plus 3, Aluf Benn / World isn't buying Israel's explanations anymore - Haaretz.com |
- Aluf Benn / World isn't buying Israel's explanations anymore - Haaretz.com
- Oregon legislators say 'Whew,' go back to work - San Jose Mercury News
- Barton Hill Hotel faces foreclosure by state - Buffalo News
- Regulators get tough in Davos, give bankers an idea of financial ... - Washington Examiner
| Aluf Benn / World isn't buying Israel's explanations anymore - Haaretz.com Posted: 30 Jan 2010 07:50 AM PST
"We share common values," the Israeli told the Europeans. To his surprise, a member of the audience stood up and replied to him: "What common values? We have nothing in common with you."
In diplomatic conversations, Europeans are critical of Israel because of the Gaza blockade, the construction in the Jewish settlements, the home demolitions in East Jerusalem, the pervasive loathing of the right-wing government and even the social gaps and the way Israel is moving away from the European welfare-state model. The Netanyahu-Lieberman government is nearly always described as "hard-line" in the foreign media. This is not entirely fair: The government of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni went to war in Lebanon and Gaza and built thousands of apartments for Jews in East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement blocs - many more than did Netanyahu, who has refrained from employing military force and has declared a 10-month freeze on settlement construction. But they liked the Kadima government because Olmert and Livni made the right noises about their desire for peace and a final status agreement, whereas they don't believe Netanyahu when he talks about "two states for two peoples." The fact that Olmert and Livni achieved nothing in the negotiations makes no difference. It's the intentions that count. Netanyahu and his aides have answers to the accusations against Israel. The blame for the Gaza blockade lies squarely with the Palestinians, who chose Hamas to reign over them and kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. "You are worrying about the humanitarian rights of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. You should be worrying about one Israeli who is being held there," Netanyahu's people tell UN representatives. In East Jerusalem, the government is hiding behind Mayor Nir Barkat and the planning and construction institutions, which are approving building plans for Jews and home demolitions for Palestinians. And for the diplomatic stagnation, it is blaming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is refusing to renew the talks. There is one little problem: The world isn't buying Israel's explanations and it isn't prepared to condemn Palestinian obduracy. Obama has split the blame for the stagnation between the two sides and has also taken some of it upon himself ("We raised expectations"). American envoy George Mitchell's appeal to the members of the Quartet that they urge Abbas to return to talks, has gone unanswered. This week he completed another frustrating visit to the region, with zero results. Obama's approach - to "park" the diplomatic process for lack of achievements and to concentrate on domestic issues - has not surprised Netanyahu. Three months ago, a senior Israeli official said the Obama administration would probably put off the Israeli-Palestinian problem to his second term, explaining: "Now they're weak, they have unemployment and the economic crisis, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and they aren't emerging from that. They don't have the strength to complete an agreement. In the meantime, the maintenance will continue." U.S. officials are hoping talks will be renewed within six months. The main thing is that there be some negotiations. They have no expectations of more than that. Disturbing scenario The Palestinian Authority is conducting a campaign to isolate Israel, based on the Goldstone report and the hatred for the Netanyahu government. Political scientists Shaul Mishal and Doron Mazza are calling it "the white intifada," which is aimed at enlisting international support for a unilateral declaration of independence in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. In a document they distributed last week, they warn of Israeli complaisance and present a disturbing scenario: The Palestinians declare independence, and Israel refuses to recognize it and is faced with a boycott. Regardless of whether it yields or reacts with force, Israel cannot win, and will also lose control of the process. Therefore the two scholars recommend a preemptive diplomatic move. Diplomatic isolation can be costly. Former Foreign Ministry director general Gideon Rafael wrote in his memoirs that in the summer of 1973, he felt that the diplomatic stagnation, which was perceived as something taken for granted, and perhaps even desirable, was liable to become "a death trap." Former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat cut Israel off from its friends in the Third World, proposed a peace initiative to the Americans and was rejected. He then raised the demand for the return of the Sinai Peninsula in the UN Security Council and came up against an American veto. In his book, "Destination Peace: Three decades of Israeli Foreign Policy, a Personal Memoir" (published in English by Littlehampton Book Services, 1981), Rafael wrote that Israel rejoiced in the veto and did not realize that closing the diplomatic door left Egypt with only one option - war. In the coming weeks Israel apparently will request an American veto in the Security Council again, in order to bury the Goldstone report. Netanyahu is planning a fourth meeting with Obama, concerning the nuclear security conference in Washington on April 12 and perhaps even before then. The agenda will center on Iran - or "the new Amalek," as Netanyahu called it in Auschwitz on Wednesday. The question is whether alongside his demand that Obama take action against Iran, Netanyahu will also tell him that in exchange, Israel will take some sort of initiative vis-a-vis the Palestinians. This would be in an attempt to persuade the world to believe him and ameliorate Israel's increasing diplomatic isolation. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Oregon legislators say 'Whew,' go back to work - San Jose Mercury News Posted: 30 Jan 2010 08:55 AM PST [fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] As a result, the lawmakers won't have to chain-saw their way through the school aid program or social service agencies. That's in contrast to many other statehouses ... They're banking on it." Even Oregon's legislators, though, may not be so flush ... |
| Barton Hill Hotel faces foreclosure by state - Buffalo News Posted: 30 Jan 2010 08:26 AM PST LEWISTONShare this story: LEWISTON — The state Department of Taxation and Finance plans to seize the Niagara at Barton Hill Hotel on Tuesday because of unpaid sales taxes, unless a judge agrees to the hotel's request to block the seizure. Edward and Diane Finkbeiner, owners of the 72-room hotel overlooking the lower Niagara River, filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to stop the state's move. Brad Maione, spokesman for Taxation and Finance, confirmed that the department filed a warrant Jan. 4 demanding payment of $35,842 in sales taxes that were due between November 2008 and last August. The hotel actually owes almost $23,000 more than that, but those bills, covering withholding taxes due last September and sales taxes from November, aren't old enough to be part of the collection process. In their lawsuit, filed Friday in the Lockport offices of State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr., the Finkbeiners assert they paid $10,000 on the debt Monday and proposed to pay off the rest at $1,000 a week. The lawsuit said that Taxation and Finance insisted on payments of $10,000 per week to clear the debt, a figure the Finkbeiners said they can't afford. Maione said he couldn't comment on any of that. Diane Finkbeiner did not return a call seeking comment. The lawsuit, filed by the Hogan Willig law firm, argued that the state's position on the installment plan is "arbitrary and capricious." Maione said it's not unusual for Taxation and Finance to seize properties because of delinquent taxes. "Generally we do it pretty regularly in regions across the state," he said. The $58,344 in unpaid taxes are merely the most recent threat to the survival of the hotel. Its mortgage holder, CIT Lending Services Corp., went to court in December to seek foreclosure on a delinquent $8 million mortgage. In Friday's lawsuit against Taxation and Finance, the Finkbeiners said they are negotiating a refinancing of the mortgage through a new investor's buyout of their existing note. Diane Finkbeiner told The Buffalo News last month that the new investor, "an international hospitality industry leader of distinction," would provide capital to expand the business. She wouldn't name the investor then, and Friday's lawsuit refers to the newcomer's identity as "confidential." CIT, which said in its lawsuit it was owed more than $9 million, counting interest, sought to foreclose on two other Finkbeinerowned properties that were pledged as collateral when the Finkbeiners signed an agreement last March to prevent CIT from foreclosing on them. But one of them, a North Tonawanda apartment building, already was the subject of a foreclosure action filed in November by First Niagara Bank. The other is a group of 11 vacant lots in Youngstown which were supposed to be the site of a townhouse project. Other lenders have filed foreclosures against the Finkbeiners' home, two other residential properties they own in Lewiston and a former bar now used as an auxiliary building for the hotel. One of the residential properties is on the Niagara County tax foreclosure list for this year. The foreclosures and a total, as of last month, of more than $55,000 in unpaid property taxes and in-lieu-of-tax payments also have endangered the hotel's tax break from the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency. tprohaska@buffnews.com  Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Regulators get tough in Davos, give bankers an idea of financial ... - Washington Examiner Posted: 30 Jan 2010 06:46 AM PST DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — Government regulators from the United States and Europe laid out their financial reform plans Saturday before a skeptical banking industry, asking financiers for input but adamant that change was coming with or without their support. Emerging from the two-hour meeting as its unofficial spokesman, U.S. Representative Barney Frank made it clear that governments were now calling the shots after spending billions to bail out the industry. Top bankers, by contrast, who came into this week's World Economic Forum buoyed by signs of economic recovery, left somewhat subdued even as they called the closed-door meeting constructive. "No one got up and said, 'Don't regulate us,'" said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. "It would have been a waste of their time if they did." The meeting comes after days of tension at this Swiss Alpine resort over government plans for stricter controls on the financial industry to limit speculation and avoid a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that plunged the world into recession. Bankers have protested the new proposals, saying the U.S. and other countries risk choking off a gradual economic recovery with regulation they see as heavy-handed. The event was not on the forum's official agenda, but quickly became the most significant development of the day. It also brought to mind some of Davos' previous high-profile conflict resolution efforts, including a Greek-Turkey accord to avoid war in 1988, as well as meetings between South African President F. W. de Klerk and the recently freed Nelson Mandela, and between Israel's then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. "We are determined to do strong, sensible regulation," Frank said, rejecting any notion that President Barack Obama's administration could sink the economy again with too many new controls on the banking industry. "That's nonsense," Frank told reporters. "What we're trying globally to recover from is a total lack of regulation." On the government side, in addition to Frank, those at the meeting included Lawrence H. Summers, Obama's top economic adviser, British treasury chief Alistair Darling and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Bankers attending the private talks included Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman Jacob Frenkel and Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, which oversees the 16-nation euro zone. "It was the most constructive dialogue I've seen between policymakers and industry officials and hopefully that's a base people can build from," said Duncan Niederauer, CEO of stock exchange operator NYSE Euronext Inc. "It was the first time I've seen both sides go beyond the rhetoric. There were practical suggestions being discussed." The banks were asked for their input, Frank said, adding that he believed they got the message that tighter controls were coming. "Frankly it doesn't matter if they did or didn't," Frank said. "They aren't in charge of this." Frank said the most important element of the meeting was coordinating and better understanding the various approaches that governments are taking to stabilize and prevent excessive risks in their financial industries. The aim was not to push for a global financial governing system, Frank said, saying each country could deal with the crisis on its own terms. "A large part of the discussion was on the regulators, to talk about how we can coordinate so we don't create opportunities for (banks) to move from one place to another to escape regulation," he said, adding that some of the strongest concerns over U.S. developments have come from international regulators. Frank earlier told The Associated Press that some countries "got used to the U.S. being the least regulated and they almost resent the fact we are going ahead with regulations, that we are taking the lead." He declined to say which national regulators he was referring to. No one at the meeting elaborated on any concrete proposals or agreements that were discussed, and the head of Britain's Financial Services Authority said the banks didn't ask for anything at the talks. "It was not a negotiation or a debate," Adair Turner said. Frank and Turner later held one-on-one discussions. Ackermann of Deutsche Bank called it an "excellent, useful" meeting, while Joaquin Almunia, the European Union's commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said it "was not the place to make decisions." "It was constructive. Not conclusive, but constructive," Almunia said. Moynihan of Bank of America and Frenkel of JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund chief, said financial sector reforms should be bold but handled in close cooperation so that no countries suffer as a result. "My fear is that we may ... forget one of the key lessons of the crisis, which is coordination," he said later on a separate panel. ___ AP Business Writer Matt Moore contributed to this report. ___ To see more about the World Economic Forum or discuss the topics being talked about, go to AP's World Economic Forum discussion page at http://bit.ly/amY7Sp and http://www.facebook.com/apnews Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Add Images to any RSS Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News' guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you'd like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News' opinion pages.