Comments on News and Reads 8/28

'Netanyahu asks US to delay UN 'Marmara' report 6 months'

According to the Channel 2 report, Netanyahu told the US that in six months time he expects to be stronger politically and better able to deal with the consequences of the report's publication.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday that the Palmer Report on the Marmara incident will be postponed for the third time and will be published at the beginning of next month, according to Army Radio. The report was originally to be released on May 15, but was postponed at Turkey’s request.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the United States to delay publication of the UN report on last year's raid of the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship by six months, Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

FP: That would be outright stupid, particularly if he still believes that he can bring Turkey back into a beneficial relationship. But this would hardly be surprising: when it was announced that Israel would not apologize to Turkey I still expected the Netanyahu-Barak duo to look for ways to appease anyway. It’s their core strategy.

'Single strike would not halt Iran's nuclear program'

Senior defense official says Iran's nuclear program not easily derailed like Iraq or Syria: "There is no one silver bullet you can hit and that's over"; claims Iranian regime's biggest fear is US.

FP: And this is equally stupid: for the life of me I can’t figure out why should this be declared.

Abbas: Palestinians will never recognize a Jewish state

PA President: Palestinians want to fulfill their dream of a sovereign state on territories occupied in 1967 • Lieberman: Abbas's "true goal" behind September plan is "Palestinian state in place of Israel."

FP: So let’s negotiate with him … (see next)

Barak to Ashton: Palestinian UN bid counterproductive

Defense minister says negotiations only way to reach peaceful solution; EU foreign affairs chief in region in last-minute bid to restart talks.

FP: … but for what? More unreciprocated concessions, what else? As

Libyan NTC: We won't hand over Lockerbie bomber

Neighbors describe Megrahi, a man charged with orchestrating Pan Am 103 attack that killed 270, as a wealthy recluse surrounded by guards.

FP: Uhuh. What a surprise.

Vali Nasr: If the Arab Spring Turns Ugly

The specter of protracted bloody clashes, assassinations and bombings, sectarian cleansing and refugee crises from Beirut to Manama, causing instability and feeding regional rivalry, could put an end to the hopeful Arab Spring. Radical voices on both sides would gain. In Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, it is already happening.
NONE of this will benefit democracy or American interests. But seeking to defuse sectarian tensions wherever they occur would help ensure regional stability. Even if Washington has little leverage and influence in Syria, we should nevertheless work closely with our allies who do. Turkey, which is a powerful neighbor, could still pressure the Assad government not to inflame sectarian tensions. And both Turkey and Saudi Arabia could use their influence to discourage the opposition from responding to President Assad’s provocations.

FP: On the contrary: it is in the West’s interest that they exhaust themselves in fighting among themselves, rather than wage Jihad.

Gretchen Morgenson: The Rescue That Missed Main Street

If these rescues were intended to benefit everyday Americans, as Mr. Paulson contended, they have failed. Main Street is in a world of hurt, facing high unemployment, rampant foreclosures and ravaged retirement accounts.
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“During the housing bubble and the economic meltdown that the bursting bubble brought about, the interests of domestic and foreign financial institutions were much better represented than the interests of society as a whole.”
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Given the degree to which financial regulators are captured by the companies they oversee, prescriptions like Mr. Kane’s are going to be fought hard. But the battle could not be more important; if we do nothing to protect taxpayers from the symbiotic relationship between the industry and their federal minders, we are in for many more episodes like the one we are still digging out of.
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“Bailing out firms indiscriminately hampered rather than promoted economic recovery,” Mr. Kane continued. “It evoked reckless gambles for resurrection among rescued firms and created uncertainty about who would finally bear the extravagant costs of these programs. Both effects continue to disrupt the flow of credit and real investment necessary to trigger and sustain economic recovery.”
As for making money on the deals? Only half-true, Mr. Kane said. “Thanks to the vastly subsidized terms these programs offered, most institutions were eventually able to repay the formal obligations they incurred.” But taxpayers were inadequately compensated for the help they provided, he said. We should have received returns of 15 percent to 20 percent on our money, given the nature of these rescues.

FP: It used to be that such bailouts were once per a decade. But the unbounded destructive greed of Wall Street is forcing them now 2-3 times per decade and if this is tolerated, even that will not be enough. By privatizing gambling and fraudulent profits and socializing cost, the corporate-government alliance has been irreversibly bringing America down the drain. The claim of free market is pure propaganda: it is only for Main Street, corporations and Wall Street are protected.