Arab League Leader Says There Will Be No Peace Deal in Middle East without Palestinian State

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said at an event Monday that a peace deal in the Middle East would not be achieved without the establishment of a Palestinian state. President Donald Trump is expected to introduce a “Middle East peace plan” later in June during a peace workshop in Bahrain. But Aboul Gheit said no such deal will be made if Israel does not give Palestine the territories it took control of in 1967. The Arab League leader also said that Israel will have to allow for Jerusalem to be the new Palestinian state’s capital. “Whatever is rejected by the Palestinian or the Arab side is unacceptable,” Aboul Gheit said at the Arab League event in Cairo, Egypt. “What is acceptable from our side as Arabs as a solution is the establishment of a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967, borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Aboul Gheit then pointed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative as the only acceptable plan moving forward. The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative plan was introduced by Saudi Arabia, a nation that has openly advocated for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank since 1967. “If [Israel] chooses the only reasonable and accepted way from our side as Arabs, which is the establishment of a Palestinian state … it will be accepted in the region as a normal regional partner,” he continued. Egypt, Jordan and Morocco are expected to join the United States’ conference in Bahrain, Reuters reported, citing a White House official.

“This is exciting — an opportunity of a generation,” White House Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt wrote Sunday in a CNN Op-Ed. “We are grateful to the Kingdom of Bahrain for extending the invitation to [the Trump administration] to host the June 25 and 26 workshop with them for the benefit of Palestinians and others in the region, offering us a unique opportunity to communicate our economic vision. “This workshop will facilitate discussions on an ambitious, achievable vision and framework for a prosperous future for Palestinians,” Greenblatt continued. “President Trump is informed by previous attempts at peace but not encumbered by them. He is seeking a realistic resolution and a brighter future for all those burdened with this conflict.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/arab-league-leader-says-will-no-peace-deal-middle-east-without-palestinian-state/

Bahrain workshop on Palestinian economy is the opportunity of a generation

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/16/opinions/bahrain-workshop-palestinian-opportunity-opinion-greenblatt/index.html

Trump Said Sponsors Will Pay U.S. Back for Welfare Benefits Given to Immigrants. It’s About To Happen.

On May 28, President Trump published a “Presidential Memorandum” to help enforce a policy requiring financial sponsors of immigrants to reimburse the government for benefits received by the aliens. On Friday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service reminded immigrants and their sponsors, Trump wasn’t joking. “If the sponsored immigrant receives any federal means-tested public benefits, the sponsor will be expected to reimburse the benefits-granting agency for every dollar of benefits received by the immigrant,” USCIS tweeted.

“These laws also require that, when an alien applies for certain means-tested public benefits, the financial resources of the alien’s sponsor must be counted as part of the alien’s financial resources in determining both eligibility for the benefits and the amount of benefits that may be awarded,” it stated. “Financial sponsors who pledge to financially support the sponsored alien in the event the alien applies for or receives public benefits will be expected to fulfill their commitment under law.” But while that had been the law for some time, Trump’s memorandum was published to ensure the law was, in fact, being followed by federal agencies. “Currently, agencies are not adequately enforcing these requirements,” the memorandum stated. “Some agencies have insufficient procedures and guidance for implementing these reimbursements and deeming requirements of the immigration laws.”

The process looks like this. First, many applicants for permanent residency into America must have a sponsor — often a family member in the U.S. legally. Second, that sponsor guarantees via affidavit to support the alien financially. That affidavit is a legally binding contract between the government and the sponsor. What was happening is that the affidavits were not resulting in recovered money and federal agencies were either unwilling or unable to take action against sponsors.

A lack of enforcement always leads to a lack of taking the law seriously. But now, in case the sponsors — and the immigrants — have forgotten, USCIS used its tweet above as a reminder that federal agencies are taking action to comply with Trump’s May memoranda. This is an important step in the direction of fiscal responsibility.

Immigrants use welfare at statistically higher rates than the rest of the population, according to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies. “If one assumes that immigration is supposed to benefit the country, then immigrant welfare use should be much lower than natives’,” the CIS report stated. “Instead,… two decades after welfare reform tried to curtail immigrant eligibility, immigrant-headed households are using welfare at much higher rates than native households for most programs.” If the United States is really going to find a workable immigration reform solution, requiring financial responsibility for sponsors and immigrants and then enforcing those policies must be a fundamental proposition.

https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/trump-said-sponsors-will-pay-u-s-back-welfare-benefits-given-immigrants-happen/

State Dept. Reports Finding 23 Violations of Security Protocols Related to Hillary Clinton’s Emails

The State Department revealed on Monday that at least 15 people mishandled former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s emails with a total of 23 different violations. The revelation came in a letter that was written to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. While the review is still not completed, the letter states that 15 people received write-ups for breaking state department rules, The Washington Times reported.

Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the State Department’s assistant secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs wrote in the letter: “To this point, the Department has assessed culpability to 15 individuals, some of whom were culpable in multiple security incidents.” “DS has issued 23 violations and 7 infractions incidents. … This number will likely change as the review progresses,” she added. “The department considers and violation of security policies to be a serious matter.”

Grassley, who is currently overseeing the review, responded to the State Department’s findings via Twitter on Tuesday morning. He said that he was “glad” the State Department responded to his inquiry and that classified material must be “handled by the book.” Grassley added that “violators” should be held accountable. Likewise, President Trump acknowledged the findings were “really big.”

“The State Department said it has identified 30 Security Incidents involving current or former employees and their handling of Crooked Hillary Clinton’s Emails,” he said. “This is really big. Never admitted before. Highly Classified Material. Will the Dems investigate this?” The State Department said that its investigation should come to an end in early September and acknowledged how time-consuming the probe has been. Taylor wrote, “Given the volume of emails provided to the Department from former Secretary Clinton’s private email server, the Department’s process has been necessarily more complicated and complex requiring a significant dedication of time and resources.” She said that disciplinary actions were pending and that “all valid security incidents are reviewed by DS and taken into account.”

While the letter did not mention any specific names, the State Department promised an additional update once the investigation is complete. Clinton’s emails have been the subject of criticism, especially among Republicans. In 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey said that Clinton’s handling of her emails was “extremely reckless.” In a closed-door congressional hearing last October, former FBI general counsel James Baker said he thought that Clinton and her team should have been prosecuted for the handling of her emails, but he was convinced otherwise “pretty late” into the investigation.

https://www.westernjournal.com/state-dept-reports-finding-23-violations-security-protocols-related-hillary-clintons-emails/

Popular Music Website Accuses Google of Ripping Off Its Content

The website Genius is battling technology giant Google over Google’s use of song lyrics that Genius says are being pulled directly from its site. “Over the last two years, we’ve shown Google irrefutable evidence again and again that they are displaying lyrics copied from Genius,” Ben Gross, Genius’s chief strategy officer, told The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that the company said two types of apostrophes used in the lyrics it publishes, when converted to Morse code, spelled out “Red Handed.”

For Genius, the issue is vital to its survival. If Google publishes lyrics that reduce traffic to Genius, Genius eventually loses ad revenue and withers away. Writing for the website Slate, April Glaser put the issue into perspective. “There’s a reason to find all of this worrisome, even if it may seem like a niche web-traffic matter,” Glaser wrote. “Instead of an internet where sites link to each other, creating a vast global network of information, Google is vacuuming up more and more of the web onto its turf.” She said, “Now, more and more, the internet is just Google plus Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and a handful of other platforms and stores that dominate the vast, vast majority of web traffic — and in many cases digital advertising, too.” Genius has called upon Google to stop, saying its actions violate antitrust law. “This is a serious issue, and Google needs to address it,” Gross said in a statement to The Verge.

Google and its partners denied any wrongdoing. In responding to The Journal’s article, Google said the issue should be taken up with the partners that provide the material to Google. “We take data quality and creator rights very seriously and hold our licensing partners accountable to the terms of our agreement,” the company said.

In a follow-up statement, Google said it would end agreements with any partners “not upholding good practices.” The tech giant deals with LyricFind, a Canadian company, which said in a statement it gets lyrics on its own and not from Genius. The Journal reported that Genius has been worried about lyric theft since 2016, when Google published the lyrics of the song “Panda” by rapper Desiigner. “We noticed that Google’s lyrics matched our lyrics down to the character,” Gross said. That was suspicious because Genius got them directly from Desiigner.

Daphne Keller, who studies the regulation of technology platforms at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, told The Journal that Genius might not have much of a legal case because it doesn’t hold the copyright to the lyrics. “But it’s totally understandable why they don’t want this happening, and I imagine Google doesn’t want it happening either,” she said.

https://www.westernjournal.com/popular-music-website-accuses-google-ripping-off-content/