Decade of Right and Left Political Pendulum in America • Israel Today Editors Pick the Leaders Who Made the Decade
Decade leaders in America // Photo: Reuters, IP, AP, Gettyimages
The continent of America has known in the last decade quite a few moments of political drama, exchange of power and huge protests even outside the superpower of the mainland Jose. The political transition from left to right was not only halted by the election of his compatriot Donald Trump, after eight years of Obama's rule.
The right-hand wave of South America also included Brazil, the second most populous country on the continent and most recently Bolivia. Argentina also served a right-wing government right up until the last month. It is difficult to predict how the wave of nationalist and capitalist leaders will make its mark on the continent, but the mutual influence of ideas and political movements from the south to the north of the continent is clearly evident. These are the four leaders of the decade who chose "Israel Today" editors as influencers on the continent.
Donald Trump
(Sephi Fishman)
The 45th President of the United States of America, Donald John Trump is, without a doubt, the most colorful figure the White House knew, and the US President would sign the end of the decade. Contrary to what we used to think of the president, whom we knew from the 1970s to the 2000s, as a charismatic billionaire, real estate mogul and reality show star ...
• What a decade we had! Go to the special "Summary of the Decade" page
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Donald Trump managed to get elected president and do what everyone thought he couldn't do, despite the polls and commentators predicting Hillary Clinton's victory over and over again. Trump stunned America as he flipped the polls and managed to salvage victory.
President of the United States Donald Trump // Photo: AP
Trump is not considered another conservative Republican president. He stormed the party's leadership and soon scorched America and thrilled the crowd until he achieved the result that put him in the White House when both houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate are under Republican control, the ideal situation for any president.
Looking at Israel-US relations during Trump's term, there can be no doubt a significant warming of relations between the states. The warming that came after eight years of Barack Obama's tenure in the White House, which saw unprecedented lows in the special relationship between Washington and Jerusalem. In contrast to other presidents, Trump was not only satisfied with pro-Israeli rhetoric, which can be seen in, among other things, the US embassy's move to Jerusalem, the withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran, the US recognition of Israeli sovereignty at the Golan Heights, and only recently, the secretariat's statement that the settlements do not violate The international law Omi.
Trump declares: "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel"
But while Trump has been able to change direction in many areas, such as relations with North Korea and restricting immigration to the United States, he has also experienced some political entanglements in losing the House to Democrat in the midterm elections, and the ballot in the House of Representatives against him following the Ukraine Gate affair Military in political inquiry by political rivals. For him, the president refers to this affair as the Democratic Party's "witch hunt." But closer to home, Trump has been heavily criticized by his own party for allowing Turkey to carry out a military operation against the Kurds in northeastern Syria.
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The US Constitution does not allow the president to serve more than two terms, so some say that the ultimate goal of every American president in his first term is to prepare the ground for the second term. A goal we won't know if Trump was successful until the November 2020 elections, but at the same time, there is no doubt that the current decade of American politics can be summed up in three words - President Donald Trump.
Barack Obama
(Quiche light)
On November 6, 2008, in front of hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago, Barack Obama stood and made his inaugural address as the first African American president in the history of American history.
"Recognizing that we have shared hopes and dreams will not end all disputes, but it will help us make the difficult but necessary compromises to move this country forward," the new president said in his speech, and he was right.
Former US President Barack Obama // Photo: Reuters
During his eight years in office, President Obama managed to capture the number one terrorist on the FBI's wanted list, and the world's most wanted man at the time - Osama bin Laden, who headed the al-Qaeda that carried out the 9/11 attacks. The excitement he saw in his speech at the announcement of Bin Laden's death was very hard to miss. It was one of the events engraved in history and will never be forgotten.
But the harsh criticism of the president and his conduct in the Israeli context, whether it is his tepid reactions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or whether it is the nuclear agreement with Iran and the removal of the economic sanctions on the state signed in 2015, make one think that the president broke the stigma and succeeded in breaking the stigma. The glass when it comes to American politics, but with regard to diplomacy and foreign affairs, especially those relevant to the State of Israel and its security - the president has maintained American separatist policy.
The harsh criticism leveled at Obama by the Jewish community worldwide, but especially in the United States, reflected the deterioration of Israel-America relations during his term. In a 2010 speech in Indonesia, the President expressed firm stance on Israel's conduct in the failed negotiations with the Palestinians, sparking the outrage of the Jewish community and the State of Israel. "There are no illusions about peace negotiations in the Middle East. But they make it difficult to secure security in the region," he said in a speech at the University of Indonesia, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the situation to this day.
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There is no doubt that Obama's election to the President of the United States has brought with her a lot of optimism and spirits of change in world politics and he has indeed made major changes in world view, but in the end, the eight years he spent in the White House have led to the processes whose results we are experiencing to date, and we will continue to face the consequences. Of the decisions he made in many years.
Jair Bolsonaro
(Assaf Golan)
He supports torture, capital punishment, thinks Brazilian military rule and the dictatorship that replaced it from 1964 to 1985 were good for the country's economy and citizens and he also once said that nothing in the country can be changed democratically and that change will only take place in a civil war in which the military seizes power That politicians are afraid to do. Meet Brazil's President from January 2019 Capt. Miles Jair Bolsonaro.
Prior to winning the presidency, Bolsonaro was the most important and influential politician in Rio de Janeiro when, in 2014, he had the popular support of 464,000 people, more than any other candidate. Bolsonaro, in his personality, represents the end of the leftist era in South America when the deep socialism in its various shades replaces, in most democratically, distinctly right-wingers. In Brazil's case, the upheaval occurred despite the fact that a left-wing party severely wounded Bolesnaro during a September 2018 election campaign.
Jair Bolsonaro after his victory in the presidential election // Photo: IP
This is a populist ruler of the kind known by Juan and Evita Peron, whose election slogan was Brazil over everything and Gd above everyone. It also has a huge number of followers on social networks and is actively known and known to the masses by this accessibility on a daily basis.
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Bolsonaro's national stance led him to a confrontation with European countries as he supported the creation and burning of the Amazon rainforest to produce agricultural land for his country's poor. As part of his desire to advance his country, the man acts strongly against rampant crime. Concerning this, Bolsonaro was quoted as stating that "a good criminal is a dead criminal." In early 2019, he announced a campaign to eradicate crime across Brazil. At the beginning of the operation in Rio de Janeiro, 13 people were killed in an exchange of fire, and quantities of various weapons were found, such as guns and grenades.
As a staunch supporter of the free market, Bolsonaro is pushing his country for a market economy even at the cost of infringing the tribal rights of the Amazon basin. Bolsonaro himself views his positions as acceptable and classic right-wing positions even though he is actually on the edge of nationalism and military nationalism in his words putting US President Donald Trump in the small pocket. Will the man succeed in rejuvenating Brazil? Will democracy keep his country in spite of these exceptional positions? Latin America is set to enter the third decade of the 21st century. In any case, with regard to Israel, Bolsonaro is one of the world's largest supporters of this joy or chagrin, depending on who you ask, the leaders of our country.
Nicholas Moduro
(Net bar)
Sometimes influential leaders are engraved in consciousness as having succeeded in tremendous reform or carrying out a conquest or historical agreement, but some whose success is to continue to hold the reins of government even at times and places it seems impossible.
Such is Nicholas Maduro, the political heir of socialist leader Hugo Chavez. Maduro, who served as Chavez's vice president until his death in 2013, inherited from his patron not only the throne but also galloping inflation and economics that have plummeted to the abyss unseen in the Western world since the 1930s.
Maduro, an uneducated politician who began his political career on the moderate left, lacks Chavez's charisma and his automatic connection to Venezuela's low strata. But Maduro's loyalty to the rigid ideological outline dictated by his predecessor not only led to an economic disaster on Venezuela but also to the opposition's protest and strengthening.
The Ultimate Survivor, Nicolas Maduro // Photo: IP
In 2014, Venezuela held a major demonstration of opposition for the first time. Maduro responded brutally and 40 protesters were killed. The brutality in which the protest was suppressed exploded very quickly in the interior after the 2015 parliamentary elections won the opposition and the president remained without a legislature. This did not deter his section, which was quick to take over the courts, with a view to emptying the legislature of its power.
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But while his generation struggled for control of his country, Venezuela's economic situation, once the richest countries in South America continued to deteriorate. The nationalization of the oil industry by its predecessor has provided the government with tremendous cash flow to realize its social reforms, but this cash flow has been cut significantly as fuel prices plummet in 2016.
One by one the Venezuelan economy collapsed. The health system, the food and pharmaceutical market, the public officials system and finally the electricity supply all crashed. In order to cope with the difficult situation, the Maduro regime offered all kinds of ridiculous solutions like rabbit breeding for food.
The economic disaster that his generation brought to his country translated into another protest. Maduro set up semi-military militias and proclaimed "grassroots liberation operations", under which tens of thousands were arrested and over 9,000 people were killed. In 2019, opposition leader Juan Guido declared himself the interim president of the state and initiated a civil move to topple the president. The move and demonstrations were suppressed by an iron hand and his generation, determined ever more, was still at the heart of the economic ruins of his country, still on the throne.