Peter Mandelson wants to set up a "People's" bank, using the Post offices as a branch network. The new institution would have "a clear social purpose."
Behind Mandelson's proposal, there is the usual internal New Labour political calculation. The plan would head off a potential back bench revolt over the Post Office privatisation.
Daft ideas, like this one, are always slipping in and out of fashion. There was once a post office bank called the Girobank. However, it fell out of favour, and it was privatized. Now, as the rest of our financial system implodes, the government wants to revive the Giro and start again.
But do we need another bank?, High streets across the UK are already full of bloated and obese lending institutions. Moreover, wouldn't a Post Office bank have an implicit government guarantee on deposits, and therefore represent unfair competition for privately owned banks?
However, these questions are marginal considerations compared to Mandelson's ominous objective that this new bank should have a "clear social purpose". What Mandelson have in mind? Subsidized lending for the poor? Cheap financing for the government deficit? A People's bank sounds a lot like money pit bank.
State owned banks are always a bad idea. Inevitably, governments misuse them in order to achieve narrow political objectives. Before you can say "we need to help British industry with cheap credit" this bank will be top full of bad performing loans and huge losses.
The private sector has produced enough of those kinds of banks already. We don't need New Labour conjuring up another funny bank to add to our financial sector difficulties.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Pity the bankers who receive government bailouts
A reader wrote to Lucy Kellaway of the FT, asking for advice on the following problem:
I work for a US bank in London and was last week given a bonus for 2008. It was 60 per cent of the 2007 bonus; it is a sign of the respect my managers have for me and I am grateful for it.
However, my bank has received billions of dollars of support from the US government, meaning that my bonus is being paid for not by the bank’s shareholders but by taxpayers – which seems entirely inappropriate.
What should I do? Give it back? Give it to charity? Resign? Or stop worrying and take it on the grounds that the bank was perfectly entitled to pay its staff what it considered necessary to motivate and keep them?
Banker, male, 35
This sounds more of a problem for US taxpayers than guilt-ridden bankers. However, I did like this piece of advice from a commenter Euan, a credit analyst from London:
Buy yourself an American made car. Bish Bash Bosh: guilt eased, money returned to the government, American jobs saved for another fortnight.
I work for a US bank in London and was last week given a bonus for 2008. It was 60 per cent of the 2007 bonus; it is a sign of the respect my managers have for me and I am grateful for it.
However, my bank has received billions of dollars of support from the US government, meaning that my bonus is being paid for not by the bank’s shareholders but by taxpayers – which seems entirely inappropriate.
What should I do? Give it back? Give it to charity? Resign? Or stop worrying and take it on the grounds that the bank was perfectly entitled to pay its staff what it considered necessary to motivate and keep them?
Banker, male, 35
This sounds more of a problem for US taxpayers than guilt-ridden bankers. However, I did like this piece of advice from a commenter Euan, a credit analyst from London:
Buy yourself an American made car. Bish Bash Bosh: guilt eased, money returned to the government, American jobs saved for another fortnight.
Michael Steele, Global Warming and Nuclear Power
Congratulations on becoming the leader of the Republican Party. Just as President Obama made history by becoming the Democratic Party nominee for president and later as president of the United States, so too your election to head the GOP is a history-making achievement. It also speaks volumes about a new ethic of inclusion by the Republican Party. You never know, this might even inspire the environmental movement to integrate.
In addition to being known as Lt. Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele is known for this statement at the Republican National Convention:
We will assume that Mr. Steele will maintain the company line and oppose cap-and-trade or carbon taxes. We support cap-and-trade but oppose carbon tax proposals. You never know though, John McCain might just get Mr. Steele and the GOP to support a cap-and-trade program. Like McCain, we assume Mr. Steele will be a supporter of nuclear power as a tool for mitigating climate change. And of course, we know Mr. Steele supports solar, wind, energy efficiency and other renewables technologies in the fight for energy independence and a clean environment.
In addition to being known as Lt. Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele is known for this statement at the Republican National Convention:
"So, do you want to put your country first? Then let’s reduce our dependency on foreign sources of oil and promote oil and gas production at home. In other words: Drill, baby, drill! And drill now!”We agree that America needs to expand drilling, just not off our east and west coasts and not around our precious Florida beaches. But we digress.
We will assume that Mr. Steele will maintain the company line and oppose cap-and-trade or carbon taxes. We support cap-and-trade but oppose carbon tax proposals. You never know though, John McCain might just get Mr. Steele and the GOP to support a cap-and-trade program. Like McCain, we assume Mr. Steele will be a supporter of nuclear power as a tool for mitigating climate change. And of course, we know Mr. Steele supports solar, wind, energy efficiency and other renewables technologies in the fight for energy independence and a clean environment.
This morning's spam filter issue
This morning there was a problem with the implementation of Google's malware filters. Gmail's spam engine uses those filters (among hundreds of other signals) to help protect our users from malware, and so between 6:00 a.m. PST and 8:00 a.m. PST, we mistakenly sent some legitimate mail to people's spam folders.
We're working to roll out an automated fix to put these legitimate messages back into your inboxes, and we expect this to happen within a day. In the meantime, if you were expecting a critical message this morning, please check your spam folder. (We tune our spam filters well enough that ordinarily you should never have to check your spam folder.)
We're very sorry for the inconvenience. We'll update this post as we have more information to share.
Update (2/1): We've rolled out a fix that has restored these messages to most people's inboxes, though to be on the safe side we'd still recommend that you check your spam folder if there was a critical message you expected to receive between 6am and 8am PST on Saturday.
The true cost of the financial crash
UK unemployment is rising quickly. The last available data from the Labour Force Survey is for October, when the rate reached 6.2 percent. That number is going to jump when the December data is released.Increasing unemployment is the last link in a chain of misfortune that started with reckless monetary policy. Low interest rates generated an unsustainable housing bubble. When it finally busted, it left in its wake a banking crisis, and collapsing consumer confidence. In turn, this led to a contraction in GDP and mounting job losses.
All UK housing bubbles have ended this way.
The true face of modern Britain
"Some companies that I work with would pay me £100,000 a year. That's cheap for what I do for them."
Lord Taylor
Brown wants us to be confident
Lets try and talk our way out of recession.
Gordon Brown has issued a passionate appeal to the British people for optimism in the face of the economic downturn, insisting that confidence will see the country through the deepening recession.
While admitting that Britain is “in the eye of the storm”, the Prime Minister said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that the country will see off the worst of the slowdown if the public can harness the “British spirit” and remain resolute and upbeat.
International forecasters say that Britain is heading for the deepest recession of any advanced economy, with unemployment predicted to pass 3 million, but Mr Brown appeals against “talking the country down”.
In a striking show of optimism, he declares: “I am absolutely confident about Britain’s future. I have utter confidence in our ability to come through this. I have utter confidence not only in the British people’s determination to come through this, but that people will work together to make sure Britain emerges from this.
I don't know about you lot, but after reading this article, I am feeling so confident that I am ready to go down to Brent Cross Shopping Centre and start buying cheap Chinese tat.
Gordon Brown has issued a passionate appeal to the British people for optimism in the face of the economic downturn, insisting that confidence will see the country through the deepening recession.
While admitting that Britain is “in the eye of the storm”, the Prime Minister said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that the country will see off the worst of the slowdown if the public can harness the “British spirit” and remain resolute and upbeat.
International forecasters say that Britain is heading for the deepest recession of any advanced economy, with unemployment predicted to pass 3 million, but Mr Brown appeals against “talking the country down”.
In a striking show of optimism, he declares: “I am absolutely confident about Britain’s future. I have utter confidence in our ability to come through this. I have utter confidence not only in the British people’s determination to come through this, but that people will work together to make sure Britain emerges from this.
I don't know about you lot, but after reading this article, I am feeling so confident that I am ready to go down to Brent Cross Shopping Centre and start buying cheap Chinese tat.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Colo. governor: Laws stopping immigrant workers
The governor of Colorado says his state is hurting because seasonal workers are not able to work there now. Some ski resorts could have stayed open longer last year if they had had moreworkers. A new guest worker program could be the solution. DP
MSNBC By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press
DENVER - Fewer immigrant workers are coming to Colorado because of tougher state laws, but the agricultural, ski and hotel industries are having a tougher time finding seasonal workers, Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday.
Without citing statistics, Ritter said employers around the state complain they face worker shortages because of laws passed in 2006 to fight illegal immigration. He said efforts to fortify guest worker programs would offer a solution.
"I quite frankly think that one of the people who understood this issue best in public life was (President) George Bush," Ritter said. "George Bush had a real desire to tackle this issue."
Ritter noted that federal changes to seasonal worker visas means ski resort employees are losing their visas sooner. Anecdotally, he said Vail could have stayed open another month last year if its guest workers had lengthier visas.
At a minimum, Ritter said, successful immigration policy would "bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows."
"Find a way to acknowledge their existence here and the fact they're employed and contributing to the economy," he said.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
MSNBC By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press
DENVER - Fewer immigrant workers are coming to Colorado because of tougher state laws, but the agricultural, ski and hotel industries are having a tougher time finding seasonal workers, Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday.
Without citing statistics, Ritter said employers around the state complain they face worker shortages because of laws passed in 2006 to fight illegal immigration. He said efforts to fortify guest worker programs would offer a solution.
"I quite frankly think that one of the people who understood this issue best in public life was (President) George Bush," Ritter said. "George Bush had a real desire to tackle this issue."
Ritter noted that federal changes to seasonal worker visas means ski resort employees are losing their visas sooner. Anecdotally, he said Vail could have stayed open another month last year if its guest workers had lengthier visas.
At a minimum, Ritter said, successful immigration policy would "bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows."
"Find a way to acknowledge their existence here and the fact they're employed and contributing to the economy," he said.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
‘Progress by Pesach’ urged on immigration reform
A coalition of Jewish organizations is pressing for "humanitarian immigration reform". They want the raids on work places to stop as a way to control immigration. You can sign their petition at http://www.hias.org/progress. DP
by The Global News Service of the Jewish People
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A coalition of Jewish organizations launched a campaign aiming for “Progress by Pesach” on comprehensive immigration reform.
On a Thursday morning conference call organized by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, members of the Progress by Pesach coalition said they would be urging President Obama to issue an executive order or other directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement curtailing the use of raids as a primary tool of immigration enforcement. They also expressed hope for some movement in Congress on the issue, but HIAS President and CEO Gideon Aronoff said the group was not proposing a detailed bill because their main goal is “mobilizing the Jewish community to call for engagement on these issues.”
The group has set a goal of 10,000 signatures by April 8, the first night of Passover, on a petition encouraging "humanitarian immigration reform" and decrying the "policy of relying on raids and enforcement tactics as the sole means of controlling immigration" as a failure. Visitors to the group's Web site can also send a letter to the president and members of Congress that contains similar language.
"We are calling on the Obama administration to take whatever steps it can take in order to achieve some change in the use of raids," said Vic Rosenthal, executive director of Jewish Community Action of St. Paul.
In addition to denying equal protection to those detained and splitting up families through jailing and deportations, he noted that immigration raids also are expensive for the government and seriously impede businesses trying to make products in a poor economy.
Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs in Chicago, said members of the coalition would be encouraged to publicize the online petition and letters at their activities and other Jewish community events.
"Jewish law compels us to be engaged on this issue," said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, citing the biblical command that "we must love the stranger, because we were once strangers in the land of Egypt."
The coalition also includes the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Union of Reform Judaism and a number of local organizations.
by The Global News Service of the Jewish People
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A coalition of Jewish organizations launched a campaign aiming for “Progress by Pesach” on comprehensive immigration reform.
On a Thursday morning conference call organized by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, members of the Progress by Pesach coalition said they would be urging President Obama to issue an executive order or other directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement curtailing the use of raids as a primary tool of immigration enforcement. They also expressed hope for some movement in Congress on the issue, but HIAS President and CEO Gideon Aronoff said the group was not proposing a detailed bill because their main goal is “mobilizing the Jewish community to call for engagement on these issues.”
The group has set a goal of 10,000 signatures by April 8, the first night of Passover, on a petition encouraging "humanitarian immigration reform" and decrying the "policy of relying on raids and enforcement tactics as the sole means of controlling immigration" as a failure. Visitors to the group's Web site can also send a letter to the president and members of Congress that contains similar language.
"We are calling on the Obama administration to take whatever steps it can take in order to achieve some change in the use of raids," said Vic Rosenthal, executive director of Jewish Community Action of St. Paul.
In addition to denying equal protection to those detained and splitting up families through jailing and deportations, he noted that immigration raids also are expensive for the government and seriously impede businesses trying to make products in a poor economy.
Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs in Chicago, said members of the coalition would be encouraged to publicize the online petition and letters at their activities and other Jewish community events.
"Jewish law compels us to be engaged on this issue," said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, citing the biblical command that "we must love the stranger, because we were once strangers in the land of Egypt."
The coalition also includes the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Union of Reform Judaism and a number of local organizations.
TEXASVOX, The Voice of Public Citizen in Texas
The primary focus of this group in Texas is on Environmental Issues. They want to concentrate on mobilizing the Latino/a community to help serve environmental initiatives in Texas.
I don't know that this community is very interested, yet, on environmental issues, but they should be. This affects all of us.
I don't know that this community is very interested, yet, on environmental issues, but they should be. This affects all of us.
All the kids in my class should have health coverage
This is an excellent explanation why the SCHIP program is necessary. These kids need basic health care before their minor problems become major ones. DP
By Kate Yocum, who teaches English language development and literacy at William Walker Elementary in Beaverton, Ore.
I teach elementary school. And I want my kids to have health care coverage.
That’s why I hope the Senate will pass a bill that will enable more of my pupils to get the coverage they need.
For the most part, public schools are not health providers. But some of the students in the elementary school where I teach rely on whatever staff members can do to find eyeglasses or organize visits from the dental van.
The students in my classes are from low-income homes with parents who work at jobs that don’t offer affordable health care.
Many of these parents are immigrants. And their children, my students, are being penalized because of that.
See, the current law prohibits legal immigrants, including children, from accessing Medicaid or SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) funds.
Some of these students have suffered from acute problems, but more often are troubled by vision and hearing problems, dental problems, and anxiety and depression.
These are the kinds of health issues that, if overlooked, can have serious negative effects on a child’s progress in school.
The absence of health care is a huge but needless barrier for my students to overcome.
To make them wait five years is nothing short of cruel. During those five years, their health may seriously deteriorate.
We teachers do everything they can do to give our students the tools for success. We would never pass up an opportunity to remove a barrier to a student’s academic success.
That’s why I’m urging the Senate to get rid of this waiting period and allow all my students to access the health care they need.
By Kate Yocum, who teaches English language development and literacy at William Walker Elementary in Beaverton, Ore.
I teach elementary school. And I want my kids to have health care coverage.
That’s why I hope the Senate will pass a bill that will enable more of my pupils to get the coverage they need.
For the most part, public schools are not health providers. But some of the students in the elementary school where I teach rely on whatever staff members can do to find eyeglasses or organize visits from the dental van.
The students in my classes are from low-income homes with parents who work at jobs that don’t offer affordable health care.
Many of these parents are immigrants. And their children, my students, are being penalized because of that.
See, the current law prohibits legal immigrants, including children, from accessing Medicaid or SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) funds.
Some of these students have suffered from acute problems, but more often are troubled by vision and hearing problems, dental problems, and anxiety and depression.
These are the kinds of health issues that, if overlooked, can have serious negative effects on a child’s progress in school.
The absence of health care is a huge but needless barrier for my students to overcome.
To make them wait five years is nothing short of cruel. During those five years, their health may seriously deteriorate.
We teachers do everything they can do to give our students the tools for success. We would never pass up an opportunity to remove a barrier to a student’s academic success.
That’s why I’m urging the Senate to get rid of this waiting period and allow all my students to access the health care they need.
New Brandeis students help teach English to staff
Students who are learning to teach English are tutoring people trying to learn English. An excellent combination which helps both sides. DP
By Jeff Gilbride/Daily News staff, GateHouse News Service
WALTHAM — Joana Maciel spent her lunch break Monday mapping out how Brandeis University junior Dara Yaffe can help her improve her English.
Maciel is a cafeteria worker and immigrant from Brazil.
``I've been involved with this for three months,'' Maciel said. ``They help me with verbs because I'm so bad at speaking verbs and reading and writing them.''
The Framingham resident said she's been living in the U.S. for 15 years but her English pronunciation has improved greatly in the last few months thanks to the program.
She is one of 25 people enrolled in the Brandeis English Language Learning Initiative. The program pairs Brandeis student with cafeteria and facilities workers at the college.
There are approximately 60 student tutors involved in the program this year. The first session of the semester was held Monday.
The Brandeis employees are tutored between two and five times per week.
``They send me e-mails with exercises for me to do,'' she said. ``I think it's a very nice program.'
Tutors, which are volunteers, attend a 90-minute training session before the sessions start for the year. English as a Second Language teachers are brought onto the campus near the start the semester and students are trained in different techniques to teach English.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
By Jeff Gilbride/Daily News staff, GateHouse News Service
WALTHAM — Joana Maciel spent her lunch break Monday mapping out how Brandeis University junior Dara Yaffe can help her improve her English.
Maciel is a cafeteria worker and immigrant from Brazil.
``I've been involved with this for three months,'' Maciel said. ``They help me with verbs because I'm so bad at speaking verbs and reading and writing them.''
The Framingham resident said she's been living in the U.S. for 15 years but her English pronunciation has improved greatly in the last few months thanks to the program.
She is one of 25 people enrolled in the Brandeis English Language Learning Initiative. The program pairs Brandeis student with cafeteria and facilities workers at the college.
There are approximately 60 student tutors involved in the program this year. The first session of the semester was held Monday.
The Brandeis employees are tutored between two and five times per week.
``They send me e-mails with exercises for me to do,'' she said. ``I think it's a very nice program.'
Tutors, which are volunteers, attend a 90-minute training session before the sessions start for the year. English as a Second Language teachers are brought onto the campus near the start the semester and students are trained in different techniques to teach English.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
Another scary chart
Before the MPC consider cutting rates again, they should stop and think hard the amount of money held in non resident sterling time deposits in UK banks.There are two things to highlight about this data. First, this money belongs to people who don't actually live here in the UK. This money is here because foreigners want to earn an attractive return. As soon as they see a better deal elsewhere, or if they fear that they might actually lose their money, then this cash is gone.
Second, these accounts are denominated in sterling, which means that before this money leaves these shores, it will be converted into foreign currency. The laws of supply and demand will work their dark magic. A large inflow of unwanted sterling into the foreign exchange market will lead to a collapse in the exchange rate.
The amount of cash held in these accounts is huge. In December 2008, it was an amount equal to 30 percent of UK GDP. The growth of these deposits is even more shocking. Between September 1997 and April 2008, they increased by 450 percent.
So it is a case of cut rates if you dare, because if foreigners pull out this cash, sterling will fall like a stone.
Historian Yehuda Bauer on Gaza, Part 2
Was Israel guilty of war crimes? Possibly, and this must be investigated, not just by the Israeli army, but by an outside factor.
It will be quite difficult to prove. As we all know, it is permitted to return fire when you are fired at, whatever the consequences. Regarding the incident at the hospital, and the UN compound, there was fire, and it is not clear whether the fire came from outside these sites or inside. However, in both cases the soldiers were entitled to respond by firing.
Houses were booby-trapped, with civilians inside. They were blown up, with the civilians inside as well. The Israeli army people were aware of such possibilities well in advance, and they took good care to cover themselves: 120 officers were detailed to units in order to see to it that civilians should be warned and get out. This actually worked in a number of places.
Humanitarian aid was allowed in, between 80 and 100 trucks a day, roughly three times the amount (30 trucks a day) allowed in before the fighting began. One driver was wounded in the course of this, and soldiers were accused of being responsible; the army responded that not its soldiers, but Hamas men were the culprits. Hard to say.
The soldiers had orders not to harm civilians, and these written orders were in the hands of commanders above a certain rank (lieutenant colonel, I believe, but I am not sure). Why then were so many civilians killed, almost half the number of the armed fighters? The answer was given in an interview with a platoon commander which was published in the press, who said, more or less, that he was responsible for the lives of his soldiers, and if there was fire directed against him, he would respond with all the weapons he had, rather than hold fire because of some doubt.
Hamas, by the way, normally wears a kind of uniform. But during the fighting they wore civilian cloths in order to hide from the Israelis. Therefore, suspicious men in civilian clothes were often considered Hamas fighters. Then there is the matter of phosphorous munitions. Again, we know that these are actually permitted, within limits. Whether these limits were observed or not is something for which one needs an investigation. I would conclude that Israel will probably be in a position to say that it, more or less, observed international law.
The problem, however, is not legal. The Israeli army may have been within international legal bounds. The failure was not legal; it was moral. An Israeli army should have said that even if it was fired at by fighters using civilians as a shield, the soldiers should have withheld fire if there was reason to think that as a result civilians would be killed. That would have meant more Israeli casualties, no doubt. It would also have meant fewer civilian casualties, and a clearer conscience. I am not talking theory. I have participated in war more than once (or twice), and I think that it is justified to endanger soldiers in order to protect civilians.
Israel is guilty, not of a crime, but of what one might call severe misbehavior, because it prevented journalists from entering Gaza from Israel during the armed action. It may have been justified in not permitting journalists to report on the whereabouts and plans of action of its armed forces during fighting, but that does not mean that it should have stopped journalists from going into Gaza. They would have reported, as journalists do, on the suffering of civilians, and on the destruction of property. They did it anyway, once it was all over. A democratic country does not go to those lengths to prevent media from covering its actions. It was both immoral and unintelligent for the Israeli army to do that.
The wounding of some journalists in a building, on the other hand, turned out to be fully justified: by an odd mistake, an Arab journalist was filmed by an Arab TV crew while talking, from the place where the journalists were staying, with great enthusiasm about the fact that a rocket had been fired from a floor below her. The Israeli response wounded some of the journalists on her floor a moment later. Journalists who report on fighting on site expose themselves to dangers.
The comparison between the killing of 600 civilians by Israeli forces in the course of a campaign against an armed force and the Holocaust would be funny if it were not so frighteningly indicative of antisemitic predispositions. It is now being subscribed to by the provincial government of Catalonia, and finds support among many so-called liberals in the West. The term is of course not being used regarding the genocide in Darfur, or the terrible slaughter in Congo, though some use it, as we all know, regarding abortions, and in some other equally inappropriate cases.
Was Hamas guilty of war crimes? Undoubtedly. They fired rockets at civilians, and whether they hit them or not does not matter. They had uniforms and they did not wear them. They used civilians as shields. Does anyone care? No, because one can always argue that Hamas is not the official armed force of a recognized political entity, and it is not a signatory to any conventions. Is it a terrorist organization? Terrorism is usually defined as armed action directed against civilians in order to achieve political aims. This is exactly what Hamas has been and is doing.
When Israel used a blockade to force Hamas to stop its attacks it did not use armed action, but unarmed pressure, stupid and morally unjustifiable as that was. Hamas is a terrorist organization, attacking civilians in order to annihilate a group as such, namely Israel and specifically Jews in Israel. So it is both a terrorist organization, and a potentially genocidal one. Israel is not a terrorist state, because it does not target civilians, but harms civilians in the course of armed action against armed men who desire to annihilate it.
I gave this detailed picture, from my own viewpoint, ignoring for a moment some overarching contextual issues. The Gaza action/war/fighting deepened mutual hatred, not just mutual suspicions. It weakened the Fayyad government in Ramallah. It weakened the Left in Israel. It did not destroy Hamas – nor was it meant to – and it is doubtful whether it achieved its stated aims of achieving a permanent truce and stopping the smuggling of arms, mainly Iranian rockets, into Gaza. The uneasy stalemate that is there at the moment of writing could have arguably been achieved after the air-strike and without the land invasion with its 600 civilian casualties. At least, if Hamas had rejected a cease-fire before the invasion, Israel would have had more of a morally sustainable case if it had then invaded.
I am not taking the side of Hamas, not at all (because Hamas, in my eyes, is an ideologically-driven totalitarian movement with clearly enunciated genocidal aims), but because I expect Israel to behave in a more civilized way than it did. That brings up the contention that radical Islamist players, such as the Iranian president, or the Hamas leaders, only threaten the elimination of Israel, but that this is mere talk. I am sorry to say that we have heard such arguments before. Genocide scholars are supposed to realize that when people continually say something, they may actually mean what they are saying, and that they will act on their convictions the moment they can. There are too many past cases that prove this to have to detail them.
Ahmadinajad threatened Israel with extinction not just once, but a number of times. So did Rafsanjani before him, so did Khamenei, so did an assortment of ayatollahs and Iranian media, so did Hamas leaders, so did a variety of Imams in Gaza mosques over the past twenty years, repeatedly. You cannot annihilate Israel without killing most of its Jewish, perhaps also Arab, citizens. Yes, there was one parallel statement by the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilna'i (of Labor!), who threatened Gaza with a "holocaust." He was immediately attacked by the Israeli press, and on the same day he had to apologize and retract. I have not heard of an Iranian press campaign forcing Khamenei or Ahmadinajad, or the Hamas leaders, to change their tune. And, genocide scholars know, of course, that Article II of the Convention makes incitement to genocide a part of the crime of genocide.
Where does all that leave us? It is clear to me that the two sides in this conflict will not be able, on their own, to reach a compromise, because radicals on both sides will make this impossible, and because the maximum concession of the one side will not meet the minimum requirement of the other. The immediate future only promises further radicalization. Hamas is unrepentant, the Palestinian population is furious, and an election may well bring Hamas to power on the West Bank as well. The upcoming elections in Israel will produce a right-wing, or a center-right, government, presumably led by Netanyahu, a man who is genuinely brilliant, genuinely extreme, genuinely irresponsible, and genuinely radically nationalistic. The solution, as far as I can see, is indicated in the e-mail text to which this is attached.
I don't mind a change in the aims of the International Association of Genocide Scholars to include conflicts as well as genocidal events. But then, IAGS should get to work on the Congo, Kashmir, and Sri Lanka. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with all its complications, emotions, and impact, pales by comparison. Unless, of course, you get a special kick out of pure Israel-bashing, because you do not like the people there, for whatever reason. But in that case you should be reminded that that does not help the Palestinian people, who, on the West Bank, are subject to occupation, to violent Jewish settlers, and to a hopeless political situation – though, admittedly, their economic lot has improved over this part year. They need a political solution that will give them independence and a reasonable co-existence with their Israeli neighbors.
It will be quite difficult to prove. As we all know, it is permitted to return fire when you are fired at, whatever the consequences. Regarding the incident at the hospital, and the UN compound, there was fire, and it is not clear whether the fire came from outside these sites or inside. However, in both cases the soldiers were entitled to respond by firing.
Houses were booby-trapped, with civilians inside. They were blown up, with the civilians inside as well. The Israeli army people were aware of such possibilities well in advance, and they took good care to cover themselves: 120 officers were detailed to units in order to see to it that civilians should be warned and get out. This actually worked in a number of places.
Humanitarian aid was allowed in, between 80 and 100 trucks a day, roughly three times the amount (30 trucks a day) allowed in before the fighting began. One driver was wounded in the course of this, and soldiers were accused of being responsible; the army responded that not its soldiers, but Hamas men were the culprits. Hard to say.
The soldiers had orders not to harm civilians, and these written orders were in the hands of commanders above a certain rank (lieutenant colonel, I believe, but I am not sure). Why then were so many civilians killed, almost half the number of the armed fighters? The answer was given in an interview with a platoon commander which was published in the press, who said, more or less, that he was responsible for the lives of his soldiers, and if there was fire directed against him, he would respond with all the weapons he had, rather than hold fire because of some doubt.
Hamas, by the way, normally wears a kind of uniform. But during the fighting they wore civilian cloths in order to hide from the Israelis. Therefore, suspicious men in civilian clothes were often considered Hamas fighters. Then there is the matter of phosphorous munitions. Again, we know that these are actually permitted, within limits. Whether these limits were observed or not is something for which one needs an investigation. I would conclude that Israel will probably be in a position to say that it, more or less, observed international law.
The problem, however, is not legal. The Israeli army may have been within international legal bounds. The failure was not legal; it was moral. An Israeli army should have said that even if it was fired at by fighters using civilians as a shield, the soldiers should have withheld fire if there was reason to think that as a result civilians would be killed. That would have meant more Israeli casualties, no doubt. It would also have meant fewer civilian casualties, and a clearer conscience. I am not talking theory. I have participated in war more than once (or twice), and I think that it is justified to endanger soldiers in order to protect civilians.
Israel is guilty, not of a crime, but of what one might call severe misbehavior, because it prevented journalists from entering Gaza from Israel during the armed action. It may have been justified in not permitting journalists to report on the whereabouts and plans of action of its armed forces during fighting, but that does not mean that it should have stopped journalists from going into Gaza. They would have reported, as journalists do, on the suffering of civilians, and on the destruction of property. They did it anyway, once it was all over. A democratic country does not go to those lengths to prevent media from covering its actions. It was both immoral and unintelligent for the Israeli army to do that.
The wounding of some journalists in a building, on the other hand, turned out to be fully justified: by an odd mistake, an Arab journalist was filmed by an Arab TV crew while talking, from the place where the journalists were staying, with great enthusiasm about the fact that a rocket had been fired from a floor below her. The Israeli response wounded some of the journalists on her floor a moment later. Journalists who report on fighting on site expose themselves to dangers.
The comparison between the killing of 600 civilians by Israeli forces in the course of a campaign against an armed force and the Holocaust would be funny if it were not so frighteningly indicative of antisemitic predispositions. It is now being subscribed to by the provincial government of Catalonia, and finds support among many so-called liberals in the West. The term is of course not being used regarding the genocide in Darfur, or the terrible slaughter in Congo, though some use it, as we all know, regarding abortions, and in some other equally inappropriate cases.
Was Hamas guilty of war crimes? Undoubtedly. They fired rockets at civilians, and whether they hit them or not does not matter. They had uniforms and they did not wear them. They used civilians as shields. Does anyone care? No, because one can always argue that Hamas is not the official armed force of a recognized political entity, and it is not a signatory to any conventions. Is it a terrorist organization? Terrorism is usually defined as armed action directed against civilians in order to achieve political aims. This is exactly what Hamas has been and is doing.
When Israel used a blockade to force Hamas to stop its attacks it did not use armed action, but unarmed pressure, stupid and morally unjustifiable as that was. Hamas is a terrorist organization, attacking civilians in order to annihilate a group as such, namely Israel and specifically Jews in Israel. So it is both a terrorist organization, and a potentially genocidal one. Israel is not a terrorist state, because it does not target civilians, but harms civilians in the course of armed action against armed men who desire to annihilate it.
I gave this detailed picture, from my own viewpoint, ignoring for a moment some overarching contextual issues. The Gaza action/war/fighting deepened mutual hatred, not just mutual suspicions. It weakened the Fayyad government in Ramallah. It weakened the Left in Israel. It did not destroy Hamas – nor was it meant to – and it is doubtful whether it achieved its stated aims of achieving a permanent truce and stopping the smuggling of arms, mainly Iranian rockets, into Gaza. The uneasy stalemate that is there at the moment of writing could have arguably been achieved after the air-strike and without the land invasion with its 600 civilian casualties. At least, if Hamas had rejected a cease-fire before the invasion, Israel would have had more of a morally sustainable case if it had then invaded.
I am not taking the side of Hamas, not at all (because Hamas, in my eyes, is an ideologically-driven totalitarian movement with clearly enunciated genocidal aims), but because I expect Israel to behave in a more civilized way than it did. That brings up the contention that radical Islamist players, such as the Iranian president, or the Hamas leaders, only threaten the elimination of Israel, but that this is mere talk. I am sorry to say that we have heard such arguments before. Genocide scholars are supposed to realize that when people continually say something, they may actually mean what they are saying, and that they will act on their convictions the moment they can. There are too many past cases that prove this to have to detail them.
Ahmadinajad threatened Israel with extinction not just once, but a number of times. So did Rafsanjani before him, so did Khamenei, so did an assortment of ayatollahs and Iranian media, so did Hamas leaders, so did a variety of Imams in Gaza mosques over the past twenty years, repeatedly. You cannot annihilate Israel without killing most of its Jewish, perhaps also Arab, citizens. Yes, there was one parallel statement by the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilna'i (of Labor!), who threatened Gaza with a "holocaust." He was immediately attacked by the Israeli press, and on the same day he had to apologize and retract. I have not heard of an Iranian press campaign forcing Khamenei or Ahmadinajad, or the Hamas leaders, to change their tune. And, genocide scholars know, of course, that Article II of the Convention makes incitement to genocide a part of the crime of genocide.
Where does all that leave us? It is clear to me that the two sides in this conflict will not be able, on their own, to reach a compromise, because radicals on both sides will make this impossible, and because the maximum concession of the one side will not meet the minimum requirement of the other. The immediate future only promises further radicalization. Hamas is unrepentant, the Palestinian population is furious, and an election may well bring Hamas to power on the West Bank as well. The upcoming elections in Israel will produce a right-wing, or a center-right, government, presumably led by Netanyahu, a man who is genuinely brilliant, genuinely extreme, genuinely irresponsible, and genuinely radically nationalistic. The solution, as far as I can see, is indicated in the e-mail text to which this is attached.
I don't mind a change in the aims of the International Association of Genocide Scholars to include conflicts as well as genocidal events. But then, IAGS should get to work on the Congo, Kashmir, and Sri Lanka. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with all its complications, emotions, and impact, pales by comparison. Unless, of course, you get a special kick out of pure Israel-bashing, because you do not like the people there, for whatever reason. But in that case you should be reminded that that does not help the Palestinian people, who, on the West Bank, are subject to occupation, to violent Jewish settlers, and to a hopeless political situation – though, admittedly, their economic lot has improved over this part year. They need a political solution that will give them independence and a reasonable co-existence with their Israeli neighbors.
US GDP down 3.8 percent
The US economy slows at the fastest rate in 26 years.Ironically, the number was "better than expected"; many economists were expecting a decline closer to 5 percent.
Which housing market crashed faster - the UK or the US?
Which housing market is in more trouble, the UK or the US?According to the Case-Shiller index, the US housing market peaked in July 2006. Since then, the composite 20 index is down 25 percent. Moreover, it took 28 months to clock up that price decline. In other words, the US market fell roughly 0.9 percent a month.
Here in the UK, the market kept rising until October 2007. Since then the market has fallen 19 percent. That decline was accumulated over 15 months, which adds up to a monthly decline of about 1.3 percent.
In absolute terms, the US crash is ahead of the UK's, but we are catching up fast. If present trends continue, the UK should overtake the US by mid-year.
Europe stands ready to swallow up Iceland
The European Commission are ready to fast track Iceland towards EU membership. Images of flies, webs and spiders immediately come to mind.
If Iceland does reluctantly join, the EU will be getting a bargain. The country would have to submit to the strictures of the Common Fisheries Policy. Iceland would quickly find their waters invaded by ravenous Spanish and Portuguese industrial fishing boats, busily hovering up the last great fishing stock in Northern Europe. What would the Icelanders get in return? A bailout and the opportunity to convert worthless Kroner into euros.
Iceland's sorry predicament serves as a stark warning to the dangers of allowing irresponsible financiers to run the show. In return for a few short years of rapid economic growth, followed by a catastrophic debt-induced recession, Iceland is about to lose their independence.
It isn't hard to see a similar scenario here. Although the UK has already handed over much of her independence to Brussels, monetary policy is still under the control of London. However, as the crisis deepens, UK monetary independence looks increasingly vulnerable. The pound could quickly follow the Kroner.
If Iceland does reluctantly join, the EU will be getting a bargain. The country would have to submit to the strictures of the Common Fisheries Policy. Iceland would quickly find their waters invaded by ravenous Spanish and Portuguese industrial fishing boats, busily hovering up the last great fishing stock in Northern Europe. What would the Icelanders get in return? A bailout and the opportunity to convert worthless Kroner into euros.
Iceland's sorry predicament serves as a stark warning to the dangers of allowing irresponsible financiers to run the show. In return for a few short years of rapid economic growth, followed by a catastrophic debt-induced recession, Iceland is about to lose their independence.
It isn't hard to see a similar scenario here. Although the UK has already handed over much of her independence to Brussels, monetary policy is still under the control of London. However, as the crisis deepens, UK monetary independence looks increasingly vulnerable. The pound could quickly follow the Kroner.
Ireland faces rating dowgrade
That generous blanket deposit guarantee from the Irish government is starting to look a little silly.
Ireland has become the first western European country to have its top-notch credit rating given a negative outloook by Moody’s Investors Service, in a further sign of the strains being put on national economies by the financial crisis.
Ireland has already been given a warning that it could soon lose its triple-A status by rival agency Standard & Poor’s, which has already downgraded Spain, Greece and Portugal in recent weeks.
(from the FT)
Ireland has become the first western European country to have its top-notch credit rating given a negative outloook by Moody’s Investors Service, in a further sign of the strains being put on national economies by the financial crisis.
Ireland has already been given a warning that it could soon lose its triple-A status by rival agency Standard & Poor’s, which has already downgraded Spain, Greece and Portugal in recent weeks.
(from the FT)
Committee hears from next Information Commissioner
An uncorrected transcript of Christopher Graham's evidence to the Justice Committee on 27 January has been published.
Q24 Alun Michael: Could you say something about your philosophy and your approach to the role? This role started off in data protection and has moved to a much more sophisticated and therefore more challenging brief over recent years. Having seen the way that has been developed, particularly in the accumbency of the current Information Commissioner, how do you see yourself taking that forward? What is your attitude to the issue of information, data management, sharing and retention?Read the full transcript.
Mr Graham: My first reaction is that a challenging job is getting even more challenging. There are new powers and duties, some already have been granted and some that are in the Bill that you are considering. In the course of 2009/2010 the Information Commissioner is going to have significant new powers, particularly on the data protection side and one hopes the resources to use those powers effectively. You asked what my overall approach is. First of all, that the organisation should be well led and well managed, that it should be effective and efficient. I think that is the sine qua non, it is the licence to practice. The Information Commissioner has got to demonstrate that he is delivering a service across the responsibilities of data protection and Freedom of Information and so on, that we can tackle the backlog of delays on the Freedom of Information side, for example, and win the respect of all stakeholders, which I think then gives the Information Commissioner the platform on which to contribute to public policy debates around data protection and Freedom of Information and so on. I would emphasise very much the importance of the education and information side with the enforcement and the sanctions as the big stick in the cupboard. It is important that everyone knows it is there and will be got out only if necessary. There is the huge task of education and helping people to comply, which has always been my approach with the Advertising Standards Authority. I am not particularly interested in waiting around the corner saying, "Aha, we've got you," but that is necessary from time to time. It is much more important to put the resources in to making sure that public authorities and commercial organisations decide what their responsibilities are and they get on with it, but they have got to believe that if they get things wrong the Information Commissioner will be effective and will be prompt and, in addition to the reputational damage which necessarily arises from getting things wrong, there will be sanctions visited upon miscreants. And finally, my approach would very much be the need to convince the authorities and stakeholders in general of the absolute independence and integrity of the Information Commissioner. I think we achieve that by being absolutely evidence based, cool, calm, determined to defend decisions that are being properly arrived at, praised when necessary, but the first thing to do is to win the respect of all those who are interested in this area by manifestly running an effective operation at a time of great challenge and great change.
Centre for FOI opens in Scotland
A new Centre for Freedom of Information was launched on 29 January at the University of Dundee. The Centre is a joint venture between Dundee Law School, University of Dundee and the Scottish Information Commissioner.
The Centre will provide:
Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, sees the Centre as an opportunity to bring together both research and experience, a place to discuss and explore the current issues in freedom of information: "We must ensure that our legislation, practice and culture are continually examined and reviewed if Scotland is to be at the forefront of international freedom of information practice. The Centre is an exciting opportunity to enable us to review and refresh our thinking in an academic setting, to share our own experience and to evaluate it against that of other FOI jurisdictions throughout the world. ".
The Centre will host a Seminar Programme in early 2009 which will advise the development of a Research Programme. A Study Programme is also in development.
You can register for news about the Centre here.
See:
Lord Wallace open new Centre for Freedom of Information - press release 27/1/09, Scottish Information Commissioner
Centre for Freedom of Information website
The Centre will provide:
- Conceptual space to reflect on and discuss current FOI issues and practice.
- A central point for the development of research into FOI issues, in particular modelling decision making and examining bureaucratic culture.
- Access to expertise from specialists in constitutional and civil law, FOI practitioners and the Commissioner's office.
- Opportunities to transfer knowledge and gain further learning.
Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, sees the Centre as an opportunity to bring together both research and experience, a place to discuss and explore the current issues in freedom of information: "We must ensure that our legislation, practice and culture are continually examined and reviewed if Scotland is to be at the forefront of international freedom of information practice. The Centre is an exciting opportunity to enable us to review and refresh our thinking in an academic setting, to share our own experience and to evaluate it against that of other FOI jurisdictions throughout the world. ".
The Centre will host a Seminar Programme in early 2009 which will advise the development of a Research Programme. A Study Programme is also in development.
You can register for news about the Centre here.
See:
Lord Wallace open new Centre for Freedom of Information - press release 27/1/09, Scottish Information Commissioner
Centre for Freedom of Information website
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Preview Winter issue of ISRAEL HORIZONS
ISRAEL HORIZONS magazine is the periodical of Meretz USA, published in hard copy four times a year. Previously associated with Americans for Progressive Israel, it has been published, more or less continuously, since 1952. A preview of the Winter 2009 issue is newly accessible. Learn with a click of your mouse how to enjoy its entire contents by receiving it regularly.
Susan Rice, Global Warming and Nuclear Power
After presenting her credentials to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on January 26, Susan Rice, U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, noted that international climate negotiations will be a priority. Rice said:
“To tackle global warming, all major emitting nations must be part of the solution. Rapidly developing economies, such as China and India, must join in making and meeting their own binding and meaningful commitments. And we should help the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.”
Susan Rice will be a central player in developing a global warming mitigation plan. She will be working on the plan with Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Department of State, Stephen Chu, Secretary of the Department of Energy, Lisa P. Jackson, Adminstrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Nancy Sutley, Chairwoman of the President's Council on Environmental Quality and Carol Browner, Energy Czar.
Rice also has nuclear nonproliferation on her agenda. We hope the Obama administration will embrace the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) for cooperating countries in order to promote the safe and secure use of nuclear power for electricity production and climate change mitigation. We also hope she will support the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Initiative (1) (2), and other '123' Agreements.
Senator Mikulski: Amend Stimulus For Turner Station
AAEA and local activists are hoping that Senator Barbara Mikulski, left, or Senator Benjamin Cardin, right, will direct approximately $300 million from the economic recovery package to rescue and provide relief for the polluted Baltimore community of Turner's Station. There are approximately 1,000 residences in Turner Station.
Background: The community exists in the middle of a perfect storm of pollution sources. Turner Station is surrounded by a steel production plant, landfill, electric utility plant and the high power lines run through the community, soil and groundwater chromium contamination, Interstate Highway 695 yards away and nearby Patapsco River dredge spoil. Turner Station has to be the most polluted neighborhood in the United States.
AES has a proposal to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the front end of the Severstal site at Sparrows Point. The facility would be east of Turner's station.
Riverside Power Plant. Constellation Energy owns the 251 megawatt plant located south of Turner Station. The high power lines that run out of the plant form the northern border of Turner Station. According to the Riverside Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reportable releases in 2002 included 522,000 gallons of number 2 fuel oil (diesel fuel), 1,200,000 gallons of keresene, and 485,000 MCF (million cubic feet) of natural gas. The TRI reportable releases for 2003 were 752,000 gallons of number 2 fuel oil, 240,000 gallons of keresene, and 125,000 MCF of natural gas. The plant is south of Turner's station.
Honeywell International. Allied Chemical Company (Allied Signal) produced pesticides at its plant west of Turner Station and large areas around the facility are contaminated with chromium and arsenic. Honeywell International merged with Allied in 1999 and is now responsible for cleanup of the site. The contamination is west of Turner's Station.
Severstal, Russia's largest steelmaker, run by billionaire Alexei Mordashov, purchased and is currently operating the Sparrows Point steel mill southeast of Baltimore for $810 million, fulfilling an antitrust mandate that Arcelor Mittal divest itself of the Mittal Steel plant. The plant is east of Turner's Station.
Zim shows the way to euroland
This could a model for the UK as it gradually adopts the Euro:
Zimbabweans will be allowed to conduct business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwe dollar, in an effort to stem the country's runaway inflation. The announcement was made by acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
BBC southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the Zimbabwean dollar has become a laughing stock. A Z$100 trillion note was recently introduced. Until now only licensed businesses could accept foreign currencies, although it was common practice.
(from the BBC)
Zimbabweans will be allowed to conduct business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwe dollar, in an effort to stem the country's runaway inflation. The announcement was made by acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
BBC southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the Zimbabwean dollar has become a laughing stock. A Z$100 trillion note was recently introduced. Until now only licensed businesses could accept foreign currencies, although it was common practice.
(from the BBC)
I am feeling guilty
I must admit to feeling rather guilty when I look at this chart. All I wanted was a sensible fall in house prices. I wanted property to be affordable; that was all.Prices have certainly come down, but as they fell, they seem to have brought the entire UK economy crashing to the ground. We are now looking at the worst recession since the 1930s.
If only someone had stopped the housing bubble in the first place.
Senate Likely to Pass Bill on Kids' Health Insurance
The SCHIP program will cover children of legal immigrants sooner than the present program does. Good news! DP
SCHIP Could Cover 11 Million Children
By Ceci Connolly, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Senate is expected to approve a bill today that provides health insurance to about 11 million low-income children, paving the way for President Obama to claim an early legislative victory and collect a quick down payment on his campaign pledge to guarantee care to every American child.
Senate Democrats, after easily defeating Republican attempts to narrow the bill yesterday, predicted they had the votes to renew and expand the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Presently, the $25 billion program covers 7 million children living near the poverty level who do not qualify for Medicaid. Under the Senate bill and similar legislation passed by the House, an additional 4 million youngsters would be eligible for discounted care at an added cost of $32 billion over 4 1/2 years. That would leave Obama about 5 million children short of his promise to ensure that every youngster in the country has health insurance.
Proponents say the need for a health-care safety net has become all the more urgent, given the dire state of the economy. Opponents argue that the Democratic legislation goes beyond the original intent of the program by including children of legal immigrants and some families with incomes as high as $60,000 a year.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
SCHIP Could Cover 11 Million Children
By Ceci Connolly, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Senate is expected to approve a bill today that provides health insurance to about 11 million low-income children, paving the way for President Obama to claim an early legislative victory and collect a quick down payment on his campaign pledge to guarantee care to every American child.
Senate Democrats, after easily defeating Republican attempts to narrow the bill yesterday, predicted they had the votes to renew and expand the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Presently, the $25 billion program covers 7 million children living near the poverty level who do not qualify for Medicaid. Under the Senate bill and similar legislation passed by the House, an additional 4 million youngsters would be eligible for discounted care at an added cost of $32 billion over 4 1/2 years. That would leave Obama about 5 million children short of his promise to ensure that every youngster in the country has health insurance.
Proponents say the need for a health-care safety net has become all the more urgent, given the dire state of the economy. Opponents argue that the Democratic legislation goes beyond the original intent of the program by including children of legal immigrants and some families with incomes as high as $60,000 a year.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
America's immigrants split by education levels
The Census Bureau has a new report, showing how diverse the education experience is for immigrants in this country. It compares different groups and is very interesting to see the breakdown. DP
Opportunities for schooling draw foreign-born to the United States
By Darnell Little and Kristen Kridel | Tribune reporters
America's foreign-born population is highly fragmented along educational lines, with a large portion of immigrants possessing relatively low levels of education while sizable elite have attained advanced degrees, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The report found that a much smaller percentage of foreign-born adults had completed high school compared with their native-born counterparts—nearly 88 percent of native-born Americans versus 68 percent of foreign born adults.
But that 20 point difference shrinks close to zero when looking at adults who have attained a college degree. Almost 28 percent of native-born adults had at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 27 percent of foreign-born adults.
And slightly more foreign-born adults have an advanced degree (11 percent) than native-born adults (10 percent), according to the report, which describes the level of school completed by adults age 25 or older in 2007.
"The report does a pretty good job of highlighting just how diverse the educational experiences are of the foreign-born population," said Sarah R. Crissey, the report's author. "I think it's an interesting portrait of what our current work force is."
Junaid Afeef's parents moved their family from India to the United States when he was 4 years old for one reason only—education.
Despite growing up without the mentors and resources of his American-born classmates, Afeef went on to receive a law degree from American University.
"Education was the thing," said Afeef of Hoffman Estates. "There was nothing more important than getting educated, going to college, getting an advanced degree."
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
Opportunities for schooling draw foreign-born to the United States
By Darnell Little and Kristen Kridel | Tribune reporters
America's foreign-born population is highly fragmented along educational lines, with a large portion of immigrants possessing relatively low levels of education while sizable elite have attained advanced degrees, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The report found that a much smaller percentage of foreign-born adults had completed high school compared with their native-born counterparts—nearly 88 percent of native-born Americans versus 68 percent of foreign born adults.
But that 20 point difference shrinks close to zero when looking at adults who have attained a college degree. Almost 28 percent of native-born adults had at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 27 percent of foreign-born adults.
And slightly more foreign-born adults have an advanced degree (11 percent) than native-born adults (10 percent), according to the report, which describes the level of school completed by adults age 25 or older in 2007.
"The report does a pretty good job of highlighting just how diverse the educational experiences are of the foreign-born population," said Sarah R. Crissey, the report's author. "I think it's an interesting portrait of what our current work force is."
Junaid Afeef's parents moved their family from India to the United States when he was 4 years old for one reason only—education.
Despite growing up without the mentors and resources of his American-born classmates, Afeef went on to receive a law degree from American University.
"Education was the thing," said Afeef of Hoffman Estates. "There was nothing more important than getting educated, going to college, getting an advanced degree."
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
Clinton, Chu, Jackson & Sutley Don't Work For Carol Browner
PRESIDENT'S CORNER. By Norris McDonald
There is chatter that Carol Browner is 'running' the energy, environmental and climate change show for President Barack Obama. Nothing could be further from the truth. President Obama has assembled a talented team to help solve our nation's energy, environmental and global warming problems. Moreover, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Chu, Lisa Jackson and Nancy Sutley were all confirmed by the Senate to officially lead their respective departments, agency and council.
The blogosphere is just full of speculation that Browner is going to somehow dominate these other powerful people. We believe this 'team' will aggressively address the challenges in their respective areas and they will need to coordinate the cross-lapping nature of energy, environment and climate change issues. Browner has been selected by the president to provide the 'harmonizing' element. Each of these areas is huge and will be a challenge for the best minds in the world. President Obama demonstrated 'vision' when he served on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. So he knows these issues very well. I have confidence that the Obama administration will come up with some very good recommendations for solving our energy, environmental and global warming challenges. We look forward to supporting his plans to provide abundant suppplies of energy at reasonable prices while protecting the environment.
There is chatter that Carol Browner is 'running' the energy, environmental and climate change show for President Barack Obama. Nothing could be further from the truth. President Obama has assembled a talented team to help solve our nation's energy, environmental and global warming problems. Moreover, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Chu, Lisa Jackson and Nancy Sutley were all confirmed by the Senate to officially lead their respective departments, agency and council.
The blogosphere is just full of speculation that Browner is going to somehow dominate these other powerful people. We believe this 'team' will aggressively address the challenges in their respective areas and they will need to coordinate the cross-lapping nature of energy, environment and climate change issues. Browner has been selected by the president to provide the 'harmonizing' element. Each of these areas is huge and will be a challenge for the best minds in the world. President Obama demonstrated 'vision' when he served on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. So he knows these issues very well. I have confidence that the Obama administration will come up with some very good recommendations for solving our energy, environmental and global warming challenges. We look forward to supporting his plans to provide abundant suppplies of energy at reasonable prices while protecting the environment.
NeighborWorks America Works to Thwart Foreclosure “Rescue” Scams
Today, NeighborWorks America announced that it filed two trademark complaints with online search engines in an attempt to protect consumers from falling prey to foreclosure rescue scams. The trademark complaints filed by NeighborWorks sought to remove online ads paid for by so-called mortgage rescue companies that used the NeighborWorks name and logo and offered foreclosure help for a fee. The companies have no affiliation with NeighborWorks.
The trademark complaints were the latest of NeighborWorks’ efforts to help ensure that homeowners in danger of foreclosure receive the help they need to avoid foreclosure. More.
The trademark complaints were the latest of NeighborWorks’ efforts to help ensure that homeowners in danger of foreclosure receive the help they need to avoid foreclosure. More.
Welcome for proposal to halve "30 year rule"
Campaign for Freedom of Information
Press release: 29 January 2009
Proposals to automatically release government records after 15 years instead of the present 30 year period were welcomed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information today.
The proposals are made by a committee chaired by Paul Dacre, editor in chief of Associated Newspapers, which had been asked to review the 30 year rule by the Prime Minister. Its report, published today, says that a new “15 year rule” should be adopted and phased in over a period of years, possibly taking full effect by 2025. Freedom of Information Act requests could still be made for individual government records, regardless of their age, but once records were 15 years old they would normally automatically become available in The National Archives.
The Campaign’s director Maurice Frankel said: “A 15 year rule would mean records becoming available while we can still remember the events they refer to. For most people what happened 30 years ago is ancient history. Disclosure after 15 years would throw light on decisions while their impact is still remembered, their consequences still felt and the ministers and other participants likely to still be around and able to answer questions about their own role.”
The Campaign said that documents about government decisions were increasingly becoming available under FOI after only months or a few years, and that delaying full disclosure for 30 years was anachronistic and reinforced a tendency towards secrecy.
The Campaign particularly welcomed the proposal that the government should consider amending the Civil Service code to require officials to keep “full, accurate and impartial records of government business”. It said such a duty was now essential in light of the government’s repeatedly expressed view that FOI was likely to deter officials from keeping frank records.
However the Campaign expressed reservations about the committee’s proposal that the names of civil servants should normally be blacked out from released documents. The Campaign said this conflicted with rulings of the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal which held that the identities of senior officials should normally be disclosed, in the interests of accountability, unless there was a risk to them or some other specific reason to conceal their identity and that anonymity was generally appropriate only for junior officials.
The committee’s report is available from: www.30yearrulereview.org.uk/final-report.htm
The Campaign's submission is available from: www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/cfoi_30yr_submission.pdf
Press release: 29 January 2009
Proposals to automatically release government records after 15 years instead of the present 30 year period were welcomed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information today.
The proposals are made by a committee chaired by Paul Dacre, editor in chief of Associated Newspapers, which had been asked to review the 30 year rule by the Prime Minister. Its report, published today, says that a new “15 year rule” should be adopted and phased in over a period of years, possibly taking full effect by 2025. Freedom of Information Act requests could still be made for individual government records, regardless of their age, but once records were 15 years old they would normally automatically become available in The National Archives.
The Campaign’s director Maurice Frankel said: “A 15 year rule would mean records becoming available while we can still remember the events they refer to. For most people what happened 30 years ago is ancient history. Disclosure after 15 years would throw light on decisions while their impact is still remembered, their consequences still felt and the ministers and other participants likely to still be around and able to answer questions about their own role.”
The Campaign said that documents about government decisions were increasingly becoming available under FOI after only months or a few years, and that delaying full disclosure for 30 years was anachronistic and reinforced a tendency towards secrecy.
The Campaign particularly welcomed the proposal that the government should consider amending the Civil Service code to require officials to keep “full, accurate and impartial records of government business”. It said such a duty was now essential in light of the government’s repeatedly expressed view that FOI was likely to deter officials from keeping frank records.
However the Campaign expressed reservations about the committee’s proposal that the names of civil servants should normally be blacked out from released documents. The Campaign said this conflicted with rulings of the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal which held that the identities of senior officials should normally be disclosed, in the interests of accountability, unless there was a risk to them or some other specific reason to conceal their identity and that anonymity was generally appropriate only for junior officials.
The committee’s report is available from: www.30yearrulereview.org.uk/final-report.htm
The Campaign's submission is available from: www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/cfoi_30yr_submission.pdf
Future news: Operation 'Isaac’s Sacrifice'
Operation 'Isaac’s Sacrifice' Extends into its Second Week
By Moises Salinas, independent correspondent
Jerusalem, July 17, 2012 – The Israeli Defense Forces pounded the West Bank for an 8th straight day, while militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ brigade and Hamas continued firing rocket barrages against targets in Tel Aviv, the coastal plain and the Jerusalem suburbs, both sides ignoring calls from the international community to end the fighting. The UN Security Council passed a resolution, proposed by the Arab league and strongly supported by China and Russia, calling for a total embargo against Israel. The American administration of President Barack Obama abstained in the vote, but failed to veto the resolution, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hoped.
In the meantime, the European Union issued its strongest condemnation ever of the Israeli government, supporting the UNSC call for sanctions leading to a boycott, amid massive demonstrations on the streets of Paris, London, and other European capitals.
The current conflagration exploded last week, but started when the government of former Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas collapsed two years ago due to the failure to gain any significant concessions through negotiations. Radicals within his own Fatah party forced him to resign. Palestinian spokesman Muhammad Al Kasasi said: “it is clear Israelis only understand violence. Every significant concession, from Oslo to the Gaza withdrawal, came as a direct result of an intifadah. Resistance is clearly the only way.”
After the resignation of Abbas, the Palestinian factions on the West Bank began to emulate the strategy of their Hamas counterparts in Gaza, firing makeshift rockets towards Israel largest population centers. Israel has retaliated with increased force, clamping down on the occupied territories, until a week ago when a rocket hit a kindergarten killing 4 young children. The outrage that followed resulted in operation “Isaac’s Sacrifice,” or HaKedat Itzhak in Hebrew, that has resulted in the deaths of at least 3,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian sources and human rights groups.
The international community has largely condemned the disproportionate nature of the operation, and most ambassadors from Latin American and Asian countries have been called in by their governments for consultations.
Developments in Europe seem to indicate that Israel will soon be totally isolated, and except for lukewarm support from the United States, it will most likely become a 21st century’s South Africa. Arab Nations have circulated a petition in the UN General Assembly calling for the creation of a single, bi-national state as “the only realistic solution to the Zionist apartheid” that seems to be gaining wide support among non-aligned countries.
Still, the Netanyahu government appeared defiant, and declared that there is clearly no partner on the Palestinian side for peace. Netanyahu said that “Nothing less than the survival of Israel is at stake, and therefore we will meet attacks from the Palestinian terrorists with even greater force.”
By Moises Salinas, independent correspondent
Jerusalem, July 17, 2012 – The Israeli Defense Forces pounded the West Bank for an 8th straight day, while militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ brigade and Hamas continued firing rocket barrages against targets in Tel Aviv, the coastal plain and the Jerusalem suburbs, both sides ignoring calls from the international community to end the fighting. The UN Security Council passed a resolution, proposed by the Arab league and strongly supported by China and Russia, calling for a total embargo against Israel. The American administration of President Barack Obama abstained in the vote, but failed to veto the resolution, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hoped.
In the meantime, the European Union issued its strongest condemnation ever of the Israeli government, supporting the UNSC call for sanctions leading to a boycott, amid massive demonstrations on the streets of Paris, London, and other European capitals.
The current conflagration exploded last week, but started when the government of former Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas collapsed two years ago due to the failure to gain any significant concessions through negotiations. Radicals within his own Fatah party forced him to resign. Palestinian spokesman Muhammad Al Kasasi said: “it is clear Israelis only understand violence. Every significant concession, from Oslo to the Gaza withdrawal, came as a direct result of an intifadah. Resistance is clearly the only way.”
After the resignation of Abbas, the Palestinian factions on the West Bank began to emulate the strategy of their Hamas counterparts in Gaza, firing makeshift rockets towards Israel largest population centers. Israel has retaliated with increased force, clamping down on the occupied territories, until a week ago when a rocket hit a kindergarten killing 4 young children. The outrage that followed resulted in operation “Isaac’s Sacrifice,” or HaKedat Itzhak in Hebrew, that has resulted in the deaths of at least 3,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian sources and human rights groups.
The international community has largely condemned the disproportionate nature of the operation, and most ambassadors from Latin American and Asian countries have been called in by their governments for consultations.
Developments in Europe seem to indicate that Israel will soon be totally isolated, and except for lukewarm support from the United States, it will most likely become a 21st century’s South Africa. Arab Nations have circulated a petition in the UN General Assembly calling for the creation of a single, bi-national state as “the only realistic solution to the Zionist apartheid” that seems to be gaining wide support among non-aligned countries.
Still, the Netanyahu government appeared defiant, and declared that there is clearly no partner on the Palestinian side for peace. Netanyahu said that “Nothing less than the survival of Israel is at stake, and therefore we will meet attacks from the Palestinian terrorists with even greater force.”
"And Together We Form Voltron" (or "How to Connect the Cloud")
The event started with Rajen Sheth, Senior Product Manager for Google Apps, making the case for why businesses should move their IT systems to the cloud to a panel of CIOs. Check out his presentation and leave a YouTube comment to let us know if you're convinced.
During the second day to we ran 30 or so developer-to-developer training sessions where we had Google engineers instruct on implementing Google App Engine, and GData and Google Maps APIs with the hope that they'd use our services when building their cloud-based apps.
And on the evening of the third day, we didn't boil the oceans, but coding teams did create some pretty sweet apps using only cloud services. One of the cooler ones was an socially-aware job search app for the iPhone which used Google App Engine, and Facebook and Google Apps APIs. Check out developer Claes Nygren's demo:
Cloud Connect did a great job of testing the ease of interoperability and data portability between cloud computing providers. We want companies to be able to use the best services for their needs across multiple providers, and ensure that we are more flexible than traditional on-premise software platforms.
There are two new ways that you too can play with robot action figures – I mean Google code. Test your app ideas in real-time at the new AJAX APIs Playground. Or register for Google I/O, Google's largest developer gathering, coming to San Francisco, CA from May 28 - 29, 2009.
It just gets worse....
Higher mortgage arrears today, lower house prices in the future.
UK homeowners are increasingly struggling to keep up mortgage payments, with the number of loan accounts in serious arrears in the third quarter of 2008 rising by nearly a quarter over the same period the previous year, according to data from the Financial Services Authority.
The FSA, which oversees mortgage lenders, reported that 340,000 arrears cases had arisen by the end of the period, equal to 2.92 per cent of the nation’s mortgage loan book, up sharply by 0.79 per cent over the same period of 2007. The FSA defines a mortgage in arrears as one which on average is behind on 1.5 per cent of outstanding balances or roughly three months behind in payment.
(From the FT)
UK homeowners are increasingly struggling to keep up mortgage payments, with the number of loan accounts in serious arrears in the third quarter of 2008 rising by nearly a quarter over the same period the previous year, according to data from the Financial Services Authority.
The FSA, which oversees mortgage lenders, reported that 340,000 arrears cases had arisen by the end of the period, equal to 2.92 per cent of the nation’s mortgage loan book, up sharply by 0.79 per cent over the same period of 2007. The FSA defines a mortgage in arrears as one which on average is behind on 1.5 per cent of outstanding balances or roughly three months behind in payment.
(From the FT)
UK house prices slide for 15th month
I will post a chart for the Nationwide house price index soon. In the meantime, you might want to meditate on this story from the FT.
UK house prices show no sign that they have hit the bottom as the Nationwide House Price Index recorded its 15th straight monthly fall in January with prices sliding 1.3 per cent,Thursday’s figures bring the year-on-year drop to 16.6 per cent, against a decline of 15.9 per cent in the year to December.
Go on, admit it. You never thought it would get this bad, so quickly.
UK house prices show no sign that they have hit the bottom as the Nationwide House Price Index recorded its 15th straight monthly fall in January with prices sliding 1.3 per cent,Thursday’s figures bring the year-on-year drop to 16.6 per cent, against a decline of 15.9 per cent in the year to December.
Go on, admit it. You never thought it would get this bad, so quickly.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
El Paso in the press
photo Victor CaldazaA very good article about our friends on Rim Road, the El Paso Petanque Club.
One of the quotes I particularly like: "We have some great trash talkers here."
El Paso Times - 25 Feb 2008
El Paso in the press
photo Victor CaldazaA very good article about our friends on Rim Road, the El Paso Petanque Club.
One of the quotes I particularly like: "We have some great trash talkers here."
El Paso Times - 25 Feb 2008
Programs try to teach English to residents
This area in Texas has several programs to teach English to residents. In churches, and schools, with students from many countries. DP
By John Tompkins, The Facts
LAKE JACKSON — Shobha Bhange is educated as a design engineer, but for now it’s not doing her much good.
The 28-year-old mother of an 18-month-old child moved to the area from Pune, India, with her husband, who works as a chemical engineer for Dow Chemical Co.
She is in the country on a dependent visa but doesn’t have permission to work.
So Bhange spends Thursday mornings working on her English at the International Friends program at Lake Jackson Baptist Church. Bhange, whose first language is an Indian dialect called Marathi, has lived in this area for six months and is taking reading classes at the church to improve her speaking skills.
“I’m confused by American accents,” she said, pausing several times and repeating words to make sure her English was correct. “My main purpose is just to get where I communicate.”
According to a recent report, Bhange has plenty of company. More than 11 million people in the United States could not read or write basic English in 2003. The study, released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy two weeks ago, puts the illiteracy rate at 14 percent. The numbers showed no change in the national illiteracy rate since the last survey in 1992.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
By John Tompkins, The Facts
LAKE JACKSON — Shobha Bhange is educated as a design engineer, but for now it’s not doing her much good.
The 28-year-old mother of an 18-month-old child moved to the area from Pune, India, with her husband, who works as a chemical engineer for Dow Chemical Co.
She is in the country on a dependent visa but doesn’t have permission to work.
So Bhange spends Thursday mornings working on her English at the International Friends program at Lake Jackson Baptist Church. Bhange, whose first language is an Indian dialect called Marathi, has lived in this area for six months and is taking reading classes at the church to improve her speaking skills.
“I’m confused by American accents,” she said, pausing several times and repeating words to make sure her English was correct. “My main purpose is just to get where I communicate.”
According to a recent report, Bhange has plenty of company. More than 11 million people in the United States could not read or write basic English in 2003. The study, released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy two weeks ago, puts the illiteracy rate at 14 percent. The numbers showed no change in the national illiteracy rate since the last survey in 1992.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
Immigrants Of The Week:
Several immigrants to this country played a big part in the inauguration ceremonies. DP
Immigrants Of The Week: Isabel Toledo, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Jason Wu
by Greg Siskind
There are many immigrants who played big and small roles in today's Inauguration ceremonies. One person's work will be noticed by millions, but will largely not be attributed. I'm talking about Cuban-born Isabel Toledo who designed the dress worn by the new First Lady. The designer worked in the fashion house of Anne Klein for twenty years before going out on her own. She's become a favorite of Mrs. Obama and we're likely to see her creativity in the years to come.
Two of the artists featured in the Inauguration ceremony were famed Israel-born violinist Itzhak Perlman, French-born Yo-Yo Ma and Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero who played a new John Williams piece along with clarinetist Anthony McGill. Millions of people will now remember the virtuoso for his participation in this wonderful contribution to the day.
Well the new First Lady has turned another immigrant fashion designer in to an instant sensation. Tonight its 26 year old Jason Wu. Mrs. Obama is wearing a Jason Wu gown to ten Inaugural Balls this evening. The Taiwanese-born designer atttened New York's Parson School of Design and opened up his own fashion house three years ago.
Be sure to check out the pictures and listen to the music.
Immigrants Of The Week: Isabel Toledo, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Jason Wu
by Greg Siskind
There are many immigrants who played big and small roles in today's Inauguration ceremonies. One person's work will be noticed by millions, but will largely not be attributed. I'm talking about Cuban-born Isabel Toledo who designed the dress worn by the new First Lady. The designer worked in the fashion house of Anne Klein for twenty years before going out on her own. She's become a favorite of Mrs. Obama and we're likely to see her creativity in the years to come.
Two of the artists featured in the Inauguration ceremony were famed Israel-born violinist Itzhak Perlman, French-born Yo-Yo Ma and Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero who played a new John Williams piece along with clarinetist Anthony McGill. Millions of people will now remember the virtuoso for his participation in this wonderful contribution to the day.
Well the new First Lady has turned another immigrant fashion designer in to an instant sensation. Tonight its 26 year old Jason Wu. Mrs. Obama is wearing a Jason Wu gown to ten Inaugural Balls this evening. The Taiwanese-born designer atttened New York's Parson School of Design and opened up his own fashion house three years ago.
Be sure to check out the pictures and listen to the music.
Recent Heavy Job Losses and the Economic Recovery
Is it a coincidence that so many companies are cutting jobs just at about the same time the economic stimulus package is moving through Congress?
Monday, January 26, 2009 is being called "Black Monday" because it was announced that more than 72,000 jobs were lost, including 6,700 from Starbucks (300 stores closed), Allstate, Boeing, Dell, AOL and others.
Monday, January 26, 2009 is being called "Black Monday" because it was announced that more than 72,000 jobs were lost, including 6,700 from Starbucks (300 stores closed), Allstate, Boeing, Dell, AOL and others.
UPDATE: Stimulus Gets More Transit Funding
House lawmakers today voted to add $3 billion in additional funding for transit projects in the economic stimulus package and placed more restrictions on how state and local transportation agencies must spend the federal cash.
Rep. Jerry Nadler's (D-N.Y.) amendment, passed by a voice vote, increases transit funding from $9 billion to $12 billion by adding $1.5 billion each to the transit capital improvement program and the new starts transit program.
The move restored the total transit funding to the level originally proposed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and ranking member John Mica (R-Fla.). The two men had expressed their frustration that their original $12 billion transit request had been reduced by the Appropriations Committee.
The House approved an amendment from Oberstar that strengthens a "use it or lose it" provision requiring state and government agencies to use half of the stimulus funding within a set amount of time. The amendment dropped the deadline to within 90 days of the bill's enactment, down from 180 days.
The provision had been weakened by the Appropriations Committee to give states more time in response to concerns that 90 days was an unrealistic deadline for the work to begin.
Speaking in support of his amendment, Oberstar told lawmakers that transportation officials had assured him that they would be able to hit the stricter deadline and that the transportation committee would ensure that they did. "Our committee is going to hold oversight hearings every 30 days," he said. "We're going to hold their feet to the fire and a blowtorch to their bottom side to make sure they deliver the jobs in the time frame they have said they can."
Oberstar added extra motivation to states to speed the cash out the door, saying that the stimulus was "a dress rehearsal" for the upcoming surface transportation authorization, a massive spending bill that covers the bulk of the nation's transportation funding that lawmakers will begin drafting later this year.
The third amendment added to the bill, proposed by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), clarified the legislation to ensure that the federal cash received from the rescue package for highway maintenance is not used to replace existing funds that had already been put in place for transportation projects.
- greenwire
Rep. Jerry Nadler's (D-N.Y.) amendment, passed by a voice vote, increases transit funding from $9 billion to $12 billion by adding $1.5 billion each to the transit capital improvement program and the new starts transit program.
The move restored the total transit funding to the level originally proposed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and ranking member John Mica (R-Fla.). The two men had expressed their frustration that their original $12 billion transit request had been reduced by the Appropriations Committee.
The House approved an amendment from Oberstar that strengthens a "use it or lose it" provision requiring state and government agencies to use half of the stimulus funding within a set amount of time. The amendment dropped the deadline to within 90 days of the bill's enactment, down from 180 days.
The provision had been weakened by the Appropriations Committee to give states more time in response to concerns that 90 days was an unrealistic deadline for the work to begin.
Speaking in support of his amendment, Oberstar told lawmakers that transportation officials had assured him that they would be able to hit the stricter deadline and that the transportation committee would ensure that they did. "Our committee is going to hold oversight hearings every 30 days," he said. "We're going to hold their feet to the fire and a blowtorch to their bottom side to make sure they deliver the jobs in the time frame they have said they can."
Oberstar added extra motivation to states to speed the cash out the door, saying that the stimulus was "a dress rehearsal" for the upcoming surface transportation authorization, a massive spending bill that covers the bulk of the nation's transportation funding that lawmakers will begin drafting later this year.
The third amendment added to the bill, proposed by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), clarified the legislation to ensure that the federal cash received from the rescue package for highway maintenance is not used to replace existing funds that had already been put in place for transportation projects.
- greenwire
UPDATE: Stimulus Gets More Transit Funding
House lawmakers today voted to add $3 billion in additional funding for transit projects in the economic stimulus package and placed more restrictions on how state and local transportation agencies must spend the federal cash.
Rep. Jerry Nadler's (D-N.Y.) amendment, passed by a voice vote, increases transit funding from $9 billion to $12 billion by adding $1.5 billion each to the transit capital improvement program and the new starts transit program.
The move restored the total transit funding to the level originally proposed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and ranking member John Mica (R-Fla.). The two men had expressed their frustration that their original $12 billion transit request had been reduced by the Appropriations Committee.
The House approved an amendment from Oberstar that strengthens a "use it or lose it" provision requiring state and government agencies to use half of the stimulus funding within a set amount of time. The amendment dropped the deadline to within 90 days of the bill's enactment, down from 180 days.
The provision had been weakened by the Appropriations Committee to give states more time in response to concerns that 90 days was an unrealistic deadline for the work to begin.
Speaking in support of his amendment, Oberstar told lawmakers that transportation officials had assured him that they would be able to hit the stricter deadline and that the transportation committee would ensure that they did. "Our committee is going to hold oversight hearings every 30 days," he said. "We're going to hold their feet to the fire and a blowtorch to their bottom side to make sure they deliver the jobs in the time frame they have said they can."
Oberstar added extra motivation to states to speed the cash out the door, saying that the stimulus was "a dress rehearsal" for the upcoming surface transportation authorization, a massive spending bill that covers the bulk of the nation's transportation funding that lawmakers will begin drafting later this year.
The third amendment added to the bill, proposed by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), clarified the legislation to ensure that the federal cash received from the rescue package for highway maintenance is not used to replace existing funds that had already been put in place for transportation projects.
- greenwire
Rep. Jerry Nadler's (D-N.Y.) amendment, passed by a voice vote, increases transit funding from $9 billion to $12 billion by adding $1.5 billion each to the transit capital improvement program and the new starts transit program.
The move restored the total transit funding to the level originally proposed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and ranking member John Mica (R-Fla.). The two men had expressed their frustration that their original $12 billion transit request had been reduced by the Appropriations Committee.
The House approved an amendment from Oberstar that strengthens a "use it or lose it" provision requiring state and government agencies to use half of the stimulus funding within a set amount of time. The amendment dropped the deadline to within 90 days of the bill's enactment, down from 180 days.
The provision had been weakened by the Appropriations Committee to give states more time in response to concerns that 90 days was an unrealistic deadline for the work to begin.
Speaking in support of his amendment, Oberstar told lawmakers that transportation officials had assured him that they would be able to hit the stricter deadline and that the transportation committee would ensure that they did. "Our committee is going to hold oversight hearings every 30 days," he said. "We're going to hold their feet to the fire and a blowtorch to their bottom side to make sure they deliver the jobs in the time frame they have said they can."
Oberstar added extra motivation to states to speed the cash out the door, saying that the stimulus was "a dress rehearsal" for the upcoming surface transportation authorization, a massive spending bill that covers the bulk of the nation's transportation funding that lawmakers will begin drafting later this year.
The third amendment added to the bill, proposed by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), clarified the legislation to ensure that the federal cash received from the rescue package for highway maintenance is not used to replace existing funds that had already been put in place for transportation projects.
- greenwire
Language barriers challenge schools
When more than half of the students are learning English along with their other courses, many methods are used to teach them. DP
New teachers, methods needed to address rise in English learners
BY LORI YOUNT, The Wichita Eagle
In Elida Sandoval's sixth-grade math class, students use gestures when words fail.
The Pleasant Valley Middle School students, who are in their first year at an English-speaking school, read and visualize questions about fractions by using an interactive white board.
This classroom technology equips Sandoval and her colleagues to better communicate with a growing number of a students for whom English is not their first language.
About half of the Wichita middle school's more than 500 students are classified as English Speakers of Other Languages, making it one of the district's largest ESOL programs.
In the Wichita school district, the number of ESOL students has grown 78 percent in the past 10 years to more than 6,000 students, according to district records.
Those numbers are expected to grow steadily as formerly migrant families choose to settle in one location, experts say. To make sure ESOL students succeed, Wichita and schools nationwide will have to attract more ESOL teachers and implement innovative teaching techniques.
One of Wichita's initial steps has been to create a new administrative position to oversee the identification and evaluation of ESOL students.
"The No. 1 goal is to affect student achievement," said Karen Boettcher, the district's new ESOL director.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
New teachers, methods needed to address rise in English learners
BY LORI YOUNT, The Wichita Eagle
In Elida Sandoval's sixth-grade math class, students use gestures when words fail.
The Pleasant Valley Middle School students, who are in their first year at an English-speaking school, read and visualize questions about fractions by using an interactive white board.
This classroom technology equips Sandoval and her colleagues to better communicate with a growing number of a students for whom English is not their first language.
About half of the Wichita middle school's more than 500 students are classified as English Speakers of Other Languages, making it one of the district's largest ESOL programs.
In the Wichita school district, the number of ESOL students has grown 78 percent in the past 10 years to more than 6,000 students, according to district records.
Those numbers are expected to grow steadily as formerly migrant families choose to settle in one location, experts say. To make sure ESOL students succeed, Wichita and schools nationwide will have to attract more ESOL teachers and implement innovative teaching techniques.
One of Wichita's initial steps has been to create a new administrative position to oversee the identification and evaluation of ESOL students.
"The No. 1 goal is to affect student achievement," said Karen Boettcher, the district's new ESOL director.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
Grand Prairie teen overcame language barrier to rise to top of his class
This student's success in learning English may help educators figure out how to teach better. It definitely takes hard work, practice and parents who encouraged him. DP
By STELLA M. CHÁVEZ / The Dallas Morning News
Knowing only Spanish wasn't the only obstacle Ruben Jauregui faced five years ago when he left Mexico to start a new life in Texas. He had to put up with Latino classmates who ridiculed him for wanting to speak English.
Ruben, now a 17-year-old senior at Grand Prairie High School, didn't let the teasing stop him. He mastered English, rose to No. 1 in his class and is deciding whether to accept a full scholarship from prestigious Rice University or ultraprestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I think whatever you want to do is possible, and if you work hard, you can do it," he said, sitting in front of a computer in the school library. "It's about believing in yourself."
Ruben's transition from native Spanish speaker to stellar student provides solid clues to one of the most vexing mysteries in Texas public education: How do schools teach English to Spanish-speaking kids to prepare them for success? And what should the child and his family do to support the school's curriculum?
More than half a million public school students in Texas carry the "limited English proficient" label. The vast majority are Latino. And many of them understand little of what they hear in class from their English-speaking teachers.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
By STELLA M. CHÁVEZ / The Dallas Morning News
Knowing only Spanish wasn't the only obstacle Ruben Jauregui faced five years ago when he left Mexico to start a new life in Texas. He had to put up with Latino classmates who ridiculed him for wanting to speak English.
Ruben, now a 17-year-old senior at Grand Prairie High School, didn't let the teasing stop him. He mastered English, rose to No. 1 in his class and is deciding whether to accept a full scholarship from prestigious Rice University or ultraprestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I think whatever you want to do is possible, and if you work hard, you can do it," he said, sitting in front of a computer in the school library. "It's about believing in yourself."
Ruben's transition from native Spanish speaker to stellar student provides solid clues to one of the most vexing mysteries in Texas public education: How do schools teach English to Spanish-speaking kids to prepare them for success? And what should the child and his family do to support the school's curriculum?
More than half a million public school students in Texas carry the "limited English proficient" label. The vast majority are Latino. And many of them understand little of what they hear in class from their English-speaking teachers.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
NeighborWorks Network Expects Investment in Multifamily Portfolio to Approach $700 Million in 2009
Today NeighborWorks America announced that it anticipates continued growth in investment in its portfolio of owned and managed multifamily rental housing, forecasting the total investment in the portfolio to grow by more than $50 million, or just over eight percent of the investment made in the year ended Sept. 30 2008. Last year, NeighborWorks organizations invested in excess of $644 million in multifamily properties. The expected growth in 2009 translates into approximately 5,000 additional units of quality, affordable and increasingly environmentally sustainable housing. More.
NeighborWorks America Applauds NeighborWorks Alliance of Vermont
Vermont homeowners in danger of foreclosure will now know who to call for free foreclosure prevention assistance thanks to a move by the Vermont State Supreme Court. In an emergency amendment to the state Rules of Civil Procedure, which went into effect on January 1, 2009, Vermont homeowners entering into foreclosure will now receive a notice that contains contact information for nonprofit organizations – including five Vermont NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Centers – that offer free foreclosure prevention help. More.
January NeighborWorks Alert
A Message from NeighborWorks CEO Ken Wade, on the Inauguration of President Barack ObamaPresident Barack Obama’s inauguration was celebrated by hundreds of millions of people across America and throughout the world, but for those in housing and community development, this historic occasion has special meaning. For practitioners in this industry — many of whom understand the immeasurable potential of community organizing — it was encouraging to hear the new president signal a community approach to solving the dire challenges ahead. Read more.
Also in this Issue:
News:
- Shaun Donovan Confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
- New Compelling Video Captures the Impact of NeighborWorks America and Make It Right on New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward Residents
- NeighborWorks CEO Ken Wade to be Featured in TV One Special Real Estate Realities: When the Boom Goes Bust
- NeighborWorks Network Expects Investment in Multifamily Portfolio to Approach $700 Million in 2009
- NeighborWorks Organizations Recognized for Innovations in Home Building
- Investors, Supporters and Stakeholders of Housing and Community Development Organizations Get New Evaluation Tool from NeighborWorks America
- NeighborWorks America Applauds NeighborWorks Alliance of Vermont for their Role in State Supreme Court Decision on Foreclosures
- Experts Predict Second Wave of Foreclosures
Funding:
- Praxis Project: Call for Proposals for Communities Creating Healthy Environments, Deadline February 26
- Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative is accepting applications for 2009 awards
Resources:
Auto Fuel Economy & the African American Community
How will increasing corporate average fuel economy standards (CAFE) to reduce oil imports and to meet global warming mitigation goals affect the black community? Automakers say that quickly forcing requirements for more stringent emissions standards could force them to drastically cut production of larger, more profitable vehicles, and could add to their financial problems. They even state that if the California waiver to Clean Air Act requirements is granted by EPA, it will run them out of business. The big car makers are borrowing billions of dollars from the government to avoid bankruptcy and cutting thousands of jobs.
Dealerships, including black-owned car dealerships, are struggling to sell cars due to the credit crunch. Franchises are also being hit with the cancellation of certain model lines, which creates another business problem for dealers. Can black car dealerships remain open in this climate and will blacks purchase hybrids and other smaller fuel efficient vehicles. Many blacks like the larger vehicles and tend to avoid vehicles styled in the fashion of the Toyoto Prius. A challenge for GM is whether blacks will purchase the Volt and Cadillac Escalade Hybrid in large numbers. These vehicles appear to conform to a more stylish design than the Prius-type and might be a big seller in the black consumer market. Let's hope so.
Although we support the EPA waiver, we would really like to see Congress pass a cap-and-trade global warming mitigation law and international treaty that includes China, India and other countries. Hopefully, such legislation, combined with auto manufacturing company government loans and the stimulus package, will not only restore the economy at large, but will also enhance the black consumer auto market. Automakers also support one set of national requirements that would combine state, federal and stakeholder concerns. The Obama administration should reconcile these problems by designing and passing legislation that will be most efficient and effective for the nation.
Black-owned car dealerships are at significant risk of mass closures. Many have already gone under or have been absorbed by other dealers. Black Enterprise magazine has publicized that this sector represents one-third of the revenue generated by the largest black-owned companies in America. The collapse of this sector would do great harm to the entire black community and its related consumer markets.
JFBB SKI PROMO
Have you seen our great snow program items this year? Yuengling is helping you get geared up for the winter weather with giveaways all season long. Look for the opportunity to win a Yuengling snowboard at your favorite Yuengling retailer. In Northeastern PA, Yuengling is helping our customers hit the slopes. At a recent promotion Yuengling fans had the chance to win lift tickets for one of the local ski resorts, Jack Frost Big Boulder, in the Poconos. The event was held at The Paddock at Devon in Wayne, PA. Attendees had the chance to win lift tickets and Yuengling gear to keep them warm on the mountain. Everyone had fun playing Quizzo while enjoying Lager and Light Lager specials. The Paddock at Devon will be holding JFBB Ski Promotions on Tuesday nights from 8-10pm thru February featuring Yuengling drink specials. If you are in the area, come join us for your chance to win!
Historian Yehuda Bauer on Gaza, Part 1
The following is an analysis by Yehuda Bauer, a distinguished Israeli Holocaust historian and a long-time supporter of Meretz and its Mapam socialist-Zionist predecessor. He wrote this in response to a move by some members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) to accuse Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Permit me to start with a recap of presumably well-known background facts: Israeli settlers occupied parts of the Gaza strip, employed several thousand Palestinians, and threatened, by their presence, to perpetuate the occupation of the area by Israel. At the same time, Israeli authorities established an important industrial park at the Erez crossing, on the Israeli side, in cooperation with Gazan entrepreneurs; the park employed several thousand Gazans, too.
Tens of thousands of Gazans were employed as workers in Israel, though the conditions of employment varied; according to Israeli law, the workers should have received proper wages and some social benefits, but many employers utilized the economic vulnerability of the Gazans to discriminate against some. Others were employed in a proper way.
Hamas, founded as an offshoot of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood, was initially not attacked by Israel, which saw the PLO (and the Fatah movement which controlled it) as its main enemy. Hamas was not directly supported by Israel, but was left to grow without intervention.
Hamas is, as is well known, a radical Islamic movement. Its 1988 Charter is constantly quoted and remains the basic document of the movement. It advocates not a Palestinian state, but an Islamic State of Palestine – in all of it, after the annihilation of Israel – ruled by Shari'a law, relegating Christians, and those Jews who will have survived the destruction of Israel and will have accepted Islamic rule, to a fourth-class status.
Jews generally are regarded as a world-wide enemy, "sons of apes and pigs," whose aim is to control the world, as has been "proved" by the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion]. The call to kill all Jews is part of the internal propaganda, and repeated countless times in sermons (many of these are recorded on video, and spread, so that one can easily prove this). In accordance with the radical interpretation of Islam, one can indeed arrange a temporary truce or a cease-fire (hudna or tahadiya), but these will be in force only until the Islamic force is strong enough to end it.
Temporary truce arrangements with Jewish tribes at the times of the Prophet, that were then broken and the Jewish tribes destroyed, are quoted to show that one does not keep such arrangements beyond the time needed to regroup.
The sources that enabled Hamas to rise and gain popularity are in large part connected with the continued and mistaken policies of successive Israeli governments, and their American backers.
From the beginning of the second intifada, Hamas, some Fatah elements, and some of the smaller, non-religious, radical nationalist groups, engaged in a two-pronged policy: to create a wall between Gazans and Israelis by attacking all places where the two met, and cause the evacuation of Israeli settlements to the east of the 1967 line (in old Israel) by rocket attacks directed against not military, but civilian, targets. This has been going on since 2001, and has been partly successful.
Some 7000 rockets have been launched against Israel. Hamas attacked the Erez industrial park and caused it to close; it caused the Israelis to fire Gazan workers in Israel and in the end stop work in Israel; it attacked the Ashkelon area, where the electricity plant is located that supplies Gaza with electricity, though it did not manage to hit it; it attacked the fuel depot on the Gazan border that supplies fuel to Gaza; and it attacked convoys of trucks going into Gaza. The border crossings were open in 2001, and trade was engaged in.
Each time rocket fire was directed at the border region with Gaza, mainly but not exclusively at Sderot, Israel closed the crossings. The rationale was that this would cause the Gazan population to turn against those who fired the rockets – a policy that failed in the Lebanon and failed miserably in Gaza. On the contrary, causing hardship to the Gazan population made it support Hamas. To engage in a blockade directed against a civilian population in an armed struggle may not be in contravention to international law, but it is morally reprehensible, at least from my point of view.
As we all know, Israel left the Gaza strip and dismantled its settlements there, in a unilateral move, without an arrangement with the Palestine Authority (PA). Hamas saw this as a victory, which in a way it was. This was accompanied by attempts to keep the crossings open, but soon enough they were closed again when the reaction of Hamas was to continue and intensify the rocket fire. Israel responded with air attacks on rocket launchers, and assassination of major Hamas leaders. Elections took place, and Hamas was democratically and freely elected to lead Gaza. The strong Fatah minority remained. In 2007, Hamas staged a military coup, many Fatah members were killed, and the Hamas quasi-government became what one may perhaps call, paradoxically, a freely-elected, brutal and murderous dictatorship.
In the meantime, Israel responded to the kidnapping (and presumably, immediate murder) of two of its soldiers from within Israeli territory by Hizbullah by an ill-considered military attack and invasion of the Lebanon. That ended with large numbers of Lebanese and Israeli casualties, a UN force to separate between Israel and the Hizbullah, but actually with a clear victory for Iran: the Iranian strategy is directed to achieve two aims: an Iranian-Shiite control of the Persian Gulf, and thus control over some 40% of the oil that the West needs; and an outlet to the Mediterranean, in order to challenge the Egyptian-Saudi Axis that controls the Middle East, under American tutelage.
It is wrong to ignore the ideological dimension, because the Iranian leadership is definitely motivated by an ideology that seeks to establish the rule of an extreme version of Islam over the Middle East, and, hopefully from its point of view, over the world. In that it parallels the Sunni version of the same ideology, despite all the considerable differences – and bitter enmity – between the Shi'a and the Sunni world.
In the 2006 war, Israel gave Iran the outlet to the Mediterranean that it was seeking, because Hizbullah was strengthened. Hizbullah attained a large measure of control over the Lebanon. Hizbullah is, as we all know, a close ally of Iran, though it does not necessarily and always follow the Iranian lead. Its military leader, Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Shiite, was "embedded" with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, until he was assassinated, almost certainly by the Mossad, in Damascus. The "Shura' (Council) of Hizbullah meets, usually weekly, and always with an Iranian delegate present. But the (Sunni) Hamas representative and delegate to the Hizbullah, Osman Hamdan (he now calls himself Osama Hamdan), also participates, and Hamas and Hizbullah policies are closely connected. Hamas receives its rockets from Iran (in parts that are assembled in Gaza) by sea via Sudan, and thence either by sea or by land, into the Sinai or directly into Gaza. As explained above, the Israeli Lebanese war of 2006 enabled these bonds to be strengthened, and gave Iran a political and military foothold on the Mediterranean.
Having achieved the cutting of relations between the Gazan population and their Israeli neighbors, aided and abetted by the Israeli policy of periodically closing the crossings to Gaza, Hamas then intensified its rocket attacks, and Israel reacted by air strikes against what it thought were the rocket sites, and by killing Hamas militants and leaders. In the spring of 2008, a truce (tahadiya) was brokered by Egypt, because both sides wanted a respite. But Hamas did not stop its attempts to fight, continued to fire rockets, and on November 5 the Israelis discovered a tunnel that was being dug from the Gazan side into Israel. The Israelis presumed that the purpose was not to pick daisies on the Israeli side of the fence – similar tunnels had enabled Hamas militants to try and attack Israelis within the 1967 border, and Cpl. Gilead Shalit was kidnapped this way (by the way, Shalit has been held close to three years – if still alive – and the Red Cross is refused access; Hamas does not recognize the Red Cross, or any international conventions).
An Israeli force destroyed the tunnel and killed two Hamas fighters in it. A rain of rockets descended on Israel, making a joke of the tahadiya. Within the Israeli government, a division arose, between Livni and Mofaz of the Kadima party (Mofaz is a former IDF chief of staff and minister of defense), supported by the ultra-orthodox Shas Party, who don't send their most capable young men (never mind women) to the Army, but advocate militant policies within the government, and Labor. Defense Minister Barak opposed radical armed reaction and an invasion of Gaza, and he was supported by Gabi Ashkenazi, the current IDF chief of staff. Then, on December 19, Hamas declared the tahadiya at an end, and fired 50-60 rockets a day into southern Israel. For a few days, Barak still sought Egyptian mediation, and his view was again supported by the Army. But the outcry from the population became irresistible.
The first duty of a government is to protect its citizens, and there was an outcry against what was perceived as a weak reaction to an immediate and serious threat. Of course, as in any army anywhere, contingency plans had been prepared; not, as some say, half a year before, but at least a year, if not more, before the fighting broke out – as it should have, because it would have been inexcusable had they not done so.
The air strike, lasting a few days, was supported by almost the whole Jewish Israeli population. Protests from the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel were sporadic and weak, with the police allowing all such demonstrations to take place, even when they had not been officially permitted as the law requires. Israeli Arabs were among the casualties caused by the rocket attacks (as they had been in the Lebanon war of 2006).
Barak then proposed a "humanitarian" cease-fire for two or three days, in order to see whether Egypt might arrange a permanent truce. This was in line with the public –and private – statements of the government (with the exception of the ultraorthodox, and the right-wing "Pensioners' Party,"a very peculiar political body that is part of the government coalition). These statements declared that the aim of the armed action was to stop the rocket attacks, which affected about one million citizens, Jews and Arabs; and to stop the supply of Iranian arms through the tunnels under the Gaza-Egyptian border, which the Egyptians had not been able or perhaps not willing to terminate.
The government had stated, explicitly, that the aim was not to topple Hamas, and certainly not to occupy Gaza. Barak therefore demanded that he be given the permission to stop the fighting, temporarily at least, in order to avoid a land invasion. Hamas rocket attacks had not been stopped, but the number of rockets decreased from 50-60 to 30-40 a day. The government voted against Barak's proposal, which was supported by the left-wing opposition [i.e., mainly Meretz– ed.]. In my view, had Barak's proposal been accepted, it might have created a new situation: Israel could have said – we don't want to continue fighting, and we offer you a permanent truce; you will stop smuggling arms and we will open all the crossings. If Hamas then would have rejected the offer, and opposed any kind of mediation, Israel would have been justified in sending in its army to protect its civilians from further rocket attacks by an organization that remains dedicated to Israel's destruction.
It should be remembered that no Arab government, certainly not Egypt, has recognized Hamas rule in Gaza. The Mubarak government opposes Hamas, but does not want to occupy Gaza; nor does it want Palestinians to cross the border into Egypt, nor does it want to expend resources to help the Gazans in any way. It sees Hamas, rightly I think, as the extended arm of Iran and as an immediate threat to its own rule in Egypt, because it is the radical Islamists in Egypt that see Hamas as their allies.
Again, the Israeli government was being pressed by public opinion, and the right-wing opposition, to send the army into Gaza. The armed invasion started, the aim being, as was explained to the public and to the soldiers themselves, to destroy as much of the armed forces of Hamas, especially its rocket launchers, as possible, force Hamas into accepting a long-term or permanent truce, and stop the arms smuggling. The result was the destruction of whole built-up areas, especially in the North of the strip, the killing of over 1300 people, including some 600 civilians, of whom about 300 were children, and about 100 were women. The exact figures, at this time, are not yet clear.
It is obvious that this was neither a genocide nor a genocidal event. There was no intent to destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group as such, there was not even an intent to destroy an armed, political and fanatically religious group or abolish its rule over a given territory. There was no massacre of civilians as such either, but violent attacks on what was, rightly or wrongly, but apparently legitimately, thought to be armed men fighting the Israeli army, who were hiding among the civilian population, and as a result many civilian lives, especially those of children, were lost. I am not talking numbers, either, because in my view civilians killed are civilians killed, whether there were 600 as in Gaza, or 40,000 as in Sri Lanka, or uncounted numbers [estimated at five million– ed.] in Congo – none of which, by the way, caused members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) to respond the way they did when it concerned Israel in Gaza.
Was Israel guilty of war crimes? Possibly, and this must be investigated, not just by the Israeli army, but by an outside factor. To be continued...
Permit me to start with a recap of presumably well-known background facts: Israeli settlers occupied parts of the Gaza strip, employed several thousand Palestinians, and threatened, by their presence, to perpetuate the occupation of the area by Israel. At the same time, Israeli authorities established an important industrial park at the Erez crossing, on the Israeli side, in cooperation with Gazan entrepreneurs; the park employed several thousand Gazans, too.
Tens of thousands of Gazans were employed as workers in Israel, though the conditions of employment varied; according to Israeli law, the workers should have received proper wages and some social benefits, but many employers utilized the economic vulnerability of the Gazans to discriminate against some. Others were employed in a proper way.
Hamas, founded as an offshoot of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood, was initially not attacked by Israel, which saw the PLO (and the Fatah movement which controlled it) as its main enemy. Hamas was not directly supported by Israel, but was left to grow without intervention.
Hamas is, as is well known, a radical Islamic movement. Its 1988 Charter is constantly quoted and remains the basic document of the movement. It advocates not a Palestinian state, but an Islamic State of Palestine – in all of it, after the annihilation of Israel – ruled by Shari'a law, relegating Christians, and those Jews who will have survived the destruction of Israel and will have accepted Islamic rule, to a fourth-class status.
Jews generally are regarded as a world-wide enemy, "sons of apes and pigs," whose aim is to control the world, as has been "proved" by the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion]. The call to kill all Jews is part of the internal propaganda, and repeated countless times in sermons (many of these are recorded on video, and spread, so that one can easily prove this). In accordance with the radical interpretation of Islam, one can indeed arrange a temporary truce or a cease-fire (hudna or tahadiya), but these will be in force only until the Islamic force is strong enough to end it.
Temporary truce arrangements with Jewish tribes at the times of the Prophet, that were then broken and the Jewish tribes destroyed, are quoted to show that one does not keep such arrangements beyond the time needed to regroup.
The sources that enabled Hamas to rise and gain popularity are in large part connected with the continued and mistaken policies of successive Israeli governments, and their American backers.
From the beginning of the second intifada, Hamas, some Fatah elements, and some of the smaller, non-religious, radical nationalist groups, engaged in a two-pronged policy: to create a wall between Gazans and Israelis by attacking all places where the two met, and cause the evacuation of Israeli settlements to the east of the 1967 line (in old Israel) by rocket attacks directed against not military, but civilian, targets. This has been going on since 2001, and has been partly successful.
Some 7000 rockets have been launched against Israel. Hamas attacked the Erez industrial park and caused it to close; it caused the Israelis to fire Gazan workers in Israel and in the end stop work in Israel; it attacked the Ashkelon area, where the electricity plant is located that supplies Gaza with electricity, though it did not manage to hit it; it attacked the fuel depot on the Gazan border that supplies fuel to Gaza; and it attacked convoys of trucks going into Gaza. The border crossings were open in 2001, and trade was engaged in.
Each time rocket fire was directed at the border region with Gaza, mainly but not exclusively at Sderot, Israel closed the crossings. The rationale was that this would cause the Gazan population to turn against those who fired the rockets – a policy that failed in the Lebanon and failed miserably in Gaza. On the contrary, causing hardship to the Gazan population made it support Hamas. To engage in a blockade directed against a civilian population in an armed struggle may not be in contravention to international law, but it is morally reprehensible, at least from my point of view.
As we all know, Israel left the Gaza strip and dismantled its settlements there, in a unilateral move, without an arrangement with the Palestine Authority (PA). Hamas saw this as a victory, which in a way it was. This was accompanied by attempts to keep the crossings open, but soon enough they were closed again when the reaction of Hamas was to continue and intensify the rocket fire. Israel responded with air attacks on rocket launchers, and assassination of major Hamas leaders. Elections took place, and Hamas was democratically and freely elected to lead Gaza. The strong Fatah minority remained. In 2007, Hamas staged a military coup, many Fatah members were killed, and the Hamas quasi-government became what one may perhaps call, paradoxically, a freely-elected, brutal and murderous dictatorship.
In the meantime, Israel responded to the kidnapping (and presumably, immediate murder) of two of its soldiers from within Israeli territory by Hizbullah by an ill-considered military attack and invasion of the Lebanon. That ended with large numbers of Lebanese and Israeli casualties, a UN force to separate between Israel and the Hizbullah, but actually with a clear victory for Iran: the Iranian strategy is directed to achieve two aims: an Iranian-Shiite control of the Persian Gulf, and thus control over some 40% of the oil that the West needs; and an outlet to the Mediterranean, in order to challenge the Egyptian-Saudi Axis that controls the Middle East, under American tutelage.
It is wrong to ignore the ideological dimension, because the Iranian leadership is definitely motivated by an ideology that seeks to establish the rule of an extreme version of Islam over the Middle East, and, hopefully from its point of view, over the world. In that it parallels the Sunni version of the same ideology, despite all the considerable differences – and bitter enmity – between the Shi'a and the Sunni world.
In the 2006 war, Israel gave Iran the outlet to the Mediterranean that it was seeking, because Hizbullah was strengthened. Hizbullah attained a large measure of control over the Lebanon. Hizbullah is, as we all know, a close ally of Iran, though it does not necessarily and always follow the Iranian lead. Its military leader, Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Shiite, was "embedded" with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, until he was assassinated, almost certainly by the Mossad, in Damascus. The "Shura' (Council) of Hizbullah meets, usually weekly, and always with an Iranian delegate present. But the (Sunni) Hamas representative and delegate to the Hizbullah, Osman Hamdan (he now calls himself Osama Hamdan), also participates, and Hamas and Hizbullah policies are closely connected. Hamas receives its rockets from Iran (in parts that are assembled in Gaza) by sea via Sudan, and thence either by sea or by land, into the Sinai or directly into Gaza. As explained above, the Israeli Lebanese war of 2006 enabled these bonds to be strengthened, and gave Iran a political and military foothold on the Mediterranean.
Having achieved the cutting of relations between the Gazan population and their Israeli neighbors, aided and abetted by the Israeli policy of periodically closing the crossings to Gaza, Hamas then intensified its rocket attacks, and Israel reacted by air strikes against what it thought were the rocket sites, and by killing Hamas militants and leaders. In the spring of 2008, a truce (tahadiya) was brokered by Egypt, because both sides wanted a respite. But Hamas did not stop its attempts to fight, continued to fire rockets, and on November 5 the Israelis discovered a tunnel that was being dug from the Gazan side into Israel. The Israelis presumed that the purpose was not to pick daisies on the Israeli side of the fence – similar tunnels had enabled Hamas militants to try and attack Israelis within the 1967 border, and Cpl. Gilead Shalit was kidnapped this way (by the way, Shalit has been held close to three years – if still alive – and the Red Cross is refused access; Hamas does not recognize the Red Cross, or any international conventions).
An Israeli force destroyed the tunnel and killed two Hamas fighters in it. A rain of rockets descended on Israel, making a joke of the tahadiya. Within the Israeli government, a division arose, between Livni and Mofaz of the Kadima party (Mofaz is a former IDF chief of staff and minister of defense), supported by the ultra-orthodox Shas Party, who don't send their most capable young men (never mind women) to the Army, but advocate militant policies within the government, and Labor. Defense Minister Barak opposed radical armed reaction and an invasion of Gaza, and he was supported by Gabi Ashkenazi, the current IDF chief of staff. Then, on December 19, Hamas declared the tahadiya at an end, and fired 50-60 rockets a day into southern Israel. For a few days, Barak still sought Egyptian mediation, and his view was again supported by the Army. But the outcry from the population became irresistible.
The first duty of a government is to protect its citizens, and there was an outcry against what was perceived as a weak reaction to an immediate and serious threat. Of course, as in any army anywhere, contingency plans had been prepared; not, as some say, half a year before, but at least a year, if not more, before the fighting broke out – as it should have, because it would have been inexcusable had they not done so.
The air strike, lasting a few days, was supported by almost the whole Jewish Israeli population. Protests from the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel were sporadic and weak, with the police allowing all such demonstrations to take place, even when they had not been officially permitted as the law requires. Israeli Arabs were among the casualties caused by the rocket attacks (as they had been in the Lebanon war of 2006).
Barak then proposed a "humanitarian" cease-fire for two or three days, in order to see whether Egypt might arrange a permanent truce. This was in line with the public –and private – statements of the government (with the exception of the ultraorthodox, and the right-wing "Pensioners' Party,"a very peculiar political body that is part of the government coalition). These statements declared that the aim of the armed action was to stop the rocket attacks, which affected about one million citizens, Jews and Arabs; and to stop the supply of Iranian arms through the tunnels under the Gaza-Egyptian border, which the Egyptians had not been able or perhaps not willing to terminate.
The government had stated, explicitly, that the aim was not to topple Hamas, and certainly not to occupy Gaza. Barak therefore demanded that he be given the permission to stop the fighting, temporarily at least, in order to avoid a land invasion. Hamas rocket attacks had not been stopped, but the number of rockets decreased from 50-60 to 30-40 a day. The government voted against Barak's proposal, which was supported by the left-wing opposition [i.e., mainly Meretz– ed.]. In my view, had Barak's proposal been accepted, it might have created a new situation: Israel could have said – we don't want to continue fighting, and we offer you a permanent truce; you will stop smuggling arms and we will open all the crossings. If Hamas then would have rejected the offer, and opposed any kind of mediation, Israel would have been justified in sending in its army to protect its civilians from further rocket attacks by an organization that remains dedicated to Israel's destruction.
It should be remembered that no Arab government, certainly not Egypt, has recognized Hamas rule in Gaza. The Mubarak government opposes Hamas, but does not want to occupy Gaza; nor does it want Palestinians to cross the border into Egypt, nor does it want to expend resources to help the Gazans in any way. It sees Hamas, rightly I think, as the extended arm of Iran and as an immediate threat to its own rule in Egypt, because it is the radical Islamists in Egypt that see Hamas as their allies.
Again, the Israeli government was being pressed by public opinion, and the right-wing opposition, to send the army into Gaza. The armed invasion started, the aim being, as was explained to the public and to the soldiers themselves, to destroy as much of the armed forces of Hamas, especially its rocket launchers, as possible, force Hamas into accepting a long-term or permanent truce, and stop the arms smuggling. The result was the destruction of whole built-up areas, especially in the North of the strip, the killing of over 1300 people, including some 600 civilians, of whom about 300 were children, and about 100 were women. The exact figures, at this time, are not yet clear.
It is obvious that this was neither a genocide nor a genocidal event. There was no intent to destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group as such, there was not even an intent to destroy an armed, political and fanatically religious group or abolish its rule over a given territory. There was no massacre of civilians as such either, but violent attacks on what was, rightly or wrongly, but apparently legitimately, thought to be armed men fighting the Israeli army, who were hiding among the civilian population, and as a result many civilian lives, especially those of children, were lost. I am not talking numbers, either, because in my view civilians killed are civilians killed, whether there were 600 as in Gaza, or 40,000 as in Sri Lanka, or uncounted numbers [estimated at five million– ed.] in Congo – none of which, by the way, caused members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) to respond the way they did when it concerned Israel in Gaza.
Was Israel guilty of war crimes? Possibly, and this must be investigated, not just by the Israeli army, but by an outside factor. To be continued...
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