TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #63
The prism of Gaza and Israel…Stalemate in Ukraine....Nestle in the crosshairs...Almodovar in English?...celebrating 'Arrogance' in Teheran...and our cartoonist Mana with his own view of his homeland.
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 res of the world. Coming to you today from Prague.
How others see America
A prism of impossible choices
The prism through which much of the world sees America these days is refracted through two pieces of glass—America’s unbending defense of Israel’s right to react in whatever fashion it sees fit to Hamas’s barbaric attack on their country….and an all but dysfunctional Congress and broader American political and judicial system that is either supporting or opposing the nation’s actions on all fronts depending on one’s point of view.
The world’s cartoonists—as we have seen weekly for more than a year in these pages—all too often reflect the deeper sentiments of the people who are their readers. And for the past month, they have been especially brutal. So rather than shock our own readers, let us focus on one drawing by the great French cartoonist, now living in Spain, Anne Derene, who draws under the name Adene for Cartooning for Peace.
Leave it to the French daily Le Monde, however, to capture America’s dilemma, and the stake involved, as well as any of the scores of newspapers we consult each week. Beneath the banner headline of its weekend edition Saturday—“Kyiv fears losing the help of its allies,” the paper has placed another story from its chief Washington correspondent, Piotr Smolar: “In the United States, the Israel-Hamas war fractures the Democratic party.”
Smolar continues:
The suffering suffered by the Palestinians places the Biden government at odds with the progressive wing of his party, whose weight is increasingly important…. The president's empathetic stance and expressed support for Israel has been so forceful that it has drowned out concern for humanitarian access to Gaza or formal mention of the laws of war. However, the center of gravity has shifted in time. In more than two decades, more people (49%) recognized an affinity with the Palestinians than with the Israelis (38%)…. administration at odds placing with the progressive wing, and more broadly with the young electorate and minorities of color, whose mobilization will be decisive during the presidential election of November 2024.
How others see the World
Even Israel is deeply divided
The Israeli center-left daily Haaretz, no fan of Bibi Netanyahu, said out loud this week what a lot in Israel and abroad have only been keeping in pectore:
“For Israelis, the reality of a long, bloody war in Gaza is hitting home….The war in Gaza will be no sprint to a clear-cut victory line, but a long muddle of a marathon. The Israeli public hopes that the runner’s feet won’t sink into intractable mud as it has in the not-too-distant past….
“The somber news of the past 24 hours, that 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in the initial ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip, has tangibly shifted the national mood. Israel was far from cheery before the news hit.”
Another Haaretz writer, Anshel Pfeffer, was seeking a light at the end of a very long tunnel:
“No one has any utopian illusions that a diplomatic process which failed to yield a solution for over three decades will suddenly succeed after the deep trauma inflicted on Israel by Hamas’ October 7 attack and the destruction being caused in Gaza with Israel’s resulting war to destroy Hamas. However, to bring this war to an end, there will be no choice but to at least be open to such a possibility.
And then there was Washington correspondent Ben Samuel’s observation:
Whatever timeline Biden may have had in mind is rapidly slipping away from him amid rising international outrage, as the focus of the Israel-Gaza conflict is now primarily centered around Gaza's humanitarian crisis and no longer the October 7 attack.
Finally, Haaretz’s opinion column from Eva Illouz:
“Some events erupt on the world stage and immediately mark a deep rupture. October 7 was a turning point for Jewish existence in Western democracies. This may sound melodramatic. It’s not. The ground has shaken under Jews’ feet.”
Perhaps in the same vein … continuing the analogy of tunnels….
The exploration by the two Israeli soldiers of Tribune de Genève’s Swiss cartoonist Gerald Herrmann, published on the front page of Le Monde, one soldier observing “I see a long tunnel without end,” his companion exclaiming, “It’s the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!”
Another war….another stalemate?
As it happens The Economist of London has managed another big scoop that went largely unremarked:
Five months into its counter-offensive, Ukraine has managed to advance by just 17 kilometres. Russia fought for ten months around Bakhmut in the east “to take a town six by six kilometres”. Sharing his first comprehensive assessment of the campaign, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, says the battlefield reminds him of the great conflict of a century ago. “Just like in the first world war we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he says.
The general concludes that it would take a massive technological leap to break the deadlock. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”
Indeed, already back in September, The Economist had been preparing us for the worst—just such an eventuality….
“The war in Ukraine has repeatedly confounded expectations. It is now doing so again. The counter-offensive that began in June was based on the hope that Ukrainian soldiers, equipped with modern Western weapons and after training in Germany, would recapture enough territory to put their leaders in a strong position at any subsequent negotiations. This plan is not working.”
And then there’s Nestle
In a subject Andelman Unleashed has been following for at least a year, Nater Ostiller reported in The Kyiv Independent:
Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) added [Swiss-based] Nestle to its list of "international sponsors of war," for its continued business in Russia… As of 2022, the NACP said that Nestle had seven factories operating in Russia that employed 7,000 people. The Russian market accounted for around 2% of its global revenue. Nestle has yet to release financial numbers for 2023, which the NACP alleged was an attempt to escape from international pressure…..
Russian markets were still full of typical Nestle products, such as ‘Nescafe, Bystrow brand breakfast cereals, Maggi soups and bouillon cubes, Purina pet food, pralines, and chocolate bars. In addition, the NACP alleged that Nestle has continued to covertly import technical equipment into Russia to "further develop its business’ there. It has added numerous well-known Western businesses to the list, including PepsiCO, Bacardi, Mars, Proctor & Gamble, and many others.
Headline of the week
In Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post above a report that says, “Beijing is making inroads in Latin America, a region historically allied with the US and China now considers Colombia a ‘strategic partner’”……
Don’t forget the EU?
Guess who’s coming to Kyiv. OK, we won’t hold you in suspense any longer—none other than Ursula Von der Leyen, Politico Europe‘s Barbara Moens reporting on Saturday, “European Commission president made a surprise trip to Kyiv days before a progress report on Ukraine’s bid to join the EU….”
“In the November 8 report Brussels will recommend opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova—conditioned on technical caveats where the countries need to make more progress….The progress report is a key step in the bloc’s decision on whether to start accession talks with Kyiv. Based on the Commission’s assessment, EU leaders will then discuss at their meeting in mid-December whether to launch formal membership talks with Ukraine. Any enlargement decisions require the backing of all 27 EU countries.”
Of course, with that little stumbling block, it’s difficult to see just how UVDL is planning to finesse herself and her Union past the stumbling block of Putin pal Viktor Orban’s Hungary or now even Robert Fico’s Slovakia. Stay tuned.
There’s always Almodóvar
The great Spanish daily El Pais caught up with the film director on the cusp of pre-production of his first feature film he has ever shot entirely in English, writer Daniel Garcia Lopez got him to admit because, “The previous times I have refused to make a film in the US it was out of fear. These two short films [The Human Voice, with Tilda Swinton, and Strange Way of Life] have been a good experience to see me directing in English, and the result is that yes, now I feel more confident.”
In my film, I decide what I do,’ Almodovar continues, without really divulging much at all of his much-anticipated newest project. ‘I participate in absolutely everything, and in an American film the director will occupy like 15th place. To make decisions there, you have to consult with the publicist, with the agents and with the studio itself, and that, Inevitably, it creates certain limits for you that lead to self-censorship. And it is not the best breeding ground to work with….’
He solves the problem of a sore throat by combining a silk scarf tied around his neck with a Dior polo shirt whose color could paint a Hawaiian sunset. Almodóvar (Calzada de Calatrava, 74 years old) has scheduled us in his office, on the first floor of the offices of his production company, El Deseo: a cozy space with midcentury furniture that would not look out of place in many of his films.
The biggest question, which sadly, Daniel Garcia Lopez failed to resolve, is whether this is an entirely new project, or a revival of the one he disclosed back in September he was abandoning—starring Cate Blanchett. At that time, as Euronews reported, “The legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has bowed out from his first ever English-language film. ‘A Manual for Cleaning Women’ stars Cate Blanchett and is being made by her Dirty Films production company. ‘It has been a very painful decision for me,’ Almodóvar said.”
Back in Teheran, there’s a celebration of Arrogance?
Seems 44 years ago, the US embassy in Iran was seized by Iranian militants who held everyone inside hostage for a year—the Iran Hostage Crisis. To mark the anniversary, Iranian state-controlled Press TV reported:
Millions of Iranians have taken to the streets across the country to commemorate the anniversary of the US embassy takeover, also known as Den of Espionage, which is named the National Day against the Global Arrogance.
The mass rallies kicked off in the capital and in some 800 cities and towns across the country. Every year, demonstrators gather outside the former headquarters of the US embassy, chanting ‘Down with the US’ and ‘Down with Israel,’ Washington’s closest ally, to voice their indignation about the actions of what is known in Iran as ‘Global Arrogance.’ On the demonstration routes, a large number of stalls and pavilions are set up to depict the crimes and atrocities that the West, particularly the United States, has carried out against the Islamic Republic and other countries across the world.
Forty-four years ago, on November 4, Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran, also known in Iran as the “Den of Espionage,” less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship in 1979. The occasion was then named the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance, which also marks National Student Day [when] the Iranian nation, particularly the students, commemorate the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance by staging rallies across the country, calling on all Muslims and freedom-seeking nations to resist against arrogant powers and not to succumb to their bullying…a day on which Iranians showed that through reliance on God they can withstand any form of hegemonic power and achieve victory; a mindset that has become a role model for all freedom-seekers around the world.
Finally, there’s Mana….
For another view of Iran, the courageous Iranian cartoonist Mana, has chosen to portray his native land in the form of 16-year-old Armita Garavand, her hijab, which she had chosen not to wear, wrapped around her neck like a noose. As France’s moderate-left daily Liberation reported last week, “teenager Armita Garavand died, a month after getting on the metro without hijab…The 16-year-old high school student was seriously injured in Tehran during an ‘attack’ by members of the morality police, responsible for enforcing the obligation to wear the veil in public. She had been in a coma for almost a month.”
Liberation continued, “The case is painfully reminiscent of that of Mahsa Amini, who died for not having worn her obligatory veil correctly a little over a year ago.”
Our cartoonist, Mana Neyestani, born in Tehran, Iran in 1973, trained as an architect in Tehran University, began his career in 1990 as a cartoonist and illustrator for many cultural, political, literary, and economic magazines. With the rise of Iranian reformist newspapers in 1999, he became an editorial cartoonist, and is a member of the inestimable Cartooning for Peace collective.
Here's how Mana sees himself:
Before we leave you, this week….
We thought, exceptionally, we should wind up with this final thought, at a press conference in Amman, Jordan this weekend when the nation’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi observed:
“We should all work for a future when a Palestinian child sees an Israeli child, they see in each other a potential friend, not a future enemy. I think that’s what we need to do.”
Amen.
Merci mille fois , mon cher copain!
Thst mean so very much to me !!
excellent... especially good this week, David