Watchman Newsletter

Netanyahu: Palestinians distort history

YNet News (Link) - Attila Somfalvi (November 26, 2010)

The Palestinians are spreading libelous propaganda against Israel and distort historical facts about the causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged Thursday.

The Palestinian refugee problem “is a result of what happened in 1948,” the PM told Likud activists at the party’s Tel Aviv headquarters. “Had they refrained from attacking us, these people would not have become refugees,” he said.

Netanyahu also dismissed claims that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are the root cause of the conflict.

“They are trying to say that our presence in Judea and Samaria is the reason for the conflict, which isn’t true,” he said. “They took the results of the 1967 conflict – that is, the construction in Judea and Samaria – and turned them into the reason for the conflict.”

EU rescue costs start to threaten Germany itself

The Telegraph UK (Link) - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (November 26, 2010)

The escalating debt crisis on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union.

Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring risk on German, French and Dutch bonds have surged over recent days, rising significantly above the levels of non-EMU states in Scandinavia.

“Germany cannot keep paying for bail-outs without going bankrupt itself,” said Professor Wilhelm Hankel, of Frankfurt University. “This is frightening people. You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver. It is like an underground Switzerland within our borders. People have terrible memories of 1948 and 1923 when they lost their savings.”

The refrain was picked up this week by German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. “We’re not swimming in money, we’re drowning in debts,” he told the Bundestag.

While Germany’s public and private debt is not extreme, it is very high for a country on the cusp of an acute ageing crisis. Adjusted for demographics, Germany is already one of the most indebted nations in the world.

‘Iran is a latter-day Nazi Germany’

Haaretz (Link) - Yossi Melman (November 26, 2010)

If it were up to Reza Kahlili, he would immediately order a bombing of his native Iran, in order to halt its nuclear program and bring down the Islamic Republic and the ayatollahs. And since he doesn’t believe the United States will do that, he hopes Israel will.

“I strongly believe that it’s 1938 all over again,” he says in a telephone interview from California, when the world groveled before Germany, hoping to appease the looming Nazi monster. “The difference is that this time the consequences would be much worse than World War II. The West had the opportunity to overthrow this regime in Tehran without firing a single bullet last year when the mass uprising happened, but now I truly believe it will be war whether we want it or not, and for that reason I think we should determine the terms of it. The question to ask ourselves is: Do we want to confront them now or when they have the nukes? That’s going to make a big difference to the millions who will lose their lives once they get the nukes.”

We can, of course, make light of these words when they are spoken by Kahlili, an outspoken opponent of the ayatollahs who identifies with conservative right-wing circles in the United States, and see them as nothing more than warmongering, personal paranoia or dangerous delusions. And yet they are worth hearing because they come from a CIA agent who carried out espionage missions within the Revolutionary Guards, the very backbone of the regime.

Syrian FM warns of war with ‘peace evading’ Israel

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (November 26, 2010)

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Friday warned of the consequences that a war with Israel could entail.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Moscow News, Moallem said “there is no doubt that closing the horizons to peace may lead to a possible war. This option always exists in our region, as Israel usually outrageously evades the commitment to peace.”

“I want to stress that a new war will not result in a winner and loser,” the Syrian foreign minister added. “Everyone will lose because the existing advanced military technology can cause great damage, even for the side with huge military power.”

Erdogan: We won’t be silent if Israel attacks Lebanon, Gaza

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (November 25, 2010)

Turkey will not stay silent in the event of an Israeli attack on Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Beirut on Thursday, according to an AFP report.

“Does (Israel) think it can enter Lebanon with the most modern aircraft and tanks to kill women and children, and destroy schools and hospitals, and then expect us to remain silent,” Erdogan said on the final day of a two-day visit to Lebanon.

“Does it think it can use the most modern weapons, phosphorus munitions and cluster bombs to kill children in Gaza and then expect us to remain silent? We will not be silent and we will support justice by all means available to us,” he added.

Mideast expert: US letter on freeze deal was completed

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Hilary Leila Krieger & Herb Keinon (November 24, 2010)

The parties have finalized the text for the US letter to Israel concerning the terms of a renewed settlement freeze, according to Middle East expert David Makovsky.

Makovsky highlighted, however, complicating factors in the effort to get from a deal on paper to actually having it approved by the Israeli cabinet and signed by the United States.

Makovsky, who spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday, recently returned to the US after extensive conversations with Israeli and Arab leaders.

The crux of the deal centers on the US providing Israel with advanced fighter jets in return for a three-month West Bank settlement freeze that both the US administration and the government in Jerusalem hope will get Palestinians back to the negotiating table, he said.

Makovsky pointed out that while the Obama administration is making the offer, it’s Congress that must eventually sign off on sending fighter jets to Israel. Although Congress is typically supportive of Israeli aid and military acquisitions, incoming Republicans who will be taking over the US House have been talking about the need to save money and perhaps cut foreign aid.

Tensions high as North, South Korea trade shelling

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Hyung-Jin Kim & Kwang-Tae Kim (November 23, 2010)

North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire Tuesday along their disputed frontier, raising tensions between the rivals to their highest level in more than a decade. The communist nation warned of more military strikes if the South encroaches on the maritime border by “even 0.001 millimeter.”

The skirmish began when North Korea warned the South to halt military drills near their sea border, according to South Korean officials. When Seoul refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters — but away from the North Korean shore — the North retaliated by shelling the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations and a small civilian population.

Seoul responded by unleashing its own barrage from K-9 155mm self-propelled howitzers and scrambling fighter jets. Two South Korean marines were killed in the shelling that also injured 15 troops and three civilians.

Officials in Seoul said there could be considerable North Korean casualties.

Obama’s UN Officials Silent on Anti-Israel Statements at UN

Israel National News (Link) - Chana Ya’ar (November 22, 2010)

The United States remained silent while Syria and Lebanon said at the United Nations General Assembly Fourth Committee that Israel is a country of “war lovers” and is the source of terrorism in the Middle East. However, in the nine committee resolutions against Israel this month, the United States either abstained or voted against them.

In a separate discussion at the U.N. Human Rights Council, which can be seen and heard on video below, Lebanon expressed its objections to “the establishment of the Zionist entity on Palestinian territory.”

Every United Nations member state was asked to submit a report to the Council on its national human rights record, which was then reviewed by U.N. members who engaged in a short dialogue with the state representatives.

After Lebanon submitted its report objecting to the creation of the State of Israel, Israel’s representative responded, “My delegation would like to state on record our strong objection to the inappropriate and abusive language used to reference the State of Israel. Unfortunately, the existence of a dominant terrorist organization, Hizbullah, as well as political tensions and struggles between different vital groups …”

March of the Euro police: The shocking powers of prosecution the EU has over all of us

The Daily Mail UK (Link) - Mary Ellen Synon (November 22, 2010)

The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered an alarming array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public.

These include:

• Europol, the £60 million-a-year European criminal intelligence agency, whose officers have diplomatic immunity.

• An 800-strong paramilitary police force called the European Gendarmerie Force.

• The European Arrest Warrant, which now allows British citizens to be seized in the UK and sent without appeal to foreign jails for months or years without bail while awaiting trial.

Europol now has more than 650 officials at its headquarters in The Hague, from where it directs investigations across Europe.

When its Euro police officers are operating in the UK they have diplomatic immunity and cannot be touched by the British judiciary.

Europol’s director is Rob Wainwright, 43, a Welsh-speaking former British civil servant who joined Europol last year. He and his officials will move into a new £8.5 million building next year.

Their official website even lists ‘Europol fictional appearances,’ among them the film Ocean’s 12, in which Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a Europol agent.

COSI creep: or how the EU Home Office will reach into every part of your life

Daily Mail UK (Link) - Mary Ellen Synon (November 22, 2010)

In my investigation for this week’s Mail on Sunday about the shocking powers of prosecution the EU now has over all of us -- you can read it in yesterday’s blog post -- I could only include a brief warning about the sinister new committee to be set up under Article 71 of the Lisbon Treaty.

But the committee is so dangerous that it needs more than a brief warning. Here is an example of how this new Committee on Operational Co-operation on Internal Security -- known as COSI -- will be able to reach into every part of your life. Critics say it is the beginning of an EU Home Office. And it is. But it could be even worse than that.

The key lies in the vagueness the treaty gives to COSI’s powers. The committee is charged simply with ensuring ‘operational co-operation on internal security.’ But nowhere does the treaty define ‘internal security.’

What the elite running the EU institutions mean when they keep something as vague as that is: ‘We intend to make it mean what we want to make it mean. Just sign the contract.’

The ‘Build America’ Debt Bomb

The Wall Street Journal (Link) - Steven Malanga (November 22, 2010)

In a Rasmussen poll taken before the midterm election, half of the respondents said that members of Congress who supported the 2009 federal stimulus didn’t deserve to be re-elected. Many weren’t. Yet the lame-duck Congress might extend one of the key elements of that stimulus: “Build America Bonds” (BABs). States and municipalities have used these bonds to rack up some $160 billion in new debt over the last 19 months.

Build America Bonds were created to re-energize the municipal bond market, which contracted sharply in late 2008. Investors had become wary that the credit crunch would spread to municipals, as insurers who back state and local bonds got hurt in other markets and stopped insuring public debt. Facing declining tax revenue and growing deficits, some local governments suddenly couldn’t borrow.

The Obama administration responded with a new kind of taxable bond that offered a 35% federal subsidy on the interest rate. Washington designed the subsidy to appeal to investors such as pension funds and overseas buyers who don’t buy traditional municipal bonds because they can’t take advantage of their tax-free status. The federal subsidy allowed states and cities to offer these investors an attractive return. The catch: Congress authorized the program only through 2010, to allay concerns that BABs would become a permanent bailout.

US has no closer partner than Europe, says Obama

EU Observer (Link) - Valentina Pop (November 22, 2010)

EU leaders meeting US President Barack Obama on Saturday chose not to discuss any contentious matters in an exercise meant to show how well the transatlantic relationship works, after Mr Obama had snubbed them earlier this year.

“This summit was not as exciting as other summits, because we basically agree on everything,” Mr Obama told reporters on Saturday night, after a two-day marathon session of meetings at the Nato summit in Lisbon, ending with a two-hour session with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

“Nevertheless,” Mr Obama argued, “I value these meetings” because the US “has no closer partner than Europe.”

The reassurances about the importance of EU-US relation come after Mr Obama earlier this year rejected an invitation to Madrid by the then Spanish EU presidency, with White House officials citing the need for the Europeans to make up their minds who represents the EU.

Ireland applies for €90bn bail-out as eurozone trembles

EU Observer (Link) - Leigh Phillips (November 22, 2010)

The Irish government has applied for an EU-IMF bail-out of up to €90 billion to save its banking sector from collapse and reduce its borrowing costs, a move that in effect places Irish democracy, like that of Greece, under the protectorship of experts from Brussels and Washington.

Ireland’s finance minister, Brian Lenihan, made the announcement speaking to public radio on Sunday evening (21 November) that he would recommend the application to a cabinet meeting later that night. The taoiseach, the country’s prime minister, Brian Cowen, publicly addressed his nation, admitting to what had been denied for a week.

In a bitter exchange with an Irish reporter, the leader rejected responsibility for the crisis: “I will defend my position throughout my political career. I don’t accept your contention that I am the bogeyman you are looking for.”

European Union finance ministers on Sunday night gave the nod to the loan, following feverish negotiations between the Irish government and a team of experts from the troika of the EU, the ECB and the IMF, flown into Dublin on Thursday, although exact sums have yet to be announced, following an emergency meeting held at the same time as the Irish cabinet discussion.

‘Evidence links Hizbullah to 2005 Hariri assassination’

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (December 22, 2010)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) published a report on Sunday night implicating Hizbullah in  the 2005 murder of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, with what is portrayed by the publishers as clear evidence.

The report details aspects of the ongoing investigation which allegedly strongly link Hizbullah to the murder via an intricate Lebanese network of mobile phones.

According to CBC, a now-deceased Lebanese police officer, Wissam Eid, discovered the network through a detailed analysis of records and provided the information to the UN investigators in 2008. The results point “overwhelmingly” to Hizbullah’s involvement, they say, showing the members of the group were in frequent contact on the day of the attack and coordinated the detonation.

Military Intelligence Chief: Israel in an “Unprecedented” Period of Security, but Iran can Already Produce a Nuclear Bomb

Joel Rosenberg’s Blog (Link) - Joel Rosenberg (November 22, 2010)

Israel’s outgoing military intelligence chief, Major General Amos Yadlin, made three remarkable statements in testimony to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, reports Haaretz:

ISRAEL IS MORE SECURE THAN EVER BEFORE — “The recent security calm is unprecedented,” Yadlin told the parliamentary committee. Despite emerging and serious threats from Iran and her Radical Islamic allies, for the moment Israel is enjoying a period of remarkable calm in light of the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, almost no terrorism emanating out of the West Bank, relative calm in Gaza in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, relatively calm borders for the last four years with Lebanon and Syria, and a regime change in Iraq that led to a nascent but improving democracy. “ Israel’s deterrence is very strong but the lull [in regional violence] shouldn’t mislead anyone, the opposite is true. Our enemies are strengthening and arming,” Yadlin added. Does this period qualify as Jews living “securely” in the land of Israel prior to the rise of a Russian-Iranian led coalition that will launch the “War of Gog and Magog” again Israel in the “last days,” as foretold in Ezekiel 38-39? For the moment, it is, in my view, too early to draw a conclusion one way or the other, but it is certainly worth careful consideration.

NATO planning ‘integral’ role in enforcing Mideast peace deal

Haaretz (Link) - Amir Oren (November 21, 2010)

NATO will play an integral role in enforcing a Middle East peace deal, but will not play a direct role in reaching that agreement, the alliance’s secretary general told Haaretz this weekend.

“If a Middle East peace agreement is reached, an international military force will be needed to monitor and implement it,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

At a press briefing in the Portuguese capital, the secretary general said that unlike its member states, NATO as an organization is not involved in the peace process, but expressed support for the efforts of the United States and the other members of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peace negotiators to reach a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Rasmussen will visit Israel in February of the coming year.

Irish government backs bail-out

BBC News (Link) (November 21, 2010)

The Republic of Ireland will make a formal request for international aid to shore up its finances later on Sunday.

Finance minister Brian Lenihan put no figure on how much may be borrowed, but told RTE radio it would be “tens of billions” of euros.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said the request to the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) would not be refused.

The government is finalising a four-year plan to cut its budget deficit.

Details were set to be thrashed out at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, and only after this budget is approved by the potential lenders, could the bail-out go ahead.