What Does Iran Want from the U.S.?

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Editorial

A Weekly Political News Magazine

www.majalla.com/eng As world powers resume high-level talks in Vienna for the fourth week, focusing on bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, reports indicate a slowing progress in the light of multiple and serious differences that do not seem to be resolved soon. It is becoming clear that Iran and the United States wants two different things in these negotiations: while Iran wants to lift the sanctions to re-enter the deal, the United States wants to limit the Iranian missile program and stop its support of militias in the region. In this week’s cover story, Hanin Ghaddar discusses the reasons why both parties are not willing to compromise at this point, and explores the implications on the region.

Turkey’s decision to cut back the Euphrates water supplies flowing to Syrian and Iraqi lands has begun to have a drastic impact on the lives of citizens. From reducing the amount of water used in drinking and irrigation in addition to generation of electricity, residents of autonomous areas in northern Syria are endangered due to lack of life basics. That is likely to exacerbate as Turkey goes on with implementing its Anatolia Project which includes construction of 22 large dams over farmlands and areas of 8 provinces. Jiwan Soz reveals the effects of Turkish decisions on Euphrates, and the official Syrian Democratic Council’s calls on the international community to press Turkey to halt its actions.

Throughout the holy month of Ramadan, and on past religious occasions which took place during the past COVID19- year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could safely and smoothly organize Muslim rituals, facilitating services required by worshipers to perform Umrah and Hajj, in which large crowds visit the Two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madinah, and in reaching out to the poor and needy to pay zakat and alms giving. Motasem Al-Felou highlights the digitalization process the Kingdom went through to help its citizens and expats perform their rituals and keep safe despite the global spread of the pandemic.

Read these articles and more on our website eng.majalla. com. As always, we welcome and value our readers’ feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.

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46 Newton’s Cradle: When Drama Dives

into The Complex Human Psyche

Issue 1852- May- 14/05/2021

28 Turkey Continues to Hold Euphrates

from Flowing to Syria

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The Professional Women Who Are Leaning Out

In Spite of Covid- 19, Rituals Are Getting Easier

50 In the Presence of Ghalia Benali

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Views on U.S. Falling Birthrate 5

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56 Step Up Your Walking Workouts

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Eid al-Fitr at Amr Ibn El-Aas mosque, in Cairo A view of Muslims after Eid al-Fitr prayer at Amr Ibn El-Aas mosque, marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Cairo, Egypt May 13, 2021 Egypt )Reuters Photos(

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Victory Day military parade in Moscow Russian servicewomen march in formation during the Victory Day military parade in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, 09 May 2021. Russia holds its Victory Day parade annually on 09 May to mark the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. , Russian Federation )EPA Photos(

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A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE EAST SAUDI ARABIA Saudi King Salman affirmed on Wednesday his country’s strong condemnation of the Israeli actions in Jerusalem and its acts of violence in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The Saudi king’s remarks came in a phone call he received on Wednesday from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan who greeted him on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr.

During the call, King Salman also asserted that the Kingdom stands by the Palestinian people in order to get their legitimate rights.

The Saudi king also discussed with the Pakistani PM the distinguished relations between the two countries and reviewed the latest developments, especially the Israeli attacks in the city of Jerusalem.

Israel prepared ground troops along the Gaza border on Thursday and Hamas launched rocket barrages at Israel as international calls mounted for an end to the region's fiercest hostilities in years.

EGYPT Egyptian mediators rushed this week to Israel for cease-fire efforts but showed no signs of progress, according to the AP. A meeting of the Ministerial Cabinet for Political and Security Affairs, which was held late Wednesday, decided unanimously to reject all ceasefire efforts that Israel received, Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said on Thursday.

The members of the cabinet, instead, approved a plan to increase attacks on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas forces have been raining rockets on Israeli cities.

LEBANON A Turkish company that provides electricity to Lebanon from two power barges shut down its operations on Friday over delayed payments. The move is expected to increase outages in the crisis-hit Mediterranean country.

The company Karpowership has been threatening to shut down its power supply to Lebanon for weeks and said it took the decision Friday because of 18 months of overdue payments. However the decision comes after a Lebanese prosecutor’s decision last week to seize the ships pending an investigation into corruption and graft allegations. The company has called those accusations baseless.

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YEMEN Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group on Thursday said its forces had launched 12 ballistic missiles and drones towards a site belonging to the Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco, Najran airport and other targets in Najran, in southern Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi forces in Yemen said it had intercepted and destroyed eight drones and three ballistic missiles fired towards Saudi Arabia, without specifying where.

Thursday was the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

The Houthi group regularly fires drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia. The coalition says it intercepts most of them.

Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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GAZA Israel pummelled Gaza with artillery fire and air strikes on Friday as it targeted Palestinian militant tunnels to try to stop persistent rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

The 40-minute, pre-dawn offensive killed 13 Palestinians, including a mother and her three children whose bodies were pulled from the rubble of their home, health officials in Gaza said.

The Israeli operation included 160 aircraft as well as tanks and artillery firing from outside the Gaza Strip, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.

UAE A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker that loaded cargo from Qatar is signalling the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as its destination, the first such shipment since mid-2017, reflecting improving ties between the countries.

LNG tankers sometimes change destination, but if the shipment is completed, this would be the first time a Qatari LNG cargo has been shipped to the UAE since May 2017, ship-tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon and data intelligence firm Kpler showed.

The UAE and other countries in the region severed relations with Qatar in mid-2017 over accusations that Doha supports terrorism, a charge that it denies.

IRAQ A U.N. team investigating Islamic State crimes in Iraq has found "clear and convincing evidence that the crimes against the Yazidi people clearly constituted genocide," the head of the inquiry said on Monday.

Karim Khan told the U.N. Security Council that the team, which started work in 2018, had also identified perpetrators "that clearly have responsibility for the crime of genocide against the Yazidi community."

The Yazidis are a religious sect whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions. Islamic State militants consider the Yazidis to be devil-worshippers.

Khan, a British lawyer who will next month become the International Criminal Court prosecutor, said the intent of Islamic State "to destroy the Yazidi, physically and

OMAN Oman will end a nightly curfew this Saturday designed to curb the spread of COVID-19, but shops and commercial activities will be banned from 8pm until 4am, the Supreme Committee for Combating Coronavirus said.

The Gulf state had banned the movement of people and vehicles between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. on May 8 and also banned commercial activity during the day, which will be permitted.

New daily cases of the virus have risen in Oman since the start of the year, but in recent weeks have begun to fall.

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What Does Iran Want from the U.S.?

What It Means for the Region Hanin Ghaddar As negotiations between Iran and the US enters its fourth round this week, it has become clear that there are multiple and serious discrepancies that will need time to be resolved. The Iranians want

to keep the advanced nuclear-fuel production they started when the Trump administration walked out of the original deal. They also want all sanctions to be lifted – including those related to human rights violations and terrorism.

For the Biden administration, restoring the

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2015 Obama deal is not a good resolution. The administration wants to use the leverage of the negotiations to limit Iran’s missiles and its support for terrorism in the region. The US team also wants to make sure Iran does not continue to produce fuel for a bomb anytime soon.

And here lies the dilemma. Iran and the US want different things, and none is ready to compromise at this point, especially that the promise of a different, stronger deal by the US has not been made too long time ago. It is also difficult for the US team to make compromises on the missile and regional terrorism issues – even if they want to – because regional allies, mainly Israel, is ready to deal with this challenge alone, with or without a deal. The US will have to consider this factor. As Israel upends the pressure on the Vienna talks, Iran is also keeping the pressure by adding its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, in violation of the deal.

Accordingly, there are more than one outcome of these talks, and either way, the implications on the region are going to be huge.

?WHAT DOES IRAN WANT

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference to announce the annual International Religious Freedom Report at the State Department in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2021. (Getty)

Iran simply wants financial stability to further control the region and impose itself as the most powerful actor in the Middle East. And even if not all sanctions were lifted, it is enough for those on oil, gas, banks and some other industries to be lifted, in order for Iran to regain access to a considerable amount of hard currency, which will enable the regime to maintain a muchneeded financial stability, and to refund its terrorist militias in the region.

The US will also be able to say that they revived the deal – as promised – and that Iran’s nuclear threat is contained, and can then focus on other priorities, such as China and Russia, with needed international support.

Meanwhile, the US regional partners are worried, because if Iran gets what it really wants – that is regional hegemony, they will become the only losers in this deal. Iran will not adjust its malign behavior in the region, will continue to fund, arm, train and use its militias against its opponents, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps will be empowered – financially and politically – to do all that. That’s exactly what happened after

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For the Biden administration, restoring the 2015 Obama deal is not a good resolution. The administration wants to use the leverage of the negotiations to limit Iran’s missiles and its support for .terrorism in the region the deal signed with the Obama administration in 2015 and there are no reasons for Iran to change its behavior this time around.

In his leaked interview earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif was clear: That the former leader of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, was the ultimate leader of Iran – meaning that he was the decision maker and the main beneficiary of any economic relief. That means, any economic relief that would result from the Biden administration deal, will also benefit the IRGC and their regional operations. Unless the US takes a different approach.

Despite the assassination of Soleimani, his project of forcing the region under the Persian Empire through military and sectarian means has not died with him. This is the main problem that the international community needs to realize: the deal with Iran today will not contain Iran; on the contrary, it will unleash Soleimani’s project in the region, where it will wreak havoc and disregards the much-needed democratic and reform initiatives, as is the case in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

US OPTIONS AND SIGNS OF A DIFFERENT STRATEGY If that is a concern for the Biden administration,

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then a policy – through or outside the deal – should be designed to deal with these threats, which will not only jeopardize regional security, but the US interests in the region as well. One example would be the return of extremist movements such as ISIS to the region, with direct threats to US security and interest.

In that case - and if the Iranians and Europeans insist of keeping the issues of missiles and regional activities off the table of negotiations the Biden administration could deal with these issues separately. One way is to raise the cost for Iran’s terrorism in the region, through a strategy that focuses on the region, integrates coordination with regional allies, and incorporates a mix of diplomacy, sanctions, and military means.

But if that’s not a concern, as a US withdrawal from the region looks more possible, then regional states will have to fend off Iran’s terrorism themselves – with probably more coordination between Israel and other Arab states.

So are there any signs of the likely scenario?

So far, there have been some signs of a US regional policy, although still indecisive and unclear if they are part of a strategy or mere messages.

First was Biden’s message on Syria. In February, Biden ordered an airstrike in Syria against Iran’s infrastructure, in retaliation on Iran’s Erbil strike.

Then more recently, State Department made clear that the Biden administration will never have diplomatic relations with the Assad regime,

This is the main problem that the international community needs to realize: the deal with Iran today will not contain Iran; on the contrary, it will unleash Soleimani’s project in the region.

due to the latter’s crimes against humanity.

But more directly and recently, the US treasury announced on Tuesday sanctions on seven Lebanese nationals allegedly linked to Hezbollah.

“The threat that Hezbollah poses to the United States, our allies, and interests in the Middle East and globally, calls for countries around the world to take steps to restrict its activities and disrupt its facilitation networks,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Blinken added that the seven individuals have been sanctioned for “acting for or on behalf of Hezbollah or Al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH), which provides cover for Hezbollah’s financial activity.”

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Iran›s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and Syria›s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (R) speak to reporters after their meeting in the capital Damascus on May 12, 2021. (Getty)

One of the seven individuals designated, Ibrahim Ali Daher, serves as “the director of Hezbollah’s Central Finance Unit, which oversees the group’s overall budget and spending,” Blinken added.

“The remaining individuals designated used the cover of personal accounts to evade sanctions targeting AQAH and transferred approximately 500$ million on behalf of AQAH,” he said.

Noting that these designations reinforce recent U.S. action against “Hezbollah financiers who have provided support or services to Hezbollah,” Blinken vowed that the United States will “continue to take action to disrupt Hezbollah’s operations.”

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This action and statement were welcome by many who thought that this administration would follow the same Obama strategy of not disrupting the nuclear talks by hindering punitive measures against Iran and its proxies. Time will tell, and although these signs are promising, they do not constitute a strategy or a policy. Whatever happens in Vienna, the region should not pay the price.

Hanin Ghaddar is the Friedmann Fellow at The Washington Institute’s Geduld Program on Arab Politics, where she focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant.

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After Trump’s Carte blanche to Israel

Biden Struggles to Respond to Jerusalem Clashes Tracy Wilkinson After four years of former President Trump’s refusal to condemn or even mildly critique any Israeli act, the Biden administration faces soaring Israeli-Palestinian violence equipped with fewer options to deescalate tensions than at any time in recent history.

Trump gave carte blanche to the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its right-wing nationalist supporters while sidelining and punishing

the Palestinians. That policy has diminished Washington’s ability to influence either side, at least for now, in part because the Palestinians are wary, and in part because after Trump, any pushback by President Biden will be seen in some circles as an attack on Israel.

In recent days, the White House and State Department have expressed “serious concerns” about Israeli plans to evict several hundred Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem to make way for far-right Jewish settlers. “As we have consistently said, it is critical to

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avoid steps that exacerbate tensions or take us farther away from peace,” one statement said. “This includes evictions in East Jerusalem, settlement activity, home demolitions and acts of terrorism.”

They added that a Hamas barrage of rockets fired into Israel was “unacceptable” which they condemned in “the strongest terms.”

A VOLLEY OF ROCKETS

-1 People gather to protest attacks by Israeli police with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades on Palestinians at Masjid al-Aqsa and show solidarity with residents of Sheikh Jarrah who have been targeted by Israeli forces, in Washington D.C, United States on May 2021 ,12. (Photo

by Yasin Ozturk/ Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, the confrontation escalated, with Hamas militants launching steady volleys of rockets into Israel, including some that targeted Tel Aviv. Israel stepped up its battering of the Gaza Strip with continued air strikes sending missiles into buildings and other targets. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken telephoned his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, to urge de-escalation.

The Biden administration’s public language has remained relatively mild and has not address what Palestinians say was excessive force used by Israeli police firing on the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, during Ramadan prayers late last week and over the weekend. Israel also restricted Palestinian access to the hilltop site, further inflaming tensions, and has apparently allowed extremist Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinians free reign, according to Israel and Palestinian activists.

Trump’s support emboldened Israel in its plans for de facto annexation of large parts of the West Bank, “once creeping, now galloping,” as the Jerusalem Post put it. Palestinians claim the West Bank as a future independent state, but Israel has moved tens of thousands of Israelis into settlements that chop the territory into largely disconnected enclaves.

FLASHPOINT JERUSALEM Jerusalem has always been the most volatile potential flashpoint. Israelis and Palestinians both claim the holy city as their capital. Trump, breaking with decades of U.S. policy, formally recognized it as Israel’s capital in 2017. The new plan to evict Palestinians from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah goes beyond just building housing for Jews but also dispossesses Palestinian residents.

“You change the status of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, you change the nature of the relationship and dialogue with one of the parties, you leave a legacy,” said Daniel Kurtzer, who served as ambassador to Israel and to

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Trump gave carte blanche to the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its right-wing nationalist supporters while sidelining and punishing the Palestinians. That policy has diminished Washington’s ability to influence either side, at least for now.

Egypt under Democratic and Republican administrations. “They have not wanted to deal with this issue, and now the issue is back to bite them.”

Biden pointedly placed the intractable conflict low on his foreign-crisis to-do list when he came into office, and there is a host of reasons Biden is treading carefully, analysts say. He doesn’t want to pick a fight with Netanyahu at a time Biden is trying to negotiate reentry into the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel adamantly opposes.

Biden must navigate between progressives in the Democratic Party who tend to favor more rights for Palestinians, and traditionalists are more pro-Israel. Biden must also consider the Democrats’ very narrow majority in Congress — any steps seen as anti-Israel provide Republicans with another club with which to bash the president and the party. Plus, his domestic-policy agenda is already crowded with enormous challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic and racial disparities, to the economy and infrastructure.

“Biden’s approach is extremely minimalistic; he doesn’t want to ruffle Israel’s feathers,” said Khaled Elgindy, director of Palestinian-Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.

U.S. officials have reinitiated contacts with the Palestinians, but it will require time to reestablish trust eroded during the Trump years, diplomats said.

Although clashes between Israelis and Palestinians have ebbed and flowed over the years, the current surge threatens to escalate significantly without more decisive U.S. leadership. This week has seen the most lethal violence in years: more than 25 Palestinians killed in Gaza and hundreds wounded by Israeli police in Jerusalem,

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communicate with Palestinians and gather intelligence, said Ilan Goldenberg, a Middle East expert at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. “They’ve lost those points of impact and influence,” he said.

Leadership is also absent on the ground. Israel is strugLEADERSHIP ABSENT gling to form a government following four inconclusive More than 100 days in office, Biden has yet to name a elections in two years, and Netanyahu is on trial for U.S. ambassador for Israel, and veteran diplomat Bar- corruption. The Palestinian Authority’s sclerotic and bara Leaf has been nominated to become assistant sec- divided leadership has failed to hold any elections in retary of State for the Middle East but has not yet had a decades. confirmation hearing.

U.S. administration officials insist they are engaged.

Perhaps more important, Trump dismantled the U.S Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan Consulate in Jerusalem that catered to Palestinians and spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, rolled back most aid programs, depriving Biden admin- over the weekend. Israeli media reported that Sulistration officials of “voices and eyes on the ground” to livan’s tone was stern and Ben-Shabbat took umbrage at U.S. interference. But there were signs Sullivan had some success. Israel’s Supreme Court postponed a ruling on the evictions, and Netanyahu changed the route of a potentially provocative march by religious nationalists through the Muslim quarter of the Old City.

All that was before Hamas began bombarding southern Israel with rockets, and Israel responded with air strikes over the desolate Gaza Strip. Israel said three Hamas militants were among the dead; Palestinian officials said the dead included nine children. A Hamas role further complicates any diplomatic efforts because the U.S. lists the militant Islamic group as a terrorist organization.

The Palestine News Agency WAFA reported Tuesday and two Israelis killed in a barrage of some 250 rockets fired by Hamas into Israel and dozens of Israeli police and others hurt in clashes.

The U.S. declined to sign a draft document by the United Nations Security Council condemning activities in Israel and Palestinian territories, saying it needed more time to consider the statement, diplomats said.

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Heavy smoke and fire surround Al-Sharouk tower as it collapses during an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021. - An Israeli air strike destroyed a multi-storey building in Gaza City today, AFP reporters said, as the Jewish state continued its heavy bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepts a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, above the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, on May 11, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Colonial Pipeline incident in the Roosevelt Room of the White House May 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Getty)

that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received a letter from Biden discussing the crisis and U.S.-Palestinian relations. No further details were reported, and the State Department declined to comment.

“Our priority is on restoring calm,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. “Our priority over the longer term may move towards playing some sort of mediating role between Israelis and Palestinians. But given circumstances on the ground right now, and even before this current flare-up, we’re just not in a position, I think, to see meaningful progress, and our policy has recognized that.”

Price acknowledged the possibility of further escalation. “It is why we have been so ardent and so proactive

The Biden administration’s public language has remained relatively mild and has not address what Palestinians say was excessive force used by Israeli police firing on the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, during Ramadan prayers late last week and over the weekend. in our outreach to Israeli leaders and Palestinian leaders and also in our public statements,” he said. “We are doing everything we can.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. declined to sign a draft document by the United Nations Security Council condemning activities in Israel and Palestinian territories, saying it needed more time to consider the statement, diplomats said.

Gilead Sher, for years one of Israel’s top negotiators with the Palestinians, said it was a mistake for Biden not to give the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more importance earlier but that he can still wield considerable influence, if he chooses to use it, adding: “There are no by-passes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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The Case Against a New Concert of Powers The Past Should Not Always Be Prologue Nicu Popescu Global politics today is a mess, and it can be tempting to turn to history for clues about how to clean it up, as Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan did recently in “The New Concert of Powers” (March 23). But one must be careful to learn the right lessons. Haass and Kupchan argue that the nineteenth-century Concert of Europe provides a model for managing great-power relations, avoiding major wars, and

balancing an imbalanced world. These are worthy goals, but the Concert of Europe failed to achieve them—and so would any new organization inspired by it.

In 1815, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom founded the concert to maintain their power and stabilize a continent roiled by wars and revolutionary uprisings. The concert is sometimes depicted as producing a golden age of diplomacy: a time when diplomats and statesmen fostered mutual respect, maintained a balance

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Congress of Vienna, September 1814 - June 1815. Conference of ambassadors of European states chaired

by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. Aim was to settle issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

(Getty)

of power, avoided one another’s spheres of influence, and eschewed war in favor of joint sorties to the opera and late-night discussions over whiskey and cigars.

That image is false. The Concert of Europe was based on the idea that a few great powers could run the world. Yet it neither prevented war among its members nor managed to preserve any balance of power for a meaningful length of time. Its achievements were short-lived, and its failures were disastrous.

Haass and Kupchan claim that the concert demonstrated how “a steering group of leading countries can curb the geopolitical and ideological competition that usually accompanies multipolarity” and that the concert’s approaches to statecraft and crises represented “important innovations” that helped “preserve peace in a multipolar world.”

But the peaceful phase of the Concert of Europe was rather short: 38 years, stretching from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the outbreak of war in Crimea in 1853, during which there were no wars among the concert’s members but plenty of other wars, violent revolutions, and military interventions that involved them.

Thirty-eight years of relative peace does not make a golden age. For comparison, the Cold War, which represented another way of avoiding great-power conflict, managed to prevent a direct war between the Soviet Union and the United States for 43 years. Few, however, would wish for a return to that arrangement. And the post–Cold War period is now in its 32nd year—meaning that if China, Russia, and the United States avoid war in the next six years, the current creaky international system would have as good a record of preventing wars among great powers as the Concert of Europe had.

What came after the concert’s initially peaceful phase further disqualifies it as a model. In 1853, Europe was plunged into nearly a century of wars among the Concert of Europe’s members. First, France and the United Kingdom went to war with Russia after Russia attacked Turkey.

Then, in 1866, Prussia fought Austria-Hungary, and finally, in 1870 and 1871, France fought Germany and eventually lost, upsetting the continent’s precarious equilibrium.

All that fighting resulted from the fact that, ultimately, the Concert of Europe did not accomplish its main mission: ensuring a balance of power. Beginning in the 1850s, Prussia began building up its army and waging wars against its neighbors. The concert did not anticipate this development and failed to deal with it, which pushed the continent into a series of conflicts that lasted almost a century and culminated in the two world wars. In the end, the concert system required war, not quiet diplomacy, to restore balances of power. Even in the concert’s first few decades, when peace mostly prevailed, diplomacy worked only because the threat of some of its members going to war against others was ever present, driving diplomacy forward to keep that threat at bay.

Haass and Kupchan argue that a new multilateral organi-

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The Concert of Europe was based on the idea that a few great powers could run the world. Yet it neither prevented war among its members nor managed to preserve any balance of power for a meaningful length of time. Its achievements were shortlived, and its failures were disastrous. zation inspired by the Concert of Europe could handle the challenges of today’s turbulent global order. But consider the difficulty such a group would have had in responding to the kinds of crises the world has seen in recent years.

If a new concert along the lines proposed by Haass and Kupchan had existed in 2014, when Russia sent troops into Ukraine, it seems unlikely that China would have joined the United States and the EU in sanctioning Russia, let alone in threatening Moscow militarily. In 2015, after Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft, it is hard to imagine that the United States and the EU would have sided with Russia, putting great-power solidarity above NATO solidarity.

If Haass and Kupchan’s proposed concert came into being, it would not take long before one of two things would collapse: either the Western alliance system—including NATO and the EU—or the new concert itself.

A concert system would also be especially ill suited to the age of nuclear weapons. The Concert of Europe’s diplomacy worked a few times—for instance, by restraining Russian encroachments on the Ottoman Empire—because of the constant threat that some of its members would team up to attack another. But in a present-day version of the concert, in which all the members were nuclear powers, the chances of that happening would be far lower thanks to nuclear deterrence, which would make it far less likely that any member would credibly threaten war against another, since to do so would be to court catastrophe. Without the specter of war, a new concert of powers would feel far less urgency in encouraging diplomacy to find negotiated solutions to disagreements.

Haass and Kupchan are correct to highlight the persistent danger of great-power rivalries leading to war. But it is important to remember that the Concert of Europe was not a golden age of great-power relations. The concert was based on these powers’ readiness to wage war against fellow members when diplomacy failed. The concert set the stage for a disastrous century, and a new organization

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modeled on it would risk a similar outcome.

NICU POPESCU is Director of the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL Alan Alexandroff and Colin Bradford In their recent article (“The New Concert of Powers,” March 23), Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan directly acknowledge a set of basic facts that some observers of global politics tend to avoid: tensions between leading powers are a dominant force in international relations, China is now a peer of the United States in many ways, and the Western values that shaped the post–World War II era are no longer as dominant in today’s diverse, multipolar world.

Haass and Kupchan’s response to these emerging realities is a “great-power steering group”—a global concert of powers. Such an organization, they argue, is “the best option for managing an integrated world no longer overseen by a hegemon.” This group would consist of China, India, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the European Union. The authors argue that this organization would be far nimbler and more flexible than existing international bodies and better able to manage geopolitical and ideological differences among its members.

Haass and Kupchan are, to some extent, describing what international relations theorists and trade experts call plurilateralism—an arrangement somewhere between bilateralism and multilateralism in which a small number of states come together to advance a particular issue. Under

Current geopolitical tensions make it exceedingly unlikely that leading powers could cooperate to create a new global institution of the kind Haass and Kupchan envision, especially one that dramatically favors just six major powers.

the right circumstances, plurilateralism can be more effective than its alternatives. It provides an opportunity for inclusive global leadership and avoids the cacophony of voices and views that often characterizes multilateralism.

Plurilateralism works best not in isolation, however, but as a part of a broader organization in which groups of powerful states can build ever-shifting coalitions of consensus that provide collective leadership at different moments and over different issues. Within large multilateral bodies such as the G-20, this dynamic helps countries avoid rigid blocs that stifle agreement and water down policies.

Haass and Kupchan’s concert would have difficulty replicating this system. Simply put, there wouldn’t be enough players in the room. Consider, for example, how difficult it would be for India and Japan to resolve the thorny tensions among China, Russia, the United States, and Europe.

A better way of addressing the problems that Haass and Kupchan identify would be to work through existing institutions—namely, a revitalized G-20. The G-20 is large enough to offer states room to maneuver in complex negotiations and mediate between leading powers. Properly empowered, the G-20 could avoid gridlock, generate trust and respect, and make progress on difficult issues.

Current geopolitical tensions make it exceedingly unlikely that leading powers could cooperate to create a new global institution of the kind Haass and Kupchan envision, especially one that dramatically favors just six major powers.

Of all the available options, the G-20 provides the best

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(fromL) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and France’s General Director for Political Affairs and Security Philippe Errera pose for a family photo during a meeting at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on April 14, 2021. (Getty)

Haass and Kupchan are correct to highlight the persistent danger of great-power rivalries leading to war.

But it is important to remember that the Concert of Europe was not a golden age of great-power relations.

opportunity to manage geopolitical tensions and the global economy.

The G-20 is informal and flexible enough to accommodate the ideological diversity that the authors believe is necessary to manage contemporary great-power competition. The right players are at the table. Plurilateral leadership within the larger G-20—including China as a vital member—would bring multiple interests, perspectives, and pressures to bear on the issues at hand. The G-20 is also far more comprehensive than Haass and Kupchan acknowledge, holding ministerial meetings on a wide variety of issues—including 11 meetings that will occur before the next full summit, which is scheduled for November. The G-20 organizes official working groups on pressing issues, such as energy, health, infrastructure, and the digital economy, and engagement groups composed of representatives from the private sector, labor, civil society, youth organizations, the scientific community, and think tanks.

Contrary to Haass and Kupchan’s characterization of the group as a “fly-in, fly-out” organization, the G-20 also involves much more than just leaders’ summits. It hosts an ongoing series of gatherings and negotiations that involve hundreds of officials and societal leaders. Critical to these year-round activities are the so-called sherpas, who represent national leaders and meet frequently to shape summit agendas and forge final communiques and agreements.

Nevertheless, Haass and Kupchan are right to argue that

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the G-20 could be a much stronger institution. One of its major weaknesses is a lack of connection with everyday citizens in G-20 member states. The group devotes little effort to communications—rarely explaining the meaning of its work, the impact of its policies, or the relationship between what happens at its meetings and what happens in member states. When it does speak to the public, the G-20 tends to see its audience as elites in finance, trade, business, and the policy world rather than the broader public.

As a result, its communiques are rife with technocratic jargon, guaranteeing their inaccessibility to ordinary citizens.

Addressing that problem and others will require institutional change. Leaders’ summits should focus on systemic and long-term issues of public concern, leaving detailed policies to ministers. Sherpas should work to push such matters to the front of the agenda. G-20 ministers, moreover, should have the power to develop their own action plans on urgent issues such as global health emergencies or financial stability—communicating with leaders but not waiting on them. The G-20 also has a follow-through problem; the host leader changes yearly, making it difficult to coordinate a given policy’s implementation. A small but permanent secretariat could address that, helping shepherd issues from start to finish and then communicating the outcome to the public.

Most important, to operate as a global concert, the G-20 would have to do more than just change its processes. Instead of limiting itself to economic, social, and environmental issues, the group would also need to function as a forum for heads of state, foreign and defense ministers, and other officials to discuss strategic and political security matters. Although the body occasionally raises such issues, those discussions are the exception rather than the rule. By expanding its role, the G-20 could become a focal point for easing geopolitical tensions.

Plurilateralism can work. Shifting coalitions can ease tensions, generate mutual respect, and pave the way for progress on important issues. These are precisely the attributes

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that, as Haas and Kupchan point out, global institutions must have in order to prevent China and the United States from entering an era of bipolar competition. With the right approach and reforms, a focus on security issues, and the inclusion of China in a plurilateral leadership group, the G-20 could serve as a model of plurilateralism—one that would make it unnecessary to build a new global concert from scratch.

ALAN S. ALEXANDROFF is Director of the Global Summitry Project, teaches at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and is Co-Chair of the China-West Dialogue.

COLIN I. BRADFORD is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Co-Chair of the China-West Dialogue, and a Global Fellow of the Global Solutions Initiative in Berlin.

HAASS AND KUPCHAN REPLY Our proposal to establish a global concert has provoked considerable discussion, reflecting widespread interest in fresh thinking on international order in an era of renewed great-power rivalry, ideological diversity, emerging multipolarity, and technological dynamism. We looked to the Concert of Europe for historical guidance because it succeeded in preserving peace among five major powers through dialogue and consensus, despite differences in outlook and aims.

Nicu Popescu is right to point out that the nineteenthcentury concert privileged the rights and responsibilities of major powers at the expense of weaker states. But that’s the point. Great-power steering groups work precisely because they bring to the table only the states that need to be there. Popescu is also correct that the “peaceful phase” of the concert lasted only 38 years; it failed to prevent the

We looked to the Concert of Europe for historical guidance because it succeeded in preserving peace among five major powers through dialogue and consensus, despite differences in outlook and aims.

Crimean War or the series of conflicts that arose from German unification. But we are searching for a better approach to managing a multipolar world, not perpetual peace. If a new global concert succeeded in averting major war, moderating great-power friction, and promoting even limited cooperation on regional and global issues until 2060, we would gladly take it.

Popescu also claims that including China and Russia in a global concert would doom its efficacy or spell the collapse of the Western alliance system. Given Beijing’s and Moscow’s penchant for aggressive behavior, he contends, the United States would eventually have to choose between abandoning the concert or parting ways with democratic U.S. allies. That analysis posits a false choice. A new concert would backstop, not replace, the current international architecture. The U.S.-centered network of alliances would remain central. The United States and its democratic partners, which constitute four of the proposed concert’s six members, would look to the group to head off and contain differences with China and Russia, not accommodate acts of aggression.

In an interdependent world in which China, backed by Russia, is emerging as a peer competitor to the United States, cooperation across ideological lines is a must. To be sure, forging common ground with Beijing and Mos-

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Russia’s Foreign Min� ister Sergei Lavrov (L) and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi bump elbows during a meeting (Getty)

Forging common ground with Beijing and Moscow on issues such as geopolitical stability, cybersecurity, global health, and climate change will be difficult and might well fall short. But not making an effort to do so or merely hoping that the status quo will evolve into something more stable all but guarantees a more dangerous and disorderly world.

cow on issues such as geopolitical stability, cybersecurity, global health, and climate change will be difficult and might well fall short. But not making an effort to do so or merely hoping that the status quo will evolve into something more stable all but guarantees a more dangerous and disorderly world.

Unlike Popescu, Alan Alexandroff and Colin Bradford recognize the need for new approaches to managing greatpower relations in a multipolar world. They agree with our call for an informal grouping of major powers to address pressing issues but contend that the G-20 offers a more appropriate venue because it features 20 members instead of six. More is better, they maintain, as a larger membership would “offer states room to maneuver in complex negotiations and mediate between leading powers.”

We fail to see the logic. A grouping of 20 is more unwieldy than a grouping of six. There is almost always a tradeoff between inclusion and effectiveness. It is no accident that small-group formats—the six-party talks to deal with North Korea, the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran, the four-member Normandy grouping for Ukraine—are today’s diplomatic vehicles of choice. The G-20 provides an important forum for discussion, but even with Alexandroff and Bradford’s sound recommendations for institutional reform, it is hard to imagine that the organization could

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mature into the steering group the world sorely needs. The G-20 has added value when it comes to policy coordination on economic, social, and environmental questions, but for good reason it has generally steered clear of security issues. The group’s size and diversity make it ill suited to take on the big geopolitical matters of the day. It makes more sense to stand up a global concert of six core members and, as we propose, add other actors as circumstances necessitate.

As we acknowledged in our original essay, our proposal to establish a global concert has drawbacks and limits.

Still, clinging to the status quo or tinkering with existing institutions are far less preferable options as great-power rivalry mounts and international cooperation fades. Should a great-power steering group fail to materialize, the most likely result would be either a more unruly world managed by no one or the return of spheres of influence—outcomes that would make the task of organizing collective efforts to address global issues even more challenging than it already is.

RICHARD N. HAASS is President of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of The World: A Brief Introduction.

CHARLES A. KUPCHAN is Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the author of Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs. com.

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Turkey Continues to Hold Euphrates from Flowing to Syria

Calling on Int’l Community, Self-rule Officials Warn Of Likely Disasters Jiwan Soz- Qamishli Officials in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, in addition to advocacy groups such as “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, denounced Turkey’s decision to reduce the amount of water flowing from its lands to Syria through the Euphrates. The move has negatively affected the river’s neighboring regions which are depending

on its water for agriculture, drinking and generating electric power.

Mazloum Omar, a member of the Joint Presidency of the Executive Council in Al-Tabaqa, which is close to Raqa, said that Euphrates has “almost run out of water” due to the limited amount of water flowing currently from Turkey to Syrian and Iraqi territories. This came after Ankara decided to lower the level of Euphrates water flowing from

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A Syrian man fills up water from a water tank, provided by humanitarian organisations, during a water outage in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakah on August 22, 2020. (Getty)

its territories from 500 m³/second to 200 m³, since the beginning of this year.

“Ankara’s decision to reduce the water level is a kind of indirect war against Syrian people. It is an attempt to weaken the Autonomous Administration to stir sedition and cause public pressures. However, it didn’t succeed as there is widespread outrage and discontent with the policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan against the Syrian people,” Mazloum told Majalla.

Omar revealed that the Administration filed a complaint to the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS, in which it condemned the “Turkish violation” of Syria’s rights over the Euphrates.

He added that “there is no alternatives to Euphrates” stressing that “the Autonomous Administration is taking emergency measures in the affected regions, using tankers to transport water for the residents. But electric power produced by the region’s three dams is reduced to 5 hours a day.”

An official said that electricity sector has been largely affected, so production was reduced to 5 hours daily to save the remaining water in the lake behind the Euphrates dam.” He accused Ankara of noncompliance of more than two treaties signed with Damascus on the share water that is required to flow from Turkey to Syria and Iraq.

The official also warned against the consequences of the continuing Turkish prevention of Euphrates flow to Syria, particularly that various self-rule regions which depend on the river.

Three dams are located in the autonomous region which includes governorates of Hasakah, Raqqa and parts of Aleppo and Deir Ez-Zor. The first dam is located in Raqqa, the second in Manbij, and the third in Tabaqa.

TURKEY’S NON-COMPLIANCE WITH TREATIES In the same context, Ahîn Siwêd of the Autonomous Joint Presidency’s Energy department said, “Turkey has been fighting against the people of north eastern Syria since the beginning of this year by reducing the Syrian Euphrates’ shares, specifically since January 27.”

She added that “Syria’s shares do not exceed 250-200 m/ sec, which is very low compared to the share which was stipulated in prior treaties between Ankara and Damascus.

This share includes 75 m³ which is vaporized along the river.

25 m³ is allocated for potable water while more than 125 m³ for irrigation, which is much below the regular amount.”

Siwêd explained that the reasons which pushed Turkey to cut the flow of water are clear: its continuing policy to fight Rojava’s people since the eruption of their revolution.

It occupied the cities of Tell Abyad, Afrin, and Ras al-Ain (Sri Kayne) and others. Turkey also cut water supply from Alouk station to the millions of residents in Hasakah and Tell Tamer, then went on to cut Euphrates share for all

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“Turkey has been fighting against the people of north eastern Syria since the beginning of this year by reducing the Syrian Euphrates’ shares, specifically since January 27.” regional residents.”

“Talking about the Syrian Euphrates share, we focus on the 1987 agreement between Turkey and Syria, which was signed in Damascus and thereby specified Syria’s share by 500 m³/sec. Two years later, another agreement was reached between Syria and Iraq to specify Iraq’s share. %42 was allocated for Syria, while %58 was allocated for Iraq,” Siwêd explained.

According to Siwêd, many vital aspects of life have been affected in the self-rule region due to the drop in Euphrates water levels. She clarified that this has led to a “spread of various environmental problems due to rising pollution and diseases, especially in the time of the pandemic. Also a layer of algae started to grow on the surface of the river.”

She added that residents of Manbij, Kobani and Der Ez-Zor are primarily depending on Euphrates for drinking water.

“Given the absence of purification methods, we’ll have a major catastrophe with about 6 million people living in the autonomous region.”

FOOD SECURITY IN “SELF-RULE” AREAS Turkey’s cut of Euphrates flow is threatening the food security of self-rule regions, as Siwêd said, “Most of our regions depend on Euphrates for irrigation of agricultural crops. Consequently, the harvest of 2021 will drop due to low water levels, which means that millions are subject to food insecurity.”

As for generation of electricity in north and east Syria, Siwêd said that the level of Tishrin Dam (October Dam) should be at 325 meters, but now it’s at 321 meters, which means it has decreased by four meters in a short period of three months.

Moreover, she pointed out that “the river level of the Euphrates Dam should be at 304 m, but it’s currently at 298 m, that is, decreased by 5 meters also within three months.”

NON-STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES “Tishrin lake contains about two billion m², while Euphrates lake contains only three billion m². These numbers are terrifying for power generation, they are coming closer to

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shutting operation of the power generation,” Siwêd said.

She also highlighted that the dams’ management decided to reduce turbine working hours, specify a number of hours for each governorate, and use them in drinking and irrigation.

The official said that alternative solutions in case this drop in water persists are temporary and not strategic, given that the region is totally dependent on the river and its

Turkey’s cut of Euphrates flow is threatening the food security of selfrule regions, as Siwêd said, “Most of our regions depend on Euphrates for irrigation of agricultural crops.

Consequently, the harvest of 2021 will drop due to low water levels, which means that millions are subject to food insecurity.”

dams since their establishment. “For example, electricity in Jazira region can be generated by gas turbines in alJibssa fields.”

Some photos and video footage circulating across Syrian and international news agencies revealed that parts of Euphrates stream have become shallow after Turkey’s decision.

Earlier this month, the London-based Syrian Observatory renewed its call to the UN and international community to press the Turkish government to restore the level of Euphrates water flowing to Syria and implement international agreements.

The Observatory published a statement in its official website stating, “As the Turkish side continues to reduce the amount of the Euphrates river water flowing from Turkish territory to the Syrian side, reaching its lowest level and the drought in underground wells and significant damage to the environment, livestock and farmers in villages adjacent to the river, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights renews its call for the United Nations, humanitarian organizations and international actors to exert pressure on the Turkish government to return to international agreements regarding the quantities of water as agreed to be supplied to the Syrian side.”

Later in April, Riad Darar, Co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political umbrella of “Syrian Democratic Forces”, accused Turkey of using water as a weapon against these regions.

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Buffalos from a nearby farm, gather on the shore of the Tigris river in al-Malikiyah in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, on October 2020 ,31.

(Getty)

Ataturk dam under construction is the centerpiece of the 22 dams of the Southeastern Anatolia Project of Turkey and is built on the Euphrates river and completed in 1990 with the embankment 604 feet (184 m) high )and 5971 feet (1820 m ) (Getty)

Darrar also revealed to Kurdish media that his council will call on France and European countries to press Turkey in its reduction of the river’s flow to Syria, confirming that there are “shy” responses to letters directed to the United Nations and other world organizations.

This is not the first time that Turkey is using water as a weapon against civilians in self-rule areas, or in its fight against Syrian Democratic Forces. The country previously cut water supplies to Afrin during the Turkish army’s progress towards the city along with its pro-armed factions.

During 2016, Turkish authorities transformed the natural stream of River Tigris into farmlands in the village of Ain Diwar, of Malkiyyeh city (Dirik), north eastern of Syria. The water flooded the lands and the civilians were not able to plant the lands nor use the water in irrigation.

On March 2019 ,19, Turkish artillery bombarded Alouk water station which supply Al-Hassakah governorate with water. It also targeted repair works which reconstructed the station, in spite of Russian patrol presence in the area.

Currently, Ankara is about to complete the southeastern Anatolia Project which includes construction of 22 large dams, such as Atatürk, Birecik, Karakaya, and others, over farmlands of more than 1.7 million hectares and with capacity of more than 110 billion m³, which is threefold the capacity of Syria and Iraq’s dams.

The project extends across the administrative borders of 8

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Although cutting water supplies threatens the lives of million residents in Syria and Iraq, and causes ecological imbalance in both countries, no official international reaction has been heard against these practices so far. provinces in Turkey, with mainly Kurdish residents. It is likely that Turkey will hold more than %80 of Euphrates water, and destroy Kurdish traditional cities and sites, in addition to displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians from these areas.

Although cutting water supplies threatens the lives of million residents in Syria and Iraq, and causes ecological imbalance in both countries, no official international reaction has been heard against these practices so far. No relevant water or environmental organizations acted to prevent Turkey from resuming the dangerous project which may lead to humanitarian disasters that can be avoided in the time of the pandemic.

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On 200 th Anniversary of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s Death French Prince Joachim Charles Napoleon to Majalla: ‘Cancel Culture’ Ends Constructive Relations among Peoples Khaled Saad Zaghloul – Paris The marriage of Joachim Murat, the greatnephew of Napoleon Bonaparte (August 1769 May 1821), to Algerian writer Yasmine Lorraine Briki after a long love story sparked a controversy in Algerian and French newspapers, magazines and social media. Some agreed to it while others opposed it due to the French occupation of Algeria and for religious reasons.

“I would like to visit Algeria. I’ve always heard about it from my family. The deep friendship between Emperor Napoleon III and Prince Abdelkader is considered a significant memory.”

The French press shed light on the story, in which Briki became a princess after saying “YES” and reversed a history marked by disagreement, fighting and hostility between both countries.

Born in Algeria’s Annaba province, the Princess migrated to France in 2004 to study in Sorbonne University in Paris, where she fell in love with Prince Joachim. The official civil marriage was on March 2021 ,5.

The lovebirds celebrated their marriage in the town hall of the 10th arrondissement of the city of love, Paris, in the presence of some of their family members due to the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID19-.

Some of the attendees included senior figures such as Grand Duke George of Russia and Prince Louis Sampion Bouglione.

A religious ceremony is expected to be held once the virus situation becomes better.

Majalla Magazine exclusively published the couple’s marriage story in the first interview for Joachim and Yasmine with the Arab press.

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“I’ve been left a great legacy that qualifies me to take part in the stateorganized events, whether in France for the anniversary of the Napoleonic Empire, or in Italy for the anniversary of Joachim Murat, King of Naples.”

Prince Joachim Murat

Q: Your Highness Prince Joachim Murat, it is an honor to meet you and your Princess. Tell us please about your grandfather who ruled Naples and your family’s relation to the Emperor.

A: I am a direct descendant through the eldest son of Marshal Joachim Murat, the King of Naples and the Two Sicilies, and his wife Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister. Thereby I am Napoleon’s great-nephew, and the successive marriages from the first generation make me a cousin to most European royal families.

Q: You are certainly very proud to belong to those who wrote France’s glorious history. Tell us about your feelings.

A: Yes, it is a great honor and pride. The great legacy qualifies me to take part in celebrations organized by historical associations or states, whether in France during the anniversary of the Napoleonic Empire, or in Italy for the anniversary of Joachim Murat, the king of Naples.

The passion for Napoleon and his family is all across the world. I try to be available as much as possible to participate in the events or conferences to which I am usually invited. For instance, I was

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in Russia in February with my cousin, the Grand Duke George, to honor the French and Russian soldiers who died during the Russian campaign in 1812.

I often participate in other European royal families’ events, weddings, feasts, receptions and, unfortunately, funerals.

Q: Do the French know your story or does the new generation no longer read?

A: Napoleon I is the most renowned figure in the history of France. The French know all the great moments in the history of the First Empire: the coronation of the Emperor in Notre Dame de Paris; the victory of Austerlitz; the civil law; Waterloo; and, the exile in Saint Helena.

All the books on the First Empire or Napoleon are bestsellers in France. One of the mostwatched series on French television was the one on Napoleon’s life, starring Christian Claver, John Malkovich and Gerard Depardieu.

Today, Americans are preparing for a TV series about Bonaparte’s life on Apple TV and Netflix.

Sadly, few people today know about the history of the Second Empire and Napoleon III. Few ever study about this major period in the country’s history.

Q: Were your origin and social differences an obstacle to your marriage?

A: Frankly speaking, there has never been a problem. Today, all heirs of royal families, even those who ruled kingdoms like England, Spain or Sweden, marry the one they love regardless of the different cultures and origins. This is the case with Yasmine.

Q: Are you familiar with Algeria? Do you plan to visit it after COVID19-?

A: Unfortunately, I haven’t been there yet. Algeria

The groom Prince Joachim and the bride Princess Yasmine

is a very beautiful country that I have wanted to visit for a long time. I’ve always heard about it from my family, as the deep friendship between Emperor Napoleon III and Prince Abdelkader is a significant memory. I hope to be able to pay it a visit as soon as the health conditions become better.

Q: Are you allowed to join a political party or even create a party?

A: Yes, I have the same rights and duties as all French citizens. But, I am not a member of any political party.

Q: Do you wish that the monarchy system is reapplied as in England? Or is the republican system considered ideal for all the peoples?

“I haven’t had the pleasure of communicating with GCC kings, princes and sheikhs…I have longlasting friendships with royal families in Morocco, Egypt and Libya.”

A: Napoleon created an empire but based on a republican constitution. However, I do not believe the republican system is the unique and ideal model for all peoples across the world. In my opinion, the republican system serves the French well.

Q: What work do you do for a living?

A: I have represented strategic French industries at the international level for many years. In fact, I lived in India for seven years and worked as a manager of a subsidiary of the French High Tech Group. Today, I am a director at a Paris-based international technology company.

Q: What is your wish?

A: I wish to build our home and discover Algeria with my wife, of course. Also, I wish to get rid of the “Cancel Culture” which ends constructive relations among peoples.

Q: Do you know the royal families in the Arab World?

A: I have long-lasting and sincere friendships with royal families in Morocco, Egypt, Afghanistan and Libya. However, I haven’t had the pleasure of being introduced to the royal families in Gulf States.

I know the Gulf region, but alas I haven’t spent enough time there. I hope to visit Gulf countries

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Marshall Joachim Murat

Prince Joachim: “I am Napoleon’s great-nephew, and the successive marriages from the first generation also makes me the cousin to most European royal families.”

to discover all the changes and innovations that are flourishing in this region.

Below is the dialogue with Princess Yasmine: Q: We know you are an intellectual, a great researcher in political science and an equestrian.

Tell us about yourself. How did you come to France? Did you ever think you would marry a man from another culture? What did you wish for in your youth?

A: I came to France to continue my studies and above all to discover the world, discover other cultures and find new knowledge. Like all the girls of my age, it was my dream to find love and build a family, and fate wanted my love to be a prince.

I love horses and play polo and I got married to a descendant of the greatest horseman of the Napoleonic era. Marshal Murat led all of Napoleon’s cavalry and remains a basic reference in the equestrian world.

Q: How do you feel after becoming a Napoleonic princess and entering the world of princesses and dukes?

A: This new life overwhelmed me with joy and honor. I joined a royal family that has influence across the world through the Napoleonic heritage.

This requires I become a role model and am

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“I hope to visit Gulf countries to discover all the changes and innovations that are flourishing in this region.” serious in the various representational tasks I will get in the future.

I met with many princes, princesses, officials and history lovers. It’s a wonderful life but, above all, it’s a huge responsibility.

Q: I think your marriage came at the right time in history, during which President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to achieve peace and correct bilateral French-Algerian ties.

A: My marriage to Napoleon’s great-nephew is a personal matter and has nothing to do with political ties between the Algerian and French governments.

Q: How did you meet? Was it love from the first sight?

A: Joachim and I met for work and it was love at first sight, but we maintained a professional relationship.

It took me quite some time to figure out he was

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a prince, but he always remained the same. He did not change or show any arrogance. Our career paths later split, but we met again a few years later and decided to culminate our love story.

Q: All Arab peoples and Majalla Magazine congratulate you on your marriage. But some Algerians, like many other people, do not know the truth and believe that Napoleon invaded Algeria.

A: We received many messages of congratulations and support from Algeria and the Arab world. We are very grateful and I would like to thank them and you warmly through this interview.

In fact, there were false allegations accusing Napoleon I of occupying Algeria in 1830, when actually he died in Saint Helena in 1821.

Napoleon III took over the rule in Algeria in 1848 and had to address a situation for which he wasn’t responsible. During his reign, he never stopped working to promote the policy of equality between the French and Algerians and the establishment of an independent Arab-Algerian kingdom.

Unfortunately, some publications choose an historical lie to fuel the debate between France and Algeria. They are taking advantage of our personal love story, which has really nothing to do with politics.

Q: As a princess, are you planning to continue doing your professional activity?

A: I will fully assume my role as a princess and continue my professional activity, better if possible. In all cases, my life with my husband will prevail.

I will also continue my activities in the cultural

“My marriage to Napoleon’s greatnephew is a personal matter and has nothing to do with political ties between the Algerian and French governments.”

association “United Hope” to serve children from deprived areas, and I will continue the cultural dialogue between the East and the West.

Q: Do you have a message for the Arab world?

A: The Arab world is an infinite reservoir of treasures of knowledge, cultures and history, and all the poetry the world in general needs is present in it. It is our shared responsibility to promote this tremendous wealth and introduce it to the world.

Margins:

(1) Napoleon Bonaparte, or Napoleon I, was born on August 1769 ,15, and died on May ,5 1821. He was a French military commander and a politician of Italian origin. He rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful military campaigns against France’s enemies during its revolutionary wars.

He ruled France in the late eighteenth century as consul general, then as an emperor in the first

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Yasmine Briki and Napoleon Bonaparte’s great-nephew Prince Joachim Murat

“False allegations accuse Napoleon I of occupying Algeria in 1830, when actually he died in Saint Helena in 1821. Napoleon III took over the rule in Algeria in 1848 and had to address a situation he wasn’t responsible for.”

Princess Yasmine: “This new life overwhelmed me with joy and honor.”

government, distributed positions and titles to his family and entered military adventures that destroyed the army.

Napoleon’s supporters, however, consider him a statesman and a patron of civilization. Attributed to him is the French civil law, known as the Napoleonic Code, which laid the administrative and judicial foundations for most of Western Europe and the countries that were subject to French colonialism and its mandate in later eras. This law was the most influential in Europe and the world since the fall of the Roman Empire.

(2) Joachim Murat was born on decade of the nineteenth March 1767 ,25, century, as his actions in Labastideand organizations had Fortuniere and a major influence on died on October Europe’s politics.

1815 ,13, in Napoleon dominated the Kingdom of European and Naples.

He was international affairs during Prince Joachim a French military his reign and led France in Murat in Russia commander and one of a series of dazzling victories the most senior figures of of coups d’état by allied military the First Empire. forces, in what was known as the He became a Marshal of the Napoleonic Wars. He built a large empire Empire and Prince of France during the that dominated most of continental Europe until reign of Napoleon I. He was also a Grand Admiral 1815, when it fell and disintegrated.

Napoleon is considered one of the history’s of the Empire, a Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, most prominent military leaders, and his military then King of Naples from 1808 under the name campaigns are taught in many war colleges Joachim I. He became Napoleon I’s brother-in-law after around the world.

Opinions about him vary. His opponents see marrying Caroline Bonaparte, the Emperor’s him as a mighty tyrant who revived the imperial sister.

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Views on U.S. Falling Birthrate Why American Women Are Having Fewer Children Mohammad Ali Salih - Washington Last week, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared that the US birthrate had fallen four percent last year, compared to the year before, and that was the sixth consecutive yearly drop. Whereas expectations were that the spread of Coronavirus starting early last year together with official orders to lessen the spread by staying at home would have increased sexual activities, pregnancy and childbirth, that didn’t happen.

Actually, before the virus, American women were having fewer children and having them later in life, or not having children at all. The newly released data indicated a sharpening of that trend.

The U.S. birthrate fell across races, ethnicity and almost all age groups.

Roughly 3.6 million babies were born in the United States in 2020, a decline from about 3.75 million in 2019.

These are excerpts from various opinions about the subject, as published on their websites, or as told to reporters: 1. Philip Cohen, sociology professor at the University of Maryland.

2. Phillip Levine, economics professor at Wellesley College.

3. Niki Akhaveissy, a lawyer in Dallas, TX, who argued about not having a child.

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Philip Cohen: “Less Sex”

“The birthrate had fallen to 1.73 births per woman, after peaking in 1957 at 3.77 births per woman. It dipped in 1980, increased slightly a decade later and has since continued on a steady decline. It’s a shock but not a change in direction a since there has been a continuous decline in birthrates since 2007 …

Some of the things that might be driving down birthrates in the long run such as economic insecurity, the cost of health care, housing, child care and education, and our awful work-family policies, are probably things that were exacerbated in the last year.

By disrupting American society in so many ways, the pandemic led some people to hold off on plans, with the prospect of children more daunting in the face of job losses, closed child-care centers and schools and social isolation. At the beginning of the pandemic, the impact of the coronavirus on pregnant women was not yet known …

It also slowed down the social metabolism, so there was less social interaction, and that means less sex, less coupling and marriage and pregnancies. I’m sure there is both a conscious and unconscious element to this, and we just don’t have enough data yet to know for sure what the balance is …”

Pregnant woman with face mask standing in front of window. (Getty)

Phillip Levine: “Like in 1918” “The data confirms there were nearly 40,000 “missing births” in the final six weeks of 2020, reflecting the absence of babies that would have otherwise been conceived in the early months of the pandemic. Data from 2021 will reflect more of the pandemic’s effects; the 1918 flu pandemic led to similar dips in fertility.

But any declines caused by the coronavirus pandemic are negligible compared with the overall direction of the country’s fertility rate …

Let’s say Covid-19 reduces births by a few hundred thousand but, in a country of 330 million, that just is not that big of a deal if it’s just a one-shot thing.

But the fact that the United States now has around 700,000 fewer births annually than it did in 2007 is much more significant.

These are magnitudes that sort of rival the baby boom, kind of the opposite of the baby boom, and we know that the baby boom had a huge effect, on economics, on culture, on politics, on just about everything you can think of … Losing that many people, it would be difficult to imagine that doesn’t have a large effect in a broad array of dimensions …

Last year’s downturn was most significant among teenagers, continuing a long decline in birthrates for that group, as well as for

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Actually, before the virus, American women were having fewer children and having them later in life, or not having children at all. The newly released data indicated a sharpening of that trend.

The U.S. birthrate fell across races, ethnicity and almost all age groups. women between 35 and 44, an age group in which births had been increasing since 2007.

Older women would be a prime target because having a second or third child would be harder in last year’s environment …”

Niki Akhaveissy: “No child”

“Before the pandemic, I had planned to have my first child by the time I turned 30, assuming I would find a partner by then.

But the past year has revised that timeline completely …

I struggled with my mental health amid the shutdowns, leading me to wonder how I might deal with postpartum

depression.

I watched friends lose their jobs, and co-workers struggle to balance paid work and child care. And I began to question how I would take care of a baby with only the four weeks paid leave allowed …

So, two months ago, I got an intrauterine device, or IUD, inserted to prevent pregnancy. Now, the only thing I am certain of is that I am not planning to have a child anytime soon …

At this point, I don’t even know if I want to have my first child by 35. The more I think about it, it’s just not financially feasible for me to have a child at all, right now.

I used to ask my friends with children to tell me honestly what it was like to be a parent. They were always straightforward about the ups and downs. But during the past year, those conversations reached new emotional depths, with my female friends often sobbing as they struggled between choosing their jobs or their families.

I had friends break down and cry on the phone because they felt like this was endless, this was interminable, and too much was being asked of them but there was no one to help …”

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The Professional Women Who Are Leaning Out Finding Another Meaning of Feminism to Maintain Sanity Olga Khazan To be a working mother during a global pandemic is to be constantly torn between your kids and your clients. At times in the past year, Amy Conway-Hatcher, a lawyer at a big firm in Washington, D.C., would overhear her two children having dinner with her husband and not be able

to join them, because she was working 80-to-100-hour weeks on a big case.

For Allison Fastow, “having it all” meant listening to her 6-year-old sob and bang on her door in search of comfort and not being able to give it to him, because she was in the middle of an important call. “The distance that you have as a parent working outside of the home keeps you

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Mother working from home with children in background. (Getty)

from seeing these things,” she told me, and then started to cry. Parents might tell themselves, My kids love their nanny; they love their teacher. But sometimes, in moments of anxiety and uncertainty and stress, Fastow said, “there really is no replacement for Mom and Dad.” Last spring, Molly Quigley was working seven days a week as the communications director for Clyde’s, a restaurant group in D.C. Many days, she, too, was in tears, because part of her job was laying off the restaurants’ workers. Meanwhile, her three kids were posted up all around her, doing Zoom school. “I was just, like, yelling at everybody all day long,” she told me.

“And my -6year-old wasn’t staying on his Zoom class.

And I finally realized, I just can’t do it all.”

All three women—Quigley, Fastow, and ConwayHatcher—have since left their ultra-demanding jobs or are about to. For working parents, “what was barely doable has become impossible,” says Katie Porter, a single mother who represents Orange County, California, in Congress. At one point during a recent Zoom hearing, Porter’s teenage son wandered into the background and began rooting around in the fridge.

In part because of pressures like these, nearly 2.5 million women have left the workforce since the pandemic began.

About a third of mothers are considering “downshifting” their careers or pulling out of the workforce, according to research from the consulting firm McKinsey. This is the first time in six years that the consultancy has found women expressing such a strong interest in working less.

“They were feeling a lot more burned out; they were feeling like they have extra responsibilities outside of the workplace, and not having flexibility at work,” Jess Huang, an author of the McKinsey report, told me.

This downshifting is barely perceptible in national data: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a slight increase in part-time work since the pandemic started, but that is among workers doing so for economic reasons, because they couldn’t find full-time work. Lower-income people have fewer choices than rich people—they might be working a part-time job because that’s all that’s available, or because they can’t afford child care for longer, or because more hours would have meant more exposure to COVID- 19.

But some women have been so worn down by the competing stressors of the pandemic that they welcome the shift to fewer paid working hours. Over the past several weeks, I’ve talked with half a dozen professional women who have left their full-time jobs, are now working less than full time, and are happier as a result.

The women I interviewed are immensely lucky. Most of them have a partner who also brings in income. Most of them made enough at their previous jobs to allow for a brief, low-speed detour. Most of them work in fields in which freelancing or part-time contract work is an option. High-paid office workers, the types of people

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Only about a quarter of American women work part-time, compared with about 12 percent of men. But the majority of Dutch women work part-time, and nearly 45 percent of Swiss women do. By American standards, these women lead lives of enviable slowness.

I interviewed, are “making choices around work based on their level of sanity, or level of insanity, that they’re willing to put up with,” says Misty Heggeness, a research economist at the U.S. Census Bureau who focuses on families. The level of insanity, never particularly low, has now become more than many can withstand.

Some of the women I spoke with hesitated to admit they were working less; that is not the way of the boss lady.

Through Sheryl Sandberg, Gloria Steinem, Barbie, Ann Taylor, the real-estate market, Sex and the City, and practically every other implement of capitalism, whitecollar moms have absorbed the message that you should work as hard as you can and make as much money as humanly possible. Working fewer hours in order to spend more time with your kids isn’t leaning in. It is anachronistic.

But the pandemic has reset expectations for how life is supposed to be. When schools and day cares closed, and no free child-care options were available in many states, some parents said, Well, if the government won’t help me take care of my family, I guess I will do it myself.

“The pandemic kind of forced people to reconsider the enormous sacrifices that they have made over the years for career, job earnings, and market income,” says Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. (She notes that we are less likely to hear from the women who are desperate to get away from their families and back to a full workweek.

Not wanting to do care work is even more socially unacceptable than a desire to spend more time with one’s children.)

Some left their jobs voluntarily, others were laid off, and still others were fed up with crappy work environments.

At her small newspaper in Missouri, Karen Craigo was tired of working for a boss who would ask for her suggestions, only to immediately reject all of them. “It really doesn’t matter what I said; it was always ‘No,’”

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she told me. She quit to do freelance writing, and she now feels as if she gets more positive reinforcement from clients.

A lot of things were pushing Leslie Gray Streeter out of Florida when she left her job at The Palm Beach Post to move to Baltimore last year. Streeter, the author of the book Black Widow, told me she wanted to be near her extended family and raise her son in a more diverse area.

She was terrified by Florida’s lackadaisical approach to COVID19-. And her beloved paper, where she had worked for 18 years, had gone through a series of layoffs and furloughs.

Streeter got a new, corporate job in communications, but the fact that her -7year-old was learning math in the living room made it hard to focus. “The hours that I was working were very demanding, and I didn’t really get to spend as much time with him,” said Streeter, who co-parents her son with her mother. In February, she switched to freelancing. She’s gotten the chance to do things that don’t require typing furiously on deadline, such as teaching a class for fellow widows or attending a funeral with a friend. “It sounds like a rom-com,” she said. “The woman moves from New York and goes to Apple Valley, and then she realizes it’s okay not to be in the rat race.”

Even though it might result in making less money, Streeter feels that her decision is the best one for her son.

“I wanted to be able to spend time with him,” she told me. “I wanted to be a less stressed-out person for him.”

Others felt elated that they could now do mom-like activities that their jobs hadn’t allowed time for.

Quigley, who is now working about 30 hours a week as a freelancer, has been watching movies with her kids and recently met a friend for coffee, which she rarely did before. She’s coaching her sons’ Little League teams.

“I never would have been able to volunteer with such a commitment before, because I felt like I was always on

Feminism, these women decided, doesn’t have to be all about work. Sometimes, in fact, it can mean relaxing a bit, especially in the middle of a global emergency.

call,” she told me.

Elsewhere in the world, working part-time is common among women. Only about a quarter of American women work part-time, compared with about 12 percent of men.

But the majority of Dutch women work part-time, and nearly 45 percent of Swiss women do. By American standards, these women lead lives of enviable slowness.

In a 2010 article for Slate, Jessica Olien, a writer living in the Netherlands, described neighbors who spent the workweek “playing sports, planting gardens, doing art projects, hanging out with their children, volunteering, and meeting their family friends.” As one study on this topic cheerily concluded, “Our results suggest that parttime jobs are what most Dutch women want.”

But Dutch women pay a price for this freedom: They are less likely than American women to be managers.

And all over the world, part-time work tends to convey less prestige and lower pay. If more American women

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Single working mother taking child to school (Getty)

“The pandemic kind of forced people to reconsider the enormous sacrifices that they have made over the years for career, job earnings, and market income.”

shift to part-time employment, it could worsen the gender pay gap, or result in fewer women leading organizations.

“If highly paid professional women” want to work less, Folbre told me, “I think that’s great.” Then again, she said, “I›m not totally sure [these women] really understand just how badly their career trajectories will be affected.”

In the U.S., high-paying, part-time jobs are not very common, because American bosses tend to frown on workers asking to work less, and existing part-time jobs are less likely to come with high salaries or good benefits. For more American women to work part-time, more companies would have to be willing to hire people part-time. Child care would have to get cheaper and more accessible, because some women currently can’t afford even part-time child care. Paid parental leave would have to become a standard beyond the whitest of white-collar work, so that having a baby didn’t mean risking your

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job and livelihood. Higher wages would help make the math work, too. And women would need more time on their hands to push for these things. “By making women so stressed out, so time-scarce, we’ve also limited their ability to be active politically and to advocate for what they need,” Representative Porter told me.

Making part-time work possible for everyone would also require erasing some of its stigma. Instead of saying they work part-time, it’s often more acceptable for professional American women to say they’re consulting or freelancing, says Heggeness, from the U.S. Census Bureau. Entrepreneurship is a proud American tradition; taking it easy is not.

Working less is something professional women struggle with, even when they’re in hour 14 of the workday and their kids have forgotten what they look like. The women I talked with describe themselves, if not as feminists, then at least as hard workers who never saw quitting as an option, and who—briefly—wondered if going parttime set a bad example for their kids. Fastow, who is a founding partner of her public-affairs firm, Seven Letter, is moving into an internally facing, part-time position with the company. The decision to go part-time was a hard one; she describes herself as an “all in” person, someone who never does anything halfway. “My identity for myself had become wrapped up in this idea of being a big, bad boss bitch,” she said. She came to see the new job as still being all-in, but all-in for her family—and maybe even all-in for her own mental and physical health.

Feminism, these women decided, doesn’t have to be all about work. Sometimes, in fact, it can mean relaxing a bit, especially in the middle of a global emergency.

Conway-Hatcher quit her law-firm job in March, and since then she’s been working on a book. She also joined a smaller law firm run by her friends, which will require fewer hours and offer her more control over her career.

“I think you’re a feminist if you’re making choices for yourself,” Conway-Hatcher said. “There are other ways to be successful than billing time.”

This article was originally published on The Atlantic Online

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Samir Ghanem – Legendary Egyptian Acclaimed Actor, Singer, and Comedian www.majalla.com

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Newton’s Cradle: When Drama Dives into The Complex Human Psyche An Egyptian Series About Life and Where Our Decisions Lead Us Salma Adham Every action has a reaction equal in magnitude and opposite to it in direction. This is Newton’s law of gravity that rules our life on Earth. But what is Newton’s Cradle?

And what is the relationship between it and the series?

Newton’s cradle is a device that demonstrates the conservation of momentum and the conservation of energy with swinging spheres. When one sphere at the end is lifted and released, it strikes the stationary spheres, transmitting a force through the stationary spheres that push the last sphere upward. The last sphere swings back and

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A shot for the star Mona Zaki from the Newton’s Cradle series.

(Supplied)

strikes the nearly stationary spheres, repeating the effect in the opposite direction.

This sums up our life. Actions lead us to results that are based primarily on what we do and in response to our decisions in a circle where everything is connected.

“Newton’s Cradle” (Le’bet Newton) is an Egyptian TV series that was broadcast during the Holy Month of Ramadan this year. It is written and directed by the brilliant director Tamer Mohsen featuring the superstars, Mona Zaki, Mohamed Farraj, Mohamed Mamdouh, Sayed Ragab, Aisha bin Ahmed, Mayan al-Sayed and Adam alSharqawi.

Since the beginning of the Ramadan season, the series “Newton’s Cradle” has received high ratings and great admiration for its storyline/events, especially on social media. Between various events of excitement, suspense, drama, romance and comedy as well, there was an outstanding extent of audience interaction with the series characters and their motives as shown by the viewers’ sympathy, fear, criticism and efforts to understand why the characters did their actions!

The establishment of the series and its main characters entering the plot without introductions created a tense atmosphere that attracted the audience. All of the factors, starting from the introduction, the acting, the cinematography, the story and the directing, made an excellent first episode and introduced a high-level work that met the expectations of the audience.

When one sphere at the end is lifted and released, it strikes the stationary spheres, transmitting a force through the stationary spheres that push the last sphere upward. The last sphere swings back and strikes the nearly stationary spheres, repeating the effect in the opposite direction. This sums up our life.

is a lack of confidence in the behavior of his wife.

Hana had the same lack of confidence as her mother before she got married which in the long term made her seek to prove to those around her that she is trustworthy. The idea of traveling to the United States came to her mind when her husband praised a pregnant woman who traveled to the USA to acquire its nationality for her child, referring to her as smart. Hana decided to prove that she also can do this even though there are many challenges. Hana traveled to America with her work delegation to attend a conference, but with a secret/small pre-arranged plan.

She decided to leave the delegation and escape to a fate that she did not know well and the adventure/events continued.

Hana faced many challenging and difficult situations in the first episodes of the series THE STORYLINE in America. The fear of losing her child takes possession of her mind, especially The series tells a story of a middle-class as she is in a strange society with a culture Egyptian couple. The wife is “Hana,” who new to her, and this angst appears in every is an agricultural engineer, and her husband expression of the superstar Mona Zaki. is “Hazem,” who is an owner of a project What is exceptional about Newton’s Crafor producing honey bees. They seek the dle is that it does not present or rely only birth of their first child in the United States on interesting events that drive the audiof America to obtain the nationality of the ence to passionately follow the series, but most powerful country in the world. The reit provides us with a brilliant and attractive lationship between Hazem and Hana is conexplanation of the motives of the characsidered a traditional one in which a man is ters and the unfolding of these events. The responsible for all aspects of life and there

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idea of what is coming next is literally unpredictable, as in our lives we cannot know what will happen in the next hours or days.

And this is the most important point as it creates a state of unity with the events of the series and its heroes as they are involved in their adventures.

The complicated human behaviors “Everyone has his-her own game” The events and actions are complicated.

Sometimes the audience sympathized with the characters, but at other times they did not and I think this is the major thing we can measure success through!

How easy is it to judge others and how easy is it to talk about a moral rule? But did you ask yourself before what would you choose if you were on the other side?

Newton’s cradle is not only about Hana and Hazem’s story but is also about us, with all our fears, ambitions, and decisions! What Tamer Mohsen did is that he introduced to us very mixed complicated characters and reflected the nature of existence where there is the evil and the good.

The characters also fluctuate in their attitudes and emotions and are breakable from the inside. They do both good and bad actions which make you unable to determine

Newton’s cradle puts many questions in front of us- What are we supposed to do if we were in the position of the heroes of the story? Will we make the right decision or are our desires and aspirations the things that control us?

for whom you have sympathy.

The third main character is Mu’nis, the “Islamic” businessman who has American citizenship and uses religion and formal religiosity as a front to achieve his material and emotional goals. He falls in love with Hana when he was supposed to just help her in a foreign country.

Mu’nis tried to help her get her child back after the infant was taken from her due to Hana’s threat to the hospital staff that she will kill herself if she did not see the baby after he was taken to the nursery. Hana was considered a threat to her child’s life.

Right after he helped Hana by putting his name on the birth certificate/writing the child on his name to prevent giving the baby to another family, he takes advantage of the misfortunes that are afflicting her to

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Balancing balls Newton’s cradle. (Getty)

The establishment of the series and its main characters entering the plot without introductions created a tense atmosphere that attracted the audience. All of the factors, starting from the introduction, the acting, the cinematography, the story and the directing, made an excellent first episode and introduced a high-level work that met the expectations of the audience. marital rape and verbal divorce.

A REALITY REFLEX Newton’s cradle puts many questions in front of us— What are we supposed to do if we were in the position of the heroes of the story? Will we make the right decision or are our desires and aspirations the things separate her from her husband and to marry that control us? Do we own our destiny or her. does it own us depending on our actions?

When we talk about the other characters Do we own our actions? like the talented Sayed Rajab and Aisha bin Do we need to know the full picture to Ahmed, we should say that they excelled in make the right decisions? Is the picture performing their parts but their characters’ not always complete and this is the reason building was not as deep as the three main we suffer? There are many questions and ones. For example, Sayed Rajab’s char- many expectations but the definite thing is acter seems a strong one who rejects his that we are in front of a unique series that painful reality, and tries to escape from it. stands among other works and says “the This power and control appear in his way story of our complicated human nature and of talking, tone of voice, calm expressions social relationships can be a great one to and not taking things seriously, but we also discover.” see when he lost his love, all his weakness- Tamer Mohsen emphasizes in his fourth es appeared and we discovered that he has television work after “Without Mentionnothing to do! We, like a bank note, have ing Names,” “Under Control,” and “This two sides: weakness and strength; good and Evening,” that he is a talented director and evil; and, motives and actions. The series writer who analyzes Egyptian reality and also discussed important issues such as its personalities.

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In the Presence of Ghalia Benali Gems of Arab Culture on Display Amira El-Noshokaty As the people flocked to the open air opera house, the opening of Ghalia Benali’s spiritual performance started with the name “Allah.” As she chanted the 99 names of Allah, she smoothly guided her audience into a transcendent spiritual realm.

Ghalia Benali’s concerts are a real spiritual journey that uplifts the soul and walks one into the rich gardens of Sufi poetry. It’s not only about her voice, it’s also about her presence, one that she masters eloquently and effortlessly.

At the concert, she shared the stories behind the songs with her audience and sang her audience’s favorite

song, even after she officially ended the concert. When a Curlew joined her audience, she simply greeted the bird by chanting to it “Al Mulk Lak Ya Saheb Al Mulk “(God is the Owner of all Creation). This is a song that is associated with the presence of this specific bird. In Arab folk culture, the Curlew is known for its beautiful voice and is said to be chanting this song in bird language as a reminder to humans about the Creator and his Grace.

In addition to her remarkable presence in the moment, she also composes her own unique music. In this concert she had three music instruments with her, the oud, the contrabass and the percussion. She herself composes a style of music which puts poetry to music. Her

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Ghalia Benali )Getty(

attire is quite unique as she is dressed in traditional garments with a modern twist. With two golden braids and a feather in her hand, she embarks with her audience on an enchanting trip.

“I am a story teller,” she explains.

Born in Brussels to a Tunisian family, she spent all of her childhood in her hometown in southern Tunisia. “I grew up listening to the sound of Umm Kulthum and Sheikh Abdel Basset Abdul Samad,” explained Ghalia Benali about how Egypt played a great role in her cultural awareness at the time.

She remembered how Egyptian films, plays and music, and the Arab world in general, were integrated in her life as a Tunisian. How she longed to visit Egypt and, when she finally did, it was a dream come true.

This love for Egypt and strong sense of belonging prompted her to embark on yet another creative journey. “A Film of My Egypt” is the name of Benali’s upcoming documentary through which she aims to track the cultural icons of Egypt and explore the traces they left behind.

After finishing her studies as a graphic designer, the multitalented artist released her first CD titled “Ghalia Benali Sings Umm Kulthum.” The CD was an immediate hit and granted her the title Ambassador of Arab Culture in Europe in 2009. Known for representing Sufi poetry and singing mainly in proper classical Arabic, Benali spent years roaming the world chanting and showcasing to foreign audiences the gems of the Arabic culture.

Benali also wrote and illustrated a book entitled “Romeo and Laila” in 2018 where she told the classic story of a princess who instead of sitting in her high tower, went down and saved her prince. This story reflected a lot of self-discovery from her personal journey and all about the boundaries between cultures, the Self and the Other. To Benali the Other is usually different from us but somehow it reflects us and teaches us something we did not know about ourselves.

The constant search and self-discovery allowed Benali to transcend so many limitations. She sang almost a 100 songs and toyed with musical fusions of Indian music, techno music, and new age music. Even her latest album “Azan” (A Call for Prayer) included lyrics that she incorporated with European classical music dating back to the 17th century.

Throughout the concert, Benali integrated the most beautiful Sufi verses. She started off with famous lyrics of Rabaa Al-Adawya: My comfort is in my solitude where my beloved (God) is always present Then she followed it by Um Kulthum’s famous Sufi song “Hanat Al-Aqdar” (The Tavern of Destiny), written by Taher Abu Fasha and composed by Mohamed El-Mougy.

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Ghalia Benali’s concerts are a real spiritual journey that uplifts the soul and walks one into the rich gardens of Sufi poetry. It’s not only about her voice, it’s also about her presence, one that she masters eloquently and effortlessly.

She then surfed into the Quartets of Persian Sufi poetry icon Omar Al-Khayam followed by a song by Sufi pillar Sahra Wardi.

Benali also shared with her audience one of the songs that is to be released in mid-May among a collective album entitled “In the Footsteps of Rumi.” Benali sings the Arabic verses of Jalal Al-Din Al Rumi, which were never sung before. Rumi’s translated poems have been sung and recited before but this is the first time someone sings the verses Rumi actually wrote in Arabic and not Persian.

“Though this coming song is not Sufi per se yet I would like to play it here with my band who first played it with me some 20 years ago,” explained Benali to her audience about choosing the Egyptian song “Ya Msafer Wahdak We Sayebni” (You Who are Travelling Alone and Leaving Me Behind.)

After singing the famous song composed and sung by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, she decided to integrate a Sufi song in response to the previous one. Inasmuch as we are all on a journey somehow and usually traveling alone, Benali sang a poem by Sufi pillar Al-Hallaj: After being apart I became certain that being close and apart are the same.

Then she added verses from Halajj as well: I swear that with every dawn and sunset, I love you (God) with every breath I take.

Then she sang her famous song Hayamatni (She Bedazzled Me) a famous Arab folk song that goes like this: Oh she bedazzled me, she bewildered me, and took my full attention The audience sang along to one of the songs in which she excels and with which the audience is quite familiar. After the concert officially ended and upon popular demand Benali agreed to sing the Tunisian folk song Lamouni Elli Gharo Menni (I was Blamed

by Those Jealous of Me) with the audience singing along with her.

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In Spite of Covid- 19, Rituals Are Getting Easier Saudi Arabia Speeds Up Digitalization of Religious Services Sector Motasem Al Felou - Jeddah When it comes to digitalizing life, Saudi Arabia has come a long way. Just a touch of a button is enough to renew your driving license using a

smart phone app, Absher. You have a relative based in Japan and they are short of cash at 3:00 am, you can transfer money in a blink of an eye.

If you are into business, your commercial register can be ready just in 180 seconds.

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Since the eruption of the pandemic a little more than a year ago, Saudi Arabia has witnessed what can be described metaphorically as a “digitalization revolution.” The need to keep people physically away from each other has motivated both the public, private and non-profit sectors to digitalize their services.

ZAKAT HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER

Saudis and expats perform “Al Fajr” prayers at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, on October ,18 2020, for the first time after easing months-long COVID19- restrictions.

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Since the eruption of the pandemic a little more than a year ago, Saudi Arabia has witnessed what can be described metaphorically as a “digitalization revolution.” The need to keep people physically away from each other has motivated both the public, private and non-profit sectors to digitalize their services.

Religious and charitable sector services including Umrah, Hajj, Zakat calculation, alms giving, donations, and many more have been completely digitalized for the first time.

Let us explore the latest milestones on the religious sector digitalization in a country where religion, Islam, plays a huge role in the lives of individuals and families. Hosting the Two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Medina, the Kingdom welcomes millions of believers who come to fulfill their religious duties.

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What is Zakat?

Each and every sane adult Muslim, male or female, whose wealth reaches a certain limit (nisab) must pay a certain amount of money to the needy called “zakat” every lunar year. It is a way of wealth distribution. The calculation of the correct amount of zakat differs if you have cash, precious metals, real estate, stocks, or other properties.

Just a few weeks ago, the General Authority of Zakat, Tax and Customs launched its Zakati App. The experience of zakat has been transformed.

The App enables users to calculate the amount whether it is cash, gold, etc. The user can pay their zakat using their debit or credit card.

But where does the zakat money go?

Not everyone knows families in need. That is why the government has taken the initiative to transfer the zakat funds to the charities and lowincome people registered in the social security systems. This is to save the hassle of looking for underprivileged people.

By the end of Ramadan 2021, the total amounts

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of zakat payments have almost reached USD 20 million.

RELEASING PRISONERS Both the National Platform of Donations of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development known as “Tabarra’a” (Donate), and the Ehsan Platform of the Saudi Authority of Data and Artificial Intelligence have been launched recently to further help the digital transformation of charitable donations.

The two platforms have been designed to attract donors and those who want to pay their zakat by giving them more options.

Ehsan has partnered with local charities to raise funds for certain humanitarian projects like paying the electricity bills on behalf of underprivileged families and providing clothing for children in need. The donor can choose where their donation would go.

The same platform has partnered with “Furijat,” a service launched by the Ministry of Interior to help prisoner release by viewing specific prisoner data that includes payment details and amounts claimed. Furijat assists the release of those who are jailed because they failed to pay their debts to the bank. Saudi Arabia has released all prisoners jailed on financial grounds to avoid the outbreak of Covid19-. However, their legal status remains “prisoner” until all liabilities are paid or settled with creditors.

“I care for children and people with medical conditions. I believe they are the most fragile.

I used Ehsan Platform and paid using my credit card. Aiding prisoners in financial disputes will help families re-unite and move forward with their lives,” a -44year-old English teacher at a public school told Majalla Instead of issuing weekly or monthly updates, the Tabarra’a platform has a real time counter that appears on screen. Donors can view the number of beneficiaries, donating opportunities and donating times. However, the amount of funds

raised does not appear until more comprehensive reports are issued periodically.

ETAMARNA: DIGITAL UMRAH Umrah is the minor pilgrimage for Muslims that can be fulfilled almost all year round. It usually takes between 45 minutes to 90 minutes to finish the Umrah journey to walk a turn around the Holy Ka’aba and travel back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwa, following in the footsteps of Hagar, wife of Prophet Abraham

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and mother of Prophet Ismael, according to the Islamic belief.

Each destination of the journey has been fully digitalized. Due to restrictions on visitors’ numbers, each Umrah pilgrim must book their space on the Etamarna App. The health passport, Tawakalna App, must show the current Covid19vaccination status of one shot, a double shot or no shot but no infection, to be eligible to enter the Holy Masjid al-Haram. Tanaqal App (Move) is the only means to book an electric wheelchair

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for senior people or people with disabilities. The latter is a type of inclusion which is arranged for the Umrah experience.

“I booked my Umrah time on Etamarna, travelled by car with a transportation networking company (TNC) app, and finished my Umrah faster than in the pre-Covid19- era. They are operating Makkah’s Holy Masjid al-Haram under limited capacity. This was impossible a few months ago!” said Khalid, an expat, who works as an auditor at a Saudi company.

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Step Up Your Walking Workouts Strategies to Get the Best of Your Regular Stroll

Harvard Men’s Health Watch Whether you’re new to walking or a seasoned stroller, here are some ways to boost your routines.

Walking is one of the most straightforward exercises. You just need a good pair of walking shoes, and off you go.

Like any kind of cardio activity, walking can improve your heart health, strengthen your immune system, and help you manage your weight.

«Walking also is a great way to get the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, as you can do it indoors or outdoors, and workouts can be adjusted to fit any fitness level,» says Dr. Lauren Elson, medical editor of the Harvard Special Health Report Walking for Health.

Yet it›s easy for walks to become too casual. «A regular stroll is always better than no movement, but to get the best benefits from walking, you need to constantly challenge yourself.»

MOVE TOWARD YOUR GOALS One way to step up your walking is to tailor workouts to specific fitness goals. For instance, if walking is your primary aerobic activity, you want to vary intensity and speed. For a stronger lower body, design your walking around building your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.

If you plan to take a hiking trip or a vacation that involves much walking, or you want to train for a 5K race, you need to boost your endurance.

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«If you are brand new to fitness walking, just walking at a steady pace for five to 20 minutes several days a week, or just five minutes several times a day, is a great start,» says Dr. Elson. «But soon you will want to raise your routine to a higher level.»

Here are some strategies to help you reach those goals. Remember to begin each walking workout with a five-minute warm-up and end with a cool-down and post-workout stretches. (Learn how to do a warm-up and a cool-down stretching routine at www.health.harvard.edu/walking-forhealth-video.)

TAKE AN INSIDE WALK Weather got you trapped inside? Tired of treadmills? Do what Nelson Mandela reportedly did when he was imprisoned in South Africa: walk in place. To keep up his fitness, Mandela often walked, ran, and marched while standing in his tiny cell. YouTube offers many walking-in-place videos for seniors that last from 10 to 30 minutes or cover a mile. They are led by fitness instructors, and some are even streamed live. (Search for «walking in place for seniors» at www.youtube.com.)

INTERVALS FOR INTENSITY Interval training involves walking at a faster-than-usual pace for a brief period followed by a rest period at a slower pace and repeating the cycle for a set amount of time or distance.

«The key is to walk at a brisk pace that gets the heart rate up and makes you work harder,» says Dr. Elson.

Of course, what›s considered «brisk» differs for each person. Dr. Elson suggests monitoring your intensity using the Perceived Exertion Scale (see «Walk and talk»). «This ensures you work hard enough, but not too much,» she says.

«Aim for 5 to 6 on the scale during the higher-intensity interval portion of your walk, which is a moderate-intensity

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One way to step up your walking is to tailor workouts to specific fitness goals. For instance, if walking is your primary aerobic activity, you want to vary intensity and speed.

For a stronger lower body, design your walking around building your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. level.»

Research has found that interval training not only offers many cardiovascular benefits, but also can improve agerelated muscle loss. A study published March 7, 2017, in Cell Metabolism found that people ages 65 to 80 who did interval training, including walking workouts, reversed age-related deterioration of muscle cells and improved muscle power.

Dr. Elson recommends that you experiment to find the interval pattern that works best for you and then adjust as you progress. A good starting point is to walk for three to four minutes at your average pace and then briskly walk for 30 seconds; repeat five to 10 times. «Eventually, you can work up to longer periods of brisk walking and shorter rest periods,» she says.

WALK AND TALK The Perceived Exertion Scale helps gauge your exercise intensity. For moderate-intensity workouts, aim for 5 to 6 on the scale.

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INCLINES BUILD STRENGTH Walking up hills and stairs or on an inclined treadmill adds resistance that can help build muscles in the lower body, such as the quadriceps and hamstrings (in the thighs) and the calves. «Add them here and there during your regular walking routine,» says Dr. Elson. For instance, do a minute or two of stair climbing (like in a stairwell or high school

To keep up his fitness, Mandela often walked, ran, and marched while standing in his tiny cell. YouTube offers many walking-in-place videos for seniors that last from 10 to 30 minutes or cover a mile.

stadium) or raise your treadmill incline and walk for 30 seconds to a minute.

NORDIC WALKING FOR ENDURANCE Using Nordic walking poles activates your upper body›s muscles, such as those in the arms, back, shoulders, and core. «To improve endurance so you can walk longer and more often, you need to protect against muscle fatigue by building muscles everywhere,» says Dr. Elson. «A weak upper body can speed up fatigue by decreasing the efficiency of your walking movement.»

Nordic walking poles are available with pointed tips for trails or rubber tips for sidewalks. They come in fixed or adjustable heights. (You can find them online.)

There are several Nordic walking techniques. A good one for beginners is called single poling, where one pole and foot always strike the ground at the same time. You can do the same-side pole and foot at once (left pole and foot together, then right pole and foot together, etc.), or opposite sides (left pole with right foot, then right pole with left foot, etc.).

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Happy senior nordic walking couple enjoying afternoon in park )Getty(

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Samir Ghanem – Legendary Egyptian Acclaimed Actor, Singer, and Comedian

By Majalla

Illustration by Ali Mandalawi Samir Youssef Ghanem is an Egyptian actor, comedian and singer whose name has dominated the seventies of the last century. Through a long artistic career, Samir Ghanem emphasized his stardom and uniqueness in the world of comedy in cinema, theater and drama as well, becoming one of the kings of comedy over many years.

On April 30, 2021, Egyptian stars Samir Ghanem and his wife Dalal Abdel Aziz tested positive for COVID-19. The couple was transported to the hospital to receive the needed treatment and all their lovers and fans wish them a speedy recovery soon.

Ghanem was born in Al-Atawlah city, Asyut Governorate, to Major General Yusef Ghanem, and wife Fathia Mahmoud Helmy. He married the famous actress Dalal Abd Al-Aziz after he met her together in the play “Welcome Doctor” and they have two children, the actresses Donia Samir Ghanem and Amy Samir Ghanem.

After failing to enter the Police College like his police officer father, he decided to transfer his studies to the Faculty of Agriculture in Alexandria and graduated in 1967.

In Alexandria, he met with artists Waheed Seif and Adel Nassif and formed a group that performed sketches on the stage of Alexandria.

Meanwhile, George Sidhom’s fame began to

spread at Ain Shams University, as was the case for El Dief Ahmed at Cairo University.

Samir joined them and formed the famous band known as the “Trio of Theater Lights” (Tholathy Adwa’a El Masrah), through which they performed in a large group of films and plays, as well as “sketches” distinguished by fast and light melodies. Their first show was “Doctor Save Me”, a short performance that introduced them to the entertainment world.

The trio eventually separated after El Deif Ahmed’s death in 1970. Ghanem and Sidhom continued under the same name (Tholathy Adwa’a El Masrah) until the 1980s, but the success did not continue.

Ghanem also had an outstanding performance in “Fawazir Ramadan” – Ramadan Trivia Shows – where he presented the famous character, Fatouta. Among his most successful television performances was his role in “Hekayat Captain Mizo” (The Tales of Captain Mizo). Ghanem is considered among the most talented, spontaneous and creative comedic actors in the Middle East.

Samir Ghanem participated in many films such as “The Two Friends”, “We Are Not Angels”, “One in a Million”, “The Mirage”, “The Three Crazies”, “We Are Good Men”, “The Fire of Longing”, “The Fun Band”, and “Boy and Girl and the Devil.”

In 1964 he participated in plays such as “Tabikh Al-Malaika”, “You Who Killed Elio”, “Music in the Eastern Quarter”, and “Forbidden Zone”.

At the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties, he presented with George Sidhom

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the two most important plays in their joint artistic history, namely the “Married Couple”(Al Motazawegoon) play in 1978 and the play “Welcome Doctor” in 1981.

Although he was not a top star in cinema till the eighties, in the theater, he was a star early, whether with the Trio of Stage Lights or his theatrical works that he starred in.

His most important plays in the new era are the play “Do Re me Fasoulia” in 2001 and the play “Khulousi, a bodyguard” in 2005 and the following year he presented the play “Tra Lamm”.

One of his distinguishing trademarks since his artistic beginning, has been glasses - he loves glasses in all their shapes and colors until the glasses have become one of the things that distinguish his personality and wears different glasses for different roles.

In 2015, he played the role of Al-Halawani in the series “Lahfa” starring his daughter Donia Samir Ghanem. He was a guest in the series “Nelly and Sherihan” starring also his daughters Donia and Amy Samir Ghanem in 2016, and the following year he participated in the series “Fi La La Land” In 2018, he was a guest in the series “Hidden Worlds” starring the superstar Adel Imam and played the role of Fayeq in the series “Azmi and Ashgan” starring Hassan Al-Raddad and Amy Samir Ghanem.

In 2019, he participated in several roles in the series “Badal Al-Hadduta Talata” starring Donia Samir Ghanem.

From his sayings: I consider myself very simple and normal person.