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Army demolishes mosque in the Jordan valley

By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – February 18, 2011

Israeli soldiers demolished a mosque located in Khirbit Yirza, near the West Bank city of Tubas on Thursday, and also removed 10 tents used by farmers and shepherds in the area.

Local sources reported that several Israeli military jeeps invaded the village and demolished the mosque for the second time in six months.

After demolishing the mosque and the tents, soldiers also handed orders for the demolition of three homes and animal sheds.

Also, army bulldozers demolished ten tin-houses in Bardala area, near Tubas. This is the second attack of its nature against the village.

The ten tin-houses were initially demolished by the army several weeks ago, and the residents rebuilt them.

The area in question is in the Jordan valley, a main target to the construction of Jewish settlements due to the fertile nature of the lands and the sensitive geographic location.

February 18, 2011 Posted by | Aletho News | Leave a comment

Raymond Davis And The Curious Lack of Drone Strikes

Moon Over Alabama | February 14, 2011

Raymond Davis is a U.S. government contractor who worked in Pakistan. On January 26 he gunned down and killed two people in Lahore under quite murky circumstances. He is currently in Pakistani custody. The U.S. is now claiming that he is protected under diplomatic status. But that claim seems to have evolved only after the killing. Davis arrived in Pakistan on a business visa and without diplomatic papers. In any case there is no diplomatic status protection for serious crimes.

The U.S. is pressing the Pakistani PPP-party government for the release of Davis. That isn’t easily done for the Zardari government as the case happened and will be judged in the state of Punjab where the major opposition party rules.

In the current downsizing and rearrangement of the Pakistani cabinet the, until recently, foreign minister Qureshi was supposed to stay on but yesterday he was ousted over the case:

Mr Qureshi, according to sources, was angered by President Zardari’s move to stop him from issuing any statement as foreign minister on the issue of Davis and assign the task to Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Mr Qureshi reportedly stated that “the kind of blanket immunity Washington is pressing for Davis is not endorsed by the official record of the foreign ministry”.

The murky circumstances of the crime itself and the political shenanigans to get Davis released is already enough to make this case interesting.

But I suspect something even more interesting lies behind this.

In 2010 119 U.S. drones strike hit in Pakistan, 13 of those in November and 12 in December. In the first three weeks of January 9 drone strikes occurred, the last one on January 23, three days before the murder in Lahore.

Since then – silence. The last three weeks there were no drone strikes reported, not one.

So while there was an uninterrupted campaign of drone strikes on Pakistani ground every three days for several months, taking Mr. Davis off the streets seems to have stopped it.

It may be that the U.S. stopped the strikes to prevent further diplomatic complications. But earlier rows between the Pakistani and U.S. governments never stopped the drone campaign.

Another reason may well be that Mr. Davis is a critical component in the drone campaign and that without what he was doing, collecting targeting data from informants or whatever, the drone strikes can not continue.

It may also be that this correlation of events is not causal.

But to me it seems that keeping Davis off the streets has probably saved some Pakistani lives. Keeping him further off and inside a jail may probably save even more. That should be enough reason to press for his custody to continue.

February 17, 2011 Posted by | War Crimes | 3 Comments

EU’s “magic wand” diplomacy

The desperate race to cobble together a Palestinian state

By Stuart Littlewood | Redress | 17 February 2011

“The government are a friend to both Israelis and Palestinians,” UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, a dedicated Israel fan, told Parliament this week.

We are calling for both sides to show the visionary boldness to return to talks and make genuine compromises. Talks need to take place on the basis of clear parameters. In our view, the entire international community, including the United States, should now support 1967 borders as the basis for resumed negotiations…

Being St Valentine’s Day, he must have been feeling a sudden and unaccustomed upsurge of romantic love for our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

The next day European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that the international community is still seeking to achieve a peace deal and a Palestinian state by September, despite the revolutionary turmoil in the region and pathetic whining from the delinquent Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that the Iranian problem must be solved first.

There is of course no Iranian problem. There is no Palestinian problem. There is only the Israel problem. It’s been festering for 63 years. That’s what has to be solved.

Unless they’ve undergone a dramatic conversion to justice and Ashton and Hague start banging the table about enforcing international law and implementing long overdue EU sanctions against Israeli trade, such as the scrapping of the EU Association Agreement (the terms of which Israel is in permanent breach), what on earth do they think a Palestinian state cobbled together from lopsided “negotiations” is going to look like?

In particular, how are they going to transform the present shredded and impoverished remnants of Palestinian sovereignty, shockingly revealed in the clever map by Julien Boussac dubbed “Eastern Palestine Archipelago” (Atlas Du Monde Diplomatique, 2009), into the internationally recognized pre-1967 “green line” boundaries Hague says he supports?

And all this by September? “It’s a time frame that everybody has signed up to,” says Ashton, adding that a deal is still reachable in spite of the deadlock in the peace talks.

Abracadabra… Zzzz-zzzz… Just like that!

Hamas, which has a legitimate say in the future whether Hague and Ashton like it or not, and which feels Palestinian interests are not served by “negotiations” in the present unbalanced circumstances, must be watching bemused.

If any talking is to take place, it should first be disciplinary dressing-down from the United Nations to its rogue member, Israel.

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Deception, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Prairie Fire in Madison

Flames of Resistance

By CHRISTOPHER FONS | CounterPunch | February 17, 2011

From grudging complacency to thousands on the streets, Wisconsin’s protests are spreading like a prairie fire.  With notable work over the years done by small numbers of committed activists aside, widespread political activism has been dormant in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is the state where Fighting Bob La Follette led the progressive movement a century back and was the first state where public employees secured the right to collectively bargain in 1959. Wisconsites have enjoyed the equity of this past activism for decades, yet 30 years after Ronald Reagan launched his class war against workers, labor is finally taking a stand.

After a series of cascading factory closings, longer work weeks, shortened leisure, lowered expectations and heightened insecurity Wisconsin labor is saying “enough.”

Enter Governor Scott Walker to drop a match to the parched prairie and start the flames of resistance.

Early this week labor unions called for the usual lobbying, protests, rallies, and vigils against Walker’s aggressive move to eliminate collective bargaining rights and cut benefits in order to pay for his larding up the budget with tax breaks for the rich. Except this time it was different.  Walker’s attack was not the usual administration of slow bleeding, but a move to go in for the final kill.  This time, workers across the state realized it was time to fight or see themselves sacrificed on the altar of Scott Walker’s political ambitions.

This week, with each passing hour, demonstrations grew and communication among workers left the incubator of organized labor tops and went into a high energy transformation iinto a mass movement.  On the ground, the Republican strategy to railroad the bill through in special session was confounded by protestors, abetted by progressive legislators, which halted its rapid passage in small hearing rooms and moved it into the halls of the capitol rotunda. An all night peoples’ discussion of the bill ensued.  This brought out students and trade unionists to sleep overnight at the state capitol building.

The following day saw the crowd swell to near 15,000, with a walkout by Madison area students, which was followed by the Madison teachers’ union call for a walkout on Wednesday, which continues.  The upbeat mood was further elevated by the firefighters, whom Walker tried to split off from labor by exempting them the cuts. Instead, the firefighters came in support of the people and entered the crowd as heroes. Meanwhile, Governor Walker remained rigid, but with some Republican State Senators beginning to bend and urge compromise. At this point, the largest union in the state, the teachers union (WEAC) had enough. With the vote pending on Thursday, they implored all Wisconsinites to come to Madison and get as close to the capitol rotunda as possible and sit. This call spread across with state, with 35 school districts either canceling or delaying classes today.

More to come!

~

Christopher Fons is a Social Studies teacher in Milwaukee and a member of the Milwaukee Teacher’s Education Association (MTEA). He can be reached at fonsca@gmail.com

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Aletho News | 1 Comment

Israel’s Yellow Pages Publishes Ads Promoting “Hebrew Labour”-Only Businesses

Alternative Information Center  – 17 February 2011

Israel’s Yellow Pages publishes advertisements for businesses and establishments that explicitly promote themselves as employing only “Hebrew labour”, i.e. they do not employ Palestinians or non-Jews.

These racist ads flagrantly violate Israel’s Equal Opportunities in Employment Law, which prohibits discrimination by employers and job seekers on the basis of nationality, amongst other parameters.

In a letter written to the Yellow Pages Company Ltd. by Shutfut-Sharaka, a forum of social change organizations sharing democratic values and a vision of equality and partnership between Jews and Arabs in Israel, it is noted that “the stage given to businesses that violate this (above) law turns a blind eye and provides legitimacy to this unacceptable conduct.”

Israel’s Yellow Pages Company Ltd. is owned by Israeli businesses Bank Hapoalim, Psagot, Menorah Insurance and Clal Insurance.

Shutfut-Sharaka called on the Yellow Pages to immediately remove the discriminatory ads from the internet version of the Yellow Pages and to remove them in the upcoming editions of the printed version.

The response of Yellow Pages was reported by Arutz 7, that “the Yellow Pages group vigorously opposes all phenomenon of discrimination and racism on the basis of gender, race, religion, age etc. The company serves as an advertising platform for its customers and has no ability to influence the behavior of the clients in the manner they manage their businesses. From here (we) cannot act to remove the advertisements, done at the responsibility of the clients. The solution to the question raised is with the legal authorities in the state.”

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | 1 Comment

Netherlands and Germany call for an end to the storage of the US nuclear weapons in Europe

Press TV – February 17, 2011

The United States currently has 200 nuclear warheads in six bases in five European countries without an all-out accord from Europe, a report says.

According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany host 10 to 20 US nuclear weapons each, while a total of over 100 US warheads are stocked in Italy and Turkey.

Some European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, are calling for an end to the storage of the US weapons in the continent.

Germany brought up the issue in the NATO Summit meetings of Heads of State and Government in Lisbon, Portugal, last November, but no result was achieved then.

On the other hand, the NATO members have laid down a condition that Russia should cut down on its tactical nuclear weapons in an attempt to decrease the number of their own warheads.

Russia and the United States, following the new START Treaty early February, agreed on reducing only their strategic nuclear weapons; whereas, nothing concerning tactical nuclear weapons was agreed on.

The United States, in 1952, started storing tactical weapons in Europe, the number of which reached 7,300 in 1971. Ever since, however, there has been a gradual decrease in the number of them.

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

Diplomatic and Consular Immunity: One Rule for Foreign Consulates in US, Another for US Consulates Abroad

Dave Lindorff – This Can’t Be Happening! – 02/16/2011

President Obama, before he was a President or a Senator, was a constitutional law professor. He should know the law.

And yet in the increasingly dangerous show-down over Pakistan’s arrest and detention of Lahore consular contract “security official” Raymond Davis, who is charged with two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of two young Pakistanis on January 27, the president has grossly misstated what international law is with respect to the immunity from prosecution of diplomatic and consular officials.

As the president put it a few days ago at a press conference:

“With respect to Davis, our diplomat in Pakistan, we’ve got a very simple principle here that every country in the world that is party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations has upheld in the past and should uphold in the future. If our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country’s local prosecution. We respect it with respect to diplomats who are here. We expect Pakistan, that’s a signatory should recognize Davis as a diplomat, to abide by the same convention.”

The first problem is that Davis isn’t a “diplomat.” At best he’s a consulate employee. Furthermore, whoever wrote the president his lines or gave him his background briefing sure didn’t read the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963! Nor did he or she read a document issued last August by the US State Department titled: Diplomatic and Consular Immunity; Guidance for Law Enforcement and Judicial Authorities (Dept. of State Pub. 10524)

US State Dept. has one rule on immunity for consular officials here, another for our guys overseas

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 that the president mentions, and to which the State Department keeps referring when telling Pakistani and American journalists that Davis must be released from jail, is really not even the relevant document. Davis is not a diplomatic employee. He stated himself to police that he is “only a consultant at the Lahore Consulate”. Whether even that statement is true or not, the point is that his legal status would then be determined in accordance with the later treaty, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963.

And as that document states, in Article 41:

Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.

Murder would, of course, constitute such a “grave crime.”

Perhaps police and prosecutors in Lahore, when they arrested Davis and jailed him pending a court hearing on his legal status vis-a-vis possible immunity from prosecution for the crime of murder (and possibly also espionage, which is a charge reportedly also being considered), were following some kind of protocol of Pakistan’s Department of Foreign Affairs–something akin to the US State Department’s legal advice to American police and judicial authorities.

Because here’s what the US State Department says regarding the immunity claims of diplomatic and consular officials of foreign governments in the US:

International law, to which the United State is firmly committed, requires that law enforcement authorities of the United States extend certain privileges and immunities to members of Foreign diplomatic missions and consular posts. Most of the privileges and immunities are not absolute and law enforcement officers retain their fundamental responsibility to protect and police the orderly conduct of persons in the United States.

Ahem.

The document goes on to state:

Diplomatic immunity is not intended to serve as a license for persons to flout the law and purposely avoid liability for their actions.

The State Department guidance document notes that the staff of embassies are afforded the highest level of privileges and immunities in the host country (ambassadors and their immediate subordinates, such as the charge d’affaires) have virtually total immunity from detention and prosecution. But it goes on to state that it is another thing altogether when it comes to consular officials. Here the document states:

There is a common misunderstanding that consular personnel have diplomatic status and are entitled to absolute immunity.

Hmmmm. Sounds like what Obama is suffering just such a misunderstanding.

But as the State Department tells American law enforcement personnel:

Consular officers..have only official acts or functional immunity in respect of both criminal and civil matters and their personal inviolability is quite limited. Consular officers may be arrested and detained pending trial…if their offense is a felony and the arrest is made pursuant to a decision by a competent judicial authority.

The document also makes it clear that it is not up to the arrested consular official’s home country to determine whether the person is properly being held for trial:

No…diplomatic mission or consulate is authorized to determine whether a given set of circumstances constitutes an official act. This is an issue that may only be resolved by the court with subject matter jurisdiction over the alleged crime.

Only (a) court, in the full light of all the relevant facts, determines whether the action complained of was an official act.

Clearly then, the President and the State Department are factually wrong to insist that Davis must be released from jail. Pakistani judicial authorities in Lahore are doing exactly what the police and courts in the US would do with State Department blessing if a similar incident occurred involving a foreign country’s consular employee here in America.

Raymond Davis may never face trial for the execution-style slaying of two Pakistanis, who appear not to have been robbers threatening him, as claimed by the US, but rather Pakistani intelligence agents who were tailing him, suspecting him of being a spy, but if he is released without facing a judicial hearing, or if that hearing is less than a thorough evidentiary proceeding, it will be not because of the Vienna Conventions, but because of the intense pressure, diplomatic, military and economic, being brought to bear on the Pakistani government by the US, which has dispatched Congressional representatives and senators and the Secretary of State, and now the President, to send the message: Let him go or else!

They might want to reconsider.

The president, the secretary of state and myriad government flaks and Congressional stooges like Rep. Daryl Issa and Sen. John Kerry aren’t just insulting Americans’ intelligence with this “absolute immunity” nonsense. They are insulting the Pakistani people.

At this point, if Davis is sprung because of US pressure, the anger that has led Pakistanis to take to the street by the thousands over this case, demanding that Davis face justice for his actions, could well explode in a revolution that will make Egypt’s People Power uprising a distant memory.

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Three fishermen shot dead in northern Gaza

Ma’an – 17/02/2011

GAZA CITY — Three Palestinians were shot dead in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Israeli military officials informed Gaza authorities.

The three were said to have been killed near the evacuated Doget settlement, north of Beit Lahiya. A Palestinian official in Gaza said he was informed that the men were shot allegedly sneaking into Israel.

Medics were alerted and permitted by Israeli forces occupying the border region to enter the “no-go zone” to retrieve the bodies, spokesman of the higher committee of ambulance and emergency services Adham Abu Salmiya told Ma’an.

The same official told AFP that no weapons were found near the bodies of the men.

Beit Lahiya residents said they heard a helicopter flying and shots fired at approximately 2:15 a.m.

The retrieved bodies were transferred to the Kamal Odwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, where medics identified the slain as Jihad Fathi Khalaf, 20, Tal’at Ar-Ruwagh, 25, and Ashraf Eqtefan, 29.

Initial inquiries revealed that at least two of the men were fishermen. Relatives later confirmed that all three worked on the sea.

The Israeli military spokesperson’s office released a statement late Thursday morning, saying the military had “thwart[ed a] terror attempt.”

The statement said a “number of Palestinian militants approaching the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip,” were identified by soldiers occupying the area, adding that the men were apparently trying to plant explosives.

“Thwarting the attempt, the force fired at the militants, hitting three of them,” the statement continued.

Workers shot, injured

Two additional incidents, medics said Israeli forces fired on two workers from the cement factory in Gaza City, injuring both in the legs as they collected stone aggregates separately east of Gaza City on Thursday.

Medics said both were taken to the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City with moderate injuries.

An Israeli military official confirmed two incidents at 10 and noon respectively, when individuals approached the border area. Both were told to retreat from the 300-meter no-go zone, a spokesman said, and when they did not pull back warning shots were fired, then fire was directed at the legs of the workers.

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Deception, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | 1 Comment

Tanks in Bahrain block ambulances

Press TV – February 17, 2011
At least four killed as security forces raid protesters camped out in central Manama

Tanks in the Bahraini capital, Manama, prevented ambulances from taking the victims of clashes to hospitals, as the pro-democracy uprising in the country has entered its fourth day, a report says.

The report also added that Bahraini security forces attacked and beat medical workers who are helping the victims on Thursday.

Pro-democracy uprising in Bahrain has entered its fourth day, as protesters, inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, have taken to the streets to protest against the government’s dictatorial policies.

More than a dozen army tanks and several military ambulances and trucks are seen in a main highway in the central Manama.

According to witnesses, the nearby roads have almost been cleared of civilian traffic. Security forces have also put up barbed wire around Pearl Square.

On Thursday, security forces raided the protesters camped out in Pearl Square in central Manama and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the people to disperse them, Reuters reported.

Four people were killed in the incident, raising the number of the deaths to seven since Monday.

At least 2,000 protesters were occupying the Pearl Square on Wednesday, calling for a new constitution and an elected prime minister.

On Wednesday, Bahraini authorities said that they would seek to restore calm in the streets on Thursday, after days of protests inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and intensified by the deaths of two protesters in 24 hours.

The magnitude of the pro-democracy protests in Bahrain is unprecedented in the history of the kingdom and the authorities’ efforts to quell them have so far been ineffective.

The demonstrators are demanding a new constitution that would move the country toward democracy and limit the king’s powers.

Bahrain is ruled by a royal family, who are blamed for discrimination against the country’s Shia population — comprising 70 percent of the population.

Protesters have called on the Bahraini to fire his uncle, Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been the country’s prime minister since 1971.

The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based in the kingdom of Bahrain.

~

~

Al-Jazeera:

February 17, 2011 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Solidarity and Activism, Video | Leave a comment

Bedouins Barricaded in Cemetery as Israel Demolishes Village for 17th Time, Injuring Children

By Tania Kepler for the Alternative Information Center | 16 February 2011

The residents of the Bedouin village Al Araqib were forced from their land for the 17th time Wednesday (16/2) and barricaded inside the village cemetery, as Israel continues its ethnic cleansing efforts in the Negev.

Israeli forces arrived in the early hours of the morning and immediately began shooting rubber bullets at the residents. When the first round of shooting subsided, the Special Forces pushed people from their homes and began demolishing the village for the 17th time.

When residents of Al Araqib protested, the Israeli authorities again shot them with rubber bullets, resulting in injuries. Three children were taken by ambulance to the hospital, according to Awad Abu Frieh, the village spokesperson.

The Jewish National Fund, an active participant in forcing Bedouin from their land, bulldozed the property and began working the land for the planting of a peace forest.

Israeli forces used such excessive violence Wednesday morning that residents fled their homes and entered the adjacent cemetery. JNF bulldozers then approached the cemetery in an attempt to also destroy the Bedouin burial place.

The residents of the village are currently barricaded inside the cemetery, watching as their homes are once more destroyed and hoping the cemetery is not next. All of the exits have been closed, and the bulldozers are circling the site.

One week ago (10/2), women and children of the Bedouin village of Al Araqib were beaten and gassed by Israel forces, in an attempt to halt the 16th demolition of their homes and property.

Three residents were also arrested, including a sixteen year old, and they have been in jail since. There was a court hearing for them Wednesday (16/2) morning in Beer Sheva, and their detention was extended for at least another day.

Another resident was arrested in the village Tuesday night (15/2), and is currently being held by the Israeli police, though the reason for his arrest is unclear.

Israeli forces and Jewish National Fund workers entered the Bedouin village and again destroyed the residents homes, and continued preparing the land for the planting of a “peace forest”.

Following last week’s demolition, six residents, four women and two children, were hospitalized at the Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva.

“The police harshly beat the women and children who were standing in quiet protest, they simply beat women and children…I stood alongside a woman who was beaten by four police officers, actual fists in her face, ears and neck, in addition to kicks until she almost lost consciousness…people are sitting on the ground, in the rain, and not moving, women and children. The police shot stun grenades and foam bullets directly at the women, at point blank,” reported Tamar, an activist who was present in the village.

February 16, 2011 Posted by | Aletho News, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | 3 Comments

Greenspan at Brookings

By DEAN BAKER | CounterPunch | February 16, 2011

The Brookings Institution stands alongside Harvard, Yale and Princeton, among the nation’s elite intellectual institutions. This is why it so striking that it chose to invite former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to give the keynote address at a forum on reforming the home mortgage finance system last week.

It would be difficult to imagine a more disastrous failure than Alan Greenspan. Tens of millions of people are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work altogether as a direct result of Greenspan’s incompetence. Millions of families are facing the loss of their homes. More than one-quarter of mortgage holders are underwater in their mortgages.

The huge baby boom cohorts saw most of their life savings disappear when the collapse of the bubble destroyed their home equity. They are now approaching retirement with almost nothing to rely upon other than their Social Security.

This is the direct result of Alan Greenspan’s incompetence as Fed chair. He either did not recognize the $8 trillion housing bubble or somehow did not think it was a big deal. This was monumental incompetence of the highest order.

The housing bubble was really hard to miss for anyone who can read a chart and knows arithmetic. For a hundred years nationwide house prices had just tracked the overall rate of inflation. Suddenly in the mid-90s, coinciding with the stock bubble, house prices began to substantially outpace the overall rate of inflation.

By 2002, house prices had already risen by more than 30 percentage points in excess of the overall rate of inflation. At the peak of the bubble in 2006 the inflation in house prices had exceeded the overall rate of inflation by more than 70 percentage points, creating more than $8 trillion in housing bubble wealth.

There was no remotely plausible explanation for this run-up based on the fundamentals of either the demand or supply side of the housing market. Population growth and household formation were much slower during the bubble years than in prior decades. Income growth had been healthy in the late 90s, but went in reverse in the 00s. On the supply side, the country was building homes at near-record rates, so supply constraints obviously could not explain the run-up in prices.

Anyone looking for an explanation in the fundamentals would have to explain why rents were going nowhere. The fact that the vacancy rate had already hit a record high as early as 2002 should have been another really big, bright warning sign that housing was in an unsustainable bubble.

If it was impossible for a competent economist to miss the housing bubble, it should also have been impossible for them to think it could deflate harmlessly. The bubbles in residential and non-residential construction led to enormous overbuilding in both sectors. The wealth effect associated with $8 trillion of transient housing bubble wealth was generating close to $500 billion in annual consumption.

This meant that the combined drop in construction and consumption demand from the collapse off the bubble was almost certainly going to be in excess of $1 trillion. Did Greenspan think he had something in his bag of tricks as Federal Reserve Board chairman that would allow him to quickly replace more than $1 trillion in annual demand?

Absent some new source of demand (which has not appeared), it was inevitable that the collapse of the bubble would lead to a prolonged period of high unemployment. This was all 100 percent predictable; but Greenspan did not predict it…

Incredibly, in spite of this disastrous performance as Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan is still being feted in elite circles. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the people who sit in these elite circles openly celebrated Mr. Greenspan as he drove the economy off a cliff. He was declared the “Maestro” by one of the country’s top reporters. At the annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the leading lights of the economics profession debated whether he was the greatest central banker of all time as he prepared to leave his post.

In other words, Greenspan may have ruined the lives of tens of millions of people and cost the lives of tens of thousands (yes, people die because of inept economic policy – they kill themselves, they don’t get health care that they need, and they die from alcoholism and despair), but he does not bear the blame alone. Most of the people who hold top positions in policy and academic circles share blame for disaster – refusing to do the simple analysis that would have allowed them to see this disaster coming.

The pain and suffering caused by Alan Greenspan’s incompetence vastly exceeds the harm that our worst enemies could even dream of inflicting on the United States. Yet, he can always count on a position of honor at the Brookings Institution. Heckuva job, Alan!

~

Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy and False Profits: Recoverying From the Bubble Economy.

This column was originally published by The Guardian.

February 16, 2011 Posted by | Deception, Economics, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

Israel Launches New PR Campaign on North American Campuses: Faces of Israel

Connie Hackbarth | Alternative Information Center | February 16, 2011

A delegation of young Israelis will embark next week on a singular public relations campaign on North American campuses. Entitled Faces of Israel, the delegation includes Arabs and Jews, representatives of the LGBT community and Ethiopian immigrants who are meant to show the “real face” of Israeli society.

Yuli Edelstein, the Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs and the initiator of Faces of Israel, said that “We believe this is the appropriate answer to the campaign of delegitimisation occurring against Israel throughout the world. This campaign will bring local students face to face with Israeli students just like them. The delegation will be divided into groups and go to various universities, where they will participate in panels and direct encounters on campus.”

According to Israel’s Artuz 7 news outlet, delegation members were “carefully selected with the goal of representing Israeli society as a colourful and diverse society which protects equality and human rights, and thus refute attempts to present Israel as an apartheid state.”

During events, a memory stick with information entitled “Invented in Israel” will be distributed to participants.

Although Minister Edelstein notes that “this is a new strategy that puts the human face of Israel in the front stage…through regular people from the grassroots,” Israeli attempts to whitewash its colonial polices and occupation of the Palestinian territory are not new. Israel’s Foreign Ministry doubled its embassies’ public relations budgets for 2011 has been working for several years now on professional public relations campaigns that present Israel as a liberal, innovative and hip society and vacation destination. The packaging of Tel Aviv as a gay-friendly city, for example, is an important component of this official reality distortion.

The actual “representativeness” of this delegation, members of which underwent 40 hours of training through the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, was even questioned by the settler-affiliated Arutz 7 media outlet. Arutz 7 noted that the delegation included no (Jewish) religious, orthodox or members who live in the West Bank settlements. In response, the Ministry noted “we found it appropriate to have other representatives” and that Minister Edelstein himself resides in Neve Daniel, a settlement near Bethlehem, and that he would be accompanying the delegation.

The Alternative Information Center (AIC) is still searching for details of the delegation’s public engagements in North American universities. What is known to date is that all delegation members will meet for a “main event” in New York on Sunday 6 March that will include presentations by Edelstein on the importance of fighting the campaign against Israel; Knesset Member Dalia Itzhik (Kadima) on women’s rights in Israel; Knesset Member Majallie Whbee (Kadima), a Druze-Palestinian on equal opportunities in Israel; and Malcolm Hoenlein, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organisations. There will also be “Zionist hip-hop” with the Israeli group Dag Nahash.

The Alternative Information Center calls on Palestinian Solidarity and other activists groups to mobilize against Faces of Israel as part of preparations for the Israel Apartheid Week in March.

February 16, 2011 Posted by | Deception, Solidarity and Activism | 1 Comment