22 August 2018 | Author/Destination: Editorial / Redaktion | Rubric: Portrait
Reading Time: 16 minutes
US President Barack Obama taking his Oath of Office © defenseimagery.mil – Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the
44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. The first
African American to assume the presidency, he was previously the
junior United States Senator from
Illinois from 2005 to 2008. Before that, he served in the
Illinois State Senate from 1997 until 2004. For the moment, he is the last US president who is obliged to the
values of the
West:
democracy,
freedom,
respect for the right and dignity of man, irrespective of
origin,
color,
religion,
sex,
sexual orientation or
political attitude, and in compliance with
national and
international law.
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2 June 2018 | Author/Destination: Knut Wingsch | Rubric: General, Editorial, EU blog post series, European Union
Reading Time: 609 minutes
(Latest update: 23 August 2022) Transatlantic relations refer to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the
Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes specifically those between the
United States,
Canada and the countries in
Europe, although other meanings are possible. There are a number of issues over which the United States and Europe generally disagree. Some of these are cultural, such as the U.S. use of the
death penalty, some are international issues such as the
Middle East peace process where the United States is often seen as pro-Israel and where Europe is often seen as pro-Arab (
Arab–Israeli conflict), and many others are trade related. The current U.S. policies are often described as being
unilateral in nature, whereas the
European Union and Canada are often said to take a more
multilateral approach, relying more on the
United Nations and other international institutions to help solve issues. There are many other issues upon which they agree. This article refers to the relations between the EU (
Culture of Europe,
Economy of the European Union,
History of Europe, and
Politics of the European Union) and the USA (
Culture of the United States,
Economy of the United States,
History of the United States, and
Politics of the United States).
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6 January 2018 | Author/Destination: Knut Wingsch | Rubric: General, Editorial, Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 1987 minutes
© Oncenawhile
(Latest update: 23 August 2022) The Arab–Israeli conflict is the political tension, military conflicts and disputes between a number of
Arab countries and
Israel. The roots (
European colonial period,
Ottoman Empire, widespread
Antisemitism in Europe,
Jews in the Russian Empire,
Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (
Jewish land purchase in Palestine),
Theodor Herzl,
Jewish National Fund (
Israel Bonds),
timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,
World War I,
Sykes–Picot Agreement (
San Remo conference,
Mandate for Palestine,
UN Charter, Chapter XII – International Trusteeship System, Article 80 (commonly known as the “Palestine Article” used by both conflict parties, Israel and Palestine, to create the wildest interpretations, speculations and conspiracy theories to assert the respective alleged right to the total land area),
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence),
Balfour Declaration,
World War II,
The Holocaust (
International Holocaust Remembrance Day),
Évian Conference,
Mandatory Palestine,
Forced displacement, and
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine) of the modern Arab–Israeli conflict (or the history of collective failure) are bound in the rise of
Zionism and
Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century. Territory regarded by the
Jewish people as their
historical homeland is also regarded by the
Pan-Arab movement as historically and currently belonging to the
Palestinians, and in the
Pan-Islamic context, as
Muslim lands. The
sectarian conflict between Palestinian Jews and Arabs emerged in the early 20th century, peaking into a
full-scale civil war in 1947 and transforming into the
First Arab–Israeli War in May 1948 following the
Israeli Declaration of Independence (
Nakba and the
assassination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte by the terror organization
Lehi/Stern gang. Among them, the later Israeli PM
Yitzhak Shamir). Large-scale hostilities mostly ended with the cease-fire agreements after the 1973
Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War, or October War. Peace agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, resulting in Israeli withdrawal from the
Sinai Peninsula and abolishment of the
military governance system in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip, in favor of
Israeli Civil Administration and consequent unilateral, internationally not recognized, annexation of the
Syrian Golan Heights and
East Jerusalem. Even when the text is about 556 pages long, it is just a summary. The multitude of links point out that there is a lot more to learn in detail. At first, it is a timeline of the major developments in the region and it leads to today’s challenges. The starting point is the view of the
international community, especially the European Union and North America, on the conflict, enriched with excursions into the ideas, convictions, believes, and thoughts of the direct and indirect involved parties to the conflict.
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