Best columns: International NEWS^15
PAKISTAN
RUSSIA
The crushing of democracy in Indian-occupied,
Muslim-majority Kashmir is just one more sign
of “rising fascism in India,” said Adeela Naureen
and Umar Waqar. Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi is not just the head of the Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party but also a prominent mem-
ber of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
the fanatical group that seeks to make India into a
Hindu nation. We can trace “stark commonalities
between Hitler’s Nazis and Modi’s Sanghis.” The
Nazis began by ostracizing Jews and stripping them
of their businesses, much as RSS activists have been
shutting down India’s Muslim-run beef industry.Anti-Semitic rioting was common in pre–World
War II Germany, and women were told to avoid
Jews; in India, lynchings of Muslims are on the rise,
and a movement has arisen to protect Hindu girls
from Muslim suitors. “Systematic assassination of
dissenting and liberal voices” is also occurring right
on track: At least three high-profile critics of Modi
and Hindu superstition have been murdered in
recent years. We know that as governor of Gujarat,
Modi took no action to stop the massacre of hun-
dreds of Muslims during the state’s bloody riots in- Will his “hate train” “morph into a culture
of mass killings and pogroms”?
After 20 years in high office, President Vladi-
mir Putin may have cause to be alarmed, said
Vladimir Ruvinsky. Every weekend since late July,
thousands of Moscow residents have taken to the
streets to join anti-government rallies. A “brutal
crackdown on these unauthorized protests”—
which were sparked by the exclusion of opposi-
tion candidates from next month’s city council
elections—has only spurred more demonstrations.
Muscovites have shown that “they’re ready to go
out and march not only for an election candidate
but also for that candidate’s battered voters.”
More concerning for authorities, the leaders ofthese protests are getting younger. That’s partly
because most of the established opposition figures
are in prison. But the young protesters don’t need
them—they have powerful voices from within
their own ranks. At the Aug. 10 rally, famous
intellectuals shared the stage with pop- culture fig-
ures like the rapper Face and the sports YouTuber
Yury Dud. Putin is trying to ignore the unrest, let-
ting state TV show him diving in submarines and
riding with Crimean biker gangs. But by refusing
to comment on the police brutality, he has made
himself complicit. Marchers have begun chanting
AP “Russia will be free!” Will he hear that?
The evil
fascism
next door
Adeela Naureen and
Umar Waqar
The NationWhy these
protests won’t
go away
Vladimir Ruvinsky
VedomostiIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu has made himself “Donald
Trump’s poodle,” said Eric Yoffie in
Haaretz. His own ambassador to the
U.S., Ron Dermer, had announced last
month that two American Muslim con-
gresswomen, Democratic Reps. Ilhan
Omar and Rashida Tlaib, would be al-
lowed to visit this country despite their
support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Di-
vest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
But then the U.S. president tweeted
that it would “show great weakness” if
Israel let in the lawmakers—two of his
favorite foes—and Netanyahu quickly
“played the shameless sycophant” and rescinded his permission.
That’s because Netanyahu is deeply in debt to Trump, said Chemi
Shalev, also in Haaretz. Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively ceding the divided city to Israel,
and he recognized our sovereignty over the Golan Heights, once
part of Syria. Netanyahu simply couldn’t ignore his plea now—
especially not a month before an Israeli election. But it’s an ugly
look for Israel. Trump’s rage against the lawmakers has more to
do with “a long line of incidents proving his animus toward dark-
skinned foreigners” than with their anti-Semitism.Barring Tlaib and Omar is a no-brainer, said Eldad Beck in Israel
Hayom. As congresswomen, these leftists could have visited Israel
earlier this month, together with a delegation of 72 U.S. lawmakers
on an AIPAC-sponsored trip. Instead, their proposed itinerary re-
vealed that they wanted to visit not Israel, “a country whose right
to exist they do not recognize,” but “Palestine”—a nation thatdoesn’t exist. Israel can refuse entry to
any BDS supporter under a 2017 law,
because their attempts to delegitimize
the world’s only Jewish nation are not
“deserving of tolerance.”Yet this ban is already backfiring, said
Orly Azoulay in Yedioth Ahronoth.
Had the two lawmakers made their
trip, Americans would have heard
about “the poor conditions” in the
Palestinian territories—something the
foreign press routinely reports. But
now Americans are having a whole
conversation about “the deterioration
of democracy in Israel” and whether our nation “is worthy of the
massive financial support it receives”—some $3.8 billion a year in
military aid alone. The BDS movement is getting priceless expo-
sure, and “the word ‘apartheid’ is back in the political discourse.”Worse, Netanyahu has openly aligned Israel with the U.S. Repub-
lican Party, said Marc Schulman in TimesOfIsrael.com. His move
away from bipartisanship began in 2015, when Netanyahu—“in
direct defiance of U.S. President Barack Obama”—addressed Con-
gress at the invitation of Republicans and spoke against Obama’s
Iran nuclear deal. Now he has forced the Democratic Party to
rally behind two fringe congresswomen it would rather ignore.
American Jews, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic, are upset,
and even the pro-Israel conservative lobby group AIPAC disap-
proves of the ban. Israel’s “most significant strategic advantage is
its close relationship to the United States.” Will that evaporate the
next time the Democrats take the White House?Israel: Banning U.S. lawmakers from visiting
Netanyahu: Sacrificing bipartisan U.S. support for Israel?