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Van Rompuy Faces Difficult Power Balancing Act
Nov 27th, 2009
Daily NewsEUobserver - HONOR MAHONY
Categories: Today's Headlines;Revived Roman Empire

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - New procedural rules being considered by member states show that EU president-designate Herman Van Rompuy will have to manage a delicate power balancing act with the country holding the rotating presidency when he takes up his duties on 1 January.

Potentially the draft rules, seen by EUobserver, could give the Belgian politician, known for his discretion and negotiating skills, real clout as president of the European Council.

They give him the power to call special summits of EU leaders, draw up the agenda of the meetings, decide on whether to hold a vote, and whether EU summits should be attended by countries beyond the EU or other personalities.

However, the more immediate test of his skills is likely to be how he gets along with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who will take on the day-to-day running of the bloc in all areas except foreign policy on the same day.

The draft rules show that the monthly general affairs council, which will be chaired by Spain, will be extremely powerful.

The ministerial meeting will "prepare the European Council meetings and ensure their follow-up with the president of the European Council and the commission," says the French language document.

"The council is responsible for the general co-ordination of policies, institutional and administrative questions and horizontal dossiers affecting several policies of the European Union," it continues, saying this includes multi-annual financing and enlargement.

The rules, to be discussed by member state representatives today, also closely entwine the rotating presidency and the president of the European Council, Mr Van Rompuy, in several other ways.

They, along with the European Commission President, are supposed to have "regular meetings" while the presidency country will also chair discussions on the draft conclusions and draft decisions ahead of meetings of EU leaders.

How this works in practice is likely to come down to the personalities of both Mr Van Rompuy and Mr Zapatero and their willingness to make it work - with Spain setting the template for other presidency countries down the line.

Mr Zapatero has previously made it clear that he does not want Spain to be sidelined during its six-month tenure and is already making plans for how to lead discussions on the EU's plans for a new long-term economic strategy, to be discussed by EU leaders in March.

Mr Van Rompuy for his part has let it be known that he believes that all countries should be "winners" in negotiations and that a government losing face will be detrimental to EU discussions as a whole.

Meanwhile, the internal rules also make it clear how powerful the secretary general of the council - Frenchman Pierre de Boissieu - will be.

Referred to by the Swedish EU presidency as the person who "oils" the EU's machines, Mr de Boissieu was until now the deputy secretary-general of the council and will assume his beefed up role on 1 December, when the Lisbon Treaty comes into force.

The Frenchman will attend the EU summits, "take all the measures necessary for the organisation of proceedings," and prepare the minutes of the meeting. He is also supposed to work closely with the presidency country on ensuring the coherence of the work and putting in place the 18-month programme of the trio of presidencies, as well as support the new EU president and foreign policy chief.

Min. Begin Promises Vigorous Construction After 10 Month Freeze
Nov 27th, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

 
The decision to vote in favor of a government decision to temporarily freeze construction in Judea and Samaria was not an easy one, Minister Benny Begin told Arutz Sheva Thursday. “We considered the matter carefully and in the overall balance, despite the great difficulty in the decision, we need to weigh its advantages as opposed to its disadvantages,” he said.

Begin stated that the freeze would indeed end ten months from now. “In the decision there is a clear clause that says that after the suspension, the government will go back to implementation of the policy of previous governments, in whose times there was a marked increase in settlement.”

"After the ten months construction will be renewed, and it will be renewed not to the level it has been at in recent months, but to the level it was at before August 2008,” he promised. 

It could have been worse

"On the one hand,” the minister explained, “things need to be examined in the context of the situation we were in seven months ago, when [US Presiden Obama confronted us with an international demand to impose upon ourselves a total freeze of all construction. They wanted a situation in which not a single brick would be laid. Of course we could not agree to this demand. In the meantime we thought, and I agreed to this, that if this decision will strengthen Israel's international standing, and houses and buildings will continue to be built in Judea and Samaria, and new residents will enter the communities, then this decision will also have advantages.”

The minister-without-portfolio said that the nationalist public should form its opinion on the Netanyahu government by comparing it to previous governments. “In 2000 [E Barak offered to cede the PLO 95% of the territory and to carry out a land swap on all the rest. He also wanted to give up Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount. [E Olmert's Kadima government proposed a deal that would concede 98% of the total territory of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and to forgo Israeli sovereignty on the Mount of Olives. The 'Holy Basin' was to be administered by Arab states. The Likud would never think of making such offers,” he noted.

Melbourne Hosts 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions
Nov 27th, 2009
Daily NewsThe Gov Monitor
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church

More than 5000 people from 80 nations are expected to converge on Melbourne next week for the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, the world’s largest multifaith gathering of religious and spiritual communities.

Israelis are calling US President Obama a modern-day Pharaoh
Nov 27th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

The uproar over the 10 month construction freeze on the Jewish settlements put in place by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has many of the Jewish settlers saying that their prime minister is a modern-day Pharaoh, the Egyptian leader at the time of the Jewish Exodus from the Egyptian bondage of the Jewish people some 3500 years ago. A task force has been formed by a number of Jewish organizations which includes the over 500,000 Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria that believe Netanyahu, like the Pharaoh, is trying to prevent a new generation of Zionist pioneers from developing the land that God has given the Jewish people. One organization, For Freedom In Zion, says that it is not Netanyahu but the American President Obama who deserves the title of Pharaoh.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

Pressure from the United States on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to implement a freeze on the Jewish settlements is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

In the recent announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu of a 10 month freeze on construction in the area of Judea and Samaria, has caused an uproar among the Jewish settlers some 500,000 Jews living in what they claim is God-given land. The Jewish settlers are organizing efforts to rebuke their Prime Minister, reverse his decision on the freeze, and rekindle an effort for independence in this disputed real estate.

Bible prophecy speaks of a second Jewish state near the end of times in what we know today as Israel. Ezekiel 37:15-23 says that the second Jewish state will be called Judah. The prophet Ezekiel also speaks of a second Jewish state in chapter 35:10. Malachi, in chapter 2, tells the Jews that God hates separation from what He has joined together but it will be reality in the last days - there will be two Jewish states. Jeremiah, another Jewish prophet, says that in the last days the two Jewish states will come together once again at the time of the coming of the Messiah (Jeremiah 3:18).

The construction freeze on the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria is indeed setting the stage for a second Jewish state and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Iaea Chief: Iran Nuclear Inquiry At ‘dead End’
Nov 27th, 2009
Daily NewsAP
Categories: Today's Headlines

Agency weighs resolution criticizing Iran for skirting U.N. uranium ban

VIENNA - The outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday his probe of Iran's nuclear program is at "a dead end" and that trust in Tehran's credibility is shrinking after its belated revelation that it was secretly building a nuclear facility.

Mohamed ElBaradei's blunt criticism of the Islamic Republic — four days before he leaves office — was notable in representing a broad convergence with Washington's opinion, which for years was critical of the IAEA chief for what it perceived as his softness on Iran.

Iran also came in for censure from another quarter at the opening session of the IAEA's 35-nation board, with the introduction of a resolution taking Tehran to task on a broad range of issues linked to international concerns that it may be seeking to make nuclear weapons. Significantly, diplomats at the meeting said the resolution was endorsed not only by Western powers — the U.S., Britain, France and Germany — but also by Russia and China.

Finally, Israel Gets It!
Nov 27th, 2009
CommentaryWND - Joseph Farah
Categories: The Nation Of Israel;Anti-Israel

For more than five years, I have been conspicuously alone in pointing out the racist, anti-Jewish nature of policies that require the evacuation of Israelis from Gaza, Judea and Samaria and, more lately, the halts on building and repairing homes and businesses owned by Jews in Jerusalem.

Finally, someone in Israel has figured this out and called the policies advocated by Barack Obama and the international elite what they are.

"Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews, Muslims and Christians or between eastern and western Jerusalem," said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. "The demand to halt construction by religion is not legal in the United States or in any other free place in the world. I do not presume that any government would demand to freeze construction in the United States based on race, religion or gender, and the attempt to demand it from Jerusalem is a double standard and inconceivable."

Barkat was responding to Obama's remarks on Fox News Channel about the approval of 900 new apartments in the southern Jerusalem community of Gilo as "settlement activity," suggesting, irrationally and irresponsibly, that it justified Palestinian violence. The Palestinian Authority quickly adopted Obama's line to rationalize future terrorist attacks.

However, even the most appeasing Israelis – people like Shimon Peres – see Gilo, with its existing population of 30,000 Jews right in the heart of the Israeli capital, as undisputedly Israeli territory, land that will never be negotiated away.

It's clear now Obama, like the Muslim world, doesn't believe any Israeli territory is beyond dispute.

This is what I have been saying and writing since 2004.

No more ethnic cleansing – not in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.

When the Palestinian Authority demanded that all Jews leave Gaza in anticipation of declaring it to be part of a future Palestinian state, the world did not notice the implications.

Why would Jews not be welcome living in a Palestinian state?

Because the Palestinian leadership is racist.

Why would blatant ethnic cleansing of this sort be embraced by the world when ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world is roundly denounced? Why is there an exception made for Jews? Why is it OK to remove Jews from their homes and businesses in the Middle East? Why is it acceptable to forbid Jews from building and repairing homes and businesses on the basis of their religion? How can this be tolerated, let alone condoned and championed as progressive policy by people like Obama?

I made the same point in 2005.

What would you say if I told you the United States is backing a plan to uproot forcibly people from their homes because they are Muslim?

You would probably be incredulous, I said.

You would probably be shocked, I said.

You would probably be outraged, I said.

And you would be right.

Well, rest assured there was no plan backed by the United States to uproot forcibly peaceful Muslims from their homes anywhere in the world.

There was, however, a plan to do just that to several thousand peaceful Jews, many of whom have lived for a generation in thriving communities – showcases of prosperity and freedom for their neighbors.

This anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing plan was known as the "disengagement" plan in Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

There is only one reason these people were displaced – because they are Jews in a land where Jews are not welcome.

And the world condoned it.

Earlier this year, I pointed it out, again.

In May, Obama announced he would be taking what he and his administration referred to as "a more balanced approach to Middle East policy."

I explained what that meant.

"It means the U.S. government is now using its clout with Israel to insist Jews, not Israelis, mind you, but Jews, be disallowed from living in East Jerusalem and the historically Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria, often referred to as the West Bank," I wrote. "I want you to try to imagine the outrage, the horror, the outcry, the clamoring, the gnashing of teeth that would ensue if Arabs or Muslims were told they could no longer live in certain parts of Israel – let alone their own country."

I returned to this theme in September after what I called "Obama's Judenrein speech."

"The Nazis had a word for what Barack Obama declared in the United Nations General Assembly last week," I wrote. "When a city or a district or a nation was 'clean of Jews,' it was pronounced 'Judenrein.' The goal of the Nazis was, of course, for all of Europe to be cleansed of Jews – then the whole world."

Was I being harsh?

Not if you understand the nature of Obama's demand for an end to "Israeli settlements" in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem – and, now apparently, the entire city.

Since Obama took office in January, the U.S. government has greatly increased pressure on Israel to halt any and all of the following:

• building of new homes
  
  and businesses by Jews in these areas;

• building additions on existing homes and businesses by Jews in these areas;

• repairing of existing homes and businesses by Jews in these areas;

Why would the U.S. government want to stop Jews from building homes and businesses in lands that have been under Israel's control for the last 42 years and a part of Israel's history for the last 3,000 years?

Because the U.S. government has predetermined that these lands are going to be part of a future Palestinian state – one that will be conspicuously Jew-free.

In other words, Barack Obama is in favor of an ethnic-cleansing operation – one that will eventually require the forcible removal of all Jews, no matter how long they have lived in these areas, no matter what they paid for their properties, no matter what.

I'm gratified to see an Israeli awakening to what has been the plan from the beginning.

Jews in the Middle East are starting to get the picture – if a little late.

Experts: Catholic Church Covered Up Child Abuse
Nov 27th, 2009
Daily NewsAP
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Irish archbishops protected reputation at expense of victims, report says

DUBLIN - The Roman Catholic Church in Dublin covered up decades of child abuse committed by priests because bishops wanted to protect the church's reputation at the expense of victims, an expert commission reported Thursday after a three-year probe into previously secret church records.

Abuse victims said they welcomed publication of the probe into the mishandling of 1975-2004 child-abuse cases in the Dublin Archdiocese, home to a quarter of Ireland's 4 million Catholics. But they said government and church leaders still had far to go to compensate for past wrongs.

The government said the investigation "shows clearly that a systemic, calculated perversion of power and trust was visited on helpless and innocent children in the archdiocese."

Dubai Debt Plea Sends Fear Around World
Nov 27th, 2009
Daily NewsAP
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Once one of the world's richest cities, emirate now can't pay its bills

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it's asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills — causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai's reputation as a magnet for international investment.

The fallout came swiftly and was felt globally after Wednesday's statement that Dubai's main development engine, Dubai World, would ask creditors for a "standstill" on paying back its $60 billion debt until at least May. The company's real estate arm, Nakheel — whose projects include the palm-shaped island in the Gulf — shoulders the bulk of money due to banks, investment houses and outside development contractors.

In total, the state-backed networks nicknamed Dubai Inc. are $80 billion in the red and the emirate needed a bailout earlier this year from its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Markets took the news badly — with the Dubai woes and the continued fall of the U.S. dollar giving investors twin worries. Dubai's move raised concerns about debt across the Gulf Region. Prices to insure debt from Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain all rose by double-digit percentages Thursday, according to data from CMA DataVision.

In Europe, the FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the CAC-40 in France opened sharply lower. Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai index sank 119.19 points, or 3.6 percent, in the biggest one-day fall since Aug. 31. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.8 percent to 22,210.41.

Wall Street was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday and most markets in the Middle East were silent because of a major Islamic feast.

"Dubai's standstill announcement ... was vague and it remains difficult to discern whether the call for a standstill will be voluntary," said a statement from the Eurasia Group, a Washington-based research group that assesses political and financial risk for foreign investors interested in Dubai.

"If it is not, Dubai World will be going into default and that will have more serious negative repercussions for Dubai's sovereign debt, Dubai World and market confidence in the UAE in general," the statement added.

Credit crunch
Dubai became the Gulf's biggest credit crunch victim a year ago. But its ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, had continually dismissed concerns over the city-state's liquidity and claims it overreached during the good times.

When asked about the debt, he confidently assured reporters in a rare meeting two months ago that "we are all right" and "we are not worried," leaving details of a recovery plan — if such a plan exists — to everyone's guess.

Then, earlier this month, he told Dubai's critics to "shut up."

"He needs to produce a recovery plan that will be respected by those who want to do business with Dubai," said Simon Henderson, a Gulf and energy specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "If he does not do it right, Dubai will be a sad place."