Israel is Dumping Euros

Occam's Booster

Is it correlation or causation? I don't know, but I do know that it sure looks like causation is the more likely answer.

Israel, Coronavirus and the Vaccines

Once the vaccination campaign started, we saw a very interesting shift. While the Orthodox Jews went en masse to get “the jab”, the Palestinians (Israeli Arabs) did not follow this pattern. In the early stages of the vaccination campaign, in January, we saw a rise of 15 times as many morbidity cases in the Orthodox Jewish segment while we saw a significant drop (in morbidity) in the Israeli Arab segment. By not taking the vaccine, the level of morbidity dropped sharply. It was then that I began to figure out there was a connection between vaccination and morbidity.”

Operation Vaxx-All Deplorables: Codename; "Satan's Poker"

Hard Right Turn Leads to Electoral Victory

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ran a hard-right campaign in the latest election and was rewarded with a larger majority in parliament.

Hard-right shift delivers upset election win for Netanyahu

In the final days of campaigning, Netanyahu abandoned a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state - the basis of more than two decades of Middle East peacemaking - and promised to go on building settlements on occupied land. Such policies defy the core vision of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict embraced by President Barack Obama and his Republican and Democratic predecessors.

With nearly all votes counted on Wednesday, Netanyahu's Likud had won 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats. A united list of Israeli Arab parties came in third.

The result amounted to a dramatic and unexpected victory for Netanyahu - the last opinion polls published four days before the vote had shown Likud trailing the Zionist Union by four seats.

Electoral results fluctuate based on who is in power and current social mood, but the trend continues to favor traditionally right-wing issues. Parties that push into the "extreme" right (extreme being defined by the left-wing media) will have greater electoral success in the coming years. Losing an election for being too right-wing shouldn't concern because public mood will shift to the right in the intervening years. Parties that push hardest to the right will win larger victories in the future. This does not break down into traditional left and right though. Greece's Syriza, a union of socialist, Maoist and communist parties, is relying heavily on nationalism, which is traditionally right-wing. No matter who wins within the right-left dichotomy within a nation, the winner will likely have shifted to the right, or emphasized it's right-wing aspects, on the path to victory.

Fed Official: Diversify Into Asian Currencies, Euro

Can you read the writing on the wall?
Economists Are Thrilled To Hear Stanley Fischer Will Be Joining The Fed

Stanley Fischer was officially nominated Friday as a Governor and Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the job Janet Yellen is vacating as she becomes Chairwoman.
While Yellen is incredibly qualified, it's exciting to have Fischer beside her.

He's a legend in central banking and economics circles, and for good reason. Fischer's a highly accomplished monetary economist, and excelled as Israel's central banker.

Policymakers see dollar losing reserve currency allure

"I'm more optimistic about the euro gaining strength as a potential reserve currency," Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said during a panel discussion at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"We ourselves are diversifying into currencies which we would never have put in the reserves before, including the Australian dollar and so forth," he added. "I think people will diversify their reserves."

Too bad those Asian currencies are dependent on the Chinese economy in the short-run. Though if one owned gold, it would mitigate a lot of that risk. In sum: central bank heads say to diversify into Asian currencies that are dependent on the Chinese economy. The Chinese central bank is buying gold because it knows no one is going to trust its currency in a crisis. Solution: cut out the middle men and buy gold.

"The hunger for hate is strong these days."

That sums up social mood in one sentence. What does it reference? If you follow the NYTimes, you may have seen this story: Swastikas, Slurs and Torment in Town’s Schools; Pine Bush, N.Y., School District Faces Accusations of Anti-Semitism

The article was published on page A1 on November 8. It tells the story of raging anti-Semitism in this town not far from New York City.

A little digging turns up a completely different story: The hunger for hate: "Best defense is a strong offense"

So this appears to be largely a power, money, real estate, tax, and welfare struggle between ultra-orthodox Jews and a local community led in large part by normal American Jews with jobs like school superintendent, dentist, and part-time preservation activist. (Similar struggles can be seen in, say, Sherman Oaks, CA between the fast-growing ultra-orthodox and the long-time resident regular Jews.)

You might think that the New York Times would instinctively identify with the educated liberal Jews against the smears of the reactionary Jews.

But that underestimates the media's insatiable longing for allegations of anti-Semitism, no matter how wacky. The hunger for hate is strong these days.

During negative social mood, people not only are more likely to fight, but they are also more likely to manufacture fights that deliver the same satisfying emotional response. In modern America, if there aren't actual incidents of hate, they are being fabricated.

Racist Red Lobster receipt may be hoax, analysts say
Restaurant: We're investigating whether anti-gay 'tip' was a hoax
The Insane Police Report from Oberlin College’s Weird Racist Hoax

Those are just some of the more recent stories, but they are coming out on more than a monthly basis now. People not only want to hate, but they want to feel hated as well.

For international flavor: Jewish activists set sights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world

Their proposals, long dismissed as extremist, are now being debated in the Israeli parliament and embraced by an expansionist wing in the ruling coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

These political leaders, many in Netanyahu’s party, want Israel to assert more, not less, control over the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City, including the place known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary.

“We’re looking for it to be divided between Jews and Muslims,” said Aviad Visoli, chairman of the Temple Mount Organizations, which claims 27 groups under its umbrella. “Today, Jews realize the Western Wall is not enough. They want to go to the real thing.”

Trouble For Israel?

Was ISRAEL behind the hacking of millions of French phones and NOT the U.S.? Extraordinary twist in spying saga revealed

Israel and not America was behind the hacking of millions of French phones, it was claimed today.

In the latest extraordinary twist in the global eavesdropping scandal, Israeli agents are said to have intercepted more than 70 million calls and text messages a month.

Israel is also the most aggressive spy against the U.S., and a lot of the NSA's spying technology is provided by Israeli firms who make use of this access.

Why would Israelis spy in and on the U.S.? A general accounting office investigation referred to Israel as country A and said, "According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of country A conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any U.S. ally."

A defense intelligence report said Israel has a voracious appetite for information and said, "the Israelis are motivated by strong survival instincts which dictate every possible facet of their political and economical policies. It aggressively collects military and industrial technology and the U.S. is a high priority target."

The document concludes: "Israel possesses the resources and technical capability to achieve its collection objectives."

Here are two Israeli articles about the NSA spying scandal from earlier this year.

In U.S. snooping affair, Israeli firms at risk

Controversy over government surveillance that erupted last week over the NSA's PRISM surveillance program may lead to tougher standards for telecommunications gear like that developed, manufactured in Israel.

What was the Israeli involvement in collecting U.S. communications intel for NSA?

Were Israeli companies Verint and Narus the ones that collected information from the U.S. communications network for the National Security Agency?

The question arises amid controversy over revelations that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of Americans every day, creating a database through which it can learn whether terror suspects have been in contact with people in the United States. It also was disclosed this week that the NSA has been gathering all Internet usage - audio, video, photographs, emails and searches - from nine major U.S. Internet providers, including Microsoft and Google, in hopes of detecting suspicious behavior that begins overseas.

According to an article in the American technology magazine "Wired" from April 2012, two Israeli companies – which the magazine describes as having close connections to the Israeli security community – conduct bugging and wiretapping for the NSA.

Verint, which took over its parent company Comverse Technology earlier this year, is responsible for tapping the communication lines of the American telephone giant Verizon, according to a past Verizon employee sited by James Bamford in Wired. Neither Verint nor Verizon commented on the matter.

Natus, which was acquired in 2010 by the American company Boeing, supplied the software and hardware used at AT&T wiretapping rooms, according to whistleblower Mark Klein, who revealed the information in 2004. Klein, a past technician at AT&T who filed a suit against the company for spying on its customers, revealed a "secret room" in the company's San Fransisco office, where the NSA collected data on American citizens' telephone calls and Internet surfing.

Israel deports illegal infiltrators; immigration is on the wane

Anti-immigration sentiment has swelled in Israel and spilled over into government deportations and mob violence.
Netanyahu orders swift deportation of 25,000 illegal African migrants

Speaking at Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that while it is not possible to expel citizens of Eritrea and Sudan, whose lives would be at risk in their home countries, holding facilities for them must be built in the Negev as quickly as possible.

A senior Israeli official said that two different groups of migrants were presented during Sunday's cabinet debate. The first was migrants from countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations, and with regard to whom there is no barrier to repatriating them under international law, he said. This group numbers some 25,000 of the approximately 60,000 African migrants now in Israel.

The second group comprises migrants from Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia, who cannot be repatriated because their lives would be at risk, according to the official. This group comprises some 35,000 people.

...The Foreign Ministry also said that over the past five years it has approached third countries to ascertain whether any of them would be willing to accept refugees from Eritrea or Sudan. Israeli diplomats were in touch with 30 African countries and 10 Western countries but were categorically refused.

The migrants who cannot be deported are to be housed in a desert facility.

Jerusalem apartment housing migrants firebombed

An apartment housing 10 Eritreans has been firebombed in Jerusalem, against the backdrop of rising anti-migrant sentiment in Israel.

Four of the occupants were taken to hospital suffering burns and smoke inhalation. Graffiti sprayed on the walls of the building said: "Get out of the neighbourhood."

The Jerusalem fire department and police said arson was indicated. "This looks like an arson attempt on an apartment which housed Eritrean migrants. The police [are] treating this all due seriousness and will employ all means at its disposal to apprehend those responsible," said a police statement.

The attack in the early hours of Monday morning follows a series of firebombings in southern Tel Aviv – an area in which African migrants are concentrated – including apartments and a kindergarten. Shops run by or serving migrants were smashed up and looted in a violent demonstration last month, in which Africans were attacked.

Israelis and Jewish people generally have been more pro-immigration and anti-deportation because of Jewish history. However, every society succumbs to social mood. Israel's actions may have some impact on the United States as well because many Jewish Americans also live or have relatives in Israel.

Peter Beinart looks at the issue in What Gives on American Jews and Immigration?

In other news we already knew, American Jews are wildly liberal when it comes to sex. They overwhelmingly support gay marriage and abortion rights. They’re a lot less enthusiastic about immigration. A slight plurality opposes “the U.S. government making it possible for illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens.” On immigration, in fact, American Jews are slightly to the American Jewish leadership’s right. I think Steven M. Cohen, who conducted the poll with Samuel Abrams, has noticed this waning Jewish support for immigration before. It’s intriguing, and depressing, given that many Jews still valorize their Ellis Island roots.

Not quite sure what explains this. I’d suspect that anti-immigrant sentiment is highest near the border and among the Anglo working class, since such populations most often compete with immigrants for services and jobs. But Jews aren’t well represented in either cohort.

The United States is the least likely nation in the West to deport its illegal migrants, but if social mood gets as negative as forecast by Prechter, even the U.S. will have mass deportations. Even large pluralities and sometimes majorities of Hispanics in America favor tighter border controls and immigration restrictions. As Beinart notes when looking at Jewish opinion, open-borders is really an elite opinion in America and well out of touch with the opinion on the ground. If it were put to a vote today, the U.S. would probably come close, if not vote in favor of, deporting all illegal immigrants. At this point, it's just a matter of how long the elite can hang on to political control. As Wisconsin showed, once a popular policy is implemented, decades long trends can be ended quickly, therefore it's about not letting any politician implement a popular policy, which is why the Obama administration has fought so hard against state level immigration or voter ID laws (mainly intended to keep illegal immigrants from voting and to reduce voter fraud) such as in Alabama, South Carolina and Arizona.