Socialist Worker, March 19, 2009
WHILE THE Obama stimulus program has generated much disagreement over what new economic policies need to be implemented and how they should be funded, there is one policy in which both capitalist parties speak with unanimity: the American “special relationship” with Israel.
According to a recent book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, our “special relationship” with Israel costs American taxpayers over $3 billion a year in the form of direct foreign aid. This sounds generous, but there’s even more. Unlike other foreign country entitlement programs, which the U.S. pays in quarterly installments, Israel has a special deal: It gets its entire annual appropriation (a direct cash transfer) in the first 30 days of the fiscal year.
Unfortunately for U.S. taxpayers, their government must borrow the money in order to pay Israel up front, costing millions of dollars in additional yearly interest. And, as if this weren’t enough, Israel reinvests its unspent balance in U.S. treasury bills from which it collects millions of extra dollars in additional interest. (Guess who’s paying?)
Due to lax oversight arrangements, detecting cases of misappropriation after aid reaches Israel is difficult. As an example, the authors cite a huge embezzlement scheme operated by an Israeli brigadier general who succeeded in illegally diverting millions of U.S. aid dollars.
In addition to direct U.S. government cash grants and loan guarantees, Israel receives an estimated $2 billion each year in private donations from wealthy American citizens; the authors indicate these are tax deductible due to a special clause in the U.S.-Israeli tax treaty. Isn’t this the kind of tax break most Americans could live without?
Mearsheimer and Walt also show that America’s continuing support for Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian lands has fueled Islamic anti-Americanism and its concomitant terrorist problem. While endorsing the argument for Israel’s existence, they question the moral rationale for supporting the unspeakable brutality inflicted on Palestinians trying to survive under occupation by a state that doesn’t even have a permanent border.
Due to American largesse, the world economic depression hasn’t reached our “special” friends in Zion yet, but it’s being felt here. And, boy-o-boy does it hurt! Since, as Obama has said, “everything is on the table,” perhaps it’s time to ask him why jobless Americans with foreclosed mortgages, no health care and little prospect of a dignified retirement are being expected to subsidize one of the world’s weathier countries, which has no strategic importance and has succeeded in turning a large part of the Islamic world against the U.S.
If they haven’t already read it, many socialist readers may be interested in the material presented in this well argued, thoroughly researched and fair book.
Trystram Trotz, from the Internet
Peace and Justice Post 
Iraq’s most ancient sect in need of protection to escape extinction
March 22, 2009By Kareem Zair, Azzaman
uruknet.info, March 21, 2009
One of Iraq’s most ancient sects is on its way to become extinct after nearly 2,000 years of existence.
The Mandeans, the world’s only surviving representatives of Gnosticism, have been living in southern Iraq since the 1st century A.D. But their existence is under serious threat.
Prior to the U.S. invasion, more than 30,000 lived in Iraq, mainly along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries.
“We fear for our lives particularly following several fatwas in which we are denied the status of the People of the Book,” said Sheikh Sattar al-Hilou, the Mandeans’ chief in Iraq.
The term ‘the People of the Book’ refers to non-Muslims who have been accorded special protection under Islamic Jurisprudence. The Koran calls them Ahl al-Kitab, a term, which besides Christians and Jews has historically covered the Mandeans.
Religious militias are using these fatwas, or religious decrees, against the Mandeans to force them to enter Islam, Hilou said.
He said he was not aware of anyone of his people converting to Islam despite threats of death.
“As a result more than 22,000 of my community have fled the country,” he added.
He warned the Mandeans would cease to exist as the country’s most ancient sect if the government fails to protect them.
The Mandeans are called in Iraq Subbas and for centuries they have been Iraq’s best goldsmiths and canoe makers.
They are strongly pacifist and are not known to have ever resorted to violence.
Former leader Saddam Hussein was very fond of the sect and had constructed a modern shrine for the Mandeans on the banks of the Tigris River in Baghdad.
The sect’s rituals, all of great antiquity, cannot be performed without flowing water, hence their preference to live close to rivers and streams.
Hilou said he believed less than 8,000 Mandeans were still living in Iraq and most of them away from their ancestral habitat.
The Mandeans have extensive religious literature. Most important are their Ginza Raba (Great Treasure) and Drasha ed Yahia (Book of John).
John the Baptist is their most revered saint and they date their religion to him but historians believe their faith is of much older antiquity.
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Tags:ancient sect, Iraq, John the Baptist, Mandeans
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