Speak Out and Remove All Doubt

Hamas No Longer Calls for Israel’s Destruction, OK? It Just Doesn’t Want Israel to Exist: Khaled Meshaal, leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, presented a policy document on Monday which states that the group is ending its association with the Muslim Brotherhood and dropping its call for Israel’s total destruction. Those changes might not be enough to re-brand the organization, as Hamas still rejects Israel’s right to exist and supports “armed struggle” against it.

The document states that Hamas will, for the first time, accept a Palestinian state that would fall within the borders that existed in 1967, before Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Osama al-Qawasme, a spokesman for Fatah, Hamas’ main Palestinian political rival (and party of Mahmoud Abbas),demanded an apology from Hamas for taking decades to join Fatah in accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. “Hamas’s new document is identical to that taken by Fatah in 1988. Hamas is required to make an apology to Fatah after 30 years of accusing us of treason for that policy,” Qawasme stated.

Meshaal told reporters, “We hope this [document] will mark a change in the stance of European states toward us.” But critics claim the document is simply a ploy aimed at making Hamas appear more moderate to the international community, especially the Gulf Arab states and Egypt, all of whom consider the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Hamas’ new stance as pure deception: “Hamas is attempting to fool the world but it will not succeed.”

Puerto Ricans Protest by Dancing in the Streets: Puerto Ricans aired their grievances over the island’s $70 billion debt crisis by dancing in the streets. Some of the protesters called for statehood, but the vast majority were unhappy with Wall Street firms that are not budging with regard to debt forgiveness. Some protesters also found fault in the leadership of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo “Ricky” Rossello.

As a result of the island’s financial crisis, “more than 400,000 Puerto Ricans have moved to the mainland US in the past several years.” There are more than 5.4 million Puerto Ricans living in the mainland US compared to roughly 3.4 million on the island, who face austerity measures and a 12 percent unemployment rate. Coming soon to demonstrations all across the world (and to Dancing with the Stars?), the intricate-but-sexy Puerto Rican salsa protest dance.

Greece Reaches Agreement With Its Creditors: On Tuesday, Greece reached a deal with its creditors that will allow it to receive emergency funds in return for promises to raise taxes and make cuts to social spending. The agreement, arrived at after six months of talks between Greece, the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund, will hopefully bring the country back from the brink of financial meltdown. Under the terms of the agreement, Greece will make changes to its labor and energy markets, cut pension payouts, and increase taxes. The Greek government faces a 7 billion euro ($7.6 billion) debt repayment in July.

Spain’s Socialists Go for the Jugular on Worker’s Day: Podemos, Spain’s anti-austerity party, has called for a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) is accused of widespread corruption. The motion, which has been used only twice since the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, is unlikely to succeed, given that the country’s second and fourth largest political parties are calling the move a “circus.” Podemos’ leader Pablo Iglesias has vowed to push the vote ahead.

Spain, which experienced ten months of political deadlock last year following two elections that delivered no viable government, is notorious for its cut-and-dry two-party dominated political system. Power within the country is usually exchanged between the PP and the Socialist Worker’s party (PSOE), both of which are–per Mediterranean tradition–heavily tainted by previous corruption scandals. Spain’s plunge into recession in 2008 effectively helped create protest parties such as Podemos, now the country’s third largest political party.

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Trump Doesn’t Want a Civil War: In an interview with Sirius XM satellite radio, President Trump mused that had “Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart.” Later Trump tweeted that he knew that Jackson died 16 years before the start of the war, but that Jackson “saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen.”

Yesterday, we mentioned the thousands of US mental health professionals who have rallied against Trump. One can now add historians (along with climate scientists) as another group that thinks that Trump misses the mark when it comes to their area of expertise. A professor of history at Princeton University described Trump’s comment as the “height of inaccurate historical revisionism.” Trump has deep admiration for President Jackson, but perhaps he should also learn from President Lincoln, who famously said: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” Or perhaps Trump should have sang the famous line from Guns N’ Roses: “I don’t need your civil war, It feeds the rich while it buries the poor.”

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