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Ross Rants
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This reminds me of October 2008 when the market was not fully comprehending what was really happening until Congress said no to TARP and then the market went into free fall. The stock market is not going into freefall this time, but it is in for further declines. Maybe to 3750, maybe to 3000, which would be another 20% down. The economic collapse has already begun. We are past the tipping point. New mortgages are down to a 22 year low, new home sales are down sharply. home prices are at absurd levels and are declining in a few markets. Commercial real estate deals are falling apart, with buyers walking away from deposits, and developers are delaying. Interest rates are rising-ten year over 3%, 2 year over 3%. Fed beginning taper which means less liquid markets and lower money supply. M&A, IPO market, leveraged loans, CMBS markets are all dead, liquidity is declining, spreads are widening, underwriting much tougher, LTV and LTC are lower. EU inflation worst on record-8.1%, US unemployment claims starting to rise, layoffs in Silicon Valley and small business rising, no new hire edicts in tech companies, real wages down 7.2% last month on an annualized basis, mortgage rates at just below the break point of 5.5%, stock market not able to hold gains, consumers using savings to pay for everyday living costs, 35% say they are in financial distress, excess retail inventory leading to discounting, oil passing $122 possibly headed to $140. Chinese lockdowns have led to more supply chain problems, China might be in recession now, chip shortages will last into 2023. Consumer sentiment is at lowest in history since 1978, 83% describe the economy as poor or not good. Month over month inflation is running at 12% which is the real inflation rate. The real inflation is actually higher since the way the Labor Dept calculates rent materially understates real rent increases, and since gas has moved up since the calculation was made. Ignore the year over year as meaningless. 75% of voters have no confidence in the administration on the economy, continued refusal of the administration to take any action on oil prices, and Biden and his top economic advisor say publicly they think the answer is more EV's as they turn down drilling permits and add new regs to kill any incentive to drill or to build refineries. Rig counts are not rising. It is getting very ugly faster now. The White House view is there is nothing they can do to incentivize faster oil and gas production, so they are not going to change policy. They really believe it is all Putin's fault. That directly from a top WH advisor to me. That is why I own a lot of oil stocks. My prediction of recession in late October may be optimistic. 50% of families now live paycheck to paycheck. This is becoming a major problem for them day to day. This is getting really bad for many. Buying habits are changing which is why Target and others are downgrading forecasts.
This is how it always begins, with the capital markets shutting down, inflation out of control, and consumers cutting back substantially in fear of a recession coming, and potentially losing jobs. These things feed on themselves, confidence goes away in all areas, and the economy starts to move into recession. With the war continuing and food shortages about to get much worse, things will get much worse. The stock market is not near the bottom. It could drop to around 3000 on the SPX. Oil prices have not topped out. Get ready for $6.00 gas.
The good news this time is consumers overall still do have far more savings than ever, and more available credit, and tens of millions refinanced or bought a new home when rates were around 3%, so they will be able to ride this one out much better than prior recessions. Debt service is now 9% of disposable income vs 13% in 2007. Other living costs are also lower as a percent of disposable income. Net worth is up $38 trillion-50% more than in 2009. Many still have profits in their 401K and their home equity is way up, so balance sheets are still good for many. However, with employment still not back to 2019 levels, and the Fed tightening, inflation is going to make life very tough for probably 50% or more of voters. By November things will be really negative. If the Republicans can come out with a real sound and detailed plan to lower gas and diesel prices, and to lower food prices, and reverse the decline, they will sweep as never before. But it has to be a real action plan, and not just more rhetoric about what a terrible job Democrats are doing, and definitely not about the claims of the stolen election.
Last November I told you that it was the basic White House policy to keep rates excessively low, and to do whatever they could to pump up spending on the theory that by doing these things they would stimulate a lot of investment through asset value increases, and that would create a lot of new jobs, which was their primary goal. When I raised the issue of stoking inflation with their primary outside consultant, he said it was possible there would be inflation and a 20% correction in the stock market in summer of 2022, but lowering unemployment was their goal. So they got low unemployment, although still too low labor participation, but they would have gotten the same or better outcome if the Fed had raised rates a little to maybe 1.0% on Fed funds over a year in 2021, and had not done all the spending and QE because the recovery from the shutdowns was going to drive the return to work regardless, and maybe we would actually have gotten even much higher labor participation and a faster return to work were it not for all the free money, non-eviction programs, and other freebies that were given away. We surely would not have inflation now if they had just done a few of trillion including PPP at the start of the pandemic and then stopped. Now instead they have eliminated much of the stock market gains of 2021, they have crushed the low income workers, and they have put the economy on a path to recession. This is the prime example of what I mean when I say the left never considers the longer run ramifications of their actions. They just go for short term political fixes with spending even more regardless of what the problem is.
As to the stock market, just wait this out before going in. We are not at the bottom, and there is plenty of time until it is time to buy. Ignore all those who claim this or that index, or bond spreads, or charts or whatever, say we already hit bottom. Cash is still king for the moment. Yes the value of your dollar is declining at maybe 10% annually, but there will come a time soon when rates will stop rising and buying treasuries will make sense as a place to hold cash waiting for the stock market to bottom. I still think the ten year may end the year at 2.75%-3.0% as the recession reverses rate increases by year end. It all depends on when inflation stops rising. The Fed is likely going to raise 75 this meeting, and if not, then next meeting. They need to go all in and stop inflation now. That means defying the White House.
Airfares are up 12.6% and hotel rates up even more. With rental car rates up materially and gas prices at $5.00 or more, it is highly likely the hotel and travel industry are going to be very disappointed this summer as travel becomes unaffordable with all of the other inflation crimping consumer costs. Trips, if taken, will be shorter duration.
I watched the professionally produced TV reality mini-series called the January 6 hearings. They are clearly designed for prime time TV, and are carefully scripted with the intent to destroy Trump. I think no minds will change as most people already reached conclusions. My conclusions, Trump did motivate the crowd to march to the Capitol, but he did not tell them to invade the Capitol. The Proud Boys were intending to invade the Capitol based on things Trump had been saying days prior about the election being stolen, and they came prepared to do so regardless of the Trump speech that day. Pelosi and others knew this was going to happen 2 days before, but Pelosi prevented the national guard and other law enforcement from being there to prevent it, which she should have done-maybe she wanted it to happen and maybe she is at as much fault as Trump. Trump did act very badly, and maybe illegally that day, and should not run again as a result. The election was not stolen. Trump really lost, and Ivanka and the entire senior staff at the White House knew it and told him, but Trump seems to have been the only one who did not accept that. It is time those of you who still think the election was stolen need to get past that and move on. Despite Mules and whatever is on the internet, Trump really lost, and he acted very badly and did aggressively try to circumvent the orderly constitutional process. Pence prevented a much worse situation. Trump was the same very bad guy I knew from NYC development and banking days, and from my ex-partner who had been the lead banker that had to deal directly with him in the nineties on his defaulted loans. There was a reason since 1990 that no US bank and most international banks would never do business with him. He continues to do a lot of damage by still claiming the election was stolen. Soros, Zuckerberg and others tried to affect the outcome, but Trump still would have lost without all that.
As I have said before, you need to separate the policies from the person. Trump did have good policies on many things, and he had a superb cabinet and staff to create and implement a lot of very good policies. But he drove away many top people who did not want to continue to serve in his administration. There are several others in the Republican party with very good policy ideas who would now be a far more effective president. Trump is done, and he needs to retire and let the party move on. What the hearings will do is let the Dems have a new position to attack Republican candidates who tie themselves to Trump, and so might lose elections they otherwise might have won. Durham needs to issue more indictments and to get objective judges and juries. It is very discouraging to realize that we had Hilary and her conspiracy to stop Trump and possibly get him impeached, and then Trump with his ego mania and now his false rhetoric about the election being stolen. Washington has become a morass of slime, and the media has given up all claim to reporting truth. They are now just an extension of university orthodoxy turning out mostly entitled brats who are unable to analyze or assess. Jim Cramer spent a week in Silicon Valley and he came away with the report that tech CEO's are fed up with the woke kiddies who are lazy and indoctrinated, and think they are entitled and they should dictate policy. Many are starting to move operations to other places. The shift away from woke is underway now, but has a long way to go
The MSM continues to ignore the assassination attempt on Kavanaugh and the leak. They just keep making themselves irrelevant and disgraceful. Garland continues to fail to enforce the law against the protests at the homes of justices. Biden has still not mentioned the assassination attempt and Pelosi still has not brought the bill to protect the justices to a vote. What does it take for these people to recognize the danger this has indicated.
Major riots are spreading across all areas of Iran. Inflation is close to 40% and life in Iran is becoming miserable. It is very likely they will turn the thugs loose again and crush the uprisings, but this time might be different. The rioting is very widespread, and getting worse. I am sure the Mossad and CIA are in there stirring the pot. Maybe there will be civil uprising to the point that the regime gets overthrown, but don't assume this can happen. There will be no Iran deal now as they have violated the rules by removing cameras. This all bears watching closely, but is not being reported by the MSM.
Rohit Chopra is a close ally of Liz Warren and is now in charge of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. He is running rampant with investigations and charges of all sorts of things to go after corporate America. Along with the FTC chairman who is also radical, they have become a nightmare for private industry. These actions will be costly and just add to inflation, and waste huge sums on lawyers and other compliance people to no real benefit.
Did you ever stop to wonder- there was $2.5 Trillion of excess savings due to the pandemic fee money. So that money was not needed by the recipients since it went into savings and more went to pay down of credit cards. In short- it was unneeded money transferred from the tax payers to the 50% who are non-taxpayers. So it then follows that a major portion of the $6 trillion of pandemic give aways, and especially the last $1.9 trillion in March 2020, was a waste of funds, and all that extra spending created the excess demand which is now manifesting itself in 12% inflation to those people who got all that free money they now need just to buy gas and food. And now they are proposing spending another package of hundreds of billions and raising taxes further as we head to recession. Stupid does not begin to define the economic team at the White House.
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Do Biden and Malley believe appeasing Palestinian unrealistic demands is a solution to turning them away from their hatred and radical ways?
In Biden's over 50 years in political office he has never made a foreign policy decision that worked.
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Could Jerusalem Be the Price of Biden’s Deal With the Saudis for Oil?
The President prepares to sacrifice the Israeli capital in his quest to bring down oil prices.
By Howard Katzoff
Ahead of an as yet unannounced Mideast trip that President Biden predicts would lead to enhanced security for Israelis and Arabs, America is apparently attempting to appease Saudi Arabia by opening a de facto consulate in Jerusalem to cater to Palestinians.
The new American Office of Palestinian Affairs would on “substantive matters” bypass America’s embassy to Israel that is now in Jerusalem and report directly to Washington, according to a spokesman of the mission, who explained the move to Reuters late last week. It would replace the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which currently is a section inside the American embassy in Israel.
The new office would be housed in the same building where the consulate for Palestinian affairs used to reside. The building is in the western section of the city, which is predominantly Jewish. The American embassy is also situated in the western part of the capital.
The move, announced late last week, is bound to anger Israeli officials and their supporters in Washington. It also might well violate the Jerusalem Embassy Act, a 1995 bipartisan law that dictated the move of the American embassy to the Israeli capital from Tel Aviv.
Several American presidents cited security considerations for keeping the embassy at Tel Aviv before President Trump finally obeyed the law in 2018 and relocated the embassy to Jerusalem. Contrary to predictions that this would lead to riots in Arab countries, the embassy move opened the way to a new round of peacemaking that was followed by the Abraham Accords.
While Washington’s current action falls short of formally opening a consulate in Jerusalem, it signals a reversal of Mr. Trump’s reorganization of America’s diplomacy on the Israeli-Palestinian front. Mr. Biden, meanwhile, is directing attention to what may be a “much larger” diplomatic breakthrough.
On Saturday Mr. Biden hinted at an announcement on relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Telling a reporter he has not yet made a decision on going to Riyadh in the coming weeks, Mr. Biden nevertheless said the trip would be about more than just begging the Saudis to pump more oil.
“It happens to be a larger meeting taking place in Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s the reason I’m going. And it has to do with national security for them, for Israelis … it has to do with much larger issues than having to do with the energy piece.”
King Salman of Saudi Arabia has long insisted any warmup of relations between his country and Israel is linked to progress toward the formation of a Palestinian state. He pushes for implementing the Saudi-sponsored Arab Peace Initiative, signed at Beirut in 2002.
Washington’s latest gesture, signaling to Palestinians that they could have parts of Jerusalem as their capital, might well be designed to satisfy the aging king’s demand, and a return to the Arab initiative. It would also signal a return to the Washington establishment’s received wisdom that, like the Arab plan, posits that no new peace between Arab countries and Israel could be achieved as long as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute remains unresolved.
Mr. Trump reversed that “inside out” thinking with an “outside in” approach, positing that once peace with the Arab states would be established, the Palestinians would come along as well.
That was the premise of the Abraham Accords, a set of peace treaties between Israel and four Arab countries that revised the thinking in many Arab countries, including some that are yet to join the accords.
No such progress, however, is expected with the Palestinians before their 87-year-old president, Mahmoud Abbas, is replaced as the Palestinian Authority’s chief. Nor are any of his would-be heirs, which could launch a bloody war between them, ready to concede anything less than full Arab sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
Mr. Abbas has demanded Mr. Biden reopen the consulate that was shut when Mr. Trump relocated the American embassy to the Israeli capital. Mr. Biden promised he would. “We will be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening those ties with the Palestinians,” Secretary of State Blinken said in October.
A State Department envoy to the peace process, Hadi Amr, conferred with Mr. Abbas and other Palestinian Authpority officials last week in Ramallah. Soon afterward, the reopening of the newly named de facto consulate was announced.
America never recognized Israel’s annexation of the mostly Arab-populated eastern part of Jerusalem, arguing that the future of the entire city should be determined by direct negotiations.
By relocating the American embassy to Jerusalem, Mr. Trump for the first time signaled official American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over at least the western part of the capital. Reopening a Palestinian consulate in that part of the city would signal a reversal of that recognition.
Israelis oppose any redivision of their capital, or even a hint of Palestinian sovereignty there. “There is no place for a U.S. consulate which serves the Palestinians in Jerusalem,” Prime Minister Bennett said last winter. If the Americans “want to open a consulate in Ramallah, we have no problem with that,” the Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid, added.
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Biden Admin Takes Major Step To Roll Back Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move
By Adam Kredo
The Biden administration elevated diplomatic relations with the Palestinian government, in what diplomats warn is the first step to walking back the United States’ historic recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The State Department confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that a new Office of Palestinian Affairs will be established in Jerusalem and act independently of the U.S. ambassador to Israel’s office there. The formation of a separate diplomatic office bolsters U.S. relations with the Palestinian government and could violate the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which mandated that a single U.S. embassy be established in the holy city.
The State Department also confirmed that it is working to go even further—opening an official Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem wholly independent of the U.S. embassy in Israel. Attempts to establish this diplomatic facility have been stymied by Israel’s opposition to the move, and the recent formation of the Palestinian Affairs office is viewed as a temporary workaround. That would set the stage for Jerusalem to once again be viewed by the United States as divided between Israeli and Palestinian territories.
Former U.S. diplomats who spoke to the Free Beacon about the move said the Biden administration is trying to undermine former president Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which eliminated a formal distinction between West and East Jerusalem. By establishing an office dedicated to the Palestinian government in the city, the administration is reopening the possibility of allowing that government to assume control of portions of the city.
"Opening a diplomatic office to the Palestinians in Jerusalem after the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, making it clear Jerusalem is part of Israel, has the same disastrous consequences as opening a formal consulate," David Milstein, who served as special assistant to former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, told the Free Beacon. "This decision is a blatant effort to begin to unravel the implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and circumvent Israel's clear opposition to a formal consulate, especially since the Biden administration admits this step is part of its plan to still open a consulate."
The purpose behind this move "is to walk back the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, erode Israel's sovereignty over its capital city, and signal support for dividing Jerusalem. It is outrageous and shameful," Milstein said. "Members of Congress should use every tool at their disposal to block implementation of this decision."
A State Department spokesman, speaking only on background, confirmed the creation of the new Palestinian office and said U.S. diplomats in the region are pressing the Israeli government to allow the full reopening of the Palestinian consulate. The Israeli government opposes this move.
The Palestinian affairs office "operates under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and reports on substantive matters directly to the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in the State Department," the spokesman said, confirming reports that the ambassador to Israel will no longer be consulted on issues handled by this office.
The Biden administration remains "committed to re-opening our consulate in Jerusalem," the spokesman confirmed. "We continue to believe it is an important way for our country to engage with and provide support to the Palestinian people."
Jason Greenblatt, former White House envoy to the Middle East and author of the book In the Path of Abraham, described the decision as a concession to the Palestinian government, which incites terrorism against Israel and pays salaries to convicted militants.
"Even more troubling is the reversal of the chain of command established by the Trump administration," Greenblatt told the Free Beacon. "It is extremely bad practice for reporting on Palestinian affairs to go directly to the State Department without being run through the U.S. ambassador to Israel. So many of the issues they are responsible for are intertwined, and so much can be missed, misconstrued, or manipulated when the chain of command is disrupted."
Greenblatt said his time in the White House showed him that separating this mission aided a "broken system" that appeased Palestinian leadership while harming U.S.-Israeli relations. "By trying to appease the Palestinian leadership with this empty gesture, we hurt our critical ally Israel and we hurt the United States—we hurt our national security, our diplomatic efforts and we waste precious U.S. taxpayer money," he said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, and Israeli human rights attorney who serves as chair and CEO of International Legal Forum, an advocacy group, said the creation of this office marks "a transparent attempt by the Biden Administration to go round the back door, with a de-facto consulate in clear attempt to water down the Trump Administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital." It also signals that the Biden administration is challenging Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Republican foreign policy leaders also pushed back on the move.
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the State Department is circumventing the Israeli government in order to create "an unofficial U.S. consulate" to the Palestinians, in violation of the law.
"I unequivocally oppose this plan for what appears to be a new unofficial U.S. diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital," Hagerty said. "This plan is inconsistent with the full and faithful implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and suggests that the administration is once again trying to undermine America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal and undivided capital."
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.), a House Foreign Affairs Committee member, said the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act was specifically created to prevent this situation.
"Palestinian Authority leadership has made it abundantly clear that their push for this action is for the purpose of dividing Jerusalem," Zeldin said. "The United States unilaterally making this concession to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for no concessions in return has been proven to be a failed policy time and again."
And:
Blinken is also one of the worst of Biden's choices but not as dangerous as Robert Malley:
Blinken Pushes Iran to Reverse Decision to Remove Cameras; Warns of ‘Political Isolation’
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Some interesting links and headlines:
The White House is laughing off this serious question Jim Jordan: J6 Committee Already Guilty Of Lies and Altering Evidence
White House Czar Wants Big Tech to Stifle Dissent on Climate Change
Breaking: PROOF: Biden Inviting EXTREMISTS To The White House +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If animals can do it why can't humans? +++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ No need to comment: +++ The Biden Administration Gave Work Visas To Known Terrorist Threats
Leaked documents that were procured by Project Veritas reveal that the Biden administration allowed several known terrorist threats into the country when people were fleeing war-torn Afghanistan. Although these people were flagged by the system, the Biden Administration gave them work visas. The United States’ haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan was the beginning of the decline of the Biden Administration. It made many people realize how uncaring and careless the president was. Although the situation in Afghanistan worsened significantly as a suicide bomber blew up 13 US service members. Biden did his best to deflect the blame off of him, and in due time, Afghanistan was no longer on the deadline. However, the foreign policy failure in the US withdrawal has serious repercussions. It was stated in a synopsis by Project Veritas that there were various suspected terrorists who are presently living in the US, eventhough they have been flagged by the Terrorist Watchlist for multiple offenses. These individuals were admitted to the US as fleeing refugees under “Operation Allies Welcome”. The terrorist threats verified by Project Veritas are small in number, however a whistleblower from the Federal Government has identified many more throughout the US and plenty of them are living in Washington, D.C. as well. The documents obtained by Veritas contained information on one man who was a Category 15 threat for having used explosives. Another person who came to the U.S. in August was flagged for being involved in terrorist activity. Both of these people were given work visas almost instantly. These instances show that the Biden Administration lies to the public when they claim that they thoroughly vet the people who are coming into the US from Afghanistan. The current administration also deceives the Americans when they claim the terrorist threats in the U.S. are being properly neutralized. The present situation indicates that the Biden Administration is knowingly letting terrorists into the country or it is completely unaware of these flagged individuals. Either way, it does not look good for the U.S., as its national security is on the line. It seems like the White House is just not taking the situation seriously. +++++++++++++++ How does a nation shake off the bad bite of systemic problems? +++ Israel’s deepest problems are systemic and transcend whoever is in power Whether or not the current government falls, there are essential issues that must be dealt with by any ruling coalition. By DOUGLAS ALTABEF
(June 9, 2022 / JNS) Israel is currently mesmerized by the soap opera our government has become: Specifically, will the current coalition expire, and if so, when and how? As engrossing as the show might be, however, it only diverts our attention from the enduring, systemic issues that, if not addressed, threaten Israel’s democracy. These issues existed before the Bennett government, continued under it and will bedevil the nation under its successors. First among these issues is the reality that Israel is not really a liberal democracy governed by the elected representatives of the people. Yes, we have the Knesset, which is charged with enacting legislation and setting the policies and priorities that are intended to steer the nation. But thanks to former Chief Justice Aharon Barak’s judicial revolution of the mid-1990s, Israel has an unaccountable oligarchy—the High Court of Justice—that has arrogated unto itself the unfettered discretion to strike down any enacted law, any IDF regulation or any security protocol it deems fit. The Court has even signaled its willingness to cancel, should it so desire, a Basic Law, which is tantamount to saying that the Court can declare Israel’s constitution unconstitutional. The Court has essentially replaced the universally-applied doctrine of standing—i.e., who can bring an issue before the Court—in favor of their own discretion. The Court thus functions as both a forum of first hearing and an appellate forum simultaneously. The result is that the Court considers ten times the number of cases a year than the U.S. Supreme Court. Many of these cases are petitions from NGOs lavishly funded by foreign governments, often brought on behalf of terrorists and their families. So if the IDF has determined to raze the house of a murderous terrorist, rest assured that a heavily lawyered appeal will be brought and usually prevail before the Court. Simply stated, the Court makes its decisions based on what it thinks the outcome should be, regardless of other considerations, such as stated government policies or even enacted legislation. Therefore, the Court functions as an uber-legislative body, accountable only to itself. What can be done about this? There has been a lot of handwringing about it on the right, but little effective follow-through. First, the mechanism for choosing justices is basically a self-reinforcing one, which could be changed so that that all justices must be approved by the Knesset. The recent decision to televise hearings on appointments to the Court is a good but ineffectual baby step. What is needed is a fundamental recalibration of who gets to nominate the candidates who will then undergo a televised hearing. The other critically-needed antidote that needs to be considered is a Judicial Override Law, in which legislation struck down by the Court could be reinstated if passed again by a majority of the Knesset. This idea, based on the Canadian model, is akin to the veto power that a U.S. president has over congressional legislation, which can then be overturned by a two-thirds majority of Congress. Such an override mechanism will have the effect of compelling more grounded and defensible actions by the Court, as opposed to the freewheeling discretion it currently enjoys. Tangentially related to the Court question, but also a major problem in its own right, is the pervasive and toxic impact of Israeli organizations funded by foreign governments on political discourse. This takes a number of forms: First, foremost and most frequently encountered is the shadow foreign policy that European governments conduct using anti-Zionist Israeli NGOs as their proxies. In the past decade alone more than 700 million shekels has been devoted to this insidious effort at demoralization. This state of affairs leaves organizations like Breaking the Silence, B’tselem and Adalah, which have minimal public support, awash in funding that enables them to pursue the policies favored by their European patrons. These patrons are able to effectively hide behind the actions of locals, who after all have the right to express their views. More recently, we have seen the same model applied to the media. Not long ago, there was a sudden eruption of media attention on the issue of “settler violence.” The only problem was that there was no outbreak of settler violence. Instead, there was an explosion of cash going to media outlets to encourage focus on the issue. My organization Im Tirtzu did extensive research that revealed an uncanny confluence between European support and media attention to “settler violence.” Israel’s response to this should be based on the idea that democracy is not a suicide pact. In other words, by being so accessible and indifferent to manipulative discourse orchestrated by foreign governments, Israel is exposing its citizens to an incessant stream of information designed to produce questioning, demoralization and anomie on the justice of Israel’s policies and even its values. There are ways to address this. The Transparency Law, which requires Israeli NGOs who receive more than 50% of their funding from foreign governments to publicly reveal this fact, was a start. However, foreign governments have now begun to use Israeli intermediaries to disperse their contributions, which allows the NGO in question to legally claim that its funding is domestic. Israel could deny tax exempt status to recipients of foreign government largesse, levy taxes on such contributions and take other steps to discourage or publicly highlight the issue. These and other problems can and must be addressed by whoever is running the government. Left unaddressed, they have the potential to erode the social fabric of our society and deliver us into the hands of our adversaries. Douglas Altabef is Chairman of the Board of Im Tirtzu, Israel’s largest grassroots Zionist organization, as well as a Director of B’yadenu and the Israel Independence Fund. He can be reached atdougaltabef@gmail.com. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WAPO is no longer the paper it was when Graham owned it: ++++++++++++++++ |
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