position:vice presidents

The no-shows at Arafat’s funeral - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz.com
All those who don’t understand why it was so difficult for the Palestinian-Israelis’ political representatives to show their final respects to Shimon Peres, should recall Arafat’s funeral and the ’respect’ shown him by the Israelis.

Shlomo Sand Oct 14, 2016
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.747364

On November 11, 2004, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat died under mysterious circumstances. The next day his body was brought to Cairo, where a official state funeral was held. Representatives of 50 countries participated in the event, both admirers and rivals.
Behind his coffin marched Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar Assad, King Abdullah of Jordan, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, the presidents of Tunisia and Sudan, the leaders of Sweden, Brazil, Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan, the deputy prime minister of China, the vice presidents of Austria, Bulgaria, Tanzania, Iraq and Afghanistan, the foreign ministers of Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Greece, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Canada, Indian and Slovenia, the parliamentary leaders of Italy, Russia, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. It was an official farewell that was less impressive that Shimon Peres’ funeral, but still quite respectable for a president without a country.
The United States, the well known neutral intermediary between Israel and Palestine, sent a low-ranking representative: William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Israel, on the other hand, gave it the finger.
No Israeli representative, either high- or low-ranking, or even very low-ranking, attended. None of the leaders of the opposition dreamed of showing his final respects to the leader of the Palestinian people, the first who recognized the State of Israel, and signed the Oslo Accords. Not Shimon Peres, not Ehud Barak, not Shlomo Ben-Ami and not even Uzi Baram bothered to participate in the Palestinians’ mourning.
Some of them had courageously shaken his hand in the past, other had embraced him enthusiastically several years earlier. But with the outbreak of the second intifada he was once again categorized as a satanic terrorist. The pundits of the sane, moderate left repeatedly claimed in innumerable learned articles that he was not a partner and there was nobody to talk to. When the body of the rais was transferred to Ramallah, the funeral was attended by several “extremist,” marginal Israelis, the likes of Uri Avnery and Mohammed Barakeh.
All the other peaceniks had to wait for the screening of the film “The Gatekeepers” in 2012; in other words, for the videos of all the chiefs of the Shin Bet security services, who declared that in real time they knew that Arafat did not encourage, organize or initiate the mass uprising in the second intifada, nor the acts of terror that accompanied it. For lack of choice the leader was forced to join the wave, otherwise he would have lost his prestige and his status. The disappointment at Barak’s unprepared and totally bizarre diplomatic step, and Ariel Sharon’s ascent to the Temple Mount, were among the main reasons for the eruption of the Palestinians’ unbridled opposition.

Egypt Fate of student union elections unknown as conflict widens between students and state | Mada Masr
▻http://www.madamasr.com/sections/politics/fate-student-union-elections-unknown-conflict-widens-between-students-and-

The Higher Education Ministry raised controversy last week when it didn’t approve the final results of student union elections in Egypt’s public universities, in which candidates associated with the protest movement garnered a major win.

After an electoral battle with the largely pro-government Voice of Egypt’s Students coalition, the president of Cairo University student union, Abdallah Anwar, and his counterpart in Tanta University, Amr al-Helw, both won the leadership of Egypt’s biggest student body as president and vice president. Both Anwar and Helw identify themselves as supporters of the January 25 revolution, and as proponents of academic and campus freedoms.

The union is composed of the elected presidents and vice presidents from student unions in public universities, their counterparts at Al-Azhar University, and one representative of private universities.

Outraged by the ministry’s reluctance to approve the results and declare them, the student community launched a hashtag on social media, “I support Egypt’s Student Union.”

Defense outlook 2015: A global survey of defense-industry executives
Today’s leading defense executives offer their insights.
April 2013 | byJohn Dowdy and Melanie Taylor
▻http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/manufacturing/defense_outlook_2015

Les prévisions des #marchands_de_la_mort

In December 2012, we surveyed a small group of senior executives from leading aerospace and defense companies around the globe, 20 in total, to find the pulse point of the industry: what will the next three years hold? We invited executives to share their views on topics such as market outlook and overall trends, industry restructuring, and growth prospects. About three-quarters of the executives surveyed were C-level leaders at their organization—CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, or president—while the others were vice presidents or general managers. Our sample was geographically diverse, with two-thirds of executives from Europe and the Middle East; one-third were from the Americas. Most lead companies or divisions with at least $5 billion in revenues.

Respondents agreed on many topics, especially the somber outlook for global defense spending. With only one exception, executives see global spending declining over the next three years. They see the defense industry changing, and they are all taking measures to adapt. Leaders are preparing to meet the challenge of evolving customer needs, especially the quest for affordable products, and expect to be active in corporate restructuring. Companies intend to find growth in international markets such as India and the Middle East. Finally, executives see growth potential in commercial aerospace, services, unmanned systems, and cybersecurity, with interesting differences of opinion on the relative attractiveness of these opportunities.

A shrinking market
When asked about the outlook for the global market, the near-universal expectation is for a decline, but executives disagree on the extent of the slump. About two-fifths believe that global market revenues will decrease between 1 and 5 percent, and one-fifth see a decline of more than 20 percent. The rest expect something in between.

We also asked respondents about the outlook in the markets in which they are active, and found some clearly delineated differences. Asia-Pacific and the Middle East were seen by most as pockets of moderate growth, offsetting moderate to significant decreases in Europe and North America. South America and Africa were largely predicted to either remain the same or have slight increases.

#armement #moyen-orient