Watchman Newsletter

Herman Van Rompuy: Europe's first president to push for 'Euro tax'

Telegraph UK (Link) - Bruno Waterfield, Justin Stares and Colin Freeman (November 22, 2009)

Within days of taking office in January, the former Belgian prime minister will put his weight behind controversial proposals already floated by the commission's head, José Manuel Barroso, for a new "Euro tax".

He will add credence to Mr. Barroso's plans, to be formally tabled in the New Year, by arguing for a Euro-version of a "Tobin Tax" – a levy on financial transactions already floated by Gordon Brown as a solution to the international banking crisis. It would result in a stream of income direct to Brussels coffers, funding budgets that critics say are already rife with waste and overspending.

Mr. Van Rompuy, 62, who was appointed to the newly-created £320,000-a-year post at last week's special EU summit, set out his stall on direct Euro-taxes during a private speech at a recent meeting of the Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen. The group officially meets in secret, but when selected details of his remarks leaked out, his office was forced to issue a public statement on his behalf.

"The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources," he said. "The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed."

We'll be watching you, Mr Van Rompuy

Telegraph UK (Link) (November 20, 2009)

The new "foreign minister" of Europe is British. According to Gordon Brown, that should make us proud. The reality is that Europe does not need a foreign minister, and the person chosen to fill the post, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, is a Labour peer who has never been elected to a political position in her life. As for the new "President of Europe", the Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy, he was hardly better known until he emerged as a front-runner a few weeks ago.

The phrase "a pair of nonentities" is on many lips, and it is easy to understand why. David Miliband recently called for an EU representative who could stop the traffic; she may be a decent and capable individual, but it is hard to imagine Lady Ashton, former chairman of Hertfordshire Health Authority, stopping the traffic in St Albans, let alone Washington. Until her appointment as Trade Commissioner she had no background in foreign policy. No wonder she was not the first choice to fill this post (which a back-room deal had assigned to a Briton). She was not even the second. Or the third. Mr. Miliband did not want the post; neither did Lord Mandelson, while Geoff Hoon was unacceptable to Brussels. At which point Mr. Brown came up with the name of Cathy Ashton. Such is the transparent process by which the "high representative" of 500 million people was chosen.

Some Eurosceptics are comforting themselves with the thought that it is better to have "minnows" in these two posts than charismatic attention-seekers. Mr. Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton are, at heart, local politicians who have been dragged into the limelight. The former was reluctant to take the job of prime minister of Belgium, let alone one that makes him sound like the president of a continent. These functionaries will not exceed their job descriptions, the argument goes. Mr. Van Rompuy will be a slightly harassed chairman of the European Council rather than a chief executive with delusions of grandeur; Lady Ashton will co-ordinate rather than determine European foreign policy. So, unedifying though the past few weeks have been, we have not laid the foundations of a superstate.

11 people missing including police officer as hundreds are rescued from rising floods

Mail Online (Link) (November 20, 2009) Pictures at original link

Rescuers were desperately searching for a missing police officer today after floods caused a bridge to collapse as parts of northern Britain suffered the heaviest day of rain since records began.

The incident occurred as the rising River Derwent caused the Northside bridge to topple in the early hours of this morning in Workington, Cumbria - the worst hit region of the country.

Police said that 11 people were still unaccounted for as Environment Secretary Hilary Benn described the storms as 'a one-in-a-thousand-year flood.'

More than 200 people in the county who were trapped in their homes by flood waters have been rescued by emergency services after torrential rain caused rivers to burst their banks.

But many more are still stuck and the rescue mission is ongoing as more torrential rain was predicted to fall. Emergency services were searching 10 properties in Cockermouth they had not been able to reach previously.

Many people were forced to break through the roofs of their houses to escape the chaos.

Evolution to be compulsory subject in primary schools

Times Online UK (Link) - Greg Hurst (November 20, 2009)

Evolution is to become a compulsory subject for study in all state primary schools. The Government announced yesterday that Darwin’s theory of how life evolved through natural selection would be a legal requirement in science teaching from September 2011, although it will be left to schools to decide how this is done.

The move, which was welcomed by scientists, comes despite a drive to slim down the national curriculum for primary schools and leave teachers greater discretion over what to teach.

British history will also become, for the first time, an explicit part of the curriculum that primary schools must teach, although it makes no reference to which kings, battles, periods or events should be taught.

Church and other faith schools within the state system will have to educate their pupils about the theory of evolution, although officials said it could be taught in a context that reflected a school’s ethos, in a similar way to compulsory sex education for children aged under 15.

EU chooses unknowns for new top jobs

EU Observer (Link) - Honor Mahony (November 19, 2009)

EU leaders have chosen Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to be the first president of the European Council, while UK trade commissioner Catherine Ashton will become the bloc's foreign policy chief.

Welcoming the decision on Thursday evening (19 November), Swedish leader Fredrik Reinfeldt said: "What we were seeking were people to create continuity" and "to be the voice and face of Europe throughout the world."

Mr Van Rompuy, from the centre-right political family, is a trained economist and has been running Belgium for less than a year. He writes Haiku (Japanese verse) and is known for his low-key style, which includes a line in self-deprecatory humour and caravan holidays.

He came to prominence after Germany and France a few weeks ago agreed between themselves to promote him. Several diplomats subsequently suggested that his short term in office stood to his advantage as he has had no time to make enemies among other EU leaders.

The presidency decision - nominating a person from a small country with no international profile - confirms the speculation of recent weeks that the majority of member states wanted to choose a person whose main role will be that of an internal fixer, rather than someone who can open doors in Washington and Moscow.

Javier Solana Resigning From Top EU Foreign Job

Huliq News (Link) - Armen Hareyan (November 19, 2009) Video

As the EU leaders start their summit to select top three jobs Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs is stepping down. He says he is a convinced European and after being on the position for 15 years he thinks the position has to change as EU is turning a new chapter ahead of very exciting changes.

This man has been the face of the EU for about about 15 years. Solana says he will work for the same European ideals from a different position. He will give advise to the new EU top foreign minister, but not in public, rather in private, sharing his experience.

'IAEA inspects site outside Damascus'

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (November 17, 2009)

Following Monday's report that the IAEA had discovered processed uranium at three separate Syrian sites, UN inspectors on Tuesday conducted an emergency visit to a smaller site outside Damascus, Channel 10 reported.

According to Monday's report, IAEA inspectors had discovered enriched uranium in three sites besides Dir Azur, where IAF jets destroyed an alleged reactor in September 2007.

These findings have led the UN nuclear watchdog to suspect that Syria has uranium stockpiles.

The main cause for suspicion was the discovery of nuclear material traces near a small research nuclear reactor outside Damascus, the TV channel said Monday.

When the evidence was presented to the Syrians, they failed to provide convincing explanations, senior IAEA officials were quoted as saying.

Agency inspectors who visited the Dir Azur site after the 2007 bombing found highly processed plutonium, so the uranium traces may indicate Syria's nuclear program was more advanced than was previously assessed.

Javier Solana: I am not yet ready for retirement

Interfax (Link) (November 17, 2009)

Question: The Lisbon Treaty is going to enter into force very soon now. What is in your opinion the decisive importance of this document? If its benefit so evident - why this long and difficult process of ratification?

Answer: An European Union with 27 Member States cannot work the same way as an EU with fifteen Member States, like we were only five years ago. The Lisbon Treaty will from December 1 allow the EU to work in a much more efficient and coherent manner. There were indeed some obstacles in the ratification process. Taking decisions with 27 Member States is not an easy thing and the Lisbon Treaty will precisely improve the decision making process. I am very happy that the treaty has been ratified. This is a very important moment for the EU.

Q.: Evaluating the past decade, what kind of authority, what kind of powers were you short of as High Representative (HR), what new levers is getting your successor under the Lisbon Treaty?

A.: Let me say that I am very proud of what the EU has achieved on the international scene in the last decade. This year we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). Over that period of time, we have deployed 23 EU missions or operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia to help solving difficult crisis and to contribute to stabilization in tension areas.

Under the Lisbon Treaty, the High Representative will have under his authority tools that were - up to now - under the responsibility of different parts of the EU. It will be much easier for my successor to use the full range of EU tools that are adequate for each specific situation. The incoming HR will also have the support of an External Action Service that we are now putting in place and that will be among the biggest diplomatic services in the world. With this new setup, I am confident that the EU will be a in a better position to work with its partners on the international scene, for a more stable, more prosperous and safer world.

'If PA Declares State, Israel Will Annex Settlements'

Israel National News (Link) - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (November 16, 2009)

A government minister publicly advised the Palestinian Authority on Monday that if it unilaterally declares a new Arab state, Israel may annex parts of Judea and Samaria. Unlike eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria remain under military rule, although all Jewish residents have the same basic rights as other Israelis.

"If the Palestinians take such a unilateral line, Israel should also consider ... passing a law to annex some of the settlements," Environment Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) said on Voice of Israel government radio.

In the video, please click here to view the video, Cabinet Minister Dr. Uzi Landau (Israel Our Home) and MK Danny Danon (Likud) take a similarly hard line. Landau blames Netanyahu's "generosity" in accepting the "two state solution" - albeit with a demilitarized PA state - for the situation, and believes that the PA threats for a unilateral declaration of a state are a result of the concessional declarations and the building freeze in Judea and Samaria.

MK Danon says that Israel must not settle for annexing settlement blocs, but must rather annex Judea and Samaria in their entirety, except for Arab cities.

Italian Foreign Minister Proposes EU Army

The Trumpet (Link) (November 16, 2009)

Europe needs to create a common army now that the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview with the Times.

It is a “necessary objective to have a European army,” said Frattini. “Europe could deploy a joint naval fleet or air force in the Mediterranean: Why not?” he said. “We could say, look, one group of nations is ready at once, and leave the door open for others to join, as with the euro.” He said that the Lisbon Treaty allows “that if some countries want to enter into reinforced cooperation between themselves they can do so.”

“Take Afghanistan,” he said. “At present President Obama asks Poland, or Italy, or Great Britain for more troops. If there were a European army, he would have a ‘toolbox’ to draw from. He might need 30 airplanes: He would be able to ask if the European army was in a position to provide them.”

At the moment, Frattini said, “every country duplicates its forces, each of us puts armored cars, men, tanks, planes, into Afghanistan. If there were a European army, Italy could send planes, France could send tanks, Britain could send armored cars, and in this way we would optimize the use of our resources. Perhaps we won’t get there immediately, but that is the idea of a European army.”

EU foreign minister has 'impossible' task ahead

EU Observer (Link) - Honor Mahony (November 16, 2009)

The tasks of the proposed new EU foreign minister look relatively clear-cut and powerful on paper but analysts and politicians in Brussels suggest the person will need to be superhuman to manage all that is foreseen under the Lisbon Treaty.

Formally known as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the beefed-up position puts foreign policy clout and the financial means to implement it into the hands of one person.

Until now, the two strands have been split between the foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the EU external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero Waldner.

The set-up proposed under the EU's new institutional rules, due to come into place on 1 December, says the foreign minister will chair the monthly meetings of his national counterparts, be a vice-president of the European Commission, and run the nascent diplomatic service.

Germany leads eurozone out of recession

Times Online (Link) - Francesca Steele (November 13, 2009)

The eurozone has emerged from recession in the third quarter, boosted by strong growth in Germany, leaving Britain languishing in its longest downturn in history.

The eurozone, comprising the 16 countries that use the euro, reported that gross domestic product (GDP) — a key measure of economic health — grew by 0.4 per cent in the three months to September. The 27-nation European Union, home to half a billion people, also reported growth of 0.2 per cent in the third quarter.

Germany, the zone’s biggest economy, confirmed its recovery, after exiting recession in the second quarter, when it said that GDP increased by 0.7 per cent in the third quarter. France also underlined its recovery, with 0.3 per cent growth.

However, the rate of growth for Europe’s two largest economies was not as high as expected. Economists had forecast that Germany would grow by about 0.8 per cent in the third quarter, and France by 0.6 per cent.

Britain remains the only leading economy still in recession after America joined Germany, France, Japan and China in exiting the downturn.

Eight million have no job (and don't even want one)

Daily Mail (Link) - Becky Barrow (November 12, 2009)

The number of people who do not have a job - and are not bothering to look for one - has soared to its highest since records began in 1971.

A record 7.9million - one in five people of working age - are ' economically inactive'. That is more than the entire population of Greater London.

Tories called the figures from the Office for National Statistics ' shocking' and said they exposed an ' alarming trend'. Theresa May, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: 'A culture of worklessness has become rife in pockets of Brown's Britain.

'It is shocking that one in five people of working age is economically inactive and that five million people have never worked under this government.

'Labour's decision to duck the real challenge of welfare reform over the past decade has fuelled this alarming trend.'

The Goldstone Report

The Omega Letter (Link) - Jack Kinsella (November 10, 2009)

The United Nations Human Rights Council has formally endorsed the conclusions of the UN-commissioned "Goldstone Report" that accuses the government of Israel of war crimes during the Operation Cast Lead assault on Gaza Strip terrorists.

The 574-page report included accusations that Israeli forces indiscriminately attacked universities, mosques and civilian areas. Its pages are full of testimony from witnesses, or partial witnesses or, more accurately, non-witnesses who heard stories from their brother-in-law who knows someone who was almost there.

As South African jurist Richard Goldstone himself described it, "We had to do the best we could with the material we had."

But if the Goldstone Report represents all the evidence they had, they didn't have much. One example of a non-finding contained in the report concerning the Israeli attack on Gaza's Islamic University read this way:

"These were civilian, educational buildings and the mission did not find any information about their use as a military facility."

They didn't look very hard. The evidence they were looking for was in the Palestinian Broadcasting Authority archives.

The Islamic University was previously featured as the site of clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen, with Fatah soldiers identifying it as a weapons laboratory for the new and improved Qassam rockets that Hamas fires by the thousands into Israel. Palestinian Authority television had a full display of the weapons cache found in the Islamic University at the time.

A Boatload of Trouble

Foreign Policy (Link) - Magnus Norell (November 9, 2009)

Think Hezbollah was tamed following the 2006 war? The recent seizure of a cargo ship full of weapons intended for the organization proves otherwise.

Ever since the end of the war in the summer of 2006 between Israel and the radical Lebanese Shiite organization, Hezbollah, there has been a major effort on the part of Hezbollah to rearm, especially with offensive weapons such as rockets and medium-range missiles. The organization has also rebuilt its bunker and defensive positions in southern Lebanon, despite the presence of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which expanded following the 2006 war to its current size of 12,425 troops from 30 countries.

In sheer numbers, this international force is much larger than the one I personally observed in southern Lebanon on numerous extended visits earlier this decade, when my own country of Sweden was actively participating in UNIFIL's mission. Yet the sad fact is that today, notwithstanding its greatly increased size and strengthened mandate, UNIFIL has consistently failed to hinder Hezbollah from regaining its position as the only serious political and military player in southern Lebanon. The organization has even been unable to stop continued shipments of arms to Hezbollah, despite UNIFIL's explicit U.N. mandate against them. These arms shipments come mainly from Hezbollah's leading backer, Iran. Since long before the 2006 war, the bulk of the weapons and munitions came overland through Syria -- where they were flown in from Iran -- but there have been attempts to smuggle weapons into Lebanon by sea as well.

PM heads to U.S. under threat of Palestinian statehood declaration

Haaretz (Link) - Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya (November 8, 2009)

Concerns are growing in Israel's government over the possibility of a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence within the 1967 borders, a move which could potentially be recognized by the United Nations Security Council.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently asked the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to veto any such proposal, after reports reached Jerusalem of support for such a declaration from major European Union countries, and apparently also certain U.S. officials.

The reports indicated that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has reached a secret understanding with the Obama administration over U.S. recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Such recognition would likely transform any Israeli presence across the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, into an illegal incursion to which the Palestinians would be entitled to engage in measures of self-defense.

In late August Fayyad presented the international community with a detailed plan for building up Palestinian Authority institutions and set a timetable of up to two years for its implementation. Senior Israeli officials said Fayyad's plan initially met with positive reaction in Jerusalem for its emphasis on institution-building and making security services more efficient.

But some Israeli officials told Haaretz that alongside the clauses reported in the media - which are similar to elements of Netanyahu's call for "economic peace" between Israel and the Palestinians - Fayyad's plan also contains a classified, unreleased portion stipulating a unilateral declaration of independence.

The end of the great deception

Telegraph UK (Link) - Christopher Booker (November 7, 2009)

So the trap has snapped shut. It was somehow apt that the politician who finally let the EU get the constitution it has craved so long should have been President Vaclav Klaus, the veteran anti-Communist who predicted, just before the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004, that it would mean the end of his country as "an independent sovereign state." And what a delightful irony that Pravda, of all newspapers, greeted the news last week with the headline: "Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU is now a reincarnation of the Soviet Union."

Tomorrow, as the EU's leaders gather in Berlin to celebrate the end of that wall, they will also celebrate the rise of a new one – a wall they have built around themselves, that separates Europe's politicians from all their subject peoples. From December 1, the Lisbon Treaty comes into force. (How long before they give it back its original name, "A Constitution for Europe"?) The EU will at last have the supreme government it has wanted so long – unelected, unaccountable and, as even its own polls show, less popular with those it rules over than ever before. But what do the politicians care? They have the power, and we now have a government we can never dismiss.

The Modest Superpower

Newsweek (Link) - Stefan Theil (November 7, 2009)

It's become all fashionable in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing these days to dismiss Europe as an aging continent in terminal decline. A June report from a Moscow think tank close to the Kremlin described Europe as weak in the face of Russian might, and last year's U.S. National Intelligence Council assessment of global power shifts called the EU "a hobbled giant" plagued by "internal bickering."

Such broadsides are easy to understand. The EU today is divided on all kinds of issues, from how to deal with Russia to the future of NATO. Europe's banks still have more toxic assets on their books than America's. With Britain, France, and Germany often pursuing separate foreign--policy goals, the idea of an EU able to translate its size and wealth into hard power and common purpose seems as remote as ever.

Yet all these critiques miss a stark reality. Even as America and Russia have been humbled by the economic crisis and China and India remain preoccupied with internal problems, Europe is thriving. Exactly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the continent has been transformed: it is more united, prosperous, and secure than at any time in history. This year, Europe surpassed the United States in wealth, according to the Boston Consulting Group. Next year, Europe's population is expected to hit half a billion and its GDP to nearly match that of the U.S. and China combined. The financial crisis has turned Europe's softer, more regulated brand of capitalism into the preferred model for much of the world—even the United States—and a half-dozen countries are now seeking EU membership in order to gain economic shelter from the ongoing storm. The crisis itself, for all its terrible effects on the EU economy, has unexpectedly strengthened the continent's cohesion, as has the just-ratified Lisbon Treaty, which streamlines the way Europe runs its affairs. Overseas, the EU is now responsible for much of the world's development aid and has 71,000 troops stationed beyond its shores, a global footprint second only to America. This is not to say there aren't many areas where Europe is still divided and punches below its weight. But by most measures, the EU looks better and better by the day.

G20 Vows to Spur Fragile Growth

BBC News (Link) (November 7, 2009)

Finance ministers from developing and rich countries meeting in Scotland have pledged to keep stimulus measures in place until global recovery is assured.

A statement issued after the G20 meeting says the recovery is "uneven" and remains dependent on support, while unemployment is a "major" concern.

Earlier, British PM Gordon Brown called for a fund for bank bailouts, possibly paid for by a tax on transactions.

But the proposal received a lukewarm response from other G20 countries.

After the meeting in St Andrews, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said there was a "very broad consensus that growth remains the dominant policy imperative across our economies".

All for One?

Foreign Policy (Link) - Annie Lowrey (November 6, 2009)

The Lisbon Treaty creates an EU president, sure. But it's the new foreign policy czar who might really change the world.

Something that might augur a truly titanic shift in foreign affairs happened this week. It involves possibly sweeping foreign-policy changes in two of the world's five official nuclear states. It promises to alter the Middle East peace process, negotiations with Iran, and policies regarding Russian missile defense. It will likely necessitate scores of new embassies. It directly affects 500 million people and indirectly affects the rest of the world.

On Tuesday, Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, grumblingly signed the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. His was the last signature needed to ratify the agreement, which streamlines Brussels's byzantine and slow-moving policymaking process and creates two leadership roles, an elected president with a 30-month term and a high representative for foreign policy.

Most focus has centered on the former position, whose precise responsibilities and powers EU leaders plan to hash out at a Nov. 11 summit. (The treaty comes into formal effect in December, and the new president is expected to take office on New Year's Day.) The somewhat sexy idea of a European president has led to wild speculation as to who might fill it, with dozens of potential candidates mentioned, most often the silver-tongued and internationally renowned Tony Blair and the barely known center-right Dutch leader Jan Peter Balkenende.

But it's actually the latter gig that has the most potential to transform how Brussels works and how Europe relates to the world. The president is likely to be just a figurehead rather than any kind of revolutionary leader. Just this week, a joint statement from the leaders of Denmark, Finland, and Ireland stressed that the president should be a "chairman," not a "chief." The characteristic most often cited as necessary is "consensus-building." For the eight years that the Lisbon Treaty and its prior incarnations have wended their way through various EU and European institutions, the concern has always been that the president might have too much authority, not too little.

Syria's statement at UN General Assembly debate on goldstone report

Syrian Arab News Agency (Link) - Mazen Eyon (November 6, 2009)

Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja'afari said that the Syrian delegation has voted in favor of the decision adopted by the UN General Assembly today on holding the Israeli occupation authorities responsible for the crimes they perpetrated during the latest aggression on Gaza.

"Syria sees the member countries voting for that decision as a criterion of their credibility towards one of the important aspects in the work of the international organization," al-Ja'afari said in Syria's statement at the UN General Assembly debate on Goldstone report Thursday evening.

"There is no justification for any country not to vote in favor of that modest decision because the human duty and responsibility of the international organization, in the face of the Israeli crimes, impose this attitude," al-Ja'afari said, adding that allowing Israel to continue its violation of the human international law and the human rights law means that these countries have abandoned their responsibilities and gone far away in practicing double standard policy.

The statement said that conversing facts is a denying of peoples' right, living under occupation, to resist their occupiers, adding that Syria, along with a number of countries that share this certainty, will not accept to convert right to injustice or let oppression and killing defeat justice and law.

It urged the UN member countries to support that decision and bring the Israelis who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity to international justice.

Stronger EU?

Riz Khan Show (November 5, 2009) (Video)

Now that the Lisbon Treaty has finally been ratified, the European Union can begin to flex a stronger muscle in global affairs.

But will it sacrifice the power of individual member states in the process?

This week, the Czech Republic became the 27th and final EU nation to sign the treaty, bringing to a close a reform process that began eight years ago when the union consisted of only 15 members.

The agreement is designed to streamline the European Union and create more decision-making efficiency, a greater role for European and national parliaments, and increased European clarity on foreign affairs.

A new EU president will soon be appointed to a two-and-a-half year term - a big change from the current six-month revolving presidency - and the foreign affairs portfolio will also be expanded and strengthened to increase the EU's ability to act quickly and effectively in world affairs.

Today we ask: How will the newly-approved Lisbon Treaty shape Europe's future relationships with the rest of the world, and will it affect internal relationships between member states?

Joining the show is Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.

Who Owns the Land of Israel Today?

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Arno Froese (November 5, 2009)

The answer to this question is fiercely debated between the Jews and Arabs who live in Israel and their surrounding neighbor states. It seems as though the entire world gets involved when it comes to the ownership of the land of Israel. It is rather significant that not a single country sides with the territorial boundaries God ordained and preserved in His Word. The deed to the land of Israel clearly states that the Jews are the original and only legitimate owners defined by geographical references. Genesis 15:18 says:

“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Notice that this resolution is written in the past tense,

“...have I given this land....”

Of course, the world disregards what the Bible says about this land and its people, so let's look at it from a political perspective. Israel fought five major wars against its Arab neighbors and was victorious each time. But something strange happened; Israel was not allowed to keep the territory it had conquered. Why not? The nations of the world, particularly the United States, have pressured Israel into surrendering areas of the Promised Land to the Arabs, from whom the Jews conquered the land. This is unusual because every country was established by the force of weapons.

EU military chiefs nervous about Lisbon Treaty implications

EU Observer (Link) - Valentina Pop (November 5, 2009)

EU military chiefs are nervous that their advice will not carry the same weight once the new Lisbon Treaty is in place and that the planned diplomatic service will not contain enough experienced military personnel.

Europe's chiefs of defence gathered in Brussels on Wednesday (4 November) to review all military operations under the EU flag and to witness the handover of power from outgoing EU military committee chair, Frenchman Henri Bentegeat, to Sweden's Hakan Syren.

But the hotter topic - dealt with in "informal talks" - was the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the current EU military set up, the two generals told journalists after the meeting.

Once in force on 1 December, the Lisbon Treaty will merge the current military planning unit with a civilian one and fold all operational and planning divisions into the diplomatic service, due to be fully up and running by 2012.

The military chiefs will no longer report to the rotating EU presidency, but directly to the new EU foreign minister, who will also be a vice-president of the European Commission.

Spain, Israel, and the Fight over UNIFIL

Pajamas Media (Link) -  Soeren Kern (November 5, 2009)

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has canceled a November 4 and 5 visit to Spain amid a dispute over the command of the European-led United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The visit was called off after reports surfaced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secretly asked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to keep Italy in command of the 13,000-strong UNIFIL force for six months longer than planned, instead of allowing Spain to take over.

Italian General Claudio Graziano is scheduled to turn the command over to a Spanish general in February 2010. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Israeli officials want Graziano to stay on because they believe that replacing the UNIFIL commander now might further destabilize the already precarious security situation in southern Lebanon. The Spanish newspaper El País adds that Italian officials want to retain the command because it would be beneficial to Graziano’s career.

In any case, considering that Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero leads what is arguably the most anti-Israel government in Europe, Netanyahu is probably justified in having some misgivings about a Spanish-led UNIFIL.

Indeed, the unabashedly pro-Arab, pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah, and pro-Iranian Zapatero says the Middle East will be a top  priority when Spain takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in January 2010. Spanish officials now worry that a six-month delay in taking over the UNIFIL command will deprive Zapatero of a bully pulpit he believes will help him raise his profile in the region.

BOE Officials Throw Money at Economy

Bloomberg (Link) - Svenja O’Donnell (November 5, 2009)

The Bank of England may increase its bond-purchase plan by 50 billion pounds ($83 billion) today as central bankers and politicians scramble to shore up Britain’s banking system and drag the economy out of recession.

Governor Mervyn King’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee will expand the asset-buying program to 225 billion pounds at 12 p.m. in London, the median of 48 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey shows. That follows Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s pledge this week to spend almost 40 billion pounds in a second bailout of two the nation’s biggest banks.

Any increase in the Bank of England’s emergency program would be the third since King unveiled the plan in March. Brown’s first bank bailout, the government’s fiscal stimulus measures and an injection of 175 billion pounds in newly printed central bank money have so far failed to end Britain’s longest recession on record.

“They’ve got to throw money at it,” said Neil Mackinnon, an economist at VTB Capital Plc and a former U.K. Treasury official. “The fact of the matter is that the U.K. economy is lagging behind. As to whether quantitative easing is working, the jury is still out.”

The central bank will keep its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent, according to all 60 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The European Central Bank, which also meets today, will maintain its main rate at 1 percent at 1:45 p.m. in Frankfurt, a separate survey showed.

The EU's next step after the Lisbon treaty: Choose a president

Christian Science Monitor (Link) - Robert Marquand (November 4, 2009)

Europe has waited since 1992 to agree on a stronger federal identity – a president and a more efficient means to exercise its clout overseas.

Now that Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the final holdout, signed a unity treaty Tuesday, a new European Union may formally be in place by Dec. 1.

The EU is not waiting around for its next move. In less than two weeks – Nov. 12 or 15, depending on scheduling – the Council of Europe is expected to decide on its first president, a "George Washington of Europe," and on a high representative for foreign affairs.

Those who desire a more united and potent Europe on the world stage see these two offices representing over time a stronger corporate face with power states like the US, China, and Russia in ways that current EU leaders can't achieve.

"Phone lines between chancelleries in Europe are pretty hot right now, everyone is looking for the right candidate," says Pascale Joannin, general manager of the Robert Schuman foundation in Paris. "We've never had a president of Europe before, and we need to find the right name for the person in charge of Europe."

Even Europe fears Muslim immigration

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (November 4, 2009)

A major motivating factor for European countries forging agreements with Arab and Islamic nations is to temper Muslim immigration to Europe, an Egyptian diplomatic source told WND.

Separately, an Israeli foreign ministry official who recently held meetings with European Union diplomats regarding a possible economic deal with Syria reported hearing the same motivating factors.

European diplomats "talked about how part of their drive to forge Mediterranean agreements involves stemming the Muslim immigration by creating better opportunities for Arabs and Muslims in their home countries," said the Israeli official.

The Egyptian diplomatic source said that some EU diplomats admitted their willingness to put aside objections to trade agreements due to some of the Mediterranean countries' humanitarian rights violations.

"With regard to the equilibrium between insisting on respect for human rights and the facts of Muslim immigrants invading Europe, the EU is giving their priority to solving the second question. This is what we were hearing," said the source.

The Real Significance of Angela Merkel’s Speech to U.S. Congress

The Trumpet (Link) - Ron Fraser (November 3, 2009)

For only the second time since World War II, a German chancellor has addressed the U.S. Congress. Amazingly, the childish commentators from the popular press ignored the most momentous of Angela Merkel’s statements and zeroed in on a topic that the most astute of climate scientists are increasingly rejecting—the global warming hoax!

Manipulators of public opinion have had a field day using the global warming fear as a smokescreen behind which to hide their true globalist political agenda. This is a reality to which the press and mass media, with few exceptions, remain largely blinded.

It’s time to face up to reality. The real meat was in the main body of Merkel’s speech, not in the global warming smokescreen tagged on the end, though this got the most applause from the Democrat side of the House.

Chancellor Merkel’s address comes at a crucial time in transatlantic relations. The U.S. is in decline politically, economically and financially. The European Union stands on the brink of overnight becoming a giant imperial power, a global power in its own right. In fact, it is becoming the very power that will fill the increasing economic, political and military vacuum being created in the world through America’s decline.

The nation that stands in the lead of the European empire is Germany. As the day approaches for ratification of the treaty that will launch the EU, overnight, as a global player, it is perhaps both a fitting and most historic—let alone prophetic—occasion of huge importance that Washington witnessed today with the German chancellor’s address. Few in that audience would have garnered the truth of the reality America faces, reading between the lines of the chancellor’s speech.

Klaus signature completes EU treaty ratification

EU Observer (Link) - Andrew Willis (November 3, 2009)

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has finally signed the Lisbon Treaty, ending a highly drawn out ratification process that left many wondering whether the document's provisions would ever see the light of day.

"I signed the Lisbon Treaty today at 15.00 (CET)," Klaus told reporters on Tuesday (3 November).

His signature, the last of EU leaders, follows on from a Czech constitutional court decision early on Tuesday morning that ruled in favour of the Lisbon Treaty's compatibility with the Czech constitution.

"It's now absolutely clear that the Lisbon Treaty will enter into force soon," said European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso upon hearing the news.

Swedish prime minister and current EU president Fredrik Reinfeldt also sought to draw a line under the process.

"His signature ends a far too long period of institutional focus within the EU. It opens up for a more democratic, transparent and efficient Union," he said.