Recent news has renewed interest in Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem and founder of Palestinian nationalism, and has also shined a spotlight on the ties between Palestinian nationalism and Nazism. Here is what you need to know:

• Husseini used the “Temple Mount Images” to convince the Arabs to massacre Jews in Hebron , in 1929.

The Atlantic’s  reminded us last week, in an article of Jeffrey Goldberg;  how Husseini’s incitement against Jews before the creation of the State of Israel served as a model for the current terror against Jews in Israel.

The spiritual leader of Palestine’s Muslims, the mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, incited Arabs in Palestine against their Jewish neighbors by arguing that Islam itself was under threat. (Husseini would later become one of Hitler’s most important Muslim allies.) Jews in British-occupied Palestine responded to Muslim invective by demanding more access to the Wall, sometimes holding demonstrations at the holy site. By the next year, violence directed against Jews by their neighbors had become more common: Arab rioters took the lives of 133 Jews that summer; British forces killed 116 Arabs in their attempt to subdue the riots. In Hebron, a devastating pogrom was launched against the city’s ancient Jewish community after Muslim officials distributed fabricated photographs of a damaged Dome of the Rock, and spread the rumor that Jews had attacked the shrine.

The current “stabbing Intifada” now taking place in Israel—a quasi-uprising in which young Palestinians have been trying, and occasionally succeeding, to kill Jews with knives—is prompted in good part by the same set of manipulated emotions that sparked the anti-Jewish riots of the 1920s: a deeply felt desire on the part of Palestinians to “protect” the Temple Mount from Jews.

2) Husseini had an intense working relations with Adolf Eichmann concerning the  extermination of Jews in the Holocaust.

At the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, the testimony of convicted Nazi war criminal Dieter Wisliceny was used and clearly showed that Eichmann had close ties with Husseini:

Mr. Steiner [the prosecutor] first tells us that Wisliceny described his talks with Eichmann, why Palestine cannot be considered as the destination for emigration: “When I asked him why, he laughed and asked whether I had never heard of the Grand Mufti Husseini. He explained that the Mufti has very close contact and cooperation with Eichmann, and therefore Germany cannot agree to Palestine being the final destination, as this would be a blow to Germany’s prestige in the Mufti’s eyes.”

Then he goes on: “At this further conversation Wisliceny gave me more details about the cooperation between Eichmann and the Mufti. The Mufti is a sworn enemy of the Jews and has always fought for the idea of annihilating the Jews. He sticks to this idea always, also in his talks with Eichmann” – and here we have one of the points about which Wisliceny has reservations – “who, as you know, is a German who was born in Palestine. The Mufti is one of the originators of the systematic destruction of European Jewry by the Germans, and he has become a permanent colleague, partner and adviser to Eichmann and Himmler in the implementation of this programme.”

3) Husseini during World War II was an intense propagandist for the Third Reich , and a clear anti-Allies speaker.

As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum remind us on their website :

In exile between 1937 and 1945, al-Husayni, claiming to speak for the Arab nation and the Muslim world, sought an alliance with the Axis powers (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) based on their publicly recognizing 1) the independence of the Arab states; 2) the right of those states to form a union reflecting a dominant Muslim and specifically Arab culture; 3) the right of those states to reverse steps taken towards the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine; and 4) al-Husayni himself as the spiritual and political representative of this pan-Arab, Muslim entity. In exchange, al-Husayni collaborated with the German and Italian governments by broadcasting pro-Axis, anti-British, and anti-Jewish propaganda via radio to the Arab world; inciting violence against Jews and the British authorities in the Middle East; and recruiting young men of Islamic faith for service in German military, Waffen-SS , and auxiliary units. In turn, the Germans and the Italians used al-Husayni as a tool to inspire support and collaboration among Muslim residents of regions under Axis control and to incite anti-Allied violence and rebellion among Muslims residing beyond the reach of German arms.

4) Nazi support of Husseini led to radicalizing the Muslim world.

Matthias Küntzel, associate researcher of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, showed that the Nazi support of Husseini and the Muslim Brotherhood played an important role in radicalizing the Muslim world.

In Zeesen, a town with some four thousand inhabitants to the south of Berlin, once stood one of the world’s most powerful shortwave transmitters. From 1939 onward, it broadcast its daily Arabic-language program. Of all the foreign-language services, the Oriental Service had “absolute priority. It reached out to Arabs, Turks, Persians, and Indians and had an eighty-strong staff, including freelance announcers and translators.”4 Between 1939 and 1945, at a time when, in the Arab world, listening to the radio took place primarily in public squares or bazaars and coffee houses, no other station was more popular than the Zeesen service, which skillfully mingled anti-Semitic propaganda with quotations from the Koran and Arabic music. The Allies in the Second World War were presented as lackeys of the Jews and the notion of the “United Jewish Nations” drummed into the audience. At the same time, the Jews were attacked as the worst enemies of Islam. “The Jew since the time of Mohammed has never been a friend of the Muslim, the Jew is the enemy and it pleases Allah to kill him.”5 Today, this same message is being put out on satellite by Hizbollah’s Al- Manar TV channel. So what are the historical connections between the shortwave transmitter in Zeesen and the Beirut satellite channel?

A highlight of Radio Zeesen’s output was the demand for jihad by the most popular figure in the Arab-Islamic world of the time, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini (1895-1974). From 1941 onward he lived in Berlin, supervising Arabic radio broadcasting out of Zeesen, Athens, and Rome.6 Nobody promoted hatred of Jews among Muslims more effectively than the Mufti. The European responsibility for this is clear: el-Husseini had after all been appointed to and promoted in office by European powers. It was the British who, having first sentenced him to ten years in jail for anti-Jewish incitement in 1920, then amnestied him in 1921 and made him Mufti against the will of the majority of Palestinians. It was the Germans who paid him for his services between 1937 and 1945. And it was the French who in 1946, when the Mufti was being pursued internationally as a war criminal, helped him escape to Egypt and continue his activities.

5) Palestinian Nationalism and Modern Islamism were both influenced by Husseini’s radical and violent anti-Semitism ,that will later became a founding feature of these movements.

Küntzel continues:

Nobody had a greater influence on the early history of the Middle East conflict than the Mufti, who as president of the Supreme Muslim Council was not only the supreme religious authority but also the central figure in Palestinian nationalism. In the 1930s, there were countless Arab nationalists who viewed Germany as an ally against the British without concerning themselves with the nature of the Hitler regime. Things were different where the Mufti was concerned: he knew what the regime was about and was attracted to it for that very reason. …

Thus did the years 1936-1939 shape Islamism as a new and independent, anti-Semitic and antimodern mass movement. Until 1936 the moderate Arab forces, which welcomed or at least tolerated Zionism, had in no way been marginalized. This changed after the National Socialists threw their weight behind the Islamists. They successfully spurred on the unrest in Palestine and so contributed to spreading the idea that the Jews were the enemy to Egypt. The Islamist mass mobilization was financially and ideologically supported by Radio Zeesen and other means of propaganda. This was one of the reasons that it was the Islamism and anti-Semitism of Hassan al-Banna rather than the enlightened modernism of Kemal Atatürk that gained general acceptance in the Arab part of the Islamic world.35

The Zeesen shortwave transmitter appears in retrospect to have been the interface that transferred the anti-Semitic ideology to the Arab world and linked early Arab Islamism with late National Socialismzism. Although Radio Zeesen ceased operation in April 1945, it was only after that date that its frequencies of hate really began to reverberate in the Arab world.

6) Husseini’s “fusion” of European anti-Semitism with Islamic views of Jewish evil has been adopted by Islamists around the world.

In a 2009 article in The Wall Street Journal citing Küntzel’s work, Daniel Schwammenthal wrote that the mufti’s “fusion of European anti-Semtism—particularly the genocidal variety—with Koranic views of Jewish wickedness has become the hallmark of Islamists world-wide, from al Qaeda to Hamas and Hezbollah.”

During his time in Berlin, the mufti ran the Nazis’ Arab-language propaganda radio program, which incited Muslims in the Mideast to “kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history and religion.” Among the many listeners was also the man later known as Ayatollah Khomeini, who used to tune in to Radio Berlin every evening, according to Amir Taheri’s biography of the Iranian leader. Khomeini’s disciple Mahmoud Ahmadinejad still spews the same venom pioneered by the mufti as do Islamic hate preachers around the world.

Muslim Judeophobia is not—as is commonly claimed—a reaction to the Mideast conflict but one of its main “root causes.” It has been fueling Arab rejection of a Jewish state long before Israel’s creation.

7) Husseini recruited thousands of Muslim soldiers for Hitler.

As the Holocaust Museum also noted, Husseini helped create a Bosnian-Muslim division of the Waffen-SS:

When the SS decided in February 1943 to recruit among Bosnian Muslims for a new division of the Waffen-SS, SS Main Office Chief Berger enlisted al-Husayni in a recruiting drive in Bosnia from March 30 and April 11. On April 29, Berger reported that 24,000–27,000 recruits had signed up and noted that the “visit of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem had had an extraordinarily successful impact.” Both al-Husayni and the SS repeatedly referred to the success of the 13th Waffen-SS Mountain Division (also known as “Handschar”). Al-Husayni spoke to the military Imams of the division, stressing the importance of maintaining the principles of Islam and of “strengthening cooperation between the Muslims and their ally, Germany,” and identifying common enemies faced by Muslims and the Germans: World Jewry, England and its allies, and Bolshevism.

8) Husseini was designated by the UN as a war criminal.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on his placement on a UN war criminals register in July 1945:

Hadj Amin el-Husseini, former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, has been officially placed on the war criminals list of the United Nations, the Hebrew Committee for National Liberation reported today. …

In reply to its original request to the War Crimes Commission that it place the Mufti on its list of criminals, the commission stated that before doing so one of its member governments would have to present evidence constituting a prima facie case.

Upon receipt of this cable, a committee representative discussed the matter with Ivan Subasic, Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs, while he was at San Francisco, pointing out that the Mufti had organized the German S.S. Moslem Division in Bosnia and been responsible for the massacre of Yugoslav Moslems who refused to collaborate with the Germans.

9) After World War II, Husseini continued spreading anti-Semitic propaganda as a central tenet of Palestinian nationalism

Husseini escaped arrest and spent the last twenty-eight years of his life spreading anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda. The Holocaust Museum recounts:

As the Nazi regime collapsed in 1945, French authorities took al-Husayni into custody. He escaped to Egypt in 1946. Al-Husayni devoted the remainder of his life to supporting Palestinian nationalism and to agitating against the State of Israel. He continued to produce and disseminate anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel propaganda. He died in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 4, 1974.

10) Husseini remains a hero to Palestinians.

In a January 2013 ceremony, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised Husseini as a hero of the Palestinian cause :

On the anniversary of the [Fatah] Launch, we renew the promise to our blessed Martyrs, that we will follow the path of the Martyr Brother Yasser Arafat and his comrades among the leaders of all the fighting forces, all the Martyrs. … Now let us recall the pioneers: The Grand Mufti of Palestine, Haj Muhammad Amin Al-Husseini.

YoungDiplomats top 10 of Most Technologically Advanced Countries in Africa. Technology is growing at a very fast pace across the globe with the Americas at the fore front , Europe and Asia right within the circle and Africa comparatively lagging behind and a lot dependant on acquisition of already invented technology from the aforementioned regions.

However, Africa is not willing to remain stagnant forever and some of the continent’s countries are at the fore front of technological advancement. In coming up with this final list of most technologically advanced African countries , Young Diplomats and Answers Africa examined each of the 54 African countries that matched them up using several ranking factors including : Intensity of R&D, productivity and variability of technological products, high-tech density sic as proportion of high-tech public companies in the field of advanced engineering; energy, defense, hardware and software, Internet and computers sciences. Also researcher concentration compared to the rest of the population , manufacturing capability of each country, education levels concerning High-Tech, and of course raw talent were also considered.

In the latest Global Innovation Index(GII) ranking, Sub-Saharan African countries had the highest imporvement in rankings when compared to that of the 2013 rankings. The region is fast embracing technology and doing all that it can to utilize and at the same time come out with latest innovations that can improve the way we live. Below are the top 5 technologically advanced countries in Africa; most of which are in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

Below is the list of African Countries with the most advanced technology.

10. Zimbabwe

A country located in the Southern Afria, Zimbabwe has experienced a significative rise in it’s annual GDP since now 2012. Technologically , the country is not experiencing a revolution in tech, but it is strong enough to be regarder among the top ten technologically advance countries in Africa. With Stability in the government of Zimbabwe, improvement should come in the coming years. One of the main advantages of Zimbabwe is that the country has a lot of Human ressources , highly educated (A lot of students attended Universities in South Africa or Ukraine) that can easily be harnessed for greater good in Technology. In the three main cities of Zimbabwe, Harare,Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, wifi and Hi-Tech equipment have been developped with the help of South African companies ,and now the country has a high rate of Internet connexion. With the growing tourism , the investements are likely to continue.

9. Uganda 

Uganda, a country that is mistly remembered with the mention of Amin Dad, the old dictator that confronted the Israelis, should perhaps also be remembered amont the top countries in Africa with an advancing technology. According to a study conducted by Martin Prosperity Institute of the US, Uganda is one of the three African countries that has been ranked amont the countries with advanced technological and innovation capabilities in Africa. In the report, Uganda is second to South Africa and followed by Madagascar. Across the globe, Uganda is among the 82 countries of the world that has advanced technological and innovation capabilities.

8. Angola

The science and technology industry in Angola remains limited but there is increasing awareness hence the country is getting on the right track when it comes to information and technology development . There may not have been a lot of ground breaking and jaw chattering inventions coming from the Angola but it is expected that with sustained growth and development , the counry would come up to be a tech giant in Africa.

7.Botswana

Botswana is one of the most stable and successful economies in the whole of Africa. Technology is fast becoming a measure of international development and Botswana not willing to be left behind. The Botswana’s Innovation Hub backed by the government is designed to throw start-ups, global corporations ,research and health organizations under one massive green roof to facilitate the growth of technology in the country.

6. Rwanda

Rwanda is a country ravaged by civil war and genocide in the past and right now, it is aiming to become a regional hub for African information technology. In this regard, the country has launched the proposed 4G LTE broadband network which would provide new opportunities to deliver better services accross the country. The country is engaging rapidly with all kinds of technology at once and perhaps we’d soon be able to see mind-blowing inventions.

5. Ghana

With a much more stable and growing economy , Ghana is poised to have one of the best environments that supports advancement in technology. Quite a lot of technological innovations has emanated from the West African country of 25 millions people. Using compressed gas to generate electricity invented by Mr. Freddie Green is one of the out of the box thoughts that became real in the country. An affordable video conferencing system was also developed by a Ghanaian. The country is being looked upon as the next “great” African country.

4. Kenya

Kenya is definitely amont the top 4 African countries to be envied when it comes to technology. The country is seeing a lot of startup companies with revolutionary ideas especially in the IT sector and all things being equal, this is bound to continue with a lot of start-ups that may eventually form International platforms for further technology growth. Some of the inventions from Kenya include: charging shoe developed by Anthony Mutual, alarm-fitted television created by a 44-year-old man who resides in Nairobi. The alarm can be set off with a simple jostle of movement and can sound for up to eight hours , a charcoal stove, a solar-powered refregirator which allows medications including vaccinations and valuable perishables to reach remote areas of rural cities where there is no hope of finding electricity, Moses Gichanga’s drone which flies for up to two hours at a time. Other similar inventions powered by Kenya’s raw talent include :Temperproof voting Machine , Solar-Powered refregirator , Underwater pets housings , SMS car immobiliser.

3. Nigeria

The most populous African country has not been left out in technology and innovative developments accross Africa. Coming at the thrid slot, Nigeria is a technology giant with lots of potentials in the industry. It is home to the likes of Iroko Partners ,a successful internet company with over 6 million uniques users from 178 different countries , made in Nigeria INYE-1 and INYE-2 tablet computers. Seyi Oyesola’s “Hospital in a box” invention et.. In recent times, the country saw the famous demonstration of a rugine powered generator developed by school teenagers ; a Moringa plant technology that would enable Nigerians to use Moringa plant for water treatment, a move toward increasing the accessiblity to potable water in the country. There are also a lot of achievements in mobile and web apps development in the country. Though the internet penetration is still low and stands at roughly 38% , Nigeria is a country with a lot of potentials producing the most talented people when given the opportunity.

2. Egypt

It was said that the civilization started in Egypt. This country has for long been associated with inventions and innovations. From the Egyptian Pyramid to the use of calendar and written language. The Northe African Country has not relented in spearheading science and technology in Africa. Egypt has some of the best universities in Africa that support development in technology. Egypt has gone this far because the government embraces technology with an attitude spread across all Industries. Despite the recent civil unrest in the country, Egypt is still a technological force to reckon with and is one of the most technologically advanced countries in Africa.

1. South Africa

If you are waiting to see the country that occupies the number 1 sport on our list, your guess was right. South Africa , a country that cannot easily be compared with most other countries across Africa, also tops African countries in the current Global Innovation Index(GII), ranking number 53 out of 143 countries compared globally. The country supports its human potential tnad that is the reason why you see a lot of development in the IT field springing up from South Africa. With South African Universities constituting most of the best Universities in Africa, the country is bound to keep producing some of the most amazing inventions that are globally recognized. The list of discoveries that are worth mentioning are quite enormoud. Linux Ubuntu developed by Mark Shuttleworth, Multichoice (DSTV) is a South African company with a global influence, PayPal which was co-founded by a South Africa, CAT scan, SASOL technology that  converts coal into oil , just to mention a few of South African innovations.

For the first time in a decade, the idea of generalised strikes, riots, protests, and violence escalating to “intifada” proportions looks entirely plausible. Escalation by Israel, and Hamas in Gaza, looks likely.

Is this the beginning of another intifada?

The current violence is already nearly intense enough to be considered an intifada if it continued, and further escalation seems likely.

In an interview before last summer’s Gaza war, a former Israeli security official told me that a Third Intifada was unlikely because Palestinians know that violence “is not good for them” and would grant Israel “legitimacy for using military force”.

Ayed Atmawi, a Palestinian political activist and employee of the Geneva Initiative in Ramallah says Palestinians “know the only one to benefit from a military confrontation and chaos is Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]”.

He says Palestinian President Abbas is aware of this and is always keen to avoid deaths on both sides.

Nevertheless, Palestinians are frustrated with the lack of movement on the Oslo Accords and angered by continued construction in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Mr Abbas cannot control every individual and the clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces show it is impossible to rule out further escalation—including to proportions one might label as an “intifada”.

The reason escalation is likely to continue is today’s attacks appear to be mostly uncoordinated and thus difficult to counter without force.

What can Israel do?

It is possible that significant concessions by Israel might reduce the violence, but even that is not certain.

Mr Netanyahu’s government was elected not to make concessions to Palestinians and doing so would likely destroy his coalition.

Furthermore, hardliners in the Israeli government will be concerned that concessions given at a time of violence would serve to reward that violence.

Avoiding such concessions is therefore a longstanding Israeli policy. If concessions are impossible, the only other option is a heavy Israeli crackdown on Palestinian violence.

What can the Palestinians do?

If Mr Abbas continued to cooperate with Israeli security, his legitimacy in Palestinian eyes would be severely damaged, potentially stoking violence.

If he did not, violence would also rise. Either decision would thus likely lead Israel to harsher measures.

A final piece of the puzzle is Hamas in Gaza, which continues to reject Israel’s very right to exist.

Israel has been hitting Hamas sites there in response to rocket launches by other groups from the Strip, hoping to encourage Hamas to crack down on them.

Hamas’s situation in Gaza is precarious, but this is not necessarily a bonus for Israel.

Opinion polls have shown that Gazans disapprove of Hamas whenever it appears to be idle while others are making moves against Israel.

If internal pressures on Hamas rise, it is likely to allow other militant groups to launch rockets at Israel rather than stopping them.

Israel would respond by increasing attacks on Gaza. Such a situation could easily escalate into another war—the fourth in just 8 years.

What next?

The status quo between Israelis and Palestinians looks increasingly untenable.

Whether that means an intifada will depend not only on decisions taken by the Israeli and Palestinian governments, but also those taken by Hamas and individuals on the Palestinian street.

Charles Kirchofer is a PhD Candidate in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London

One week before the UN General Assembly where Russia will present its international coalition against Daech plan, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Kremlin against the risk of “escalation of the conflict” .

Since the disclosure by US, British and Israeli media information that Russian troops would participate in the fighting alongside the troops of Bashar Assad in Syria, the opposition between Russia and the West on the Syrian issue s is accentuated, said the Russian daily Kommersant.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Moscow against a risk of “escalation of the conflict” in Syria, was certified if the current strengthening of the Russian military presence on Syrian soil. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs then recalled that Russia had “always helped militarily Syria in its fight against terrorism, and it continued to do so.” 

Close airspace to Russian aircraft

Moscow and the West have different approaches to the settlement of the Syrian conflict, believes useful to recall the newspaper: Americans and Europeans pose as prior removal of Bashar Assad, responsible according to them of all the current problems in Syria. Moscow considers the regime in Damascus as a natural ally of the coalition against terrorism and believes that its reversal would not be able to moderate its opponents, but radical Islamists. Now, says Kommersant, “information on the possible presence of Russian troops in Syria has reinforced the distrust of the West against Moscow and the rejection of its positions.”

First concrete manifestation of this hardening, Washington called on September 7 in Athens to refuse to open its airspace to Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria. Greece has initially accepted Moscow’s request for a delay from 1 to 24 September. Russia has indicated that if Athens finally bowed to the American request, she would find other routes to route deliveries, including Iranian circuits (passing through Iraq) lapped long, continues Kommersant.

Putin will present his plan to the UN 

As informs the Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, citing Syrian press loyal to the regime, Damascus gave its agreement for the construction of a new Russian military base in Jableh, south of Latakia, the largest port in the country. As explained by the title, unlike the port of Tartus, where already is a technical basis for the Russian fleet, the site of Jableh provide the conditions for a major concentration of troops and the installation of a large reserve of armaments and military equipment.

NG finally recalls that Russia intends to present its settlement plan of the Syrian conflict at the next General Assembly of the United Nations in New York (from 15 to 22 September). Putin particular exhibit its idea of creating an international coalition against the Islamic state (EI, Daech) to the UN Security Council to “give it legitimacy and a whole [to] provide him the support of the international community “. The coalition would include the army of Bashar Al Assad, but also likely Iran and China, says Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

One week before the UN General Assembly where Putin will present its international coalition against Daech plan, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Kremlin against the risk of “escalation of the conflict” .Since the disclosure by US, British and Israeli media information that Russian troops would participate in the fighting alongside the troops of Bashar Assad in Syria, the opposition between Russia and the West on the Syrian issue s is accentuated, said the Russian daily Kommersant. Therefore we ask ourselves are we heading  toward a confrontation between Russia and the US?

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Moscow against a risk of “escalation of the conflict” in Syria, was certified if the current strengthening of the Russian military presence on Syrian soil. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs then recalled that Russia had “always helped militarily Syria in its fight against terrorism, and it continued to do so.” 

Close airspace to Russian aircraft

Moscow and the West have different approaches to the settlement of the Syrian conflict, believes useful to recall the newspaper: Americans and Europeans pose as prior removal of Bashar Assad, responsible according to them of all the current problems in Syria. Moscow considers the regime in Damascus as a natural ally of the coalition against terrorism and believes that its reversal would not be able to moderate its opponents, but radical Islamists. Now, says Kommersant, “information on the possible presence of Russian troops in Syria has reinforced the distrust of the West against Moscow and the rejection of its positions.”

First concrete manifestation of this hardening, Washington called on September 7 in Athens to refuse to open its airspace to Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria. Greece has initially accepted Moscow’s request for a delay from 1 to 24 September. Russia has indicated that if Athens finally bowed to the American request, she would find other routes to route deliveries, including Iranian circuits (passing through Iraq) lapped long, continues Kommersant.

Putin will present his plan to the UN 

As informs the Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, citing Syrian press loyal to the regime, Damascus gave its agreement for the construction of a new Russian military base in Jableh, south of Latakia, the largest port in the country. As explained by the title, unlike the port of Tartus, where already is a technical basis for the Russian fleet, the site of Jableh provide the conditions for a major concentration of troops and the installation of a large reserve of armaments and military equipment.

NG finally recalls that Russia intends to present its settlement plan of the Syrian conflict at the next General Assembly of the United Nations in New York (from 15 to 22 September). Putin particular exhibit its idea of creating an international coalition against the Islamic state (EI, Daech) to the UN Security Council to “give it legitimacy and a whole [to] provide him the support of the international community “. The coalition would include the army of Bashar Al Assad, but also likely Iran and China, says Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

After an extremely hot summer – and it is not just the weather we are talking about here – recent polls have revealed new developments in the Italian political scenario of the Bel Paese. Based on the stats, who went through sunbathing without getting burnt?

Matteo Renzi, PM. The youngest Prime Minister in the history    of Italy and his Partito Democratico (center-left wing, Democratic Party) seem to have spent a very boring vacation indoor. The party’s approval rate is almost unchanged since June – 33%, which does not even begin to compare with the outstanding 40.8% of last year’s European elections. Though his premiership is not in danger, Matteo is getting ready for a cold winter: voting on constitutional reform will show if his peeps are with him or against him.

Movimento Cinque Stelle in search of a leader. Comedian Beppe Grillo’s “political toy”, the Movimento Cinque Stelle (undefined, Movement Five Stars) reaches the highest peek since its first major race – 27%. The Movement has managed to convince a large pool of former Lega Nord (see below), extreme-right and extreme-left wing voters at the sound of an anti-euro and anti-system ideology.
Corruption scandals and reports from Rome’s decay – which was widely described by the NYT – added fuel to the fire and shifted even more support towards these amateur, leaderless MPs. Can unconditional opposition bring victory in the long term?

The other Matteo. Lega Nord (right wing, Northern League) has never witnessed such a result – 14%. Under the leadership of Matteo Salvini, strategies have changed and the Lega Nord has converted into a National League or, better said, into a Front National. With no more calls to secession from Central and Southern regions, Salvini has found new enemies in the thousands of asylum seekers that arrive to the Italian shores every day. His FB activity shows an overwhelming majority of racist and homophobic posts against legal and illegal migrants alike, where one’s crime is blamed on the entire minority. This guy could be part of an entertainment team in a holiday resort – but hey, this is Italy as well!

Silvio, the evergreen. The almost forgotten, self-defined “leader of the moderates” (what?) is the main cause of the Lega Nord’s rise. At his lowest popularity – 11.4% – Berlusconi has left a vacuum in the political representation of the right wing to be exploited by Salvini’s party. Despite his judicial adventures, it looks like one out of ten Italians is not ready to get over him yet. Totally reasonable – who would not miss his sexist, not politically correct, diplomatically risky jokes? 

The remaining ones. Nothing too surprising here – Sinistra e Libertà (left wing, Left and Freedom), Fratelli di Italia (extreme right wing, Brothers of Italy) and government’s Nuovo Centrodestra (center right wing, New Center Right) are stable at 4.5%, 3.5% and 2.7% respectively. While it is impossible to watch TV without seeing party leaders Nichi Vendola (SEL) and Giorgia Meloni (FDI) everywhere, their media activism is clearly not reciprocated by opinion polls. On the other side, NCD’s Angelino Alfano has nearly gone M.I.A: if he were not Interior Minister, we could definitely think he moved to some white, sandy beach in the Caribbean.

 Ilaria Maroni, is a top political analyst of political landscapes in Europe and Turkey. She studied in prestigious European,Turkish and Middle Eastern Universities. She is currently a political analyst.

*Polls are based on Demos – Atlante Politico, September 2015.

A decade has passed since the Danemark’s newspaper Jyllands-Posten,  published 12 drawings depicting the prophet Mohammed in various versions. This triggered Denmark’s biggest diplomatic crisis with the Arab world to date. Now 10 years later the Mohammed drawings are still as controversial in Denmark as in the rest of the world.

On September 30, 2005 Jyllands-Posten releases a page with 12 different images of the prophet Mohammed accompanied by a text stating that the freedom of speech is under pressure. This event has come to be known as the Mohammed Cartoons Crisis, or in Danish Mohammed Krisen. Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten at the time,  claimed that self-censorship is dominating in Denmark and other Western democracies when it comes to Islam. This had previously been exemplified when one Danish comedian had admitted that he was avoiding mocking Islam the same way he was mocking Christianity due to fear. Another writer also  had come to the spotlight because he had problems finding someone willing to draw Mohammed for his children’s book about the life of Mohammed. As a result, Flemming Rose invited cartoonists to draw Mohammed the way they perceived him in order to test if self-censorship was dominating the Danish society and to see if the fears were based on realistic dangers. He got his answer. Other than himself being subject to ongoing death threats as well as some of the cartoonists, the Danish regime faced boycotts from the Middle East. Denmark had its embassies in Indonesia, Syria and its consulate in Beirut attacked, while there were attempts on its representations in Afghanistan and Iran during the following months. Twelve days after the release of the drawings, eleven ambassadors from different Muslim countries wrote an official letter to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister at the time, demanding an official apology. Despite Denmark expressing its regrets of the insult the drawings had made to Muslims it was hesitant in apologising for the drawings stating that the Danish regime does not control the Danish media. Eventually four months after the drawings Denmark finally apologises following escalating threats on Danes and accelerating demonstrations with Danish flags being burnt. Nevertheless, this did not prevent Jyllands-posten in re-publishing the drawings a few months after as well as various other Danish and international news outlets, Charlie Hebdo being one of them.

Today, 10 years later Danes differ on whether this day should be celebrated by reprinting the drawings or whether it is time to move on. The chief editor of the leading Danish newspaper ’Politikken’ states that Jyllands-Posten is obviously not to blame for violence and terror.  However if the intentions for publishing the Mohammed drawings were to encourage more freedom of speech then they have failed. Today it is easier to spot the losers rather than the winners.  Pointing out the terrorisation Jylland-Posten continues to deal with as well as ongoing death threats to Flemming Rose, the one in charge of printing them in the first place. Zenia Stampe, another Danish politician stated that the time has come to realise the irrelevancy of the Mohammed drawings claiming that we need to find other ways to fight for freedom of speech. Still, other Danish politicians chose to share some of the Mohammed drawings on their Facebook wall on this significant day,  stating the relevancy of the drawings in the fight for freedom of speech. One of them was politician Joachim B. Olsen which wrote that if religious fanatics would have avoided using violence in reply to the drawings,  then the drawings would have been forgotten. Now the drawings have become a symbol in the battle between freedom and totalitarianism.

It seems like Jyllands-Posten itself did a compromise on this significant ten year “anniversary” day as it chose to reprint the original text to the drawings with the head line ‘Mohammed’s Face’ but left the 12 spaces empty where the images had originally been placed. This leaves one to wonder whether Jyllands-Posten is indeed realizing who the losers have been in the attempt to fight self-censorship relating to Islam, or whether this is a progressive move in the fight for freedom of speech. Jørn Mikkelsen, editor-in-chief at Jyllands-posten declares that Jyllands-Posten will no longer print new Mohammed drawings or reprint the old ones due to its intense situation it has been under. Admitting the need to prioritise security this time, he states that it hurts every time and it feels like an attack on journalistic integrity but there is no other way around it, declaring that this in itself demonstrates how threatened the freedom of speech is today in an open society such as Denmark. Acknowledging that the issue of self-censorship can no longer be demonstrated by drawing Mohammed he insists that the debate of freedom of speech will continue by other means.

According to a Gallup poll more than half of the Danish people support the Muhammed drawings but only 1 in 4 think that the drawings should be reprinted. Reasons for opposing reprinting the drawings stems partially from fear of further attacks and terrorism while others think it being an unnecessary act of provocation, says Jytte Klausen, author of the book ‘The Cartoons that Shook the World’. Flemming Rose, on the other hand, says in a recent interview with the newspaper ‘Politikken’, that we should not judge people for being honest about their fears regarding their right of expression which includes having the right to draw Mohammed. The problem is when the media claims that it is avoiding printing the images because there is no need to offend anyone. That is when the debate on freedom of speech becomes insincere. He claims that tolerance and freedom are two sides of the same coins. Tolerance means that you have the right to say anything that will insult a lot of people without it resulting in people killing each other.

Has the time come to reconsider the meaning of having the absolute right to offend through expression or should we reinstate that right? Given the wide attention the issue of self-censorship in Europe has gotten following the printing of the Mohammed drawings and given the violent incidents in reaction to such events, the last being the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo, should we call this significant day 10 years after an anniversary or a tragedy?   

 Súsanna Jógvansdóttir Christiansen is an expert of the Scandinavian Political Landscapes. She is specialized in the fields of Diplomacy and Security. She holds a MA in Security and diplomacy from one of the best University in the Middle East.

It has been not only one, but three. The system borders and European asylum system is about to collapse. Tens of thousands of people are wandering between Greece and the Balkans waiting to find a country that will accept them as refugees. A country like Syria, which was a crucial element in the system of balance of power in the Middle East is slowly disappearing. Therefore Europe is Facing Three Simulatenous Crisis

Europe has historically been built from crisis to crisis, as the orthodox doctrine of Europeanism says. But this doctrine is now subjected to a test of extreme tension, because it is facing not only one crisis but rather three clustered altogether, precisely in a moment in which there are barely left instruments for each Nation State to act independently from the EU umbrella, while there’s neither a glimpse of common instruments to solve these various problems jointly through the EU institutions.

The three crises are chained in time and space like beads on a rosary: Syria first, then the masses of refugees and finally the implosion of the system of European borders. And the three put into question the Europeans and their institutions regarding their responsibilities: the disappearance of a neighboring country, which translates into a devastating geopolitical chaos; at the fate of thousands of refugees, which are being rejected in countries like Hungary and do not get protection in other countries; and the closeness to the collapse of the Schengen system and the return to the system prior to the free movement of persons in the single market of 1993.

The European reaction to the triple crisis is being partial and, definitively insufficient. Although Germany is ready to support up to one million refugees this year, the interior ministers of the EU have not been able to overcome the lower figure of 40,000 initially proposed. The entire roots and infrastructure of the current asylum policy in Europe, which leaves the initiative of decision to each State, no longer serves, and will take a long time to achieve the minimum consensus for its reconstruction. Europe is currently faced with a problem of abundant dialogue on problem-solving, but a lack of actual problem-solving actions. In fact the root problems of the refugees could be solve by creating safe areas in Syria to allow return of refugees, and further putting an end to Assad’s dictatorship and carrying a stabilization-process in the region. All of which require, in the first place, a European foreign and defense common policy. However, such a policy is rather known by its absence and the military means too.

On Wednesday, the 16^th of September, Yemen’s Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and seven of his ministers have returned to Aden, the second largest city of Yemen, in an attempt to restore the credibility of the government in exile in Saudi Arabia since last March. President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, however, remains in Riyadh, currently carrying out a campaign aiming to put himself back into power. Such a campaign appears to be further fracturing the already divided Yemenite society along a range of political matters. The country has clearly become new  war zone between the Saudi and the Iranian.

This exile government was formed by President Hadi, who was put into jail by the rebels in Yemen when they seized control in September 2014, until January 2015. Hadi managed to escape to Saudi Arabia, and now he pushes for the reestablishment of his government in Yemen.

This political situation has turned Yemen into a theater play in which two big players pull the strings of two political puppets. This means that there is an ongoing game for influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which are competing in a race for placing into power a convenient leader: President Hadi or his Huthi rival, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, respectively.

The absence of Hadi in Yemen is being leading the Aden inhabitants to a situation of unrest and to an increased demand for the government to take responsibility for the rebuilding of the infrastructure in the city and the payment of wages to civil servants. In addition, the people have been complaining about the mismanagement of several ministers of Hadi, who had let the Huthi take over a significant part of the country. The lack of public services, the presence of militants in the outskirts of the city—which are associated to Al-Qaida militants—, and several other issues have also been at the center of the complaints.

Within this abovementioned game of power, there’s an additional crucial element to account for: Al-Qaida’s role in the fight. For instance, an explosive dynamic has been put into motion in Yemen. In which, the Arab forces that are trying to oust the Huthi have been relying upon their fellow society, but also upon Al-Qaida affiliates, in order to achieve their objective. Why upon Al-Qaida? Because Al-Qaida has shown to be quite wary of the separatist desires of the Huthi. Such explosive mix will be tested in the coming weeks, before the battle for the capital, Sanaa.

To conclude, these tensions for power are the explanation for the several attacks that Saudi Arabia and its coalition have conducted around the city of Sana in order to achieve the control over it. As such, a recent ground operation has been conducted by Saudi Arabia, as a continuation of the ongoing efforts since August. The offensive closes the door to the last attempt to find a negotiated solution to the conflict by the UN mediator, while raising the level of alert for the humanitarian situation.

For more informations about this proxy war please consult the following video :

As elections came closer, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered a 72-hour closure of his nation’s border with Colombia after three Venezuelan soldiers were shot and injured in a mysterious skirmich . This was followed by a massive deportation of illegal Colombian citizens. 1,000 Colombians living in Táchira State (North-West of Venezuela)  were rounded up and deported. At the same time, 6,000 more left on their own will, tearing families apart and resulting in a Humanitarian crisis that several NGOs have deplored.

Maduro has imitated Chavez principle of blaming the country’s problems on external enemies. This time, Venezuelan problems are not being blamed on the always evil Empire of the United States, but in neighbor Colombia. Maduro took this opportunity to blame the country’s economic crisis on the Colombian government and the illegal Colombians living in Venezuelan land by saying they were sabotaging the economy, also accusing them of paramilitary actions, smuggling subsidized products and even plotting to kill him.

The Venezuelan crisis, which has originated from diverse causes such as a drop in oil prices and its currency control policy, has given birth to the so called Bachaquero phenomenon. The “bachaqueros” are individuals who take advantage of the crisis by buying the products that scarce (usually subsidized) as soon as they become available, and then sell them at a higher cost. However, the products scarce not only in the border states, but Nationwide.

The supposed purpose of closing and controlling the border is to give an end to the smuggling of gasoline, food, medicine and other products that are subsidized in Venezuela and then smuggled to Colombia where they are sold at a higher price.

 Will this measure save Maduro in the upcoming elections?

Maduro’s popularity is so low that he had nothing to lose by taking these actions. Fostered in ignorance and xenophobia, this measure can slightly help him in the upcoming parliamentary elections of December. Yet, many would bet that in fully fair elections there would be no chance for the Chavismo to win. However, not only the government is suspected to be under control of the electoral system, but it is undoubtedly in control of the judicial system. Back in 2009, Hugo Chavez proved that there was no such thing as a separation of State and Court, when he publicly condemned Judge Maria Afiuni for giving conditional release to a Banker charged of corruption, suggesting she should be jailed for 30 years.

 The government has jailed  or politically disabled almost every opposition candidate with any chance of winning elections. Leopoldo Lopez, one the most charismatic opposition leaders was detained in 2014 and recently sentenced to 13 years in jail in a very obscure trial. He is accused of “Public instigation and violent speech” amongst other crimes, for calling to a massive wave of civic protest against the crisis and corruption in the country.

 The effectiveness of the decision of deporting Colombians, nevertheless, can only be studied within the next few months with an improbable improvement of the Venezuelan economy. Its results in the elections, per contra, are hard to predict when the whole system seems so rigged and nontransparent. What we do currently know are the reasons why the two sides of citizens will move to the voting rooms. The opposition side, frustrated with the reign of crime, impunity and misery, and the government supporters, fueled by what is left of their loyalty to the deceased Hugo Chavez and whatever happiness this xenophobic measure may have brought to them.