Category: Politics

{First lady takes on increasingly political role, raising suspicion – and hope – that she might one day run for office.}

In a North Carolina coliseum, five young women are beaming after hearing US First Lady Michelle Obama speak. The event at Wake Forest University was a political rally for a former first lady, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But the main attraction was, without a doubt, the current first lady.

The US election season isn’t over yet but these women are ready for the next one.

“It would be really incredible if Michelle Obama eventually ran for president,” says Yasi Emamian, 21, enthusiastically.

“She’s just so inspiring, so strong and every single time I hear her speak, it makes me not be as frustrated with every other thing going on in this election,” says Elizabeth Lordi, 18.

Obama made history by joining Clinton, for the first time, on stage on Thursday, a point she acknowledged.

“I know that there are some folks out there who have commented that it’s been unprecedented for a sitting first lady to be so actively engaged in a presidential campaign,” she told the capacity audience. “And that may be true, but what’s also true is that this is truly an unprecedented election. And that’s why I’m out here.”

Not only is the first woman nominee of a major political party running for president, but both first ladies are united by an opponent whose remarks about sexually assaulting women has forced people like Obama to wade into much more political terrain.

In a 2005 taping for a US entertainment magazine programme, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is overheard bragging about forcing himself on women without their consent. “Just kiss. Don’t even wait,” he boasts. “You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.”

That tape was released just two days before the second presidential debate.

Within a week, multiple women came forward alleging Trump did exactly what he spoke about.

Michelle Obama had heard enough. In an October 13 speech in New Hampshire, the mother of two daughters who’d spent her entire time at the White House promoting initiatives for young women and girls around the world, went after Trump.

“I have to tell you that I can’t stop thinking about this,” Obama told the crowd. “It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted.” She went on to attack the Republican nominee without naming him, adding, “Now is the time for all of us to stand up and say enough is enough. This has got to stop right now.”

It was a defining moment in the campaign. Obama had already wowed the Democratic National Convention in July with a powerful speech which included a phrase that’s become a signature rallying cry for Clinton at campaign stops: “When they go low, we go high!” But her New Hampshire remarks raised expectations that she was preparing to follow in Clinton’s footsteps.

It’s doubtful it will ever happen, argues Chris Galdieri, assistant professor of politics at St Anselm College. “I don’t think she has that same motivation [as Clinton].” He notes that President Barack Obama has repeatedly made a point of telling the media his wife is eager to leave the White House.

In a January interview with CBS News, when asked whether he’d ever consider staying if a third term were permitted under the US Constitution, Obama answered he’d decline. “Number one, Michelle wouldn’t let me,” he said.

But Bill Schneider, professor of public policy at George Mason University, thinks it’s entirely possible Obama will seek political office. “I can tell you she is taken seriously by an awful lot of Democrats,” he notes. The key, he adds, is finding a state where she can run for either the US Senate or a governorship. “She could probably be elected a senator from California without any trouble.”

That’s the path Clinton took. After leaving the White House in 2001, she ran successfully for the US Senate that same year. She served for eight years before becoming Obama’s secretary of state and then the Democratic presidential nominee.

Even if Michelle Obama shuns the politician’s life for herself, her fans believe she’s already a tour de force.

“I know she’s going to be an influential person, regardless,” says Wallis Herzog, 18. “I’m in awe of her always.”

{US presidential hopeful addresses Israeli-American supporters in a video message, pledging to make Israel “safe again”.}

Jerusalem – “Make America Great Again” hats and blue Trump-Pence shirts were easily spotted. American flags waved in the wind. Chants of “Lock her up” echoed outside, a mainstay of Donald Trump’s speeches aimed at his rival Hillary Clinton.

But the Jewish head coverings, Hebrew conversations and Israeli flags gave this rally in support of the Republican presidential candidate a decidedly different flavour than the ones held in the US.

About 250 people gathered on Wednesday for a pro-Trump pep rally that overlooked the historic Old City walls, a symbolic location underlining the event speakers’ main message: Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital, and a President Trump would depart from long-held US policy and recognise that fact.

Speakers repeatedly denounced the recent UNESCO vote to condemn Israeli measures that hinder Muslim access to the al-Aqsa compound. Israelis were particularly incensed that the resolution did not explicitly note the Jewish connection to the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The Trump rally, which featured Christian evangelicals, Israeli-American settlers and Trump staffers, was the biggest show of force yet for the pro-Trump campaign in Israel, which is hoping to turn out the Israeli-American vote for the Republican ticket.

Republicans Overseas Israel, the group leading pro-Trump efforts in Israel, has set up outreach offices across Israel and in settlements in the occupied West Bank – a first for a presidential campaign – to drum up support for Trump and Mike Pence, his pick for vice president.

Recent polls, however, suggest that Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton commands the most support among Israelis, though there are no polls of only Israeli-Americans.

While Trump’s earlier statements on Israel raised eyebrows among the pro-Israel community – including a vow to remain “neutral” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a refusal to say whether he would recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – the presidential hopeful has changed his tune.

He has since attracted the support of pro-Israel donors like casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has given $10m to a pro-Trump Super-PAC that is spending money on anti-Clinton television advertisements.

Trump’s statements are now in line with the Republican base on Israel, a change of direction evident in his pre-recorded video statement to the rally.

“My administration will stand side by side with the Jewish people and Israel’s leaders to continue strengthening the bridges that connect not only Jewish Americans and Israelis, but also all Americans and Israelis,” Trump told the crowd, which frequently burst out into “Trump, Trump, Trump!” chants.

“Together, we will stand up to the enemies like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people. Together, we will make America and Israel safe again.”

Marc Zell, the chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and an Israeli-American settler, told Al Jazeera that “it’s important that the world here, and the voters both here in Israel and the United States, hear the strong support that the Republican Party and the candidates have for Jerusalem”.

Republicans Overseas Israel does not have an official relationship with the Trump campaign, but the group does coordinate its messaging with the Republican candidate’s campaign in the US. The group is funded by private donors.

Zell said the video messages from Trump and Pence on Israel at the rally could appeal to Christian evangelicals and pro-Israel Jews in the United States.

The evangelical community, which is strongly supportive of Israel and usually reliable Republican voters, is split over Trump’s candidacy, particularly in light of his remarks bragging about groping and kissing women without their consent.

Zell added that the Israeli-American vote could be particularly important in swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. “If those states come close the votes from here can be highly significant,” he said.

The group iVoteIsrael, a non-partisan organisation that registers American Israelis to vote, estimates there are 200,000 eligible American voters who live in Israel.

That includes 60,000 Americans who live in West Bank settlements, according to Sara Yael Hirschorn, a lecturer in Israel Studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Hirschorn doubts Israeli Americans will have a substantive impact on the outcome of the presidential election. But she said Republican efforts in Israel have symbolic value, and that most West Bank Israeli-American settlers will likely vote for Trump.

Unlike most American Jews, many West Bank settlers vote based on a candidate’s stance on Israel, she said.

“[Israeli-American settlers] can demonstrate that they’re able to collectively mobilise and that they want to have an influence on American politics,” Hirschorn told Al Jazeera. “They want to ensure that the next American president is going to be favourable to Israel continuing to hold on to the West Bank and expand the settlement enterprise.”

Trump appeals to rally attendees like Yossi Kransdorf, a 28-year-old Israeli-American who lives in a West Bank settlement and plans to vote. He said he was particularly appreciative of the fact that Republican Overseas Israel has offices in the occupied territories.

“He’s better for Israel,” he said. “[Clinton] doesn’t recognise Jerusalem as the capital. That’s the ABCs [of supporting Israel].”

Israel captured the Arab eastern half of Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it in 1980. The US, and most other UN member states, do not recognise the annexation and consider Jerusalem’s final status to be a key issue to be resolved in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

David Friedman, Trump’s adviser on Israel who could be the next US ambassador to Israel if Trump wins, underscored his message on Jerusalem by vowing that a Trump administration would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

That is a move strongly supported by many members of Congress, but US presidents have been loath to do so for fear that giving American blessing to Israeli control and occupation of Jerusalem would inflame a volatile situation.

Friedman also added a Trumpian flavour to the rally by indulging in conspiracy theories. He claimed that Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide, has “close connections to the Muslim Brotherhood” – and after an audience member shouted out that she is tied to al-Qaeda, repeated that claim on stage. Right-wing Americans have long pushed the theory that Abedin, a Muslim, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, but she does not, according to fact checkers.

But the crowd loved the claims- and Friedman urged the “well-educated crowd”, as he put it, to “give yourselves a round of applause, because you guys really know what you’re talking about.”

{Street protests are expected to continue on Monday, when some women also planning a strike, boycotting jobs and classes.}

Polish women have taken to the streets across the country, launching another round of protests against efforts by the nation’s conservative leaders to tighten already restrictive abortion law.

A large group gathered on Sunday outside the parliament building in Warsaw, chanting “We have had enough!”

The latest round of demonstrations, held under the slogan “We are not putting our umbrellas away,” was organised in response to a new proposal that would fall short of a total ban, but outlaw abortions in cases where fetuses are unviable or badly damaged.

Polish media reported that similar protests were happening in cities and towns across the country.

The street protests are expected to continue on Monday, when some women also planning a strike, boycotting jobs and classes.

Similar protests took place earlier this month against a proposal for a total ban on abortion.

But lawmakers rejected that proposal after massive crowds of women dressed in black staged streets protests under their umbrellas in the rain.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the ruling Law and Justice party, said recently he wants the law to ensure that women carry their fetuses to term even in cases of Down Syndrome, or when there is no chance of survival. The move would allow for baptisms and burials, Kacynski said.

His socially conservative party won parliamentary and presidential elections last year with the support of Poland’s powerful Roman Catholic church, Catholic media outlets and religious voters.

Many observers see the attempts to further restrict abortion as a way for the party to re-pay its debt to its religious base.

However, the proposals have proven too restrictive for many Poles, including some who voted for the party.

Abortion was legal and easily available under communism in Poland, but after communism’s fall the country re-embraced many of its Catholic traditions.

The current law, passed in 1993, bans most abortions, with exceptions only made in cases of rape, if the mother’s life or health is at risk, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged.

Official statistics show there were 1,040 legal abortions in Poland last year, although many more abortions are known to take place, with women or traveling to neighboring countries for the procedure or ordering abortion-inducing pills online.

{Opposition-controlled parliament says government breached constitution by blocking referendum to oust president.}

President Nicolas Maduro’s government committed a coup d’etat by blocking a referendum on removing him from power, Venezuela’s opposition-majority parliament accused.

Furious over the electoral authorities’ decision to suspend the process of organising a recall vote, opposition MPs on Sunday passed a resolution declaring “the breakdown of constitutional order” and “a coup d’etat committed by the Nicolas Maduro regime”.

In an emergency session on the economic and political crisis gripping the South American oil giant, MPs called on Venezuelans to “actively defend” the constitution by protesting. They also promised to request the international community to “activate mechanisms” to restore democracy.

“A continual coup d’etat has been perpetrated in Venezuela, culminating in the decision to rob us of a recall referendum. We’re here to officially declare the regrettable and painful rupture of the constitution,” said majority leader Julio Borges of the centre-right opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).

Pro-Maduro politicians accused the opposition itself of seeking to stage a coup.

“Don’t try to take advantage of these hard times to finish off our nation,” deputy Earle Herrera said.

Opposition politicians stopped short of voting to put Maduro on trial, as they had earlier threatened.

The session briefly descended into chaos when Maduro supporters forced their way past security guards and burst into the National Assembly, a moment which put proceedings on hold for 45 minutes.

{{Largely symbolic}}

Despite harsh rhetoric, the legislature’s resolution is largely symbolic.

The Supreme Court has declared the legislative majority in contempt of court for defying it by swearing in three lawmakers at the centre of an electoral fraud investigation.

The opposition, which says the accusations are trumped up, condemns the high court as a Maduro lapdog.

The court has slapped down every bill passed by the legislature since the opposition took control in January.
New low

Venezuela’s crisis hit a new low on Thursday when the National Electoral Council indefinitely suspended the recall referendum process after criminal courts in five states ruled the opposition had committed fraud in an initial petition drive.

Holding a recall referendum – a right guaranteed under Venezuela’s constitution – was the opposition’s main strategy to get rid of the man they accuse of driving the once-booming country to the brink of collapse.

The opposition had been gearing up for the last hurdle in the complex process: a three-day drive starting on Wednesday to collect signatures from four million voters demanding a recall vote.

Now that the authorities have stymied that bid, furious opposition leaders have promised the start of a new wave of nationwide protests on Wednesday.