Excerpts: US Democrats readying anti Trump,Republican action. Copts flee
Sinai February 25, 2017

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya 25 Feb.’17”US Democrats to pick chairman to lead party
against Trump,Republicans”,by Reuters
SUBJECT: US Democrats readying anti Trump,Republican action

After a brutal election loss in November, Democrats will choose a new leader
on Saturday[25 Feb] to begin the daunting task of rebuilding the party and
heading the political opposition to Republican President Donald Trump.

The 447 members of the Democratic National Committee, the administrative and
fundraising arm of the party, will gather in Atlanta to pick a new chairman
in one of the most crowded and competitive party leadership elections in
decades.

The stakes are high for a party still struggling to recover from the
surprising Nov. 8 loss of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
and anxious to channel the growing grassroots resistance to Trump into
political support for Democrats at all levels of government across the
country.

Seven candidates are vying for the chairmanship, led by former Labor
Secretary Tom Perez, a favorite of former Obama administration officials,
and US Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, backed by liberal leaders
such as US Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts.

Perez is the son of Dominican immigrants, while Ellison was the first Muslim
elected to the US Congress.

The clash between candidates representing the establishment and progressive
wings of the party echoes the bitter 2016 primary between Clinton and
Sanders, a rift Democrats hope to put behind them as they turn their focus
to fighting Trump.

A fresh start

The election also offers the DNC a fresh start after last year’s forced
resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who stepped aside after
the release of hacked emails that appeared to show DNC officials trying to
help Clinton defeat Sanders in the primaries.

Other contenders are Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Idaho
Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown, election lawyer
Peter Peckarsky, and activists Jehmu Greene and Sam Ronan.

All of the candidates have pledged to focus on a bottom-up reconstruction of
the party, which has lost hundreds of statehouse seats under Obama and faces
an uphill task in trying to reclaim majorities in Congress in next year’s
midterm elections. Ellison has pledged to start building Democratic
organizations in each US county.

“We can actually help Democrats win all over the country so that we can get
rid of Donald Trump,” Ellison said at a candidates’ debate on CNN earlier
this week. “That means we focus on turnout, and that is how we succeed.”

Perez also has promised to confront Trump as Democrats try to harness the
energy of the anti-Trump resistance.

“The Democratic Party needs to take the fight to Donald Trump. When we lead
with our values, when we lead with our conviction, that’s how we succeed,”
Perez said at the debate.

But Buttigieg warned Democrats it is “not all about Donald Trump,” calling
him a computer virus in the political system.

“We can’t let him dominate our imagination, because it’s our values and our
candidates that matter most,” he said.

Perez and Ellison are considered to be running neck-and-neck in the race to
win a majority of the 447 DNC members, who include state party officials,
donors and activists from all 50 states.

But if no candidate wins a majority on the first ballot - a strong
possibility given the large field - additional rounds of voting will be
held. After two rounds, the candidate with the lowest vote total is
eliminated.

That could lead to plenty of deal-making and turn some of the contenders
into potential kingmakers.

+++SOURCE: Al Arabya News 25 Feb17:”Copts flee Sinai after suspected ISIS
attacks” ,byAgence France Presse

SUBJECT:Copts fled Sinai fearing suspected ISIS attacks. (AFP)

FULL TEXT:Dozens of Coptic Christians have left Egypt's Sinai Peninsula
after a string of jihadist attacks killed three Christians in the restive
province, church officials said.

On Thursday[23 Feb], suspected ISIS jihadists killed a member of the
minority in the North Sinai city of El-Arish and set his house on fire.

About 250 Christians took refuge in the Evangelical Church in the Suez Canal
city of Ismailiya, said church deacon and administrator Nabil Shukrallah.

“They've come running with their children. It's a very difficult situation.
We're expecting 50 or 60 more,” he told AFP.

Other church officials said they have also received Copts fleeing the
peninsula.

Families sat in the Evangelical Church's courtyard amid bags filled with
their belongings and blankets, some of them still terrified of the danger
they escaped.

“We've become scared of our shadows. We're scared someone would be walking
behind us and shoot us. Christians are being targeted in an ugly way,” said
one middle aged man who refused to give his name.

“Some people are too scared to even open their doors to go out and buy
food,” he added.

Another Christian, who left Sinai with her five children, said the dangers
there had put off her husband from work.

“My husband hasn't been able to earn a penny in three months,” said Umm
Mina. “This is not right,” she said, breaking into tears.

On Wednesday[22 Feb], police officials said two Coptic Christians, a father
and son, were shot dead behind a school in El-Arish.

Christians have been attacked before in the Sinai, where ISIS’ Egypt
affiliate is waging an insurgency, but there has been an uptick since ISIS
released a video on Sunday[29 Feb] calling for violence against the
minority.

The video included an anti-Christian speech by a militant who later
detonated an explosive vest in a Coptic church in Cairo on December 11,
killing 29 people.

The bombing of the church within a compound that also holds the seat of the
Coptic papacy was the deadliest attack against the minority in recent
memory.

Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90 million population, say
they are sidelined in both the education system and state institutions.

Jihadists and Islamists accuse them of supporting the military overthrow of
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly
crackdown on his supporters.

Morsi's overthrow, which came after millions of protesters demanded his
resignation, was also supported by Egypt's top Muslim institution, Al-Azhar
========
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA