The Week in Review

Middle East

Egyptians storm Israeli Embassy: On September 9, Egyptians ransacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, causing the Israeli ambassador and other embassy staff to flee the country. Thousands of demonstrators used sledgehammers to smash through the concrete barrier around the embassy, torched the building, trashed offices, dumped documents out the windows and threw the Israeli flag from the top of the embassy. Six Israeli intelligence officers who remained behind to protect the embassy were later rescued from the descending mob by Egyptian commandos sent in by Egypt’s military rulers under pressure from Washington. In the clashes, five Egyptian soldiers were killed and more than 500 police and demonstrators injured. debkafile reports that the protesters were led by Muslim Brotherhood adherents. “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood whipped up the Israeli Embassy attack to show the military rulers in Cairo who calls the shots and pressure them into breaking off three decades of peace ties with the Jewish state,” debkafile wrote September 10. The Muslim Brotherhood’s aims are well supported by Egypt’s populace. As the New York Daily News points out, “It’s not just that Israel is not loved, it’s that Jews are hated.” debkafile reports how the Egyptian government’s appeasement of the Muslim Brotherhood has already resulted in it doing deals with the terrorists in the Sinai, leaving them in control of the area, instead of confronting them. However, such appeasement is already backfiring. The Egyptian rulers’ “failure to deal with the rioters, who quickly vented their fury on police vehicles and buildings, will pave the way for Muslim extremist control of Egypt,” debkafile writes. “Israel is taken back 32 years to the ’70s when it stood out as the only pro-Western outpost of democracy in the Middle East beset by Arab enemies.” As Israel’s key regional alliances break down, the Jewish state is entering a nightmare scenario.

Turkish prime minister welcomed in Egypt: The Israeli Embassy attack came three days before a visit to Cairo by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan, who is himself attempting to boost Turkey’s standing among regional Arab states and his popularity on the Arab street by trashing Turkey’s relationship with Israel. It is working. Courcy’s Intelligence Brief reports that Erdoğan was greeted at the popular level “by what can only be described as euphoria.” “The Arab street is united in its admiration for the way in which Erdoğan has challenged Israel over its refusal to apologize for the May 2010 attack on the Turkish Mavi Marmara,” Joe de Courcy writes. Egyptians’ support for the Turkish prime minister was seen in Facebook pages started by fans, newspaper editorials praising his hard-line approach to Israel, and standing ovations during a speech he gave in Cairo on Tuesday. The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi wrote favorably of “the establishment of a strategic anti-Israeli alliance between the two largest Islamic states in the Middle East,” saying this new alliance would “aggravate Israel’s international and regional isolation and may also end its military superiority.” During Erdoğan’s visit, Turkey and Egypt signed 11 new cooperation agreements. While Erdoğan is achieving his desired ends as far as popularity goes, de Courcy warns that he may over-reach himself. “As much as Erdoğan must be reveling in his newfound popularity with the Arab street, he is unlikely to want war with Israel,” he writes. While we can expect Turkey-Israel relations to remain fractious, and become even more so, Bible prophecy indicates that at least some pretense of an alliance will remain between the two countries for the short term.

Taliban siege in Kabul: Taliban fighters fired rockets at the U.S. Embassy and nato headquarters in Kabul on Tuesday and Wednesday and carried out three suicide attacks in other parts of the city in the biggest assault the terrorists have mounted on the Afghan capital. The siege in Kabul’s diplomatic enclave lasted 20 hours, with as many as 10 insurgents, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ak-47 assault rifles and suicide bomb vests, occupying and launching their attack from a nearby part-built multi-story building. Five policemen and at least 11 civilians were killed in the attacks. Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of nato and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said that while the Taliban raid was a military failure, the hours of explosions and fierce gun battles were a propaganda victory for the Taliban. The insurgents carried out the attacks in one of the most protected areas of the capital. The attacks took place as U.S. and other nato forces prepare to hand over security responsibilities in Afghanistan to Afghan troops. Violence is now at its worst level in the country since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001. Meanwhile, Washington-approved negotiations continue between Taliban representatives and President Hamid Karzai’s Afghan Peace Council. It is now accepted as being inevitable that the Taliban, as the largest political force in Afghanistan, will become part of a future Afghan government. This, after a decade of the U.S. fighting the Taliban, is a precise fulfillment of the prophecy that this nation’s “strength [would] be spent in vain.”

Sadr threatens U.S. troops on 9/11 anniversary: On September 11, the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced his intention to attack any U.S. troops that remained in Iraq after December 31 this year, the original U.S. departure date. Sadr said his Mahdi Army would suspend operations against U.S. troops up until this date, to give them no excuse to remain, but if the U.S. didn’t completely withdraw, the Mahdi Army’s “military operation will become even more severe.” Sadr’s movement is known to be controlled, trained, armed and paid for by the Iranian government. The U.S. and Iraq are reportedly discussing a plan to leave 10,000 U.S. troops in the country, though examiner.com reports that Pentagon officials have leaked that the number may be as low as 3,000 troops remaining mainly in an advisory and training capacity. Iran is getting ever closer to claiming the spoils of America’s war in Iraq.

Iran helped plan 9/11: Families of 9/11 victims have filed two lawsuits—one back in May, the other last week—against the Islamic Republic of Iran. “[W]hat we found and made public starting this May is enough to hang a fish,” wrote Kenneth Timmerman, who helped in the effort (FrontPageMag.com, September 9). This legal team is convinced—based on years of research interviewing intelligence officials, cia agents, Iranian defectors and others—it can prove that the terrorists who plotted and carried out the 9/11 attacks were backed by Iran. “Put simply: The Islamic Republic of Iran helped design the 9/11 plot,” Timmerman states. Iran also “provided intelligence support to identify and train the operatives who carried it out.” Further, it helped the hijackers skirt U.S. and Pakistani surveillance—even on the fateful trip where bin Laden gave them final instructions—“by escorting them through Iranian borders without passport stamps.” Iran has in fact been waging war against America for 10 years. And America does nothing. The saddest part of last weekend’s anniversary was the reality of how much this nation has shrunk in the past decade. And this is what makes for such painful irony. Because Iran—a nation whose fingerprints are all over the shattering tragedy of 9/11—is far stronger today than 10 years ago.

Europe

Germany plans for Greek default: The German finance minister is preparing to deal with a Greek default, Der Spiegel reported September 12. Wolfgang Schäuble “no longer believes that the Greeks will be able to fulfill the stipulated conditions, and that they are likely to run out of money as early as October,” it wrote. German Economy Minister Philip Rösler said an orderly default should be considered for Greece. “In order to stabilize the euro, we must not take anything off the table in the short run,” he wrote in Die Welt September 12. “That includes as a worst-case scenario an orderly default for Greece, if the necessary instruments for it are available.” “It feels like Germany is preparing itself for a debt default,” chief European economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Jacques Cailloux, said. The Dutch media reported this week that the Dutch Finance Ministry believes Greek default is “unavoidable.” A whole chorus of German politicians have warned that Greece could even leave the eurozone. Georg Nüsslein, one of the csu’s economic policy spokesmen, said: “The Greeks have to withdraw. They can’t get back on their feet while they are in the eurozone.” Volker Bouffier, deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, said: “If the Greek government’s austerity and reform efforts are not successful, we will also have to ask ourselves whether we need new rules to enable a eurozone country to withdraw from the monetary union.” German politicians have good reason for fearing for Greece’s future. On September 11, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos warned that the Greek economy would shrink by 5.3 percent instead of the 3.8 percent forecast previously. Greece seems to be struggling to meet the conditions of the bailout. Schäuble is threatening to withhold bailout money from Greece unless it “does what it agreed to do.” “We have never been so close to emu rupture,” warned the Telegraph’s international business editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, September 11. “Friday’s resignation of Jurgen Stark at the European Central Bank is literally a kataklysmos, a German vote of no confidence in emu management.” The eurozone is heading rapidly for a crisis—a crisis that will change Europe forever.

Bank, Polish finance minister warn eurozone breakup could lead to war or military government: The Swiss bank ubs has warned that a breakup of the euro could have dire political costs. “It is also worth observing that almost no modern fiat currency monetary unions have broken up without some form of authoritarian or military government, or civil war,” it wrote in a report published September 6. The report pointed out that although breakups of fiat currency monetary unions are rare, history gives a dire warning. “With this degree of social dislocation, the historical parallels are unappealing,” it says. “Past instances of monetary union breakups have tended to produce one of two results. Either there was a more authoritarian government response to contain or repress the social disorder (a scenario that tended to require a change from democratic to authoritarian or military government), or alternatively, the social disorder worked with existing fault lines in society to divide the country, spilling over into civil war. These are not inevitable conclusions, but indicate that monetary union breakup is not something that can be treated as a casual issue of exchange rate policy.” Poland’s finance minister agreed with the ubs report, saying on September 14, “There is no doubt we are in danger. Europe is in danger.” Discussing a recent conversation with the head of a major bank, he said: “We were talking about the crisis in eurozone. He told me ‘You know, after all these political shocks, economic shocks, it is very rare indeed that in the next 10 years we could avoid a war.’ A war, ladies and gentlemen. I am really thinking about obtaining a green card for my kids in the United States.” Last year, Stratfor also analyzed the possible breakup of the eurozone. It pointed out that in a scenario where a nation like Greece left the euro, the government would have to take authoritarian moves. More and more politicians are realizing that the eurozone must go through some radical changes before this crisis is over. But the economic changes necessary require even bigger political changes.

Pope appoints new pro-grand master to head Knights of Holy Sepulcher: Pope Benedict xvi has appointed Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore as the new pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. The appointment was announced August 29. O’Brien succeeds 75-year-old Grand Master John Foley, who announced his resignation last February for health reasons. The Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher is a chivalric organization dedicated to promoting and defending Catholicism in the Holy Land and supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Its origins date back centuries to the time of the First Crusade, when its first leader, Godfrey de Bouillon, invaded Jerusalem. For the past several decades, the title “grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher” has been little more than a quasi-honorary position given to ecclesiastics at the end of their careers. Persecution of Middle Eastern Christians by Muslims is now so pervasive and violent, however, that some are wondering if it isn’t time to redefine the role played by the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. O’Brien could “become the ‘tip of the spear’ for a far more concentrated and effective global Catholic response to the realities facing Christians in today’s Middle East,” according to John Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter. Pope Benedict xvi is stacking the Vatican hierarchy with conservative priests loyal to his ultra-right-wing version of Catholicism. Expect a clash of religions in the near future.

Asia

Ukraine to participate for first time in Russo-Belarus military exercise: Starting September 16, a Ukrainian combat team is participating for the first time in a major training drill jointly with Russian and Belarusian forces. “I announce this with great satisfaction,” Russian Army Chief of Staff Nikolai Makarov said about Ukraine’s plans to join in the annual Union Shield exercise. “It is time for us to take our cooperation to a new level.” The military exercise, running through September 22, will involve 12,000 soldiers, 50 aircraft and 100 tanks from the three former Soviet Union nations. Even before Ukraine agreed to participate, Union Shield was the largest regularly scheduled joint training drills for both the Russian and Belarusian armies. Kiev’s participation in the exercise sends a strong signal that Ukraine is heading toward the Russian camp, thereby sketching an eastern border for the EU. Watch for Ukraine to become the dividing line between the eastward-expanding EU and the westward expansion of a regenerated imperialist Russia. When that border is established, the basis for a non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia will be in place, and Germany will be free to tend to its expansionist aims in the Middle East and Africa.

China aims to liquidate U.S. treasuries: Beijing plans to liquidate its portfolio of U.S. debt as soon as the market stabilizes, Li Daokui, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, said at the World Economic Forum on Thursday. “Once the U.S. Treasury market stabilizes, we can liquidate more of our holdings of treasuries,” Li said. Writing for the Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard said, “To my knowledge, this is the first time that a top adviser to China’s central bank has uttered the word ‘liquidate.’ Until now the policy has been to diversify slowly by investing the fresh $200 billion accumulated each quarter into other currencies and assets …. The Chinese are clearly vexed with Washington, viewing the Fed’s QE [quantitative easing] as a stealth default on U.S. debt.” Li also came close to calling America a basket case and said Washington’s debt deals are “just trying to buy time.” The U.S.’s attempts will not be enough to prevent its “debt dynamic” from turning dangerous, Li said. The last few months have seen an uptick in such rhetoric from Beijing, and as China’s economic and military might expand, its tolerance for America’s debt addiction will erode.

Latin America/Africa

Piracy spreads to the Gulf of Guinea: Armed pirates commandeered a fuel tanker off the West African nation of Benin on Wednesday and took its 23 crew members hostage. This hijacking was the latest in a series of pirate attacks in a coastal region of Africa that had been considered relatively safe until this year. The assault was against a Cyprus-flagged tanker laden with oil, and it came as the vessel was attempting to transfer some of its cargo to a Norwegian-flagged vessel, according to an international pirating monitoring group, the International Maritime Bureau in London. The pirates also boarded the second vessel, but that crew locked themselves in the engine room, and the pirates left. Cyrus Mody, manager of the maritime bureau, attributed the rise in Gulf of Guinea piracy to a crackdown on fuel thieves in Nigeria, a leading oil exporter. The EU is already fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia, and the German military recently renewed its ties with oil-rich Nigeria. Expect German military involvement on the African continent to increase in the months to come. As Egypt’s fate determines the stability of Northern Africa and South Africa’s fate determines the stability of sub-Saharan Africa, so Nigeria’s fate determines the stability of the oil-rich nations surrounding the Gulf of Guinea. This fact is not lost on Germany’s political leaders.

Brazil looks at eurozone aid: Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Tuesday that his country may work with China, India and Russia in putting together a monetary aid package for ailing eurozone nations. He gave few details, but said the topic would likely be discussed in advance of an International Monetary Fund meeting to be held on September 24. “We’re going to see what we can do to help the European Union get through this situation,” Mantega told reporters. In one possible scenario, Brazil might purchase mostly symbolic amounts of European bonds in a highly public way—an effort to inject an image of investor confidence into the European bonds markets. Brazil has about $350 billion in foreign currency reserves. Some are starting to joke about the strange turn of affairs that allows Brazil to help out its former colonial master Portugal. Do not let these jokes fool you about the true nature of the world’s coming economic system. Herbert Armstrong long prophesied, and we expect, the alliance between Europe and South America to grow extremely strong. But it will not be a union of equals: The Latin American countries will again become vassal states to Europe.

Anglo-America

New Euroskeptic group rethinks Britain’s relationship with Europe: A new group of about 80 Euroskeptic members of Parliament met for the first time September 12 to stimulate new thinking on Britain’s relationship with Europe. Ever since former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s downfall, being opposed to Europe has been a bad career move for mps. But this movement could be different; Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague appeared to support it in an interview with the Times on Saturday. One of their first acts has been to support a bill calling for Parliament to be given the power to veto the appointment of British judges to the European Court of Justice. “If the move is adopted by ministers it would represent a significant power shift back to Westminster and possibly pave the way for mps to win the right to approve more key British appointments to the EU—including even commissioners,” reports the Telegraph. Hague said that party leaders would not try to discipline the Euroskeptics. “It’s certainly not career suicide,” he said. So far, Euroskeptics have been disappointed in Hague’s support of Europe. His statements could signal a turnaround. While he was in Marseille for a G-7 meeting on the weekend, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the EU will need a new treaty. The Telegraph reported that Osborne said Hague is creating a list of demands of powers that must be returned to Britain in return for Britain’s support for such a treaty. “To us,” wrote think tank Open Europe, “it seems increasingly as though the UK government has made a policy shift over recent weeks, and is now openly acknowledging that the aim is to bring some powers back should a new EU treaty be up for negotiation.” The EU and the UK are plainly moving in opposite directions. They cannot remain together much longer.

Britain suing European Central Bank: Britain is suing the European Central Bank (ecb) over its plans to allow clearing for some euro-denominated securities to only take place within the eurozone. This would force some clearing houses based in London to leave the city and move to a nation in the euro. The UK says that this policy is against European law and has appealed to the European Court of Justice. “It does seem to indicate a possible change in the approach that the UK is taking to Europe,” financial services lawyer at Simmons & Simmons llp Darren Fox told Bloomberg. “There has been a perception in the City that the UK hasn’t been doing as much in Europe as it could have done to protect the interests of the UK financial services industry. Perhaps this is a sign that the worm is turning” (September 15).

British children trapped in “materialistic culture,” says UNICEF: Children in the UK, Sweden and Spain said that “their wellbeing centers on time with a happy, stable family, having good friends and plenty of things to do, especially outdoors,” according to a report published by the United Nations Children’s Fund. The report found that children in the UK were starved of these things. They warned that parents in Britain spent too little time with their children, and tried to make up for this by buying them things. Their report warned that Britain especially was suffering, and that parents in Spain and Sweden put a higher priority on spending time with their children.

Percentage of Americans in poverty rises to 18-year high: “We think of America as a place where every generation is doing better, but we’re looking at a period when the median family is in worse shape than it was in the late 1990s,” said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard. Minorities are being hit the hardest, with blacks experiencing the highest poverty rate at 27 percent. Hispanic poverty is not far behind at 26 percent. Asians and whites are experiencing poverty rates of 12.1 percent and 9.9 percent respectively. These statistics presage large-scale civil unrest in the near future. Another 2.6 million Americans slipped into poverty last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The report said the percentage of Americans living below the official poverty line last year, 15.1 percent, was the highest level since 1993. (The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,314.) The total number of Americans living below the line of poverty is now 46.2 million, the highest since the bureau began publishing figures 52 years ago. “This is truly a lost decade,” said Katz. Rising unemployment, an overloaded social system, mass discontent, loss of faith in leadership, a cultural disdain for law and morality; all these problems are fueling tensions between blacks and whites, rich and poor, Democrats and Republicans.

Baron Guttenberg visits Ground Zero: Since relocating temporarily to Connecticut three weeks ago, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and his wife, Stephanie, have kept a low profile. But last weekend they made a public appearance in New York to acknowledge the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. Viewing the site from high above Ground Zero on the 48th floor of the new glass-fronted tower, no. 7 World Trade Center in New York City, the baron and his wife publicly acknowledge their dedication to the Atlantic alliance, yet with a subtle twist—with the emphasis on America’s relationship specifically with Germany. Guttenberg stated to the Bild newspaper that “We are also here to show that we know that together Germany and the United States must never separate across the Atlantic.” When in political office, Guttenberg was a declared supporter of the Atlantic alliance and a successful builder of bridges between Washington and Berlin. Ezekiel 23 tells of a time when the hypocritical nations of Israel (modern-day America and Britain) will work together with Assyria (modern-day Germany) as lovers. This relationship is prophesied to be short-lived, however, before God raises up the Assyrians against His people in punishment. It will be interesting to watch the baron’s future public appearances in his land of temporary abode as he bides his time awaiting the call that must inevitably come from his Fatherland in the wake of the government crisis that is rapidly building in Germany.