Kudos to President Donald Trump! He thinks he has solved the security problems in Europe and the Middle East. His ideas for peace by in Gaza via force and land grabbing, however, have not augured well with key powers in the region. The Arabs felt they have been betrayed by Trump who gave Israel carte blanche to deal with Iran, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, for example.

The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries have this time refused to be pushed around by Washington.

Unlike the Europeans, the Arabs are not capitulating. Under pressure, the British has raised its defence spending by 2.5 % of the GDP. Immanuel Macron is, at time of writing, in the White House meeting with President Donald Trump. He will also be under pressure to hike up his defence budget.

Germany just elected Friedrich Merz from the Centre-right Christian Democratic Union and its sister party won 28.6% of the vote. By trumping the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, considered extremist by some, he has retaken mainstream politics. Amidst raising fears of a divided Europe and a combative Donald Trump who made peace with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine behind the European backs. Merz, on course to be the German Chancellor, promised to rebuild a strong Germany. Besides his concerns over immigration, the economy and the return of Trump who has been, according to him, indifferent to the fate of Europe, Merz wants Europe to stand up to Trump. He plans to set up a new regional security architecture to replace NATO; without the US military umbrella, NATO will be........

© Pearls and Irritations