MADDALENA
Il mistero dei missili spariti
dalla Maddalena
CRONACHEPortati via con un intero arsenale. I pm indagano, posto il segreto di Stato Pinna
Addio «zio Remo», scompare
a 90 anni l'ex leader Dc Gaspari
POLITICAIl politico democristiano è deceduto nella sua casa di Gissi, in Abruzzo. E' stato dieci volte deputato e sedici volte ministro
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| Von Rucksack-Reisen oder Au-pair-Jahr konnten die Rentner von heute nur träumen. Doch viele holen genau das jetzt nach! BILD traf Senioren, die in ihr 2. Leben starten!mehr... | ||||||
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18.07.2011 23:47:46 | |
18.07.2011 23:47:36 | |
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| Liebesfalle Internet - Einsame Gabi überweist Schwindler 8500 Euro | |
Ketten-Karussell - Junge (4) fliegt 15 Meter durch die Luft! | ||||
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Im Internet tappte Gabi B. in eine Liebesfalle! Sie hatte geglaubt,
endlich den Mann fürs Leben gefunden zu haben, geriet aber an einen
Schwindler, verlor 8500 Euro. Foto: Dominik H. Rossbach mehr... |
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Kirmes-Wunder in Düsseldorf: Ein Junge (4) stürzte aus dem
Ketten-Karussell, flog fast 15 Meter weit – und landete direkt im
Wohnwagen einer Wahrsagerin! Foto: Nora Nowatzyk mehr... |
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19.07.2011 09:14:41 | |
19.07.2011 07:48:25 | |
18.07.2011 23:48:23 | |
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| Für Charity-Bildband - Foto-Shooting in München | |
Drogenkrieg in Mexiko - Jetzt wird dem Bubi-Killer der Prozess gemacht | |
Tierdrama - 113 Pudel aus Wohnung befreit! | ||||
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18.07.2011 23:47:01 | |
18.07.2011 23:41:16 | |
18.07.2011 21:20:56 | |
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| Verhafteter Pfarrer - Noch zwei Kinder missbraucht! | |
Frankfurt - Eichhörnchen legt Hauptbahnhof lahm | |
Diagnose über Facebook - Freunde erkennen gefährliche Krankheit auf Fotos | ||||
Tito, socialismo per tutti e dolce vita per sé
18
commenti
Il Maresciallo collezionava Borsalino e cravatte Hermes. La moglie Jovanka gioielli e completi Chanel. A Belgrado esposte foto e oggetti di lusso della coppia presidenziale jugoslava
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15.07.2011 23:55:11 | |
15.07.2011 20:14:54 | |
14.07.2011 23:39:53 | |
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| Bademoden-Trend - Sexy Strandlook: Der Monokini | |
Stone für Calvin Klein - Ach, wäre doch endlich Herbst | |
High-Fashion oder Horror - Wie weit darf Mode eigentlich gehen? | ||||
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25.05.2011 12:51:38 | |
24.05.2011 23:59:48 | |
21.05.2011 23:57:48 | |
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| Tipps für Einsteiger - Eingelocht! Golf – der Luxussport für alle | |
Cremes, Öl und Kaffee - Schönheitstricks aus aller Welt | |
Deutschland bewegt sich - Treffen Sie Heike Drechsler! | ||||
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06.07.2011 16:47:01 | |
30.06.2011 00:05:14 | |
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| Fit mit Google Maps - Mit dem Heimtrainer auf die Tour de France! | |
Falten, Adern, Flecken - Promi-Hände verraten das wirkliche Alter | |
Pilates - In 5 Übungen zum Pippa-Po | ||||
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03.07.2011 11:23:46 | |
26.06.2011 23:59:39 | |
24.06.2011 23:25:02 | |
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| Das kritische Prost - Top: Ein Rivaner für 5,30 Euro! | |
Ernährung - Soja oder solala? | |
Experten-Check - Welcher Reis ist dufte? | ||||
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19 luglio 2011
Dalle praterie alla costa atlantica. I nuovi vescovi degli States
Dopo Scola a Milano, ecco Chaput a Filadelfia. Passo dopo passo, le nomine di Benedetto XVI rimodellano la leadership nei paesi guida del cattolicesimo mondiale. Un'intervista con il neoelettoFrom the Prairie to the Atlantic Coast. The New Bishops Stateside
After Scola goes to Milan, now Chaput is going to Philadelphia. Step by step, the appointments of Benedict XVI are remodeling the leadership of the foremost countries of worldwide Catholicism. An interview with the newly electDe la prairie à la côte atlantique. Les nouveaux évêques américains
Après Scola à Milan, voici Chaput à Philadelphie. Pas à pas, les nominations décidées par Benoît XVI remodèlent les instances dirigeantes dans les pays phares du catholicisme mondial. Une interview au nouvel éluDesde las praderas a la costa atlántica. Los nuevos obispos de los Estados
Luego de Scola a Milán, Chaput a Filadelfia. Paso a paso, los nombramientos de Benedicto XVI remodelan el liderazgo en los países guías del catolicismo mundial. Una entrevista con el nuevo elegido
Allen Praises Troops’ Courage, Sets ISAF Priorities
Much work remains to secure Afghanistan's future and eliminate violent extremists, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan said.
Much work remains to secure Afghanistan's future and eliminate violent extremists, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan said.
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Petraeus Departs Amid Afghan Violence, Transition
General David Petraeus has handed over command of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan to U.S. General John Allen, and will soon take the helm at the Central Intelligence Agency. ...
General David Petraeus has handed over command of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan to U.S. General John Allen, and will soon take the helm at the Central Intelligence Agency. ...
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Petraeus Hands Over Afghanistan Command Amid Rising Violence
U.S. General David Petraeus has stepped down as commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan amid rising violence in the country.
U.S. General David Petraeus has stepped down as commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan amid rising violence in the country.
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Featured Free Resource
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Google provides cloud services reliably due to its experience with operating its own business, as well as its core services like Google Search, in a similar manner. |
Zuma, Cameron Differ on Timing of Gadhafi Departure
South African President Jacob Zuma and British Prime Minister David Cameron agree that the people of Libya must be central in deciding their own future. ...
South African President Jacob Zuma and British Prime Minister David Cameron agree that the people of Libya must be central in deciding their own future. ...
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Russia Criticizes West's Recognition Of Libyan Rebels
Russia has criticized Western governments for recognizing the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council as a legitimate government.
Russia has criticized Western governments for recognizing the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council as a legitimate government.
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Egypt Postpones Swearing-In of New Cabinet
Egypt postponed the swearing-in of a new Cabinet for at least a day as protesters vowed to continue a sit-in at Cairo's main square, saying government reforms do not go far enough. ...
Egypt postponed the swearing-in of a new Cabinet for at least a day as protesters vowed to continue a sit-in at Cairo's main square, saying government reforms do not go far enough. ...
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Google provides cloud services reliably due to its experience with operating its own business, as well as its core services like Google Search, in a similar manner. |
Clinton Travels to India for Economic, Security TalksU.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in India for two days of talks aimed at strengthening political and economic relations with the South Asian country. ...
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U.S. reaffirms no change to Taiwan Relations Act
United States Congressmen have reaffirmed that there will be no changes to the Taiwan Relations Act.
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The U.S.-Saudi Dilemma: Iran's Reshaping of Persian Gulf Politics
Something extraordinary, albeit not unexpected, is happening in the
Persian Gulf region. The United States, lacking a coherent strategy to
deal with Iran and too distracted to develop one, is struggling to
navigate Iraq’s fractious political landscape in search of a deal that
would allow Washington to keep a meaningful military presence in the
country beyond the end-of-2011 deadline stipulated by the current Status
of Forces Agreement. At the same time, Saudi Arabia, dubious of U.S.
capabilities and intentions toward Iran, appears to be inching
reluctantly toward an accommodation with its Persian adversary.
Iran clearly stands to gain from this dynamic in the short term as it
seeks to reshape the balance of power in the world’s most active energy
arteries. But Iranian power is neither deep nor absolute. Instead,
Tehran finds itself racing against a timetable that hinges not only on
the U.S. ability to shift its attention from its ongoing wars in the
Middle East but also on Turkey’s ability to grow into its historic
regional role. Read more »
Dispatch: Libya War Update
STRATFOR analyst Bayless Parsley discusses why rebel military
deficiencies will shape any political solution to the conflict in Libya.
Watch the Video »
Why Banks Aren’t Lending:
The Silent Liquidity Squeeze
By Ellen Brown
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25650
Global Research, July 15, 2011
Why aren’t banks lending to local businesses? The Fed’s decision to pay interest on $1.6 trillion in “excess” reserves is a chief suspect.
Where did all the jobs go? Small and medium-sized businesses are the major source of new job creation, and they are not hiring. Startup businesses, which contribute a fifth of the nation’s new jobs, often can’t even get off the ground. Why?
In a June 30 article
in the Wall Street Journal titled “Smaller Businesses Seeking Loans
Still Come Up Empty,” Emily Maltby reported that business owners rank
access to capital as the most important issue facing them today; and
only 17% of smaller businesses said they were able to land needed bank
financing. Businesses have to
pay for workers and materials before they can get paid for the products
they produce, and for that they need bank credit; but they are reporting
that their credit lines are being cut. They are being pushed
instead into credit card accounts that average 16 percent interest,
more than double the rate of the average business loan. It is one of many changes in banking trends that have been very lucrative for Wall Street banks but are killing local businesses.
Why
banks aren’t lending is a matter of debate, but the Fed’s decision to
pay interest on bank reserves is high on the list of suspects. Bruce Bartlett, writing in the Fiscal Times in July 2010, observed:
Economists
are divided on why banks are not lending, but increasingly are focusing
on a Fed policy of paying interest on reserves — a policy that began,
interestingly enough, on October 9, 2008, at almost exactly the moment
when the financial crisis became acute. . .
Historically,
the Fed paid banks nothing on required reserves. This was like a tax
equivalent to the interest rate banks could have earned if they had been
allowed to lend such funds. But in 2006, the Fed requested permission
to pay interest on reserves because it believes that it would help
control the money supply should inflation reappear.
.
. . [M]any economists believe that the Fed has unwittingly encouraged
banks to sit on their cash and not lend it by paying interest on
reserves.
At
one time, banks collected deposits from their own customers and stored
them for their own liquidity needs, using them to back loans and clear
outgoing checks. But today banks
typically borrow (or “buy”) liquidity, either from other banks, from
the money market, or from the commercial paper market. The
Fed’s payment of interest on reserves competes with all of these
markets for ready-access short-term funds, creating a shortage of the
liquidity that banks need to make loans.
By
inhibiting interbank lending, the Fed appears to be creating a silent
“liquidity squeeze” -- the same sort of thing that brought on the
banking crisis of September 2008. According to Jeff Hummel, associate professor of economics at San Jose State University, it could happen again. He warns
that paying interest on reserves “may eventually rank with the Fed's
doubling of reserve requirements in the 1930s and bringing on the
recession of 1937 within the midst of the Great Depression.”
The Travesty of the $1.6 Trillion in “Excess Reserves”
The
bank bailout and the Federal Reserve’s two “quantitative easing”
programs were supposedly intended to keep credit flowing to the local
economy; but despite trillions of dollars thrown at Wall Street banks,
these programs have succeeded only in producing mountains of “excess reserves” that are now sitting idle in Federal Reserve bank accounts. A stunning $1.6 trillion in excess reserves have accumulated since the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008.
The
justification for TARP -- the Trouble Asset Relief Program that
subsidized the nation’s largest banks -- was that it was necessary to
unfreeze credit markets. The contention was that banks were refusing to lend to each other, cutting them off from the liquidity that was essential to the lending business. But an MIT study
reported in September 2010 showed that immediately after the Lehman
collapse, the interbank lending markets were actually working. They froze, not when Lehman died, but when the Fed started paying interest on excess reserves in October 2008. According to the study, as summarized in The Daily Bail:
.
. . [T]he NY Fed's own data show that interbank lending during the
period from September to November did not "freeze," collapse, melt down
or anything else. In fact, every single day throughout this period,
hundreds of billions were borrowed and paid back. The decline in daily
interbank lending came only when the Fed ballooned its balance sheet and
started paying interest on excess reserves.
On October 9, 2008, the Fed began paying interest, not just on required bank reserves (amounting to 10% of deposits for larger banks), but on “excess” reserves. Reserve balances immediately shot up, and they have been going up almost vertically ever since.
By March 2011, interbank loans outstanding were only one-third their level in May 2008, before the banking crisis hit. And on June 29, 2011, the Fed reported excess reserves of nearly $1.57 trillion – 20 times what the banks needed to satisfy their reserve requirements.
Why Pay Interest on Reserves?
Why the Fed decided to pay interest on reserves is a complicated question, but it was evidently a desperate attempt to keep control of “monetary policy.” The Fed theoretically controls the money supply by controlling the Fed funds rate. This
hasn’t worked very well in practice, but neither has anything else, and
the Fed is apparently determined to hang onto this last arrow in its
regulatory quiver.
In
an effort to salvage a comatose credit market after the Lehman
collapse, the Fed set the target rate for Fed funds – the funds that
banks borrow from each other -- at an extremely low 0.25%. Paying interest on reserves at that rate was intended to ensure that the Fed funds rate did not fall below the target. The reasoning was that banks would not lend their reserves to other banks for less, since they could get a guaranteed 0.25% from the Fed. The
medicine worked, but it had the adverse side effect of killing the Fed
funds market, on which local lenders rely for their liquidity needs.
It
has been argued that banks do not need to get funds from each other,
since they are now awash in reserves; but these reserves are not equally distributed. The
25 largest U.S. banks account for over half of aggregate reserves, with
21% of reserves held by just 3 banks; and the largest banks have cut back on small business lending by over 50%. Large
Wall Street banks have more lucrative things to do with the very cheap
credit made available by the Fed that to lend it to businesses and
consumers, which has become a risky and expensive business with the
imposition of higher capital requirements and tighter regulations.
In any case, as noted in an earlier article, the excess reserves from the QE2 funds have accumulated in foreign rather than domestic banks. John Mason, Professor of Finance at Penn State University and a former senior economist at the Federal Reserve, wrote in a June 27 blog that despite QE2:
Cash
assets at the smaller [U.S.] banks remained relatively flat . . . .
Thus, the reserves the Fed was pumping into the banking system were not
going into the smaller banks. . . .
[B]usiness loans continue to “tank” at the smaller banking institutions.
Local Business Lending Depends on Ready Access to Liquidity
Without access to the interbank lending market, local banks are reluctant to extend business credit lines. The reason was explained by economist Ronald McKinnon in a Wall Street Journal article in May:
Banks
with good retail lending opportunities typically lend by opening credit
lines to nonbank customers. But these credit lines are open-ended in
the sense that the commercial borrower can choose when—and by how
much—he will actually draw on his credit line. This creates uncertainty
for the bank in not knowing what its future cash positions will be. An
illiquid bank could be in trouble if its customers simultaneously
decided to draw down their credit lines.
If
the retail bank has easy access to the wholesale interbank market, its
liquidity is much improved. To cover unexpected liquidity shortfalls, it
can borrow from banks with excess reserves with little or no credit
checks. But if the prevailing interbank lending rate is close to zero
(as it is now), then large banks with surplus reserves become loath to
part with them for a derisory yield. And smaller banks, which
collectively are the biggest lenders to SMEs [small and medium-sized
enterprises], cannot easily bid for funds at an interest rate
significantly above the prevailing interbank rate without inadvertently
signaling that they might be in trouble. Indeed, counterparty risk in
smaller banks remains substantial as almost 50 have failed so far this
year.
The local banks could turn to the Fed’s discount window for loans, but that too could signal that the banks were in trouble; and for weak banks, the Fed’s discount window may be closed. Further, the discount rate is triple the Fed funds rate.
As Warren Mosler, author of The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy, points out, bank regulators have made matters worse by setting limits on the amount of “wholesale” funding small banks can do. That means they are limited in the amount of liquidity they can buy (e.g. in the form of CDs). A certain percentage of a bank’s deposits must be “retail” deposits – the deposits of their own customers. This
forces small banks to compete in a tight market for depositors, driving
up their cost of funds and making local lending unprofitable. Mosler
maintains that the Fed could fix this problem by (a) lending Fed funds
as needed to all member banks at the Fed funds rate, and (b) dropping
the requirement that a percentage of bank funding be retail deposits.
Finding Alternatives to a Failed Banking Model
Paying
interest on reserves was intended to prevent “inflation,” but it is
having the opposite effect, contracting the money and credit that are
the lifeblood of a functioning economy. The whole economic model is wrong. The
fear of price inflation has prevented governments from using their
sovereign power to create money and credit to serve the needs of their
national economies. Instead,
they must cater to the interests of a private banking industry that
profits from its monopoly power over those essential economic tools.
Whether by accident or design, federal policymakers still have not got it right. While
we are waiting for them to figure it out, states can nurture and
protect their own local economies with publicly-owned banks, on the
model of the Bank of North Dakota (BND). Currently
the nation’s only state-owned bank, the BND services the liquidity
needs of local banks and keeps credit flowing in the state. Other benefits to the local economy are detailed in a Demos report by Jason Judd and Heather McGhee titled “Banking on America: How Main Street Partnership Banks Can Improve Local Economies.” They write:
Alone
among states, North Dakota had the wherewithal to keep credit moving to
small businesses when they needed it most. BND’s business lending
actually grew from 2007 to 2009 (the tightest months of the credit
crisis) by 35 percent. . . . [L]oan amounts per capita for small banks
in North Dakota are fully 175% higher than the U.S. average in the last
five years, and its banks have stronger loan-to-asset ratios than
comparable states like Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana.
Fourteen states have now initiated bills to establish state-owned banks or to study their feasibility. Besides
serving local lending needs, state-owned banks can provide
cash-strapped states with new revenues, obviating the need to raise
taxes, slash services or sell off public assets.
Ellen Brown is an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute, http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. In Web of Debt,
her latest of eleven books, she shows how the power to create money has
been usurped from the people, and how we can get it back. Her websites
are http://webofdebt.com and http://ellenbrown.com.
The Federative Republic of Brazil has placed orders with Harris to provide Falcon III RF-7800V VHF tactical radios.
Australian Army to Take Delivery of New Patrol Vehicles
The Australian Army SAS Regiment will finally take delivery of 31 new Nary patrol vehicles this month.
Thailand Requests Sale of UH-60M Helicopters from US
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified US Congress of a potential foreign military sale of three UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Thailand.
US DoD Announces First Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace
The US Defense Department (DoD) has released its first strategy for operating in cyberspace to protect the nation from potentially devastating network attacks, Deputy Defense Secretary William J Lynn III has said.
CORPORATE NEWSHESCO Releases White Paper on Re-Deployable Security Fence
HESCO Bastion
BIOBSERVE Delivers Recording and Debriefing System for NASAMS Simulator
BIOBSERVE
Hotzone's Live Agent Training 'Train-the-Trainer' Certification Course
Hotzone Solutions
Systematic Enables Anglo-French Interoperability
Systematic
Astrum Track Selected for the Successful BAE Systems Warrior Protection and Mobility Upgrade
ASTRUM
News stories
|
July 19, 2011 |
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Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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July 19, 2011
In-Depth Issues:
Israeli Navy Stops French Flotilla Yacht - Hanan Greenberg (Ynet News)
The Israeli Navy on Tuesday stopped the French yacht Dignite al Karama as it sought to break the Gaza blockade. The Israeli force met no resistance.
See also Video: Israel Navy Makes Contact with French Yacht (Israel Defense Forces)
Report: Istanbul Bombing Targeted Israeli Diplomat - Amos Harel and Saviona Mane (Ha'aretz)
The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported Monday that a bomb that exploded near an Istanbul market in May, injuring six, may have been an attempt by Hizbullah and Iran to assassinate Israel's consul general to Istanbul, Moshe Kimchi.
The attempt failed because of the security measures protecting the Israeli diplomat.
"It appears that the mission was carried out by three Lebanese members of Hizbullah," the report states.
The agents went to Turkey from Beirut using Iranian passports and had the Israeli consul under surveillance for some time.
On the day of the attack, Kimchi's car drove slower than usual and he was uninjured.
Al-Qaeda Seen Aiming at Targets Outside U.S. - Siobhan Gorman, Julian E. Barnes and Adam Entous (Wall Street Journal)
Al-Qaeda is expected to shift strategy under new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, placing a higher priority on attacking the U.S. and Western targets overseas, where plots are easier to execute than on the U.S. homeland, say U.S. officials.
"I would not be surprised to see potentially 1990s-style attacks at the U.S. embassies and consulates overseas," said Seth Jones, a political scientist at Rand Corp.
Communications obtained from flash drives recovered at the residence of Osama bin Laden show Zawahiri's desire to attack U.S. interests in places like Iraq and East Africa, according to U.S. officials.
60,000 Palestinians to Visit Israel as Tourists - Anshel Pfeffer (Ha'aretz)
More than 60,000 Palestinians are expected to visit Israel as tourists by the end of 2011, at least twice as many as last year, an Israeli defense official said.
The permits are issued mainly to schools and summer camps wishing to take children to visit beaches and mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel. In 2010, 28,000 Palestinians were given permits to visit Israel.
"We want Palestinians, especially young ones, to see another kind of Israeli, not only soldiers and settlers....Perhaps instead of demonstrating in September they'll go to the beach," the source said.
Another popular destination is to see the wild animals at the Ramat Gan Safari Park, which has Arab-language tours.
Daily Alert Blog
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- Deaths in Syria Tied to Alawite-Sunni Rift - Nada Bakri
The Syrian government has been enlisting thousands of plainclothes security men, known as shabiha, to help quell dissent. Most are Alawites, and resentment against them runs high: many accuse them of killing thousands of unarmed civilians. On Sunday, residents of Homs, Syria's second-largest city, discovered the mutilated bodies of three Alawites who were armed government loyalists. News of the deaths enraged other Alawites, who went on a rampage. Three people were killed, including a mother of three, and scores of shops owned by Sunnis were burned and vandalized. (New York Times)
See also At Least 30 Killed in Intercommunal Clashes in Homs (Reuters) - House Bill to Limit Aid to Palestinians - Donna Cassata
The House Foreign Affairs Committee unveiled a bill Monday that would block U.S. aid to Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority unless the Obama administration reassures Congress that they are cooperating in the worldwide fight against terrorism. Aid to the Palestinian Authority would be contingent on the secretary of state certifying that no member of Hamas or any other terrorist organization was serving in a policy position in a ministry, agency or other entity. The Obama administration has requested $550 million in aid for the PA. (AP) - Support for Palestinian UN Bid Seen Waning - Daniel Estrin
International support for a planned Palestinian declaration of independence at the UN in September is waning, in large part because of intense Israeli lobbying against the initiative, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon claimed Monday. Ayalon said he does not expect to prevent a pro-Palestinian resolution from passing in the UN General Assembly, where it would have little more than symbolic value. But he believes a "moral majority" of Western countries will not support the Palestinians, further limiting the impact of any resolution. "What seemed to be a landslide for the Palestinians has stopped," he said. (AP) - U.S. Recognizes Libyan Rebels as Legitimate Government - William Wan and William Booth
The U.S. granted Libyan rebel leaders full diplomatic recognition as the governing authority of Libya on Friday, a move that could give the rebels access to more than $30 billion in frozen assets. The U.S. announcement was accompanied by an agreement among all of the countries taking part in a meeting in Istanbul of 30 Western and Arab nations to similarly recognize the rebel council. (Washington Post)
- European Foreign Ministers Call on Israel, Palestinians to Restart Talks - Herb Keinon
In what could be interpreted as a signal to the PA that the EU was not enamored with its UN bid, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels issued a statement Monday saying: "The EU reiterates its concern at the continuing stalemate in the Peace Process and calls on the parties to show the highest sense of responsibility and to resume direct and substantive talks." (Jerusalem Post) - Turkish Demands Delaying Diplomatic Reconciliation with Israel - Herb Keinon
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's demand last week that in addition to apologizing for the Mavi Marmara incident and paying compensation, Israel must also lift the blockade of Gaza as a precondition to a normalization of ties, is complicating efforts to find a resolution to the issue, Israeli officials said Monday. Erdogan's new demand has left a feeling among some in Jerusalem that he is not interested in bringing this issue to closure. (Jerusalem Post) - Deputy Foreign Minister Launches Campaign to Tell "Truth about the West Bank" - Ben Hartman
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon stars in a video released by his ministry which asks key questions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Israel's presence in the West Bank is the result of a war of self-defense and should not be seen as occupied territory; because there was no sovereign body there before, it should be called disputed." "Please, let's stop using the terms 'occupied territories' and '67 borders,' they're simply not politically correct." (Jerusalem Post)
View the Video: The Truth About the West Bank - Danny Ayalon (YouTube)
- Syria's Struggle - Editorial
We are in awe at the courage of the Syrian people and disgusted by the brutality of President Bashar al-Assad and his henchmen. Mr. Assad has lost all legitimacy. The question now is what can the international community do to support the opposition and its demands for freedom?
European ministers sent Mr. Assad another implicit lifeline on Monday, urging him to implement promised reforms. Washington and Europe have talked for weeks about expanding existing sanctions that include travel bans and asset freezes for certain regime members. They need to act. So long as Washington and Europe send mixed messages, Moscow and the Arab League will feel no pressure to change - and Mr. Assad will believe he can hang on. (New York Times) - Erdogan's New "Ottoman Region" - Harold Rhode
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's recent electoral victory speech puts his true intentions regarding Turkey's foreign policy goals in perspective. He said that this victory is as important in Ankara as it is in Sarajevo, which was an important Ottoman city; as important in Izmir as it is in Damascus, and as important in Istanbul as it is in Jerusalem. The speech signals a wish for Ottoman cultural colonialism and imperialism. The places Erdogan named were all part of the pre-World War I Ottoman Empire.
Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu, in the depths of their souls, are fundamentalist Sunni Muslims. The Turkish-Iranian-Iraqi-Syrian alliance, which Erdogan worked so hard to build, has failed. A Shi'ite Iran, an Alawi-ruled Syria, and a Shiite-dominated Iraq are not natural allies for the Sunni Turks.
It is in this context that we should understand Turkey's renewed interest in the U.S. and Israel. Erdogan's Turkey does not see long-term interests with either. Given economic developments in Iran, Alawite oppression in Syria, and Shiite dominance in Iraq, Erdogan understands that he must take a temporary hiatus from his goal of reasserting what appears to be his real goal - the Turkish Sunni domination of the entire Middle East. The writer joined the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1982 as an advisor on Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. From 1994 until 2010 he served in the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment. (Hudson Institute-New York)
- The unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, and its international recognition, would be a huge mistake. A peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is essential, but it can only be achieved through honest negotiations - not by any party imposing a unilateral decision.
- A Palestinian government in which Hamas is a member will make negotiations, much less a peace agreement, impossible: no negotiation or agreement is possible when one side is committed to the other's destruction.
- There is no historical, institutional or legal basis on which to recognize a Palestinian state today, except as a kind of "virtual state," which exists in some fashion in the imaginations of various parties but which has no tether to reality. In the West Bank, Palestinians crucially depend on Israeli cooperation to function.
- There cannot be two states, living in peace side by side, unless Palestinians accept that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and the Israelis accept that the Palestinian state will be the state for the Palestinian people. Absent that basis, no genuine progress will be made.
- It
is time for the international community, starting with the UN, to say
that the time for game-playing and wishful thinking is past. We urge the
Palestinians to see that the only way they can have their own state is
through an agreement with the Israelis. No other options should be
supported by the international community.
The writer is former prime minister of Spain.
