In this
mailing:
by Bassam Tawil
• March 29, 2017 at 5:00 am
- The Palestinian
Authority (PA) and Hamas wish to continue teaching children
that the conflict with Israel is not over a two-state solution,
but the "liberation of Palestine, from the river to the
sea," which means the annihilation of Israel. The goal is
for the students to believe that Israel is one big settlement
that has no place in the Middle East.
- Along with Hamas,
Abbas and his PA plan to continue inculcating Palestinian
children with the idea that they should look to terrorists who
kill Jews as their role models. It might be illuminating if
the conversation between Trump and Abbas were to be informed
by these uncomfortable facts.
A girls' school run by the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. (Image source: UNRWA)
In an
ironic turnaround, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is now the object of intimidation and
threats made by many Palestinians.
UNRWA is
reportedly planning to introduce some changes to the curriculum in
its schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians
are rather unhappy about it. They claim that UNRWA has
"succumbed" to Israeli pressure to make the changes.
The
proposed changes are based on leaks to Palestinians and have not
been confirmed by UNRWA. Palestinians claim that they learned about
the plans to introduce the changes during meetings with senior
UNRWA officials.
According
to the Palestinians, the changes are intended to
"eradicate" their "national identity" and
"history" and distort their "struggle" against
Israel.
by Giulio Meotti
• March 29, 2017 at 4:00 am
- "The problem in
Europe is that there are far too many people in uniform, and
too few of them able to go into action." — NATO Secretary
General Lord Robertson.
- "A majority of
the German public opposes combat missions, and supports the
Bundeswehr [German military] only as a quasi-humanitarian
organization, a kind of Médecins Sans Frontières with guns".
— Konstantin Richter, Politico.eu.
- The relative
abundance enjoyed by the Western post-war generations have
created a kind of shame instead of pride.
Soldiers of the German army on parade in 2009.
(Image source: Włodi/Flickr)
It has been
said that when German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the
reconstitution of the military in 1955, he proclaimed: "It is
crazy, gentlemen, that I have to create a German army, it is just
crazy".
Sixty years
have passed, but that sentiment still seems very strong in Germany.
A few days ago Sigmar Gabriel, the German foreign minister, said:
"We have to be a bit careful here that we don't over-interpret
the 2 percent target." Gabriel then became clearer:
"Maintain perspective, stay focused on the target, but avoid
being consumed by the bliss of a new rearmament spiral!"
A few days
earlier, Germany had made an announcement: to raise the number of
soldiers from 170,000 to 198,000 by 2024 -- a modest
"rearmament".
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