Watchman Newsletter

Steel On Steel Persecution Update

Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (May 27, 2011)

1. Nigerian Church Leaders Call for Probe into Election Violence

2. Some Wary of Black-Listing Egypt for Rights Violations

3. Mentally Ill Christian Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ in Pakistan

4. Vietnam Tries to Portray Cult Gathering as Christian

5. Islamic Extremists Attack Churches in Cairo, Egypt

6. Nigerian Pastor’s Wife, Children among Christians Killed in Attack

7. Indonesian ‘Blasphemy’ Law a Weapon for Radical Islam

8. Villagers in Bangladesh Beat Christian for Defending Girls

9. Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws Pose Growing Threat

Where does California put 33,000 released inmates?

CNN (Link) - Opinion - Ruben Navarrette Jr. (May 26, 2011)

Hasn’t California suffered enough?

Apparently not, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the name of reducing prison overcrowding and preserving a “standard of decency,” the high court this week handed down a decision that could set the stage for something indecent: the release of tens of thousands of prisoners back into society.

Just when Californians thought they had seen it all and endured it all. The Golden State has withstood drought, mudslides, fires and earthquakes. It has a massive budget deficit, about $9.6 billion, that only looks manageable by comparison with what it was just a few months ago, $25.4 billion, before the state tallied up tax revenue from high-income Californians. The state has an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average at 11.7 percent, and it has one of the highest rates of mortgage foreclosures per capita in the country.

What’s next? How about “Get Out of Jail Free” cards for 33,000 inmates in the state prison system? It could happen.

Among Israeli Jews, 20,000 embrace Christ

Baptist Press (Link) - Ava Thomas (May 26, 2011)

White and blue flags rustled in the breeze, and kebabs sizzled on the grill. Ben Martin* gathered the group around and offered a prayer of thanks for the food.

“Thank You for this food. Thank You for this nation. And thank You that after 2,000 years, You haven’t forsaken Israel.”

He hasn’t forsaken it -- in fact, Jesus Christ is at work among the Jews more than ever, Martin said.

The crowd at this Israeli Independence Day party was more diverse than one might expect for a get-together celebrating the founding of the Jewish homeland in 1948.

There were Iranian Jews. Iraqi Jews. Russian Jews. American Jews.

“The face of the Jews here isn’t what you’d expect,” said Martin, a Christian worker among the Jews. “Because of ‘the return,’ it’s a very diverse group.”

Obama urges Europe not to support Palestine’s U.N. statehood bid

International Business Times (Link) (May 26, 2011)

The US is worried that a unilateral support would isolate Israel, as British Prime Minister David Cameron is vague about the Palestine’s statehood bid.

President Barack Obama launched a campaign to convince the European leaders not to bid for a separate Palestinian state. But the only response he got from Cameron was noncommittal.

After a meeting on Wednesday with Obama, Cameron said the time was not yet right for to decide on the Palestinian bid for the United Nations’ recognition.

Palestinian Authority is expected to make the appeal at the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Russia unites Palestinians on East Jerusalem issue

Ria Novosti (Link) - Yelena Suponina (May 25, 2011)

Palestinian and Libyan delegations left Moscow yesterday after causing quite a stir. The two delegations have nothing to do with each other: a representative of the Libyan opposition just happened to be in Moscow at the same time as a group of Palestinian leaders traveling as a single delegation for the first time in many years. Political scientists are wondering what Russia hopes to achieve with this flurry of Mideast diplomacy. To singlehandedly end the war in Libya? And surely Russia can’t expect to wave a magic wand and create an independent Palestinian state.

Nevertheless, the importance of these contacts - cloaked in semi-secrecy though they were - should not be underestimated. The official announcement of the arrival of the delegates was made at the last minute, although foreign diplomats and journalists had found out about it in advance. They have been busy discussing the news and eagerly awaiting the results ever since.

U.S. dollar could ‘collapse’: UN

Canada.com (Link) - Reuters - Patrick Worsnip (May 25, 2011)

The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a “collapse” of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline.

In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN economic division said such a development, stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings, would imperil the global financial system.

The report, an update of the UN “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011” report first issued in December, noted that the dollar exchange rate against a basket of other key currencies had reached its lowest level since the 1970s.

This trend, it said, had recently been driven in part by interest rate differentials between the United States and other major economies and growing concern about the sustainability of the U.S. public debt, half of which is held by foreigners.

“As a result, further (expected) losses of the book value of the vast foreign reserve holdings could trigger a crisis of confidence in the reserve currency, which would put the entire global financial system at risk,” it said.

There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says

Wired (Link) - Spencer Ackerman (May 25, 2011)

You think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden says it’s worse than you know.

Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. Wyden (D-Oregon) says that powers they grant the government on their face, the government applies a far broader legal interpretation — an interpretation that the government has conveniently classified, so it cannot be publicly assessed or challenged. But one prominent Patriot-watcher asserts that the secret interpretation empowers the government to deploy “dragnets” for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently.

“We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands.”

What exactly does Wyden mean by that? As a member of the intelligence committee, he laments that he can’t precisely explain without disclosing classified information. But one component of the Patriot Act in particular gives him immense pause: the so-called “business-records provision,” which empowers the FBI to get businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any “tangible things” it deems relevant to a security investigation.

Scottish municipality bans Israeli books

JTA (Link) (May 24, 2011)

A Scottish municipality has banned from its libraries books by Israeli authors and that were printed or published in Israel.

The West Dunbartonshire Council, consisting of towns and villages west of Glasgow, ordered new books by Israeli authors to be banned from the council’s libraries, according to reports.

The ban reportedly was ordered after last year’s raid by Israeli commandoes on a ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza that led to the death of nine Turkish nationals. The ban followed a decision made 2 1/2 years ago following the Gaza war to boycott goods produced in Israel. According to that law, the council and all its public bodies are forbidden to sell goods that originated from Israel.

A West Dunbartonshire Council spokesman told the UK Express over the weekend that the boycott is not retrospective and that no books have been removed from libraries.

The council told the Express that 10 other councils had agreed to join the boycott.

Germany demands seat for EU on UN security council

The Parliament (Link) - Martin Banks (May 24, 2011)

Germany’s foreign minister says Berlin is “fully committed” to the EU having a seat on the security council of the United Nations.

The comments by Guido Westerwelle in parliament on Tuesday will cause a stir in some member states, notably the UK and France, Europe’s only two permanent members of the UN security council.

Addressing the security and defence subcommittee, Westerwelle admitted that Berlin’s view represented a “problem” for those who are opposed to the EU having a permanent security council seat.

“We know that two EU member states are permanent members of the UN security council and that they do not want to give up their seats,” he said.

“This makes for a difficult situation but Germany’s goal is for the EU to become a permanent member of the UN security council.”

He also told the committee that, in addition to the EU, Germany wants to have a UN security council seat itself. At present, it is a “temporary” member.

A New Global Financial System

The Trumpet (Link) - Robert Morley (May 24, 2011)

The European Union is set to issue a very special bond this week. It is special because it is practically unprecedented. Just twice before has the EU borrowed money with the promise that all member nations would be responsible for paying it back.

If the Eurobonds become a permanent part of the European Union, the implications are global. A United European bond market could save the eurozone’s struggling economies.

But that is not the biggest implication. For the first time, the U.S. treasury market will have a real and potentially lethal competitor, and the world will finally have a true alternative to the dollar for reserve currency.

According to the Financial Times, the first bond auction in January led to “overwhelming demand” for the paper from investors around the world. The second issuance in March was equally successful, as investors in Asia and the Middle East snapped up the bonds. The success of the Eurobond sales contrasts sharply with the rising cost of raising money in most European countries.

Germany’s Klaus Regling, the head of the EU facility selling the Eurobonds, said investors saw the bonds as a “new way to diversify” their assets.

Putin decides to retake presidency

The Australian (Link) - Mark Franchetti (May 23, 2011)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has decided to run for the presidency next year, raising the possibility of a power struggle with his protégé Dmitry Medvedev, the incumbent Kremlin leader, say highly placed sources.

The once-close relationship between Mr. Putin, the tough-talking former KGB officer who has inspired a personality cult, and Mr. Medvedev, a softly spoken Twitter enthusiast, has become increasingly fractious amid speculation in Moscow that the younger man wishes to stand again.

Insiders familiar with both leaders said Mr. Putin, who served eight years as president before becoming Prime Minister three years ago, had begun to lose confidence in Mr. Medvedev’s loyalty.

Under the constitution, Mr. Putin’s move to reclaim the presidency could see him rule for two consecutive six-year terms until 2024, when he will be 72. If so, he would have served as prime minister or president for 24 years in all.

Massive Desalination Plant Gets Go Ahead

 Bridges For Peace (Link) - Isranet - Edgar Asher (May 23, 2011)

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz signed an agreement today approving the construction and operation of a massive new desalination facility near Ashdod [to turn seawater into usable water]. The plant, which will be one of the largest in the world, will, on completion, mean that almost 70% of Israel’s water needs will be met by desalinated sources. The new facility will cost $400 million and is expected to be completed in 2013. The go ahead follows an international tender which was awarded to IDE Technologies, an Israeli world leader in water technologies and the Singapore-based Hutchinson Water International Holdings Pte. The two organizations will design, plan and run the plant.

Investments have also been made by the European Investment Bank, Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi [Hapoalim and Leumi are two Israeli banks]. This will be the fourth desalination plant in Israel which has been built with the cooperation of the private sector.

Uzi Landau the National Infrastructure Minister said at the signing at the finance ministry. “The efforts of the National Infrastructure Ministry have come to fruition and the true beneficiary of these efforts is the Israeli citizen. We fight for every drop of water,” Landau said.

“Like the ‘finance minister of nature,’ I am proud to say that I am responsible for the fact that even after six years of drought, while our neighbors in the Middle East gave water to their citizens by means of tankers, residents of Israel are opening the tap and getting their water.” †