Israel’s national rugby team to compete in Dubai
The warming relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have seen many historical collaborations in a variety of fields ever since the Abraham Accords were signed in August last year.
Now, rugby is joining the historical list of exciting collaborations between Israelis and Emirates – creating exciting new opportunities for rugby fans in both countries.
Israel’s national Olympic Rugby team departed Ben-Gurion Airport Monday night toward Dubai for a joint training camp with UAE’s national rugby team ahead of the European Rugby Championship Cup, starting June 19.
On March 19, the teams will meet at Dubai’s Rugby Park in the city’s Sports City, for the first friendly match between Israeli and Emirati national teams.
Unfortunately, spectators will be able to watch the unforgettable event from their homes, as spectators will not be allowed in the arena due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Israel’s national rugby team is managed by Rugby Israel, the rugby federation in Israel. It was founded in 1971, and while rugby is not considered a popular sport in Israel, the team hopes to change that. Training intensified in 2016, when rugby was recognized as an Olympic sport. And the coronavirus pandemic has not hindered the team’s efforts.
According to a Rugby Israel statement, the team continued to train during the pandemic and is in top shape toward its upcoming match in Dubai.
The unexpected collaboration between Israel and Dubai ahead of the upcoming European Rugby Championship Cup was made possible thanks to an agreement signed between Apollo Perelini, technical director of the UAE rugby team and Kevin Musikanth, technical director of Israel Rugby.
“This collaboration is a fantastic example of what sports can do,” Musikanth told The Jerusalem Post. “It can bring people together, it doesn’t know any barriers,” he added, explaining how the collaborative process was made possible. “There was no hesitation for working together.”
“Our team has a high level of natural abilities ... hopefully, with this historic event, the public will be able to identify the fact that we have a talented team with high aspirations,” Musikanth added, noting that the team hopes to make it to the World Cup one day. “With the country’s support we should be able to progress.”
Israel’s national team is ranked 60th in the world and 17th in Europe.
During the 2021 European Rugby Championship Cup, Israel will compete with Romania, Ukraine, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Sweden, Luxemburg, Denmark, Latvia, Hungary and Turkey.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s case has led to many uninformed takes about the American criminal justice system. One common theme is that rich people are treated better than the poor by the system. Clemence Michallon’s piece in The Independent, “What Ghislaine Maxwell’s case teaches us about rich people justice,” is just one example, but this argument misunderstands the American justice system in profound ways. As a lawyer as well as spokesperson for Ghislaine’s family, I felt obligated to respond.
Contrary to the premise of the article, the rich do not enjoy enormous advantages in a federal criminal case. If anything, they are greatly disadvantaged.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s case is a perfect example.
One of the judge’s stated reasons for denying bail is her wealth. Any other person charged with stale 25-year-old allegations would be out on bail right now.
Ghislaine is being held in torturous conditions because the Bureau of Prisons deems her not to be a normal inmate permitted to be in the general population.
Ghislaine is the target of relentless media attacks because of her wealth and fame. Reporters almost seem delighted in reporting that she is not being permitted to sleep and that she
is losing her hair. Imagine the uproar if we treated anyone else like this.
So too with prosecutors. They target rich, well-known defendants much more than a poor, unknown person who won’t get them headlines. Michallon points to the Lori Loughlin case as an example of “rich people justice.” Absurd. Prosecutors in that case only offered her a deal after being caught engaging in misconduct. Loughlin had a real defense and stood a good chance
of being found not guilty at a trial, but prosecutors have so much power that they were able to bully her into pleading guilty or risk facing decades in prison. Her wealth and fame only fueled the prosecution. It certainly did not shield her.
Jurors are predisposed against wealthy defendants. Schadenfreude abounds.
So too with judges who do not want to appear to be giving any benefits to those with money.
Defendants who have money are also the target of contingency fee lawyers who see dollar signs and are willing to look past the red flags of people claiming to be victims.
The article is also a slap in the face to the tireless public defenders around the country who are relentless for their clients. It is widely recognized that the federal public defender’s office in the Southern District of New York, where Ms. Maxwell is being prosecuted, is one of the great law offices in the country.
It is true that wealthy defendants have resources to investigate and expose false claims. But in Ghislaine’s case, the identities of the three accusers in the indictment have been kept secret. And no matter what funds she has, they pale in comparison to the government’s resources in this case. Just take a look at the media circus that was put on when Ghislaine was arrested to see how much the New York prosecutors are putting into this case.
Ms. Michallon seems to celebrate Ghislaine’s detention and her sub-human conditions even though anyone else charged with a weak, decades-old case would be released. Instead of being “reassured,” Michallon – all of us – should be embarrassed about the injustices occurring before our very eyes in the American justice system.
The regional hegemonic powers clearly set out to attack Iraq’s sovereignty and national dignity. The zero-sum game between Iran and Turkey over influence in Iraq is no longer so surprising. But it raises serious questions about the Arab position on what these two countries are plotting against an Arab state with a long history.
What has happened between Iran and Turkey in recent times is not just a verbal squabble that spilled over into a diplomatic crisis, as it may seem. Indeed, there is a strong antagonism between these two countries that masquerades behind the common interest of pursuing their colonial projects while scorning Arab national sovereignty and interests.
Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi said that his country does not tolerate the presence of foreign troops in Iraq, nor a military intervention on its territory, alluding to the occupation of Iraqi territory by Turkish forces. Such a declaration would have been fair, if only it had not been made by an official of a state that is literally doing what it accuses others of doing.
Iran and Turkey are foreign powers that have been illegally intervening in Iraq for years. Each is embroiled in a barbarous occupation of parts of Iraq. How can one call the other out and describe it as an occupier? The mullahs themselves openly boasted years ago that they occupied the capital of Iraq among four Arab capitals.
No one can forget the March 2015 statement by Ali Younesi, Iran’s former minister of intelligence and adviser to the current Iranian president: “Iran has become an empire, as it has been throughout history, and its capital is now Baghdad.”
Funny how the Iranian ambassador called on Turkey to withdraw to the international border and leave the task of securing Iraq to the Iraqis, but did not tell his own side the same. His country has spread its sectarian militias all over Iraq. It is hampering the unity of the Iraqi people and sabotaging all efforts to restore security on its territory.
Of course, what applies to Iran is sure to apply to Turkey. Both have a strategic expansion project at the cost of Arab states: nibbling away at their territories, plundering their riches and exploiting them in a game of blackmail against the major powers.
THIS MAY be the moment of the projects’ clash, and conflicts of interest may arise after years of pretend cooperation and coordination between them. In repeated
joint meetings in recent years, Iran and Turkey have spoken of historic friendships and other rosy phrases that did not weather the first storm that rocked the walls of these frail ties.
At the first meeting of the Turkish-Iranian Strategic Cooperation Council in June 2014 in Ankara, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey and Iran are among the most ancient countries in the region, and that their
friendship is based on a past that goes beyond the history of many countries.
He went on to speak inappropriately about what he described as non-ancient Arab countries. The meeting saw a splurge of histrionics from both sides on the Palestinian issue, which they are fighting each other to exploit to conquer the hearts of Arab people, so as to implement their colonial projects through sectarian and terrorist groups and elements, alas, of Arab nationalities.
The conflict between the Iranian and Turkish projects on Iraqi soil is neither new, nor fleeting, nor shocking.
Few have bought the words of phony friendship swapped by the two countries’ leaders, who have nothing but anti-Arab sentiment. In Syria as in Iraq, there is an intense or temporarily buried conflict between the two countries, marked by divergent sectarian tendencies and a desire to extend one’s influence to others’ detriment.
Since 2003, the two sides have banded together to put a lid on the Kurdish project, consenting to violate Iraq’s sovereignty from east to west and to launch strike after strike against the Kurds. Afterward, the mullahs kept silent about Turkey’s presence in Syria, especially in Idlib. Turkey turned a blind eye to Iran’s presence in Syria.
But Turkey’s strong incursion into northern Iraq in recent months did not sit well with the mullahs. They did not welcome Turkey’s growing role in Lebanon either. The latest spat brings out a repressed anger that is looking for an exit to redefine the dynamics between the two players.
Iran and Turkey, aided by transnational terrorist organizations and groups, have done much to blur religion and politics, playing on sectarianism and seeking to erode national affiliations in favor of confessional affinities.
The mullahs view Iraq as part of the new Persian empire, as declared in 2017 by former Iranian defense minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan in 2017, while Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanism looks at Arabs with the same supremacist gaze as the mullahs.
The Turkish-Iranian conflict in Iraq is the result, as noted above, of the intersection of Turkish nationalist and Iranian sectarian projects to control and dominate the Arab region and to take advantage of the power vacuum that has existed since the 2011 troubles. We may expect each side to get bolder as it solidifies its positions in Iraq and elsewhere.
THIS ADDS a new burden to Iraq and Iraqis, and weakens the current government’s efforts to gradually restore the country’s role and status.
The Arab position on Iran’s and Turkey’s assaults on Iraqi sovereignty is well known. However, Arab rejection of their interference is limited to words, and does not translate into coordinated efforts within a joint Arab diplomatic framework to respond resolutely to these violations.
In fact, the room for maneuver of Arab actors is thin. Perhaps this is due to the circumstances of the Arab regional system or the declining role of international organizations, the lack of effective international cooperation, and the changing interests and priorities due to the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, it is imperative to provide all possible Arab support to Iraq to free this great Arab country from the straitjacket of the regional power struggle between Iran and Turkey.