Friday March 7, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
Yesterday, Congress passed a bill that transforms the relationship between the United States and Israel.
The bill classifies Israel as a "strategic partner." That classification comes with great benefits. Under the bill Israel will receive tremendous security benefits as well as priority on weapons surpluses.
The bill is now off to the Senate where it is expected to pass overwhelmingly and then to the president who is expected to sign it.
The original draft of the legislation had an additional benefit that Israeli citizens were very much hoping to achieve. But in the final version, it was removed.
The clause would have permitted Israelis automatic tourist visas. Israeli citizens would get visas upon arrival in the United States the same way US citizens get them when they enter Israel. It would have streamlined Israelis access to the US, a process that often requires long months of waiting and even denial.
That privileged status may still come - but at a later date and by way of another bill.
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Thursday March 6, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
Have any of you heard of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances? Here's a hint. It was signed in Budapest, in 1994.
My guess is, probably not.
The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances was an agreement wherein the Ukraine agreed to dismantle all nuclear weapons in exchange for security and safety. It was signed in Budapest on December of 1994 and the signees were US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister John Major and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Here is the official summary: Russia, the UK and the USA undertake to respect Ukraine's borders in accordance with the principles of the 1975 CSCE Final Act, to abstain from the use or threat of force against Ukraine, to support Ukraine where an attempt is made to place pressure on it by economic coercion, and to bring any incident of aggression by a nuclear power before the UN Security Council.
In other words: the United States and Great Britain (forget about Russia) and the world promise to protect the Ukraine.
This agreement and others like it, really do not help much. This one is certainly not protecting the Ukraine.
Now imagine what Israel is thinking and what lessons Israelis are learning from this. How can Israel possibly assume that the United States will, should the time come, come to its defense?
Israel has learned that the best they can expect is an appeal to the UN Security Council. Not much consolation there.
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Wednesday March 5, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
The UEFA suspended Omar Rahou for repeatedly using the quenelle, the inverted Nazi salute. The Union of European Football (soccer) Associations has zero tolerance for any hint of racism and has punished Rahou a Belgium player for 10 games.
Omar Rahou joins Nicolas Anelka as players who used the saluted and suffered the punishment suspension.
The quenelle has become a rallying point for anti-Semites throughout Europe as they follow in the footsteps of the French comedian, Dieudonne, who invented the gesture.
The shame of it all is that the quenelle continues to gain popularity. On the positive side, decent people and organizations like the UEFA understand the danger of this kind of racism and are clamping down and doing their best to stymie the momentum.
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Tuesday March 4, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
Over the past week or so one of the most common questions asked of me on air and during lectures has been about the Ukraine and the role of Russia vis a vis the Ukraine.
More specifically, people are asking why we should care about what happens in the Ukraine. And they are asking if Russia is pulling a land grab.
My response is brief and to the point: Think energy natural gas and oil.
Since the crisis with Russia and the Ukraine, oil and natural gas prices have skyrocketed. The principle reason for the increase is that Russia is a major producer and refiner of oil and a producer of natural gas. And the Ukraine's largest export is oil.
Now that there is a threat of war between Russia and the Ukraine the market is talking. And the market is saying that any actions that put at risk the flow of oil and natural gas will drive up prices.
Because Russia is poised for war and has taken over Crimea, the price of energy has increased.
If that isn't enough of a reason for the West to care about what is happening with the Ukraine and Russia, I don't know what is.
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Monday March 3, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
In the Oval Office today President Barack Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both leaders have made opening moves before the meeting. On Thursday Obama sat down for an interview with Jeffery Goldberg that was posted on Sunday, on Bloomberg. Before boarding his plane to the US, Netanyahu issued a statement from his office.
There was a clear objective in both messages - announcing the direction they each wanted the meeting to take. As is often the case, there was nothing new or surprising in either message, nothing the other leader is not already aware of.
In essence, both Israel and the United States are on the same side conceptually, it is the practical side, the nuts and bolts, that puts them at odds with each other. Actually, it is all about time and timing.
Obama believes that there is no real time left for continued discussion of the Palestinian issue. He believes that if a resolution is not arrived at now, the United States will not be able to successfully support Israel in the international arena. And on the Iranian issue, on the other hand, Obama thinks there is plenty of time left to let Iran come around.
Netanyahu thinks exactly the opposite. He believes that there is plenty of time on the Palestinian issue but on the Iranian issue, there is no time left at all.
It is past the point where Obama and Netanyahu can agree to disagree. Sparks will be flying out of the Oval Office.
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Sunday March 2, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
What makes the ousting of the Ukrainian President Victor Yukashenko different from the ousting of the democratically elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi?
The difference is that Egypt's ousting of Morsi was accomplished by a coup and Ukraine's ousting of Yukashenko was a legal transition of power.
Both leaders were elected to serve their country. During the resulting unrest, there was violence and people were killed in both countries. Both had huge rallies in support of and opposition to their leadership and there were massive protests in both main city squares. In both cases the protestors leaned towards Western influences while the presidents leaned toward traditional, older school influences. In the case of Egypt, Morsi affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and in the Ukraine Yukashenko leaned toward Russia.
The significant difference is that in the Ukraine, Yukashenko fled. He fled the capital and tried to escape the country. Eventually, he succeeded and landed in Moscow. Yukashenko ran for his life for fear of being killed or arrested. He abdicated his office.
Once he left his office, he was no longer in charge and the process of transition applied. The Ukrainian parliament put a temporary government in place and stability was restored.
In Egypt, Morsi refused to leave. He had to be forced out of his post, then he was arrested and then he was replaced.
In the end it may sound the same but in reality it is the difference between a coup d'etat and a democratic ousting of an elected president.
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Saturday March 1, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
No details were given but it was a very disturbing report.
According to a report given to the UN Security Council, two convoys carrying chemical weapons were attacked while transferring their materials in Syria. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told the UN Security Council that on Thursday January 27, 2014 while transporting Syrian weapons of mass destruction for their ultimate removal and destruction the convoys were attacked.
Unfortunately, we do not know who attacked the convoys nor do we know the nature of the attack or the extent of the damage.
We can assume, however, that the weapons were not compromised. We can assume that they did not become volatile and/or dangerous. We can also assume that the weapons did not fall into the wrong hands.
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Friday February 28, 2014
I've Been Thinking:
Anti-Semitism can be found anyplace ... even places without Jews and without a history of Jews or Jew hatred ... even in Japan.
308 copies of Anne Frank's diary were vandalized and destroyed in Japan. The vandals also destroyed entries on Anne Frank in reference books. The damage was so pervasive, it was found in 11 of the 13 public libraries in the capital city Tokyo.
Israel has just donated 300 new copies of Anne's book "Diary of a Young Girl". It is without a doubt the most famous book on the Holocaust ever published. It chronicles the life of a young girl in hiding with her family in a tiny secret room in Amsterdam.
The journal was never completed - neighbors informed the Nazis about the family and they were taken away to the notorious concentration camp Bergen Belsen where Anne died.
Anne Frank's thought and insights belie her young age and pre-War insulated upbringing. She asks and ponders the role of good and evil. She contemplates love and the importance of family. More than anything, Anne yearns for freedom.
An investigation is going on in Japan. It is very clear from the number of books destroyed that this was a carefully planned calculated attempt to rid Japan's public libraries and information centers of one of the most important first hand testimonies of the Holocaust.
That is deeply disturbing.
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