"The alliance between our two countries is deeply appreciated by me and by
everyone in Israel. And I think that, as you said, when Americans look
around the Middle East today, they see one reliable, stable, faithful ally
of the United States, and that's the democracy of Israel.
Americans know that Israel and the United States share common values, that
we defend common interests, that we face common enemies. Iran's leaders
know that, too. For them, you're the Great Satan, we're the Little Satan.
For them, we are you and you're us. And you know something, Mr. President –
at least on this last point, I think they're right. We are you, and you are
us. We're together. So if there's one thing that stands out clearly in the
Middle East today, it's that Israel and America stand together.
I think that above and beyond that are two principles, longstanding
principles of American policy that you reiterated yesterday in your speech
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/04/remarks-president-aipac-policy-conference-0
– that Israel must have the ability always to defend itself by itself
against any threat; and that when it comes to Israel's security, Israel has
the right, the sovereign right to make its own decisions. I believe that's
why you appreciate, Mr. President, that Israel must reserve the right to
defend itself.
And after all, that's the very purpose of the Jewish state – to restore to
the Jewish people control over our destiny. And that's why my supreme
responsibility as Prime Minister of Israel is to ensure that Israel remains
the master of its fate." (See 1 below.)
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AIPAC Update:
While Washington, D.C. is increasingly consumed with bickering between Democrats and Republicans, the U.S.-Israel relationship remains the one issue that transcends the partisan divide. In a display of this bipartisan spirit, more than half of Congress will attend tonight’s Gala, along with representatives from 51 countries, administration officials, congressional candidates and other VIPs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver the keynote address. The prime minister’s speech will come a few hours after his meeting with President Obama.
In addition, two longtime supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship—Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Democratic Leader of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)—will speak at the Gala.
The Gala will be the end of a full day of Monday programming. Monday morning kicked off with an address by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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My own sense is that Obama realized 'dissing' an ally can have unfavorable repercussions at election time. Thus, he and his administration are at least showing Netanyahu the courtesy any leader of an ally deserves. That is a plus for sure and should be noted.
---
I just received a call from a dear friend attending the meeting that Dick Cheney's daughter was quite frank about her views of the administration and president. He said he was thoroughly enjoying learning and being part of an extraordinary event and that Bret Stephens sent his regards to Lynn and myself.
More commentary from dear friends and fellow memo readers: "Great commentary, Dick. You're so right about Obama's manner of speech. I think he is like one of those pre fab buildings, but designed and constructed by George Soros.
It is gonna be a tough fight in November, especially with 50 percent of the population enjoying his handouts that we taxpayers are funding! But if the economy is still in the toilet with high unemployment and spiked gas prices, we may have a chance.
On the up side we are watching Netenyahu's speech at AIPAC, and it is indeed quite powerful."
---
Based on what I heard tonight, the tone of voice, and the look in Netanyahu's eyes, I believe that Israel will do what it must to protect itself, will do it soon, and will not wait for America to act.
---One of my kids asked my wife what I thought made for our good marriage. My response:
"First, find and then choose someone you feel you can be compatible with and whose values are similar.
---
Then make sure you are mature enough to work at accepting them for who they are and give them space to be that person.
Recognize that you will not always see eye to eye on the small things and don't let those minor irritants block out the fact that you are compatible on bigger and more important/critical matters/issues.
When it comes to money matters work through how they will be handled.
Never lie to each other and always be faithful to each other in every respect.
Talk through disagreements and resolve them as soon as you are both capable of doing so.
Have a sense of humor and learn to let things roll off your back.
Never be purposefully hurtful.
Always be willing to admit when you are wrong and expect the same from your partner.
Then grow old together and hope you have done right by your kids and friends..
I guess I could come up with more but these are the key ingredients I believe have made our marriage a good and lasting one. "
Finally some thoughts from Niall Ferguson as he applies computer app comparisons to our plight. An important read.
Maybe Obama is not our greatest threat, maybe Pogo was right in the final analysis - the enemy is us! (See 2 below.)
---
Dick
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1)US officials: It appears Israel yet to decide on Iran attack
During Oval Office meeting, Netanyahu hands Obama copy of Book of Esther in honor of Purim, but leaders mostly discuss nuclear threat. Unclear if PM received clarifications on Washington's 'red lines.' NYT: Mood was 'somber and businesslike'
By Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON – Israel has yet to reach a decision to attack Iran's nuclear facilities – this is the message American officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indirectly conveyed to US President Barack Obama during their meeting on Monday.
Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting that "the Israeli position was met with understanding."
Prior to the meeting, Netanyahu said Israel was a sovereign nation with the right to defend itself, while Obama claimed there was still time to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis diplomatically.
During the meeting, which lasted close to three hours, Netanyahu presented the US president with a copy of the Book of Esther in honor of the upcoming Purim holiday.
Apart from Iran, the meeting also centered on issues related to Egypt, Syria and the Palestinians. Despite the fact that Netanyahu has stressed in closed meetings that Israel has the option of launching an attack alone, the Americans understood from his comments during the talks with Obama that the Jewish state has yet to decide on striking Iran's nuclear plants.
It remains unclear whether Netanyahu received clarifications regarding the "red lines" Iran would have to cross before the US would become involved militarily.
Officials who attended the meeting said Obama did not demand that Israel refrain from attacking Iran, but the Israeli and American leaders spoke privately as well.
During the meeting, Netanyahu expressed his concern that the Iranians were continuing to deceive the international community while advancing toward a nuclear bomb.
The PM said the overwhelming victory of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's camp over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's camp in the recent Iranian parliamentary elections indicated that the Islamic Republic was becoming even more extreme and would therefore shun any attempt to resolve the nuclear crisis diplomatically.
An American source told Ynet the meeting was "not dramatic or decisive," but just one of a series of meetings aimed at reaching understandings regarding Iran.
Obama told reporters before the meeting, "As I emphasized, even as we will continue on the diplomatic front, we will continue to tighten pressure when it comes to sanctions, I reserve all options, and my policy here is not going to be one of containment. My policy is prevention of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. And as I indicated yesterday in my speech, when I say all options are at the table, I mean it."
"Having said that, I know that both the prime minister and I prefer to resolve this diplomatically. We understand the costs of any military action," the president added.
Netanyahu, on his part, said Israel "must have the ability always to defend itself by itself against any threat; and that when it comes to Israel's security, Israel has the right, the sovereign right to make its own decisions."
The New York Times said the mood in the Oval Office was "somber and businesslike, as it usually is in meetings between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu — two men who have had a sometimes fractious relationship over Middle East diplomacy."
Israeli officials said that the Americans went out of their way to induce a positive atmosphere. President Obama came into the State Dining Room and walked among the Israeli delegation members, shaking hands and showing interest in each member.
When he reached the prime minister's Military Secretary Brigadier General Locker, Locker told the president that by coming to Washington he was missing his daughter's birthday. Obama complemented Ambassador Michael Oren and thanked Yitzhak Molcho, the special negotiator on the Palestinian issue for his contribution.
On Sunday night, First Lady Michelle Obama sent flowers to the Blair House for Sara Netanyahu, the PM's wife.
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2)Western Civilisation: Decline – or Fall?
By Niall Ferguson
As a freshman historian at Oxford back in 1982, I was required to read Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ever since that first encounter with the greatest of all historians, I have pondered the question whether or not the modern West could succumb to degenerative tendencies similar to the ones described so vividly by Gibbon. My most recent book, "Civilization: The West and the Rest" attempts an answer to that question.
The good news is that I do not believe Western civilization is in some kind of gradual, inexorable decline. In my view, civilizations do not rise, fall, and then gently decline, as inevitably and predictably as the four seasons or the seven ages of man. History is not one smooth, parabolic curve after another. The bad news is that its shape is more like an exponentially steepening slope that quite suddenly drops off like a cliff.
To see what I mean, pay a visit to Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. In 1530 the Incas were the masters of all they surveyed from the heights of the Peruvian Andes. Within less than a decade, foreign invaders with horses, gunpowder, and lethal diseases had smashed their empire to smithereens. Today tourists gawk at the ruins that remain.
The notion that civilizations do not decline but collapse inspired the anthropologist Jared Diamond's 2005 book, "Collapse." But Diamond focused, fashionably, on man-made environmental disasters as the causes of collapse. As a historian, I take a broader view. My point is that when you look back on the history of past civilizations, a striking feature is the speed with which most of them collapsed, regardless of the cause.
The Roman Empire did not decline and fall over a millennium, as Gibbon's monumental work seemed to suggest. It collapsed within a few decades in the early fifth century, tipped over the edge of chaos by barbarian invaders and internal divisions. In the space of a generation, the vast imperial metropolis of Rome fell into disrepair, the aqueducts broken, the splendid marketplaces deserted. The Ming dynasty's rule in China also fell apart with extraordinary speed in the mid–17thcentury, succumbing to internal strife and external invasion. Again, the transition from equipoise to anarchy took little more than a decade.
A more recent and familiar example of precipitous decline is, of course, the collapse of the Soviet Union. And, if you still doubt that collapse comes suddenly, just think of how the postcolonial dictatorships of North Africa and the Middle East imploded this year. Twelve months ago, Messrs. Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Gaddafi seemed secure in their gaudy palaces. Here yesterday, gone today.
What all these collapsed powers have in common is that the complex social systems that underpinned them suddenly ceased to function. One minute rulers had legitimacy in the eyes of their people; the next they did not. This process is a familiar one to students of financial markets. Even as I write, it is far from clear that the European Monetary Union can be salvaged from the dramatic collapse of confidence in the fiscal policies of its peripheral member states. In the realm of power, as in the domain of the bond vigilantes, you are fine until you are not fine—and when you're not fine, you are suddenly in a terrifying death spiral.
The West first surged ahead of the Rest after about 1500 thanks to a series of institutional innovations that (to entice younger readers) I call the "killer applications":
1.Competition. Europe was politically fragmented into multiple monarchies and republics, which were in turn internally divided into competing corporate entities, among them the ancestors of modern business corporations.
2.The Scientific Revolution. All the major 17th-century breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology happened in Western Europe.
3.The Rule of Law and Representative Government. An optimal system of social and political order emerged in the English-speaking world, based on private-property rights and the representation of property owners in elected legislatures.
4.Modern Medicine. Nearly all the major 19th- and 20th-century breakthroughs in health care were made by Western Europeans and North Americans.
5.The Consumer Society. The Industrial Revolution took place where there was both a supply of productivity-enhancing technologies and a demand for more, better, and cheaper goods, beginning with cotton garments.
6.The Work Ethic. Westerners were the first people in the world to combine more extensive and intensive labor with higher savings rates, permitting sustained capital accumulation.
For hundreds of years, these killer apps were essentially monopolized by Europeans and their cousins who settled in North America and Australasia. They are the best explanation for what economic historians call "the great divergence": the astonishing gap that arose between Western standards of living and those in the rest of the world. In 1500 the average Chinese was richer than the average North American. By the late 1970s the American was more than 20 times richer than the Chinese.
Westerners not only grew richer than "Resterners." They grew taller, healthier, and longer-lived. They also grew more powerful. By the early 20th century, just a dozen Western empires—including the United States—controlled 58 percent of the world's land surface and population, and a staggering 74 percent of the global economy.
Beginning with Japan, however, one non-Western society after another has worked out that these apps can be downloaded and installed in non-Western operating systems. That explains about half the catching up that we have witnessed in our lifetimes, especially since the onset of economic reforms in China in 1978.
I am not one of those people filled with angst at the thought of a world in which the average American is no longer vastly richer than the average Chinese. I welcome the escape of hundreds of millions of Asians from poverty, not to mention the improvements we are seeing in South America and parts of Africa. But there is a second, more insidious cause of the "great reconvergence," which I do deplore—and that is the tendency of Western societies to delete their own killer apps.
Who's got the work ethic now? The average South Korean works about 39 percent more hours per week than the average American. The school year in South Korea is 220 days long, compared with 180 days in the U.S. And you do not have to spend too long at any major U.S. university to know which students really drive themselves: the Asians and Asian-Americans. The consumer society? 26 of the 30 biggest shopping malls in the world are now in emerging markets, mostly in Asia. Modern medicine? As a share of gross domestic product, the United States spends twice what Japan spends on health care and more than three times what China spends. Yet life expectancy in the U.S. has risen from 70 to 78 in the past 50 years, compared with leaps from 68 to 83 in Japan and from 43 to 73 in China.
The rule of law? For a real eye-opener, take a look at the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) Executive Opinion Survey. On no fewer than 15 of 16 different issues relating to property rights and governance, the United States fares worse than Hong Kong. Indeed, the U.S. makes the global top 20 in only one area: investor protection. On every other count, its reputation is shockingly bad. The U.S. ranks 86th in the world for the costs imposed on business by organized crime, 50th for public trust in the ethics of politicians, 42nd for various forms of bribery, and 40th for standards of auditing and financial reporting.
What about science? U.S.-based scientists continue to walk off with plenty of Nobel Prizes each year. But Nobel winners are old men. The future belongs not to them but to today's teenagers. Here is another striking statistic. Every three years the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment tests the educational attainment of 15-year-olds around the world. The latest data on "mathematical literacy" reveal that the gap between the world leaders—the students of Shanghai and Singapore—and their American counterparts is now as big as the gap between U.S. kids and teenagers in Albania and Tunisia.
The late, lamented Steve Jobs convinced Americans that the future would be "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." Yet statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization show that already more patents originate in Japan than in the U.S., that South Korea overtook Germany to take third place in 2005, and that China has just overtaken Germany too.
Finally, there's competition, the original killer app that sent the fragmented West down a completely different path from monolithic imperial China. The WEF has conducted a comprehensive Global Competitiveness survey every year since 1979. Since the current methodology was adopted in 2004, the United States' average competitiveness score has fallen from 5.82 to 5.43, one of the steepest declines among developed economies. China's score, meanwhile, has leapt up from 4.29 to 4.90.
Not only is the U.S. less competitive abroad. Perhaps more disturbing is the decline of meaningful competition at home, as the social mobility of the postwar era has given way to an extraordinary social polarization. You do not have to be an Occupy Wall Street activist to believe that the American super-rich elite—the 1 percent that collects 20 percent of the income—has become dangerously divorced from the rest of society, especially from the underclass at the bottom of the income distribution.
But if we are headed toward collapse, what will it look like? An upsurge in civil unrest and crime, as happened in the 1970s? A loss of faith on the part of investors and a sudden Greek-style leap in government borrowing costs? How about a spike of violence in the Middle East, from Iraq to Afghanistan, as insurgents capitalize on our troop withdrawals? Or a paralyzing cyberattack from the rising Asian superpower we complacently underrate?
Is there anything we can do to prevent such disasters? Social scientist Charles Murray calls for a "civic great awakening"—a return to the original values of the American republic. He has a point. Far more than in Europe, most Americans remain instinctively loyal to the killer applications of Western ascendancy, from competition all the way through to the work ethic. They know the country has the right software. They just cannot understand why it is running so damn slowly.
What we need to do is to delete the viruses that have crept into our system: the anticompetitive quasi monopolies that blight everything from banking to public education; the politically correct pseudosciences and soft subjects that deflect good students away from hard science; the lobbyists who subvert the rule of law for the sake of the special interests they represent—to say nothing of our crazily dysfunctional system of health care, our overleveraged personal finances, and our newfound unemployment ethic.
Then we need to download the updates that are running more successfully in other countries, from Finland to New Zealand, from Denmark to Hong Kong, from Singapore to Sweden. And finally we need to reboot our whole system.
Voters and politicians alike dare not postpone the big reboot. If what we are risking is not decline but downright collapse, then the time frame may even be tighter than one election cycle.
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