Week in Review: What’s Next in the Israeli Peace Process?, a Yawn in Germany, Death of the TPP, and Much More

Week in Review: What’s Next in the Israeli Peace Process?, a Yawn in Germany, Death of the TPP, and Much More

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images, Sean Gallup/Getty Images, DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images, NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Week in Review: What’s Next in the Israeli Peace Process?, a Yawn in Germany, Death of the TPP, and Much More

All you need to know about everything in the news this week

November 26, 2016

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Highlights:

Europe’s own Israeli-Palestinian policy

  • “Given the serious questions concerning U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s future policies on the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” wrote Al-Monitor’s Uri Savir, “the European Union is now exploring a more independent regional policy as a basis for international consensus.”
  • EU policy on a two-state solution is expected to bolster the “pragmatic” regime of Mahmoud Abbas, counter an expected increase in Israeli settlements, and impose punitive measures for non-compliance with European dictates.
  • As we wrote in “The Counterfeit Peacemaker,” Europe will break from American-led negations in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.

    • What a fourth term for Merkel means

  • On November 20, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she will seek reelection in autumn next year.
  • “We should note Merkel’s announcement with respect, if not exactly with euphoria,” said Markus Söder, a leader in Merkel’s sister party, the Christian Social Union.
  • Der Spiegel’s Dirk Kurbjuweit wrote that he does not “understand why Angela Merkel wants to run again and what she wants to do in the next four years in office.”
  • “[W]e can expect Merkel to simply plod on, and that can’t be the solution,” he wrote.
  • What and/or who could be the solution for Germany?

    • The end of the TPP

  • United States President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership (tpp) marked a “great news day for China,” according to the bbc.
  • “tpp allows America—and not countries like China—to write the rules of the road in the 21st century, which is especially important in a region as dynamic as the Asia-Pacific. … No wonder then that Beijing saw the U.S. pivot to Asia, and the tpp within that, as a thinly disguised plan to contain China’s growing might.”

    • The end of Japanese pacifism

  • On November 21, Japan deployed overseas its first gun-carrying soldiers since the end of World War ii.
  • The “pacifist” nation sent 130 troops to Juba, South Sudan, and by mid-December, it will have added 220 more.
  • Julian Ryall reported that troops in Japan’s Self-Defense Force are “now permitted to fire warning shots to make an armed group back off and have approval to fire directly at assailants if they determine themselves to be in life-threatening danger.”
  • To understand the significance of Japan’s shift toward “normalizing” its military, and to gain some insight into where it will lead, read “Why We Watch Japan’s March Toward Militarism.”

    • EU bribing Britain over European army?

  • According to the Guardian, top European Union officials are arguing that “if the UK makes a clear offer to cooperate” in defense, security and foreign policy, the EU “could oil the wheels in the more difficult [Brexit] negotiations over access to the EU single market.”
  • Britain signaled its willingness to offer military support to Europe in exchange for a smoother EU exit.

    • Other news:

  • In a letter to Security Council members, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon warned, “The Iranian Al-Quds Force packs weapons, ammunition and missile technology to Hezbollah in suitcases and puts them on Mahan Air flights” to Lebanon and Syria.
  • Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair might be planning a political comeback to counter the so-called populist policies of interim United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and far-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

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