Palestinians: The Problem with 'Peace'

by Khaled Abu Toameh • June 8, 2020 at 5:00 am

As far as the Palestinian leadership is concerned, Israel and the US administration are now the main enemies of the Palestinians. It is prohibited to talk to any Israeli or US official. It has also become taboo for any Palestinian to talk about holding meetings with Israeli or US officials.
When you radicalize your people against Israel and the US in such a way, how can you expect Palestinian leaders not to veto meeting with Israelis?
Moreover, as Malki is also under attack also from the "moderates," one can only ask what the "non-moderates" could have in store for the besieged foreign minister -- or for any leader who might dare to return to a negotiating table with Israel?

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki seems to have committed a "crime". He said that the Palestinians are prepared to hold a meeting with Israelis! As far as the Palestinian leadership is concerned, Israel and the US administration are now the main enemies of the Palestinians. It is prohibited to talk to any Israeli or US official. Pictured: Malki at the United Nations Office in Geneva on October 13, 2015. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki seems to have committed a "crime". He said that the Palestinians are prepared to hold a meeting with Israelis! Malki made this scandalous statement during a meeting last week with foreign journalists.

"The Palestinian leadership has confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin," Malki said, referring to the possibility of holding a video conference meeting between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under the auspices of the Russian president. "The Palestinians will consider this possibility if Russia determines that its useful."

The Palestinian leadership, since 2014, has been boycotting peace talks with Israel. Since 2017, the Palestinian leadership has also been boycotting the US administration in response to President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

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France: Post-Pandemic Disaster?

by Guy Millière • June 8, 2020 at 4:00 am

France was, in addition, paralyzed from any kind of growth by a proliferation of regulations and an omnipresent bureaucracy.
During France's lockdown, a law was passed to fine heavily (250.000 euros, $275,000) any social network that published what a judge might consider "hateful"; people are also now asked to report to the justice department any suspicious statement they read or hear about. Since schools and high schools have reopened, teachers were invited by the government to listen to the conversations of their students and immediately to report any comment criticizing the government.
"At the source of French misfortune, there are French traitors who bear French first names. They have been abusing the voters' trust for more than 40 years. They lied about the real state of society and ransacked the country". — Ivan Rioufol, columnist, Le Figaro, February 19, 2020.

French police, during the pandemic, have been ordered to avoid going into no-go zones. The government might have feared that if an incident occurred, riots could break out. On April 19, a young man riding a motorcycle at high speed hit the door of a police car near a sensitive zone in a suburb of Paris and was injured: for days, throughout the country, buildings and cars were burned. Pictured: A rioter shoots fireworks at police in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the northern suburbs of Paris, on April 20, 2020. (Photo by Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP via Getty Images)

The coronavirus pandemic in the northern hemisphere seems starting to subside -- perhaps just temporarily.

Many journalists wonder if Italy, one of the eight countries most affected in Western Europe, will leave the EU. Another country of concern is France -- not in great shape.

Although France spends a significant amount on its healthcare (8.6% of France's GDP), the pandemic there has been frighteningly mismanaged. There was a tragic shortage of intensive-care beds: 5,000 for the whole country, compared to Germany's 28,000. There was also, until the end of April, a near-total lack of masks and protective equipment for hospital doctors and caregivers. Further, there was the great lack of an ability to test for the coronavirus. The situation led the government to decide on one of the strictest general lockdowns in Europe. For eight weeks, the French economy, like others, effectively stopped. The results were devastating.

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