Analysis, Side Feature

Views on the News – 7 May 2019

Headlines:

  • Jewish entity Launched War in Ramadan
  • Trump working to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as ‘Terror’ Group
  • Turkey’s High Election Board Cancels Istanbul Mayoral Election Result

Jewish entity Launched War in Ramadan

The Jewish entity has once again begun its murderous campaign in Ramadan where at least 27 people in Palestine, including two pregnant women and a 14-month-old baby girl, have been killed. The 3 days leading to Ramadan have seen the worst fighting in Gaza since the war in 2014. The violence started on 3rd May when the Jewish entity’s military and Islamic Jihad traded fire. Over the next two days, hundreds of rockets were launched into the Jewish entity from Gaza with the Jewish entity’s military pounding the besieged enclave with air strikes and artillery in return. The fierce attacks back and forth threatened to spill over into an all-out, protracted war, but by early Monday. This takes place as the US administration looks to promote its deal of the century in June, which is looking to normalise the Jewish entity.

 

Trump working to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as ‘Terror’ Group

The White House press secretary confirmed that the Trump administration intends to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. The move is popular among the hawks of US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy team, but they were not the source of the administration’s decision. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who came to power by deposing the freely elected Muhammed Morsi form the Muslim Brotherhood – in a military coup in 2013 has been pushing the US to designate the groups as a terrorist group since 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) worked for decades to establish its rule in Egypt, despite persecution it did not resort to violence. Some of it members who lost hope resorted to violence as and went on to establish their own groups, but it was well known the MB on the main worked within the Egyptian political system. This ban shows the US has no fixed principles a terrorist and freedom fighter is determined by US strategic interests and can chop and change whenever needed.

 

Turkey’s High Election Board Cancels Istanbul Mayoral Election Result

The Turkish High Election Board has cancelled the Istanbul mayoral election results forcing a new vote in the city next month. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency confirmed that seven of the 11 members of the Turkish High Election Board (YSK) voted to cancel the outcome of the contested March elections in Istanbul. The main opposition candidate for mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu of the Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP), won by 14,000 votes, though that tally was contested by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The YSK’s announcement means that a new vote will be held in Istanbul on 23 June. The same candidates will be on the ballot. AKP representatives filed a series of complaints to the YSK after the results came out, alleging that several people cast ballots in Istanbul despite being ineligible to vote in the city. In a statement shared by Anadolu, the YSK said it came to its decision after it assessed claims that members of the boards running several polling stations in Istanbul were not public servants. The outcome in Istanbul’s mayoral race signalled the first time in 25 years that parties affiliated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost control of the city. The AKP’s losses in local elections there and in the capital, Ankara, among other places, represented the biggest electoral blow to the party since it first gained electoral success in 2002. Beyond its symbolic importance as Turkey’s economic and cultural capital, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) is also critical due to its vast resources, including a $7.5bn budget and widespread employment opportunities.