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Fox News Breaking News Alert

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EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Scott Atlas resigns as special adviser to Trump on coronavirus

11/30/20 3:55 PM

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In any field that “interesting” to HN

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New world news from Time: Netanyahu Said Trump Was Israel’s ‘Greatest Friend.’ How Will He Cope with Biden in the White House?



On Nov 8, the day after Joe Biden’s acceptance speech, Israel’s far-right defense minister Naftali Bennet tweeted his congratulations to the President-Elect. Bennet’s more effusive language, however, he reserved for the man still occupying the Oval Office: “You brought us peace without giving up land,” he wrote, “You made it clear the focus of the region is not the Palestinians. We will never forget this and we will always remain thankful.”

In the four years since Bennet declared “the era of the Palestinian State” over upon Donald Trump’s poll-defying win in 2016, Bennet’s views—on the White House, at least—have gone from fringe to consensus. Where in 2016, polling showed most Israelis favored President Hillary Clinton, the vast majority preferred Trump in 2020.

That’s largely down to the unprecedented favoritism Trump showed to Israel on issues related to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His team of special advisor Jared Kushner, special envoy Jason Greenblatt (since departed), and U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman championed some of the ambitions of hardliners like Bennet, who aspire to a Biblical vision of Israel that stretches from the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee, incorporating the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

But the proposed annexation of swathes of the West Bank was suspended over the summer as a condition of the UAE and Bahrain’s recent normalization deals with Israel. Under Biden, unequivocal in his support for a two-state solution, it might be off the table completely.

A Democratic victory strips Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of support from a U.S. president he described as Israel’s “greatest friend,” at a moment when he is facing weekly protests over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and a felony corruption trial. It could also leave him exposed to challenges from hardliners, whose views Netanyahu helped bring into the political mainstream.

“There’s no question that Bibi is losing his patron,” says Shira Efron, a senior policy researcher at the Israel Policy Forum, using a popular nickname for Netanyahu. That hurts the prime minister domestically, but it also diminishes his stature on the world stage. Netanyahu promoted the idea that “only [he] has an open door with the White House,” Efron says. “So, he didn’t just lose Trump, he lost the ability to mediate with other governments.”

Netanyahu’s own loss of prominence is mirrored by the one Israel can be expected to undergo. Biden will inherit a deeply divided America struck hard by a pandemic. His transition team will contend with a lame-duck president that has still refused to concede defeat. When compared to the challenges he faces in China, North Korea, and Iran, “I don’t think Israel–Palestine is going to be the number one priority for Biden,” says Yossi Meckelberg, an international relations expert at Regent’s University, London.

How Netanyahu and Biden will get along

Netanyahu and Trump may have been kindred spirits politically but the prime minister’s relations with Trump’s predecessor, former President Obama, were decidedly frostier. They were at their coldest when Netanyahu circumvented the White House to become only the second foreign leader since Winston Churchill to address Congress directly—denouncing the Obama administration’s signature foreign policy deal on Iran.

In his congratulatory note to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov 8, Netanyahu appeared keen to assert his friendship with Obama’s Vice-President. “Joe, we’ve had a long and warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel,” he wrote. I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the US and Israel.”

Netanyahu’s opponents in Israel argue that Democrats have not forgiven him, despite the prime minister’s claims he has maintained good relations on both sides of the aisle. “The disconnect between him and the reality of the situation is so dramatic that he doesn’t even know what the Democratic Party and the new administration think and say about him,” says Yair Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid party and leader of the opposition in Israel’s parliament. “Netanyahu took a dangerous gamble and endangered our strategic bi-partisan relationship with the United States. Only a new government can fix that.”

Experts say a return to the acrimony that characterized Netanyahu’s relationship with former President Obama is unlikely. When relations were at their sourest it was Biden who served as an intermediary—one Israeli diplomat that served under Netanyahu described him as the “good cop.” Biden, a Catholic, has in the past declared himself a “Zionist” and reportedly intervened to remove references to Israel’s “occupation” from the Democratic party platform—although last year he said that Netanyahu had drifted to the “extreme right” in order to survive politically.

But the Biden White House is likely to change direction from the past four years. It may slow settlement building in the West Bank, which accelerated under Trump. It could also encourage Arab States pursuing new normalization agreements with Israel to attach conditions that would benefit the Palestinians, according to experts who spoke with the New York Times. Palestinian leaders told TIME recently that they hoped Biden would re-open the shuttered Palestinian mission in Washington, restore funding to Palestinian refugees, and establish a second U.S. consulate for the Palestinian leadership in East Jerusalem.

Arab Israeli lawmakers aren’t expecting much more than that, however. “Biden will take off the table the deal of the century,” says Ayman Odeh, the leader of a coalition of Arab–Israeli dominated parties, referring to the Trump peace proposal. “But it’s hard for me to believe that he’ll put actual pressure on Israel to end the occupation.”

To annex or not to annex?

In Israel’s domestic sphere, a Democratic White House may benefit the hard right as much as the far-left, who remain a marginal political force. While Netanyahu will have to be cautious about aggravating the Democrats with overt plays to his base, says IPC’s Efron, hardliners in Israel’s parliament will feel no such constraints.

“As long as you had someone like Obama in office, it served as Netanyahu’s break when the right asked him why are you not annexing? Why are you not extending settlements or legalizing the outposts?” says Regent’s University. “Then comes Trump: not only is he not stopping him; he’s pushing him.”

Meckleberg believes that no matter how much Netanyahu trumpeted his intent to annex the West Bank, he did not intend to go against the advice of his security establishment and risk opprobrium on the international stage. For a prime minister known to be a cautious actor on foreign policy, annexing territory Israel already effectively controls doesn’t make sense, he argues. The normalization deals with the UAE and Bahrain allowed him to call it off without losing face.

Still, de facto annexation continues unabated. Days after Biden was declared winner, right-wing lawmakers in Israel began promoting plans to advance settlement infrastructure before Trump leaves office. Likud’s transportation minister Miri Regev on Oct 9 announced plans for new transportation infrastructure in the West Bank. Likud’s Tzachi Hanegbi planted a tree near Jericho—a tactic used by some settlers to lay claim to land they illegally occupy. Authorities are this week expected to release a tender booklet for Givat Hamatos, one of the West Bank’s most controversial settlements according to Israeli anti-occupation organization Peace Now.

In the interim, Israel watchers are waiting on Biden’s pick for Secretary of State and the makeup of the Senate for a clearer indication of the extent to which the Democrats’ progressive wing might influence foreign policy. Among the favorites are former national security advisor Susan Rice, whose selection would be read in Israel as a signal Biden plans to pick up where Obama left off, a former Israeli diplomat told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. It would also be a blow for Netanyahu: Rice implied Netanyahu was racist in his angry response to Obama’s acceleration of peace talks with Iran, according to a 2015 book by former peace negotiator Dennis Ross. Ross also wrote that Rice’s “combative mind-set” had “damaged our relationship with Israel.”

When Biden addressed Americans on the evening of Nov. 7, some were struck by the magnitude of the task he faced. His acceptance speech focused on unity and healing the deep divisions that had spit America. To Meckleberg, it seemed unlikely he would deliberately seek contentious issues to tackle: “He won’t set himself to fail, which the Israeli–Palestinian conflict gives you: a high probability of failing.”

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Biden unveils Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board

11/09/20 2:07 AM

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

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Biden's first move as president-elect? Mask mandate for all. Here's how he plans on doing it.

11/08/20 3:48 PM

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Chase Elliott wins 2020 NASCAR championship at Phoenix

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek dead at 80 after battle with pancreatic cancer

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

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Biden to pick this former official to lead transition coronavirus task force, one of his first decisions as president-elect, Fox

11/08/20 9:03 AM

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Trump campaign to file more lawsuits in key battleground states this week, Giuliani tells 'Sunday Morning Futures'

11/08/20 8:01 AM

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Joe Biden addresses home state crowd after being named 46th president in victory delayed by vote counts

11/07/20 5:27 PM

New world news from Time: How the World is Reacting to Joe Biden’s Election Win



Congratulations have been pouring in from around the world for Joe Biden after he claimed victory in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. World leaders will be closely watching how Biden plans to reshape U.S. foreign policy. Many quickly expressed a willingness to work with the President-elect and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris to develop closer ties with the U.S., after four years of President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy approach.

The Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Biden at 11:25 a.m. ET Saturday, taking him to 290 Electoral College votes in the AP count. The announcement came after days of vote counting in several key battleground states.

Trump’s campaign has yet to concede, and since Tuesday’s election day, the President has repeated false claims of voter fraud and filed several lawsuits attempting to halt vote-counting and disqualify ballots.

United Kingdom

Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated Biden and Harris in a tweet on Saturday. “The U.S. is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security,” he wrote.

Johnson also congratulated Harris specifically on her “historic achievement.” She will be the first woman to be elected Vice-President, as well as the first Black person and first Asian American to hold that office.

 

The U.K. is hosting the U.N.’s next major climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow in 2021, which has been flagged by experts as the last real opportunity for successful multilateral climate action.Given Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, and Biden has pledged to rejoin, Johnson will likely be optimistic that a Biden presidency will increase the chances of decisive action being taken at the event.

Canada

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed congratulations to the Biden-Harris campaign Saturday. “Canada and the United States enjoy an extraordinary relationship – one that is unique on the world stage,” Trudeau wrote in a statement. “We will further build on this foundation as we continue to keep our people safe and healthy from the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and work to advance peace and inclusion, economic prosperity, and climate action around the world.”

Trudeau and Trump have clashed over trade and introduced tariffs on goods from each other’s countries. It’s expected that relations may improve with a more ideologically aligned Biden government; Trudeau and Biden also had a positive relationship during Biden’s time as Vice-President in the Obama Administration.

Ireland

Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheal Martin congratulated Biden and Harris, saying the pair “will make a very formidable team” and that Biden has been “a true friend of this nation throughout his life.”

Referencing Biden’s Irish heritage, Martin said he looked forward to welcoming the president “back home when the circumstances allow.”

India

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated both Biden and Harris on Twitter, noting his past relationship with Biden and Harris’ connection to the Indian subcontinent.

Both Harris and Biden have been outspoken about India’s human rights violations under Modi, though Biden has also committed to strengthening ties with India, the world’s largest democracy.

Pakistan

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan congratulated Biden and Harris on Saturday, saying he looked forward to working with them on some of their specific international policies including supporting worldwide democracy.

NATO

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “warmly welcome[d]” the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in a statement Saturday evening. “A strong NATO is good for North America and good for Europe,” Stoltenberg said, adding that NATO’s collective strength was needed to deal with challenges including a more assertive Russia, international terrorism, and a shift in the global balance of power with the rise of China.

The organization, an alliance of 30 North American and European countries, had a fraught relationship with the Trump Administration. During his presidency, Trump suggested the U.S. withdraw from the organization and criticized other members of the alliance for not boosting their defense spending.

Ukraine

Volodomir Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, congratulated Biden and Harris on Saturday. “Ukraine is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the United States,” he wrote. “Ukraine and the U.S. have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption. Our friendship becomes only stronger!”

Ukraine played an unexpected role in the Presidential election. Trump was impeached in December 2019 on charges that he sought Ukraine’s help in his re-election effort by asking Zelensky to launch an investigation into his opponent, Joe Biden. And during the election, the Trump campaign sought unsuccessfully to find evidence linking Biden’s son, Hunter, to corrupt activities in the country.

European Union

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Biden Saturday, saying that she “look[s] forward to meeting him at the earliest possible opportunity.”

“As the world continues to change, and new challenges and opportunities appear, our renewed partnership will be of particular importance,” von der Leyen said in a statement.

France

French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Biden and Harris shortly after the announcement on Saturday. “We have a lot to do to overcome today’s challenges. Let’s work together!” Macron, who had previously criticized a lack of global American leadership under the Trump administration, tweeted.

Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Biden and Harris in a statement released by her office. “I’m looking forward to working with president Biden. Our transatlantic relationship is indispensable if we are to tackle the biggest challenges of our time,” she wrote.

The first woman Chancellor of Germany, Merkel also congratulated Harris on becoming the first woman Vice President.

Merkel and Trump had an especially testy relationship, with the President pressuring Germany to spend more on defense and accusing the country of being “totally controlled by Russia.”

Italy

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte congratulated Biden, as well as the American people and institutions “for an outstanding turnout of democratic vitality,” in a year that saw more Americans vote in an election than any other in U.S. history. “The U.S. can count on Italy as a solid ally and strategic partner,” said Conte in a tweet Saturday.

Sweden

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven congratulated Biden and Harris on their win Saturday, saying that he was “looking forward to strengthening excellent US-Swedish relations and to work jointly for multilateralism, democracy and global security.”

New best story on Hacker News: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Biden, in victory tweet, promises to be 'President for All Americans - whether you voted for me or not'

11/07/20 9:52 AM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Trump accuses Biden of 'rushing to falsely pose as winner,' vows to move forward with lawsuits

11/07/20 9:25 AM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News projects Biden to defeat Trump, become 46th president after winning Nevada, Pennsylvania

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Joe Biden says voters have given him mandate for action on 'climate change' and 'systematic racism,' as key battleground states

11/06/20 8:05 PM

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

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SCOTUS Justice Alito rules on Pa. ballots

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New world news from Time: The U.S. Has Supported Democracy Around the Globe. Now Election Observers Overseas Have Advice for Americans



As results trickled in, narrowing the race between a former vice president and the ruling party’s man, anxious voters began to amplify allegations of fraud. Tensions were running high, and the whole process seemed dangerously close to teetering off the rails.

This wasn’t the too-close-to-call U.S. election, but the Ghanaian presidential runoff in 2008. At the time, the Carter Center, a U.S.-based watchdog, advised Ghana to “remain calm, to await the final results, and to follow appropriate legal channels for the adjudication of disputes.” The poll was later given the free and fair stamp of approval by the U.S. State Department.

Historically, the U.S. has played a vital role supporting elections in fragile and fledgling democracies around the world, including in Ghana. But now mired in its own deeply polarized political contest, the country appears to be ignoring some of the same advice it has long doled out to others.

This week, President Donald Trump instead took a page from the authoritarian playbook as he falsely claimed victory and accused his opponents — without evidence — of trying to steal the election through fraud. Even if Biden wins, many of Trump’s supporters will continue to believe he is illegitimate.

Trump’s unprecedented behavior has election monitors comparing the 2020 vote to ones in less democratic countries. “It has the hallmarks of the kind of election that international observers would be concerned about,” says Eric Bjornlund, president of election monitoring organization Democracy International, who has three decades of experience assisting democracies internationally. “I don’t believe a major candidate in the United States has ever said that he would not accept the results of the election or ever said that the process is completely fraudulent.”

Trust in elections had in fact been eroding for some time before the U.S. voted. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll in August 2019 found that nearly 40% of Americans said that if the candidate they support lost, they would have little or no confidence in the integrity of the process.

With confidence in American democracy waning, international election observers point to the lessons the U.S. could now in turn apply from the many polls it has helped guide overseas:

Be patient: it’s normal for results to take time

First and foremost, international observers urge candidates, political parties and voters to wait for a final result before declaring victory. “In elections in many parts of the world, the process of counting the ballots takes time, just as it is doing in the United States,” say Avery Davis-Roberts at the Carter Center’s Democratic Elections Standards project. The center, started by former President Jimmy Carter, has observed more than 111 elections in 39 countries.

“[In the U.S.] we grew accustomed to having projected results on election night and having a sense of certainty of the outcome,” says Davis-Roberts. “[But] as long as the counting continues and the legal challenges are addressed openly, fairly and in a timely and effective manner, the process and the systems are working.”

Be transparent about the process

Waiting for the results is one thing. Believing them while the incumbent leader of the free world uses the White House briefing room to sow doubts about their validity is another. “An election result is only as good as the willingness of the people to accept it,” says AmaĂ«l Vier, senior program officer for international election observation at the Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL). He points as a warning to Thailand, where the overall results from last year’s poll were announced without a geographical count breakdown, which helped fuel mistrust.

Election experts say the best resort when confronted with a such a deficit of public trust is increased transparency. In the U.S., vote counting has been filmed in places like Michigan, where each ballot is tallied only after a Republican and a Democrat agree the count is accurate, says Brian Klaas, University College London associate professor of global politics.

“Although US elections have several flaws, one of the comparative strengths of the American process is accurate tabulation of votes,” he says. “Counting is done fairly and methodically.”

Watch the vote closely

Around the world, many countries have built trust in their electoral systems through deploying neutral civilian observers and having independent election commissions. The Philippines led one of the first nationwide election watch campaigns in 1986 to safeguard a snap presidential contest called by ex-strongman Ferdinand Marcos. Thousands of citizen volunteers who mobilized around the country demonstrated Marcos’ opponent, Corazon Aquino, had won the count, paving the way for the end of the dictatorship.

In the U.S., election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have deployed to watch the polls since 2004. In a preliminary report issued this week, the OSCE mission noted that Trump’s “baseless allegations of systemic deficiencies…including on election night, harm public trust in democratic institutions.”

While international groups like the OSCE can play a vital role in promoting accountability and making recommendations for strengthening the next contest, election observers say they cannot cover the same ground as a network of citizen observers. Likewise, they’re no substitute for an independent election commission. Both provide neutral checks on the process, and can help to defuse polarization with a trusted, impartial assessment.

Create an independent body to oversee voting

Unlike many of the countries whose elections it has overseen, the U.S. does not have an independent election commission which can provide a neutral check on the process, and can be trusted to give an impartial assessment.

Nor does it have a non-partisan or bipartisan mechanism to resolve disputes. Complaints are instead handled via the courts. “The U.S. is an extreme outlier in the way it administers elections,” says Bjornlund of Democracy International, “both because of how much that administration of elections is decentralized and also because the administration of the election is done by a partisan official who… can run as candidates or endorse candidates in elections they oversee.”

He says the U.S. would “hugely benefit” from having an independent national election body with the authority to implement uniform procedures and to resolve disputes.

Vier, of ANFREL, notes that many developed Western democracies never set up such institutions. “I think in our countries we’re just so used to democracy that we’re not exactly familiar with the notion that democracy is hard work and needs to be maintained,” he says.

Be prepared to reform the electoral system

“The 2020 election has confirmed that the U.S. electoral system is in urgent need of reform,” says Sarah Birch, an American political scientist specializing in electoral integrity at King’s College London. There’s no shortage of agenda items. Seasoned international elections observers point to voter suppression in communities of color, gerrymandering, outdated and contradictory regulations and voter education as among the areas that could use attention.

To improve the next election, they say, the process to review and repair should start as soon as this one is over. “The success of elections can be measured in different ways. One measure is the degree to which the election has reflected the will of the electorate and resulted in the peaceful transfer of power. For almost 250 years, American elections have largely been successful when assessed in this way,” says the Carter Center’s Davis-Roberts. “Another measure is the degree to which the elections are inclusive. Historically, American elections have been less successful in this way.”

The question is whether there is enough political will and public consensus to spur change. At stake is more than just the future American polls, observers say. U.S. efforts to promote democracy abroad could compromised by its own legacy of contentious, disputed elections. “It’s important when observing elections anywhere in the world to do so with humility and to recognize that all elections can improve in some way,” says Davis-Roberts. “I hope this election will remind American observers when they deploy elsewhere that the challenges we see in other parts of the world could be challenges we one day see at home.”

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