It is hardly any wonder that Israel finds it difficult to make and keep friends in the international community.
About a week ago Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was willing to reopen peace talks with the Palestinians, using the pre-l967 border as a starting point for negotiations. When President Obama first suggested such an approach, Netanyahu seemed outraged, saying the l967 borders were indefensible for Israeli security, even though Obama said some lands would have to be swapped by both parties to reflect the reality on the ground, primarily meaning the pattern of Israeli settlements built since l967. So Netanyahu's most recent statement sounded like a significant concession, although this blog labeled it a "phony gesture" concocted by both the U.S. and Israel to head off the Palestinian strategy to bypass peace talks and go directly to the United Nations for recognition as an independent state. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, said he would submit an application for membership when the U.N. General Assembly meets on September 20.
How "phony" Netanyahu was or how little control he has over his coalition government with its pro-settlement right wing was highlighted this week when his Interior Minister announced plans for large, new apartment settlements in east Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is a key area for the Palestinians who want to make it their future capital.
The announced new settlement plans were immediately denounced by the Palestinians who asked the U.S. to pressure Israel to stop this "unilateral" move. Lots of luck. The U.S. has been noticeably ineffective in trying to get the Israelis to halt new settlements on land envisioned to be part of a new Palestinian state. The Israeli "in your face" attitude on settlements was starkly evident in March 2010 when Israel announced major new settlement plans just when Vice President Biden was visiting the country.
In short, nothing has changed and it seems that the next confrontation will be at the U.N. when Israel, backed by the U.S. in a move that will be unpopular in the Arab world, works to block the Palestinian request for recognition. But . . . . There is always a "but" in the endless so-called peace talks.
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France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have joined forces to halt "short selling" of their securities by market manipulators who bet that the fiscal conditions of these countries will get worse.
Short selling is when an investor anticipates or aids and abets a decline in securities, stocks or bonds, by taking steps to assure the decline will take place and the investor will make money. A short seller is one who sells securities he or she doesn't even own. In simple terms what he or she does is borrow the securities from some institution such as a pension fund and then sells the borrowed securities on the market. By selling them, the short seller hopes to drive the prices down. Then the short seller buys these or identical ones at the lower price and returns the securities to the institution from which they were borrowed. The profit is the difference between the cost at the time of the borrowing and the lower price he or she actually paid for the securities.
Large scale short selling can be very injurious to the companies or countries whose securities are involved. For a time after the October 2008 fiasco on Wall Street, the U.S. halted short sales on financial institution securities to prevent them from getting into an even deeper hole. With the shakey fiscal condition of some European countries, it is no surprise that the halt on short selling was put in place.
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Much was written during the period of the "Arab Spring" earlier this year and how the social media such as Facebook and Twitter were a very important part of mobilizing pro-democracy public sentiment in Egypt and elsewhere. Some countries sought to head off such communications through various technological schemes, with mixed success.
Now Britain is looking at what it sees as the other side of the coin with the social media allegedly being used to mobilize destructive riots that erupted in various cities. The violence started as a protest against a police shooting in an area of London. According to the British government, the London violence spread to other cities through the social media. Prime Minister Cameron is exploring ways to shut down such communications in what is turning out to be a free speech vs. public safety issue, an issue not easily resolved.
Will keep on looking for some good news at home or abroad, but such seems to be quite scarce.
I think the whole impact of social media on the society is a fascinating issue. You've brought up the point of such media interaction potentially affecting the future of nations. It brings a whole other aspect to freedom of speech. Is it like screaming "fire" in a crowded theatre? Or is it a form of speech that needs to be protected under our 1st Amendment and whatever Britain's equivalent is? How does anyone really regulate such a thing over a world wide network? It seems shutting down communications would raise a whole new slew of questions/issues/problems. The same media is used for emergency situations like warning of mass disasters. Shutting down communications does seem a little tyrannical but is it justified in the name of public safety? These are all questions that I think are interesting surrounding this question.
ReplyDeleteI am still of the opinion that there can be no resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian situation. However you cut in, there are a lot of people who are going to lose their homes.
dpchuck
ReplyDeleteYou've certainly pressed all of the right buttons. It will be interesting to see what develops on the issue in Britain. I would presume that if the Brit government seeks to curtail the social media in the interest of public safety, there would certainly be a law case come out of it. It would be especially interesting in Britain because under the Official Secrets Act (believe that's the name of it) the British government can do things in the area of circumventing civil rights and personal liberties that would not be possible in the U.S.
As to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, I always fall back on a quote I particularly like and believe to be true: "The existence of a problem does not presume the existence of a solution."
It is amazing how much technology is controlling our social structure. It is a facinating development. People really know how to use the media to push their cause these days. It is almost scary how much persuasion there is in public media outlets these days. With respect to the economy I think that this new job plan scheduled for September ought to be moved up as there are a lot of people without jobs now.
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