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Purveyor's JournalPoland, Russia Ink Unprecedented Cooperation Accord
Poland and Russia on Thursday inked an unprecedented accord outlining cooperation until 2020, signalling a warming of often frosty relations since the collapse of communism over two decades ago.
"Our social, regional and commercial relations are better than media reports would suggest," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said at a joint press conference with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The accord focused on boosting political and economic ties between EU and NATO member Poland and its Soviet-era master Russia including an agreement on cooperation in the international arena.
"We decided to pursue activity at the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe (...) but also to reinforce effectiveness and trust at the heart of the NATO-Russia council," Lavrov said, adding he hoped the agreement would "bring a new quality" to bilateral ties.
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131219/poland-russia-ink-unprecedented-cooperation-accord
For Arab citizens, Israeli Government Suffers From Split Personality
Ten years after the Or Commission was formed to investigate the deaths of 13 Arabs protesters at the hands of Israeli police, the government is taking contradictory steps toward implementing its findings.By Ron Gerlitz
These are the words that introduced the Or Commission recommendations, published exactly ten years ago. The commission was formed to investigate the violent clashes between the police and Israeli Arabs during October 2000, the most violent between the government and Israel’s Arab citizens since the establishment of the state. The events lead to the death of 13 young Arabs at the hands of the police, as well as the death of a Jewish civilian who was killed after a rock was thrown at his car. The Or Commission stated firmly that “Israel’s Arab citizens live in a situation in which they are discriminated against as Arabs” and that “the state must work to wipe out the stain of discrimination against its Arab citizens, in its various forms and expressions.”
But ten years on, has the stain been erased? Has it faded or become smaller? Has the state even tried to erase it? Based on an ongoing monitoring of government policy towards Arab citizens, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that when it comes to implementing the commission’s recommendations, the government has taken contradictory steps, as if it suffered from split personality disorder.
The Or Commission found that the events were the result of deeply rooted factors, among them the systematic and structural discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens. It stated unequivocally that the state has not “done enough to grant equality to its Arab citizens and do away with occurrences of discrimination and deprivation,” and recommended that one of the government’s main goals must be “achieving real equality for Arab citizens.” The commission went further, asserting that inequality could not be rectified only by affirmative action in the allocation of new budgets, adding that existing resources should be redistributed equally in cases where budget limitations did not previously permit doing so. The commission even stated, in so many words, that this form of equality must also apply to the sensitive issue of land allocation.
The statements and recommendations were impressive and important. But has anything been done?
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http://972mag.com/when-it-comes-to-arab-citizens-israeli-government-suffers-from-split-personality/83786/
A Failed Revolution: Why Israel's Next Social Protest Will Be A Violent One
The next social protest will be violent because the demand will no longer be for change but for a revolution – and revolutions are violent by nature. Two years after Israel’s social protests, poverty is only increasing, a small number of people control the economy and politicians are still ignoring the grievances of those who elected them.By Ilan Manor
The next social protect in Israel will be a violent one, and not simply because the last one failed. The next protest will be violent because of the social stagnation that currently characterizes Israeli society, a stagnation that prevents social mobility. The next protest will be violent because of the government’s economic policies that are in direct contrast to the values expressed by half a million Israelis who took to the streets in 2011.
The next social protest will be violent because the anguish of the lower classes has fallen on deaf ears. The financial status of Israel’s lower classes has not improved over the past two years. On the contrary, it has only worsened. The deteriorating welfare of Israel’s lower classes was made evident on Tuesday thanks to the publication of the annual “Alternative Poverty Report” by Latet, an Israeli nonprofit that serves needy populations.
According to the report, there are now more Israeli families with two wage earners who live under the poverty line than there were in 2011. In addition, Latet’s findings indicate an increase in the number of families who are forced to skip meals due to financial difficulties or elderly pensioners who are unable to afford medical treatments. Two years after the social justice protest swept Israel, more Israeli children are forced to drop out of school in order to help sustain their families and more Israelis are unable to afford prescribed medications.
The fear of financial hardships is not limited to the poor. Latet’s report shows that some 45 percent of Israelis fear for their financial security. Amongst these one can find Israelis belonging to the middle class, Israelis who also feel betrayed by Finance Minister Yair Lapid, whom they saw as their champion of social justice issues but whose conservative economic policies have done nothing to better their lives. Yet these Israelis are mistaken for Lapid has proven a diligent servant of his true political base, the Israeli financial elite. After all, Lapid received the most votes in Israel’s wealthiest townships.
The most striking aspect of Israel’s current financial reality is the widening gap between the rich and poor. As more and more Israelis find themselves below the poverty line, Israel’s ‘one percent’ continues to act like a pack of jet-setting Bon Vivants even though they now preside over crumbling financial empires. One by one, Israel’s “tycoons” are finding themselves amassing massive debt and losses and one by one, these “tycoons” refuse to relinquish control over their empires and chauffeurs. Israel’s financial elite acts as if it rules by divine right and is therefore not accountable for its gross incompetence.
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http://972mag.com/a-failed-revolution-why-israels-next-social-protest-will-be-a-violent-one/83889/
Saudi Arabia Ordered to Face Claims Over Sept. 11 Attacks
Source: Bloomberg
Lawsuits claiming Saudi Arabia aided al-Qaeda and should be held liable for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were revived by a U.S. appeals court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan today said a lower-court judge “rested on an error of law” in rejecting a request to reopen the cases against the country’s government and an affiliated charity.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina won a ruling dismissing them from the lawsuits on the grounds that a foreign government is immune from suit. Subsequently, the appeals court made inconsistent rulings on whether the terrorism claims made in the case fall under sovereign-immunity rule, according to today’s opinion.
The lower-court judge should have granted a request to re-open the cases in order to allow the inconsistency to be addressed, the appeals court said.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/saudi-arabia-ordered-to-face-claims-over-sept-11-attacks.html
Iran Nuclear Sanctions Bill Draws White House Veto Threat
Source: Bloomberg
President Barack Obama would veto Iran sanctions legislation introduced in the Senate today, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, who said the measure would increase the chance of war.
Carney’s comments underscored a rift between Obama and some lawmakers, including Democrats, about whether sanctions legislation would prod Iran toward a nuclear deal or derail the talks aimed at assuring the government in Tehran doesn’t produce nuclear weapons.
“Passing new sanctions legislation now will undermine our efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution and greatly increase the chances that the United States would have to take military action,” Carney said at a briefing today.
Twenty-six U.S. senators, half of them Democrats, introduced the bill to hit Iran with further sanctions if it violates a six-month accord with the U.S. and other nations or fails to reach a final agreement curtailing its nuclear program.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/iran-nuclear-sanctions-bill-draws-white-house-veto-threat.html
Previously Owned Home Sales in U.S. Drop for Third Month
By Lorraine Woellert - Dec 19, 2013
Previously (ETSLTOTL) owned U.S. home sales declined for the third consecutive month in November to the lowest level of the year as rising mortgage rates and a limited supply of properties discouraged buyers.
Purchases dropped 4.3 percent to a 4.9 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey called for the pace to slow to 5.02 million. Still, the group projects 2013 will be the best year for the industry in seven years, with an estimated 5.1 million properties sold.
Rising prices and borrowing costs have put homes out of reach for many first-time buyers and a partial federal government shutdown in October may have delayed some purchase decisions. At the same time, builder confidence has picked up along with new construction, signaling gains in housing will be sustained.
“Part of the weakness was the government shutdown,” said Brian Jones, senior U.S. economist in New York at Societe Generale. “The vast majority of indicators we’ve gotten on housing are pretty solid.”
Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of 75 economists ranged from 4.9 million to 5.21 million.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/sales-of-previously-owned-homes-in-u-s-drop-for-third-month.html
Fed Assets Reach Record $4 Trillion on Unprecedented Bond-Buying
By Jeff Kearns - Dec 19, 2013
The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet reached a record $4 trillion, as the central bank pushed on with its unprecedented asset-purchase program.
The Fed’s holdings rose $14.1 billion to $4.01 trillion in the past week, the Fed said today in a statement in Washington. Policy makers said yesterday they will slow monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds to $75 billion in January, the first cut to the $85 billion pace they maintained for a year.
“We’re going to be living with a big Fed balance sheet for a long time,” said Josh Feinman, the New York-based global chief economist for Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, which oversees $1.2 trillion, and a former Fed senior economist. “They’re still missing their dual mandate on both sides and that would call for easy monetary policy with unemployment too high and inflation too low.”
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has raised assets from $2.82 trillion before the third round of quantitative easing began in September 2012 and quadrupled them since 2008 to attack unemployment after the 2008-2009 recession. He said yesterday the Fed may take “similar moderate steps” at each meeting to slow QE, which also carries potential risks.
“As the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve gets large, managing that balance sheet, exiting from that balance sheet become more difficult,” Bernanke said at his press conference. “There are concerns about effects on asset prices, although I would have to say that’s another thing that future monetary economists will want to be looking at very carefully.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/fed-assets-reach-record-4-trillion-on-unprecedented-bond-buying.html
Blood Pressure Targets Can Be Eased In Older Patients, Experts Advise
Experts are urging doctors to ease up on using medications to control blood pressure in older patients. Rather than aim for a target blood pressure of 140/90 mm Hg, the target will be relaxed slightly to 150/90 mm Hg, according to new guidelines issued Wednesday.
The authors of the new guidelines, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., emphasized that they were not changing the definition of high blood pressure. Rather, they are recognizing that data from randomized clinical trials do not show that using drugs to nudge down systolic blood pressure from 150 to 140 provides any health benefit.
Systolic pressure -- the top number in a blood pressure reading -- measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart muscle contracts. Diastolic pressure, the bottom number, measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart muscle is relaxed between heartbeats.
An estimated 67 million American adults suffer from high blood pressure, known formally as hypertension, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That works out to nearly 1 in 3 adults, making it the most common condition treated by primary care physicians.
People with high blood pressure force their hearts to work too hard, putting them at risk for heart disease and stroke, the No. 1 and No. 3 causes of death in the U.S., the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says. The American Heart Assn. also warns that hypertension can lead to atherosclerosis, kidney damage, vision loss, erectile dysfunction, memory loss, peripheral artery disease and other ailments.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-new-high-blood-pressure-guidelines-hypertension-20131218,0,1396060.story#ixzz2ntdkdDCR
Israel’s ‘Jim Crow’ Treatment Of Palestinians Continues
Israel’s new ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, when he presented his credentials in the White House earlier this month, sent a political message by giving President Obama cufflinks from the slipshod archaeological settlement in the City of David that is violently and illegally being imposed on the Palestinian community of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s very choice of Dermer was an abrasive and non-diplomatic selection. Dermer’s views on the two-state solution are well known: he opposes it. Any public change in that position is surely cosmetic.
Netanyahu claims to support the two-state solution. Yet after Netanyahu’s first visit to Washington to meet Obama, Dermer dubbed it a “childish solution to a complicated problem.” Why antagonize Washington by sending a two-state opponent to represent Israel’s interests in the U.S.?
I think it’s because Netanyahu at heart isn’t interested in the two-state solution and knows he has Washington’s Republicans – and many Democrats – on his side. Right-wing Republicans will choose Israel’s conservative prime minister over their own president and an astonishing number of Democrats will, too. Earlier this month, “liberal” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he thought Secretary of State John Kerry made a “mistake” when Kerry commented that Israel’s attachment to its settlements might convey a message of not being serious about peace.
Dermer can stir up a hornet’s nest of antagonism in Washington if Obama presses Israel too hard, because the issue in Washington isn’t justice and freedom for Palestinians, but frequently a misguided Biblical absolutism that cares little for Christian Palestinians here and nothing for Muslim Palestinians.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/193379-israels-jim-crow-treatment-of-palestinians-continues
Russia Claims Right To Deploy Missiles Anywhere On Its Territory
MOSCOW, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia had the right to deploy its missiles anywhere within its territory, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday, in a response to Western concerns over its deployment of state-of-the-art missiles near NATO's eastern borders.
"Recently a big fuss started that we've planted our (tactical missiles) Iskanders in a wrong place," he told a meeting with students in a Moscow institute.
"We may plant them wherever we want on the Russian territory," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
Russia said Monday that it has deployed its tactical Iskander-M missiles along the borders with NATO countries, and insisted that the deployment did not violate international treaties.
On the same day, the United States voiced its concerns to Russia over the missile deployment in its western Kaliningrad region and urged Moscow not to undertake "destabilizing steps."
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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-12/19/c_125881401.htm
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