ARABINFOCUS

                           TRUMP: AN ACCIDENT OF HISTORY? With his volatile character, his proven racism, his lies and his eternal sarcasm, Donald Trump will possibly go down in history as the most controversial and even detested president in the ranks of his party. But his presidency is an accident of history? Some American politicians think so, but others deny it. For the latter Trump is the result of a logarithm created by the "establishment", in which the interests of the powerful industrial, military and energy class dominate. For the French ambassador in Washington, Gérard Arnaud, it would be a simple fantasy to imagine that Trump is an accident. It would not be because a president needed to put body and soul next to Israel; abandon the idea of ​​seeking a compromise acceptable to the Palestinians; he detests a marked emigration of all the evils that great America suffers, and ostensibly shows his ...

ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE Gérard Araud, the charmingly blunt French ambassador to the United States, is famous for two things: the lavish parties he hosts at his Kalorama mansion, and his willingness to say (and tweet) things that other ambassadors might not even think, much less state in public. Araud ends his nearly five-year tenure in Washington today, and when I spoke with him last week, he was, even by his usual standards, direct to the point of discomfort. He told me his view of the U.S. (“The role of the United States as a policeman of the world, it’s over”) and Donald Trump (“brutal, a bit primitive, but in a sense he’s right” on free trade), and he shared his opinions of John Bolton (he’s a “real professional,” even though “he hates international organizations”) and Jared Kushner (“extremely smart, but he has no guts”). He also had a warning to anyone who assumes it will be “business as usual” once America’s Trump fever breaks. The idea that the T...

                                                                                            MURDOCH THE MANIPULATOR Comparing Rupert Murdoch with the famous character in the film "Citizen Kane" is absolutely correct. The Australian media mogul, press and television networks first, uses its power to make and break in the high political circles of Europe, Asia and the United States. He has never denied it, although in fact he has also dared to admit it. Two examples, in particular, are significant of its power and its connection with high politics. In the Brexit crisis, Murdoch has sided with those who demand that the United Kingdom break with the European Union. His newspaper The Sun is a scandalous supporter of this line, describes him as a traitor...