The world's opinion
Here are excerpts from editorials in newspapers around the world that may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers:
March 24
Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem, on Israel's relations with Egypt:
There was something melancholy about our story this week that Egyptian Ambassador to Israel Yasser Reda would be marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries by not boycotting a Jerusalem conference and reception today. This wasn't the way Israelis imagined peace would look three decades after president Anwar Sadat's historic journey to Jerusalem.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry marked the lead-up to the anniversary with a strong condemnation of Israel's refusal to allow the Palestinian Authority to conduct a "cultural festival" within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries — including a march on the Temple Mount, complete with PLO flags. The PA knows that Israeli law prohibits it from operating in Jerusalem, which is precisely why it organized the illegal demonstration — to hammer home its claims of sovereignty. ...
Israel's Foreign Ministry, in contrast, marked the anniversary by issuing a warm statement recalling Sadat's visit and his Knesset address. It highlighted the various spheres of Egyptian-Israeli cooperation and noted that bilateral trade climbed to $271 million in 2008. ...
We hesitate to speculate on where the Egypt-Israel relationship will be 30 years from now. ...
For an enduring peace, it is imperative, therefore, that Mubarak use the remaining years of his tenure to reconceptualize and rebrand Egypt's attitude toward Israel. A first state visit would be a good starting point.
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On the Net:
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March 24
Postimees, Tallinn, Estonia, on the economic crisis in eastern Europe and the Baltic countries:
The global economic crisis leaves no region unaffected, though its effects are felt more painfully in some areas than others.
The crisis has hit central and eastern Europe substantially harder than most of western Europe, and caused lot of misery particularly in the open small Baltic economies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The European Commission is predicting that the Estonian economy will shrink 7 percent this year while Latvian and Lithuanian economies will see a downfall of 10 and 6 percent respectively. In comparison, the crisis for Poland and the Czech Republic means that they have to settle for economic growth of merely two percent instead of the 6 percent predicted earlier.
It seems that the eastern European economic troubles is close to the heart of the new U.S. President Barack Obama, who is making his first European visit in April.
The Estonian finance minister recently received a U.S. government-signed letter, which called for reconsidering the criteria for entering the euro-zone and introducing the euro — a key target for many nations in eastern Europe to get out of the vicious economic circle.
It could very well be that the President of the United States will evolve to be a strong advocate for loosening the requirements for adopting single currency and an ally for those favoring fast-track adoption of the euro in the Baltics and eastern Europe.
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On the Net:
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March 23
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, Tennessee, on the Army phasing out stop-loss:
In the same week that marked the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an announcement regarding a hugely unpopular program: The Army would begin phasing out stop-loss.
This is good news for our soldiers, including those at Fort Campbell, and for the message it sends about the Iraq war effort.
Under stop-loss, the military retained soldiers even after their enlistments had ended. About 185,000 troops had been forced to stay in the military since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Currently, about 13,000 soldiers are still in the military under this program.
Gates, who also served as President George W. Bush's defense secretary, said the first units that will deploy without stop-loss will be Army Reserve in August. The Guard in September will follow. Active duty Army is set to deploy its first unit without stop-loss in January.
The Defense secretary said it may not be possible to entirely end the program, but he definitely wanted to pare it down significantly because it is "just not the right thing to do" to hold soldiers against their will after their end date of service arrives. ...
During the height of violence in the Iraq war, it would not have been prudent to consider phasing out stop-loss. Gates' announcement is another sign that the war is going much better and that American involvement truly is winding down. ...
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On the Net:
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March 24
The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, on President Obama's efforts in Freedom of Information Act:
President Barack Obama took a long step forward last week to fulfill a promise of greater transparency in government by mandating a 180-degree change in the handling of Freedom of Information requests. Attorney General Eric Holder directed all agencies to act on the presumption that documents should be released, rather than finding a pretext to keep the information secret. "In the face of doubt, openness prevails," he said.
This reverses the policy put in place by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001, which treated requests for information as hostile attempts to obtain public records. Mr. Holder's order basically restores the standard set by former Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993. It says each agency will also be responsible for responding in a "timely manner."
This does not mean everything the government knows is now public information. Exceptions will be made if any agency "reasonably foresees that the disclosure would harm an interest" protected by one of the exemptions to release or if it is prohibited by law.
Still, it puts the onus on bureaucrats to show why they can't comply. Given that the FOIA is the chief tool used by researchers, academics, journalists and other interested citizens to fight needless government secrecy, the decision is timely and welcome. ...
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On the Net:
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/964582.html
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March 22
Courier-Post, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on payments to executives at firms receiving bailout funding:
Save some outrage for other bailouts ... Don't let AIG madness blind you to the other ridiculously wasteful spending going on. ...
Consider, for example, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the twin mortgage finance titans that some people blame for setting the table for much of the current economic crisis.
The companies were seized by federal regulators in the fall and have sought out $15.2 billion and $44.8 billion in bailout funds, respectively.
So where is that money going?
Fannie Mae disclosed in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to The Associated Press, that it is planning bonuses of $470,000 to $611,000 for four top executives, on top of their base salaries this year. ...
What is wrong with these people? Who really thinks people who drive their businesses to the brink of extinction and the worldwide economy to the brink of collapse deserve bonuses in the half-million-dollar range?
True, these bonuses are spare change compared to what some of the boneheads at AIG received, but that doesn't make it any less deserving of your wrath. ...
When it comes to Fannie and Freddie, the money has not been given to the executives yet. And if Americans make enough noise to their elected officials, maybe it never will be given to them. ...
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On the Net:
http://www.courierpostonline.com/
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March 23
San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, Texas, on border protection:
Facing grave domestic issues that dominate his agenda, President Obama must be given credit for devoting at least part of his attention to our southern neighbor.
The president said he would meet with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, in Mexico next month, to discuss proposals on how to fight the drug wars along the border. ...
Soon after his inauguration, Obama pledged to help Mexico in its bloody battle against the drug cartels a vow that this trip may go a long way toward fulfilling.
Concrete proposals may result from the meeting, but the symbolism of the visit cannot be dismissed; it shows that both presidents recognize the problem must be assaulted on two fronts, Mexico and the United States.
The problem afflicts both countries, neither of which can resolve the crisis without the aid of the other. ...
Both the White House and Congress are being wisely proactive.
There is only one peril greater than the drug cartels and that would be the inability to see the threat as real.
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On the Net:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/
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March 20
Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, South Carolina, on bills to snatch back AIG, bank bonuses:
The government can't be allowed to pass laws levying extraordinarily punitive taxes on tiny groups of people, particularly not when it is doing so to cover up its own incompetence.
... (L)egislators tried to do just that, introducing bills that would snatch back "bonuses" paid to AIG employees and workers at other bailout-buoyed banks. ...
The fact that the Bush and Obama administrations both knew such bonuses would be paid, and in fact eliminated language in the bailout that would keep them from being paid (arguing it would cause massive lawsuits), hasn't stopped the waves of fake outrage.
It can seem like justice to tax these bonuses away. That's the populist point lawmakers are trying to make as they try to distract voters from the fact that they voted in favor of paying these bonuses. And no one deserves a bonus for doing a poor job, but there's more to think about ...
It has become clear the president and key legislators knew of these specific AIG payouts all along. It would be nice if the president and legislators spent a little less time on fake, retroactive anger at payouts they approved, and a little more time crafting the laws and policies that might prevent the next disaster.
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On the Net:
