Headlines:
- Hamas Abandons Palestine
- Syria Airstrikes “After Dinner Entertainment”
- Yemen on the Brink of Starvation
- German Parliament Votes in Favour of Partial Burqa Ban
- France, Germany want New Turkey Ties but Dodge EU Membership
- Pentagon Sending 5,700 New Troops to Afghanistan, Europe
Hamas Abandons Palestine
Hamas has presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, without recognising the statehood of ‘Israel’, and says that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious one. The positions were made official on Monday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, by Khaled Meshaal, the leader-in-exile of the Palestinian group that runs the besieged Gaza Strip. “We shall not waive an inch of the Palestinian home soil, no matter what the recent pressures are and no matter how long the occupation,” Meshaal told reporters as he revealed the document to the public after two years of work. “Hamas rejects any idea except liberating the home soil entirely and completely, although it does not necessarily mean we recognise the Zionist entity or give up any of our Palestinian rights.” While Hamas’ 1988 founding charter called for the takeover of all of mandate Palestine, including present-day ‘Israel’, the new document says it will accept the 1967 borders as the basis for a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital and refugees back to their homes. This “solution” isn’t a new one as it tows the American line of a two state solution. The diagnoses of this conflict and occupation not being a religious one is incorrect as the basis of the Palestinian resistance to the occupation has been Islam. It is also worth mentioning that accepting the 1967 borders automatically acknowledges the existence of an ‘Israeli’ state – the Jewish entity – so simply saying that we will not acknowledge it whilst the actions of Hamas say otherwise highlights their political naivety.
Syria Airstrikes “After Dinner Entertainment”
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross explained how Donald Trump “interrupted dessert” to declare to Chinese president Xi Jinping its intentions to strike Syria. Many details have come out after the firing of more than 50 rockets last month with most people realising that the action was more for power projection than to sincerely punish the regime for its use of chemical weapons. More specifically Mr. Ross explained how Trump made the airstrikes a point to Xi Jinping confirming the US attention to make clear its power and threat to an increasingly challenging China.
Yemen on the Brink of Starvation
The head of the United Nations stood in front of a room full of global leaders Tuesday 2 May 2017, and made a passionate plea: “On average, a child under the age of 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen every 10 minutes,” António Guterres said. “This means 50 children in Yemen will die during today’s conference, and all of those deaths could have been prevented.” Two years since Saudi Arabia interfered in Yemen the Arab world’s poorest country, is facing collapse. Its currency, agriculture, infrastructure, health care and even the most basic social cohesion have been destroyed by the war, and about 7 million people are on the brink of starvation, while two-thirds of the population relies on humanitarian aid to survive. Ironically, Saudi Arabia has made the biggest public funding pledge, promising $150 million for Yemen. Much of the physical destruction in the country has been wrought by a Saudi-led air campaign – backed by the United States and others – that has indiscriminately targeted civilians.
German Parliament Votes in Favour of Partial Burqa Ban
The German parliament has supported a draft law banning women working in the civil service, judiciary and military from wearing full-face Islamic veils. Burqas and niqabs will be prohibited in selected professions as part of the legislation, which will not come into effect until being approved by the Bundesrat state parliament. Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, argued that the ban was compatible with integration as debate continues over the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers in the country. “Integration also means that we should make clear and impart our values and where the boundaries of our tolerance towards other cultures lie,” he said. “The draft law we have agreed on makes an important contribution to that.” Some right-wing politicians have called for a full ban on the burqa in public, which has been imposed in France and Belgium, but Mr de Maiziere said the move would be incompatible with Germany’s constitution. The new law will require government employees to show their faces, as well as giving authorities the power to check women’s identities in elections. It was opposed by politicians from the left-wing Die Linke and Die Grünen parties, who dismissed the legislation as a “purely symbolic policy” pandering to the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) ahead of September’s elections. Critics argued that burqa-wearing soldiers and officials do not actually exist, making the new rules redundant, and said they will worsen tensions. Angela Merkel announced her support for the move in December, saying full-face veils were “not acceptable in Germany” and calling them to be banned “wherever it is legally possible”. She is bidding for her fourth term as Chancellor, battling a rise in support for the anti-immigration AfD, which has blamed her decision to open Germany’s borders to refugees in 2015 for a series of Isis-inspired terror attacks. [Source: The Independent]
Merkel is eager to be re-elected for a fourth-term and she is using the burqa ban to appear tough on Islam. By doing so, Merkel hopes to win votes away from the far right parties. Politicians across Europe have used Islam to further their agenda even if it undermines Western Liberalism.
France, Germany want New Turkey Ties but Dodge EU Membership
France and Germany sought a new deal with Turkey on Friday to repair relations with President Tayyip Erdogan but would not say whether the Turkish leader’s new powers and his crackdown on opponents had ended the country’s EU ambitions. Worried by what the European Union sees as Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism, EU lawmakers called this week for a formal suspension of Turkey’s long-stalled EU bid, saying it does not meet democratic standards. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who held talks in Malta with his EU counterparts and with Turkey’s top diplomat Mevlut Cavusoglu, said he was “strictly against” annulling Turkey’s decade-long bid for EU membership. But after a day of talks, he said the real issue was to ensure the bloc had a new, looser agreement to offer Turkey before ditching the EU accession process. Since its launch in 2005, the entry process has helped Turkey win foreign investment and become the world’s 15th largest economy, EU officials say. But talks have since stalled. “It does not improve things by cancelling something before we have something new to offer,” Gabriel told reporters. “We can try to open new channels for negotiations,” he said, referring to an idea to broaden the European Union’s trade ties with Turkey, giving Turkish companies greater tariff-free access to the bloc’s 500 million citizens. That could soften any political blow from a formal suspension of accession talks, EU officials said. Austria has led calls to abort the process, which has been frozen by political obstacles over Cyprus and resistance in some EU states to let in the majority Muslim country, even before this month’s referendum. “It would be absolutely wrong to stick to the illusion of accession (to the EU),” Austria’s Sebastian Kurz said. Ending Turkey’s five-decade-old dream of joining the European Union is sensitive because the West worries about isolating an important NATO ally that straddles Europe and Asia. [Source: Reuters]
The European Union is Turkey’s biggest foreign investor and biggest trading partner, while Turkey shares a border with Iraq, Syria and with Russia in the Black Sea. Europe’s uncertain future is prompting the EU to take a softer stance on Turkey. However, Turkey should unequivocally abandon its attempts to join a union that is struggling to survive and is likely to implode in the coming years. This new reality provides Turkey with the ideal opportunity to shape the face of Europe, but current Republic format of ruling is ill equipped to exploit such a situation. Unless, Turkey return to the model of Khilafah Rashidah it will struggle to keep the West manipulating its internal situation for their own benefit.
Pentagon Sending 5,700 New Troops to Afghanistan, Europe
The Pentagon announced Thursday it would send about 5,700 soldiers later this year to Afghanistan and Europe on regular troop rotations, Stars and Stripes reported. About 1,700 soldiers from Fort Stewart in Georgia and Fort Bragg in North Carolina will head to Afghanistan in the summer to replace troops there; another 4,000 from a Fort Riley, Kansas, brigade will deploy to Europe in the fall, according to the military news outlet. A Pentagon spokesman, Eric Pahon, said the new deployment will not increase the size of U.S. forces in either location, Stars and Stripes reported. Two months ago, Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top American commander in Afghanistan, asked for “a few thousand” additional troops to boost the NATO-led training and advising of Afghan security forces – saying the war against the Taliban was at a stalemate. [Source: NewsMax.com]
So much for Trump’s isolationist credentials. The US military footprint under Trump is expanding and not contracting as so many Americans had hoped for. America’s war in Afghanistan that never seems to end is drawing more US soldiers as resistance from the Pushtuns increases. After 100 days in office, Pentagon has high jacked Trump’s foreign policy agenda.