"Israel passes ban on boycotts of settlements" by Associated Press / July 12, 2011
JERUSALEM - Israel’s Parliament approved a contentious law against boycotts targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank yesterday, dismissing charges that the measure is antidemocratic and could harm Israel’s image.
Obviously, they don't care about their image.
Related: Warming and Water Don't Mix
See what I mean?
The new law allows settlers or settlement-based businesses to sue Israelis who promote boycotts of settlements.
The fierce debate reflected growing polarization between Israelis who favor expanding settlements and keeping the West Bank in Israeli hands, and those who believe Israel must withdraw from much of the territory and dismantle some or all of the settlements in exchange for peace with the Palestinians. Palestinians consider the settlements illegal encroachment on land they claim for a state, a view backed by much of the world....
The law allows courts to determine whether a boycott call caused direct damage to a person or a business in a settlement and assess damages.
Oh my, it really is a ZioNazi government.
The law is one of a string of initiatives by hawkish Israelis to limit activities they consider anti-Israel. For example, they have tried to retaliate against Israeli artists who refused to perform in settlements.
I read that and said to myself they have completely lost it. Going after artists?
Backers of the law insisted it was necessary to protect Israelis living in the West Bank. Sponsor Zeev Elkin, from Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said it was unfair to target Israelis who live in settlements. Some 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements.
But fair to move Palestinian off their land and expand the settlements.
“The place where a person lives cannot be a reason to harm him,’’ Elkin told Parliament. “The struggle over the boundaries of the state must be carried out here and not through boycotts.’’
Unless they are Palestinian. I'd wake Orwell up, but why upset him?
Opponents charged the law is an undemocratic attempt to curtail free speech. They predicted that Israel’s Supreme Court would overturn the law, an unusual step in Israel.
Also yesterday, a senior Palestinian official said the Palestinians are still weighing details of their bid to seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in September.
The Palestinians have not decided whether to apply to the UN General Assembly or the Security Council first, according to a “work plan’’ obtained by the Associated Press yesterday. The paper, prepared by negotiator Saeb Erekat, lays out the options for gaining recognition of a state.
Either way they are getting a vote.
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And not only is deception the rule, so is omission:
"Israeli house passes ban on settlement boycotts" July 11, 2011|Mark Lavie, Associated Press
Israel’s Haaretz daily, traditionally critical of the settlements, blasted the new law in an editorial. Its backers are “trying to silence one of the most legitimate forms of democratic protest, and to restrict freedom of expression and association of those who oppose the occupation and the settlers’ violence,’’ the paper wrote.
Which you rarely read about in the Glob.
Critics also warned that Israel’s image as a democracy would take a further hit, at a time when pro-Palestinian groups are trying to draw international attention to Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories, including Israel’s border blockade of Gaza and movement restrictions in the West Bank....
Earlier Monday, Palestinian demonstrators and several foreign activists tore down part of an Israeli fence in the northern West Bank. Activists said some of the foreigners had flown into Israel over the weekend.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Israel Controls World Airlines
Maybe not.
And WTF, printed paper?
The demonstration took place near the Palestinian village of Izbet Attabeb. In the area, a barbed wire fence cuts through farmland along a main east-west road, villagers said. The fence keeps Palestinians from accessing the road from the village, they said, though it is open to Palestinians in other sectors.
About 10 of the foreign activists joined about 50 Palestinians in tugging at and tearing down parts of the fence, villagers said. The Israeli military said there was minor damage, and the protest ended without military intervention.
Some 600 foreign activists were to have arrived at Israel’s main airport over the weekend, en route to what was billed as a weeklong peaceful solidarity campaign with the Palestinians.
Israel issued a blacklist of more than 300 names to airlines to stop those on it from boarding planes. Of hundreds of others who did arrive in Israel, about 130 were detained and questioned. Israel has deported all but 58 of the 130, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said. She said the rest would be flown out as soon as foreign airlines could take them.
Israel’s president, meanwhile, thanked his visiting Greek counterpart Monday for Greece’s role in stopping a flotilla of ships that was supposed to sail toward Gaza last week and challenge Israel’s sea blockade.
Related: Gaza Shows Greek Government Works For Israel
Israeli President Shimon Peres told Greek President Karolos Papoulias, “Your contribution to lower tensions benefits the entire region as well as Gaza itself.’’
Can someone please send Peres to a psychiatrist?
The visit reflects rapidly improving relations between Israel and Greece. Israel has called the flotilla a dangerous political provocation. Greece stepped in to prevent the boats from leaving its ports.
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Yeah, good thing Greece is not facing any pressing problems, 'eh?
"Financial woes rise beyond Greece; Spanish, Italian bonds take beating" by James G. Neuger and Jonathan Stearns, Bloomberg News / July 12, 2011
BRUSSELS - European finance chiefs clashed over how to dig Greece out of its financial hole just as markets battered the bonds of Spain and Italy, opening a new front in the debt crisis.
Finance ministers weighed how to get private bondholders to maintain their exposure to Greek debt in a way that doesn’t prompt credit rating companies to declare a formal default.
Forcing bondholders to chip in would be “fatal,’’ Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters before a crisis meeting in Brussels yesterday....
You see who the governments work for, right?
Bonds of debt-strapped countries plunged, the euro sank, and stocks dropped amid concern that European governments are powerless to prevent the financial distress spreading from Greece.
Italy’s effort to build a firewall against the spreading crisis formed the backdrop to yesterday’s meeting of finance ministers that will consider a new package for Greece on top of the $155 billion pledged last year.
Italy, struggling with Europe’s second-highest debt load after Greece, curbed short selling as its 10-year bond spread over Germany surged to 305 basis points, a euro-era high.
The extra yield, a sign of investors’ doubts about Italy, more than doubled from its 2011 low of 122 basis points on April 12.
Italian assets were upended by doubts whether Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, plumbing record-low approval ratings with two years left in office, will muster the political strength to push through $56 billion in planned deficit-cutting measures....
Greece’s uphill struggle for solvency was dramatized by data showing the central government’s deficit widened 28 percent in the first half of 2011, with spending surpassing targets and revenue falling short.
Greece’s next package hinges on the EU finding a formula for getting investors to roll over Greek debt holdings so that governments don’t have to pick up the tab when bonds come due between 2012 and 2014.
Governments mean you, taxpayers.
EU officials are considering a previously rejected German plan for a bond exchange after French-led efforts to shepherd banks and asset managers into a “voluntary’’ rollover fell short....
The European Central Bank, France, and southern countries are the loudest opponents of a bond swap, fearing that it would trigger an official default that spreads turmoil through European markets.
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Hey, look on the bright side:
"The best currency forecasters say the dollar’s 12 percent slide over the past year is coming to an end as Europe’s deepening debt crisis discourages bets against the world’s reserve currency....
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