Middle East

Pope Benedict xvi continued his tour of the Middle East this week, spending five days in Israel. In several speeches, he called for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The Vatican is in fact supporting the division of Jerusalem as a means to pursue its own goals in the city. Read Ron Fraser’s March 16 column “Vatican’s Hidden Jerusalem Agenda” to find out what the pope’s true interests in Israel are.

Benedict visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Monday. Reuters reports that Jews were critical of the German pope’s speech there for being too abstract and lacking empathy. Benedict did not mention the Germans or the Nazis as being participants in the Holocaust. “There certainly was no apology expressed here,” said Yisreal Mier Lau, chairman of Yad Vashem council, “nor a word of regret.” Benedict also avoided the area where a caption under a photo of Pope Pius xii says the wartime pope failed to protest against the Holocaust. Benedict seeks to beatify Pius xii. German-Foreign-Policy.com reports that criticism is being voiced by some in Europe concerning papal activities since Benedict took office designed to strengthen anti-Semitic forces inside the Roman Catholic Church. For more, read Stephen Flurry’s latest column on theTrumpet.com, “The Unapologetic Pope.”

The Pakistani Army’s offensive in the Swat Valley continues after almost three weeks. The 15,000-strong military force is battling approxiamately 5,000 Taliban fighters. While Pakistan’s army is making progress, it is unlikely to be able to hold onto its gains considering the Taliban’s track record of regrouping and regaining territory. In fact, it is likely another “peace” deal will be negotiated that more or less hands the territory back to the Taliban. Pakistani sources report that this offensive has resulted in about 1 million refugees so far. Such huge numbers of displaced persons provide not only the possibility of many more recruits for the Taliban, but also good cover for Taliban fighters to flee in order to regroup later. Stratfor reports: “This is not the first Pakistani military offensive in Swat, nor is it likely to be the last. Government troops attacked the Taliban in Swat in November 2007, October 2008 and briefly in January 2009. In all three offensives, the Taliban were able to regroup and return to the area. With the military under physical, psychological and financial strain, it is highly questionable whether the Pakistani government will be able to clear and actually hold and rebuild the territory it is currently seizing from the Taliban in Swat” (May 13).

America’s strategy next door in Afghanistan is also unlikely to work. In order to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table as it wants, the U.S. will have to use sufficient military force, and seeing as the 100,000 troops available are not enough to make a difference, Washington will have to rely more on air power. Because the Taliban blend into local populations and do not congregate in large numbers, they are difficult to attack from the air. In addition, lack of good intelligence needed to target the Taliban means that air strikes will inevitably result in civilian deaths—which will only work in the Taliban’s favor.

Europe

European Union officials are working to pry control of the Internet away from the United States. On May 4, EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding called for U.S. President Barack Obama to sever all existing links between the American government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann)—the non-profit U.S. corporation responsible for “governing” the Internet. She said icann should be monitored by a 12-member international board. Subjugating icann to an international board would likely resulting in an Internet controlled by EU-style micromanagers. The free medium for communication now known as the World Wide Web could be changed forever.

High-profile German politicians have recently joked that they should deal with other countries as Germany did several decades ago—by invading them. More wealthy nations like Germany dislike losing out on tax revenue when their citizens put their money in tax havens. “In the old times one would have sent in troops …. We have to be rid of tax havens,” prominent German politician Franz Müntefering said. This seemingly minor headline gives a quick glimpse into a now-public change in the German attitude. It shows German leaders are becoming callous to what happened 70 years ago. Although Berlin is only joking about using force now, the Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. It also prophesies that Germany has one more major imperialist adventure in its future. For more information, read Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.

For the second time within two years, the EU has slammed record fines on an American software company. On Wednesday, Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, hit Intel with the largest-ever anti-competition fine—$1.45 billion. This move is anti-Anglo Saxon, anti-free-enterprise, and it is part of a general mindset that is determined to see the end of America’s status as a perceived superpower. For more information, see our May 14 article “EU’s Beastly Fines.”

Asia

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid the foundation for two landmark deals this week that will enhance the nuclear potential of a forming Asian power bloc. While in Tokyo on Tuesday, Putin worked out details wherein Russia will supply Japan with $100 million worth of low enriched uranium. Japan would use this uranium to fuel the nuclear generators that produce about a quarter of its electricity. “Japan has superb technology in building nuclear power plants, while Russia has rich uranium resources and advanced technology in uranium enrichment,” said Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.

The second nuclear deal that Putin discussed this week was with Mongolia. During a meeting with Putin Wednesday, Mongolian Prime Minister Sanjaa Bayar said that his country intends to cooperate more with Russia in the use of nuclear energy. Mongolia is one of the world’s richest sources of uranium. Moscow is investing in the Mongolian mining and railroad industry in return for Mongolian cooperation regarding uranium exploitation. Putin told reporters that a joint Russo-Mongolian uranium mining venture would be created soon. Putin is using Mongolia’s uranium deposits, combined with the nuclear refinement capabilities of Russia and Japan, to transform his eastern Asian alliance into a powerful nuclear bloc.

Latin America/Africa

European auto giant Fiat SpA is looking to take over General Motors’ Latin American operations. Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne met with senior German officials on Monday to present his plan. If this plan is realized, General Motors will hand over its European and Latin American operations to Fiat in return for a 20 percent stake in the restructured Italian corporation. General Motors is considering this deal only because it is under intense financial hardship—it is being kept alive on loans from the U.S. government. Fiat is taking advantage of this situation in an attempt to become the world’s second-largest automaker after Toyota. Such a global restructuring of the auto industry would put power over Latin American markets in the hands of the European Union. This power could be wielded as an economic weapon against the United States. As the Plain Truth said in May 1962, “[T]he United States is going to be left out in the cold as twogigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America, mesh together and begin calling the shots in world commerce. The United States is going to be literally besieged—economically—frozen out of world trade.”

In South Africa, African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma was sworn in as president last Saturday. Zuma is a controversial figure who acts in classic African Big Man style. Zuma has listed land redistribution as one of the five priorities of his new administration. The land redistribution program was a primary cause of Zimbabwe’s plummet to economic ruin. South Africa is following in the unsuccessful footsteps of its northern neighbor.

Anglo-America

The United States posted its first April budget deficit in 26 years, Reuters reported on Tuesday. This year was the first time since 1983 that the American government’s outlays exceeded its revenues—during tax-collection month. The government received only $266 billion, down from $403 billion last year. It spent a record $287 billion. In addition to this news, Reuters reported, “Instead of following the previous practice of treating investments from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program as cash outlays, the Obama administration has shifted to net present value accounting for them, a method that assumes they have value that the government will one day recoup.”

President Barack Obama told reporters last Thursday, “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem. We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration or the next generation.” With that, he cut $17 billion from the 2010 budget: half of 1 percent of the $3.4 trillion budget Congress passed earlier this year—the largest budget in American and world history. Congressional Democrats have already rejected some of his proposed savings.

American cities this week are looking to the government (taxpayers) to bail them out. Lawmakers are mulling over statements made by the former chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corp, Felix Rohatyn, at the Reuters Infrastructure Summit. Rohatyn said that politicians need to create a new powerful national agency to bail out scores of city and state governments, providing billions so that they don’t have to slash spending during the recession, perhaps resorting to just printing the money.

In other economic news, the Washington Times reports that one day after Chrysler llc told 25 percent of its dealers that it will not renew their contracts, General Motors announced it will do the same thing with 1,100 U.S. dealers.