U.S. EVANGELICALS AT ODDS ON EMBRACING ISRAEL
By Bill Berkowitz
Antiwar.com
August 3, 2007
It was business as usual during Christians United for Israel's recent "Israel Summit," its highly-publicized second summer sojourn to Washington.
There were thousands of supporters in attendance, including an impressive array of Republican Party elected officials and political leaders. There were a series of seminars and workshops aimed at solidifying pro-Israel talking points, and growing the organization's political effectiveness.
And there was Pastor John Hagee, the head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), once again proclaiming that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was this generation's Adolph Hitler.
Hagee, leader of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, is a wealthy, world renowned television evangelist. He told the overflow crowd at the organization's "Night to Honor Israel" celebration that, "It is clear that Israel is in the greatest danger she has faced since six Arab armies tried to strangle the Jewish state in the birth canal in 1948."
As he has been doing repeatedly in sermons to the faithful and other speaking engagements, during television and radio interviews, while on previous lobbying visits to Washington, and in his writing, including his best selling book "Jerusalem Countdown," Hagee put Iran and Ahmadinejad in CUFI's crosshairs."
The head of the beast of radical Islam in the Middle East is Iran and its fanatical president, Ahmadinejad," Hagee intoned. "Ahmadinejad believes if he starts a world war, the Islamic messiah will mysteriously appear and produce a global Islamic theocratic dictatorship. Ladies and gentlemen, we are reliving history. It's 1938 all over again. Iran is Germany. Ahmadinejad is Hitler and Ahmadinejad, just like Hitler, is talking about killing the Jews."
Hagee, who founded CUFI 18 months ago, brought some 5,000 supporters to the nation's capital to celebrate its second year of existence, display its political potency and, perhaps most importantly, lobby Congress against taking any steps that would, in his mind, be harmful to Israel.
CUFI officials reported that members met with 279 lawmakers, including 57 senators.
The CUFI conference was a magnet for Republican Party politicos and some Jewish supporters, and provided a platform for former Democratic Connecticut Senator (elected this past November as an Independent) Joseph Lieberman who, in his address likened Hagee to Moses as a "leader of a multitude."
"The support of Christian Zionists is critical to Israel's security and strength," Lieberman said, "and to America's security and strength."Christian Zionism, embraced by many prominent US evangelical leaders, is the belief that the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical "End Times" prophecy and thus deserving of political, financial and religious support.
The Night to Honor Israel and the conference in general also drew former House Speaker and current FOX News contributor, Newt Gingrich, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (currently under indictment), and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others.
Working with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah Party has been engaged in factional fighting with Hamas, "is an absolute waste of time," Hagee told FOXNews.com."Abbas is controlled by Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization. If Abbas does anything that really irritates those terrorists, they'll shoot him...Hamas controls him, and when a terrorist controls you, if we give to others, to Abbas, Hamas will use it for their benefit."
While CUFI – often referred to as the Christian equivalent of the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) – was urging US legislators, and leaders of Israel, not to support giving up even an inch of land to the Palestinians, another group of US evangelical leaders unveiled a decidedly different approach for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
In an open letter to President George W. Bush, sent on July 27 and published in the New York Times two days later, more than two dozen evangelicals, including leaders of denominations, Christian charities, seminaries and universities, thanked Bush for "reinvigorate[ing] the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to achieve a lasting peace in the region," and urged him not to "grow weary" in its attempt to negotiate a "lasting peace" in the region.
The letter pointed out that contrary to popular belief, a significant number of evangelicals in the US "support justice for both Israelis and Palestinians." It voiced hope that acknowledging evangelical support for a permanent status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would "embolden" Bush.
Supporting Israel does not force one to withhold criticism, the letter noted, adding that "Genuine love and genuine blessing means acting in ways that promote the genuine and long-term well being of our neighbors."
"Historical honesty," the letter stated, "compels us to recognize that both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine. Both Israelis and Palestinians have committed violence and injustice against each other. The only way to bring the tragic cycle of violence to an end is for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate a just, lasting agreement that guarantees both sides viable, independent, secure states."
To achieve this, the letter encouraged the Bush administration to "provide robust leadership within the Quartet to reconstitute the Middle East roadmap," and "affirm[ed] the new role of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and pray that the conference you plan for this fall will be a success."
The Quartet on the Middle East peace process is comprised of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. Tony Blair is now its special envoy.
The letter concluded by saying that the signatories "renew" their "prayers and support" for Bush's "leadership," and it made a "request to meet with you to personally convey our support and discuss other ways in which we may help your administration on this crucial issue."
CUFI's John Hagee was quick to respond: "The authors of this letter do not represent the views of the vast majority of Bible-believing mainstream evangelicals in America," he said.
"The problem in the Middle East is that Israel has no partner for peace, and Israel's neighbors refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist," Hagee added. Assertion by letter's writers that the Palestinians have a historic connection to the Holy Land is "absolutely incorrect," he said.
CUFI is planning on sending Bush its own letter "voicing their opposition to American pressure on Israel for any further land withdrawals," the Jerusalem Post reported.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Text of the Letter to Pres. Bush
July 27, 2007
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We write as evangelical Christian leaders in the United States to thank you for your efforts (including the major address on July 16) to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to achieve a lasting peace in the region. We affirm your clear call for a two-state solution. We urge that your administration not grow weary in the time it has left in office to utilize the vast influence of America to demonstrate creative, consistent and determined U.S. leadership to create a new future for Israelis and Palestinians. We pray to that end, Mr. President.
We also write to correct a serious misperception among some people including some U.S. policymakers that all American evangelicals are opposed to a two-state solution and creation of a new Palestinian state that includes the vast majority of the West Bank. Nothing could be further from the truth. We, who sign this letter, represent large numbers of evangelicals throughout the U.S. who support justice for both Israelis and Palestinians. We hope this support will embolden you and your administration to proceed confidently and forthrightly in negotiations with both sides in the region.
As evangelical Christians, we embrace the biblical promise to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you.” (Genesis 12:3). And precisely as evangelical Christians committed to the full teaching of the Scriptures, we know that blessing and loving people (including Jews and the present State of Israel) does not mean withholding criticism when it is warranted. Genuine love and genuine blessing means acting in ways that promote the genuine and long-term well being of our neighbors.
Perhaps the best way we can bless Israel is to encourage her to remember, as she deals with her neighbor Palestinians, the profound teaching on justice that the Hebrew prophets proclaimed so forcefully as an inestimably precious gift to the whole world.
Historical honesty compels us to recognize that both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine.
Both Israelis and Palestinians have committed violence and injustice against each other. The only way to bring the tragic cycle of violence to an end is for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate a just, lasting agreement that guarantees both sides viable, independent, secure states. To achieve that goal, both sides must give up some of their competing, incompatible claims. Israelis and Palestinians must both accept each other’s right to exist. And to achieve that goal, the U.S. must provide robust leadership within the Quartet to reconstitute the Middle East roadmap, whose full implementation would guarantee the security of the State of Israel and the viability of a Palestinian State.
We affirm the new role of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and pray that the conference you plan for this fall will be a success.
Mr. President, we renew our prayers and support for your leadership to help bring peace to Jerusalem, and justice and peace for all the people in the Holy Land.
Finally, we would request to meet with you to personally convey our support and discuss other ways in which we may help your administration on this crucial issue.
Sincerely, Ronald J. Sider, PresidentEvangelicals for Social [and 33 other leaders: see the website for EVANGELICALS FOR SOCIAL ACTION]
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We write as evangelical Christian leaders in the United States to thank you for your efforts (including the major address on July 16) to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to achieve a lasting peace in the region. We affirm your clear call for a two-state solution. We urge that your administration not grow weary in the time it has left in office to utilize the vast influence of America to demonstrate creative, consistent and determined U.S. leadership to create a new future for Israelis and Palestinians. We pray to that end, Mr. President.
We also write to correct a serious misperception among some people including some U.S. policymakers that all American evangelicals are opposed to a two-state solution and creation of a new Palestinian state that includes the vast majority of the West Bank. Nothing could be further from the truth. We, who sign this letter, represent large numbers of evangelicals throughout the U.S. who support justice for both Israelis and Palestinians. We hope this support will embolden you and your administration to proceed confidently and forthrightly in negotiations with both sides in the region.
As evangelical Christians, we embrace the biblical promise to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you.” (Genesis 12:3). And precisely as evangelical Christians committed to the full teaching of the Scriptures, we know that blessing and loving people (including Jews and the present State of Israel) does not mean withholding criticism when it is warranted. Genuine love and genuine blessing means acting in ways that promote the genuine and long-term well being of our neighbors.
Perhaps the best way we can bless Israel is to encourage her to remember, as she deals with her neighbor Palestinians, the profound teaching on justice that the Hebrew prophets proclaimed so forcefully as an inestimably precious gift to the whole world.
Historical honesty compels us to recognize that both Israelis and Palestinians have legitimate rights stretching back for millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine.
Both Israelis and Palestinians have committed violence and injustice against each other. The only way to bring the tragic cycle of violence to an end is for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate a just, lasting agreement that guarantees both sides viable, independent, secure states. To achieve that goal, both sides must give up some of their competing, incompatible claims. Israelis and Palestinians must both accept each other’s right to exist. And to achieve that goal, the U.S. must provide robust leadership within the Quartet to reconstitute the Middle East roadmap, whose full implementation would guarantee the security of the State of Israel and the viability of a Palestinian State.
We affirm the new role of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and pray that the conference you plan for this fall will be a success.
Mr. President, we renew our prayers and support for your leadership to help bring peace to Jerusalem, and justice and peace for all the people in the Holy Land.
Finally, we would request to meet with you to personally convey our support and discuss other ways in which we may help your administration on this crucial issue.
Sincerely, Ronald J. Sider, PresidentEvangelicals for Social [and 33 other leaders: see the website for EVANGELICALS FOR SOCIAL ACTION]
Monday, July 30, 2007
Evangelical Christians for a Palestinian State
COALITION OF EVANGELICALS VOICES SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN STATE
By Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
July 29, 2007
In recent years, conservative evangelicals who claim a Biblical mandate to protect Israel have built a bulwark of support for the Jewish nation — sending donations, denouncing its critics and urging it not to evacuate settlements or forfeit territory. Now more than 30 evangelical leaders are stepping forward to say these efforts have given the wrong impression about the stance of many, if not most, American evangelicals.
On Friday, these leaders sent a letter to President Bush saying that both Israelis and Palestinians have “legitimate rights stretching back fo millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine,” and that they support the creation of a Palestinian state “that includes the vast majority of the West Bank.”
They say that being a friend to Jews and to Israel “does not mean withholding criticism when it is warranted.” The letter adds, “Both Israelis and Palestinians have committed violence and injustice against each other.”
The letter is signed by 34 evangelical leaders, many of whom lead denominations, Christian charities, ministry organizations, seminaries and universities.
They include Gary M. Benedict, president of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, a denomination of 2,000 churches;
Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary;
Gordon MacDonald, chairman of World Relief;
Richard E. Stearns, president of World Vision;
David Neff, editor of Christianity Today;
and Berten A. Waggoner, national director and president of The Vineyard USA, an association of 630 churches in the United States.
“This group is in no way anti-Israel, and we make it very clear we’re committed to the security of Israel,” said Ronald J. Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, which often takes liberal positions on tissues. “But we want a solution that is viable. Obviously there would have to be compromises.”
They are clearly aiming their message not just at President Bush, but at the Muslim world and policy makers in the State Department. Mr. Sider said he and three other evangelical leaders got the idea for the letter in February at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, where they met Muslim and American diplomats who were shocked to discover the existence of American evangelicals who favored a Palestinian state. Mr. Sider says they will translate the letter into Arabic and distribute it in the Middle East and Europe."
“We think it’s crucial that the Muslim world realize that there are evangelical Christians in the U.S. in large numbers that want a fair solution,” Mr. Sider said.
In the last year and half, liberal and moderate evangelicals have initiated two other efforts that demonstrated fissures in the evangelical movement. Last year, they parted with the conservative flank by campaigning against climate change and global warming. This year, they denounced the use of torture in the fight against terrorism. Some of the participants in those campaigns also signed this letter. The Rev. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., said, “There is a part of the evangelical family which is what I call Christian Zionists, who are just so staunchly pro-Israel that Israel and their side can do no wrong, and it’s almost anti-Biblical to criticize Israel for anything. But there are many more evangelicals who are really open and seek justice for both parties.”
The loudest and best-organized voices in the evangelical movement have been sending a very different message: that the Palestinians have no legitimate claim to the land.
The Rev. John Hagee, who founded Christians United for Israel, was informed of the letter and read most of it. He responded: “Bible-believing evangelicals will scoff at that message. “Christians United for Israel is opposed to America pressuring Israel to give up more land to anyone for any reason. What has the policy of appeasement ever produced for Israel that was beneficial?” Mr. Hagee said. “God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a covenant in the Book of Genesis for the land of Israel that is eternal and unbreakable, and that covenant is still intact,” he said. “The Palestinian people have never owned the land of Israel, never existed as an autonomous society. There is no Palestinian language. There is no Palestinian currency. And to say that Palestinians have a right to that land historically is an historical fraud.”"
Christians United for Israel held a conference with 4,500 attendees in Washington this month, and Mr. Hagee sends e-mail action alerts on Israel every Monday to 55,000 pastors and leaders.
There is a crucial theological difference between Mr. Hagee’s views on Israel and those expressed by the letter writers, said Timothy P. Weber, a church historian, former seminary president and the author of “On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend.”
Mr. Hagee and others are dispensationalists, Mr. Weber said, who interpret the Bible as predicting that in order for Christ to return, the Jews must gather in Israel, the third temple must be built in Jerusalem and the Battle of Armageddon must be fought.
Mr. Weber said, “The dispensationalists have parlayed what is a distinctly minority position theologically within evangelicalism into a major political voice.”
By Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
July 29, 2007
In recent years, conservative evangelicals who claim a Biblical mandate to protect Israel have built a bulwark of support for the Jewish nation — sending donations, denouncing its critics and urging it not to evacuate settlements or forfeit territory. Now more than 30 evangelical leaders are stepping forward to say these efforts have given the wrong impression about the stance of many, if not most, American evangelicals.
On Friday, these leaders sent a letter to President Bush saying that both Israelis and Palestinians have “legitimate rights stretching back fo millennia to the lands of Israel/Palestine,” and that they support the creation of a Palestinian state “that includes the vast majority of the West Bank.”
They say that being a friend to Jews and to Israel “does not mean withholding criticism when it is warranted.” The letter adds, “Both Israelis and Palestinians have committed violence and injustice against each other.”
The letter is signed by 34 evangelical leaders, many of whom lead denominations, Christian charities, ministry organizations, seminaries and universities.
They include Gary M. Benedict, president of The Christian and Missionary Alliance, a denomination of 2,000 churches;
Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary;
Gordon MacDonald, chairman of World Relief;
Richard E. Stearns, president of World Vision;
David Neff, editor of Christianity Today;
and Berten A. Waggoner, national director and president of The Vineyard USA, an association of 630 churches in the United States.
“This group is in no way anti-Israel, and we make it very clear we’re committed to the security of Israel,” said Ronald J. Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, which often takes liberal positions on tissues. “But we want a solution that is viable. Obviously there would have to be compromises.”
They are clearly aiming their message not just at President Bush, but at the Muslim world and policy makers in the State Department. Mr. Sider said he and three other evangelical leaders got the idea for the letter in February at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar, where they met Muslim and American diplomats who were shocked to discover the existence of American evangelicals who favored a Palestinian state. Mr. Sider says they will translate the letter into Arabic and distribute it in the Middle East and Europe."
“We think it’s crucial that the Muslim world realize that there are evangelical Christians in the U.S. in large numbers that want a fair solution,” Mr. Sider said.
In the last year and half, liberal and moderate evangelicals have initiated two other efforts that demonstrated fissures in the evangelical movement. Last year, they parted with the conservative flank by campaigning against climate change and global warming. This year, they denounced the use of torture in the fight against terrorism. Some of the participants in those campaigns also signed this letter. The Rev. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., said, “There is a part of the evangelical family which is what I call Christian Zionists, who are just so staunchly pro-Israel that Israel and their side can do no wrong, and it’s almost anti-Biblical to criticize Israel for anything. But there are many more evangelicals who are really open and seek justice for both parties.”
The loudest and best-organized voices in the evangelical movement have been sending a very different message: that the Palestinians have no legitimate claim to the land.
The Rev. John Hagee, who founded Christians United for Israel, was informed of the letter and read most of it. He responded: “Bible-believing evangelicals will scoff at that message. “Christians United for Israel is opposed to America pressuring Israel to give up more land to anyone for any reason. What has the policy of appeasement ever produced for Israel that was beneficial?” Mr. Hagee said. “God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a covenant in the Book of Genesis for the land of Israel that is eternal and unbreakable, and that covenant is still intact,” he said. “The Palestinian people have never owned the land of Israel, never existed as an autonomous society. There is no Palestinian language. There is no Palestinian currency. And to say that Palestinians have a right to that land historically is an historical fraud.”"
Christians United for Israel held a conference with 4,500 attendees in Washington this month, and Mr. Hagee sends e-mail action alerts on Israel every Monday to 55,000 pastors and leaders.
There is a crucial theological difference between Mr. Hagee’s views on Israel and those expressed by the letter writers, said Timothy P. Weber, a church historian, former seminary president and the author of “On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend.”
Mr. Hagee and others are dispensationalists, Mr. Weber said, who interpret the Bible as predicting that in order for Christ to return, the Jews must gather in Israel, the third temple must be built in Jerusalem and the Battle of Armageddon must be fought.
Mr. Weber said, “The dispensationalists have parlayed what is a distinctly minority position theologically within evangelicalism into a major political voice.”
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Good News!
ATFP WELCOMES $228 MILLION MIDDLE EAST INVESTMENT PROGRAM
Ramallah, West Bank —The American Task Force on Palestine today welcomed the launch of the Middle East Investment Initiative Program, which will generate $228 million dollars in loans to small and medium-sized Palestinian businesses.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, U.S. Under Secretary for Public Affairs Karen Hughes and President of the American Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Rob Mosbacher, Jr. today put into motion the plans approved by President George W. Bush to provide investment capital to improve the Palestinian economy and the living standards of Palestinians.
This Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII) loan fund is a joint venture between OPIC the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and the Aspen Institute, with the government of Norway providing organizational support. President Bush announced the approval of the OPIC loan program on July 16 as a part of a U.S. government assistance package to Palestine including $144 million in assistance to UNRWA; $190 million for basic human needs, food aid, democracy, civil society and private sector development; and $80 million to help reform the official security services of the Palestinian Authority.
ATFP president Dr. Ziad Asali, traveling as an officially invited member of the U.S. State Department delegation praised the program saying, “Investing in the Palestinian people is a critical move to empower forces of moderation in the region. Investment creates jobs, jobs create stability, and stability creates moderation and progress towards peace. The Middle East Investment Initiative is global action positively impacting individual Palestinians.”
He also noted that the United States’ support of the Palestinian government through MEII “demonstrates the confidence that the United States, and indeed the world have in the Abbas-Fayyad government as it works to advance Palestinian economic, security and political prospects.
Ramallah, West Bank —The American Task Force on Palestine today welcomed the launch of the Middle East Investment Initiative Program, which will generate $228 million dollars in loans to small and medium-sized Palestinian businesses.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, U.S. Under Secretary for Public Affairs Karen Hughes and President of the American Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Rob Mosbacher, Jr. today put into motion the plans approved by President George W. Bush to provide investment capital to improve the Palestinian economy and the living standards of Palestinians.
This Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII) loan fund is a joint venture between OPIC the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and the Aspen Institute, with the government of Norway providing organizational support. President Bush announced the approval of the OPIC loan program on July 16 as a part of a U.S. government assistance package to Palestine including $144 million in assistance to UNRWA; $190 million for basic human needs, food aid, democracy, civil society and private sector development; and $80 million to help reform the official security services of the Palestinian Authority.
ATFP president Dr. Ziad Asali, traveling as an officially invited member of the U.S. State Department delegation praised the program saying, “Investing in the Palestinian people is a critical move to empower forces of moderation in the region. Investment creates jobs, jobs create stability, and stability creates moderation and progress towards peace. The Middle East Investment Initiative is global action positively impacting individual Palestinians.”
He also noted that the United States’ support of the Palestinian government through MEII “demonstrates the confidence that the United States, and indeed the world have in the Abbas-Fayyad government as it works to advance Palestinian economic, security and political prospects.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A US issue greater than support for Israel: Fiscal Integrity
In our efforts to be the world's protector and banker, we are headed for a crisis of almost unimaginable proportions: our fiscal integrity. This is bigger than presidential politics. This involves each of us wanting "the good life" but being unwilling to sacrifice for it.
Read this article and pray for leaders who will call us back to fiscal integrity. John Kleinheksel Sr.
PAUL B. FARRELL
Goldman Sachs guru warns of war-debt failure
Is America becoming a global credit risk? How to get back on track
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:02 PM ET Jul 23, 2007
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Subprimes downgraded. Will Moody's downgrade America's debt next? Actually, that's already happening; our credit rating is collapsing with the dollar.
Foreign banks are dumping dollar reserves, while we gorge on cheap toys and bad pet food. Actually, our biggest "terrorist" threat is internal: Distorted values are downgrading our nation's "creditworthiness." We're like out-of-control kids with stolen credit cards, spending our future with no plans to repay.
Recently Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), appeared before the U.S. House Budget Committee to "discuss an issue of great economic, financial and national security importance to our country -- the growing dependence of the United States on foreign capital." Currently we import $1 trillion new debt annually, with no repayment plans. That's a historic break from over two centuries of American policy.
Hormats was in Washington with warnings from his brilliant new book, "The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars." He traces the history of American wartime financing from the Revolution through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two World Wars and the Cold War to the present.
Conclusion: "One central, constant theme emerges: sound national finances have proved to be indispensable to the country's military strength" and long-term national security.
1776 to Iraq, national security demands fiscal responsibility
America's long tradition of war financing began with Alexander Hamilton: "In January 1790, Hamilton, by then the country's Treasury secretary, confronted the American people with a stark fact: the nation had run up a huge debt fighting the Revolutionary War. This debt, he wrote, was the 'price of liberty,' and the new government had to repay it. The future creditworthiness of the United States, and ultimately the security and ability to finance future wars, would depend on how successfully and faithfully this was done."
Hamilton's principles have kept America's credit strong through every war since the Revolution ... until the Iraq War. Since then, "although U.S. leaders have warned that the war against terrorism could last for decades, the country lacks a multidecade financial strategy to address the challenge."
Iraq tossed the lessons of history out the window. Hormats says that despite the oft-repeated remark that 9/11 "changed everything, in the area of fiscal policy, however, it changed nothing. The country is pursuing a pre-9/11 fiscal policy in a post-9/11 world." That assessment comes from someone who worked inside Washington for over a decade before joining Goldman Sachs in the 1980s.
Unsustainable debt is weakening national security
America's new faith-based guns-and-butter policy is hurting both guns and butter. The war is costing us $12 billion a month. Hormats examined the Congressional Budget Office's projections for domestic costs: "In 2006, spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the federal debt amounted to just under 60% of government revenues" and "if they continue on their current path, they will account for two-thirds by 2015."
Social security from $550 billion to $960 billion
Medicare from $372 billion to over $900 billion
Medicaid from $181 billion to $390 billion
Worse yet, these commitments will continue skyrocketing in later decades. The CBO projects the federal debt rising from 40% of GDP to 100% in the next 25 years: "Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security."
Hormats warns of the risks of this gross departure from Hamilton's principles: "Of late, the precedents and experiences of past generations have been cast aside. The 9/11 attacks were seen by many legislators as a license to spend more money on nonsecurity programs, and Americans have not been called to make sacrifices. Tax cuts and spending increased on politically popular security-irrelevant domestic programs have been enacted as if there were no expensive defense programs to be funded."
Turning point in Iraq, where 'deficits don't matter'
In my opinion, the turning point occurred in late 2002. Remember, the Afghan War was hot. America was in recession and a bear market. The surpluses of the 1990s rapidly disappeared. Corporate scandals were damaging our global standing. Washington was pushing a second round of tax cuts. And the Iraq invasion was imminent.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, true to Hamiltonian principles, warned the White House of a coming fiscal crisis. The vice president retorted: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." (Hormats tells me Reagan never said that.) Soon after, Cheney "fired" O'Neill ... and Hamilton's principles of sound war financing were dead.
Unfortunately, Washington's radical new faith-based financing is sabotaging national security. America's unsustainable deficits are making us extremely vulnerable to terrorists whose goal is to "attack the United States, perhaps with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons capable of killing enormous numbers of people and seriously disrupting the American economy," targeting a "major port or transportation center."
Hormats says America is now "relying on faith over experience, hoping that sustained growth will erase deficits and that the ballooning costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be manageable in the coming decades without difficult reforms."
Yet economists now estimate these entitlements can only be "reformed" by either a cut in benefits or an increase in taxes greater that 40%. In short, today's faith-based economics is failing us.
The current Treasury secretary also appears to be supporting this new approach: Henry Paulson, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, recently told Fortune that "this is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."
Well, that sure sounds to me like yet another rejection of Hamiltonian principles in favor of the new faith-based policy, which assumes that global economies will always be strong and, therefore, foreign capital will indefinitely bankroll America's war machine at a low cost.
The danger is, it also assumes that American taxpayers will be able to indefinitely pay the interest costs of our burgeoning foreign debt ... on top of exploding unfunded domestic entitlements in Social Security and Medicare.
Time to rediscover 'Hamilton's gift' of war financing
Hormats was being much too diplomatic in summing up his warning to the House Budget Committee: "If government debt continues to pile up, deficits rise to stratospheric levels and heavy dependence on foreign capital grows, borrowing the money will be very costly. If America remains on its dangerous financial course Hamilton's gift to the nation -- the blessing of sound financing -- will be squandered."
The truth is, America's leaders have already squandered "Hamilton's gift," and along with it, more than two centuries of experience, replacing it with a new "faith-based" policy: "Deficits don't matter."
No wonder Main Street Americans have a "gut instinct" that we're a disaster waiting to happen. Not only are we "transferring an inordinate burden to future generations," says Hormats, Washington's undisciplined spending and total lack of a financial repayment plan is undercutting our national security and exposing America to the worst-case scenario: Another domestic terrorist attack that would trigger a "massive disruption of our economy" and a meltdown of America's credit rating throughout the world.
The truth is, America desperately needs a new "Hamilton" who understands that in calculating "the price of liberty," not only do deficits matter, Americans must have a plan to repay our debts ... if we want a strong credit rating that insures our national security for future generations.
Read this article and pray for leaders who will call us back to fiscal integrity. John Kleinheksel Sr.
PAUL B. FARRELL
Goldman Sachs guru warns of war-debt failure
Is America becoming a global credit risk? How to get back on track
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:02 PM ET Jul 23, 2007
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Subprimes downgraded. Will Moody's downgrade America's debt next? Actually, that's already happening; our credit rating is collapsing with the dollar.
Foreign banks are dumping dollar reserves, while we gorge on cheap toys and bad pet food. Actually, our biggest "terrorist" threat is internal: Distorted values are downgrading our nation's "creditworthiness." We're like out-of-control kids with stolen credit cards, spending our future with no plans to repay.
Recently Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), appeared before the U.S. House Budget Committee to "discuss an issue of great economic, financial and national security importance to our country -- the growing dependence of the United States on foreign capital." Currently we import $1 trillion new debt annually, with no repayment plans. That's a historic break from over two centuries of American policy.
Hormats was in Washington with warnings from his brilliant new book, "The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars." He traces the history of American wartime financing from the Revolution through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two World Wars and the Cold War to the present.
Conclusion: "One central, constant theme emerges: sound national finances have proved to be indispensable to the country's military strength" and long-term national security.
1776 to Iraq, national security demands fiscal responsibility
America's long tradition of war financing began with Alexander Hamilton: "In January 1790, Hamilton, by then the country's Treasury secretary, confronted the American people with a stark fact: the nation had run up a huge debt fighting the Revolutionary War. This debt, he wrote, was the 'price of liberty,' and the new government had to repay it. The future creditworthiness of the United States, and ultimately the security and ability to finance future wars, would depend on how successfully and faithfully this was done."
Hamilton's principles have kept America's credit strong through every war since the Revolution ... until the Iraq War. Since then, "although U.S. leaders have warned that the war against terrorism could last for decades, the country lacks a multidecade financial strategy to address the challenge."
Iraq tossed the lessons of history out the window. Hormats says that despite the oft-repeated remark that 9/11 "changed everything, in the area of fiscal policy, however, it changed nothing. The country is pursuing a pre-9/11 fiscal policy in a post-9/11 world." That assessment comes from someone who worked inside Washington for over a decade before joining Goldman Sachs in the 1980s.
Unsustainable debt is weakening national security
America's new faith-based guns-and-butter policy is hurting both guns and butter. The war is costing us $12 billion a month. Hormats examined the Congressional Budget Office's projections for domestic costs: "In 2006, spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the federal debt amounted to just under 60% of government revenues" and "if they continue on their current path, they will account for two-thirds by 2015."
Social security from $550 billion to $960 billion
Medicare from $372 billion to over $900 billion
Medicaid from $181 billion to $390 billion
Worse yet, these commitments will continue skyrocketing in later decades. The CBO projects the federal debt rising from 40% of GDP to 100% in the next 25 years: "Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security."
Hormats warns of the risks of this gross departure from Hamilton's principles: "Of late, the precedents and experiences of past generations have been cast aside. The 9/11 attacks were seen by many legislators as a license to spend more money on nonsecurity programs, and Americans have not been called to make sacrifices. Tax cuts and spending increased on politically popular security-irrelevant domestic programs have been enacted as if there were no expensive defense programs to be funded."
Turning point in Iraq, where 'deficits don't matter'
In my opinion, the turning point occurred in late 2002. Remember, the Afghan War was hot. America was in recession and a bear market. The surpluses of the 1990s rapidly disappeared. Corporate scandals were damaging our global standing. Washington was pushing a second round of tax cuts. And the Iraq invasion was imminent.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, true to Hamiltonian principles, warned the White House of a coming fiscal crisis. The vice president retorted: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." (Hormats tells me Reagan never said that.) Soon after, Cheney "fired" O'Neill ... and Hamilton's principles of sound war financing were dead.
Unfortunately, Washington's radical new faith-based financing is sabotaging national security. America's unsustainable deficits are making us extremely vulnerable to terrorists whose goal is to "attack the United States, perhaps with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons capable of killing enormous numbers of people and seriously disrupting the American economy," targeting a "major port or transportation center."
Hormats says America is now "relying on faith over experience, hoping that sustained growth will erase deficits and that the ballooning costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be manageable in the coming decades without difficult reforms."
Yet economists now estimate these entitlements can only be "reformed" by either a cut in benefits or an increase in taxes greater that 40%. In short, today's faith-based economics is failing us.
The current Treasury secretary also appears to be supporting this new approach: Henry Paulson, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, recently told Fortune that "this is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."
Well, that sure sounds to me like yet another rejection of Hamiltonian principles in favor of the new faith-based policy, which assumes that global economies will always be strong and, therefore, foreign capital will indefinitely bankroll America's war machine at a low cost.
The danger is, it also assumes that American taxpayers will be able to indefinitely pay the interest costs of our burgeoning foreign debt ... on top of exploding unfunded domestic entitlements in Social Security and Medicare.
Time to rediscover 'Hamilton's gift' of war financing
Hormats was being much too diplomatic in summing up his warning to the House Budget Committee: "If government debt continues to pile up, deficits rise to stratospheric levels and heavy dependence on foreign capital grows, borrowing the money will be very costly. If America remains on its dangerous financial course Hamilton's gift to the nation -- the blessing of sound financing -- will be squandered."
The truth is, America's leaders have already squandered "Hamilton's gift," and along with it, more than two centuries of experience, replacing it with a new "faith-based" policy: "Deficits don't matter."
No wonder Main Street Americans have a "gut instinct" that we're a disaster waiting to happen. Not only are we "transferring an inordinate burden to future generations," says Hormats, Washington's undisciplined spending and total lack of a financial repayment plan is undercutting our national security and exposing America to the worst-case scenario: Another domestic terrorist attack that would trigger a "massive disruption of our economy" and a meltdown of America's credit rating throughout the world.
The truth is, America desperately needs a new "Hamilton" who understands that in calculating "the price of liberty," not only do deficits matter, Americans must have a plan to repay our debts ... if we want a strong credit rating that insures our national security for future generations.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Artists Join the Call to END the OCCUPATION!
Dozens of classical musicians issue joint peace manifesto
By Noam Ben Ze'ev
Ha'aretz -- Wednesday - July 18, 2007
For the first time in the history of academic and musical life in Israel, dozens of musicians, scholars and educators from the field of classical music have come out with a joint call against the occupation and in favor of peace, rapprochement and a two-state solution. "We protest the prolonged occupation that is destroying our country's image," declare the signatories in a written statement. "Our continued control over the territories and their Palestinian inhabitants is morally wrong.
The only positive option is an attempt to conduct responsible negotiations with Hezbollah, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas, Lebanon and Syria." The document will be read publicly for the first time at a modern electronic and live music concert, scheduled to coincide with the ninth issue of "Tav Plus," the music and society periodical edited by Dr. Bat-Sheva Shapira. (The concert will be held in Shelter 209 at 116 Levinsky Street in Tel Aviv, on Thursday at 9:00 P.M.)
Among the over 40 musicians signed onto the manifesto, one can also find leading figures in other fields: Avner Itai, Anat Morag, Itay Talgam, Maya Shavit and Yuval Ben-Ozer (conducting); David Halperin, Yehudit Cohen, Edwin Seroussi, Shoshana Weich-Shahak, Veronika Cohen, Shulamit Feingold and Shai Burstein (musicology); Zohar Eitan, Michael Wolpe, Nadav Ziv, Reuven Seroussi, Arik Shapira and Hagar Kadima (composition); Claudia Gluschankof, Fuad Jubran and Dutchi Lichtenstein (pedagogy and teaching); as well as singer Mira Zakai, pianist Zecharia Plavin, flutist Michael Meltzer and radio personality Dan Orstav.
"The separation between involvement in music on the one hand and ideology on the other is unacceptable to me," says Dr. Lichtenstein, who spearheaded the initiative together with composer Hagar Kadima. "Music is not divorced from the social context in which it operates; it does not come from outer space. Someone here creates and performs it, someone receives and hears it, and someone decides how to support it and teach it and disseminate it, according to a certain order of priorities. This entire experience is political; and if we don't understand the political contexts and work for change, we will probably continue to be involved in study, and will delve into semiotic analysis and into performing the fine points of the work. But in the end they will remain on the shelf covered with dust."
The document primarily expresses the Israeli point of view, discussing the damage Israel suffers in the area of security and the waste of essential resources on wars of choice, and makes little reference to the suffering on other side. "Peace is made with enemies," the document states. "We wanted the manifesto to express the opinion of as many people as possible, and therefore we were flexible about its contents," says Lichtenstein. "And I really did discover many colleagues who believe not necessarily in the power of music to bring peace, but in the important place of music in the experience and the political contexts of Israeli society."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/883372.html
By Noam Ben Ze'ev
Ha'aretz -- Wednesday - July 18, 2007
For the first time in the history of academic and musical life in Israel, dozens of musicians, scholars and educators from the field of classical music have come out with a joint call against the occupation and in favor of peace, rapprochement and a two-state solution. "We protest the prolonged occupation that is destroying our country's image," declare the signatories in a written statement. "Our continued control over the territories and their Palestinian inhabitants is morally wrong.
The only positive option is an attempt to conduct responsible negotiations with Hezbollah, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas, Lebanon and Syria." The document will be read publicly for the first time at a modern electronic and live music concert, scheduled to coincide with the ninth issue of "Tav Plus," the music and society periodical edited by Dr. Bat-Sheva Shapira. (The concert will be held in Shelter 209 at 116 Levinsky Street in Tel Aviv, on Thursday at 9:00 P.M.)
Among the over 40 musicians signed onto the manifesto, one can also find leading figures in other fields: Avner Itai, Anat Morag, Itay Talgam, Maya Shavit and Yuval Ben-Ozer (conducting); David Halperin, Yehudit Cohen, Edwin Seroussi, Shoshana Weich-Shahak, Veronika Cohen, Shulamit Feingold and Shai Burstein (musicology); Zohar Eitan, Michael Wolpe, Nadav Ziv, Reuven Seroussi, Arik Shapira and Hagar Kadima (composition); Claudia Gluschankof, Fuad Jubran and Dutchi Lichtenstein (pedagogy and teaching); as well as singer Mira Zakai, pianist Zecharia Plavin, flutist Michael Meltzer and radio personality Dan Orstav.
"The separation between involvement in music on the one hand and ideology on the other is unacceptable to me," says Dr. Lichtenstein, who spearheaded the initiative together with composer Hagar Kadima. "Music is not divorced from the social context in which it operates; it does not come from outer space. Someone here creates and performs it, someone receives and hears it, and someone decides how to support it and teach it and disseminate it, according to a certain order of priorities. This entire experience is political; and if we don't understand the political contexts and work for change, we will probably continue to be involved in study, and will delve into semiotic analysis and into performing the fine points of the work. But in the end they will remain on the shelf covered with dust."
The document primarily expresses the Israeli point of view, discussing the damage Israel suffers in the area of security and the waste of essential resources on wars of choice, and makes little reference to the suffering on other side. "Peace is made with enemies," the document states. "We wanted the manifesto to express the opinion of as many people as possible, and therefore we were flexible about its contents," says Lichtenstein. "And I really did discover many colleagues who believe not necessarily in the power of music to bring peace, but in the important place of music in the experience and the political contexts of Israeli society."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/883372.html
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Do you SEE What I See?
July 11, 2007
Seeing
Our son and daughter-in-law are here for a visit. They are seeing the sites, some of which are not so pretty. Yesterday we took them into Bethlehem, a city well on the way to being the next Gaza. Bethlehem will soon be walled in on all sides -- a prison, 100% controlled by her Israeli jailers. Already, Israel will only allow Bethlehemites to purchase food from them. The prices for groceries in Bethlehem are higher than in the United States. Israel controls the tourist trade, the primary industry of Bethlehem. Israel determines who is to go in and who is not. 90% of tour guides are Jewish, ex-military, trained in the war of words and images. These tour guides rush the buses in and hurry the tourist through the Church of the Nativity. We watched it happening. The folks on the bus are told not to talk to anyone outside the Church, and not to shop in the shops near the Church as well. "This is a dangerous place," they are told. "Don't talk to anyone."
What the tour guides do not want is for tourists to see Bethlehem for what it is. And what is that? A dying town, filled with people who already feel dead. A people mortally wounded by the Israeli occupation, and now being dealt a death blow by the Islamic extremism that is growing within the prison walls.
Sad, yes, but hopeless, no!
We also saw and met some amazing people -- Christians, Muslims, and Jewish. People who believe that the occupation, and the extremism that is finding fertile ground in the soil of oppression, must be resisted. MUST BE RESISTED! But that the resistance must be non-violent. MUST BE NON-VIOLENT! And they mean it. These courageous, hope-filled people of faith -- and Christians lead the way here -- live non-violent resistance. They teach non-violent resistance to hundreds of people living in the West Bank.
And the good news is that there is a hunger for something other than the way of violent resistance, a way that has not led to anywhere except down the path to destruction and death. The folks we met are convinced that they are making a difference. Seeing is believing though, and I hope that many of you will come and see for yourselves. You must see the people! The people! You must see the people!
We entered Bethlehem through the humiliating Bethlehem checkpoint. The Israelis like to call it a terminal, as in bus terminal, airplane terminal. They want to give it a feel of legitimacy. It is not a terminal like any you have ever seen, nor is this place any kind of place that you want between you and the world outside. It is a checkpoint, and it gets no points for being anything other than that. It is an evil place that is used by one people to separate, control, and humiliate another people. The four of us were waiting with passports in hand, watching Palestinians from Bethlehem come through the line -- there was only one line. Inside the thick glass of the booth was a young Israeli girl-soldier. With her baby face expressionless, she was deciding who got in and who was kept out. A mother was standing in front of the glass. Two children clung to her long, brown coat -- a Muslim, covered, except for her face. She was holding her papers up against the glass. The girl-soldier, with the hooded eyes of the bored and frightened, didn't even look into her face. The children did. The children watched every move their mother made. The girl soldier nodded for the mother to go back and put her hand on the state-of-the-art identification device. She obediently did so. The children watched. Then the girl soldier nodded her head in the other direction, and the mother moved through, her children straining to see who was on the other side of the glass. They were too little to see the young woman who controlled their mother's movements.
We were next to go through the checkpoint. It took us a minute, no more. We simply held up our United States passports, and like magic, we were nodded through. The young woman barely looked at us, just noted our passports and nodded for us to go in. I wonder how the Palestinians felt, seeing us given preferential treatment in the land of their fathers and mothers. I don't want to know.
As soon as we were on the other side, we regrouped. Our daughter-in-law had this strange look on her face. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"Didn't you see those children?" she asked."Well, yes," I said. "What about them?""What about them?" she said, her voice rising. "What about them? This is normal for them. This," and she waved her arm around the place ... "This," she said with emotion straining her voice, "This is normal for them." She shook her head, and walked on ahead of us.
She's a first-grade teacher. Remember your first-grade teacher? Thought so.I watched her go, and thought, "Yeah, I used to see that kind of thing. And seeing that kind of thing used to make me feel the way you feel right now.
But now, after being here awhile, well ...
"See how quickly that can happen?
Posted at 09:09 PM Permalink
Seeing
Our son and daughter-in-law are here for a visit. They are seeing the sites, some of which are not so pretty. Yesterday we took them into Bethlehem, a city well on the way to being the next Gaza. Bethlehem will soon be walled in on all sides -- a prison, 100% controlled by her Israeli jailers. Already, Israel will only allow Bethlehemites to purchase food from them. The prices for groceries in Bethlehem are higher than in the United States. Israel controls the tourist trade, the primary industry of Bethlehem. Israel determines who is to go in and who is not. 90% of tour guides are Jewish, ex-military, trained in the war of words and images. These tour guides rush the buses in and hurry the tourist through the Church of the Nativity. We watched it happening. The folks on the bus are told not to talk to anyone outside the Church, and not to shop in the shops near the Church as well. "This is a dangerous place," they are told. "Don't talk to anyone."
What the tour guides do not want is for tourists to see Bethlehem for what it is. And what is that? A dying town, filled with people who already feel dead. A people mortally wounded by the Israeli occupation, and now being dealt a death blow by the Islamic extremism that is growing within the prison walls.
Sad, yes, but hopeless, no!
We also saw and met some amazing people -- Christians, Muslims, and Jewish. People who believe that the occupation, and the extremism that is finding fertile ground in the soil of oppression, must be resisted. MUST BE RESISTED! But that the resistance must be non-violent. MUST BE NON-VIOLENT! And they mean it. These courageous, hope-filled people of faith -- and Christians lead the way here -- live non-violent resistance. They teach non-violent resistance to hundreds of people living in the West Bank.
And the good news is that there is a hunger for something other than the way of violent resistance, a way that has not led to anywhere except down the path to destruction and death. The folks we met are convinced that they are making a difference. Seeing is believing though, and I hope that many of you will come and see for yourselves. You must see the people! The people! You must see the people!
We entered Bethlehem through the humiliating Bethlehem checkpoint. The Israelis like to call it a terminal, as in bus terminal, airplane terminal. They want to give it a feel of legitimacy. It is not a terminal like any you have ever seen, nor is this place any kind of place that you want between you and the world outside. It is a checkpoint, and it gets no points for being anything other than that. It is an evil place that is used by one people to separate, control, and humiliate another people. The four of us were waiting with passports in hand, watching Palestinians from Bethlehem come through the line -- there was only one line. Inside the thick glass of the booth was a young Israeli girl-soldier. With her baby face expressionless, she was deciding who got in and who was kept out. A mother was standing in front of the glass. Two children clung to her long, brown coat -- a Muslim, covered, except for her face. She was holding her papers up against the glass. The girl-soldier, with the hooded eyes of the bored and frightened, didn't even look into her face. The children did. The children watched every move their mother made. The girl soldier nodded for the mother to go back and put her hand on the state-of-the-art identification device. She obediently did so. The children watched. Then the girl soldier nodded her head in the other direction, and the mother moved through, her children straining to see who was on the other side of the glass. They were too little to see the young woman who controlled their mother's movements.
We were next to go through the checkpoint. It took us a minute, no more. We simply held up our United States passports, and like magic, we were nodded through. The young woman barely looked at us, just noted our passports and nodded for us to go in. I wonder how the Palestinians felt, seeing us given preferential treatment in the land of their fathers and mothers. I don't want to know.
As soon as we were on the other side, we regrouped. Our daughter-in-law had this strange look on her face. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"Didn't you see those children?" she asked."Well, yes," I said. "What about them?""What about them?" she said, her voice rising. "What about them? This is normal for them. This," and she waved her arm around the place ... "This," she said with emotion straining her voice, "This is normal for them." She shook her head, and walked on ahead of us.
She's a first-grade teacher. Remember your first-grade teacher? Thought so.I watched her go, and thought, "Yeah, I used to see that kind of thing. And seeing that kind of thing used to make me feel the way you feel right now.
But now, after being here awhile, well ...
"See how quickly that can happen?
Posted at 09:09 PM Permalink
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