NGO declares ‘commercial disaster’ in Jerusalem’s Old City
Palestine Information Center – 28/05/2011
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER) has declared a “disaster” in the Old City’s commercial and tourism sectors after Israel used hefty taxes and other pressures to shut down 250 shops in the past few years.
JCSER director Ziyad al-Hammouri expected the situation to worsen as the campaign to Judaize the Old City thrives.
“What is taking place is designed to promote the presence of Jewish settlements inside the city walls and the entire area surrounding the Old City, especially in Silwan, Ras al-Amud, and Sheikh Jarrah, which are neighborhoods geographically connected to the Old City. There is also a plan to erect shopping centers and hotels in the area similar to those built near the Gate of Al-Khalil,” Hammouri said.
He added that checkpoints spread across Jerusalem’s entrances have become traps for Palestinians and traders, as municipality units and tax collectors and forces responsible for carrying out court orders have seized possessions and arrested their owners.
A report released by the JCSER research and documentation unit concluded that the situation is “very serious”. It warned of a “complete economic collapse” due to the Israeli siege imposed on the city of Jerusalem since 1993 and the erecting of the apartheid wall around the holy city.
Three International Solidarity Movement members arrested during peaceful demonstration in Iraq Burin
28 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
This afternoon three members of the International Solidarity Movement were arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Iraq Burin. The activists from the UK, Denmark and Iceland had joined the villagers in protesting the loss of their land to the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha, however the demonstration had barely began when the army began firing tear gas at the protesters. After four hours of shooting tear gas the army entered the village and occupied houses. The three activists were taken from the street and detained in a house with other Palestinians for over an hour before being arrested. The activists were released after four hours without charge.
Iraq Burin is a small village 8 km southwest of Nablus. The illegal settlement of Bracha is located approximately one mile southeast of the village, and is situated on around 100 dunams (25 acres) of village land, as well as more land from surrounding villages. In addition to the settlement itself, the land surrounding it is off-limits to the farmers who are prevented from accessing it due to its close proximity to the settlement, leaving them with less land to graze their sheep and harvest from.
The villagers of Iraq Burin held weekly demonstrations last year to protest the expansion of Bracha, and their continued inability to access their agricultural land. This began as a reaction to a sharp increase in attacks from residents of the settlement. The attacks were frequently aided by the Israeli military, who would in turn invade the village, firing rounds of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition at Palestinian civilians. However the village took the decision to stop the weekly protests when Mohammed Qadous (16) and Asaud Qadous (19) were shot dead by the Israeli military during a demonstration in March 2010. In January this year Oday Maher Hamza Qadous (19) was also shot dead by settlers whilst farming his land.
Ban Ki-moon Calls For Obstructing Freedom Flotilla Heading To Gaza
By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – May 28, 2011
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, called on Middle Eastern countries to prevent the new Freedom Flotilla from heading to the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian supplies next month.
Ban Ki-moon sent letters to several leaders telling them that supplies must be transferred to the Gaza Strip through what he called “legal channels”, and existing mechanisms, and added that “violence must be avoided”, the Maan News Agency reported.
His statements came as the new flotilla launched on the one-year anniversary of the deadly Israeli attack against the Freedom Flotilla when nine activists were killed after the Israeli navy violently boarded the Turkish ship; dozens were injured.
UN spokesperson, Martin Nesirky, said that he is worried about reports of a new flotilla, and called on related governments to stop the flotilla in order to stop the “potential violence that could take place”.
He said that “despite the fact that Freedom Flotillas are useless, the situation in the Gaza Strip must be changed, and Israel must conduct real measures to end the siege”.
The new Freedom Flotilla will be heading to Gaza in the second half of next month while ten ships from several European countries will be part of it.
Physicians, Academics, Artists and Reporters will be onboard, and will attempt to deliver relief supplies to the besieged coastal region.
The Free Gaza movement said that the flotilla is a nonviolent act that aims at convincing the international community to fulfill its obligations towards the Palestinians, and to end the illegal four-year siege on Gaza.
Several days ago, Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that he hopes Israel will not attack the flotilla this time, and that it would avoid any confrontations.
Twelve European countries participate in the “Freedom Flotilla 2”
Palestine Information Center – 27/05/2011
BRUSSELS — The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, said Thursday that ships from 12 European countries have expressed willingness to participate in the “Freedom Flotilla 2” mission next month to break the Israeli siege on Gaza.
Rami Abdo, the spokesman of the campaign, said in a written statement on Thursday that ships from France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland announced they would participate in the humanitarian mission in addition to eight other ships from eight European countries.
In this regard, Abdo urged the international community and countries of the participating vessels to provide the necessary protection for those ships to achieve their mission, adding that European legislators and MPs in addition to hundreds of activists and supporters of the Palestinian cause would go with the ships.
He added that more ships were joining the Flotilla despite Israeli threats that the Israeli navy would assault them if they approached the besieged coastal Strip where nearly 1.7 million Palestinians had been under siege for five years now. “The participants are determined to achieve their noble mission at any cost,” Abdo said.
He also described the Egyptian decision of opening the Rafah crossing point permanently for Palestinian citizens as “positive,” saying it was a step in the right direction but he noted that opening of the crossing was limited for individuals and not for goods.
“Goods are still forced to pass through Israeli-controlled checkpoints, and thus, it would take long time before it could reach Gaza, yet, there are a lot of basic humanitarian needs that couldn’t be delayed and must reach the needy people in Gaza very fast”, Abdo underlined.
Activists refuse to send Gaza aid via Israel
By Romen Bose – AFP – 27/05/2011
KUALA LUMPUR — Activists on a Malaysian aid ship that had been bound for Gaza refused to hand their cargo to Egypt on Thursday, saying they feared it would end up in Israel.
They had tried to land in Gaza last week but changed course when the Israeli navy fired warning shots.
Matthias Chang, who is heading the mission for the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, told AFP the group was not consulted when the Malaysian and Egyptian governments worked out a deal to end the impasse.
Chang said Egypt had insisted the cargo be discharged and transported via Kaern Shalom, at the Israeli border in Gaza.
“We are not assured that this cargo would in fact be delivered to Gaza, as in the past… most of the humanitarian aid was laid to waste in Israel,” he added.
Chang also questioned Cairo’s refusal to allow the cargo, consisting of 4.6 miles of sewage pipes, to be transferred via the Rafah crossing — Gaza’s only crossing that bypasses Israel — given that it would be open this weekend.
“This turn of events demonstrates the insincerity of the Egyptian government and their implicit endorsement of the illegal siege when they explicitly stated they would permanently open the Rafah crossing,” Chang said.
Egyptian state media have said the Rafah border crossing would open on a daily basis starting Saturday.
Perdana Foundation adviser Mukhriz Mahathir, a son of former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, told AFP they were unhappy with Cairo’s actions.
“We are disappointed that it has come to this as we were hopeful that with the new government there would be substantial change in regard to the way they treat Palestinians and Gaza but this is clearly not the case,” he said.
“We urge the Egyptian government to allow the aid ship to dock and unload the pipes and ensure that they are delivered to Gaza via the Rafah crossing,” Mukhriz added.
However, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said Kuala Lumpur and Cairo were working to enable the MV Finch, which has been refused entry to El-Arish for the last 10 days, to dock and unload its aid, according to a statement.
Anifah and his Egyptian counterpart urged “the parties concerned not to resort to any unnecessary action that could further aggravate the situation.”
The 12 activists and crew onboard the MV Finch aborted their second attempt to land in Gaza on Monday after engine trouble, and are anchored in a waiting area off the Egyptian port of El-Arish. … Full article
Israeli soldiers injure 3 Gaza fishermen
Press TV – May 27, 2011
Israeli forces have shot and wounded three Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip as Tel Aviv continues its grip on the coastal sliver.
The fishermen’s boat caught fire after the incident which left the three Palestinians injured, AFP reported.
Palestinian officials in Gaza say the attack is not the first of its kind and aims to tighten the screws on fishermen living in the territory.
This comes after tens of fishermen organized a sit-in in the port of Gaza on Thursday, calling on the international community to intervene and help lift the Israeli maritime siege, reduce restrictions on their operations, and provide them with international protection.
The Israeli military controls Gaza’s territorial waters, but under 1993 Oslo Accords it has agreed to allow fishing boats to sail into the Mediterranean for up to 20 nautical miles.
However, over the past decade, Gaza fishermen have been able to fish only in a narrow stretch of water up to three miles and even within that restricted area they come under increasing Israeli attacks.
According to health officials in Gaza, at least 10 Palestinian fishermen have been killed and dozens wounded since 2010.
UK Apaches to join Libya war
Press TV – May 27, 2011
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed that Britain seeks to play a bigger part in the Libya war as it is set to deploy Apache attack helicopters to the North African country.
Despite mounting pressure over Britain’s involvement in the Libya war and the opposition of the UK anti-war unions to the government’s foreign policies, the British government has taken another step to increase NATO military intervention in Libya.
Cameron, Defense Secretary Liam Fox and the military chiefs have finally decided to send four Apache attack helicopters to Libya to aid the NATO operation, along with more warplane deployments.
While the presence of the Apache helicopters would risk the lives of the Libyan civilians, Shadow Defense Secretary Jim Murphy said the British troops must have the best military equipment possible in Libya.
“Libya appears to have slid into stalemate and this move represents an intensification of military efforts. This decision will put British service personnel in greater danger. The Government needs to be clear with the British public about why this is necessary now and the military purpose behind this move,” he said.
Asking for greater description of the coalition’s endgame, Murphy said, “Many will worry that the British military commitment should not be open-ended, and so we need to hear more from Ministers on their political strategy to achieve the objectives of UN resolution 1973.”
Claiming NATO needs to increase pressures on Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Cameron said that “the time is right to turn the screw.”
According to sources, the helicopters and their pilots are presently exercising in the Mediterranean, preparing to be deployed to Libya.
The helicopters can swiftly attack small targets in the urban areas, which are not possible by the currently used jets.
Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokesman has reportedly said, “Ministers have given clearance in principle for the deployment of attack helicopters in Libya. It is a matter now for military commanders to make decisions on deployment.”
The French government has also announced that it will be deploying the French Tiger attack helicopters to Libya, in a move to increase military pressures on Gaddafi.
Fact-checking Netanyahu’s Speech
IMEU | May 25, 2011
NETANYAHU: “You don’t need to export democracy to Israel. We’ve already got it.”
REALITY: For more than 43 years, Israel has militarily occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, a population now numbering 4.36 million people. Except for a few thousand Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, this population has no voice in Israeli national policy despite being subjected to long-term Israeli occupation. As well, 1.2 million Palestinians are citizens of Israel and subject to more than 30 laws which discriminate against them solely based on their ethnicity, rendering them second or third-class citizens in their own homeland.
NETANYAHU: “Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights.”
REALITY: Along with the more than 30 discriminatory laws mentioned above, more than one-third of the Palestinian citizens of Israel are internally displaced persons, uprooted from their homes by Israeli forces in 1948 and to this day not permitted to return. Furthermore, in Israel, government resources are disproportionately directed to Jews and not to Arabs, one factor in causing the Palestinians of Israel to suffer the lowest living standards in Israeli society by all socio-economic indicators. Most non-Jewish children attend schools that are “separate and unequal” in comparison to those attended by Jewish Israeli children. Many towns in Israel with a majority Palestinian population lack basic services and receive significantly less government funding than do majority-Jewish towns.
NETANYAHU: “A nuclear armed Iran would ignite a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.”
REALITY: Despite maintaining an official position of “nuclear ambiguity,” Israel is widely-recognized as possessing nuclear weapons – as many as 400 – thus being the first, and only, regime to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.
NETANYAHU: “In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers.”
REALITY: The United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and numerous other international bodies and governments recognize the Gaza Strip, West Bank (which Netanyahu refers to as Judea and Samaria) and East Jerusalem as territories occupied by Israel. Israel’s own Supreme Court has also judged the West Bank to be under “belligerent occupation” by Israel. While the Jewish people are not occupiers, the State of Israel certainly is.
NETANYAHU: “We’ve helped the Palestinian economic growth by removing hundreds of barriers and roadblocks to the free flow of goods and people, and the results have been nothing short of remarkable.”
REALITY: While some checkpoints and roadblocks have been removed, in 2010 the United Nations documented 505 Israeli-imposed “closure obstacles” remaining in the West Bank, as well as “extremely limited” Palestinian access to East Jerusalem, other West Bank areas on the western side of the Separation Wall, and to the fertile agricultural lands of the Jordan Valley, thereby severely impeding Palestinian freedom of movement in the occupied
West Bank. Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip remains under a severe Israeli-imposed blockade, causing one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with more than half of the population living with food insecurity, and an inability to construct some 40,000 necessary housing units.
NETANYAHU: “In recent years, the Palestinians twice refused generous offers by Israeli prime ministers to establish a Palestinian state on virtually all the territory won by Israel in the Six-Day War.”
REALITY: As leaked documents show, during peace talks Palestinian negotiators have consistently offered concessions beyond the international consensus. Meanwhile, Israeli negotiators, at Camp David for example, demanded sovereignty or long-term control over 20% of the West Bank, and all of Jerusalem except a few distant Palestinian suburbs. During his speech, Netanyahu also claimed to be willing to make “a far-reaching compromise,” while at the same time claiming occupied East Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and most illegal settlements for Israel, rejecting the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, and demanding a demilitarized Palestinian state. Such proposals by Israeli leaders are quite the opposite of “generous” or “far-reaching.”
NETANYAHU: “They continue to educate their children to hate.”
REALITY: An investigation into Palestinian school textbooks by George Washington University Professor Nathan Brown found this often-propagated claim to be inaccurate, stating, “Indeed, the textbooks often take on the same kind of awkwardness adults often assume when addressing subjects they would prefer to avoid…In short, far from inciting schoolchildren, the books generally treat sensitive political questions as tangential.”
NETANYAHU: “[T]he Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel.”
REALITY: All refugees have an internationally recognized right to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced, to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. This right derives from a number of legal sources, including customary international law, international humanitarian law (governing rights of civilians during war), and human rights law. In the specific case of the Palestinians, the right to return was affirmed by the United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948.
NETANYAHU: “Throughout the millennial history of the Jewish capital, the only time that Jews, Christians and Muslims could worship freely, could have unfettered access to their holy sites, has been during Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.”
REALITY: Since 1993, Palestinians living in the West Bank – both Christian and Muslim – have been forbidden by Israel to enter East Jerusalem (also in the West Bank) without a permit. Since 2007, they have also had to negotiate passage through Israel’s Separation Wall and accompanying checkpoints. The United Nations reports that access to East Jerusalem – and its holy sites, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Haram al-Sharif – remains “highly restricted” by Israel. The U.S. State Department has noted that the Israeli government does not recognize non-Jewish holy sites and as a result, “many Muslim and Christian sites are neglected, inaccessible, or threatened by property developers and municipalities.” The report also remarked that “government discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism continued,” and Israel has “severely restricted the access of most Muslims from the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem to the Haram al-Sharif.”
NETANYAHU: “In recent years, Israel withdrew from South Lebanon and from Gaza.”
REALITY: While Israel unilaterally removed its illegal settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the area remains occupied by Israel, as acknowledged by the United Nations, theUnited States, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and others. As the occupying power, it is responsible for the welfare of civilians it is occupying. Instead, residents of the Gaza Strip have been suffering for years under a harsh, Israeli-imposed blockade, as well as catastrophic Israeli invasions in 2006 and 2009.
Europe’s ‘cautious’ cant on Hamas
By David Cronin | Mondoweiss | May 25, 2011
Is the European Union about to give its blessing to the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah? There is a possibility that it will but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, was trying to sound reasonable this week, while actually being distinctly unreasonable. She appeared to declare support for the idea of a national unity government, led by Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. “I understand President Abbas’s desire to move forward on reconciliation,” Ashton said. “We have all argued there needs to be reconciliation and with caution we are moving to try and support his efforts. I say ‘with caution’ because we understand it needs to be based on principles of non-violence.”
It is telling that Ashton has never called on Israel to observe the principle of non-violence.
A statement which she issued after Hamas fired rockets into southern Israel last month exemplified how she applies different rules to different parties to the conflict. While she directed the words “strongly condemn” at the “attacks” by Hamas and said that they “must stop immediately”, she merely called on Israel to “show restraint”. There was no explicit acknowledgment of how Israel had killed three members of Hamas a few days earlier, inevitably provoking a response.
And why does Ashton laud Mahmoud Abbas at every available opportunity? His term as president expired in January 2009; since then he has clung to power without any mandate.
Perhaps Ashton feels a sense of affinity with him as she has been a successful politician, without having to go through the messy business of winning elections. Her $435,000-a-year job was obtained thanks to her close ties with two UK prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Although she had sat in the elitist House of Lords, few of her compatriots had heard of her until 2009, when she was appointed the closest thing that Europe has to a foreign minister by the Union’s heads of state and government. This explains her apparent bemusement at the warm reception she received when she met Libyan “rebels” last weekend. “I am more popular in Benghazi than in Britain,” she quipped.
Interestingly, the same unelected Ashton has been extolling the virtues of “democracy promotion” in the Middle East. In her contacts with Hillary Clinton, she has been exploring how Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites can help spread liberty, she stated on Wednesday. Is she telling Arabs to stop worrying about the West’s indulgence of Israel and concentrate on tweeting their way to freedom?
David Cronin’s book Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation is published by Pluto Press (www.plutobooks.com)
Meeting senseless aggression face-to-face
NABI SALEH 13-5-2011
By Gershon Baskin | The Jerusalem Post | 25 May 2011
For months I have been hearing about disproportionate use of force by the army against weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh – a small pastoral Palestinian village northwest of Ramallah. Last week, I watched several YouTube videos filmed by activists in the village, providing vivid visual images of the forceful arrests of protesters by the army. I was disturbed because all of the clips showed how the demonstrations ended; none showed how they began. I was convinced that there must have been stone-throwing by the shabab in the village which provoked the violent army responses. So I decided I had to see for myself.
When I contacted the Israeli activists who regularly participate in the Nabi Saleh demonstrations, I was warned that it was dangerous… continue
‘Spirit Of Rachel Corrie’ –little engine that could
By annie | Mondoweiss | May 25, 2011
On May 11th The Spirit of Rachel Corrie, (officially the MV Finch) a Malaysian owned ship sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), left Port of Piraeus, Greece bound for Palestine on a humanitarian mission carrying 7.5 kilometres of UPVC sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system essential for the rebuilding of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed during the Gaza Massacre ’08-’09 .
PGPF is chaired by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad.
On May 16th an IDF naval patrol circled them and fired warning shots. The boat was only 400 meters away from land when it came under fire from the Israeli Navy, forcing it to retreat and seek anchorage. Reproduced below is the transmission by Matthias Chang onboard the ship ‘The Spirit of Rachel Corrie’ to Perdana during the attack.
“10:54am KL, Gaza 5:54am: We have been intercepted by Israeli ship and Egyptian ship. We are disobeying the orders and sailing ahead to Gaza.
“10:57am KL, Gaza 5:57am: One Israeli warship coming to us very fast! We are in international waters, therefore they have no right to attack us. We are still sailing ahead.
“10:59am KL, Gaza 5:59am: They are opening fire across our ship! We are still sailing ahead.
“11:09am KL, Gaza 6:09am: They are shooting all over the place. We can’t continue …
“11:35am KL, Gaza 6:35am: They circled our ship twice and fired across our ship. Machine guns. No one was injured. One of the fishing nets caught the propeller, so we can’t move now.
“11:37am KL, Gaza 6:37am (Derek Graham): The Israeli ship was coming from one end and the Egyptian ship was coming from another end. Firing. We are just stalled now. Everybody is okay. No one is injured.”
The Egyptian Naval ship intercepted and escorted the ship and crew to Egyptian territorial water. They anchored off the port of El Arish where they have been for over a week. Initially an Egyptian navy gunboat ordered them to leave.
“They are preventing the ship from berthing,” said Bernama journalist, Mohd Faizal Hassan, who is one of the 12 passengers and crew on board the MV Finch, in a SMS note to Bernama’s headquarters here Thursday night. According to Mohd Faizal, the MV Finch has been ordered not to come within a three nautical mile radius of the port. He also reported that fresh rations and water supply were fast running out. He said the ship was still waiting for permission from the port authority to berth. “We do not know when the permission will be given,” he said.
According to Global Research, which was in touch with the ship:
The Spirit of Rachel Corrie is without fuel, without water and without food, despite empty promises by the Egyptian port authority to allow for the ship to be resupplied. Meanwhile, we call upon people’s organizations in Egypt and around the World to act forcefully and in solidarity with The Rachel Corrie.
Mission To Gaza Expected To Continue On Land
EL-ARISH, May 24 (Bernama) — The mission to send PVC pipes to Gaza is expected to continue by land following the Egyptian authorities’ decision to allow the MV Finch carrying humanitarian aid to berth and unload the cargo at El-Arish Port. Bernama reporter Mohd Faizal Hassan via SMS text to the national news agency’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur texted: “It is understood that the Egyptian foreign minister has given permission (for the ship) to berth and unload the goods today…InsyaAllah (God willing), we will be on land.” The MV Finch has been stranded outside El-Arish Port for a week, waiting for the Egyptian authorities to allow it to berth at the port and now the ship’s engine has broke down. On May 16, the cargo ship carrying 12 passengers and crew members, as well as two Malaysian reporters had to cancel its plan to use the Palestinian waters to send the aid to Gaza when Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at the ship. Mohd Faizal said at the moment, Egyptian naval vessels were near the MV Finch to control the situation as there were also Israeli naval ships in the vicinity. The objective of breaking the siege has been pursued since Monday and the PVC pipes are expected to be sent today to Gaza via the land route.
This has been a long arduous journey for The spirit of Rachel Corrie and surely Rachel’s spirit is guiding them in their persevering, steadfast determination. It took days for the Egyptian authorities to allow them to berth, days of no fuel or water and uncertainty.
A huge shout out to the mission’s team leader Matthias Chang, the ship captain Abd Jalil Mansor, Irish activist Derek Graham, first officer Mohammad Jafri Arifin, chief engineer Zainuddin Mohamed, and two Indian crewmen Pal Satya Prakash and Sharma Chandan.
Let’s put our hearts together and say a prayer for The spirit of Rachel and for the essential cargo to flow thru Egypt. I think I can I think I can I think I can…..The ship’s engine may not make it to Gaza but the engine running this mission, Rachel’s Spirit, is as strong as ever. She can and it will, I know it will.
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World War II Didn’t End The Great Depression
Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | April 4, 2024
A principal goal of Stark Realities is to “expose fundamental myths across the political spectrum” — and few myths are as universally embraced as the notion that US participation in World War II (1941-1945) lifted the American economy out of the Great Depression.
This myth is dangerous not only because it leads citizens and politicians to see a bright side of war that doesn’t really exist, but also because it helps foster a belief that government spending is essential to countering economic downturns. That belief, in turn, has helped propel us to a point where the national debt now exceeds $34.6 trillion, with interest payments alone on pace to reach $1 trillion a year in 2026, inviting financial catastrophe. … continue
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