LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2019

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A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Sovereignty rules over economics’

‘Middle solution’ sought for crisis’“THE meetings of the Bahrain workshop ended calmly with some questions over the reality of the project which was propounded by the US representative in light of the political and financial impossibilities in addition to the rough attitudes of Israel and its occupation of the entire West Bank of Palestine as well as on the back-ground the Palestinian division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” columnist, the Kuwaiti former envoy to the United Nations, the former secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the director of the Diplomatic Centre for the Strategic Studies and the member of Board of Director of Kuwait University’s Gulf and Arab Peninsula Studies Centre Abdullah Bishara wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“These meetings had actually kicked off amid atmo-spheres of informational and intellectual tension, because the idea of the workshop was based on American reading of the adamant attitudes of the parties concerned.

“In this context, we elucidate that after winning the race to the White House the US President Donald Trump and his senior aides strived to reopen the issue of Palestine along with its com-plications since the issuance of United Nations resolution to divide Palestine.

“However, based on the Israeli diplomatic analysis and greedi-ness based on the Palestinian peo-ple’s determination to remain committed to their rights to establish an independent state and the American stance of putting an equal distance between the two par-ties and its desire to follow a different pattern than what was followed earlier in dealing with the Palestinian cause, the idea of holding a workshop emerged which was aimed at emptying the political content and replace it with the economics, Bahrain was chosen to host and organize the workshop in question away from the ‘heat’ of the West Bank.

“Here we will project some facts which surfaced dur-ing the Bahrain workshop. First of all the US delegation had familiarized itself with the facts besetting with the Arab attitudes related to the Palestinian issue which indicated that no acceptable solution will be realized without establishing an independent state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“In other words, the economic and social luxury was not to lure the Palestinians, because they remain com-mitted to their national identity just like other peoples of the world who have been welcomed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as member states amid blessings and hopes that these states will be able to ingrain the security and peace in the world.

“Meanwhile, we have observed that there is a strong cry for the foundation of the independent Palestinian state which has not come from those who boycotted or declined to participate in the Bahrain workshop, rather this cry came from those who hosted the workshop as well as from the relevant participants.

“Moreover, the participants had managed to put the US delegation under the impression that the Palestinians don’t look for money, rather they look for sovereignty. In other words, the Palestinians are not concerned about building bridges, roads and commercial malls, rather they are insisting to have a seat on the United Nations.

“Such being the case, neither the federation with Jordan or the establishment of a secular state in all parts of Palestine, shall divert their attention to have an inde-pendent Palestinian personality, given the fact the Bahrain meeting has made it clear that there will be no stability in the region without an independent Palestinian entity.

“However, the American delegation was affected by what it had heard during the workshop which indicated that the issue should be handled on political lines and not economics.

“Then again, it is obvious that the US effort repre-sented the sole channel that was likely to achieve prog-ress for the Palestinian cause in view of the special relationship between America and Israel in addition to the US relations and influence on the world to deal with all parties.

“But the UN shall remain the informational minaret under which the debates related to the historical march of this cause will be renewed. These debates, shall carry a message to the UN Security Council’s permanent members urging them to find a necessary solution to this cause to preempt the prospective explosion and destruction, but unfortunately, is not in a position to impose peace. Moreover, it doesn’t have necessary vehicles to enable it to put pressure and eventually per-suade the relevant parties about the relevant solution.

“In spite of the above, the UN shall remain the global tribune under which the Palestinians can express their pains and ambitions, but unfortunately the solution remains outside the scope of this international organiza-tion unless the concerned parties come to an agreement over the general framework.

“Moreover, as long as the concerned parties are fully aware of the complications of the Palestinian cause and are convinced of the inevitability of the US good offic-es, then the possibility of success of the US role must be subjected to study, particularly since we know that this role takes in its own accounts the special sensitivity of Israel in the US community, because Israel enjoys a special influence in the American political, economic and strategic body of the Americans and this means the US administration will not take any decision that angers Israel, rather this administration, shall strive to achieve ‘middle solution’ to deal with the struggle.

“We confess that the political solution has its price and this means the Palestinians will not realize all of their rights. In other words, they are likely to obtain an identity for its own state in addition to some arrange-ments over the Jerusalem issue similar to that which was contained in the project of the former US president Bill Clinton which was submitted in December 1999, although Israel was not happy of this project, but it had given room for the former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat to turn down this project.

“Anyway, the ideas contained in the Clinton project, shall remain useful and can be read again in light of the changes that have occurred since the reign of president Clinton and so far, but it needless to say that this requires a decision that shall place the interests of the Palestinians above other considerations in order to keep this people far away from the exclusion network that has excluded it from achieving its dreams to establish its independent state.

“Nonetheless, it is not enough for the Arab states to repeatedly say that they support the Palestinians, rather they should benefit from previous experiments and keep in mind that there are at the moment as many as 700,000 Israeli settlements in the West Bank – the figure which is currently becoming steadily bigger and bigger with the aim to aborting the dream of independent Palestinian state.

“The speech delivered by the US representative at the Bahrain workshop who is also the son-in-law of the US president, was the worst thing that happened during the workshop, because this man neither have any intellec-tual flair nor a flexible experience to qualify him to deal with the Palestinian cause, particularly since we know that he exhausted all politicians and failed to understand the dreams of the Palestinians to establish their own

independent state, rather he resorted to shower them with financial benefits, but he didn’t specify the sources of the money. As such the workshop ended without any agreement over the future framework.

“With regard to the Palestinian President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), he should actually be ready to face the coming storms by deepening his coordination with both Egypt and Jordan, because these two have the nec-essary qualifications to be involved in serious dialogue with the US administration to reach a political solution which may not satisfy him, but at least he can coexist with it and listen to the advices of those who are striving seriously to achieve the interests of the Palestinians who have resisted everything and have remained still com-mitted to their rights.

“In conclusion, we confirm the importance of diplo-matic confrontation not a boycott of dialogue, because a diplomatic confrontation is an appropriate manner for dealing with the contemporary issues.”

Also:“I have heard and read a lot of stories about the so

called ‘Deal of the Century’ which the president is cur-rently striving to impose as a reality that shall represent the sole choice for the Arabs,” Kuwaiti columnist and academician Dr Sabah Al-Suwaifan wrote for Al-Ray daily.

“However, I have cautiously and patiently followed up the prospective events that are likely to occur in the region and its effects on our Arab identity as well as on our historical convictions towards the Palestinians ques-tion.

“Likewise, I have followed up our Arab attitudes to the deal in question and I have observed that many people have refused and denounced the same, while a few people, have talked about its benefits through direct or indirect justification. There is another denomination of people how have preferred to adopt a neutral opinion in dealing with this deal.

“As a matter of fact, it appears difficult to unify the Arab stands when dealing with the essential and signifi-cant Arab issues and promote and defend the same before the entire world.

“In this article I will not talk about the deal in ques-tion and I will not conduct any analysis concerning its content or it motives, or discuss its effects on the present and the future of the nation and I will not talk about Arab dignity and so on.

“But, I will concentrate only on the issues related to ‘us’ – the issues that we should understand in terms of contents, reasons and the circumstances that dictated their appearance in our life and our mentalities.

“However, this first issue relates to the generation which believe in the Arab cause, but has not imparted this belief to their sons and grandsons, hence, we see most of the present generation know nothing about the events which have taken place around them to such an extent they will not be capable of shouldering any responsibility towards these events in the future, particularly those who are under twenty years old and below.

“In other words, most of the elements of this genera-tion are currently busy in their simple activities on social media, but if we talk with them about ‘Deal of the Century’ or about the Palestinian cause, then you will observe that they know nothing about it.

“While the second issue which seems to be more complicated, is that we have not as yet managed to real-ize what our unified language as Arabs mean, because this language was supposed to play its role in unifying our ranks and enable us to weave close relations with each other, but unfortunately the reality is the contrary to such an extent the points of disagreement among us are more than the points of agreement.”

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“Britain is proud of being a multi-ethnic country with its secularism, allowing the followers of different faiths to freely practice their rituals while wearing different dresses in the streets and in the workplaces, while France practices the most severe forms of oppression with moral and physical pressure to block any non-sec-ular manifestation”, columnist Ahmad Yaqoub Baqer wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“This, according to them, contradicts the French secu-larism. The French Senate voted by 185 to 100 some days ago to prevent veiled mothers from escorting their chil-dren on school trips. Of course, their argument is to pre-serve the environment of secular French life, and this argument is the doctrine of the dominant majority there.

“As soon as I read this news, a debate sent to me by a friend last week, in which he participated with one of the Kuwaiti women jumped into my mind. She demanded that religion remain within personal boundaries and not to introduce the Sharia opinion in the state administration. She demanded the role of clergy should be limited to preaching and advice, not imposition of laws in the National Assembly, while she objected to the idea that any group of people promulgates laws that affect their freedom.

“Like the French parliament, which passed secular legislation binding on women’s clothing and restricted freedom of opinion, parliament in the Islamic state must issue Islamic legislation that preserves the Islamic life environment and fights the evils that are alien to values. Personal freedom is practiced either in the home or in the law. According to the Constitution and the provi-sions of the Constitutional Court, there is no absolute freedom in any country in the world.

“Therefore, it is the mother of all wonders trying to outclass France with the consent of the Legislative Committee in the National Assembly on the proposed law to abolish the precensorship of books and the demand of some MPs to repeal the Electronic Crimes Law in disregard for the fact that some may contain certain violations of legitimacy with serious legal and moral implications to erode the remaining aspects of the our conservative Islamic environment”.

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“The case of suicide by a Bedoun youth should rep-resent a warning for the government, Parliament and citizens”, Abdulrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.

“This miserable incident brings sadness in all our hearts. Therefore, the time has come to take practical moves to change this miserable situation experienced by the children of this category and put an end to their suf-fering and the suffering of Kuwait also, as it too is affected by such incidents. It impacts not only the image of Kuwait in front of the international community but also in front of us and our conscience.

“The statement issued by the Head of Parliament’s Human Rights Committee MP Adel Al-Damkhi is both important and dangerous. He said the committee fol-lowed up the attempts of suicide among the Bedoun residents and discovered that they keep repeating, but the concerned authorities justify these incidents with reasons other than their suffering.

“MP Al-Damkhi stressed that the committee has pre-pared a draft law called ‘Civil and Social Rights Law’ for this category, but the committee faced opposition because of this law even though it doesn’t touch on naturalization or the demography issue but only sticks to the simplest of civil rights deserved by all human beings.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Bishara

KUNA photoThe Kuwaiti pilots who graduated from Italy and trained on flying the Eurofighter Typhoon jet.

Many Kuwaiti pilots train onEurofighter in Italy, graduate

Ties with Italy deep-rooted: Al-Fadhli

ROME, July 9, (KUNA): Seven Kuwaiti military pilots have graduated from Italy receiving courses that included training on one of the world’s most formida-ble combat aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The airmen have completed the courses at the International Flying School and graduated at a ceremo-ny held at the southern air base of Galatina.

Eurofighter joint international bureau said in a statement on Tuesday that the graduation ceremo-ny, held last Friday, was attended by Commander of the Kuwaiti Air Force Air Vice Marshal Adnan Al-Fadhli.

Speaking during the ceremony, Air Vice Marshal Al-Fadhli said the occasion depicted depth of the Kuwaiti-Italian relations and fruitful cooperation between the two coun-tries in various sectors.

This significant event also signals

distinctive cooperation between Kuwait and Italy for enhancing capacities of the Kuwaiti Army including the Air Force, he said.

Kuwaiti officers who take part in military courses in Italy get acquaint-ed with latest technology that enable them to train on the Eurofighters, he said, also indicating that the airmen get training on commanding Eurofighter Typhoon squadrons.

The Kuwaiti Air Force chief announced last year, during visits to plants in Europe where the fighter jet is manufactured, that the Gulf country would receive the first batch of Eurofighters by September 2020.

Eurofighter Typhoon is the world’s most advanced swing-role combat aircraft providing simultane-ously deployable Air-to-Air and Air-to-Surface capabilities.

MoE awaits new teachers arrivalKUWAIT CITY, July 9: The Ministry of Education is waiting for the foreign recruitment com-mittees to start the annual proce-dures for the appointment of teach-ers hired in and outside the coun-try, as well as the formation of a team consisting of employees at the Public Services Department, administrative sectors and some other governmental authorities to receive the new teachers from Tunis, Jordan and Palestine, and

coordinate with Kuwait International Airport to allow entry of the ministry’s cars to transport the luggage of these teachers to their hostel, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources.

Sources said the first batch of new teachers will arrive on Aug 18, indicating the number of teach-ers hired locally is less than 100 while those recruited from Tunis and Jordan reached 200.