." Nevertheless, the paper argues, the Palestinian government was elected "in a free and democratic election." "To arrest them by a night-time commando raid does not exactly enhance the international reputation of the only real democracy in the Middle East. Íf it gives up its own high standards, Israel runs the risk of falling into the Gaza trap." Like the Süddeutsche, Die Welt also sees the Israeli agenda as really "the destruction of the Hamas power structures."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes that the Israeli attack on Haniyeh's office "broke international law" and was a warning shot. "Your office now. Tomorrow it's you. Just like the mafia." According to the paper, the Israeli experience shows us that "while hitting back is psychologically understandable and morally less reprehensible than many of us want to believe, it doesn’t help at all." According to the paper, Israel has made it clear that it "wants to depose the first government that the Palestinians have elected for themselves." The Israeli government "is claiming a veto right over who occupies the Palestinian government benches. A veto right that it is prepared to enforce using bombs and rockets." The paper writes that this shows the "disdain the Israeli leadership has not only for the will of the Palestinian, but also for democratic institutions."