Media review and A Lookback: "US elections: Gaza War is for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump"

Media review and A Lookback: "US elections: Gaza War is for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump"

    Wednesday, November 06, 2024   No comments

Back in May, one of our editors posted this note about why Biden would lose the election. The argument was simple: Gaza crisis is for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump. 

When Biden dropped out of the race, Harris had an opportunity to make Gaza not be for her, what covid-19 was for Trump. She was asked if she would do anything different from Biden, she chose to do nothing different. 

Instead, it appeared that the problem that Biden had was just a "bad debate", not a flawed policy related to world crises. She debated, and by all accounts, she won the debate against Trump. But that did not win her the election. 

Because the problem was not a bad night debating; it has been bad policies and tolerance to killing and war crimes.

  

Nika Soon-Shiong said LA Times endorsement was blocked over Gaza war support

Nika Soon-Shiong said LA Times endorsement was blocked over Gaza war support

    Sunday, October 27, 2024   No comments

CNN and other media outlets reported that "the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong suggested on Saturday that herfather’s decision to block the newspaper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris was made over Harris’ support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Nika Soon-Shiong, a 31-year-old activist who has no official role at the newspaper but has previously been accused of meddling in its coverage, told The New York Times that she and her father made the decision not to endorse Harris. Nika Soon-Shiong reportedly said:

“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process... As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”

Before Biden dropped out, it was argued that Gaza Genocide will be for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump. Harris, not making a clear shift in Biden's policies and approach made her inherit his legacy and that will likely sink her bid for the presidency. Young Americans, especially, are not willing to look past the atrocities in Gaza and now Lebanon happening under Biden's watch and by his support.

Imran Khan's party's presence in parliament gains strength months after the elections

Imran Khan's party's presence in parliament gains strength months after the elections

    Friday, July 12, 2024   No comments

Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan is eligible for 23 additional seats in parliament, adding pressure on the country's weak coalition government.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party ran as independents in the Feb. 8 election after being barred from taking part, and won the most seats, but the Election Commission said independents were ineligible for the 70 seats reserved for political parties only.

On Feb. 20, two major parties, the military-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), announced they had reached a power-sharing deal that would return Shehbaz Sharif to the premiership after this month's election failed to produce a clear winner.

The committee ordered the reserved seats to be distributed to other parties, most of which belonged to the ruling coalition parties.

The reallocation of the 23 reserved seats does not affect the parliamentary majority of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government, but the decision strengthens the political position of Khan’s supporters, who have accused the Election Commission and the interim government that oversaw the elections of rigging the elections to deny them victory.

Under Pakistani electoral rules, 70 seats are allocated to parties, 60 to women and 10 to non-Muslims, in proportion to the number of seats won by each party. This brings the total number of seats in the National Assembly to 336.

Khan was ousted from power in 2022 after falling out with the country’s powerful military leaders, while the military denies interfering in the country’s politics.

It is noteworthy that Imran Khan has been behind bars since August 2023, after he was arrested by the police, as he faces long sentences on corruption charges, but he says there are political motives behind the charges, aimed at removing him from power.

Iran’s elections: Change brings new opportunities for Iran's new president--Masoud Pezeshkian

Iran’s elections: Change brings new opportunities for Iran's new president--Masoud Pezeshkian

    Saturday, July 06, 2024   No comments

Foreground:

Mere weeks after the tragic death of several Iranian officials including the president, Iran managed to elect a new president, while a caretaker government was headed by the vice president. The successful transition is only part of the story in a country with complex social fabric and complex relations with the world. What might be lost on many observers is the historical election of a president who represents ethnic and linguistic minorities in Iran.

Masoud Pezeshkian, born in 1954 in the city of Mahabad in West Azerbaijan Province, northeastern Iran to a deeply religious Shia family to parents of both Kurdish and Azeri background. He was raised in a religious family. He often speaks of being proud Turkish speaker. Now that he is elected president of Iran, he will be the first ethnic minority office holder in a region where Kurdish minorities are marginalized in all four countries-Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran. 

Being from Azerbaijan Province, he will be able to dial down the rhetoric among Azeris who are Shia in terms of faith but Turkic in terms of ethnicity. Having family connections to the Kurdish community, he will also be able to address the separatist activities with which all four countries have struggled since the end of direct colonial control of the region. His political activism in the movement that brought about the modern Islamic republic of Iran provide him with the credibility to work out change through the various institutions of power. In short, this election cycle might be as significant of a turning point as the one that took place 1981 when another Iranian president, Mohammad Ali Rajaʾi, was killed, and who was replaced Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader.

Background: 

Pezeshkian completed his primary education in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, and then joined the Agricultural Institute in Urmia, where he received a diploma in food industries.

 

He completed his military service in 1973 in the border city of Zabol, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, and after completing his service, he decided to become a doctor, and received his natural diploma in 1975. A year later, he was accepted into the medical field at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.

 

With the start of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, Pezeshkian was responsible for sending medical teams to the battlefronts, and was active in many operations as a fighter and a doctor.

 

He completed his medical course in 1985, and began working at the Faculty of Medicine as a physiology teacher. In 1990, he received a specialty in general surgery from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, and in 1993 he received a specialty in cardiac surgery from Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, and was appointed to Shahid Madani Heart Hospital in Tabriz, and later became its head.

  

In 1994, he was appointed as the head of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, and his presidency continued until 2000. Then he was transferred to Tehran and assumed the position of Deputy Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education for 6 months.

 

After that, in the second term of Mr. Mohammad Khatami's presidency, Pezeshkian assumed the position of Minister of Health, and after a while he was questioned by the parliament, and then he left his position. In 2013, he ran for president, but his candidacy was rejected by the Guardian Council. In 2016, he won a seat in the parliament and held a seat in parliament for many years. Since 2008, Pezeshkian has represented the city of Tabriz in the Iranian parliament.

 Pezeshkian believes that Iran's internal problems cannot be solved without solving problems with the outside world, and stresses that the country's management is based on constructive engagement with the world on the basis of dialogue and negotiation with various countries.

 Pezeshkian also calls for improving relations between Iran and Western countries, especially the United States, based on the three pillars of "dignity, wisdom, and interest."

 

He announced that he will put at the top of his government's priorities the revival of the nuclear agreement, which is in Iran's interest, and if it were not, former US President Donald Trump would not have withdrawn from it.

 Pezeshkian believes that it is in Iran's interest to join the "FATF" (Financial Action Task Force) in order to develop and facilitate trade with other countries.

 

Pezeshkian stressed that he will put an end to the differences between political forces, which he says are the "main cause of the country's problems," by seeking the help of the best experts and specialists.

 

He promised that he would follow up on the problems of workers, retirees and employees and work in a way that eliminates poverty, discrimination and corruption in the country, stressing the need to deal honestly with the public and not give empty promises, promising to involve the people in running the country and not a specific group.

 

He also promised to deal positively with women's issues, freedom of access to the Internet, constitutional rights of nationalities, and political and social freedoms.

 

Pezeshkian won the Iranian presidential elections after receiving 16,384,403 votes, compared to 13,538,179 votes for candidate Saeed Jalili, thus becoming the ninth elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, since the victory of the Islamic Revolution led by Imam Khomeini in 1979.

 

US elections: Gaza War is for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump

US elections: Gaza War is for Biden what Covid-19 was for Trump

    Monday, May 13, 2024   No comments

If Trump lost the 2020 elections because of Covid-19, Biden may lose it because of his support for actions that are producing a genocide in Gaza.

In late May 2020, Trump was sliding down in the polls. His advisors told him it was covid-19 and his handling of it. Reportedly, Trump reacted with anger, how could something that he had nothing to do with, derail his chances of winning a second term.

Biden is in a similar situation, he is behind in key states, and he is behind because he is losing young American voters who are protesting what they see as a genocidal war in Gaza. Unlike the pandemic, which Trump claimed he had nothing to do with it, Biden chose to deal with the war they way he did, and he will face the consequences of that choice this November. Biden's handlers seem to recognize the need for him to change direction, however, Biden is personally unmoved by the plight of Gazan civilians being exterminated by bombs and famine, and soon as the weather heats up, disease.

According to the New York Times’s data, if November was last week, Biden would lose the election.

For the first time in 20 years, Erdogan's party loses elections to opposition party in Turkiye

For the first time in 20 years, Erdogan's party loses elections to opposition party in Turkiye

    Sunday, March 31, 2024   No comments

According to preliminary data, the opposition party is leading ahead of the ruling party for the first time in 20 years in Turkey, and opposition mayors of major cities – Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir – have retained their positions.

Erdogan acknowledged that the ruling party did not achieve the desired results in the municipal elections, the outcomes of which indicate shortcomings at the local level.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and the candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party, announced that he had won a new term, and his colleague, the mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, announced his victory in the elections, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that these elections are "not the end of the road."

Opposition candidates advanced in the three largest Turkish cities (Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir) after about 90% of the votes were counted in the municipal elections held on Sunday.

The Turkish President said in a speech he delivered from the balcony of the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party after midnight, "The municipal elections are not the end of the road, but they are a turning point."

He added, "The people have their say through the fund and send their warning to politicians through the fund, and this is a success for our democracy."

Erdogan pledged to analyze the results of the municipal elections frankly, and said, "We will review ourselves through constructive criticism."

Earlier, Ekrem Imamoglu announced that he had won a new term as mayor of Greater Istanbul, noting that he had an advantage of more than a million votes over his rival, Murat Kurum, the ruling party’s candidate.

Mansur Yavaş, the candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party, also announced that he had won a new term as mayor of Ankara.

According to the results published by the official Anadolu Agency, Imamoglu received 50.9% of the votes, compared to 40% for his competitor, after 94% of the votes were counted.

In Ankara, Yavaş obtained 59.7% compared to 32% for his competitor, after counting about 88% of the votes.

In all Turkish states, the Republican People's Party obtained 37.4% after counting more than 93% of the votes.

The ruling Justice and Development Party received 35.7%, while its ally, the National Movement Party, received 4.9%.

The Peoples' Democratic Party received 5.6%, and the Good Party received 3.7%.