The Week in Review

Mideast

Pakistan’s leaders on October 16 said that militants threaten Pakistan’s integrity, after over 170 people had been killed in terrorist attacks since the beginning of the month. Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani briefed military and political party leaders on the situation in a meeting at the prime minister’s house. The increasing terror incidents “pose a serious threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the state,” said a statement issued after the meeting. The most disquieting attack this month occurred on October 10, when 10 militants dressed in army gear attacked the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, killing 23 people and taking 39 people hostage for 20 hours.

Turkey scrapped a joint military drill planned for last week with Israel, the United States, Italy and nato because of Israel’s involvement in the exercises. The move indicates that Turkish-Israeli relations are still suffering from 2008’s Gaza war, and has revived fears that Jerusalem could lose one of its most valuable allies in the region. A 1996 defense agreement between Turkey and Israel has been instrumental in stabilizing the volatile Middle East for years. Both countries deny that recent moves indicate a change in their longstanding bilateral ties, but Ankara’s actions are sending a different message. A time is fast approaching when the relationship between Turkey and Israel will be revealed as the trap that it is.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (unhrc) voted overwhelmingly October 16 to endorse the recommendations of the Goldstone Report, the biased anti-Israel report on the Gaza war mandated by the unhrc. The report concluded that Israel’s 2008-2009 military operation against Hamas was actually aimed at Gaza residents as a whole and an illegitimate exercise of “collective punishment.” John Bolton, writing for the Wall Street Journal, explains: “The report alleges numerous specific human rights violations by both Israel and Hamas. But by attempting to criminalize Israel’s strategy of crippling Hamas, the report in effect declared the entire antiterrorism campaign to be a war crime. [Former South African judge Richard] Goldstone recommended that Israel and the Palestinians should each conduct their own investigations, failing which the Security Council should refer the entire matter to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution.” The U.S. became a member of the unhrc in May. President Barack Obama reversed the Bush administration’s policy, which was non-participation in this discredited body due to its blatant anti-Israel position and failure to focus on the world’s real human rights violators. This latest decision by the Human Rights Council confirms that Mr. Obama’s policy of engagement has done nothing to diminish the anti-Israel sentiment in the council.

Europe

Pope Benedict xvi once again called for the Catholic Church to play a more central role in Europe on Monday. Addressing the new head of the delegation of the European Commission to the Vatican, the pope recalled that throughout Europe’s “long and torturous history … Christianity [Catholicism] has played a major role.” “Europe will be really itself,” said the pope, “if it is able to preserve the originality [again, read Catholicism] that has constituted its greatness.” “The [Vatican] follows with respect and great attention the activity of European institutions,” he said. Europe is “more than a continent,” rather it is “a ‘spiritual home,’” said the pope, concluding that “the church wishes to ‘accompany’ the construction of the European Union.” Watch for the pope to follow these words with action, bringing the Catholic Church further to the forefront of the EU.

Europe’s economic woes will continue on into 2010, as the European Commission warns that 20 of the EU’s 27 member nations have unacceptable budget deficits. The latest shock comes from Greece, having revised its former deficit estimate for 2009 from 3.7 percent of gross domestic product to between 10 and 12 percent. That estimate is between three and four times the EU’s self-imposed limit of a permissible 3 percent maximum of gdp for EU economies. Germany and France, the largest economies within the EU, have forecast 2009 budget deficit estimates of 3.7 percent and 8.2 percent respectively. It is interesting to note that Germany, the prime mover for the imposition of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact that limits EU budget deficits to that 3 percent maximum, has been one of the most consistent offenders, for years having posted deficits consistently above that figure. The greater the impending economic crisis, the louder the call will come for global financial and economic regulation. That call will be music to the ears of German-Catholic elites who are behind the push for global regulation by the Financial Stability Board.

Africa/Latin America

Britain has promised to give $100 million in aid to Zimbabwe this year—its largest ever annual donation to the country—in a bid to help the unity government and ease the humanitarian crisis. “We thought the formation of the inclusive government was a significant step,” said British Ambassador Mark Canning. “The UK wants it to succeed.” It will not succeed. This is typical of British and American thinking. Throw money at a problem, and it will go away. But the problem will not go away because Britain is not addressing the root causes of the problem.

Ethiopia announced on Thursday that it needed emergency food aid for 6.2 million people due to a prolonged drought. This comes 25 years after a famine aggravated by communist policies killed 1 million people. Eighty percent of Ethiopia’s population lives off the land, and agriculture makes up most of Ethiopia’s exports. Famine is a tragedy that frequently besets Africa. To find out why, and how the problem will be solved, see our article “The Hunger Myth.”

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans took to the streets in Mexico City October 15 to protest the closure of state-owned electricity distribution company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC). Official estimates state that 150,000 turned up, but union leaders put that figure at 350,000. The Mexican government is short on funds, and LyFC consistently runs a net loss. The financial crisis will force governments around the world to make some difficult choices. Watch for social unrest to increase. For more information on the situation in Mexico, see our article “Is Mexico About to Collapse?”

Asia

Following Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s three-day visit to Beijing last week, the future of Russia-China relations looks bright. The trip included the 14th regular Chinese-Russian prime ministers’ meeting between Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on October 13. The meeting saw the signing of 12 agreements on such issues as natural gas, oil, transportation, aerospace, nuclear energy and customs clearance. “China-Russia relations have reached a historic high and are marching towards a higher level,” Wen said. Leaders also forged a framework for a mammoth energy deal to send 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas from west Siberia to China. This amount represents 85 percent of the gas China currently uses, and would boost China to the position of Russia’s single biggest natural gas customer. The two countries also agreed on the establishment of culture centers reciprocally, and to step up cooperation in student exchange programs, tourism, sports and entertainment. They also signed a pact to notify each other of any ballistic missile or carrier rocket launches. Since bilateral diplomatic relations were first forged 60 years ago, ties between Russia and China have been growing. Bible prophecy tells us the momentum will continue to build. As early as 1934, educator Herbert W. Armstrong forecast an alliance between Russia and China, which modern headlines are proving to have been a startlingly precise prediction. To understand how Mr. Armstrong was able to make such an accurate early forecast, read Russia and China in Prophecy.

Anglo-America

The U.S. dollar slid to a 14-month low against the euro this week. The euro, which stood at a 1:1 parity with the dollar in 2000, is now climbing toward its 2008 all-time high of nearly $1.60. Gold has also climbed against the dollar in recent weeks, hovering around $1,060 per ounce this week.

U.S. stocks rose late this week on better-than-predicted earnings reports, but were tempered by the Labor Department’s report that initial applications for jobless benefits climbed to 531,000 last week, and other news that home prices fell unexpectedly.

Perhaps the most important economic indicator, honesty, dove this week when the Associated Press revealed that Americans were defrauding their government using the first-time homebuyers tax credit, the taxpayer-funded program that was intended to keep Americans buying homes and stimulate the economy. The Treasury questioned 100,000 of the 1.5 million applicants and found that 580 were under 18—the youngest of whom were 4 years old—and that 19,000 people filed for the $139 million in credit for homes they had not yet purchased. Another 74,000 taxpayers appear to not be first-time homebuyers; they claimed half a billion dollars of the credit.

Those usually consumed with making illegal profits from drugs, gambling, prostitution, extortion and other crimes are finding Medicare and Medicaid fraud more lucrative. Russian, Armenian, Nigerian and other organized crime rings are being investigated by federal authorities. The Department of Health and Human Services will probably recover about $4 billion from organized crime and corrupt doctors—about 5 percent of annual health-care fraud in America.