foreignpolicy--2020-08-31--This Year Could Be a Reckoning for New York’s Chinese Community

This Year Could Be a Reckoning for New York ’ s Chinese Community The morning before Independence Day , the Chinese-dominated neighborhood of Flushing in New York City was boiling over .
Close to 200 people , all Chinese , waving American flags and holding signs , gathered in front of the library in the Queens district and chanted , “ We love the NYPD , ” and “ All lives matter.
” Their voices could be heard a few blocks away .
Beside the crowd , a few dozen people , mainly in their 20s and including many Asians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Lives Matter , ” “ Defund Racism.
” They were outnumbered , but they still made plenty of noise , chanting at the larger group in their own persistent rhythm : “ We don ’ t love the NYPD .
But we love you.
” Sometimes they chanted in Mandarin , with detectably nonnative accents .
A middle-aged man who wanted to be identified only by his last name , Wang , came across from the larger group to challenge some of the young people helping distribute anti-police-brutality fliers .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30 years .
I did all odd jobs .
I work hard , ” Wang said , waving his arms .
“ Black lives matter .
Does my life matter too ?
” A few gray-haired Chinese joined him .
“ If you don ’ t like American police , move to a country with no American police , ” one shouted at the young people .
“ I don ’ t know why they are so angry , ” Fiona Zhao , a 26-year-old New York-born Chinese woman , told me .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chinese said , “ Same harm , same racism , same history .
United against police brutality.
” Her sign highlights the long-standing concept that people of color may have some united interests .
Despite having been upheld by the pioneers of the civil rights movement for decades , the idea is now challenged by a rising movement of conservative Chinese , many of whom are relatively new immigrants to the United States from mainland China .
In particular , this increasingly vocal group vehemently opposes affirmative action in college admissions , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Asian students and favors Black and Hispanic students .
They have also taken law-and-order stances against the legalization of marijuana and reforms of the bail system .
Their separation from the liberal mainstream has become even starker in the wake of the anti-police-brutality movement triggered by the death of George Floyd in May .
While many Americans of all races and backgrounds have protested on the streets to demand reforms , including defunding the police , some new Chinese immigrants have joined the other side , led by white conservatives , to show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ participated in almost all the pro-police rallies in New York this summer , whether organized by resident groups that support President Donald Trump or entities like the Brooklyn Conservative Party .
Sometimes , they were the only organized minority group at white-majority rallies , for example , at the march that took place on June 22 in Middle Village , Queens .
That might seem surprising , but it makes sense given this group ’ s history in the United States .
Public safety has always been a top concern in the Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2013 , during the New York mayoral election , many Chinese voters made their choice based on the candidates ’ stance on the city ’ s stop-and-frisk policy .
Many voted against those who supported rescinding the enforcement practice that mostly targeted the Black and Hispanic communities .
Even John Liu , then city comptroller and a political rock star in the Chinese community , failed to secure an endorsement from at least one Chinese-language newspaper , largely because of his call for tossing out the stop-and-frisk program .
There is a real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the justice system could lead to rising crime .
Racist attacks against Asians over the origins of the virus in China and the looting of shops in Chinatowns in several cities have reinforced their stance .
“ Without the police , who ’ s going to protect us ?
” said Donghui Zang , a father of two who has attended several rallies in support of the police .
Zang , who is also the head of the New York City Residents Alliance , a grassroots organization of Chinese immigrant parents , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighborhood in Forest Hills , Queens , to donate masks and pizza lunches to the local police precinct since the pandemic hit the United States in March .
And he also formed a vigilante patrol that drives through the neighborhood at night periodically to “ deter ” troublemakers .
“ This is a time you don ’ t want to reduce the power of the police .
You want to enhance it , ” Zang said .
The rise of attitudes like Zang ’ s also reflects the complex relationship the Chinese community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Black community leaders consistently backed each other during the civil rights movement .
Grace Lee Boggs , a Chinese American activist who married the Black activist James Boggs in the 1950s , fought for equal rights for Black people for much of her life before she died in 2015 at the age of 100 .
And the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson stood with Asian protesters to fight for justice in the 1980s , after a young Chinese man , Vincent Chin , was killed by two white auto factory workers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and held him responsible for the threat to their jobs from Japanese automakers .
But tensions between Chinese shopkeepers and customers in Black neighborhoods have also simmered for a long time .
In the 19th century , Chinese immigrants settled in the Mississippi Delta region , where many among the community opened grocery stores , profiting from the freed slaves whose access to the broader economy was still systematically restricted .
More recently , the stage has been set for more suspicion between the two communities as more Chinese immigrants seeking new markets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black neighborhoods .
They sometimes faced resentment from relatively poorer Black locals who felt that the shopkeepers were becoming rich off the struggling local communities .
After a spate of murders of Chinese deliverymen in historically Black New York neighborhoods , Chinese business leaders came more directly into confrontation with local communities and began demanding police support .
“ I understand the police may abuse their power sometimes .
But that doesn ’ t mean we should defund the police , ” said John Chan , the president of Asian American Community Empowerment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of killed deliverymen .
“ Without the police , who ’ s going to help us when we are targeted by criminals ?
” Chinese support for the police hit a milestone in February 2016 , when tens of thousands walked the street in 40 cities in the United States to call for justice for Peter Liang , a rookie New York Police Department cop who was convicted of manslaughter after accidentally shooting dead a Black man , Akai Gurley , in the dark stairwell of a government housing project while on patrol @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Chinese protesters , Liang was a scapegoat—after all , a series of white police officers had avoided prosecution after their violent conduct led to the deaths of Black civilians .
The protesters felt he was an easy target for prosecution because he was Chinese .
That was not the view of Black Lives Matter activists , who saw Liang as a part of the police apparatus , regardless of his ethnic background .
A month after Liang killed Gurley , in late December 2014 , New York police officer Wenjian Liu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dead in their patrol car by Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley , who had picked the cops randomly in revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown , both Black men who had died during police operations against them .
Liu was treated as a hero in the Chinese community .
“ As immigrants ourselves , we rely on the police to help us on all sorts of things .
They have sacrificed so much for our safety , ” Vivian Shen , a 70-year-old immigrant from Shanghai , told me in July @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s wife , Pei Xia Chen , at the time he was killed .
Shen , who has lived in New York since 1986 , said that she has had scores of interactions with police .
When she was lost driving back home from Long Island , a police officer helped her find her way .
When her father with Alzheimer ’ s strayed away from home , it was the police who found him and sent him back .
When 9/11 happened , her husband , who worked in the twin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer .
When New York City recently decided to cut $ 1 billion from the budget of the police department , Shen raised $ 1,400 from 14 of her family members and friends for the police .
( The donation was accepted by the 109th Precinct Community Council , a nonprofit that builds communications between the precinct and the local community . )
“ I am an ordinary senior .
I am not able to do much .
But I want to help the police in whichever way I can , ” Shen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between the police and the Chinese immigrant community is much more complicated than Shen ’ s particular experience may suggest .
The memory of Yong Xin Huang , a 16-year-old shot dead in 1995 by a police officer who thought the BB gun Huang was playing with was a deadly weapon , still sends shudders through some people in the community .
The police officer who was responsible for his death was not charged .
Another flash point came in July , when a nearly 90-year-old Chinese woman went to the police after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pair of strangers .
There , she was told to go back home to call 911 .
This outraged some people in the community , including the hip-hop artist China Mac , who organized protests demanding the case be categorized as a hate crime .
And many Chinese street vendors have been ticketed or arrested by the police for reasons beyond their comprehension .
“ By the end of the month , you ’ ve got to be very careful .
That ’ s when the police would try to fulfil their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ d get tickets for no reason , ” Shaohua Yu , a street vendor in Manhattan ’ s Chinatown , told me .
( The NYPD has denied it has a quota for tickets . )
Yet many new Chinese immigrants tend to seek solutions within the system rather than trying to work outside it .
Yu said that even when he believes he has been ticketed unfairly , he still accepts the situation without resistance .
“ I can always get it dismissed in court , ” he said .
Zang and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tickets in the same way .
To many Chinese immigrants , the Black Lives Matter protests and the calls to defund the police appear to be too radical .
While such civil rights protests and demands are an ingrained part of the American democratic system , to people who grew up under the iron fist of the Chinese Communist Party they go well beyond challenging the system .
Many still remember how the Tiananmen protests in 1989 became too much for China ’ s political leadership and were viciously crushed as a result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a narrower conception of working within the system for change .
Such acceptance of authority—even when it is entirely wrong—poses a tough challenge to the liberals in the Chinese community who offer the message that Chinese interests are tied to those of Black people .
“ Many Chinese immigrants have never faced this kind of police violence in China .
When they see it here , they don ’ t necessarily know how to react to it .
Their gut reaction is not to oppose the government , ” John Liu , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York state senator , told me in a phone interview in July .
“ When people say we support the police , they are really saying we are not against the government.
” Liu noted that not all Chinese residents who support the police are against Black Lives Matter .
Many may be out at the rallies to show their appreciation for individual police officers they know , he said .
Still , he wants new Chinese immigrants to learn more about the history of the civil rights movement in the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trust the system because the system failed them every single time , ” Liu said .
Chinese people wouldn ’ t have as much privilege , he argued , “ or even the ability to immigrate here without the civil rights movement , without the ongoing struggles of Black people.
” Although it doesn ’ t seem some of the participants in the Flushing rally could be persuaded to accept this view anytime soon , Liu is hopeful .
“ Many of the Asians who are in the BLM movement are young , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protesters .
This is a generational shift in this country , ” Liu said .
“ Over time , it ’ s their kids who are going to educate them .
”

The morning before Independence Day, the Chinese-dominated neighborhood of Flushing in New York City was boiling over. Close to 200 people, all Chinese, waving American flags and holding signs, gathered in front of the library in the Queens district and chanted, “We love the NYPD,” and “All lives matter.” Their voices could be heard a few blocks away.
The morning before Independence Day, the Chinese-dominated neighborhood of Flushing in New York City was boiling over. Close to 200 people, all Chinese, waving American flags and holding signs, gathered in front of the library in the Queens district and chanted, “We love the NYPD,” and “All lives matter.” Their voices could be heard a few blocks away.
Beside the crowd, a few dozen people, mainly in their 20s and including many Asians, held their own signs: “Black Lives Matter,” “Defund Racism.” They were outnumbered, but they still made plenty of noise, chanting at the larger group in their own persistent rhythm: “We don’t love the NYPD. But we love you.” Sometimes they chanted in Mandarin, with detectably nonnative accents.
A middle-aged man who wanted to be identified only by his last name, Wang, came across from the larger group to challenge some of the young people helping distribute anti-police-brutality fliers. “I’ve been in the U.S. for 30 years. I did all odd jobs. I work hard,” Wang said, waving his arms. “Black lives matter. Does my life matter too?” A few gray-haired Chinese joined him. “If you don’t like American police, move to a country with no American police,” one shouted at the young people.
“I don’t know why they are so angry,” Fiona Zhao, a 26-year-old New York-born Chinese woman, told me. In her hand, a sign in Chinese said, “Same harm, same racism, same history. United against police brutality.”
Her sign highlights the long-standing concept that people of color may have some united interests. Despite having been upheld by the pioneers of the civil rights movement for decades, the idea is now challenged by a rising movement of conservative Chinese, many of whom are relatively new immigrants to the United States from mainland China. In particular, this increasingly vocal group vehemently opposes affirmative action in college admissions, as they believe it shortchanges the interests of Asian students and favors Black and Hispanic students. They have also taken law-and-order stances against the legalization of marijuana and reforms of the bail system.
Their separation from the liberal mainstream has become even starker in the wake of the anti-police-brutality movement triggered by the death of George Floyd in May. While many Americans of all races and backgrounds have protested on the streets to demand reforms, including defunding the police, some new Chinese immigrants have joined the other side, led by white conservatives, to show their support for the police. They participated in almost all the pro-police rallies in New York this summer, whether organized by resident groups that support President Donald Trump or entities like the Brooklyn Conservative Party. Sometimes, they were the only organized minority group at white-majority rallies, for example, at the march that took place on June 22 in Middle Village, Queens.
That might seem surprising, but it makes sense given this group’s history in the United States.
Public safety has always been a top concern in the Chinese community in the United States. In 2013, during the New York mayoral election, many Chinese voters made their choice based on the candidates’ stance on the city’s stop-and-frisk policy. Many voted against those who supported rescinding the enforcement practice that mostly targeted the Black and Hispanic communities. Even John Liu, then city comptroller and a political rock star in the Chinese community, failed to secure an endorsement from at least one Chinese-language newspaper, largely because of his call for tossing out the stop-and-frisk program.
There is a real fear that the COVID-19 pandemic and reforms to the justice system could lead to rising crime. Racist attacks against Asians over the origins of the virus in China and the looting of shops in Chinatowns in several cities have reinforced their stance. “Without the police, who’s going to protect us?” said Donghui Zang, a father of two who has attended several rallies in support of the police.
Zang, who is also the head of the New York City Residents Alliance, a grassroots organization of Chinese immigrant parents, has been organizing Chinese residents in his neighborhood in Forest Hills, Queens, to donate masks and pizza lunches to the local police precinct since the pandemic hit the United States in March. And he also formed a vigilante patrol that drives through the neighborhood at night periodically to “deter” troublemakers. “This is a time you don’t want to reduce the power of the police. You want to enhance it,” Zang said.
The rise of attitudes like Zang’s also reflects the complex relationship the Chinese community has with the Black community. Chinese and Black community leaders consistently backed each other during the civil rights movement. Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese American activist who married the Black activist James Boggs in the 1950s, fought for equal rights for Black people for much of her life before she died in 2015 at the age of 100. And the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson stood with Asian protesters to fight for justice in the 1980s, after a young Chinese man, Vincent Chin, was killed by two white auto factory workers in Detroit. They thought Chin was Japanese and held him responsible for the threat to their jobs from Japanese automakers.
But tensions between Chinese shopkeepers and customers in Black neighborhoods have also simmered for a long time. In the 19th century, Chinese immigrants settled in the Mississippi Delta region, where many among the community opened grocery stores, profiting from the freed slaves whose access to the broader economy was still systematically restricted.
More recently, the stage has been set for more suspicion between the two communities as more Chinese immigrants seeking new markets after Chinatowns became saturated opened up in Black neighborhoods. They sometimes faced resentment from relatively poorer Black locals who felt that the shopkeepers were becoming rich off the struggling local communities.
After a spate of murders of Chinese deliverymen in historically Black New York neighborhoods, Chinese business leaders came more directly into confrontation with local communities and began demanding police support. “I understand the police may abuse their power sometimes. But that doesn’t mean we should defund the police,” said John Chan, the president of Asian American Community Empowerment, an organization created to aid families of killed deliverymen. “Without the police, who’s going to help us when we are targeted by criminals?”
Chinese support for the police hit a milestone in February 2016, when tens of thousands walked the street in 40 cities in the United States to call for justice for Peter Liang, a rookie New York Police Department cop who was convicted of manslaughter after accidentally shooting dead a Black man, Akai Gurley, in the dark stairwell of a government housing project while on patrol in November 2014. In the view of the Chinese protesters, Liang was a scapegoat—after all, a series of white police officers had avoided prosecution after their violent conduct led to the deaths of Black civilians. The protesters felt he was an easy target for prosecution because he was Chinese. That was not the view of Black Lives Matter activists, who saw Liang as a part of the police apparatus, regardless of his ethnic background.
A month after Liang killed Gurley, in late December 2014, New York police officer Wenjian Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos were shot dead in their patrol car by Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, who had picked the cops randomly in revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, both Black men who had died during police operations against them. Liu was treated as a hero in the Chinese community. “As immigrants ourselves, we rely on the police to help us on all sorts of things. They have sacrificed so much for our safety,” Vivian Shen, a 70-year-old immigrant from Shanghai, told me in July. Shen was a colleague of Liu’s wife, Pei Xia Chen, at the time he was killed. Shen, who has lived in New York since 1986, said that she has had scores of interactions with police. When she was lost driving back home from Long Island, a police officer helped her find her way. When her father with Alzheimer’s strayed away from home, it was the police who found him and sent him back. When 9/11 happened, her husband, who worked in the twin towers, was rescued by a police officer.
When New York City recently decided to cut $1 billion from the budget of the police department, Shen raised $1,400 from 14 of her family members and friends for the police. (The donation was accepted by the 109th Precinct Community Council, a nonprofit that builds communications between the precinct and the local community.) “I am an ordinary senior. I am not able to do much. But I want to help the police in whichever way I can,” Shen said.
Of course, the relationship between the police and the Chinese immigrant community is much more complicated than Shen’s particular experience may suggest. The memory of Yong Xin Huang, a 16-year-old shot dead in 1995 by a police officer who thought the BB gun Huang was playing with was a deadly weapon, still sends shudders through some people in the community. The police officer who was responsible for his death was not charged. Another flash point came in July, when a nearly 90-year-old Chinese woman went to the police after her shirt was set on fire by a pair of strangers. There, she was told to go back home to call 911. This outraged some people in the community, including the hip-hop artist China Mac, who organized protests demanding the case be categorized as a hate crime.
And many Chinese street vendors have been ticketed or arrested by the police for reasons beyond their comprehension. “By the end of the month, you’ve got to be very careful. That’s when the police would try to fulfil their quota of tickets, and we’d get tickets for no reason,” Shaohua Yu, a street vendor in Manhattan’s Chinatown, told me. (The NYPD has denied it has a quota for tickets.)
Yet many new Chinese immigrants tend to seek solutions within the system rather than trying to work outside it. Yu said that even when he believes he has been ticketed unfairly, he still accepts the situation without resistance. “I can always get it dismissed in court,” he said. Zang and Shen say they deal with their driving tickets in the same way.
To many Chinese immigrants, the Black Lives Matter protests and the calls to defund the police appear to be too radical. While such civil rights protests and demands are an ingrained part of the American democratic system, to people who grew up under the iron fist of the Chinese Communist Party they go well beyond challenging the system. Many still remember how the Tiananmen protests in 1989 became too much for China’s political leadership and were viciously crushed as a result. In turn, they often have a narrower conception of working within the system for change.
Such acceptance of authority—even when it is entirely wrong—poses a tough challenge to the liberals in the Chinese community who offer the message that Chinese interests are tied to those of Black people. “Many Chinese immigrants have never faced this kind of police violence in China. When they see it here, they don’t necessarily know how to react to it. Their gut reaction is not to oppose the government,” John Liu, the former comptroller who now serves as a New York state senator, told me in a phone interview in July. “When people say we support the police, they are really saying we are not against the government.”
Liu noted that not all Chinese residents who support the police are against Black Lives Matter. Many may be out at the rallies to show their appreciation for individual police officers they know, he said. Still, he wants new Chinese immigrants to learn more about the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. “Black people do not trust the system because the system failed them every single time,” Liu said. Chinese people wouldn’t have as much privilege, he argued, “or even the ability to immigrate here without the civil rights movement, without the ongoing struggles of Black people.”
Although it doesn’t seem some of the participants in the Flushing rally could be persuaded to accept this view anytime soon, Liu is hopeful. “Many of the Asians who are in the BLM movement are young, so are the vast majority of the protesters. This is a generational shift in this country,” Liu said. “Over time, it’s their kids who are going to educate them.”


Peace for Warplanes?

TEL AVIV , Israel—The Trump administration wants to push through within months an arms deal with the United Arab Emirates that includes the world ’ s most advanced warplane , the F-35 , an ambitious timetable that could well be thwarted by the U.S. Congress , depending largely on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’ s position on the sale .
Publicly , Netanyahu has said he opposes the deal , insisting that Israel ’ s position on Middle Eastern states acquiring such high-end weapons had not changed .
But the Trump administration and Emirati officials have suggested that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that led the UAE to normalize relations with Israel this month—in a watershed agreement brokered by Washington .
The arms deal is important enough to the UAE that Emirati diplomats canceled a trilateral meeting with Israel and the United States recently as a sign of displeasure over Netanyahu ’ s vocal opposition to the sale , according to a report in Axios .
And defense officials were removed at the last minute from an Israeli ministerial delegation that traveled to Abu Dhabi on Monday for talks with U.S. and Emirati counterparts .
U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Foreign Policy said a large weapons deal like the one proposed with the UAE would usually take almost a year to process .
They said the Trump administration wants to get it underway within two to five months , ideally by the time of the U.S. election in November and certainly ahead of any presidential transition in January , in the event that Trump loses the White House .
According to the complicated timeline of the arms deal , Congress would need to be provided with details of a proposed sale by October @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consider it and raise objections .
“ I don ’ t see how the UAE would have agreed [ to the deal ] if it wasn ’ t happening in three to four months , ” one congressional staffer with knowledge of the process told Foreign Policy .
“ They read the tea leaves , and they know things will change for them in the next administration.
” A Democratic congressional aide versed in foreign-policy issues was even blunter : “ If Biden wins , this is never going to happen.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arab state to agree to full diplomatic relations with Israel , following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 .
The agreement outlined a series of collaborations and projects in trade , investment , tourism , and COVID-19 response initiatives .
It also called for Israel to suspend its planned annexation of West Bank settlements .
The UAE has wanted for years to buy the F-35 , a sophisticated stealth fighter plane that only Israel among countries in the Middle East has been allowed to purchase .
U.S. presidential advisor Jared Kushner , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a recent interview with CNN that the “ peace agreement should increase the probability of them getting it.
” President Donald Trump echoed the sentiment at a news conference the week after the deal was announced .
“ [ The Emiratis ] have the money , and they would like to order quite a few F-35s .
… It ’ s under review , but they made a great advance in peace in the Middle East , ” he said .
Emirati officials believe Israel should have no grounds for opposing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officially at peace .
“ The UAE expects that its requirements [ regarding the F-35s ] will be accepted , and we feel that with the signing of this peace treaty in the coming weeks or months … that any hurdle towards this should no longer be there , ” Emirati Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said at a recent talk at the Atlantic Council , a Washington-based think tank .
An unnamed senior Emirati official told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that , indeed , Netanyahu knew and gave his approval for such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ current officials in Israel and the United States told Foreign Policy that selling F-35s to the UAE could have adverse consequences for the national security of both countries .
In Israel , the main concern is that the sale would undermine the country ’ s military superiority in the region— its qualitative military edge ( QME ) , in U.S. diplomatic parlance .
QME is a U.S. commitment that dates back to the 1970s , now codified into law , whereby the United States is legally bound to uphold Israel ’ s military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or coalition of states .
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz , who was not consulted about the UAE deal ahead of time , said at a recent press conference that while the normalization is a positive step , it should not come at the expense of Israel ’ s security .
“ It ’ s not good for Israel that the [ F-35 ] plane is going around in other places , ” he said .
This position was reportedly echoed by Israel ’ s air force chief this summer .
Amos Yadlin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told Foreign Policy that the F-35 ’ s unique attributes would help Israel maintain its regional military edge .
“ The F-35 isn ’ t just a stealth fighter but also an entire system of advanced sensors , intelligence , radars , avionics , and weapons that give the pilot a very unique picture of battle , ” he said .
Yadlin , also a former fighter pilot who now heads the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv , added that the real difference between the F-35—a fifth-generation jet—and fourth-generation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Israel , the UAE , and other regional states was the stealth component .
“ It ’ s like the difference between a smartphone in 2020 and a regular mobile phone in the year 2000.
” Other Israeli analysts said they were worried about the precedent such a sale would set in a region where political orientations and alliances are volatile .
“ It can turn on us in an instant without advance warning , ” said Amos Gilead , a retired general and former top Defense Ministry official .
“ Who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would now be serious rivals of Israel , after they were such close friends ?
Or the Islamist takeover of Egypt and then the [ Abdel Fattah al- ] Sisi takeover from them and return to the alliance with Israel ?
You can ’ t predict these things.
” Gilead , considered one of Israel ’ s foremost experts on the QME agreement with the United States , said Egypt and Saudi Arabia might also want F-35s after the Emiratis received theirs .
The U.S. would have “ already established the principle , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ price , ” he said .
“ I don ’ t want to risk our security in the long term , and you can ’ t put your faith in miracles.
” Netanyahu said at a press conference last week with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the peace agreement “ did not include Israel ’ s acceptance of any arms deal , and I don ’ t know of any arms deal that has been agreed upon .
… Our position hasn ’ t changed.
” Yet doubt lingers about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong Netanyahu ’ s opposition will be .
“ There is opposition on paper , and then there is opposition via all channels available to you .
The U.S. won ’ t sell [ the F-35s ] if there is real opposition ” from Israel , Gilead said .
Several U.S. congressional sources said Netanyahu ’ s position on whether the sale degrades Israel ’ s QME will be crucial once lawmakers are asked to vote on the deal .
“ It will be difficult [ for Congress ] to oppose if Bibi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , using Netanyahu ’ s common nickname .
The senior Democratic aide said aggressive lobbying by Netanyahu and the Israeli Embassy in Washington “ could tip it in the Emiratis ’ favor.
” Prior to any congressional vote , however , the State Department will be required by law to certify whether an F-35 sale undermines Israel ’ s military advantage .
According to the congressional staffer , the State Department has yet to say whether certain restrictions would be imposed on where and how the Emiratis can use the F-35 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including advanced armed drones .
A sale without limits would be unacceptable to many members of Congress , the staffer said .
Both Yadlin and Gilead remain skeptical that any limits—technical or geographic—placed on a weapons system like the F-35 would be enough to ameliorate Israeli concerns .
Apart from how the sale would affect Israel , congressional staffers pointed to the UAE ’ s human rights record in Yemen and Libya as an additional area of concern for lawmakers that could at least delay approval of any F-35 sale .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also approve the F-35 deal based on whether the UAE can meet the technical security criteria to own and operate the planes .
This , too , could pose an obstacle to the deal .
“ The UAE will have to display a level of technological knowledge that they don ’ t currently possess and that they ’ re a long way from , ” said Michael Stephens , an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute ( RUSI ) , a London-based think tank .
“ It ’ s not just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ completely different level of command and control , maintenance and servicing , and operational integration.
” At present , only a handful of NATO states and partner countries—including Israel , South Korea , and Japan—operate the F-35 .
Stephens said concerns about Chinese espionage are another reason the United States and Britain tend to withhold their best technology from Gulf states .
“ What ’ s the guarantee that , with the Gulf increasingly looking eastward , that our [ Western ] technological edge won ’ t seep out ?
There ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aren ’ t part of the club—you can ’ t expose your equipment to that level of scrutiny.
” If the deal is ultimately scuttled , the UAE will have to decide whether to proceed with normalization , without the F-35s .
“ The F-35 was the first thing I thought about ” after the peace deal with Israel was announced , the congressional staffer told Foreign Policy .
“ The UAE was getting something out of this , and it wasn ’ t direct flights from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sale authority to bypass Congress .
Though rarely invoked , Trump used this provision last year to ram through a $ 8 billion deal to Saudi Arabia and the UAE that included precision-guided missiles—drawing rebukes from even some Republican lawmakers .
According to congressional staffers , Trump is almost certain to do the same this time around if necessary , so long as there is no two-thirds ( veto-proof ) majority against the sale in the House of Representatives and Senate .
In any event , actual physical delivery of the planes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decade due to production backlogs and prioritized deals with nations that are partners in the production of the F-35 .
“ The planes aren ’ t there , and the [ pilot ] trainers aren ’ t there , ” said Stephens , the RUSI analyst .
“ It ’ s not like ordering 100 Mars bars out of the factory .
”

TEL AVIV, Israel—The Trump administration wants to push through within months an arms deal with the United Arab Emirates that includes the world’s most advanced warplane, the F-35, an ambitious timetable that could well be thwarted by the U.S. Congress, depending largely on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position on the sale.
TEL AVIV, Israel—The Trump administration wants to push through within months an arms deal with the United Arab Emirates that includes the world’s most advanced warplane, the F-35, an ambitious timetable that could well be thwarted by the U.S. Congress, depending largely on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position on the sale.
Publicly, Netanyahu has said he opposes the deal, insisting that Israel’s position on Middle Eastern states acquiring such high-end weapons had not changed. But the Trump administration and Emirati officials have suggested that the F-35 sale was one of the understandings that led the UAE to normalize relations with Israel this month—in a watershed agreement brokered by Washington.
The arms deal is important enough to the UAE that Emirati diplomats canceled a trilateral meeting with Israel and the United States recently as a sign of displeasure over Netanyahu’s vocal opposition to the sale, according to a report in Axios. And defense officials were removed at the last minute from an Israeli ministerial delegation that traveled to Abu Dhabi on Monday for talks with U.S. and Emirati counterparts.
U.S. officials and congressional sources who spoke to Foreign Policy said a large weapons deal like the one proposed with the UAE would usually take almost a year to process. They said the Trump administration wants to get it underway within two to five months, ideally by the time of the U.S. election in November and certainly ahead of any presidential transition in January, in the event that Trump loses the White House.
According to the complicated timeline of the arms deal, Congress would need to be provided with details of a proposed sale by October so that lawmakers would have time to consider it and raise objections.
“I don’t see how the UAE would have agreed [to the deal] if it wasn’t happening in three to four months,” one congressional staffer with knowledge of the process told Foreign Policy. “They read the tea leaves, and they know things will change for them in the next administration.”
A Democratic congressional aide versed in foreign-policy issues was even blunter: “If Biden wins, this is never going to happen.”
The UAE this month became only the third Arab state to agree to full diplomatic relations with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. The agreement outlined a series of collaborations and projects in trade, investment, tourism, and COVID-19 response initiatives. It also called for Israel to suspend its planned annexation of West Bank settlements.
The UAE has wanted for years to buy the F-35, a sophisticated stealth fighter plane that only Israel among countries in the Middle East has been allowed to purchase. U.S. presidential advisor Jared Kushner, who mediated the UAE-Israel deal, said in a recent interview with CNN that the “peace agreement should increase the probability of them getting it.”
President Donald Trump echoed the sentiment at a news conference the week after the deal was announced. “[The Emiratis] have the money, and they would like to order quite a few F-35s. … It’s under review, but they made a great advance in peace in the Middle East,” he said.
Emirati officials believe Israel should have no grounds for opposing the deal now that the two countries are officially at peace. “The UAE expects that its requirements [regarding the F-35s] will be accepted, and we feel that with the signing of this peace treaty in the coming weeks or months … that any hurdle towards this should no longer be there,” Emirati Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said at a recent talk at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.
An unnamed senior Emirati official told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that, indeed, Netanyahu knew and gave his approval for such a move.
But several former and current officials in Israel and the United States told Foreign Policy that selling F-35s to the UAE could have adverse consequences for the national security of both countries.
In Israel, the main concern is that the sale would undermine the country’s military superiority in the region— its qualitative military edge (QME), in U.S. diplomatic parlance. QME is a U.S. commitment that dates back to the 1970s, now codified into law, whereby the United States is legally bound to uphold Israel’s military advantages over any individual Middle Eastern state or coalition of states.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who was not consulted about the UAE deal ahead of time, said at a recent press conference that while the normalization is a positive step, it should not come at the expense of Israel’s security. “It’s not good for Israel that the [F-35] plane is going around in other places,” he said. This position was reportedly echoed by Israel’s air force chief this summer.
Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief, told Foreign Policy that the F-35’s unique attributes would help Israel maintain its regional military edge. “The F-35 isn’t just a stealth fighter but also an entire system of advanced sensors, intelligence, radars, avionics, and weapons that give the pilot a very unique picture of battle,” he said.
Yadlin, also a former fighter pilot who now heads the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, added that the real difference between the F-35—a fifth-generation jet—and fourth-generation warplanes like the F-15 and F-16 held by Israel, the UAE, and other regional states was the stealth component. “It’s like the difference between a smartphone in 2020 and a regular mobile phone in the year 2000.”
Other Israeli analysts said they were worried about the precedent such a sale would set in a region where political orientations and alliances are volatile.
“It can turn on us in an instant without advance warning,” said Amos Gilead, a retired general and former top Defense Ministry official. “Who could have predicted that Turkey and Iran would now be serious rivals of Israel, after they were such close friends? Or the Islamist takeover of Egypt and then the [Abdel Fattah al-] Sisi takeover from them and return to the alliance with Israel? You can’t predict these things.”
Gilead, considered one of Israel’s foremost experts on the QME agreement with the United States, said Egypt and Saudi Arabia might also want F-35s after the Emiratis received theirs. The U.S. would have “already established the principle, so you would just be negotiating the price,” he said. “I don’t want to risk our security in the long term, and you can’t put your faith in miracles.”
Netanyahu said at a press conference last week with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the peace agreement “did not include Israel’s acceptance of any arms deal, and I don’t know of any arms deal that has been agreed upon. … Our position hasn’t changed.”
Yet doubt lingers about the veracity of such denials and just how strong Netanyahu’s opposition will be. “There is opposition on paper, and then there is opposition via all channels available to you. The U.S. won’t sell [the F-35s] if there is real opposition” from Israel, Gilead said.
Several U.S. congressional sources said Netanyahu’s position on whether the sale degrades Israel’s QME will be crucial once lawmakers are asked to vote on the deal.
“It will be difficult [for Congress] to oppose if Bibi blesses it,” the congressional staffer said, using Netanyahu’s common nickname. The senior Democratic aide said aggressive lobbying by Netanyahu and the Israeli Embassy in Washington “could tip it in the Emiratis’ favor.”
Prior to any congressional vote, however, the State Department will be required by law to certify whether an F-35 sale undermines Israel’s military advantage. According to the congressional staffer, the State Department has yet to say whether certain restrictions would be imposed on where and how the Emiratis can use the F-35 and other weapons systems now contemplated for sale, including advanced armed drones. A sale without limits would be unacceptable to many members of Congress, the staffer said.
Both Yadlin and Gilead remain skeptical that any limits—technical or geographic—placed on a weapons system like the F-35 would be enough to ameliorate Israeli concerns.
Apart from how the sale would affect Israel, congressional staffers pointed to the UAE’s human rights record in Yemen and Libya as an additional area of concern for lawmakers that could at least delay approval of any F-35 sale.
In addition, the U.S. Defense Department must also approve the F-35 deal based on whether the UAE can meet the technical security criteria to own and operate the planes. This, too, could pose an obstacle to the deal.
“The UAE will have to display a level of technological knowledge that they don’t currently possess and that they’re a long way from,” said Michael Stephens, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a London-based think tank. “It’s not just a plane. It’s a completely different level of command and control, maintenance and servicing, and operational integration.”
At present, only a handful of NATO states and partner countries—including Israel, South Korea, and Japan—operate the F-35. Stephens said concerns about Chinese espionage are another reason the United States and Britain tend to withhold their best technology from Gulf states.
“What’s the guarantee that, with the Gulf increasingly looking eastward, that our [Western] technological edge won’t seep out? There’s a reason you keep people out who aren’t part of the club—you can’t expose your equipment to that level of scrutiny.”
If the deal is ultimately scuttled, the UAE will have to decide whether to proceed with normalization, without the F-35s.
“The F-35 was the first thing I thought about” after the peace deal with Israel was announced, the congressional staffer told Foreign Policy. “The UAE was getting something out of this, and it wasn’t direct flights from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv.”
But Trump could use an emergency arms sale authority to bypass Congress. Though rarely invoked, Trump used this provision last year to ram through a $8 billion deal to Saudi Arabia and the UAE that included precision-guided missiles—drawing rebukes from even some Republican lawmakers. According to congressional staffers, Trump is almost certain to do the same this time around if necessary, so long as there is no two-thirds (veto-proof) majority against the sale in the House of Representatives and Senate.
In any event, actual physical delivery of the planes to the UAE could take up to a decade due to production backlogs and prioritized deals with nations that are partners in the production of the F-35.
“The planes aren’t there, and the [pilot] trainers aren’t there,” said Stephens, the RUSI analyst. “It’s not like ordering 100 Mars bars out of the factory.”


foreignpolicy--2020-08-31--Voltaire Spread Darkness, Not Enlightenment. France Should Stop Worshipping Him.

Voltaire Spread Darkness , Not Enlightenment .
France Should Stop Worshipping Him .
When a statue of François-Marie Arouet was dramatically removed from outside the Académie Française in Paris this month , it was by no means only members of the far-right who expressed their outrage .
On the contrary , self-styled moderates of all political persuasions said the prolific 18th-century writer best known by his nom de plume , Voltaire , should be untouchable .
They were incensed when anti-racist graffiti kept being sprayed on the stone depiction because of his links with the slave trade .
In turn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the vandalism were that Voltaire had personally invested in the French East India Company , founded in 1664 to exploit the products of the New World , including Africans bought and sold as commodities for profit .
Voltaire had plenty of enemies , and there were certainly as many rumors as forged documents connecting him with the slave trade .
However , he liked to define himself as a “ merchant philosopher ” and indisputably funded the French East India Company in the 1740s , when its armed frigates were focused on triangular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporate shares , Voltaire is recorded as having directly put his own money into slave transportation adventures by ships such as Le Saint-Georges , which left Cádiz , Spain , in December 1751 bound for Guinea .
More than 250 years on , anger among those in Paris who dismiss such evidence as unimportant intensified when workers transported the stone Voltaire to a distant warehouse .
The official explanation was that he needed a good clean , but conspiracy theorists still fear he might never return .
They accuse the authorities of bowing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activists and the so-called cancel culture that they propagate .
BLM is already a hugely influential movement in France .
It was galvanized by the killing of Black American George Floyd in Minneapolis in May , but there have been plenty of parallel cases of ethnic minority Frenchmen dying in police custody .
These include Adama Traoré , who died on his 24th birthday in a cell in the Paris suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise in July 2016 .
There is no film of what happened , but family and other supporters say Traoré—like Floyd—was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officers .
There have been regular BLM rallies in France—one on June 2 led to an estimated 23,000 people turning up at the Paris court complex .
Police used tear gas and baton charges to try to disperse the illegal gathering .
The slogans “ Justice pour Adama ” and “ Black Lives Matter ” were chanted throughout .
Beyond street protests , the questioning of celebrated public figures—living or dead—because they are considered deeply objectionable is becoming an increasingly powerful force in France .
Screenings of J ’ accuse ( An Officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ movie by Roman Polanski , the French director who has been on the run from U.S. justice for decades over the rape of a child , have been closed down by feminist groups , for example .
This followed new allegations of sexual assaults being carried out by Polanski , who denied the claims .
The spraying of red paint—to symbolize blood—on historic monuments is all part of the same culture .
Beyond Voltaire , statues of various officials and generals have been vandalized .
A bronze depiction of Hubert Lyautey , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Builder , ” was defiled in Paris on the same day as Voltaire ’ s stone image .
Voltaire , who was 83 when he died in 1778 , was a man of his time , say his apologists .
So what if he invested in a company involved in transporting enslaved humans to plantations ?
France was entitled to compete with other imperial powers and especially Britain .
If this meant the brightest and the best having to dabble in an economic system that included a colonial slave sector , so be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
According to sacred myths , the only Voltaire theories that are important to humanity are those that informed the Enlightenment .
According to sacred myths , the only Voltaire theories that are important to humanity are those that informed the Enlightenment—the period of history that elevated science and reason above the superstition and obscurantism of religion and royalty .
Individual freedom is the cornerstone of secular France , and names such as Voltaire are now shorthand for rational and liberal thought .
To far too many armchair supporters , Voltaire is thus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Française , the august institution made up of immortals ( yes , that is the word they use ) who rule on matters pertaining to the French language ; he is a reassuring establishment intellectual whom people might not know much about , except that he is never meant to be questioned .
This is a cynical and lazy position—the kind that should shame a modern republic that tries to live up to the ideals of liberty , equality , and fraternity .
The truth is that Voltaire remains a poster boy for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who are highly selective in their approach to his work , either because they have not studied it at all or because they deliberately cherry-pick certain elements .
This is not unusual among those who put men like Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill on a pedestal while glossing over darker facts about their lives .
Jefferson , the third president of the United States , owned hundreds of slaves thanks to inheriting plantations in Virginia from his father .
Emancipation became important to Jefferson in later life , but—like Voltaire—financial considerations often took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kept hold of his human assets .
Churchill , Britain ’ s wartime prime minister , was an avowed racist who once admitted : “ I hate Indians .
… They are beastly people with a beastly religion.
” Hence his statue in London ’ s Parliament Square being sprayed by BLM activists in June .
The difference is that Jefferson and Churchill were not philosophers but hardheaded politicians engaged in the practical necessities of state , such as prosecuting major conflicts .
Churchill is considered a hero of World War II and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nazism , while Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence , paving the way for the revolutionary war against British rule .
Victory in wars perceived as moral ones can be viewed as overriding considerably less glorious episodes .
Voltaire , in contrast , was devoted to ideas , including ones that have had a pernicious effect on the minds of historical players throughout the ages .
His virulent hatred of religious groups was easily enough to incite violence against them , while his biological racism maintained that there were gradations of life forms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bottom , just up from “ monkeys.
” In Les Lettres d ’ Amabed ( 1769 ) , Voltaire portrayed Africans as “ animals ” with a “ flat black nose with little or no intelligence !
” Voltaire was also an obsessive anti-Semite , using multiple texts to place Jews well outside the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome that he admired—and indeed beyond redemption .
For example , writing about Jews in his Letter of Memmius to Cicero in 1771 , Voltaire opined : “ They are , all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their hearts , just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair.
” In an essay the following year , Voltaire adjudicated on Jews with the words : “ You deserve to be punished , for this is your destiny.
” Unlike the usual motivations for anti-Semitism—irrational fear combined with ignorance—Voltaire ’ s chilling beliefs were based on quasi-scientific reasoning .
This was typical of Enlightenment philosophers , who provided disturbing justifications for the hatred of racial and religious groups .
In Of National Characters , David Hume wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the negroes to be naturally inferior to the whites.
” Immanuel Kant called Jews a “ nation of cheaters.
” This systematic racism created a pseudo-scientific hierarchy of life .
It ensured that the thinkers were inextricably intertwined with the imperialists who wanted to conquer and oppress supposedly lesser races .
Such Enlightenment wickedness was not marginal to the work of these ideologues .
Their writings were widely read across Europe , including by Voltaire ’ s great friend , King Frederick II of Prussia .
Voltaire traveled from Paris to join the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1750 , at a time when Frederick II embraced his live-in Frenchman as a mentor .
The historical line between Voltaire ’ s anti-Semitism and a fanatically nationalistic Germany intent on murdering enemies it considered to be subhuman is not hard to draw .
Adolf Hitler certainly became a keen student of the discussions between Frederick the Great and Voltaire as he formulated his plans for the Third Reich .
Frederick II ostensibly promoted the ideas behind such works as Voltaire ’ s 1763 Treatise on Tolerance while issuing anti-Jewish decrees and focusing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unthinking discipline that supported Nazism .
Voltaire ’ s advocacy of biological racism and white supremacy still offer justification to all kinds of extremists .
Crucially , there are records of Hitler ’ s private talks in which he confirmed studying correspondence and meetings between Voltaire and his hero Frederick II , whose portrait was in the Berlin Führerbunker where the dictator died in April 1945 .
Stenographers had noted Hitler in 1941 saying : “ A reading of the polemical writings of the 17th and 18th centuries , or of the conversations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one with shame at our low intellectual level , especially amongst the military.
” Like Voltaire , Hitler believed that Jews had no praiseworthy culture of their own and simply copied others .
Hitler ’ s speeches were littered with phrases that plagiarized Voltaire , such as : “ The Jewish people , with all its apparent intellectual qualities , is nevertheless without any true culture of its own .
… With this , the Jew lacks those qualities which distinguish creatively the culturally blessed races.
” The problem is not simply that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Black people and Jews into his so-called progressive thinking ; it is that his advocacy of biological racism and white supremacy still offer justification to all kinds of extremists .
These include Nazi sympathizers traditionally linked to France ’ s far-right National Rally ( formerly the National Front ) as well as terrorists who target synagogues and mosques .
With such intellectual role models , it is no surprise that millions in France still vote for a party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen—a convicted anti-Semite and Holocaust denier .
French President Emmanuel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men linked to highly reprehensible ideologies are a part of France ’ s heritage and should not be removed .
This is a reactionary view that completely ignores a far more pertinent question : Why should Enlightenment racists remain sacrosanct ?
The complacent French have revered discredited philosophers for far too long .
It is about time that they learned how to reject them , so as to move on to a new age of reason .

When a statue of François-Marie Arouet was dramatically removed from outside the Académie Française in Paris this month, it was by no means only members of the far-right who expressed their outrage.
When a statue of François-Marie Arouet was dramatically removed from outside the Académie Française in Paris this month, it was by no means only members of the far-right who expressed their outrage.
On the contrary, self-styled moderates of all political persuasions said the prolific 18th-century writer best known by his nom de plume, Voltaire, should be untouchable. They were incensed when anti-racist graffiti kept being sprayed on the stone depiction because of his links with the slave trade.
In turn, the accusations from those responsible for the vandalism were that Voltaire had personally invested in the French East India Company, founded in 1664 to exploit the products of the New World, including Africans bought and sold as commodities for profit.
Voltaire had plenty of enemies, and there were certainly as many rumors as forged documents connecting him with the slave trade. However, he liked to define himself as a “merchant philosopher” and indisputably funded the French East India Company in the 1740s, when its armed frigates were focused on triangular trade voyages to Africa.
Beyond owning corporate shares, Voltaire is recorded as having directly put his own money into slave transportation adventures by ships such as Le Saint-Georges, which left Cádiz, Spain, in December 1751 bound for Guinea.
More than 250 years on, anger among those in Paris who dismiss such evidence as unimportant intensified when workers transported the stone Voltaire to a distant warehouse. The official explanation was that he needed a good clean, but conspiracy theorists still fear he might never return. They accuse the authorities of bowing to Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists and the so-called cancel culture that they propagate.
BLM is already a hugely influential movement in France. It was galvanized by the killing of Black American George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, but there have been plenty of parallel cases of ethnic minority Frenchmen dying in police custody.
These include Adama Traoré, who died on his 24th birthday in a cell in the Paris suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise in July 2016. There is no film of what happened, but family and other supporters say Traoré—like Floyd—was suffocated after being pinned down by three officers.
There have been regular BLM rallies in France—one on June 2 led to an estimated 23,000 people turning up at the Paris court complex. Police used tear gas and baton charges to try to disperse the illegal gathering. The slogans “Justice pour Adama” and “Black Lives Matter” were chanted throughout.
Beyond street protests, the questioning of celebrated public figures—living or dead—because they are considered deeply objectionable is becoming an increasingly powerful force in France.
Screenings of J’accuse (An Officer and a Spy), the latest movie by Roman Polanski, the French director who has been on the run from U.S. justice for decades over the rape of a child, have been closed down by feminist groups, for example. This followed new allegations of sexual assaults being carried out by Polanski, who denied the claims.
The spraying of red paint—to symbolize blood—on historic monuments is all part of the same culture. Beyond Voltaire, statues of various officials and generals have been vandalized. A bronze depiction of Hubert Lyautey, the late colonial administrator dubbed the “Empire Builder,” was defiled in Paris on the same day as Voltaire’s stone image.
Voltaire, who was 83 when he died in 1778, was a man of his time, say his apologists. So what if he invested in a company involved in transporting enslaved humans to plantations? France was entitled to compete with other imperial powers and especially Britain. If this meant the brightest and the best having to dabble in an economic system that included a colonial slave sector, so be it, unyielding Voltaire defenders would argue.
According to sacred myths, the only Voltaire theories that are important to humanity are those that informed the Enlightenment.
According to sacred myths, the only Voltaire theories that are important to humanity are those that informed the Enlightenment—the period of history that elevated science and reason above the superstition and obscurantism of religion and royalty. Individual freedom is the cornerstone of secular France, and names such as Voltaire are now shorthand for rational and liberal thought.
To far too many armchair supporters, Voltaire is thus just like those sitting inside the Académie Française, the august institution made up of immortals (yes, that is the word they use) who rule on matters pertaining to the French language; he is a reassuring establishment intellectual whom people might not know much about, except that he is never meant to be questioned.
This is a cynical and lazy position—the kind that should shame a modern republic that tries to live up to the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
The truth is that Voltaire remains a poster boy for the dangerously ill-educated and intellectually dishonest hypocrites—those who are highly selective in their approach to his work, either because they have not studied it at all or because they deliberately cherry-pick certain elements.
This is not unusual among those who put men like Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill on a pedestal while glossing over darker facts about their lives. Jefferson, the third president of the United States, owned hundreds of slaves thanks to inheriting plantations in Virginia from his father. Emancipation became important to Jefferson in later life, but—like Voltaire—financial considerations often took precedence over common decency, meaning he kept hold of his human assets.
Churchill, Britain’s wartime prime minister, was an avowed racist who once admitted: “I hate Indians. … They are beastly people with a beastly religion.” Hence his statue in London’s Parliament Square being sprayed by BLM activists in June.
The difference is that Jefferson and Churchill were not philosophers but hardheaded politicians engaged in the practical necessities of state, such as prosecuting major conflicts. Churchill is considered a hero of World War II and credited in part with the destruction of Nazism, while Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, paving the way for the revolutionary war against British rule. Victory in wars perceived as moral ones can be viewed as overriding considerably less glorious episodes.
Voltaire, in contrast, was devoted to ideas, including ones that have had a pernicious effect on the minds of historical players throughout the ages. His virulent hatred of religious groups was easily enough to incite violence against them, while his biological racism maintained that there were gradations of life forms and that Black people came somewhere near the bottom, just up from “monkeys.” In Les Lettres d’Amabed (1769), Voltaire portrayed Africans as “animals” with a “flat black nose with little or no intelligence!”
Voltaire was also an obsessive anti-Semite, using multiple texts to place Jews well outside the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome that he admired—and indeed beyond redemption. For example, writing about Jews in his Letter of Memmius to Cicero in 1771, Voltaire opined: “They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair.” In an essay the following year, Voltaire adjudicated on Jews with the words: “You deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny.”
Unlike the usual motivations for anti-Semitism—irrational fear combined with ignorance—Voltaire’s chilling beliefs were based on quasi-scientific reasoning.
This was typical of Enlightenment philosophers, who provided disturbing justifications for the hatred of racial and religious groups. In Of National Characters, David Hume wrote: “I am apt to suspect the negroes to be naturally inferior to the whites.” Immanuel Kant called Jews a “nation of cheaters.”
This systematic racism created a pseudo-scientific hierarchy of life. It ensured that the thinkers were inextricably intertwined with the imperialists who wanted to conquer and oppress supposedly lesser races.
Such Enlightenment wickedness was not marginal to the work of these ideologues. Their writings were widely read across Europe, including by Voltaire’s great friend, King Frederick II of Prussia. Voltaire traveled from Paris to join the monarch’s court at Potsdam in 1750, at a time when Frederick II embraced his live-in Frenchman as a mentor.
The historical line between Voltaire’s anti-Semitism and a fanatically nationalistic Germany intent on murdering enemies it considered to be subhuman is not hard to draw. Adolf Hitler certainly became a keen student of the discussions between Frederick the Great and Voltaire as he formulated his plans for the Third Reich.
Frederick II ostensibly promoted the ideas behind such works as Voltaire’s 1763 Treatise on Tolerance while issuing anti-Jewish decrees and focusing on militaristic nationalism and the kind of unthinking discipline that supported Nazism.
Voltaire’s advocacy of biological racism and white supremacy still offer justification to all kinds of extremists.
Crucially, there are records of Hitler’s private talks in which he confirmed studying correspondence and meetings between Voltaire and his hero Frederick II, whose portrait was in the Berlin Führerbunker where the dictator died in April 1945.
Stenographers had noted Hitler in 1941 saying: “A reading of the polemical writings of the 17th and 18th centuries, or of the conversations between Frederick II and Voltaire, inspires one with shame at our low intellectual level, especially amongst the military.”
Like Voltaire, Hitler believed that Jews had no praiseworthy culture of their own and simply copied others. Hitler’s speeches were littered with phrases that plagiarized Voltaire, such as: “The Jewish people, with all its apparent intellectual qualities, is nevertheless without any true culture of its own. … With this, the Jew lacks those qualities which distinguish creatively the culturally blessed races.”
The problem is not simply that Voltaire failed to incorporate persecuted groups such as Black people and Jews into his so-called progressive thinking; it is that his advocacy of biological racism and white supremacy still offer justification to all kinds of extremists. These include Nazi sympathizers traditionally linked to France’s far-right National Rally (formerly the National Front) as well as terrorists who target synagogues and mosques.
With such intellectual role models, it is no surprise that millions in France still vote for a party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen—a convicted anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.
French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that statues of the men linked to highly reprehensible ideologies are a part of France’s heritage and should not be removed. This is a reactionary view that completely ignores a far more pertinent question: Why should Enlightenment racists remain sacrosanct? The complacent French have revered discredited philosophers for far too long. It is about time that they learned how to reject them, so as to move on to a new age of reason.


foreignpolicy--2020-08-31--Trump Under Pressure From Democrats to Drop Diplomat Nominee Over Racist Remarks

Trump Under Pressure From Democrats to Drop Diplomat Nominee Over Racist Remarks A senior Democratic senator is urging President Donald Trump to withdraw his nominee for the U.S. ambassador to Germany over controversial remarks the nominee has made as a media commentator that have been deemed racist , xenophobic , and anti-Semitic .
In a letter to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows , Sen. Bob Menendez , the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , outlined what he called a “ catalogue of disturbing statements ” by retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor that should disqualify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It would be a disservice to the nation and U.S. security interests to have Col. Macgregor represent the United States abroad .
I therefore call upon the Administration to withdraw this nomination immediately , ” Menendez wrote in the letter , which was obtained by Foreign Policy .
If confirmed , Macgregor , a decorated combat veteran and commentator on national security issues for Fox News and other conservative media outlets , would manage a relationship with one of the United States ’ most important allies that has become strained under Trump .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s ambassador nominees , several congressional aides said it is unusual for Democrats on the committee that reviews such nominations to appeal directly to Trump ’ s inner circle .
The letter is likely to ramp up public pressure on the administration , though the White House in a statement to Foreign Policy praised Macgregor and his qualifications for the post , including his expertise in German history and language and past postings in the country during his time in the Army .
Earlier this month , CNN ’ s KFile team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interviews and written pieces in which he denigrated immigrants and refugees .
Macgregor called refugees fleeing war in the Middle East to Germany “ unwanted Muslim invaders ” and in 2016 wrote a blog post urging the shooting of migrants crossing illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border to curb immigration .
“ Once it becomes clear that Central Americans AND Mexicans [ and other illegals ] , are NOT going to survive an attempt to enter the US , and will be LUCKY if they are turned back rather than killed in the attempt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flow will diminish substantially , ” he wrote .
( Brackets are original to his post . )
Macgregor ’ s nomination drew fire from Jewish groups , including the Anti-Defamation League ( ADL ) and American Jewish Committee ( AJC ) , for “ incendiary comments over the years about the German government , Germany ’ s confrontation with its Nazi past.
” “ There ’ s sort of a sick mentality that says that generations after generations must atone sins of what happened in 13 years of German history and ignore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Macgregor said in a 2018 interview on the Conservative Commandos radio show .
In his letter , Menendez wrote : “ I share the concerns of AJC and the ADL and find it abhorrent that this Administration would associate itself with these views by nominating such an individual.
” “ Colonel Macgregor is enormously qualified to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany , ” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response .
“ He is an expert in German history and language , lived in Germany when he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ served in West Germany during the Cold War .
While the Swamp may feel threatened by President Trump ’ s nominee , who believes strongly in putting America first , the White House wants to see this critical diplomatic post filled without delay.
” Like the president , Macgregor is skeptical of the value of the NATO alliance .
He referred to the alliance in a 2019 op-ed as “ a zombie.
” Macgregor served in NATO during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo .
A White House press statement announcing his nomination on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recipient of numerous awards from his military service , including the bronze star with ‘ V ’ device for valor for his leadership under fire.
” In outlining his criticisms of Macgregor , Menendez also cited an interview the former Army officer gave the Russian state-backed media outlet RT in 2014 , in which he said parts of eastern Ukraine should be allowed to join Russia in the wake of the Kremlin ’ s illegal annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine—a view that contradicts official U.S. and European Union policy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ living in Eastern Ukraine , want to join Russia , which appears to be the popular sentiment ?
If so , they should be allowed to join Russia .
And at the same time , what emerges from this process up in the West and in the North , which is truly Ukrainian in terms of culture , language , history , religion , so forth , they should be allowed to have a sovereign independent Ukrainian state , ” Macgregor said .
In his letter , Menendez wrote : “ Despite President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , these views do not reflect longstanding U.S. policy on Ukraine and would be rejected by a strong majority of United States Senators.
” Update , Aug. 31 , 2020 : This article was updated to include comment from a White House spokesman .

A senior Democratic senator is urging President Donald Trump to withdraw his nominee for the U.S. ambassador to Germany over controversial remarks the nominee has made as a media commentator that have been deemed racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic.
A senior Democratic senator is urging President Donald Trump to withdraw his nominee for the U.S. ambassador to Germany over controversial remarks the nominee has made as a media commentator that have been deemed racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic.
In a letter to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, outlined what he called a “catalogue of disturbing statements” by retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor that should disqualify him from the ambassador post.
“It would be a disservice to the nation and U.S. security interests to have Col. Macgregor represent the United States abroad. I therefore call upon the Administration to withdraw this nomination immediately,” Menendez wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Foreign Policy.
If confirmed, Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran and commentator on national security issues for Fox News and other conservative media outlets, would manage a relationship with one of the United States’ most important allies that has become strained under Trump.
While lawmakers have often objected to Trump’s ambassador nominees, several congressional aides said it is unusual for Democrats on the committee that reviews such nominations to appeal directly to Trump’s inner circle. The letter is likely to ramp up public pressure on the administration, though the White House in a statement to Foreign Policy praised Macgregor and his qualifications for the post, including his expertise in German history and language and past postings in the country during his time in the Army.
Earlier this month, CNN’s KFile team outlined statements Macgregor made in dozens of interviews and written pieces in which he denigrated immigrants and refugees. Macgregor called refugees fleeing war in the Middle East to Germany “unwanted Muslim invaders” and in 2016 wrote a blog post urging the shooting of migrants crossing illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border to curb immigration.
“Once it becomes clear that Central Americans AND Mexicans [and other illegals], are NOT going to survive an attempt to enter the US, and will be LUCKY if they are turned back rather than killed in the attempt to violate US sovereign borders, the flow will diminish substantially,” he wrote. (Brackets are original to his post.)
Macgregor’s nomination drew fire from Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and American Jewish Committee (AJC), for “incendiary comments over the years about the German government, Germany’s confrontation with its Nazi past.”
“There’s sort of a sick mentality that says that generations after generations must atone sins of what happened in 13 years of German history and ignore the other 1,500 years of Germany,” Macgregor said in a 2018 interview on the Conservative Commandos radio show.
In his letter, Menendez wrote: “I share the concerns of AJC and the ADL and find it abhorrent that this Administration would associate itself with these views by nominating such an individual.”
“Colonel Macgregor is enormously qualified to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response. “He is an expert in German history and language, lived in Germany when he was a student and a cadet, and served in West Germany during the Cold War. While the Swamp may feel threatened by President Trump’s nominee, who believes strongly in putting America first, the White House wants to see this critical diplomatic post filled without delay.”
Like the president, Macgregor is skeptical of the value of the NATO alliance. He referred to the alliance in a 2019 op-ed as “a zombie.”
Macgregor served in NATO during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo. A White House press statement announcing his nomination on July 27 described him as “the recipient of numerous awards from his military service, including the bronze star with ‘V’ device for valor for his leadership under fire.”
In outlining his criticisms of Macgregor, Menendez also cited an interview the former Army officer gave the Russian state-backed media outlet RT in 2014, in which he said parts of eastern Ukraine should be allowed to join Russia in the wake of the Kremlin’s illegal annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine—a view that contradicts official U.S. and European Union policy.
“Do you, if you are living in Eastern Ukraine, want to join Russia, which appears to be the popular sentiment? If so, they should be allowed to join Russia. And at the same time, what emerges from this process up in the West and in the North, which is truly Ukrainian in terms of culture, language, history, religion, so forth, they should be allowed to have a sovereign independent Ukrainian state,” Macgregor said.
In his letter, Menendez wrote: “Despite President Trump’s affinity for President Putin, these views do not reflect longstanding U.S. policy on Ukraine and would be rejected by a strong majority of United States Senators.”
Update, Aug. 31, 2020: This article was updated to include comment from a White House spokesman.


foreignpolicy--2020-09-01--Border Tensions Flare Between India and China

Here is today ’ s Foreign Policy brief : Tensions flare over the border between India and China , Baltic states sanction Belarusian government officials , and Lebanon ’ s new prime minister pushes for political reform .
We welcome your feedback at morningbrief @ foreignpolicy.com .
Tensions along the border between China and India have flared up again , as both sides have accused the other of violating the disputed boundary and trying to seize territory across the Line of Actual Control ( LAC ) .
On Monday , the Indian military said in a statement that Chinese troops @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” in a contested part of the Ladakh region over the weekend , to which Indian troops responded by bolstering their own presence in Ladakh , sparking a fierce war of words that was defused by local commanders before it turned violent .
The Chinese foreign ministry dismissed the Indian military ’ s claim that it had initiated the row and rejected the accusation that its troops had crossed the LAC .
It accused India of “ seriously violating China ’ s territorial sovereignty ” with its own maneuvers .
Nothing new .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same area as the deadly clashes that took place in June , during which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in the worst crossborder violence between the two nuclear-armed states in decades .
Representatives from both sides have been in talks since earlier this year to try to find a way forward , but this weekend ’ s events suggest that they have made little progress and that the LAC is still a source of great tension between India and China .
Looking West .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state of Indian-Chinese relations .
As Jeff M. Smith wrote for Foreign Policy after the last border clashes in June , the increasingly frequent hostilities along the LAC reflect a broader feeling of suspicion and distrust both sides feel toward each other .
As India and China each continue to vie for regional influence , their relationship is unlikely to be salvaged in the near future .
More than that , as Foreign Policy ’ s Sumit Ganguly recently wrote , India will increasingly look to strengthen its ties with the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with China grows more tense .
In addition to turning a largely regional dispute into a global hotspot , this could further antagonize Beijing and make border clashes more likely .
Kushner urges Palestinians to negotiate peace .
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and other top U.S. officials accompanied an Israeli delegation on the first official flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi on Monday to finalize the historic peace deal between the two countries .
Kushner used the occasion to encourage Palestinians to negotiate peace with Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the table , ” he said .
“ Peace will be ready for them , an opportunity will be ready for them as soon as they are ready to embrace it.
” Palestinians have been deeply critical of the deal , saying that it legitimizes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and turns a key Arab ally against the cause of Palestinian statehood .
Baltic states sanction Lukashenko .
Lithuania , Latvia , and Estonia have announced sanctions against Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and 29 other government officials over accusations of election-rigging in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The move is seen as a reflection of the Baltic countries ’ growing impatience with the European Union ’ s slow response to the crisis engulfing Belarus .
In August , EU foreign ministers met in an emergency session to prepare a list of Belarusian individuals to be sanctioned , but they have been slow to implement the measures in part due to the threat of Russian aggression .
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel against foreign powers getting involved in Belarus , and recently told Lukashenko that he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force to support his government .
Rwandan businessman held on terror charges .
Paul Rusesabagina , a Rwandan businessman who became famous for housing people in one of his hotels in the capital of Kigali during the country ’ s 1994 genocide , was charged on Monday with crimes related to terrorism , arson , kidnapping , and “ murder perpetrated against unarmed , innocent Rwandan civilians on Rwandan territory.
” Details of the accusations against Rusesabagina have not been made public , but the Rwanda Investigation Bureau said in a statement that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ founder , leader , sponsor and member of violent , armed , extremist terror outfits … operating out of various places in the region and abroad.
” Lebanon ’ s new prime minister pushes for reform .
Mustapha Adib , Lebanon ’ s newly-appointed prime minister-designate , called for immediate political reforms during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron as the country continues to undergo one of its worst crises since the end of the civil war in 1990 .
Protesters took to the streets en masse following last month ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and an end to the country ’ s sectarian governing system .
The need for reform has been widely acknowledged .
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that the Iran-backed Shiite movement is open to discussing political reform in the country if the other major parties agree .
Further , the International Monetary Fund has tied economic assistance to institutional reform .
In July , Foreign Policy ’ s Steven A. Cook wrote that Lebanon ’ s deep social , political , and economic problems were unraveling its constitutional system from within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group .
Sudan ’ s transitional government achieved an important milestone on Monday after it reached an agreement with the Sudan Revolutionary Front ( SRF ) , an umbrella organization composed of several of the country ’ s rebel groups .
The agreement provides for the dismantling of SRF forces and the integration of its fighters into regular military units .
It also covers issues around security , land ownership , justice , power-sharing , and the return of displaced people to their homes .
The deal aims to bring an end to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a major step toward the transitional government ’ s goal of resolving the country ’ s myriad of civil conflicts .
In an article for Foreign Policy in March , Kenneth Roth wrote that there are powerful actors resisting the country ’ s transition to democracy , necessitating international support .
A district mayor from the Czech capital of Prague has broken new ground in what counts as diplomatic language .
In a letter to the Chinese foreign ministry , Pavel Novotny lashed out at Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Li over some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republic .
“ How dare you threaten that you will force Mr. Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic to ‘ pay a high price , ’ ” he said , “ you impudent , thoughtless , uncouth clowns !
” The tirade only got worse , before Novotny ended his note with a slew of screeching vulgarities .
“ Yeah , and send me a copy of the apology so that I can file it away and drop this outrageous , unseemly and wretched diplomatic f***-up you just displayed .
Don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
” On second thought , it ’ s unlikely very many diplomats will follow Novotny ’ s lead .

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Tensions flare over the border between India and China , Baltic states sanction Belarusian government officials , and Lebanon’s new prime minister pushes for political reform.
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Tensions flare over the border between India and China, Baltic states sanction Belarusian government officials, and Lebanon’s new prime minister pushes for political reform.
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Border Tensions Highlight the Worsening India-China Relationship
Tensions along the border between China and India have flared up again, as both sides have accused the other of violating the disputed boundary and trying to seize territory across the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
On Monday, the Indian military said in a statement that Chinese troops had carried out “provocative military movements” in a contested part of the Ladakh region over the weekend, to which Indian troops responded by bolstering their own presence in Ladakh, sparking a fierce war of words that was defused by local commanders before it turned violent.
The Chinese foreign ministry dismissed the Indian military’s claim that it had initiated the row and rejected the accusation that its troops had crossed the LAC. It accused India of “seriously violating China’s territorial sovereignty” with its own maneuvers.
Nothing new. This weekend’s events occurred in the same area as the deadly clashes that took place in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in the worst crossborder violence between the two nuclear-armed states in decades. Representatives from both sides have been in talks since earlier this year to try to find a way forward, but this weekend’s events suggest that they have made little progress and that the LAC is still a source of great tension between India and China.
Looking West. This is the latest sign of the worsening state of Indian-Chinese relations. As Jeff M. Smith wrote for Foreign Policy after the last border clashes in June, the increasingly frequent hostilities along the LAC reflect a broader feeling of suspicion and distrust both sides feel toward each other. As India and China each continue to vie for regional influence, their relationship is unlikely to be salvaged in the near future.
More than that, as Foreign Policy’s Sumit Ganguly recently wrote, India will increasingly look to strengthen its ties with the United States and other Western countries as its relationship with China grows more tense. In addition to turning a largely regional dispute into a global hotspot, this could further antagonize Beijing and make border clashes more likely.
What We’re Following Today
Kushner urges Palestinians to negotiate peace. White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and other top U.S. officials accompanied an Israeli delegation on the first official flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi on Monday to finalize the historic peace deal between the two countries. Kushner used the occasion to encourage Palestinians to negotiate peace with Israel. “They have to come to the table,” he said. “Peace will be ready for them, an opportunity will be ready for them as soon as they are ready to embrace it.”
Palestinians have been deeply critical of the deal, saying that it legitimizes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and turns a key Arab ally against the cause of Palestinian statehood.
Baltic states sanction Lukashenko. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have announced sanctions against Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and 29 other government officials over accusations of election-rigging in last month’s presidential election. The move is seen as a reflection of the Baltic countries’ growing impatience with the European Union’s slow response to the crisis engulfing Belarus.
In August, EU foreign ministers met in an emergency session to prepare a list of Belarusian individuals to be sanctioned, but they have been slow to implement the measures in part due to the threat of Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel against foreign powers getting involved in Belarus, and recently told Lukashenko that he was prepared to send in a reserve police force to support his government.
Rwandan businessman held on terror charges. Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan businessman who became famous for housing people in one of his hotels in the capital of Kigali during the country’s 1994 genocide, was charged on Monday with crimes related to terrorism, arson, kidnapping, and “murder perpetrated against unarmed, innocent Rwandan civilians on Rwandan territory.”
Details of the accusations against Rusesabagina have not been made public, but the Rwanda Investigation Bureau said in a statement that he “is suspected to be the founder, leader, sponsor and member of violent, armed, extremist terror outfits … operating out of various places in the region and abroad.”
Keep an Eye On
Lebanon’s new prime minister pushes for reform. Mustapha Adib, Lebanon’s newly-appointed prime minister-designate, called for immediate political reforms during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron as the country continues to undergo one of its worst crises since the end of the civil war in 1990. Protesters took to the streets en masse following last month’s deadly explosions in Beirut demanding sweeping reforms and an end to the country’s sectarian governing system.
The need for reform has been widely acknowledged. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that the Iran-backed Shiite movement is open to discussing political reform in the country if the other major parties agree. Further, the International Monetary Fund has tied economic assistance to institutional reform. In July, Foreign Policy’s Steven A. Cook wrote that Lebanon’s deep social, political, and economic problems were unraveling its constitutional system from within.
Sudan signs peace deal with rebel group. Sudan’s transitional government achieved an important milestone on Monday after it reached an agreement with the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), an umbrella organization composed of several of the country’s rebel groups. The agreement provides for the dismantling of SRF forces and the integration of its fighters into regular military units. It also covers issues around security, land ownership, justice, power-sharing, and the return of displaced people to their homes.
The deal aims to bring an end to the 17-year insurgency in Darfur, and is a major step toward the transitional government’s goal of resolving the country’s myriad of civil conflicts. In an article for Foreign Policy in March, Kenneth Roth wrote that there are powerful actors resisting the country’s transition to democracy, necessitating international support.
Odds and Ends
A district mayor from the Czech capital of Prague has broken new ground in what counts as diplomatic language. In a letter to the Chinese foreign ministry, Pavel Novotny lashed out at Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Li over some perceived, unspecified slights of the Czech Republic. “How dare you threaten that you will force Mr. Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic to ‘pay a high price,’” he said, “you impudent, thoughtless, uncouth clowns!”
The tirade only got worse, before Novotny ended his note with a slew of screeching vulgarities. “Yeah, and send me a copy of the apology so that I can file it away and drop this outrageous, unseemly and wretched diplomatic f***-up you just displayed. Don’t f*** with me!!!”
On second thought, it’s unlikely very many diplomats will follow Novotny’s lead.
That’s it for today.