Britain’s deputy prime minister has resigned, which might add to the EU’s problems, along with Poland’s increasingly authoritarian outlook. China’s grand vision for itself in the world has expanded to consider itself the face of human rights protection, and the United Nations’ vote reprimanding the American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital might not actually result in a change.
The U.N. vote rebuking Trump’s decision on Jerusalem means nothing
While the The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to rebuke the recent decision by Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it may not ensure a bright new future for Palestinians, writes Asli Aydintasbas in The Washington Post.
“With chaos and sectarian wars raging across the region, Jerusalem is hardly a real geostrategic conflict today. But it is a convenient narrative tool for everyone.”
“Muslims consider Jerusalem a holy place, but over decades repressive Arab regimes have done very little – other than perennial condemnation of Israel – to help Palestinians realize their dreams of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. The U.N. vote will not change their predicament.”
“The real power of the city is in its ability to provide a good story – of justice, injustice, suffering and might – to different groups of people. Jerusalem is neither a game changer nor the solution to the chaos in the region. It’s a convenient narrative instrument for regimes, and for populist leaders like Erdogan and Trump.
And sadly, that seems good enough for everyone at the moment.”
Theresa May has a problem-cum-opportunity, again
The day Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister sat next to Theresa May and bellowing his support at all the right moments, he found himself being asked to resign. The deputy prime minister’s resignation, difficult as it may be for May, presents an excuse for a much-needed cabinet reshuffle, argues The Economist.
“Mr Green is the third cabinet minister to lose his job in less than two months. Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, resigned on November 1st over sexual misconduct and Priti Patel, the international development secretary, resigned on November 8th over her attempts to forge a freelance foreign policy with Israel. But Mr Green’s resignation is the one most fraught with emotion for Mrs May. He is the prime minister’s closest and oldest friend in politics. He was a contemporary at Oxford University, where his wife, Alicia, was Mrs May’s tutorial partner. He did much to fill the vacuum left in her government when her two closest advisors, Fiona Hill and Nicholas Timothy, were sacked after the election debacle in June. He is also a pillar of “progressive” Europhile Toryism: he is one of the most Europhile members of the Tory party and a leading member of Bright Blue, a reforming Tory pressure group in which Ms Maltby was also active.”
“His resignation provides Mrs May with an opportunity to remake her cabinet. Her cautious instincts will tell her to limit the reshuffle to a minimum—after all, Mr Green’s job of “first minister” is an invented one and his other jobs, such as cabinet office minister and chairman of various committees, can be scattered around. But it would be more sensible to turn a problem into an opportunity. Boris Johnson is clearly making a hash of his job as foreign secretary. Mrs May should move him to a role where his ebullient personality might be an asset rather than a liability—perhaps business secretary—and put the Foreign Office in safer hands. She should also speed up the promotion of the next generation of rising Tories.”
Poland has put the E.U. to test
Poland is illegally dismantling its own constitution through what its government calls a judicial “reform”. But it’s the European Union which is on test, writes Anne Applebaum in The Washington Post.
The “reform” in question will “require about half of senior judges to resign and give the current minister of justice, who is also the chief prosecutor, unprecedented personal power over the selection of new ones. Among other things, the ruling party could use ‘its’ judges to shape voting laws and even the results of elections; to prosecute political opponents; to reinforce financial pressure on independent media, which included, recently, a large fine placed on a television station that had the temerity to broadcast anti-government demonstrations.”
“But although the Polish piece of this drama is both strange and tragic, the more important debate is not the one taking place in Warsaw, but the one taking place in Brussels as well as every other European capital. For the rest of Europe’s governments, this really is a turning point: Are Europe’s member states really committed to the language of their treaties? Do they really believe in a set of shared political values? Do they have the political energy to enforce them? The decision they take will have all kinds of consequences, financial and political, not only for Poland but also for other countries.
The government of Hungary, another E.U. member, used subtler tactics to undermine its own judiciary, media and regulatory institutions; “far-right” or “populist” parties — by which we really mean anti-pluralist parties — have had electoral successes elsewhere, too. All of them will be watching what happens in Poland, and all of them will act accordingly. Just as Americans are now learning whether the rule of law can withstand a president who doesn’t respect it, Europeans are learning whether their system can withstand a member state that doesn’t respect it.”
‘The Chinese dream is metamorphosing into an Asian dream’
The recently concluded “South-South Human Rights Forum” in Beijing is the latest manifestation of China’s eagerness to induct the rest of the “third world” into Beijing’s its grand vision, writes Peter T. C. Chang in the South China Morning Post.
“At the end of this inaugural global human rights forum, the Beijing Declaration was issued, reasserting China’s stance on the perceived conflict between socio-economic and civil-political rights. This promulgation signals an economically dominant China’s readiness to take on the West on the ideological front.”
“China may well possess the political clout and economic muscle to deliver and bring about substantive social and economical uplift to the developing world.
This South-South initiative needs to be placed within the broader context of China’s other endeavours, and the Chinese dream is one.”