(The Diet Building, Tokyo)Investments Received in Reward for Defending Israel
Will "President Mr. Barack Obama" be able to deal with Wall Street and Israel so well?
SECTION I: CORRECTION & ADDITION
Yesterday, I made a mistake in writing that Mr. Obama flew to Africa; but it is Hawaii that he visited to see his ailing grandmother.
As the day before yesterday a Japanese TV station presented Mr. Obama’s grandmother and younger brother living in Africa, I mistook his destination.
It is www.haaretz.com that has made me realize the mistake. More interestingly, this Israeli media is reporting on AlQaeda and Mr. McCain:
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Last update - 09:51 22/10/2008
Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs John McCain as president
By The Associated Press
Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the United States as a way to usher in a John McCain presidency.
The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if Al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, Al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."
SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.
Mark Salter, a senior McCain adviser, said he had heard about the Web site chatter but had no immediate comment.
The message is credited to a frequent and apparently respected contributor named Muhammad Haafid. However, Haafid is not believed to have a direct affiliation with al-Qaida plans or knowledge of its operations, according to SITE.
SITE senior analyst Adam Raisman said this message caught SITE's attention because there has been little other chatter on the forums about the U.S. election.
SITE was struck by the message's detailed analysis - and apparent jubilation - about American financial woes.
"What we try to do is get the pulse of the jihadist community," Raisman said. "And it's about the financial crisis."
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued a videotape just four days before the 2004 U.S. presidential election directly addressing the American people.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1030423.html
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There are many rumors that Mr. Osama bin Laden has already passed away.
Indeed, while Wall Street is crumbling down, no messages from the No.1 enemy of the U.S. look like telling certain truth of the physical state of this terrorist leader.
However, words from Israel in the wake of the Wall Street debacle are more critical to all the mankind in the historic context.
SECTION II: Back to Social Democracy
It is very interesting to see that there are some arguments in Israel on legitimacy and effect of the market economy.
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Oct 22, 2008 21:22 | Updated Oct 22, 2008 21:29
The panic-mongers' one-note chorus
By DANIEL DORON
'It is sheer greed!" our pundits keep screaming on TV and in press headlines - greed encouraged by capitalism's cutthroat competition they claim, benefiting the powerful at the expense of the weak. The free market caused this monstrous crisis, and they hope that this crisis will kill brutal capitalism and replace it with a more humane social democracy in which the government will protect us from the market economy's wild jungle.
Top economists are agonizing over the question why the crisis has grown to such monstrous dimensions. But our pundits, not exactly qualified economists - unless being socialists makes them so - know it all. They and their ally politicians not only define the problem but also recommend a solution. As "a chorus that can sing only one note," as former education minister Amnon Rubinstein once called them, they recommend, almost to a man that government immediately announce a bailout plan for saving institutions, that it increase its budget deficit to protect the economy from recession; and that Israel should return to be "a social democracy."
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The assault on the free market is not confined to economics. Predictably, it is leveraged into a vigorous attack against the cruel "Thatcherite" free market putatively instituted here and against "total privatization." The above have destroyed, these critics claim, the sense of communal responsibility and are undermining Israel's ability to survive. The country, they conclude, must therefore return to the good old days of "social democracy."
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And what exactly is this "social democracy" the critics of capitalism prescribe as a panacea? Do they wish a return to the good old Mapai days with its oppressions and corruption? Or are their models the perpetually troubled, high unemployment economies of Germany and France? Or the Scandinavian dream model, that after having consumed the huge reserve of wealth accumulated by its highly capitalist enterprises, squandered it on an anti-productive extreme welfare system and had to back track to restore some vigor to their economies?
There is so much sound and fury of vested interests in this raging argument, but oh, so little sense or substance!
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017598517&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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You may think that the U.S. and the EU are leading the world of today in terms of the modern philosophy, ideal, principles, and practices concerning global economy and security.
But, how Israelis are thinking about the global situation is also as important as how American leaders and Europeans leaders view and understand the world.
And, some Israelis seem not to care about the difference between the social democracy and the free-market democracy so long as they can survive.
SECTION III: $1.2 Trillion into and $0.5 Trillion out of America
According to today’s Asahi Shimbun Newspaper of Japan, the total invested money inflow into the U.S. was $1.2 trillion and the total outflow from the U.S. was $480 billion in 2007.
This huge amount of money must be mostly handled through Wall Street or Washington D.C.
It has also become a resource for credit base of American consumers.
American material dream has been supported by this huge investment from abroad.
But, why do other countries infuse so much money into the U.S.?
Ultimately, it is because it is the U.S. that is defending Israel.
The United States has been the best country since it had defeated Nazis, stopped the Holocaust, and rescued so many European Judaists.
The credit the U.S. got in this historic incident is truly historic.
Even today, no countries but the U.S. would dare help Israel so much.
So-called Christian Europe cannot help Israel so well even today. Russia cannot help Israel so well even today. Islamic countries cannot help Israel so well even today. India cannot help Israel so well even today. China cannot help Israel so well even today. And, with some regret, Japan cannot help Israel so well even today.
This is a grave fact, since the development of the world in these 2000 years started with the unique relationship between the God and ancient Israelites, including Jesus Christ.
The fact that the U.S. would dare help Israel so much as proved in WWII alone is sufficient for the U.S. to claim the largest credit from other members of mankind, since Israelis are regarded as direct descendants of ancient Israelites.
In addition, without influence of American democracy and individualism, there might have been still old, dominant, social customs, manners, practices, and systems that would restrict development of peoples’ lives in Asia and Africa. And, this American merit is based on the style and contents of its version of Christianity.
Based on these respectable conditions, the U.S. has been allowed to receive $1.2 trillion investment from other countries, enabling Wall Street to exercise its functions so freely.
But now we see American consumers get so irresponsible as they work eight hours a day so as to get salary and credit that must be only rewarded 16-hours-per-day workers with.
If the U.S. is judged to be no longer the great leader in the free and democratic world any more, other countries would not give such huge credit any more.
Then, Israel has to face a new situation, too.
Probably, Israel must get such credit from the world through its own efforts.
The end of Wall Street can lead to the end of status of the U.S. as the great guardian of freedom, democracy, and Israel.
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From a historic point of view, even if the U.S. fails and loses its glory and power, Judaists and Israel must survive, for the linkage between the God and Judaists seems to be stronger than that between the God and Americans.
For example, in the 22nd century, there may be no such people as will be still called Americans, but Judaists must surely exist.
Finally, the most significant influence of the collapse of Wall Street must be experienced and manifested by Israel ultimately.
(A stage coach is part of old and good images of the U.S. when nothing is so crazy. Ultimately, Americans must return to a simple and spiritual life, being content with blessings of the nature. Indeed, once there was an era that Paris was the only materially and culturally glittering international city, say before the Civil War, though not between Republicans and Democrats.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicHall/1213/folk/html/stagecoach.html )
Joh 10:23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
Joh 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Joh 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
Joh 10:26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.