ICE Director: ICE Can’t Be Compared To Nazis Since We’re Just Following Orders – The Intellectualist
Category: International Affairs,
Reason’s Jared Kushner’s Middle East Peace Plan Will Probably Backfire
The assumptions on which he appears to be basing his plan—whatever its precise contents turn out to be—are so flawed that it is fair to wonder if his aim is really to start serious negotiations, or simply to please …Trump’s base by gearing up to blame the Palestinian side for the failure to come.
…More Palestinians now oppose a two-state solution than support one, and a majority—57 percent—say that such a solution is no longer practical because of Israeli settlement expansion, which now extends deep into the West Bank. Over 35 percent of Palestinians now support a one-state solution—in other words, a single country with an Arab majority and equal rights for all—a solution increasingly appealing to Palestinians under the age of 30.
…But while it is already clear that Trump is a terrible dealmaker who has yet to conclude any significant international agreement (the unilateral concessions to North Korea in exchange for a vague pledge to “work towards” denuclearization do not qualify), Middle East peace may be the issue on which he is least well-placed to succeed. While all U.S. administrations have always been closer to Israel than to the Palestinians, they all at least tried to play the role of honest broker in the name of finding some workable compromise, and were seen as necessary partners in the eyes of Palestinians.
But Trump has abandoned even the veneer of objectivity. Just last month, he unilaterally gave Israel one of its most coveted prizes in negotiations, recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, without getting anything in return. To make it worse, he then celebrated the unilateral move of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem—a move opposed by 128 countries at the United Nations—with a big ceremony organized just one day before Palestinians observe the nakba, the catastrophe of their expulsion in 1948. The embassy ceremony was attended by dozens of Republican-only members of Congress and included speeches by evangelical pastors known primarily for bigoted remarks against Mormons, Jews, and Muslims, suggesting the whole thing was more about domestic politics than Middle East peace.
While dozens of Palestinians in Gaza were killed in clashes with the Israeli Defense Forces, the Trump administration chose neither to express sympathy for the Palestinians killed nor to join international calls for Israeli restraint. Trump has, on the other hand, cut financial assistance for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) out of pique that the Palestinians have not given him the requisite “appreciation or respect,” as if humanitarian aid, even when it serves U.S. national interests, should be awarded in return for flattery. His administration has offered unconstrained support for settlements, with an ambassador who has fought against use of the word “occupation” and refers to “Judea and Samaria,” as favored by Israeli settlers, instead of traditional U.S. references to the West Bank.
…There is no doubt Kushner heard positive words from Arab friends in private meetings on his just-finished four-day trip to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar, before going to Israel. But he should not hold his breath waiting for those leaders to publicly embrace positions on peace that the Palestinians—and the vast majority of their populations—reject.
…Putting aside that the Trump administration has not even made or been able to attract major investments in U.S. infrastructure, which makes one wonder about the West Bank and Gaza, this emphasis on economic issues has been tried unsuccessfully many times before. …The key issues remain borders and sovereignty; security; settlements and occupation; refugees; and Jerusalem.
…With Netanyahu and his wife the subject of several serious corruption inquiries, the prime minister likely sees his only hope as to keeping that hardline cabinet together to stave off or delay potential indictments. It is far from clear that the Israeli people themselves are prepared to make the major compromises required for peace, including the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of settlers from the West Bank. But it is quite clear that the current Israeli government is not ready to do so.
…Another reason to proceed would be to blame the Palestinians, rather than the difficult context and Trump’s mistakes, for failure to make “the ultimate deal.” If past is prologue, we can expect the Israeli side to say “yes, but” (while meaning “no way”) and that the Palestinians will fall into the trap of rejecting a U.S. plan or not engaging at all. This would please parts of Trump’s base and may get the administration off the hook for trying, but it would only further divide the Israelis and Palestinians, while exacerbating partisan divides on Israel in the United States as well.
…The lopsided UN vote against Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem shows that it is the United States, and not the Palestinians, who are isolated. In fact, the cancellation of a recent soccer match between Israel and Argentina in part because Netanyahu’s government insisted on the political symbolism of holding it in Jerusalem may signal an acceleration in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
Jared Kushner’s Middle East Peace Plan Could Backfire – The Atlantic
hmmm
De Blasio: Feds have ‘no game plan’ for reuniting 300 immigrant kids in NYC with parents
Because the federal department of Health and Human Services has refused to provide information about how many children have been brought to New York, the city has resorted to reaching out to each provider with a contract with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. In the city, that’s Cayuga Centers, Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Guardian Services. Across the three, there are about 300 children here as a result of the policy, de Blasio said.
Most are at Cayuga — where a worker laid out the challenges involved with reaching their parents last week.
“She said some kids are old enough that they know the names of their relatives and they know the phone numbers. She said some kids have a scrap of paper in their pocket with a phone number for their mother or their grandmother, where they can reach them. She said younger kids a lot of time don’t have that, or they had the scrap of paper and they lost it,” de Blasio said.
…That the federal government has refused to provide information about the children to the city and the state is unprecedented, de Blasio said.
“People should see this as a very dangerous precedent where even senators and congress members can’t go into the centers in Texas and the federal government is refusing to give us a straight answer about how many kids are involved,” de Blasio said.
Aghhhhhhhhhhhh
Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book
“The fact that a cockatoo reached Sicily during the 13th Century shows that merchants plying their trade to the north of Australia were part of a flourishing network that reached west to the Middle East and beyond,” said co-author Dr Heather Dalton, from the University of Melbourne.
…Dr Dalton said she believed that the cockatoo was taken from its original habitat to Sicily via Cairo in a journey lasting several years.
Cockatoo identified in 13th Century European book – BBC News
hmmmm
Migrants reportedly told they could reunite with children if they agree to deportation.
Detained migrants who have been split up from their children are reportedly being told they will be able to get their kids back if they agree to be deported. The Texas Tribune cites a 24-year-old Honduran man who is being detained in Texas and claims to have abandoned his asylum case out of “desperation” to see his six-year-old daughter. Two immigration attorneys also confirmed that they had heard about similar offers to other detained migrants.
…. In a fact sheet released Saturday night, the Department of Homeland Security says parents can request whether they want their children to be deported with them. In the past many have chosen to be deported without their children.
Even with a process supposedly in place, the Department of Homeland Security statement doesn’t detail how long it will take to reunite the 2,053 children currently in the government’s custody with their families.
…For now, the Port Isabel detention center in Texas has been set up as “the primary family reunification and removal center,” the statement said. For many, reunification likely won’t be simple to coordinate considering dozens were “being funneled from Texas shelters to foster homes across the country, including in South Carolina and Michigan,” according to the Houston Chronicle. It is also unclear how reunification would happen for migrants claiming asylum protections.
Migrants reportedly told they could reunite with children if they agree to deportation.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Here’s how hard it is to trace a migrant kid who has been separated from his mom
An unknown number of parents have already been deported without their children. Wherever they are living or being held, it can be difficult for parents and families to connect with a caseworker on the federal hotline set up to reunify families. Parents will have to work with consulates and family members back home to produce identification documents that can prove they are the parents of a child.
…El Paso County Commissioner Vince Perez, whose precinct includes Tornillo, the so-called tent city where more than 300 children are being held, has been sharply critical of the use of the jail to hold immigrant detainees. “Depriving refugees of their children as a matter of policy is vile and we should not condone or facilitate this practice,” Perez said.
Taylor Levy, legal coordinator for Annunciation House, said staff would try as hard as they could to help the parents find their children.
“We know that’s going to be the first question that all these parents are going to have,” Levy said. “They’re all really worried about their children.”
Here’s how hard it is to trace a migrant kid who has been separated from his mom
sigh…
White House reasserts zero tolerance policy as Border Patrol suspends it
“We’re not prosecuting those parents,” McAleenan said. He cited as the reason President Donald Trump’s executive order last week requiring parents to be detained with their children, after an earlier policy of separating parents and children prompted a national uproar.
McAleenan said the suspension was temporary, but he didn’t say when prosecutions would resume.
Several DHS officials have said privately that the president’s order made it impossible to continue zero tolerance, but McAleenan was the first to say so publicly.
…But the Justice Department can’t prosecute parents who cross the southern border with children if Border Patrol doesn’t refer them for prosecution.
Border Patrol’s suspension of those referrals reinstates what Trump has publicly criticized as a “catch and release“ policy for migrant families.
Trump’s executive order barring the separation of parents and children rendered the zero-tolerance policy unenforceable almost immediately because there wasn’t sufficient detention space to house the thousands of family members who arrive at the border each month.
…The decision to suspend zero tolerance may ease a growing housing crunch for unaccompanied minors.
Under the policy, adults were referred for federal prosecution under illegal entry and re-entry statutes. Children traveling with them were then placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The separated children flooded the shelter system, which held nearly 12,000 children last week.
To create additional shelter capacity, the administration opened a “tent city” earlier this month near a port of entry in Tornillo, Texas.
But the contract for that facility will end July 13, an HHS spokesperson told a local ABC affiliate. The federal government has not made a decision on whether to extend the contract, according to an ACF spokesman.
White House reasserts zero tolerance policy as Border Patrol suspends it – POLITICO
hmmm
Commander of Texas tent city blasts “dumb, stupid” zero tolerance immigration policy
The commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Monday the agency has stopped referring immigrant parents for criminal prosecution until federal agencies can agree on a plan to keep parents and children together. More than 500 children have been reunited with their families since the president ordered agencies to stop separating them, but more than 2,300 remain separated.
CBS News met five migrant parents. …The group was released from detention on Sunday after criminal charges were dismissed — the most recent evidence of the U.S. CBP’s policy not to turn over people who cross illegally for prosecution.
…During the tour, the commander in charge said the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy was “a dumb, stupid decision” and one that “should never have happened.”
“We are working as fast as we possibly can to reunify children with sponsors here in the U.S.,” said Mark Weber, with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the facility.
Commander of Texas tent city blasts “dumb, stupid” zero tolerance immigration policy – CBS News
hmmmm
A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher
“I think that this exquisite piece of art could be evidence for the papal artistic patronage in the church,” Re’em says. “It is proof that Crusader art was highly developed” and reflects the direct influence of Rome on the distant Jerusalem shrine. Most of the Crusader knights were French and German, and there are few contemporary reports detailing the 12th-century reconstruction of the church. The stone panel, he added, suggests that papal craftsmen may have been directly involved in the work.
…One European archaeologist, who requested anonymity because of religious sensitivities, explained that the altar’s disappearance reflects ancient tensions. Greek Orthodox clergy, he explained, are more interested in remains of the original Constantinian church than recovering those of the early 12th century, when the triumphant Crusaders for a brief time banished them as heretics from the complex they had long overseen.
One art historian, who likewise requested anonymity, is unconvinced by Re’em’s analysis, noting that some Byzantine craftsmen used similar designs that influenced Cosmati work in Rome. More research needs to be done to determine with precision the maker and precise placement of the stone. Since part of the panel is broken off, Re’em hopes to find the location of the remaining section.
In the meantime, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenians, Copts, and Syrians jealously guard their respective territories within the Holy Sepulcher, with Ethopians relegated to the roof. Scuffles among clergy of the different sects is not uncommon, and occasional bloodshed is recorded. Two Muslim families hold the keys to the great Crusader doors to ensure everyone access.
A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher | History | Smithsonian
Wild.
Trump administration’s ‘secret shutdown’ of immigration program discriminated against Latinos: Lawsuit – ABC News
In 2014, more than 50,000 minors reached the southern U.S. border seeking asylum from the violence wracking three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The largest wave yet of child migrants, it forced the Obama administration to take a multi-pronged approach: sending millions more in aid to the three countries; detaining families who had crossed the border illegally, until a court ordered them to stop [emphasis: mine] two years later; and creating a path for children to come here legally.
That path became the Central American Minors, or CAM, program, which allowed parents lawfully present in the U.S. to apply for refugee resettlement or a temporary status called parole for their children and other eligible family members — the child’s other parent or caregiver or the child’s own child, the parent’s grandchild.
…Families had to prove their relations through a DNA test, applicants had to be interviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, and applicants had to meet the definition of a refugee — someone outside the U.S. who is fleeing persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
If a CAM applicant did not qualify for refugee resettlement, they were automatically considered for parole status and informed of whether or not they were granted it when they got their refugee decision.
Parole allows non-U.S. citizens to enter the country for a period of time on humanitarian grounds, although it does not automatically provide a path to legal status. Similar programs were created in the past for Vietnamese fleeing in the 1980’s, Filipino World War II veterans, and certain eastern Europeans after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
CAM parole applicants had to prove they were not at risk of harm, had cleared background vetting, and had someone to financially support them. Once they were granted approval, there were a series of final checks to clear: a medical exam and paying the U.S. or its contractor to arrange flights. They’d then be given a travel date and instructions to meet an official at the airport and receive their paperwork and plane ticket.
…The Central American Minors program, which reunited children and other eligible family members with parents legally residing in the U.S., was one of Trump’s early targets as he sought to crack down on legal immigration. Designed during the Obama administration to avoid the scenes at the U.S.-Mexican border that have gripped the nation this week, its termination is now being blamed by some for worsening the migrant crisis and possibly sending more children north.
…They were told by authorities they would be given final documentation and a plane ticket to travel in two weeks time — but months went by, and nothing ever came.
Without notifying them, …Trump’s administration had already frozen the program just days into his term, even as it solicited and collected thousands of dollars from S.A. and others like her who had been granted conditional approval, according to a new lawsuit that argues the administration broke the law and was driven by “racial animus against Latinos.”
…The administration’s “unprecedented, unexplained, and unsupported secret shutdown” of the program is also under fire for how it was carried out, with little to nothing communicated to recipients months after the decision was seemingly made and no real explanation ever given.
Sigh…
‘He Does Not Understand What the Role of an Ambassador Should Be’
With a tweet (instructing German businesses to “wind down operations immediately” in Iran), an interview (in which he told Breitbart News he hoped to “empower” conservatives across Europe), a meeting (with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen as a breach of protocol for another country’s ambassador to arrange) and an invitation (to host Austria’s young, hard-line anti-immigration chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, whom he referred to as a “rock star,” for lunch), [U.S. Ambassador Richard] Grenell has managed to shock and anger Berlin.
…“None of his predecessors intervened in domestic politics or created controversy in such a way.”
…Martin Schulz, the former chancellor candidate and leader of the center-left Social Democrats, said Grenell sounded more “like a far-right colonial officer” than a diplomat in his Breitbart interview.
…“He does not understand what the role of an ambassador should be,” says Nils Schmid, foreign policy spokesman for the center-left Social Democrats in parliament. “An ambassador is a bridge-builder who explains how American politics works, how the American government works, and at the same time explains to America how Germany sees things.” But Grenell, Schmid says, has “defined his role for himself, and it is not the traditional role of an ambassador. … He will work as a propagandist.”
…Still, it’s unclear whether and how this new kind of ambassadorship will continue to clash with German perceptions of the job. “That depends on the future,” says Liebich, the Die Linke MP, asked whether Grenell could reverse the early impression he has made here. “Everyone can make mistakes.” The Foreign Office official put it this way: “He has a great job—if he wants to do it the usual way.”
‘He Does Not Understand What the Role of an Ambassador Should Be’ – POLITICO Magazine
hmmm
El Paso County Sheriff Prohibits Staff From Moonlighting at Tornillo Tent City for Children
El Paso’s sheriff has barred his deputies from working off-duty at a new temporary migrant children’s shelter, one of the most forceful steps yet from a growing chorus of law enforcement critical of the Trump administration’s practice of separating children and parents apprehended at the border. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this month opened temporary tent shelters in Tornillo, about thirty miles east of downtown El Paso, where the sheriff’s prohibition has taken effect. “The Sheriff’s Office will not be working at these facilities, as we don’t support the current administration’s position of separating children simply to discourage illegal immigration,” Sheriff Richard Wiles said. Law enforcement officers frequently work off-duty jobs to supplement their income, but such work requires approval from superiors.
Wiles said he was approached by federal officials to provide off-duty deputies for security work at the Tornillo facility but declined. “I just thought that if the citizens saw that we were working there in an off-duty capacity, it may be [seen] as if we were approving of the administration’s policy, and it would hurt our relationship with the community that we serve.”
good
Trump tweet proposes immediate deportations without due process
Trump on Twitter Sunday proposed that immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally be immediately deported without due process.
[When it suits him though, Trump] is very fond of due process. In February, he plaintively asked on Twitter whether there is “no such thing any longer as Due Process,” apparently objecting to public critique of men accused of domestic abuse.
Trump tweet proposes immediate deportations without due process
sigh…
What Sarah Sanders’s Red Hen controversy says about civility
There’s evidence that inflicting personal punishments on political leaders does cause them to grapple with their actions and even change their behavior.
One study, for example, looked at a fine imposed on legislators in the French National Assembly when they skipped important committee meetings. The study looked at two things: the effect of the fine itself and the impact of it being widely publicized that a legislator skipped a meeting and thus was fined. The scholars found legislators “strongly increase their committee attendance both after the private experience of sanctions and after their public exposure.” So there’s reason to think that public officials do mind being sanctioned, both privately and in the public eye.
What Sarah Sanders’s Red Hen controversy says about civility – Vox
hmmmm
‘Where’s my kid?’ At Texas border, desperate parents turn to attorneys to find their children
“I’ve never seen a volume of people who are punitively separated from their children for no reason,” said a civil rights attorney in Texas.
‘Where’s my kid?’ At Texas border, desperate parents turn to attorneys to find their children
hmmmm
Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving officially ends
Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving officially ends – BBC News – YouTube
There’s a way to go (and not just in Saudi Arabia!) but progress forward is always good.
Saudi prince Alwaleed driven by daughter as driving ban lifted
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an early advocate of women driving, released a video of his daughter driving shortly after midnight on Sunday. ‘Saudi Arabia has just entered the 21st century,’ he told his granddaughters in the back seat. Women across Saudi Arabia took to the roads at midnight after the lifting of the world’s last ban on female drivers, long seen as an emblem of women’s repression in the deeply conservative kingdom
Saudi prince Alwaleed driven by daughter as driving ban lifted – YouTube
Nice!
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