Formerly "Hudson Institute, New York"
In this mailing:
- Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas: After The Peace Process
- Peter Martino: Euro Taking E.U. Down With It
- Richard Butrick: The Golden Age of Islam - A Second Look
Abbas: After The Peace Process
by Khaled Abu Toameh
January 17, 2012 at 5:00 am
http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2763/abbas-after-peace-process
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is now preparing for the day after the formal death of the peace process.
Abbas is conducting negotiations with three different parties simultaneously: Israel, Hamas and the international community.
His policy now is to shoot in all directions in the hope of hitting as many birds as possible. This strategy, however, has so far failed to score significant gains.
The negotiations Abbas is conducting with Hamas are intended to create a joint Palestinian strategy in the aftermath of the failure of the peace process with Israel.
Abbas is hoping that Hamas will endorse his plan for a popular and non-violent intifada against Israel that would win the backing of the international community.
He also wants various international bodies to impose economic and political sanctions on Israel as a way of forcing the Israeli government to accept his demands, which are, above all, a full withdrawal from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority wants to see an "Arab Spring" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against Israel. It would like to see tens of thousands of Palestinians launch mass protests against Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Abbas does not want to see suicide bombings and other forms of terror attacks against Israel: he believes they are counterproductive and do not help the Palestinians achieve their goals, especially the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the "right of return" for refugees -- who, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Association, now number nearly five million, or approximately the entire Jewish population of Israel -- to their original homes inside Israel.
But Abbas's plan has so far won the support of only a few Hamas leaders, particularly those based in Syria.
Most of the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip are strongly opposed to the idea of a popular intifada and insist on pursuing the "armed struggle" against Israel.
Abbas's representatives are talking with Israelis in Jordan about the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between the two sides, the Palestinians and Israel. The talks in Amman seem to be going nowhere as Abbas continues to stick to his demand that the very matters to be negotiated instead be handed over up front, such as that Israel freeze settlement construction and accept the pre-1967 lines as the future borders of a Palestinian state. Abbas has said he wants the Israeli government to stop all construction in the settlements and Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, and to have Israel recognize the 1967 "borders" as the basis for a two-state solution.
In other words, Abbas is saying that Israeli refusal to comply with his demands is what is hindering the resumption of the peace negotiations.
Palestinian officials in Ramallah say they agreed to go to the Amman talks mainly because of pressure from the Jordanians, Americans and some Europeans. After three meetings, the Palestinians are already talking about the "failure" of the talks in Jordan due to Israeli "intransigence."
The Palestinian Authority is also saying that it cannot accept any Israeli presence along the border between the West Bank and Jordan. Nor is it willing to accept the idea of having settlement blocs in the West Bank.
The gap between Israel and the Palestinians remains as wide as ever, which why neither side has illusions about the prospects of resuming the peace process. The two parties are also aware that there is almost nothing the Obama Administration can do months before a US presidential election.
While Abbas is talking to Israel and Hamas separately, he is also pursuing his efforts with the international community in a bid to impose a unilateral solution on Israel.
Abbas is still threatening to resume his efforts unilaterally to achieve Palestinian membership in the UN.
Related Topics: Khaled Abu Toameh
Euro Taking E.U. Down With It
France On The Way To Financial Self-Destruction
by Peter Martino
January 17, 2012 at 4:30 am
http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2760/euro-taking-eu-down
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Last Friday's downgrading of France and Austria by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has left the eurozone, the group of 17 European countries using the euro as their currency, with just four countries with a triple A rating. Of these four Germany is the only one that was not given a negative outlook. Indeed, S&P thinks that the Netherlands, Finland and Luxemburg risk a further downgrade this year or next year.
This is bad news for the euro. The creditworthiness of the euro bailout fund, EFSF, depends on the ability of eurozone countries with the top rating to provide enough money to bail out eurozone countries in financial difficulties. With France, the eurozone's second largest economy, out of the top league the pressure on the four remaining countries rises. This explains why the Netherlands, Finland and Luxemburg were given a negative outlook. If these countries lose their ratings as well, even Germany, Europe's largest economy, risks losing its triple A rating. The euro is dragging all the eurozone countries down with it.
What Europe's politicians should do is draw up a contingency plan for a eurozone break-up, providing a blueprint for an exit of countries such as Greece and Portugal that urgently need to devaluate to save their economies. In last Friday's Financial Times, Nomura Bank's strategist Jens Nordvig gives a second reason why the eurozone needs such a plan, which must also offer guidance on orderly redenomination of euro-denominated assets and obligations in a break-up scenario. It would alleviate investor worries about such assets and improve the capital flow situation and funding costs. "Ironically," he points out, "spelling out guidelines for a eurozone break-up may -– at this stage in the crisis -– even help to reduce the risk of the break-up itself."
Unfortunately, it does not look as if such a plan is being considered. Instead of drawing up contingency plans, Europe's politicians continue their vain efforts to save the current European monetary union. When S&P announced the downgrading, angry European politicians, refusing to face economic reality, began to shoot the messenger. "It is not the rating agencies that dictate the policies of France," François Baroin, France's finance minister said defiantly. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann called S&P's decision "incomprehensible." German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned against "overestimating the ratings agencies in their assessments."
EU monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn, a Finn, called S&P's decision "inconsistent" and said the agency had made mistakes in the past. Internal market commissioner Michel Barnier, a Frenchman, said S&P's evaluation did "not take into account recent progress."
Barnier is working on plans to establish a semi-official EU credit rating agency. Barnier has been castigating the three big agencies in the world -– S&P, Moody's and Fitch -– since the European sovereign debt crisis began. He argues that these three American agencies do not grasp Europe's economic realities.
The last thing Europe's politicians want to do is acknowledge that their own centralizing policy of imposing a common currency on such widely diverging economies and cultures as Greece and Finland, has caused Europe's current economic predicament. Instead, they blame capitalism, the financial sector and the "greed" of speculators and investors.
To "solve the debt crisis," French president Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a plan to introduce a eurozone financial transaction tax. Sarkozy is in the middle of a reelection campaign and has to convey the message to French voters that the banks, not he, is responsible for the current crisis, and that he will punish them for it. While investors need to be reassured and have their worries laid to rest, Sarkozy proposes to tax them.
Last week, Sarkozy received the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Schäuble and Baroin have been asked to draft proposals for a financial transaction tax by March. Last September, the European Commission proposed a financial transaction tax of 0.1% on bond and share trades, and 0.01% on derivatives. The Commission expects that such a tax could raise €57bn a year in the EU -– about €10bn of which would be Germany.
Economists warn, however, that the tax will leave a big hole in Europe's public finances. France and Germany seem prepared to introduce the tax on their own. At best, the Franco-German alliance will be able to persuade the eurozone to go along, but Britain -– an EU member, although not a eurozone member -– will definitely not join. Hence, if the tax plans materialize, the financial centers of Frankfurt and Paris are likely to move their activities to London, as they did in the 1980s, after Sweden introduced the tax: over 90% of its traders in bonds, equities and derivatives moved from Stockholm to London.
The results could be devastating. Germany, whose economy slipped into reverse the last quarter of 2011, contracted by 0.25%. Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy is prepared to support Sarkozy's proposed tax on financial transactions, but said it should apply to the whole 27-nation EU and not just the 17 eurozone nations. Merkel and Sarkozy will also have to persuade governments in the Netherlands and Ireland.
The Dutch federation of employers has calculated that the introduction of a financial transaction tax would cost the Dutch economy between €7.5bn and €24bn. The Dutch pension funds have warned that the tax would diminish Dutch pensions by 10%, as the tax would cost them €3bn a year. Unlike many other European countries' pension systems, which are pay-as-you-go -- in which the benefits of the pensioners are paid by the current workforce -- the Dutch pension system is largely financed from the contributions pensioners paid in the past and from the return on the investment of these contributions.
It remains to be seen whether the Dutch are willing to bring such a huge sacrifice. French President Sarkozy, however, has announced that France is willing to proceed unilaterally with the introduction of the tax.
Sarkozy's motives, however, are political rather than economic. As François Hollande, his Socialist challenger in the presidential elections, said after last Friday's downgrade: "It is not France that has been downgraded; it is Sarkozy's government." Sarkozy therefore feels compelled to levy a tax on the so-called greedy investors and capitalist speculators who, he claims, are responsible for the current crisis.
If Sarkozy loses the elections, Europe risks being saddled with a Socialist-governed France.
That is bad. If Sarkozy wins thanks to his financial transaction tax, that is bad, too. Either way, France will suffer. And with France, the euro and the whole European Union.
Brace yourselves: the eurocrisis has only just begun.
Related Topics: Peter Martino
The Golden Age of Islam - A Second Look
by Richard Butrick
January 17, 2012 at 4:00 am
http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2757/golden-age-of-islam
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The period from the death of Muhammad through the 13th Century marks the glory days of the Islamic empire. It was a period of commerce, industry and intra-cultural synergies and a flourishing of the sciences, art, medicine and architecture. It was the epitome of what civilization should be. Just ask Obama. In his 2009 Cairo speech the president said that Islam "carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment," and praised the "innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed."
While Central Europe languished in the Dark Ages of ignorance, fear and superstition following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century (so the story goes), it was the Islamic world that carried the torch of Classical civilization to a Europe finally stumbling out of the Dark Ages in the 15th century.
By contrast the Islamic world flourished during the Dark Ages: by the 13th century, both Africa and India had become great centers of Islamic civilization, and soon after, Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished throughout China.
Islam therefore is a religion for all people from whatever race or background they might be: Islamic civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or ethnic discrimination. Such major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Malays in addition to countless smaller units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic civilization.
Moreover, so the story goes, Islam was not opposed to learning from the earlier civilizations and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its own world view. Each ethnic and racial group that embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged.
The global civilization created by Islam also succeeded in activating the minds and thoughts of the people who entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became torch-bearers of science and learning. The Persians, who had created a great civilization before the rise of Islam, nevertheless produced even more science and learning in the Islamic period than before. The same can be said of the Turks and other peoples who embraced Islam. The religion of Islam was itself responsible not only for the creation of a world civilization in which people of many different ethnic backgrounds participated, but it also played a central role in developing intellectual and cultural life on a scale not seen before.
Quite a story. And it is a story being fed to US students from k-12 on through graduate schools. Quite a story? More like a fairy tale.
Victor Davis Hanson has taken down Obama's version of the Golden age of Islam:
In his speech last week in Cairo, President Obama proclaimed he was a "student of history." But despite Mr. Obama's image as an Ivy League-educated intellectual, he lacks historical competency in both facts and interpretation. … Obama … claimed that "Islam . . . carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment." [In fact] medieval Islamic culture … had little to do with the European rediscovery of classical Greek and Latin values. Europeans, Chinese, and Hindus, not Muslims, invented most of the breakthroughs Obama credited to Islamic innovation. … Much of the Renaissance, in fact, was more predicated on the centuries-long flight of Greek-speaking Byzantine scholars from Constantinople to Western Europe to escape the aggression of Islamic Turks. Many romantic thinkers of the Enlightenment sought to extend freedom to oppressed subjects of Muslim fundamentalist rule in eastern and southern Europe.
Andrew Bostom has skewered the myth that Cordoba was a model of ecumenism:
Expanding upon Jane Gerber's thesis about the "garish" myth of a "Golden Age," the late Richard Fletcher (in his Moorish Spain) offered a fair assessment of interfaith relationships in Muslim Spain and his view of additional contemporary currents responsible for obfuscating that history:
The witness of those who lived through the horrors of the Berber conquest, of the Andalusian fitnah [ordeal] in the early eleventh century, of the Almoravid invasion — to mention only a few disruptive episodes — must give it [i.e.: the roseate view of Muslim Spain] the lie.
The simple and verifiable historical truth is that Moorish Spain was more often a land of turmoil than it was of tranquility. … Tolerance? Ask the Jews of Granada who were massacred in 1066, or the Christians who were deported by the Almoravids to Morocco in 1126 (like the Moriscos five centuries later). … In the second half of the twentieth century a new agent of obfuscation makes its appearance: the guilt of the liberal conscience, which sees the evils of colonialism — assumed rather than demonstrated — foreshadowed in the Christian conquest of al-Andalus and the persecution of the Moriscos (but not, oddly, in the Moorish conquest and colonization). Stir the mix well and issue it free to credulous academics and media persons throughout the Western world. Then pour it generously over the truth … in the cultural conditions that prevail in the West today, the past has to be marketed, and to be successfully marketed, it has to be attractively packaged. Medieval Spain in a state of nature lacks wide appeal. Self-indulgent fantasies of glamour … do wonders for sharpening its image. But Moorish Spain was not a tolerant and enlightened society even in its most cultivated epoch.
Serge Trifkovic also has a general take-down of the overblown account of the accomplishments and comity of the Islamic Golden Age in his FrontPage article, The Golden Age of Islam is a Myth.
And now we have Emmet Scott, in a soon to be released study, Mohammed & Charlemagne Revisited: An Introduction to the History of a Controversy, advancing the thesis that Rather than preserving the Classical heritage, the expanding Islamic empire destroyed it and brought about the Dark Ages.
Armed with new archaeological evidence, Scott makes the compelling case, originally put forward in 1920 by Henri Pirenne, a Belgian historian, that Classical civilization did not collapse after the fall of the Roman empire but was gradually attrited by the onslaught of Arab armies and raiders. The Islamic Golden Age came close to permanently destroying the classical humanistic culture of the West.
Hanson has pointed out the factual errors in Obama's paean to Islam's Golden Age. Andrew Bostom has skewered the myth that Cordoba was a model of ecumenism Trikovic has shown that the continuation of learning, science, technology of the "Golden age of Islam" prospered in spite of Islam and not because of Islam and now we have Emmet Scott skewering the myth that the Golden Age of Islam saved Classical humanistic Western culture. What is next? The glory of Sharia?
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