TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #84

Biden & Israel: still close…all about the food...finale in Senegal…Russia surging…China in the crosshairs….France expels an Imam & welcomes new Catholics…cartoonist Lectrr imagines Trump panhandling

This weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, continues on its mission to explore how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world.

Coming to you this week from Paris.

How others see America

Biden and Israel….still close

Some scattered newspapers abroad picked up on a stunning Washington Post report that, as London’s Guardian reported, the Biden administration is continuing to arm Israel even as the Netanyahu government appears to have presented little evidence of abandoning plans to complete its destruction of Gaza with a full-scale attack on Rafah:

The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK-84 2,000lb bombs and 500 MK-82 500lb bombs, said the sources….The package comes as Israel faces strong international criticism over its continued bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza and as some members of Joe Biden’s party call for him to cut US military aid….

The United States has been rushing air defenses and munitions to Israel, but some Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s steadfast support of Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity.

Biden on Friday acknowledged “the pain being felt” by many Arab Americans over the war in Gaza and over US support for Israel and its military offensive. Still, he has vowed continued support for Israel despite an increasingly public rift with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister….The decision on weapons follows a visit to Washington by the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant when he discussed Israel’s weapons needs with US counterparts. Apparently seeking to cool US-Israeli tensions, Gallant said he stressed the importance of US ties to his country’s security and of maintaining Israel’s “qualitative military edge” in the region, including its air capabilities.

Donald Trump has not been able to resist jumping into the fray, this time in a newspaper founded by the late billionaire Trump supporter Sheldon Adelson and determinedly pro-Netanyuahu:

In a no-holds-barred interview, former US President Donald Trump told Israel Hayom that he supports Israel's defensive war against Hamas and said he would have responded to the October 7 attack in a very similar way….

But Trump had a lot of caveats about the situation, expressed in quite Trumpian terms:

“You don't have the support you used to have. Some 15 years ago, Israel had the strongest lobby. If you were a politician, you couldn't say anything bad about Israel, that would be like the end of your political career. Today, it's almost the opposite. I've never seen, you have AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) plus three, these lunatics, frankly. But you have AOC plus three plus plenty of others. And all they do is talk badly about Israel, and they hate Israel, and they hate the Jewish people….And 15 years ago, that would have been unthinkable to be doing that. So Israel has to get, Israel has to get better with the promotional and with the public relations, because right now they're really, they're being hurt very badly.”

In the end, though, it’s been Joe Biden’s fault from the get-go:

"It [Oct. 7] was an attack that I blame on Biden because they [Hamas] have no respect for him. He can't put two sentences together. He can't talk. He's a very dumb person. He's a dumb person. His foreign policy throughout 50 years has been horrible. If you look at people that were in other administrations with him, they saw him as a weak, ineffective president, they [Hamas] would have never done that attack if I were there….. If we had a real president, if we had a president that knew what he was doing, who could put two sentences together, that could get solved very quickly.”

Increasingly, it’s all about the food…

How to get it there, in large enough quantities is a dilemma still not solved, as the BBC’s Lucy Williamson found in the network’s lead story on Saturday:

One thousand miles east of Gaza, large blocks of aid are being loaded on to a US military transport plane, its crew silhouetted by the morning sun glancing over the desert landscape around Qatar's al-Udeid airbase.

They push 80 crates into the plane's cavernous interior, each canvas-wrapped block strapped to a cardboard pallet and topped with a parachute.

Feeding Gaza is now a complex, risky, multi-national operation. The RAF carried out its first two aid flights this week. France, Germany, Jordan, Egypt and the UAE have also been taking part.

This was the 18th mission flown by US forces. Dropping 40,000 ready-prepared meals into the tiny, besieged war-zone requires them to make a six-hour round trip from Doha.

It is more expensive and less efficient than other ways of delivering aid and it is also harder to control. Earlier this week, 12 people are thought to have drowned while trying to retrieve aid parcels that fell into the sea. Another six were reportedly crushed in the stampede to reach it.

"We're very aware of all the news, and we're trying to limit casualties," said Maj Boone, the mission commander…

"[We're doing] literally everything we can. We use a chute that falls at a slower rate to give Gazans more time to see the parachute and get out of the way. We also have assets overhead that clear the drop zone, so we won't drop if there's any group of people there."

A heavy military cargo plane can be heard for miles around, meaning crowds quickly gather to follow it. Desperation leads many to take enormous risks to retrieve the aid—and many come away with nothing.

Hamas has reportedly demanded a halt to air drops as casualties have grown, calling them "useless" and a "real danger to the lives of hungry civilians". The risks are increased by the lack of any organised distribution of the aid once it hits the ground….

American food parcels are being targeted at places where American-made weapons have already made their mark.

And then (finally) the UN?

As the Paris-based Cartooning for Peace wrote, accompanied by a cartoon from the gifted Jordanian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj:

On Monday, March 25, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza” for the duration of Ramadan. A first after five months of conflict. It was the abstention of the United States, until now opposed to any request for a ceasefire, which allowed the adoption of the resolution with 14 votes out of 15. This decision, welcomed by many countries, marks in fact a diplomatic break between Israel and Washington. But the UN has few means to force the application of this ceasefire, already angrily rejected by Israel, which canceled the visit to Washington of a high-ranking delegation.

Elections 2024:  Senegal (finale)

A leftist Pan-Africanism…what’s that?

It turned out to be a landslide for change, and this time for the left—a break with an emerging and most unsettling pattern beyond Senegal and beyond Africa. Anti-establishment candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye swept the first round of the vote for Senegal’s next president with 54.28% versus 35.79% for the former prime minister Amadou Ba, who had the unequivocal endorsement of outgoing president Macky Sall.

As France 24 reported from Dakar:

The victory for Faye, who was only freed from prison 10 days before the election, still has to be validated by Senegal's top constitutional body, which could happen in a few days. Faye, 44, who has said he wants a "break" with the current political system, is set to become the youngest president in Senegal's history. It would be the first time since independence from France in 1960 that an opponent has won in the first round….

But a swift handover now seems feasible in the West African nation, which prides itself on its stability and democratic principles in a coup-hit region….

Faye has promised to "break" with the current political system, restore national "sovereignty" and implement a programme of "left-wing Pan-Africanism". His election could herald a profound overhaul of Senegal's institutions. Faye pledged "to govern with humility, with transparency, and to fight corruption at all levels". He said he would prioritize "national reconciliation", "rebuilding institutions" and "significantly reducing the cost of living".

The big question remains, just what might this new, leftist shift mean, especially for those who have been watching Senegal carefully as a test case for western-style democracy in Africa and one of the rare Francophone nations to have avoided toxic coups and rampant corruption, not to mention a Russian-backed security regime.

How others see the World

Russia still surging ….

Putin’s neighbors are becoming increasingly anxious as he has announced a new round of conscriptions who he pledged would not be shipped to the Ukraine front. But elsewhere? As Miroslaw Czech reported in the leading Warsaw daily Wyborocza:

There are various dates for a possible invasion—from 3 to 5 years. At the same time, politicians and military officials argue that Poland is the leader in spending funds on defense, because it allocates a record 4 percent of its GDP—more than the USA. And that in the near future the Polish Army will be the strongest NATO army in Europe.

What will happen when the coalition starts to fall apart?

"Russia is preparing for a global confrontation, for a conflict with NATO," said General Wiesław Kukuła, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, categorically. He assessed that the decision-making process in Russia is based on three vectors: ideology, strength and the chance to achieve goals. "Russia is an opportunist and will exploit every opportunity and emerging weakness that can be operationalized to achieve its own interests."

….While licking its wounds. In a famous (February) interview with the American media star of the Trumpist right-wing, Tucker Carlson, Putin argued for almost half an hour that Ukrainians are not a nation, but part of the Russian nation. Besides, he argued, Ukrainians were invented by Poles. He mentioned the name "Poland" over 30 times, emphasizing that he would not attack our country except in one case: "if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we are not interested in Poland, Latvia, or any other place."

President Joe Biden commented laconically: when the Russian ruler argues that he will not do something, he invariably intends to do it.

French cartoonist Jean-François Duval, who draws under the name Placid, had a compelling take on Putin’s Russia, its vigilant generals, its lethal armaments pointing west, targeting the great enemy in Ukraine while the shadow of its most proximate enemy, armed with poised assault rifle and raised scimitar, launches his bloody attack.…

China in the crosshairs

Senior Chinese diplomats are warning their nation’s neighbors not to ‘fan the flames.’ As South China Morning Post reporter Alyssa Chen suggested, these countries should….

….cherish lasting regional peace and help prevent the situation in the South China Sea from getting out of control… “People in East Asian countries should be aware of and cherish the three-decade-long regional peace since the end of the Cold War, and efforts should be spared to prevent new conflicts from emerging in the South China Sea,” said  Liu Zhenmin, a senior Chinese diplomat.

Liu’s comments follow a series of clashes between China and the Philippines around the disputed Second Thomas and Scarborough Shoals, which have led to an increased focus on the issue among the wider international community.

He warned: “The past year has witnessed closer military cooperation among the United States, Japan, and the Philippines. Many are concerned that this would trigger another conflict in Southeast Asia.”

And now Japan’s getting drawn in too. As the SCMP reported:

Japan plans to expand and enhance facilities at existing civilian air hubs and seaports across the country for military use in the event of a “contingency” in the region, according to reports in Tokyo….The sighting of Chinese unmanned aircraft near Japanese waters has raised a security spectre.

Military observers say the move is essential as such infrastructure in the region is lacking at present, but expansion would involve existing facilities being “multiplied several times over” and consultations with residents. They also point out such facilities would no doubt be made available to the US military if a security crisis erupts.

Vigipirate alert … Imam expelled

France raised its terrorist alert level to the highest level—red on its Vigipirate system—as the government announced:

Following the terrorist attack which occurred near Moscow on March 22, 2024, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that the “Attack Emergency” level was declared across the entire national territory.

This is the highest alert level of the Vigipirate plan. Service-Public.fr reminds you of the nature of each of the three alert levels: “Vigilance”, “Reinforced security – Risk of attack”, “Emergency attack”.

Separately, France’s highest court confirmed the expulsion to his native Tunisia of a leading imam, Mahjoub Mahjoubi for having “uttered calls for hatred in his sermons, targeting in particular women and Jews, or even for having made comments considered anti-France,” the newspaper Le Parisien reported.

Le Parisien continued:

Living in France since the mid-1980s, married and father of five children, the imam was in the crosshairs of the Minister of the Interior, who had requested the withdrawal of his residence permit a few days before his expulsion. In particular, the broadcast of a video in which Mahjoub Mahjoubi qualified the “tricolor flag”—without specifying whether it was the French flag—as a “satanic flag” which would have “no value with Allah.”

And then there’s the Church….

On this Easter Sunday, a huge surge in baptisms in France, particularly among youths. As the French Catholic newspaper La Croix reported:

The French Bishops' Conference announced that 7,135 adults will be baptized at Easter this year, a 31% increase from 2023. This significant growth in the number of those preparing to enter the Church, is affecting the vast majority of the dioceses in France. 10 of them have twice as many as last year, and 21 have increased by 50% to 100%. While the coronavirus pandemic caused a slight dip in the number of adult baptisms, they have been steadily increasing since 2021.

"What we have been observing since the pandemic is not just catching up but a fundamental trend," explains Catherine Chevalier, director of the National Service for Catechesis at the bishops' conference.

In addition to adults over 18, the CEF survey also shows a significant increase in baptisms among adolescents aged 11-17, with an average increase of 50% in France—more than 5,000 adolescents in the 68 dioceses that responded to the survey.

Finally, there’s …. Lectrr

The great French cartoonist Lectrr reflects on the trajectory of Donald Trump from MAGA to beggar…his cap now outstretched, panhandling for coins.

Steven Degryse, who draws under the name Lectrr is a Belgian cartoonist born in 1979. He works as a political cartoonist for the Belgian daily De Standaard and other newspapers and magazines around Europe. His MAGA cartoon was featured this week on the front page of France’s Le Monde. He contributes frequently to Nieuwe Revu in the Netherlands, and Prospect Magazine in the UK. He is a member of the global, Paris-based collective Cartooning for Peace. 

Here’s how Lectrr imagines himself: