Tag Archives: Politics

Turkish prosecutors probing why Russian envoy’s killer not taken alive: state media

Russian ambassador after assassination

By Ece Toksabay

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish prosecutors are investigating why the off-duty policeman who shot dead Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was not captured alive, state media said on Wednesday, as the number of people arrested over the killing rose to 11.

Ambassador Andrei Karlov was gunned down from behind while delivering a speech in an Ankara art gallery on Monday. His killer was identified by Turkish authorities as Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is greatest” – as he fired the shots.

Russian and Turkey both cast the attack as an attempt to ruin a recent thawing of relations chilled by the civil war in Syria, where they back opposing sides. The war reached a potential turning point last week when Russian-backed Syrian forces ended rebel resistance in the northern city of Aleppo.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said prosecutors were investigating why Turkish special forces, who stormed the gallery after the killing, did not take Altintas alive.

Initial findings suggest he continued to fire at police officers, shouting: “You cannot capture me alive!” Anadolu said. The officers shot Altintas in the legs, but he continued to return fire while crawling on the ground, it said.

President Tayyip Erdogan defended the police actions. “There is some speculation about why he wasn’t captured alive. Look what happened in Besiktas when they tried to capture an attacker alive,” Erdogan told reporters, referring to twin bombings this month outside the stadium of Istanbul’s Besiktas soccer team.

Forty-four people, mostly policemen, were killed and more than 150 wounded in the dual bombing, the second of which saw a suicide bomber detonating explosives while surrounded by police.

A Reuters cameraman at the scene of Monday’s killing of the Russian envoy said he heard shooting from inside the art gallery for some minutes after special forces stormed the building.

Anadolu also said the number of people detained in connection with the killing had risen to 11. Security sources told Reuters on Tuesday that six people – including Altintas’s mother, father, sister and flatmate – were in custody.

At Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request, a joint Russian-Turkish investigation team has been set up. The Russian contingent is made up of 18 officials, including a prosecutor and two defense attaches, Anadolu said.

More than 100 people from the Ankara police department, mostly from the anti-terrorism unit, are involved, it said.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was too early to say who stood behind the murder of its ambassador. It has also said the assassination was a blow to Turkey’s prestige, comments that are likely to unnerve Ankara.

(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker and Melih Aslan; editing by David Dolan and Mark Heinrich)

Winds of change blow softly as Palestinian party leaders meet

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) attends the Fatah Central Committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 8, 2011.

By Luke Baker and Ali Sawafta

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian politics hasn’t seen much change in the past 10 years — President Mahmoud Abbas has been in power since 2004 and the last parliamentary elections were a decade ago.

But next week, Fatah, the dominant force in Palestinian politics for half a century, will hold its first party congress in seven years and is expected to shake up its central committee, foreshadowing longer-term political changes.

While Abbas, who is 81 and has received medical treatment in recent weeks, will remain in power at the top of Fatah and the umbrella movement, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the congress is likely to lead to the appointment of a clear number two in the party and a potential leader-in-waiting.

It would be one of the biggest developments since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, and while the outlook for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is highly uncertain as Donald Trump prepares to take over the U.S. presidency, it could lay the ground for a shift in approach from the Palestinians.

“This is very important, a crucial congress for Fatah to reorganize the movement and renew the legitimacy of the leadership,” said Jibril Rajoub, a former security chief and central committee member who is running for re-election.

“The next period should be how we reorganize the whole political system,” he told Reuters at his office in Ramallah, where party members and supplicants gathered in large numbers this week to put their views and seek his influence.

POTENTIAL THREAT

In the build-up to the meeting, much has been made of a potential threat to Abbas’s authority from Mohammed Dahlan, a former senior figure in Fatah who now lives in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates.

Dahlan, 55, casts himself as someone to shake up the old order and bridge the differences between Fatah and the Islamist group Hamas, a rupture that has splintered Palestinian unity and blunted efforts towards peace with the Israelis.

But Dahlan has been ousted from Fatah and Abbas has limited the delegates attending the congress, cutting the number to around 1,300 from 2,500 at the last meeting in 2009, making it far harder for Dahlan loyalists to mount a challenge.

“Who is Dahlan? Dahlan is not existing, he is no one,” said Rajoub. “He was fired from the movement. He is not a solution.”

A foreign diplomat tracking the cut-and-thrust ahead of the congress underscored that view, saying he didn’t see “any broad ability to unturf Abbas” and that Dahlan “doesn’t represent a popular, significant movement in Fatah”.

Instead, Palestinian officials and Fatah leaders say, the Ramallah gathering, which starts on Nov. 29 and will last for three or four days, will cement Abbas’s position at the top while electing around half a dozen new names to the 21-member committee that sets the party’s agenda.

“I hope to see an appropriate mix between those who are now in the leading bodies and the new generation, representatives of the new guard,” said Nasser al-Qudwa, Arafat’s nephew and a member of the central committee who was Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations for 14 years.

“There will be some changes from the last meeting.”

NEW DIRECTION?

The most important decision will come in the days after the congress, when the new central committee meets to elect from among its members a deputy to Abbas in the party.

Palestinian officials repeatedly mention four names as being in the running for that post: Qudwa, Rajoub, Tawfiq Tirawi, a former head of intelligence, and Mahmoud al-Aloul, the former governor of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Rajoub and Qudwa both dismiss out of hand any suggestion of a shortlist — Tirawi and Aloul could not be reached for comment — saying Fatah’s rules don’t work like that. But they confirmed a deputy would be chosen shortly after the congress.

There are then plans for the Palestine Liberation Organization’s top legislative body, the national council, to meet for the first time in 20 years and potentially elect a new executive committee, which is also headed by Abbas.

If that happens in the coming weeks, Palestinian officials say, Abbas would again be reaffirmed. But critically, his deputy in Fatah may also be named as deputy head of the PLO executive committee, all but enshrining that person as leader-in-waiting.

“There are lots of hurdles to jump, but this is the way it is shaping up. Changes are coming,” said a senior Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to divulge internal discussions.

HEALING DIVISIONS, RE-ENGAGEMENT

Abbas is much maligned inside and outside the party, despite retaining a large degree of influence. His leadership is seen as lacking the inspiration of Arafat, he has failed to secure the end of Israel’s occupation or an independent Palestinian state, and the split with Hamas has worsened on his watch.

None of that will change after the congress. But if a clearly anointed successor emerges in the weeks and months ahead, diplomats and Palestinian officials say it may help mend internal divisions and encourage the world to re-engage.

Trump said this week he wanted to tackle the Middle East issue and believed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, could take on the role of peace-broker in the region. It remains to be seen how serious a proposal that is and whether Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, would be an acceptable, independent interlocutor.

But among the Palestinians being talked about as potential successors to Abbas, at least one, Nasser al-Qudwa, shares common ground with Kushner — he has lived in New York on and off for the past 30 years and retains a home in the city.

(Writing by Luke Baker, editing by Peter Millership)

Philippine defense chief says Duterte may be ‘misinformed’ on U.S. alliance

Philippine President Duterte

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine defense minister sought to patch up cracks in a military alliance with the United States on Wednesday, saying President Rodrigo Duterte, who has appeared intent on scrapping joint programs, might be misinformed about their value.

Referring to recent strongly worded comments by Duterte, in which he has declared that the Philippines military gained little from U.S. security ties, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the armed forces were still weak and the country got a lot out of the U.S. relationship.

“That’s why I said the president was misinformed, because I think the information he is getting is incomplete,” Lorenzana told reporters, a day after the launch of the latest round of PHIBLEX military exercises involving troops from both sides.

“Maybe, the defense ministry and the armed forces were remiss in providing him the correct information. This, we will address in the coming days.”

The United States has been on the receiving end of a torrent of hostility from Duterte, who was angered by U.S. expressions of concern over his war on drugs.

On Tuesday, Duterte said U.S. President Barack Obama should “go to hell” and that in his time, he might “break up” with Washington, with which Manila has had a security treaty since 1951.

Last week, he also caused a stir when he said the PHIBLEX exercises would be “the last one” and on Sunday said a U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement would be reviewed.

That deal includes setting up storage facilities for maritime security, humanitarian and disaster response operations and grants U.S. troops some access to Philippine bases.

Lorenzana said the ongoing exercises gave Philippine troops exposure to new guns, technology and body armor and training in warfare tactics, marksmanship and quick responses to natural disasters.

“According to him, only the American troops are benefiting from those exercises,” he said, referring to his president.

“But based on what we gathered from the GHQ (general headquarters) and army, there are (benefits).”

U.S. officials have played down Duterte’s remarks, focusing instead on the decades-long alliance which they have sought to bolster in recent years in response to China’s moves to enforce its claims over the South China Sea.

The White House said on Tuesday the United States had not received any formal communications from Duterte’s government about changing the relationship.

(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Putin faces dilemma after vote win; How to prolong a system based on himself

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he addresses students during his visit to the German Embassy school in Moscow, Russia,

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin appears politically invincible after Russia’s ruling party won its biggest ever parliamentary majority this month. But he faces an increasingly pressing dilemma: How best to ensure the survival of a system built around himself.

With a presidential election due in March 2018, Putin, 63, must decide whether or not to run again. He must also decide whether to bring that vote forward to 2017 to reset the system early to hedge against the risk of a flat-lining economy.

Few outside his tiny coterie know what he will do. Most Kremlin-watchers are sure he will run again and win, delaying the successor question until 2024. Others say he may surprise.

On the face of it, staying on looks to be an obvious choice. Polls give Putin an approval rating of about 80 percent, the ruling United Russia party just won 76 percent of seats in parliament, and his annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea sealed his savior-of-the-nation image in many Russian eyes.

But beneath the surface, Putin’s problems are piling up. They include what is forecast to be an anemic economic recovery, the lack of an obvious successor, voter apathy, his own complaints about the physical demands of the job, and the risk of destabilizing clan infighting inside the system.

Increasingly, it also seems that the only way Moscow can reset ties with the West would be for Putin to stand aside. The United States and European Union imposed economic sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine in 2014 and thus far there has been little sign of a lifting of trade restrictions.

Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, believes Putin could preserve the system’s legitimacy if he handed over to a handpicked successor in 2018.

“It’s a possible scenario,” Petrov told Reuters.

He said he was skeptical Putin would choose that path, however, despite being under pressure to find alternative ways of maintaining broad support for the system beyond nationalism and foreign military adventures.

“Putin is a hostage of his own popularity,” said Petrov.

People who know Putin say he is growing weary. In an unguarded moment picked up by microphones last year, he was heard complaining about how little he slept.

One former high-ranking official close to the Kremlin said Putin, in power either as president or prime minister for nearly 16 years, was fatigued.

“Putin is tired, he’s getting older,” the source, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Dmitry Gudkov, a liberal opposition politician who lost his seat in this month’s elections, told Reuters Putin looked certain to run again regardless because he was afraid stepping down might leave him vulnerable to prosecution for his actions in Ukraine.

“With a lot of enemies both inside and outside the country, he’s starting to feel less secure. It doesn’t look like a time when he’d give up control,” said Gudkov.

Putin is fond of a surprise though. Many thought he would not step down from the presidency in 2008, but he did, albeit to make a triumphant return to the office four years later.

The source close to the Kremlin said the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and how the winner dealt with Russia initially was likely to influence Putin’s decision.

“Putin is rather taken by global politics and won’t run unless ‘a firm hand’ is needed,” said the source. “Otherwise he will leave it to (Prime Minister Dmitry) Medvedev.”

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would take a tough line with Moscow, unlike Republican contender Donald Trump who has said he wants to reset ties with Russia, people close to the Kremlin believe.

THE ENEMY WITHIN

The economic outlook is bleak. More than two years after the West imposed sanctions, their impact appears to be waning and the economy is expected to return to modest growth next year.

A continuing dearth of foreign investment, something that has played a major role in kick-starting growth in the past, means the recovery is likely to take years however and growth is forecast to reach only around 0.5 percent in 2017 and stay that way for a prolonged period.

Maintaining a semblance of popular support amid signs that growing numbers of voters believe their participation in elections is an empty ritual is becoming harder too.

Turnout at the Sept. 18 vote fell to a post-Soviet low.

And while there are no signs of serious unrest among the elite, Putin’s allies are starting to worry that a threat might emerge from within the system one day.

“Our state is always destroyed from the top and from inside,” Dmitry Olshansky, a columnist for the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid, wrote after the election, saying the appearance of the state’s victory might be deceptive.

Such fears and the need to reshuffle officials to create the impression that the system is renewing itself help explain why Putin has replaced a slew of senior Kremlin, security and regional officials in recent months, a process seen continuing.

EARLY ELECTIONS?

Putin will have to make his mind up about the timing of the next presidential election soon.

Alexei Kudrin, an economics adviser to the government and a former finance minister, suggested bringing the vote forward to next year from 2018, saying that would allow the authorities to win a new mandate to launch tough reforms.

Kudrin, a Putin ally, did not say who he thought should stand, but the country’s elite assumed he was talking about Putin.

The finance ministry fueled speculation that such a decision has already been taken, publishing a letter in July talking about a presidential vote in 2017.

The same source close to the Kremlin said there was now a more than 50 percent chance of an early presidential election.

Political analyst Petrov said he thought early elections were highly likely unless Trump won the U.S. presidency and lifted sanctions.

A different source close to the Kremlin said:

“By 2018, the economy won’t be any better and the population will be weary. There will be more negativity around, Putin’s rating will be falling, and our financial reserves will be running out,” the source, who also declined to be named, said.

“All this backs the argument for early elections.”

OPERATION SUCCESSOR

Even if, as is widely expected, Putin decides to run for president again, he will need to begin preparing a successor.

After years of fawning state TV coverage, many voters say they struggle to imagine political life without Putin.

“The president will find himself in a trap,” the Carnegie Moscow Center said this month. “Legitimacy bestowed on a charismatic leader is not automatically passed down to his successors.”

The only other politician regularly given prominence on state TV is Medvedev, the prime minister. He stood in as president from 2008-12 to help Putin skirt a constitutional ban on anyone serving more than two back-to-back presidential terms.

He is a potential successor, though many voters find his style too soft.

Speculation about other possible successors ranges from the defense minister to the governor of the central bank to the new and unknown head of the presidential administration.

One new name to have emerged after the elections is Vyacheslav Volodin, the former deputy head of the presidential administration. Putin has said Volodin should be the new speaker of parliament, a job that would give him a high public profile.

(Additional reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, Katya Golubkova and Daria Korsunskaya; Editing by Janet McBride)

Faith in Government drops, politicians jeered as France mourns

A woman takes a picture of a heart shape makeshift memorial before the minute of silence on the third day of national mourning to pay tribute to victims of the truck attack along the Promenade des Anglais on Bastille Day in Nice, France,

By Brian Love and Matthias Galante

PARIS/NICE, France (Reuters) – Confidence in the capacity of Francois Hollande’s government to combat terrorism has plummeted in the wake of the truck attack that killed 84 people in the southern French coastal city of Nice, an opinion poll published on Monday suggested.

The poll published in Le Figaro newspaper showed 33 percent of respondents were confident in the current leadership’s ability to meet the challenge, down sharply from ratings of 50 percent upwards in the wake of two major attacks last year.

In Nice, Prime Minister Manuel Valls joined thousands packing the seafront, scene of the Bastille day carnage, for a minute of silence in homage to the victims.

There were jeers as he and local politicians departed. BFMTV reported that there were placards in the crowd calling for Hollande to resign.

The latest poll came at a moment when, less than a year from a presidential election, political opponents have fast abandoned the restraint that usually prevails on such occasions to sharply criticize the Socialist leader and his government.

Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is competing in a November primary for the ticket to run as presidential candidate for France’s mainstream center-right parties, said overnight Hollande’s government had failed to do all it could.

“I know there’s no zero risk, I know perfectly well that we don’t pull each other apart before the victims have even been buried,” he told TF1 TV.

“But I want to say, because it’s the truth, that everything that should have been done over the last 18 months … wasn’t done.”

Thursday’s attack, in which delivery man Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel plowed a 19-tonne truck into crowds of revelers, killing 84, has plunged France back into a state of grief, fear, and now political recrimination.

While Sarkozy’s criticism was true to character, the accusations of government failings also came from his rival for the conservative ticket, Alain Juppe, who is customarily more measured in rhetoric but has recently sounded more strident.

The government has struck back by denouncing opponents for breaking ranks so fast.

Speaking ahead of the nationwide minute-of-silence on Monday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused the government’s opponents of breaking ranks in an unseemly way.

“We’ve seen tirades emerge immediately and personally this is both shocking and sad … it’s undignified in the current context,” he said.

He was speaking as a number of people arrested as part of a police inquiry into the attack in Nice arrived under police escort in Paris on Monday for questioning at the headquarters of France’s counter-terrorism department in the western edge of Paris.

(Reporting By Brian Love; Editing by Andrew Callus)

Senate Republicans agree to vote on gun control: Democratic senator

Gun Control meeting of politicans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy ended a blockade of the Senate after nearly 15 hours on Thursday, saying Republicans agreed to hold votes on measures to expand background checks and prevent people on U.S. terrorism watch lists from buying guns.

Democrats stalled Senate proceedings on Wednesday in a bid to push for tougher gun control legislation following Sunday’s massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and spoke on the Senate floor through out the night.

Republicans, who currently have a 54-person majority in the Senate, have over the years blocked gun control measures, saying they step on Americans’ right to bear arms as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

“When we began there was no commitment, no plan to debate these measures,” Murphy, of Connecticut, said during the 15th hour of the filibuster early on Thursday.

He said Democrats were given a commitment by the Senate’s Republican leadership that votes would be allowed on two measures on preventing gun sales to people on terrorism watch lists and expanding background checks.

“No guarantee that those amendments pass but we’ll have some time to … prevail upon members to take these measures and turn them into law,” Murphy said.

With Republicans and the National Rifle Association gun lobby under pressure to respond to the massacre, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would meet with the NRA to discuss ways to block people on terrorism watch or no-fly lists from buying guns.

The Senate had began discussions on legislation to ban firearm sales to the hundreds of thousands of people on U.S. terrorism watch lists. The Orlando gunman, who carried out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, had been on such a list.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged senators on Wednesday to offer ideas on how to prevent another attack like the one in Orlando.

Late on Wednesday Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said negotiations “were little more than a smokescreen by Republicans trying to give themselves political cover while they continue to march in lock-step with the NRA’s extreme positions.”

If Congress was to pass a gun control measure, it would mark the first time in more than 20 years that lawmakers agreed on how to address the hot-button issue. A ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, such as the one used in Orlando, had gone into effect in 1994 and expired 10 years later.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Writing Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Bill Trott)

Shake up in Israeli politics prompts ‘seeds of fascism’ warning

Former Israel Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ehud Barak and his wife Nili Priel arrive on the red carpet during the 2nd annual Breakthrough Prize

By Luke Baker

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A military affairs commentator interrupts his broadcast to deliver a monologue: I’m alarmed by what’s happening in Israel, he says, I think my children should leave.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns of “the seeds of fascism”. Moshe Arens, who served as defense minister three times, sees it as a turning point in Israeli politics and expects it to cause a “political earthquake”.

The past five days have produced tumult in Israeli politics, since conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly turned his back on a deal to bring the center-left into his coalition and instead joined hands with far-right nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, one of his most virulent critics.

Lieberman, a West Bank settler, wants to be defense minister. So on Friday, Netanyahu’s former ally and confidant, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, resigned and quit Netanyahu’s Likud party in disgust.

After a weekend to digest the developments, which are expected to be finalised in an agreement between Netanyahu and Lieberman on Monday to form the most right-wing government in Israel’s 68-year-old history, commentators have tried to put it in perspective and found themselves alarmed.

Arens, who has served as defense minister, foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, and is one of Netanyahu’s early political mentors, said the machinations would have far-reaching repercussions.

“Yaalon’s ouster is likely to be a turning point in Israel’s political history,” he wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. “A political earthquake is in the offing. It may take a little time, but it is coming. The law of unforeseen consequences is at work.”

The decision to jettison Yaalon in favor of Lieberman was all too much for Roni Daniel, a veteran military affairs commentator on Channel 2.

“I cannot urge my children to stay here, because it is a place that is not nice to be in,” he said in his monologue, going on to name a number of far-right politicians.

“HOSTILE TAKEOVER”

By bringing the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) party into the fold, Netanyahu strengthens his coalition from 61 to 67 seats in the 120-member parliament.

Lieberman’s brand of politics — pro-settlement, wary of peace negotiations, tough on the Palestinians — sits far more comfortably with Netanyahu and his right-wing partners than the center-left does.

But it means there is no countervailing voice in the government, and the person in charge of defense — the most important portfolio in Israel after the prime minister — is a civilian with little military experience.

At a time when the command of the Israel Defense Forces is already at odds with the government over policies it feels are too hard-line, Lieberman’s appointment risks creating more tension between the political leadership and the military. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are on edge too.

“What has happened is a hostile takeover of the Israeli government by dangerous elements,” Ehud Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier and a former defense minister following his spell as head of government, told Channel 10 TV.

Israel has been “infected by the seeds of fascism”, he said, adding that it should be “a red light for all of us regarding what’s going on in the government.”

Netanyahu sought to quell the rising criticism at a new conference on Sunday, describing himself as in charge and as having the nation’s interests at heart.

“I’m looking out for the country’s future. I have proved that as prime minister. I hear a lot of voices; many things are said in politics,” he said.

“Ultimately, it’s the prime minister who directs everything together with the defense minister, with the chief of staff, and apparently I haven’t done such a bad job during my years as prime minister — that’s the way it is going to be now.”

Some allies leapt to Netanyahu’s defense, saying the appointment of Lieberman was a sound decision and that he would offer “fresh thinking” as defense minister, but the focus of commentary was on the broader direction that Israel is taking.

A DECADE IN POWER

Netanyahu has held power for more than 10 years, spread over four terms. In that time, politics has moved steadily to the right, with his coalition now hinging on support from Orthodox religious and ultra-nationalist parties.

There has been no progress in efforts to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, with Netanyahu saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is not the right partner because he rejects Israel’s demand to recognize it as a Jewish state.

At the same time, the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek for their own state together with Gaza, continues apace.

Ties between Israel and the United States, its closest ally, have become strained, with Vice President Joe Biden saying last month that the U.S. administration felt “overwhelming frustration” with the Israeli government.

For Daniel, who is regarded as a stalwart of the right, something has changed fundamentally.

“It’s over. I will not persuade my children. They will decide where they want to live. But if that once looked like a terrible tragedy to me, today it doesn’t,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller,; Editing by Timothy Heritage)

The past five days have produced tumult in Israeli politics, since conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly turned his back on a deal to bring the center-left into his coalition and instead joined hands with far-right nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, one of his most virulent critics.

Lieberman, a West Bank settler, wants to be defense minister. So on Friday, Netanyahu’s former ally and confidant, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, resigned and quit Netanyahu’s Likud party in disgust.

After a weekend to digest the developments, which are expected to be finalised in an agreement between Netanyahu and Lieberman on Monday to form the most right-wing government in Israel’s 68-year-old history, commentators have tried to put it in perspective and found themselves alarmed.

Arens, who has served as defense minister, foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, and is one of Netanyahu’s early political mentors, said the machinations would have far-reaching repercussions.

“Yaalon’s ouster is likely to be a turning point in Israel’s political history,” he wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. “A political earthquake is in the offing. It may take a little time, but it is coming. The law of unforeseen consequences is at work.”

The decision to jettison Yaalon in favor of Lieberman was all too much for Roni Daniel, a veteran military affairs commentator on Channel 2.

“I cannot urge my children to stay here, because it is a place that is not nice to be in,” he said in his monologue, going on to name a number of far-right politicians.

“HOSTILE TAKEOVER”

By bringing the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) party into the fold, Netanyahu strengthens his coalition from 61 to 67 seats in the 120-member parliament.

Lieberman’s brand of politics — pro-settlement, wary of peace negotiations, tough on the Palestinians — sits far more comfortably with Netanyahu and his right-wing partners than the center-left does.

But it means there is no countervailing voice in the government, and the person in charge of defense — the most important portfolio in Israel after the prime minister — is a civilian with little military experience.

At a time when the command of the Israel Defense Forces is already at odds with the government over policies it feels are too hard-line, Lieberman’s appointment risks creating more tension between the political leadership and the military. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are on edge too.

“What has happened is a hostile takeover of the Israeli government by dangerous elements,” Ehud Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier and a former defense minister following his spell as head of government, told Channel 10 TV.

Israel has been “infected by the seeds of fascism”, he said, adding that it should be “a red light for all of us regarding what’s going on in the government.”

Netanyahu sought to quell the rising criticism at a new conference on Sunday, describing himself as in charge and as having the nation’s interests at heart.

“I’m looking out for the country’s future. I have proved that as prime minister. I hear a lot of voices; many things are said in politics,” he said.

“Ultimately, it’s the prime minister who directs everything together with the defense minister, with the chief of staff, and apparently I haven’t done such a bad job during my years as prime minister — that’s the way it is going to be now.”

Some allies leapt to Netanyahu’s defense, saying the appointment of Lieberman was a sound decision and that he would offer “fresh thinking” as defense minister, but the focus of commentary was on the broader direction that Israel is taking.

A DECADE IN POWER

Netanyahu has held power for more than 10 years, spread over four terms. In that time, politics has moved steadily to the right, with his coalition now hinging on support from Orthodox religious and ultra-nationalist parties.

There has been no progress in efforts to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, with Netanyahu saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is not the right partner because he rejects Israel’s demand to recognize it as a Jewish state.

At the same time, the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek for their own state together with Gaza, continues apace.

Ties between Israel and the United States, its closest ally, have become strained, with Vice President Joe Biden saying last month that the U.S. administration felt “overwhelming frustration” with the Israeli government.

For Daniel, who is regarded as a stalwart of the right, something has changed fundamentally.

“It’s over. I will not persuade my children. They will decide where they want to live. But if that once looked like a terrible tragedy to me, today it doesn’t,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller,; Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Rick Joyner meets with Donald Trump

Rick Joyner, founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries, Heritage International Ministries as well as our amazing friend and member of the Board of Directors of Morningside, had the opportunity to meet with Donald Trump at his office in Trump Tower on Thursday.

In his Facebook posts, Rick said that they had not gathered together to discuss politics; but discuss principles.  Because of time constraints, Pastor Joyner wrote two short posts on his Facebook page describing his first impression of Donald Trump and the atmosphere of the discussions.  We are certain we will be hearing more on this visit but wanted to share these posts with you first hand.
In his first post, Joyner talks about Trumps confidence and the additional meeting with Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump.

In the second commentary posted a couple of hours later, Rick discusses his impression of this meeting and of the dedication of Mr. Trump’s staff.

We are sure to be hearing more from Rick on this interesting encounter!  Rick Joyner speaks his heart and mind on all matters with a biblical perspective unlike any other.  Don’t miss Rick Joyner’s Prophetic Perspectives now available on demand on ptlnetwork.com where Rick covers a multitude of topics happening now in our world with insights that provide a prophetic twist along with riveting discussions that are both timely and thought provoking.

To see Rick Joyner’s posts on Facebook regarding his meeting with Donald Trump please click on the links provided!

Paris Attack Divides U.S. Politicians on Syrian Refugee Crisis More Than Ever Before

Governors in more than a dozen U.S. states are refusing to accept the federal government’s plan of taking in Syrian refugees after discovering that one of the perpetrators in the Paris terror attack may have been a Syrian who entered Europe with the migrants in Greece.

According to NPR, the states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. All of those states, with the exception of New Hampshire, are Republican states.

The move comes as a way to protect the public safety of U.S. citizens after the tragedies that befell Paris and Beirut last week due to ISIS terrorist attacks.

“The first and foremost responsibility of government is to keep its people safe,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Monday. “We are working on measures to ensure … that Texans will be kept safe from those refugees.”

Abbott, along with the majority of governors from the states listed above, vowed that they would “suspend” the resettlement of Syrian refugees. NBC News reports that Idaho and North Carolina governors are opposed to the idea accepting Syrian refugees, but have not stated that they wouldn’t accept them.

“There may be those who will try to take advantage of the generosity of our country and the ability to move freely within our borders through this federal resettlement program, and we must ensure we are doing all we can to safeguard the security of Americans,” GOP Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin told USA Today.

Despite the opposition, legal analysts say that state governors probably have very little say in this matter. CNN reports that admitting refugees is a federal issue, not a state one, however, state governments can make the acceptance process more difficult.

American University law professor Stephen I. Vladeck put it this way to CNN: “Legally, states have no authority to do anything because the question of who should be allowed in this country is one that the Constitution commits to the federal government.”

“So a state can’t say it is legally objecting, but it can refuse to cooperate, which makes thing much more difficult.”

President Barack Obama argued that the refugees who would be admitted to the U.S. are people who have been affected the most by terrorism.

“The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism, they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife,” Obama said from the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey. “They are parents, they are children, they are orphans.”

“Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values,” he said. “Our nations can welcome refugees who are desperately seeking safety and ensure our own security. We can and must do both.”

Obama also criticized those opposing the admittance of the refugees based on their religious practices.

However, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote a letter to the president stating: “Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity. As such, opening our door to them irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril.”

However, many other government officials agree that the U.S. should not turn its back on people who are struggling to find a safe place among all the chaos. As as far as security concerns, Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told NBC News that there will be a screening process for those entering the country.

“We have very expansive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who have come to the United States,” Rhodes said. “There’s a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our national Counterterrorism Center [and] the Department of Homeland Security, so we can make sure that we’re carefully screening anybody who comes to the United States.”

But others argue that the government can’t screen everyone.

“There are a lot of holes, gaping holes,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in on “Meet the Press.”

“We don’t want to be complicit with a program that could bring terrorists into the United States.”

Despite the arguments on both sides, Fox News reports that the U.S. has already accepted 2,000 refugees since the 2011 Syrian civil war. President Obama will continue with his plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees next year, unless Congress steps in.

Syrian Opposition Rejects Russia’s Peace Plan; Syrian Forces Take Down ISIS Siege

On Wednesday, Russia drafted a peace proposal to solve the Syrian crisis, but it was rejected by Syrian opposition forces due to the fact that the draft made no reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepping down – a key opposition demand.

“The Syrian people have never accepted the dictatorship of Assad and they will not accept that it is reintroduced or reformulated in another way,” Monzer Akbik, member of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, told Reuters.

Reuters and the Associated Press were able to receive the drafted documents that stated the Kremlin asked for Damascus and unspecified opposition groups to agree on launching a constitutional reform that would take approximately 18 months. Afterward, there would be an early presidential election. However, the document does not bar Assad from participating in the election or relieving him of his position during the 18 month reform.

Russia denied that any such document is being prepared before the Vienna meeting this week where world leaders will discuss international peace talks for a second time.

Russia began intervening in the Syrian conflict six weeks ago when rebels were getting closer to taking over government-held areas. Since then, the Kremlin has stepped up its airstrike campaign and diplomatic efforts.

A member of the coalition’s political committee, Hadi al-Bahra, stated that in order for there to be peace, any talks will have to have more assurances and guarantees. He added that there could not be any elections under the current system.

“How can the elections be fair when the citizens inside Syria are afraid of retaliation from the security services of the regime?” he said.

Meanwhile in Syria, Fox News reported that Syrian government forces were able to take down an ISIS siege that was attempting to take over a Syrian military air base. ISIS has been attempting to take over this specific base since 2013. Between the troops in the Syrian base, the new forces that launched the large-scale offensive, and the Russian airstrikes, state TV reports confirmed that dozens of ISIS fighters were killed and hundreds of extremist bodies were found around the base. The breaking of the siege marks the first major achievement by Assad’s soldiers since Russia began their airstrikes in September.