Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
In 1986, Senator Joe Biden gave an impassioned pro-Israel speech that was broadcast to the American nation.
“Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region,” he shouted, waving his arms to emphasise his point.
“It is the best $3 billion investment we make.”
Almost 40 years on, Mr Biden, who now holds the ultimate authority over this special relationship, remains a staunch backer of Israel. On Wednesday, he told journalists that US support of Israel is “ironclad”.
Today, his support for Israel faces more challenges than in 1986.
The US continues to provide vast amounts of financial support to Israel, giving almost $4 billion in 2023, the vast majority of which was military aid.
But Mr Biden is under growing pressure to defer or even halt arms transfers to Israel, which has been accused of committing war crimes during its continuing operation in Gaza.
Many of Mr Biden's fellow Democrats have questioned both the return and the ethics of the US' massive investment in Israel.
Democrat senator Bernie Sanders told CNN on Wednesday that “not another nickel” should go to Israel.
Many traditional Democratic voters say US military aid makes the country directly complicit in alleged Israeli war crimes, particularly in Gaza.
In Michigan, where many Arab-Americans live, more than 100,000 voters cast uncommitted Democratic ballots in the state's primary election in February, after a campaign centred on Mr Biden's support for Israel.
International support for Israel is also eroding, including among its traditional allies in Europe, as accusations of genocide take hold. Israel has faced a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, and recently a UN report found Israel's actions in Gaza met several of the criteria listed in the Genocide Convention.
Amid this mounting pressure, Mr Biden will also be aware that Israel faces critical threats that it may need American support to withstand.
The country is on high alert ahead of an expected Iranian retaliation for the attack on Iran's embassy in Damascus. The attack could be direct or come via one of Iran's proxy groups such as Hezbollah, which possesses a large arsenal of missiles capable of striking Israeli territory, or the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have launched attacks at the Israeli port city of Eilat.
Tensions are also seething in the occupied West Bank, where the risk of a mass uprising by Palestinians remains.
Israeli military officials and experts are confident they can deal with this dangerous situation, as long as US military aid keeps coming.
Israel researcher Yoel Guzansky said the American voices talking critically about arms exports to Israel are a “worrying new development”, but that the administration will still draw a distinction between Israel’s conduct in Gaza and its defence against Iran.
“The president has said he will defend Israel against Iran and its proxies no matter what. I think he will. The voices [critical of] arms exports to Israel are worrying. It’s a new development, but they are two separate things,” Mr Guzansky told The National.
The US is still on course to deliver vital military aid to Israel.
Washington is preparing to approve another arms transfer to Israel that could include 50 F-15 fighter bombers. Already approved and in the pipeline of supplies is a package of 25 F-35 fighter jets, and 1,800 2,000-pound bombs.
The latter has caused widespread alarm among conflict monitors, who say that Israel's use of massive bombs such as these has caused mass civilian casualties.
Other pending arms transfers include 24,000 assault rifles and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which are used to change unguided bombs – of which Israel has a vast stockpile – into guided bombs.
All of these weapons could be used in Gaza and on Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria, but there is also equipment that could be used in a major confrontation with Iran.
Critically, they include the F-15EX, which can almost reach Iran without refuelling, and KC-46A aerial refuelling tankers, state of the art aircraft that would allow a large Israeli aerial armada to bombard Iran in the event of war. Without the tankers, US backers of Israel say its ability to defend itself against Iran will remain limited.
All expectations point to these deliveries being made.
Israeli security expert Orna Mizrahi said that the US is “still obligated to defend Israel despite the tactical differences with the Israeli government”.
“Therefore the understanding is that no American embargo on arms transfers is expected at least until the US elections,” she added.
But when Mr Biden makes impassioned speeches vowing “ironclad” support of Israel today, he does so facing an American political establishment and public that is far more sceptical than it has ever been about the wisdom of his words.
Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World by Michael Ignatieff
Harvard University Press
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
match info
Southampton 2 (Ings 32' & pen 89') Tottenham Hotspur 5 (Son 45', 47', 64', & 73', Kane 82')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Day 3 stumps
New Zealand 153 & 249
Pakistan 227 & 37-0 (target 176)
Pakistan require another 139 runs with 10 wickets remaining
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Pakistan squad
Sarfraz (c), Zaman, Imam, Masood, Azam, Malik, Asif, Sohail, Shadab, Nawaz, Ashraf, Hasan, Amir, Junaid, Shinwari and Afridi
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Selected fixtures
All times UAE
Wednesday
Poland v Portugal 10.45pm
Russia v Sweden 10.45pm
Friday
Belgium v Switzerland 10.45pm
Croatia v England 10.45pm
Saturday
Netherlands v Germany 10.45pm
Rep of Ireland v Denmark 10.45pm
Sunday
Poland v Italy 10.45pm
Monday
Spain v England 10.45pm
Tuesday
France v Germany 10.45pm
Rep of Ireland v Wales 10.45pm
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
The%20specs
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SPEC%20SHEET
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
SQUADS
UAE
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice-captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Nepal
Paras Khadka (captain), Gyanendra Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Avinash Bohara, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Rohit Paudel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi, Basant Regmi, Pawan Sarraf, Bhim Sharki, Aarif Sheikh
