Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From Ynet News
Can Assad’s childhood friend save Lebanon?
Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy for the Lebanese presidency seems as if it may win a consensus in the divided country, which has been without a president for more than a year and a half. A close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Franjieh is an enthusiastic supporter of Hezbollah and Iran, but also has the approval of the opposing camp and has won the blessings of Saudi Arabia.
Under an emerging deal to resolve Lebanon’s 18-month political deadlock, one of the strongest allies and a close personal friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad may become the next Lebanese president.
Sleiman Frangieh, a 50-year old politician and lawmaker who survived a notorious civil war massacre at the age of 13, was not even running for the post of president and up until recently seemed an unlikely candidate.
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From Ynet News
Trump: Israel may not want peace with Palestinians
Republican frontrunner in hot water with Jewish voters after refusing to back down on comments he made to AP; ‘You’re not going to support me even though you know I’m the best thing that could happen to Israel,’ he says.
Republican candidate Donald Trump got in hot water with Jewish donors on Thursday when he refused to back down on comments he made the previous day that he was not sure Israel was interested in peace with the Palestinians.
From The Times of Israel
Rivlin proposes Israeli-Palestinian ‘confederation’
President floats idea of two states with borders including land swaps, as well as separate parliaments, but only one army
December 3, 2015, 11:50 pm
President Reuven Rivlin appeared to break from his staunch opposition to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in comments published Thursday, indicating that a sovereign Palestine state alongside Israel within the framework of a joint confederation was the only way toward peace.
“There would be a confederation,” he told Aude Marcovitch and Patrick Wajsman of the French quarterly Politique Internationale. “Decisions that concern the two states in the confederation — or the two states of the united… Israeli-Palestinian state — we will have to [make]… together.”
According to a recording from the interview obtained by Israel Radio, Rivlin also suggested land swaps in the demarcation of the two confederated states. He also reportedly said that the future confederation would feature two parliaments and two constitutions, but only one army — the Israel Defense Forces.
While Rivlin has previously proposed the idea of an Israeli-Palestinian confederation, he has never mentioned land swaps or specific border demarcations, or used the words “states” in the context of peacemaking efforts. He has also made statements indicating support for a single binational state.
Rivlin’s office on Thursday issued a statement clarifying the president’s remarks, and emphasizing that despite his mention of two states, he maintained his opposition to full Palestinian statehood.
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From The Times of Israel
Far-right ruling party seeks to remake Polish politics
Back in power, Law and Justice party revives rejected ‘vindictive’ legislation to vet Poles for Soviet-era collaboration
December 2, 2015, 10:08 pm
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — When Poland’s right-wing ruling party, Law and Justice, held power nearly a decade ago, one of its key projects was a law aimed at vetting Poles for collaboration with the Soviet-era secret police. The legislation got struck down by the constitutional court — amid criticism that it was vengeful and undemocratic.
Back in power, Law and Justice is now acting quickly to place its supporters on the Constitutional Tribunal, seeking to neutralize it before proceeding to reshape this Central European nation of nearly 38 million people in line with its nationalistic and Catholic worldview.
“It was the one branch of government that they theoretically couldn’t touch and which curbed its power 10 years ago,” said Jacek Kucharczyk, the director of the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw and a critic of the new leadership. “They decided to start with it right from the start.”
A recording also recently emerged in which Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz made anti-Semitic comments during a radio interview in 2002, prompting the Anti-Defamation League to protest that nomination.
Some people believe anti-migrant and anti-Semitic language from those on high is encouraging xenophobia. They point to an incident on November 18 in Wroclaw when far-right activists protesting migrants burned the effigy of an Orthodox Jew. After that, Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said anti-Semites from the extreme right “are under the belief that they have support from this new government for such actions. We are certain that this is not true but we also hope to hear clear and moral statements to this effect in the very near future.”
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From The Times of Israel
Spike Lee rips Rahm Emanuel on ‘Chi-Raq’ film orange carpet
At movie premiere, Chicago actor John Cusack laments shootings in city, cites police slaying of teen Laquan McDonald
December 2, 2015, 9:52 am
NEW YORK — Kind words were in short supply for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the premiere of Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” in New York on Tuesday night.
Emanuel fired the city’s police superintendent after tensions flared over the release of a graphic video that showed a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, being shot 16 times by a white police officer.
Lee predicted at the premiere that “some more heads are gonna roll.”
The police superintendent “is not going to be the only one,” Lee said.
Lee’s satire is based on the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. This modern adaptation is about the murder of a child hit by a stray bullet in Chicago’s South Side, and the group of women that organize a unique way of dealing with the ongoing violence; they hold back sex.
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