Israel Asks EU Assembly To Not Host UN Panel On Palestinians
AUG 13,07
BRUSSELS (AP)--Israel has asked the European Parliament not to provide space this month for a two-day U.N. panel meeting on the rights of Palestinians, saying the U.N. group co-hosting it has an anti-Israel record.Ran Curiel, the Israeli envoy to the European Union, wrote a letter last week to E.U. parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering asking him to prevent the planned Aug. 30-31 conference from taking place at the E.U. assembly's building in Brussels, Israeli officials said.They said Curiel also wrote to a few dozen E.U. parliamentarians to complain about the planned conference, which is to be held under the auspices of the U.N's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.Israel views the committee as a legacy of the 1975 U.N. General Assembly resolution - revoked in 1991 - that equated Zionism with racism.
Curiel called the parliament's decision to allow the conference lamentable and said the assembly had rejected a similar request for a meeting by the U.N. panel a few years ago because the committee has called for boycotts and sanctions against Israel.E.U. parliament officials weren't immediately available for comment.The committee, chaired by Senegal, has 22 members and 26 observers. Cyprus and Malta are the only members who are also E.U. member states, according to the U.N. Web site.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires - 08-13-071005ET - Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Trichet concerned over EU treaty change
13.08.2007 - 09:06 CET | By Honor Mahony
The European Central Bank (ECB) last week sent a letter asking member states to make sure that the bank's independence is maintained in a new EU treaty following a small but potentially significant change to the draft treaty outline.In a letter sent to the current Portuguese EU presidency published 9 August, ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet asked for specific changes that would guarantee that the bank has a special status, separate from other EU institutions such as the parliament and commission.
Because of its specific institutional features, the ECB needs to be differentiated from the union's institutions, said Mr Trichet in his letter sent to Manuel Lobo Atunes, Portuguese Europe minister.This special status was secured in the original draft EU constitution, which fell by the wayside after being rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago.But the clause did not make it into the outline for a new EU treaty agreed by EU leaders before the summer and set to be finalised by the end of the year.Mr Trichet fears that if the current treaty outline remains the same, with the ECB listed along the commission and parliament as an institution, it will be subject to the same general rules as these institutions which work together and follow certain agreed goals and European values.
This could leave the bank legally open to pressure from EU leaders to follow certain more politcal goals.Maintaining the bank's independence has become more of a public battle ground since French president Nicolas Sarkozy came to power earlier this summer.Mr Sarkozy has made several comments indicating that he would like to curb the bank's independence by calling for greater political influence in monetary policy making.Mr Sarkozy has also repeatedly criticised the strength of the euro as well as what he sees as the bank's too strong emphasis on inflation. Late last month the bank publicly hit back at the French president. The President of the ECB repeats with gravity that any attempt to seek to influence... the ECB in the performance of its tasks' violates Article 108 of the EC Treaty and that therefore such declarations are not acceptable, said a spokesperson on behalf of Mr Trichet.
EU and US central banks consider currency swap
13.08.2007 - 09:21 CET | By Renata Goldirova
Amid fears that US mortgage market problems would prompt a worldwide credit crunch, the European Central Bank, ECB, is expected to continue pumping funds into the eurozone banking market today (13 August). According to the Financial Times, the Frankfurt-based institution may also seek to arrange a currency swap with the US Federal Reserve – a move allowing it to lend dollars to European banks struggling to meet short-term dollar funding needs.The attitude is don't show me anything east of a [New York] 212-area code. If you lend to [those banks], it could be a career-ending experience, one banker said, the FT reports.
An ECB request for a currency swap – reportedly due in the next few days – is seen as a helpful way of dealing with the market turmoil and is likely to be welcomed by the US Federal Reserve. A swap would be a market calming measure and would be logical in the current situation, Chris Furness from economics consultancy 4Cast told the FT. It would also be the first such arrangement between the world's two biggest central banks following the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001. Conditions in the money markets have been extremely difficult since last Thursday (9 August), when French Bank BNP Paribas suspended three investment funds worth two billion euros, citing problems in the US sub-prime mortgage sector. The complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments of the US securitization market has made it impossible to value certain assets fairly regardless of their quality or credit rating, BNP Paribas said in the statement.
Sub-prime mortgages are loans made to borrowers who would not usually qualify for the normal market interest rates, often due to a poor credit history.They are riskier both for the borrower and lender because of this combination of higher interest rates and weak credit history. New market conditions have prompted banks to seek ways to limit their risks and they have begun charging significantly more for the money they lend to each other.For their part, central banks worldwide have responded by injecting cash into the financial system. The ECB poured €61.05 billion into the eurozone money market on Friday (10 August) to assure orderly conditions in the euro money market.The US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of Australia also injected cash into the system to ensure sufficient liquidity.
European stock markets were in positive territory across the board at the market opening Monday (13 August), in a tentative sign that swift Central Bank intervention has calmed investors' jitters. And the ECB said Monday morning it will continue to closely monitor developments in the market, in another bid to soothe market concerns.
Stargazers enjoy meteor spectacle AUG 13,07
Thousands of people in the northern hemisphere have witnessed a spectacular light show of shooting stars, known as the Perseid meteor shower. The annual event coincided with a new Moon, providing stargazers with the best viewing conditions for years. The shower lasts about two weeks, but reached its peak overnight on Sunday. It was most apparent in the north-east part of the sky near the Perseus constellation prime viewing locations were Western Europe and North America. Dr Robert Massey from the UK's Royal Astronomical Society said that as many as 100 meteors an hour would have been visible where the sky was clearest and darkest.
Tiny particles
The annual Perseid showers are caused by small bits of debris, many no bigger than a grain of sand, that enter the Earth's atmosphere when our orbit passes through the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet.These particles travel at very high speeds, reaching up to 50km per second (32 miles per second), and burn up in the atmosphere.
This causes the air around them to get extremely hot, which produces the visible streak of light. David Hughes, professor of astronomy at the University of Sheffield said the particles typically burned up at 97 to 193km (60 to 120 miles) above the Earth's surface. The meteors were visible as streaks crossing the paths of stars
We should have been able to see these things - I'm sure - for millennia. The first record of these is about 1,000 years ago, Professor Hughes told the BBC. The Perseids were traditionally known as the tears of St Lawrence because they often appeared around the saint's feast day.
It's a spectacular phenomenon that everyone can enjoy. The great thing is that you don't need any equipment apart from your eyes, Dr Massey said. It's a laid back form of astronomy. You can go outside, look up at the sky and enjoy it.As an added bonus, watchers should have been able to see Mars, which was set to be in view as a bright red dot in the eastern sky after midnight.
Russia Upgrading Missile Defense System AUG 13,07
(RTTNews) - Russian President Vladimir Putin while on a visit to the new early-warning radar station at Lekhtusi near St Petersburg, announced a program to upgrade Russia's missile defense system. Putin said the Lekhtusi station was the first step in the major construction project up to the year 2015. The Lekhtusi station, about 50 km north of St Petersburg, replaces the Soviet Union's Skrunda radar station in Latvia, dismantled in 1998. The station was built in just 18 months and opened in December last year. Another such installation is being built at Armavir, southern Russia.Russia had objected to US plans for a US missile defense system in Eastern Europe, raising serious concerns to its security. Russia subsequently pulled out of the European military pact, warning that it would take measures to counter the U.S. plan. The US, however, insists the missile defense system program is aimed at countering threats from countries such as Iran and North Korea.
David's Comment: The Fire Brigade is Pouring Fuel on the Fire AUG 13,07
I don't claim to be a military expert, in fact I don 't claim to be any kind of expert, but at the same time I am not a blind man. And I am not one who hates the USA as do many in the UK & Europe ( not to mention the Muslims ) nor do I go out of my way to bash the US without good reason. BUT ........ last week's news should have come as instant revelation to anyone with even just half a brain, as to the true motives of the United States.Fire chief George W Bush and his fire station manageress, Condalessa Rice are going out of their way to put out the fire that has been burning here in the Middle East for 3000 plus years. Of course I am referring to the fiery conflict between the Muslims and the Jews. Hardly a day or press conference goes by at the Fire House in Washinton DC that fire chief Bush or his offsiders does not fly in the face of God Himself, and proclaim the future existence of a Palestinian State on Israel's land. Over the last 15 years, since the Oslo Peace Accords we have seen a succession of failed US peace plans - Olso, Tennent, Zinney, etc etc. On the surface it seems that the US is intent on bringing peace to the Middle East at any cost - to Israel, and in defiance of the Lord's plans and purposes for the region.
However this weeks news makes it very clear that the US does not really want peace - she wants to sell weapons. Not guns and bullets for the camel mounted Islamic hordes to attack Israel with, but the very latest super hi-tech jet fighter, missiles and associated 21st century military equipment. Surely I am not the only one who sees that pouring billions of dollars of such equipment into the midst of a 3000 year old family feud is not going to bring a lasting peace, but at some stage a horrifying war. How does supplying the very latest equipment that is only designed for war to both sides of an age old conflict contribute to establishing peace ?
On the contrary it can only encourage those who have them to use them. Who is the US State Department trying to kid. One doesnt have to be a professor to see that providing 15 billion dollars worth of weaponry to Egypt, 20 billion dollars worth of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, and 30 billion dollars worth of weaponry to Israel is nothing less than pouring fuel on the already burning fire.The Lord bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on the land given to the Jewish people by the God of Israel . Lets pray that Israel will turn back to their God. Do not be silent, but share this with your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors, and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for that breakthrough to the Muslims, and please remember to pray for our son Jordan, and all of his fellow soldiers in the IDF.
Shabbat Shalom ... David & Josie
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
August 9, 2007
Dear Friend of The Fellowship,
Once again in the Middle East there is talk of peace negotiations. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met earlier this week in Jericho as a prelude to a Middle East peace summit scheduled to take place this fall in the U.S. The aim is to create a Palestinian state that will not only recognize Israel's right to exist, but coexist peacefully with Israel and work alongside it for the betterment of the greater region.It is an immense challenge. Israel has proven her genuine desire for peace, and her willingness to make painful sacrifices for it. Her Arab neighbors have not, and this is the primary reason that previous efforts of the sort that will take place in the U.S. in the fall have not lead to lasting peace. There are many flashpoints for conflict in this part of the world - and here are some of the most prominent:
Syria continues its saber-rattling over the Golan Heights, the 450 square mile area in northeast Israel that is of critical importance to the security of the Jewish State. For nineteen years after the founding of Israel in 1948, Syria used the high elevations of the Golan as staging areas for attacks against Israel. During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel took control of the area, finally stopping the attacks. But Syria has never given up its claims to this relatively small plot of land. Last week, Syrian Prime Minister Bashir Assad declared that his country is determined to retrieve every grain of land in the Golan Heights, and went on to boast, We are stronger than we have been in the past. Syria is also reported to have established a military presence several miles within Lebanon's borders, and continues to transfer weapons from Iran to the Hezbollah terrorist group, as well as bid for control of Lebanon through tactics of assassination and its sponsorship of pro-Syria Lebanese politicians. While there is some difference of opinion about the possibility of Syria going to war with Israel, it is beyond dispute that the situation remains volatile.
Gaza has settled down a bit since Hamas' takeover in June, but it is hardly peaceful. Bloody clashes between Hamas and its rival Palestinian faction, Fatah, are still common. Rockets fired from the area still fall on Israeli cities like Sderot. And Hamas' propaganda campaign continues to teach hatred of Jews and Israel to children and solidify Palestinian opinion against Israel. One recent news story described a summer camp for Palestinian youth where Israel-hatred is a staple of the curriculum. A quote from one Palestinian boy tells the chilling story. Asked what he has learned, the boy replies, They do teach us about Palestine and the Jews who occupied it. Hamas officials are clear about their motives. These kids are Hamas' future army, one said in an interview. We sponsor their academic education in the Islamic University and thus we nurture a leadership and membership for the future. The future envisioned by Hamas obviously includes training more Palestinian children to dedicate themselves to the destruction of Israel - not raising a new generation of leaders who will work toward peaceful coexistence with the Jewish State.
The 13,000 United Nations troops charged with keeping the peace in southern Lebanon seem unable to fulfill their mandate of stopping the flow of weapons into the area. As a result, Hezbollah terrorists continue to rearm and regroup for another possible attack against Israel. In fact, the U.N.'s powerlessness is such that one news story told of U.N. member states seeking Hezbollah's protection for U.N. peacekeeping troops, who are under threat from Sunni Muslim and Al-Qaeda terrorists! The idea of U.N. troops being escorted on their patrols by Hezbollah for protection might be funny if it weren't so tragic - and if a rearmed Hezbollah did not pose such a dire threat to Israel.
It is impossible to discuss these issues without mentioning Iran, the proverbial wizard behind the curtain fueling so much of the instability and anti-Israel, anti-American propaganda and violence in this part of the world. Iranian president Ahmadinejad has not stopped his outrageous threats against Israel or America, and has shown that he will do everything in his power to arm and train Israel's enemies, funding terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon (as well as those fighting U.S. forces in Iraq), and forming a powerful alliance with Syria. The world community is divided on how best to deal with Iran's flouting of international laws prohibiting its development of nuclear weapons. One thing, however, is certain - it must be dealt with in some fashion.
In light of the tense situation in the Middle East, I ask you to please continue your support of Fellowship programs that contribute so much to the well-being and security of the Jewish State. And, please continue your prayers for the peace of Jerusalem, secure in the biblical assurance that, "The Lord … hears the prayer of the righteous" (Proverbs 15:29).
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Israel to Europe: Hamas-Fatah talks a huge mistake By Adam Entous
Tue Aug 14, 9:58 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Tuesday it would be a big mistake for the international community to try to bridge differences between Hamas Islamists and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was responding to calls from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and British parliamentarians for dialogue with Hamas, whose fighters routed Fatah and seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.I know that it looks tempting and I know that the international community is eager to see a kind of an understanding between Hamas and Fatah, Livni told a news conference with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso.This is wrong. This is a mistake. Big mistake. Huge, Livni said, tapping the table for emphasis.
Israel and the United States have tried to isolate Hamas in Gaza while opening economic and political taps to support Abbas and his Western-backed government in the occupied West Bank.Livni said the international community's role was critical and any compromise with terror, any compromise with these extremists, can lead to undermining the new government in the Palestinian Authority.The idea is that now there is a chance in the dialogue between Israel and the new Palestinian government. We can reach something. It's there, Livni said.Steny Hoyer, the majority leader in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives, emerged from a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad voicing confidence Fatah would not seek a new unity pact with Hamas.Mr. Fayyad made it very clear that Hamas could not be and would not be a partner in moving forward, Hoyer told reporters.
U.S. PRESSURE
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been under pressure from the Bush administration to take more concrete steps to bolster Abbas before a U.S.-sponsored conference on the long-stalled peace process expected to take place in November.The goal is an agreement on statehood principles.The idea is to reach the widest common denominator between Israel and the Palestinians, Livni said.To bolster Abbas, Olmert has started releasing frozen tax funds, freed some Palestinian prisoners and agreed to hold talks on fundamental issues for establishing a Palestinian state.During their meeting last week, Olmert assured Abbas he would begin to remove some of the roadblocks that restrict Palestinian travel in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.But senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat, who had expected to receive a roadblock removal plan from Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak this week, said: They told us they're not ready yet. I'm really disappointed.
Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday quoted Barak as saying that he would not carry out Olmert's roadblock plan. Barak was also quoted as dismissing as fantasies any talk of a peace deal with the Palestinians any time soon.Israel says its checkpoints and unmanned roadblocks, usually piles of rubble on roads linking towns or villages in the West Bank, help prevent attacks by militants. Palestinians call them collective punishment. Israel has promised to remove roadblocks in the past. Many of the promised changes were either never made or reversed.
Netanyahu set to be re-elected chief of Israel's Likud by Michael Blum
Tue Aug 14, 7:00 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to be re-elected on Tuesday as leader of Likud, the hawkish party topping opinion polls a year after its worst electoral defeat. Internal party opinion polls have given Netanyahu a massive lead in the party primary, with at least 70 percent of the vote in the race against Moshe Feiglin, backed by Likud's hardline religious current, and another little-known candidate, Danny Danon.Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, the only candidate to threaten Netanyahu's leadership, refused last month to take part in the race after Netanyahu decided on the party primary date without consulting him.The biggest threat to Netanyahu in Tuesday's vote is turnout -- as it is taking place in the middle of summer vacation, many of the 100,000 registered members of Likud could stay away, observers say.A decent showing by Feiglin -- a religious hardliner -- could force Netanyahu to give him a senior leadership post, a move that could dent Likud's currently soaring ratings and hurt the party's chances for a comeback should early elections be held.To avoid that scenario, Netanyahu has appealed to Likud voters to cast ballots.Go out and vote as tonight starts the true race for leadership of the government, he said while casting his ballot in Jerusalem. I ask Likud voters to think about the future of the country.
Likud cannot become a marginal party, he said earlier. We don't want an inaccurate representation that suggests we advocate insubordination and messianic ideals.Party members were casting ballots from 0700 GMT until 2000 GMT on Tuesday, with the first unofficial results expected to be released around 2100 GMT.Although Netanyahu's grip on Israel's main right-wing opposition party was never in doubt, the primary was called because under Likud's charter, a new leadership vote must be held if the party loses national elections.During Israel's last parliamentary polls in March 2006, Likud suffered a stinging electoral defeat under Netanyahu's stewardship. It took only 12 seats in the 120-member parliament, the worst result since it won its first legislative election in 1977 and began to dominate national politics.The humiliating reversal came four months after Netanyahu was elected chairman to replace former premier Ariel Sharon, who quit to form the centrist Kadima that won the March poll.
But the fortunes of Likud and Netanyahu have turned around, as the ratings of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Kadima have slid in the wake of last year's inconclusive war in Lebanon and a string of scandals involving senior government officials.Today 57-year-old Bibi, as Netanyahu is known in Israel, is the public's first choice to be Israel's next prime minister -- 36 percent favoured him in a recent opinion poll, compared with eight percent for Olmert and 22 percent for former premier Ehud Barak.
The same poll showed that Likud would more than double its representation in the Knesset if new elections were held, winning 26 seats, more than any other party.
Many Feiglin supporters fear a Feiglin victory AUG 14,07
By Daniel Ben Simon
There were times during yesterday's Likud primary when it seemed that Moshe Feiglin was the only candidate for party chairman, rather than one of three. Benjamin Netanyahu has been depicted as the obvious leader and Danny Danon as a neophyte. Only Feiglin, head of the Likud's far-right Jewish Leadership faction, generated curiosity mingled with concern, not to say fear. Only Feiglin's photograph could be seen yesterday at the entrance to the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, where a polling station was located. Some of his hard-core supporters, mostly ultra-Orthodox or hilltop youth, wandered among the voters and urged them to vote for Feiglin. Not much of the old Likud is left. The largest political movement in Israel, which had 300,000 members at its peak, has become a small party. In Jerusalem, undisputed stronghold of the Likud and especially of Feiglin, the number of members dropped from 24,000 in the last elections to less than 8,000 this year. It is enough to see how many religious voters and settlers have moved over to the Likud to understand what has happened to the party over the past decade. Feiglin has gone from the margins of the party to center stage. The disengagement from Gaza two years ago, and its ramifications, gave Feiglin political power and brought many Likud members closer to his Jewish approach.
The kippa, the beard, the religious devotion, the Jewish identity, the return to Judaism's roots: These are the assets that Feiglin is marketing to his followers. Yesterday morning, before heading to the polls, he prayed near the Temple Mount, as a reminder of the source of his worldview. Feiglin is ideologically close to me because of his Jewish approach, said Rafi Bar-Chen, who used to serve as deputy director general of the party, though he added that he would not actually be voting for Feiglin. Indeed, several people who said that they support Feiglin ideologically are not sure they want him to be the Likud's leader. Feiglin is right, but I'm afraid of him, because I'm afraid of everything extreme, said Haim Frankel, who voted for Netanyahu so as to dwarf Feiglin's achievement at the polls. Another Feiglin supporter, David Lapid, said that he simultaneously wants and fears a Feiglin victory. Feiglin, he added, should be a spiritual leader. Some are upset that Feiglin had the temerity to run for Likud chairman in the first place. It kills me that an empty vessel like that dares run for the Likud leadership, said Shmuel Slavin, a former director general of the Finance Ministry. Who is he anyway? Slavin shouted at Feiglin supporters. What did he ever do in his life? Who is he anyway? A man of intellectual vapidity.
3rd SPP summit shrouded in secrecy
Bush to interrupt Texas vacation to join Mexican, Canadian leaders
August 13, 2007 - By Jerome R. Corsi - WorldNetDaily.com
President Bush will interrupt his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, next week to attend the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, slated for Aug. 20 and 21 in Montebello, Quebec, at the five-star Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort. President Bush to join leaders of Mexico and Canada at the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello resort in Quebec next week for the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
Bush will meet with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the event. The meeting has been hidden in a cloud of secrecy until WND obtained from an Access to Information Act request a previously unreleased copy of a government report detailing agenda plans for the third SPP summit. According to WND reports, as many as 10,000 protesters are expected to be in Quebec to oppose the meeting. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's national police force, and the Sûreté du Québec, the state police, plan to maintain a 25-kilometer protest-free zone around the Montebello resort where the meeting is to be held.
WND has reported that a multinational business agenda is driving this upcoming SPP summit according to the heavily redacted document obtained from the Canadian government. The memo clearly states at center stage in the Montebello SPP summit will be recommendations by the North American Competitiveness Council, regarding promoting North American competitiveness for multinational corporations through integrating and armonizing regulations between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The council, an executive group composed of 10 top multinational corporations from each of the three SPP countries, was constituted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide guidance to the 20 SPP working groups of U.S., Mexican, and Canadian bureaucrats. WND has also reported that President Bush will discuss at the summit a plan to send U.S. military assistance to Mexico to assist Mexico's military and civilian law enforcement agencies to combat Mexican narco-criminals and drug lords. The leaders at the end of their summit are expected to make a statement on U.S. military aid to Mexico, provided their discussions have reached a point of agreement and conclusion.
At issue are questions of how the U.S. military can limit involvement to equipment and training, and how U.S. and Mexican officials can be certain the corruption common to Mexico's drug war does not subvert their effort or provide sophisticated equipment and technology that ends up in the hands of the drug kingpins. WND has also reported the Montebello SPP summit will create a coordinating body to prepare for the North American response to an outbreak of avian or pandemic influenza. The three leaders also plan to create a coordinating body on emergency management similar to that set up for avian or pandemic flu. WND previously reported on National Security Presidential Directive No. 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive No. 20, which allocate to the office of the president the authority to direct all levels of government in any event the president declares to be a national emergency. WND also has previously reported that under SPP, the military of the U.S. and Canada are turning USNORTHCOM and Canada Command into domestic military command structures, with authority extending to Mexico, even though Mexico has not formally joined with the current U.S. – Canadian USNORTHCOM/Canada Command structure.
WND has also learned the Montebello SPP summit will include discussion of a proposal to provide U.S. military assistance to the government of Mexico to help Mexico's military combat narco-trafficking in Mexico. The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was declared at the first trilateral meeting held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005. The second SPP summit meeting was held by President Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Cancún Hotel in Cancún, Mexico, on March 31, 2006. The SPP website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce, lists a 2005 Report to Leaders dated June 2005 and a 2006 Report to Leaders dated August 2006, which document over 250 memoranda of understanding and other agreements that have been signed by the SPP working groups. Most of these SPP memoranda of understanding and other agreements cannot be found on the SPP website or elsewhere on the Internet published in their entirety. No comparable 2007 Report to Leaders has yet been published on the SPP website. WND has applied for press credentials to attend the Montebello SPP summit to report on the proceedings.
Africa: Continent to Sign EU Market-Access Pact First AUG 14,07
Posted to the web 14 August 2007 - Julius Barigaba - Nairobi
With barely five months to the expiry of the current trade arrangement between the European Union and Africa, Pacific and Caribbean countries, the East and Southern Africa region will sign only parts of the new trade pact, the Economic Partnership Agreement.The current rules, contained in the EU-ACP Cotonou Agreement, which was signed in 2000, gave preferential market access to the EU to 77 ACP countries.The agreement, which governs trade and development co-operation between the two blocs, expires in December.However, the ESA region has agreed to prioritise negotiations on market access and development to meet the December deadline.The grouping will sign pacts on the two issues and push negotiations on the other EPA issues beyond December.
We are prioritising market access in order to be WTO-compatible. If we sign on market access we will then maintain our preferential access to EU markets, said Emma Mutahunga, a trade policy analyst in Uganda's Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry.The EPA has six areas of concern that are being negotiated - market access, development, fisheries, trade in services, trade related issues and agriculture. Signing part of the EPA clusters is a strategy that the ESA group adopted at a regional negotiation forum in Port Louis, Mauritius, from August 3-5.The strategy will enable the region to maintain its preferential access to the EU markets and, at the same time, remain compatible with World Trade Organisation rules, which require all countries to open up their markets.This means that the next two forums of regional trade experts, as well as the ESA-EC ministerial meeting, will devote more discussion to market access, while the other pending clusters will be put on hold.
According to Mutahunga, once the region wraps up the deal for market access and development, it will then seek to negotiate the remaining clusters in 2008, since they do not impact on WTO rules.At next ESA-EU meeting in September the region is expected to table its strategy to focus the talks on market access, but this could also be a tenable proposition for the EU.Already, the EU has planned a proposal for duty-free quota-free market access for the ESA group, according to Peter Thompson, trade director at the EU Secretariat.The EU wants countries in the region to respond to this proposal before the end of 2007.On market access for goods, the EU has an offer on the table. We have had indications from ESA on their approach, but have yet to see the details. It is something on which we must move forward quickly, said Mr Thompson.Uganda and 15 other countries from the ESA are negotiating the trade agreement with Europe and have two more regional meetings in which to wrap up the negotiations.The negotiations started in 2004; they have to be concluded and the respective blocs have to sign the deal by December 31, or the ESA will lose European market access.
Mr Thompson says the African countries have had the offer since April, to be effective from the date of signing the agreement, with a transition period for sugar and rice, which ends in 2015 and 2010 respectively.The African countries are expected to gradually open their markets for EU products with a phased removal of tariffs. Uganda currently exports products worth about $380 million to Europe annually.But for the signing to take place, Africans say the EU must commit more development resources to the region to enable it to address production, infrastructure and marketing constraints. This is one of the issues that will dominate the remaining rounds of negotiations.During the February ESA-EU ministerial meeting in Brussels, the conclusions on financing adjustment costs such as loss of revenue pointed to the need for the EU to provide 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) by 2010.These funds are to be available before the EPAs are signed, the Brussels meeting noted.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
2 HURRICANES COMING
Tropical depression forms in E. Atlantic AUG 13,2007
MIAMI - A tropical depression formed Monday in the far eastern Atlantic, the fourth of the Atlantic hurricane season, meteorologists said. At 11 a.m. EDT, the depression was centered about 520 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa, and moving west at near 21 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was still about 2,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.Its maximum sustained wind speed was about 35 mph, forecasters said. It would be named Tropical Storm Dean if its sustained wind strengthens to at least 39 mph, the threshold for a named storm.
Hurricane forecasters expect this year's hurricane season to be busier than average. Last week, they said up to 16 tropical storms are likely to form, with nine of them becoming hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, but August typically marks the start of the most active period. Last year, there were 10 tropical storms in the Atlantic and just two made landfall in the United States.
Hurricane Flossie storms toward Hawaii By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer AUG 14,07
HONOLULU - Hurricane Flossie weakened to a Category 3 storm Monday with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph as it roared toward Hawaii, but it was expected to pass less than 100 miles from the islands. Forecasters earlier had said cooler weather would weaken the storm to a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained wind of at least 74 mph, by the time it passes about 90 miles south of the Big Island of Hawaii on Tuesday.But on Monday forecasters said they now expected a Category 3 hurricane, with little change in strength when it passes the island. Earlier in the day, Flossie had been a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.
The intensity has remained stronger than what was originally forecast, but the track has been pretty much right on, said Jim Weyman, the National Weather Service's meteorologist in charge in Honolulu.The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Flossie remains a dangerous hurricane with a clear well-defined eye and good outflow. ... It must be noted that Flossie has been surprisingly resilient to cooler ocean temperatures so far. The weather service placed the Big Island under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning. A flash flood watch was also issued for the island through Wednesday, with possible flash flooding in areas.Gov. Linda Lingle signed an emergency disaster proclamation, which activates the Hawaii National Guard. Mayor Harry Kim also declared a state of emergency Monday as a precaution. All 56 public schools, as well as private schools, on the Big Island also were closed for Tuesday. The Big Island is largely rural, with about 150,000 people, and most live in the west or northeast, not the southern portion expected to be hit hardest by the hurricane. Other islands are expected to get much less of the storm's wind and rain.
At 11 p.m. EDT, Flossie was about 330 miles southeast of Hilo, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving west-northwest at about 16 mph.Hurricane force winds of at least 74 mph extended outward up to 40 miles from the center of the storm, while tropical storm force winds of at least 39 mph extend outward up to 140 miles.Meteorologists cautioned that even a slight change of course in the unpredictable storm could take it closer to land.We're not out of it, but this is too close for comfort, said Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general and Hawaii National Guard commander.The move also provides access to emergency funds.Even though the eye of the storm may miss the Hawaiian Islands, Flossie could still bring strong wind and heavy rain, forecasters said.Officials strongly urged residents statewide to prepare, including having a supply of food, water and disaster plans.
If Flossie misses us, that's great. But we're still in hurricane season, said Ray Lovell, spokesman for the state Civil Defense Agency.Parts of the Big Island, home to one of the world's most active volcanoes in Kilauea, likely will experience tropical storm-level winds and at least 10 to 15 inches of rain, Weyman said.The southeast shore could also see waves of 8 to 10 feet on Monday, forecasters said, with the surf rising to 15 to 20 feet on Tuesday. Waves along the east facing shores could increase to 8 to 12 feet on Tuesday. The island's South Point is the southernmost area of the United States. The last time a hurricane hit Hawaii was in 1992, when Iniki ravaged Kauai, killing six people and causing $2.5 billion in damage. Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. In May, forecasters said the Hawaiian Islands and the rest of the central Pacific faced a slightly below-average hurricane season, with just two or three tropical cyclones expected because of lower sea surface temperatures. The region gets an average of 4.5 tropical cyclones a year; only about one every 15 years is powerful enough to be a hurricane. Last year, the central Pacific had five tropical cyclones after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted two to three. On July 21, a tropical depression moved past the Big Island, bringing a few inches of rain to the parched island but no major problems. Cosme, the year's first Pacific tropical cyclone, reached hurricane status for a day before it weakened.
MIAMI - A tropical depression formed Monday in the far eastern Atlantic, the fourth of the Atlantic hurricane season, meteorologists said. At 11 a.m. EDT, the depression was centered about 520 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa, and moving west at near 21 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was still about 2,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.Its maximum sustained wind speed was about 35 mph, forecasters said. It would be named Tropical Storm Dean if its sustained wind strengthens to at least 39 mph, the threshold for a named storm.
Hurricane forecasters expect this year's hurricane season to be busier than average. Last week, they said up to 16 tropical storms are likely to form, with nine of them becoming hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, but August typically marks the start of the most active period. Last year, there were 10 tropical storms in the Atlantic and just two made landfall in the United States.
Hurricane Flossie storms toward Hawaii By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer AUG 14,07
HONOLULU - Hurricane Flossie weakened to a Category 3 storm Monday with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph as it roared toward Hawaii, but it was expected to pass less than 100 miles from the islands. Forecasters earlier had said cooler weather would weaken the storm to a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained wind of at least 74 mph, by the time it passes about 90 miles south of the Big Island of Hawaii on Tuesday.But on Monday forecasters said they now expected a Category 3 hurricane, with little change in strength when it passes the island. Earlier in the day, Flossie had been a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.
The intensity has remained stronger than what was originally forecast, but the track has been pretty much right on, said Jim Weyman, the National Weather Service's meteorologist in charge in Honolulu.The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Flossie remains a dangerous hurricane with a clear well-defined eye and good outflow. ... It must be noted that Flossie has been surprisingly resilient to cooler ocean temperatures so far. The weather service placed the Big Island under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning. A flash flood watch was also issued for the island through Wednesday, with possible flash flooding in areas.Gov. Linda Lingle signed an emergency disaster proclamation, which activates the Hawaii National Guard. Mayor Harry Kim also declared a state of emergency Monday as a precaution. All 56 public schools, as well as private schools, on the Big Island also were closed for Tuesday. The Big Island is largely rural, with about 150,000 people, and most live in the west or northeast, not the southern portion expected to be hit hardest by the hurricane. Other islands are expected to get much less of the storm's wind and rain.
At 11 p.m. EDT, Flossie was about 330 miles southeast of Hilo, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving west-northwest at about 16 mph.Hurricane force winds of at least 74 mph extended outward up to 40 miles from the center of the storm, while tropical storm force winds of at least 39 mph extend outward up to 140 miles.Meteorologists cautioned that even a slight change of course in the unpredictable storm could take it closer to land.We're not out of it, but this is too close for comfort, said Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general and Hawaii National Guard commander.The move also provides access to emergency funds.Even though the eye of the storm may miss the Hawaiian Islands, Flossie could still bring strong wind and heavy rain, forecasters said.Officials strongly urged residents statewide to prepare, including having a supply of food, water and disaster plans.
If Flossie misses us, that's great. But we're still in hurricane season, said Ray Lovell, spokesman for the state Civil Defense Agency.Parts of the Big Island, home to one of the world's most active volcanoes in Kilauea, likely will experience tropical storm-level winds and at least 10 to 15 inches of rain, Weyman said.The southeast shore could also see waves of 8 to 10 feet on Monday, forecasters said, with the surf rising to 15 to 20 feet on Tuesday. Waves along the east facing shores could increase to 8 to 12 feet on Tuesday. The island's South Point is the southernmost area of the United States. The last time a hurricane hit Hawaii was in 1992, when Iniki ravaged Kauai, killing six people and causing $2.5 billion in damage. Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. In May, forecasters said the Hawaiian Islands and the rest of the central Pacific faced a slightly below-average hurricane season, with just two or three tropical cyclones expected because of lower sea surface temperatures. The region gets an average of 4.5 tropical cyclones a year; only about one every 15 years is powerful enough to be a hurricane. Last year, the central Pacific had five tropical cyclones after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted two to three. On July 21, a tropical depression moved past the Big Island, bringing a few inches of rain to the parched island but no major problems. Cosme, the year's first Pacific tropical cyclone, reached hurricane status for a day before it weakened.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
ISRAELIS GO TO ISRAEL NOW UNCERTAINTY
IN THE LAST DAYS PERILOUS (DANGEROUS) TIMES
DEBKAfile Exclusive: New Al Qaeda threat of radioactive truck attacks naming New York, Los Angeles, Miami August 10, 2007, 1:11 AM (GMT+02:00)
The threat was picked up by DEBKAfile’s monitors from a rush of electronic chatter on al Qaeda sites Thursday, Aug. 8. The al Qaeda communications accuse the Americans of the grave error of failing to take seriously the videotape released by the American al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gaddahn last week. They will soon realize their mistake when American cities are hit by quality operations, said one message. Another said the attacks would be carried out by means of trucks loaded with radio-active material against America’s biggest city and financial nerve center. A third message mentioned New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets. It drew the answer: The attack, with Allah’s help, will cause an economic meltdown, many dead, and a financial crisis on a scale that compels the United States to pull its military forces out of many parts of the world, including Iraq, for lack of any other way of cutting down costs.There is also a message which speaks obliquely of the approaching attacks easing the heavy pressure America exerts on countries like Japan, Cuba and Venezuela.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources and monitors say there is no way of gauging for sure how serious these threats are, how real, or whether they are part of a war of nerves to give the Gaddahn tape extra mileage. But it is important to note that the exchange of messages took place over al Qaeda’s internal Internet sites and that they contained the threat of radioactive terror and specific American cities for the first time after a long silence on these subjects. In addition, a growing number of clips has been disseminated of late over al Qaeda sites instructing the faithful how to design remote-controlled gliders, pack them with explosives and launch them against predetermined targets.
NYPD responds to unsubstantiated threat AUG 11,07
NEW YORK - Authorities were taking extra counterterrorism precautions Friday in response to what they said was an unsubstantiated radiological threat to the city.
Officials said they had not changed the city's terror alert status in response to online chatter mentioning a truck packed with radioactive material. But police deployed extra radiological sensors on street, water and air patrols, and were stopping vehicles at checkpoints in lower Manhattan and around the city.Deputy Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne called the measures strictly precautionary. He said an Israeli Web site reported that online posts were made following a video released Sunday featuring an American member of al-Qaida threatening foreign diplomats and embassies across the Islamic world.We are closely monitoring the situation, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke. There continues to be no credible information telling us that there's a threat to the homeland at this time.The FBI also said there was no credible threat.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the police measures were nothing out of the ordinary.
These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day — precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize, he said in a statement.
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and the constellations, and on the earth pressure of nations in perplexity (Mass confusion, at the roaring of the sea and the shaking,
26 at the chilling of men from fear and apprehensiveness of that which is coming on the inhabited earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shakin.
Hurricane Flossie now a Category 3 storm By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer AUG 11,07
HONOLULU - Hurricane Flossie strengthened to a Category 3 storm early Saturday as it headed toward waters south of Hawaii, but forecasters did not expect it to hit the state with much more than rough surf. At 5 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Flossie had strengthened from a Category 1 storm to a Category 3, with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph, and was about 1,150 miles from Hawaii.The storm was expected to weaken as it passed over cooler waters. It was traveling west at about 12 mph.The Big Island's southeastern shores could see waves of 8 to 12 feet, forecasters said, with the surf rising during the day Monday and peaking Tuesday. The island's South Point is the southernmost area of the United States.Flossie formed as a tropical storm Wednesday about halfway between Mexico's southern Pacific coast and Hawaii. Its winds surpassed 74 mph, making it a hurricane, on Friday.
The last time a hurricane hit Hawaii was in 1992, when Iniki ravaged Kauai, killing six people and causing $2.5 billion in damage.Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. In May, forecasters predicted that Hawaii and the rest of the central Pacific face a slightly below-average hurricane season, with just two or three tropical cyclones expected because of lower sea surface temperatures.The islands get an average of 4.5 tropical cyclones a year and one hurricane about every 15 years. Last year, the central Pacific had five tropical cyclones after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted two to three.On July 21, a tropical depression moved past the Big Island, bringing a few inches of rain to the parched island but no major problems. Cosme, the year's first Pacific tropical cyclone, reached hurricane status for a day before it weakened.
South Asia monsoon toll passes 2,000 By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 10, 5:03 PM ET
NEW DELHI - The death toll from this year's calamitous South Asian monsoons had surpassed 2,000 by Friday after a wild storm hit Pakistan's largest city. India asked doctors to cancel vacations and rushed food and medicine to flooded regions where disease has stricken thousands. Adding to the misery, the monsoon rains that flood wide stretches of South Asia each year have forced creatures large and small onto whatever dry land can be found, resulting in scores of fatal snake bites.Relief workers said there was an acute shortage of clean drinking water and medical supplies in parts of northern India, where storms have been heavier than usual this year.
With flooding from two weeks of rains finally receding in northern India, monsoon storms moved west. Heavy winds and rains lashed the Pakistani city of Karachi, destroyed homes and flooding streets. At least 22 bodies were pulled from collapsed homes, said Anwar Kazi, a spokesman for the private relief service Edhi Foundation. Residents waded through waist-deep water in parts of the city of 15 million people.
Vital to farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people, the monsoon season runs from June to September as the rains work their way across the subcontinent. At least 2,090 people have died so far this year, double the number killed last year. Nearly 600 have died in the past two weeks alone.More than 1,550 have died in India; 226 have been killed neighboring Bangladesh; 92 in Nepal, and at least 222 in Pakistan, officials said.The storms have stranded 19 million people in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Nearly 243,000 people were still living in relief camps in India, the Home Ministry said.
The rainfall has been unevenly distributed across India this year due to unusual monsoon patterns, according to the country's Meteorological Department. While parts of central India received less rain, the north faced stronger storms for longer than usual.The reprieve in the monsoon rains created ponds of stagnant water in India's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, and aid workers struggled to stave off a disease epidemic.Paramedics visiting affected villages don't have adequate supplies of medicines, Ramakant Rai, chief of state's Voluntary Health Association, said of Uttar Pradesh. He said clean drinking water was running low.Families lined up for aid finally reaching their villages. In one Uttar Pradesh village, a family rowed a makeshift tube raft to a relief center.Doctors have treated at least 1,500 people in Uttar Pradesh for diarrhea in the past 10 days, said L.B. Prasad, director-general of the state's health services. Rai's group said the scope of the suffering was greater, with more than 22,000 people coming down with waterborne disease.
In neighboring Bihar state, the government canceled vacations for doctors in flood-ravaged districts, said state Health Minister Chandramohan Rai.The rains have driven poisonous snakes onto dry land in closer proximity to populations, and hundreds in India have been bitten this season. In neighboring Bangladesh, the government said at least 35 of the 226 people killed in the monsoon have died of snake bites. It has been the country's second-highest cause of death after drowning.Snakes are not the only dangerous creatures that compete with people for dry land. In India's northeastern Assam state, flooding forced rhinos from their habitat at the Kaziranga National Park last week. Their panicked charges killed one person and injured two others.Everything, everyone, is restricted to tiny, tiny islands with very little space, said Romulus Whitaker, a snake expert. Everyone is crammed in together and the chances of running into snakes, stepping on them, grabbing them and sleeping on them is much, much more.That's how Paltu Ram, a farmer in his 20s, died.
Stranded with a few hundred villagers on a sliver of land encircled by flood waters in the Bara Banki district of northern India, about 370 miles east of New Delhi, he decided to climb a tree to see if he could spot a rescue boat. On his way up, he reached for what looked like a brown rope. It wasn't — and when he grabbed it, the snake recoiled and struck, sinking its fangs into his arm. Paltu jumped into water saying he was bitten by snake. Before he could be taken to a doctor he died, said his father, Rameshwar, who couldn't say what kind of snake got his son. Associated Press reporters Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, India, and Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this story.
At least 13 dead in Pakistan rains Fri Aug 10, 4:24 PM ET
KARACHI (AFP) - Flooding caused by torrential rains has killed at least 13 people in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, officials said Friday. Severe weather has forced the provincial government to declare a state of emergency in Karachi's hospitals, with holidays cancelled for doctors and paramedics, they said.Most of the city was inundated by knee-deep rainwater, causing traffic chaos.Authorities have closed schools and colleges due to transportation difficulties and hazards like falling power lines.Four of the dead were reportedly electrocuted by power lines wrecked by the rainstorms in several areas of the city.Officials said Karachi had received 142mm (more than 5.5 inches) of rain in the previous 24 hours, with more expected.
Rivers above alert levels as rain subsides over central Europe Fri Aug 10, 4:20 PM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - Some rivers and lakes remained above alert levels Friday after two days of torrential rain and flooding in Switzerland and Germany which killed one and caused one serious injury. A man drowned in flooding in Germany after becoming trapped in his cellar, while the Rhine was closed to shipping after becoming dangerously swollen by torrential rain, police said.The Rhine had become so high in southwest Germany that it would be impossible to navigate until Saturday at the earliest, a spokesman for the police in the city of Karlsruhe, Reinhold Seene, told AFP.He added that, while the river, one of Europe's longest and most important at 1,320 kilometres (820 miles), was expected to peak at 8.3 metres (27 feet), it was not the flood of the century.
The man who died, a 61-year-old resident of the western town of Arnsberg, apparently got caught in his cellar by the rising water and drowned because he was unable to open the door.Other police services said a mudslide closed a main road for several hours, and a camping ground was evacuated.Meanwhile, in neighbouring Switzerland, to the south of the Rhine, weather services said that the low pressure system over the Alps which caused the massive rainfalls was slowly weakening and moving towards the Adriatic Sea.Rain which battered Switzerland on Wednesday and Thursday caused at least 65 million Swiss francs in damages (39.5 million euros), according to estimates Friday.A partial survey of damages by the Swiss intercantonal reinsurance union estimated damages to buildings at between 50 and 60 million Swiss francs.Crop damage was estimated to be at least five million Swiss francs.Meanwhile a hydraulic power station at Ruchlig, northern Switzerland, had been flooded and disconnected from the network, reported the power station administrator NOK.
More than 20 centimetres (eight inches) of water seeped into the machine room of the power station which has an annual capacity of 55 million kilowatts per hour. It was unclear how long it would remain disconnected or how much financial damage had occured.Several hydraulic power stations along the Aar river also reduced their capacities due to strong river currents and tree trunks travelling along them. Meanwhile, the Swiss rail company announced the resumption of traffic on sections of lines that had been cut by flooding and landslides.
Christian Zionist Leader Denounces Evangelicals' Pro-Palestinian Letter
By Ethan Cole - Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Aug. 07 2007 12:46 PM ET
A Christian Zionist leader has denounced the recent letter by some of America’s leading evangelicals voicing support for a Palestinian state, criticizing the signers for their appalling ignorance.Dr. Jim Hutchens, president of the Jerusalem Connection and the Washington-area director for Christian United for Israel, acknowledged the deep chasm growing among evangelicals regarding Israel.He contends, however, that the modern state of Israel is part of the fulfillment of God’s covenant of a homeland for the Jewish people.Evangelicals supporting a Palestinian state have an appalling ignorance of both secular and biblical history, said Hutchens, according to OneNewsNow. The Zionist leader noted that there has never been a sovereign state of Palestine.
In July, 34 prominent evangelical leaders signed a letter voicing support for President Bush’s Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, emphasizing their support for a two-state solution.The leaders also said they wanted to repair the serious misconception that all American evangelicals are against the two-state solution and the creation of a new Palestinian state.Historical honesty compels us to recognize that both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine, states the letter dated July 27 and published in the New York Times.Signers included Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; David Neff, editor of Christianity Today; Richard Stearns, president of World Vision; Tony Campolo, president/founder of Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education; Stephen Hayner, former president InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; and Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., and member of the executive committee of the National Association of Evangelicals.Hutchens, however, disagrees and points to the Replacement Theory as the theological explanation for evangelical support of a Palestinian state.
I would suggest that the basic theological underpinning of this is super-cessionism, he said, according to OneNewsNow, and that is to say that the church is the new Israel, that Christians have replaced Jews as the covenant people of God … [and that] the covenants that God made with Israel and the Jews are now null and void because they have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah.Yet Hutchens believes that the covenant between God and Israel still holds. He proposes as solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem that Israel annex the West Bank and Gaza and for the Israeli military to uproot terrorists in the region.The debate on Israel and Christian support for the biblical land has stirred tension among evangelicals – arguably the world’s most vocal supporters of the state; evangelicals make up 1/3 of American tourists that visit Israel, second only to American Jews.
Among the critics are those against the blind support that some Christians give to Israel despite the fact that the Knesset – Israel’s legislative body – bans evangelism in the country and has proposed punishment including imprisonment and heavy fines for guilty parties.Megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, one of the signers supporting a Palestinian state, noted:There is a part of the evangelical family which is what I call Christian Zionists, who are just so staunchly pro-Israel that Israel and their side can do no wrong, and it’s almost anti-biblical to criticize Israel for anything, he said, according to the New York Times. But there are many more evangelicals who are really open and seek justice for both parties.Award-winning talk show host Janet Parshall is an example of a long-time pro-Israel Christian leader who has recently come to criticize the state.I thought, wait a minute: we can’t just blindly support Israel, said Parshall after she heard that the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus does not associate with groups that share the Gospel.
We have to able to tell them, as a friend, [that] you can’t do that. You can’t silence us.Vocal pro-Israel supporters include Dr. Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Paula White, co-pastor of the 22,000-member Without Walls International Church in Florida; Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christian United for Israel and senior pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in Texas; Pastor Steve Munsey of the 12,000-member Family Christian Center; and Stephen Strang, founder and president of Charisma Magazine.
The US Earthquake Prophecy
July 28, 2007 Harrisburg, PA BY KIM CLEMENT
"In this Nation, yes, there shall be three earthquakes says the Lord. Not earthquakes of judgment but a sign in the earth. The wind has brought the rain. Signs from above. Fires have come on top of the land. Signs on top of the land. Fire consuming religion, consuming witchcraft, consuming control and the synagogues of Satan shall be invaded by the forces of righteousness, says the Lord of hosts. No more reasoning. No more debating. Go and show. Don't go and tell, go and show. For now you have embarked upon a period of manifestation, says the Lord. Now there must be a sign underneath the earth. And surely your earth shall shake saying to you three times and showing you three arenas. The heavens where the wind came and the rain came to America. On the earth the fires that came in the middle of this nation and shall continue in the west. And then underneath the earth - the shaking. And God says, you know why? Because the demonic powers that have held tight are now being released and being taken care of and being completely annihilated, says the Spirit of the Lord. They will never be above you, they will always be beneath you says the Spirit of the God.
Israel's Def Min: Palestinian Peace Talks A Fantasy-Report
Friday, Aug 10, 2007
JERUSALEM (AP)--The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday as calling recent peace moves with the Palestinians fantasies and saying Israel would not withdraw from the West Bank for another five years at least. The comments were attributed to Barak in private conversations. If accurate, they are surprising because Barak heads the dovish Labor Party and tried to reach a dramatic peace deal with the Palestinians seven years ago, when he served as prime minister.
Barak's office would not comment on the Yediot report.
Israelis have healthy intuition. They can't be fed more fantasies about an upcoming agreement with the Palestinians, Barak is quoted as saying. Israel won't be able to pull out of the West Bank before it develops a technological response to rockets fired by Palestinian militants and more advanced missiles from Iran - a process that will take between three and five years, Barak said, according to the report. Palestinian militants regularly launch rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. But if fired from the West Bank, the rockets could threaten the country's population centers and paralyze its only airport outside of Tel Aviv. The Israeli army will not leave the West Bank at least in the next five years, Barak is quoted as saying.
Mideast peace moves have been jump-started in the past two months, as Israel and the international community scramble to shore up moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the aftermath of the takeover of Gaza by his rivals from the Islamic group Hamas in mid-June. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been holding regular meetings with Abbas and has ordered the release of Palestinian prisoners and the transfer of frozen Palestinian tax funds in an attempt to bolster him. Barak is dismissive of Olmert's recent efforts, according to the Yediot report, referring to them as packaging, and asserting that Abbas is incapable of taking control of the West Bank and providing security there. As a result, according to Yediot, Barak does not intend to comply with Palestinian requests to remove checkpoints in the West Bank, saying this would endanger Israeli civilians. (END) Dow Jones Newswires
ISRAELIS FROM AROUND THE WORLD BUT ESPECIALLY IN NEW YORK,ITS TIME TO GO HOME BEFORE THE MARKET COLLAPSES AND USE LOOSE ALL YOUR MONEY. WITH ALL THE UNCERTAINTY AROUND THE WORLD GO TO YOUR GOD GIVEN LAND AND REBUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE SO GOD WILL BE IN YOUR PRESENCE AND PROTECT USE FROM ALL USE WILL BE GOING THROUGH.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Come now ye rich, lament, howling for your wretchedness which is coming on you!
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become food for moths.
3 Your gold and silver corrode and their venom will be for a testamony against you, and the venom will be eating your flesh as fire. You horde in the last days.
DR DOCTORIAN IN HIS REVELATION FROM ANGELS REVEALED THE COLLAPSE IN THE WORLD ECONOMY WILL BE FROM ASIA, LOOKOUT THIS THREAT COULD COME TO PASS.
China threatens nuclear option of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 8:39pm BST 10/08/2007
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Blog - Dollar to collapse?
Fistful of dollars - China's trade surplus reached $26.9bn in June
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China's nuclear option in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a bargaining chip in talks with the US.
Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order, he added.He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.
China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar, he told China Daily.The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo.She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles, he said.
A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China's trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.Henry Paulson, the US Tresury Secretary, said any such sanctions would undermine American authority and could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation.Mr Paulson is a China expert from his days as head of Goldman Sachs. He has opted for a softer form of diplomacy, but appeared to win few concession from Beijing on a unscheduled trip to China last week aimed at calming the waters.
Brussels frees Italy from gold fever By Paul Bompard in Rome
Thu Aug 9, 2:00 PM ET
The European Commission on Thursday cut short a furious debate in Italy on the use of the Bank of Italy's gold reserves to lower the country's debt, saying it was up to the European Central Bank to decide independently on the foreign reserves of eurozone member states. A suggestion by Romano Prodi, the prime minister, that the government might use the reserves sparked a political row on Wednesday with Paolo Bonaiuti, a spokesman for Silvio Berlusconi, the opposition leader.Mr Bonaiuti declared that Mr Prodi was eager to divest Italy of its wealth to try to balance his budget. Maurizio Gasparri, a leader of the opposition National Alliance party, was critical.Yesterday, the spokesperson for Joaquín Almunia, the European monetary affairs commissioner, said: It is . . . up to the ECB to decide about the foreign reserves [including gold reserves] of the euro area member states, in full independence.
In the Tuscan seaside resort where he is on holiday, Mr Prodi said: It is positive that a debate exists over using the Bank of Italy's gold reserves. Some countries have done so, others have not. On July 30 Italy's parliament passed a resolution that suggested the government explore, at international level, the possibility of selling gold reserves to cut the national debt. The resolution was not proposed by the government, but Mr Prodi's words were seized upon by the opposition as a declaration of intent.Silvio Sircana, Mr Prodi's spokesman, said: I don't understand all the excitement. All he said was that discussion was positive. This in no way expresses the prime minister's position or that of the government.Early this month Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the economics minister, said there should be no taboo regarding the central bank's gold. But this does not mean he wants to sell it, and, in any case, it represents a tiny value compared to the national debt, hardly enough to make any difference, said an economics ministry spokesman.
Italy's accumulated national debt is about EU1,609bn ($2,223bn, £1,090bn), or 107 per cent of GNP.Even if the Bank of Italy were to sell all its 2,500 tonnes of gold, which it cannot do under existing European Union regulations, it would collect about EU36bn, only 2.2 per cent of the national debt. If it sold all of the 500 tonnes per year - the amount permitted by the 15 EU signatories of the 2004 Agreement of Gold - it would cover 0.44 per cent of the debt. But this year only 206 tonnes are so far unreserved, less than 0.2 per cent of the debt.The Bank of Italy has kept silent. Unofficial comments from within indicate it is aware of parliament's sovereignty but also feels secure behind barriers of independence and autonomy.
ECB releases €95 billion to fend off credit crunch
10.08.2007 - 09:22 CET | By Honor Mahony
The European Central Bank (ECB) has poured around €95 billion into the eurozone banking system to calm market jitters following a credit crunch in the US market over high-risk mortgages.For Thursday only, the the ECB opened its funds to banks in the 13-nation eurozone at a rate of 4 percent.According to a report in Forbes news agency, some 49 banks took up the offer to various amounts, running in total to €94.8 billion - it is the biggest loan in the bank's history.The ECB notes that there are tensions in the euro money market notwithstanding the normal supply of aggregate euro liquidity, it said in a statement.This is the first time the ECB has felt compelled to intervene in the markets since the days following the terrorist attacks in the US in September 2001.
The move was prompted after investors panicked about the potential losses from the US subprime sector after BNP Paribas, a major French bank, froze payments on three funds invested in the sector.Ian Richards, European equity strategist at ABN Amro, told UK daily the Independent that the ECB's payout was a reflection of the fact that the sub-prime issues will not be constrained to the US financial sector. As the financial sector across Europe shows its hand over the next weeks and months we will see where the exposure exists.The ECB is acting as the lender of last resort. The scale of intervention we have seen today is quite large, he continued.There has been speculation that the ECB may have acted because it has knowledge of problems that have still to come to light.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported Jochen Sanio, head of Germany's financial regulator, as having warned about the worst banking crisis facing Germany since 1931 - this followed a German government rescue of domestic lender IKB, involved in subprime investments.Sub-prime mortgages are those loans made to borrowers who would not usually qualify for the normal market interest rates, often due to a poor credit history. They are riskier both for the borrower and lender because of this combination of higher interest rates and weak credit history. The US Federal Reserve also stepped in with emergency funds on Thursday. The crisis in the US started to escalate recently because of the collapse of many mortgage lenders in the subprime sector.The moves on both sides of the Atlantic are a bid to try and stop a cash flow crunch in the sector from spreading to other parts of the economy.
Banks Add More Funds To Stabilize Markets
Wall Street Steadies After 3 Fed Infusions
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 11, 2007; Page A01
NEW YORK, Aug. 10 -- Central banks around the world pumped money into the financial system Friday, helping to settle a jittery stock market on Wall Street that at least for one day held steady despite intensifying concerns over tighter credit and its potential impact on the U.S. economy. In a sign that the turmoil in the credit market was far from over, shares of major lenders and companies that are targets of buyout deals suffered.Stocks tumbled around the world, with major indexes in Europe and Asia falling more than 2 percent after major declines in the United States on Thursday. The European Central Bank lent $84 billion Friday to financial institutions, a day after providing $130 billion. Japan's central bank added $8.5 billion, and the Reserve Bank of Australia provided $4.2 billion.A trader at the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks finished mixed after the Fed provided $38 billion, its biggest one-day infusion since September 2001. (By Ario Tama -- Getty Images)
How and Why the Fed Pumps Money Into the Financial System
Banks are required to maintain certain cash reserve levels overnight, and frequently have to borrow from other banks to keep their reserves. The Federal Reserve's federal funds rate is the interest rate charged on overnight loans between banks. The current rate is 5.25%.The Federal Reserve injected $38 billion into the system in three increments Friday, its biggest one-day infusion since September 2001. The Fed sought to reassure investors by releasing a statement before financial markets opened, saying it would provide as much extra money as needed to hold its benchmark overnight interest rate at about 5.25 percent.The demand for money overnight had pushed the rate up to more than 6 percent. The central bank is providing liquidity to facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets, said a statement released by the Fed Board in Washington.
A sell-off occurred early in the trading session, with the Dow Jones industrial average down by 200 points. By the closing bell, with selling reined in by the Fed, stocks ended the session mostly unchanged.The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip stocks finished the day down 31.14, or 0.2 percent, at 13,239.54. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 11.60, or 0.5 percent, to 2544.89. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a broad market measure, rose 0.55, or 0.04 percent, to 1453.64.The central banks around the world have stepped up to the plate, said Stanley A. Nabi, vice chairman of Silvercrest Asset Management. They're sending a signal: Hey, we're not going to let you get into trouble.Many stocks finished the day down, although energy and some consumer companies fared better. Shares in financial companies, which were pummeled Thursday, were mostly unchanged. Shares of small companies, which generally take a hit as credit is tightened and the economy slows, were higher. Some investment strategists took these as signs that the next week might be better.
We kind of started the day with the idea that, Gosh, the first of the [European Central Bank] injections didn't work, said James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. The fact that the Fed came in might have been looked at as a positive by some . . . because they were criticized somewhat as being stuck in the mud, dogmatic, and not open to the idea of being responsive. And certainly, they showed that they would be [responsive] today.Nonetheless, fear and uncertainty dominated, as speculation of massive liquidations by hedge funds continued to spread across trading desks and as investment firms that had little to do with the home-mortgage market reported record withdrawals by investors.The speculation was adding to the wild swings in trading more so than in the past because of the proliferation of hedge funds, whose holdings are typically not public and whose strategy often involves the hefty use of leverage, or borrowed money. That amplifies returns, but also losses.Wall Street is paying attention to news from quant funds, the trading of which is based on computer-based models with limited human intervention. The fear is that such strategies can break down in a volatile market, leading to massive losses that could send ripples through the entire financial system.
Banks Add More Funds To Stabilize Markets
We're just having some incredibly strong volatility both ways, as much as I've ever seen, said Bart Barnett, head of equity trading at Morgan Keegan & Co. Every time I see a market spike like we're seeing right now, I just start looking for headlines. People are watching the news wires like hawks.On Friday, Deutsche Bank said the value of one of its investment funds had fallen by 30 percent since the end of July. The German bank said assets of its DWS ABS Fund fell even though it had no exposure to the risky American subprime mortgage market, the epicenter of the credit problems.
The uncertainties surrounding the U.S. mortgage crisis has constricted liquidity in this market, the company said in a statement. Deutsche Bank said it was leaving the fund open at the request of investors who might want to sell, even at a discount.
Shares of Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual fell Friday after the release of regulatory filings late Thursday in which the mortgage lenders declared that it had become more difficult to find new money for home loans. Washington Mutual, of Seattle, said that since late July, liquidity for non-conforming loans -- those not backed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, or made to borrowers with spotty credit -- diminished significantly.Many big lenders package home loans into bonds and sell them to investors in what is known as the secondary market. The rising rate of foreclosures and delinquencies among subprime borrowers, who generally have blemished credit histories, coupled with a drop in home prices, has made investors leery of buying those bonds.As the market for such bonds -- which are divided and packaged with other types of debt -- screeched to a halt, the pricing on the hard-to-value securities has become even more opaque.
Countrywide, of Calabasas, Calif., the country's biggest mortgage lender, said it had adequate cash to cope with the credit crunch -- about $190.3 billion in short-term liquidity -- but warned that the secondary market and funding liquidity situation is rapidly evolving and the potential impact on the company is unknown. Liquidity is essential to the company's business, Washington Mutual said in a statement. The Company's liquidity may be affected by an inability to access the capital markets or by unforeseen demands on cash.Also hurt Friday were companies that are buyout targets, the viability of which is increasingly being questioned as the cost of borrowing used in such takeovers rises. Among those companies is TXU, which is being sought in a $45 billion deal by the buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG.Shares of TXU, which agreed to sell itself for $69.25 a share, fell to $63.65 in heavy trading Friday. SLM Corp, better known as Sallie Mae, fell 95 cents, to $48.20 a share, significantly less than $60 a share price being paid by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers. And First Data closed at $31.05, down 4 cents, still below the $34 a share offered by KKR. The decline in these stocks show that the markets do not believe the buyouts will go through as advertised, analysts said. The trouble in the credit markets is raising the cost of financing these deals, and some of the deals may be renegotiated.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent inspectors in recent weeks to look inside some of the nation's largest broker-dealers to make sure they are properly valuing subprime mortgage assets for risk purposes.Most of these brokers engage in daily mark-to-market valuations of these instruments to ensure they have enough capital on hand. The valuations are supposed to correspond to what the assets would fetch in the open market, but some of the securities trade so rarely that it can be difficult to put a price tag on them.In the days ahead, the challenge for regulators and central bankers will be balancing the need to keep markets running smoothly and letting them self-correct. Fed officials gave no sign they were moving toward lowering interest rates, having worried for several years that investors were underestimating the risk of certain assets. They now welcome investors' willingness to reprice assets to better reflect their risk.Hugh Moore, partner at Guerite Advisors and former chief financial officer of a subprime mortgage company, said: There's relatively little they can do because they don't really control the securitization market, which packages mortgages into securities that are then sold off in pieces to investors around the world, including large hedge funds, pension funds and insurance funds. It's not like the savings and loans crisis.Trejos reported from Washington. Staff writers Nell Henderson, Carrie Johnson and David Cho in Washington contributed to this report.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: New Al Qaeda threat of radioactive truck attacks naming New York, Los Angeles, Miami August 10, 2007, 1:11 AM (GMT+02:00)
The threat was picked up by DEBKAfile’s monitors from a rush of electronic chatter on al Qaeda sites Thursday, Aug. 8. The al Qaeda communications accuse the Americans of the grave error of failing to take seriously the videotape released by the American al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gaddahn last week. They will soon realize their mistake when American cities are hit by quality operations, said one message. Another said the attacks would be carried out by means of trucks loaded with radio-active material against America’s biggest city and financial nerve center. A third message mentioned New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets. It drew the answer: The attack, with Allah’s help, will cause an economic meltdown, many dead, and a financial crisis on a scale that compels the United States to pull its military forces out of many parts of the world, including Iraq, for lack of any other way of cutting down costs.There is also a message which speaks obliquely of the approaching attacks easing the heavy pressure America exerts on countries like Japan, Cuba and Venezuela.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources and monitors say there is no way of gauging for sure how serious these threats are, how real, or whether they are part of a war of nerves to give the Gaddahn tape extra mileage. But it is important to note that the exchange of messages took place over al Qaeda’s internal Internet sites and that they contained the threat of radioactive terror and specific American cities for the first time after a long silence on these subjects. In addition, a growing number of clips has been disseminated of late over al Qaeda sites instructing the faithful how to design remote-controlled gliders, pack them with explosives and launch them against predetermined targets.
NYPD responds to unsubstantiated threat AUG 11,07
NEW YORK - Authorities were taking extra counterterrorism precautions Friday in response to what they said was an unsubstantiated radiological threat to the city.
Officials said they had not changed the city's terror alert status in response to online chatter mentioning a truck packed with radioactive material. But police deployed extra radiological sensors on street, water and air patrols, and were stopping vehicles at checkpoints in lower Manhattan and around the city.Deputy Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne called the measures strictly precautionary. He said an Israeli Web site reported that online posts were made following a video released Sunday featuring an American member of al-Qaida threatening foreign diplomats and embassies across the Islamic world.We are closely monitoring the situation, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke. There continues to be no credible information telling us that there's a threat to the homeland at this time.The FBI also said there was no credible threat.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the police measures were nothing out of the ordinary.
These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day — precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize, he said in a statement.
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and the constellations, and on the earth pressure of nations in perplexity (Mass confusion, at the roaring of the sea and the shaking,
26 at the chilling of men from fear and apprehensiveness of that which is coming on the inhabited earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shakin.
Hurricane Flossie now a Category 3 storm By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer AUG 11,07
HONOLULU - Hurricane Flossie strengthened to a Category 3 storm early Saturday as it headed toward waters south of Hawaii, but forecasters did not expect it to hit the state with much more than rough surf. At 5 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Flossie had strengthened from a Category 1 storm to a Category 3, with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph, and was about 1,150 miles from Hawaii.The storm was expected to weaken as it passed over cooler waters. It was traveling west at about 12 mph.The Big Island's southeastern shores could see waves of 8 to 12 feet, forecasters said, with the surf rising during the day Monday and peaking Tuesday. The island's South Point is the southernmost area of the United States.Flossie formed as a tropical storm Wednesday about halfway between Mexico's southern Pacific coast and Hawaii. Its winds surpassed 74 mph, making it a hurricane, on Friday.
The last time a hurricane hit Hawaii was in 1992, when Iniki ravaged Kauai, killing six people and causing $2.5 billion in damage.Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. In May, forecasters predicted that Hawaii and the rest of the central Pacific face a slightly below-average hurricane season, with just two or three tropical cyclones expected because of lower sea surface temperatures.The islands get an average of 4.5 tropical cyclones a year and one hurricane about every 15 years. Last year, the central Pacific had five tropical cyclones after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted two to three.On July 21, a tropical depression moved past the Big Island, bringing a few inches of rain to the parched island but no major problems. Cosme, the year's first Pacific tropical cyclone, reached hurricane status for a day before it weakened.
South Asia monsoon toll passes 2,000 By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 10, 5:03 PM ET
NEW DELHI - The death toll from this year's calamitous South Asian monsoons had surpassed 2,000 by Friday after a wild storm hit Pakistan's largest city. India asked doctors to cancel vacations and rushed food and medicine to flooded regions where disease has stricken thousands. Adding to the misery, the monsoon rains that flood wide stretches of South Asia each year have forced creatures large and small onto whatever dry land can be found, resulting in scores of fatal snake bites.Relief workers said there was an acute shortage of clean drinking water and medical supplies in parts of northern India, where storms have been heavier than usual this year.
With flooding from two weeks of rains finally receding in northern India, monsoon storms moved west. Heavy winds and rains lashed the Pakistani city of Karachi, destroyed homes and flooding streets. At least 22 bodies were pulled from collapsed homes, said Anwar Kazi, a spokesman for the private relief service Edhi Foundation. Residents waded through waist-deep water in parts of the city of 15 million people.
Vital to farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people, the monsoon season runs from June to September as the rains work their way across the subcontinent. At least 2,090 people have died so far this year, double the number killed last year. Nearly 600 have died in the past two weeks alone.More than 1,550 have died in India; 226 have been killed neighboring Bangladesh; 92 in Nepal, and at least 222 in Pakistan, officials said.The storms have stranded 19 million people in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Nearly 243,000 people were still living in relief camps in India, the Home Ministry said.
The rainfall has been unevenly distributed across India this year due to unusual monsoon patterns, according to the country's Meteorological Department. While parts of central India received less rain, the north faced stronger storms for longer than usual.The reprieve in the monsoon rains created ponds of stagnant water in India's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, and aid workers struggled to stave off a disease epidemic.Paramedics visiting affected villages don't have adequate supplies of medicines, Ramakant Rai, chief of state's Voluntary Health Association, said of Uttar Pradesh. He said clean drinking water was running low.Families lined up for aid finally reaching their villages. In one Uttar Pradesh village, a family rowed a makeshift tube raft to a relief center.Doctors have treated at least 1,500 people in Uttar Pradesh for diarrhea in the past 10 days, said L.B. Prasad, director-general of the state's health services. Rai's group said the scope of the suffering was greater, with more than 22,000 people coming down with waterborne disease.
In neighboring Bihar state, the government canceled vacations for doctors in flood-ravaged districts, said state Health Minister Chandramohan Rai.The rains have driven poisonous snakes onto dry land in closer proximity to populations, and hundreds in India have been bitten this season. In neighboring Bangladesh, the government said at least 35 of the 226 people killed in the monsoon have died of snake bites. It has been the country's second-highest cause of death after drowning.Snakes are not the only dangerous creatures that compete with people for dry land. In India's northeastern Assam state, flooding forced rhinos from their habitat at the Kaziranga National Park last week. Their panicked charges killed one person and injured two others.Everything, everyone, is restricted to tiny, tiny islands with very little space, said Romulus Whitaker, a snake expert. Everyone is crammed in together and the chances of running into snakes, stepping on them, grabbing them and sleeping on them is much, much more.That's how Paltu Ram, a farmer in his 20s, died.
Stranded with a few hundred villagers on a sliver of land encircled by flood waters in the Bara Banki district of northern India, about 370 miles east of New Delhi, he decided to climb a tree to see if he could spot a rescue boat. On his way up, he reached for what looked like a brown rope. It wasn't — and when he grabbed it, the snake recoiled and struck, sinking its fangs into his arm. Paltu jumped into water saying he was bitten by snake. Before he could be taken to a doctor he died, said his father, Rameshwar, who couldn't say what kind of snake got his son. Associated Press reporters Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, India, and Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this story.
At least 13 dead in Pakistan rains Fri Aug 10, 4:24 PM ET
KARACHI (AFP) - Flooding caused by torrential rains has killed at least 13 people in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, officials said Friday. Severe weather has forced the provincial government to declare a state of emergency in Karachi's hospitals, with holidays cancelled for doctors and paramedics, they said.Most of the city was inundated by knee-deep rainwater, causing traffic chaos.Authorities have closed schools and colleges due to transportation difficulties and hazards like falling power lines.Four of the dead were reportedly electrocuted by power lines wrecked by the rainstorms in several areas of the city.Officials said Karachi had received 142mm (more than 5.5 inches) of rain in the previous 24 hours, with more expected.
Rivers above alert levels as rain subsides over central Europe Fri Aug 10, 4:20 PM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - Some rivers and lakes remained above alert levels Friday after two days of torrential rain and flooding in Switzerland and Germany which killed one and caused one serious injury. A man drowned in flooding in Germany after becoming trapped in his cellar, while the Rhine was closed to shipping after becoming dangerously swollen by torrential rain, police said.The Rhine had become so high in southwest Germany that it would be impossible to navigate until Saturday at the earliest, a spokesman for the police in the city of Karlsruhe, Reinhold Seene, told AFP.He added that, while the river, one of Europe's longest and most important at 1,320 kilometres (820 miles), was expected to peak at 8.3 metres (27 feet), it was not the flood of the century.
The man who died, a 61-year-old resident of the western town of Arnsberg, apparently got caught in his cellar by the rising water and drowned because he was unable to open the door.Other police services said a mudslide closed a main road for several hours, and a camping ground was evacuated.Meanwhile, in neighbouring Switzerland, to the south of the Rhine, weather services said that the low pressure system over the Alps which caused the massive rainfalls was slowly weakening and moving towards the Adriatic Sea.Rain which battered Switzerland on Wednesday and Thursday caused at least 65 million Swiss francs in damages (39.5 million euros), according to estimates Friday.A partial survey of damages by the Swiss intercantonal reinsurance union estimated damages to buildings at between 50 and 60 million Swiss francs.Crop damage was estimated to be at least five million Swiss francs.Meanwhile a hydraulic power station at Ruchlig, northern Switzerland, had been flooded and disconnected from the network, reported the power station administrator NOK.
More than 20 centimetres (eight inches) of water seeped into the machine room of the power station which has an annual capacity of 55 million kilowatts per hour. It was unclear how long it would remain disconnected or how much financial damage had occured.Several hydraulic power stations along the Aar river also reduced their capacities due to strong river currents and tree trunks travelling along them. Meanwhile, the Swiss rail company announced the resumption of traffic on sections of lines that had been cut by flooding and landslides.
Christian Zionist Leader Denounces Evangelicals' Pro-Palestinian Letter
By Ethan Cole - Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Aug. 07 2007 12:46 PM ET
A Christian Zionist leader has denounced the recent letter by some of America’s leading evangelicals voicing support for a Palestinian state, criticizing the signers for their appalling ignorance.Dr. Jim Hutchens, president of the Jerusalem Connection and the Washington-area director for Christian United for Israel, acknowledged the deep chasm growing among evangelicals regarding Israel.He contends, however, that the modern state of Israel is part of the fulfillment of God’s covenant of a homeland for the Jewish people.Evangelicals supporting a Palestinian state have an appalling ignorance of both secular and biblical history, said Hutchens, according to OneNewsNow. The Zionist leader noted that there has never been a sovereign state of Palestine.
In July, 34 prominent evangelical leaders signed a letter voicing support for President Bush’s Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, emphasizing their support for a two-state solution.The leaders also said they wanted to repair the serious misconception that all American evangelicals are against the two-state solution and the creation of a new Palestinian state.Historical honesty compels us to recognize that both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine, states the letter dated July 27 and published in the New York Times.Signers included Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; David Neff, editor of Christianity Today; Richard Stearns, president of World Vision; Tony Campolo, president/founder of Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education; Stephen Hayner, former president InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; and Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., and member of the executive committee of the National Association of Evangelicals.Hutchens, however, disagrees and points to the Replacement Theory as the theological explanation for evangelical support of a Palestinian state.
I would suggest that the basic theological underpinning of this is super-cessionism, he said, according to OneNewsNow, and that is to say that the church is the new Israel, that Christians have replaced Jews as the covenant people of God … [and that] the covenants that God made with Israel and the Jews are now null and void because they have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah.Yet Hutchens believes that the covenant between God and Israel still holds. He proposes as solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem that Israel annex the West Bank and Gaza and for the Israeli military to uproot terrorists in the region.The debate on Israel and Christian support for the biblical land has stirred tension among evangelicals – arguably the world’s most vocal supporters of the state; evangelicals make up 1/3 of American tourists that visit Israel, second only to American Jews.
Among the critics are those against the blind support that some Christians give to Israel despite the fact that the Knesset – Israel’s legislative body – bans evangelism in the country and has proposed punishment including imprisonment and heavy fines for guilty parties.Megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, one of the signers supporting a Palestinian state, noted:There is a part of the evangelical family which is what I call Christian Zionists, who are just so staunchly pro-Israel that Israel and their side can do no wrong, and it’s almost anti-biblical to criticize Israel for anything, he said, according to the New York Times. But there are many more evangelicals who are really open and seek justice for both parties.Award-winning talk show host Janet Parshall is an example of a long-time pro-Israel Christian leader who has recently come to criticize the state.I thought, wait a minute: we can’t just blindly support Israel, said Parshall after she heard that the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus does not associate with groups that share the Gospel.
We have to able to tell them, as a friend, [that] you can’t do that. You can’t silence us.Vocal pro-Israel supporters include Dr. Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Paula White, co-pastor of the 22,000-member Without Walls International Church in Florida; Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christian United for Israel and senior pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in Texas; Pastor Steve Munsey of the 12,000-member Family Christian Center; and Stephen Strang, founder and president of Charisma Magazine.
The US Earthquake Prophecy
July 28, 2007 Harrisburg, PA BY KIM CLEMENT
"In this Nation, yes, there shall be three earthquakes says the Lord. Not earthquakes of judgment but a sign in the earth. The wind has brought the rain. Signs from above. Fires have come on top of the land. Signs on top of the land. Fire consuming religion, consuming witchcraft, consuming control and the synagogues of Satan shall be invaded by the forces of righteousness, says the Lord of hosts. No more reasoning. No more debating. Go and show. Don't go and tell, go and show. For now you have embarked upon a period of manifestation, says the Lord. Now there must be a sign underneath the earth. And surely your earth shall shake saying to you three times and showing you three arenas. The heavens where the wind came and the rain came to America. On the earth the fires that came in the middle of this nation and shall continue in the west. And then underneath the earth - the shaking. And God says, you know why? Because the demonic powers that have held tight are now being released and being taken care of and being completely annihilated, says the Spirit of the Lord. They will never be above you, they will always be beneath you says the Spirit of the God.
Israel's Def Min: Palestinian Peace Talks A Fantasy-Report
Friday, Aug 10, 2007
JERUSALEM (AP)--The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday as calling recent peace moves with the Palestinians fantasies and saying Israel would not withdraw from the West Bank for another five years at least. The comments were attributed to Barak in private conversations. If accurate, they are surprising because Barak heads the dovish Labor Party and tried to reach a dramatic peace deal with the Palestinians seven years ago, when he served as prime minister.
Barak's office would not comment on the Yediot report.
Israelis have healthy intuition. They can't be fed more fantasies about an upcoming agreement with the Palestinians, Barak is quoted as saying. Israel won't be able to pull out of the West Bank before it develops a technological response to rockets fired by Palestinian militants and more advanced missiles from Iran - a process that will take between three and five years, Barak said, according to the report. Palestinian militants regularly launch rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. But if fired from the West Bank, the rockets could threaten the country's population centers and paralyze its only airport outside of Tel Aviv. The Israeli army will not leave the West Bank at least in the next five years, Barak is quoted as saying.
Mideast peace moves have been jump-started in the past two months, as Israel and the international community scramble to shore up moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the aftermath of the takeover of Gaza by his rivals from the Islamic group Hamas in mid-June. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been holding regular meetings with Abbas and has ordered the release of Palestinian prisoners and the transfer of frozen Palestinian tax funds in an attempt to bolster him. Barak is dismissive of Olmert's recent efforts, according to the Yediot report, referring to them as packaging, and asserting that Abbas is incapable of taking control of the West Bank and providing security there. As a result, according to Yediot, Barak does not intend to comply with Palestinian requests to remove checkpoints in the West Bank, saying this would endanger Israeli civilians. (END) Dow Jones Newswires
ISRAELIS FROM AROUND THE WORLD BUT ESPECIALLY IN NEW YORK,ITS TIME TO GO HOME BEFORE THE MARKET COLLAPSES AND USE LOOSE ALL YOUR MONEY. WITH ALL THE UNCERTAINTY AROUND THE WORLD GO TO YOUR GOD GIVEN LAND AND REBUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE SO GOD WILL BE IN YOUR PRESENCE AND PROTECT USE FROM ALL USE WILL BE GOING THROUGH.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Come now ye rich, lament, howling for your wretchedness which is coming on you!
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become food for moths.
3 Your gold and silver corrode and their venom will be for a testamony against you, and the venom will be eating your flesh as fire. You horde in the last days.
DR DOCTORIAN IN HIS REVELATION FROM ANGELS REVEALED THE COLLAPSE IN THE WORLD ECONOMY WILL BE FROM ASIA, LOOKOUT THIS THREAT COULD COME TO PASS.
China threatens nuclear option of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 8:39pm BST 10/08/2007
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Blog - Dollar to collapse?
Fistful of dollars - China's trade surplus reached $26.9bn in June
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China's nuclear option in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy with a comment last week that Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a bargaining chip in talks with the US.
Of course, China doesn't want any undesirable phenomenon in the global financial order, he added.He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went even further today, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings.
China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan's exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar, he told China Daily.The threats play into the presidential electoral campaign of Hillary Clinton, who has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo.She said foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.Simon Derrick, a currency strategist at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the comments were a message to the US Senate as Capitol Hill prepares legislation for the Autumn session.The words are alarming and unambiguous. This carries a clear political threat and could have very serious consequences at a time when the credit markets are already afraid of contagion from the subprime troubles, he said.
A bill drafted by a group of US senators, and backed by the Senate Finance Committee, calls for trade tariffs against Chinese goods as retaliation for alleged currency manipulation.The yuan has appreciated 9pc against the dollar over the last two years under a crawling peg but it has failed to halt the rise of China's trade surplus, which reached $26.9bn in June.Henry Paulson, the US Tresury Secretary, said any such sanctions would undermine American authority and could trigger a global cycle of protectionist legislation.Mr Paulson is a China expert from his days as head of Goldman Sachs. He has opted for a softer form of diplomacy, but appeared to win few concession from Beijing on a unscheduled trip to China last week aimed at calming the waters.
Brussels frees Italy from gold fever By Paul Bompard in Rome
Thu Aug 9, 2:00 PM ET
The European Commission on Thursday cut short a furious debate in Italy on the use of the Bank of Italy's gold reserves to lower the country's debt, saying it was up to the European Central Bank to decide independently on the foreign reserves of eurozone member states. A suggestion by Romano Prodi, the prime minister, that the government might use the reserves sparked a political row on Wednesday with Paolo Bonaiuti, a spokesman for Silvio Berlusconi, the opposition leader.Mr Bonaiuti declared that Mr Prodi was eager to divest Italy of its wealth to try to balance his budget. Maurizio Gasparri, a leader of the opposition National Alliance party, was critical.Yesterday, the spokesperson for Joaquín Almunia, the European monetary affairs commissioner, said: It is . . . up to the ECB to decide about the foreign reserves [including gold reserves] of the euro area member states, in full independence.
In the Tuscan seaside resort where he is on holiday, Mr Prodi said: It is positive that a debate exists over using the Bank of Italy's gold reserves. Some countries have done so, others have not. On July 30 Italy's parliament passed a resolution that suggested the government explore, at international level, the possibility of selling gold reserves to cut the national debt. The resolution was not proposed by the government, but Mr Prodi's words were seized upon by the opposition as a declaration of intent.Silvio Sircana, Mr Prodi's spokesman, said: I don't understand all the excitement. All he said was that discussion was positive. This in no way expresses the prime minister's position or that of the government.Early this month Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the economics minister, said there should be no taboo regarding the central bank's gold. But this does not mean he wants to sell it, and, in any case, it represents a tiny value compared to the national debt, hardly enough to make any difference, said an economics ministry spokesman.
Italy's accumulated national debt is about EU1,609bn ($2,223bn, £1,090bn), or 107 per cent of GNP.Even if the Bank of Italy were to sell all its 2,500 tonnes of gold, which it cannot do under existing European Union regulations, it would collect about EU36bn, only 2.2 per cent of the national debt. If it sold all of the 500 tonnes per year - the amount permitted by the 15 EU signatories of the 2004 Agreement of Gold - it would cover 0.44 per cent of the debt. But this year only 206 tonnes are so far unreserved, less than 0.2 per cent of the debt.The Bank of Italy has kept silent. Unofficial comments from within indicate it is aware of parliament's sovereignty but also feels secure behind barriers of independence and autonomy.
ECB releases €95 billion to fend off credit crunch
10.08.2007 - 09:22 CET | By Honor Mahony
The European Central Bank (ECB) has poured around €95 billion into the eurozone banking system to calm market jitters following a credit crunch in the US market over high-risk mortgages.For Thursday only, the the ECB opened its funds to banks in the 13-nation eurozone at a rate of 4 percent.According to a report in Forbes news agency, some 49 banks took up the offer to various amounts, running in total to €94.8 billion - it is the biggest loan in the bank's history.The ECB notes that there are tensions in the euro money market notwithstanding the normal supply of aggregate euro liquidity, it said in a statement.This is the first time the ECB has felt compelled to intervene in the markets since the days following the terrorist attacks in the US in September 2001.
The move was prompted after investors panicked about the potential losses from the US subprime sector after BNP Paribas, a major French bank, froze payments on three funds invested in the sector.Ian Richards, European equity strategist at ABN Amro, told UK daily the Independent that the ECB's payout was a reflection of the fact that the sub-prime issues will not be constrained to the US financial sector. As the financial sector across Europe shows its hand over the next weeks and months we will see where the exposure exists.The ECB is acting as the lender of last resort. The scale of intervention we have seen today is quite large, he continued.There has been speculation that the ECB may have acted because it has knowledge of problems that have still to come to light.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported Jochen Sanio, head of Germany's financial regulator, as having warned about the worst banking crisis facing Germany since 1931 - this followed a German government rescue of domestic lender IKB, involved in subprime investments.Sub-prime mortgages are those loans made to borrowers who would not usually qualify for the normal market interest rates, often due to a poor credit history. They are riskier both for the borrower and lender because of this combination of higher interest rates and weak credit history. The US Federal Reserve also stepped in with emergency funds on Thursday. The crisis in the US started to escalate recently because of the collapse of many mortgage lenders in the subprime sector.The moves on both sides of the Atlantic are a bid to try and stop a cash flow crunch in the sector from spreading to other parts of the economy.
Banks Add More Funds To Stabilize Markets
Wall Street Steadies After 3 Fed Infusions
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 11, 2007; Page A01
NEW YORK, Aug. 10 -- Central banks around the world pumped money into the financial system Friday, helping to settle a jittery stock market on Wall Street that at least for one day held steady despite intensifying concerns over tighter credit and its potential impact on the U.S. economy. In a sign that the turmoil in the credit market was far from over, shares of major lenders and companies that are targets of buyout deals suffered.Stocks tumbled around the world, with major indexes in Europe and Asia falling more than 2 percent after major declines in the United States on Thursday. The European Central Bank lent $84 billion Friday to financial institutions, a day after providing $130 billion. Japan's central bank added $8.5 billion, and the Reserve Bank of Australia provided $4.2 billion.A trader at the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks finished mixed after the Fed provided $38 billion, its biggest one-day infusion since September 2001. (By Ario Tama -- Getty Images)
How and Why the Fed Pumps Money Into the Financial System
Banks are required to maintain certain cash reserve levels overnight, and frequently have to borrow from other banks to keep their reserves. The Federal Reserve's federal funds rate is the interest rate charged on overnight loans between banks. The current rate is 5.25%.The Federal Reserve injected $38 billion into the system in three increments Friday, its biggest one-day infusion since September 2001. The Fed sought to reassure investors by releasing a statement before financial markets opened, saying it would provide as much extra money as needed to hold its benchmark overnight interest rate at about 5.25 percent.The demand for money overnight had pushed the rate up to more than 6 percent. The central bank is providing liquidity to facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets, said a statement released by the Fed Board in Washington.
A sell-off occurred early in the trading session, with the Dow Jones industrial average down by 200 points. By the closing bell, with selling reined in by the Fed, stocks ended the session mostly unchanged.The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip stocks finished the day down 31.14, or 0.2 percent, at 13,239.54. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 11.60, or 0.5 percent, to 2544.89. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a broad market measure, rose 0.55, or 0.04 percent, to 1453.64.The central banks around the world have stepped up to the plate, said Stanley A. Nabi, vice chairman of Silvercrest Asset Management. They're sending a signal: Hey, we're not going to let you get into trouble.Many stocks finished the day down, although energy and some consumer companies fared better. Shares in financial companies, which were pummeled Thursday, were mostly unchanged. Shares of small companies, which generally take a hit as credit is tightened and the economy slows, were higher. Some investment strategists took these as signs that the next week might be better.
We kind of started the day with the idea that, Gosh, the first of the [European Central Bank] injections didn't work, said James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. The fact that the Fed came in might have been looked at as a positive by some . . . because they were criticized somewhat as being stuck in the mud, dogmatic, and not open to the idea of being responsive. And certainly, they showed that they would be [responsive] today.Nonetheless, fear and uncertainty dominated, as speculation of massive liquidations by hedge funds continued to spread across trading desks and as investment firms that had little to do with the home-mortgage market reported record withdrawals by investors.The speculation was adding to the wild swings in trading more so than in the past because of the proliferation of hedge funds, whose holdings are typically not public and whose strategy often involves the hefty use of leverage, or borrowed money. That amplifies returns, but also losses.Wall Street is paying attention to news from quant funds, the trading of which is based on computer-based models with limited human intervention. The fear is that such strategies can break down in a volatile market, leading to massive losses that could send ripples through the entire financial system.
Banks Add More Funds To Stabilize Markets
We're just having some incredibly strong volatility both ways, as much as I've ever seen, said Bart Barnett, head of equity trading at Morgan Keegan & Co. Every time I see a market spike like we're seeing right now, I just start looking for headlines. People are watching the news wires like hawks.On Friday, Deutsche Bank said the value of one of its investment funds had fallen by 30 percent since the end of July. The German bank said assets of its DWS ABS Fund fell even though it had no exposure to the risky American subprime mortgage market, the epicenter of the credit problems.
The uncertainties surrounding the U.S. mortgage crisis has constricted liquidity in this market, the company said in a statement. Deutsche Bank said it was leaving the fund open at the request of investors who might want to sell, even at a discount.
Shares of Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual fell Friday after the release of regulatory filings late Thursday in which the mortgage lenders declared that it had become more difficult to find new money for home loans. Washington Mutual, of Seattle, said that since late July, liquidity for non-conforming loans -- those not backed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, or made to borrowers with spotty credit -- diminished significantly.Many big lenders package home loans into bonds and sell them to investors in what is known as the secondary market. The rising rate of foreclosures and delinquencies among subprime borrowers, who generally have blemished credit histories, coupled with a drop in home prices, has made investors leery of buying those bonds.As the market for such bonds -- which are divided and packaged with other types of debt -- screeched to a halt, the pricing on the hard-to-value securities has become even more opaque.
Countrywide, of Calabasas, Calif., the country's biggest mortgage lender, said it had adequate cash to cope with the credit crunch -- about $190.3 billion in short-term liquidity -- but warned that the secondary market and funding liquidity situation is rapidly evolving and the potential impact on the company is unknown. Liquidity is essential to the company's business, Washington Mutual said in a statement. The Company's liquidity may be affected by an inability to access the capital markets or by unforeseen demands on cash.Also hurt Friday were companies that are buyout targets, the viability of which is increasingly being questioned as the cost of borrowing used in such takeovers rises. Among those companies is TXU, which is being sought in a $45 billion deal by the buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG.Shares of TXU, which agreed to sell itself for $69.25 a share, fell to $63.65 in heavy trading Friday. SLM Corp, better known as Sallie Mae, fell 95 cents, to $48.20 a share, significantly less than $60 a share price being paid by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers. And First Data closed at $31.05, down 4 cents, still below the $34 a share offered by KKR. The decline in these stocks show that the markets do not believe the buyouts will go through as advertised, analysts said. The trouble in the credit markets is raising the cost of financing these deals, and some of the deals may be renegotiated.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent inspectors in recent weeks to look inside some of the nation's largest broker-dealers to make sure they are properly valuing subprime mortgage assets for risk purposes.Most of these brokers engage in daily mark-to-market valuations of these instruments to ensure they have enough capital on hand. The valuations are supposed to correspond to what the assets would fetch in the open market, but some of the securities trade so rarely that it can be difficult to put a price tag on them.In the days ahead, the challenge for regulators and central bankers will be balancing the need to keep markets running smoothly and letting them self-correct. Fed officials gave no sign they were moving toward lowering interest rates, having worried for several years that investors were underestimating the risk of certain assets. They now welcome investors' willingness to reprice assets to better reflect their risk.Hugh Moore, partner at Guerite Advisors and former chief financial officer of a subprime mortgage company, said: There's relatively little they can do because they don't really control the securitization market, which packages mortgages into securities that are then sold off in pieces to investors around the world, including large hedge funds, pension funds and insurance funds. It's not like the savings and loans crisis.Trejos reported from Washington. Staff writers Nell Henderson, Carrie Johnson and David Cho in Washington contributed to this report.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
BROOKLYN TORNADO
ANYONE THINK THIS IS JUST AN ACCIDENT, I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU. THERE JUST HAPPENS TO BE A TORNADO IN BROOKLYN WHEN THERE HAS NOT BEEN ONE SINCE 1889. GOOD LUCK! LIKE I SAID AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE FOR FORCING ISRAELIS OFF THEIR GOD GIVEN LAND.
Tornado strikes New York borough of Brooklyn
By Andy Newman Published: August 9, 2007
NEW YORK: It took experts a while to confirm what many in southwestern Brooklyn knew had descended on their neighborhoods as a new workday dawned. It was a tornado - the first to hit the New York borough since modern record-keeping began - and it turned whole sections of Brooklyn upside down.Roofs were torn off houses. More than 30 families were forced from their homes. Tall trees as thick as men were yanked out by the roots.
No one was seriously injured, but cars were turned sideways, awnings and aluminum siding shredded, and countless windows and windshields shattered, in a destructive rain of bricks and branches and water Wednesday.Lanie Mastellone was drinking her coffee about 7 a.m. in her apartment on the top floor of her two-story house when she sensed that her windows were going to blow in. She went toward the front of the house, and as she passed from one room to another the ceilings collapsed.
I passed my living room, I passed my dining room, I go to the bedroom, Mastellone said. They were going one at a time. It was coming from the back forward.Mastellone, a widow who lives alone, was more puzzled than terrified. It was almostunemotional, she said. I was still thinking, Maybe my roof is leaking? I think denial is a wonderful thing sometimes.Still, she knew she had to get out. I grabbed my wedding ring and my cellphone, she said. She opened her apartment door, stepped out into the hallway and looked up. That's when I realized I had no roof, she said.She was not the only one. Two houses away, the roof looked as if it had exploded. Most of it was lying in the street.
[Meanwhile, three inches, or 7.5 centimeters, of rain in three hours brought the New York transit system to its knees, The Associated Press reported. Subway tracks were swamped, buses jammed and commuter trains held up for hours because of flooding Wednesday. Much of the mess had been mopped up by early Thursday, but the region faced the possibility of more storms within a day.]The U.S. National Weather Service declared the storm in Brooklyn a Category 2 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds up to 135 miles per hour, or 215 kilometers per hour. It was the first tornado recorded in Brooklyn since record-keeping began in 1950, said Jeffrey Warner, a meteorologist at Pennsylvania State University.
Tornado strikes New York borough of Brooklyn
By Andy Newman Published: August 9, 2007
NEW YORK: It took experts a while to confirm what many in southwestern Brooklyn knew had descended on their neighborhoods as a new workday dawned. It was a tornado - the first to hit the New York borough since modern record-keeping began - and it turned whole sections of Brooklyn upside down.Roofs were torn off houses. More than 30 families were forced from their homes. Tall trees as thick as men were yanked out by the roots.
No one was seriously injured, but cars were turned sideways, awnings and aluminum siding shredded, and countless windows and windshields shattered, in a destructive rain of bricks and branches and water Wednesday.Lanie Mastellone was drinking her coffee about 7 a.m. in her apartment on the top floor of her two-story house when she sensed that her windows were going to blow in. She went toward the front of the house, and as she passed from one room to another the ceilings collapsed.
I passed my living room, I passed my dining room, I go to the bedroom, Mastellone said. They were going one at a time. It was coming from the back forward.Mastellone, a widow who lives alone, was more puzzled than terrified. It was almostunemotional, she said. I was still thinking, Maybe my roof is leaking? I think denial is a wonderful thing sometimes.Still, she knew she had to get out. I grabbed my wedding ring and my cellphone, she said. She opened her apartment door, stepped out into the hallway and looked up. That's when I realized I had no roof, she said.She was not the only one. Two houses away, the roof looked as if it had exploded. Most of it was lying in the street.
[Meanwhile, three inches, or 7.5 centimeters, of rain in three hours brought the New York transit system to its knees, The Associated Press reported. Subway tracks were swamped, buses jammed and commuter trains held up for hours because of flooding Wednesday. Much of the mess had been mopped up by early Thursday, but the region faced the possibility of more storms within a day.]The U.S. National Weather Service declared the storm in Brooklyn a Category 2 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds up to 135 miles per hour, or 215 kilometers per hour. It was the first tornado recorded in Brooklyn since record-keeping began in 1950, said Jeffrey Warner, a meteorologist at Pennsylvania State University.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
TROUBLE ISRAELS THROWN OFF LAND
Europe fights plans to give emerging economies bigger say in IMF
07.08.2007 - 09:13 CET | By Renata Goldirova
France, Germany and the UK have joined forces to fight against plans to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which would give a bigger say to emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil at the expense of European states.Proposed reforms of the fund an organization of 185 countries created after the second world war to foster global monetary cooperation are due to be agreed next month, before the current managing director Rodrigo Rato steps down in October. But senior IMF officials told the Financial Times that countries are locked in a dispute which pits Europe against the US and fast-growing economies.
What we hear from European colleagues [is] that they have the right of birth to run this institution indefinitely. This is very disappointing, an executive director said. The EU trio have rejected formulas which would award a country with votes based on the size of their economy – an equation that would strongly boost to the powers of Beijing for example. EU economies are seeking reforms that would not reduce their leading position on the board. The UK, France and, to a lesser extent, Germany, have dug in their heels, a senior IMF official is cited as saying by the FT, adding that Japan also fears being eclipsed by its Asian rivals.On the other hand, the US – reportedly annoyed with the Europeans' intransigence has pushed for more votes to the four most under-represented IMF members – Mexico, Turkey, South Korea and China. Washington is seen as a staunch ally of the first three, and wants to see Beijing change its currency policy. A voting reform needs 85 percent of support in order to fly, but some point out that [Mr] Rato doesn't have the votes to push the policy through before he steps down.
Appointing a successor
All eyes are now focused on whether France succeeds in appointing its former socialist finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn for the top IMF job. He has already received Germany's approval but could meet resistance from Italy, which had hoped to see an Italian in the post for the first time, according to some media reports. An unwritten rule says that the IMF's managing director must be European while the president of its sister organisation – the World Bank – must be from the US.Developing countries have also for years protested in vain against this practice as they would like to see a more open competition in the organisation.
Divine inspiration
Published: 06 August 2007
It used to be said that the Labour Party was shaped less by Karl Marx than Methodism. No longer, if the annual survey of MPs' summer reading is a bellwether. This guide into the beliefs of our senators shows they don't have many - beliefs in God, that is. How else to explain the top position among Labour MPs of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion? Of course, the choice of this volume may simply reflect a kind of subliminal revolt against the ghost of Tony Blair who - even if he did not pray with George Bush - certainly advertised his godliness. It might therefore be seen, paradoxically, almost as a form of exorcism, a way of saying Blair begone!
No doubt our former leader, bridging chasms in the Middle East, couldn't care less. But should it not make the Archbishop of Canterbury tremble a little for the future of a church that was established by act of parliament? Some might find it rather exciting if disestablishmentarianism - one of the longest-sounding political causes in history - was to make a comeback. But it may not come to that, depending on the next election. Godly thoughts, after all, are far from dead on the other side of the benches.If the Tories' favourite book was also Dawkins, the game would surely be up for the Church of England as far as established status was concerned. But while Labour MPs are imbibing atheism in their summer hideouts, their opposite numbers will be doing the opposite; their favourite summer reading - apparently - is William Hague's biography of William Wilberforce. Is either side telling the truth about what they intend to read this summer? God knows.
Swine fever outbreak hits Romania AUG 6,07
The latest swine fever outbreak will not help Romanian meat exports
The Romanian authorities have ordered the slaughter of 20,000 pigs after an outbreak of swine fever at a farm in the west of the country. All farms in Timis county belonging to Smithfield Foods one the largest US meat processors will be inspected for signs of infection, officials say. Road checks have been set up in the area to prevent the movement of meat. Swine fever is a recurrent problem in Romania, which has been banned from exporting pork to other EU countries. Timis official Ovidiu Draganescu said that all 25 farms belonging to Smithfield Foods will be tested for swine fever.
Export ban
The virus has already been found in the Cenei farm, where the slaughter of pigs has already been ordered. Swine fever is a highly infectious disease. Infected pigs must be slaughtered and the carcases buried or incinerated Smithfield - which claims to be the biggest pork producer in the world - bought the Timis farms in 2004. Animal health and food safety standards have been main concerns as Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January 2007. The EU told both countries they would have to eradicate swine fever before they could sell pork in the rest of the EU without restrictions.
Brussels praises prompt response
By Tobias Buck in Brussels August 5 2007 18:14
The British government’s quick response to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at a farm in Surrey drew praise on Sunday from the European Commission, which is poised to adopt its own emergency measures to stop the highly contagious virus from spreading to other EU countries.We are certainly very satisfied with the prompt action taken by the British government and with the steps they are taking, a Commission spokesman said. The Commission said it would adopt its own measures today, including a ban on the movement of animals in the UK, and on all shipments of animals, meat and dairy products from the high-risk areas. The precise region hit by the export ban has yet to be determined, but it is expected to centre on the 10km exclusion zone around the affected farm south-west of London.
The EU measures will largely confirm the actions already announced by the British government. These were based on a 2003 European law inspired by the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak that devastated much of Britain’s rural economy and spread to France, Ireland and the Netherlands.EU officials hope the measures taken by the government over the past three days will avoid a replay of the 2001 outbreak. The biggest question for UK farmers now is how long it will take the Commission to lift the current restrictions. According to the 2003 legislation, the emergency measures in the 3km protection zone must be kept in place for at least 15 days after the last infected animals are killed and the farms disinfected. The 10km surveillance zone must be retained for at least 30 days.The Financial Times Limited 2007
Palestinians struggle with Gaza's three-state solution
By Harvey Morris in Gaza City August 6 2007 03:00
A gaggle of officious but otherwise friendly Hamas militiamen in smart camouflage-blue fatigues has replaced the solitary Fatah recruit who used to snooze at the first Palestinian checkpoint inside the Gaza Strip.With them and thousands of their fellow Executive Force personnel deployed throughout the Strip, a measure of calm has returned after the violence that marked the Islamists' power struggle with the secular Fatah party.But Gaza's 1.4m people have little else to celebrate from the first 50 days of Hamas rule in a territory that is more isolated than ever, both politically and economically.Some can still raise a smile, however, when they note that the Palestinians have leapfrogged the two-state solution to their conflict by securing a three-state solution - Israel, Hamastan in Gaza and Fatahstan in the West Bank.
With unemployment at 40 per cent and rising, the biggest question facing most people is where the next meal will come from. The answer is increasingly that it will come in the form of a foreign food handout.Hamas has said it will pay the salaries of 10,000 people in the largely unproductive public sector who were dropped from the payroll by the Fatah-supported government in the West Bank. But that scarcely compensates for the loss of three times as many wage packets in the dwindling private sector.The paramount concern among what remains of the secular middle class is how far Hamas will go towards instituting Islamic rule. They swap alarmist tales of male sea-bathers threatened with arrest unless they don long shorts and T-shirts, although a glance at the heat-hazed Mediterranean shore indicates beachwear is no more conservative than in Fatah's day. .
Hamas, victorious in battle but stumped for an answer as to what to do with its new power, has so far opted for a soft approach to further Islamisation in an already conservative society.As for the economic decline, Hamas officials blame Gaza's plight on the trinity of Israel, the US and Europe, to which they have now added their new enemy, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president in the West Bank.
We are not responsible for the embargo or the siege, says Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. Israel and the US and Europe are responsible. What surprises us is that Abu Mazen [Abbas] is now involved in that.Mr Barhoum, a neatly bearded medical graduate in white shirt and black tie, is one of the respectable faces of Hamas, a movement branded terrorists by much of the international community and latterly murderers by Mr Abbas.We are a Palestinian movement, not al-Qaeda. We don't want to be isolated from the US and Europe. Moderate Islam in Turkey gives a good picture of the Islamic model, says Mr Barhoum, referring to Turkey's ruling AKP.
Gazans with little affection for Hamas are not persuaded by such blandishments. The people of Gaza are effectively hostages, says Imad Abu Dayya, head of a local training institute, and are threatened with a loss of their human rights.Hamas are grassroots people. They can survivefor a long time on cucumbers and tomatoes. But they have to decide whether they're moderates or revolutionaries and they need to state their vision clearly to the public.Mr Abu Dayya and others are even more scathing about Mr Abbas and his refusal to negotiate with the Islamist regime that now dominates their lives. Abbas should sit down with Hamas rather than buy a US agenda that's been around for 50 years, says Mr Abu Dayya of US efforts to restart a peace process that would exclude Hamas. President Bush needs to dismantle terror, not fight it, and that involves not attacking the dignity of the poor.Mahmoud al-Jarami, a secularist and former member of the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who is co-operating with the Hamas regime as a senior foreign ministry official, believes the rival Gaza and West Bank governments have their strengths and weaknesses but that ultimately the government appointed by Mr Abbas in Ramallah is illegitimate. Abu Mazen is not an emperor who can decide for himself.
Like Mr Abu Dayya, he fears the Palestinian president is being dragged into an imposed deal with Israel that will be rejected by the Palestinian people. We were promised a state by 1999, then by 2005. Now Mr Bush is trying to sell us a new illusion.The Financial Times Limited 2007
August 6, 2007
Essential Errors BY ARLENE KUSHNER
This morning here in Israel YNet ran a piece on the upcoming meeting between Olmert and Abbas. It provided almost a template of errors in thinking with regard to what's going on. (Not YNet errors, but errors of those involved.) Primary is this: Israel and the US have both been working to strengthen Abbas so he can realize his authority over the Palestinian territories and combat terror. The objective is to prompt Abbas to reach a settlement with Israel.Prompt Abbas to reach a settlement? That is a mistake of major proportions. Whenever I read something like this I am reminded of the exceedingly pertinent advice of Prof. Moshe Sharon, who says negotiations with the Arabs should be conceived of as a bazaar -- a marketplace. If Israel and the US want Abbas to do certain things more than Abbas wants to, then the cost of getting him to do these things is high. Too high. This is the point everyone seems to miss.
Abbas and his government and those he governs (and I use that term loosely) have to really want a peaceful state with a civic society established next to Israel. They have to want it enough to be willing to make sacrifices to get it. This is simply and incontrovertibly not the case.
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An Israeli official was quoted thus, we've...just handed over a vast sum of money, released prisoners, provided military aid and authorized outside military aid. We conceived a very handsome package and it bore results, stabilizing Abbas.Huh? Abbas is stable? The explanation is that in spite of pressure on him to do so, Abbas has not fallen in again with Hamas. He understands that going back to Hamas' embrace is a death-blow to the political process.I would not be so certain of any of this. What matters to Abbas more? Having a state in Judea and Samaria, or having interaction with fellow Arabs in Gaza? Yes, Abbas is making all of the right noises regarding his absolute refusal to talk to Hamas, but this is for Western ears. And the West -- eager to hear this and refusing to remain mindful of the Palestinian propensity for a forked tongue -- buys it.
Just days ago I discovered on an Arab website a report that says Fatah and Hamas have already met secretly and forged certain agreements. I have not been able to confirm this -- at least not yet, but it would not surprise me if this turned out to be so. And even if it turns out to be true that there's been no contact in recent weeks between Fatah and Hamas, I remind you of the report yesterday from Israel military intelligence that says there will be fighting between Fatah and Hamas in Judea and Samaria soon. Prime Minister Fayyad has told Israeli officials that the PA is not ready to assume control of Palestinian cities. The security services in the PA have not gotten their act together.No matter how you look at it, Abbas is not stable.
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And so what was the result of the meeting today between Olmert and Abbas in Jericho? Olmert began with a statement about the goal of the meeting being to create two states for two people as soon as possible. One has to wonder what Olmert's intent was here. Possible is not going to be any time soon. Abbas made his anticipated requests regarding removal of checkpoints, more humanitarian aid, and amnesty for additional terrorists, and Olmert agreed to consider them. Questions regarding Palestinian institutions and issues of Israeli security were apparently discussed as well. What was not discussed were the core issues of borders, Jerusalem, settlements and refugees, as much as Abbas was eager to put these on the table.There were great photo ops. And the two agreed to talk again, to work towards normalizing ties, and to ultimately discuss fundamental issues.Over in Gaza, former PA prime minister Haniyeh said that the meeting in Jericho was a public relations gimmick that would yield nothing. It looks a bit like that from where I sit, as well.
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A large army and police contingent is preparing today to evict two Jewish families from a marketplace in Hevron, where they took up residence recently. The likelihood of violence is great.It is important to set the record straight with regard to this painful -- and shameful -- situation, as so much disinformation is being circulated:
This market stands on Jewish land. It was purchased, in front of Arab witnesses, in 1807 by Rabbi Haim Bajaoi, at a time when there was a thriving Jewish Quarter in the ancient city; the five dunams he purchased were adjacent to the Quarter and dedicated to the use of the Jewish community. Jews disappeared from Hevron in 1929, after a horrendous Arab massacre (instigated, it should be noted by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad al-Husseini, who was Arafat's mentor). Those Jews who survived were moved out by the British, who then controlled the area under the Mandate for Palestine: It was easier to remove them than protect them.
In 1948, the Jordanians occupied this area; an Arab market was established on the land that Bajaoi had purchased. When Israel secured control of Hevron in 1967, the Arabs were permitted to continue to operate the market -- even though they were on privately owned Jewish land. This was so even after Jews moved back into the city, into the old Jewish area, known as the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood. Twelve years ago, for security reasons, the IDF evicted the Arabs who maintained the stalls in the market. The market stood empty.By 1998, as part of the Oslo Accords, Israel had pulled out of 80% of Hevron, but the 20% that remained in Israeli hands included the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood and the adjacent market place.The Hevron Jewish community petitioned the Israeli government several times to be permitted to rent the remaining structures left in the market place but their request was consistently denied.
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In March of 2001, a one-year old child, Shalhevet Pass, was shot point-blank in the head by an Arab sniper who had positioned himself in the area of the empty market. The Hevron Jewish community then decided that a Jewish presence there was necessary. They invested many thousands of dollars in converting the old market stalls into small apartments. Nine Hevron families moved in, and a religious study hall was established. This area was named Mitzpe (outlook) Shalhevet, in memory of the child.Once the Jewish residents moved in, Arabs went to court claiming the buildings. The attorney general responded that the Arabs had no further claim, but that the Jewish trespassers would be evicted; the court accepted this and made no additional ruling. Eviction orders were issued by the attorney general's office.
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Before eviction could take place, the Jewish community appealed. Then the court ruled that the land was privately owned by Jews (the family of Rabbi Bajaoi had produced papers and indicated their desire that the Hevron Jewish community use the land). However, they also ruled that the market stalls, which had been put up by Jordan, were captured property that legally fell under the jurisdiction of the Israeli government. The court recommended that the structures be leased by the government to the residents of Mitzpe Shalhevet. Attorney General Mazuz refused, determined to punish those who had used this property without permission. He pushed for eviction.Eighteen months ago, when that eviction was about to take place, there was a gathering of protestors and violence seemed imminent. Crisis was averted when IDF officials on the scene -- headed by General Yair Golan -- negotiated a compromise with the residents, saying that if they moved out peacefully, legal Jewish occupancy of the market would be expedited and Jews from Hevron would soon be permitted to move in. Based on this agreement, the residents moved out voluntarily. Subsequently, Attorney General Mazuz voided the agreement, saying that the IDF had no right to negotiate it. Mitzpe Shalhevet stood empty.
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This brings us to the current crisis. Recently two families grew tired of the waiting, and the failed promises, and moved back into Mitzpe Shalhevet. And once more the government is out to remove them. We've been fooled too many times, the families are saying, This time we're not going peacefully. The community is mindful of the fact that the court had provided a way out with its recommendation, and the government refused to take it, preferring confrontation.Defense Minister Barak is making the decision in this regard now. Responding to pressure from the left (and mindful, undoubtedly, of elections coming up before too very long) he has decided to take action against these two families. What makes this even more shameful is that the representatives of seven factions within the Knesset had appealed to Barak to not go this route. Last month they wrote a letter to him:
We are marking 78 years since the 1929 riots, you are faced with a fateful decision concerning one of the sites which represents, more than anything else, the murder and the thievery [committed upon] the Hebron Jewish community of those days: the site of the 'shuk' [market place] in Hebron, where presently several families are living…We are dealing with Jewish-owned land, which was stolen as a result of the terrible slaughter. It is incumbent on the government to act to return the stolen property as would be expected in relationship to stolen Jewish property anywhere in the world. We the undersigned, chairmen of various parties in the Knesset, turn to you with this request to refrain from expelling these Jewish families living in the shuk'and to study alternative ways to resolve Jewish quarters at this site, legally…
The residents of Hebron prevented violence and conflict...when they voluntarily moved out of these homes, based upon promises that they would be allowed to return, honoring and respecting promises of representatives of the state, IDF officers. This type of approach is to be encouraged and rewarded, not discouraged…
For all the above reasons, we request, that you order that the issue of Jewish residency in the shuk be studied seriously, and that in any case, you prevent, for the time being, any eviction of Jewish residents from the site.Barak's decision, then, is shameful. I titled this posting Essential Errors, and without a shadow of a doubt, what Barak is doing qualifies in this respect.see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
The European Ideal
From war's s wreckage came the visions of a unified Europe
By Jay Tolson 8/5/07
Today, 50 years after its birth, the European Union is a 27-member association of nations that functions as something more than a single market and something less than a full-blown political confederation. Defying the predictions of naysaying Euro-skeptics, it boasts a combined $15.7 trillion gross domestic product and is governed by an array of institutions—executive, legislative, judicial, and monetary—to which member nations surrender at least part of their sovereignty. Given its hybrid and evolving character, it is perhaps fitting that the EU originated in a document that was little more than a sheaf of blank pages when it was signed on March 25, 1957.
VISIONARY. Jean Monnet, the architect of the European Union(Corbis Bettmann) Yet the Treaty of Rome was no stab in the dark. Representatives of the six signatory nations—France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg—had painstakingly crafted the foundations of what was initially called the European Economic Community. But according to a recent BBC documentary, the signers were so anxious to get the treaty signed that they couldn't wait for Italian printers to produce it.
Obstacle. The cause of that anxiety was a single person: Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Backers of the proposed community feared that the imperious wartime leader of Free France would soon be returned to the French presidency. And once back in power, they knew, de Gaulle would almost certainly quash the project that he believed jeopardized France's leading role in post-World War II Europe.
Urgent and somewhat improvised, the conditions of the treaty's signing would almost perfectly epitomize the precarious nature of the union's subsequent development. A concatenation of political accidents leading to a convergence of interests, as University of Virginia historian Stephen Schuker described it, the treaty allowed the vision of a relatively unknown Frenchman, Jean Monnet, to prevail over that of his more illustrious fellow countryman.
Born in Cognac, the heir of a modest-size brandy firm, Monnet never attended university but quickly demonstrated a genius for making deals and cultivating international networks both in business and in various appointive offices. Serving as an official representative to England during World War I and later as deputy secretary-general of the short-lived League of Nations, Monnet arrived at a fervent belief in international cooperation and institutions.
During the Second World War, while orchestrating U.S. aid to Free France, Monnet had his first discussion with de Gaulle about the future shape of Europe. The latter, dreading American influence almost as much as Soviet aggression, favored a federation of nations with France at the helm. Monnet, once a believer in such a federation himself, proposed a more modest economic collective with nations enjoying equality under an international body controlling basic industries.
As a first step, Monnet settled for an arrangement that gave France limited control over the coal industry in Germany's Saar district. Soon, though, he turned to designing a more substantial plan for French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. Integrating the French and German coal and steel industries under a common High Authority, the Schuman Plan invited other European countries to join in. In all, six nations emerged as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952—the very six that would eventually sign the Treaty of Rome. As first president of the High Authority, Monnet could now test his proposition that economic cooperation could drive other forms of association.
Ironically, it was repeated disappointments on those other fronts that spurred movement toward the EEC. Foremost was the failure of the European Defense Community, a proposed supranational force that would absorb small-size German units into its ranks. But France balked, unwilling to go along with any kind of German rearmament. That opened the way to a U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which brought West German forces into a larger alliance resisting the Soviet threat.
Even the ECSC proved disappointing. High Authority technocrats imposed inefficiencies on industries that were being buffeted by international developments, including the Korean War. And the increasing availability of oil made coal a less crucial source of energy.
Single market. But if the disappointments were great, the ECSC was a crucial first step toward bringing part of Germany into a community of democratic European nations. After the failure of the European Defense Community, says Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University, European elites felt they should focus on where they could advance—on a single market.
And then, as Schuker points out, there were those happy accidents: a Socialist coalition government briefly in power in Paris and eager for some good news after France's Suez Crisis debacle; a German chancellor yearning for stronger ties with the West; an unusual willingness on the part of the other ECSC nations to grant France its special demands, including extensive subsidies for its agricultural products; an equal willingness on the part of France and Germany to include inducements to the smaller nations.
No wonder, then, that supporters of the treaty felt such urgency to close a deal that could so easily have gone up in smoke. And, indeed, when de Gaulle returned to power in 1958, he initially stood in the way of EEC progress, vetoing England's first bid to join the market. But even de Gaulle would come around and push to dismantle all internal tariffs ahead of the scheduled date.
As it evolved, expanded, and changed names (eventually to European Union), this unique institution showed its power as an economic engine. Trade within the community grew more than sixfold even before Britain entered the club in 1973. While the original institutions underwent transformations, the Commission (established as the executive body in the original 1957 treaty) would consistently be the generator of ideas and efforts to advance integration, most dramatically through the creation of a single currency and a European passport.
But in one important sense, the EU has fallen short. Were they alive today, says Kupchan, the original designers of the EU would probably have been disappointed. They had federalist expectations and would have expected, by 2007, something closer to a United States of Europe.
HERE WE GO TROUBLE TO COME NOW, AMERICA WILL HAVE SOME BIG DISASTER IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE AND WHOEVER ELSE IS INVOLVED IN THESE ISRAELIS BEING DRIVEN OFF THEIR LAND.
Israel Forcibly Removes Hebron Settlers
Jewish Settlers Clash With Israeli Police; Olmert Denies Land Swap Plan
HEBRON, West Bank, Aug. 7, 2007
Israeli police officers carry a Jewish settler as he is forcibly removed from a house in the West Bank town of Hebron, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
Quote
Soldiers of the Jewish people are coming to do what the worst enemies used to do to Jewish people, but they are doing it to their own brothers and sisters.Avinoam Horowitz, Evicted Jewish settler
(CBS/AP) Israeli police, using sledge hammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the West Bank town of Hebron early Tuesday and dragged out hundreds of settlers who had holed up there illegally, hoping to expand the Jewish presence in the volatile biblical city. Settlers spit and hurled stones, water, oil and concrete powder as police, backed by army troops, broke through fortified doors and carried out the squatters one by one. Three settlers sealed themselves inside a concrete bunker built for the standoff. This is a crime against justice and against Jewish history, said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Hebron settlers. I am sure we will return. Hebron has a long history and we will return.
Danny Poleg, a police spokesman, said four soldiers, 14 police officers and 12 settlers were injured during the evacuation. One settler and six police were hospitalized. Eleven settlers were briefly detained and two arrested. Hebron, a frequent flashpoint of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, is home to about 500 Jewish settlers living in heavily guarded enclaves among some 170,000 Palestinians. Clashes are frequent. Israel controls the center of the city, including a hotly disputed holy site holy to both Jews and Muslims — the traditional burial site of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and three of their wives. Its large military presence often hinders the movement of Palestinians.
The Palestinians control the rest of Hebron.
Meanwhile, a widely-read Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is considering a new peace plan that calls for a land swap with the Palestinians, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. The report comes a day after Olmert met for private talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho, in the West Bank. The visit made Olmert the first Israeli leader to meet officials in a Palestinian town in seven years. According to the report in Haaretz, Israel would offer the Palestinians the equivalent of 100 percent of the territories captured in 1967. Israel would annex 5 percent of the West Bank for major settlement blocs, but equivalent territory elsewhere would be transferred to a Palestinian state. Haaretz said Olmert has not rejected the proposal's main concepts, but the prime minister's office issued a statement expressing amazement at this erroneous article. Such a plan has not been considered, nor is it being raised for discussion in any forum, the statement said.
In other developments:
Twelve Orthodox Jewish soldiers have been court-martialed by the Israeli army after they refused to take part in the evacuation of settlers from Hebron, reports Berger. The soldiers said the Torah forbids evacuating Jews from the biblical Land of Israel. The mutiny underscores a dilemma facing religious Israeli soldiers — whether to take orders from their commanders, or their rabbis. Security officials are warning Israeli citizens traveling in Egypt, Jordan and other Muslim countries to leave immediately due to a concrete and severe threat of terror attacks. Israel's National Security Council says Israelis anywhere in the world should also be alert to the danger of being kidnapped by operatives from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group. The announcement on the council's Web site is a renewal of a travel advisory issued twice a year.
An Israeli driver was shot and seriously wounded Tuesday in central Israel while traveling on a highway adjacent to the separation barrier with the West Bank, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the shots came from the Palestinian territories and struck the Israeli driver in the chest as he was making his way on Route 6, a cross-country toll highway. The man was evacuated to hospital in serious condition. Police set up roadblocks and were searching the area. You're Hamas people, one Israeli settler screamed repeatedly at police while being dragged from her illegal home in Hebron. The reference was to the radical Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip and is sworn to Israel's destruction. After forcing one of the building's doors, police encountered 30 youths singing songs who cursed the soldiers as they entered. Many sat atop a 4-foot-high concrete bunker in which three settlers had barricaded themselves. It took police three hours to bore through the neighboring wall to remove them.
Avinoam Horowitz, a local resident and high school teacher, called the eviction a tragedy.Soldiers of the Jewish people are coming to do what the worst enemies used to do to Jewish people, but they are doing it to their own brothers and sisters, he said. The two-story building evacuated Tuesday stands in the city center's marketplace, which the army shut down in 1994, after Jewish militant Baruch Goldstein opened fire at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and killed 29 Palestinians. The settlers initially moved into the structure — a vacant store — more than six years ago, variously evacuating and re-entering it as the case made its way through the Israeli court system. Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the settlers' presence there was illegal, but they ignored orders to evacuate. Hundreds of supporters moved into the building in recent days, reinforcing the doors and windows with metal and concrete in preparation for the raid.
Settlers claim the property was owned by Jewish families for decades until Jordanian authorities seized it after the 1948 Israeli war of independence. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. Elsewhere in the city, settlers have whipped up tensions by moving into a four-story building that is a gateway to the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. The settlers say they want to create a land link between the two communities. The operation Tuesday followed the highly publicized refusal of several Orthodox Israeli infantry soldiers to take part in the evacuation. The army sentenced a dozen soldiers, including two commanders, to brief jail terms for refusing orders. Neither side expected Tuesday's eviction to be the last word. We have lots of patience, said Horowitz, the teacher. We'll do it again until we get back our property.CBS Interactive Inc.
07.08.2007 - 09:13 CET | By Renata Goldirova
France, Germany and the UK have joined forces to fight against plans to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which would give a bigger say to emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil at the expense of European states.Proposed reforms of the fund an organization of 185 countries created after the second world war to foster global monetary cooperation are due to be agreed next month, before the current managing director Rodrigo Rato steps down in October. But senior IMF officials told the Financial Times that countries are locked in a dispute which pits Europe against the US and fast-growing economies.
What we hear from European colleagues [is] that they have the right of birth to run this institution indefinitely. This is very disappointing, an executive director said. The EU trio have rejected formulas which would award a country with votes based on the size of their economy – an equation that would strongly boost to the powers of Beijing for example. EU economies are seeking reforms that would not reduce their leading position on the board. The UK, France and, to a lesser extent, Germany, have dug in their heels, a senior IMF official is cited as saying by the FT, adding that Japan also fears being eclipsed by its Asian rivals.On the other hand, the US – reportedly annoyed with the Europeans' intransigence has pushed for more votes to the four most under-represented IMF members – Mexico, Turkey, South Korea and China. Washington is seen as a staunch ally of the first three, and wants to see Beijing change its currency policy. A voting reform needs 85 percent of support in order to fly, but some point out that [Mr] Rato doesn't have the votes to push the policy through before he steps down.
Appointing a successor
All eyes are now focused on whether France succeeds in appointing its former socialist finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn for the top IMF job. He has already received Germany's approval but could meet resistance from Italy, which had hoped to see an Italian in the post for the first time, according to some media reports. An unwritten rule says that the IMF's managing director must be European while the president of its sister organisation – the World Bank – must be from the US.Developing countries have also for years protested in vain against this practice as they would like to see a more open competition in the organisation.
Divine inspiration
Published: 06 August 2007
It used to be said that the Labour Party was shaped less by Karl Marx than Methodism. No longer, if the annual survey of MPs' summer reading is a bellwether. This guide into the beliefs of our senators shows they don't have many - beliefs in God, that is. How else to explain the top position among Labour MPs of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion? Of course, the choice of this volume may simply reflect a kind of subliminal revolt against the ghost of Tony Blair who - even if he did not pray with George Bush - certainly advertised his godliness. It might therefore be seen, paradoxically, almost as a form of exorcism, a way of saying Blair begone!
No doubt our former leader, bridging chasms in the Middle East, couldn't care less. But should it not make the Archbishop of Canterbury tremble a little for the future of a church that was established by act of parliament? Some might find it rather exciting if disestablishmentarianism - one of the longest-sounding political causes in history - was to make a comeback. But it may not come to that, depending on the next election. Godly thoughts, after all, are far from dead on the other side of the benches.If the Tories' favourite book was also Dawkins, the game would surely be up for the Church of England as far as established status was concerned. But while Labour MPs are imbibing atheism in their summer hideouts, their opposite numbers will be doing the opposite; their favourite summer reading - apparently - is William Hague's biography of William Wilberforce. Is either side telling the truth about what they intend to read this summer? God knows.
Swine fever outbreak hits Romania AUG 6,07
The latest swine fever outbreak will not help Romanian meat exports
The Romanian authorities have ordered the slaughter of 20,000 pigs after an outbreak of swine fever at a farm in the west of the country. All farms in Timis county belonging to Smithfield Foods one the largest US meat processors will be inspected for signs of infection, officials say. Road checks have been set up in the area to prevent the movement of meat. Swine fever is a recurrent problem in Romania, which has been banned from exporting pork to other EU countries. Timis official Ovidiu Draganescu said that all 25 farms belonging to Smithfield Foods will be tested for swine fever.
Export ban
The virus has already been found in the Cenei farm, where the slaughter of pigs has already been ordered. Swine fever is a highly infectious disease. Infected pigs must be slaughtered and the carcases buried or incinerated Smithfield - which claims to be the biggest pork producer in the world - bought the Timis farms in 2004. Animal health and food safety standards have been main concerns as Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January 2007. The EU told both countries they would have to eradicate swine fever before they could sell pork in the rest of the EU without restrictions.
Brussels praises prompt response
By Tobias Buck in Brussels August 5 2007 18:14
The British government’s quick response to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at a farm in Surrey drew praise on Sunday from the European Commission, which is poised to adopt its own emergency measures to stop the highly contagious virus from spreading to other EU countries.We are certainly very satisfied with the prompt action taken by the British government and with the steps they are taking, a Commission spokesman said. The Commission said it would adopt its own measures today, including a ban on the movement of animals in the UK, and on all shipments of animals, meat and dairy products from the high-risk areas. The precise region hit by the export ban has yet to be determined, but it is expected to centre on the 10km exclusion zone around the affected farm south-west of London.
The EU measures will largely confirm the actions already announced by the British government. These were based on a 2003 European law inspired by the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak that devastated much of Britain’s rural economy and spread to France, Ireland and the Netherlands.EU officials hope the measures taken by the government over the past three days will avoid a replay of the 2001 outbreak. The biggest question for UK farmers now is how long it will take the Commission to lift the current restrictions. According to the 2003 legislation, the emergency measures in the 3km protection zone must be kept in place for at least 15 days after the last infected animals are killed and the farms disinfected. The 10km surveillance zone must be retained for at least 30 days.The Financial Times Limited 2007
Palestinians struggle with Gaza's three-state solution
By Harvey Morris in Gaza City August 6 2007 03:00
A gaggle of officious but otherwise friendly Hamas militiamen in smart camouflage-blue fatigues has replaced the solitary Fatah recruit who used to snooze at the first Palestinian checkpoint inside the Gaza Strip.With them and thousands of their fellow Executive Force personnel deployed throughout the Strip, a measure of calm has returned after the violence that marked the Islamists' power struggle with the secular Fatah party.But Gaza's 1.4m people have little else to celebrate from the first 50 days of Hamas rule in a territory that is more isolated than ever, both politically and economically.Some can still raise a smile, however, when they note that the Palestinians have leapfrogged the two-state solution to their conflict by securing a three-state solution - Israel, Hamastan in Gaza and Fatahstan in the West Bank.
With unemployment at 40 per cent and rising, the biggest question facing most people is where the next meal will come from. The answer is increasingly that it will come in the form of a foreign food handout.Hamas has said it will pay the salaries of 10,000 people in the largely unproductive public sector who were dropped from the payroll by the Fatah-supported government in the West Bank. But that scarcely compensates for the loss of three times as many wage packets in the dwindling private sector.The paramount concern among what remains of the secular middle class is how far Hamas will go towards instituting Islamic rule. They swap alarmist tales of male sea-bathers threatened with arrest unless they don long shorts and T-shirts, although a glance at the heat-hazed Mediterranean shore indicates beachwear is no more conservative than in Fatah's day. .
Hamas, victorious in battle but stumped for an answer as to what to do with its new power, has so far opted for a soft approach to further Islamisation in an already conservative society.As for the economic decline, Hamas officials blame Gaza's plight on the trinity of Israel, the US and Europe, to which they have now added their new enemy, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president in the West Bank.
We are not responsible for the embargo or the siege, says Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. Israel and the US and Europe are responsible. What surprises us is that Abu Mazen [Abbas] is now involved in that.Mr Barhoum, a neatly bearded medical graduate in white shirt and black tie, is one of the respectable faces of Hamas, a movement branded terrorists by much of the international community and latterly murderers by Mr Abbas.We are a Palestinian movement, not al-Qaeda. We don't want to be isolated from the US and Europe. Moderate Islam in Turkey gives a good picture of the Islamic model, says Mr Barhoum, referring to Turkey's ruling AKP.
Gazans with little affection for Hamas are not persuaded by such blandishments. The people of Gaza are effectively hostages, says Imad Abu Dayya, head of a local training institute, and are threatened with a loss of their human rights.Hamas are grassroots people. They can survivefor a long time on cucumbers and tomatoes. But they have to decide whether they're moderates or revolutionaries and they need to state their vision clearly to the public.Mr Abu Dayya and others are even more scathing about Mr Abbas and his refusal to negotiate with the Islamist regime that now dominates their lives. Abbas should sit down with Hamas rather than buy a US agenda that's been around for 50 years, says Mr Abu Dayya of US efforts to restart a peace process that would exclude Hamas. President Bush needs to dismantle terror, not fight it, and that involves not attacking the dignity of the poor.Mahmoud al-Jarami, a secularist and former member of the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who is co-operating with the Hamas regime as a senior foreign ministry official, believes the rival Gaza and West Bank governments have their strengths and weaknesses but that ultimately the government appointed by Mr Abbas in Ramallah is illegitimate. Abu Mazen is not an emperor who can decide for himself.
Like Mr Abu Dayya, he fears the Palestinian president is being dragged into an imposed deal with Israel that will be rejected by the Palestinian people. We were promised a state by 1999, then by 2005. Now Mr Bush is trying to sell us a new illusion.The Financial Times Limited 2007
August 6, 2007
Essential Errors BY ARLENE KUSHNER
This morning here in Israel YNet ran a piece on the upcoming meeting between Olmert and Abbas. It provided almost a template of errors in thinking with regard to what's going on. (Not YNet errors, but errors of those involved.) Primary is this: Israel and the US have both been working to strengthen Abbas so he can realize his authority over the Palestinian territories and combat terror. The objective is to prompt Abbas to reach a settlement with Israel.Prompt Abbas to reach a settlement? That is a mistake of major proportions. Whenever I read something like this I am reminded of the exceedingly pertinent advice of Prof. Moshe Sharon, who says negotiations with the Arabs should be conceived of as a bazaar -- a marketplace. If Israel and the US want Abbas to do certain things more than Abbas wants to, then the cost of getting him to do these things is high. Too high. This is the point everyone seems to miss.
Abbas and his government and those he governs (and I use that term loosely) have to really want a peaceful state with a civic society established next to Israel. They have to want it enough to be willing to make sacrifices to get it. This is simply and incontrovertibly not the case.
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An Israeli official was quoted thus, we've...just handed over a vast sum of money, released prisoners, provided military aid and authorized outside military aid. We conceived a very handsome package and it bore results, stabilizing Abbas.Huh? Abbas is stable? The explanation is that in spite of pressure on him to do so, Abbas has not fallen in again with Hamas. He understands that going back to Hamas' embrace is a death-blow to the political process.I would not be so certain of any of this. What matters to Abbas more? Having a state in Judea and Samaria, or having interaction with fellow Arabs in Gaza? Yes, Abbas is making all of the right noises regarding his absolute refusal to talk to Hamas, but this is for Western ears. And the West -- eager to hear this and refusing to remain mindful of the Palestinian propensity for a forked tongue -- buys it.
Just days ago I discovered on an Arab website a report that says Fatah and Hamas have already met secretly and forged certain agreements. I have not been able to confirm this -- at least not yet, but it would not surprise me if this turned out to be so. And even if it turns out to be true that there's been no contact in recent weeks between Fatah and Hamas, I remind you of the report yesterday from Israel military intelligence that says there will be fighting between Fatah and Hamas in Judea and Samaria soon. Prime Minister Fayyad has told Israeli officials that the PA is not ready to assume control of Palestinian cities. The security services in the PA have not gotten their act together.No matter how you look at it, Abbas is not stable.
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And so what was the result of the meeting today between Olmert and Abbas in Jericho? Olmert began with a statement about the goal of the meeting being to create two states for two people as soon as possible. One has to wonder what Olmert's intent was here. Possible is not going to be any time soon. Abbas made his anticipated requests regarding removal of checkpoints, more humanitarian aid, and amnesty for additional terrorists, and Olmert agreed to consider them. Questions regarding Palestinian institutions and issues of Israeli security were apparently discussed as well. What was not discussed were the core issues of borders, Jerusalem, settlements and refugees, as much as Abbas was eager to put these on the table.There were great photo ops. And the two agreed to talk again, to work towards normalizing ties, and to ultimately discuss fundamental issues.Over in Gaza, former PA prime minister Haniyeh said that the meeting in Jericho was a public relations gimmick that would yield nothing. It looks a bit like that from where I sit, as well.
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A large army and police contingent is preparing today to evict two Jewish families from a marketplace in Hevron, where they took up residence recently. The likelihood of violence is great.It is important to set the record straight with regard to this painful -- and shameful -- situation, as so much disinformation is being circulated:
This market stands on Jewish land. It was purchased, in front of Arab witnesses, in 1807 by Rabbi Haim Bajaoi, at a time when there was a thriving Jewish Quarter in the ancient city; the five dunams he purchased were adjacent to the Quarter and dedicated to the use of the Jewish community. Jews disappeared from Hevron in 1929, after a horrendous Arab massacre (instigated, it should be noted by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad al-Husseini, who was Arafat's mentor). Those Jews who survived were moved out by the British, who then controlled the area under the Mandate for Palestine: It was easier to remove them than protect them.
In 1948, the Jordanians occupied this area; an Arab market was established on the land that Bajaoi had purchased. When Israel secured control of Hevron in 1967, the Arabs were permitted to continue to operate the market -- even though they were on privately owned Jewish land. This was so even after Jews moved back into the city, into the old Jewish area, known as the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood. Twelve years ago, for security reasons, the IDF evicted the Arabs who maintained the stalls in the market. The market stood empty.By 1998, as part of the Oslo Accords, Israel had pulled out of 80% of Hevron, but the 20% that remained in Israeli hands included the Avraham Aveinu neighborhood and the adjacent market place.The Hevron Jewish community petitioned the Israeli government several times to be permitted to rent the remaining structures left in the market place but their request was consistently denied.
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In March of 2001, a one-year old child, Shalhevet Pass, was shot point-blank in the head by an Arab sniper who had positioned himself in the area of the empty market. The Hevron Jewish community then decided that a Jewish presence there was necessary. They invested many thousands of dollars in converting the old market stalls into small apartments. Nine Hevron families moved in, and a religious study hall was established. This area was named Mitzpe (outlook) Shalhevet, in memory of the child.Once the Jewish residents moved in, Arabs went to court claiming the buildings. The attorney general responded that the Arabs had no further claim, but that the Jewish trespassers would be evicted; the court accepted this and made no additional ruling. Eviction orders were issued by the attorney general's office.
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Before eviction could take place, the Jewish community appealed. Then the court ruled that the land was privately owned by Jews (the family of Rabbi Bajaoi had produced papers and indicated their desire that the Hevron Jewish community use the land). However, they also ruled that the market stalls, which had been put up by Jordan, were captured property that legally fell under the jurisdiction of the Israeli government. The court recommended that the structures be leased by the government to the residents of Mitzpe Shalhevet. Attorney General Mazuz refused, determined to punish those who had used this property without permission. He pushed for eviction.Eighteen months ago, when that eviction was about to take place, there was a gathering of protestors and violence seemed imminent. Crisis was averted when IDF officials on the scene -- headed by General Yair Golan -- negotiated a compromise with the residents, saying that if they moved out peacefully, legal Jewish occupancy of the market would be expedited and Jews from Hevron would soon be permitted to move in. Based on this agreement, the residents moved out voluntarily. Subsequently, Attorney General Mazuz voided the agreement, saying that the IDF had no right to negotiate it. Mitzpe Shalhevet stood empty.
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This brings us to the current crisis. Recently two families grew tired of the waiting, and the failed promises, and moved back into Mitzpe Shalhevet. And once more the government is out to remove them. We've been fooled too many times, the families are saying, This time we're not going peacefully. The community is mindful of the fact that the court had provided a way out with its recommendation, and the government refused to take it, preferring confrontation.Defense Minister Barak is making the decision in this regard now. Responding to pressure from the left (and mindful, undoubtedly, of elections coming up before too very long) he has decided to take action against these two families. What makes this even more shameful is that the representatives of seven factions within the Knesset had appealed to Barak to not go this route. Last month they wrote a letter to him:
We are marking 78 years since the 1929 riots, you are faced with a fateful decision concerning one of the sites which represents, more than anything else, the murder and the thievery [committed upon] the Hebron Jewish community of those days: the site of the 'shuk' [market place] in Hebron, where presently several families are living…We are dealing with Jewish-owned land, which was stolen as a result of the terrible slaughter. It is incumbent on the government to act to return the stolen property as would be expected in relationship to stolen Jewish property anywhere in the world. We the undersigned, chairmen of various parties in the Knesset, turn to you with this request to refrain from expelling these Jewish families living in the shuk'and to study alternative ways to resolve Jewish quarters at this site, legally…
The residents of Hebron prevented violence and conflict...when they voluntarily moved out of these homes, based upon promises that they would be allowed to return, honoring and respecting promises of representatives of the state, IDF officers. This type of approach is to be encouraged and rewarded, not discouraged…
For all the above reasons, we request, that you order that the issue of Jewish residency in the shuk be studied seriously, and that in any case, you prevent, for the time being, any eviction of Jewish residents from the site.Barak's decision, then, is shameful. I titled this posting Essential Errors, and without a shadow of a doubt, what Barak is doing qualifies in this respect.see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
The European Ideal
From war's s wreckage came the visions of a unified Europe
By Jay Tolson 8/5/07
Today, 50 years after its birth, the European Union is a 27-member association of nations that functions as something more than a single market and something less than a full-blown political confederation. Defying the predictions of naysaying Euro-skeptics, it boasts a combined $15.7 trillion gross domestic product and is governed by an array of institutions—executive, legislative, judicial, and monetary—to which member nations surrender at least part of their sovereignty. Given its hybrid and evolving character, it is perhaps fitting that the EU originated in a document that was little more than a sheaf of blank pages when it was signed on March 25, 1957.
VISIONARY. Jean Monnet, the architect of the European Union(Corbis Bettmann) Yet the Treaty of Rome was no stab in the dark. Representatives of the six signatory nations—France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg—had painstakingly crafted the foundations of what was initially called the European Economic Community. But according to a recent BBC documentary, the signers were so anxious to get the treaty signed that they couldn't wait for Italian printers to produce it.
Obstacle. The cause of that anxiety was a single person: Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Backers of the proposed community feared that the imperious wartime leader of Free France would soon be returned to the French presidency. And once back in power, they knew, de Gaulle would almost certainly quash the project that he believed jeopardized France's leading role in post-World War II Europe.
Urgent and somewhat improvised, the conditions of the treaty's signing would almost perfectly epitomize the precarious nature of the union's subsequent development. A concatenation of political accidents leading to a convergence of interests, as University of Virginia historian Stephen Schuker described it, the treaty allowed the vision of a relatively unknown Frenchman, Jean Monnet, to prevail over that of his more illustrious fellow countryman.
Born in Cognac, the heir of a modest-size brandy firm, Monnet never attended university but quickly demonstrated a genius for making deals and cultivating international networks both in business and in various appointive offices. Serving as an official representative to England during World War I and later as deputy secretary-general of the short-lived League of Nations, Monnet arrived at a fervent belief in international cooperation and institutions.
During the Second World War, while orchestrating U.S. aid to Free France, Monnet had his first discussion with de Gaulle about the future shape of Europe. The latter, dreading American influence almost as much as Soviet aggression, favored a federation of nations with France at the helm. Monnet, once a believer in such a federation himself, proposed a more modest economic collective with nations enjoying equality under an international body controlling basic industries.
As a first step, Monnet settled for an arrangement that gave France limited control over the coal industry in Germany's Saar district. Soon, though, he turned to designing a more substantial plan for French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. Integrating the French and German coal and steel industries under a common High Authority, the Schuman Plan invited other European countries to join in. In all, six nations emerged as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952—the very six that would eventually sign the Treaty of Rome. As first president of the High Authority, Monnet could now test his proposition that economic cooperation could drive other forms of association.
Ironically, it was repeated disappointments on those other fronts that spurred movement toward the EEC. Foremost was the failure of the European Defense Community, a proposed supranational force that would absorb small-size German units into its ranks. But France balked, unwilling to go along with any kind of German rearmament. That opened the way to a U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which brought West German forces into a larger alliance resisting the Soviet threat.
Even the ECSC proved disappointing. High Authority technocrats imposed inefficiencies on industries that were being buffeted by international developments, including the Korean War. And the increasing availability of oil made coal a less crucial source of energy.
Single market. But if the disappointments were great, the ECSC was a crucial first step toward bringing part of Germany into a community of democratic European nations. After the failure of the European Defense Community, says Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University, European elites felt they should focus on where they could advance—on a single market.
And then, as Schuker points out, there were those happy accidents: a Socialist coalition government briefly in power in Paris and eager for some good news after France's Suez Crisis debacle; a German chancellor yearning for stronger ties with the West; an unusual willingness on the part of the other ECSC nations to grant France its special demands, including extensive subsidies for its agricultural products; an equal willingness on the part of France and Germany to include inducements to the smaller nations.
No wonder, then, that supporters of the treaty felt such urgency to close a deal that could so easily have gone up in smoke. And, indeed, when de Gaulle returned to power in 1958, he initially stood in the way of EEC progress, vetoing England's first bid to join the market. But even de Gaulle would come around and push to dismantle all internal tariffs ahead of the scheduled date.
As it evolved, expanded, and changed names (eventually to European Union), this unique institution showed its power as an economic engine. Trade within the community grew more than sixfold even before Britain entered the club in 1973. While the original institutions underwent transformations, the Commission (established as the executive body in the original 1957 treaty) would consistently be the generator of ideas and efforts to advance integration, most dramatically through the creation of a single currency and a European passport.
But in one important sense, the EU has fallen short. Were they alive today, says Kupchan, the original designers of the EU would probably have been disappointed. They had federalist expectations and would have expected, by 2007, something closer to a United States of Europe.
HERE WE GO TROUBLE TO COME NOW, AMERICA WILL HAVE SOME BIG DISASTER IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE AND WHOEVER ELSE IS INVOLVED IN THESE ISRAELIS BEING DRIVEN OFF THEIR LAND.
Israel Forcibly Removes Hebron Settlers
Jewish Settlers Clash With Israeli Police; Olmert Denies Land Swap Plan
HEBRON, West Bank, Aug. 7, 2007
Israeli police officers carry a Jewish settler as he is forcibly removed from a house in the West Bank town of Hebron, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
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Soldiers of the Jewish people are coming to do what the worst enemies used to do to Jewish people, but they are doing it to their own brothers and sisters.Avinoam Horowitz, Evicted Jewish settler
(CBS/AP) Israeli police, using sledge hammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the West Bank town of Hebron early Tuesday and dragged out hundreds of settlers who had holed up there illegally, hoping to expand the Jewish presence in the volatile biblical city. Settlers spit and hurled stones, water, oil and concrete powder as police, backed by army troops, broke through fortified doors and carried out the squatters one by one. Three settlers sealed themselves inside a concrete bunker built for the standoff. This is a crime against justice and against Jewish history, said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Hebron settlers. I am sure we will return. Hebron has a long history and we will return.
Danny Poleg, a police spokesman, said four soldiers, 14 police officers and 12 settlers were injured during the evacuation. One settler and six police were hospitalized. Eleven settlers were briefly detained and two arrested. Hebron, a frequent flashpoint of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, is home to about 500 Jewish settlers living in heavily guarded enclaves among some 170,000 Palestinians. Clashes are frequent. Israel controls the center of the city, including a hotly disputed holy site holy to both Jews and Muslims — the traditional burial site of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and three of their wives. Its large military presence often hinders the movement of Palestinians.
The Palestinians control the rest of Hebron.
Meanwhile, a widely-read Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is considering a new peace plan that calls for a land swap with the Palestinians, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. The report comes a day after Olmert met for private talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho, in the West Bank. The visit made Olmert the first Israeli leader to meet officials in a Palestinian town in seven years. According to the report in Haaretz, Israel would offer the Palestinians the equivalent of 100 percent of the territories captured in 1967. Israel would annex 5 percent of the West Bank for major settlement blocs, but equivalent territory elsewhere would be transferred to a Palestinian state. Haaretz said Olmert has not rejected the proposal's main concepts, but the prime minister's office issued a statement expressing amazement at this erroneous article. Such a plan has not been considered, nor is it being raised for discussion in any forum, the statement said.
In other developments:
Twelve Orthodox Jewish soldiers have been court-martialed by the Israeli army after they refused to take part in the evacuation of settlers from Hebron, reports Berger. The soldiers said the Torah forbids evacuating Jews from the biblical Land of Israel. The mutiny underscores a dilemma facing religious Israeli soldiers — whether to take orders from their commanders, or their rabbis. Security officials are warning Israeli citizens traveling in Egypt, Jordan and other Muslim countries to leave immediately due to a concrete and severe threat of terror attacks. Israel's National Security Council says Israelis anywhere in the world should also be alert to the danger of being kidnapped by operatives from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group. The announcement on the council's Web site is a renewal of a travel advisory issued twice a year.
An Israeli driver was shot and seriously wounded Tuesday in central Israel while traveling on a highway adjacent to the separation barrier with the West Bank, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the shots came from the Palestinian territories and struck the Israeli driver in the chest as he was making his way on Route 6, a cross-country toll highway. The man was evacuated to hospital in serious condition. Police set up roadblocks and were searching the area. You're Hamas people, one Israeli settler screamed repeatedly at police while being dragged from her illegal home in Hebron. The reference was to the radical Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip and is sworn to Israel's destruction. After forcing one of the building's doors, police encountered 30 youths singing songs who cursed the soldiers as they entered. Many sat atop a 4-foot-high concrete bunker in which three settlers had barricaded themselves. It took police three hours to bore through the neighboring wall to remove them.
Avinoam Horowitz, a local resident and high school teacher, called the eviction a tragedy.Soldiers of the Jewish people are coming to do what the worst enemies used to do to Jewish people, but they are doing it to their own brothers and sisters, he said. The two-story building evacuated Tuesday stands in the city center's marketplace, which the army shut down in 1994, after Jewish militant Baruch Goldstein opened fire at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and killed 29 Palestinians. The settlers initially moved into the structure — a vacant store — more than six years ago, variously evacuating and re-entering it as the case made its way through the Israeli court system. Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the settlers' presence there was illegal, but they ignored orders to evacuate. Hundreds of supporters moved into the building in recent days, reinforcing the doors and windows with metal and concrete in preparation for the raid.
Settlers claim the property was owned by Jewish families for decades until Jordanian authorities seized it after the 1948 Israeli war of independence. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. Elsewhere in the city, settlers have whipped up tensions by moving into a four-story building that is a gateway to the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. The settlers say they want to create a land link between the two communities. The operation Tuesday followed the highly publicized refusal of several Orthodox Israeli infantry soldiers to take part in the evacuation. The army sentenced a dozen soldiers, including two commanders, to brief jail terms for refusing orders. Neither side expected Tuesday's eviction to be the last word. We have lots of patience, said Horowitz, the teacher. We'll do it again until we get back our property.CBS Interactive Inc.
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