1
Abuse of a political corpse. Nothing good will come from the Trump impeachment "trial," neither for democracy nor for America. The Democrats claim that it is not a pointless process because it could eventually lead to a decision that would prevent Trump from ever serving as president again. They are wrong. The likelihood that Trump will be elected again is nearly zero, despite the fact that over 70 million Americans supported him in the 2020 election. More and more high-ranking Republicans are distancing themselves from him after his recommendation to his followers that they test their strength on Jan. 6.
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The anachronistic impeachment process, in which the House of Representatives plays the role of the prosecutor and the Senate that of the judge is rooted in a distant historical moment, and the 25th Amendment (which allows a sitting president to be removed from office if his senior staffers believe him no longer capable of serving) is a reasonable alternative. It will probably be very difficult to find 17 Republican senators willing to join the Democrats to impeach the former president. After all, this "trial" has a very political character.
By the skin of their teeth, the Democrats won control of all three branches of government. It will be very unexpected if they continue to control both houses of Congress after the next midterm election. Their work plan is very full – some of it is devoted to righting the Trump wrongs, but mostly, it seeks to innovate on a long list of domestic and foreign issues. If instead of implementing their agenda they put time and effort into abusing a political corpse, their voters won't forgive them.
2
The script is already writer. Not even poisoned Russian dissenter Alexei Navalny could have dreamed of thousands of people demonstrating against Russian President Vladimir Putin in temperatures of -52 degrees. Other than that, everything could have been foreseen: he flew from Berlin to Moscow, was intercepted en route and arrested by Russian authorities. Everything is on film and documented. As are the mass protests across Russia. As are the other 3,000 arrests.
What must Putin be thinking – that the dogs will bark and the storm will pass? That exposing his immense wealth will cause people to admire him more? It's hard to know. The excellent cameras in every smartphone could be what put an end to his career, which took Russia back to the czarist era.
3
We must not give up on eschewing violence. In the next few days, a conference of Palestinian organizations is slated to meet in Cairo to decide on procedures for the Palestinian Authority parliamentary and presidential elections in a few months. One possibility is that Fatah and Hamas might run on a joint ticket and split the top roles in the PLO and the PA.
In 2005 it was the 43rd president of the US, George W. Bush, who asked then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to allow Hamas to take part in the elections for the Palestinian parliament. Sharon agreed, although it was a violation of the interim agreement between Israel and the PLO, which states that any group calling for the use of violence will not be allowed to run in PA elections. When I criticized him for that, Sharon told me that he saw no difference between the PLO and Hamas, and added, "They'll all Arabs."
I hope that the current government of Israel will insist that the agreement be honored. It's important that Israel have a single Palestinian entity to work with, like the PLO and the PA, but we must not forgo the condition for Hamas being allowed to participate in Palestinian governmental institutions – a commitment not to use violence to achieve political goals.
4
Gantz and Army Radio. And again, the person sitting in the defense minister's seat receives a recommendation from the serving IDF chief of staff to close down Army Radio or privatize it. I remember the army's radio station when it first launched, when it was the only alternative to Israel Radio. I'll never forget the program "Love with a Song" and the seven hours a day the station broadcast. But decisions cannot be made based on nostalgia only. A serious committee should be established to evaluate the ramifications of detaching the station from the army, and then a decision will be made. Don't break my heart with so few weeks to go before the election.
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