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In this
mailing:
by Khaled Abu Toameh
• March 6, 2017 at 5:00 am
- It was not Abbas's
meeting with the Arab Idol contestants that sparked a wave of
denunciations from Palestinians. Rather, it was his failure to
set foot in any of the refugee camps surrounding Beirut or in
other parts of Lebanon.
- Abbas knows very
well that if he had so much as set foot in a refugee camp in
Lebanon, it might have been the last step he would ever take.
- The residents of the
refugee camps are furious with their leaders, who have kept
them there for decades, lying to them about a mythical return
to their forbears' homes in Jaffa, Haifa, Acre and Ramle. That
is the real reason Abbas and other Arab leaders stay as far as
possible from these miserable holding-pens.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (left)
meets in Beirut with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun (right), on
February 23, 2017. (Image source: RT video screenshot)
What could
possibly be said against a leader who supports and encourages art,
especially music, singing and dancing of youths? A leader who does
so, particularly one from the Arab world, should be commended for
such efforts.
The catch:
except when a leader says that supporting singers and musicians
takes precedence over solving basic problems facing hundreds of
thousands of his people.
Take, for
example, the case of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud
Abbas, who recently visited Beirut for talks with Lebanese leaders
on a wide range of issues pertaining to bilateral relations and the
status of more than 500,000 Palestinians living in extremely harsh
conditions in numerous refugee camps throughout Lebanon. Many of
the camps have long been "no-go zones" for the Lebanese
security forces; this situation has turned them into bases for anarchy,
lawlessness and a home for various rival armed gangs, which
sometimes kill each other.
by Vijeta Uniyal
• March 6, 2017 at 4:30 am
- Germany's police and
legal systems, which took weeks to prosecute anyone in the
city of Cologne in the wake of the New Year's Eve mass sexual
assaults, and then closed most of the cases after a year-long
investigation, immediately swung into action against a group
of small-town revellers.
- In Merkel's Germany,
you are allowed to walk free after setting fire to a
synagogue, but not for mocking the Chancellor's
"sacred" refugee policy.
- While German police
are busy raiding homes across the country and targeting
citizens who write "hateful" or
"offensive" Facebook postings, mosques in German are
openly preaching anti-Semitism and ISIS-style jihadism.
The Carnival parade float from Bad Bergzabern,
Germany, that triggered an investigation by the police and State
Attorney, showing Chancellor Angela Merkel behind prison bars, with
the caption: "This is how traitors end up." (Image
source: SWF video screenshot)
Carnival in
Germany is a time for some light-hearted fun, fancy costumes and
political satire. This year, many German cities held traditional
float parades on Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, many of which
depicted political themes. Images of U.S. President Donald Trump
took centre stage in many float processions, in some instances with
his decapitated head held up high by the Statue of Liberty, in the
style of an ISIS beheading.
Other
floats went after nationalist European leaders and right-wing
parties. In Düsseldorf, President Trump was shown standing next to
a blond Hitler, joined by France's Marine Le Pen, and the
Netherlands' Geert Wilders.
Germany
prides in its traditional Narrenfreiheit ("jesters'
freedom") to mock the high and mighty. This year, Germany's
state-run Deutsche Welle news agency proudly proclaimed,
"German jesters take on kings for 2017 Carnival."
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