France: 'Islamo-leftism' debate shows just how low Macron's regime can goWhen French Minister of Higher Education Frederique Vidal appeared on CNews last Sunday to warn of the dangers of “Islamo-leftism”, one may wonder whether she had planned to deliberately reignite one of the most destructive debates in the country, or - for structural reasons related to her privilege - she simply felt confident enough to allow herself to be candid? In either case, we are now back to the cycle of Islamophobic trash. This past week was dedicated to how Trappes, a popular banlieue in the western suburbs of Paris, was supposedly “a territory lost to Islamists”, as its recently elected Mayor Ali Rabeh was, according to the far right, “not doing enough” (to prevent racist fake news, most probably). The title for the worst, most ignorant, most racist and polarising statement related to Islam and Muslims in France has become, over the years, one of the most sought-after credentials. At the same time, our political elites fail to tackle more mundane issues, such as addressing a major health crisis, fighting unemployment, curbing mass poverty, or addressing structural discrimination. They have failed even to be struck by a transient form of decency and simply remain silent, when incapable of offering any useful contribution.So when Vidal was invited on the CNews show, her PR adviser, surely aware of how politically bland the minister had been thus far, likely told her to make the most of it. And she did. When host Jean-Pierre Elkabbach asked her to comment on whether “Islamo-leftism is infecting universities”, she doubled down and explained that “Islamo-leftism is in fact infecting the whole society”. The host went on to ask whether Vidal included those who “link race, gender and social status” in her criticism. “Absolutely,” she confirmed. And when Elkabbach claimed there was “an alliance between Mao Zedong and Ayatollah Khomeini”, Vidal couldn’t agree more: “You’re right!”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/france-islam-leftism-macron-regime-lowHow Wall Street Kills GrandmaAs governors in New York and Florida face political crises over their handling of the pandemic, the scandals have spotlighted how a disproportionate amount of COVID casualties have occurred in the nation’s nursing homes. The situation is a cautionary tale not only about political corruption, but about the consequences of a nursing home infrastructure being run by for-profit corporations — and now a study documents some of the body count. The analysis found that between 2004 and 2016, more than 20,000 Americans perished as a consequence of living in nursing homes run by private equity firms. The data showed that going to a private-equity-owned nursing home significantly “increases the probability of death during the stay and the following 90 days” as compared to nursing homes with a different ownership structure. The study from University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago and New York University researchers evaluated data from 15,000 nursing homes across the United States, alongside Medicare patient data, to assess the impacts of private equity ownership on patient outcomes. In all, the researchers found that the deaths accounted for “about 160,000 lost life-years.”
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/how-wall-street-kills-grandmaHow Israel Uses Africa to Try to Whitewash ApartheidIn recent years, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aided by Donald Trump, has sought to garner legitimacy for Israel beyond Washington. In the second half of 2020, Israel partially or fully restored diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Middle East, as well as Sudan and Morocco in Africa. Despite Trump’s exit, Israel’s campaign for normalization is not finished yet — and Africa is of particular interest. As Netanyahu told Israeli ambassadors to Africa in 2017: The automatic majority against Israel at the UN is composed — first and foremost — of African countries. There are 54 countries. If you change the voting pattern of a majority of them, you at once bring them from one side to the other. You have changed the balance of votes against us at the UN, and the day is not far off when we will have a majority there. On a recent episode of AIAC Talk, Africa Is a Country’s weekly show, William Shoki and Sean Jacobs spoke with Yotam Gidron, author of Israel in Africa, about Israel’s scramble for Africa. As Gidron notes, Israel’s presence on the continent is not just a recent phenomenon. “Throughout history,” he writes, “Israeli politicians and pro-Israel organizations and actors saw Israel’s involvement in Africa as a means for reshaping the international narrative around the situation in Israel/Palestine and countering criticism of Israel as a settler-colonial, discriminatory state.” In the years after the state’s creation in 1948, Israel sought to cast itself as part of the rising anti-colonial world and successfully forged ties with postcolonial leaders like Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere. The realities of Israeli occupation destroyed these ties by the early 1970s, as countries across the continent — save for apartheid South Africa — cut off diplomatic relations. But today, as Gidron describes in the following interview (condensed and edited for clarity), Israel is again seeking to burnish its reputation by pivoting back to Africa.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/israel-africa-whitewashing-apartheid