INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

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Snow seen on trees in Greenwich, Connecticut as a wintry coastal storm brought snow and rain to the region on March 21. (AFP)

Clinton lashes out

Trump ‘neutral’on Israel targetWASHINGTON, March 21, (RTRS): Democratic pres-idential front-runner Hillary Clinton attacked Republi-can Donald Trump on Monday for taking a neutral stance toward Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, in a pre-view of a possible general election battle between them.

On a day Trump was visiting Washington, Clinton told the American-Israeli Political Action Conference (AIPAC) that Trump’s neutral stance in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians would be dangerous for Israel, a stalwart US ally in the Middle East.

“America can’t ever be neutral when it comes to Is-rael’s security and survival,” Clinton told the pro-Israel lobbying group, without mentioning Trump by name. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that has no business being our president.”

Trump, the Republican front-runner, was to address the AIPAC conference later in the day, along with his Republican rivals, US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Clinton’s challenger, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, was not appearing at the event.

Trump has drawn fire for his position on Middle East peace negotiations. The New York billionaire has de-

scribed himself as extremely pro-Israel but has said he would take a “neutral” stance in trying to ne-gotiate an elusive peace settlement between Israel and the Palestin-ians.

Trump’s critics have said a neutral position could harm long-standing US support for Israel. Clinton said she would make it a priority if elected to preserve the US-Israeli relationship, ensuring

Israel has a qualitative military edge.

Clinton also took aim at Trump’s vow that, if elected, he would deport illegal immigrants and bar Muslims temporarily from entering the United States.

She noted an incident during the 1930s, when the United States initially refused entry to a shipload of Jews trying to escape Nazi tyranny.

History“We’ve had dark chapters in our history before,”

Clinton said. “We remember the nearly 1,000 Jews aboard the St Louis who were refused entry in 1939 and sent back to Europe. But America should be better than this. And I believe it is our responsibility to say so.

“If you see bigotry, oppose it, if you see violence, condemn it, if you see a bully, stand up to him,” she said.

Trump was in Washington for a meeting with a va-riety of Republicans organized by his top backer in the capital, US Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. He also planned a news conference at the hotel he is building at the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump’s rise has alarmed establishment Republicans who have tried in vain to stop him. Their best hope of derailing his insurgent candidacy is to stretch the con-test out and deny him the 1,237 delegates needed to for-mally win the party’s presidential nomination.

Such an outcome would mean that the nominee for the Nov 8 election would be decided at the party’s con-vention in Cleveland. Despite the possibility of turmoil at the July 18-21 event, Republican Party Committee Chairman Reince Preibus predicted a “fun” convention.

Priebus, on CNN, shrugged off Trump’s comment last week that riots would break out if he is denied the nomination.

“I guess I don’t put it at the level of a warning to us. He obviously said yesterday he doesn’t believe that. ... We’re prepared for all contingencies. We’ll have over $50 million in security at the convention. ...

“So we’ll be prepared. It’ll be fine, and I guarantee you we’ll have a good time, and it’ll be a fun conven-tion in Cleveland,” Priebus said.

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is leaning on new sources of cash as he prepares for a long prima-ry fight against front-runner Donald Trump, with new campaign finance filings showing the expense of com-peting against a billionaire adept at grabbing headlines.

Cruz’s more traditional campaign has struggled to compete with Trump. The US senator from Texas poured money into advertising, staff and calls to voters, spending $5.6 million more in February than he raised as he tried to outmaneuver Trump, according to cam-paign finance records made public on Sunday.

ImpactBut the effort had a limited impact as Trump took a

commanding lead in the delegate count for the Repub-lican nomination while spending a little more than half what Cruz did. The real estate mogul has loaned his campaign more than $24 million since he entered the race for the White House.

Now, with establishment Republican rivals Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio out of the race, Cruz is trying to win votes and rake in money by arguing the party should unite behind him if it hopes to defeat Trump.

It’s a tough proposition for a conservative candidate who has long rankled the establishment wing of his par-ty, including by leading a fight over President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law that led to a 16-day shutdown of the federal government.

Cruz now hopes to convince his party that he, not Ohio Governor John Kasich, the other Republican re-maining in the race, is best poised to defeat Trump and go on to the Nov 8 presidential election.

In a sign of Cruz’s warming ties with establish-ment Republicans, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been a vocal critic of Cruz, plans on Monday to hold a fundraiser for the senator from Texas.

Charles Foster, a Houston immigration attorney who backed Bush until he left the race in February, said Fri-day he is urging establishment Republicans to line up behind Cruz.

“My pitch to them simplistically is that Trump is an existential threat. He’d be a total disaster,” Foster said.

“The only person that has a real chance,” he added, “particularly within the Republican primary base, which is conservative, far more conservative than Ka-sich, is Ted.”

Trump has a substantial lead in the Republican White House race, though he remains far short of the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. It is unclear whether he will hit that number before the July con-vention in Cleveland, but it would also be difficult for either Cruz or Kasich to catch him.

Cruz could pick up delegates in Utah, which holds its caucus on Tuesday, and all of the candidates are ex-pected to compete hard in Wisconsin on April 5. But so far, efforts to stop the Trump juggernaut have made little impression on voters.

Politics

America

McConnell Clinton

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen speaks at a news con-ference in Quebec on March 21. (AFP)

‘No lame-duck hearing’: The Sen-ate’s Republican majority leader on Sunday ruled out the idea of consid-ering confirmation of US President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomi-nee, even in a postelection lame-duck session,

Sen Mitch McConnell signaled no

Biden says Israel settlements raise questions

‘US watching Iran like hawk’WASHINGTON, March 21, (AFP): Vice President Joe Biden warned Sunday that the United States is watching Iran “like a hawk” to ensure compliance with the landmark nuclear deal.

Tehran and six world powers, includ-ing the United States, agreed to the deal in July when Iran promised to scale down its nuclear activities in return for the lift-ing of painful UN and Western sanctions, including on its lifeblood oil exports.

“The incentives are aligned for Iran to uphold its side of the deal. We’re watch-ing Tehran like a hawk,” Biden said.

“Under this deal, Iran would never be allowed to pursue nuclear weapons, never, never, never,” he told the annual policy conference of the American Is-rael Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby group.

“If Iran violates the deal, the United States will act,” Biden pledged.

A key provision allows the sanctions to be restored or “snap-back” imme-diately if Iran is found in breach of the agreement.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had accused Washington of failing to respect the terms of the deal, in a speech marking Persian New Year.

The United States has lifted sanctions

“on paper” under the deal which came into effect in January, “but they are using roundabout paths to prevent the Islamic republic from achieving its targets,” Khamenei said Sunday.

Meanwhile, Biden called on Israel’s government on Sunday to demonstrate its commitment to a two-state solution to end the conflict with the Palestinians and said settlement expansion is weakening prospects for peace.

“Israel’s government’s steady and systematic process of expanding settle-ments, legalizing outposts, seizing land, is eroding in my view the prospect of a two-state solution,” Biden said in a speech to the American Israel Public Af-fairs Committee (AIPAC), a leading pro-Israel lobbying group.

Biden said he did not agree with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that expanded settlements would not interfere with any effort to settle the conflict.

“Bibi (Netanyahu) thinks it can be ac-commodated, and I believe he believes it. I don’t,” Biden said.

Biden said the region instead seems to be moving toward a one-state solution, which he termed dangerous.

“There is no political will at this mo-

ment among Israelis or Palestinians to move forward with serious negotiations. And that’s incredibly disappointing,” Biden said.

Israel says it intends to keep large set-tlement blocs in any future peace agree-ment with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a vi-able country.

Palestinians have cited Israeli settle-ment activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes nego-tiations could be revived any time soon.

“We’ve stressed to both parties the need to take meaningful steps to demon-strate their commitment to a two-state so-lution that extends beyond mere words,” Biden said.

“There’s got to be a little ‘show-me.’ This cannot continue to erode,” he said.

Biden was cheered for criticizing what he called Palestinian actions at the United Nations to undermine Israel, and he said changes in the region, including the unit-ed fight against Islamic State militants, could help thaw relations between Israel and its neighbors.

retreat or surrender from his firm stand to keep the court short-handed through at least January, scuttling the suggestion from at least one Republican colleague worried that a new Democrat in the White House — Hillary Clinton is the party’s front-runner — might nominate someone more liberal than Obama’s pick, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland. (AP)

Immigration policy criticized

French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen, who is touring the Canadian province of Quebec, said on Sunday the country’s immigration policy was on the “wrong path,” at an event where one of her bodyguards reportedly struck a protester.

The Canadian Press news agency reported the Front Na-tional leader’s remarks at a news conference in Quebec City.

Le Pen and her party could not immediately be reached for comment. Quebec police were at the scene but made no ar-rests, they said.

The Huffington Post posted a video of the event, which showed a man hitting another in the face. It said the Canadian Press identified the attacker as a bodyguard of Le Pen.

Le Pen also said that if her party were to take power in France, it would recognize Quebec as a sovereign state, the Canadian Press reported.

Le Pen began a six-day trip to the largely French-speaking province on Friday. Her party strongly opposes immigration and has been criticized as xenophobic. Quebec political lead-ers, including those from the separatist Parti Québécois, have declined to meet with her.

In an interview with Canada’s French La Presse newspaper published on Sunday, she labeled Canada’s decision last year to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees as “insanity.”

Le Pen has sought to make the National Front more main-stream after taking over its leadership from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen. She had him expelled last year for renewing past declarations playing down the Nazi Holocaust.

The elder Le Pen has also endorsed Donald Trump. (RTRS)

Trump