Even Israel's Kibbutzim are Becoming Religious Traditionally socialist and secular Israel's Kibbutzim find religion.

While the Western world is turning away from God and religion, it is surprising to read a headline on Israel's left wing Ha'aretz news site saying: "Once bastions of secularism, Israel's kibbutzim find God". While the Western world has began to have the "Atheist Church", why would Israel's bastions of secularism rediscover God?

The Kibbutz was the original collective community, based on ideals of Zionism and socialism. They played a very important role in the building of the modern state of Israel. Kibbutzim worked on a basis of communal living and the vast majority were entirely secular. The oft heard phrase that Israel is a secular nation, finds its roots in the Kibbutz and the secular state that came in many ways from the Kibbutz movement. The famous Israeli general Moshe Dayan was the second child born on the first Kibbutz called Degania. The early state of Israel and the Kibbutz were in a way synonymous. Today the communal, socialist Kibbutz is a thing of the past. Nevertheless the secular kibbutz has continued to exist.

Israel has been becoming more religious over the years and to use the old phrase that "Israel is a secular nation", is completely out of date and out of touch with reality. Almost exactly 4 years ago, I did the Bible in the News on an opinion piece in Ha'aretz which had the title, "Let's face the facts, Israel is a semi-theocracy". The writer argued that Israel was already a semi-theocracy based on the facts that:

1. Only 44 percent of Israelis define themselves as secular and many of these are 'traditional', which means, in his words, "religious, but just a little".
2. Eighty-five percent of Israelis hold a Passover seder.
3. Sixty-seven percent fast on Yom Kippur, known to many as the day of atonement.
4. Almost every boy in Israel today has a bar-mitzvah.
5. In Israel there are no civil marriages or divorces, and there are almost no secular funerals.
6. The Western Wall is holy to almost all Israelis and the fact that Israel won't give up "holy" East Jerusalem is also based on religious faith.

In that Bible in the News I wrote that: "Many people are stuck back in the early days of the state of Israel, the days of the socialist secular kibbutz." So when I read this week that even the Kibbutzim are becoming religious I took notice.

Here is how the Ha'aretz article on Kibbutzim finding God describes the change:

"Two relatively recent developments may explain the change of heart among many kibbutzim and their willingness to reexamine their fraught relationship with Judaism. One is the collapse of the socialist model that dominated kibbutz life until the 1980s, and the other is the changing demographic of these communities, as more and more city dwellers seeking a better quality of life, many of them from more traditional backgrounds, have built homes in new neighborhoods established on kibbutz land.

"Beit Hashita is a case in point. “Until about 10 years ago, I had no connection to religion or tradition,” recalls Yonish. “But then the kibbutz was privatized and new people started moving in. After socialism collapsed, it seemed to me there was no glue to bind us together the way there used to be. I began to ask myself what do we have in common with the 200 new residents who’ve moved here, and the one thing I could come up with was Jewish tradition.”

"But it was something very personal, he acknowledges, that initially triggered his change of heart. “When my daughter got married and moved to England, I understood that just being an Israeli is not enough to tie us to this place,” he says. “That’s when I started going around the kibbutz and telling people, ‘Friends, we’ve run too far away from our roots.’”"

The fact is that either the land of Israel attracts you or repels you. You cannot separate the land from it's Hebrew language, literature. history and culture. When the Jews returned to the land it brought them back to the Hebrew language and with the language the literature - which first and foremost is the Hebrew Bible. The history of the Jewish people is inseparable from the land, in the ancient ruins, cities, valleys and mountains. Archeology is everywhere speaking of the great events in Israel's history; the forefathers of the nation, Abraham, Issac and Jacob; the great kings like David and Hezekiah; battles fought and lost and even yielding ancient copies of Hebrew literature like the Dead Sea Scrolls. When you come to Israel, you come to the Bible - you can't help it.

As the Jews have returned to the land and shook off the dust of the exile, they have inevitably become reconnected to their language, literature and history, which all lead in some way to the Hebrew Bible.

Eliezer Ben-Yehudah, the man who is called the father of modern Hebrew, the one who revived the language, was a secular man. In the book, "Hebrew Reborn" by Shalom Spiegel, he wrote of Ben-Yehudah:

"In his bent toward, extremes, Ben Jehuda became a non-religous Jew. He did not even hesitate to state that he, his wife, and his children belonged to no creed, and championed the idea that Judaism was to be built up on the purely mundane idea of folk, language, and homeland. Indeed, he saw a holy war against religion and tradition as a duty of the Hebrew renaissance. A very grave error on his part, balanced by the dark fanaticism of the rigidly pious, who excommunicated him repeatedly, refused to bury his wife and child, and even had him thrown into jail by slandering him to the Turkish government. Bitter strife, such as is possible only between brethren! He never divined, in the defiant obstinacy of the zealots, constructive forces from which his own life work was nurtured. Just as they could hardly have surmised that this heretic, through his unwearying service to the Hebrew word, unconsciously aroused the religious forces latent within it. For there is no such thing as creedless Hebrew. He who conjures up Hebrew at the same time involuntarily opens sluices for the obstructed springs of an ancient religious civilization. Though he may not welcome them, neither can he rid himself of the spirits he has called up.

"So, too, against his own will and intention, will the life work of Ben Jehuda, who thought to command the destinies of the Hebrew language, succumb to the ineffaceable runes of religion within the language. Which will do his life work no harm, but rather give it deeper significance. Unwittingly, he has become more than the mere renewer of spoken Hebrew."

Like Ben-Yehudah the Kibbutz tried to come to Israel and disregard religion and the God of Israel. But they are being forced in that direction, which the language, literature and history inevitably lead toward. The Hebrew Bible itself predicted that it would be this way, when the Jews returned to the land of their forefathers, Hosea 3:4,5.

"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days."

Israel today may be a nation that is being drawn to the Hebrew scriptures and to their ancient historical roots, but this is not to the pure truth of the word of God. Today there are many forms of Judaism - none of them the truth - with everyman doing that which is right in his own eyes. Instruction in the things of God is required. This is spoken of in Jeremiah 3:14,15.

" Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."

Israel needs teachers to show them the way of truth. Isaiah the prophet speaks of these teachers in chapter 30 - a prophecy for the latter day. Isaiah 30:19-21

"For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."

Today we see a searching and yearning for truth and for the God of Israel developing in the nation. A teachable disposition is a prerequisite for hearing the truth. Open ears and hearts are required. Seeing the nation of Israel turn away from Godlessness and secularism is a notable sign of the times and we should rejoice in it. Israel will of course become much more religious than it is today. The prophet Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 31:34,

"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

If Israel is being prepared for the return of Jesus Christ to be their King, are we prepared? That is the question for us to consider! Come back next week God willing as we continue to watch the Bible as it determines the course of world events in relation to the kingdom of God. This has been David Billington with you.

Report: Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in talks to form unity government

Jerusalem Post 17-Dec-13 [Here we go again!]
PA President Mahmoud Abbas is in talks with Hamas head Khaled Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to form unity government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections, reported Palestinian news agency Ma’an Tuesday.
Abbas received phone calls from Mashaal and Haniyeh confirming their decision to join Hamas with Fatah, according to Ma’an sources.
This was not the first time that the two parties had announced an agreement to end their differences. Over the past few years, Fatah and Hamas have reached a number of such agreements that were never implemented.
Hamas leaders allegedly requested that the national unity government serve for six months instead of three as agreed in the 2012 Doha Agreement, one of many attempts at reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions.
Ma’an sources suggested that Abbas would choose Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to lead the unity government.
The two rival parties have been distant since 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian democratic elections.
Clashes erupted between Fatah and Hamas the following year, leaving Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah in control of the West Bank.

Iran proposes deep water gas pipeline for India

UPI. 17-Dec-13
A manager at the National Iranian Gas Exports Co. said negotiations were under way with Indian companies to deliver natural gas through a deep water pipeline.
Ali Amirani, marketing manager for the company, said the deep water natural gas pipeline would run through the Sea of Oman for Indian energy needs, Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency reports.
"Negotiations were held with three Indian companies for [their] purchase of gas from Iran, and general agreements have been reached," he was quoted as saying Monday.
The official said the planned 870-mile pipeline would cost more than $4 billion and deliver at least 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas to India per day.
Iran has proposed Asian and European routes for natural gas deliveries. India was once considered the terminal end of an overland pipeline through Pakistan. Iran's land option has faded, however, because of the ramifications of Western economic sanctions on Iran's energy sector.
Fars News states Iran and India are historic energy partners. A joint commission on energy matters was set up in the 1990s.

Vatican continues to block audit of holocaust looted assets – Dr Jonathan Levy

InSerbia 16-Dec-13
The Vatican Authority for Financial Information tasked with monitoring the scandal plagued Vatican Bank continues to dodge requests to audit Vatican Bank accounts alleged to contain Holocaust era assets looted from the Balkans, says Dr Jonathan Levy from Brimstone & Co. in Washington.

Apparently, about 30 current and former Vatican Bank accounts have been identified as suspect including accounts controlled by the Franciscan Order and various Croatian Dioceses.
On December 4, 2013, the Vatican Financial Authority reached a bilateral agreement with the German Federal Criminal Police Office pledging cooperation on anti money laundering following a previous agreement with the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit. Ironically, Germany and Holland have taken significant measures to deal with assets looted during the Second World War which continue to surface as in the recent case of over a billion dollars of Nazi looted artworks recovered in Munich last year.
Dr. Jonathan Levy, the attorney for several thousand claimants, Holocaust victims, their heirs, and organizations, has criticized the Vatican Financial Authority and its Director Rene Bruelhart: “Mr. Bruelhart and his immediate superior Cardinal Nicora are the ultimate insiders. They claim to be auditing accounts at the Vatican Bank but do not have the decency to respond to our repeated requests. From my point of view, they are continuing the ongoing Vatican cover up.”
Dr. Levy also noted that his firm’s investigations and ensuing litigation which commenced in 1998 has uncovered a Vatican Bank connection to looted assets from other countries including Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Levy explained, “After World War Two, there was a pressing need to move assets from Soviet occupied lands as the Iron Curtain descended on eastern Europe; changing these assets into Church property and depositing it at the Vatican Bank was an effective method however these assets often were commingled with property looted by the Nazis and Axis regimes in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Croatia.”
The funds at stake were derived from the Ustasha Treasury, consisting of gold and valuables looted from Yugoslavia during the Second World War and deposited at the Vatican Bank in 1946 and never accounted for, according to the statement from Brimstone & Co.
This week Levy has lodged a complaint with both the Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit and German Bundeskriminalamt following an unsuccessful three year effort to move the European Commission to investigate the Vatican Bank.
However, the EU concluded that anti money laundering treaties with the Vatican do not apply to the Vatican Bank and only the Vatican Financial Authority can call for an audit.

Noble Energy unveils offshore Israel expansion plans

Offshore-mag.com 17-Dec-13
Noble Energy says the onshore gas compression project at the Ashdod reception terminal on the Israeli coast is progressing. The facility is receiving supplies from the deepwater Tamar field in the Levantine basin.
By mid 2015, Noble aims to enhance deliverability at the plant to 1.2 bcf/d (34 MMcm/d), and increase to 1.5 bcf/d (42 MMcm/d) in 2016. Development of the recent Tamar Southwest discovery is to play a part in the expansion.
Noble’s next major deepwater Israeli development will be the 19-tcf (538-bcm) Leviathan field. It plans multiple phases of development with initial production in 2017.
The company sees further strong exploration potential on its acreage in the Eastern Mediterranean offshore, with around 3 Bbbl of gross unrisked oil potential in the deep Mesozoic play off both Cyprus and Israel, and 4 tcf (113 bcm) of natural gas potential off Cyprus.
Noble expects to resume exploration drilling in the region in late 2014 or early 2015.

Noble reports 3bln barrel oil potential between Cyprus and Israel

Cyprus Mail 17-Dec-13
Some 3 billion barrels of oil may lie in deepwater strata between Cypriot and Israeli offshore fields, US-based Noble Energy disclosed on Monday.
“Significant exploration potential remains on the Company’s acreage position in the Eastern Mediterranean, with approximately 3 billion barrels of gross unrisked oil potential in the deep Mesozoic play in both Cyprus and Israel and four trillion cubic feet gross of natural gas potential in Cyprus. Current plans are to resume exploration drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean in late 2014 or early 2015,” Noble said during a conference it hosted in Houston, Texas.
‘Unrisked’ is industry jargon for a crude estimate of reserves that does not factor in probabilities. It is a preliminary assessment derived from geological data from seismic surveys.
The news from Houston coincided with reports in the press here that Cyprus’ Block 12 may hold estimated oil reserves of between 1.2 and 1.4 billion barrels.
Phileleftheros reports that the reserves would translate into revenues of approximately €60bn for Cyprus.
Israeli news site Globes reported last month that updated estimates at Israel’s Leviathan field gave a 25 per cent probability of finding 1.5 billion barrels of oil beneath gas-bearing strata.
The Leviathan and Tamar fields in Israel, and Aphrodite in Cyprus, are the largest projects in which Noble Energy is involved in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Assuming 1.5 billion barrels are in Leviathan, the bulk of the remainder might presumably lie in Aphrodite.
In April 2010 the US Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin using a geology-based assessment methodology.

The Geopolitical Realities Behind the Ukraine-Russia Natural Gas Deal

Stratfor 17-Dec-13
After years of Ukrainian efforts to get lower natural gas prices from Russia, an agreement was reached Tuesday that has major geopolitical consequences. Following a meeting in Moscow between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, it was revealed that Ukraine would receive a 33 percent discount on its natural gas supplies starting Jan. 1, from $400 to $268 per thousand cubic meters. Moscow also agreed to buy $15 billion worth of Ukrainian debt through Russia's National Welfare Fund.
The deal will allow Ukraine to boost its ailing finances, both by addressing its short-term need for cash and its longer-term need to cut monthly expenditures via lower natural gas prices. More important, the deal sends a strong political message that Kiev is inextricably tied to Moscow, not Brussels or Berlin. And whatever the cost of maintaining this relationship, Russia is willing to pay it.
Two recent developments made the long-sought natural gas agreement a reality. The first was Ukraine's request for billions in financial assistance from the European Union -- and the bloc's denial of the request -- several weeks ago. The second was Ukraine's subsequent rejection of the EU association and free trade agreements, which led to large protests on the streets of Kiev but also opened the door for Ukraine and Russia to finally make a deal.
Financial matters were key to Kiev's decision not to sign the landmark agreements with the European Union. Ukraine has a current account deficit of approximately $17 billion, much of it caused by an $11 billion annual natural gas bill from Russia. Moreover, in an effort to dissuade Ukraine from signing the agreements, Russia began to restrict trade and threatened further such restrictions if Ukraine were to follow through with the EU pacts. It was no coincidence that Kiev reached out to the European Union and asked for billions in financial assistance before the deal was signed. When the bloc made it clear that no such aid was forthcoming, Ukraine opted out of the deals, and now the country has turned to Russia for aid.
The European Union and Russia have long fought for influence over Ukraine, but with this deal Moscow proved its willingness to pay a steep price to keep Ukraine in its orbit. While Ukraine is a matter of interest for the European Union's neighborhood policy, it is vital to Russia's geopolitical existence. Therefore, Moscow was willing to put up billions of dollars if that is what it took to guarantee Kiev's orientation away from the West.

This is not to say that the European Union has completely lost out in the ongoing geopolitical tug of war over Ukraine. Yanukovich's moves have created dismay among EU officials and led to the eruption of protests in Kiev. The Europeans have supported these protests, and emerging opposition leaders such as Vitali Klitschko have backing from the likes of Germany. It is not clear whether Yanukovich will be able to manage the political opposition indefinitely, as he will face a significant challenge in the upcoming presidential election in 2015, if not sooner.
Regardless, Yanukovich ultimately saw no way around the deal with Russia. While the European Union offered political and economic integration into a bloc with potential benefits in the long term, Ukraine simply could not choose such a relationship at the expense of losing economic, energy and political ties with Russia. Russia made its demands on Ukraine known, and once those demands were met, Moscow was prepared to offer key financial incentives to assist Kiev.
The deal therefore highlighted several issues regarding Ukraine. One is that both sides wanted Ukraine in their bloc, but only Russia was willing to pay for it. It also showed the durability of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship, especially during a crisis. The deal also illustrated that when it comes to wooing Ukraine, the European Union simply does not have the same fundamental interests or resources as Russia, especially since Europe is struggling with its own financial crisis.
There are still many unknowns, particularly concerning Ukraine's domestic political situation and whether Yanukovich will be able to ride out the protests. However, any political or personnel changes in Ukraine cannot overcome the country's geopolitical realities, of which Russia plays a crucial part. Any leader in Kiev would face the same political and economic constraints as Yanukovich in trying to get closer to Europe. The events of the past few weeks, especially this natural gas deal, serve as important reminders of those limitations.

Our Man in Kiev

German Foreign Policy 12-Dec-13
According to press reports, the German government would like to have boxing champion Vitali Klitschko run for president and bring him to power in the Ukraine. It would like to enhance the popularity of the opposition's politician by staging, for example, joint public appearances with the German foreign minister. For this purpose, a meeting is also planned for Klitschko with Chancellor Merkel at the next EU summit in mid-December. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is, in fact, not only massively supporting Klitschko and his UDAR party. According to a CDU politician, the UDAR Party was founded in 2010 on the direct orders of the CDU foundation. Reports on the foundation's activities for the development of Klitschko's party give an indication of how Germans are influencing the Ukraine's domestic affairs via UDAR. Berlin's use of Poland in its policy toward the Ukraine is also increasing. Berlin and Warsaw are cooperating with the Ukrainian ultra right-wing Svoboda ("Liberty") party, which stands in the tradition of Nazi collaborators, who massacred 100,000 Christian and Jewish Poles during WW II.
On Behalf of the Adenauer Foundation
Vitali Klitschko - the man, who, if the German government has its way, should conquer the power in Kiev and lead his country into the German-European hegemonic sphere - is not only a political ally, but - in his current role - even a product of Berlin's foreign policy. As the CDU politician, Werner Jostmeier, reported about two years ago, Klitschko had been "instructed by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation" to establish "a Christian conservative party in the Ukraine."[1] UDAR ("Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms") was founded on April 24, 2010 and the CDU affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation's assistance for its development began immediately. Klitschko, spoke of his three day visit to Berlin in January 2011, remarking that the talks were "of great help" to the party's development: "We had many questions and found the answers" in Berlin. The foundation organized another working visit in Thuringia that fall, offering the boxing champion instructions on the implementation of local policies. Following supplementary assistance, Klitschko "explicitly" thanked the Adenauer Foundation and the CDU for their help in setting up the party.[2]
Ways of Influencing
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation's support for UDAR continues. Last June, it gave the UDAR party youth hints on "increasing their membership" and on electoral strategies. Four weeks ago, it organized a seminar on the EU Association Agreement, which clearly demonstrates how, at a lower level, the German government is using UDAR as an instrument for gaining influence in the Ukraine's political development. According to a report, the foundation "informed" young activists at the seminar, who, as "multipliers," should be spreading "the knowledge they had been receiving" from the German organization. At the same time, they were given the opportunity to "expand their political networks."[3] In late November, an UDAR delegation visited Germany, to inform itself on the means and methods of parliamentary work. The CDU organization explained that "advising the party also on its work as a parliamentary group," is "an important concern of the Adenauer Foundation." After all "relevant laws concerning the country's integration into the EU" must be introduced in the Verkhovna Rada by the end of the year.[4] It is in Germany's interest that the Ukrainian system of norms can successfully be adapted to the German-European system ("EU integration").
The Foreign Ministry's Candidate
Berlin's government authorities have been promoting contacts with Vitali Klitschko from the very beginning. In the prelude to Klitschko's early 2011 working visit to Berlin, the Adenauer Foundation had already announced that the world champion boxer would meet with "high ranking officials of the Chancellery and Foreign Ministry."[5] Since then Klitschko has even been meeting the German Foreign Minister on a regular basis. The foreign ministry has documented such official encounters, usually also with photos, in November 2012, June 2013 and October 2013. Last week Guido Westerwelle appeared in public with Kiev's opposition politician. Recent media reports show that these meetings not only serve for coordinating political maneuvers - bypassing the Ukraine's elected government - but also for public relations. The German chancellor would like to position Vitali Klitschko "as the leader of the opposition and rival candidate to incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych" and strengthen his standing "with joint public appearances." This is why the UDAR chairman should appear at the next EU summit meeting on December 19 and 20 and have highly publicized "consultations with Chancellor Merkel."[6] According to a report, the Adenauer Foundation's man in Kiev needs additional tutoring. He "still lacks rhetorical agility and political experience for waging a presidential electoral campaign."
Anti-Trade Union Violence
In addition to Berlins efforts to groom Vlitali Klitschko into a presidential candidate and eventually get him elected as Kiev's ruler, leading German politicians are also continuing their coordination with the extreme rightwing Svoboda Party. While, during his visit to Kiev last week, Germany's Foreign Minister Westerwelle was avoiding being photographed near the leader of the Svoboda Party, Oleh Tjahnybok to allude PR problems, Helga Schmid, the German assistant to the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, was busy negotiating with the head of that extremist rightwing party.[7] The fact that its followers have become violent, will not dampen the German-EU cooperation with Svoboda. Over the weekend, Svoboda followers destroyed a statue of Lenin and threw smoke bombs. It is now being reported that they have even assaulted members of the left. According to reports, "Svoboda followers, in plain view of one or their parliamentarians, recently demolished the tent of the independent trade union federation, wounding its activists with blows and pepper spray."[8]
German-Polish Cooperation
In its efforts to overthrow the government in Kiev, Berlin is implicating Polish foreign policy to a growing extent. According to a paper published in mid-November by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), "Berlin and Warsaw" must be "the main initiators" in the EU's Ostpolitik. Within the framework of a German-Polish "Partnership for Europe" a "close German-Polish cooperation is essential" - particularly in relationship to the Ukraine.[9] In their "common declaration" issued in late November, the foreign ministers of the two countries declared that they are "solidly on the side of the people of the Ukraine," who "could still benefit from the extensive European offer of a close political and economic cooperation" - referring to the EU Association Agreement.[10] In the course of their common initiatives for the Ukraine. Polish diplomats have met on various occasions, with Svoboda representatives. The Svoboda Party sees itself as standing in the traditions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Nazi collaborators and their Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In mid-October, the party celebrated - allegedly with 20,000 participants - the UPA's founding October 14, 1942. In World War II, the UPA slaughtered up to 100,000 Poles - both Christian and Jewish - which is why Poland still officially registers it a "criminal organization."[11]
Other reports and background information on the current German policy toward the Ukraine can be found here: Problems of Eastward Expansion, A Broad-Based Anti-Russian Alliance and Expansive Ambitions.
[German footnotes removed] [2] see also The Boxer's Punch [5] see also The Boxer's Punch [11] see also Between Moscow and Berlin (IV)

Waiving Vatican routines, Pope to declare sainthood of Peter Faber

Catholic World News 17-Dec-13
Pope Francis will pronounce today that the 16th-century Jesuit priest Pierre Favre is a saint, the Associated Press reports.
Citing unnamed Vatican sources, AP reports that the Pontiff will waive the usual Vatican procedures to announce the canonization of the Blessed Pierre Favre, who was beatified in 1872.
Born in Francs in 1506, Pierre Favre—who is also known by the Anglicized form of his name, Peter Faber—attended the University of Paris, where he shared rooms with St. Francis Xavier, met St. Ignatius Loyola, and became a co-founder of the Jesuit order. He became famous as a preacher, primarily in Germany, and was instrumental in organizing the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation. Summoned to attend the Council of Trent as an expert, he died in Rome in 1546.

Saudi-Israeli Relations: Balancing Legitimacy and Security

MSA-IS:131217:(17-DEC-13):Saudi-Israeli Relations: Balancing Legitimacy and Security
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 228 17-Dec-13
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: There is much speculation on a warming of relations, and even collaboration, between Saudi Arabia and Israel in the aftermath of the Iran nuclear deal. Both countries perceive a nuclear Iran to be a great threat. However, given its history and concern for the legitimacy of its rule, the Saudi royal family is more likely to draw closer to Iran than to Israel.
Following the signing of an agreement on Iran’s nuclear development on November 24, the press speculated that Saudi Arabia and Israel – the most important US allies in the region and the countries most jilted by Washington – would increase their cooperation. But given its history and concern for the legitimacy of its rule, particularly after the Arab uprisings, the Saudi royal family is more likely to draw closer to Iran than to Israel.
Real and Rumored Saudi Contact With Israel
Since the 1980s, Saudi officialdom has demonstrated a relatively conciliatory stance towards Israel. Prince Fahd’s initiative of 1981, the Fez plan of 1982, and King Abdullah’s plan, which became the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002, all offered recognition to Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state and full withdrawal from all territories captured in
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1967. Israeli leaders publicly demonstrated some interest, and the press reported secret meetings between Israeli and Saudi officials in 2006-2007 with an eye towards making the initiative more palatable to Israel. In 2008 Olmert offered to include Saudis in a committee of religious leaders administering Jerusalem’s holy sites.
The Sunday Times has been the source of several stories of Saudi-Israeli defense cooperation – all citing anonymous Israeli officials – since the Iranian threat has grown. It reported that the Saudis agreed to let Israel attack Iran via its airspace and that that they were practicing standing down their air defenses. This assertion dovetailed with remarks made to this author by an American academic who had met with a top Saudi defense official.
In May 2013, it reported that a defense agreement was in the works between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, including the sharing of radar station and missile defense information. In October, Israel’s Channel Two reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was supervising “intensive meetings” with prominent Gulf officials, one of whom who had even visited Israel. In November, the Sunday Times struck again, reporting Saudi Arabia would cooperate in the use of refueling planes, rescue helicopters, and drones. An Israeli minister told Buzzfeed that it was Saudi Arabia that informed Israel about the secret US-Iran nuclear talks that preceded the Geneva agreement. The Saudis denied such contacts.
The Israeli leadership has recently made several statements expressing the common interests between Israel and the Sunni countries of the region. These include Amos Gilad, Director of Political-Military Affairs in the Ministry of Defense, and several other spokespersons. The most overlooked pro-Saudi reference was a few lines in Netanyahu’s speech at the UN in early October, when he expressed his hope that Israel would build relationships with Arab countries equally threatened by Iran.
While the leaks are probably from Israeli sources trying to threaten Iran, the Saudis are most likely of two minds about contacts with Israel. On the one hand, a large part of the ruling family’s internal and regional legitimacy is based on being perceived as promoting Arab and Islamic causes. Palestine is just such a cause, and to be seen discussing anything with Israel is problematic. On the other hand, the Saudis have said that they have the right to do anything to assure their security, the implication being that talks with Israel should not be ruled out. Iran should therefore be put on notice.
The Saudis, the Gulf, and Bandwagoning
The Saudis have always been reluctant to confront Iran. Although separated by a history of political and religious enmity, Riyadh sought to get along with Tehran. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Riyadh has effectively opted against – or been deterred from – taking action against Iran, even when Tehran was organizing sedition amongst Saudi Arabia’s own Shiites and making trouble at the pilgrimage. Not even Tehran’s hand in the explosion at Khobar Towers in Dhahran in 1996 spurred Riyadh into action. In fact, relations with Iran actually improved after the bombing. The Saudis were running scared, and are still scared. That’s why the official Saudi response was more muted than some expected: “If there is good will, then this agreement could be an initial step toward reaching a comprehensive solution to Iran’s nuclear program.”
With the US going wobbly on Iran and seeming not to understand the threat, Riyadh seems to be secretly reaching out to Israel, trying to firm up the moribund Gulf Cooperation Council, and improve relations with Iran. The Saudis are doing a bit of “bandwagoning,” which is the idea that rather than balance against threats, states join them. In the face of Iran’s diplomatic coup, Saudi Arabia is trying to lower the flames with Iran and test the waters of a future rapprochement. While not actually joining Iran, it is trying to hedge its bets by just getting along.
Saudi Arabia has not gone to the lengths of the UAE, where the bandwagoning response is stronger. The UAE was the first Gulf country to express support for the agreement, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdallah bin Zayd was the first to visit Iran. The UAE’s quick response seems to have been rewarded: in the second week of December, Iran removed jet fighters from Abu Musa, one of three islands in dispute between the countries. It was later confirmed that they were holding talks to solve the dispute.
The Saudi-led GCC is shaky, and the kingdom has been further weakened regionally. When the Saudis proposed on December 7 that the GCC form a political union, Oman objected publicly. A few days later the GCC announced the formation of a unified military command and police force, but no political union. The two former, like the latter, were unlikely to come into being.
Defending the Kingdom
Defending Saudi Arabia has always been outsourced, first to Britain and then to America. Disappointed with the US for its abandonment of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and support of the Muslim Brotherhood, its fecklessness in Syria, and succumbing to the charm offensive of Iran, some Saudi officials and royals, led by the volatile former head of intelligence, Prince Turki Al Faysal, have been vocal about seeking new defense arrangements. But in the end they can only look to Washington. The US knows this and has moved to reassure the Saudis. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has proposed new initiatives aimed at bolstering US-led defense cooperation in the region.
Conclusion
The implications of the confluence of interests between Riyadh and Jerusalem should not be overstated. Saudi Arabia is not about to give up its position in the Islamic world by forming an alliance with Israel, the perceived enemy of Islam. Yet quiet cooperation should not be ruled out. In the event of an Israeli attack on Iran, Saudi Arabia could stand down its radar. It could offer refueling and search and rescue backup for Israeli pilots. Above all, it could step up intelligence sharing with Jerusalem. In the future, the US could mediate possible cooperation in missile defense between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other countries of the GCC. Theoretically, there is no reason that an anti-ballistic missile battery based in Saudi Arabia or Qatar could not intercept a missile launched at Israel from Iran. But such cooperation is extremely risky for the regime and would require a greater degree of trust in Israel than Riyadh probably has.
When it comes to Israel, the Saudis will continue to balance their national security considerations with their internal and regional legitimacy concerns. The political cost of improving relations with Israel is much higher than improving relations with Iran. Even though the Saudi Wahhabis have no love for Iranian Shiites, the latter are at least Muslims. A bit of bandwagoning with Iran will therefore most likely be the order of the day. In any case, the Kingdom knows that the US, for its own reasons, will have its back.
As for the Israelis, the public diplomacy and psychological operations value of leaking meetings with the Saudis is limited and counter-productive. Israeli leaders would we well advised to keep these arrangements under the tightest of wraps, lest the Saudis ditch them entirely.
Prof. Joshua Teitelbaum, a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, is a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Bar-Ilan University, and a visiting fellow and contributor to the Task Force on Islamism and International Order at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He is an expert on the Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia Will Go It Alone

MAR-MSY-MIN-MSA:131217:(17-DEC-13):Saudi Arabia Will Go It Alone
New York Times Op-Ed contribution 17-Dec-13
Saudi Arabia has been friends with our Western partners for decades; for some, like the United Kingdom where I serve as ambassador, for almost a century. These are strategic alliances that benefit us both. Recently, these relationships have been tested — principally because of differences over Iran and Syria.
We believe that many of the West’s policies on both Iran and Syria risk the stability and security of the Middle East. This is a dangerous gamble, about which we cannot remain silent, and will not stand idly by.
The crisis in Syria continues unabated. There have been over 100,000 civilian deaths. Most shockingly of all, the Oxford Research Group reports that of the 11,000 victims under 17 and under, more than 70 percent were killed by air strikes and artillery shells deliberately targeting civilian areas.
While international efforts have been taken to remove the weapons of mass destruction used by the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad, surely the West must see that the regime itself remains the greatest weapon of mass destruction of all? Chemical weapons are but a small cog in Mr. Assad’s killing machine. While he may appear to be going along with every international initiative to end the conflict, his regime will continue to do everything in its power to frustrate any serious solution.
The Assad regime is bolstered by the presence of Iranian forces in Syria. These soldiers did not enter Syria to protect it from a hostile external occupation; they are there to support an evil regime that is hurting and harming the Syrian people. It is a familiar pattern for Iran, which has financed and trained militias in Iraq, Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and militants in Yemen and Bahrain.
And yet rather than challenging the Syrian and Iranian governments, some of our Western partners have refused to take much-needed action against them. The West has allowed one regime to survive and the other to continue its program for uranium enrichment, with all the consequent dangers of weaponization.
This year’s talks with Iran may dilute the West’s determination to deal with both governments. What price is “peace” though, when it is made with such regimes?
The foreign policy choices being made in some Western capitals risk the stability of the region and, potentially, the security of the whole Arab world. This means the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has no choice but to become more assertive in international affairs: more determined than ever to stand up for the genuine stability our region so desperately needs.
Saudi Arabia has enormous responsibilities within the region, as the cradle of Islam and one of the Arab world’s most significant political powers. We have global responsibilities — economic and political — as the world’s de facto central banker for energy. And we have a humanitarian responsibility to do what we can to end the suffering in Syria.
We will act to fulfill these responsibilities, with or without the support of our Western partners. Nothing is ruled out in our pursuit of sustainable peace and stability in the Arab World as King Abdullah — then Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince — showed with his leadership of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We showed our preparedness to act independently with our decision to reject a seat on the United Nations Security Council. What point was there in serving in an international talking shop when so many lives are threatened, and so many opportunities for peace and security are being thwarted by the U.N.’s inability to act?
We continue to show our determination through our support for the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian opposition. It is too easy for some in the West to use the threat of Al Qaeda’s terrorist operations in Syria as an excuse for hesitation and inaction. Al Qaeda’s activities are a symptom of the international community’s failure to intervene. They should not become a justification for inaction. The way to prevent the rise of extremism in Syria — and elsewhere — is to support the champions of moderation: financially, materially and yes, militarily, if necessary. To do otherwise is to walk on by, while a humanitarian disaster and strategic failure continue to fester.
Saudi Arabia will continue on this new track for as long as proves necessary. We expected to be standing shoulder to shoulder with our friends and partners who have previously talked so much about the importance of moral values in foreign policy. But this year, for all their talk of “red lines,” when it counted, our partners have seemed all too ready to concede our safety and risk our region’s stability.
Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz al Saud is Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain.

Saudi Official Shakes Hands with Israelis in Rare Meeting

Arutz Sheva 17-Dec-13
A rare meeting took place on Sunday between a member of the Saudi royal family and Israeli officials, reports NRG/Maariv.
The meeting took place at the World Policy Conference in Monaco, where Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former head of the Saudi secret services and formerly his country’s ambassador to the United States, met MK Meir Sheetrit (Hatnua) and Itamar Rabinovich, formerly Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.
According to NRG/Maariv, the Saudi prince publicly shook hands with Rabinovich and held a discussion with MK Sheetrit.
The report said that Sheetrit invited the Saudi prince to address the Knesset, to which the prince replied that this would not be beneficial as long as Israel did not accept the Arab peace initiative. He called on Israel to accept the initiative so that details of its implementation can then be discussed.
The Arab Peace Initiative, unveiled in 2002 by Saudi Arabia, says that 22 Arab countries will normalize ties with Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal to the indefensible and narrow 1949 armistice line and Israeli acceptance of the "Right of Return" for millions of descendants of Arabs who fled pre-state Israel, effectively bringing an end to the Jewish state.
It was recently revived when Qatar’s Prime Minister indicated that he supported a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that would be defined by the June 4, 1967 borders, but at the same time backed proposals for a "comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land" between Israel and the PA, to reflect the realities of the burgeoning communities on the ground.
NRG/Maariv further reported that Prince Turki Al-Faisal lauded the efforts being made by Secretary of State John Kerry in promoting peace talks but, in a hint of criticism against the administration in Washington, said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas need patronage from a responsible third party and expressed doubts that President Barack Obama could be that responsible party.
The Saudi prince also related to the nuclear agreement recently signed between the West and Iran and said that the military option must remain on the table and must also be included within the broader framework of discussions on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
Al-Faisal emphasized Iran's role in bringing troops to Syria and its support for the Hezbollah terror group. He expressed doubts over the effectiveness of temporary six-month agreements, both regarding Iran and the Israeli-PA issues, and said that the agreement with Iran does not guarantee that it will not produce nuclear weapons in the future.
On the Syrian issue the prince ridiculed President Obama who “set red lines which in time became pink lines which then completely blurred out.”
The meeting comes on the heels of recent reports in Iran that Israel and Saudi Arabia had teamed up to launch a virus against Iran’s nuclear program. Another Iranian report claimed that the head of the Saudi intelligence service recently met with several senior Israeli security officials, including the head of the Israeli Mossad, in Geneva on November 27.
Speaking to NRG/Maariv, Prince Al-Faisal said he does “not believe” the validity of the Iranian reports.
Both of the Iranian reports are unconfirmed, but came on the heels of a report in the British Sunday Times, which recently claimed that Israel and Saudi Arabia may work together to fight Iran if talks between Iran and the West fail to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

UK-Israel bridge built on innovation

Jewish Chronicle 16-Dec-13
Bilateral trade is booming and a lot is down to the UK-Israel
Tech Hub team
Its purpose? To cement the economic friendship between the
two nations; to introduce respective entrepreneurs in
technology, life sciences, media and retail via organised
delegations; and finally, to introduce Israelis to commercial
opportunities in London, over Silicon Valley, a traditional
port of call for Israeli entrepreneurs.
“It’s a new approach to international commercial relations,”
says Naomi Krieger Carmy, director of the UK-Israel Tech
Hub. “We don’t just look at what we can sell to each other,
but how we can do things together.”
She believes that the UK’s global platform boosts Israel’s
grasp of innovative technology — especially when it comes
to the digital, clean tech and agricultural markets.
This year, the Tech Hub organised delegations of Israeli
water company representatives to the UK, and vice versa, to
facilitate talks between decision-makers.
“Water technology was one of the areas that we identified
early on,” explains Carmy.
“Not having a lot of water has led Israel to innovate
everything from drip irrigation and desalination to new
methods of treating waste water.the first industrial country, the UK has the oldest pipe system in the world, so there are a lot of issues with leakage and the management of systems.
“But British infrastructure companies are leaders in designing water projects around the world. We saw that we could partner them with Israeli companies to deliver cutting-edge solutions.”
Now two Israeli water technology companies, Mapal Green Energy and Takadu, who have worked with the Tech Hub, have opened offices in London.
The digital sector is also reaping the rewards of a UK-Israel business port of call.
Lucy Blechner, the Tech Hub’s digital manager, says online platforms developed by Israelis are now being rolled out in UK advertising companies. “We recently brought a group of nine British executives to Israel to look at new media solutions, including analytics and social media,” she says.
“The companies saw around 200 Israeli companies and they have each come away with around 10 leads.”
While the Tech Hub’s director and digital manager are based in Tel Aviv, deputy director Ayelet Mavor operates from London in order to ensure the Hub is fully engaged with British businesses.
Venture capitalist Saul Klein is a major mover in the Tech Hub. The UK’s first tech envoy to Israel brings expert knowledge as a founding partner of The Accelerator Group — an investment company with Lovefilm, Tweetdeck and Twitterverse in its portfolio.
“Israel isn’t called the start-up nation by mistake — yet most Israeli entrepreneurs wouldn’t have thought of the UK as a place to do business,” says Klein.
“But London has one of the most active venture capital scenes in the world. “So to construct this Tech Hub initiative for mutual benefit was an incredibly imaginative and creative idea.”
Matthew Gould, the UK ambassador in Israel, says he is “immensely proud of what the Hub is doing.
“Its mission is a model of what relations between Britain and Israel should be. We can achieve much more together than we can apart.”
Tech Hub representatives were due to attend Innovate Israel — a digital and technology conference which connects Israeli groups with UK investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts — this week.

Lavrov lifts veil over Russia's intentions for Ukraine

EurActiv 17-Dec-13
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the European Union of trying to impose a free trade agreement on Ukraine that will likely ruin its economy. Speaking in Brussels yesterday (16 December), he advocated instead a “unified economic and humanitarian space from Lisbon to Vladivostok” to be established between the EU and the Russian-led Eurasian Union.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attended a lunch with his EU counterparts in Brussels yesterday (16 December). Although the whole range of the EU-Russia agenda was discussed, the situation in Ukraine largely dominated the discussion.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich is due to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow today after making a surprise U-turn in November by deciding to stop the country's preparations for a far-reaching Association Agreement (AA) and deep trade pact with the EU.
EU confirms 'readiness' to talk
Following the lunch, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said foreign ministers “confirmed the EU’s readiness” to sign the Association Agreement with Ukraine, adding that the signing should have no negative effects on Russia.
Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt was highly suspicious of Russia's intentions and twitted during the meeting it was “obvious that Russia has launched a massive disinformation campaign against EU and the agreement with Ukraine”.
But the Russian minister accused in return the EU of meddling in Ukraine politics, and of trying to impose a bad deal on the country, which would also harm Russia’s interests.
Meeting with a small group of journalists, Lavrov said it was not Russia who interfered, but rather the EU and Western politicians who visited Maidan, the central square of Kyiv where protests have taken place since 21 November with demands that Yanukovich should resign.
“Too often we hear in recent days that only if Russia didn’t meddle in Ukraine, everything will be OK,” Lavrov said, speaking in Russian. He continued: “We gave concrete examples of what we do and what our European partners do. They go to Kyiv and to Maidan, distribute cookies and say that the Ukrainian people must make a free choice in favour of Europe. If the choice is free, let the Ukrainian people decide,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister also rejected the view that Russia was “against Europe” and was pulling Ukraine “somewhere else”.
EurActiv asked Lavrov to comment Carl Bildt’s tweet that Russia was conducting a disinformation campaign against the EU and the AA, and a statement by the Swedish minister that the EU should draw a list of all the cases when Russia used trade issues for pressure against countries in its neighbourhood.
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Lavrov said Bildt was his “old friend” and a politician “who
likes to express himself brightly”, but added that this time
his remarks had been “unprofessional” and close to
“stereoptypes of the Cold War”.
Ukraine ‘asked to remove its goal keeper’
The Russian minister slammed the AA as tantamount to
asking a country not only to open its doors, but “to remove
its goal keeper”. He said that any government who feels
responsible about the country’s economy wouldn’t agree to
such “irresponsible” move.
Lavrov argued that if Ukraine would “open at 85% to EU
goods immediately”, as in his words the AA foresees, the
higher quality EU goods would flow the Ukrainian market,
and the lower quality Ukrainian goods would end up in
Russia in Belarus.
He added that an article of the Community of Independent
States (CIS) agreement, of which former Soviet republics
including Ukraine are members, allows any other member
country to take protective measures in such circumstances.
Lavrov said that Russia’s Customs Union was aimed
precisely at raising the competitiveness of countries such as
Ukraine to a level which would allow liberalizing trade with
the EU “on a fair basis, not unilaterally, but on a more
profitable, more equitable basis”.
He reminded Russia’s ambition to create a unified economic
and humanitarian space from Lisbon to Vladivostok,
suggesting that it was in Ukraine’s interest to join this space
as member of the Eurasian union, Vladimir Putin’s pet
geopolitical project which bears similarities to the EU and is
to be built on the basis of the Customs Union (see
background).
“When we will achieve all our plans regarding the Customs
Union and the future Eurasian Union, I’m convinced that we
will move toward putting in place the common economic
space between Eurasia and the EU on conditions which are
mutually beneficial. Any policy can be successful if it takes
into account the interest of the partner,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister also made ironic remarks regarding the
modest success of the EU to sign free trade agreements with
partners outside its neighbourhood.
I asked today my European colleagues – do you have many
free trade agreements signed? Apparently, there are very
few, after the Lisbon Treaty there is only one”, he said,
apparently referring to the FTA with Singapore.
Lavrov said he asked his EU colleagues why they had only
one agreement in the recent four years, they appeared “a
little confused”. He added that from their reaction and from
other sources Russia knew that “the EU wants to obtain
unlimited access to the respective markets”.
“There were such attempts in Latin America, in other
countries, but they were not successful. The reason is that
these countries think about the interests of their economies.
And they know they should become more competitive before
they start thinking about free trade zones. But the EU wants
everything at once,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister also said that “it is not by chance” that
AA with the Eastern Partnership countries Ukraine, Moldova
and Georgia had been “drafted in secret”.
“When I asked, I was told that as soon as the AA were
initialed, they were published as well. But after initialing, the
Commission says the AA cannot be amended,” he quipped.
Lavrov also made a comment which was disputed by EU
sources contacted by EurActiv. He said that there was a in
the EU a large number of countries who considered that
regarding Ukraine, issues should be discussed in a trilateral
format, involving Russia.
Hiccup
The Russian minister conveyed the message that EU
countries were not united vis-a-vis the Ukraine issue. In fact,
a hiccup at the meeting was that several EU countries
disagreed with a tweet by EU enlargement chief Štefan Füle
from Sunday, who said that further discussion on AA were
on hold due to lack of commitment from the Ukrainian side.
Now countries agree that work is still ongoing and the door
remains open to Ukraine, “as relevant conditions are met”.
Reportedly, by meeting with Putin repeatedly in recent
times, Yanukovich has become receptive to Russia’s
messages and now repeats that the AA would inflict giant
economic losses to his country which he wants compensated.
On the EU side the message is that the AA is basically a
blueprint for the country’s modernisation, and that Poland
which was in the same situation as Ukraine twenty years ago
is today a flourishing economy.
Protestors at Maidan anxiously wait for the news from
Moscow, fearing that Yanukovich would “sell his country”
to Russia.

Baroness Ashton on ‘unprecedented’ EU offer to Israel, Palestinians

Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM). 17-Dec-13
“It’s a good word, ‘unprecedented’. It doesn’t have figures and specific ideas attached to it at this point. But it is meant to send the strongest possible signal to both that we really want to see this agreement happen. We know it’s difficult. We are in touch with both sides. We are in touch very much with Secretary Kerry for all the work he is doing. And if they do move in that direction they will see the European Union respond in every possible way. Political support, economic support, whatever we can do. So it’s a very deliberately chosen work to express a very important feeling.”

Is Hamas on the verge of bankruptcy?

SyndiGate.info 16-Dec-13
Making friends when you are an isolated Islamist government is hard at the best of times, and at times like these, it's even harder. The Arab Spring has shifted the priorities of Middle East nations and pushed Gaza to the back of the political agenda, writes Sam Morris.
Isolated and alone, the Hamas government in Gaza has lost nearly all of their external support, and internally they are attempting to keep a lid on any disquiet. The wave of optimism felt in the tiny enclave after Muhammad Morsi rode into power in Egypt must now feel like a distant memory. Morsi never fulfilled the promise that was expected from Hamas' Muslim Brotherhood cousins. Now with the once ruling party being hounded out of Egypt, Hamas has to look elsewhere for support.
Two key historical allies of Hamas have also possibly fallen by the wayside. The relationships with both Iran and Qatar’s look uncertain in the future.
The breakdown in the Iranian-Hamas relationship is due to the stance taken by Hamas over the conflict in Syria. Iran has been supporting the Syrian government and is now backing Bashar Al-Assad to the hilt. Hamas, however, have taken a stance against the Syrian government, who once viewed themselves as defenders of the Palestinian cause. While their external headquarters were based in Damascus, Hamas received significant funding from Iran but Khaled Meshaal, the external leader of Hamas, effectively severed Hamas and Iranian ties when he decided to leave Damascus and bring an end to their relationship with the Syrian regime.
In this matter, certain voices seem unrepentant. In a recent speech, Ismail Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of Hamas, was quoted as saying, “(Hamas) does not regret nor does it apologize for honourable positions, just to placate others,” quite obviously alluding to Hamas’ position on the Syrian issue. This shows a failure of simple diplomacy. When you have few friends, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
The fact that Gaza is now far down the list of priorities for Iran further complicates the issue for Hamas. Both Syria and the nuclear negotiations are more of a priority to Tehran; it is up to Hamas to push themselves back up Iran's agenda. Khaled Meshaal planned to visit Iran on October 14, to rebuild their relationship, but the response has been rescheduling. Iran is obviously not willing to rebuild their relationship just yet. Especially since President Hassan Rouhani appears to want to push his image as a pragmatist and a partner that the West can work with, meaning more reason for Hamas to feel isolated.
Financial pressure is now on Hamas. It is claimed that due to Egypt's crackdown on Gaza's now famous tunnels the economy is losing $230 million per month. Since Hamas monitors what is brought in through the tunnels and takes its cut in taxes, this would have hit the organisation hard. If you had visited some of the tunnels that pop up on the Gazan side of the border you could have seen groups of Hamas policemen waiting for supplies to arrive. These days it seems the arrival of goods are few and far between.
In October Meshaal made his third visit to Turkey since September 2012. No doubt to gain financial support from Erdogan, as Hamas is struggling with its finances but also since it is rumoured that he is out of favour in Qatar.
Since Meshaal left the Syrian capital he has been spending most of his time in residence in Qatar, which has proven to be a supporter of Hamas. They have pledged hundreds of millions towards infrastructure projects and the then Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, even visited the Gaza strip. However, the Qatari leadership has changed. The way that Mishaal has been attempting to visit other countries may suggest that Hamas is out of favour with the new Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and he is looking to relocate. This would be reminiscent of Hamas’ previous experience in Jordan, where the death of King Abdullah II’s father resulted in the relocation of Hamas to Damascus.
However, last year when Sheikh Tamim was still crown prince, he and Meshaal made an official visit to Jordan. Meshaal’s first since he left Jordan, undoubtedly aided by Qatari mediation. Maybe the relationship between Sheikh Tamin and Khaled Meshaal will hold for these reasons.
While Hamas are feeling the pressure abroad, they also have to keep an eye on the situation at home. The birth of The Tamarod Gaza movement, which has taken inspiration from the Egyptian namesake that ultimately toppled Morsi, must be of concern to the Hamas leadership. Tamarod have called for mass demonstrations on November 11, the anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death. The popularity of Hamas in the Gaza strip has steadily declined since 2007. There is visible anger at their heavy-handed tactics. Young Hamas recruits are even called “Zenana”, the Arabic word for the Israeli drones that fly overhead daily, outlining their view of them as all but mindless lookouts. As Gaza’s infrastructure continues to crack, dissent will continue to grow. The UN’s report on Gaza claimed that if the situation stayed the same, the strip would be unlivable by 2020. Something has to change.
Ultimately, the Tamarod movement in Gaza will fail. If there is one skill the Hamas have honed since coming to power, it is ruling with an iron fist. However, the Tamarod and the noticeable attention it is getting from Hamas proves more cracks are beginning to appear for Hamas as the Gazan economy feels the strain of the relentless Israeli blockade and step up in Egyptian tunnel closures.
Hamas have been playing the waiting game over the past few years. At first this strategy seemed strong. Wait it out, watch the popularity of Fatah wane in the West Bank and hope that theirs increased. Even if this sacrificed their popularity at home. However, like almost all Middle East analysts, Hamas could not have predicted the so called "Arab Spring.” Now stripped of support, unpopular on the ground in Gaza and financially weakened, Hamas look to be in trouble.

German SPD backs 'grand coalition' government with Merkel

EurActiv 16-Dec-13
Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining a "grand coalition" with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and have announced the list of ministers, clearing the way for a new right-left government that will take office on Tuesday (17 December).
Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), won the September 22 election but fell short of a majority. They needed a partner and spent much of the last three months negotiating a coalition deal with the arch rival SPD, which came a distant second.
A "no" vote could have plunged Germany into crisis and complicated European Union efforts for a banking union reform that would see the European Central bank police the sector with a new agency to shut down weak lenders.
Such a scenario would have also forced Social Democrats (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel and his deputies to resign. Despite losing the election, they lobbied hard to win over sceptical members after getting much of their campaign programme incorporated into the coalition agreement.
The SPD said 76% of its grassroots members who took part in the unprecedented postal ballot voted to join forces with the conservatives despite initial misgivings. The SPD said 256,643 voted "yes" while 80,921 voted "no". Some 32,000 ballots were invalid.
"We're not only the oldest party in Germany but we're also the most modern party - the party of mass participation," Gabriel told some 400 cheering SPD volunteers who had spent the day counting some 369,680 ballots in a cold Berlin warehouse.
"We've set new standards," added Gabriel, who managed to turn September's electoral defeat into a rallying point for the SPD with the referendum gamble. "We don't just talk about grassroots democracy. We live it. I haven't been as proud of my party in a long time."
A leftist agenda
However, the SPD, still struggling to overcome the steep drop in support from the 2005-09 "grand coalition" under Merkel, could prove to be less pliant junior partners this time around.
Thanks to what analysts called a clever strategic move to ask grassroots members to vote on the coalition, the SPD forced Merkel to accept many of the SPD's leftist policies even though the conservatives scored 41.5% of the vote in September compared to 25.7 for the SPD.
Conservative leaders had already approved the deal and Merkel's deputy in the CDU, Hermann Groehe, said the conservatives were "delighted" by the results of the vote.
"We're pleased that the new government can get to work," he said.
The new cabinet
With Merkel as chancellor and Wolfgang Schaeuble as finance minister, Germany's most high-profile representatives on the European stage will be unchanged and the new coalition promises continuity in EU policy.
The biggest surprise came with the announcement that Ursula von der Leyen would become Germany's first female defense minister. The politician from Lower Saxony had headed the ministry of family affairs and the labor ministry in Merkel's first and second terms, respectively.
Angela Merkel has ceded control of Germany's controversial shift from nuclear to renewable energy to her Social Democrat(SPD) rivals, who will take charge of ministries responsible for the environment and energy.
SPD Chairman Sigmar Gabriel himself is to head a new 'super' ministry which combines economy and energy and will help oversee Germany's transition to renewable energy sources.
One of SPD top priorities will be a reform of the complex renewable energy law, which has sent costs for consumers soaring because of generous incentives for solar and wind power.
The "grand coalition" government of Merkel's conservatives and the SPD has pledged to agree the reform by Easter.
SPD treasurer Barbara Hendricks would replace Peter Altmaier, of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), as environment minister.
The surprise move gives Merkel's rivals control of the biggest domestic policy initiative of her second term, yet may also deflect any future blame from the chancellor, should the energy shift falter or prove deeply unpopular.
SPD's Frank-Walter Steinmeier would return as foreign minister, a post he held between 2005 and 2009. SPD General Secretary Andrea Nahles would take the post of labour minister and the SPD's Heiko Maas that of Justice Minister.
Germany's nuclear exit was accelerated by Merkel after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. The last reactor is due to be taken off the grid by 2022.
The new government faces a delicate balancing act, reducing the incentives to help industry, while ensuring investment in renewables does not grind to a halt.
Subsidies for renewable energy are largely paid for by households, whose bills have almost doubled over the past decade and are now the second-highest in Europe. Heavy electricity users such as cement, steel and chemical plants are exempt from the surcharge to keep them from being priced out of global markets.
The renewables law has got Germany into hot water with Brussels however, on suspicion it infringes competition laws.

The European Commission is to open an investigation into the law, according to a draft letter sent by EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to the German government and seen by Reuters.
The Commission can ask a government to recover aid granted to companies if this is found to have breached EU rules.

Russia vs. Europe

New York Times Opinion piece 15-Dec-13
By BILL KELLER
The world needs Nelson Mandelas. Instead, it gets Vladimir Putins. As the South African hero was being sung to his grave last week, the Russian president was bullying neighboring Ukraine into a new customs union that is starting to look a bit like Soviet Union Lite, and consolidating his control of state-run media by creating a new Kremlin news agency under a nationalistic and homophobic hard-liner.
Putin’s moves were not isolated events. They fit into a pattern of behavior over the past couple of years that deliberately distances Russia from the socially and culturally liberal West: laws giving official sanction to the terrorizing of gays and lesbians, the jailing of members of a punk protest group for offenses against the Russian Orthodox Church, the demonizing of Western-backed pro-democracy organizations as “foreign agents,” expansive new laws on treason, limits on foreign adoptions.
What’s going on is more complicated and more dangerous than just Putin flexing his political pecs. He is trying to draw the line against Europe, to deepen division on a continent that has twice in living memory been the birthplace of world wars. It seems clearer than ever that Putin is not just tweaking the West to rouse his base or nipping domestic opposition in the bud. He is also attempting to turn back 25 years of history.
The motivation of Vladimir Putin has long been a subject of journalistic and scholarly speculation, resulting in several overlapping theories: He is the boy tormented in the rough courtyards of postwar Leningrad, who put on a KGB uniform to get even and never took it off. He is the cynical, calculating master of realpolitik, who sees the world in conspiracies and responds in kind. He is a tortured Russian soul out of Dostoevsky, distressed by godlessness, permissiveness and moral decline. He is Soviet Man, still fighting the Cold War. He is a classic narcissist, best understood by his penchant for being photographed bare-chested on horseback.
Since his current presidential term began in 2012, Putin has felt increasingly that his overtures to the West were not met with due respect, that Russia was treated as a defeated nation, not an equal on the world stage. His humiliation and resentment have soured into an ideological antipathy that is not especially Soviet but is deeply Russian. His beef with the West is no longer just about political influence and economic advantage. It is, in his view, profoundly spiritual.
“Putin wants to make Russia into the traditional values capital of the world,” said Masha Gessen, author of a stinging Putin biography, an activist for gay and lesbian rights and a writer for the Latitudes blog on this paper’s website.
What, you may wonder, does Russia’s retro puritanism have to do with the turmoil in the streets of Kiev, where Ukrainian protesters yearning for a partnership with the European Union confront a president, Viktor Yanukovich, who has seemed intent on joining Putin’s rival “Eurasian” union instead? More than you might think.
Listen to the chairman of the Russian Parliament’s International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, warning that if Ukraine joins the E.U., European advisers will infiltrate the country and introduce “a broadening of the sphere of gay culture.” Or watch Dmitry Kiselyov, the flamboyantly anti-Western TV host Putin has just installed at the head of a restructured news agency. Kiselyov recently aired excerpts from a Swedish program called “Poop and Pee,” designed to teach children about bodily functions, and declared it was an example of the kind of European depravity awaiting Ukraine if it aligns with Europe. (Kiselyov is also the guy who said that when gay people die their internal organs should be burned and buried so that they cannot be donated.)
Dmitri Trenin, a scholar in the Moscow office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is convinced this is not just pandering to a devout constituency, but also something more personal. In the past two years Putin has become more ideologically conservative, more inclined to see Europe as decadent and alien to the Orthodox Christian, Eastern Slav world to which both Russia and Ukraine belong.
“It’s tolerance that has no bounds,” Trenin told me. “It’s secularism. He sees Europe as post-Christian. It’s national sovereignty that is superseded by supranational institutions. It’s the diminished role of the church. It’s people’s rights that have outstripped people’s responsibilities to one another and to the state.”
To appreciate the magnitude of what Putin is doing, it helps to recall a bit of history.
In July 1989, the Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, made a speech in Strasbourg that many took as an important step back from the Cold War. His theme was that Russia now regarded itself as sharing a “common European home” alongside its Western rivals. Mutual respect and trade should replace confrontation and deterrence as the foundations of the relationship. Military blocs would be refashioned into political organizations. What President Reagan dubbed “the evil empire” would be the good neighbor.
“The long winter of world conflict based on the division of Europe seems to be approaching an end,” Jim Hoagland, the chief foreign correspondent of The Washington Post, wrote at the time. It was a common theme.
When the Soviet Union unraveled a few years later, the largest of the 14 republics liberated from Russian dominion was Ukraine. While savoring their independence, many Ukrainians wanted to follow Russia on the path Gorbachev had announced.
“There was this slogan, ‘To Europe with Russia,’ ” said Roman Szporluk, former director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard. “Clearly that idea is now out, and I guess Putin must have decided to restore the empire.”
Nearly 25 years after Gorbachev’s “common European home,” Putin sounds like a common European home wrecker.
It is true that during the recent years of recession and austerity Europe has lost some of its dazzle. But it is still more alluring than Ukraine’s threadbare economy, presided over by an ineffectual and corrupt governing class. Ukrainians have never abandoned their hope to be part of the West. Protesters rallying at Independence Square in Kiev represent a generation that has studied, worked and traveled in Poland since it joined Europe, and that does not want to retreat to some shabby recreation of the Russian empire. They are backed, too, by a significant segment of Ukrainian business, which prefers Western rule of law to the corruption and legal caprice of Russia and Ukraine.
Putin may succeed in capturing Ukraine, but he could come to regret it. While he’s looking to the past, he might linger over the experience of an earlier potentate, Josef Stalin, who annexed western Ukraine from Poland. As Szporluk points out, Stalin thought he was being clever, but he ended up doubling his problems: He brought politically restive Ukrainians into the Soviet tent, and left a stronger, homogenous Poland no longer unsettled by its Ukrainian minority.
Likewise, if Putin dragoons Ukraine into his Russian-dominated alliance, he will need to pacify public opinion by showering the new member with gifts he can’t afford, and ceding it influence that he would rather not share. And even then, resentments of the young Ukrainian Europhiles will fester, and feed the already ample discontent of Russia’s own younger generation. As Trenin points out, “Ukraine will always be looking for the exit.” Putin may learn, as Stalin did, that a captive Ukraine is more trouble than it’s worth.

Cardinal Koch to meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch in Moscow

Vatican Radio 14-Dec-13
The President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, heads off to Russia on Saturday for a visit being seen as an important milestone on the road towards reconciliation between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches. The Swiss Cardinal will spend five days in St Petersburg and Moscow, celebrating with the small Catholic communities there, as well as meeting with Russian Orthodox bishops, priests and seminarians.
On the final day of his trip, Wednesday 18th, he will hold talks with Russia’s vice-minister of foreign affairs and with the Russian Orthodox leader, Patriarch Kirill at Moscow’s historic Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Accompanying the cardinal is Dominican Fr Hyacinthe Destivelle, former dean of St Catherine’s church in St Petersburg and currently heading the desk for relations with the Russian Orthodox Church at the Vatican’s Council for Christian Unity. Philippa Hitchen caught up with him to find out more about the visit and whether it could pave the way for a possible meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch……
“St Catherine’s is the oldest Catholic Church in Russia and it is considered the mother of all churches in Russia…..it’s very famous for its saints and for its very tragic destiny…..it was closed before the Second World War and remained closed until the 1990s….
From the beginning Petersburg was founded in a spirit of tolerance……one can say that St Petersburg is a laboratory of ecumenism……marked by good relationships not only between the authorities and the different confessions but also between the confessions and especially between the Russian Orthodox and the Catholic Church…
This meeting is especially important as it will be the first meeting of the Cardinal as representative of the new Pope with Patriarch Kirill. Cardinal Koch already met with the Patriarch in Moscow two years ago….but probably it’s the moment now to give some symbolic gestures and to go forward in our relationships and I hope this meeting will help in this way….
Each time the Cardinal meets the Patriarch or Metropolitan Hilarion meets the Pope, there are discussions about this (possible encounter of the Pope with the Patriarch)…..everybody now can see that we need this meeting, yes.

U.S. plan gives Jerusalem holy sites to Vatican

WND.com 15-Dec-13
International mandate to control sections of Israel's capital
Secretary of State John Kerry quietly presented a U.S. plan for eastern Jerusalem that calls for an international administrative mandate to control holy sites in the area, according to informed Palestinian and Israeli diplomatic sources.
The exact composition of the international mandate is up for discussion, the sources said, but Kerry’s plan recommended a coalition that includes the Vatican, together with a group of Muslim countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The international arrangement is being proposed as a temporary solution for about two to three years while security arrangements in Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians are finalized, said the sources.
Israel, the sources said, was not receptive to the particulars of Kerry’s plan, especially the concept of Turkish participation in Jerusalem. Kerry told the Israelis he would hold talks with the Kingdom of Jordan about its playing a leading role in the proposal in the place of Turkey, the sources added.
Kerry was in Jerusalem on Friday as part of an Obama administration effort to reach a deal for a Palestinian state by April, a timeline that is still on track, Kerry told reporters.
“We are working on an approach that both guarantees Israel’s security and fully respects Palestinian sovereignty,” Kerry added.
According to the Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic sources speaking to WND, Kerry’s trip this time around focused specifically on the particulars of security arrangements for the strategic Jordan Valley following a deal.
In October, WND exclusively reported Kerry was strongly urging Israel to give up the Jordan Valley in closed-door talks with the Palestinian Authority.
The current round of U.S.-brokered talks is attempting to hash out the details of a plan for the valley.
The Jordan Valley cuts through the heart of Israel. It runs from the Tiberias River in the north to the Dead Sea in the center to the city of Aqaba at the south of the country, stretching through the biblical Arabah desert.
The U.S. proposal calls for international forces to maintain security control along with unarmed Palestinian police forces, a senior Palestinian Authority negotiator told WND in October. Israel will retain security posts in some strategic areas of the Jordan Valley, according to the U.S. plan.
Previous talks incorporated an element of Jordanian authority in the Jordan Valley, but the Kingdom of Jordan is wary of participating in a future Palestinian state, the negotiator said.
The Palestinian negotiator pointed to the insurgency in Syria and changes of leadership in Egypt as reasons for Jordanian reluctance to assume any security control over Palestinian areas.

Egypt ops against Islamist insurgents in Sinai reach all-time high

GeoStrategy direct w/e 18-Dec-13
Egypt's army and security forces have reached their highest level of operations in the counter-insurgency campaign in the Sinai Peninsula.
Security sources said the Egyptian Army and Central Security Forces increased operations throughout November. They said by early December, the operations against Islamist insurgents in Sinai reached an all-time high.
"There has been a decision to significantly increase operations in Sinai before the onset of winter," a source said.
The sources said the expansion of CI operations was facilitated by the flow of intelligence regarding strongholds of Al Qaida-aligned militias in Sinai. They said the Egyptian military has located dozens of strongholds around the northern Sinai towns of El Arish and Rafah.
The Army has also launched operations in central Sinai, a mountainous region long off-limits to Egyptian forces. On Dec. 2, the Army identified and destroyed an insurgency stronghold in the Halal mountains.
The sources said the biggest increase in army and CSF operations was around El Arish, the capital of the province of North Sinai. They said police were also helping the military in patrols, checkpoints and house-to-house searches.
The insurgents have acknowledged setbacks amid the Egyptian offensive. On Dec. 2, a leading Al Qaida militia, Ansar Beit Al Maqdes confirmed the death of three of its senior fighters two days earlier.
Ansar said Ismail Hamadin, Ahmed Nasser and Khaled Al Qaidiry were killed in the northeastern Sinai town of Sheik Zweid, located near the border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. In a statement, Ansar said the three were responsible for recruitment and training.
Security sources said up to 80 percent of Islamist insurgents have either been killed, captured or fled Sinai. They said hundreds of insurgents were believed to have found haven in the Nile Delta on the African mainland.
"There has been a drastic reduction in the terrorist presence in Sinai, and there are now very few of them coming from the Gaza Strip," the source said.

U.S. offers to sell major military platforms to Gulf states as a block

GeoStrategy direct w/e 18-Dec-13
"The U.S. military will remain the most powerful in the world, and we will honor our commitments, and the United States is not retreating, not retreating from any part of the world."
The United States has drafted plans to sell weapons to the Gulf Cooperation Council's regional force.
Officials said the Defense Department has offered to fulfill the requirements of the GCC's Peninsula Shield, meant to protect the six Gulf Arab states from external threats. They said the Pentagon envisioned block sales of major platforms, particularly in the area of ballistic missile defense and counter-insurgency.
"We would like to expand our security cooperation with partners in the region by working in a coordinated way with the GCC, including through the sales of U.S. defense articles through the GCC as an organization," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.
In an address to the Manama Dialogue on Dec. 7, Hagel marked the first senior U.S. official that addressed arms sales to the GCC as a military coalition. Until now, Washington has sold hundreds of billions of dollars to individual GCC states, mostly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Officials said the Pentagon and State Department have long urged GCC operations of such assets as BMD batteries, command and control and coast guard. But they said individual GCC states balked amid concerns that Saudi Arabia would dominate the U.S.-supplied arms buildup.
"This is a natural next step in improving U.S.-GCC collaboration, and it will enable the GCC to acquire critical military capabilities, including items for ballistic missile defense, maritime security, and counterterrorism," Hagel said.
Officials said the GCC must establish an air and missile defense operations center that would coordinate the range of U.S. assets. So far, such countries as Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have ordered the PAC-3 and Theater High-Altitude Area Defense systems against the threat from neighboring Iran.
"The United States continues to believe that a multilateral approach is the best answer for missile defense," Hagel said.
The Pentagon plan includes deeming the GCC an entity eligible for the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The GCC was also urged to hold regular meetings with the Pentagon to assess threats to regional security.
"Nations are stronger, not weaker, when they work together against common threats," Hagel said. "Closer cooperation between the GCC and the United States is in all of our countries’ interests."
Hagel has sought to allay GCC fears that the United States was moving toward a rapproachment with Iran. He said the administration of President Barack Obama was committed to maintaining a major U.S. military presence in the Gulf despite the sharp cuts in the American defense budget. The secretary cited a $580 million program to expand the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
"The U.S. military will remain the most powerful in the world, and we will honor our commitments, and the United States is not retreating, not retreating from any part of the world," Hagel said.