L

Que gente exótica. Luiz Azevedo, braço-direito do ministro das Relações Institucionais, Ricardo Berzoini, veio a público por meio de uma nota oficial para admitir que atuou, sim, na tramoia para fraudar qualquer resultado eventualmente honesto que pudesse ter a CPI da Petrobras no Senado. A VEJA revela a conspirata na sua mais recente edição. A Folha desta quarta informa que Azevedo fez parte da linha de frente do imbróglio. O governo tentou negar que estivesse envolvido até o pescoço no rolo. A presidente Dilma disse a respeito coisas incompreensíveis (vejam post). Mas não dava mais para disfarçar.

E não é que Azevedo, em sua nota,  parece ungido por Deus para cumprir uma missão? É… O homem não trabalha na Petrobras. O homem não trabalha no Senado. O homem não é assessor de parlamentar petista. Mesmo assim, ele revela o que parece ser uma tarefa passada pelo próprio Deus na sarça ardente da empulhação petista: “evitar o uso político eleitoral da CPI”. Quem é esse para se considerar protagonista de tal missão? A sua nota é o retrato de um tempo. Eu a reproduzo na íntegra. Volto em seguida.

Presidência da República
Secretaria de Relações Institucionais
Sobre matéria publicada na Folha de São Paulo – Ação na CPI da Petrobras foi combinada com assessores do Planalto
A respeito da matéria publicada nesta quarta-feira (6), no jornal Folha de São Paulo, esclareço: enquanto funcionário da Secretaria de Relações Institucionais, possuo duas atribuições fundamentais no tocante à CPI da Petrobras – relação com a estatal, para que a mesma atenda de forma organizada as demandas da Comissão com transparência e eficiência; e com os parlamentares da base e da liderança do governo.
Atuo em ambas as frentes para que todos os esclarecimentos, dados e fatos sejam prestados pela empresa, visando assegurar a qualidade das informações, evitando, dessa forma, o uso político eleitoral da CPI.
Por se tratar de uma ação investigativa do parlamento envolvendo uma empresa estatal, evidentemente a articulação política do governo não deve se omitir de participar dos debates com parlamentares, inclusive para a formação do roteiro e da estratégia dos trabalhos. Trabalhos esses que foram, desde o início, boicotados pela oposição, que agora se utiliza de oportunismo para explorar politicamente o factoide criado.
Em nenhum momento nossa atuação feriu as atribuições e soberania do parlamento, que preserva suas prerrogativas com denodo e independência.
Luiz Azevedo
Secretário Executivo da Secretaria de Relações Institucionais

Volto
Trata-se de uma notável coleção de absurdos. A nota já começa estupidamente errada quando este senhor afirma: “enquanto funcionário da Secretaria de Relações Institucionais, possuo duas atribuições fundamentais no tocante à CPI da Petrobras”. Como é que é? Este cara não tem de ter papel nenhum na comissão. Se tem dois, então é uma barbaridade duplicada.

Sem vergonha, sem constrangimento, ele diz quais são esses papéis:
1: atuar pra que a empresa forneça todos os dados;
2: fazer uma articulação com a base de apoio.

Eis um caso notável em que não se distinguem partido, empresa, Estado e governo. Tudo acaba submetido à mesma lógica e à mesma hierarquia. Ainda que ele estivesse bem intencionado, a Petrobras tem de fornecer as informações porque deve satisfações ao público, mormente porque é uma empresa de capital aberto. Um dos papéis de um secretário-executivo de Relações Institucionais é manter uma interlocução com o Congresso, com o Poder Legislativo, não apenas como uma fatia dele. Até porque não se trata de um trabalho de convencimento em favor de um projeto de lei ou de uma medida do Executivo. Ao contrário: o que se fez, de forma clara, arreganhada, explícita, foi tentar encabrestar o Parlamento.

Essa gente perdeu a noção do ridículo. Agora, assessor de segundo escalão se acha no direito de emitir nota pública com críticas à oposição… Alguém elegeu esse cara para alguma coisa? Ele já se submeteu ao crivo popular? Além de ser pego fora do lugar, fazendo o que não deve, arvora-se também em ombudsman da oposição.

Vai levar muitos anos para que o país se recupere da degradação institucional a que o submeteu o PT. Mas será preciso começar em algum momento. Antes tarde do que nunca. Um Zé Mané arrogante acha que pode dar pito na oposição. Dilma perdeu o que nunca teve: o controle do governo.

cartechboy writes Self-driving cars are coming, that's nothing new. People are somewhat nervous about this technology, and that's also not news. But it appears self-driving cars are already here, and one idiot was dumb enough to climb out of the driver's seat while his car cruised down the highway. The car in question is a new Infiniti Q50, which has Active Lane Control and adaptive cruise control. Both of which essentially turn the Q50 into an autonomous vehicle while at highway speeds. While impressive, taking yourself out of a position where you can quickly and safely regain control of the car if needed is simply dumb. After watching the video, it's abundantly clear why people should be nervous about autonomous vehicles. It's not the cars and tech we need to worry about, it's idiots like this guy.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Por Laryssa Borges, na VEJA.com:

O ministro José Jorge, do Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), defendeu nesta quarta-feira a indisponibilidade de bens da atual presidente da Petrobras Graça Foster por considerar que a dirigente participou do processo de compra da refinaria de Pasadena, no Texas. A aquisição dessa unidade de refino é considerada um dos mais desastrosos negócios realizados pela estatal brasileira. Apesar da opinião do relator, apresentada ao Plenário da Corte, o TCU ainda vai dizer, nas próximas semanas, se confirma ou não a indisponibilidade. Caso seja confirmada, Graça não poderá se desfazer de seus bens ao longo do período de investigação, mas continuará recebendo rendimentos, como aluguéis.

O atraso na análise do TCU se deve à intensa articulação do Palácio do Planalto, que fez com que o processo fosse retirado de pauta pelo próprio ministro depois de o advogado-geral da União (AGU), Luís Inácio Adams, ter argumentado que a indisponibilidade de bens seria uma “pena gravíssima” e poderia comprometer a imagem da Petrobras. É a primeira vez que um advogado-geral da União faz pessoalmente uma sustentação oral no TCU. Nos próximos dias José Jorge vai analisar a tese apresentada pela União e decidir se inclui ou não novos nomes de autoridades passíveis de ter os bens indisponíveis. Ao mesmo tempo, o bloqueio de bens já é questionado no Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) em um mandado de segurança ainda não julgado pelo ministro Gilmar Mendes.

No último dia 23, quando analisaram a compra da refinaria, os ministros do TCU chegaram à conclusão de que a Petrobras teve prejuízo de 792 milhões de dólares na aquisição da refinaria de Pasadena, mas isentaram de responsabilidades a presidente Dilma Rousseff e os demais integrantes do Conselho de Administração da empresa na época do negócio. Dilma era a presidente do colegiado e neste ano justificou a compra como tendo sido baseada em um parecer “técnica e juridicamente falho” elaborado pelo antigo diretor da Área Internacional, Nestor Cerveró.

Nesta quarta-feira, o ministro José Jorge sugeriu, em seu voto, a correção dos nomes de autoridades que devem ter os bens tornados indisponíveis. Além de ter incluído o nome de Graça Foster, Jorge acrescentou também o de Alberto da Fonseca Guimarães, presidente da Petrobras América no período em que a estatal deixou de receber 39,7 milhões de dólares de passivos trabalhistas e tributários de sua antiga parceira, a empresa belga Astra.

Na proposta de retificação de voto, o ministro José Jorge também excluiu do rol de responsáveis por Pasadena o ex-diretor de Gás e Energia da estatal, Ildo Sauer. Há duas semanas, o TCU o havia incluído na lista de autoridades com os bens indisponíveis, embora o diretor não fizesse mais parte dos quadros da empresa quando parte da compra da refinaria de Pasadena foi aprovada. Sauer deixou a estatal em 2007, mas havia sido apontado pelo órgão de controle como um dos responsáveis por um prejuízo de 92,3 milhões de dólares amargado pela petroleira após a diretoria executiva ter decidido, em 2009, descumprir a sentença arbitral que obrigava a Petrobras a comprar a segunda metade da refinaria de Pasadena.

 

Por Gabriel Castro e Laryssa Borges, na VEJA.com:
A participação da presidente Dilma Rousseff na sabatina organizada pela Confederação da Agricultura e Pecuária do Brasil (CNA), nesta quarta-feira, em Brasília, expôs o desgaste dela com o setor. Dilma teve uma recepção fria da plateia de empresários do ramo agrícola e nem mesmo usou todo o tempo destinado a sua apresentação.

A petista foi a terceira e última candidata a falar. Eduardo Campos (PSB), o primeiro, foi aplaudido por quinze vezes. Aécio Neves (PSDB), ainda mais – e de pé, no fim de sua fala. Dilma ouviu apenas cinco aplausos. Ela nem mesmo preencheu os 30 minutos destinados a sua exposição inicial: acabou seu discurso, lido, quando faltavam mais de sete minutos para o fim do tempo. E, mesmo informada de que poderia continuar sua apresentação optou pelo início da fase de perguntas.

Nessa etapa, novamente, Dilma parecia não ter muito o que dizer. Em um dos casos, a apresentadora que conduzia a sabatina avisou: “A senhora ainda tem três minutos e 41 segundos”. Dilma respondeu: “Mais do que isso eu não tenho o que falar não, viu?”. Depois, acabou improvisando um complemento à resposta. Dilma apresentou um apanhado das realizações e promessas de seu governo para o setor. Mencionou o aumento do crédito agrícola e as obras de logística, como a construção de 2.000 quilômetros de ferrovias. Disse que herdou um passivo tão grande que é impossível extinguir em quatro anos. A presidente também afirmou que a BR-163, o principal eixo de escoamento da soja no país, “está sendo duplicada em toda sua extensão”, o que não é verdade. As obras incluem um pequeno trecho da estrada, que tem uma parte considerável onde nem mesmo o asfalto chegou.

Na categoria das promessas reeditadas, está a de licitar a construção de 900 quilômetros da Ferrovia de Integração do Centro-Oeste (Fico), de Lucas do Rio Verde (MT) a Campinorte (GO). O início das obras era um compromisso do primeiro mandato, mas não aconteceu. A presidente falou pouco de ideias para um segundo mandato. Uma delas é a aproximação com a CNA: “Proponho a criação sistemática de um diálogo permanente, um grupo ou uma mesa de diálogo com a CNA para aprofundar o debate em torno das propostas que nos foram apresentadas”, disse ela. Dilma também admitiu fragilidades: “Eu assumo aqui o compromisso de melhorar nossa defesa agropecuária. Ela está aquém da necessidade do país”, afirmou.

A candidata à reeleição levou o vice, Michel Temer, e seis ministros à sabatina. Quando esteve na CNI, na semana passada, ela estava acompanhada de sete ministros. Isso motivou o PSDB a apresentar uma representação à Justiça Eleitoral. A presidente também concedeu uma entrevista coletiva depois da sabatina. Confrontada com as críticas feitas pelos adversários sobre a tímida reforma agrária de seu governo, ela recorreu ao expediente de somar os números de seu governo com os de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: “Nós fizemos a maior reforma agrária do Brasil”, afirmou.

Por Gabriel Castro e Laryssa Borges, na VEJA.com:
O candidato do PSB à Presidência, Eduardo Campos, deixou de lado o discurso ambientalista de sua vice, Marina Silva, e apresentou nesta quarta-feira uma plataforma amplamente favorável ao agronegócio em sabatina na Confederação da Agricultura e Pecuária do Brasil (CNA), em Brasília. O ex-governador de Pernambuco teve ainda de defender a aliada ao responder a uma pergunta que mencionava o “ambientalismo radical”. Aécio Neves (PSDB) e a presidente Dilma Rousseff (PT) também serão ouvidos pelos representantes do setor nesta quarta. Durante sua exposição inicial, Campos citou a palavra “sustentabilidade” apenas uma vez, no 28º e penúltimo minuto de sua fala. Não houve referências a expressões caras a Marina Silva, como “meio ambiente” e “preservação ambiental”.

Na fase das perguntas, Campos foi mais enfático ao abordar o assunto. Mas apenas depois de uma pergunta elaborada pela CNA ter causado certo constrangimento ao candidato – obrigando-o a defender sua vice, que foi ministra do Meio Ambiente no governo Lula e não teve um bom relacionamento com o setor agrícola. “O Ministério do Meio Ambiente, durante muito tempo, foi capturado pelo ambientalismo radical e prejudicou a economia do país sem nenhum bem à proteção ambiental”, dizia o texto elaborado pelos produtores. Campos defendeu Marina diretamente, sem citá-la: “Eu respeito a opinião, mas discordo”.

Marina estava presente à sabatina e o acompanhou na coletiva de imprensa, mas não falou. Na última eleição, quando disputava a Presidência pelo PV, não compareceu à sabatina da CNA. Ela tem um histórico de atritos com o setor agrícola.

Durante sua exposição, Campos disse o que os produtores rurais queriam ouvir: atacou a falta de planejamento do setor logístico, afirmou que o Brasil precisa construir um clima favorável aos investidores e que é importante “não ter preconceito com a livre iniciativa e com o lucro num país capitalista”.

Campos prometeu melhorar o cenário econômico – que, segundo ele, é fruto da crise internacional mas também de “desencontros internos”. O candidato do PSB também prometeu pôr fim ao loteamento partidário: “Vou tirar o Ministério da Agricultura do balcão político e das lideranças e colocá-lo na mão da competência e de quem possa inspirar um diálogo responsável”, declarou.

Em um esforço para ajustar seu discurso de campanha, ele elogiou os antecessores de Dilma (até Collor foi citado, numa comparação sobre a demarcação de terras indígenas) e guardou as críticas apenas para a atual presidente. “A primeira vez que o Brasil vai ser entregue pior do que foi recebido será no dia 1º de janeiro, quando eu receber o Brasil”, afirmou ele. Campos repetiu, por diversas vezes, que é preciso superar a divisão de forças que, segundo ele, é representada por seus oponentes. “Nós estamos andando o Brasil oferendo a possibilidade de o país superar uma polarização que está na vida brasileira há vinte anos”, disse ele. Campos foi aplaudido quinze vezes pelo público, formado, sobretudo por empresários do agronegócio.

Por Gabriel Castro e Laryssa Borges,na VEJA.com:
A presidente Dilma Rousseff ficou extremamente irritada nesta quarta-feira ao ser questionada sobre a participação do Planalto na farsa montada por governistas e pelo PT para impedir investigações na CPI da Petrobras no Senado – revelada por VEJA nesta semana. Ao deixar a sabatina promovida pela Confederação da Agricultura e Pecuária do Brasil (CNA), em Brasília, a petista negou-se a esclarecer a ligação de servidores do Planalto com o caso: nesta quarta, o jornal Folha de S. Paulo informou que Luiz Azevedo, secretário-executivo das Relações Institucionais, ajudou a elaborar o plano de trabalho apresentado pela comissão em maio. Já Paulo Argenta, outro assessor da pasta, foi um dos responsáveis pela preparação das questões antecipadas aos depoentes, como mostra vídeo obtido por VEJA. Dilma também não explicou por que servidores do governo e da liderança governista no Senado participaram da formulação de um gabarito para depoentes. E foi além: ignorando o fato de que a elaboração das perguntas feitas em uma CPI seja tarefa exclusiva dos integrantes da comissão e do relator dos trabalhos, Dilma afirmou ser “estarrecedor o fato de que seja necessário alguém de fora da Petrobras formular perguntas para ela”.

Em um raciocínio confuso, a presidente-candidata disse que o setor de petróleo seria complexo demais para que pessoas de fora da área questionassem a Petrobras a respeito – e ainda ensaiou a tese de que apenas técnicos especializados em combustíveis teriam condições de elaborar perguntas à estatal. “Vou te falar uma coisa. Acho extraordinário. Primeiro porque o Palácio do Planalto não é expert em petróleo e gás. O expert em petróleo e gás é a Petrobras. Eu queria saber se você pode me informar quem elabora perguntas sobre petróleo e gás para a oposição também. Muito obrigada. Não é o Palácio do Planalto nem nenhuma sede de nenhum partido. Quem sabe das perguntas sobre petróleo e gás só tem um lugar. Pergunta só tem um lugar no Brasil. Eu diria vários lugares no Brasil: a Petrobras e todas as empresas de petróleo e gás”, disse, sem disfarçar o nervosismo – que tornou a fala da presidente ainda mais difícil de ser compreendida.

“Você sabe que há uma simetria (sic) de informação entre nós, mortais, e o setor de petróleo. É um setor altamente oligopolizado, extremamente complexo tecnicamente. Acho estarrecedor que seja necessário alguém de fora da Petrobras formular perguntas para ela”, completou, sem esclarecer o episódio.

VEJA revelou nesta semana que governistas engendraram esquema para treinar os principais depoentes à comissão de inquérito, repassando a eles previamente as perguntas que seriam feita na CPI e indicando as respostas que deveriam ser dadas. Paulo Argenta; Marcos Rogério de Souza, assessor da liderança do governo no Senado; e Carlos Hetzel, secretário parlamentar do PT na Casa, formularam perguntas aos depoentes e atuaram para que as respostas, tal qual um gabarito de prova, fossem entregue às pessoas que falariam à comissão. O kit de perguntas e respostas foi distribuído ao ex-presidente da estatal José Sergio Gabrielli e ao ex-diretor Nestor Cerveró, apontado como o autor do “parecer falho” que levou a estatal do petróleo a aprovar a compra da refinaria de Pasadena, no Texas, um negócio que causou prejuízo de quase 1 bilhão de dólares à empresa. A atual presidente da companhia Graça Foster também recebeu as perguntas da CPI por meio do chefe do escritório da empresa em Brasília, José Eduardo Barrocas.

Até o momento a oposição identificou que o teatro na CPI da Petrobras pode ter envolvido os crimes de obstrução da Justiça, fraude, improbidade por uso de servidores para fins privados, falso testemunho de depoentes, advocacia administrativa e possível violação do sigilo funcional se servidores tiverem repassado documentos sigilosos da CPI para o Poder Executivo.

Sem deixar que questionamentos sobre a Petrobras fossem apresentados a ela, a presidente ainda se recusou a responder sobre os possíveis impactos da inclusão de Graça Foster entre os responsáveis por Pasadena, em decisão a ser tomada pelo TCU nesta quarta-feira. Graça, que era diretora de gás e energia quando se desenvolviam as negociações de Pasadena, deve ter seus bens declarados indisponíveis, a exemplo dos demais. “Você já julgou, querida? Se você julgou, eu te agradeço por não fazer isso”, afirmou Dilma, interrompendo a pergunta. “Acho que se não houve julgamento não se gera constrangimento nenhum. Peço para você não me fazer uma pergunta sobre um julgamento de uma corte, que não foi feito. Não é correto”, disse.

Oba! Hoje tem festa! A professora e doutora Camila Jourdan — a Salomé dos black blocs — resolveu responder a um post que escrevi aqui no blog, em que demonstro que ela usa prova de filosofia para fazer proselitismo político de baixa extração. Doeu. Tanto doeu que ela respondeu. E resolveu, arrogante como é — o que eu já tinha percebido —, brincar de senhora do “discurso competente”, como diria Marilena Chaui, a decana da ideóloga disfarçada de filósofa.

Por que ela está tão bravinha? Porque caiu nas graças da imprensa — que seus amiguinhos chamam “mídia” —, onde se podia ler que, apesar de ela se misturar a extremistas, seria uma intelectual preparada. Sua “prova” denuncia o contrário. Não passa de uma prosélita vulgar. Mas vamos à resposta em que a black bloc decide posar de grande pensadora.
*
“Vou repetir aqui os comentários que fiz na postagem de um amigo, pois isso precisa ser divulgado. Eu normalmente não leio a mídia falando de mim para evitar a fadiga e o estresse, mas depois do comentário deste amigo não pude deixar de ler o link abaixo e responder. Reinaldo Azevedo, desastre intelectual é você não sabe sequer o que é uma falácia (meus alunos do primeiro período poderiam talvez ajudá-lo), a avaliação demanda uma simples formalização, não demanda qualquer avaliação de validade até porque, em sua maioria, as proposições que devem ser formalizadas não são sequer argumentos. Não que você saiba o que é validade ou o que é um argumento, já que não sabe sequer o que é uma falácia. Você tem mesmo, Reinaldo, que olhar cheio de vergonha para a prova, já que não é sequer capaz de entendê-la, muito menos de resolvê-la. Falar bobagens sobre a prova é mole, quero ver me enviar ela resolvida. Mas já que você não sabe o que é formalização, acredita que estou defendendo posições com a questão e, assim, doutrinando alguém. Por outro lado, você sim está doutrinando quando fala de algo que poucos conhecem como se conhecesse e, portanto, leva as pessoas a acreditarem que se trata do que você falou (ah, isso sim é mesmo uma falácia!). Outra coisa: as formalizações excluem o conteúdo (claro que você não sabe a diferença entre forma e conteúdo), por isso o professor ou autor pode usar o conteúdo que quiser. Os conteúdos atuais são atrativos aos estudantes e este é o caso do conteúdo na prova em questão. Se isso passa mensagens independentes da matéria, isto é, independente do que está sendo avaliado (de tal modo que qualquer um pode discordar de mim e tirar 10, desde que saiba formalizar, o que não é o seu caso) é outra questão, e é, de qualquer modo, inevitável qualquer que seja o conteúdo escolhido. Natural que eu passe as mensagens que eu acredito, não que o aluno precise concordar com isso para acertar a formalização. Ninguém nunca reclamou das mensagens reacionárias que um dos manuais mais famosos de lógica, do Copi, utiliza em seus exemplos, defendendo explicitamente o EUA durante a Guerra Fria. Bom lembrar que este foi, e ainda é hoje, o livro de Lógica mais adotado nas escolas e universidades. Mas é claro que Reinaldo Azevedo não sabe disso porque ele jamais estudou lógica. Só mais uma coisa, tenho que agradecer por terem divulgado minha prova, tenho muito orgulho dela. ” (Camila Jourdan. 06.08.14)

*
Respondo
Isso é professora de filosofia sem SEQUER saber empregar a palavra “sequer”, tropeçando de modo vergonhoso na regência verbal. Então tire a máscara, mocinha, e vamos falar como gente grande, sem explosivos na mão. De todo modo, interessante o estilo: imaginem o efeito que ela provoca em jovenzinhos assanhados, com a testosterona à flor da pele e sem nenhum livro na cabeça. Como não sou candidato a seu namorado…

Embora ela apele a um trololó mal digerido sobre a distinção entre forma e conteúdo — acha que me assusta com essas distinções de meados do século passado… — para negar que sua prova seja proselitismo intelectualmente vigarista, admite, sim, que está, como é mesmo?, “passando mensagens”, não é? Como ignorar esta maravilha de terceira categoria intelectual, redigida num português de quinta: “Natural que eu passe as mensagens que eu acredito (…)”. Não! O natural é que a senhora dote seus alunos de instrumentais para pensar por conta própria. A sua militância pessoal não tem de ser levada para a sala de aula. Ou, então, monte uma seita religiosa.

Segundo Camila, qualquer um pode discordar dela e tirar 10 — quanta generosidade! Embora toda a sua prova — submetam a qualquer especialista — induza os alunos a concordar com ela. A brincadeira desta livre-pensadora é a seguinte: “Discorde de mim se for capaz”. Com todo o respeito, não passa de vigarice intelectual — e meio analfabeta, o que é pior.

Um trecho de sua cascata me intrigou: durante a Guerra Fria, o bom era defender o outro lado, doutora? Pelo visto, segundo as suas considerações, sim. Desde que se estivesse do lado de cá da Cortina de Ferro, não é mesmo?, já que os que estavam do lado de lá não tinham a chance de fazer o contrário. Eu não sei se a senhora entendeu. Acho que não.

Que pena! Até eu cheguei a achar que estávamos diante de uma pessoa mais interessante. Camila Jourdan é só mais uma que usa o posto privilegiado de professora — funcionária do estado que ela renega — para se comportar como “a bufona séria que não mais toma a história universal por uma comédia, mas a sua própria comédia pela história universal”.

Camila, tire a máscara de professora e vá definitivamente para a rua ou tire a máscara de black bloc e assuma o seu posto com mais responsabilidade. Os pobres que pagam o seu salário merecem que esse dinheiro tenha uma boa destinação.

O mês de julho foi o pior para o setor automotivo desde 2006, segundo dados divulgados pela Anfavea (Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veículos Automotores). A produção teve uma queda de 20,5% em relação ao mesmo mês do ano passado, embora tenha havido uma recuperação de 17% na comparação com junho: foram produzidas 252,6 mil unidades no mês passado, somando 1,82 milhão no ano — queda de 17,4% na comparação com 2013. A retração tem feito as montadoras conceder férias coletivas, suspender contratos de trabalho e reduzir a jornada. O setor empregou em julho 150.295 pessoas, queda de 4,2% em relação ao mesmo mês do ano passado. O declínio maior é registrado no segmento de caminhões, com 30,5%, seguido pelos ônibus, com 22,9%, e pelos veículos leves: 19,9%. O quadro é compatível com cenário de economia estagnada.

Se a produção não foi bem, as vendas também não emitem um bom sinal: subiram 11,8% em julho na comparação com junho, mas caíram 13,9% no cotejo com igual período de 2013. Foram comercializados 294,8 mil veículos, com 1,96 milhão neste 2014 — uma queda de 8,6% no confronto com o ano passado. Concorrem para o péssimo resultado tanto o mercado interno, que ainda enfrenta escassez de crédito, com queda de 13,9% sobre julho de 2013, como as exportações, que caíram 36,7%.

É a única má notícia nessa área? Não! O IBGE aponta que a produção industrial brasileira caiu em junho, na comparação com maio, em 11 dos 14 locais pesquisados. Os dados são da “Pesquisa Industrial Mensal – Produção Física Regional”, que foram divulgados nesta quarta. Em São Paulo, que concentra o maior parque industrial do país, a retração foi de 1%. Acaba sendo a maior no volume, mas não no índice, superado, de longe, por Amazonas (- 9,3%), Paraná (-7,5%), Pernambuco (-7,4%) e Ceará (-5,4%)

A queda anual da indústria em junho, se comparada com junho de 2013, é de 6,9%, com retração em 12 dos 15 locais pesquisados. Quem lidera o índice negativo, de novo, é o Amazonas, com -16,1%, seguido por Paraná (-14%), Bahia (-12,1%) e Rio Grande do Sul (-11,9%). Nesse caso, a queda em São Paulo é de -6,5%.

Deve ser a isso que Dilma chama de… política industrial!

 

A esta altura, está claro que a farsa armada na CPI da Petrobras no Senado, que envolveu parlamentares do PT, o governo e o comando da Petrobras, constitui uma grave agressão à democracia, ao Poder Legislativo e ao estado de direito. Tenham clara uma coisa, leitores: da forma como se deu a tramoia, estamos diante de algo inédito. O PT desce a um novo patamar da degradação institucional a que submete o país há 12 anos. A direção do Senado mandou abrir uma sindicância para apurar o caso. Nesta terça, surgiram novas evidências de que o comando da operação esteve mesmo no Palácio do Planalto, mais especificamente aos cuidados de dois assessores diretos do ministro Ricardo Berzoini, da Secretaria de Relações Institucionais: Luiz Azevedo e Paulo Argenta. Tudo conforme denunciou reportagem da VEJA, que veio a público no sábado.

Graça Foster, presidente da Petrobras, uma das beneficiárias da tramoia e em cujo gabinete se deu uma das reuniões que cuidaram da farsa, está muda. E impressionam tanto o discurso como o comportamento indecente dos petistas nesta terça-feira. Contra todas as evidências, contra os fatos, o senador Humberto Costa (PE), líder do PT, chamou a denúncia de “ajuntamento de tolices” e afirmou ser “absolutamente natural que haja trocas de informações institucionais entre as assessorias da CPI e as lideranças dos partidos”. Trata-se apenas de uma mentira. O que se viu não foram “trocas de informações”, mas fornecimento prévio das perguntas, com gabarito e tudo. José Pimentel (PT-CE), líder do governo no Congresso e relator da CPI, repetiu a conversa mole da Petrobras e afirmou que as perguntas já estavam no plano de trabalho da CPI e eram públicas. Infelizmente para a decência do Senado, isso também é mentira.

Mas ninguém, ninguém mesmo!, ofendeu o Congresso com tanta determinação como o governador da Bahia, Jaques Wagner, também petista. Um dos investigados na CPI é José Sérgio Gabrielli, ex-presidente da Petrobras e hoje seu secretário. Segundo Wagner, a “CPI é cena. Não é um delegado perguntando. É um monte de deputado que sabe que está sendo fotografado e filmado e quer fazer aquela pergunta-chave”. Atentando contra uma das prerrogativas do Poder Legislativo, prevista na Constituição, disse ainda o petista: “Deputado não é treinado para investigar, mas para fazer julgamento político. Quem investiga é a Polícia Federal e Ministério Público, que são treinados para isso”.

Gilberto Carvalho, secretário-geral da Presidência, também decidiu refletir. Disse: “Só haveria farsa se houvesse a impossibilidade de qualquer senador fazer a pergunta que quisesse”. É um despautério. O senador fazer a pergunta que quiser é justamente a prerrogativa da qual os farsantes abriram mão. Observem que ele nem se ocupou de negar a tramoia.

A fala de Wagner não deixa de ser emblemática do que o PT fez com as comissões parlamentares de inquérito nestes 12 anos de poder — justamente o partido que tanto se beneficiou delas no passado: transformou-as em farsas. E, a depender de Wagner, serão extintas. A menos que seja para a legenda se vingar de adversários.

E foi o que fez o PT. Decidiu se apressar para instalar a CPI do Metrô em São Paulo. Que gente! O partido pretende que a mesma maioria empregada para fraudar a CPI da Petrobras seja usada agora para atacar os tucanos. Em qualquer dos dois casos, não quer investigar nada, mas fazer baixa política. A propósito, pergunto: a CPI petista vai investigar as evidências de cartel, que estão sendo apuradas até no Cade — hoje uma repartição da legenda — na construção dos metrôs de Belo Horizonte e Porto Alegre, ambos tocados por estatais federais, controladas pelo partido?

Encerro com um enigma: o tempo dirá se o PT ainda não vai se arrepender de ter criado essa CPI do Metrô. É esperar para ver.

State Department: If Hamas operates behind civilians Israel has no right to defend itself: This is not what the international law is all about and certainly not the NATO policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

By the way, Remember Syria? Obama is said to have set the threshold of deaths in Gaza to 1,000 before stopping Israel, and 2,000 have been labeled massacre by Europeans. Compare this to the 160,000 butchered by Assad, who is still doing it. The PostWest is impotent with respect to Russia, so it compensates with Israel. Ditto for Ukraine.

Hamas has been playing the West like a violin, by having the Western media taking at face value and channeling its lies and Pallywood antics. Here are Protective Edge statistics closer to reality:

• Latest Gaza casualty figures that don't rely on liars
• After 29 days, Operation Protective Edge by the numbers

Hamas and the UNRWA school tragedy: The tragedy is that UNRWA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hamas through which the West sustains The Hamas Jihad against Israel and funds the rockets and tunnels (Hamas launched 600 rockets from schools, other civilian facilities), in denial of the fact that it is the first step in the Jihad against the West.

Why in discussions about Gaza do people asume that all Jews support what Israel is doing? Because anti-Semitism does not distinguish between Jews and Israel.

Are the 'sins' of Israel visited on Europe's Jews? Is the Pope Catholic?  

Lampshade made of Holocaust victim’s skin sold for $26,800 No comment.

JoshuaPundit: It's Official - Libya To Be Ruled By The Muslim Brotherhood And Sharia

An adviser to Mr Jibril said the former prime minister was likely to take the post of figurehead president with Mustafa Abu Shagour, currently interim deputy prime minister of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking the prime minister's slot as head of government.

The Muslim Brotherhood would dominate the ministries. {...}

Any coalition government would grant a prominent place to the al-Watan party of Abdulhakim Belhaj, sources said. Mr Belhaj acknowledged that the talks were under way. He said: "I negotiate with anyone who cares about Libya and wants to unite it."

Belhaj was the commander of the former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which had ties to al-Qaeda.

And of course, sharia rule:

The outgoing National Transitional Council, which has ruled Libya since Gaddafi's fall, announced yesterday that Islamic Sharia law should be the "main" source of legislation and that this principle should not be subject to a referendum.

Worth over a billion dollars of our money, wasn't it?

Here's another thing to think about, and those of you who visit this site regularly know I've been saying this for quite some time.

The Brotherhood ruled areas of Egypt and Gaza are economically dysfunctional, with large, mostly uneducated populations they can't feed and no oil money.

Just imagine a new, hardline Islamist Caliphate merging Libya's oil wealth with the territory and population of Egypt and Gaza, all under one banner. And it might even eventually include Tunisia, the Arab occupied areas of Judea and Samaria now ruled by the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, where King Abdullah is hanging on by a thread.

This is what the Brotherhood's founder, al-Banna dreamt about, and it has been handed to the Islamists on a silver platter. Not only that, but the American taxpayer paid for the platter.

The west is going to pay a large price in the near future for President Obama's enabling of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mark my words.

FP: The West has only itself to blame.

Daniel Greenfield quotes from Natasha Smith’s blog post describing her rape by thugs in Egypt and then comments:

I shouted “salam! Salam! Allah! Allah!”. In my desperate state I also shouted “ma’is salaama!” which actually means “goodbye” – just about the worst possible thing to say to a horde of men trying to ruin me. I might as well have yelled “goodbye cruel world! Down I go!”

...

Women were crying and telling me “this is not Egypt! This is not Islam! Please, please do not think this is what Egypt is!” I reassured her that I knew that was the case, that I loved Egypt and its culture and people, and the innate peacefulness of moderate Islam. She appeared stunned. But I’m not really a vengeful person and I could see through the situation. This vicious act was not representative of the place I had come to know and love.

....everything you need to know about the future of the free world is right here in those words.

The horde will rape Europe, Israel and America and we will go on shouting "Salam! Salam! Allah! Allah!" and assuring the few Muslims who do the decent thing that we are not vengeful people and we know better than to assume that what we are experiencing is representative of the people and their culture.

It’s not different than what I and others, including JoshuaPundit, have been arguing.

 

Barry Rubin: Extra! Extra! World Agrees on How to Solve Syrian Civil War!

Here it is at last. The perfect case study of the "international community's" diplomacy on the Middle East, as quoted from a Wall Street Journal article describing efforts to resolve the Syria conflict:

And the article has the perfect headline, too!"

"World Powers Reach Syria Compromise"

So the problem is solved, right? Scroll down for the stunning solution.

"‎An international meeting in Geneva on Saturday on Syria's crisis agreed, with support from Russia, to support a political transition. However, officials at the meeting said any chance for a political transition to succeed rests on the willingness of the Syrian regime to cooperate."

That's right! The powers have agreed to a transition to a new government which will go into effect as soon as the current dictatorship agrees to be overthrown and its rulers flee for their lives and watch their supporters probably be massacred. Perhaps the world will then install a new Islamist government in Syria, forcing it down the throats of the real democratic opposition, which will be dedicated to spreading revolution and striking against Western interests.

Isn't diplomacy wonderful?

FP: Can you imagine what would happen to Israel if she could not defend herself and was dependent on the “international community”

 

Daniel Greenfield: WILL OF THE PEOPLE, WHAT'S THAT?

Almost 100 Conservative MPs this week wrote to Mr Cameron demanding a legal commitment to hold a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU after the next election. Several ministers privately believe that leaving the union should not be ruled out.

Mr Cameron did not rule out some sort of vote on European issues eventually, but insisted that he would not give the British people the option of leaving the EU outright. "I completely understand why some people want an in/out referendum, why they wanted it yesterday, why they want it today, Some people just want to get out: I completely understand that but I don't share that view, I don't think that's the right thing to do.”

And if Cameron doesn't think that's the right thing to do, why bother consulting the people on it?

The Justice Secretary launched a sustained attack on advocates of a popular vote on Europe, which he described as “a total irrelevance” that would create turmoil and undermine Britain’s economic credibility.

"In the middle of a global financial crisis to start asking a yes/no question about whether or not we should stay in the biggest trading bloc in the global economy, I think would be a slightly foolish thing to do," Mr Clarke said. 

Some people might think that's the exact right time to ask the question, but that would just undermine confidence in the EUtanic, which is unsinkable, so long as people go on believing in it.

Also referendums are a very silly thing.

"I cannot think of anything sillier to do than hold a referendum. I’m not keen on referendums, I see no case for this referendum.”

And we're bound to win a referendum anyway, so there's no need to actually hold one.

There's growing referendum madness in Germany too, which is bearing the cost of this disaster.

The leader of Merkel's Bavarian allies in the CSU, Horst Seehofer, wrote in business daily Handelsblatt: "Politicians cannot simply impose more Europe on us from the top down ... That's why I'm pleading for our constitution to allow us to have referendums on all important European matters."

German voters will no doubt be thrilled by scenes such as this.

An acrimonious summit dragged on late into the night as Italian and Spanish leaders threatened to delay approval of a €120bn "compact for jobs and growth" unless they secured immediate help on their borrowing costs.

In a welfare state, the welfare recipients have to be talked into accepting their welfare.

FP: Europe has become borg an abomination and a laughing stock, which is a nontrivial act. These are the people to impose sanctions on Iran or contain the MB caliphate developing in the ME?

 

Bill Katz: ANOTHER BRILLIANT EDUCATIONAL IDEA

The Daily Caller reports that a video has surfaced of Democratic Representative Andre Carson of Indiana, one of two Muslims in the House, advocating that America adopt the Muslim approach to education. “America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our madrassas, in our schools, where innovation is encouraged, where the foundation is the Quran,” Carson said in the speech.  Hmm.  I'm sure we all admire the educational innovation we see in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, especially the love of the 10th-century political thinking.  I wonder if Carson would permit girls to partake of this brilliant intellectual adventure.

FP: We need more Muslims in Congress to come up with more areas where we can apply the Quran. And we’ll get them too.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Mistress Power: What does Friedman mean? (MUST READ)

Daled Amos: The Middle East Media Sampler 7/4/2012: Tom Friedman Recycles A Column

David Schenker: Egypt's Islamist future

Barry Rubin: Who Rules Egypt? The Battle Begins

Another such situation: economic issues. Al-Mursi’s spokesman says he will put the emphasis on making Egypt into a strong economy. Since this is impossible, al-Mursi is more likely to follow a populist approach: big promises, phony jobs, strong subsidies to keep consumer goods cheap. All of that spells more debt. And foreigners will be asked to pay the bills.

Lenin once reportedly said that he would get the capitalists to sell him the rope with which to hang them. But Egypt is a far clearer case of such a situation. Will the dhimmis finance the consolidation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s power in Egypt? It sure looks like that will happen, though they probably will be cheap about it.

Never forget that since any economic program in Egypt is doomed to fail, the ultimate outcome will probably be a government having to decide between repression at home, hysterical hatred and foreign adventures abroad, or both.

FP: Like I told you.

And in what should be a very important lesson and a huge media story, a Brotherhood leader has spilled the beans about Wael Ghonim. The Google executive was portrayed as the very model of a moderate liberal Egyptian during the “revolution.” Ghonim publicly announced that he voted for al-Mursi in the presidential election.

Now, veteran Egypt-watcher Raymond Stock points out that Essam el-Erian said Ghonim has been a Brotherhood member for a while. Equally significant, el-Erian added that Abdel-Rahman Mansour is still a Brotherhood member. As Stock explains:

These are reputedly the two most important figures behind the famous social media side of the revolt.

The Brotherhood has frequently praised both men, though it has made clear they should not be given any real authority or influence. Stock added:

This information completely destroys the fiction that there is a clear separation between the “secular-liberal youth” cadre and the Islamists. Essentially, El-Erian is bragging none too subtly that the Muslim Brotherhood played a key role in launching the uprising.

They did, however, leave the initial leadership and planning to others for the first few days.

Meanwhile, the third leading “secular” activist who led the revolution, Asma Mahfouz — who always wears a burqa — often sounds like an Islamist as well. In her latest interview — though the reporter and viewers are given no hint of this — she is standing in front of a poster that has a scorpion on it. The head is that of Ahmad Shafiq, the presidential candidate who opposed al-Mursi. Overthrown President Hosni Mubarak is the stinger. An Israeli Star of David is imposed on Shafiq to present him as the puppet of the evil Zionists.

Can you imagine what these people will do with the appeasing, clueless, wishful thinking, declining West?

 

Bill Katz: PATHETIC

In our post below we suggested the possibility that we could lose, and lose big, in the Iran negotiations, with Iran getting the bomb.  Speaking of losing, a comment by Hillary Clinton indicates just how much influence we've lost in the Mideast since Barack Obama came to office.  When is the last time you heard an American secretary of state say something like this?

Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- There is no guarantee that a sweeping new international agreement on Syria will succeed in ending the conflict there, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conceded, as opposition activists said the number of dead had skyrocketed in recent months.

"There is no guarantee that we are going to be successful. I just hate to say that," Clinton told CNN.

But she expressed optimism that a new agreement hammered out Saturday would help ease President Bashar al-Assad out of power.

There is no basis for her optimism.  This "agreement" is a watered-down joke with no teeth.

The first plan backed by Russia and China as well as the West, it calls for a transitional government as a step towards ending the 16-month uprising.

Opposition activists immediately criticized the deal as leaving open the possibility that al-Assad would remain in power.

"The new agreement provides vague language which is open to interpretation," the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said in a statement Sunday. "This provides yet another opportunity for the regime's thugs to play their favorite game in utilizing time in order to stop the popular Syrian Revolution and extinguish it with violence and massacres across Syria."

A spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a main political opposition group, similarly slammed the agreement.

"We are afraid that the decision of the Geneva convention might give signs and gestures to the Syrian regime that it is acceptable and a legitimate cover to continue killing the people, and committing more massacres," Muhammad Farmini told CNN.

COMMENT:  Once again, the key man is Barack Obama, because the president of the United States is always the key man.  And once again Obama is ducking.  He has no real policy in Syria, the Russians and Chinese will agree only to meaningless words, and the murders are continuing.

And this president has the nerve to go to the American people and boast of his "successes" in foreign policy.  Name one.

Oh yes, oh yes, he "got" bin Laden.  Strange, I thought it was the Navy SEALs who got bin Laden.  I guess, like Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca," I was misinformed. 

Syria, like Iran, is at the end game, or at least approaching it.  If the killing goes on, and Assad stays in power, it will be a massive defeat for us, and a victory for both Russia and Iran, both of whom support the Assad regime.

FP: America has become irrelevant.

 

Martin Sherman: Barack Hussein Obama: A view from Israel

That said, I am convinced that his reelection for a second term is liable to be a disaster of epic proportions – with incalculable, probably irreversible, repercussions for both Israel and for US interests, at least as they have been commonly perceived.

His perception of the international role the US should play, the nature of its interests and the manner in which they should be pursued seems to be a dramatic departure from that of most of his predecessors, including a deepseated belief that Islam is not inherently inimical to American values.

There is, thus, a distinct possibility that Israel could face a second-term president who is fundamentally unmoored from America’s Judeo-Christian heritage, a heritage, which despite occasional periods of tensions, was for decades the elemental underpinning of the relationship between the two countries.

The prospect of a White House incumbent with an inherent affinity for Israel’s adversaries and unshackled by considerations of reelection is one that must be considered with the utmost seriousness.

How to contend with such a dire eventually will be taken up in a forthcoming column.

FP: A realignment with Islam, just as I argued.

 

Jonathan Tobin: Iran Worried? Obama Guts Sanctions

Three rounds of the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran have proven President Obama’s “window of diplomacy” a colossal failure. But Secretary of State Clinton as well as various administration cheerleaders have been reminding us lately that the international sanctions on Tehran that have been belatedly put in place are just about to really bite. At the end of the month, the West will impose an oil embargo on Iran that could really hurt its economy and perhaps bring the regime to its knees if it is universally observed and vigorously enforced.

But today’s announcement that the Obama administration will grant China and Singapore a six-month exemption from the sanctions shows the confident manner the Iranians displayed at the nuclear talks was not a false front. Having forearmed themselves in the period leading up to the sanctions by securing more contracts with the Chinese, Iran dared the Americans to risk a confrontation with Beijing. The result is that Tehran’s belief President Obama and his Western allies are bluffing has been confirmed rather than debunked. This will act as a virtual green light for the Iranians to keep pushing ahead toward their nuclear goal while Western leaders posture but do little to stop them.

The dirty secret about the Western sanctions on Iran is that their leader advocate has never bothered to enforce them. The weak sanctions that were in place were selectively policed by the United States, with the Treasury Department granting exemptions to thousands of firms that allowed them to go on doing business there. But that is nothing when compared to giving China and Singapore, two of Iran’s major business partners, a free pass to conduct business as usual.

FP: The US has become almost irrelevant to international matters.

 

Rajan Menon: Libya in Chaos

The plight of Qaddafi fils won’t elicit much pity, certainly among Libyans, but it does illustrate postrevolutionary Libya’s principal problem: an ineffectual central government that has neither the power nor the legitimacy to rein in the country’s rampant localism. The localism pits militia against militia, East against West, tribe against tribe and ethnic group against ethnic group, giving a new, though pernicious, meaning to former House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s quip that “all politics is local.”

FP: Arabs in their natural state. Will the West understand why all Arab countries were dictatorships? I doubt it.

 

Morsi Says He Will Work for Release of Sheik Jailed in U.S.

President-elect Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood pre-empted the military's choreographed swearing-in ceremony by taking his oath of office a day early in a televised speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Tahrir Square on Friday. But his rousing tribute to Egyptian sovereignty may be overshadowed by a promise likely to complicate relations with the United States: to work for the release of the Egyptian-born Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, jailed for plotting to bomb a series of New York City landmarks.

The comments appeared to come almost offhandedly in the context of a vow to free Egyptian civilians imprisoned here after military trials during the transition after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

"I see signs for Omar Abdel Rahman and detainees' pictures," he said, referring to placards held by the crowd. "It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free, including Omar Abdel Rahman."

FP: The other day I commented on a read that claimed the US wants to make a strong impression on Morsi. So why not release the sheik—that’ll make a strong impression: that Americans are fools.

JoshuaPundit: Egypt: Shafik Flees As Muslim Brotherhood Takes Over And Begins Introducing Sharia

Their biggest project, of course remains Islamizing Egypt and laying the ground for the new Caliphate, to be ruled by sharia.

To that end, a plan by high ranking Brotherhood figures has been put together known as the “Jazira Plan” and was it personally approved by Mohammed Badi, the Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

While the plan is to be applied gradually, it calls for the strict implementation of sharia law, the abandonment of western based film and "artistic heritage," and memorization of the Qu'ran a condition for advancement in school.

The plan also calls for replacing the current national anthem with something called the anthem of the Islamic Caliphate,and the abolishment of Egypt's Ministry of Information and it's replacement by "an Islamic media organization".

How quickly this plan is implemented depends a great deal on the Egyptian military and how much and how quickly they can be subordinated to the regime's agenda. Tayyipp Erdogan and the AKP took almost a decade to do it in Turkey,but the Turkish military had a constitutional mandate to keep Turkey secular that went back to the days of Ataturk, and they were also fairly popular with the Turkish people.

In Iran, on the other hand,the transition happened fairly quickly because the military had no such legal role and because they had been identified with the deposed Shah,especially the higher ranking officers,most of whom either agreed to support Khomeni's regime, fled or were executed.

Egypt's military likewise has no legal role and the Brotherhood has been quite successful in identifying the military, especially the SCAF with Mubarak and with 'suppressing the Revolution'.

I'd put my money on a transition more on a timeline like Iran than Turkey.

Rest assured that we won't even recognize Egypt in two years time.

FP: This will be funded by US and Western money. And within those two years we will see serious deterioration in the peace treaty with Israel, a lot of border violence if not a full war, all means to extract money from the West.

Tarek Fatah: ‘Brothers’ of the Muslim Brotherhood

However, if we are to believe the man President Barack Obama describes as his “principle intelligence advisor”, U.S. Department of National Intelligence head James Clapper, there is little to worry about.

…

If this is the advice Obama is getting from his “principle intelligence advisor,” it is no wonder, leading up to the Egyptian presidential elections, his administration played host to the Muslim Brotherhood in Washington and were earlier accused of holding secret meetings in Cairo with its senior leadership.

…

However, like the Ayatollahs in Iran in 1979, wherever Islamists seize power, their ultimate objective is the destruction of the West, even when they are feeding off it.

The Muslim Brotherhood document produced by the FBI as evidence in the Dallas terror trial lists the group’s objective in North America as a “Civilization-Jihadist Process.”

It said: “The Ikhwan (Brotherhood) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers (Muslims) so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

To this end, the Brothers call on Muslims “to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes.”

See what I mean?

 

Meteoric surge in anti-Semitism recorded in France

After years of steady decline, Jewish community in France records sudden 53 percent rise in anti-Semitic acts between January and May of 2012 • "It is unpleasant to be a French Jew these days, and this cannot continue," says MK Danny Danon.

FP: It will continue and increase probably until Jews get out of Europe.

 

US Army can't hide five billion dollar camouflage failure

"The Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment," an Army specialist who served in Iraq tells the Daily Mail • Some critics of the pixelated army uniforms reportedly blamed the uniforms for the deaths of servicemen.

FP: Decline

 

Erekat: Abbas, Mofaz to meet next week for peace talks

Meeting would mark highest-level talks since negotiations broke down in 2010; chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat says meeting comes at request of Kadima head; Mofaz neither confirms nor denies report.

FP: What did I tell you? More supplication and concessions.

 

How Hamas, not Israel, shapes the contours of conflict

Analysis It’s the Islamists who determine the timing and scale of violence along the Gaza border.

FP: Israel lost the initiative a long time ago. It only reacts.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Matt Taibbi: Thomas Friedman's New State of Grace

Alexander Bligh: Preparing for Egypt's worst

Egypt's economic situation today doesn't allow it to provide for over 85 million of its citizens. This means that a scapegoat must be found for the people to focus their rage against. The new regime will not be able to hide behind the old regime's shortcomings for very long.

What's more, every military conflict in the region has always been followed by U.S. mediation efforts, including substantial economic packages. We must not forget that U.S. foreign aid to Egypt is allocated mostly toward its military (some $1.5 billion), while some $800 million goes toward the civilian sector. This means that the U.S. is strengthening Egypt's armed forces, not its economy. Such an aid package, therefore, could very well tempt the new regime to act hastily. In light of all this, military conflict is the most reasonable possibility.

Therefore Israel must redefine its parameters for what constitutes a casus belli and notify the United States and other leading countries accordingly; the strength of deterrence lies in making your red lines known. In addition to such a public move, we should define, discreetly, our own goals.

Israel must display its commitment to the peace treaty, despite its deficiencies, practice extreme caution against being drawn into provocations and make its red lines very clear and public.

In the meantime, Israel needs to quietly prepare for any possibility — from amplifying all aspects of its military efforts to dealing with the increasingly hostile population in the Sinai — for when the day comes and the order is given.

There is no doubt that Israelis hope and wish that such a day never comes, but if it does come, God forbid, we'd better be well prepared.

FP: Where did you hear this first? Compare this with my comments in the previous post on Martin Kramer, Kramer’s post.

Then this:

Walter Russel Mead: Is Anti-Zionism Morsi’s Best Shot at Relevance?

But there is one weapon Morsi can use to needle the army and apply some serious pressure: opposition to Israel. Not only is Sadat’s peace treaty widely unpopular in Egypt, but anti-Zionism also unites the passions of both nationalism and Islam, the two most powerful forces in the country’s psychology. The army, by contrast, has no intention of tearing up the treaty or otherwise provoking tension with Israel, but its immunity from popular disapproval is not absolute. This is one issue where Morsi can enflame public opinion until the generals treat the president with a little more respect.

Under Nasser, the Egyptian military republic combined nationalism with passionate anti-Zionism as, among other things, a way to reduce the support for radical Islam. After Sadat’s treaty, anti-Zionism became one of the main Islamist talking points in the country. That remains the case today.

And this:

Robert Satloff: Morsi's Victory in Egypt: Early Implications for America and the Broader Middle East

While confirmation of Morsi's victory may spare Egypt a potentially violent faceoff between Islamists and the military, the shockwaves will be felt across the Middle East. This ranges from the wilderness of Sinai, where more-violent Islamists will push the Ikhwani leader toward confrontation with Israel; to the suburbs of Aleppo and Damascus, where the Morsi example will be a fillip to Islamists fighting Alawite rule; to the capitals of numerous Arab states, especially the monarchies, where survivalist leaders mortified by the prospect that Islamist revolutions could trump their claims of religious legitimacy will double-down on their velvet-glove/iron-fist strategies to fend off the fervor for change.

And this:

Lee Smith: What’s Next for Egypt?

Morsi has said that he is the president for all Egyptians. The question is how, particularly in the middle of an international economic meltdown, he can reconcile more than 80 million Egyptians to the Brotherhood’s rule. What has made the organization attractive for all these years is not its vision, its policies, whatever those turn out to be, but rather resistance, negation, a dynamism built on the foundations of conflict. Morsi will likely have little choice in the matter: To manage an Egypt perpetually on the verge of chaos, he will have to project internal conflict outward. In due time, Egypt will make war either on itself, or on Israel.

Detect a pattern?

 

Elliott Abrams: Who’s Visiting Cairo?

After President Obama’s congratulatory call to Egypt’s president-elect Morsi, it seems the administration seeks further contact in the coming days.  On June 25 The Washington Post reported this:

U.S. officials hope to make a strong impression on Morsi, 60, during an upcoming visit by a senior American official to Cairo, said another senior administration official, who was not authorized to speak for the record.

“Senior official” is an elastic term, but let us hope it does not refer to Secretary of State Clinton. I am told there’s a debate under way in the administration about who should meet now with Mr. Morsi. Clinton is the wrong answer. Morsi has, as that Post story noted, “spoken vitriolically about American policy in the Middle East…and has expressed doubts that the Sept. 11 attacks were carried out by terrorists.” A quick embrace will suggest that we simply don’t care about such things, and will be noticed by American allies and enemies in the region. Moreover, the Secretary could be embarrassed–as could the United States–if such a visit were followed quickly by more such statements by Morsi. Far better to wait, and have our capable ambassador in Cairo, Anne Patterson, deliver the message that relations with Washington will depend on what he says and does as president.  The victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is seen as a great risk by friends of the United States throughout the region, Arabs and Israelis alike. Actions that suggest we do not understand their views, or do not care about them, or do not care about the Brotherhood’s long record of anti-Americanism, will further weaken the American position in the region. Sending a “senior official” to Cairo can wait.

See if Kramer’s forecast for a MB strategy is already being validated by the US behavior and whether I was right in claiming that the MB will play the West like a violin using anti-Israel threats.

Should the US try to make a strong impression on Morsi, should it be the other way around? Do you think Obama or Clinton are any match for the Islamists?

 

Shoshana Bryen: The Incredible Shrinking US-Israel Security Cooperation

In light of increased sensitivity to intelligence leaks, it seemed innocuous – or even admirable – when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) asked the Senate to remove a few words from the US-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act: the "sense of the Senate" part of the bill included the sentence, "Expand already close intelligence cooperation, including satellite intelligence, with the Government of Israel;" ODNI wanted the words "including satellite intelligence" to go.

An ODNI spokesman said it was "simply a matter of clarifying the intelligence aspects of the bill and being sensitive to the level of specificity of the language…nothing nefarious here, just more clear language."

Yeah, right.

This is just the latest example of the Obama Administration making clear that it does not want to be seen as Israel's partner in regional affairs – several of them predicated on Turkish desires. Despite Israel's status as a Major Non-NATO ally, a NATO "partner" country, and a member of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue, Turkey is increasingly insistent that Israel be isolated and cut out. This surrender to Turkey -- which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years been aggressively making ever more fundamentalist -- coincides nicely with the Administration's increasingly open courtship of Turkey's Islamist-leaning and virulently anti-Israel Prime Minister and what appears to be the desire of the Administration to enhance security relations in the Arab-Muslim world as it dials back visible cooperation with Israel.

FP: This is precisely as I predicted: the US is trying to appease the Islamists in order to temperate violence against the US and to realign with them as allies by signaling abandonment of Israel.

Here’s another example:

Israel Matzav: A Hamas win at the 'human rights council'

Thanks to the Obama administration, Hamas managed to hold a meeting at the United Nations 'human rights council' on Friday to promote the destruction of the State of Israel.

…

Here is some of what Habeeb had to say while speaking in a UN room, at a UN-provided microphone, at a UN-advertised event associated with the UN’s top human rights body: “In 1947, 1948 and 1949 the Palestinian refugees were ethnically cleansed by the Israeli gangs.... Some Arab armies came to Palestine to fight the Zionist project, which came from all over Europe to take over Palestine and to make it as a national home for the Jews, although it was always the national home for the Palestinians for thousands and thousands of years.”

Habeeb, a well-known radical and “one state solution” campaigner, didn’t come alone. Various publications of his Palestinian Return Center were made readily available on UN premises.

There was the pamphlet with this bigoted diatribe: “a racist ideology is inherent in political Zionism and... is being implemented as a political project by the state of Israel.

Political Zionism idealizes and advances a racist and chauvinistic... religion and nationalism.”

And there was the map with the word “Palestine” splashed across the entirety of what is now Israel. Advocating the elimination of a UN member state, the most elementary violation of the UN Charter, is evidently acceptable literature in the belly of the UN human rights beast.

See what I mean?

 

Adam Kredo: Hamas: Israelis ‘must prepare to leave’

As Gaza militants renew violent rocket attacks on Israeli cities, a Hamas national security minister told a delegation of graduating police officers in the Gaza Strip that they should help liberate Israeli cities, such as Jerusalem, from Jewish control, according to a recently released translation of his remarks.

“None of you should give up playing with all the tools of force and equipment, which will bring us closer to our aspirations: Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Haifa, Akko, and Jaffa,” Hamas Minister Fathi Hammad declared during a Gaza police academy commencement ceremony on June 13, about a week before militants began firing hundreds of rockets into Southern Israel.

“The officers of the class graduating today will become the police chief of Jaffa, the police chief of Haifa, the police chief of Akko, the police chief of Lod, the police chief of Ramle, and of all other places,” said Hammad, an interior and national security minister said, according to a translation of his remarks by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

“Therefore, from this place, we declare to all those who usurped our lands that they must prepare to leave, because we have prepared for jihad,” said the Hamas official, which remains officially committed to the destruction of Israel. “You are going to leave, while we are summoned to battle. We are the owners of this land.”

FP: The consequences of Islamist takeovers.

  

RECOMMENDED READS

Daniel Greenfield: It's Hard Out There for an Outsider

Bret Stephens: Who Lost Egypt?

David Goldman: What do you do when the people are the problem?

Elliott Abrams:Who Lost Egypt?

Yossi Klein Halevi: No more illusions about Egypt after Mubarak

With the launch of the Libreboot project, users now have an easy-to-install, 100% free software replacement for proprietary BIOS/boot programs. This project is important; currently, many computer-makers notoriously deny free software developers the information they need to develop free replacements for the proprietary software they ship with their products. In some cases, manufacturers do not even share enough information for it to be possible to install a free operating system.

In order to make it possible to run Libreboot on as many hardware platforms as possible, the project needs your help. Fortunately, there are a lot of simple and easy ways you can start supporting the project today, including buying a computer with Libreboot preinstalled, helping to test Libreboot by installing it on new systems, and directly contributing code and documentation to the project or to its upstream parent, Coreboot.

In December 2013, we awarded the Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification mark to Gluglug for their refurbished and updated X60 laptops. In order to meet the FSF's RYF certification requirements, Francis Rowe of Gluglug had to be sure that the boot program he was distributing was 100% free software. Fortunately, the Coreboot project solved most of this problem for him. Francis was able to compile a version of Coreboot that ran on the X60 laptop, without requiring any proprietary firmware blobs. However, because Coreboot provides proprietary firmware blobs for several different chip-sets in the source code, Francis was still left with the task of removing those blobs from the source tree that he was distributing. At first, Francis did this deblobbing by hand. This spring, he launched the Libreboot project to formalize the process of deblobbing the Coreboot source tree. Coinciding with the release of Libreboot, Francis also decided to rebrand the laptop, changing the name from Gluglug X60 to Libreboot X60 (the RYF certification applies to the Libreboot X60 as well). You can support the development of Libreboot by buying a Libreboot X60 laptop today. All laptops come preinstalled with Libreboot and Trisquel GNU/Linux, and have been upgraded with a free software-friendly 802.11n wireless card.

In addition to the X60 laptop, Libreboot now supports select models of the ThinkPad T60, the X60 Tablet (with digitizer) and certain models of the MacBook2,1 which use the same chip-sets as the X60.

While we applaud and endorse Francis' work on Libreboot, it is important to note that neither the FSF nor Francis considers Libreboot a fork of Coreboot. The Libreboot project clarifies this fact on its website with the following statement: "Libreboot is not a fork of Coreboot, despite misconceptions of this fact. Libreboot (downstream supplier) is a parallel effort which works closely with and rebases on the latest Coreboot (upstream supplier) every so often." The work done by both Libreboot and Coreboot are important and they need the support of the free software community if we hope to have more laptops bearing the RYF certification mark in the future.

The Libreboot project has begun attracting some much-needed attention and support. "From small patches, bug fixes, feature additions, suggestions for improvement, help with GnuPG (at the time of writing, recent Libreboot releases are now GnuPG-signed) and more. To all those that have contributed to Libreboot, I thank you and appreciate it!" stated Francis Rowe.

If you have questions, or are interested in working on Libreboot, send an email to info@gluglug.org.uk or drop by the #libreboot channel on the Freenode network.

Um aluno de filosofia da Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) me manda um troço que é mesmo do balacobaco! Trata-se de uma espécie do símbolo do desastre intelectual que acomete os cursos da chamada área de “humanidades” das universidades brasileiras, especialmente das públicas. É claro que há pessoas pensando com seriedade nos corpos docente e discente instituições afora. É claro que há ilhas de excelência. Mas é evidente que essa não é a regra.

Lembram-se de Camila Jourdan, a tal professora de filosofia da UERJ que é, digamos, uma espécie de farol dos black blocs do Rio? É uma das que tiveram prisão preventiva decretada e depois revogada. Em sua casa, foram encontrados artefatos explosivos. Pelo visto, a doutora não acredita que a arma de uma intelectual seja uma… caneta, ou um livro, ou um teclado. Estão preparados? Vejam a prova que a “doutora” Camila aplicou a seus alunos. Volto em seguida.

 

Retomo
Seria apenas folclórico não fosse um procedimento extremamente autoritário. Obviamente, a prova da doutora induz os alunos a desfazer supostas falácias lógicas que, na prática, endossam os preconceitos da professora. Ou seja: ela quer contestar as falácias com as quais não concorda empregando como instrumento aquelas com as quais concorda. Camila não está preparada para ensinar, mas para doutrinar. É ridículo! É patético!

Esse desastre não é de agora. De forma larvar, começou com as Marilenas Chauis lá da década de 80, quando a filosofia era mero pretexto para a pregação política. Nesta terça-feira, por exemplo, milhares de alunos, professores e funcionários da USP são reféns de uma suposta greve decretada por uma minoria de extremistas que só se criam no ambiente universitário. Com dinheiro público.

Eu olho cheio de vergonha para a “prova” que vai acima. O pressuposto do pensamento é ele ser livre. Nada impede a doutora Camila de pensar o que lhe der na telha, mas que renuncie, então, ao emprego público no Estado que ela não respeita, diz ser autoritário e expressão da violência de uma classe.

Hoje, meus caros, quase tudo está ao alcance das mãos. Pesquisem. Não se pratica esse tipo de proselitismo vagabundo em lugar nenhum do mundo. A universidade brasileira não é um dos reinos da ineficiência por acaso.

A propósito: quem não concorda com a pregação da “doutora” deve fazer o quê? Pedir uma prova alternativa? O mais nefasto nessa história não é Camila ser adepta de uma prática doidivanas, mas, na condição de “mestra”, conspurcar a própria teoria.

É um desastre intelectual, sim, mas também é um desastre moral e ético!

Que homem notável este Gilberto Carvalho, uma figura meio sinistra que a própria Dilma Rousseff mantém a contragosto no Palácio do Planalto. É que ela não tem poder para desafiar Lula e mandar embora o seu espião. Nesta terça, ele foi ao Senado para tentar convencer os parlamentares de que o Decreto 8.243, aquele, dos conselhos, não passa de um mero disciplinamento da chamada participação popular, sem maiores implicações.

É mesmo? Se assim é, por que, então, tratar da questão por meio de um decreto, que não pode ser emendado pelos parlamentares, em vez de um projeto de lei, que permite que o Congresso participe do debate? Nesta terça, Carvalho estava mansinho, falava como quem quer negociar. Há pouco mais de uma semana, afirmou que o governo iria para a “guerra”. Sim, ele empregou a palavra “guerra”. Há três semanas, anunciou um segundo decreto, aí para incluir os tais conselhos no Orçamento da União. Ou por outra: Carvalho decidiu estatizar a participação popular.

O ministro foi ao Senado com a sua conversinha de cerca-lourenço, afirmando que o texto não cria nenhum conselho novo. E daí? Isso é o de menos! Mas estabelece que os órgãos federais devem passar a operar com eles — logo, a sua criação passa a ser uma diretriz legal. O texto é de tal sorte autoritário que define o que é sociedade civil — uma definição exótica, para dizer pouco — e institui uma espécie de Justiça paralela à medida que cria uma certa “mesa de negociação” que seria encarregada de mediar conflitos que envolvam questões sociais. Invasão de propriedade privada, por exemplo? Nada de liminar de reintegração de posse! Antes, uma conversinha em que invasores e invadidos sejam postos em pé de igualdade.

O ministro tentou fazer de conta que o assunto não tem grande importância e que está sendo magnificado pelos adversários do PT. Ora, se não tem, por que tanto empenho em aprová-lo, meu senhor? Permita, então, que o Parlamento brasileiro dê a sua opinião a respeito.

Carvalho quer dar o primeiro passo da República Bolivariana Brasileira, com o governo federal assaltado por milícias, disfarçadas de conselhos, que imporão no berro a sua vontade ao eleito. É uma forma de o PT se eternizar no poder mesmo sem vencer eleições, já que esses “movimentos sociais” que formam os tais “conselhos” são meras extensões do partido.

Caia na sua conversa quem quiser. Se e quando chegar a existir o esquema que Carvalho tem em mente, o Congresso brasileiro, escolhido por 140 milhões de eleitores (em 2014), perderá prerrogativas para algumas centenas de “conselheiros”, eleitos por ninguém, controlados pelo PT.

O golpe é escandalosamente explícito. Vade retro!

A Polícia Federal tentou conduzir coercitivamente o delegado Romeu Tuma Jr., ex-secretário nacional de Justiça, à sede de sua Superintendência , em São Paulo, para prestar esclarecimentos sobre o livro “Assassinato de Reputações – Um Crime de Estado”, publicado pela Editora Topbooks. Ele resistiu à intimidação e compareceu um pouco mais tarde ao local. Na obra, Tuma Jr. assegura que o “estado policial petista” não é uma invenção de paranoicos. Segundo o autor, esse esquema reúne as características de todas as máquinas de perseguição e difamação do gênero: o grupo que está no poder se apropria dos aparelhos institucionais de investigação de crimes e de repressão ao malfeito — que, nas democracias, estão submetidos aos limites da lei — e os coloca a seu próprio serviço.

Queriam, na prática, deter Tuma Jr., ainda que por algum tempo, por quê? Havia ou há algum inquérito em curso? Não. Vamos ficar atentos. O Brasil é uma democracia — ainda é ao menos. As pessoas não podem ser demitidas de um banco, por exemplo, porque fazem uma avaliação técnica crítica ao governo. O partido oficial não pode fazer listas negras de jornalistas porque não gosta de sua opinião, e o estado não pode sair por aí detendo pessoas em processos de investigação muito pouco transparentes.

Sim, o livro de Tuma Jr. denuncia a ação do PT em algumas operações escabrosas, a saber:

1: manipulação da investigação para envolver o governo de São Paulo e o PSDB no caso do cartel de trens em São Paulo;

2: elaboração de um falso dossiê para incriminar o governador tucano Marconi Perillo, de Goiás;

3: elaboração de um falso dossiê para incriminar o também tucano Tasso Jereissati, com pressão explícita de Aloizio Mercadante;

4: armação para manchar a reputação de Ruth Cardoso, mulher do ex-presidente FHC;

5: o assassinato do petista Celso Daniel, prefeito de Santo André;

6: operação para grampear todos os ministros do STF – o que ele diz ter acontecido;

7: tentativa de eliminar os rastros de uma conta do mensalão nas ilhas Cayman.

Em entrevista à revista VEJA, Tuma Jr. foi claro sobre as pressões que recebeu quando era Secretário Nacional de Justiça:
“Durante todo o tempo em que estive na Secretaria Nacional de Justiça, recebi ordens para produzir e esquentar dossiês contra uma lista inteira de adversários do governo. O PT do Lula age assim. Persegue seus inimigos da maneira mais sórdida. Mas sempre me recusei. (…) Havia uma fábrica de dossiês no governo. Sempre refutei essa prática e mandei apurar a origem de todos os dossiês fajutos que chegaram até mim. Por causa disso, virei vítima dessa mesma máquina de difamação. Assassinaram minha reputação. Mas eu sempre digo: não se vira uma página em branco na vida. Meu bem mais valioso é a minha honra.”

No livro, Tuma Jr. sustenta que Celso Daniel foi assassinado ao tentar desarmar um esquema paralelo de arrecadação de propina montado por petistas, que tentava se sobrepor àquele criado pelo próprio Celso, que serviria ao partido e seria integrado por Gilberto Carvalho, que lhe teria confessado a existência da tramoia.

A pressão
Aguardemos os próximos passos. Uma investigação qualquer tinha sido iniciada pela Polícia Federal, razão por que Tuma Jr. foi convidado a dar uma declaração. Mas qual? Denúncias para iniciar um inquérito não faltavam. A questão é saber se pretendem que Tuma Jr. seja o investigado ou a testemunha.

Por Robson Bonin, na VEJA.com.  Volto no próximo post.
Por volta da 11 horas desta terça-feira, quatro policiais federais estiveram no escritório do delegado Romeu Tuma Júnior, no bairro do Bom Retiro, em São Paulo, com ordens para conduzi-lo coercitivamente à Superintendência da Polícia Federal. Tuma Júnior se recusou a acompanhar os agentes, alegando que a condução era ilegal.

Mais tarde, ele compareceu à sede da PF para prestar esclarecimentos sobre o livro “Assassinato de Reputações — Um Crime de Estado” (Topbooks; 557 páginas), que narra os bastidores do que ele viu, ouviu e, principalmente, acompanhou de perto quando ocupou o cargo de ex-secretário Nacional de Justiça do governo Lula

Tuma Júnior afirmou que passou cerca de 40 minutos na sede da PF, mas não respondeu a nenhuma pergunta. Ele disse que já havia prestado esclarecimentos sobre o conteúdo do livro em procedimento aberto pela Delegacia Fazendária no ano passado – não há inquérito contra ele. “Hoje só registrei meu repúdio, já havia sido ouvido. Apontei minha repulsa em se conduzir um advogado coercitivamente sem comunicar à OAB. A polícia está aparelhada, a gente nunca sabe o que vai acontecer”, afirmou.

Na chegada dos policiais ao escritório de Tuma Júnior, houve discussão e muito bate-boca. O delegado Fabrizio Galli, da Delegacia Fazendária, afirmou que Tuma Júnior recebeu intimações prévias, mas não compareceu para prestar depoimentos.

Em seu livro, o delegado revelou que a estrutura do governo petista era usada para produzir dossiês contra adversários políticos. Ele também teria ouvido do ministro Gilberto Carvalho, ex-chefe de gabinete de Lula, a confissão de que o ex-prefeito de Santo André Celso Daniel teria sido assassinado depois de descobrir um esquema clandestino de arrecadação de dinheiro para beneficiar o PT. Atual secretário-geral  da Presidência da República, Carvalho, segundo o relato do delegado, teria confessado também ter transportado dinheiro de corrupção para abastecer o caixa eleitoral do PT.

Tuma Júnior se recusou a acompanhar os agentes, alegando que a condução era ilegal. Ele disse que um dos federais informou apenas que estava cumprindo “ordens de Brasília”. “Estive lá na PF um vez e nem inquérito havia”, disse o delegado. Isso é perseguição política”, afirmou.

 

Um pouco de racionalidade na loucura? Quem sabe… Embora não tenha dado ainda a operação “Margem Protetora” como encerrada, Israel retirou de Gaza todas as suas tropas terrestres, antes ainda da entrada em vigor do cessar-fogo de 72 horas negociado pelo Egito, com o qual concordaram tanto as forças dos movimentos terroristas Hamas e Jihad Islâmica como as de Israel. A trégua teve início às 8h desta terça — 2h em Brasília. Representantes dos extremistas palestinos já estão no Cairo, para onde rumarão também negociadores israelenses. Os egípcios tentam fazer da trégua o começo de uma negociação de paz — ao menos para o conflito de agora. Israel anunciou que destruiu os túneis do Hamas, mas não dá como concluída a tarefa: “Ainda temos muitas missões para cumprir”, disse o porta-voz militar, Moti Almoz.

Cresce a pressão de países europeus contra Israel. O governo da Grã-Bretanha afirmou que pretende rever seus contratos de venda de armas e artefatos militares, embora não tenha falado em suspendê-los. Já o governo da Espanha anunciou a suspensão mesmo, embora o volume negociado seja irrisório. O governo francês, por sua vez, afirmou que é preciso parar com o “massacre” na Faixa de Gaza.

Já tratei do assunto aqui muitas vezes e não mudei de ideia porque não há fatos que o justifiquem. É claro que uma tragédia está em curso em Gaza. A questão é saber o que o governo israelense poderia ter feito para evitá-la. Alguém dirá: “Basta suspender o bloqueio a Gaza…”. É mesmo? Perguntem por que o islâmico Egito não faz a mesma coisa. A questão de fundo é saber o que o Hamas fará se e quando ele for suspenso. Hoje, é fácil saber: iria se armar ainda mais. Pode-se ir mais longe: “É preciso acabar com os assentamentos na Cisjordânia…”. Salvo engano, o Hamas não quer apenas a Cisjordância e Gaza livres da presença judaica, mas toda a terra que eles consideram a grande Palestina — e isso inclui o Estado de Israel. O grupo só foi criado, diga-se, e optou pela ação terrorista porque se opunha e se opõe a qualquer forma de negociação com o “inimigo”.

É claro que ser “pacifista” em situações assim é sempre o mais fácil, não é? Como esquecer que Chamberlain foi saudado por milhares nas ruas quando voltou a Londres, depois de assinar com Hitler o tratado de Munique, em companhia do francês Daladier. Dois “pacifistas” em 1938… Churchill disse, então, uma das grandes frases daquele tempo: “Entre a desonra e a guerra, escolheram a desonra e terão a guerra”. Não estou comparando as duas situações. Só estou apelando a um fato extremo para exemplificar que nem sempre o que parece bom no momento é o mais desejável.

Eu defendo, é evidente, a existência de dois estados na área, o judeu e o palestino. Intransigências terão de ser vencidas de lado a lado. Ocorre que o terrorismo não é uma intransigência apenas: trata-se de uma forma de manter o permanente estado de guerra, que garante o statu quo dos… terroristas. A grande loucura do nosso tempo nessa questão está no fato de a lógica do terror — e suas estratégias — terem contaminado o juízo da diplomacia ocidental.

Poucos se dão conta de que o que se pede a Israel, hoje, no terreno militar, é que atue menos, o que só se pode fazer à custa de mais vítimas israelenses. Que governo faria essa opção? É preciso negociar e pôr fim à incursão a Gaza? É, sim! Mas o que é que se vai exigir dos terroristas?

Então vamos ver. Os artefatos encontrados com o estudante e funcionário da USP Fábio Hideki Harano e com o professor de inglês Rafael Lusvarghi, presos há 43 dias, não têm poder explosivo, segundo laudo técnico do Gate (grupo antibombas da PM) e do Instituto de Criminalística (IC) da Polícia Científica. Então eles têm de ser soltos imediatamente? Calma aí! Com o laudo, eles podem se livrar de uma acusação — posse de material explosivo, previsto no Artigo 253 do Código Penal. E só.

Ocorre que essa não é a única acusação que existe contra eles: ambos tiveram a prisão decretada também por incitação criminosa (Artigo 286), associação criminosa (Artigo 288), resistência (Artigo 329) e desobediência (Artigo 330). As pessoas têm o direito de achar que, se explosivos não eram, então não há motivo para prender. Eu estou entre aqueles que avaliam que a posse dos ditos-cujos era apenas um desses motivos.

Nesta segunda, o governador Geraldo Alckmin participou de sabatina do Estadão (ver post a respeito). E negou que a Polícia de São Paulo esteja plantando provas como acusam os militantes de extrema esquerda. Segundo disse, é preciso parar de “falar mal da polícia”. Também acho. Reserve-se a crítica quando o erro é apontado.

Há gente por aí tentando usar o laudo para demonstrar que o governador está errado. Ao contrário: a perícia só prova que Alckmin está certo. Afinal, o exame técnico do material também prova que a polícia não plantou explosivos nas respectivas mochilas de ambos, certo?, ou o resultado teria sido positivo. A turma que gosta de malhar a polícia é tão afoita que se esquece da lógica.

Aliás, aproveito a oportunidade para dar os parabéns ao juiz Marcelo Matias Pereira, da 10ª Vara Criminal. Referindo-se aos black blocs, escreveu: “Além de descaradamente atacarem o patrimônio particular de pessoas que tanto trabalharam para conquistá-lo, sob o argumento de que são contra o capitalismo, mas usam tênis da Nike, telefone celular, conforme se verifica nas imagens, postam fotos no Facebook e até utilizam uma denominação grafada em língua inglesa, bem ao gosto da denominada esquerda caviar”.

O esquerdista militante e petista Luiz Eduardo Greenhalgh, advogado de Hideki, diz que a avaliação do juiz é “ideológica”. É mesmo? O que há de “ideológico” no que vai acima? Trata-se apenas de uma constatação óbvia. As esquerdas têm a mania de achar que “ideológico” é só pensamento das pessoas com as quais elas não concordam. É um modo autoritário de pensar, é claro.

Martin Kramer

Phil, it was when the Ottoman elites absorbed the European notion of majoritarian rule that they decided they had to turn all the inhabitants of the empire into "Turks," or ethnically cleanse them (e.g., the Armenians). That was a major element in the chaos of the Empire's collapse. The Turkish Republic could become majoritarian

because the Empire had lost the Balkans (including Ataturk's own native city, Salonica), leaving mostly only so-called "Turks" inhabiting Anatolia. It then got rid of the remaining "Greeks" in exchange for other "Turks," and it defined Kurds as "Mountain Turks" (they have not stopped rebelling as a result). Most of the Empire's successor states--Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon especially, in what I call the "Fragile Crescent"--contain all the variety of the Ottoman Empire, but little of the Ottoman tolerance for linguistic, sectarian, religious and ethnic differences. And so someone is always in open rebellion--Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, whatever. Those differences will never go away, they can only be moderated, and the attempt to impose a nation-state model on them has failed. So what will be the next model?

FP: And then the Western colonial powers came in and imposed artificial national boundaries on that mess. And now that the West is going down, the ME is reverting to its own self.

 

William Jacobson: If Mitt Romney had talked about Palestinians the way Obama spoke about Pennsylvanians

Mitt Romney is under furious attack from the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and pro-Obama media for pointing out the truth about why culture matters in the economic success of Israel.

How would these people have reacted if Romney gave this speech:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania the Palestinian Territories, and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest Middle East, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Rabin administration, and the Bush Netanyahu administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrantIsraeli sentiment or anti-tradeJewish sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

I suspect the reaction would have been what it now is, with absurd charges of racism and cultural insensitivity.

What a difference a continent makes.

FP: I guess in Obama’s distorted world Pennsylavnians are worse than Palestinians. Upside down and backwards.

And:

It relates to this story:

At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack  Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three  separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission,  according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily  Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation  appears.

In ”Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and  the Advisors Who Decide for Him,“ Richard Miniter writes that Obama  canceled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time  in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each  time, according to the book.

From friend of the blog @irishspy:

“President Gutsy Call” turns out to be President “Valerie, May I?” wp.me/pqXLW-3Hl

— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) July 30, 2012

Can he do nothing right?

 

Hamas slams Palestinian official's visit to Auschwitz

Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, recently visited the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where 1.5 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Bandak's visit constituted a rare recognition of the Holocaust by a Palestinian official.

The opposing Hamas party, which rules the Gaza Strip, was outraged by the Bandak's visit. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "It was an unjustified and unhelpful visit that served only the Zionist occupation." Barhoum continued by calling into question the scope of the Holocaust, saying the visit was "a marketing of a false Zionist alleged tragedy."

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Caroline Glick: The Muslim Brotherhood's American Defenders (MUST READ-Scary!)

David Goldman: Hopeless But Not Syri-us

No-one is going to push Basher Assad out of power, at least not out of his enclave, not while he’s got Russian support and chemical weapons.

The Russians aren’t going to give up on Assad, and give NATO a chance to attempt another Libyan-style intervention.

The Iranians aren’t going to go in, because the Turks won’t let them.

The Turks aren’t going to go in, because there is massive domestic opposition to going in, and because the Turkish army doesn’t want to expose its weaknesses, and because going into Syria would open up the whole Kurdish can of worms (and also because the Saudis don’t want Turkey to go in, and Saudi Arabia is financing Turkey’s massive balance of payments deficit).

The Sunnis aren’t going to get together because they hate each other too much and are financed by different people.

In a nutshell: Nobody is going to give ground, but no-one is going to take too great a risk to conquer the other fellow’s ground. So the civil war will go on indefinitely. And that’s not the worst thing that can happen as far as American security interests are concerned.

FP: Possible. Even likely. But in the ME there are too many interfering and too much instability and you never know where things will lead when somebody decides to take the situation get out of control for his benefit.

 

Bill Katz: OH HOW GENEROUS, MY GRACIOUS LEADER

An aide to the Obama campaign says the president will visit Israel...but only if he is re-elected.  How do you like that?  I mean, why waste time with an ally if you're going down the drain?  I don't think it's coincidental that the foreign minister of another close ally, Australia, just said, as we reported earlier today, that America is in decline.  Our allies are dismayed by this president.  And, oh, by the way, the president has made no commitment to go to the Olympics, being held in the capital city of our closest ally, Britain.  He may, we're told, condescend to go if the American basketball team is in contention for the gold.  Oh thank you, thank you so much.  We don't mean to intrude, sir.

…

We are in decline under Obama.  The Obama forces are already disparaging Romney's overseas trip.  Of course they are.  He's visiting American allies, those countries for which Obama has so little use.

One reason for our decline is Obama's breaking of faith with allies.  You will see little discussion of that in the media.

Australia has always been there for us.  When its foreign minister speaks of American decline, we should listen.

FP: I must reiterate: Obama’s election was in itself an indicator of American decline. He would have not been elected had that not already been the case.

As to Israel, by now everybody with half a brain has a pretty good idea what Obama thinks of Israel and what he will do if he gets reelected.Going there will not change the mind of pro-Israel supporters and it’ll only annoy the new Islamist allies. They may even reject US aid. (I doubt it; it’s much smarter to take it and raise a ruckus).

But it’s worse:

UPSETTING, TO SAY THE LEAST

Just when we thought Mitt Romney had gotten past his reputation for gaffes, he commits one that is world class, and can seriously damage his presidential prospects.

Ah, how we recall Romney's comment, during the primaries, that his wife drove "a couple of Cadillacs," and other gems that do not endear a candidate to voters.

Now Romney is on a foreign trip, meant to demonstrate that he can play in the big leagues, and restore America's relationship with its allies, marred by Obama's sneering attitude toward old friends.  And what does Romney do?  He puts his foot in it, big time.  As he travels to Britain, our closest friend, he openly casts doubt on whether the country is actually ready to host the Olympics, which start, er, tomorrow.  The British press is stunned.

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has questioned Britain's preparedness to host the London 2012 Olympics and asked whether the country is genuinely willing to "celebrate" the Games.

…

But he told US television there were "disconcerting" signs about Britain's readiness. "It's hard to know just how well it will turn out," he said. "There are a few things that were disconcerting: the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging."

What?  This is what you say about Britain when you're trying to show that you want to restore the alliance?  Romney was promptly reprimanded, and publicly so, by British Prime Minister David Cameron.  Now Romney is backtracking:

However, Mr Romney later made a second gaffe when he referred to Mr Miliband as "Mr Leader".

“Like you Mr Leader I look forward to our conversations this morning and I have had a number of conversations with leaders both present and past and recongise of course the unique relationship that exists between our nations,” he said.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.  Thank you, Mitt, for blowing it on your first day abroad.  This gaffe will dominate political discussion of your trip, make you look like an amateur, and cost you. 

As I predicted from day one, Romney is probably not going to make it. It takes some real talent not to win hands down against Obama. But the fact that all that America could pit against Obama is Romney is an even clearer indicator of its decline.

 

Walter Russell Mead: Israeli Parliamentarian Shreds a New Testament. World Yawns

A far right member of the Israeli Knesset, Michael Ben-Ari, recently received a copy of the New Testament in his mailbox, a gift from local Christian missionaries. He was not enthused, reports the Associated Press:

Ben-Ari, an Orthodox Jew, was enraged to receive the book, in whose name he says millions of Jews were slaughtered. Ben-Ari tore it up, he said, then posed for photographs with the destroyed Bible.

What’s notable about this incident is that you probably haven’t heard about it. That’s because there were no riots of angry Christian mobs in the streets of Israel or anywhere else in its wake. And most of the outrage that followed came from Jewish groups and Israeli officials tripping over themselves to disavow the act. As Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev told the AP, “We totally deplore this behavior and condemn it outright. This action stands in complete contrast to our values and our traditions. Israel is a tolerant society, but we have zero tolerance for this despicable and hateful act.”

Gee: a hot-headed believer in a particular religious tradition does something tasteless to the holy book of another religion. No howling mobs rage through the streets, burning and lynching; no cells of deranged fanatics hatch terror plots. Instead, more emotionally balanced co-religionists of the original hothead distance their faith from the provocative act.

What’s so hard about that?

Here’s a wild and crazy suggestion: this is how all of us should try to act when faced with some kind of religious or political affront.

FP: By whitewashing or failing to report Muslim violence, while also failing to report the behavior of civilized people the mainstream media is promoting a picture of reality that is upside down and backwards.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arab Spring: A Blessing for Hamas

Jonathan S. Tobin: Does the Levy Report Doom Israel?

While the concerns expressed in this letter are real, those who signed are mistaken not only about the impact of Levy’s report but also about how to build international support for Israel and the hope of peace. What the signers don’t understand is that it is the opposite tack — Israel’s abandonment of a position that would uphold its rights — that has done the most to convince the world the Jewish state is in the wrong and strengthened the resolve of the Palestinians to never accede to a compromise on territory and two states. While one document cannot undo the damage done by Oslo and 19 years of failed peace processing, the Levy report can at least begin to remind the world the Israeli-Arab conflict is not one of balancing Palestinian rights and Israeli security but the rights of two nations.

…

A generation of abdication of Jewish rights to the West Bank has not softened the hearts of the world or the Palestinians. If Israel is ever to negotiate a peace that will bring security, it must start by saying that it comes to the table not as a thief but as a party whose legal rights must be respected.

FP: Yesss! Exactly.

Which makes the following very logical, right?

Clinton pushes Netanyahu to apologize to Turkey, take steps to bring PA back to talks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks Monday evening with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the end of a day of meetings with Israel’s leaders on Iran, Palestinian peacemaking and America’s desire to see Israel heal its ties with Turkey.

Clinton reportedly urged Netanyahu to mend ties with Turkey and make moves to jump start peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

The US secretary of state, in Israel as the last leg of a tour through Asia, also told Netanyahu that Jerusalem should transfer small arms to the PA in order to help get the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, according to Ynet news. She also called on Netanyahu to release Palestinian prisoners. Both moves have been mentioned as Palestinian prerequisites for coming back to talks.

Negotiations with the PA have been frozen since 2010 as Ramallah has also demanded a freeze on settlement construction before returning to the table.

Clinton reportedly told Netanyahu he should hurry to achieve peace with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, since it was not clear who would replace them.

Here’s more Clintonian logic: Concede to Abbas/Fayyad, because we don’t know who is gonna replace them. Now, is it me, or is this imbecillic? And don’t be surprised if Netanyahu does it too.

 

JoshuaPundit: Egypt's New Industry - Sex Tourism Center For The Arab World

Egypt has become the hot new destination for Arab men, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates who are seeking a convenient, cheap, and sharia compliant sex tourism holiday.

All the ingredients are there.....a large population of vulnerable, underage girls with poverty stricken families, a conveniently close, Arabic speaking destination with a nearly bankrupt tourism industry desperate for business, and most of all, a culture that debases women anyway and allows and encourages it.

As Natasha Smith, Lara Logan and far too many others have found out to their horror, foreign, non-Muslim women come under the category of 'what thy right hand possesses'* and can simply be raped out of hand.

However, Muslim females already the chattel property of another Muslim male are a different matter. Especially if you're talking about the predator being an older Muslim male who's already married and looking for some young, nubile flesh as amusement.

So sharia provides for this trafficking and gives it a religious blessing with the practice of temporary 'marriages'…

FP: I guess the old Gulf pedophiles couldn’t agree more that there’s an “Arab spring”.

 

Project Veritas undercover video exposes shovel-ready jobs farce (via Legal Insurrection)

 

 

 

FP: No comment.

JoshuaPundit: SecState Clinton Signals Support For Hamas, US Assent On Egypt's Abrogating Treaty With Israel

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in Egypt today, talking to President Obama's Muslim Brotherhood friends. Aside from promising to open America's checkbook to the Islamists, there was also this fascinating exchange

…

Read between the lines. Secretary Clinton is telling the Islamists that America supports the union of the PA and Hamas as long as they make the appropriate noises and put on a suitable front - and she's saying this when Israel is still under attack from Gaza.

And when Egyptian foreign minister Amr adds linkage between the Camp David Accords and the total fulfillment of all Palestinian demands, something that was not even mentioned in the original treaty, she doesn't even make a pretense of challenging it.

…

If Egypt adhering to the treaty was as important as she claimed it was in her speech, you would expect a response. But she says nothing.Because when it comes down to it, the no question that the Obama Administration would fully support Egypt breaking their treaty with Israel on that basis.

FP: Just as I predicted that ultimtely it would happen. Quite early I predicted that instead of inducing Israel to make concessions by making it feel secure, Obama would do the opposite: it would try to force it into concessions by scaring it. I rest my case.

But I guess the Egyptians know how to appreciate it and enjoy their freedom:

Debbie Schlussel: Obamacracy in Egypt: Wealthy Arab Tourists Buy Under-Aged Egyptian Girls for Sex Slaves

I loved that Egyptians threw shoes and other items at Hillary Clinton (and shouted, “Monica! Monica!”), the mother of Muslim Brotherhood “democracy,” during her visit to Egypt. That’s how Muslims experess their “appreciation” to the Western liberator. We saw it in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza/HAMASastan, etc. And we’ll continue to see it, even as America continues to shower billions on these America-hating ingrates while whining about Israel. These newly liberated Muslims–liberated to their savagery–just hate us more. And laugh at us . . . and throw shoes and shout the names of their Western liberator’s husband’s extramarital concubines. And now there’s yet another great development of Muslim “civilization” in newly-”democratized” Egypt.

Wealthy tourists from the Persian Gulf are paying to marry under-age Egyptian girls just for the summer, according to a report.

These temporary marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their homes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Martin Kramer

Barry Rubin: “The more I think about Israel’s security situation, the better it looks…. Internal battles will disrupt Arab armies and economies… The big Mideast conflict in future is not the Arab-Israeli but the Sunni-Shia one…. Of course, there are threats—Iran getting deliverable nuclear weapons; Egypt becoming belligerent—but both lie in the future and there are constraining factors” (http://goo.gl/y7MwE).

FP: My comment: This is a rational perspective, but the ME is not rational. One of the first things I learned in my courses about the ME was that not even Islam unifies Arabs as does hatred of Jews and Israel. It's about the only unifying factor for Arabs. Had it not been for Israel (and the West) they would all be at each other's throat. So given that most Arab states are failed states that cannot solve their problems, they will use Israel to distract. Leaders understand the risks from Sunni-Shia conflict and will try to deflect it via Jihad. And now that Israel has energy resources and has been abandoned by the West, the temptation will be immense. Their real problems will start when they dismantle Israel.

Hamas improves rocket range after succesful test launch

Egyptian media report that Hamas' military wing test fired a rocket into Sinai two weeks ago • Rocket, modeled after dismantled missiles smuggled into Gaza from Libya, can reportedly reach further distances than any other missile in Hamas' rocket arsenal.

FP: See what I mean? Suppose Hamas can’t resist the temptation and drags Islamists into war by forcing Israel to retaliate big in reaction to a rocket into the central area of Israel? Does anybody doubt that Islamist regimes will jump at the opportunity to distract and unify their streets? Is anybody under any illusion that the West will lift a finger to help, thinking “Better Israel than us”.

 

'Ultra-Orthodox draft will only succeed if carried out gradually'

PM Netanyahu says only gradual approach will result in higher haredi conscription, adds that drafting all18-year-olds "would make haredim more secluded, united in their opposition" • Kadima poised to leave coalition, could set in motion early elections.

FP: What did I tell ya?

 

Shop 'til your people drop

Syrian first lady Asma Assad spent more than 270,000 British pounds ($420,000) on chandeliers, carpets, sofas, tables and more last March, according to WikiLeaks • International Red Cross formally declares civil war status in Syria.

FP: Is she preparing a cozy new place? Where?

Steven Hayward: The Labor of LIBOR

With the exception of the specialty financial press and one or two general assignment journalists, the media are not making much of the LIBOR scandal.  Much easier, and more congruent with The Narrative, I suppose, for the media to continue to chase after the bane of Bain.  I mentioned here last week that the real story about LIBOR may well be the massive conflict of interest and collusion between the U.S. Treasury, the Fed, and the big banks to help prop up our massive and ever growing debt.

There’s a huge misdirection taking place.  The Obamanauts gave us as their solution to the financial crisis the Dodd-Frank bill, which was supposed to cure “too big to fail.”  And what’s one of the first things they do out of the box?  Hate on banks for overdraft fees.  Yeah—that’s really going to help alleviate financial vulnerability of the system.

So kudos for Charles Gasparino of the NY Post for noting the essence of the story a couple days ago:

But the dirty little secret on Wall Street is that the New York Fed is a horrible regulator: It sees its chief job as keeping the banking system intact. Since it needs its member banks to buy US government debt and to control the money supply, the last thing it wants to do is shed light on the banks’ shady practices.

Which is why the Wall Street power brokers loved Geithner so much: On his New York Fed watch, he basically let them get away with the financial equivalent of murder, letting them take on the astronomical amounts of risk that ultimately blew up the system in 2008.

As Glenn Reynolds likes to say, the country’s in the very best of hands.

FP: The corporate welfare state at its very best. I’ve posted on Matt Taibbi coverage of this story. The fact is that banks have been put in a position where they hold the government and the country by the balls. Because their fall bringd down the system, they are getting away with robbing the country blind.

 

Via Martin Kramer

 

 

FP: And this an Arab educated man. Any wonder they are such utter failures?

 

Scott Johnson: Annals of government medicine

The Daily Mail delivers the news of another inspirational example of government medicine in England, much of it packed into the headline: “Elderly patients are being ‘deprived of food and drink so they die quicker and free up bed space’, claim doctors.”

The practice in issue goes under the delicate name of a “care pathway.” Like the stairway in the Led Zeppelin song, it’s a pathway to heaven. The Daily Mail explains:

Thousands of terminally ill people are placed on a “care pathway” every year to hasten the ends of their lives.

But in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, six doctors who specialise in elderly care said hospitals across the UK could be using the controversial practice to ease the pressure on resources.

As you might guess, the doctors seem to know what they’re talking about.

FP: But you have to admit it is quite effective in cutting costs.

 

JoshuaPundit: Mitt Romney's New Ad: 'Obama Lied'

Speaking of outsourcing, anybody mention the jobs in coal or in oil production that have been lost under this administration - while our president gave $2 billion dollars of our tax money to Brazil to be used to develop their oil infrastructure and production, thus directly shipping American jobs overseas? Remember this one?

Oh, and the Brazilian oil we helped them develop? China got it. Well done, Mr. President!

FP: The Chinese probably have Obama’s number by now.

 

The public is smarter than its reporters

The myth currently being shoved down our throats is that Ehud Olmert was the best head of state since King Solomon.

FP: What did I tell you about the opportunistic shift of Olmert from right to left? The legal system and the media are on the left.

 

Hamas says Egypt's Mursi will defy Israel, end Gaza blockade

Leader of Gaza-based terror group Ismail Haniyeh says he is confident Egypt's new president will shield Palestinians from Israeli attack, fully open its borders to end trade blockade.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Caroline Gick: Obama's spectacular failure

Raymond Ibrahim: Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin

According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt's Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi'i, those "symbols of paganism," which Egypt's Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain's "Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs" and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt's new president, Muhammad Morsi, to "destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what Amr bin al-As could not."

…

Nor is such a course of action implausible. History is laden with examples of Muslims destroying their own pre-Islamic heritage—starting with Muhammad himself, who ransacked Arabia's Ka'ba temple, transforming it into a mosque.

Asking "What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against their own patrimony?" Daniel Pipes provides several examples, from Medieval Muslims in India destroying their forefathers' temples, to contemporary Muslims destroying their ancestors' heritage in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, and Tunisia. Currently, in what the International Criminal Court is describing as a possible "war crime," Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient legacy of the city of Timbuktu in Mali—all to Islam's triumphant war cry, "Allahu Akbar!"

…

Much of this hate for their own pre-Islamic heritage is tied to the fact that, traditionally, Muslims do not identify with this or that nation, culture, or language, but only with the Islamic nation—the Umma. Accordingly, while many Egyptians—Muslims and non-Muslims alike—see themselves first and foremost as Egyptians, Islamists have no national identity, identifying only with Islam's "culture," based on the "sunna" of the prophet and Islam's language, Arabic. This sentiment was clearly reflected when the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Akef, recently declared "the hell with Egypt," indicating that the interests of his country are secondary to Islam's.

It is further telling that such calls are being made now—immediately after a Muslim Brotherhood member became Egypt's president. In fact, the same reports discussing the call to demolish the last of the Seven Wonders of the Word, also note that Egyptian Salafis are calling on Morsi to banish all Shias and Baha'is from Egypt.

In other words, Morsi's recent call to release the Blind Sheikh, a terrorist mastermind, from U.S. imprisonment, may be the tip of the iceberg in coming audacity. From calls to legalize Islamic sex-slave marriage to calls to institute "morality police" to calls to destroy Egypt's mountain-like monuments, under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage, the bottle has been uncorked, and the genie unleashed in Egypt.

Will all those international institutions, which make it a point to look the other way whenever human rights abuses are committed by Muslims, lest they appear "Islamophobic," at least take note now that the Great Pyramids appear to be next on Islam's hit list, or will the fact that Muslims are involved silence them once again—even as those most ancient symbols of human civilization are pummeled to the ground?

FP: Wanna bet? Islamists hate future progress and hate the past. Any wonder they are such a failure and practice the cult of death?

 

JoshuaPundit: U.S. State Department Deliberately Excludes Israel From Counterterrorism Forum

Hardly surprising, but worth noting, especially given the Obama Administration's embrace of Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood:

Despite pleas from Senators on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration excluded Israel from a new counterterrorism forum and neglected to mention its long and deadly struggle with terrorism during remarks presented yesterday in Spain.

…

Not only that, but Israel - again- was deliberately excluded from a list of nations recognized by the U.S. for counterterrorism efforts.

"When the administration promised to include Israel in the counterterrorism forum that the United States founded—after Jerusalem’s inexplicable exclusion from the initial meeting a month ago—one would think they would be true to their word,” said Josh Block, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Clearly someone failed here. How Israel could be excluded from another meeting of an anti-terror forum that we chair is beyond comprehension, especially one that focuses on victims of terrorism.”

FP: Let me get this straight: America excludes Israel but cooperates with Islamists on anti-terrorism?

 

Bill Katz: INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE

Reader Christopher Murphy alerts us to a bit of bother involving federal "health care" spending.  This deserves a very careful congressional look.  From The Hill:

Federal healthcare grants might have been illegally used for political lobbying, according to the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general.

The inspector general said grants administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might have been used for lobbying efforts — and that the CDC might have led recipients to believe lobbying was appropriate, despite a federal ban on using grant money for political activism.

FP: This is what systemic senility is all about.

 

Political comeback for Olmert? Not so fast

Former PM still faces sentencing for breach of trust conviction, which may include moral turpitude, as well as serious charges in Holyland affair • Gal-On: The fact that Olmert was convicted of breach of trust should force him out of politics forever.

FP: Ah, but Olmert was shrewd. He moved from the extreme right to the extreme left in the direction of the legal system. And it has clearly worked. Given that the media and other state institutions are left, don’t be surprised if he’ll get back into politics. Besides, Israel has a record of reinstating failures: Peres, Barak, even Netanyahu.

 

Israel frees hunger-striking Palestinian soccer player

Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, staged a hunger strike for more than 90 days to press for his release, winning support from international sports organizations • Islamic Jihad leader praises the soccer player as "one of our noble members."

FP: Between Shalit deal and and hunger strike releases Israel will soon have no prisoners left.

 

'Mandatory draft for all at age 18 not feasible,' Ya'alon says

Proposal to replace the Tal Law, which grants blanket military deferment to ultra-Orthodox men, to be presented today • Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman hints at sabotaging national budget if draft law is passed.

FP: What did I tell you?

Ya'alon: Keshev C'tee on haredim would spell civil war

Likud representative in governmental talks to replace Tal Law slams Plesner for personal stubbornness, says Kadima MK is pursuing course bound to erase all inroads that have been made in integration of ultra-orthodox.

Where did you read this first?

Netanyahu, Abbas negotiating prisoner release — report

Prime minister is prepared to release convicted murderers but Palestinian Authority president demands better conditions, according to Haaretz

FP: There’s no safer bet that continuous concessions by Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular. Abbas threatens UN state and intifada, Israel releases murderes. Where do you think this is going? Particularly when all released go back into terrorism.

 

Barak says Tel Aviv threatened by long-range Gazan rockets

Terrorists in the Strip can hit targets 70 kilometers away, defense minister tells Knesset committee

FP: Noooooo! Reaaaaaaaaally? Who could have predicted?

 

Bill Katz: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DIN-DIN

I guess Obama just couldn't resist it.  A lot of foreign leaders are waiting for presidential invitations to visit the United States, but the president plays favorites.  And who has he chosen to visit, right in the middle of a presidential campaign?  Do we have any doubts?

CAIRO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has invited Egypt's newly elected Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, to visit the United States in September, an Egyptian official said on Sunday, reflecting the new ties Washington is cultivating with the region's Islamists.

"President Obama extended an invitation to President Mursi to visit the United States when he attends the U.N. General Assembly in September," Egyptian aide, Yasser Ali, said after Mursi met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

Burns did not mention the invitation at a news conference earlier.

Washington, long wary of Islamists and an ally of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, shifted policy last year to open formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, the group behind Mursi's win. Mursi formally resigned from the group when he won the presidency.

COMMENT:  We'll be waiting to see if Obama gives Mursi a warmer greeting than he's given to American allies, like the prime ministers of Britain and Israel. 

These summits are largely staged.  The real diplomatic work goes on before the meeting, to increase the chances of the summit being a success.  I have no faith that the in-the-tank press will ask Obama any embarrassing questions at the usual post-summit press conference, but some American diplomat, who actually understands which country he's representing, should demand that Mursi acknowledge his past "misstatements" in which he expressed doubt that the attacks of 9-11 were carried out by Muslims, and suggesting that they were an inside job.  That's the least the man can do before meeting the president.

Why do I think we will make no such demand? 

Why do I think Mursi will get a warmer greeting than allied leaders?

I guess we learn by watching.

FP: Should be no surprise to readers of this blog. So how did I do when I made the early general prediction that Obama will realign the US with its enemies and the more specific one that he will appease the hell out of Morsi?

Spengler: The Obama Administration Is Setting up a Bloodbath in Egypt

Why, then, is Mohamed Morsi picking a fight with the military?

As Jackson Diehl put it in the Washington Post July 8, “Last month the administration leaned heavily on the ruling military council to recognize Morsi’s victory in a runoff election. Lobbying by [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta may have prevented the council from handing the presidency to its favored candidate, a former prime minister. But it infuriated the generals, Egyptian Christians and some US supporters of Israel, who fear the Islamists more than the old regime.”

With backing from the Obama administration, and enormous pressure from his political base, Morsi has rolled the dice with the military. The result is likely to blow up in his face as well as the Obama administration’s.

At best, international aid will allow the status quo to continue a while longer. But the status quo involves a barely-adequate supply of bread, a dreadfully inadequate supply of fuel, and no outlook for the future except poverty and insecurity. It seems most unlikely that a political or economic equilibrium can be established on such a wobbly base. The uneasy modus vivendi between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military most likely will fail, and probably sooner than later.

See what I mean? But in any case, hungry Islamists will be up to no good.

As to the military crushing the Islamists, I am not so sure.

JoshuaPundit: Breaking: Egyptian President Annuls Dissolution Of Islamist Parliament

Morsi's decree was explicit in saying that new elections would occur, in accordance with the court's ruling - but 60 days after the new constitution is put in place.

Presumably, that also means that the junta's naming of itself, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, as the chief legislative body is also null and void and that it is the Islamists who will write Egypt's new constitution.

More importantly, it means that the military has caved in and agreed to support the new Islamist revolution.

Egypt looks to be headed headed down a similar Iranian path. Some high ranking military officers with ties to the old regime will flee, like Morsi's political opponent Shafik. Others will be imprisoned or executed and still others will become part of a new Egyptian-style 'revolutionary guard' which will essentially become an institution in itself.

Another similarity..having enabled a takeover of a former U.S. ally by an Islamist regime, the Obama Administration is following in the Carter Administration's footsteps. As the Courier-Mail writes, 'The United States is reaching out carefully to Mr. Morsi as officials predict a more complicated and less predictable relationship with a key Arab nation.'

Change Morsi to 'Khomeini' and 'Arab' to 'Muslim' or 'Persian Gulf' and that could have been written in 1979.

Just like I predicted.

 

William A. Jacobson: If only the U.N. were merely useless

How long before the U.N. demands Bernie Madoff be appointed head of the Securities and Exchange Commission:

In what one critic called a move akin to placing Bernie Madoff in charge of thwarting fraud on the stock market, Iran has been elected as one of the 15 members of the United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty conference….

The choice of Iran was condemned by UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group. “Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to now elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers,” said Hillel Neuer, UN Watch’s executive director.

On Friday, a UN report written by members of the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee found that “Iran has continued to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments.”

Meanwhile, back in the Twilight Zone, Syria looks likely to land a spot on the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2014:

Despite its poor record on human rights, Syria is on course to winning membership on the UN Human Rights Council, UN Watch reported on Thursday.

UN Watch, an NGO that monitors the international body’s activity, cited a draft resolution presented in Geneva in which the US opposed Syria’s candidacy for a Human Rights Council seat in 2014. The resolution, which is also supported by the European Union, said Damascus “fails to meet the standards” for Human Rights Council membership.

President Bashar Assad’s regime is, however, likely to get a spot on the 47-nation council “due to the prevalent system of fixed slates, whereby regional groups orchestrate uncontested elections, naming only as many candidates as allotted seats,” according to UN Watch.

Do you think taking off the top 10 floors is enough?

FP:  It’s not the barbarians at the gate that are the problem, it’s the defenders inside.

 

Bill Katz: ROMNEY-RICE?

No matter how much she denies being interested, Condi Rice's name continues to come up as a serious prospect for the Republican ticket.  Part of that has to do with the fact that she's female, part with her very high approval numbers.  Bill Kristol adds the fact that Ann Romney recently said that a female candidate is under careful consideration, and that she'd like to see it:

Ann Romney—who presumably is better informed about her husband's thinking than the rest of us—said this week, "We've been looking at [picking a woman], and I love that option as well."

Who's the woman? It could be Kelly Ayotte or New Mexico governor Susana Martinez. But as much as I like both of them, I suspect Mitt Romney will see them as risky picks, lacking sufficient high-level government experience to unequivocally answer the question of whether they'd be qualified to take over. No, the woman Ann Romney likely has in mind is Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state.

Rice wowed the crowd—and seemed to impress Mitt Romney, who was standing beside her—when she spoke in a featured role at a Romney campaign event two weeks ago in Park City, Utah. Rice is qualified, would be a poised (if novice) candidate, and would complement Romney in terms of area of expertise, gender (obviously!), and life experience. Rice offers an unusual combination of being at once a reassuring pick (she served at the highest levels of the federal government for eight years) and an exciting one.

What's more, while the other VP possibilities have decent but middling favorable/unfavorable ratings (and are mostly unknown), Rice's favorable/unfavorable, according to a Rasmussen poll a couple of months ago, is a pretty staggering 66-24. Rice has said she's not interested—but Dick Cheney said he wasn't interested at this point in 2000.

Let me be clear: I'm not advocating the selection of Rice. I'm just reading the tea leaves, and the biggest tea leaf out there right now is Ann Romney's comment. It makes sense to take Ann Romney seriously. Cherchez la femme!

Romney-Rice?

COMMENT:  Well, I don't know.  Rice brings some heavyweight credentials, but also some clear liabilities.  She has vast experience, far more than Barack Obama had when he ran for president in 2008.  She brings gender and racial diversity, although I really don't think that will cut into the black vote for Obama.  (Rice, as a Bush Republican, has never been that popular among blacks.) 

The problems:  She has never run for public office, and that's a learning curve in itself; her presence would allow Obama to run against the Bush administration; she has no track record of any kind in domestic policy; and her presence would inevitably invite comparisons with her successor as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who is also popular.   Would Rice want to to run against Hillary's record?

But it would be a different and exciting choice.  So was Sarah Palin.  That's part of the dilemma for Mitt.

FP: She’s an utter failure, both during 9/11 and with respect to ME. So it does not surprise me she’s popular and people think she’s credentialed. But hey, it’s not difficult to be so more than Obama.

 

JoshuaPundit: Palestinians' To Go To UN For Statehood Again In Spite Of Obama's Pressure

The 'Palestinian Authority' is threatening to go to the UN again this year in September to try getting statehood through the back door, and according to al-Arabiya, they have refused to back down even in the face of a number of threats by the president.

The last thing this president wants is to have to veto a 'Palestinian' state, particularly in the middle of his re-election campaign. He'd much rather the 'Palestinians' waited until the election was settled, when the misguided American Jews who support him would already have voted an dhe could simply order Susan Rice over at the UN to abstain and allow a 'Palestinian' reichlet to be proclaimed in defiance of Oslo and the Road Map treaties the U.S. signed.

Towards that end, the president is threatening to close the PLO embassy in Washington, and threatening to cut off all US aid. The president even sent emissaries to Ramallah last week to deliver that message in person.

According to my source, the problem is that after the president's failure to 'deliver' the Jews and get the 'Palestinians' everything they're demanding, he has little credibility with Abbas and the PLO. Nor do they believe his threats, after they suffered no penalty for defying him last year. They feel the only way to get what they want is to go to the UN and put the squeeze on someone they realize is an essentially weak man.

FP: The West never understood that appeasement and lack of credibility to Arabs is like a red sheet to a bull: it invites pouncing.

Muslim Brotherhood leader: Israelis are rapists of Jerusalem

Israelis are "rapists" and every Muslim needs to save Jerusalem from their clutches, Egypt's Muhammad Badi is reported to have said last Thursday • Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani: Time has come for the disappearance of the West and the Zionist regime.

FP: See what I mean? Give them more money.

 

Paul Mirengoff: Barack Obama, outsourcer — Part Two

In a previous post, John correctly labeled President Obama an “outsourcer” because his campaign paid a call center in the Philippines $78,314.10 for telemarketing services and spent nearly $4,700 on telemarketing services from a Canadian company. Now, according to the Washington Post, the left is criticizing Obama’s record on outsourcing.

FP: The Americans who re-elect this abomination deserve everything they’ll get.

 

John Hinderaker: Annals of Governmen

A key rule in Great Britain’s socialist health care system is: don’t get sick on the weekend! Hundreds of people die or suffer serious disability unnecessarily every year because they suffer a stroke at a weekend when NHS care is poorer, a major study has found…. A team from Imperial College London and the National Audit Office has found 350 people die within seven days of their stroke unnecessarily…

FP: That’s OK, it only happens to the poor. The rich are OK. As it will be the case here too.

 

Dan Margalit: Draft in stages

It is abundantly clear that a comprehensive enlistment for all cannot happen immediately in one fell swoop.

FP: And it won’t happen in stages either.

Plesner, Ya'alon promise a balanced new draft law

Amid great consternation in the haredi community and political circles over the possibility of the draft, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aides work to formulate new law acceptable to as many coalition partners as possible.

Uhuh. Good luck.

Shas: Netanyahu is on collision course against haredim

Shas and United Torah Judaism vow to unite against Tal Law alternative if it forces draft • Haredi representative: We will mount a protest like Israel has never seen before" • Shas: PM has been dragged off track by Kadima and seems to want bloodshed."

See what I mean?

 

Former PM Olmert acquitted on central corruption charges

Jerusalem District Court acquits former PM on Rishon Tours, Talansky affairs, finds Olmert guilty of breach of trust in Investment Center affair.

FP: I am beginning to understand why Olmert moved from extreme right to extreme left (the legal system in Israel is thoroughly left).

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Matt Taibbi: New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson Applaud British, Issue Challenge To American Regulators Over LIBOR Scandal

.

Ahmad Khatib: Jordan courting Islamists after Morsi's victory

Jordan is trying to woo the powerful Muslim Brotherhood after it gained more ground following the election of Islamist Mohamed Morsi as Egypt's first civilian president, analysts said on Monday.

Urging opposition Islamists to take part in early elections this year, King Abdullah II on Thursday ordered parliament to amend a controversial electoral law after they threatened to boycott the polls.

On the same day, he hosted Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on his second official visit this year since his expulsion in 1999.

"The turning point in Jordan's official position towards the Islamists following Morsi's victory is very obvious," Oreib Rintawi, who heads the Amman-based Al-Quds Centre for Political Studies, told AFP.

"Decision-makers here have realised that the region is now in the 'Brotherhood era.' The Islamists are already ruling in some Arab countries."

FP: Given their culture, I doubt that Arabs will be able to create a Caliphate, but whether they do or not, they have one unifying factor: hatred of Israel and Jews. If Jordan falls to Islamists, Israel will be entirely surrounded by them. And given the dismal economic state of Arab states (which Islam helped produce and prevents solutions to) the temptation for anti-Israel adventures will be extremely hard to resist, particularly in the context of a declining West that seems to have abandoned Israel and is appeasing them.

Consider what may happen as a consequence of the following if Israel were surrounded by Islamists:

'Hezbollah setting IDF up for another Goldstone'

Senior IDF officer says destruction in Lebanon will be extensive due to Hezbollah establishing command posts, bases in villages.

…

Halevy said that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – no matter by whom – or the ongoing uprising in Syria could spark a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In addition, increased tension between the IDF and the Lebanese Armed Forces could lead to a bigger conflict.

Last week, for example, a small force of soldiers from the Paratroop Brigade were patrolling the border when they spotted Lebanese troops standing 20 meters away and aiming their weapons –including a rocket-propelled grenade – at them. One of the Israeli soldiers, who speaks Arabic, heard the Lebanese commander dividing up targets for his men. The Israeli soldiers called in a backup force that quickly arrived at the scene, leading the Lebanese to withdraw.

“These type of incidents have the ability to turn into something larger,” a senior officer said.

Do you have any doubts that Hizb’allah understands the current Arab and Western context and will exploit it to drag the new Islamist regimes into a conflagration? Not to mention this: Arab World: Sunni Islamism stirs in Lebanon.

 

Elder of Ziyon: Juan Cole thinks Morsi is just like Jefferson

I really can't believe that people still take this joker seriously.

We should remember that the Thirteen Colonies that made the revolution starting in 1776 were religious societies. They had undergone the Evangelical Great Awakening, and millenarian and anti-papal movements were rife. Religious Americans fought the British for religious as well as material reasons.

...So if you are dismayed that the Muslim an-Nahda Party now dominates the Tunisian cabinet, you may as well be angry about bigotted Congregationaiists coming to power in some of the Thirteen colonies after 1776. (You could argue that the House of Representatives even today is highly religious; and the South Carolina state legislature is apparently a tailgate party for the Southern Baptist convention).

Yup, the Founding Fathers sounded just like this:

  

In Egypt, the MB said they wouldn't get involved in the protests - then they did.

They claimed they would not run for parliament - then they did.

They claimed they would not run for president - then they did.

But Cole believes them when they claim they will allow regular elections and listen to what the people want.

It is the "intellectual" equivalent of the mythical "law of averages," I guess.

FP: The problem is that Cole is not alone in this delusion. The entire Western establishment—governments, media, academia—and large portions of the populace fell under this spell. And with the likes of Cole teaching them, future generations of Western youth will fall under it. What do you think will happen, in this context, to current proposals by Muslim members of US Congress to introduce Islamic “education” in the American system?

 

US declares Afghanistan is newest ‘major non-NATO ally’

Clinton announces designation in Kabul, allowing for continued streamlined defense cooperation

FP: Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

With Turkey and Afghanistan in and Israel being excluded, how long before NATO will be Islamized?

 

Hungary’s anti-Semitic wave

It begins with the routine comments regarding “rich, smelly Jews,” proceeds onto the vandalism of Jewish symbols, veers into public discussions over “which kind of rope is best suited for hanging Jews,” and warnings over “Jewish control of the homeland.”

Jewish teen beaten in France as anti-Semitism surges in Europe

North African youths attack Jewish Ozar Hatorah student on train • French Interior Ministry: Anti-Semitism "contradicts the values of the republic" • European Jewish Congress: “The period of tolerance for anti-Semitism needs to end now.”

FP: Just like always: Talk and no action.

 

Tens of thousands call for universal service in Tel Aviv

Protesters march from 'Camp Sucker' to Tel Aviv Museum Plaza in call for more equal distribution of service burden, chanting "One people, one draft!"; Diskin: "Something is rotten in Israeli politics."

Kadima's conundrum

But at the beginning of the week, things looked different. A week after the representatives of the National Religious Party and Yisrael Beytenu quit the committee, the unofficial representative of the haredi parties, attorney Jacob Weinroth, also announced his resignation. From that point forward it became clear that the committee was finished. It no longer represented the public, and it certainly didn't represent the coalition.

FP: I predicted that this issue is not solvable and we are beginning to see how right I was. Not only that, but by reading the whole article you also find how right I have been in losing confidence in Israel’s political establishment. It’s pathetic and existentially dangerous in the situation in which Israel finds itsel.

 

Matt Taibbi: A Huge Break in the LIBOR Banking Investigation

This is unbelievable, shocking stuff. A sizable chunk of the world’s adjustable-rate investment vehicles are pegged to Libor, and here we have evidence that banks were tweaking the rate downward to massage their own derivatives positions. The consequences for this boggle the mind. For instance, almost every city and town in America has investment holdings tied to Libor. If banks were artificially lowering the rates to beef up their trading profiles, that means communities all over the world were cheated out of ungodly amounts of money.

First there were huge bid-rigging settlements for Chase, UBS, Bank of America, GE and Wachovia. Now we’ve got a $450 million settlement for Barclays for Libor manipulation, and one imagines this won’t be the end of it. Anyway, more on this to come soon, and if you’re wondering, yes, there should be a lot more press on this.

…

Another one bites the dust. The Royal Bank of Scotland is about to be fined $233 million (£150 million pounds) for its role in the Libor-rigging scandal. It joins Barclays as the first banks to walk the plank in what should be, but so far is not, the most sensational financial corruption story since the crash of 2008.

…

The news that RBS is involved comes with a perverse twist. This is from the Times UK:

The bank, which is 82 per cent owned by the taxpayer, is preparing for a political firestorm over the affair because it believes that it has no power to claw back bonuses from the traders responsible. Instead, the expected fines would be borne by the shareholders — largely the Government.

Libor manipulation is a crime that already robs the public to create bonuses for bankers. By artificially lowering interest rates, the banks caused cities, towns, countries, and other public entities to receive smaller returns on their variable-rate investment holdings. If it turns out that taxpayers end up paying the fine for RBS's crime of robbing taxpayers, how perfect would that be?

 

     

 

FP: If not stopped—and who will stop them?--they will continue to rob the public blind until nothing is left.

 

While not the fathers, Israeli scientists were uncles in detection of that ‘Goddamn particle’ — the Higgs boson

A Weizmann team helped develop particle detectors, a Technion prof designed a key experiment, and several researchers were involved in building the accelerator

Israeli company offers first ‘medical smartphone’

LifeWatch Technologies has developed a device that essentially lets users get a full medical checkup just by picking up the phone

FP: Let Islam lead Arabs to do that.

 

RECOMMENDED READS

Martin Sherman: Into the Fray: The honorable thing to do (MUST READ)

CiF Watch: David Frost’s interviews with Benny Morris & Suhu Arafat: A stark contrast in political sympathy

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians' Islamist Spring

Mark Steyn: Lights out for U.S.-style Big Government

Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government

The comments I receive on my posts on the Middle-East (ME) expose a strong correlation between very strong opinions about the Arab-Israeli conflict and utter ignorance about its roots, nature and dynamics. It is due to one or more of the following:

• Projection of Western values on the ME;
• Uncritical reliance on Western media that take ME propaganda at face value and channel it;
• Leftism and/or anti-semitism, often combined.

Here is one example to my post on the Gaza war:

Fabian, while this makes current generation of Israel absolutely safe, this violence is seeds of hatred for next generation. As we all knew that these Palestinians are driven out from their home ( hope your deception doesn't go to the level where you deny :-) ) , Israel should work on rehabilitating them instead of killing. You should imagine a situation where Arabs develop own defense systems and make next generation of Israel feel what Palestinian going through today. no nations can survive the time... :D you may not see it in this lifetime but just sit back and imagine..there will be a balancing act.

Points arising:

1. The violence hardly makes the current generation absolutely safe. However, since it is always initiated by the Arabs with genocidal intentions, the argument implies that the only way for Israel to avoid hatred is not to defend itself. Methinks hated but alive is better than dead.

2. The hatred has preceded any Israeli violence--it was triggered by Israel's existence. It has been continuously and systematically instilled in every Arab generation from kindergarten to the point that lack of violence by Israel makes no difference. In fact, the core Arab strategy has been to generate and weaponize hatred against Israel by refusing to settle the refugees and keeping them in appalling conditions in camps.

3. I dare anybody to find any army in the world that does what the IDF does to save the lives of innocent civilians. Driving them from their home and supplying them with food is far better than killing them, which any other army would do without blinking, just like the West did in Iraq and Afghanistan. So please.

4. The terror organizations have developed their own defense system: they buried themselves underground in densely populated areas, where they can only be reached at the expense of huge civilian losses. The least thing they want is to protect civilians. On the contrary, as many deaths and suffering as possible enable them to manipulate and exploit Western values, ignorance and naivity against Israel. They play the West like a violin, for which reason they hold it in contempt.

5. Israel did try rehabilitation. Following the 1967 war, when Gaza came under Israeli control, there was significant economic growth and improvement in all socio-economic indicators. Then when Israel left Gaza under the illusion of "land for peace"--precisely to avoid violence--it got decades of terror and rockets. Economic resources developed by Israel and acquired by the West for the Gazans were looted and destroyed and Gaza returned to worse than even pre-Israel days. The West has pumped zillions into Gaza, which were sunk into the tunnels and rockets that Israel had to destroy now.

In these circumstances, reversing any responsibility from the Arabs and the stupid support of the conflict by the West to Israel has an anti-Semitic effect, whether it is realized or not.


Critical comments that

• Fail to show my facts to be false; or that, if they are true, my conclusions do not follow from them;
• Are posted anonymously.

will not be published and addressed.