#DonaldTrump – The Concordian

Everything you need to know about the historic Abraham Accords

Number one was for North Korea. Number two was for Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Number three was for Kosovo. In the past few days, the three contentious nominations of Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize have been the talk of the town.

Though the US President is by no means guaranteed the prestigious tribute — among hundreds of other nominees, it’s highly unlikely that he will be chosen — this endorsement flared up the controversy leading up to the diplomatic Israel-UAE-Bahrain deal, which was officially signed at the White House on Sept. 15.

Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on in recent months

Because of past treaties, Israel has retained military control over most of the West Bank. Conveniently labeled areas A, B, and C, three zones have been delineated as the result of decades of war and diplomatic talks. Still, only about 18 per cent of the territory remains entirely in the hands of Palestinian authorities to this day.

In recent years, the Israeli government has been subsidizing the establishment of Jewish communities in the West Bank — the infamous settlements — despite not owning the territory. This has been decried by, well, everyone, for many years, because it blatantly violates international law.

But in 2019, the Trump administration announced it would no longer call the settlements illegal, a major setback for Palestinians, whose fragile sovereignty depends on international recognition.

This isn’t so surprising, though, considering Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s friendly relationship, and also as the upshot of Obama’s 2016 agreement to give Israel $38 billion in military aid in the next 10 years.

And then Netanyahu announced he was planning on launching a project to annex parts of the West Bank as soon as July 1, threatening the enactment of the coveted two-state solution.

So … what’s the deal?

Announced in mid-August, the Abraham Accords called for a complete normalization of the diplomatic relationship between Israel and the UAE, with Bahrain joining in soon after.

This means economic and military alliances, embassies in each country, and most importantly, formal acknowledgement of Israel’s sovereignty — something only two other Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, have carried out thus far. In exchange, the Jewish state must suspend its inchoate annexation plan.

In essence, the treaty formalizes Israel’s ties with its neighbours, as the UAE and Bahrain are the first Persian Gulf countries to agree to amicable relations. To some, this was received positively — as long as Israel holds its end of the deal, all three countries will profit economically and effectively avoid conflict.

For others, including many Palestinians and Bahrainis, it means betrayal; as more Arab states normalize their ties with Israel, they are forfeiting their fraternal support for the Palestinian cause in favour of financial gain.

Since Netanyahu has shown no desire to bring an end to his settlement projects or to his plan for future annexation, many are feeling helpless in a decades-long fight against Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Annexation or not, the plight of those living in the West Bank will remain unresolved. Experts haven’t been wrong in calling this accord historical, but only time will tell if it lives up to the title of peace deal — and if it would even entitle Trump a seat at the Nobel Peace Prize winners’ table.

A new decade is here, bringing with it new events. But before we look forward, here are the 10 defining news events that have set the stage for the 2020s, in no particular order.

Arab Spring

Beginning in December 2010, anti-government protests shook Tunisia and, in 2011, quickly turned into a region-wide uprising referred to as the Arab Spring. This pro-democratic wave of protest that spread across Arabic-speaking countries in Northern Africa and Middle East overthrew the governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. This then led to civil war in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.

Release of information

The 2010s were filled with whistleblowers and leaks. Notably, Edward Snowden worked for the National Security Agency and leaked documents about monitoring American citizens. Then U.S. army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning––then Bradley Manning––leaked thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, a website intended to collect and share confidential information, created by Julian Assange.

The Black Lives Matter Movement

On Feb. 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, a Black 17-year-old boy was shot by George Zimmerman, who ended up being acquitted for murdering Martin. This acquittal prompted the creation of the Black Lives Matter Movement, an international activist movement against violence and systemic racism towards Black people.

The #Metoo Movement

In October 2017, #Metoo went viral, making international news, encouraging women to share their stories of sexual violence and harrassment. The #Metoo movement brought to light sexual predators like Bill O’Reilly and Harvey Weinstein.

Donald Trump

In 2017, Donald Trump was elected and became the third American president to be impeached. The Trump administration is known for separating migrant families at the border and shutting down the American government for 35 days—the longest in American history—in an attempt to try to force the Democratic party to agree to a deal to build a wall along the Mexican-U.S border.

Brexit

England held a referendum and voted to exit the European Union in 2016. This created a riff in the country’s political parties, who are unable, to this day, to agree on what may

be one of the biggest decisions in English history in decades.

Climate Crisis

Rising temperatures throughout the past decade have caused an increase in natural disasters around the world. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global temperature will increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next 10-years, which will cause devastating damage to the planet. In 2015, 195 nations signed the Paris Agreement, agreeing to keep the global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. The inaction of various government have caused people like Greta Thunberg to mobilize millions across the globe in a climate strike.

America’s School Shooting

There have been approximately 180 school shootings in America from 2009-18, and 114 people have been killed. According to an article by CNN, school shootings have increased since the start of the 2010s.

Russia invades Ukraine

Russian forces occupied Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in an attempt to stop Ukraine from trading with America. Over 10,000 people were killed in the long-lasting conflict between the two countries from 2014-18.

ISIS and the rise of terrorism

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was born of an offshoot of Al Qaeda in 2013. The group was involved in multiple terrorist attacks across the world, notably the bombing of a Russian airplane, killing 224 people, and a series of attacks in Paris on the night of Nov.13, 2015, killing 130 people.

Memorable moments

Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar

The only important event of the 2010’s is that DiCaprio won best actor in 2016 for his role in The Revenant. He had been nominated six times prior to his first win.

Said goodbye to Harry Potter

The last Harry Potter movie came out in 2011, ending the 14-year saga of the Wizarding World. The movie series brought in over $7 billion, and the book series sold over 450 million copies with a similar estimated revenue.

Discovery of the Higgs boson

The Higgs field is theorized to be what gives matter mass and is made up of a particle called the Higgs boson. This particle has been theorized since the 1960s, but was only detected in 2012. This helps add to the understanding of the Standard Model, a theory that explains t hree of the four fundamental forces in physics.

Ic e Bucket Challenge

The viral phenomenon of people dumping buckets of ice water over themselves to raise awareness for ALS and fundraise for the ALS Foundation took place in 2014. Celebrities like Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. participated in the challenge. The campaign raised over $10 million in 30 days, and funded a number of projects. One of these was Project MinE who, in 2016, were able to identify a gene associated with ALS which could possibly lead to a treatment.

First photo of a black hole

We got to see the first ever photo of a black hole, located more than 50 million lightyears away in the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy. The photo was created by the Event Horizon Telescope project, a global collaboration of more than 200 scientists using observatories around the world, ranging from the South Pole to Hawaii. It took more than two years to assemble all the photos gathered from all observatories to create an actual image of the black hole.

Discovering new species

Biologists discovered new species at an incredible rate, averaging approximately 18,000 per year. Some of these include the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey and the Vangunu giant rat. New categories for animals were made to describe newfound fish with “hands” and frogs smaller than a dime. Yet, in 2019, scientists warned that a quarter of plant and animal populations are at risk of extinction.