Words have consequences, Mr. President. Even though your people are now saying the U.S. will veto a UN move to establish a Palestinian state in September, clearly there are those who believe you can be swayed.
(Ma'an) -- The European Union is advocating an international peace plan as an alternative to a unilateral Palestinian plan to secure state recognition at the UN in September, Israeli media reported Tuesday.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, called for the urgent convening of the Middle East Quartet, the Haaretz daily reported.
Ashton's letter was coordinated with the governments of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, a senior European diplomat said, according to the report.
"This is no time for unilateral moves on either side, since this could lead to escalation. This is in nobody's interest, least of all that of the Israeli and Palestinian people," she said.
"I believe that what is needed now is a clear signal to the parties, and a reference framework that should enable them to return to the negotiating table. President Obama, in his speech on May 19, laid down two important elements that can be the basis for a resumption of negotiations: Borders based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, and firm security guarantees."
Why go all the way back to 1967, when there's Oslo (also not a wonderful idea) and all those other agreements which the Palestinians refused in the last few months and years?
#2
Oslo did not work, so Israel's enemies will try something new or at least different than Oslo. Oslo did not work because the Paleos and their friends did not honor their side of the agreement. The EUniks gave that a pass, just like they gave the Arafish a pass over his lack of *ahem* financial transparency in the billions he got from them.
Accommodation and compromise by Israel has been seen as a sign of weakness to be exploited by making further demands on Israel.
Well, they are running out of land, room, time, so the accommodation must stop.
An independent Paleostinian state carries with it responsibilities. Serious ones, like shooting rockets into Israel becomes an act of war.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/15/2011 14:22 Comments ||
Top||
#3
OTOH its being repor that not all NATO-EU Member-States are onboard wid the plans.
[Al Jazeera] Standard & Poor's has cut Greece's credit rating by three notches to CCC, the lowest rating of any sovereign nation in the world, as European finance ministers prepare to discuss a new aid package for the country.
"The downgrade reflects our view that there is a significantly higher likelihood of one or more defaults, as defined by our criteria relating to full and timely payment, linked to efforts by official creditors to close an emerging financing gap in Greece," the US ratings agency said. The agency said it believed that Greece's recession "could well persist into 2012 and thus may further erode internal political support for the revised EU/IMF programme".
Greece responded by accusing Standard & Poor's of ignoring reform efforts in Athens and European Union talks on debt aid.
Al Jizz's Alan Fisher, reporting from Athens, says Greek's debt crisis is akin to a long horror programme. They had received a bail-out just over a year ago but one year later no one wants to talk about the D-word in the corridors of power. That word is default.
"That's simply because Greece can't get on top of its problems. The recession has bit further and deeper than anyone expected. Greece's deficit has actually grown. It's now at $502 billion - that's about 150 per cent of its GDP," he said.
European ministers are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss a new aid package that could call on private holders of Greek debt to accept delayed payment.
General strike
The ratings cut came days after Greece's Socialist government unveiled a new austerity programme aiming to save around $4bn in new taxes and spending cuts by 2015. The cash-strapped country is also planning to sell $1.79bn of treasury bills.
But the new measures have angered labour unions, which have called a general strike for Wednesday. The walkout is expected to stop all train and ferry services, close schools and public services and leave hospitals operating with emergency staff.
Protesters, who have been demonstrating peacefully outside parliament in Athens for the past three weeks, also say they will try to blockade the building, while unions are planning protest marches through the city centre.
The downgrades by Standard & Poor's and other agencies have made it impossible for Greece to raise fresh loans on international markets as it struggles to fix its economy. The Moody's agency demoted Greek bonds to Caa1 on June 1, just days before the end of an audit of Greek finances by the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
something's fishy in Denmark.... Greece has a lower credit rating than Haiti?
#10
A keynesian is basically someone who thinks all the worlds economic problems can be solved by increasing the amount the state borrows to spend on the whims of bureaucrats.
#11
Although Keynes wasn't a Keynsian by the modern use of that term.
Keynes basically argued government spending should be counter-cyclical. Which means running surpluses in the good times and spending the surplus during recessions.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
