Israel’s illusion that it is at the center of the known universe is now shared by a lot of American commentators. The mood is even more intense because liberal Zionists sense a historic election in which Benjamin Netanyahu goes down and is replaced by the center-left.

(…)

Der Ausgang der kommenden Wahlen in Israel sind nicht nur entscheidend für das Land. Sie werden den weiteren Verlauf der Ereignisse in der gesamten Region beeinflussen.

On 25 February 2015 Julian Assange filed his appeal before the Supreme Court of Sweden.

(…)

Jetzt wollen die Staatsanwälte Assange so schnell wie möglich verhören, weil einige der Taten, derer er verdächtigt wird, im August 2015 verjähren, wie es in einer Mitteilung am Freitag hiess.

A lawyer for Mr Assange, Per Samuelson, welcomed the move, describing it as a chance for Mr Assange to clear his name.

(…)

The Swedish officials had previously refused to conduct interviews in London, where Mr. Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy since June 2012.

But with some of the crimes under investigation set to reach their statute of limitations in August, the officials said that they had changed their minds, and that they had also asked for permission to take a swab of DNA from Mr. Assange.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday brought the humbug that has characterized all the candidates in this election to a climax. All of them are ignoring the real existential threat to Israel and its ability to survive as a “Jewish and democratic state”: the unending occupation of the territories. Israel’s insistence on ruling over millions of Palestinians in the West Bank who lack civil rights, expanding the settlements and keeping residents of the Gaza Strip under siege is the danger that threatens its future.

In recent months he’s gone from Superman to SuperSchlemiel, from political wizard to serial bungler, as he was known before he first lost power.

Tell me a little about your background and why you got into national politics?

Odeh: I was a member of the Haifa City Council when I was 23 years old, which made me the youngest city councilman in Israel. When I began my political career, I identified with Malcolm X. After two or three years, I evolved — and not to a small degree — because of my service on the council in the city of Haifa, which is the most liberal multicultural yet homogenous city in Israel.

As a result of that experience I was transformed from being someone who believed that either the Jews or the Arabs could survive here, to someone who thought that Arabs and Jews must work together. I began to feel that I must now follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, who believed in working together.

With the Joint Arab List expected to win 13 to 15 seats, it has become an important player in the election – it could end up being the third largest group in parliament, giving a powerful voice to Israel‘s 20 percent Arab minority.

Salam was especially disappointed given the work of the French delegation in promoting a resolution considered favorable to Palestinian interests, according to Arab delegates in December.

“The whole timeliness of the matter was questionable in view of the progress made by the French on their draft resolution,” Salam noted. Lebanon appreciated French willingness to include a new multilateral mechanism and parameters to solve the conflict.

According to the French news agency, Sisi and Kerry will discuss several issues including the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group and its expansion in Libya.

Kerry will also meet with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Jordanian King Abdullah II.

In the immediate term, it seems likely that the regional rivalry between Egypt and Turkey will exacerbate the Libyan civil war. Further out, it could throw the whole region in to worse chaos.

(7.Januar 2008) That project involves the sketchy outlines of a trans-Atlantic economic zone.

(5. Mai 2014) Der Terminus “Westunion” oder “Abendlandunion” (im Original “Pour une Union occidentale entre l’Europe et les États-Unis”, “Für eine Abendlandunion von Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten”) stammt vom französischen Oberschichtler Edouard Balladur, der diesen Anfang 2008 öffentlich machte. Kurz danach wurde unter Federführung des Präsidenten von Frankreich, Nicolas Sarkozy, und der Kanzlerin von Deutschland, Angela Merkel, in 2008 blitzkriegartig die Mittelmeerunion installiert. Dieses bis heute in Deutschland nicht begriffene trikontinentale Konstrukt, was u.a. wahrhaft vorbildheilige Superdemokratien Vorderasiens über die dort so beliebte Hintertür an unseren Hals befördert, ist im Zusammenhang mit den Revolutionen, Umstürzen, Invasionen im Gebiet der Mittelmeerunion – also Tunesien, Ägypten, Libyen, Syrien, usw – zu sehen. Von gewissen “Friedensverhandlungen” und ähnlichen Witzen mal ganz abgesehen.

Balladurs Entwurf benannte übrigens bereits damals in bewusster Konfrontation Russland und China als anzuvisierende Gegner, unter gleichzeitigem Bezug zu “radikalem Islam”. Dazu ein Artikel der “New York Times” vom 7. Januar 2008. In diesem heisst es:

“Das Projekt beinhaltet die skizzenhaften Umrisse einer transatlantischen Wirtschaftszone.”

Wir schrieben dazu das erste Mal am 14. Januar 2008, als sich der damalige U.S.-Präsident George Bush und Sarkozy zu Kriegsrat in Saudi-Arabien aufhielten.