Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Palestinians say freeze in US aid taking effect
It’s the first concrete sign of repercussions for the Palestinians’ decision to defy Washington on the issue.
Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian economics minister, said he was informed Monday by officials of USAID, the US government’s foreign aid agency, that two projects — worth $55 million and $26 million — were being put on hold for lack of funding. One supported the development of the Palestinian private sector and the other aimed to improve the investment environment, Abu Libdeh said, adding that 50 people involved were laid off last week and 200 others would follow by November. Other ministries also reported USAID projects were in jeopardy, including an $85 million five-year plan to improve Palestinian health services.
USAID officials confirmed some programs were affected by the Congressional hold, but would not give details. “Ongoing programs will continue until funds are exhausted,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
Palestinian officials denounced the move as counterproductive to Mideast peace efforts and said this would not deter them from seeking full UN membership for a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in 1967.
Two Republican-led committees in the House — Foreign Affairs and the Appropriations subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations — put a hold on $200 million in economic assistance in late August, as the Palestinians were gearing up for their UN move.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last month proceeded anyway, presenting his case for recognition in a speech to the UN and formally submitting a request to the Security Council.
The Obama Administration finds itself caught in the middle — opposing both the Palestinians’ UN gambit and the Republican moves to punish them for it.
Keeping the aid flowing “is not only in the interest of the Palestinians, it’s in the US interest and it’s also in the Israeli interest, and we would like to see it go forward,” State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.
Visiting US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta argued on Monday that “this is no time to withhold those funds, at a point in time where we are urging the Palestinians and the Israelis to sit down and negotiate a peace agreement.”
The US argues that a Palestinian state can only arise through negotiations with Israel and says it will veto the Palestinian membership application in the Security Council if the measure gains enough support. The US — along with other world mediators — has called for a quick resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but the Palestinians say Israel must first halt all settlement building on occupied land.
“We feel very sorry about this decision by the American Congress, which we think came to sabotage our ability to establish a Palestinian state,” Abu Libdeh said. “This is a political measure that reflects a blind bias against the Palestinian interests and will not help the efforts of the US administration to resume negotiations.
... The decision (by Congress) is affecting all aspects of American support for the Palestinian people.”
Donor countries have given billions of dollars to the Palestinians over the years, in an attempt to prop up the Abbas government and an economy battered by conflict with Israel and continued Israeli restrictions on trade and movement.
The Palestinians have received about $500 million a year from the US alone in recent years, including tens of millions of dollars for training the Palestinian security services. The partial suspension of aid by Congress mainly affects development and infrastructure programs being supervised by USAID but not the support for the security services.
Israeli government officials declined comment Monday on the partial suspension of US aid. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while staunchly opposed to Abbas’ decision to seek UN recognition, has not rushed to retaliate.
Despite the increasingly heated rhetoric, the two sides continue to cooperate on a practical level.
Palestinian security forces work with their Israeli counterparts in keeping Islamic militants in the West Bank in check, while Israel every month transfers to the Palestinians tens of millions of dollars it collects on their behalf in taxes and other payments.
Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian economics minister, said he was informed Monday by officials of USAID, the US government’s foreign aid agency, that two projects — worth $55 million and $26 million — were being put on hold for lack of funding. One supported the development of the Palestinian private sector and the other aimed to improve the investment environment, Abu Libdeh said, adding that 50 people involved were laid off last week and 200 others would follow by November. Other ministries also reported USAID projects were in jeopardy, including an $85 million five-year plan to improve Palestinian health services.
USAID officials confirmed some programs were affected by the Congressional hold, but would not give details. “Ongoing programs will continue until funds are exhausted,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
Palestinian officials denounced the move as counterproductive to Mideast peace efforts and said this would not deter them from seeking full UN membership for a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in 1967.
Two Republican-led committees in the House — Foreign Affairs and the Appropriations subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations — put a hold on $200 million in economic assistance in late August, as the Palestinians were gearing up for their UN move.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last month proceeded anyway, presenting his case for recognition in a speech to the UN and formally submitting a request to the Security Council.
The Obama Administration finds itself caught in the middle — opposing both the Palestinians’ UN gambit and the Republican moves to punish them for it.
Keeping the aid flowing “is not only in the interest of the Palestinians, it’s in the US interest and it’s also in the Israeli interest, and we would like to see it go forward,” State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.
Visiting US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta argued on Monday that “this is no time to withhold those funds, at a point in time where we are urging the Palestinians and the Israelis to sit down and negotiate a peace agreement.”
The US argues that a Palestinian state can only arise through negotiations with Israel and says it will veto the Palestinian membership application in the Security Council if the measure gains enough support. The US — along with other world mediators — has called for a quick resumption of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but the Palestinians say Israel must first halt all settlement building on occupied land.
“We feel very sorry about this decision by the American Congress, which we think came to sabotage our ability to establish a Palestinian state,” Abu Libdeh said. “This is a political measure that reflects a blind bias against the Palestinian interests and will not help the efforts of the US administration to resume negotiations.
... The decision (by Congress) is affecting all aspects of American support for the Palestinian people.”
Donor countries have given billions of dollars to the Palestinians over the years, in an attempt to prop up the Abbas government and an economy battered by conflict with Israel and continued Israeli restrictions on trade and movement.
The Palestinians have received about $500 million a year from the US alone in recent years, including tens of millions of dollars for training the Palestinian security services. The partial suspension of aid by Congress mainly affects development and infrastructure programs being supervised by USAID but not the support for the security services.
Israeli government officials declined comment Monday on the partial suspension of US aid. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while staunchly opposed to Abbas’ decision to seek UN recognition, has not rushed to retaliate.
Despite the increasingly heated rhetoric, the two sides continue to cooperate on a practical level.
Palestinian security forces work with their Israeli counterparts in keeping Islamic militants in the West Bank in check, while Israel every month transfers to the Palestinians tens of millions of dollars it collects on their behalf in taxes and other payments.
Dozens of Arrests Are Reported as Syrian Troops Retake Town
From: nytimes.com
By ANTHONY SHADID
The military said over the weekend that it had retaken Rastan, a restive town on the corridor between the strategic locales of Homs and Hama, two of Syria’s largest cities. It reportedly deployed more forces on Monday in Talbiseh, near Homs, another town that has defied government authority for months in a revolt that has shaken the four-decade rule of the Assad family. Since the summer, residents say, both Rastan and Talbiseh have appeared virtually occupied, with tanks and soldiers guarding the towns’ entrances.
“The defectors were the main reason behind the war on Rastan,” said a resident there who gave his name as Hassan. “Only women were allowed to leave their homes. The men were detained immediately.” Though he was unable to give an estimate on the number detained, the Syrian news agency SANA said arrests numbered “in the dozens.”
The Syrian uprising, which began with largely peaceful protests in the southern, drought-stricken Houran region in March, seems to have entered a new stage. While protests remain largely peaceful, armed opponents of the government are fighting in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city. American officials estimate military defectors to number in the thousands, and while many have simply sought refuge, others have joined the uprising, especially in places like Homs, Rastan and Talbiseh.
Encouraged by the United States, Turkey and Qatar, the opposition abroad has sought to unify its ranks, most recently with a meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, hoping to fashion itself as a possible transition in the aftermath of a government collapse. But diplomats and activists concede that it remains divided over agendas and ideologies.
The state news agency said the military also confiscated weapons, ammunition and explosives in Rastan on Monday. Since the uprising’s start, the government has cast the opposition as an armed insurgency, driven by militant Islamists — by all other accounts, a vast exaggeration. But reports have grown of assassinations, and some residents have worried about growing strife between Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority and the Alawite minority. President Bashar al-Assad and his top officials are Alawite.
The authorities said that Sariya Hassoun, the son of a leading Sunni cleric allied with the government, was killed Sunday in the restive northwest province of Idlib.
“The defectors were the main reason behind the war on Rastan,” said a resident there who gave his name as Hassan. “Only women were allowed to leave their homes. The men were detained immediately.” Though he was unable to give an estimate on the number detained, the Syrian news agency SANA said arrests numbered “in the dozens.”
The Syrian uprising, which began with largely peaceful protests in the southern, drought-stricken Houran region in March, seems to have entered a new stage. While protests remain largely peaceful, armed opponents of the government are fighting in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city. American officials estimate military defectors to number in the thousands, and while many have simply sought refuge, others have joined the uprising, especially in places like Homs, Rastan and Talbiseh.
Encouraged by the United States, Turkey and Qatar, the opposition abroad has sought to unify its ranks, most recently with a meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, hoping to fashion itself as a possible transition in the aftermath of a government collapse. But diplomats and activists concede that it remains divided over agendas and ideologies.
The state news agency said the military also confiscated weapons, ammunition and explosives in Rastan on Monday. Since the uprising’s start, the government has cast the opposition as an armed insurgency, driven by militant Islamists — by all other accounts, a vast exaggeration. But reports have grown of assassinations, and some residents have worried about growing strife between Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority and the Alawite minority. President Bashar al-Assad and his top officials are Alawite.
The authorities said that Sariya Hassoun, the son of a leading Sunni cleric allied with the government, was killed Sunday in the restive northwest province of Idlib.
Monday, October 3, 2011
U.S. met with Egypt Islamists - U.S. diplomat
Washington announced the plans in June, portraying such contacts as the continuation of an earlier policy. But analysts said it reflected a new approach to the way it dealt with a group which Mubarak banned from politics.
The Brotherhood is one of Egypt's most popular and organised groups, with a broad grassroots network built up partly through social work even in Mubarak's era.
The contacts may unsettle Israel and its U.S. backers. The Brotherhood renounced violence as a means to achieve political change in Egypt years ago. But groups like Hamas, which have not disavowed violence, look to the Brotherhood as a spiritual guide.
Under the previous policy, U.S. diplomats were allowed to deal with the Brotherhood's members of parliament who had won seats as "independents" to skirt the official ban. This provided a diplomatic cover to keep lines of communication open.
"We have had direct contacts with senior officials of the Freedom and Justice party," the senior diplomat told Reuters, referring to the Brotherhood's party that was founded after politics opened up following the ouster of Mubarak.
The diplomat said U.S. officials did not make a distinction between members of the Brotherhood or its party. "We don't have a policy that makes a distinction, that one or the other is off limits," he said, without saying when the meetings took place.
The diplomat was responding to a question about whether any meetings had occurred, after Freedom Justice Party Chairman Mohamed Mursi told Egypt's Al-Dostour newspaper last week that U.S. officials had not made contact since the policy shift.
Speaking to Reuters on Sunday, the party deputy head Essam el-Erian also denied any meetings had taken place with U.S. officials when asked about the diplomat's comments.
It was not immediately clear why the two sides gave different accounts.
'HIGH-LEVEL' MEETINGS
Under the former Egyptian president, the Brotherhood was banned and its members often detained. Mubarak often presented himself as the bulwark preventing Egypt's slide into Islamist hands, an approach that analysts said help secure him backing from Washington and other Western powers wary that Egypt could turn into another Iran or Gaza.
The group took a backseat in the early part of the anti-Mubarak uprising, which was broadly led by youth groups who put national concerns above religion. But the Brotherhood and its party have taken a increasingly prominent role since.
The diplomat said the U.S. contacts had been with "high-level" members of the Brotherhood's party but did not give names. From the U.S. side, he said the contacts were not at ambassadorial level but he did not give further details.
"We had occasionally had these contacts in the past ... The difference is in the past we had seen parliamentarians," he said.
Egypt's parliament was dissolved after Mubarak's fall. Fresh elections for the lower house are due to start in November, with a vote for the upper house early next year.
The Brotherhood is expected to perform well in the vote, although many analysts expect a fairly fragmented parliament with no single unified voice emerging.
The diplomat said contacts with the Brotherhood were part of an effort to understand Egypt better and explain U.S. policies.
"From our perspective it is important to be in touch with all of the emerging political forces here in Egypt, across the board, that are peaceful and committed to non-violence," he said.
"It helps to understand Egypt and the way the political system is developing, and it helps us to deliver our message and get them to understand where we are coming from," he added.
(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
“Name one thing I can do on my property without your permission?”
Posted by Dr. Rich Swier
There is a growing movement in Florida and across America to address local government control over private property. The movement goes by the name “Agenders”. Agenders have been successful in getting local county and city commissioners to understand what Agenda 21 is and how it impacts individual property owners. Agenders are educating elected officials on how Agenda 21 has been gradually implemented locally by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).
The operative words are “sustainable development”.
If you see the words sustainable development (smart growth, sustainability) used by local government officials then they are in fact implementing the ICLEI agenda. ICLEI sustainable development rules are designed to implement globally a new system of justice and a new system of economics, while pretending to use the environment as every society’s central organizing principle.
According to a September 28, 2011 column by Tom DeWeese of NewsWithViews.com, “Plantation, Florida has just voted to NOT renew its ICLEI contract. That’s the eighth community in eight months to take such action. Plantation joins the growing list that includes Carroll County, MD; Amador County, CA; Edmond, OK; Las Cruces, NM; Spartanburg, SC and Albemarle, VA.”
Just because an ICLEI membership is cancelled does not mean that the ideology behind it has gone away.
Many city and county commissioners still hold on to the idea that controlling your and my property is the best way to save the environment. Sarasota, FL has its fair share of these. Tom reports, [T]he following facts are certainly true and need to be understood by all anti-Agenda 21 activists:
1. ICLEI is a UN NGO organization that helped write Agenda 21 for the 1992 Earth Summit and then set, as its mission, to bring Agenda 21 policy to every city in the world.
2. It does this by meeting with local officials, signing contracts with them to set standards for energy and water use, building and development codes, farming policy, etc.
3. It brings in training for city hall staff; soft ware to manage the programs; guidelines for legislation; networking with other communities, other NGO and Stakeholder groups and other agencies of state and federal government.
4. They reach out to other public officials in the communities, including newspaper editors, school superintendents, local college presidents, and chamber of commerce leaders – all designed to assure everyone who helps make decisions and policy in the community are on board.
5. And of course, ICLEI leads the officials to the most important ingredient to impose Agenda 21 – money – grant money that comes with specific strings to guarantee that Agenda 21 is enforced.
So how are Agenders winning the local battle against a well funded and well organized global group like ICLEI?
Tom notes, “[F]ocus on the victims and the impact the policy will have on the well being of the community and you. Question how they intend to enforce the policy (such as having government agents come into your home). Make your officials explain that. They won’t want to. This will show the heavy hand of control required to make the policy work. Put the officials on the defensive over their enforcement efforts and watch them retreat as it’s exposed. The same approach can be used effectively in dealing with plans to put meters on private wells, or in dealing with plans for historic preservation schemes that suddenly disallow private property owners to change or improve anything on their house…”
Finally Tom says the best question to ask your city or county commissioner is the title of this column.
Knowledge is power and understanding what sustainable development really means is critical. Educate, motivate and activate your local elected officials. Ask them to stop the taking of your and my property rights. Instead ask them to protect our unalienable right to do with our property as we, not they, will.
There is a growing movement in Florida and across America to address local government control over private property. The movement goes by the name “Agenders”. Agenders have been successful in getting local county and city commissioners to understand what Agenda 21 is and how it impacts individual property owners. Agenders are educating elected officials on how Agenda 21 has been gradually implemented locally by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).
The operative words are “sustainable development”.
If you see the words sustainable development (smart growth, sustainability) used by local government officials then they are in fact implementing the ICLEI agenda. ICLEI sustainable development rules are designed to implement globally a new system of justice and a new system of economics, while pretending to use the environment as every society’s central organizing principle.
According to a September 28, 2011 column by Tom DeWeese of NewsWithViews.com, “Plantation, Florida has just voted to NOT renew its ICLEI contract. That’s the eighth community in eight months to take such action. Plantation joins the growing list that includes Carroll County, MD; Amador County, CA; Edmond, OK; Las Cruces, NM; Spartanburg, SC and Albemarle, VA.”
Just because an ICLEI membership is cancelled does not mean that the ideology behind it has gone away.
Many city and county commissioners still hold on to the idea that controlling your and my property is the best way to save the environment. Sarasota, FL has its fair share of these. Tom reports, [T]he following facts are certainly true and need to be understood by all anti-Agenda 21 activists:
1. ICLEI is a UN NGO organization that helped write Agenda 21 for the 1992 Earth Summit and then set, as its mission, to bring Agenda 21 policy to every city in the world.
2. It does this by meeting with local officials, signing contracts with them to set standards for energy and water use, building and development codes, farming policy, etc.
3. It brings in training for city hall staff; soft ware to manage the programs; guidelines for legislation; networking with other communities, other NGO and Stakeholder groups and other agencies of state and federal government.
4. They reach out to other public officials in the communities, including newspaper editors, school superintendents, local college presidents, and chamber of commerce leaders – all designed to assure everyone who helps make decisions and policy in the community are on board.
5. And of course, ICLEI leads the officials to the most important ingredient to impose Agenda 21 – money – grant money that comes with specific strings to guarantee that Agenda 21 is enforced.
So how are Agenders winning the local battle against a well funded and well organized global group like ICLEI?
Tom notes, “[F]ocus on the victims and the impact the policy will have on the well being of the community and you. Question how they intend to enforce the policy (such as having government agents come into your home). Make your officials explain that. They won’t want to. This will show the heavy hand of control required to make the policy work. Put the officials on the defensive over their enforcement efforts and watch them retreat as it’s exposed. The same approach can be used effectively in dealing with plans to put meters on private wells, or in dealing with plans for historic preservation schemes that suddenly disallow private property owners to change or improve anything on their house…”
Finally Tom says the best question to ask your city or county commissioner is the title of this column.
Knowledge is power and understanding what sustainable development really means is critical. Educate, motivate and activate your local elected officials. Ask them to stop the taking of your and my property rights. Instead ask them to protect our unalienable right to do with our property as we, not they, will.
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