[ Thursday, December 23, 2004 ]
A portrait of President George W. Bush using monkeys to form his image that was banished from a New York art show last week amid charges of censorship was projected on a giant billboard in Manhattan on December 21, 2004. 'Bush Monkeys,' a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir last week at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market's managers to close down the 60-piece show. The image is seen on an electronic billboard near the entrance to New York's Holland Tunnel, December 22. Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters
art [9:28 PM]
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ATTACK SYRIA ATTACK LEBANON ATTACK IRAN
Security Council Resolution 1559 must be seen as a warning that the United States and France are preparing the ground for attacking Syria militarily and eliminating Hezbollah who represents a threat to the Israeli Army in South Lebanon. The resolution called upon “remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon”, meaning Syria, the “disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias”, which also means Hezbollah, the “extension of the control of the government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory,” meaning control of Palestinian refugee camps thus eliminating any nationalist sentiments and any attempt for the return of the occupied lands.
art [8:54 PM]
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As Israel Debates Syrian Overture, Washington Presses To Stop TalksState, Defense Departments In Rare Unity on Mideast Policy
By Ori Nir
(Forward) WASHINGTON — While Syria's repeated offers to reopen peace talks with Jerusalem are triggering a fierce debate within the Israeli military and political establishment, the Bush administration appears united in its opposition to launching such negotiations.
The administration is not officially advising Israel against such talks, Israeli and American sources said. But Washington has refrained from publicly endorsing the resumption of Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, and has quietly told Israeli leaders that this would be a bad time to resume talks with Syria, according to knowledgeable American and Israeli sources.
The unified front in Washington — marking a seemingly rare point of agreement on Middle East policy among officials at the State and Defense departments — stands in sharp contrast to the situation in Israel. Prime Minister Sharon has made clear in recent weeks that he has no intention of resuming negotiations with Syria anytime soon, but numerous top-level officials in Jerusalem, from the president and defense minister to the military chief of staff and intelligence heads, have publicly spoken out in favor of sitting down with Syria.
In Washington, the consensus against talks reflects the State Department's suspicion that Israeli-Syrian discussions would simply serve as a way for Sharon to delay progress with the Palestinians, as well as the view at both the Pentagon and the National Security Council that Damascus has failed to quell the flow of support for the insurgency in Iraq.
"It really wouldn't look good if Israel legitimizes Syria's regime by resuming peace talks when there is talk in Washington about striking Syria militarily," said one Israeli diplomat. It is a point, he added, not lost on Sharon.
Syria's ambassador to Washington, Imad Mustapha, lamented what he described as the White House's lack of interest in kick-starting talks between Jerusalem and Damascus. There is a "lack of any keen interest by this administration to foster a peace process in the Middle East," Mustapha said.
Observers argued, however, that Sharon has his own reasons for refusing to open talks with Syria.
"Regardless of what the administration's position is, [Sharon] doesn't want to negotiate because he doesn't want to give up the Golan Heights," said Hebrew University Professor Moshe Ma'oz, one of Israel's leading experts on Syria and a member of an Israeli National Security Council panel on Syria.
Ma'oz, who supports resuming negotiations with Damascus, said the debate over opening talks with Syria revolves around long-term strategic considerations. Proponents say that such negotiations would remove the threat of a Syrian military conflict, weaken Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists, neutralize Iran's anti-Israeli agitation, open the door for improved relations between Israel and the Arab world and help resolve the Palestinian refugee problem in the future. Opponents, while publicly not rejecting the principle of peace negotiations, say in closed discussions that Syria is too weak to pose a real military threat to Israel, and that the no-peace-no-war situation that Syria has responsibly adhered to for more than 30 years is preferable to withdrawing from every inch of the Golan Heights.
Ma'oz noted that public opinion polls show the majority of Israel's public — 68%, according to one recent survey — is not willing to return the Golan, even in return for peace with Syria. He warned that this approach is shortsighted. Regardless of whether President Bashar Assad is motivated by a true desire for peace or by fear of American wrath, Ma'oz said, "we are missing an important opportunity."
On Wednesday, Ron Prosor, director general of Israel's foreign ministry, told the annual conference of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, that Israel "ought to seriously examine" Assad's peace overtures.
Israeli President Moshe Katzav recently told the Israeli daily Ma'ariv: "In my opinion it is important and worthwhile to thoroughly check out the intentions of Bashar Assad, if he really wants to make peace with us." The chief of staff of the Israeli military, Moshe Ya'alon, and the chief of Israeli's military intelligence, Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, have consistently supported the resumption of negotiations with Syria. In August, Ya'alon told the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot that withdrawing from the Golan Heights would not jeopardize Israel's security because the military "can defend Israel from any border." Ze'evi-Farkash told the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset in February that "President Assad is serious in his intentions to reopen negotiations with Israel."
Prospects for resuming negotiations increased recently after Assad called on Israel, through several channels, to join his country at the negotiating table "without preconditions." Mustapha confirmed in an interview with the Forward that his government has dropped its insistence that talks start from where the two sides left off in 2000. "Now we are changing our message," he said. "We are not presetting conditions. The only thing we are saying is that we want these negotiations to be based on the principles of land for peace, and fairness and legitimacy. That's all."
Israel has rejected the demand that talks pick up from where they left off, since such a move would focus the negotiations almost exclusively on whether Israel would be able to retain a narrow strip of land on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
The objections in Washington to Syrian talks seem to have little to do with the actual substance of a deal between Jerusalem and Damascus.
According to David Makovsky, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who focuses on American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, American objection to Israeli-Syrian talks "is actually mainly coming from the State Department, where Syria is perceived as the 'other woman'" — the country that would tempt Israel to shift its emphasis away from dealing with the Palestinians.
But strong objections also seem to be emanating from the Pentagon and the National Security Council, the more conservative wings of America's foreign policy and military establishment. The Department of Defense and the White House are reportedly livid at media reports of an established infrastructure in Syria, used to recruit Islamist militants who cross the border into Iraq and join the anti-U.S. insurgency.
A reporter for the British Daily Telegraph described in detail last week how mosques across Syria are used as recruitment centers, where people are paid generously to fight in Iraq and then bused to the border, where they cross easily into Iraq.
Referring to that story, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, William Kristol, this week advocated taking military action against Syria. America has an "urgent" Syria problem, he wrote. "It is Bashar Assad's regime that seems to be doing more than any other, right now, to help Baathists and terrorists kill Americans in the central front of the war on terror." Kristol, who is considered close to the more conservative elements of the administration, went on to advocate limited military action against Syria: "We could bomb Syrian military facilities; we could go across the border in force to stop infiltration; we could occupy the town of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, a few miles from the border, which seems to be the planning and organizing center for Syrian activities in Iraq. We could covertly help or overtly support the Syrian opposition (pro-human rights demonstrators recently tried to take to the streets of Damascus to protest the regime's abuses). This hardly exhausts all the possible forms of pressure and coercion. But it's time to get serious about dealing with Syria as part of winning in Iraq, and in the broader Middle East."
Mustapha, told the Forward that Syria's stepped-up efforts to open talks came in response to the realization that "the United States, for many reasons, is incapable of pressurizing Israel to have peace with its neighbors. It's the Israeli electorate that would eventually decide whether it wants to have peace or not. Do they want their grandchildren at some point living in peace with all the children of the region, or do they want just to maintain their military superiority and impose their will?"
art [6:15 AM]
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Israeli President Unveils Plan For 'World Knesset'By FORWARD STAFF
(Forward) JERUSALEM — Israel's government took its first public step last week toward the formal creation of an international Jewish "parliament," whose purpose would be to represent Diaspora Jews in the formation of Israeli government policies that have potential impact on Jewish life in other countries.
The initiative was unveiled at a special Monday meeting of the Knesset's committee for immigration and absorption, which has responsibility for Diaspora affairs. The meeting was held at the official residence of Israel's figurehead president, in an apparent effort to emphasize the ceremonial significance of the initiative, and was formally introduced by the president himself, Moshe Katzav.
The proposal for a world Jewish consultative "parliament" was initially raised last July in a strategic policy report submitted to Prime Minister Sharon by the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel's legally designated liaison to the Jewish communities of the Diaspora. The 50-page report, an executive summary of a 600-page document due out this month, reviewed security, political, religious, cultural and economic conditions in Jewish communities on every continent and made a host of recommendations ranging from Internet use to summer camp staffing. Among the key proposals was the formation of an international representative body to consult with the Israeli government on decisions that may affect Jewish security or culture in other countries.
The report was prepared by a newly-formed Jewish Agency think tank for global Jewish policy, chaired by the former American diplomat Dennis Ross.
After lengthy Cabinet debate, the report was approved in July and handed by Sharon to a top aide, Yisrael Maimon, for interministerial implementation. This week's Knesset hearing appears to be the first formal step.
Katzav, in introducing the proposal, suggested that it be seen as a "second house of the Knesset," to be composed of Israeli and Diaspora Jews. The goal, he said, would be to breach the conceptual, philosophical and experiential gaps between the two.
Hebrew University demographer Sergio DellaPergola, the principal drafter of the Jewish Agency report, told the committee that the new institution might be modeled on other non-binding world councils, such as the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie, an assembly of French-speaking nations that includes former French colonies, or the Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all'Estero, which represents persons of Italian extraction living around the world. A primary aim of the council, he said, would be to foster feelings of fellowship among Jews around the world who may share ethnic origins but little else.
Katzav, however, in a clear allusion to the Jewish Agency report, said the council would have policy goals along with cultural ones. "We in Israel do not have the right to make decisions on our own that affect world Jewry," he said. "Even if, God willing, 60% of Jews on earth live in Israel, we still have to consult. That is why it is important that this house shall arise."
DellaPergola testified to the committee that some 40% of the world's Jewish population currently resides in Israel and another 40% in the United States.
The Knesset immigration committee normally meets in the Knesset chambers and deals mainly with immigration matters. It is chaired by Labor lawmaker Colette Avital, a former diplomat.
Several speakers at the hearing, notably Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky and Hebrew University political scientist Shlomo Avineri, spoke in sharply cautionary tones about the new body. Both argued that such an institution might be drawn into matters properly left to Israel's sovereign institutions, such as drafting foreign policy or delineating national borders. Both pointed to an implicit danger in the very use of terms such as "parliament" or "Knesset" in the title.
The original Jewish Agency report, jointly authored by DellaPergola and retired Brigadier General Amos Gilboa, a former deputy chief of military intelligence, appeared to advocate precisely such a policy role, however. The report suggested that Israeli security policies can have the unintended effect of arousing hostility toward Jewish communities among émigré Arab populations in places such as Europe and Latin America, with occasionally violent results. It urged that Jerusalem institute a formal, ongoing structure for consulting with Diaspora communities.
The report also urged that the proposed body be involved in Israeli decisions on matters such as conversion and Jewish education.
Speaking to the Forward afterward, Sharansky made clear that the new body's structure and duties are far from settled. He endorsed Katzav's "parliament" image, even suggesting that Diaspora Jews be inducted directly into Israel's Knesset, but at the same time he warned against Diaspora Jewish interference in Israeli security policy.
The urgency with which Israel sees the issue was driven home by the staff director of the Jewish Agency think tank, Avinoam Bar Yosef, who told the Forward that his staff had been given three months by the president to work through the issues and present a working legislative draft.
In all, 17 speakers were invited to testify before the committee on Monday. Nearly all lamented a sense of disconnection between Israelis and their Diaspora cousins, and voiced hope that a sense of common Jewish purpose could be fostered.
Retired Major General Uzi Dayan, former chief of Israel's National Security Council and currently president of the Zionist Council in Israel, laid out a vision whereby "Judaism is seen as more than religion or a nationality, but as a civilization. The State of Israel has as a duty to preserve Judaism wherever it may be, as a higher priority even than [fostering] immigration."
Dayan's Zionist council is the Israeli wing of the World Zionist Organization, which largely controls the Jewish Agency in partnership with Diaspora Jewish philanthropies. Dayan himself is a nephew of the late Israeli leader Moshe Dayan.
Advocating a greater bond between Israel and Jewish communities in other countries, Dayan said: "We have more to learn from them than we know. We can't keep looking at them as if they are OK but somehow missing something. And you know, they also see us as not Jewish enough."
Echoing other participants, Dayan called for the participation of young people, "aged 30 and 40," in any future dialogue on the topic.
Former justice minister Yossi Beilin, chairman of the left-wing Yahad-Meretz party, recommended to the committee that the new body be called an asefah or "assembly," rather than a "parliament," to avoid any risk of compromising the rights of Israel's non-Jewish citizens. "It should be left undefined," Beilin said, "and meet twice a year to discuss issues connected to the Jewish people."
Beilin was one of the first Israelis to propose such a world assembly of Jewish communities, recommending in the mid-1990s the formation of a body he tentatively called Bet Yisrael or "the House of Israel." His proposal was never acted on, in part because it was seen as potentially competing with established bodies such as the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency itself. It was not made clear how the current proposal would avert those potential conflicts.
Bar Yosef, the think tank director, indicated that the complexities of sovereignty had been discussed at length in preparing the report. "Jews' loyalty in every place is to the state in which they live, but the Jewish people have to have an influence on matters of transcendent importance to the State of Israel," he told the Forward.
"We recommended that Israeli decision-makers take all the Jewish people into account when they make decisions on matters relating to anything from the division of Jerusalem through pluralism and 'who is a Jew' and even to targeted killings in Gaza. They don't have to be consulted, but they do have to be listened to."
The complexities of structuring such a representative body were clearly if inadvertently on display at the Monday hearings. Of the 17 invited speakers, few appeared to be under 60 and none was unaffiliated to a major Jewish or Israeli institution.
More striking, only one woman addressed the committee — Laura Kam Issacharoff, co-director of the Anti-Defamation League's Israel office — and her role was limited to reading a prepared statement authored by ADL director Abraham Foxman.
Avital, the Knesset committee chair, ended the session on a light note, taking account of the oceanic sense of perplexity sometimes felt by Jews from different parts of the world. "At a time of great immigration," she said, "two ships cross at sea, one carrying Jews to the Land of Israel, and one away. Each looks at the other across the waves and asks, 'Have you lost your mind?'"
art [3:59 AM]
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[ Tuesday, December 14, 2004 ]
Gold Community Warning!THE DAY THE DOLLAR DIED
Author: Jim Sinclair
China has announced that it is considering the sale of U.S. dollar-denominated Federal Debt held as reserves by the Central Bank.
This comes on the heels of Russia's decision to consider doing the same thing as a means of shifting to Euro-based items. Keep in mind, central banks do not hold significant dollars as dollars, or euros as euros, but rather as debt instruments, so the reduction of dollars in favor of other currencies mainly means the sale of U.S. Federal Debt Instruments and the purchase of alternative debt instruments in their place.
Mark today, November 26th, as the end of the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of choice.
The U.S. dollar is now trading directly on the 1995 low, having broken down the BEARISH NECKLINE of the Head-and-Shoulders of all time, with a measured move between .7300 minimum and .5100 maximum.
Intervention aside, the U.S. dollar dies once we have three closes below .8197. I would be floored if there is no attempt to prevent this here and now, as defined by next week. However, it is totally hopeless in my opinion, as no intervention can stop the crash of the common stock of the U.S.A., the U.S. dollar.
Hold gold -- your investment and insurance -- close to your chest, and do not listen to the pea-brains that have taken the place of the Prechterites within the gold community, possibly costing you the opportunity of a lifetime as they look for tops.
Gold shares will soon out-perform gold itself, as new and more knowledgeable international investors enter the smallest capitalized investment market on the planet, gold shares.
Avoid those juniors and major gold companies that have derivative risk. Do not buy the bull of "margin-free gold derivatives" as that is such spin, and even makes the U.S. government look like kindergarten spinners.
Change your mortgages immediately to a fixed rate from a floating rate. Make sure no debt you hold balloons in 2007. If you can pay down debt immediately, do it! If you do not own real gold, it is late, but there is time to buy some. Do not sell good, well-managed properties, shares of gold exploration and development companies that are free of derivative risk and have no insider stock-option plan, or royalty gold shares with the same criteria of excellent gold companies.
The next four years are going to be dillies.
Do not listen to gold-community nuts that spend their time always looking for tops.
art [8:25 PM]
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[ Wednesday, December 08, 2004 ]
MEN OF THE YEAR
THE IRAQI FREEDOMFIGHTERS
menoftheyear.jpeg
art [7:40 PM]
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[ Sunday, December 05, 2004 ]
AZZAM AZZAM = SIRHAN SIRHAN? WAS SIRHAN SIRHAN AN ISRAELI MOSSAD AGENT TOO?
art [8:12 PM]
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[ Wednesday, December 01, 2004 ]
HSBC THE NEW 'BCCI' EYES IRAQ AND LEBANONHSBC the New ''BCCI'' Eyes Iraq and Lebanon
HSBC eyes Iraq HSBC is hoping to set up in both Iraq and Libya, according to chief executive Stephen Green. He said the bank was currently negotiating with authorities and banks in both countries to build a presence there. HSBC is licensed to operate in war-torn Iraq and sources say it will be operational by the first quarter of 2005. More information on this money laundering back. Could this be the BCCI of this millenium?
art [10:11 PM]
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