Foreign Affairs

Fast and Furious Body Count: 200

Mark Noonan3 Comments

From Townhall:

In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, as the Attorney General in Mexico is so concerned, she’s made the point that at least 200 Mexicans have been killed with these weapons and probably countless more,” Issa said.

Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to “walk,” and that only 600 have been recovered…

This, my fellow Americans, is a stain upon our national honor – it was we, through our government, which allowed these weapons to flow to Mexico.  We did it deliberately – and, why?  My view, as I’ve said before, is that it was a sick attempt to reinvigorate the gun control forces in this nation.  Not being able to get any traction as all the gun control ideology has proven false, someone cooked up a plan to arm Mexican criminals and then blame honest, innocent American gun dealers for the weapons…we were never supposed to find out that the weapons were purchased by the US government and illegally transferred to the drug gangs.

In order to restore our national honor in this matter we simply must get to the bottom of it – we must find out exactly who ordered this program to go forward and, in the best case scenario, ensure they see the inside of a jail cell.  People are dead because someone in DC made an egregiously stupid decision…we owe it to the dead to punish the guilty and ensure it never happens again.

Why the Palestinian Authority is Failing

Mark Noonan11 Comments

If you ever wonder why the PA is now pushing Statehood and essentially causing all sorts of trouble, you need look no further than this Bloomberg news story:

…Last week, both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank identified the authority’s financial crisis as a danger to the state-building program which Fayyad’s administration has led over the last two years.

In the last three months, the authority has twice failed to pay salaries to its 150,000 employees on time  and in full.

The success of the state-building plan was one of the reasons cited by Palestinian officials for their decision to go to the United Nations, despite U.S. and Israeli opposition…

The story, itself, is about how Saudi Arabia is pledging $200 million to the PA – missed in the story, because it is an MSM report, is the real issue:  the Palestinian Authority has 150,000 employees.  There are 4,000,000 or so Palestinians…to put it in to American terms, this is the equivalent of us having 11,250,000 federal government employees; right now, there are about 3,000,000 federal employees.  Even if you add in the military, you get nowhere near the proportion of government employees to population of the PA.

What this tells us is that the PA is nothing more than a con job…a way for corrupt oligarchs and appartchiks to latch themselves upon a population and live well.  All that talk of Palestinian Statehood?  All the rancor and blood and gore and mess?  Nothing but a means to an end – and the end is a bunch of people who don’t do a lick of work getting fat off of others.  I’m deadly serious here…we are not faced with a movement of national liberation, but by a group of thugs who want money they didn’t earn.

The main thing to remember about the state of the world today is that in all lands there are people who have figured out how to gain un-earned wealth.  Our liberals think in terms of rich people like corporate CEOs and the like…and they actually do have a bit of a case, but they blow it by not realizing that the corporate CEOs are only a tiny number, at most, of all those living off those who produce wealth.  Here’s a small list of those living off the work of others:

Activists of various stripes (some call them “community organizers”, race-baiting grievance-mongers, Wall Street gamblers (as opposed to actual investors), college professors who let others teach their classes, union bosses, trial lawyers, education administrators, most welfare recipients, layers of corporate and bureaucratic paper pushers who do nothing to help an actual person, most of the people manning NGOs, departments of higher education which don’t produce things like doctors and engineers, probably well more than half the people on disability…and a host of dictators and hangers-on around the world which have fastened themselves on various populations.  They don’t work; they don’t earn their positions (gaining them by favor or by blood); they don’t do anything worthwhile for the whole, human race…but they live well; always vastly better than the general run of the population they live amongst.  The Palestinian Authority is just another one of the scams…a put on using the words of liberation and nationhood to sucker fools in to handing them money and power…and using theft and murder to maintain themselves and gain more.

It is high time we stopped falling for this nonsense…the Palestinians could have State-hood next week with generously drawn borders and massive amounts of financial aid to build their economy…but as long as the Palestinian leadership is made up of thieves, murderers and con-artists, we’ll get nowhere.  They don’t want a functioning State for the Palestinian people to live and build in…if that started up, there’d be no place for the current leadership.  So, they’ll just keep up the wickedness (and why not?  It got their leader a Nobel Prize and themselves well paid sinecures in government) and hope that we keep being suckers, forever.  Same thing with all the other people causing mayhem, misery and murder around the world…they are just after personal power and wealth that they cannot earn in a free society by offering something useful to their fellow citizens.  The sooner we wake up to what they are and start laying stripes on their backs, the quicker we can have peace.

And then we can turn to the con artists in our own land…no need to be quite that harsh as they haven’t actually murdered anyone…but it is high time we stopped kowtowing to their pretensions and their whines and started demanding they pull their weight.  The world will always be a place of sorrow and trial…but no need for us to make it worse by allowing others to take advantage of us.

 

 

Perry Wades in to the Israel/Palestinian Issue

Mark Noonan8 Comments

From the Jerusalem Post:

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry will hold a press conference with American and Israeli-Jewish leaders in New York on Tuesday in which he is expected to address the upcoming deliberations at the United Nations, MK Danny Danon (Likud), said on Saturday night.

Danon, who will participate at the press conference, said he would ask Perry ahead of the conference to adopt the initiative the MK is advancing to annex Judea and Samaria in response to the unilateral Palestinian moves at the UN…

That does sound like a reasonable plan to me – if the Palestinians are going to do things without relation to the desires of Israel, I see no reason why Israel shouldn’t work the same way.  Palestinians get their UN-sponsored State, Israel gets Judea and Samaria.  Fair trade, if you ask me.

On the other hand, the Palestinians can get title to Judea and Samaria…all they have to do is make peace with Israel.  Real peace – not a sham where they speak words of peace in English for the MSM and then shout “death to the Jews” in so many words in Arabic back home.

Outside of that, it is about time that Perry and the rest of the GOP field started to really differentiate themselves from Obama foreign and defense policies.  Obamunism as an economic policy has been bad, but Obamunism as a foreign policy has been a disaster.  It is best if you are respected and loved in the world. Failing that, respected is good.  In the final analysis, if you can get respect or love, then you’d better be feared.  Right now, no one fears us, respects us or loves us.  We hit the crest of a wave of power and influence in mid-2003 and its been downhill since then…courtesy of the American left which first sabotaged Bush, and then ensured that Obama went from bad to worse in foreign policy.  And terribly sorry, liberals, but killing bin Laden doesn’t make up for it.

We’ve got Iran on the march to nuclear weapons and starting to interfere in neighboring States; Islamist governments look to take control of both Libya and Egypt; the Assad regime in Syria is maintaining itself in power; Turkey is becoming overtly anti-Israeli and bidding for leadership of Islamism; Russia is throwing spokes in our wheel at every opportunity and China is building a military to challenge us in the western Pacific.  We’re in a pickle and it’ll be ten years of hard work before we can restore our position.

In this, Perry has picked out the right cause – the extinction of Israel is a goal of all American enemies…be they open enemies like the Islamists or disguised enemies like European bureaucrats seeking to degrade the United States to secondary power status.  Israel is hated – anti-Semitism is on the rise; the only thing in favor of backing Israel is the fact that backing Israel is the absolutely right thing to do.  By so doing we lay down the marker…we draw the line in the sand and say, “not one bit further”.  Here, we fight, if necessary.  Here we shout defiance at the world and tell them that for Americans basic, human decency still calls the shots…we won’t allow another Holocaust; we won’t surrender the Jews to death in order to buy a half decade of peace for ourselves.  From that firm base, we can then go forward to rebuild the rest of our global position…surrender it, and we’ll soon find ourselves completely isolated in a world of enemies gathering for the kill.

So, good for Perry and I hope the rest of the GOP field follows suit.

 

Here Are the Palestinians

Mark Noonan17 Comments

Do you really want to know what the Palestinians are like?  Do you want to understand what sort of leadership there is?  What sort of public attitudes are encouraged?  Well, here ya go – from Palestinian Media Watch:

The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others, as the person to launch their statehood campaign with the UN. In a widely publicized event, the PA had Latifa Abu Hmeid lead the procession to the UN offices in Ramallah and to hand over a letter for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

The official PA daily reported that she launched the UN campaign last week, and noted that she is the “mother of seven prisoners and of the Shahid (Martyr) Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Hmeid.” However, the paper did not mention that 4 of her imprisoned sons are murderers…

These are the people the Israelis are supposed to make peace with?  This is an indication of a sincere desire to live in peace with Israel?

The reality is that the Palestinian leadership believes they will win it all, eventually.  From being an exiled terrorist group chased around the world by Mossad they have been allowed to become permanently domiciled in parts of the West Bank and in Gaza…who, 30 years ago, would ever have imagined this?  And, so, in their mind’s eye, where will they be 30 years from now?  So, naturally, they choose the mother of murderers to present their petition for UN recognition…using murder and mayhem has got them this far and there is every indication that more murder and mayhem will get them farther.

It is time to force these people to be reasonable…give them a week to declare, in Arabic in letters delivered to every single Palestinian, that they recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State, that they renounce the “right of return” and that Jerusalem is the undivided capitol of Israel…and if they don’t do it, announce that for each week they don’t, 1% of currently occupied West Bank land will forever be denied them.  And if they do go 100 weeks refusing, then start taking 1% of the land they current own, week by week, until they agree.  And if 200 weeks go by and they still don’t agree, then start kicking them out of the West Bank and Gaza and transferring them to Sinai and Jordan.

I know, harsh – but how are we to reach those who choose the mother of murderers as their symbol?  Someone name for me anything the Palestinians have said or done which indicates a sincere desire for peace.   We have to force it out of them by letting them know they are beaten and that their future, as a people in the West Bank and Gaza, can only come about via cooperation with the Israelis.  Or we can just drift along and let them, murder by murder, slowly take over the whole of Israel.

German Banks Need $175 Billion

Mark Noonan1 Comment

From Reuters:

Germany’s 10 biggest banks need 127 billion euros ($175 billion) of additional capital, German newspaper Frankfurt Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported, citing a study by economic research institute DIW.

The paper on Sunday cited Dorothea Schaefer, research director for financial markets at DIW, as saying the ratio of banks’ equity capital to balance sheet total needs to rise to at least 5 percent.

A source said this month that the International Monetary Fund has estimated European banks overall could face a capital shortfall of 200 billion euros…

And from what I’ve heard, German banks are the healthy ones…you get to France and Spain and you start to find banks with really bad finances.

Bail outs and free money and borrowing and printing…all to keep Greece from defaulting and thus spinning the Eurozone down to destruction.  And what has it all accomplished?  Greece is still going to default (in a real sense, Greece already has…but the official announcement hasn’t been made by the Ruling Class, therefor the MSM doesn’t admit it, either) and once-stable economies – like Germany’s – are also being ruined.  All they did was throw good money after bad…it would have been better if Greece had defaulted two years ago.  Just as it would have been better if back in 2008 no one had stepped in to “save” the global financial system.  Sure, it stopped a Great Depression…but only for a little while.  We’re still going to get one.

It would be the irony of ironies if Germany’s financial plight proved the final trigger for the collapse.  The Germans – with long memories of pre-WWII financial troubles – kept their financial house in order.  To be sure, Germany’s welfare State is just as unsustainable as any in Europe, but at least the German’s had a handle on it…and Germans remain highly productive workers so they are at least generating wealth to pay their bills.  Not so in the rest of Europe…elsewhere, you do have the welfare State (often more generous than Germany’s) but without anyone willing to do any hard work, at all.  Now Germany threw her weight behind the irresponsible European Union members and will pay a price for being generous rather than realistic. The really bad news is that if Europe does fall apart, I bet dollars to donuts that the lazy parts of Europe will blame Germany…welfare bums don’t like it when the spigot is cut off and they tend to blame those who hold down a job.

HAT TIP:  Mish’s

Egyptian PM: Peace With Israel “Not Sacred”

Mark Noonan20 Comments

From the Jerusalem Post:

Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said a peace deal with Israel was not “sacred” and could be changed for the benefit of peace or the region.

His comments, made in an interview with a Turkish television channel and broadcast on state television, were the strongest yet by the new government which took over after president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February.

“The Camp David agreement is not a sacred thing and is always open to discussion with what would benefit the region and the case of fair peace … and we could make a change if needed,” he said in the interview…

My suggestion to Israel is that they re-open the “discussion” of peace by pushing the Egyptians out of the Sinai.  When you’ve got them by the privates, it is said, hearts and minds will follow…the Suez Canal is one of Egypt’s few money-makers and Israeli control of it might remind Egypt’s government of just why the Sadat regime sought a peace treaty in 1979.

Israel is in her most difficult position since just prior to the 1967 war – rising Islamism; Turkish hostility (it looks as though the Turks are asserting themselves for the Palestinians in order to forestall Iranian efforts…but, no matter, it still works out bad for Israel); threat of Iranian nukes…and a US government which actually believes that Israeli/American actions are the cause of the conflict (instead of it really being nothing more than a manufactured issue by Islamic leaders who want a short cut to personal power and wealth…and scapegoating Jews is just easy).  Israel had to both tread carefully but at the same time be willing to act with lightening speed to disrupt the Islamists.

Right now, those Islamsits are looking forward to re-starting the war with Israel – confronting Israel with massive terrorist attacks from the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and southern Lebanon.  Israel, caught between four fires, will be terribly vulnerable.  Better if one or more of the fires could be put out before it gets started.  As Israeli re-occupation of the West Bank is impractical (ties down too many Israeli units in occupation duty), the logical place to strike is in the Sinai…minimal Egyptian civil popualtion to control, it cuts off Gaza (thus putting that fire out) and would allow the IDF to concentrate on south Lebanon and the West bank with their southern and western fronts secure.

The worst thing Israel can do is just hunker down – MacArthur was once asked his formula for defensive war.  His answer?  “Defeat”.  Sitting there and waiting for the terrorists to strike won’t help…better a spoiling attack against them, throwing their plane in to confusion and allowing Israel a breathing space until a new American government comes to power…hopefully one with a more realistic understanding of the Islamists.

Columbia Students to Dine With Iranian Tyrant

Mark Noonan9 Comments

From CBS News:

A group of Columbia University students are expected to have dinner with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next week in Midtown.

According to the Columbia Spectator, the school’s newspaper, as many as 15 members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association were invited.

CIRCA vice president of academics, Tim Chan, told the paper the Sept. 21 meeting is still tentative and none of the members expressed any reservations about breaking bread with the controversial Iranian leader…

Gotta love MSM reporting…”controversial Iranian leader”.  Yeah, like Genghis Khan was just “controversial” rather than, more accurately, a “pestilence”.

But, that aside, here we have a prime example of the lack of education which goes on in our schools – no one with any knowledge of the world would bother to sit down with Ahmadinejad who, by word and action, has long ago proved he brings no truth or wisdom to the public square.  Ahmadinejad is someone to be fended off until such time as he can be removed from power or destroyed.  He is not someone fit for dinner dates…but here come the elite of the elite of Columbia University acting worse than the veriest simpleton out there…having dinner with a dictator.  What’s next?  Lunch with a famed rapist?

HAT TIP:  Alan Stock

Saudis Give Us Excuse to Ditch Them

Mark Noonan25 Comments

From Turki al-Faisal in the New York Times:

The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has…

Ok, deal – all we have to do is the right thing, and the Saudis will have to cut their ties with us.  Wonderful!  Best thing I’ve heard in months on the foreign policy scene.  No longer shackled to a corrupt, oppressive, Islamist monarchy which provides bags of money for the Islamo-fascist enemies of the United States.

The linked Op-Ed goes on to claim that bid for statehood by the Palestinians is just basic justice.  I can’t see it as such.  The people of so-called Palestine have indicated no willingness to engage the Israelis in a decent manner.  Whether this is because of a malevolent spirit on the part of the people, or because the leaders of the people are deliberately orchestrating the evil is impossible to know…but until there is a fundamental change in Palestinian actions, not much can be done.  The United States cannot – morally or strategically – mid-wife the creation of an entity determined to massacre the Israelis.  It would be good to see Israel go one full year without a single terrorist attack by Islamists.  No rocket attacks from Gaza or Lebanon; no attempted cross-border incursions; no attempt to run the Gaza blockade.  If that happens, then we could consider backing statehood.  Until then, nothing doing.

As for Saudi Arabia:  good riddance to bad rubbish, I say…unfortunately, watch as our foreign policy “realists” react with horror to the mere thought that the Saudi monarchy might be displeased with us.

Watching the Euro Crisis

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Mish notes that Greek 1 year bonds have hit 108% – meanwhile, over in Italy (from Bloomberg):

Italian bond yields surged at an auction today and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou failed to reassure investors that his country can avert default as the euro region’s debt crisis worsened.

Italy sold 12-month bills today to yield 4.153 percent, up from 2.959 percent a month ago as demand fell…

I seem to remember Greek 1 year bonds being something like 4 or 5% a year ago…this is an economic model starting to unravel.  And it is kind of hard to keep a lid on it when you read stories from Europe of plans for an “orderly default” for Greece.

Could be a very wild, financial ride this week…

UPDATE:  Greek 1 year bonds reach 139%.

Islamist Mob Breaks in to Israeli Embassy

Mark Noonan13 Comments

From the AP:

Protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo Friday and dumped documents out of the windows as hundreds more demonstrated outside, prompting the ambassador and his family to leave the country. The unrest was a further worsening of already deteriorating ties between Israel and post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt.

Egyptian police made no attempt to intervene during the day as crowds of hundreds tore down an embassy security wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands or after nightfall when about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building where the embassy is located…

This is the end of the peace treaty – the Egyptian government either will not or cannot enforce the terms, which would include the security of the Israeli embassy in Cairo.  What form of government will finally emerge in Egypt remains unknown…but until that government does emerge and indicates its policies, no reliance can be placed on agreements made under the Sadat/Mubarak regime.  A new peace treaty will have to made – and only if the new Egyptian government indicates a willingness to have true peace with Israel.

The ultimate lesson here is to place no reliance on deals with  tyrants – Sadat was, indeed, a great and wise man…but he was a tyrant, and his successor was a tyrant, and only as long as the tyranny remained in power would any agreement be honored.  Tyrant gone, so is deal…better to have never made the deal, as if there hadn’t been a peace treaty Israel would be on the Suez, not worrying about attacks from the Sinai in to southern Israel.

Back to square one in the middle east…except now there is an even more virulent spirit abroad in the Muslim world.