In this mailing: Bassam Tawil: Terrorists All Set to Win Palestinian Elections Judith Bergman: What China's Communist Party Wants: Its New Five-Year Plan Terrorists All Set to Win Palestinian Elections by Bassam Tawil  •  March 30, 2021 at 5:00 am       [A]s far as most Palestinians are concerned, Barghouti is actually a "hero" who deserves to become president because of his convictions for terrorism. The message the Palestinian leadership is sending to its people is: A Palestinian convicted of financial corruption is nowhere near as worthy of public office as one who murders Jews and masterminds terrorist attacks. [I]t would be no surprise to see several Palestinian terrorists, including Barghouti and Sa'adat, in the next Palestinian parliament. Hamas and the PFLP, whose members are planning to run in the parliamentary election, have, incidentally, been officially designated as terrorist organizations by the US, the European Union, Canada, Israel and Japan. A terrorist convicted of murdering Jews is far more popular than a candidate who graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, such as former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad. The US, EU, and other countries need to make financial aid to the Palestinian conditional on not electing terrorists. This condition should be presented to the Palestinians before, not after, the election. This should not be a difficult task. All the international community has to do is remind the Palestinians of the three conditions set by the Quartet in 2006 for recognizing a Palestinian government: that all members of a future Palestinian government must be committed to non-violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians. By turning a blind eye to terrorists who plan to participate in the Palestinian elections, the international community is legitimizing terrorism as well as pulling the rug out from under all the Palestinians and other Arabs not affiliated with terrorist groups and who might be hoping that the US would lead them to better lives and peace in the region. As far as the Palestinian Central Elections Commission is concerned, Marwan Barghouti's role in murdering five Jews is not a "crime or felony against honor or integrity." Therefore, not only will he be allowed to contest the election, but as far as most Palestinians are concerned, Barghouti is actually a "hero" who deserves to become president because of his convictions for terrorism. Pictured: A poster of Barghouti at the campaign office of a group supporting his election, in Ramallah on March 3, 2021. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images) The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) recently announced that any Palestinian who wants to run in the upcoming general elections "must not be convicted of a crime or felony against honor or integrity." That is, of course, unless the "crime" includes murdering a Jew or involvement in terrorism. The announcement aims to prevent Mohammed Dahlan, an arch-rival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, from presenting his candidacy for the presidential election, set to take place on July 31. Continue Reading Article What China's Communist Party Wants: Its New Five-Year Plan by Judith Bergman  •  March 30, 2021 at 4:00 am       The Chinese Communist Party's overarching strategy for the next five to fifteen years, apparently, is to accelerate China's rise by becoming an innovation superpower, technologically independent of the West and dominating global tech. One of the great causes of tension between China, the US and other Western countries is how the CCP carries out its goal of becoming a dominant technological power -- by using deception and theft. Chinese theft of US intellectual and other property was happening on "a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history." — Christopher Wray, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation, July 7, 2020. The plan calls for the acceleration of "national defense and armed forces modernization," and aims to "speed up weapons and equipment upgrading and the development of intelligentized weapons and equipment". The Chinese Communist Party's overarching strategy for the next five to fifteen years, apparently, is to accelerate China's rise by becoming an innovation superpower, technologically independent of the West and dominating global tech. Pictured: Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, at the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 11, 2021 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Since General Secretary Xi Jinping became leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012, he has spoken repeatedly of the "Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation". This statement translates into China's ambition of becoming the world's greatest power by 2049, thereby surpassing the US as the economic, political and military leader of the world, as pointed out by Michael Pillsbury in his 2015 book, The Hundred Year Marathon. Continue Reading Article