By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli, MEMRI, U.S. and the Middle East|#475| November 19, 2008

Introduction

After a hefty spike in oil prices in the preceding year, reaching as high as $147 a barrel in July 2008, prices plummeted in the subsequent four months to below $55 a barrel on the close of trading day of November 14 – a a sharp price decline of close to two-thirds. The decline is quite far-reaching, given that oil revenues provide 70 to 80 percent of government revenues in OPEC countries. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a decline of $1 in the price of crude would translate into a loss in revenues of $3.5 billion in Saudi Arabia, $300 million in Qatar, $1 billion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and $960 million in Kuwait, calculated in an annualized basis.(1) Some of the countries concerned, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, have deep pockets and would survive the dip in revenues, certainly in the short term. According to data from the Institute of International Finance, GCC governments had foreign assets of $1.8 trillion at the end of 2007, and the tally was expected to top $2 trillion by end of the 2008.(2) In other countries, particularly Iran and Iraq, oil shocks could trigger serious economic dislocation.(3) (Continue Reading this Article)

Finger-pointing begins as Senate nixes auto vote (AP)

Big Three CEO's before House Financial Services Committee

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., holds up a print-out of a New York Times article as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, before a Financial Services Committee hearing on the automotive industry bailout. A Democratic Congress, unwilling or unable to approve a $25 billion bailout for Detroit’s Big Three, appears ready to punt the automakers’ fate to a lame-duck Republican president.

by Jerry Gordon, New English Review

Senator Lieberman’s office sent a copy of the proposed auto bailout legislation that will be the subject of a Senate hearing on Wednesday (Nov. 19) and possible vote this Thursday. An AP report noted:

A Senate auto bailout bill unveiled Monday noted that 355,000 U.S. workers are directly employed by the auto industry, and an additional 4.5 million work in related industries. That doesn’t count the 1 million retirees, spouses and dependents that rely on the companies for retirement and health care benefits.

Sounds like the ‘too big to fail argument.’ Not really, when the facts are revealed.
(Continue Reading this Article)

The Jewish Journal

Dear Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin:

This is my public apology to John McCain, Sarah Palin, Republican voters, Christian evangelicals, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher and everyone else in the non-Jewish universe who stands four-square behind the State of Israel.

While you have written, spoken and, yes, even prayed in strong opposition to any retrofitting of American policy on behalf of the Jewish state, nearly eight out of every 10 American Jews failed to demonstrate similar resolve on Election Day.

Those dancing along with the Democratic faithful in Grant Park included Jews from almost all sectors of American life: young and old, Reconstructionist and Orthodox, wealthy and poor. So enamored were the revelers of the symbolism of electing a man of color to the Oval Office that they fatefully overlooked what he stands for and,worse, what he will not stand against.
(Read more…)

His legacy is spent before he gets his hands on it.

By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR., WSJ

His friends advise Barack Obama to launch a “New” New Deal. Maybe that’s because the old New Deal is sinking fast.

Mr. Obama’s one deeply false note during the campaign was his harping on “deregulation” as if that were the source of current troubles. His real problem is the crack-up of the world FDR built.
[Business World] AP

Fannie Mae was a New Deal creation, subsidizing the securitization of mortgage debt. FDR’s successors piled on the subsidies for housing debt and incentives directed at low-income borrowers. Kaboom.
(Read more…)

Writing about whether Obama’s pick of Eric Holder as Attorney General is good or bad for the Jews, The Rebbetzin’s Husband notes that Holder’s nomination might be bad because it will dredge up embarrassing “Marc Rich/Jewish/Israel-oriented headlines”.

But, on the other hand, Holder might have a positive impact in another case

(Read more…)

By Ted Belman

In my article The Real Tragedy in Israel I fisked a NYT article by Gershom Gorenberg in his Op-Ed in the New York Times, “Israel’s Tragedy Foretold,” on March 10, 2006, in which he opines that Israelis and their leaders have finally seen the light, namely that Israel should abandon the settlements.

To reach this conclusion he relies on an opinion by Legal Counsel to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, one Theodor Merion who wrote in 1967, “My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Mr Gorenberg laments that Israel, in disregard of this advice, started to build settlements with the “sadly mistaken confidence that the legal, ethical and diplomatic difficulties of settlement could somehow be avoided.” The tragedy, according to Mr. Gorenberg, is that Israel now has to untangle the mess at great human and financial cost.

Both my article above and Melanie Phillips’ The international community misrepresents international law set the record straight.

The INSS of Tel Aviv U just published A Strategic Assessment which included two instructive articles on the settlements.

Two states for Two Peoples: A Vision Rapidly Eroding
Zaki Shalom

From Territorial to Social Agendas: A Different Look at the Settlements
Aluf Benn

For an indepth understanding about the politics of the settlements I recommend a careful reading.

Bottom line for me is that Israel shouild continue to build including in E1 and probably will with a Likud government. Obama will have to decide whether to go public with real pressure to prevent it.

By Ted Belman

Even at this early stage in the transition, certain priorities are discernible.

Pres Elect Obama is surrounding himself with many Clintonites particularly in the management of the economy. He will do nothing that would make matters worse. Thus the increase of taxes he promoted will not happen for quite a while. Spending plans such as for adding 50 million to the health care system will likewise have to wait. The same goes for education reform.

But what he will do, is save the Big Three and the UAW. You can already see the propaganda efforts by the Dems and the UAW and the Big Three. The American Thinker tells us to Expect an early Obama bailout of the Big Three
(Read more…)

Jihad Watch

Marc Charisse, editor of the Evening Sun of Hanover, Pennsylvania, recently announced his intention to drop Diana West’s column from the newspaper because, as he put it, West “never met a Muslim she didn’t hate.”

This ready conflation of the defense of Western civilization and its rights and freedoms against Sharia supremacism with “hatred” is, of course, something we see at Jihad Watch every day. Here is Diana West’s blazingly brilliant response:

To the Editor:

I am responding to Editor Marc Charisse’s column about my work, a column I found striking for its mud-slinging crudity. In Charisse’s words, my work, the product of careful research and reporting, may be summed up thus: West “never met a Muslim she didn’t hate.”

(Read more…)

Mere Rhetoric

Well that was totally unpredictable wasn’t it?

General James L. Jones is widely rumored to be Obama’s preferred candidate to be White House National Security Adviser… Jones prepared a report on Israel’s policies in the territories… The World Tribune said it “blasted Israel’s role” for “hampering the movement of PA forces, blocking plans for weapons shipments and technology to the Palestinians and resisting coordination.” … Obama said this about Jones: “Let me tell you who I associate with… If I’m interested in figuring out my foreign policy, I associate myself with my running mate, Joe Biden or with Dick Lugar…or General Jim Jones, the former supreme allied commander of NATO.”

Totally, totally unpredictable:

John Brennan… is rumored to be Obama’s pick to head the CIA. Brennan published a long article on Iran in July 2008… “… U.S. national security would be best served if Washington publicly acknowledged and explored the roots of this shift in Iranian state support for terrorist activities … the new U.S. administration must be willing to exercise strategic patience….It would not be foolhardy, however, for the United States to tolerate, and even to encourage, greater assimilation of Hezbollah into Lebanon’s political system.

(Read more…)

by Hillel Fendel , INN

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann is drafting a new law to curb the Supreme Court - drawing the expected ire from Knesset Members on the left, such as Ophir Pines of Labor.

Minister Friedmann wishes to block the High Court from dealing with issues having to do with politics, security, the judiciary, and the national budget, except for extraordinary cases. Only if clear evidence is brought that a decision was made illegally, or without authorization, or the like, will the Supreme Court be allowed to determine its legality.

MK Ophir Pines (Labor), as expected, had sharp words of criticism for the minister, and called upon him to stop harassing and attempting to restrict the judicial system: ?The government is not above the law, and the Supreme Court is permitted to review its decisions in the framework of the checks and balances in the Israeli democracy,? Pines said.
(Read more…)

Editorial Review ( soon to be available on Amazon)

“Karin” is a real story of a German woman, who lived in Saudi Arabia for a while and fell in love with a Saudi. Later, this love turned into a devastating nightmare. The Saudi “Morality Police”, notorious for their bestial brutality, raped Karin and threw her in prison. Her crime was, she was driven alone downtown by a taxi-driver. Her German-Saudi baby son was taken away and she was deported to Cyprus without passport and money. Muna, a young Moroccan woman was luckier. She managed to smuggle herself and baby after one-night marriage with Sultan, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, you can marry and divorce a woman in her absence. All you need is a religious man and two male witnesses. This is exactly what happened to Karin; she was married in her absence. Muna never saw any marriage or divorce papers.

Mimi and Najat were brutally stoned to death. Najat, a deaf-dumb was caught by the “Morality Police”, suspected of being a prostitute. In reality she was waiting for her brother to pick her up in front of shop window.
(Read more…)

By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer, November 18, 2008

Watch ABC News video of Lieberman press conference, here.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign.

The Connecticut independent will lose a panel post on the Environment and Public Works panel as punishment for criticizing Obama this fall.

Lieberman’s colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday to approve a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he had been very angry by Lieberman’s actions but that “we’re looking forward, we’re not looking back.”

Added Reid: “This was not a time for retribution, it was a time for moving forward on the problems of this country.”

Lieberman’s grasp on his chairmanship had gotten stronger since President-elect Barack Obama signaled to Democratic leaders that he’s not interested in punishing Lieberman for boosting McCain and criticizing Obama during the long campaign. (Continue Reading this Article)

November 18, 2008

Dear David:
Re: 47% of American Jews Would OPPOSE Saving Israel!!!!

THE TRAGIC PREDICTABILITY OF THE JEWISH VOTE
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary

By Don Feder, November 17, 2008

Doubtless you have seen this Don Feder piece that contains the results from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) 2008 Survey of American Jewish Opinion. Putting aside Feder’s conservative leanings, you have to admit that this AJC survey finding is jarring, if not an embarrassment to American Jews, Israel supporters and Zionists, including many Christians. Could it be that this result reflects the virtual loss of the Zionist ethos not only here in America, but also in Israel? How else could you explain the current Olmert ‘caretaker” government doing little to protect Israeli citizens living in Western Negev towns like Sderot and the Southern city of Ashdod being hit with daily barrages of Kassem and Grad rockets launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The “Hudna” or ‘regrouping’ in Arabic is tantamount to a War on Jews by Islamic terror groups. Israel needs to strike back, as provocation is long past and hundreds of thousands are now threatened with death from the skies. This goes on while the government of Israel blithely releases 250 Palestinian Arab prisoners and at the urging of the UN and US State Department delivers ‘humanitarian aid’ to those ‘huddled masses’ in Gaza. (Read more…)

OREILLY AND GABRIEL RAIL AGAINST ISLAM

By Melanie Phillips, The Spectator

With his remarks about the Israeli settlements, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has signalled a sharp deterioration in relations between Britain and Israel. Miliband has urged enforcement of an EU boycott of produce from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, settlements he has called ‘illegal’.

I asked the Foreign Office for the legal basis of its opinion that the settlements were illegal. It replied that it was the Geneva Convention, which forbade the movement of a population into occupied territory. I asked whether it was basing this on a ruling by any particular body or whether this was merely its own reading of the Geneva Convention. “Oh, everyone accepts this is what the Geneva Convention means”, came the breezy reply. I then asked what was its legal definition of the “occupied territories”. “As defined by UN resolutions – which everyone accepts”— came the even breezier reply.

Is that so.

No it is not. It is in fact a total misrepresentation of international law.
(Read more…)

Robert Spencer:

Jones, correspondent for the Bureau of National Affairs news agency, never expected her novel about Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, the first caliph, and favorite wife of the prophet of Islam, to become a battleground in the war over free speech between the West and the Muslim world. Rather, as she explained, “I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed … I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder.” …

Continue reading…

Cross-posted at netwmd.com and IsraPundit

As the end of President Bush’s term in office approaches, one of the issues that once again moves into the forefront is the question of a Presidential Pardon for Jonathan Pollard. (Read more…)

Brian Mosely on Somali Immigration Fraud
by Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast blog, November 16, 2008

AP Award-winning Shelbyville (Tennessee) Times-Gazette journalist Brian Mosely has once again done an important investigative piece. His article has both local and national implications vis a vis Somali refugees. Shelbyville and major locations in the US such as Nashville, Columbus, Ohio and Minneapolis, Minnesota have been affected. An estimated 90,000 Somalis refugees have been brought to the US, under a State department- administered program authorized by the Refugee Act of 1980.

We interviewed Mosely for the New English Review last February on his Times-Gazette series, “Somalis, Shelbyville and Severe Culture Shock in Shelbyville”. The series was about Somalis who moved there to work in a Tyson meat processing plant and created problems for this middle Tennessee community. As a result of his series in the Times Gazette, he was given an award for journalistic excellence by a state AP press group.

Ann Corcoran of the Refugee Resettlement Watch blog has posted, revelations from a US State Department fact sheet released last week on the suspension of the African refugee family reunification P-3 program in August 2008 because of evidence of wide spread fraud. She noted that “the State Dept. has admitted that 80% of Somali family reunification cases involve fraud.” That posting prompted Mosely to conduct his own investigations into the matter in Tennessee culminating in today’s Times- Gazette article,“Refugee program stayed after feds confirm fraud.” (Continue Reading this Article)

By P. David Hornik, FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Under heavy international pressure, Israel allowed food and medicine but not fuel supplies into Gaza on Monday. Amnesty International had called on Israel to “stop its policy of collective punishment.” European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner had declared herself “profoundly concerned about the consequences for the Gazan population of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings for deliveries of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had demanded that Israel immediately end “measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.”

Also on Monday the Al-Quds Brigades—the military wing of Islamic Jihad—fired eight rockets from Gaza into the western Negev, damaging several houses. A little later in the morning another volley landed south of the much-besieged town of Sderot, damaging houses in a kibbutz.

Though the current “ceasefire” with Hamas is not supposed to be over until December 19, the shelling has been going on for almost two weeks. Just on Friday, for instance, Sderot was hit by eleven Qassam rockets and Ashkelon—a city of 120,000 to the north of Gaza—by six Grad rockets (larger and longer-range than Qassams). An 82-year-old Sderot woman was wounded by shrapnel and 22 shock victims were taken to hospital. Air raid sirens rang out in Ashkelon all day and the city opened its public bomb shelters. Children on the lunch break got caught in rocket fire and had to scamper back into their schools.

Ashdod, a city of 200,000 north of Ashkelon and Israel’s second most important port after Haifa, was also ordered to get its bomb shelters ready since it too is within Grad range. (Continue Reading this Article)

THE TRAGIC PREDICTABILITY OF THE JEWISH VOTE
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary

By Don Feder, November 17, 2008

A tip of the chapeau to Janet Levy Ross for sending us this shocker.

Back in the 1980s, during the euphoria of the Reagan-era, Neo-cons like Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol predicted a seismic shift in Jewish voting patterns.

Once American Jews discovered that voting Republican was crucial for the survival of the Jewish state, they’d naturally align themselves with the party that actually believes in national security, we were assured.

It never happened.

After this year’s election – in which Barack Hussein Obama got 77% of the Jewish vote – we can confidently say it never will. Once again, in 2008, most American Jews voted their religion – liberalism.

Some minorities have a clearer perception of where their interests lie. According to the American Muslim Task Force for Civil Rights and Elections, nearly 90% of Muslims voted for Obama, only 2% for McCain – smart Muslims, dumb Jews.

If there was ever a year in which Jews should have been forced to reconsider their robotic loyalty to the Democratic Party, 2008 was it.

The Democratic presidential candidate should have set off alarm bells in the head of the average Jewish voter – from his whack-job pastor’s anti-Israel ravings, to his multiple ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, to his Middle East donors, to his terrorist cheering section, to his refusal to condemn Jimmy Carter’s meeting with Hamas – Jews should have broken out in a cold sweat at the thought of this ideologue directing U.S. military and foreign policy. (Continue Reading this Article)