ADL: Mammoth Arab Anti-Semitic Reaction to Goldstone Op-Ed

by Chana Ya'ar

The Arab world has reacted with vicious anti-Semitism to retired Judge Richard Goldstone's change of heart about his report to the United Nations on Israel's 3-week counter terrorism war against the Hamas rulers of Gaza two years ago.

Goldstone wrote an op-ed piece on April 2 in the Washington Post in which he retracted his accusations that Israel had deliberately targeted the civilian population of Gaza.

Israel welcomed the change of heart, but asked Goldstone to go further and issue an official retraction of his report, which he did not do.

Leaders of the Arab world and Hamas terrorists, meanwhile, slammed the piece. A post on the website of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League gives examples of numerous anti-Semitic cartoons published in newspapers across the Middle East.

Some show Goldstone being bribed with “gold” by an Israeli soldier. Others feature Jews with stereotyped features such as a beard and a hat controlling the judge.

Al-Watan, April 7 - Saudi Arabia

Filastin, April 5 - Gaza (headline: Palestinian Condemnation of Goldstone's retraction)

Ad-Dustur, April 5 - Jordan

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Mubarak placed in detention for 15 days

A protester wearing a mask of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stands with handcuffs inside a makeshift prison cell at Cairo's Tahrir Square on April 8. Mubarak has been placed in detention for 15 days, prosecutors said Wednesday, after state media reported his two sons had also been detained as part of an inquiry into the use of force against protesters.

AFP - Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak has been placed in detention for 15 days, prosecutors said Wednesday, after state media reported his two sons had also been detained as part of an inquiry into the use of force against protesters.

In a statement on the public prosecutor's Facebook page, a spokesman said the prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud authorised the detentions "as part of an inquiry into the use of force against protesters during the unrest in January and February."

Earlier state television said Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa have been placed in detention accused of incitement to fire at demonstrators during the revolution that lasted from January 25 till February 11 when their father reluctantly stepped down.

Nearly 800 people died during the uprising.

Rebel-held Misrata under siege from Gaddafi forces

As foreign ministers meet in Doha to discuss how the international community should respond to the conflict in Libya, FRANCE 24 reports from rebel-held Misrata, a town holding out after weeks of attacks by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

By Alexandra RENARD / Matthieu MABIN report from Misrata, Libya (video)
FRANCE 24 (text)

In rebel-held Misrata in western Libya, FRANCE 24 correspondents report on the daily attacks that have reduced much of the centre of the city to bullet-riddled rubble.

Misrata is the third-largest in Libya with a population of 550,000, has been under constant attack for the past five weeks.

FRANCE 24’s Alexandra Renard and Mathieu Mabin, reporting from the besieged city, say rebels holding out in the city's old town.

“They came yesterday and tried to remove the barricades from the street," one fighter told FRANCE 24. "But we destroyed their tanks with rocket launchers and killed several men.”

Lying on the ground around the barricades, the dead bodies of soldiers loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi testify to the intensity of the fighting.

Rights groups and residents say that the weeks of heavy fighting has resulted in dozens killed while food, water and medical supplies are becoming scarce.

LIBYA Obsolete and inept, yet Gaddafi’s forces hang on

Criticism of NATO

Ahead of a Libyan contact group meeting of foreign ministers in Qatar on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said NATO was not doing enough to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces.

“NATO must fully play its role, and it is not doing so sufficiently,” Juppé told France Info radio on Tuesday.

The meeting takes place amid continued bloodshed in Libya and especially in Misrata, the only town in western Libya where the rebel forces still have a foothold.

NATO rejected France’s criticism on Tuesday, saying its forces had destroyed four of Gaddafi’s tanks near the southern rebel-held town of Zintan, while British jets patrolling near Misrata had fired missiles and destroyed one tank.

‘Contact group’

The Libyan contact group is made up of European powers, allies from the Middle East and North America, and international organisations including NATO. Envoys from the African Union – which has tried to broker a ceasefire that was rejected by the rebels, who are seeking Gaddafi's ouster – will also attend.

The group will hear from leaders of the pro-democracy movement in the country and Libya’s former foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, who defected to the UK last month, is expected to attend.

According to British Foreign Minister William Hague, the group will discuss how to “maintain the international unity while bringing together a wide range of nations in support of a better future for Libya”.

Japan downgrades view of economy after quake

The headquarters of the Bank of Japan in Tokyo. Japan cut its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis, it said Wednesday.

The logo of Japanese auto giant Toyota is seen at a car dealership in California. The firm last week said that production at its factories in Japan will restart from 18 April until 27 April at 50 percent of normal pace.

Pedestians cross a street in central Tokyo. Many see Japan sliding into a temporary recession as a result of the impact of the twin quake-tsunami disasters.

AFP - Japan cut its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months because of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis, it said Wednesday.

The move came after the Bank of Japan last week downgraded its view of an economy ravaged by the quake and the monster wave it unleashed, which destroyed entire towns and left more than 28,000 dead or missing.

"The economy was picking up, but it has shown weak signs recently due to the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake," the Cabinet Office said in its monthly report. "It remains in a severe condition."

The quake and tsunami devastated infrastructure and manufacturing facilities in northeastern Japan, plunging the nation into its worst crisis since World War II. An ongoing nuclear emergency had added to the uncertainty.

"The biggest risk, the most uncertain factor for the economy is the issue of power supply and the status of the power plant," fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters, referring to the stricken Fukushima Daiichi facility.

Wednesday's report warned exports may decline, production was stagnating and consumer sentiment eroding in the quake's aftermath.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday cut its forecast for Japanese growth, while others were even more pessimistic.

"There will be such a sharp decline in GDP in the first half of the year that the economy will not be able to avoid a full year recession in 2011," Capital Economics said in a research note.

Key supply chains have been broken and power shortages have crippled production for Japan's biggest companies, such as Sony, Toyota and Honda.

Output overseas has also been compromised, with a shortage of Japanese components affecting global markets.

The Bank of Japan's Tankan survey last week showed Japanese business confidence in the outlook for the next three months had plunged.

On Wednesday the government said that once production was restored, the economy was likely to pick up, but highlighted ongoing electricity shortages as a key risk.

Many power plants were damaged and electricity supply in affected areas is expected to fall well short of demand, especially in the summer peak season.

"Downward risks still remain due to factors including power shortage, slow recovery of disrupted supply chains and soaring oil prices. Attention needs to be paid also to the deflationary trend and concerns over employment."

The government aims to compile a stimulus package this month that cabinet members have been reported as saying could be around four trillion yen ($47 billion).

Japan has said the cost of rebuilding could be as much as 25 trillion yen.

The estimate does not include the potential cost of contamination of the food and water supply from the crippled nuclear plant.

The monster wave knocked out reactor cooling systems at the plant north of Tokyo, causing explosions and the release of radiation.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from a 20-kilometre (12-mile) radius around the plant amid a contamination scare that has led to restrictions on farm produce and overseas bans on the import of Japanese goods.

Japan upgraded its nuclear emergency to a maximum seven on an international scale of atomic crises on Tuesday, putting it on par with the Chernobyl disaster.

Officials have stressed however that far less radiation has been released and no one had died from contamination at the Fukushima site.

Unlike at Chernobyl 25 years ago, where the reactor vessel exploded and scores died from radiation exposure within weeks, Japanese crews have been able to work on site amid efforts to shut the plant down.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano warned on Wednesday however that economic fallout needed to be quickly minimised.

"The nuclear plant accident has affected agriculture and fisheries products not only near its neighbouring areas but in the Kanto region, which has placed an extra burden on local people," Edano told reporters.

"We have to make an effort to minimise the impact on the economy by settling down the issue as soon as possible."

Zapatero rules out new moves to cut Spain deficit

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, pictured, said Wednesday during a visit to China that he had no plans to take any new measures to reduce his country's public deficit.

Demonstrators stage an anti-government protest in front of the Spanish Socialist party in Madrid on April 2. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has ruled out new budget cuts to help reduce his country's public deficit, after winning China's renewed support for buying Spanish debt.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (left) speaks to his Chinese countepart Wen Jiabao (right) during their meeting at Zhongnanhai in Beijing on April 12. Zapatero has ruled out new budget cuts to help reduce his country's public deficit, after winning China's renewed support for buying Spanish debt.

AFP - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday ruled out new budget cuts to help reduce his country's public deficit, after winning China's renewed support for buying Spanish debt.

Spanish and Chinese firms signed deals worth about one billion euros ($1.4 billion) during Zapatero's lightning visit to Beijing, aimed at securing fresh investment to shore up Madrid's embattled economy.

"There are no new plans on the horizon to have to take any new (deficit reduction) measures. None," Zapatero said.

"The government hopes to push through new stimulus measures," the prime minister said, insisting that his administration would see through those reforms already undertaken and would not "lower its guard".

Zapatero's socialist government has slashed spending and passed pension reforms in its effort to reassure markets worried that Spain's public deficit is unsustainably high.

It has also reformed the labour market in an attempt to revive the economy and fight an unemployment rate of just over 20 percent, the highest in the industrialised world.

The country's central bank estimated late last month that Spain's public deficit will be equal to 6.2 percent of gross domestic product this year before falling to 5.2 percent on 2012.

The government itself predicts the deficit will hit 6.0 percent in 2011 and 4.4 percent next year, a sharp improvement but still well above the European Union's 3.0 percent ceiling.

"The Spanish economy is still in a difficult situation requiring the pursuit of ambitious and demanding policies to correct the fiscal imbalances, while pressing ahead with structural reforms conducive to growth and with the restructuring and recapitalisation of the banking system," the bank said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday in a meeting with Zapatero that Beijing was ready to buy more Spanish government debt and invest in the restructuring of the savings banks -- crucial support for Madrid's efforts.

Zapatero, who headed from Beijing to Singapore on Wednesday, is seeking new investments to shore up Spain's economy as it tries to avoid a crisis in refinancing and raising new debt.

He said China, the world's second-largest economy, now holds about 12 percent of Spain's public debt -- a major increase from the four percent it held at the start of the global financial crisis.

"This increase (in investment) in Spanish debt was a major factor boosting stability, solvency and confidence in the eyes of the markets," Zapatero said.

"China should be the priority of our economic diplomacy, which is a more and more important element" of Spain's foreign policy, he noted, adding he wanted the country to have an export-driven economy with a focus on emerging markets.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund bailed out Ireland and Greece last year and have now offered to help Portugal. Spain's economy is as large as that of Ireland, Greece and Portugal combined.

Concerns that eurozone debt troubles could spread to Spain pushed bond rates sharply higher last year, adding to the costs of servicing the country's sovereign debt.

But such fears appear to have eased since then as Madrid strengthened bank balance sheets, cut spending and pursued economic reforms.

Among the deals in Beijing, Spain's Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA signed agreements with both China Resources Power Holdings Co. and China Datang Corp Renewable Power Co. to provide a total of 300 turbines.

Each company will get 150 turbines with a total capacity of 300 megawatts from Gamesa, one of the world's top wind turbine groups, which also signed a strategic cooperation pact with China Longyuan Power Group Ltd.

Zapatero was due back in China on Thursday to participate in the annual Boao Forum for Asia, which will bring together past and present world leaders, businessmen and academics on the southern island of Hainan.

'Ten dead' in attack on Afghan elders

Map locating Afghanistan's Kunar province where ten people have been killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering of tribal elders.

AFP - Ten people were killed Wednesday as a suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering of tribal elders in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

"A suicide attacker targeted a gathering of tribal elders in the Asmar district of Kunar today," Bashary told AFP. "Ten people have been martyred and seven others have been injured."

He said the dead included a key pro-government elder in the area.

Obama to lay out deficit plans

The US Capitol is seen in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama is set to try and wrest control of Washington's fevered debate over the economy and bulging deficit, sure to be a dominant theme of his 2012 reelection bid.

An elderly patient watches Barack Obama speaking on television from her hospital bed. Obama will on Wednesday seek to wrest control of Washington's fevered debate over the economy and bulging deficit. Advance details of Obama's speech are at the capital's George Washington University are sketchy, but aides hint at some reform of costly health programs like Medicare for the elderly.

Protestors in Chicago call for an extension of unemployment benefits and continued funding of job programs during a protest in the city. Democrats have responded to Republican criticism of their financial policies by stating the last Democratic president Bill Clinton bequeathed budget surpluses to George W. Bush, who they say ran up debt with tax cuts for the rich and wars that were not paid for.

AFP - President Barack Obama will on Wednesday seek to wrest control of Washington's fevered debate over the economy and bulging deficit, sure to be a dominant theme of his 2012 reelection bid.

The White House says the president will lay out his vision for constraining the fiscal gap, as fresh political battles over spending escalate less than a week after the dramatic climax to a 2011 budget fight.

Advance details of Obama's speech are at the capital's George Washington University are sketchy.

But aides hint at some reform of costly health programs like Medicare for the elderly, tax hikes for the wealthy and a trimming of the trillions spent on the military -- all recipes for pitched political conflict.

Cuts will be with a "scalpel and not a machete," they say, seeking to safeguard Obama's core aspirations for education and energy reform, and portraying the slashing approach of conservative Republicans as extreme.

Republicans meanwhile are challenging the president with new boldness, after claiming what many commentators scored as a victory in securing $39 billion in new spending cuts in a last-gasp deal averting a government shutdown last week.

"The buzz continues to build about the president's much anticipated 'budget do-over' speech," said Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives.

"He will outline his plan to hike taxes on families and business owners in order to get a grasp on our deficit and debt crisis."

Republicans frequently use painful US debt figures -- a projected annual deficit of 1.6 trillion dollars this year and a cumulative public debt of 14.27 trillion dollars as a political weapon.

But Democrats hit back that the last Democratic president Bill Clinton bequeathed budget surpluses to George W. Bush, who they say ran up debt with tax cuts for the rich and wars that were not paid for.

The president's political goals on Wednesday seem two-fold: to seek leverage in a short-term row in extending the US debt ceiling; and to define the coming campaign debate over spending.

The White House is already warning of a financial "Armageddon" should Congress fail to raise the US borrowing limit from $14.29 trillion dollars it is set to exceed in May.

Republican leaders, aware of the likely severe crisis of confidence and possible recessionary results of a failure to act say the ceiling will be raised -- but are seeking new budget cuts in return.

The White House says the issues of the debt ceiling and constraining the runaway deficit are separate, and that Republicans should not "play chicken" with the economy.

But Obama's decision to give a speech on deficit cutting is seen as an indirect acknowledgement of Republican demands.

In the long-term, Obama's speech will help define the dominant economy and jobs debate heading into his 2012 reelection battle, amid a palpable feeling among many Americans that the country needs to tighten its belt.

Republicans have swung their first punch with a plan by Congressman Paul Ryan to slash government spending by $6 trillion over the next decade.

The plan calls for reform and spending curbs on health and retirement programs for the poor and the elderly but would also cut tax rates faced by corporations and the wealthiest Americans in a bid to unleash growth.

Obama has made it known that he finds the plan unfair.

"It places all the burden on the middle class, on seniors, on the disabled, on people in nursing homes, through its rather drastic reform" of health programs for the poor and the elderly, his spokesman Jay Carney said.

Obama may indirectly respond to Ryan's gambit by going some way to embrace embracing a rival plan being formulated by a bi-partisan group of six senators with similar goals, but a less stark approach.

But his top Republican foe, House Speaker John Boehner, declared on Tuesday that Ryan "has set the bar" hinting at the intensity of the fight to come.

"If the president begins the discussion by saying we must increase taxes on the American people... my response will be clear: tax increases are unacceptable and are a nonstarter," he said.

"We don't have deficits because Americans are taxed too little. We have deficits because Washington spends too much."

Obama has solid political reasons for seeking to dominate the budget debate.

A Gallup poll taken in February put his approval rating for tackling the deficit at only 27 percent.

Even more importantly, among critical independents who rallied to his banner in 2008 but who deserted Democrats in 2010 mid-term elections, his rating on the issue was a lowly 19 percent.

But as he courts vital independent voters, Obama must at least keep one eye on his own core Democratic coalition, parts of which appear to believe he is already conceding too much to Republicans.