New York Times - Bret Stephens - "A Rare Middle East Triumph And — yes — a triumph for Trump, too."

Bret Stephens is my favorite New York Times columnist. I read this whole thing and I agree with everything he wrote.

New York Times

Opinion

A Rare Middle East Triumph

And — yes — a triumph for Trump, too.

By Bret Stephens
Opinion Columnist

September 14, 2020

For years, the Trump administration’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East have been the object of relentless derision in elite foreign-policy circles, some of it justified. Yet with Friday’s announcement that Bahrain would join the United Arab Emirates as the second Arab state in 30 days to normalize ties with Israel, the administration has done more for regional peace than most of its predecessors, including an Obama administration that tried hard and failed badly.

There are lessons in this, at least for anyone prepared to consider just how wrong a half-century’s worth of conventional wisdom has been.

At the heart of that conventional wisdom is the view, succinctly put by U.N. Secretary General António Guterres in February, that “resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains key to sustainable peace in the Middle East.” Untie that Gordian knot, so the thinking goes, and the region’s many problems become easier to solve, whether it’s other regional conflicts or the anti-Americanism that feeds international terrorism.

That thinking was always dubious — what, for instance, did the Iran-Iraq War, in which a million people or more died, have to do with Israelis and Palestinians? — though it had the convenience of giving Arab regimes a good way of deflecting blame for their own bad governance. But since the (misnamed) Arab Spring began nearly a decade ago, the view has become absurd.

The rise and fall of ISIS, civil war in Syria and anarchy in Libya, Turkey’s aggression against Kurds, proxy battles and hunger in Yemen, political turmoil and repression in Egypt and Iran, the bankruptcy of the Lebanese state, the plight of Middle Eastern refugees — if any of these catastrophes have something in common, it’s that they have next to nothing to do with the Jewish state or its policies. One may still hope for a Palestinian state, but it won’t save the region from itself.

What would? The best option is an alliance of moderates and modernizers — anyone in power (or seeking power) who wants to move his country in the direction of greater religious and social tolerance, broader (that is, beyond energy) economic development, less preoccupation with ancient disputes, more interest in future opportunities. Such an alliance is the only hope for a region being sucked into the maw of religious fanaticism, economic stagnation, environmental degradation and perpetual misrule.

Now this alliance may finally be coming into being. Unlike Israel’s peace with Egypt and Jordan — both based on strategic necessity and geographic proximity — the peace with the Emirates and Bahrain has no obvious rationale, even if a shared fear of Iran played a role.

The larger factor is shared aspiration. Israel is the most advanced country in the region because for seven decades it invested in human, not mineral, potential, and because it didn’t let its wounds (whether with respect to Germany in the 1950s or Egypt in the 1970s) get the better of its judgment.

The choice for the Arab world is stark. It can follow a similar path as Israel; be swallowed by Iran, China, Russia, Turkey or some other outsider; or otherwise continue as before until, Libya-like, it implodes.

As consequential as the peace deals themselves is the Arab League’s refusal to condemn them, eliciting a furious Palestinian reaction. That’s not surprising: It means the Palestinian grip over the league’s diplomatic agenda may finally be loosening.

Perhaps it also means that the grievance-driven politics that have dominated the Palestinian issue for decades are finally over, too. If so, it’s bad news for those Palestinian leaders and activists who think that, with unflagging obstinacy, they can somehow restore the status quo ante 1948, when Israel didn’t exist.

What’s bad news for some Palestinian leaders may be good news for ordinary Palestinians. Peace between Israelis and Arabs will not come from the inside out — that is, from a deal between Jerusalem and Ramallah that wins over the rest of the Arab world. Decades of diplomatic failure, culminating in John Kerry’s failed mediation efforts in 2014, should put an end to that fantasy.

Yet it isn’t crazy to think that peace might come from the outside in: from an Arab world that encircles Israel with recognition and partnership rather than enmity, and which thereby shores up Israel’s security while moderating Palestinian behavior. If that’s right — and if states like Oman, Morocco, Kuwait, Sudan and especially Saudi Arabia follow suit — then this summer’s peace deals might finally create the conditions of viable Palestinian statehood.

A final point about these deals: This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not under the leadership of Israel’s supposedly bellicose Benjamin Netanyahu; certainly not through the diplomatic offices of the usually crazy/amateurish/perverse Trump administration. Luck and timing played a part, as they always do.

But it behooves those of us who are so frequently hostile to Netanyahu and Trump to maintain the capacity to be pleasantly surprised — that is, to be honest. What’s happened between Israel and two former enemies is an honest triumph in a region, and a year, that’s known precious few.

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Bret L. Stephens has been an Opinion columnist with The Times since April 2017. He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary at The Wall Street Journal in 2013 and was previously editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post. Facebook

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 15, 2020, Section A, Page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Rare Triumph In the Mideast.

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A Muslim asshole from Libya. 3 people dead because the UK let this terrorist asshole get in. Muslims must never be allowed to enter civilized countries. Never. If you're a Muslim moron then get off my planet you stupid fucking asshole.

The Washington Post

LONDON — Britain's Thames Valley Police announced Sunday that a stabbing rampage that killed three people in a park in the town of Reading, west of London, is being investigated as a terrorist attack in cooperation with the counterterrorism police.

In addition to the three dead, "a number of people" needed hospital treatment, said Neil Basu, the assistant commissioner at New Scotland Yard.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the rampage "appalling."

A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder soon after the attack. “From our enquiries so far, officers have found nothing to suggest that there was anyone else involved in this attack and presently we are not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident,” Basu said.

Neither Thames Valley Police nor Scotland Yard named the suspect, nor did police offer a motive for the attack. British media, citing unnamed security sources, reported that the suspect is from Libya. The Telegraph newspaper said he had arrived several years ago in Britain as a refugee of Libya’s civil war.

This is nice. Some tea to drink. A little fire to keep it warm. Something to read. Something to cover his face so the sand isn't a problem.

Wikipedia - Libyan cuisine

One of the most popular Libyan dishes is Bazin, an unleavened bread prepared with barley, water and salt. Bazin is prepared by boiling barley flour in water and then beating it to create a dough using a magraf, which is a unique stick designed for this purpose.

Everything you always wanted to know about Libya.

Cowardly Muslim morons blow themselves up every day. Usually several Muslims blow themselves up on the same day. Only Muslims do this. The stupidity of Muslim scum is breathtaking.

A big part of being successful is getting through the day without blowing yourself up. Muslims are so fucking stupid they think "successful" means blowing yourself up.

The idea is after they blow themselves up, killing themselves, women, and children, then the magical Allah will magically put them back together again, and they will have a magical 2nd life in a magical paradise for batshit crazy fucktards.

I'm not making any of this stuff up.

Today's September 12, 2018 New York Times has this article: "At Least 32 Die as Suicide Bomber Strikes Peaceful Afghan Protest".

Yesterday's September 11, 2018 New York Times has this article: "Gunman Storm Oil Headquarters in Libya." The employee who escaped, Haha Elddin, said six men armed with machine guns had fought their way into the building. Three had blown themselves up and three others had climbed the stairs to the upper floors.

Yesterday's September 11, 2018 New York Times also had this article: "Suicide Blast By Militants Kills Six In Somalia." It was the second significant attack on seats of government in the capital this month. At least six people, including two children, were killed on September 2.

Muslims are fucking insane not to mention extremely stupid.

All Muslims are evolution deniers (also known as uneducated morons). Evolution, especially human evolution, makes Muslim fucktards cry.

In other news from the September 11, 2018 New York Times there is a beach in Lebanon that's for women only. The problem is Muslims are afraid of women.

Tomorrow more Muslim morons will blow themselves up. Then of course there are numerous other atrocities for Allah every day. It will never end. Countless thousands of cowardly Muslim scum are waiting in line to blow themselves up, killing women and children.

I never met a Muslim who wasn't a stupid fucking asshole.