A Fearful Truce

The six-month cease-fire agreed to between Israel and Hamas has brought a calm “Fury and Fear” in Israel, and in Gaza ─ “tahadiya,” the Arabic word which means not quite a truce, not quite a cease-fire, but a temporary cessation of hostilities.

Hamas has offered a ceasefire of sorts ─ a hunda. A hunda extends beyond the Western concept of a cease-fire and obliges the parties to use the period to seek a permanent, nonviolent resolution to their differences. A hunda affords the opportunity to humanize one’s opponents and understand their position, with the goal of resolving the inter-tribal or international dispute. “Such a concept ─ a period of non-war but only partial resolution of a conflict ─ is foreign to the West and has been greeted with much suspicion. Many Westerners I speak to wonder how one can stop the violence without the conflict,” said Ahmed Yousef, a senior advisor to the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya. “After all, the Irish Republican Army agreed to halt its military struggle to free Northern Ireland from British rule without recognizing British sovereignty. Irish Republicans continue to aspire to a united Ireland free of British rule, but rely on peaceful methods,” Yousef added.

Hamas has agreed to peace talks. The only question is pre-conditions and a date which can only be agreed to when communicating face to face. Israel and the Palestinians, and other Arab cousins should again join forces and work together the way they used to during the caliphates.

The alternative is civil war in the Palestinian territories and cross-border conflicts with Israel and Egypt. With Egypt because of President Hosni Mubarek’s repression of Hamas’ sister organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, for which Hamas is seeking political concessions by threatening that if Egypt fails to open its border with Gaza, “there will be no border.” Hamas officials getting busted at the border carrying million of dollars in cash, as guns and munitions are smuggled from Egypt to Palestine through tunnels beneath the border only escalate the tension and violence.

It is time to end the fearful truce and embark on the road to a regional permanent peace.

EU Wake

Irelands vote to reject European Union membership and the treaty that comes with the privilege is no great loss because the EU was a non-starter from the outset. A club that was founded in 1957 with six members that has grown to 27 members speaking 20 different languages “Did you just say this was a budget for a mean Europe?” a Danish journalist asked Jose Manuel Barroso, the Portuguese president of the European Commission during the 2005 budgetary debates.. “No, I said it was a budget for a mini Europe,” he replied. In fact, Barroso meant both.

Europe’s mean history and identity is rooted in religion – Christianity. Austria, which was in the forefront of opposition to Turkey’s membership, is encumbered with the historical baggage of conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Dismembering the Ottoman Empire may have been the most damaging and dangerous thing Europe ever did for itself. Nation states then, like now, tried to maintain religious monopolies. At best, a concordat could be struck with other Christians, although often only after generations of civil war. “Ultimately, antagonistic religions mean antagonistic cultures,” T.S. Eliot warned, “and ultimately, religions cannot be reconciled.” He was writing in the aftermath of World War II and probably had in mind Catholics and Protestants, and perhaps Jews. Europeans today might think of Muslims and perhaps agree with Eliot.

The 450-page European Constitution as drafted is disconnected from Europe’s history. To make matters worse, its language, like the EU, has been dictated by bureaucrats ─ unelected “experts.” The text, which has as many exceptions as rules, isn’t written for the ordinary citizen, but for the bureaucrat. For example, Article III-139, which declares: “This sub-section shall not apply, so far as any member state is concerned, to activities which in that state are connected, even occasionally, with the exercise of public authority.

European laws or framework laws may exclude certain activities from application of this sub-section.” As a lawyer, I can’t figure out what that means. Any wonder Irish, French and Dutch voters turned it down? I don’t know of any European, yet alone a Irish, French or Dutch person, who will vote in favor of a document that begins with the words “His Majesty the King of the Belgians….” Just because the proposed EU will be headquartered in Belgium does not make all Europeans Belgian.

The fact is the European Constitution is dead ─ dead and cold ─ unless it gets back to its historical competitive roots. Europe is the product of intense competition of numerous states on a small continent. The competition has to get a lot stiffer for Europe to survive as a union.

Continued U.N. Abuses & Waste

The list of reasons I gave for abolishing the United Nations in my recently released book Custom Maid Knowledge For New World Disorder ─ and spoke about at length at book signings, radio and T.V. shows across America during my May 2008 book tour in America, ─ just got longer.

Two new reports, one by the U.N. and one by Save the Children UK, condemn the global body for waste, lack of oversight on development funds and child sex abuse. Peacekeepers and aid workers in Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti are accused of committing a litany of sexual crimes against children as young as six. The report by the children’s charity said that children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or take part in child pornography. More than half the children interviewed knew of cases of sexual abuse and that in many instances children knew of 10 or more such incidents perpetuated by aid workers or peacekeepers. The threat of retaliation, and the stigma attached to sexual abuse, were powerful deterrents to coming forward the report said ─ but many did. Again, the U.N. promises to investigate the accusations.

The U.N. investigated the allegations of waste, transfer of sensitive technology and misappropriation of funds by Pyongyang made by the U.S. last year against the United Nations Development Program in North Korea. The U.N. report concluded it is time to give member states access to the internal audits, now secret, of UNDP programs. This latest report ─ by three experts appointed by the UNDP ─ is a wakeup-call for more accountability throughout the U.N.

North Korea diverted development funds for its own financial ends because of the UNDP’s personnel slipshod practices that gave North Korean officials access to sensitive information, dual purpose technology and allowed them to divert funds as they pleased.

Of the 151 pieces of equipment reviewed by the U.N. auditors, 95 were on the U.S. Commerce Department’s control list and required an export license. Many were “controlled by the U.S. for national security and anti-terrorism reasons… and were of heightened concern.” The UNDP had not obtained the required licenses. The report said that when the UNDP pulled out of North Korea in March 2007, it left the equipment behind.

How many more blatant U.N. abuses of basic rights and waste have to be documented before the U.N. is abolished and replaced by a new global body relevant to the 21st-century?

Cuban-American Vote Conundrum

On my 15 hour flight back to Hong Kong from America on the night of June 3rd, the historic day Senator Barack Obama clinched the Democratic Party nomination, I decided to compare his foreign policies to those of Senator John McCain, his Republican opponent for the White House.

I started with Cuba because Cuban Americans are the most politically active and wealthiest constituency in a critical State needed to get to the White House ─ Florida. It was the Cuban Americans who delivered Florida to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race. They were angry at the Democrats because the Clinton administration returned young Elian Gonzalez in 2000 to Cuba. Four years later, Bush won again because he tightened sanctions and obtained the release from a Panamanian prison of four exiles considered heroes for having plotted to kill Castro.

Obama and McCain have opposing views on how to deal with Cuba. McCain promises to maintain the sanctions and status quo. Obama has called for “direct diplomacy, with friend and foe alike” in a speech to the Cuban American Foundation. Obama said he would “turn the page” on half a century of policy that isolates Cuba. As a result, Cuban Americans face a vote conundrum.

Cuba is the longest running example of how and why embargoes don’t work. Cuba’s economy is unique. Over 90 percent of the entire Cuban economy is state owned and run by Castro’s brother Raul who is trying to bring about in Cuba a China style transformation. He has traveled a number of times to China to study first hand Beijing’s economic policies, and in 2003 invited the leading economic advisor to China’s then-premier, Zhu Rongji, who played a key role in opening China to foreign trade and investment, to Cuba to give a series of lectures. Lectures his brother Fidel boycotted.

He’s sent senior military officers trained in Russia’s most prestigious military academies to learn hotel management in Spain and accounting in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Canada. Cuba is opening and has been since Castro came to power in 1959. State of The Art Israeli farms and Chinese made bright-blue buses are right up there with the numerous joint ventures Cuba has established globally notwithstanding the embargo.

Cuba’s foreign exchange earnings have nearly doubled since an integration agreement with Venezuela was signed in 2004, due mainly to the export of medical and other services to Venezuela and record high nickel prices. Economic growth has been three times what it was at the start of the new millennium when Cuba began to recover from the post Soviet slump after it got dumped. Everyone is benefiting at the expense of America. The U.S. has slammed the door in its own face and is having a hell of a time getting on the right side.

The 40-plus year “el bloqueo,” the U.S. embargo on Cuba has been such a failure, that every kind of U.S. made product is available there. MasterCard, Visa and every consumer item from soft drinks to diapers can be found by the more than 200,000 plus American citizens who travel there in defiance of the embargo. Western Union has an office there to facilitate the wire transfer of dollars.

The tightening of sanctions not only perpetuates a failed foreign policy, but is cruel and unusual punishment for Cubans and those Cuban Americans who need or want to support relatives and friends in Cuba. Cuban Americans should be allowed to travel to Cuba and send unlimited financial aid. They can ensure they do on Election Day.