darkness is descending

Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that “darkness is descending” as Iran expands its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Louvre show opens in Tehran as cultural diplomacy thrives Read more “The force behind so much that is bad is this radical tyranny in Tehran,” the Israeli prime minister told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) conference in Washington on Tuesday. “If I have a message for you today, it’s a very simple one: we must stop Iran, we will stop Iran.” Plagued by a corruption scandal at home, Netanyahu is clearly relishing the role of international statesman during a five-day US trip, putting on a united front with Donald Trump on Iran and the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Netanyahu told Aipac he had warned against the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Barack Obama administration and claimed vindication. Pointing to a map of the Middle East showing Iran’s alleged dominance, he said: “Darkness is descending on our region. Iran is building an aggressive empire: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, more to come.” He said Tehran was seeking to build permanent military bases in Syria – where Iranian-backed forces support President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war – and develop factories there and in Lebanon for precision-guided missiles capable of striking Israel. “I will not let that happen,” he said. “We will not let that happen.” Netanyahu and Trump enjoy arguably the closest relationship of any two Israeli and US leaders. Both are also facing politically damaging domestic investigations embroiling their families. Both have dismissed the allegations as “fake news”. The Israeli prime minister – awaiting a decision by Israel’s attorney general on whether to indict him, as police have recommended in two bribery cases – lavished more praise his counterpart on Tuesday. “President Trump has made it clear that his administration will not accept Iran’s aggression in the region,” he said. “He has made clear that he too will never accept a nuclear-armed Iran. That is the right policy. “I salute President Trump on this and the president has also made it clear that if the fatal flaws of the nuclear deal are not fixed he will walk away from the deal and restore sanctions. “Israel will be right there by America’s side and let me tell you, so will other countries in the region.” Both leaders have long spoken out against the Iran nuclear deal, citing its limited duration and the fact it does not cover Iran’s ballistic missile programme or support for anti-Israel militants. Netanyahu also thanked Trump’s team, including the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, for their commitment to peace in the Middle East. Kushner’s role has been questioned after his security clearance was downgraded, denying him access to some top-level intelligence, amid revelations over possible conflicts of interest.

Trump says 'I may' attend opening of US embassy in Jerusalem Read more The pro-Israel lobby group’s conference is an annual display of solidarity addressed by both Republicans and Democrats. Netanyahu basked in applause and paid tribute to a “beautiful alliance” and “eternal bond”. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, also drew attention to Iran. “The Obama administration’s fealty to the nuclear deal spawned a reluctance to address Iran’s regional ambitions,” he said. “The notion that Sunni powers in the Middle East needed to learn to ‘share the neighborhood’ with Iran created a void. And Iran was happy to exploit that void, menacing our ships and planes deployed to the Persian Gulf.”.

Is trump Nuts?

Is Donald Trump mentally fit to be president of the United States? It’s an understandable question, and it’s also beside the point.

Understandable because Mr. Trump’s behavior in office — impulsive, erratic, dishonest, childish, crude — is so alarming, and so far from what Americans expect in their chief executive, that it cries out for a deeper explanation.

It’s beside the point not because a president’s mental capacity doesn’t matter, nor because we should blindly accept our leaders’ declarations of their own stability, let alone genius. Rather, we don’t need a medical degree or a psychiatric diagnosis to tell us what is wrong with Mr. Trump. It’s obvious to anyone who listens to him speak, reads his tweets and sees the effects of his behavior — on the presidency, on the nation and its most important institutions, and on the integrity of the global order.

Presidents should not, for instance, taunt the leaders of hostile nations with demeaning nicknames and boasts about the size of their “nuclear button.” They should not tweet out videos depicting them violently assaulting their political opponents. They should not fire the F.B.I. director to derail an investigation into their own campaign’s possible collusion with a foreign government to swing the election. And, of course, they shouldn’t have to find themselves talking to reporters to insist that they’re mentally stable.


This behavior may be evidence of some underlying disorder, or it may not. Who knows? Mr. Trump hasn’t undergone a mental-health evaluation, at least not one made public. But even if his behavior were diagnosed as an illness, what would that tell us that we don’t already know? Plenty of people with mental disorders or disabilities function at high levels of society. Conversely, if Mr. Trump were found to have no diagnosable illness, he would be no more fit for the office he holds than he is today.

The problem lies in trying to locate the essence of Mr. Trump’s unfitness in the unknowable reaches of his mind, as opposed to where we can all openly see it and address it in political terms. As the psychiatrist Allen Frances told The Times: “You can’t say enough about how incompetent and unqualified he is to be leader of the free world. But that does not make him mentally ill.”

Unfortunately, a number of psychiatrists, politicians and others who should know better have increasingly taken up the Trump-is-crazy line. In “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” released last October, more than two dozen contributors, most mental-health professionals, concluded that Mr. Trump presents a grave and immediate danger to the safety of America and the world. No argument there, but why do we need to hear it from psychiatrists relying on their professional credentials? Dr. Bandy Lee, one of the book’s editors, said the authors are “assessing dangerousness, not making a diagnosis.” Anyone with access to newspapers or Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed can do the same.

The psychiatrists say they have a duty to warn the public about what they see as a serious threat to the nation. That’s commendable, but they should consider how their comments will be taken by the vast majority of Americans, particularly in a highly politically polarized time. The language of mental health and illness is widely used yet poorly understood, and it comes loaded with unwarranted assumptions and harmful stereotypes. There’s a good reason the profession established an ethical guideline in 1973, known as the Goldwater Rule, that prohibits psychiatrists from offering professional judgment on public figures they have not personally examined.

In the future, it would be a good idea if presidential candidates voluntarily submitted to a mental-health evaluation, just as they often do a physical one — and in that case, psychiatrists would have a critical role to play. But you don’t need to put Mr. Trump on a couch now to discover who he is.


So what’s the right way to deal with Mr. Trump’s evident unfitness?

Not the 25th Amendment, despite the sudden fashion for it. Ratified in the wake of President John Kennedy’s assassination, the amendment authorizes the temporary removal of a president who is unable to do the job. Its final section, which has never been invoked, was meant to clarify what should happen if the president becomes clearly incapacitated. One of the amendment’s drafters, Jay Berman, a former congressional staff member who has said Mr. Trump “appears unhinged,” still doesn’t believe that the amendment applies to his case.

Even if invoking the amendment were the best approach, consider what would need to happen. First, the vice president, plus a majority of Mr. Trump’s cabinet, must declare to Congress that the president cannot do his job. If Mr. Trump disagreed, they would have to restate their case. Only then would both houses of Congress get involved, and each would have to agree by a two-thirds vote. The chances of any of these steps being taken in today’s political environment are less than zero.

Impeachment would be a more direct and fitting approach, if Mr. Trump’s actions rise to the level of high crimes or misdemeanors. But this path is similarly obstructed by Republicans in Congress, who are behaving less like members of a coequal branch with oversight power than like co-conspirators of a man they know is unfit to govern.

The best solution is the simplest: Vote, and organize others to register and to vote. If you believe Donald Trump represents a danger to the country and the world, you can take action to rein in his power. In November, you can help elect members of Congress who will fight Mr. Trump’s most dangerous behaviors. If that fails, there’s always 2020.

By The Editorial Board

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A version of this article appears in print on January 10, 2018, on Page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: Is Mr. Trump Nuts?. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Startling memories of Hitler's takeover of Austria and Anti Semitism After the War

Almost 105 years old, Feingold shared with AFP his sometimes startling memories of Hitler's takeover of Austria in March 1938 and how anti-Semitism lingered on well after the war.

"Anti-Semitism was already very much in evidence in the 1920s," he says.

"But [Austro-fascist chancellors of the 1930s] Dollfuss and Schuschnigg created such poverty that 80 percent of Austrians welcomed the Anschluss," the centenarian Jewish community leader in the city of Salzburg recalls.

Feingold had moved to Italy in the 1930s to escape that poverty. But he happened to find himself back in Vienna when, on March 13 1938, German troops made their triumphant entry into the Austrian capital.

He was 24 years old and admits to having "no idea" of the true nature of what was afoot, as Vienna celebrated the Nazis' arrival in a carnival atmosphere.

But reality soon hit home. "They say it was Germany which occupied Austria. But it was the Austrian women who occupied the Germans - every soldier had women throwing themselves at him."

Feingold's situation quickly worsened. "The Gestapo came to arrest our father, he was on a pre-prepared list as he was suspected of political activity. Since he wasn't there they took me and my brother away."

The brothers were "beaten for five days" and later released with orders to leave the country immediately.

They traveled to several places before being arrested again in Prague and deported to Auschwitz in 1940.

"At that time, the train tracks stopped two kilometers short of the camp. We had to walk the last part of the way, being beaten by the SS.

"They said I had three months to live. And in fact after two and a half months I was about to succumb to exhaustion when I managed to get transferred to the Neuengamme camp."

From there, Feingold - or inmate 11,996 - was taken to Dachau and then on to Buchenwald where he survived as a construction worker.

But the camp's liberation in April 1945 didn't bring a quick return to Vienna. "There were people from 28 countries in the camp. Everyone was able to leave apart from the Austrians, they had to stay in Buchenwald until May," he recalls.

When he did try to return to Vienna, along with 127 other survivors, he was faced with another bitter disappointment: no travel allowed through the Soviet occupation zone which surrounded the city.

"A Russian soldier told us that they had orders not to let us pass. The new (social democratic) chancellor Karl Renner had said: 'We won't take back the Jews'," Feingold says.

Having lost his father and siblings in the camps, Feingold went to Salzburg near the German border, which was in the American occupation zone. There he founded a network which helped 100,000 Jews to emigrate to Palestine.

"We had to scheme to get around the occupation authorities, but not with the Austrians: they were happy to see Jews leaving, they were very worried by the prospect of them returning."

After the war Austria took refuge in an official narrative which portrayed the country as a "victim" of the Third Reich and avoided the process of debating complicity in Nazi crimes, as happened in Germany.

That meant not confronting the country's deep-rooted anti-Semitism. "I had to explain myself to ex-Nazi officials asking about my administrative status when I was deported," says Feingold.

What's more, "it was impossible to find a job. Someone coming back from the camps had to be a criminal. So I had to strike out on my own." He started a clothes shop in Salzburg which quickly became successful.

Feingold swore to himself in Auschwitz that he would tell his story and he has done so avidly. Despite his age, he takes part in numerous conferences and events for schoolchildren.

"I must have spoken to around half a million people all in all," he estimates.

And how does he see the current state of the fight against prejudice?

"Anti-Semitism is still there, even when people don't know why they're anti-Semites. But I think it is decreasing in the cities," he says.

In Salzburg, the Jewish community has dwindled from 600 members after the war to around 30 today. Feingold says that in the 1960s "many people emigrated because they thought there would be no place for their children in Austria."

However, he says the attitude of officialdom changed at the end of the 1970s: "Ever since that point I've been literally covered in honors," he says.

Another one is set to be bestowed on Feingold's 105th birthday, May 28, when he will be received by conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe).

Feingold says he was impressed by Kurz's speech marking the 80th anniversary of the Anschluss and adds he has "done more for the Jews that any of his predecessors."

U.S. Embassy Opening in Jerusalem, Israel's Historic Capital, in May

Long before Arab marauders slaughtered their first Jewish victims,

Jerusalem was the capital of Israel.

There has never been a Palestinian State, and NEVER will be a Palestinian State inside of Israel.

Jerusalem has always been the capital of Israel.

It really is time for America to be realistic and stop playing “nice” with the Arabs, we don’t need their oil anymore, and they don’t share our values.
There are no Palestinians, there  are Arabs occupying Jewish land in Judea and Shomron and Gaza that call themselves “Palestinians”.

They should relocate to live in a country where they have the same aspirations as the inhabitants,  i.e. Jihad, “martyrdom” misogynism, intolerance and  “religious” warfare.

mfbsr


WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to officially move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May to mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state, two American officials said on Friday.

The timetable is earlier than the one offered as recently as last month by Vice President Mike Pence, who said during a visit to Israel that the embassy would open by the end of 2019.

The State Department will formally designate a facility in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood, currently used for consular affairs, as an embassy, even as plans proceed to eventually build a new compound that could take several more years to open.

President Trump on Friday boasted of his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, drawing enthusiastic applause.

While other presidents held back from such a move for fear of triggering a backlash among Arabs and prejudging final peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Mr. Trump said he defied “incredible” pressure to do what he considered the right thing.
“You know, every president campaigned on, ‘We’re going to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,’ everybody, for many presidents, you’ve been reading it, and then they never pulled it off, and I now know why,” Mr. Trump said. “I was hit by more countries and more pressure and more people calling, begging me, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.’ I said, ‘We have to do it, it’s the right thing to do.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment. But a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition welcomed the plan to go ahead with an embassy move.

American officials on Friday did not comment on why they decided to move up the date for the opening, but it will carry special emotional resonance in Israel coming on its Independence Day on May 14, the anniversary of the state’s founding in 1948.

President Harry S. Truman recognized Israel minutes after it declared independence, making the United States the first country to do so.

A new embassy building will take six to eight years to construct, said a State Department official, who like others demanded anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the issue.

The Arnona building, where visas and passports are processed, is not nearly big enough for the embassy’s entire staff. Only the ambassador, a chief of staff and a staff secretary will be situated there in its first years of operation, the official said. Much of the rest of the embassy personnel will remain for now in Tel Aviv.

Israel has always made Jerusalem its capital but the Palestinians have also claimed the city as the capital of a future state. Until Mr. Trump’s decision last year, no other country located its embassy in Jerusalem to avoid seeming to take sides in the dispute.

Most American peace negotiators have assumed that Jerusalem would ultimately serve as capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state in an eventual agreement, but advised against preemptively declaring it the Israeli capital before negotiations are finalized.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is in preliminary discussions with Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate, Republican donor and prominent Israel backer, for a donation to potentially pay for at least some of the cost of constructing a new embassy complex, the State Department official said. The Associated Press reported that State Department lawyers are looking into the legality of such a move.

Mr. Adelson declined to comment on Friday through a representative.

The confidant, Morton A. Klein, said Mr. Adelson “called me as soon as he walked out of Trump Tower, and got into his car to say that President Trump said that he is going to fulfill his promise to move the embassy.”


“It is a critically important issue to Sheldon Adelson,” said Mr. Klein, who runs a nonprofit group called the Zionist Organization of America that is funded partly by Mr. Adelson.

Mr. Klein, though, said he opposes private funding for the embassy.

“I’m concerned that people will think that this is being done because of a group of people — evangelicals and Jews — who care about it and not because it’s the U.S. government that cares about it,” said Mr. Klein. “It should be crystal-clear that this is the U.S. government making the decision to move it.”

Follow Peter Baker and Gardiner Harris: @peterbakernyt and @GardinerHarris.

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Kenneth P. Vogel from Washington.

By PETER BAKER and GARDINER HARRISFEB. 23, 2018