Nation and World briefs for July 12

Analysis: GOP confronts no-win situation on health care

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans find themselves in a no-win situation as they struggle to pass health care legislation in the Senate: Success could alienate a majority of the population, but failure could anger the crucial group of GOP base voters the party relies on to build election victories.

It’s a version of the dilemma now confronting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he tries to maneuver between opposing poles in the GOP caucus to fashion an “Obamacare” repeal-and-replace bill that will satisfy everyone. After an earlier failure last month, one senior Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said Tuesday on Fox News Channel that he’s “very pessimistic” about success.

Republicans are trying to convince the public that they’re cleaning up a mess Democrats made in passing the law — a point McConnell, R-Ky., makes daily in Senate floor speeches. But even many of them are skeptical the argument will prove convincing, now that they control the House, the Senate and the White House, largely on the strength of campaigning for seven years against Democrat Barack Obama’s law.

“If you fix it, then nobody’s going to be 100 percent happy with what you do. If you don’t fix it, then it’s your fault,” GOP Sen. David Perdue of Georgia told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. “But the problem is, is that we didn’t create it.”

For their part, Democrats are practically salivating at the opportunity to use the health care issue against Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. The GOP bill, which cuts taxes and mandates but also boots 20 million people off the insurance roles, has registered below 20 percent popularity in some polls.

Expansion plan highlights crowded West Bank city’s plight

QALQILIYA, West Bank (AP) — Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government quietly passed one of its most significant concessions to the Palestinians: a plan to alter the West Bank map and turn over a small chunk of Israeli-controlled territory.

But after an uproar by Israeli settler leaders, the government appears poised to cancel the move — a decision that could upset nascent U.S. efforts to restart peace talks and take away a rare piece of relief for the residents of this overcrowded city.

As the West Bank’s most densely populated Palestinian city, Qalqiliya has been eagerly awaiting implementation of the Israeli plan that would allow it to double its size by expanding into land that has until now been off-limits.

“We desperately need this plan because of the density,” said Mayor Hashem al-Masri. “It will be a catastrophe if we can’t expand. It will feel like someone is trying to drive us out of our city.”

The fate of Qalqiliya, which lies along the de facto Israeli border and is surrounded on three sides by Israel’s separation barrier, touches on one of the conflict’s thorniest issues: the battle over the 60 percent of the West Bank known as Area C.

US inks anti-terror deal with Qatar in press to end dispute

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sealed a deal Tuesday to intensify Qatar’s counterterrorism efforts, tackling a central issue in the spat pitting the besieged Gulf nation against four other American allies lined up against it.

Tillerson outlined the agreement at the end of his first visit to Qatar since its neighbors moved to isolate it over grievances, including what they allege is its support for extremist groups.

It was his second stop on a shuttle-diplomacy circuit that will take him next to Saudi Arabia, which has shut Qatar’s only land border and is the most powerful of the countries opposing it.

The centerpiece of the visit was the signing of a memorandum of understanding that lays out steps Qatar can take to bolster its fight against terrorism and address shortfalls in policing terrorism funding.

Tillerson said the deal, the details of which were not made public, has been in the works for a while and included some steps that have already been taken.