Israel Just Wants Middle East to Recognize Their State
The Palestinian Authorityand Hamas rejected over the weekend Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a precondition for resuming the stalled peace talks between the two sides.
Netanyahu made the demand during a meeting last Thursday with US special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
Mitchell met on Friday in Ramallah with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other top PA officials, who urged him to pressure the new Israeli government to accept the two-state solution and honor all agreements signed with Israel as a precondition for resuming the peace talks.
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state was “an admission by the Israeli prime minister that he cannot deliver on peace.” Erekat pointed out that the PLO had already recognized Israel’s right to exist when it signed the Oslo Accords, while Netanyahu was refusing to mention a Palestinian state.
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with Abbas, said on Saturday that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table until Netanyahu publicly accepted the two-state solution.
“We reject Netanyahu’s demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” he said. “This demand illustrates the racist nature of Israel and the extremist policies of its government. It also shows that Israel is not serious about making peace with its neighbors.”
So let me get this straight, Palestine wants to be recognized as a state which would mean a two-state resolution, however, it refused to recognize the second part of that resolution which would be Israel? Read more
Obama’s Stance Worries Israelis, They Are Ready to Attack Iran’s Nuclear Facilities
The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.
Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.
“Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words,”
Israel would have to attack in an estimated twelve different locations, such as Natanz, Esfahan and Arak, in order to dismantle and destroy the facilities that house the uranium and plutonium deposits, centrifuges, gas and other nuclear materials.
The targets in Iran are over 870 miles away from Israel and the Israeli military and airforce (IDF and IAF) will most likely employ their F-15′s and F-16′s to target the specific sites, as well as drone attacks and long-range missiles.
I am quite familiar with the F-16 aircraft and know that it is the “go-to” fighter and the “cash cow” of military air force fleets. F-15 are more expensive but do have more capabilities and will eventually overtake the F-16 – this also goes for the F-18′s, which are not readily available to other countries worldwide. The F-16 radars are something I can vouche for 
Israel said that it would wait for an “O.K.” to attack Iran from the United States. But an okay from the latest administration is unlikely. However, Obama has planned a meeting with Netanyahu and Israel in June after Iran’s next election.
It was unlikely that Israel would carry out the attack without receiving at least tacit approval from America, which has struck a more reconciliatory tone in dealing with Iran under its new administration.
An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.
Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.
Obama’s stance on Middle East diplomacy is worrisome to Israelis.
Watching the drama unfold inside Israel, the increasingly tense dialogue between US President Barack Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking on all the trappings of a duel.
Almost every day brings news of another sore point between the two countries, a source of yet further inflammation of their once warm relations.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the more immediate threat to Israel’s national security lay across the Atlantic rather than from closer to home.
It is bad enough that President Obama uses almost every opportunity he can to set the parameters of a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Now US officials are openly using Israeli anxiety over Iran’s fledging nuclear program as a bargaining chip to force Israel’s hand on giving up control of the West Bank Palestinian territory.
No less a figure than White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel — whose father fought with the militant Zionist group the Irgun, and whose appointment had provided such reassurance to Israeli officials — was quoted this week laying down the law to Israel.
If Israel wants US help to defuse the Iranian threat, Mr Emanuel was reported to have told Jewish leaders in Washington, then get ready to start evacuating settlements in the West Bank.
Talkback radio blazed with fury across the country the same day, as Israelis protested that no US official had the right to tell them where to live.
Whatever the case may be or however, this situation plays itself out Netanyahu and his administration have expressed the following:
“Many of the leaks or statements made by Israeli leaders and military commanders are meant for deterrence. The message is that if [the international community] is unable to solve the problem they need to take into account that we will solve it our way,” Mr Kam said.
“Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate the threat of a nuclear Iran. According to Israeli Intelligence they will have the bomb within two years … Once they have a bomb it will be too late, and Israel will have no choice to strike — with or without America,” an official from the Israeli Defence Ministry said.
Economic Update: Bartering Is Cool, George Soros Speaks and G20 Leans on Global Currency
The Great Depression brought various methods to the fold in order to keep some type of currency flowing and people consuming. In many ways this is being called the “Great Recession,” and there still is that feeling in the air that a Great Depression may again be heading our way. However, some of these old systems such as the barter system or local currencies are being used again.
The barter system became popular in recent years and has become more modernized for today’s society. Craigslist became incredibly popular when it first began but during these pressing times, Ebay and Craigslist have seen more traffic than usual and one statistic earlier this month had the traffic for Craigslist up by 100%. New barter sites are popping up during this downturn such as www.tradeaway.comwhere you can sell and buy real estate, boats, cars, land, etc. Even Match.com’s traffic has soared, because young people who may or may not be let go first if a company needs to downsize (due to less tenure on the job) say that dating sites are cheaper than going out to bars to meet people.
I find it incredibly intriguing that local communities have begun using a method from the Great Depression in which they issue and name their own “currency.”
The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.
Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.
This type of currency encourages consumers to buy and it also encourages consumption at a local level to support local businesses that are also cash-strapped.
This could be a good thing for people to see value in limited government. Local and state government, or Federalism, is truly the more appropriate form of government rather than a larger centralized organization.
However, you still have to pay your taxes on it…
By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
“We print the real thing,” she says.
The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. “It’s not a way to avoid income taxes, or we’d all be paying in Detroit dollars,” he says.
Many still feel that bad times are ahead for the United States, our economy and the dollar.
George Soros is echoing what many conservatives and libertarians have been saying the past few months with the incessant government spending and bailouts. He foresees the U.S. becoming much like Japan in the 90′s, where they continued to spend in order to try and dig themselves out of a collapse, and their interventionist policies actually made things worse. Soros said that he believes the United States will go throw a period of relatively low growth coupled with high inflation…DUH!
Thank you Captain Obvious!
The recovery will look like “an inverted square root sign,” Soros said. “You hit bottom and you automatically rebound some, but then you don’t come out of it in a V-shape recovery or anything like that. You settle down—step down.”
“I don’t expect the U.S. economy to recover in the third or fourth quarter so I think we are in for a pretty lasting slowdown,” Soros said, adding that in 2010 there might be “something” in terms of U.S. growth.
The healing of the banking system and housing markets is crucial to recovery. “The banking system, as a whole, is basically insolvent,” Soros said.
“What we have created now is a situation where the banks who will be able to earn their way out of a hole, but by doing that, they are going to weigh on the economy,” he said. “Instead of stimulating the economy, they will draw the lifeblood, so to speak, of profits away from the real economy in order to keep themselves alive. This is the zombie bank situation.”
